Reprogram Your Subconscious by Gale Glassner Twersky

Title: Reprogram Your Subconscious: How to Use Hypnosis to Get What You Really Want
Author: Gale Glassner Twersky
Format: Book (with bonus recording)
Source: given to me for review (http://galeglassnertwersky.com/hypnosis-book/book-reprogram-your-subconscious)
Price: $29.95
Rating: Good

If you're new to hypnosis and thinking about undertaking a program of self-hypnosis, then Reprogram Your Subconscious is a good place to start. The book is well organized and clearly written, free from the abundance of mechanical errors that seem to plague writing in our field.

Gale Glassner Twersky lays out how hypnosis works—or more accurately, her view of how it works, as no one can say with complete authority exactly how it works—and delves into the benefits one can expect. She also acknowledges the limitations of self-hypnosis and the need to consult a professional in certain cases. Especially helpful, she gives a number of useful tips on making your self-hypnosis more effective, including one of my favorites: giving credit to hypnosis when you succeed in making a change. The many case histories are especially illuminating and inspiring.

Twersky also spends some time talking about some of the synchronistic effects of pursuing a course of self-hypnosis. So if you're okay with a mind/body/spirit approach to hypnosis that will discuss auras, past life regression, subtle "energies," and muscle testing, then this book is a good fit for you. If your jury is out on those matters, then the author does a good job of preparing you to understand what may happen when you pursue a path of spiritual self-improvement.

One extra bonus to this book is that it comes with a free download of a basic hypnosis session. (The CD version is available for just shipping and handling.) The author actually encourages all of her clients to use the recording several times before a session, and she encourages the reader to use it several times before undertaking self-hypnosis.

I downloaded the recording, which did involve navigating some rather arcane pathways on the Internet, including having to enter two different login names and passwords. Eventually I did acquire the mp3 and use it; it's your basic relaxation recording with some emotional cleansing and other positive suggestions, as well as a trigger for re-inducing trance. Twersky uses her voice well, and the background music is good. I certainly felt wonderful after using it.

The many steps that the author puts the reader through to acquire the download give me the impression that she's very concerned about people pirating it. In truth, if I were she, I would just give it away for free. It might be counterintuitive, but that's actually good marketing.

While overall a good introduction to the subject, Reprogram Your Subconscious did have some traits I didn't care for. Rather than just saying "hypnosis," Twersky refers repeatedly to "Reprogramming Hypnosis/Reprogramming Self-Hypnosis," her own licensed term that proves rather unwieldy when repeated ad nauseam. Part of RH/RSH involves using a computer programming metaphor to explain and execute hypnosis. While I agree that the computer can be a useful metaphor for a hypnotist, Twersky uses it so much that I begin to worry readers will take it literally, or failing that, carry it too far. This is a hazard with any metaphor. Another problem with using one metaphor repeatedly is that it may not be the right metaphor for certain readers/clients; a good hypnotist needs to be able to examine and describe hypnosis through a number of different lenses.

My other criticism of the work is that in a book running 233 pages, 100 of it is back matter, consisting of several published articles, some scripts, instructions for downloading the mp3, an index, a subtitle index, a bibliography, and a largely pointless glossary. Do I really need the glossary to define "Soul Sisters," the name of the women's spirituality group Twersky participated in? What about "gigabytes," a term she uses once that really has no bearing on hypnosis? Why list the American Board of Hypnotherapy but not NGH, IHF, ACHE, or IMDHA?

Half of the back matter is an affirmation journal, 50 mostly blank pages. Taken with the glossary, it feels a bit like padding, a ploy which is unworthy of the rest of Twersky's work.

Despite its flaws, if you're looking for a path into the world of self-hypnosis, and you are comfortable with some "New Age" flavor in a technological metaphor, then you could do far worse than to let Gale Glassner Twersky be your guide.

[Update: After reading this review, the author has streamlined the process for downloading the supplemental mp3.]