In the Chair Day 2

On Monday I went to see Don Rice for an initial consultation (In the Chair Day 1).  On Saturday (yesterday) I returned for my session.  Today I feel capable of writing about my experience.

The fun thing about being a hypnotist getting help from a hypnotist is that the conscious mind can amuse itself by noticing the hypnotist's methods.  Ha! Now there's a sentence for you.

Don doesn't use any methods that are different from the methods that I use, he just uses them differently.  And that, to a hypnotist, is interesting.  Of course, it can also be a little disconcerting.  Instead of going happily off into relaxation and thinking whatever fluffy little thought comes along, my conscious mind decided to pay close attention to every single thing Don said or did while I was in the chair.

I enjoyed it tremendously.  At no point did I lose track of what he was saying and hear the beginning of one sentence and the end of a different sentence as one statement. (A usual hypnosis experience that I, personally, find very annoying when I'm the client.)  Instead, I followed along closely and could observe my own subconscious responses to the suggestions he was giving.

I admit to helping things along a little.  "Am I really hypnotized?" I thought to myself.  "I don't know," I thought back, "let's find out.  Try to open your eyes, can you do it?"  No.  I couldn't.  OK, there's a good indication that I've entered into hypnosis even if I think I might not have.

Even more helping:  "Uh-oh, he doesn't know I'm allergic to roses.  Well that's ok, every time he says 'roses', I'll just hear 'tiger lilies', that will get the same result."  Any client can consciously make that type of a substitution without endangering the work that is being done.

I also admit to doing a good deal of critiquing.  "Why is he saying it that way, it would make much more sense to me if he said it some other way.  He's using the wrong words.  How in the world is this supposed to work when he's using the wrong words? Just shut up and listen."

Critiquing is not the same as changing, and does not automatically mean rejection of the suggestions.  On the contrary, it means that the conscious mind has found something interesting to do while the subconscious mind is busy taking the suggestions being made.  It was probably my subconscious mind that added the thought "just shut up and listen".

Additionally, I got to police my own resistance.  Resistance? You might ask, why would she have resistance?  Like everybody else, the reason I needed outside assistance was solely due to a secret inner reluctance to make a specific change.  Resistance shows up in lots of fun and interesting ways - for example, I slept right up until it was time to leave for the session.  I woke with the thought that my appointment was already over (an outright lie), and had barely enough time to throw on some clothes and tear over to his office.  As you can see, lower levels of resistance can be overcome by force of will.  It's the really deep resistance that we need help with.

And I did have some deep resistance.  "He's not saying a specific name, if he doesn't say the name, I don't have to do that part."

"Yes you do have to do that part, it's why we're here."

"Well I'm not going to."

"Yes you are."

At one point, my subconscious mind had received a suggestion to take a particular action, and to raise a finger when that action was completed.  The action seemed to be completed, but my finger stayed put firmly.  "Why isn't my finger lifting?"

"It isn't done"

"It looks like it's done"

"You can't see it any more"

Oh I can't, can't I?  I took charge and let Don know that it had gone where I couldn't see it.  With promptness he brought it back to where it could be completely resolved.  My finger lifted, not with enthusiasm, but it did lift.  Noting the lack of enthusiasm, Don verified that the work had been done, which it had.

Deep resistance is no match for deep hypnosis.  I had gone very deep indeed, and with Don's fabulous assistance the job definitely got done.

That's the thing that is the most fun about hypnosis - everybody wins.