Self Hypnosis. Valerie Austin

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СКАЧАТЬ really do not want to do it is because you are acting on an incorrect programme. It is not necessarily bad or good, just inappropriate for you. If a person says to me that he has a problem and he knows exactly when it started—it could be anything from fear of flying to insomnia—invariably he is wrong! Few if any of us are really aware of when or where a trauma started, only when the programme came into operation. The actual trauma will probably have happened much earlier, a later incident only triggering off the programme.

      If someone really could remember the trauma, there would not be a problem. The conscious would have been able to deal with the trauma and solve the resulting problem naturally with its logic. The reason the conscious cannot solve the problem—say, fear of flying—is that it does not have all the information it needs to be able to use logic to eliminate the fear.

      Sometimes, even trauma-based problems can be treated with suggestion therapy, but there is a higher success rate with problems that are purely and simply bad habits. Most bad habits are not the result of a trauma but rather of practice.

      Smoking is a good example of a bad habit. It is only a bad habit once the smoker decides he or she wants to give up. It might have been an unhealthy habit but it did not start out as a bad one, from the individual’s point of view. Humans do not persist at acquiring bad habits, only at habits they want. For example, nail-biting in its early stages might have been done for comfort, just as thumb-sucking or nose-picking all begin innocently enough. There has been extensive research to prove that the nicotine in cigarettes is the reason that smokers find it nearly impossible to quit, although just as many other reports disprove this. In 1992 I was at a conference where figures were produced proving that 90 per cent of smokers gave up without any help from products on the market (including therapy), with 40 per cent of this 90 per cent suffering no ill side-effects whatsoever. The latter tallies with my own statistics. I have a Stop Smoking programme that only takes one hour and carries a very healthy (95 per cent) success rate. The client stops immediately and does not suffer the supposedly mandatory side-effects. Suggestion hypnotherapy that has a positive 30 per cent success rate (and with the right script and hypnotherapist a 60 per cent success rate) has worked for giving up smoking for many years. It is all down to the old rule: ‘What the mind expects tends to happen!’ If the smoker is programmed to believe there must be side-effects, then there will be. Out of the thousands of smokers I have treated, I have never found a common denominator in the type of side-effect they suffered to give credence to the popular but unproven opinion that smoking is an addiction.

      At present there is a great deal of scientific debate over whether smoking is an addiction or a habit. I would say that smoking is a mental addiction, whereas, say, taking heroin is a physical addiction. A mental addiction can be eliminated instantly with hypnosis, without the occurrence of side-effects. On the other hand, a drug addiction takes longer to treat, as the body will necessarily have a physical response when deprived of the drug it has become used to.

      There have been extensive tests and surveys by addiction clinics claiming to prove that smoking constitutes a physical addiction to nicotine. But the mere fact that they are called ‘addiction’ clinics will automatically discourage those smokers who believe it is only a habit. Therefore, the results of any survey based on test results in these clinics are bound to be totally flawed! The belief that smoking is a physical addiction is what the popular nicotine ‘patches’ trade on. It is hardly surprising that, whatever the manufacturers’ claims, their success rate is disappointingly low.

      PROBLEMS AND HYPNOSIS

      It always amazes me to see the huge number of weekend courses for the mind that are available in the UK. Unfortunately not all of them are good and some of them are very esoteric. The course ‘junkies’ tend to be forever taking one course or another, almost every weekend. You can easily spot them. They analyse your conversation and then assess you in public. Life is not as straightforward as this and it soon becomes very boring. I fear we may soon become a nation of DIY health analysts, just acting on theories. Not a very pleasant thought! As a therapist one is taught to watch out for ‘therapy’ junkies. These are people who go around the different therapists, trying everything even though their own doctor can find nothing wrong with them. These people never get any better and have either had every illness imaginable or stick to the same one that resists cure no matter whom they see. These people are always difficult to treat because they actually get satisfaction out of the constant attention their problem receives.

      If you are going to try your hand at suggestion hypnosis after reading this book, then keep it simple. Do not try to analyse your problem too deeply. If you or someone you are hypnotizing does not respond to suggestion hypnosis, then you will know that more advanced work is needed. At least trying it yourself first will save you the cost of going to a hypnotherapist, who may charge anything between £25 and £150 per session to get the same results you could get at home. Also, the information in this book will help you to know which questions to ask a hypnotherapist so that you can find one with the right training to assist you in more advanced work. If there is some aspect of your behaviour that you want to change, use hypnosis to your advantage—but do not abuse it. If someone else says you have a problem which you have not been aware of and which does not bother you, then it is not your problem—it is theirs! Remember the old saying: ‘If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it.’

      RULES OF THE MIND

      There are certain rules that the mind always follows. I have listed below the ones I find are the most interesting and helpful. You do not have to be an expert psychologist to follow them. If you want to use and programme a computer, you do not need to become a computer expert—you just need to know the basics for the work you will be doing. The same applies to the mind. You do not need to study psychology for years to use suggestion hypnosis; you just need to know the essentials. Although minds are far more complex than the most sophisticated computer ever designed, they all rest on the same basic foundations. The four rules that follow can help you to understand how you can work on yourself to achieve changes in your behaviour.

       Rule 1

      Every thought creates a physical reaction. Research has shown that emotions, brought on by thought, cause an inward physical reaction. Worry, for example, causes changes in the stomach (ulcers, diarrhoea, digestion problems, etc.). Anger stimulates the adrenal glands, causing increased adrenaline in the bloodstream affecting many bodily functions. It is better to vent anger, therefore, than to suppress it. Anxiety and fear stimulate the blood supply, possibly leading to a high pulse rate and blood-pressure. The subconscious mind, too, is affected by thoughts with strong emotional content; once these have been accepted they become a programme and trigger the same response over and over again.

       Rule 2

      You cannot have two conflicting thoughts at one time: for example, you can be either sad or happy, you cannot be both at once. You can train yourself to change moods, however depressing your environment. If you have a worrying thought you can learn to shelve it and bring forward a memory of a more pleasant occasion. You can make a ‘hell out of heaven’. I was living on a beautiful Malaysian island when I began writing this book. Suddenly, out of nowhere, there came a host of problems that brought me depression, even in paradise. One of the wise islanders to whom I remarked: ‘There is no peace in paradise’ replied: ‘The only paradise is in your mind.’ How true.

      You can also make a ‘heaven out of hell’. Take for example the person in jail who still manages to live happily through his imagination and thoughts. One of my students had, many years before, served a six-year jail sentence as a political prisoner. He served his time in the same jail in South Africa as Nelson Mandela and, although the experience was horrendous, he kept his sanity by thinking of beautiful and peaceful surroundings and all the good things in life, СКАЧАТЬ