Beware Of Worshiping False Idols
By
Gerald Kein
I guess the older I get, the less I understand things I previously thought I understood. For as long as I can remember, the leaders of our profession have been telling us that hypnosis was its own stand alone profession. We heard that it could be used as a wonderful adjunct to the medical profession and psychological profession. We were taught that countless other professions could incorporate hypnosis in order to make them better at what they do. I have believed this throughout my many years in this wonderful profession and I believe this deeply today.
I absolutely know that we have progressed to the point that we have developed our own unique skills and modalities of transformation that work beautifully with the people who come to us for help. Our profession is coming of age. We are discovering powerful methods of intervention that are totally unique to what we do and are not understood or known by other professions including licensed professionals. We are in a tremendous period of new discoveries and applications. I am amazed at some of the things my students are reporting to me that are new techniques or improvements to existing methods.
And yet there are those among us who continue to live in the past and refuse to go back and learn new information. Unfortunately, there are to many hypnosis trainers who are to willing to tell us what we can’t do instead of instilling a “you can do it. Go for it.” attitude in their students. If we are truly our own profession, we must believe and strive to enhance and discover the powerful new techniques and methods of transformation that are just around the corner. We must stimulate our students to “push the envelope” and try something new in every hypnosis session so learning will continue and we will become a truly independent profession.
We are not there yet. Some hypnotists, including a few that have been in the profession for many years, have allowed the programming of others to cloud their ability to focus on moving our profession ahead. It’s time we stop and discover who we are and who we are not. It’s time we discover what belongs in our profession and what does not.
First, we are NOT medical doctors. They have their own set of rules and methods of achieving change. We are NOT psychologists or licensed mental health professionals. They march to their own drummers. We must always respect other professions and understand that they work hard to do the very best to help those they work with. WE are not one of them. We are hypnotists.
I am dismayed by hypnotists who have attached their wagons to their star. Some hypnotists look at them as hypnosis authorities and accept their hypnosis studies as the absolute last word on what hypnosis can do. I’m sorry. I do not accept that. I know their course curriculum is still based on the old training that focuses on direct suggestion and inability to obtain deep trance by design. For example, Dr. Kroger, a highly respected author on hypnosis states only 20% of women can achieve complete pain elimination with hypnosis. This concept was taken directly out of the training of the 40’s and has never changed. Back when he was doing his writing, Dave Elman was teaching doctors how to achieve over a 90% success rate in this area. Prof. Ernest Hilgard in his book on Hypnosis For Pain Control states, “Hypnotizability is randomly dispersed throughout the general population.” That means there are good subjects and bad subjects. Good grief! Most hypnotists today understand that there is no such thing as a bad subject and that people accept hypnosis in direct relation to the amount of fear they have period!
When doctors conduct hypnosis studies with minimum skills, there conclusions will be flawed. Unfortunately, they will be never challenged so their discoveries are accepted as fact. The unlicensed hypnotist, no matter how long he has been practicing, no matter what wonderful things he has discovered will be ignored by these people because their information is only antidotal. What makes it even worse, many “hypnotists” we look up to as leaders would rather accept their information than ours.
Some of us even turn their backs on some of the greatest hypnotists of our past apparently because of their complete belief in the outcome of the licensed professionals hypnosis studies. For example, I was stunned when reading a recent thread on a hypnosis internet board when a well known hypnotist insinuated that Dave Elman exaggerated his outcome and results. A man who taught doctors. A man whose work is more documented by the licensed professionals than any other non-licensed hypnotist in the world. This hypnotist apparently believes that because Elman taught and demonstrated the removal with the doctors patients the removal of serious medical and psycholocial problems in 15-30 minutes it was some kind of trick or fraud. This hypnotist, like to many others, ignore this and continue to tell us that one session hypnosis for anything is impossible.
It’s time we focused on those non-licensed hypnotists of our past and present who are able to achieve fantastic results rather than ignore them. Let’s dissect Elman and discover how he actually achieved his rapid results. Lets re-look at such things as a book written by a great hypnotist by the name of Charles Tibbets titled “Miracles On Demand The Rapid Transformational Work Of Gil Boyne.” We should not rely on data about our profession from other groups whose bias of training and mental expectancy is contradictory to ours.
When a new hypnotist asks us how hypnosis can work for something we have been unsuccessful with we should not say it is impossible. We should say that we have so far been unsuccessful with that problem and maybe it just needs a new fresh approach. We should excite them to discover that new approach instead of once again saying it’s impossible.
Elman taught, and I agree, that a hypnotist should be like a doctor when it comes to how long a session should be. When a doctor sees a patient, he only spends enough time to diagnose and offer his best judgement for the proper therapy. In my opinion, a hypnotist should only spend enough time with the client to do the transformational work. Some times this could be as little as 15 minutes or as long as many sessions.
Some hypnotists chastise others when these hypnotists state they are achieving rapid if not even single session change for things like, phantom limb pain and fibromiliga. Right off the reel they shout impossible! They state if it is not scientifically proven it’s impossible. Well, how in the world is a non-licensed hypnotist ever going to be able to develop a study that would be accepted by these others. It can’t happen and if it did would never be accepted.
Wouldn’t it be great that when a hypnotist discovered a way to achieve change that no one else has discovered we celebrate this new information. We should laud this person and ask him to put on a seminar in order to teach everyone this new method. We don’t. We tell him it’s impossible, he is exaggerating and the licensed professionals studies bolster their opinion.
Some hypnotists are so idolistic of the licensed doctors, they will do anything to impress them. For example some accept mail order degrees in psychotherapy and then preach to us how Dr. XYZ, author of some great hypnosis study says……
I apologize for this article. I never wanted to write it. But someone someday needs to dig their heels in and say time out. I am a hypnotist. I believe in my profession. I eagerly seek out new information from other hypnotists in order to improve myself. I am not a doctor or psychologist. I use different tools and achieve different results. The hypnosis studies and results of other professions are interesting but I do not accept them as the ultimate answer. Most of these studies are at best based on the work of part time hypnotists with generally minimal skills. I devote every working day in order to help my clients and discover new information.
I can’t but ask if Elman, a non-licensed hypnotist, could teach licensed individuals how to achieve extremely rapid change for what are perceived extremely difficult problems back in the 40’s, why haven’t we taken those fantastic methods and dramatically improved them over the last 50 years? Why are some hypnotists so eager to turn their back on this knowledge and shout impossible! instead of saying “teach me how to do that so I can help the profession get better faster.
I have personally clocked over 40,000 hours of individual one on one hypnosis sessions. I have spent my time in the trenches. I know more about hypnosis and it’s results than any part time doctor. I an entering the twilight years of my profession. During the hopefully 20 or more years I have left in this great profession. I hope that I can see and possibly stimulate some of the newcomers to become the new leaders with new ideas bringing new excitement. It is said that in any profession, new ideas and concepts move forward from funeral to funeral. Only when the old die off can new ideas be brought on line. I hope this is not true for us.
It is critical we all do what we must do for us to truly become a separate and distinct profession. We need to look within OUR profession for the answers to what we can and can not do. Its time we politely ask those apparent “leaders” of our profession when they tell us something is impossible because some medical or psychological study says differently, are you a hypnotist? Do you believe in our potential?
I truly believe we are entering a fantastic new period of discovery. We are seeing glimmers of some tremendous new and exciting techniques that are just beyond our reach today but will be here tomorrow. Do not listen to those who worship false idols. Hook your star to our profession. Seek out those leaders with an open mind who will stimulate and excite you to new heights of success. Celebrate the new hypnotist when he or she discovers a new approach that turns the impossible into the ordinary. Follow the fantastic leadership of the National Guild of Hypnotists as they work every day to make us a independent, stand alone profession.
I believe that we could temporally re-incarnate some of the long gone masters of hypnosis like Leibolt, Burneim, Mesmer, Erickson, Elman and Tibbets they would all say; Take what we learned and use it with our blessing but if that is all you do get out of the profession for you are doing nothing to move it forward and make it better.
I don’t know about you but frankly I’m tired of listening to those that say that what I do and many of my students do every day is impossible. Join me, other progressive totally committed hypnotists and the Guild in moving forward by looking within ourselves and our profession for what we need to become the finest transformational profession in the world. Don’t let the old stuffy licensed professional study quoting hypnotists stand in the way of our exciting future. We can be the very best. We can do what others eagerly say we can’t. If we really want to become looked up to as the consummate professionals we could be we must be prepared to travel a rocky road. We must be prepared to stand firm against those who would like to se us go away. We must ignore and turn our backs on those among us who continue to tell us what is impossible and what we can’t do.
I challenge you new hypnotists to take the attitude that until we absolutely know differently, we can do anything. I ask you to cast off your fears and go for it! Ignore those who would tell you what you can’t do and seek out those who will stimulate you to find and teach others the new discoveries you learn. I truly hope I’m not a lone voice shouting into the wind.
Copyright 2005
