Why the devil?

There’s a story about a Samurai warrior who goes to a great master to learn the difference between heaven and hell.

The teacher listens carefully while scrutinizing the brute of a man standing before him. Having heard his request, the master replies, “Teach you? You must be joking! You’re a big, dumb ox! Who could possibly teach you?!!”

The Samurai immediately sees red. Instinctively, he draws his sword and is poised to strike when the little man calmly says, “THAT … is hell.”

The sword is suspended in mid-air as the words of the master sink in. Slowly the Samurai softens. He returns his sword to his belt and bows deeply. Then falling to his knees he kisses the masters feet in gratitude. 

To which the teacher calmly adds, “And THAT, my son, is heaven.”

God has dominion over Heaven. And the devil’s domain is hell. And hell is a state of mind. 

Healing with the mind is The Devil’s Therapy.

By using a Grimm’s Brother’s fairy tale I hope to illustrate in this book how to do body-centered regression hypnotherapy.

The story begins with a soldier who, having been discharged from the army, has nothing to live on. When he wanders into the woods he meets ‘a little man.’

The little man is the devil.

The devil asks the soldier, “What’s buggin’ ya, Bub?”  And before long a contract has been made between them. The soldier will work underground for a period of time in exchange for the devil giving him permanent relief.

The soldier is the client. He has a story. And a history of conflict. He could be anyone, really.

And the devil?

He’s a healer. He’s found in the woods because he lives close to nature where he can gather healing remedies. Some might say he’s a little ‘out there.’

In our story, the devil is a Hypnotherapist.

The devil you say?

Yup. After all, the devil rules the underworld. And that’s the subconscious mind. The feeling mind.

What you can feel you can heal. – John Gray

Healing begins in the mind. The devil recognizes that all healing is self-healing. 

Healing is natural. It happens. When we let it.

So before leading the client into the realm of his subconscious mind, the devil establishes an agreement from the client to do the work necessary to achieve healing. 

Then he teaches the client how to set himself free of the past.

Hypnosis Is Not Blood-letting

Historically, anything that runs counter to culturally accepted values and thinking has been deemed the work of ‘the devil.’

Take bloodletting.

At one time bloodletting was the accepted preventative and medical treatment. Anyone who did not adhere to such treatment methods was accused of doing the ‘work of the devil.’ The men and women lay practitioners who took care of births, illness and injury through the use of herbs and folk medicine were tortured and slaughtered for their ‘evil doing.’

Today we have chemical therapies. The body and mind are separate. And any naturalistic approach to healing is considered unscientific and, therefore, suspect.

Including hypnosis.

The Devil’s Therapy is about hypnosis. Therapeutic hypnosis. Hypnosis for healing.

The Devil’s Therapy is for hypnotists. To illustrate the process of facilitating healing with hypnosis I chose a Grimm’s Fairy Tale. The story begins with a discharged soldier who, having nothing to live on, goes into the forest. There he meets a little man. The little man is ‘the devil.’ A bargain is soon struck with the soldier agreeing to serve the devil for a specified term in return for having his problem permanently resolved.

And a process of healing ensues.

Fairy tales, like dreams, have multiple meanings. They can be interpreted on many levels – literally, psychologically, and spiritually. 

The devil represents everything that runs contrary to the ways of the world. So anything judged unacceptable must be denied or rejected and sent straight to ‘hell.’

Hell is within. It’s “the shadow.” The subconscious mind. And it will wreak havoc in your life.

The good news is this: the devil holds the keys to your liberation because the subconscious mind is his domain. If you wish to be free from uncomfortable feelings and unconscious drives or impulses, you must go to the devil. And be willing to do the work necessary to earn your freedom.

Doing your own shadow-work will bring you face to face with your deepest pain. It will also reward you in unexpected ways.

Like the devil, the hypnotist is counter-culture. After all, hypnosis is not bloodletting. It’s not chemical therapy. It’s an approach to self-healing that requires going within and working with the subconscious mind.

The Hypnosis Code

This morning I was musing over the plethora of books with the word “Code” in the title.

The God Code. The Emotion Code. The Bro Code …

The popular catch-word before the “Code” was “Secret.” There was, of course, THE Secret, followed by the multitudes in its wake.

The Secret Language of Feelings. The Missing Secret. The Secret to the Secret …

Before we had any secrets, the “Matrix” had us.

The Divine Matrix.  Matrix Energetics.  Seemorg Matrix. Even Matrix Mathematics, for gawd-sakes! (Which no doubt was used in engineering the popular series by Toyota.)

Before the Matrix, we had “Power.”

The Power of Your Subconscious Mind. (That’s an oldie but a goodie.) Power vs Force …

The “Matrix” has kind of had its day but “Power” and “Secret” are still going strong.  Try putting them together!  The Secret Power of Emotions….  The Secret Powers of Time….  The Secret Powers of the Mind….

How about “The Secret Power Code of the Matrix.”  Now that’s sure to make the best-seller list!

I consider myself a life-long learner.  If it’s a book, it wants me to read it.  In fact, I started my own spiritual/self-help bookstore in the mid 1980′s just so I could feed my habit.  What can I say? I’m a heavy user.

I love books and I’m a voracious reader. When I sink my teeth into a subject that interests me, I chew for all it’s worth. Over a decade ago I sunk my teeth into hypnosis.  

I’m still chewing.

Since my first certification course I have immersed myself in learning everything I can about the secret powers of the mind.  I have traveled to study with some of the top teachers in the field.  And each time I returned home I would set to work dutifully applying in practice what I had learned in class.

Ashleigh Brilliant wrote dryly:  “I may be a slow learner, but I make up for it by being a fast forgetter.”

After the first couple of years I realized I needed a system to guide me while working with clients.  I just couldn’t retain all that information in my wee cranium! 

So I put together a kind of reference manual that I could use in-session to guide me. This ensured that I would stay true to whatever protocol I was following at the time.

I figured the way to get good at hypnotherapy was to do what the really good hypnotherapists did.  I paid good money to learn from them. So I wouldn’t allow myself to get creative with freshly-learned material.  I just took it, typed it out, and applied it as it had been taught.

At first, I immersed myself in Parts Therapy (a.k.a. Ego State or Subpersonality work) primarily because it resonated with what I already knew from years of working with dreams.  I gradually began integrating age regression into my work. This naturally lead me into facilitating emotional healing work.

The more I learned, the more I wanted to share what I had learned. So I started putting together a program that I could share with other CH’s who were struggling on their own, trying to get better results.  

The best way to learn something is to teach it. And the best way to teach something is to tell a story. So I decided upon a favorite of mine. A Grimm’s Fairy Tale – the Devil’s Grimy Brother – as the template for demonstrating the stages of a universal therapeutic process.

And then … I attended an Advanced Training in regression work called 5-PATH.

Following this week-long training my session manual underwent major revisions.  I’m all for making a system your own but I believe you actually need to master a process before you are qualified to mess with it. So I put my nose to the grindstone.

And ‘The Devil’s Therapy’ went on the backburner.

After five more years of study and practice ‘The Devil’s Therapy’ is finally back off the backburner!  This time I’m writing it as a book.

I love books.

And let’s face it - not everyone can spend ten years and tens of thousands of dollars to learn all this stuff. Travel is expensive. A $500 weekend course can quickly add up to $2,000 when you add in travel costs.  A $1,000 week-long training ends up costing $3,000.  Not to mention the week or so of lost revenues - if you’re self-employed.

But anyone can afford to read a book – if they have a mind to.

What is ‘The Devil’s Therapy?’

Basically, stuff I have learned. Methods gleaned over many years of learning.  Methods I use routinely.  Methods for healing the mind-body. All based on a 4-step system of healing that is universal.  

Whether you’ve skinned your knee, suffer panic attacks, or misplaced your soul, these four steps apply. So you always know what to do.

Like I said, they’re universal.

By providing this information I hope to help other CH’s shave down the learning curve, minimize costs and mid-wife themselves into regression hypnosis healers.

And if you have a mind to, just reading this book could help advance the profession – by raising the bar on your own level of knowledge and skill.

As for the devil … Hypnosis has a long history of being associated with the works of the devil.  (And in some parts of the country it still is!)

So I figure - why fight it?

Hypno - You don’t know

Want to save time and money achieving your own success?

Kahlil Gibrain wrote that the responsibility of the teacher is to lead the student to the threshold of his or her own knowledge. When you take advantage of the opportunity to learn from other people’s mistakes you don’t have to repeat them!

The first step with learning a new system is to stay true to the system long enough to learn it.

As the Dalai Lama once said, “Whatever your faith, keep up your practice.”

Don’t question it. Just do the steps. This leads to conscious competence.

And that’s how you achieve mastery.

It will begin to make sense to do a certain thing at a certain time. That’s when you can start to improvise. Your decisions will come from a place of knowledge and understanding of WHY you do what you do when you do it. You’ll just observe and certain things rather than looking for them. They will become obvious to you.

Your intuition will step in once you stop trying to figure it out. 

You’ll just … know … Your responses will become automatic and fluid. And you’ll naturally be in rapport with your client energetically.

That’s when you are becoming unconsciously competent.

Stephen Parkhill said that the best approach is always to stay naïve. Admit it – you don’t know! 

And neither does your client! If he or she did, s/he would have sorted things out by now. Only his/her subconscious mind truly knows. So let it show you.

In its own time.

And its own way.

And trust it to lead you to the gold.

Smoking Hypnosis!

Most people think of smoking or weight loss when they think of hypnosis. But it’s so much more than that. Any kind of habit – like smoking, overeating, or nail-biting – brings unwanted side-effects. And this is what motivates a person to change.

But these are just symptoms. It's what caused the person to smoke or overeat or bite their nails in the first place that’s the ‘real’ problem. 

So I don’t work with habits.

Habits are simply learned behaviors. Most habits start out as attempts to relieve stress. They work – but only temporarily. It’s like clipping off the head of a dandelion. It gets rid of the problem for a while. But before long, it’s back. And usually it has invited some of its friends over to join it.

So the problem gets worse.

That’s the problem with behavior modification and symptom management approaches. We need to get to the root of the problem.

My approach is to help people get to the root so they can release all that internal stress inside. As a result, they feel better. AND they start to feel better about themselves. 

This empowers them to make healthier choices. Choices that are more aligned with what they want.

Every body has stress. It affects each of us differently. For one person, it may express through habitual behaviors. For another it may surface through uncomfortable emotions like anxiety, fear, phobias, anger, guilt, and depression. Another person might have performance blocks in school or sports. Test anxiety or difficulty concentrating are pretty common problems.

Some people have physical problems that won’t respond to conventional treatments. I don’t diagnose or treat or prescribe because I trust the wisdom of the body. The body is perfectly designed to heal itself. You can see this for yourself whenever you cut a finger or bruise your leg. If you break a bone you need to set it back in place but it heals automatically. 

Healing happens when we let it. 

It’s not magic. It’s one of nature’s ordinary miracles – what Hippocrates called ‘the healing power of nature.’ This healing power flows through the body’s energy system. Stress creates blocks in this flow. For example, under stress the endocrine system produces more cortisol. Cortisol is a hormone which, in excess, disrupts every system in the body. Over time this can develop into chronic conditions.

The American Institute of Stress estimates that 95% of all visits to primary health care workers are for stress-related conditions. Sleep problems. Skin problems. Problems with the digestive system. Immune disorders. Persistent pain. Infertility. The list goes on.Really, I don’t think that there is any physical problem that doesn’t have an underlying stress factor.

The good news is – anything that is made worse by stress can be made better by hypnosis.

There are basically two kinds of hypnosis. The traditional approach is what most of us learned in basic training. We learned how to guide a person into a relaxed state. And verify that the client is actually in hypnosis. And then how to formulate and deliver suggestions based on the desired change. 

Hypnosis is not physical relaxation. It is the bypass of the critical thinking part of the mind. And there are times when relaxation techniques are not enough. When suggestion alone fail to generate the desired change - lasting change - it's very likely the problem is rooted in unresolved feelings from the past. 

Regression hypnotherapy addresses the roots. 

Regression hypnotherapy is a body-centered approach to therapeutic hypnosis. It works to gain access to the deeper layers of unresolved pain from the past that generate stress.By working with the body you can guide your client to release the stressful feelings contributing to the problem. 

Release brings relief. And your client feels it immediately.

This isn’t a single-session approach, though. The goal of therapeutic hypnosis is complete resolution of the problem. The objective is to drain the swamp. Doing so will allow the mind and body to come back into harmony. So the client can heal.

Everybody has a swamp. 

Everybody has some degree of unresolved pain from the past. The bigger the swamp, the more it inhibits us. The more it controls our life. 

Some people’s swamps are inhabited by alligators! In this case it might take a while.

Regardless. Whatever is there, at the subconscious level of mind, releasing it will bring relief. Regression hypnotherapy allows us to release it. 

And wonderful things can happen when you take it one step at a time.

One release at a time. 

Go Pro!|The Devil's Therapy

Hypnotherapy isn’t about you.

It’s not about your title or your credentials. It’s about the client. And how well you can help them.

Medicine Man, Sunbear, said it this way - ‘Does it grow corn?’

Are you satisfied with your current level of performance? Is what you are doing all that great? 

If so, carry on!

But if you’re like me, and you’re dissatisfied with … or just want to be more effective at … or more skilled at … or feel more confident about … then there comes a point when you need to find a way to make it your own.

And to make it your own you need a system.

Not a paint-by-numbers kit. Not a cookie-cutter model. That’s useful as a learning aid. But it will slow you down in the trenches. 

No, what you need is a system that will move you from having the motivation-to-achieve to being truly competent. From passionate about hypnotism to professional hypnotherapist.

From GO to PRO!

It all starts with a system that allows you to use what you know consistently. And repetitively. Until you internalize it.

Then you can let it go.

Water wings are great when you don’t know how to swim. But there comes a time when they just get in the way. When you can swim without rid of them. 

Until then, if you can’t swim, you may drown. Or panic. Or overcompensate, thrash about, waste energy.

You also need to know there are challenges. Hazards, even. But no unassailable adversity. You just need a system to guide you. Once you have mastered it you’re free to create your own. 

Until then, why reinvent the wheel? 

The thing that will move you and the profession forward is learning from those who are at the leading edge. Not only will this help you increase your knowledge and skill, it will shorten the learning curve!


Because hypnotherapy is about healing with the mind. 

And your empowerment will make you more successful at helping your clients heal themselves.

Clueless in Hypnosis

I DIDN’T HAVE A CLUE!

Having finally graduated and been certified as a “Clinical Hypnotherapist”, I knew one thing for certain – I wasn’t qualified to do therapy!

Oh sure, I could deliver a beautiful Progressive Relaxation Induction. And I could read a script with some degree of eloquence. But actual therapy?

NOT!

While I had apparently been ‘cross-trained’ in various hypnotic techniques, the training process had been largely theoretical.

It soon became clear – I had no idea how to apply all that I had learned!

It’s been said that a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing.[i] I was terrified of the damage I might unwittingly inflict out of sheer ignorance. I was facing a choice.

1. Fake it ‘til you make it.

2. Quit and go flip burgers.

3. Invest in further education.

‘Hanging out a shingle’ right away simply wasn’t the responsible choice.

I was thoroughly convinced of the healing potential of hypnotherapy, so giving up was no longer an option.

I chose to adopt the attitude, “in for a penny, in for a pound” and get the education of a qualified professional.

So began an interesting and rather costly journey of acquiring the necessary knowledge and skill to confidently practice therapeutic hypnosis.

If your philosophy doesn’t grow corn, I don’t want to hear about it. 

– Sun Bear, Medicine Man

Over ten years of dedicated study and practice, I have discovered methods that ‘grow corn.’ I have learned that healing is natural. It happens – when we let it. So we don’t have to manufacture change. So I’m writing it down in a book called, ‘The Devil’s Therapy.’

This is not a book on inductions and deepeners, however. There will be no scripts. There are ideas and concepts that can help those in our profession who, like me, want to ‘go pro.’ And help our clients heal themselves by addressing the underlying causes.

Through this blog I’ll share why I chose the devil. I’ll also share what I have learned about what it takes to ‘go pro.’ And the pros and cons of being a professional Hypnotherapist.

Stay tuned!

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[i] “A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink deep, or taste not the Pierian Spring: there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking largely sobers us again.” – Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism, 1709