Hypnosis for Beginners

by William W Hewitt

  Picture yourself sitting on a large rock outcropping with the sea about 20 feet below... notice the roar as the ocean rushes in and hits the rocks below us... smell the salt air as the wind gushes against our face... notice the contrast between our rocks and the beach.

  Notice the sea gulls in the sky above... watch them dive for their dinner in the sea below... listen to their chatter as they return to the sky... notice the other birds around us... they show their appreciation for life in their smooth gliding and happy song.

  Look behind us and we see a trail to our beach ... let's walk down that trail to our beach below... the smooth path seems to indicate how many people have climbed down from our rock before us... these ageless rocks seem to reassure us of the beauty of life, and how being in harmony with nature seems to give us grace ...the stones and rocks seem to make a slight set of natural stairs about halfway down... now back to the sloping trail... the sand is warming up and is so inviting... let's take off our shoes and finish our walk to the beach barefooted... feel the warm sand squish up between our toes... feel the breeze warm us as we reach the beach... we are now able to look over the calm sea, glistening to our eyes.

  Let's walk toward the water... feel the difference of the wet sand from the dry sand we just left... bend down and write `I love you".. .and then put the names of our special people we wish to remember... now see the sea rush past us, give our ankles a hug, and as it returns, takes our names and our message "I love you."

  Since the hug from the sea felt so good as it took our names and message, bend down again and write "I love you".. .and then put the names of the people you feel you have slighted or hurt... now see the wave rush past us, give your ankles a big hug, and as it returns, takes our names and our message, "I love you."

  Walk further into the ocean to where the water is about up to your knees and feel the cool reassurance of life... now draw in the love of life from this sea... up through your feet, until it fills your whole body with excitement and love of life.

  Now let's return to the beach.. .pick up that seashell... listen to the message from the shell... back on the warm sand... turn and look at the sea once more and say "good-bye"... it is time for us to return to our shoes... and back up the stairs of life... to the top of the rock. We have the love and excitement of life drawn up from the sea within us now... say a special thanks to those people who have been thoughtful to you as your sea fades from view.

  BALLOON COUNTDOWN

  This routine is nice for group hypnosis, or you can use it for one person with slight modification. This also is a good routine for children.

  Stretch your right arm and left leg and relax. Now stretch your left arm and right leg and relax. Now stretch both arms and both legs... all over... and relax. Flop your arms and legs into a lazy, comfortable position and close your eyes.

  To take a balloon breath, you breathe in through your nose and see a balloon coming toward you. To blow out a balloon breath, you blow out through your mouth and blow the balloon away. And when you get to your favorite place, remember to be very still and quiet.

  Now see before you a red balloon. Take a balloon breath; see the red balloon come toward you. Now blow the red balloon away.

  See before you an orange balloon. Take a balloon breath; see the orange balloon come toward you. Now blow the orange balloon away.

  See a yellow balloon. Take a balloon breath and see the yellow balloon come toward you. Now blow the yellow balloon away.

  See a green balloon. Take a balloon breath and see the green balloon come toward you. Now blow the green balloon away.

  See a blue balloon. Take a balloon breath and see the blue balloon come toward you. Now blow the blue balloon away.

  Now breathe in and see 10. Hold the breath and see 9. Breathe out and see 8. Breathe in and see 7. Hold the breath and see 6. Breathe out and see 5. Breathe in and see 4. Hold the breath and see 3. Breathe out and see 2.

  Now see a large number 1 tied to a purple balloon. Grab hold of the number 1 and blow yourself away to your favorite place. Your favorite place can be anywhere you want. It can have anything you want in it, because it is your place, your very own place.

  (Wait for 30 seconds to a minute to allow the subjects to create their favorite place and to explore it. Then continue.)

  Take a balloon breath and you will feel better. You will relax more in your favorite place. When you want to remember something, take a balloon breath and see the answer behind your eyes. To be in charge of yourself, take a balloon breath. You will do whatever you believe you can do. Give yourself a hug with your elbows for being special people. Now send a mental message to someone special.

  (At this point put in whatever suggestions are appropriate for the work you are doing.)

  To return from your favorite place, take a balloon breath. See a white balloon with your favorite color stripes on it. Hold onto the striped balloon and blow yourself back. Now everyone open eyes. Stretch. Feeling fine.

  TEST TAKING

  You will be especially calm, relaxed, and confident every time you take a test or examination of any kind. And your brain and eyes will function perfectly when taking any test or exam. Here is how to get an excellent score on every test you take:

  First, read the question and answer it if you immediately know the correct answer; if not, do not spend time on it, just go on to the next question. Continue with this method until you have quickly gone over every question on the test once. At this point you will have answered some of the questions... just the ones that you immediately knew the correct answer to.

  Second, go over each question you didn't answer the first time. Spend a little more time on each question, about one minute... no longer. Answer the ones for which an answer comes to mind, then go on to the next question. Continue this way until you have gone over the questions you missed the first time through. You will find that you have picked up a few more answers.

  Third, go to any questions that may be still unanswered and mentally ask the teacher for the answer and write down the first thing that comes into your mind. Do this for each remaining unanswered question. This way you will turn in a completed paper and will have a good score.

  MIGRAINES

  In pre-hypnosis instructions, tell your subject to use her self-hypnosis when she feels the first symptoms of a headache because it is much easier to get rid of it at that point. Once a headache reaches the migraine stage, it becomes very difficult to relax and get fast, complete results.

  I want you to imagine now that you are looking at a pale blue screen. On the screen is the number 20. See the number 20 on the screen. Now let the 20 disappear, and go deeper. See the number 19, and let it disappear, and go deeper still. See 18, let it disappear ...17, and let it disappear... 16, and let it disappear. A dark blue haze is forming on the screen... 15. ..14... 13.. .deeper and darker blue ...12... 11... 10.. .the screen has now become a deep blue. Take a deep breath now and relax even more and watch your screen turn to purple with a gleaming number 10 on it. Now let the 10 dissolve into the purple, and see number 9 there. Now 8... 7... 6.. .your screen is turning green now. ..5.. .4.. .3... 2... 1.. .0. Now forget the numbers, forget the screen, and allow yourself to relax even more deeply.

  Imagine yourself as you want to be... beautiful, free, and relaxed. Feeling good... looking wonderful ... feeling fine... full of health... full of strength, vitality, and joy... free of all pain... free of tension. This is you. This is the real you. Every day from now on you will be more and more completely the woman you really want to be. You are just as capable, just as intelligent as anyone, even more so. Whatever needs to be done, you can do it because you are in control. From now on your control will be deeper and stronger all the time because you are relaxed and calm. Because you are relaxed and calm, your head will stay completely relaxed, your neck, spine, all over your body, you will be relaxed and free, and you will not have any more headaches at all. Never again will you have any headaches at all.

  You wil
l continue to do your self-hypnosis every day. If you begin to feel the first sign of a headache, you will do your self-hypnosis immediately, and each time you do the little self-hypnosis routine you will relax completely. You will go just as deep as you are now.. .just as deep as you are now or even deeper. Whatever suggestions you give yourself will go deeper and be stronger every time. Before you go to sleep at night you will do your self-hypnosis routine and give yourself the following suggestion: I will be relaxed and calm. I will sleep beautifully all night long and when I awaken I will feel just wonderful, and this will prevent a headache from starting at night.

  SMOKING

  I want you to imagine now that you have a cigarette in your hand. See the smoke curling up and getting in your nose... it smells terrible, like burning garbage. See the smoke curling up from the tobacco and feel it getting into your eyes. It stings your nose and it burns and hurts your eyes. It smells rancid and dirty. It smells just awful... filthy and dirty. Now put the tobacco away; you put it down in the ashtray and you walk away... away from that dirty, awful, evil smelling smoke.. .glad to be free of that dirty tobacco. From now on you will be completely free of any desire for even a single puff of tobacco in any form. Whenever you think of smoking you will remember that dirty, awful smell and that foul taste, and you will be completely free of the desire for even a single puff of tobacco from now on.

  I want you to imagine yourself See yourself as you want to be. The real you... alive, healthy, full of vitality, full of strength, free from your former enslavement to that dirty tobacco. In control of your own behavior, feeling good, able to breathe again, able to smell things again and taste things again. This is you. This is the woman you can and will be. This is the woman you are now becoming. At this very moment you are making a promise to your self, not a promise to me, a promise to yourself.. .a commitment.. .a commitment that will grow stronger every day... a commitment to become the real you and stay completely away from tobacco from now on.

  You will remain relaxed and calm. You will feel supremely confident that anything you set your mind to do, you can and will do. You will be successful and you will enjoy being successful. You will find it very easy to stay completely away from tobacco from now on. Because you will be relaxed and your mouth will be relaxed, you have no need or desire to smoke even a single puff ever again.

  Every night you will sleep like a log, and the first thing you know it will be morning and you will awaken feeling on top of the world. The longer you stay away from tobacco, the easier it will be and the better you will feel every day. Whenever you practice your self-hypnosis exercise you will relax completely and very deeply. You will go just as deep as you are now. By practicing your self-hypnosis faithfully every day you will have absolute control over your desire to smoke. You will have the strength to stay away from, and you will stay away from, even the slightest inclination for a single puff.

  This procedure refers to tobacco as smelling terrible, like burning garbage, and tasting filthy and dirty. In your actual use, substitute more effective words if you are able. The case example for diet control in chapter 3 used the specific taste and smell of wet chicken feathers to create a distaste for excessive popcorn consumption. If you are able, find specific smells and tastes that are repulsive to the subject and incorporate them into the smoking routine.

  It may seem redundant to include a separate chapter about self-hypnosis when this entire book is really about self-hypnosis, but there are some things that need to be explained that are not specifically covered elsewhere. The first twelve chapters provide the basic knowledge of this powerful tool called self-hypnosis. This chapter explores this topic in some depth.

  The only significant difference between hypnosis and self-hypnosis is that in hypnosis the operator is one person and the subject is another person. In selfhypnosis, the operator and the subject are the same person.

  If you have someone with whom you can share the learning experience of hypnosis, that is great. You can practice with each other, using the methods discussed in this book. This shared learning experience can be extremely valuable for both participants. It draws you closer together mentally and emotionally, and promotes mutual love and respect. It is also easier and faster to learn when you are working in partnership with someone.

  Ask your partner to hypnotize you using a procedure similar to the one in session 2 (see chapter 3). Then practice the self-hypnosis exercise for a few days. Have your partner again hypnotize you and reinforce the self-hypnosis suggestions. Again practice. The number of times you need reinforcement depends entirely on you. If you practice your selfhypnosis routine faithfully every day, one or two reinforcements may be sufficient. If your partner can take you through an entire six-session program as detailed in Part I, so much the better.

  But what about the people who do not have someone to share the hypnosis learning experience? What can they do? How can they learn?

  Put aside your concerns. This chapter brings into sharp focus everything discussed so far, adds a few modifications, and shows you how to do it easily, effectively, and inexpensively in the quiet solitude of whatever place you choose-all by yourself.

  In chapter 11, the Cut Chin Case showed how I used self-hypnosis for pain control and healing. Other examples throughout the book convey the idea that self-hypnosis may be limitless in its potential for enriching one's life at every level of life.

  You can indeed use self-hypnosis to solve virtually any problem. You can also use it to expand your awareness and tap into your innate higher intelligence and creative ability. When you use self-hypnosis for this second purpose, hypnosis becomes meditation. Self-hypnosis can also be used in those moments when you feel the need for the intervention of a higher power into some situation; it then becomes a form of prayer. The subtle differences in these uses of self-hypnosis lies in how you direct your thoughts once you have altered your state of consciousnessthat is, have reached the alpha state. You'll find some expanded uses of self-hypnosis that embrace the realm of psychic experience in chapter 14. For the moment, we will concern ourselves with the practical, everyday uses.

  Here is some fun I had with self-hypnosis. I was scheduled to have two teeth extracted at the dentist's office. The night before, I conditioned myself to control the flow of my blood. The next day I quickly hypnotized myself as soon as I was reclined in the dentist's chair. When the dentist pulled the teeth, I shut off the blood flow from the wound left by the extractions. The dentist was perplexed. He kept saying to his nurse, "He isn't bleeding? Why isn't he bleeding? I don't understand this." I smiled mentally. I couldn't smile physically because of all the tools, cotton, and other things stuffed in my mouth. As an aside, I also visualized fast, complete healing. The wounds were completely healed and the swelling gone within seventy-two hours; the dentist had predicted one to three weeks.

  Here is how one of my clients had fun with selfhypnosis. He was part of a group being studied at a local hospital. The doctors were studying dreams. Once a week, my client slept overnight in the hospital with an electroencephalograph (EEG) attached to his head. The EEG recorded his brain wave activity. By watching it, the doctors could tell whether the brain was in alpha, beta, theta, or delta and could also tell when the sleeper was dreaming and when he was not. My client immediately hypnotized himself as soon as the machine was attached. The machine recorded deep alpha, indicative of sleep or dreaming-yet the man was obviously awake. One of the doctors said, "What's going on here?" Then the man alternately returned to beta, then alpha, then beta, then alpha and the machine faithfully recorded it. The changes drove the doctor crazy until the man finally told the doctor what he was doing. The doctor's reply isn't printable.

  I have conceived and written nearly all of this book while in the alpha state. What does this mean? It means you can engage in activity and have your eyes open while still in an altered state of consciousness. Think about this a moment. What a powerful tool self-hypnosis is! It goes far beyond sitting quietly with closed eye
s while directing your attention to a goal. To use self-hypnosis in this manner is not easily achievable. It requires a great deal of pre-conditioning while under hypnosis or self-hypnosis. This pre-conditioning would be similar to that for diet control, but with completely different suggestions; you will have to devise your own techniques and suggestions for this. Then it requires practice, practice, practice. Take my word for it, the time and effort are well worth the result. Develop your self-discipline and hang in there; you will succeed!

  Now, are you hyped up enough to start? Then let us get down to the nitty-gritty.

  GETTING STARTED

  To begin, you need some method of programming yourself with directions and suggestions. The first thing that probably comes to mind is to purchase prerecorded hypnosis tapes already on the market and listen to them. Well, yes, that is one solution that will work; I do not have any quarrel with these commercially available hypnosis tapes, since I have several on the market. However, they can be expensive, and are often not tailored to your specific needs and desires; they are necessarily general in nature. For less money than commercial hypnosis tapes, purchase your own cassette tape recorder and a supply of blank tapes. Then make your own "tailored" tapes for your own situation.

  Making your own tapes is my first recommendation. If you do not already have a cassette recorder, purchase an inexpensive one. You are only going to use it for voice, not high fidelity, so don't spend a lot of money. I have seen adequate cassette recorders in discount stores for $15 to $20; there is no need to spend more than $30. Purchase inexpensive blank tapes; again, this isn't for high fidelity, so you can be practical.

  At this point, your next step depends on your specific desires with self-hypnosis.

  PRE-HYPNOSIS CONSULTATION

  Yes, you should consult with yourself before learning to practice self-hypnosis.

  This need not be an elaborate procedure, but it is an important one. Use some paper and a pen and write down the answers to these questions: