article_hypnosis_a

Hypnosis, A True Profession

By:

Sol Lewis

Hypnosis as a profession has only just begun its long journey to acceptance as a healing art. Until recently it has not been taught by any professor in college or elsewhere, academically. Now, I understand it is becoming a course of study in some medical and psychological schools..

Imagine the academic hierarchy can change, as change is the only reality. Most hypnotists, like Dave Elman, my brother Hyman, Gerald Kein and myself, teach hypnosis to the medical doctor, psychiatrist and all the related academic healing arts and other professional persons. I remember being questioned as to my qualifications by a psychiatrist who was taking our Michigan Hypnosis Institute class in the fifties. I indicated I had no academic degrees. He replied, "No degrees? I'm an M.D., Ph.D., why am I being taught by a lay person" I said, "Please, you're here because I have studied and used hypnosis for many years and paid my dues. I have knowledge you cannot get elsewhere." He said, "But a lay person" I said, "No, a professional. "This modality will one day be the main thrust of all preventive and healing arts." He said, with fourteen other students present (doctors, ophthalmologists, internists, surgeons, etc., including a Rabbi and Priest), "I'm appalled at being here." I said, "Stand up: He stood up. I said, "Doctor, tell this august body of gentlemen who the first Ph.D. was" He looked at me and started to smile. "Well, Doctor, what is your answer" O.K., he said, I see your point. "Do you?

Do you not see that all knowledge came out of consciousness and was made into a text and organized by a group, to teach under an ethical manner for the increase of knowledge in all related arts? An artist taught students the methods of paint, drawing, etc., a mechanic taught how to repair motors, a musician taught how to play various instruments, etc. The history of medicine is from the time of the witch-hunts, when people would open up cadavers to see the nature of the body. They were caught and burned at the stake as witches, Hypnosis was not accepted by the faculty as a procedure for healing or changing of various habits, etc. "O.K," he said," I get your point."' I said, 'Now I realize your efforts to obtain your degrees, it was years of study and intensity, which is a long stretch of work and dedication. I honor you for that, but your ignorance of knowledge in my field could only be gotten from one who is into the work and has some of the answers. Hypnosis is ongoing learning, it does not stop. We are dealing with a mind, a consciousness we know very little about, but increasingly more and more. The seminars, the workshops, new ideas, conventions are the ongoing teachings of this amazing science and art!"

I am appalled by those who always refer to the term hallucination. What does that word mean? It means to imagine something, with no reality as to the practitioner. It is also a cop-out as to not understanding the nature of what is. We are uncovering situations each day in our research and practice of hypnosis and the revelations are tremendous. The body is a mechanism of thought. It is responsive to suggestion. There are people everyday overcoming the wheelchair and improving and walking, where a doctor of medicine has indicated, "you will never walk again, you will be in a wheelchair for the rest of your life." The amazing situation is that because physical injury to various parts of the body is so damaging that it is safe to say when science has no answer presently, that it is beyond repair. And yet, by hallucinating, also called visualization; seeing within the mind, a different reality creates a change.

When a young girl of fourteen spontaneously regressed to a former life to reveal her present blindness, it made me realize something was occurring that I had no knowledge of. Investigating this phenomena created my present awareness and dedication to its reality. Again, it does not belong to the academic world. It is not even in the theology of the book called the Bible. Much wisdom and knowledge is being held back by many to be able to control the ignorant. Religion is totally divided and is the reason for all our wars. We, in hypnosis, are becoming as the religionists state, "Our group is the only truth." A division of this important work is now being destroyed by certain egos that won't let go.

My whole existence is for the reality of Man. I respect everyone for what they are, I know I cannot change one person, only myself. I only ask that all organizations get together and form an alliance, or the art and science of hypnosis is dead, ego will bury it.

I will belong only to an organization that does not put a cap on hypnosis. In my observations of our society, religion, academic learning, politics, have not proven any growth to the understanding of Man on a magnificent planet. Ignorance is the only sin of Man and it is destroying the human race and our environment. If, as a group, we cannot express in a love relationship, then we are doomed.