Best Practices of Dave Elman

Title: Best Practices of Dave Elman
Author: The Dave Elman Institute of Hypnosis (Donald Patterson and Colonel Larry Elman)
Format: 4-DVD set
Source: http://daveelmancollection.com/
Price: $179.95
Rating: Good

Let's face it—-live hypnosis trainings are just plain fun. I'd love to have the money to run around and train in person from all the best teachers and hypnotists out there. It's not a matter of doubting my own abilities—-I don't—-but simply that every workshop has some fascinating nuance.

And I'd love to travel back in time to train with such greats as Elman, Erickson, McGill, Esdaile, Braid, and Boyne. Who wouldn't?

Well, the next best thing to actually attending live training is watching a good video recorded at a live training. Of course, you don't get the chance to immediately practice or receive individual coaching, but for me the worst part is that you don't get to volunteer. In fact, when I was watching Don Patterson's Best Practices of Dave Elman videos, I was rather jealous of the volunteers and had to work hard to keep from trancing out every time there was a demonstration.

The product is a four DVD set—-really three with a Bonus Disk—-created by Don Patterson (also known as Sean Michael Andrews, the world's fastest URL registrant) along with Colonel Larry Elman, son of the famous Dave Elman. In addition to the seminar video, each disk starts with footage from an interview with the colonel—-interesting stuff, though the Windows Movie Maker old-timey film effect wears thin pretty quickly. That effect, along with a few audio drops, is really my only technical complaint about the product. Past experience has shown me that if the flaws were serious enough to warrant asking for replacements or refunds, Patterson would make sure I was satisfied; his integrity always comes through in his customer service.

While Patterson's previous videos with Colonel Elman focused just on the famous Elman Induction, this workshop really covered the gamut of techniques discussed in Elman's Hypnotherapy and in his classes, including waking hypnosis, pain management, techniques for children, how to induce and deepen trance, how to break the hypnotic seal, how to perform regression-to-cause hypnotherapy, how to handle a "hypnotic hangover," how to induce the Esdaile state, and how to bring people out when they appear "stuck" in the Esdaile state. The demonstration of the hypnotic seal and how to break it was particularly fun to watch, even though it saddens me that we have to address that issue in this day and age. The material on deepening and even the chance utilization of the airplane taking off were simply great.

If I have any complaints about the mostly excellent instruction, they are very slight: There's some unnecessary scorn expressed for Progressive Muscle Relaxation and for Ericksonian language. Likewise, there's an important element of the Elman Induction that Patterson, otherwise the best teacher of the induction around, always seems to leave out, and that's the use of expectancy. The induction is not merely a series of steps, but at every step, the hypnotist says, "This is what I'll do, and this is how you'll react," before he does the step. Also, I'd love it if the only time I heard the term "hypnotic coma" was in the sentences beginning, "The misnomer 'hypnotic coma,' properly termed the Esdaile state, refers to . . . " It's a misleading and inaccurate term we should do our best to stamp out.

Overall, though, there's a lot of great material covered, and the experience is enhanced by commentary from Larry Elman. It's fascinating to see him demonstrate an "antique" version of the Elman Induction and discuss the evolution of his father's techniques from stage to medical classroom. Likewise, I enjoyed hearing him credit his mother, an oft-overlooked figure in the male-dominated history of hypnosis, with the idea for the Esdaile technique.

On the other hand, there was a bit of a disconnect between Patterson's teaching and some of the colonel's comments. For example, on disk one, Patterson uses the word "push" when he tells a trancer to "push" the numbers out of her head. When a student copies Patterson's language, Larry Elman critiques her use of that word, suggesting it's not a good choice. Then later in the video, Patterson uses the term again; I suspect it's a part of the patter that he uses automatically. Mind you, I don't think it's that bad a usage, but it was interesting observing the tension there.

And that leads me to note another curious tension present in this training. By teaming up with the colonel, Patterson has bought the Elman franchise, in a manner of speaking, even going so far as to rename a portion of his business "The Dave Elman Institute of Hypnosis." (Founded 1949!) This is brilliant marketing, but at times I could see Patterson straining against the strictures of just teaching Elman's methods. He does comment that his out if a client doesn't lose the numbers is to go to one of his rapid inductions. At one point, Patterson demonstrates a twenty-second headache cure he learned from Norm Caldwell—-something totally outside of the Elman canon.

(As an aside, a transcript of that twenty-second technique would be awfully nice to have.)

All of this leads me to a more profound tension I see in the work of the Dave Elman Institute. Dave Elman's importance to hypnosis was not simply that he gave us some great techniques that we can pass along to other generations. His importance comes from his innovation, his willingness to adapt what he knew to a new setting, his ability to package hypnosis in a form that was useful to medical doctors, and his skill at letting hypnotic techniques evolve over time. Enshrining Elman's innovations seems to me counter to the spirit of his work. Like any great hypnotist, he produced ideas and methods that should be examined, learned, and then modified to become part of a hypnotist's repertoire.

Of course, this is what Patterson has done, and that's why I could detect a bit of struggling on his part to teach only Elman's methods. I doubt that any hypnotist today does things exactly as Elman did them, even though we are all influenced by his work. Perhaps Patterson should relax and accept that he can teach neo-Elmanian techniques while still honoring the great hypnotist.

So where does that leave us in regards to this product?

Despite a few mild reservations, I'm happy to recommend it. The videos are well made, thoroughly enjoyable, and very informative, definitely worth repeated watching and study. Hearing Colonel Elman's stories of his father is as close to time traveling back to one of Elman's classes in the fifties as we're going to get—and what hypnotist hasn't dreamed of doing that?

[Full disclosure: Patterson is a friend of mine, and he has sent me several videos for review. Nonetheless, I maintain that I am as objective as possible in reviewing his materials.]