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.]
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Miraculous Healing with Neuro-Linguistic Hypnotherapy
Title: Miraculous Healing with Neuro-Linguistic Hypnotherapy®
Author: Keith Livingston and Michael Bennett
Format: DVD, CD, and Manual
Source: http://www.hypnosis101.com/healing-trauma.htm
Price: $89.95
Rating: Good
A lot of times, to really study NLP, you're expected to shell out thousands of dollars for a lengthy training course. Keith Livingston, with his "Neuro-Linguistic Hypnotherapy ®," takes a different approach, extricating specific skills and patterns to present in individual mini-courses, some of which he offers for free on his website, hypnosis101.com.
Miraculous Healing is not one of those he presents for free, but it's well worth the price tag. This product, created in collaboration with Michael Bennett of Bennett/Stellar University, presents the Traumatic Injury Relief Pattern, an NLP pattern that uses elements of dissociation, mental rehearsal, the fast phobia cure, and eye accessing to end chronic suffering and anxiety brought about by traumatic events, especially accidents. It's based on the idea that after a traumatic event, the unconscious mind holds on to suffering as a way of warning us not to do certain things. I don't want to go into any more detail here, because it would be easy to outline the pattern clearly enough that anyone with a little NLP training could figure out how to do it.
The package, which includes a DVD, a CD, and a manual (all conveniently packed into one customized three ring binder with a disc-holder page for those of us who don't like scattering our instructional materials all over the place), explains and demonstrates the pattern thoroughly. I particularly love the way that this product employs three different media, so that you can get some instruction by watching, some by listening, and some by reading.
The DVD starts off with Livingston explaining the steps in the pattern, but the bulk of the video comes from a workshop with Michael Bennett. He starts off by demonstrating the pattern with a volunteer, a young woman who has suffered chronic headaches and pain in the three years since being in a car accident. By the end of her session, about thirty minutes long, she is pain-free. (Livingston mentions in the introduction that she remained pain-free.) The rest of the DVD is the Q & A session that followed the demonstration.
The CD is an interview between Livingston and Bennett, focussing on the additional NLP techniques Bennett used during the demonstration, including embedded suggestions, reframing, visualization, and future pacing.
The 15-page manual recaps the Traumatic Injury Relief Pattern on one convenient page and provides a handy diagram for some EMDR-like hand movements—both very useful. The remainder of the manual is a short course, with exercises, in a number of NLP techniques.
All-in-all, it's a very well-put-together product. While much of it is familiar to the student of NLP, it's always good to review and see it all put together in an effective way.
If I were to nitpick, I'd point out two things. First, Livingston recounts a legend that this pattern was developed by modeling a Peruvian shaman. For real? Why do we have to ascribe some legendary origin to this technique? The methods are good enough to stand on their own without the veneer of hocus-pocus. Second, the theme music on the CD, which replays on every track, gets old fast.
To wrap up, if you do medical support hypnosis or work with people suffering from past trauma, Miraculous Healing provides you with a great tool to put in your belt.
Author: Keith Livingston and Michael Bennett
Format: DVD, CD, and Manual
Source: http://www.hypnosis101.com/healing-trauma.htm
Price: $89.95
Rating: Good
A lot of times, to really study NLP, you're expected to shell out thousands of dollars for a lengthy training course. Keith Livingston, with his "Neuro-Linguistic Hypnotherapy ®," takes a different approach, extricating specific skills and patterns to present in individual mini-courses, some of which he offers for free on his website, hypnosis101.com.
Miraculous Healing is not one of those he presents for free, but it's well worth the price tag. This product, created in collaboration with Michael Bennett of Bennett/Stellar University, presents the Traumatic Injury Relief Pattern, an NLP pattern that uses elements of dissociation, mental rehearsal, the fast phobia cure, and eye accessing to end chronic suffering and anxiety brought about by traumatic events, especially accidents. It's based on the idea that after a traumatic event, the unconscious mind holds on to suffering as a way of warning us not to do certain things. I don't want to go into any more detail here, because it would be easy to outline the pattern clearly enough that anyone with a little NLP training could figure out how to do it.
The package, which includes a DVD, a CD, and a manual (all conveniently packed into one customized three ring binder with a disc-holder page for those of us who don't like scattering our instructional materials all over the place), explains and demonstrates the pattern thoroughly. I particularly love the way that this product employs three different media, so that you can get some instruction by watching, some by listening, and some by reading.
The DVD starts off with Livingston explaining the steps in the pattern, but the bulk of the video comes from a workshop with Michael Bennett. He starts off by demonstrating the pattern with a volunteer, a young woman who has suffered chronic headaches and pain in the three years since being in a car accident. By the end of her session, about thirty minutes long, she is pain-free. (Livingston mentions in the introduction that she remained pain-free.) The rest of the DVD is the Q & A session that followed the demonstration.
The CD is an interview between Livingston and Bennett, focussing on the additional NLP techniques Bennett used during the demonstration, including embedded suggestions, reframing, visualization, and future pacing.
The 15-page manual recaps the Traumatic Injury Relief Pattern on one convenient page and provides a handy diagram for some EMDR-like hand movements—both very useful. The remainder of the manual is a short course, with exercises, in a number of NLP techniques.
All-in-all, it's a very well-put-together product. While much of it is familiar to the student of NLP, it's always good to review and see it all put together in an effective way.
If I were to nitpick, I'd point out two things. First, Livingston recounts a legend that this pattern was developed by modeling a Peruvian shaman. For real? Why do we have to ascribe some legendary origin to this technique? The methods are good enough to stand on their own without the veneer of hocus-pocus. Second, the theme music on the CD, which replays on every track, gets old fast.
To wrap up, if you do medical support hypnosis or work with people suffering from past trauma, Miraculous Healing provides you with a great tool to put in your belt.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
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.]
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.]
Saturday, August 28, 2010
The Phone Book by Zarro and Blum
Title: The Phone Book: Breakthrough Neurolinguistic Phone Skills for Profit and Enlightenment
Author: Richard A. Zarro and Peter Blum
Format: book
Source: http://www.soundsforhealing.com/Products.html#phonebook or Amazon (link below)
Price: varies
Rating: Excellent
When I requested that author Peter Blum send a copy of his 1989 classic The Phone Book for review, he graciously agreed, but added a caveat, which I will paraphrase: The book was written 22 years ago, with an intent "to counterbalance the overly wordy, academic, and intellectualized works that were out at that time explaining NLP." The author, looking back at it, explains that some parts strike him as childish and possibly condescending, and he adds, a bit apologetically, that he hopes he has learned some humility since then.
Well, primed as I was to read a book I wouldn't like, I have to say that I detected none of that condescension or arrogance. It just goes to show that even a long-time NLPer like Blum is still his own worst critic, drawing up a map that is far more dire than the actual territory. There's a lesson in that for all of us, I think.
Anyway, on to the review:
Cleverly titled, The Phone Book is written in the form of a novel, wisely employing the Ericksonian technique of encapsulating information in a narrative format. Our hero, Bob O'Ryan, is a former liberal arts major turned struggling salesman who simply detests cold calling and virtually any other use of the telephone. By a stroke of luck, Bob meets John Deltone, a highly capable salesman and communication expert who takes Bob under his wing, helping him re-discover the magic of the telephone.
Admittedly, it's not the Great American Novel, but it is engaging enough to avoid the trap of being dry and academic. More importantly, it cuts to the quick, briefly but effectively teaching a number of basic NLP concepts: reframing, the meta model, submodalities, and anchoring peak performance, to name a few. One particularly good part of the book describes the three primary representational systems in catchy terms: the eye-phoner, the ear-phoner, and the feel-phoner. Each one even comes with a caricature, for the visual learners—um, I mean, eye-phoners—in the readership.
During a visit with an extremely Ericksonian hypnotist, the main character even learns to look at the phone as a metaphor for our spiritual connection to the Divine, thus tying sales and spirituality together in a neat package. (As an aside, I want to thank the authors for helping re-frame hypnosis in the public eye.)
Of course, one problem with presenting information in a narrative format is that it can be difficult to review, but the authors cleverly took that into account: Protagonist Bob O'Ryan keeps a set of "phone notes" that are conveniently shared at the end of each chapter. I find that placing the book near my toilet for a quick glance through a few phone notes is a great way to internalize the information.
(By the way, readers should know that mentioning that I keep a book in my bathroom is possibly the highest praise I can give it.)
Is there anything to complain about in The Phone Book? Perhaps it's a bit dated, considering how much communication technology, the book's central metaphor, has changed over the last 22 years. That said, the basic ideas still apply even with today's technology. I found myself using them to great effect in a business email just yesterday.
While The Phone Book may not contain much that is new to someone thoroughly steeped in NLP, it is definitely a work I would recommend to anyone new to the subject, and especially anyone going into sales. In fact, I did recommend it to my nephew for just that purpose.
Many thanks to my online friend Michael Ellner for recommending The Phone Book to me.
Author: Richard A. Zarro and Peter Blum
Format: book
Source: http://www.soundsforhealing.com/Products.html#phonebook or Amazon (link below)
Price: varies
Rating: Excellent
When I requested that author Peter Blum send a copy of his 1989 classic The Phone Book for review, he graciously agreed, but added a caveat, which I will paraphrase: The book was written 22 years ago, with an intent "to counterbalance the overly wordy, academic, and intellectualized works that were out at that time explaining NLP." The author, looking back at it, explains that some parts strike him as childish and possibly condescending, and he adds, a bit apologetically, that he hopes he has learned some humility since then.
Well, primed as I was to read a book I wouldn't like, I have to say that I detected none of that condescension or arrogance. It just goes to show that even a long-time NLPer like Blum is still his own worst critic, drawing up a map that is far more dire than the actual territory. There's a lesson in that for all of us, I think.
Anyway, on to the review:
Cleverly titled, The Phone Book is written in the form of a novel, wisely employing the Ericksonian technique of encapsulating information in a narrative format. Our hero, Bob O'Ryan, is a former liberal arts major turned struggling salesman who simply detests cold calling and virtually any other use of the telephone. By a stroke of luck, Bob meets John Deltone, a highly capable salesman and communication expert who takes Bob under his wing, helping him re-discover the magic of the telephone.
Admittedly, it's not the Great American Novel, but it is engaging enough to avoid the trap of being dry and academic. More importantly, it cuts to the quick, briefly but effectively teaching a number of basic NLP concepts: reframing, the meta model, submodalities, and anchoring peak performance, to name a few. One particularly good part of the book describes the three primary representational systems in catchy terms: the eye-phoner, the ear-phoner, and the feel-phoner. Each one even comes with a caricature, for the visual learners—um, I mean, eye-phoners—in the readership.
During a visit with an extremely Ericksonian hypnotist, the main character even learns to look at the phone as a metaphor for our spiritual connection to the Divine, thus tying sales and spirituality together in a neat package. (As an aside, I want to thank the authors for helping re-frame hypnosis in the public eye.)
Of course, one problem with presenting information in a narrative format is that it can be difficult to review, but the authors cleverly took that into account: Protagonist Bob O'Ryan keeps a set of "phone notes" that are conveniently shared at the end of each chapter. I find that placing the book near my toilet for a quick glance through a few phone notes is a great way to internalize the information.
(By the way, readers should know that mentioning that I keep a book in my bathroom is possibly the highest praise I can give it.)
Is there anything to complain about in The Phone Book? Perhaps it's a bit dated, considering how much communication technology, the book's central metaphor, has changed over the last 22 years. That said, the basic ideas still apply even with today's technology. I found myself using them to great effect in a business email just yesterday.
While The Phone Book may not contain much that is new to someone thoroughly steeped in NLP, it is definitely a work I would recommend to anyone new to the subject, and especially anyone going into sales. In fact, I did recommend it to my nephew for just that purpose.
Many thanks to my online friend Michael Ellner for recommending The Phone Book to me.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Inductions and Deepeners by Richard K. Nongard
Title: Inductions and Deepeners
: Styles & Approaches for Effective Hypnosis
Author: Richard K. Nongard
Format: book
Source: www.amazon.com
Price: $22.45
Rating: mixed
Disclaimer: Richard Nongard is a friend of mine, and his magnanimous advice and encouragement has made him one of the hypnotists I truly admire. Of course, as a reviewer, I have to set that aside and approach every work I review with a critical eye. I feel that I have successfully done that in this case, and I hope my readers will agree that I am unbiased by the end of this review.
As I've stated other times, I'm a bit of an induction collector. There are thousands of varied ways to induce trance, and I love looking at as many as I can, partly so that I can take them apart and figure out what makes them tick. So when I was attending Nongard's two-day basic hypnosis course and he offered me a couple of books to review, I was delighted that Inductions and Deepeners was one of them.
As an aside, I should mention that I thought Nongard's basic course was excellent. It was aimed at counselors and other health-care professionals who need CEUs. In two days, he took them through the basics of intake, pretalk, induction, deepeners, suggestions, and returns, in addition to addressing safety and professionalism issues. The course was very well put-together. When discussing it with Nongard, he mentioned that many instructors want to impress their fellow hypnotists, so they teach lots of fancy inductions instead of serving their students with good, solid, simple inductions. He certainly does a good job in his course of providing counselors with exactly what they need to start helping their clients with hypnosis.
But back to the review at hand. When viewed as an adjunct or extension of Nongard's basic course, the book shines, serving well to expand on the induction and deepeners he teaches his basic students. The techniques are simple and easy to use, making this an ideal book for that niche: counselors who are going to learn enough about hypnosis to use it as a tool while counseling, but who are not necessarily interested in devoting their lives to being hypnotists.
That said, for a dedicated professional hypnotist, the book left me disappointed. All of the inductions are in pretty much the same vein: a combination of progressive muscle relaxation, eye fixation, and visualization. Now there's nothing wrong with those approaches, and I have to admit that they are probably the best ones for counselors and therapists to use. But in terms of a book on the art of induction, the range seems very narrow.
The same problem occurs with the deepeners. They're pretty much all variations of counting down and fractionation. Before I was done, I kept having the feeling that I'd read the same passage more than once. Even the addition of the "reverse hypnosis" script—in which the trancer keeps his or her eyes open while imagining going up—does not present a radical departure from the rest of the book, educational as it may be to the novice hypnotist.
I was similarly disappointed to find little discussion of why the techniques work. Again, this may be simply a matter of me not being the ideal reader for this work.
All in all, if I'm right about the intended audience and purpose of this book, then I can certainly recommend it to those who attend Nongard's basic and advanced training courses, or for therapists who want simple methods for incorporating hypnosis into their practices. Those readers will definitely benefit, and their money will be well spent.
: Styles & Approaches for Effective HypnosisAuthor: Richard K. Nongard
Format: book
Source: www.amazon.com
Price: $22.45
Rating: mixed
Disclaimer: Richard Nongard is a friend of mine, and his magnanimous advice and encouragement has made him one of the hypnotists I truly admire. Of course, as a reviewer, I have to set that aside and approach every work I review with a critical eye. I feel that I have successfully done that in this case, and I hope my readers will agree that I am unbiased by the end of this review.
As I've stated other times, I'm a bit of an induction collector. There are thousands of varied ways to induce trance, and I love looking at as many as I can, partly so that I can take them apart and figure out what makes them tick. So when I was attending Nongard's two-day basic hypnosis course and he offered me a couple of books to review, I was delighted that Inductions and Deepeners was one of them.
As an aside, I should mention that I thought Nongard's basic course was excellent. It was aimed at counselors and other health-care professionals who need CEUs. In two days, he took them through the basics of intake, pretalk, induction, deepeners, suggestions, and returns, in addition to addressing safety and professionalism issues. The course was very well put-together. When discussing it with Nongard, he mentioned that many instructors want to impress their fellow hypnotists, so they teach lots of fancy inductions instead of serving their students with good, solid, simple inductions. He certainly does a good job in his course of providing counselors with exactly what they need to start helping their clients with hypnosis.
But back to the review at hand. When viewed as an adjunct or extension of Nongard's basic course, the book shines, serving well to expand on the induction and deepeners he teaches his basic students. The techniques are simple and easy to use, making this an ideal book for that niche: counselors who are going to learn enough about hypnosis to use it as a tool while counseling, but who are not necessarily interested in devoting their lives to being hypnotists.
That said, for a dedicated professional hypnotist, the book left me disappointed. All of the inductions are in pretty much the same vein: a combination of progressive muscle relaxation, eye fixation, and visualization. Now there's nothing wrong with those approaches, and I have to admit that they are probably the best ones for counselors and therapists to use. But in terms of a book on the art of induction, the range seems very narrow.
The same problem occurs with the deepeners. They're pretty much all variations of counting down and fractionation. Before I was done, I kept having the feeling that I'd read the same passage more than once. Even the addition of the "reverse hypnosis" script—in which the trancer keeps his or her eyes open while imagining going up—does not present a radical departure from the rest of the book, educational as it may be to the novice hypnotist.
I was similarly disappointed to find little discussion of why the techniques work. Again, this may be simply a matter of me not being the ideal reader for this work.
All in all, if I'm right about the intended audience and purpose of this book, then I can certainly recommend it to those who attend Nongard's basic and advanced training courses, or for therapists who want simple methods for incorporating hypnosis into their practices. Those readers will definitely benefit, and their money will be well spent.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Nicotine: The Drug that Never Was by Chris Holmes
Title: Nicotine: The Drug that Never Was
(Volume I: The Biggest Medical Mistake of the 20th Century)
Author: Chris Holmes
Format: Book
Source: Amazon.com
Price: $36
Rating: Good
Most hypnotists work with smokers at some point, and even those that don't will still field a lot of questions about smoking cessation. I've found in my own practice that no matter what I advertise, I get smokers calling me to ask if I can make them quit. In short, the nature of cigarette smoking is something every hypnotist spends some time thinking about.
British hypnotherapist Chris Holmes spent so much time thinking about it that he wrote a book, in two volumes, about the subject. Not surprisingly, he finds grounds to disagree with a lot of what the establishment has told us about nicotine and cigarette smoking. While I can pick a number of nits with his book, overall I have to say that Holmes' views make good sense and are presented in an enjoyable format.
Nicotine: The Drug that Never Was (Volume I: The Biggest Medical Mistake of the 20th Century) presents a rollicking look at why hypnotherapy works when Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) doesn't. The title is slightly misleading—the book is as much about hypnosis as it is about nicotine. A glance at the cover of the book (all black with a skull and crossbones above the title) leads the reader to expect an investigative expose, rife with uncovered details of how nicotine came to be regarded as an addictive drug rather than a deadly poison.
If you are expecting an investigative work, the book falls short. Though some studies are noted, especially in the later chapters, Holmes' work is not primarily investigative. He does restate his arguments a number of times without presenting new evidence, a technique that reminds me a bit of simply repeating a suggestion enough times that the unconscious mind accepts it—a fine technique for hypnotherapy, but a little bit annoying in a book.
Ultimately, the work is aimed more at potential clients than at hypnotherapists. In one sense, it's an expanded pre-talk. It makes the argument that hypnosis is the best tool for smoking cessation, but it doesn't provide a working hypnotist with much specific information on how to do a good smoking session for a client. I'm not criticizing; I just want to be sure that my readers (mostly hypnotists) know what they're getting.
Before I discuss the numerous good points about Nicotine: The Drug that Never Was, I'd like to briefly address a few flaws.
First off, there are several contradictions in argument. The author claims that the success of NRT in clinical trials was the result of the widespread myth of nicotine addiction, yet he also claims that the myth arose alongside the use and marketing of NRT. That timeline doesn't work; if the myth is part of the marketing, then the myth couldn't have influenced the initial trials involving NRT. Similarly, he insists that smokers don't actually know the effects of nicotine, which may well be true. But he then argues that smokers in patch trials must have recognized the presence of nicotine, thus enhancing the placebo effect and invalidating the results. Either smokers know the effects of nicotine or they don't—you can't have it both ways.
That said, most of Holmes' arguments stand up to scrutiny. More on that later.
There are a few other points I didn't like, but only a few. For instance, in his explanation of hypnosis, the author is somewhat derisive of stage hypnotists, though he stops short of calling for total condemnation and legislation to ban performance hypnosis. As readers of my blog already know, I believe performance and clinical hypnotists can work together for mutual benefit. I don't believe in deriding one to bolster the other.
Likewise, Holmes' attacks on the accuracy of animal testing of NRT are marred by his rants on the immorality of the same, undermining his argument. Finally, he makes some unsubstantiated claims that NRT producers funded the trials of NRT, thus biasing the results. While that may be true, speculation without evidence again undermines the author's otherwise convincing arguments.
Those criticisms aside, the book is otherwise quite good. It is built around clear, simple, common-sense arguments about the nature of nicotine. For example, Holmes debunks the idea that smokers enjoy nicotine; if that were the case, he argues, teens would be sneaking nicotine gum to each other, and smokers on airplanes would gladly wear the patch so as to enjoy transatlantic flights. I'd give more examples, but I'm sure the author would like it if you read his book to learn more.
Holmes provides "Case Mysteries" as interludes between his chapters, and these are highly entertaining and illuminating. Filled with anecdotes about quirky clients and unusual cases, the interludes do a lot to spice up the book, especially for the hypnotists amongst the readers. One such interlude de-constructs the work of Allen Carr, a British smoking cessation guru. By the time Holmes is done with Carr, there is not much left; it's a great read that made me laugh out loud.
The book is self-published, but relatively free of the numerous typos and grammatical errors that plague many self-published tomes on hypnosis. The author might have benefitted a bit from working with a professional editor, if only to rein him in now and then. Holmes comments that his wife took on the job of telling him when to stop trying to be funny. While I do believe humor has great value, and I did guffaw a number of times while reading, there were other times when I wish that Mrs. Holmes had been more strenuous in her duties.
I especially enjoyed this book's discussion of hypnosis and the subconscious mind. Holmes compares talking to the conscious mind to effect change as being like trying to persuade the receptionist of a major corporation to make a company-wide policy decision. The subconscious, he explains, is truly the CEO. That's a brilliant comparison I now use with my own clients.
Overall, I can point out a number of minor flaws in Nicotine, but in the end, the arguments make sense. Just as importantly, they are presented in an entertaining and insightful way, making this book useful to hypnotists and those who would like to stop smoking. I'd like to check out Volume II when I get a chance.
(Volume I: The Biggest Medical Mistake of the 20th Century)Author: Chris Holmes
Format: Book
Source: Amazon.com
Price: $36
Rating: Good
Most hypnotists work with smokers at some point, and even those that don't will still field a lot of questions about smoking cessation. I've found in my own practice that no matter what I advertise, I get smokers calling me to ask if I can make them quit. In short, the nature of cigarette smoking is something every hypnotist spends some time thinking about.
British hypnotherapist Chris Holmes spent so much time thinking about it that he wrote a book, in two volumes, about the subject. Not surprisingly, he finds grounds to disagree with a lot of what the establishment has told us about nicotine and cigarette smoking. While I can pick a number of nits with his book, overall I have to say that Holmes' views make good sense and are presented in an enjoyable format.
Nicotine: The Drug that Never Was (Volume I: The Biggest Medical Mistake of the 20th Century) presents a rollicking look at why hypnotherapy works when Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) doesn't. The title is slightly misleading—the book is as much about hypnosis as it is about nicotine. A glance at the cover of the book (all black with a skull and crossbones above the title) leads the reader to expect an investigative expose, rife with uncovered details of how nicotine came to be regarded as an addictive drug rather than a deadly poison.
If you are expecting an investigative work, the book falls short. Though some studies are noted, especially in the later chapters, Holmes' work is not primarily investigative. He does restate his arguments a number of times without presenting new evidence, a technique that reminds me a bit of simply repeating a suggestion enough times that the unconscious mind accepts it—a fine technique for hypnotherapy, but a little bit annoying in a book.
Ultimately, the work is aimed more at potential clients than at hypnotherapists. In one sense, it's an expanded pre-talk. It makes the argument that hypnosis is the best tool for smoking cessation, but it doesn't provide a working hypnotist with much specific information on how to do a good smoking session for a client. I'm not criticizing; I just want to be sure that my readers (mostly hypnotists) know what they're getting.
Before I discuss the numerous good points about Nicotine: The Drug that Never Was, I'd like to briefly address a few flaws.
First off, there are several contradictions in argument. The author claims that the success of NRT in clinical trials was the result of the widespread myth of nicotine addiction, yet he also claims that the myth arose alongside the use and marketing of NRT. That timeline doesn't work; if the myth is part of the marketing, then the myth couldn't have influenced the initial trials involving NRT. Similarly, he insists that smokers don't actually know the effects of nicotine, which may well be true. But he then argues that smokers in patch trials must have recognized the presence of nicotine, thus enhancing the placebo effect and invalidating the results. Either smokers know the effects of nicotine or they don't—you can't have it both ways.
That said, most of Holmes' arguments stand up to scrutiny. More on that later.
There are a few other points I didn't like, but only a few. For instance, in his explanation of hypnosis, the author is somewhat derisive of stage hypnotists, though he stops short of calling for total condemnation and legislation to ban performance hypnosis. As readers of my blog already know, I believe performance and clinical hypnotists can work together for mutual benefit. I don't believe in deriding one to bolster the other.
Likewise, Holmes' attacks on the accuracy of animal testing of NRT are marred by his rants on the immorality of the same, undermining his argument. Finally, he makes some unsubstantiated claims that NRT producers funded the trials of NRT, thus biasing the results. While that may be true, speculation without evidence again undermines the author's otherwise convincing arguments.
Those criticisms aside, the book is otherwise quite good. It is built around clear, simple, common-sense arguments about the nature of nicotine. For example, Holmes debunks the idea that smokers enjoy nicotine; if that were the case, he argues, teens would be sneaking nicotine gum to each other, and smokers on airplanes would gladly wear the patch so as to enjoy transatlantic flights. I'd give more examples, but I'm sure the author would like it if you read his book to learn more.
Holmes provides "Case Mysteries" as interludes between his chapters, and these are highly entertaining and illuminating. Filled with anecdotes about quirky clients and unusual cases, the interludes do a lot to spice up the book, especially for the hypnotists amongst the readers. One such interlude de-constructs the work of Allen Carr, a British smoking cessation guru. By the time Holmes is done with Carr, there is not much left; it's a great read that made me laugh out loud.
The book is self-published, but relatively free of the numerous typos and grammatical errors that plague many self-published tomes on hypnosis. The author might have benefitted a bit from working with a professional editor, if only to rein him in now and then. Holmes comments that his wife took on the job of telling him when to stop trying to be funny. While I do believe humor has great value, and I did guffaw a number of times while reading, there were other times when I wish that Mrs. Holmes had been more strenuous in her duties.
I especially enjoyed this book's discussion of hypnosis and the subconscious mind. Holmes compares talking to the conscious mind to effect change as being like trying to persuade the receptionist of a major corporation to make a company-wide policy decision. The subconscious, he explains, is truly the CEO. That's a brilliant comparison I now use with my own clients.
Overall, I can point out a number of minor flaws in Nicotine, but in the end, the arguments make sense. Just as importantly, they are presented in an entertaining and insightful way, making this book useful to hypnotists and those who would like to stop smoking. I'd like to check out Volume II when I get a chance.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Medical Meditation by Richard Nongard, Ph.D.
Title: Medical Meditation
Author: Richard Nongard, PhD
Format: Book
Source: www.subliminalscience.com
Price: $14.95
Rating: Excellent
[Full Disclosure: Richard Nongard is a friend of mine who has provided a great deal of advice and encouragement. He gave me a complimentary copy of Medical Meditation to review, fully aware that I might give it a bad review despite our friendship. So what follows is my unbiased opinion.]
Regular readers of my hypnosis reviews blog might wonder why I'm reviewing a book about meditation. Well, the reason is simple. As the author explains on page 3, meditation and self-hypnosis are sister arts; indeed, for his purposes, the terms are interchangeable. Kudos for calling a spade a spade.
At first glance, Medical Meditation might seem like a slim offering in the world of mind-body medicine. How much can an author teach in just 74 pages?
Quite a lot, as it turns out.
Dr. Nongard has a talent for stripping a topic down to its barest essentials and then teaching it in simple baby steps, and that's exactly what he does in this volume that is conveniently light enough for even the weakest of invalids to hold.
Though the book lists a number of applications for medical meditation, the text mostly focusses on chronic pain, cancer recovery, and meditation for pre- and post-surgery. This makes sense, as these are the areas with which the author or close associates have first-hand knowledge. Though the work is aimed primarily at patients with no prior knowledge of mind-body medicine, it's a good read for hypnotists; I can envision building an entire series of workshops around these methods for my local cancer center.
The book carefully guides non-meditators through the steps of deep breathing, mindfulness, progressive muscle relaxation, visualization, and autogenic training, first with simple, brief exercises, and later with expansions on each. Along with a brief chapter on lifestyle changes for the chronically ill, these simple but powerful techniques make up the core of the book.
The instructions for basic autogenic training are especially exciting, as information on that topic is surprisingly rare. The author has also created a five-week autogenic course that is available on DVD; perhaps I will review that at some point.
Best of all, Dr. Nongard explains and teaches meditation in a way that is free from all metaphysical trappings—other than a brief statement that positive belief really does foster positive outcomes in ways that defy explanation—thus making meditation accessible to anyone who needs it, despite religious background. For those who fear that meditation is about chanting with gurus, living in communes, eating vegetarian, and seeking enlightenment, this book is a welcome breath of fresh air. A deep abdominal breath, at that.
Can I complain about the book? Not much. I do have a pet peeve for typos, and the text is mostly free of them. There is, however, one typo of a sort I see over and over in the writing of hypnotists. How many times have I seen the words "breath" and "breathe" mixed up? Usually it's "breath deeply." That error sets my teeth on edge.
Well, the good news is that the typo only appears once in Medical Meditation. The bad news is that it appears in a very prominent, all-bold section title. Ouch.
Otherwise, though, I really can't complain about Medical Meditation. It's a practical guide, light enough in the hand that even the bedridden can use it, and light enough on the wallet that anyone can afford to give it as a gift. I wouldn't be surprised if some doctors kept a stack to hand out one to every patient. There are even some affordable recordings available to support the exercises in the book.
All in all, a deceptively simple text—like the practice of "doing nothing" for a while each day, it has a value far beyond what is apparent at first glance. I'm tempted to give it to a friendly doctor, but I think I'll be keeping it for myself.
Author: Richard Nongard, PhD
Format: Book
Source: www.subliminalscience.com
Price: $14.95
Rating: Excellent
[Full Disclosure: Richard Nongard is a friend of mine who has provided a great deal of advice and encouragement. He gave me a complimentary copy of Medical Meditation to review, fully aware that I might give it a bad review despite our friendship. So what follows is my unbiased opinion.]
Regular readers of my hypnosis reviews blog might wonder why I'm reviewing a book about meditation. Well, the reason is simple. As the author explains on page 3, meditation and self-hypnosis are sister arts; indeed, for his purposes, the terms are interchangeable. Kudos for calling a spade a spade.
At first glance, Medical Meditation might seem like a slim offering in the world of mind-body medicine. How much can an author teach in just 74 pages?
Quite a lot, as it turns out.
Dr. Nongard has a talent for stripping a topic down to its barest essentials and then teaching it in simple baby steps, and that's exactly what he does in this volume that is conveniently light enough for even the weakest of invalids to hold.
Though the book lists a number of applications for medical meditation, the text mostly focusses on chronic pain, cancer recovery, and meditation for pre- and post-surgery. This makes sense, as these are the areas with which the author or close associates have first-hand knowledge. Though the work is aimed primarily at patients with no prior knowledge of mind-body medicine, it's a good read for hypnotists; I can envision building an entire series of workshops around these methods for my local cancer center.
The book carefully guides non-meditators through the steps of deep breathing, mindfulness, progressive muscle relaxation, visualization, and autogenic training, first with simple, brief exercises, and later with expansions on each. Along with a brief chapter on lifestyle changes for the chronically ill, these simple but powerful techniques make up the core of the book.
The instructions for basic autogenic training are especially exciting, as information on that topic is surprisingly rare. The author has also created a five-week autogenic course that is available on DVD; perhaps I will review that at some point.
Best of all, Dr. Nongard explains and teaches meditation in a way that is free from all metaphysical trappings—other than a brief statement that positive belief really does foster positive outcomes in ways that defy explanation—thus making meditation accessible to anyone who needs it, despite religious background. For those who fear that meditation is about chanting with gurus, living in communes, eating vegetarian, and seeking enlightenment, this book is a welcome breath of fresh air. A deep abdominal breath, at that.
Can I complain about the book? Not much. I do have a pet peeve for typos, and the text is mostly free of them. There is, however, one typo of a sort I see over and over in the writing of hypnotists. How many times have I seen the words "breath" and "breathe" mixed up? Usually it's "breath deeply." That error sets my teeth on edge.
Well, the good news is that the typo only appears once in Medical Meditation. The bad news is that it appears in a very prominent, all-bold section title. Ouch.
Otherwise, though, I really can't complain about Medical Meditation. It's a practical guide, light enough in the hand that even the bedridden can use it, and light enough on the wallet that anyone can afford to give it as a gift. I wouldn't be surprised if some doctors kept a stack to hand out one to every patient. There are even some affordable recordings available to support the exercises in the book.
All in all, a deceptively simple text—like the practice of "doing nothing" for a while each day, it has a value far beyond what is apparent at first glance. I'm tempted to give it to a friendly doctor, but I think I'll be keeping it for myself.
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