This past weekend a group of about 20 stellar humans came together for a class in Neo-Ericksonian Hypnosis in New York City. I was pleased as punch to introduce or remind the assembly of basic tenets and essential skill sets of the art of communicating hypnotically.

We spent the better part of the first day doing very little of what most people think of as hypnosis. We did do an open-eyed trance exploration in groups of two (which, in itself, was different from the stereotypical trance induction) but most of the day was sharpening our non-verbal communication skills and sensory acuity.

Of course, there was some theory and the inevitable diagrams (I love drawing diagrams),

and there were the video clips from TV and audio clips that helped add some VAK interest to the proceedings, even if folks were pretty much getting the ideas without technological assistance.

By day two we were starting playing with Ericksonian Hypnotic Language Patterns, trance tonality, and therapeutic story telling. The students were fantastic in their willingness to open themselves up to new ideas and ways of looking at hypnotic realities. I was afraid I might lose one or two during the movement trance (Qigong) or the “Both/And Logic” trance exercise but they dove right in. True Trancernauts all.

Now class, if you are reading this, I do hope you will get busy on your homework sooner rather than later. December gets a bit busy for most people after the solstice. It might be smart to  write those metaphors while it’s all still fresh in your minds…or not.  ;)

I look forward to hearing them in January when class resumes, the adventure continues, and we  go deeper into the world of Hypnosis.

Reverse Meta Model
If you are new to this blog, the explanation of what is meant by this phrase is explained in earlier posts. Here are two more categories of presuppositions that are very useful.

Change of State Verbs

(change, transform, turn into, become)

Often, when you change one small behavior, you soon transform the entire gestalt.

Change of Place Verbs

(come, go, leave, depart, enter)

If I’ve gone when you arrive, you can enter through the side door.

Neo-Ericksonian Approaches to Psychotherapy & Hypnosis

Any story can become a therapeutic metaphor when you effectively utilize a very simple technique I like to call “realizing.” You have a character in your story have an insight and use that realization to deliver an embedded command to your listener.

Here’s an example of a very ordinary story.

John was working late. He had a deadline to meet for his job at the publishing company where he worked. Somewhere around 10:00 he felt hungry so he ordered a pizza and had it delivered to the office. After paying and tipping the delivery guy he took a break from the computer, ate a couple of slices, carefully labeled the pizza box and put it in the refrigerator in the employee lounge.

Here’s the same story with a couple of realizations stuck in with an embedded command in each.

John was working late. He had a deadline to meet for his job at the publishing company where he worked. Somewhere around 10:00 he felt hungry so he ordered a pizza and had it delivered to the office. When the delivery guy brought the pizza John gave him a very nice tip. He always did that with delivery people because long ago he realized that people really work hard for a living and you should  take care of people who take care of you. So he took a break from the computer and ate a couple of slices of the pizza and really focused on how delicious it was. He loved to take time to eat slowly, even when he was on deadline, because he figured life is what you make it and he believed you should take time to enjoy every moment. After eating a couple if slices he carefully labeled the pizza box and put it in the refrigerator in the employee lounge.

Your character can realize whatever you want your listener to hear. When you  use embedded commands you ensure they will be hearing it.

Premiere Workshop of “Stories from the Outside Inn”

I don’t know how many of you have looked at the web site “Stories from the Outside Inn” (www.storiesfromtheoutsideinn.com), but it is a lovely website Nick Kemp and I put together last year. The imaginary Inn is actually a place you can download free MP3s that are 5-minute trances or stories of various descriptions. There is original ambient music for each track as well.

Well, Nick and I have just completed out first “Stories from the Outside Inn” workshop at the Queens hotel in Leeds. It was a wonderful journey. Fourteen brave souls joined us for the ride. Over two days we explored the elements of story telling, from the writing to the telling. We explored ways of refining and enhancing those elements by use of Ericksonian Language Patterns, voice use, tempo and pacing, and strove to strike a dynamic balance between seemingly disparate parts, like being totally planned and scripted to being totally spontaneous and improvising. A state we called an in-between state but maybe, now that I think of it, it’s more properly an “Inn-between State.”

The results were amazing. It is said that the proof is in the pudding. Universally, the creations of the class were absolutely stellar. You can look forward to hearing them in the next weeks and months to come on the web site. TIl then my heartfelt gratitude goes out to all our guests at the Outside Inn this past weekend and to Nick and his wife Sue for their generous hospitality.

Change of Time Verbs and Adverbs

is a category of presupposition using words like the following: begin, end, stop, start, continue, proceed, already, still, yet, anymore. With these time oriented words you presuppose movement or action in time.

As you start to apply these teachings, you’ll stop being stuck in old patterns.

Continue visiting www.dougobrien’s blog whenever you want to gain useful language skills.

You are still growing and evolving as long as you stay curious.

An article in this Tuesday’s New York Times Science section was absolutely fascinating in a variety of ways so I felt I had to bring it to your attention.

First the skinny - a recent paper in The Journal of the American Medical Association calls into question the long held belief that cancers move linearly; that a cell acquired a mutation and little by little grew from there. Mutations are not supposed to revert spontaneously. But apparently, they sometimes do. Patients sometimes have spontaneous remissions - they get better when they “shouldn’t” and sometimes without medical intervention - and this is blowing some doctors’ minds.

I’m wondering if this isn’t the first glimmer of a real sea change in our understanding of how healing happens. There have been many moments like this throughout history. Like everyone knew the earth was flat until everyone knew it wasn’t.

So it’s a very cool, very momentous development, but what’s also wonderful is this delicious moment in between paradigm shifts. . . this transition time when people’s minds are in the process of being bent and molded into new shapes - metaphorically speaking, of course.

I love it particularly from a Sleight of Mouth/Polya Patterns standpoint. How is it that people believe what they believe? At what point does a stack of evidence finally convince someone of the alternate viewpoint?

Just get a load of this amazing quote of Dr. Robert Kaplan, chairman of the department of health services at the School of Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“At the end of the day, I’m not sure how certain I am about this, but I do believe it. The weight of the evidence suggests there is reason to believe.”

Isn’t that great? How equivocal can a person be in one sentence? Is he running for office?

Maybe Dr. Kaplan needs heavier evidence. But truly, it’s probably just a matter of time before he’ll completely shift from one belief system to another. In the meantime, I hope he enjoys this remarkable, in-between, state as much as I do.

Quantifiers are words that presuppose more than one thing or idea is at play here. (only, even, except, just)

It’s not only about quitting smoking, it’s about exploring a whole world of possibilities.

With even one look at dougobriensblog.com you’ll be glad you did.

It’s not just polite that you acknowledge the sources of your materials.

Neo-Ericksonian Approaches to Psychotherapy & Hypnosis

Wherefore “Neo-Ericksonian” Hypnosis?

One of my favorite things I get to do each year is to teach Karate-style wood-breaking to an assembled group of high school juniors at an annual Rotary Club Youth Leadership Camp. It’s called RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Award) and I’m privileged to offer a two-hour long presentation both on how to break wood and, of course, the metaphorical value of what doing it means. The wonderful people at RYLA flatter me by saying that it is one of the high points of the kids’ experience each year, but it is certainly a high point of mine.

Now, to successfully break a board with your bare hand requires several things. One of the most important of these is to follow through. To do this you aim past the board. You imagine that your target is a few inches on the other side of the board. So, when the time comes to break it, you are not punching the board, you are punching through the board.

I call it creative lying. (It is also an integral part of my E.A.S.E. model of goal getting. If you’d like to read more about that you can find an article about that on my Ericksonian.com website.)  I call it that because, in a way, it is exactly what you are doing… you are lying to yourself. The goal is actually to hit the board but you tell yourself, and act as if, your target is beyond the board. The radically improves your chances of succeeding.

Well, in the same way, attempting to emulate or model Milton Erickson and be as effective with our clients as he was is well and good. I can’t imagine any better role model than Dr. Erickson. But what if we dared to imagine going further and aimed just a little bit past that goal? What if we strove to follow his lead and actually improve upon it?

This is the goal of creating the label “Neo-Ericksonian” Hypnosis. I believe in many ways it is the world many of us are living in already. To give it a name allows us to ask important questions and to define and refine what is actually meant by the term.  My hope is that, perhaps paradoxically, this will help clarify the original vision Milton had and create even better practitioners of the art.

Another category of presupposition, Repetitive Verbs and Adverbs are verbs and adverbs beginning in “re.” Some examples include repeatedly, return, restore, renew. If you “return” something, it presupposes you borrowed it in the first place.

And you’ll discover that trance helps you restore  your whole body.

John was going to renew his subscription.

If you repeatedly do that, it might get stuck that way.

Here’s another category of presupposition. This is still in the realm of reversing the meta model because if we heard our clients using language like this we might choose to question their presupposition using the meta model.

Repetitive Cue Words are words that imply - or presuppose - that the action referred to has occurred and can or should be repeated.

(too, also, either, again, back)

I suggest you do a swish pattern again.

Well, you can also quote Ericksonian.info if you cite the site.

It’s a wonderful thing to have dessert, too.

Sally wasn’t long and tall either.