Do you like that?
I was looking around the room, and I think everybody was in a total-
Another trance right?
Well, this is actually true.
This is why I like the idea of hypnotherapy and using hypnosis as a force for good, because
what you just experienced is called the Hero's Journey.
You took ... You saw her fear and her self doubt, and when she succeeded, didn't you
guys have an emotional rush, a thrill watching that happen?
I think it's part of the human experience.
And this is one of the gifts that we, as hypnotists, can share with the world, is to show them
that they can make things possible, that they don't have to be stuck in a place where they
have to accept certain limitations, right?
So as you saw from the induction, I actually end up blending two different versions of
the arm levitation, which I'll be teaching you today, because we had the odds stacked
against us.
This is probably about as stacked against you as you can get with an arm levitation,
in terms of the things.
So let's talk a little bit about what I did for the set up, although that's not technically
gonna be part of what we're doing here, but I want you to understand the set up in case
you ever come across something like that, and then we'll talk about the actual mechanics
of why this all worked, right?
Sometimes at the set up we have a person who's convinced herself that she can't have an arm
levitation.
Now every time that she's failed, and I'm sure she's tried many times in the past, it
adds another layer of disappointment, of fear, of doubt, and so on and, of course, that's
like a black hole.
It grows larger, and the larger it grows the harder it is to deal with it, right?
So all we had to do is to crack right through to the center of that, so she gets to start
again with a clean slate.
So the first thing we did is I made sure that she wasn't invested in being right, in proving
to me that she can't have it.
because if she wants to prove to that she's right, there's very little I can do at that
point.
Then I might as well just move on to someone else.
Why she wants to allow something like that.
But, you see, sometimes people don't realize that they have a temptation to prove themselves
right, so by just asking them straight out, challenging them that way, they will commit
to not actually want this experience, and it'll flip their mindset.
At least that's the first lock that we're unlocking.
Does that make sense?
The second mindset, the second step we did is, of course, I invited her ... and this
is an important part ... not to assist or resist the process, and there's a couple of
reasons for that.
The first reason for that is sometimes people don't get arm levitations 'cause they're trying
too hard.
It's called the law of reverse effect.
When the conscious mind interferes with an unconscious process it blocks it, so when
sometimes people who are trying to assist the process, who really want it to work, they
get in their own way and then they give up and then they feel sad.
Resisting the process, of course, is the flip side of that, which is, "Oh.
It's starting to work.
I wonder if it's so strong now that I can't resist it?", and then they'll force the hand
down because they're trying to test themselves.
But you don't test yourself on a skill you've only just learned.
She only just learned to sit here.
Why on earth would you put in a test, or a challenge at this point, right?
Why do we choose a challenge on this one, for example?
Well, we don't know yet whether or not they can succeed with this, and then the challenge,
if succeeded, it's that much more convincing.
But what if someone says, "Yeah, I've never managed to get the arm lock.
I've never succeeded with it".
Do you think I'd challenge at that point?
Not directly because I want them to actually succeed with the arm lock first and give them
a little test, and teach them how to pass the test.
Does that make sense to you guys?
So that's the second stage.
Don't assist.
Don't resist.
And the corollary of that, which means is it also gives her a sense of honesty.
That means that I'm okay with her letting her arm go down, as well as up.
And it's important 'cause otherwise she may feel, or whoever's the subject [inaudible],
might feel as though they are obliged to pretend it's actually working, but really it's not
working.
And that actually happens ... I've myself done this where I've worked with a very incompetent
hypnotist and really all I wanted to do was just get this embarrassment over with.
I even paid the guy, so I could get out of his office and then never come back.
It's a very bad position to be in.
And, as a hypnotist, I don't accidentally want to be in a role where my subject is going
to pretend to succeed just to be able to get away from me and if she has to gnaw her own
arm off she'll do that as well.
So I'm making it very clear I'm actually okay that the arm falls down.
Was it surprising to you when I made you the offer?
Was it surprising when I said it's okay for it to go down if it wants to.
Yes.
It was.
Yeah.
It's also a great relief because now she doesn't have to try anymore.
She doesn't have to prove anything and it takes away a lot of the pressure which then
has guilt or shame attached to it and other things as well, right?
Mm-hmm.
But, of course, there's a corollary to that.
If the arm is allowed to fall up then, to be honest, she has to allow it to fall down
and she has to be honest enough to allow the hand to fall up as well, which reinforces
the idea that I don't want her to prove me right in her failure.
I'd rather her experience success.
Does that make sense to you guys?
You see all the subtle framing that we're doing to set things up?
The third frame is partly to do with mechanics, but also partly to do with the reason we presented
it, which is the idea that I wanna switch her mindset.
You have a very calm personality, a very calm mindset and the calm form of [inaudible] work
very well.
So I do wanna switch her mindset to something else because it's different.
I also know she's gonna put a lot of effort into the initial lifting, which is gonna require
her to mentally up a few gears up.
If I had someone here who was a very nervous or ADT jumpy sort of client, I'd still put
the physical effort in, and I'll explain why in a moment.
However, I'd also want to switch the mindset from jumpy, nervous energy to a calmer, more
focused energy.
So it would still require a shift in mindset and, particularly because a mindset is the
one that created the problem in the first place.
Or, rather, it's the one that's associated with not succeeding in the first place.
Do you get the idea guys?
Mm-hmm.
So we did a lot of preparation work to make sure that the mental conditions are likely
to occur for us, right?
And really, in some respects, it's a real elaboration of the compliance test, isn't
it?
I'm really elaborating that step into a much more sophisticated method.
So then what we actually do is the method itself.
I actually combined two different versions of the arm levitation and I will teach you
both of them, and the reason for that is because I wanted to stack the odds in my favor for
success ... actually in your favor for success, because once you have ... Let's put it this
way: you only have to succeed once to realize you can, right?
After that, sure, will you get the instant arm levitation each time as easily?
Maybe, maybe not, but it's irrelevant.
You know you can do it now.
There is no doubt anymore, right?
You know it's possible, and once you know something's possible, well, you start seeking
for it?
Your mind's starts turning towards it.
The classic example is Roger Bannister, the man who ran the four minute mile in 3 minutes
and 59 seconds.
No one thought it was possible.
When he did it, though, within six months half a dozen or a dozen athletes around the
world did the exact same thing, the impossible.
Why?
Because he proved it is possible.
Now there's no excuse any more.
You get the idea?
Mm-hmm.
So have we fixed arm levitations forever?
Maybe we have, maybe we haven't.
That's a minor concern.
The major concern is: she knows that it's possible.
It means there's never any going back to the old way of thinking or believing about it.
Does that make sense to you guys?
So what did we do?
The first thing I did was a rehearsal.
I actually had her move her hand a few different ways to get a sense of how you move with it.
I didn't actually do the rehearsal induction properly because that wasn't the main thing
I was interested in, but I did enough of it so that there's a sense of completion already,
a little bit of success.
Remember right back on day one when we did the sway, the body postural sway, we rehearsed
initially to give the person experience or to assess what it feels like so it's easier
to get back into that groove again.
As a rule of thumb, the more you rehearse, the more likely it will spontaneously become
this way.
Do you get the idea?
So we just set the condition a few times and then, of course, we had the classic arm fall,
right?
I call this the irresistible arm levitation for the simple reason that it is, mechanically
speaking, virtually foolproof.
It's not foolproof in the sense that someone can un-suggest it.
You saw we had to go to three rounds before you managed to break through the mindset that
said, "I can't do this".
To three rounds, remember?
This should actually work on the first round on a pure physiological basis.
And I'll explain why that is in a moment.
And I'm okay with the three rounds, by the way, because each round, I know, was eroding
and breaking down the mental barrier even further so, by the third round, not only was
it dramatic but wasn't it a huge emotional release that came with it as well?
Yes.
Right?
Are you glad you did this, by the way?
Are you glad you came up and did this?
Yes, yes.
Absolutely.
So I don't know if you ever played this kids game when you were kids, or maybe adults,
you can try it now if you want.
If you stand against the wall and press your arm against the wall and you really try and
lift the arm and lift the arm and lift the arm, and really put effort into it, then when
you stop and step away from the wall ... I call it the ghost on effect ... the arm just
wants to kinda lift up on its own.
It's the same thing you get, for those of you who go skiing, when you take the ski boots
up and your feet suddenly feel very light, or when you have a heavy backpack on and you
take it off, your shoulders feel light, or you carry your shopping bags and you let go,
suddenly your arm feels light.
What's happening is your musculature has been overstimulated, it's constantly firing, lift,
lift, lift.
So those neurons are still firing long after the physical effort's finished.
It's kind of like the old fashioned TV sets.
Remember when we used to turn them off and the light would go down and you had this glow,
probably a radio-active glow sitting in your living room for half an hour before it would
fade away?
That was the residual energy left inside of the catheter ray tube, right?
Mm-hmm.
Well, there is a residual energy left inside the arm, and I'm not talking about any metaphysical
energy.
I'm talking about there are neurons firing telling the arm to lift and that is what's
stimulating those neurons because those are the neurons that lift the arm.
There is no magic in this.
If there are no neurons in the arm you will not get an arm levitation.
This is the way it works.
So I want to stimulate those neurons so that the conditions are in place for the arm to
lift naturally.
If I stimulate them enough the arm will have this light, ghost-like feeling, like someone
wants to lift it up.
Hence, once again, don't resist, but don't assist, right?
Let it happen.
So now first round what happened?
We pushed a little bit.
She had a little bit of success.
It, kind of, hovered a little bit, but then I saw the change and I had to let her know
it's okay for her to go down.
It's okay because otherwise you were caught in a slight bind knowing that it kinda worked
a little bit but now it's stopped working and, "Maybe I'm getting disappointed again".
Right?
Yeah, I noticed that it stopped right in the middle, and I thought, "No, no.
This is not possible".
Right.
And that idea of "No, it's not possible" is part of what started canceling the condition
we set up in the first place, right?
I'm actually okay with it.
Notice I had to get to three rounds.
I never had to go three rounds of this induction before in my life.
The only reason I had to do it ... And I'm okay with doing three rounds, by the way,
but I also knew when you came up that I've got: quote/unquote "The hardest client I've
worked with in this way in my life".
Right?
Which is fine.
It's not a problem.
I'm actually very pleased I've done it, right?
Mm-hmm.
And I'm pleased that you came up.
I'm just trying to represent to you that if you think of it as a principle, it doesn't
matter because think about the win she had here.
She felt it lifting a little bit, she felt it floating on its own.
That's already creating doubt in her mind, isn't it?
Doubt as to whether or not she really can succeed, or maybe that could succeed.
So we do the whole thing again.
In other words, it's already succeeded in a small amount, now we're gonna add extra
effort.
Now she's willing to put more effort in because if a little bit of effort got a little success,
maybe more effort will get more success and, sure enough, it did, right?
Now that went, probably about 80 percent of the way to eroding it, but because it took
so much effort to overcome the psychological barrier, it stopped here.
So, once again, we're gonna re-set the conditions for optimal conditions.
Could I have convinced the arm to keep lifting?
Possibly.
But I would have to work really, really hard, and I'm really, really lazy.
So we did the whole thing again, but now her mindset's very different isn't it?
Right.
She's already this close to the test and you could taste it?
You could feel it?
Couldn't you?
Yeah.
So now we start the whole thing all over again.
Let's get the conditions right.
Let's rehearse how the elbow moves, how the shoulder moves, so the unconscious mind knows
what areas to take control of to assist and to get the process going.
And then, of course, the third time ... Well, she put extra effort in, of course, again.
The ghost arm ... and this is how again ... the first two times her arm started ... If you
can get the camera a bit lower here, please.
On the first few times her arm ... the first time her arm was kind of horizontal with the
chair.
The second time it went a little bit higher, but it always started around level with the
chair.
The third time, when she let go, her arm actually bounced back.
It started higher than in her previous success.
In other words, it was higher than the high point at which we re-set it the last time,
right?
That, basically, told me this is it.
This is the run for victory, shall we say.
This is going for gold.
She's also rehearsed the idea of the elbow movement.
These are just physical limitations with the human body.
The elbow movement and the shoulder movement, that will get the whole thing and then come
back up here now.
You get the idea?
Yeah.
So you rehearsed the whole thing.
The hand shot up on its own.
She already knows how to not interfere with the process 'cause she practiced it with the
first two versions.
Then, of course, all that remained is the suggestions to accumulate and, of course,
by the time it touched, the original suggestion of going into deep trance and fixing things,
that's when all the fireworks went off, isn't it?
Yes.
It's kind of funny because I had done it to others a few times.
Of course.
So, but- You just couldn't connect it in your own mind,
right?
Mm-hmm.
Absolutely.
And I entirely appreciate that, and the nice thing is once you've connected up inside your
mind like you've done, finding the way back gets easier and easier and easier every time,
right?
I wouldn't be surprised if the next time I see you, you'll be going, "Look!".
So you get the idea?
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