Hypnosis for Beginners

by William W Hewitt

  Most stage hypnotists are skilled, sensitive to their subjects, and use safe methods. A clumsy or careless hypnotist, however, could potentially do harm to his subjects.

  I have not done stage hypnosis and do not intend to. To me, hypnosis is a valuable tool for helping people enrich their lives. Good stage hypnotists are somewhat like great brain surgeons who restrict their practice to removing skin warts. There is nothing wrong with removing skin warts, but what a waste of skill. Perhaps some stage hypnotists earn their living on the stage but use their skills off stage to help people.

  Throughout this book, you've read case histories to illustrate certain points and techniques. In this chapter, you'll find a few more brief profiles to give you an even broader perspective of the uses of hypnosis (I picked some of the more interesting cases to include here). Although these cases don't even scratch the surface as far as what you can do with hypnosis, you'll find sufficient examples to give you an idea of situations you may encounter and how you might handle them.

  In addition to diet control, regression, and other instances mentioned in this book, other cases that have been handled using hypnosis include:

  •coping with fears and phobias (including fear of death, fear of failure, fear of flying, and fear of inadequacy)

  •coping with guilt (including guilt about cheating, lying, and having an abortion)

  •improving test taking and memory skills

  •controlling suicidal feelings

  •controlling habits (including nail biting and excessive use of alcohol)

  •controlling stress

  •improving self-image and self-confidence

  •controlling migraines, aches and pains, illnesses

  •enhancing skills

  •dealing with sexual problems (including impotency), lack of energy, insomnia

  A TEST-TAKING CASE

  When my youngest daughter, Eileen, was fifteen, she took a typing course in high school. In order to get an Ain the course, she had to type 45 words per minute. She could type even faster than that when not under pressure, but she froze up on tests. The very word "test" caused her brain and fingers to go out to lunch.

  The night before her big test, I hypnotized her. Under hypnosis I had her visualize herself typing at lightning speeds with no errors, all the while feeling calm, at ease, and in total control. Then I gave her the post-hypnotic suggestion that she would type 45 words per minute the next day on her typing test and that she would remain relaxed throughout the entire test.

  She typed exactly 45 words per minute on the test and earned her A.She reported feeling relaxed and confident throughout the test.

  Notice that hypnosis did not enable Eileen to do something she wasn't normally capable of. She had the capability but had been putting obstacles in her path.

  Hypnosis removed those obstacles, allowing her to express her ability. She typed exactly 45 words per minute because that is what I had told her to do under hypnosis. If I had said 50 words, she would have done that because that was still in her ability range. If I had said 200 words per minute, she would not have done it because that was beyond her ability, but she would have tried to do it. If I had said 200 words a minute, my guess is that the effort and resulting failure could have introduced another problem and frustration. So be careful of what you suggest to your subjects. You want to enable them and improve them, not introduce additional problems.

  AN INSOMNIA CASE

  An elderly woman came in for a free consultation to ask about my fees and if I could help her overcome her insomnia. Typically, she lay awake nearly all night, every night, not getting her needed rest. She was on social security and couldn't afford a multi-session program. She felt all she could afford was one $25 session.

  "Couldn't you help me in just one session?" she pleaded.

  I have a special place in my heart for the-elderly so I said confidently, "Yes, I can!" Although at that moment I didn't have any idea of how I was going to do it.

  I quickly altered my own state of consciousness and mentally said, "Help!" to my own higher mind. I immediately got the awareness I needed to proceed.

  In response to my questioning, she told me she could borrow her son's tape recorder. So I turned on my tape recorder and took her into deep relaxation. My suggestions incorporated these key elements:

  That she would drift into a deep, completely restful, natural sleep and remain soundly asleep until it was time for her to awaken.

  That she would awaken whenever she heard my voice directing her to do so, or whenever any emergency situation arose that required her to be wide awake and alert, or whenever she had had her full complement of needed sleep, or whenever her pre-set alarm clock went off.

  That regardless of the amount of time she slept, she would always awaken feeling completely rested and full of energy as though she had eight full hours of perfect, relaxing sleep.

  That she would listen to this tape recording every night for thirty days, and it would always put her into perfect, restful sleep right away.

  That at the end of thirty days her mind would be completely trained, and she was to discontinue using the tape recording.

  I turned off the tape recorder and allowed her to continue to sleep in my office for another fifteen minutes. After fifteen minutes, I awakened her. I did not turn on the tape recorder for the awakening process because I wanted a tape to put her to sleep, not awaken her. She awakened completely refreshed and alert. I gave her the tape, and she went home.

  A month later, she called to tell me that she was now off the tape and sleeping well naturally every night. It worked!

  This case illustrates several interesting points, including how to improvise on the spur of the moment and use your own altered state of consciousness to obtain the information you need. I use my own altered state many times every day to tap into my own higher mind for greater awareness. You, too, can develop this ability.

  A PROSTITUTE CASE

  A prostitute wanted to give up her profession and get married. She had fallen in love and wanted to become an average housewife and ultimately a mother. Her problem was that she did not enjoy sex. In her entire life she had never experienced an orgasm. Sex was just a mechanical skill for her to use to get whatever she wanted. Now she wanted to change all that. She wanted to experience the enjoyment, but she didn't know how to allow that to happen.

  This was a difficult case because I had to deal with many issues, including poor self-image, negative feelings toward men in general, and fear of releasing her toughness and allowing her femininity to emerge.

  She prepaid for six session and I outlined two main purposes for each session. First, I wanted to deal with the many issues. Second, I wanted her to visualize performing sexual acts where she would experience pleasure and satisfaction.

  During session 1, I had her commit to herself to have sexual relations only with the man she loved. Insofar as I know, this suggestion was immediately successful. Her visualization of pleasurable sex, however, did not appear to be successful.

  A week later at the start of session 2, she reported having had sexual relations every day with her lover, but there had been no enjoyment. During hypnosis, her visualization appeared to produce some physical excitement during mental sex.

  Next week at the start of session 3, she reported no pleasure with actual sexual relations. During session 3, her visualization caused a very strong orgasm. She called me the next morning to say that after session 3 she went to her lover and experienced the most profound physical pleasure imaginable.

  I never saw or heard from her after that. She didn't return for her remaining three sessions or request a refund for the unused sessions. I couldn't get in touch with her because she had refused to give me an address or phone number where she could be reached. I hope the story had a happy ending.

  A TENNIS CASE

  A professional tennis player hit a performance slump and couldn't snap herself out of it. Each time she lost, she sunk into deeper dep
ression. She now expected herself to lose-and she did. Even players who were far below her skill beat her. She was the tennis pro at a posh country club, and now was in danger of losing her job because of her constant "duffer" performance. Her serve had become weak, her returns went into the net, she was always in the wrong position and off balance, she had little zip and energy, her moves were sluggish, and her timing was off.

  I saw her for the first time in a morning appointment. She had a game scheduled that afternoon with a mediocre player. She was sure she would be fired if she lost.

  Under hypnosis I had her visualize a perfect tennis game where her timing was perfect, her serve deadly and full of fire, and her movements agile and quick. I had her visualize anticipating her opponent's every action and being in exactly the right position. She visualized a game where she did everything right and won without her opponent even scoring one point.

  That afternoon she won just barely-but she won for the first time in many weeks of daily play.

  After four hypnosis sessions, she was once again soundly beating everyone in sight so there was no need to continue the sessions. She had quickly mastered her self-hypnosis, and I am confident that she will never again experience a slump in performance.

  AN ABORTION CASE

  A psychiatric nurse brought her fourteen-year-old daughter to me because the girl was experiencing severe guilt feelings over having had a recent abortion. She had become depressed and withdrawn. She had no faith in herself or in anyone. The boy who had impregnated her deserted her once she became pregnant. Other boys now considered her as an easy score and tried to seduce her.

  In reality, she was a lovely, good, worthy young woman who had made one error with a boy under the delusion that she was in love. She didn't deserve this continued punishment she was experiencing.

  My job was to get her to forgive herself and all others and rebuild her self-image. For the most part, I used the standard techniques found in this book and was successful.

  The one thing I did in this case that I want to highlight is the use of the Seashore Trip Routine (found in chapter 12). In the Seashore Trip, I had her do four things while she was standing in the sand near the water's edge.

  First, I had her write in the sand "I forgive" and then write her own name, the name of her exboyfriend, the names of any others who she had felt bitterness toward, and "all others." Then I had her visualize a wave sweeping up over her feet and over the forgiveness message she had written in the sand. When the wave receded, the sand was once again smooth, the message was gone. The message had been carried out into the sea of life where it became a reality. All was truly forgiven.

  Second, I had her write "I love" in the sand followed by her own name, any special names she chose, and "all others." Once again the wave took the message out into the sea of life. Her love was truly a reality.

  Third, I had her stand on the beach facing the sea. I had her turn to her right and notice an open door on the beach. I told her that to the right was the past, and this was the door to the past. I had her walk over to the door, close it and lock it, and throw the key into the sea. She had now closed the door on the past and could no longer be negatively influenced by the past.

  Fourth, I had her turn and go to the left up the beach where there was a closed door standing. I told her that to the left was the future, and this was the door to the future. I had her unlock the door, open it, and put the key in her pocket. I had her gaze through the open door and see herself beautiful, relaxed, mature, peaceful, and extremely happy. This was her future and she owned the key to it.

  This kind of session is extremely powerful and good. Realize that I have provided just the outline. You will need to supply the specific set of words to perform this session.

  A CUT CHIN CASE

  In this case, I was both the operator and the subject. It illustrates how self-hypnosis can be valuable in an emergency.

  My wife and I were vacationing at a lake one summer, spending most of our time out on our 18-foot power cruiser. This particular day we had been lying at anchor, and I walked out onto the bow to pull in the anchor so we could get underway. I slipped on the bow and fell, hitting the point of my chin hard on the metal bow rail. When I pulled myself up into a sitting position, blood poured down my chest from my chin.

  My wife's face was ashen. "My God!" she screamed. "I can see the bone."

  I immediately pinched the wound shut as hard as I could. As I sat there on the bow, I closed my eyes and almost instantly altered my state of consciousness (in retrospect, I think I probably went all the way down into theta).

  I visualized my chin in perfect condition. I bathed it in white healing light and mentally said, "No bleeding. No pain. No scar. No infection. No swelling. Just perfect healing at one thousand times my normal healing rate." I sat there for five minutes, pinching the wound shut, while I remained in an altered state with eyes closed. I maintained the vision of a perfect chin while mentally repeating the words several more times.

  Then I brought myself out and opened my eyes. I stopped pinching the wound. There was no more bleeding. A blood scab had formed. It didn't hurt. My wife wanted to return to shore to cleanse and dress my chin. I said no, I was all right. We got underway and enjoyed several hours of boating before going ashore.

  When I awakened the next morning I found that the blood scab had come off during the night. The only reminder of the accident was a thin, red pencil-like line about an inch long on my chin. Within a week, even this pencil line was completely gone. No evidence of the accident was left. And at no time was there pain or swelling.

  A MEMORY CASE

  A man called me for an appointment to begin a series of sessions for memory improvement. He said he had acute memory failure. Of course, he forgot to show up for his appointment. He phoned again and made another appointment. Again he forgot. This went on for four consecutive appointments. I knew if I could get him into the office just once, I could give him a post-hypnotic suggestion to return the following week and eventually get him to solve his problem.

  So when he phoned again, I had him immediately write a note to remind him of the appointment which I made for 9 A.M. the following morning. I told him to tape it on the glass of the rear view mirror of his car. I stayed on the phone while he did that and returned to confirm to me that he had done it.

  This time he showed up for the appointment. After six sessions, for which he was always on time, he had a marvelous memory.

  A CUT FOOT CASE

  Some years ago when I had just begun to practice hypnosis professionally, a young woman came in for her appointment on crutches and wearing a cast on her lower left leg and foot. A couple of days before, she ran barefoot in her yard and stepped on something that lacerated the bottom of her foot to the bone from toe to heel. She told me how many stitches the doctor had to put in and that he told her she would be in the cast for at least three weeks and perhaps longer. The doctor had also said she probably wouldn't be able to wear a shoe on that foot for several more weeks after the cast was removed.

  She was coming to me for diet control, so I hypnotized her and performed the diet control suggestions. She was one of the most receptive hypnosis subjects I have ever had; I could practically hypnotize her by just saying "Close your eyes and relax." She responded marvelously.

  Before I brought her out, I took her through a procedure and suggestions similar to what I had done to myself when I had cut my chin.

  The next week she returned for her next appointment without crutches, without a cast on her leg, and wearing high-heeled shoes. She took off her left shoe to show me the bottom of her foot. There was a thin, red line from toe to heel and that was all. No swelling or discoloration. The wound had healed.

  This story has a punch line, and she was bursting to tell me. It seems she had gone to her doctor the day after the hypnosis session and insisted that he remove the cast. He refused, and a heated argument ensued. She vowed to take a hammer and break it off herself. To s
ave her potential injury from doing it herself, the doctor reluctantly removed the cast, but he warned her it was at her own risk and was going to cost her more money. She said the look on his face was priceless when he saw a healed foot.

  "I don't understand," he muttered.

  Then the young woman told him about the hypnosis session.

  The doctor became furious. "I thought you had more sense than to go to quacks!" he scolded. "Obviously, you don't trust me to be your physician. Consider this your last visit to my office. Find yourself another doctor, or should I say find a quack!"

  Unruffled, the young woman asked, "Doctor, how do you explain the healing?"

  "Obviously, I misdiagnosed it!" he snorted, leaving the examining room.

  I've often wondered how you can misdiagnose a lacerated foot.

  This case illustrates the blind, fanatical opposition that exists against hypnosis. People tend to oppose anything they do not understand.

  Our role as hypnotists is not to meet these opponents in head to head confrontation, but rather to provide patient, knowledgeable education about hypnosis. And most importantly of all, provide our services with integrity, honesty, and sensitivity. First learn your skill well, then practice it with honor.

  In this chapter, you'll find a few more routines to augment the ones found in other chapters. Although the routines described here are more specialized, you can easily fit them into a set of standard routines to achieve a specific purpose.

  SEASHORE TRIP ROUTINE

  This routine is one of the most effective; it is flexible and used for an endless list of situations. Modified versions of this routine appear in chapters 7, 8, and 11. You can also use this routine in place of the Mountain Trip routine in session 6 (see chapter 6).