In the hypnosis field, many people devote a lot of attention to looking for a magical formula — how to use language and voice to create some hypnotic effect. People chatter about learning how to speak with a “hypnotic voice” which will give them the power to command others, and how to structure sentences in order to influence others. This is common among the majority of “hypnotists” who read about subject, collect certifications, and talk about it on the internet, but who have never actively practiced it on a daily basis in real-life settings.

The thing is, people who seek to learn such super-special secret hypnotic powers, in general tend to be the very people who are least likely to have personal power and authority in the first place. It is the mindset of someone who thinks they will gain influence and build relationships with other people by engaging in silly tricks like mimicking body language and posture.

This reminded me of the popular movie Borat. There is a scene where Borat from Kazakhstan goes to a “humor coach” to learn how to be a comedian in America. The humor coach teaches him certain techniques that are supposedly funny, such as adding “— NOT!” to the end of a statement (for example: “I would like to be stranded on a desert island with my mother-in-law — NOT!”)

Unfortunately, people with limited experience and overly simplistic understanding often attempt to use hypnotic equivalents of such techniques, thinking that is what hypnosis is about, and labeling people as “resistant” when they just don’t “get it”.

From encounters like this, members of the public can get the impression that they “can’t be hypnotized”, without understanding that just because they don’t laugh at an unfunny lame joke, that doesn’t mean they don’t have a sense of humor.

Body Worlds, for those unfamiliar with it, is a science exhibit which gives the public an amazing view of human anatomy by a process called Plastination. It has been seen by over 29 million people around the world.

The displays are so stunning that many visitors report that the exhibit gave them a greater awareness of the health implications of bad habits like smoking or overeating.

From the media alert released for the launch:

Gunther von Hagens’ BODY WORLDS 2 and the Southeastern Pennsylvania Tobacco Control Project (SEPA TCP) Encourage Smokers To Say “I Quit!” At The Franklin Institute

Hypnotist Helps to Launch Initiative to Inspire New Year’s Resolutions

WHAT:
Gunther von Hagens’ BODY WORLDS 2 and SEPTA TCP invite all media to attend the unveiling of the I Quit! installation which will join the plastinated specimens of healthy and diseased lungs in the exhibit hall at The Franklin Institute.

The I Quit! display features an inspirational multimedia smoking cessation program that includes the memorable PSA by the late Yul Brynner, pledge cards for those intending to give up smoking, and a repository where visitors can leave their last pack of cigarettes.

Exclusively for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania’s leading 5-PATH® certified hypnotist, Steve Roh, will be on hand to give a brief demonstration and explain hypnosis for smoking cessation to visitors.

WHEN:
Wednesday, January 6, 2010 at 11am-12pm

WHERE:
BODY WORLDS 2 exhibition hall of The Franklin Institute
The Franklin Institute
222 N. 20th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103

Here is a direct link to the media alert for the launch event (this is a PDF file): http://bit.ly/8oAdeR

Here is the main link to the exhibit: http://www2.fi.edu/bodyworlds2/

I urge you to check this exhibit out while it is in the area; you have to see it to believe it!

So I was very pleased to be able to work with a fantastic artist and art professor named Leeza Meksin, and arrange a trade agreement with her. Even better, this working relationship was recently featured on WHYY 91FM, the home of National Public Radio in the Philadelphia area.

Here is a link to the story and an audio clip:
http://whyy.org/blogs/thesixthsquare/2009/02/12/bartering-art-for-massages-and-bikes-and-cameras/ — Drats, WHYY shut down their art blog so that article is no longer available.

I don’t usually consider bartering as an option, but in this case I was happy to participate in the exchange. Leeza clearly had something of value to offer and she was committed to the hypnotic work. Plus she is a very interesting and intellectually stimulating individual. It’s been the best trade ever!

Here is Leeza’s website, please check it out:
http://www.meksin.com/

Because hypnotism is such a wonderful tool for helping people become healthier and more productive, World Hypnotism Day fits in well with the ongoing efforts of the City to make Philadelphia a healthier city.

From the proclamation:

“I, Michael A. Nutter, Mayor of the City of Philadelphia, do hereby proclaim January 4, 2009 as World Hypnotism Day in Philadelphia, and urge all citizens to salute the hard work of these dedicated individuals, whose jobs contribute to public awareness by active participation.”

Pictured is Karen Randal, the City’s Manager of Commercial Development and Attraction, and me, Steve Roh, owner of Center City Hypnosis. I’m happy to accept this declaration on behalf of all the hypnotists in the area who are working to help others help themselves thru the power of hypnosis!

To learn more about World Hypnotism Day, please visit www.WorldHypnotismDay.com.

PS. Stay tuned to find out about our upcoming WHD event, remember that date Sunday January 4 2009!

Well, that’s really dumb. It occurred to me that this is the modern equivalent of those old “X-RAY Glasses” ads in the back of comic books, that promised you the magical ability to see through solid objects like flesh (“Wow, look! I can see the bones in my hand!”) or people’s clothes. Considering that the audience for those ads consisted of teenage boys, it’s pretty smart marketing. And it might even be a similar audience for those “hypnotize and control other people” ads.

Now, can learning hypnotic language patterns make you more effective in being able to persuade people? Probably. But really, that’s just about learning how to be a better communicator and understanding what motivates individuals. It’s not any more “mind control” than a well-crafted Super Bowl advertisement, or that late-night infomercial that persuades you to pick up the phone and place an order for that wonderful time-saving kitchen accessory!

But anyway, the problem is that this kind of hype about hypnosis can cause people to think that a hypnotist is doing something *TO* them. But the main thing that a hypnotist is doing is walking a person through a process where they can become very focused, and then helping that person vividly use their imagination to create scenarios that can be useful in changing thoughts, feelings and habits. A good hypnotist is able to find out which buttons to push for each individual, in order to best guide them towards whatever positive change they want to make in their life, while they are in a mentally focused and receptive state.

So, the goal of hypnosis is to help *you* gain more control over your own mind, not for you to turn over control to another person. Anyway, it’s unhealthy and disempowering to want to hand over control and responsibility over any part of your life to someone else. If you are hoping that a hypnotist will “fix you” without your needing to make any effort, that’s like hoping that your problems will be solved depending on which politician wins an election.

That sounds a lot less dramatic than the hypnotist having special mind powers that control your behavior, but I assume that you’re mature enough to handle the truth. Otherwise, I have a box full of super-secret X-RAY Glasses that I can sell you!

From the site:

It’s always a good idea to drive without changing speed and without competing with other drivers for bits of headway. I’d always assumed that the reasons were philosophical rather than practical (i.e. try to be a calm, nice person.) But my above experience shows differently. A single solitary driver, if they stop “competing” and instead adopt some unusual driving habits, can actually wipe away some of the frustrating traffic patterns on a highway. That “nice” noncompetitive driver can erase traffic waves. I suspect that the opposite is also true: normal competitive behavior CREATES the traffic waves.

Suppose we push constantly ahead, change lanes to grab a bit of headway, and always eliminate our forward space in order to prevent other drivers from “cutting us off”. If tiny traffic waves appear, we will rush ahead and then brake hard, leaving larger waves behind us. Repeated action causes the waves to grow huge. Ironic that the angry people who push ahead as fast as possible might unwittingly participate in “amplifying” the very conditions that they hate so much. The solution seems obvious: drivers with a smooth “calm” style will tend to damp out the waves and produce a uniform flow… and the few drivers who intentionally drive at a single constant speed will wipe out the waves entirely.

Note: this is not about going 35 m.p.h. on the expressway… that would just be annoying and dangerous. It’s about purposefully leaving a large buffer space in front of you while maintaining a steady speed. This is a bit counter-intuitive because it’s natural to want to close up the gap ahead of you. Often, there is a desire to prevent another “competing” driver from stealing that precious gap ahead of you, so you try to tighten it up. But from what this engineer is describing, that is like shooting yourself in the foot.

I experimented with this myself on the Schuylkill Expressway a few times, not to the extent that this engineer took it- he really gets into it, it’s kind of scary. It was very strange: whenever I tried this my trips were not only much more relaxing, but it *seemed* that I made better time than I would have otherwise (hard to judge without a “control” trip to compare to). You may want to give it a try yourself, at the very least it can add an interesting element to your commute!

The Frequently Asked Questions section of this engineer’s site answers some of the obvious questions about these tactics. For example: This is all fine in theory, but it really doesn’t work, since people just go around you when you try to open up a space.

The engineer’s response:

I think the real issue here is emotions, and “losing” versus “winning.” If I let anyone jump into my big empty space, why, that makes me an inferior LOSER! That person is now ahead of me in the “race,” and they’ve stolen my glory. They’ll arrive at the finish ten feet before I do! So I must never open up a space ahead of me, that just makes me vulnerable. Right?

But if you think about it, you’ll see that there is no race. There is no finish line, so any small gains are wasted. I could spend my entire commute trying to get two car lengths farther than everyone else, but it would be stupid and pointless. We can beat any driver on the road no matter what their skill level… by simply starting our trip a few minutes earlier! This “race” is a bunch of stupid nonsense created by insecure immature drivers. Screw ‘em. Instead do the opposite: look for ways which you personally can improve the traffic flow. Let people merge ahead of you whenever they need to, and you become the more professional driver.

It’s funny that an engineer recognizes that the real cause of (and solution for) this type of problem is found within people’s emotions. I think this topic is also a good example of how your attitude determines, to a large extent, how your daily life unfolds — if you go through life thinking that people are “out to get you”, that life is endless struggle and hardship, and that you’re surrounded by hostility, well, guess what? Life is like a mirror, and you tend to get what you expect, good or bad.

PS. Hypnosis can help a person strengthen their ego and gain self-confidence, so that they don’t feel a need to engage in silly, counterproductive behavior that is born out of insecurity.

Steve was invited to participate in this exciting and meaningful book developed to inspire and educate people to pursue their dreams. His path to entrepreneurial success and nuggets of wisdom are shared in his chapter entitled “Reinventing Yourself”.

“I am honored to participate in this book with other successful Philadelphia entrepreneurs along with Dan Kennedy and Mike Capuzzi. Dan Kennedy is one of the country’s highest-paid business consultants, and his marketing guru status is well-deserved,” says Steve.

“The Ultimate Success Secret” is not an academic book on business success. It is a collection of smart, proven strategies from a number of dedicated entrepreneurs. Inside these pages you will learn:

• How to Take Action & Turn Failure Into Success

• The ONLY Reliable Path To Maximum Success

• How to Double your Paycheck

• THE Way to Overcome Worry

• Your Most Undervalued Asset

• Power Steps to MASSIVE Achievement

• And much, much more

Steve says, “It’s a privilege to share my experiences in rapidly building a successful hypnosis practice, but more importantly in achieving a level of personal freedom and control that continues to expand.”

From the book:
“Steve Roh is a serious person of action and implementation. In a short period of time, Steve has reinvented the marketing of his practice and positioned himself a ‘go to’ resource for business professionals looking to shed unproductive habits and beliefs and gain a unique competitive mental advantage.”

Click here to learn more and to get your copy of this inspiring book!

As Pennsylvania’s leading 5-PATH® Certified Hypnotist, Steve has helped hundreds of people take control of their lives. He has been featured on the Comcast Network and KYW 1060 Newsradio as an expert on hypnosis. He is also the editor of “Real World Hypnosis: Insider Tips from Leading Hypnotists”, available at leading online booksellers.

Editor Steve Roh, owner of Center City Hypnosis in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, says that the book is intended to give people a glimpse into the practical application and uses of hypnosis.

Steve says, “Hypnosis is often misunderstood because of sensationalism and melodrama coming out of Hollywood and especially nowadays on the internet. The contributors to this book are working hypnotists with years of experience. This book is an effort to give the public a better understanding of how hypnosis can help them.”

The contributing authors are: Celeste Hackett, Debbie Lane, Wendy Merron, Robert Dunscomb, Marc Carlin, Deborah Yaffee, Garrett Buttel, and Tobin Slaven.

Each chapter addresses topics such as self-hypnosis, weight loss, smoking cessation, and sports performance enhancement– one chapter even describes how hypnosis can be used to end involuntary behaviors such as hiccups! Another chapter is intended to help hypnotists build their practices economically through wise use of money and budgeting.

Steve says, “I am grateful to these professionals for having shared their knowledge and expertise. By spreading the good word about hypnosis, more people will benefit from this powerful and valuable tool.”

“Real World Hypnosis” (ISBN: 978-0615239040) is published by Autarch Publishing and available through major online retailers.

Click here to purchase through Amazon.com.

…a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations.

It didn’t occur to me until just now that Google Scholar could be an interesting source of information about hypnosis: http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=hypnosis&hl=en

These articles can be hard to understand unless you have a scientific or academic background, but fortunately most of them have abstracts that summarize the research in semi-plain English. It’s a good resource because it’s legitimate, peer-reviewed research and not just “stuff someone made up that sounds vaguely scientific”… you may have noticed that the latter is unfortunately common on the internet when it comes to subject of hypnosis.

PS. I don’t waste a lot of time trying to convince people that hypnosis is “real”. If, for some reason, a person refuses to believe that hypnosis exists in spite of the research done at places like Stanford University School of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, the Mayo Clinic, Mt. Sinai Medical Center, etc. etc., then there’s little chance that I can convince them!

One Hundred Pushups is an interesting site that has the single-minded goal of training you to be able to do 100 push-ups by following a simple training program. I accept this challenge!

Like most modern humans, I need to work on building up my physical strength, anyway. Sometimes I wonder how I’d be able to handle myself if I ever ended up in prison. At the very least, it’d be nice to be able to change a 5-gallon water jug without struggling. Being prepared for these kinds of scenarios is part of prudent risk mitigation.

Plus, this is going to be an interesting exercise in self-discipline; this program requires only 30 minutes per week. As a hypnotist who helps people build mental strength to achieve their goals, I expect success. If I can’t manage to do this for myself, then I deserve a kick in the butt!

My starting point: I can do 20 push-ups at once before collapsing into a heap. Updates to follow…

Give it a try yourself, and feel free to post updates or comments below.

UPDATE:

Well, I haven’t been able to get to 100 Pushups at once yet… the most I can do so far is a little over 80. Here is a video of my latest attempt:

Now, I know what you are going to say: “Those are the wimpiest pushups ever!” I was going to blame it on the camera angle, but yes you would be right — these pushups won’t qualify me to join the Navy SEALs anytime soon. I didn’t realize until I video-recorded myself that these pushups were so lame, they are nowhere near good-form (where the chest touches the ground each time). Believe it or not, I’m not in the habit of videotaping myself doing pushups, and it sure felt like they were real pushups while doing them.

But here’s the thing: if I was only able to do 20 of these pushups before, and with just a bit of effort am now able to do over 80, well, I think that is still something interesting. For one thing it means I’ve been operating at much less than 1/4 of my physical capacity, which is kind of sad.

Anyway, I look forward to continuing to work towards getting to 100 at once. Maybe then I will concentrate on improving my form. ^_^

The hypnotist is just coaching you as you put yourself into a mentally relaxed but highly focused state of awareness. Since hypnosis involves strengthening a person’s ability to control their own mind, being ‘strong-minded’ is good.

Sometimes hypnotized people can go through things like childbirth, dental work, and even surgery, using their mental abilities to ignore pain and discomfort; I would not call that sort of person weak-willed. Golf Digest magazine says Tiger Woods underwent extensive mental training including hypnosis– would anyone call him weak-minded?

Since the hypnotist operator is really just a coach or a guide helping the client enter hypnosis, a useful way to think about “hypnotizability” would be thinking in terms of “coachability”.

If a person is resistant to following a coach’s simple instructions (such as ‘please count slowly’), this can make things harder. This can happen if a person feels a need to demonstrate that they have the ability to resist the instructions, which of course they can choose to do at any time. But that attitude is not really a sign of having a strong mind, if you think about it…

Richard Feynman, the famous Nobel Prize winning theoretical physicist, was very hypnotizable, to the extent that he could be burned by matches without feeling pain. Feynman wrote that he found hypnosis to be “a very interesting experience”. Encyclopedia Britannica says he is “widely regarded as the most brilliant, influential, and iconoclastic figure in his field in the post-World War II era.”

So if some smarty-pants implies that only weak-minded simpletons can be hypnotized, consider Feynman, who was not only an undisputed genius, but a true maverick and fearless free-thinker. And can you think of anyone mentally tougher than Tiger Woods?

PS. It’s great to work with athletes and performers, because they are used to working with coaches, trainers and instructors in order to gain a competitive edge.

For example, if you think about it, any human who happens to live in the US in the 21st century has pretty much won the lottery of being in the right place at the right time. Relatively speaking, in comparison with the entire global population, we are the Paris Hiltons of the world in terms of material wealth and comfort.

You may have heard about Kiva.org or micro-financing in general. Kiva allows individuals to make $25 loans to low-income entrepreneurs in the developing world (microfinance). By doing so, individuals like you provide affordable working capital for the poor (money to buy a sewing machine, livestock, etc.), empowering them to earn their way out of poverty.

Instead of just giving someone a handout, I really like the idea of making zero-interest loans to people who are striving to build sustainable growing businesses. Helping to increase global prosperity is a good long-term investment!

Anyway, I think altruism is nice, but it’s even better when there’s something in it for you. Because if you’ve studied the nature of wealth and habits of successful people, you may have noticed that one of the fundamental principles of generating wealth is spreading some of it around, keeping it in circulation by giving freely. Sounds like a paradox but it seems to work!

Click on this flyer to learn more about Kiva. They have received great press in publications ranging from The Wall Street Journal to NPR to BusinessWeek.

Here is an example of a Kiva entrepreneur whose life you can change:

“A friend went to one of those group seminars and all they did was tell him to relax, and then they tried to sell him a bunch of products. What’s that about?”

Well, this recent report from the Better Business Bureau sheds some light:

http://tinyurl.com/2ep4nv

“The Better Business Bureau serving Dallas and Northeast Texas has received complaints from across eight states for Changes International Inc. The company promises ‘QUIT SMOKING & LOSE WEIGHT in one brief HYPNOSIS SESSION’ and offers a 100 percent money back 10-year guarantee if the hypnosis doesn’t work.

Until confronted by The Better Business Bureau, the company attempted to instill trust in consumers by falsely claiming in online and print advertising that they were ‘the only organization of our kind endorsed by the Better Business Bureau.’

Complainants report paying more than $250 for the hypnosis seminar and a set of CDs, and allege that the hypnosis is ineffective and that the company doesn’t honor its refund policy.”

For most professional hypnotists, this is not surprising news.

If someone really expects to solve two very different problems like smoking and weight control from sitting through a generic hour-long pep-talk along with dozens of other people, then I wish them luck. I work with many clients who have tried that before.

Some of these seminars are run by people who travel from town to town using made-up titles, calling themselves “Master” and “Elite” practitioners, promising absurd success rates which can’t be proved, and guaranteeing results. Good luck trying to get a refund once they have left town.

Sometimes these kinds of guarantees require you sign a contract with conditions that are laughable:

• You must listen to the CDs you purchased at the seminar for 21 days, or the guarantee is void
• You must follow all the hypnotist’s “lifestyle change” instructions, or the guarantee is void. In other words, if the hypnotist told you to go to the gym every day, and you didn’t do so, you’re out of luck!
• You must sign up for more sessions in order to get your “money’s worth” – this is a classic use of “weasel words” that can be interpreted in any way that’s convenient to the practitioner

Are they for real?

Hypnosis is not like a magical pill. Just like anything else, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Unfortunately these traveling groups often leave behind a trail of disappointed people who may end up thinking that hypnosis in general is nothing but a fraud. This is bad for the long-term interests of the profession. Worst of all, it may cause people to not even consider hypnosis as a real option for solving their problems.

The sad thing is, there are ethical hypnotists who run seminars and group sessions.

But use caution when dealing with those who promise the moon and stars but disappear with the wind!

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“You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”

People often create troubles for themselves because at some level they identify too much with their circumstances. Or they think that other people are always judging them, as if they were the center of other people’s worlds. They take situations personally even when they can’t possibly have any deeper meaning behind them.

Imagine someone taking a nap on a Sunday afternoon. Then a car alarm goes off outside. What is the “normal” reaction? Anger, cursing, wailing and gnashing of teeth.

What purpose does that anger serve? Did the car alarm go off in order to insult and disrespect the napper?

I’m not saying that I would remain calm if a car alarm woke me up from a nice nap. On the contrary, if there happened to be a brick and an open window next to my bed…

There is a tendency within all of us to take too many things personally. I think this contributes to the very common fear of worrying about what other people think. Also things like road rage.

In that quote by Marcus Aurelius, it seems like he recognized that a lot of stuff was just out of his control, and so he didn’t “sweat it”. It’s an interesting perspective coming from someone who was probably the single most powerful human on the planet at the time.

Center City Hypnosis was featured today on KYW Newsradio 1060AM, the most listened-to radio station in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. As awareness spreads, more people are waking up to their potential, and taking control of their own minds and their own lives.

Here is a PDF version of the story from the KYW website: You Must Believe! Friday is World Hypnotism Day.

Here is a link to the live KYW site You Must Believe! Friday is World Hypnotism Day (I’m not sure how long this link will be valid).