Trump's Humor at Mt. Vernon

I have bashed Trump, not with names, but with things I thought were true. I do think he is sociopathic. He meets the criteria; look it up. However, like people, he has traits that are interesting, if not enjoyable. Sociopaths are great manipulators of people, bright, impulsive, excel in corporate worlds where dollars often speak louder than ethics, and love recognition and will even indulge in altruistic behaviors (but only when someone sees him do so). The other day he and his family members toured Mt. Vernon, Washington's home. I have been there (although I would have preferred to have visited Jefferson's Monticello, where his intriguing inventions, or improvements on them, could be seen; particulary the polygraph (not the lie detector), which when writing made a copy of what was written. He didn't actually invent it, but made suggestions to its inventors about its design.

Back to Trump: He was reported to have said, when touring Washingtons home at Mount Vernon, "You know, if Washington was smart, he would have put his name on more things; you've got to do that for people to remember who you are." To me, there are two elements of humor that I recognize: irony, that element found in Archie Bunker's malapproprisms and dumb remarks in which he unawares pokes fun at himself but which his audience is fully aware; and the other element being self-deprecatory or -demeaning in nature in that he knows he's no Washington, a man whose legacy has lived in people's minds generations, centures, after his time, without having put his name on anything, and Trump himself, whose name is plastered on buildings to napkins around the world, and he fully realizes his adeptness at branding will not qualify to live long a long life in the minds of future generations.

HYPNOSIS ALLOWS YOU TO CEMENT YOUR FOCUS ON DESIRED CHANGE

Whenever someone wants to accomplish something and struggles to do so, there is perhaps an emotional barrier between that resolve and the decision to accomplish a worthwhile goal they have chosen.  The decision typically has been made by an individual to bring about the execution of that task; however, the continuity of behavioral follow-through may wane.  Concentration, the cornerstone of hypnosis, is best achieved when one is relaxed.  The concentrated effort to resolve an issue that one has is tantamount to hypnosis. The decision to change that issue for the better is magnified in the hypnosis session and the sustained focus to harness a new set of decision- and behavior-patterns throughout the day is enhanced.  Thus, one is empowered in the hypnotic process with regard to the goal of changing one's life, which is nothing more than the composite of thoughts and behaviors one experiences.

Focus, Belief, Desire, Suggestibility

If you have all of the qualities in the title of this article, you've got the greatest chance of having a favorable outcome in hypnosis.  Focus even that can be sustained for a relatively short period of time. It's much easier to focus on something we desire, something we believe is within the realm of possibilities, and are amenable, of course of what we would desire someone to suggest.  The capacity of the brain to envision and act upon that vision is innate.  We tap into those qualities above that are all innate and universal to being human. The hypnotist helps the client to do just that. The resources are already there. The hypnotist hold the flashlight while the client explores the caverns of unexplored vistas that exist within ourselves.

Hypnosis in the Treatment of Stress and Test Anxiety

Stress is a formidable enemy of so many people taking tests.  Hypnosis is a good tool to walk a person through the test-taking situation.  The key is to calm the emotions, to help the client stay in the present, and to visualize a calming image to anchor with a calm emotion to cool the intellectual engine to more efficiently produce the thought processes involved in the identification of the right choice of answers.   The calmer a person's physical state, and the subsequent quieting of the mind, the swifter the thought processes occur at an alarming rate of speed thus unleashing from the conscious and unconscious regions of the brain the internal problem-solving, mental resources requisite to satisfactory test-taking performance.  If a participant in the hypnosis session has enough desire to accomplish a desired goal, they will follow the hypnotist's simple instructions and be able to induce a calm state of mind necessary to guide the client through a pathway of guided imagery of themselves accomplishing that very desired goal.  It's not a difficult process to learn.  It really doesn't take practice.  It just takes the desire and the willingness to believe enough in the process.

Mending a Pig's Elbow and the Outcomes and Howcomes of Hypnosis Success

A very reasonable question people ask prior to a counseling session is, "How many sessions will it take [to accomplish my goal of ..., stopping smoking, having confidence restored, improving my golf game, decreasing my test anxiety]?"  My response can vary from individual to individual because, after all, we are all unique; moreover, our circumstances are all going to be different.  But I would also go so far as to say that because of those individual differences, any semblance of a prediction of outcome would be both unprofessional and unethical.  The San Antonio Hypnosis Center does not subscribe to puffing up its value of its end product--ie., to effect positive change of a person's desired goal on an absolute basis--any more than any other professional, whether in the health, real estate, or legal industry, makes blanket promises over the phone about the value of its services to an individual or entity without making an appointment to gather information to assess a situation and make a professional and ethical comment.

   It is only natural to ask, "Can you help me?", to which our response is, "If we do not feel we can provide our services with a reasonable expectation of a positive outcome (doing no harm at worst and effecting positive change at best in varying degrees) then we will tell you that and will not charge you for the time it takes to conduct that assessment. (And, I'd like to say, because of the importance of suggesibility as the number one correlated variable associated with successful outcomes, 'If you feel we can [...help you], we can".)

   "Remember," I tell the inquirer, "we're dealing with the brain here, and while we know the brain can respond to hypnosis to effect desired changes in a person (both mentally and physically) we don't know how it does it, because built into the nature of the brain is its inability to understand itself, even though it is the very organ from which our understanding of anything else is processed and understood.  So from that paradoxical situation arises a wait-and-see attitude, after a proper assessment of some variables that we can identify and control such as the prospective hypnosis client's suggestibility, desire, circumstances, past attempts that have been met with success, to name a few, and go from there."
   One wouldn't call a doctor's office and ask to talk to the doctor and tell them, "I've got a fever, and I want it to go away! Can you help me!"  Of course that's an absurd idea, but the analogy is useful. An assessment is in order.  

   "But how many times have you helped someone with _____________, or _______________, or ______________?"  That's when we explain that, although we concentrate on many types of situations--smoking cessation, weight loss, confidence building, test-taking anxiety, etc.--that doesn't necessarily mean we don't have to have had that specific practice experience. I would not have had to have worked with a fighter pilot in any way before helping him restore confidence in his split-second decision-making while operating a fighter jet, or, in a similar vein, than the veterinarian being able to insert screws in the elbow of a pig if he or she never before had done that specific procedure on a pig.
     Hope this clears up a little the picture of the howcomes of the outcomes.  More to come.

 

Jeffrey Zieg on Milton Erickson and his Communication Style -- Fascinating!

Dr. Rob McNeilly interviews Dr. Jeff Zieg about Dr. Milton Erickson's style of communication that intends to evoke a state rather than provide informational content. Dr. Erickson's statements might be recurssive as in symphonic production in which recurring measures containing slightly varying musical elements intentionally serve to alter the state of the listener. 
 

   

Rob McNeilly interviews Jeff Zieg about Milton Erickson

The mind's potential for change is virtually unlimited. The brain consists of about eighty-six (86) billion neurons, and the self-directed alterations of these neuronal combinations opens up unto vast potential of desired outcomes.  Altered patterns of self-directed thoughts during a hypnotic trance affect every other part of the body through the nervous system, the neuronal extension of the brain, manifesting as the outward expression of behavioral activity in the fulfillment of the conceived goal. When the brain is in an ultra-relaxed state, which is the optimal stress-load conducive to learning and creativity, and in this state its subject visualizes the accomplishment of that goal, it [the brain] has created the working model, or the architecture, from which to construct the actualization of that goal-oriented product.  During the fixed concentration on a particular goal in an induced hypnotic state, these neuronal electro-biochemical transactions of thought thus become re-arranged, transformed, and fixed into steady patterns encoded  in the unconscious but autonomic processes of which we are unaware yet experiencing in the conscious choices and actions we make. Is it any wonder that a person can achieve anything s/he wants? An organism that can conceive, contemplate, and balance the equations of principles on which  the systems of the universe operate, yet is powerless in understanding itself. This enigmatic and most powerful processor by which both external and internal realities are understood is at the same time paradoxically unable to understand its own operations, which essentially attests to the complexity of its nature.  Our task at hand in hypnosis is to understand that the mind is powerful and capable of challenges that we put it to task, not how and why it does it, just as we do not need to know why a seed germinates to enjoy the benefits of the shade, comfort, and beauty that its growth will bring.