Hypnosis

What do you think about hypnosis?

Does it work?  Is it just a party trick?  Is it safe?  Is it good or evil?  What should I use it for?

These are questions some of my subscribers have put to me when I have mentioned hypnosis.

There are, of course, many forms of hypnosis.  Some techniques you can use to hypnotize yourself.  Others are to hypnotize others.  Many can be used both on yourself and on others.  The answers to most of those questions depends on which forms of hypnosis you are using and particularly how you are using them.

Does it work?

"Does it work" is perhaps the easiest to answer.  In a word, YES!

The sub question "will it work for me?" is also quite easy to answer.  Yes, it will, as long as it is done properly.

Of course, whether it will achieve the results you intend is yet another question.  There is absolutely no doubt that hypnosis works.  But if you go into hypnosis in the expectation there will be instant dramatic results you may be disappointed.  There are certainly many documented cases of instant dramatic results, but you cannot rely on this being the case.  It is better to view hypnosis as a tool you can use in order to improve your own personal development, or that of others.  A tool you should use regularly, and which will gradually bring you closer to your objective.  If you DO get an immediate, dramatic result then that is a bonus.

Is it just a party trick?

A party trick?  Yes, some people use hypnosis that way.  Personally I do not like this use of what should be a very effective improvement technique.  But yes, there are some people who use it to manipulate other people on stage, getting them to do silly things, getting them to forget immediately something that has just been said to them, etc.  But this is not the form of hypnosis I am talking about here.

Is it safe?

Is hypnosis safe?  To be honest, that depends.

As I have already said many times, hypnosis is a tool.  A very useful and powerful tool.  Are tools safe?  If they are properly made and then used properly, yes they are.  But if you have a faulty tool, or use it inappropriately it can cause a lot of damage.

Before undergoing any form of hypnosis, whether it is self-hypnosis or conducted by a qualified hypnotherapist, you should be fully aware of the end goal and ideally should also be aware of the steps that will be used to reach that goal.  You should also be able to trust the person who is going to use it on you, or the person who has taught you to use it on yourself.  Follow these rules and hypnosis is safe.

Is it good or evil?

Is hypnosis good or evil?  Let me be clear about something right away.  Hypnosis is not a dark art practised by devil worshippers or some other evil cult.  Or perhaps I should rephrase that - it doesn't have to be a dark art.  As I said previously, it is simply a tool.  A tool is not, of itself, good or evil.  What is good or evil is the way in which it is used.

If you are particularly religious you should not worry about the practice of hypnosis in some way conflicting with or being against the precepts of your religion.  Does your religion tell you that it is evil to use a screwdriver?  I hope not!  But it probably does tell you that you should not use it to poke someone's eyes out!  Likewise, there is no reason why it should tell you that using hypnosis is wrong per se.  What is really key here is HOW you use it, what you are using it FOR.

How should hypnosis be used?

Which brings us to the final question.  What SHOULD you use hypnosis for?

Hypnosis can be used for many good purposes.  You can cure many different maladies with it, especially but not exclusively those that are concerned with your mental state.  For example many people use hypnosis to remove irrational phobias.  You can use it to strengthen positive aspects of your personality.  You can use it to remove mental and emotional blocks which are preventing you achieve what you want to achieve in life - and all of us have such blocks, so hypnosis can be useful for all of us!

The number 1 rule is that the purpose itself should be the right purpose.  Never, under any circumstances or for any reason, use hypnosis to make someone do something they do not want to do.  This applies whether or not you believe that purpose is a good purpose.  For example, if your partner smokes and you want them to stop smoking because it is bad for their health, do not start using hypnotic techniques to wean them off their cigarettes without their knowledge and permission.  To do so would be an evil act even if it is done with a good motive.  The same applies when using hypnosis on yourself.  Do not try to use hypnosis to achieve a certain result unless you are sure that is a result you really want to achieve.  I believe before you use self hypnosis you should meditate, focussing on whatever it is you want to achieve with the hypnotic techniques.  Use your intuition to determine whether or not this is the right thing for you.  Only proceed if it really is.

Hopefully I have put your mind at ease if you had any doubts about the value or morality of hypnosis, but also given you pointers to avoid using it in the wrong way.  Add hypnosis to your toolkit for self-improvement and I believe you will be amazed by the progress you can make.

How intuitive are you?

Stop a moment, without reading any more, and try to answer this question honestly.  Do you have any intuitive ability at all?  Is there even such a thing as intuition?  Answer these questions and then return to this article.

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Let me guess.  If you are male, did you answer that intuition is more of a female trait?  Wrong!  Intuition is not gender specific!  That is as incorrect as saying that females can multi-task and males cannot.  You believed that old wive's tale too?  Well, more on that in another blog!

Did you perhaps say that you do not have the gift of intuition?  Wrong again!  True some people seem to have the gift of being intuitive naturally and others don't.  But all actually have the gift - it is just more carefully hidden in some than in others.

Did you say that you are more of a left brain than a right brain person?  Well that really has nothing to do with intuition and creativity, no matter how often you may read online that it does.  If one side of your brain is more dominant than the other, that has very little to do with whether you are more rational or more intuitive.  Different abilities do tend to be associated with different sides of the brain, but this can vary from person to person, and also if someone suffers damage in one brain hemisphere it has been found they can transfer some of the functions associated with that side to the undamaged side.

Whatever reason you may have given to show why you are not really intuitive is actually totally wrong.  You are intuitive.  All of us are intuitive.

The definition of intuition is the ability to acquire knowledge without the use of reason.  This is a skill we need as a species.  If we had to reason every issue to the Nth degree we could not survive as a species - we would be killed by every major danger that arose before we had decided what to do about it.

Intuition is a very powerful ability when you use it properly.

If you run a business you may already be aware of this.  It is usually the first thought that comes to you that is the right one.  Especially when trying to assess people.  Most of us then spend the next few hours or days trying to justify logically, with the power of reason, what we already knew without any reason at all.  That is the power of intuition in action.

Have you ever noticed that you just have a feeling that something is not right?  You don't know why you have that feeling, but it is there deep within and it is very powerful.  When you ignore it, then something seems to go wrong.  Has that ever happened to you?  The next time you get that feeling, just walk away.  The feeling is right.  Something within you has recognized the danger even though there is no apparent logical reason for it.

Trust me in this.  You DO have the power of intuition.  You CAN use it, and use it very effectively.  But just like a muscle, you need to keep using it to make it more powerful, to take it to the point where you can gain great benefit from it.

Now that you know this, start listening for that inner voice.  Take note of what your intuition is telling you.  Use it to find what you should really be doing, what your true desires are, how you can develop yourself and become a better person.  All that knowledge is already there inside you, ready to come to the surface through the process we call intuition.

Money

Money is the root of all evil.  Right?  Wrong!

It is surprising how many people seem to believe this though.  Where does this belief come from?

Well, first it comes from a misquote from the Bible.  Yes, I did say "misquote".  Nowhere in the Bible does it say that money is the root of all evil.  What it does say is "For the love of money is the root of all evil" (1 Timothy 6:10).  Note the difference.  It is not money that the Bible says is evil, but the love of money.  Note also that it does not say something like "the love of things that money can buy".  Just "the love of money".

These days, though, there is perhaps another reason so many people believe money is evil.  If you are a banker please forgive what I am about to say.  There are now very many people in the world who blame all our economic problems on bankers and the money systems we have.

Finally, there is the myth of King Midas, who asked the god Dionyssus for the gift of turning everything he touched into gold.  Dionyssus told Midas to think very carefully about this request, but Midas insisted and Dionyssus granted his wish.  The gift, of course, was a curse.  It was not gold that could bring Midas happiness but rather the things that gold could bring him.  He found that he did not want everything he touched to turn into gold.  Especially not when he found he could not eat, as the food he touched turned into gold.  And very especially not when he hugged his beloved daughter and she turned into a golden statue.  There is a happy ending to the story of King Midas though.  He very quickly realised how foolish he had been and begged Dionyssus to take away this "gift".  Dionyssus told King Midas to wash his hands in the river.  This he did, and then he found that everything he had turned into gold had become normal again, including his lovely daughter.  For the rest of his life King Midas remembered that it was not wealth that was important but what wealth could bring, and so he distributed much of his wealth to the people in his country, who loved their generous king.

As with most myths and fables, the story of King Midas contains universal truths which we ignore to our peril.

The truth is that it is foolish simply to have money as a goal.  Why would you want money itself?  What is the point?  When searching for the goals that are most meaningful to you find those things that you really want, the things that you would buy if you had enough money.  It may well be that the way to get those things is to get more money, but not necessarily.  You could find, for example, that somebody simply gifts them to you.  A shortcut to obtaining your desire, rather than going the longer route of getting the money and then using that to buy what you want.

Also, if you look carefully at the story of King Midas you will see that he didn't give away all his money and live as a pauper when he saw the error of his ways.  He shared what he had, very generously, and made everyone around him wealthier, but he still had enough money to continue living his dreams.  Hopefully that is what you want to do too.

I love the story of King Midas, as it epitomises for me how I should be using the Law of Attraction.  I do have a certain amount of money as one of my goals on my vision board and in my "mind movies".  But it is not the money that I really focus on.  It is the other things.  The lifestyle I want.  The ability to help others.  The sense of security.  These are things that improve as my money base improves, but it is them that I focus on, not the money itself.

Do you want more money?  Good!  You can get it if you apply the Law of Attraction properly.  But one of the first steps you should take, an essential step which will lead to more money, is to clarify exactly what you want that money for.  Your desire should not be for the money, but for what it can give you.  Work on that and you can become very wealthy indeed!

How to Avoid Goal Traps

You may wonder why I am talking about "goal traps".  What exactly is a "goal trap" and why is it so important to avoid it?

Giving Up

I know of many people who have given up on goals for a number of different reasons.

Some have found they set goals in the past which they were never able to achieve.  This has happened to them so often that they have decided there is no point in having any goals.

Some have decided that having goals saps their energy and is tiring.  Far better, they argue, to have no goals and just lazily coast through life.

Some believe there is nothing they particularly want in life, so there is therefore no need for them to have any goals.

Hopefully you do not fall into any of these categories.  But even if you don't now it is possible you will fall into the trap of adopting one of these views at some point in the future, so I want to give you the ammunition now to stop this from ever happening.

Unrealistic Goals

Have you ever had any unrealistic goals?

This is really quite a difficult issue.  I strongly believe in the infinite power of the universe.  This power can achieve literally anything we want.  So how can any goal be unrealistic?

I would suggest the term "unrealistic" is relative rather than absolute.  Yes, it is true you can achieve anything you want if you really want it enough.  But there are two golden rules you must follow if you are going to achieve that goal.

First you must REALLY want to achieve it.  Not simply think it would be quite nice - if your desire is that wishy-washy you are unlikely to achieve anything at all unless it is very easy to achieve in the first place.  You must have a strong desire to achieve it.

Second you cannot have any negative thoughts about it.  This is perhaps the most difficult to achieve.  Say, for example, you are in a wheelchair and your goal is to become the first seriously disabled person to climb Everest.  Certainly that would be classified in most people's minds as an unrealistic goal.  It is not impossible, but the difficulties involved would probably make it seem so to even the most optimistic among us.  If you have chosen that as your goal, then very likely a little voice inside you will keep telling you it is unrealistic and that you have no hope of achieving it.  What makes it unrealistic is not so much the goal itself, but that voice which tells it IS unrealistic.  Unless you are able to avoid any such negative thoughts it is unlikely you will achieve the goal.

Goals Sap Your Energy

Do you find working towards goals is tiring?  Do you sometimes wish you didn't have to work so hard trying to reach goals?  If so, you could be in danger of slipping into the trap of feeling it is better simply not to have any goals in the first place.

This is a trap you simply MUST avoid.  Do anything and everything you can to avoid it.  Once you start on the slippery slope of feeling that goals sap your energy it is very difficult to escape from the trap.

The reality is living a life without goals saps far more energy from you than will the toughest goal.  Read this sentence again, as it is extremely important.  If you take nothing else away from this article, please at least remember this.  Living a life without goals saps far more energy from you than will the toughest goal.

Now you can see why I have called it a slippery slope.  In a goal-less life your energy is dissipated.  The more energy you lose the more difficult it becomes to change direction and start working towards goals again.

The truth is that the right goals do not sap your energy.  The wrong ones can though.  The ones that don't really inspire you and fill you with hopeful energy.  If you find yourself slipping into the "goals are so tiring" mode, you have to look again at the goals you are setting yourself, replacing them with ones that excite you.  As long as you do this you will find your goals energize you rather than sapping your energy.

Nothing You Want

This can be one of the most difficult traps to climb out of if you ever fall into it.  Saying "there is nothing I want in life".  It really is not true, but sometimes it can deceptively seem so.

There are a number of different reasons you might fall into this "goal trap".

Often people fall into it because of one of the earlier traps I have discussed.  They have given up on goals, found their goals were too unrealistic, found their goals sapped too much energy from them, and so they find it easier simply to say they simply don't have any goals.

Feeling there is nothing you want out of life can also be a symptom of depression.  This is a very dangerous condition, and if you believe it possible you are falling into it you really must do something about it.  Go and see a medical professional.  Also, you may find one of my earlier articles helpful.  Try reading my article on how to avoid sadness (http://iwanttoimprovemyself.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/avoiding-sadness-five-point-plan.html), or the one on using music to ease depression (http://iwanttoimprovemyself.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/using-music-to-ease-depression.html).

If you do believe there is nothing you want in life, then you should take some time to think about all the things that have made you happy in the past.  Think about the things that gave you a sense of achievement.  Dig beneath them and you will find other things that can inspire you and which could be realistic goals for you to target.

Avoiding Goal Traps

Try not to allow yourself to fall into any of these goal traps.  If you do fall into one, make sure you work on getting out.  Now you know what goal traps are it should be easier for you to recognize them when they arise, and easier for you to find a way out if you inadvertently do fall into one.