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April 23, 2006

About a hypnothised reporter

There are plenty of stories going around about hypnosis and how it all is a thing of our own imagination, and not real. Many times, people think of it as a magical game as displayed on TV, or of stage comedians who use hypnosis to make people do funny things. Othertimes, people are worried that hypnosis has a bad aftereffect, that they won't wake up from it as healthy as they went into or that they reveal secrets that they don't want to reveal.

All of this is bogus. Sure, there are stage shows where people do funny things like forgetting numbers or behaving like a chicken. I believe that this is not necessarily the best proof that hypnosis is useful and can be used successfully in many different settings.

Here now a story of a reporter who wanted to experience hypnosis. The article is long, and only describes his experience in the last few sentences, the rest is more of an introduction.

The essence of the article:

The hypnotherapist called Caskey "asked me (the reporter) if there was a particular place I was fond of.

The Santa Barbara beach, I answered unabashedly.

The lights were off, and the stereo streamed majestic music. I leaned back in a recliner. It was a tranquil ambience, meant to ensure total relaxation — a trait that often eludes those of us who work in media.

I requested Santa Barbara because UCSB is my alma mater. Its one of the few campuses where students can roll out of bed and drag their school books with them to the beach. You can smell the seawater from classrooms. And the sunsets are heavenly.

After several minutes of relaxation, Caskey had me on the beach at night, with peering stars above and seashells in the sand. My mind started playing Bruce Springsteens Spirit in the Night, a song I was obsessed with in college.

When I say I was at the beach, I dont mean to imply that I was hallucinating. I knew I was actually in a Dublin office, accompanied by three other people, including the trusty photographer.

But the beach was almost like a subreality, like a dream where Newtons laws of physics dont really apply. I could faintly hear the distinct sound of waves. The lights from the oil rigs beamed. I could see seabirds.

Caskey then told me to pick up a seashell. She told me a door was underneath the shell. I remember being confused as to what a door in the ground was supposed to look like. I opened the door, which led to descending stairs, each stair a different color.

I walked down the stairs, but I dont recall where Caskey had me at that point. I remember being surrounded by green gases. There wasnt really a ground to stand on, or any sense of direction — up, down, left or right. But I felt jaunty and carefree.

Shortly thereafter, Caskey brought me back to Dublin. Im not sure, but I think I was gone for about 20 minutes. The lights were on, the music was off, and I stared at Caskey and the others. My mind was blank. My joints felt like noodles.

I think I had a silly grin on, the result of a humble guy whose unconscious mind just got tickled."

It will take time to get hypnotherapy into the mainstream. But the time will come, considering the amount of positive news about applications that is published everywhere.










Posted by Andreas at April 23, 2006 02:00 PM

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