As I was coming back from a seminar recently, I realized there’s an interesting pattern in the difference between how I approach mastering hypnosis and NLP, versus some of my friends and colleagues…

For example, my good friend Josh Houghton (with a hypnosis training blog) is the type of guy who likes to really master things before moving on to another subject.

It has led to an interesting dynamic between us — I’ll be talking to him on the phone, “Josh, you have to check out X Y and Z’s latest NLP technique which combines sliding anchors with time lines, this is amazing!” and he’ll say “Well Taylor right now in my life I’m mastering the Dave Elman Induction and maybe I’ll check out this stuff next year or so.”

This attitude totally drives me nuts, and I could never do it, but it’s the “slow and steady wins the race” philosophy. It’s the idea that if something is worth mastering, it’s worth mastering well.

My business partner in my clinical practice also likes to take things step by step. For her it is about studying the work of her mentors almost exclusively. One of the reasons I posted about Gil Boyne Online on the blog is because she studied everything he had to offer. For her, it makes more sense to really master one thing fully, than to spread your resources on many things all at once.

Clearly, there is no best way here. For me it is the excitement of new learnings that keeps me going. When I really need a special tool or technique, it will come into my mind, even years later. And most importantly, I find that there are an abundance of brilliant people out there who are doing things just slightly differently and getting results.

I was at an Andrew Austin event recently, and right after the event I had a client that had an issue that was similar to what we had talked about, so I decided to launch right into what I had just learned — pretty much abandoning my current skills and framework on the fly to test out a new approach.

To be honest, I found that I’m not a huge fan of the way Andrew does his changework. It seems to represent a style that someone who worked in the health field and was trained in NLP primarily (not hypnosis) would come up with. But I think it’s very intelligent none-the-less and that’s why I would use it with my clients… just to see what happens.

One of the things we learned in his class was to shift the brain patterns of someone with a traumatic event by having them physically pass a ball between their hands in a specific way. The explanation given was that it creates a balance in the brain activity.

Although it didn’t make an immediate change in my client as she was remembering the event, it got me thinking — how ELSE can I work that essentially “forces” a change in brain chemistry, and perhaps utilizes the principles of Energy Medicine / Energy Psychology?

This is pretty much what EFT does, by the way.

So given that — which type of learner are you? Are you more focused on mastering a skillset exclusively (I’m guessing this is metaprogram related), or are you the type who likes to explore an entire range of different things in order to get to where you need to be?

I see advantages in both. And I would love to test this, but ultimately this is a long-term strategy. And for me, I just love learning new stuff.

It’s funny, someone described to me one time that Ericksonian hypnosis is “white collar hypnosis,” and that “I’m a blue collar hypnotist, so I stick with Elman’s style!”

It’s food for thought. Which way do you learn best, and how does it impact your sessions?

Since I do offer hypnosis training on a regular basis, the question often comes up — can anyone learn to do this and become a hypnotist?

Sometimes when people ask me if hypnotists have a special hypnotic power, I reply “Yes, and no.” And that’s a truthful answer!

The answer is “Yes” in the sense that I can teach you the techniques on how to do hypnotic inductions, or the knowledge of how to perform a specific NLP technique or a set of steps.

It’s “Yes”, anyone can learn to become a hypnotist, in the sense that we can even talk about how to gain rapport, how to do a proper pre-talk, and how to test for suggestibility (we also call them imagination games). You CAN learn all of that, and in fact you can be very effective with it.

And for most things, you can learn to do hypnosis by having no innate talents before you came to the training.

However… the answer is also “No,” in that it’s difficult to teach intuition, and true persistence, and thinking in abstract ways. These are all skills needed by someone who wishes to become “the best in the world” type of clinical hypnotist.

And it’s a quality that is difficult to quantify. It requires thinking on another level — getting rapport on another level. Not being a “yes” person, and getting deep rapport with the subconscious mind. Of course, our main course teaches you how to become damn good at clinical-style work.

So why then, if it is so easily taught, do I stubbornly insist that the answer to the question “Can anyone learn to become a hypnotist” is both Yes, AND No?

It’s because everything looks rosy until you’re dealing with a hard case. And when someone’s training gets exhausted, where do they go THEN? That’s the type of grit that you only get from actually doing it, and not giving up. Sheer persistence and confidence that you will get somewhere. Putting yourself on the line.

When someone comes into our office, we “read” them within a few minutes. We ask them specific, targeted questions which are designed to elicit what their actual problem is. It’s not uncommon for a client to begin talking, and about 5 minutes into the conversation we’ll say “Ok, I already got what the thing is. You ready to go into hypnosis?”

I honestly don’t think this is quality that can be taught, because it’s who you ARE. If you’re not grounded in yourself, then your results in supporting and empowering others might be sporadic at best.

However, I also believe that someone can go through a deep change themselves, and they will eventually develop the personality traits necessary to do “the real work” and become a hypnotist – not just do hypnosis.

But can wisdom be taught over a hypnosis weekend? Not really. It requires being actually out there in life, discovering who you are. And that’s what it takes sometimes to get past the critical factor.

Comments? Is it possible to teach intuition and wisdom? Let me hear from you.

By the way, our next training is coming up in April, in the Washington DC area. E-mail for more information.

For any of you who are familiar with the “old masters” of hypnotherapy, Gil Boyne was the best of the best.

Although Gil passed away recently in October of this year – and he will be sorely missed – his work lives on…

I’ve dedicated the last few days to watching the master at work. He was a truly amazing hypnotist. His wording of suggestions was perfect, the delivery was spot-on, and his “Transforming Therapy” shows a depth of experience that is unrivaled. Gil was the instructor’s instructor, and many many hypnotists now benefit from his work without knowing where it came from.

Now, what I didn’t know until fairly recently is that Gil Boyne’s work is available online. The Gil Boyne Online website was for a couple years set at a standard rate of $397 per year. And I know people who paid it, willingly and gratefully.

But the price has now been changed, not on a “per year” basis, but as a one-time fee of $97. This is a pretty amazing bargain.

Note: I have no idea how long this will last — blog posts last a long time, so please don’t come to me 6 months from now wondering why the price has increased — I have no control over it.

Here is a quote from the website:

Why learn online from Gil Boyne?

Gil dedicated his life to the development of the profession and mentoring professional hypnotherapists, and his LIVE Master Class attracted people from around the world for more than 55 years. Gil Boyne Online is part of Gil’s legacy of valuable teaching material, and is a fantastic resource for hypnotherapists of all levels, but especially for those who missed the opportunity to see Gil at work while he was alive.

So here it is – I recommend that you check it out:

Quick Introduction to Changing NLP Submodalities

One of the most useful techniques from NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) is changing what are called visual submodalities. For this article we will be doing a simple exploration of how this works.

The technique you’re about to learn is something that I use a lot in the office (The Washington DC Hypnosis Center) when someone comes in with a fear for instance. Although it’s not the only technique we use, it tends to get rid of the emotional ties that are connected to memories (literally, the pictures we see in our heads when we think about something that happened in the past).

Have you ever gotten bad feelings from remembering something?

Now, chances are that if you’re human, you have memories of things in your life that didn’t turn out perfectly. If I ask you right now to think of something really not great that happened to you, some version of sadness, anger, guilt, or another less than positive emotion will probably come up.

This technique works wonders to wipe out those negative feelings from the memory. Once you have learned the lesson that was there for you to learn, there is no need to keep having yourself feel bad. But, for most people, they have no idea how to get rid of that feeling, and are being triggered by that memory — in a sense, they are living at the “effect” of life.

What we want to do is to shift this, so that you can think about whatever happened and instead of having the same reaction, you’ll be able to feel peaceful and in control. Got it?

The prerequisite to this technique is that you can see a picture, movie, or polaroid of the event, which most people can do well.

A quick and very effective NLP submodality process

1. View the “problem” image that you don’t like
2. Change it to black and white
3. Push it further away from you as if putting it on a movie screen
4. Now move your awareness a couple steps back, and look at yourself looking at that black and white picture
5. Make the picture smaller and push it way back, so that it’s about the size of a postage stamp, way off into the distance
6. Make it translucent or transparent so you can see through it
7. Turn the picture upside down
8. Start to fill in that postage stamp picture with your favorite color that makes you feel good
9. Now see only the solid color that you like in that space, and zoom that forward into the place where the other picture used to be.
10. Notice how you feel. Try to get back the same feeling you had at Step #1. Rinse and repeat if desired.

That’s It!

I highly encourage you to use this process often. It isn’t in any particular order, but this is the way I tend to use it. Once someone has the process down, they can usually do it very quickly. Have fun!

One of our TRANCED OUT coaching clients recently wrote us this e-mail:

During the third call, Taylor was explaining the difference between post-hypnotic suggestions and anchors. A trigger was compared to a computer program – “When X happens, Y follows after”. He talked about anchors being something learned at the neurological level. The example given seemed more like a non-verbal trigger, he referenced the process of getting Oleg to smile (Y) when Taylor touched his knee (X).

Given these definitions do all anchors begin as triggers? Are triggers “upgraded” to anchors due to repetition or compounding?
How does learning at the neurological level compare to the stimulus/response cycle of classical conditioning?

This is a fascinating topic to explore, and a great distinction to make as a hypnotist. The question is:

Here is my answer…

Hypnotic Anchoring

A hypnotic anchor is similar to classical conditioning (AKA Pavlov).  The dog salivates and Pavlov rings a bell. The dog salivates, and Pavlov rings a bell. Pavlov rings a bell, and the dog salivates!

What we are doing with a hypnotic anchor is pairing two stimuli together — and we’re training the brain to neurologically connect them.

Now for those of you who know a thing or two about anchoring, you know that the intensity of the stimulus (feeling) that you attach the anchor to, the moment in time at which you attach the anchor, and the uniqueness of the “trigger” are all important facts.

So an anchor works by one thing happening, and then another thing being triggered, as a “knee jerk” response. It is a below conscious response, and in fact happens at the level of the neurology.

Post Hypnotic Suggestions

Now, a suggestion on the other hand works primarily in a psychological way. It involves the mind, not the brain. Whereas an anchor is like a one-way set of events (X trigger -> Y event), we can actually give two contrasting suggestions only a few seconds apart from each other and switch the direction of the effect.

Confused yet? What I am saying is that we can give a suggestion to a hypnotized person that “You have now forgotten your first name.”  And then, seconds later, we can tap them on the head and say, “Now you remember! What’s your name?” And the second they remember we can say “Oops, it’s gone again! Where did your name go?”

And the suggestions will tend to be taken literally.

But with an anchor, there is no “literal” or “not literal.” It is kind of like getting a dog to salivate. It happens, and it happens, and it happens, but it never goes through the mind in order to work. It works below the mind.

What I advocate to hypnotists is that if something happens automatically at the neurological level, you are set for a much more powerful mechanism… Rather than having the pesky analytical side of the mind come in and mess up all your good work.

My Reply!

I thought it would be useful to include a segment of my reply to our coaching client. Here it is:

Now one way to examine this is what would happen if we needed to change these anchors/suggestions. If we needed to change an anchor, we would either need to nullify it’s effects by doing something like collapsing anchors, or we would need to re-pair the stimulus to do something else. With a suggestion, we don’t need to do all that, we just remove the suggestion.

So in a practical sense, it’s like how I compare/contrast direct suggestion with regression work. This is a discussion I have with a lot of clients. Most hypnosis tries to re-arrange the subconscious programming without regard to the feelings. If you follow the analogy, the effects of a direct suggestion results from the following of post-hypnotic suggestions, whereas regression work deals with changing/releasing the anchors involved (in an emotional sense) for the person’s issue.

Hypnotic Anchoring == emotional / neurological.  A post-hypnotic suggestion = Almost feeling-less at the core, unless following the suggestion also involves invoking feelings.

Comments? Do you have a different view on the workings of these two techniques?

I’ll leave you with a thought:  One of the marks of a professional hypnotist is being able to set an anchor… and make it look like a post-hypnotic suggestion. Hint, hint. Until next time!

Not too long ago at the Maryland NLP Group, I taught an NLP technique known as the Pragmagraphic Swish which is an NLP pattern by Robert Dilts. This is not the classic “Swish” that many people have learned; instead, it’s a wonderful technique that brings more choice to a previously compulsive behavior.

For example, one great way to use this technique is in helping someone to eliminate their need to eat sugary snacks. In fact, this was an actual example from the class. One of the participants shared that when he even took a little bite of a sweet snack, he couldn’t stop and would then be compelled to keep eating more.

Here were the Class Notes: The Pragmagraphic Swish Article, and this technique being outlined as the NLP Pattern of the Month. Read both of these pages for the full understanding of doing this technique.

With the sugary snacks problem, First I had him get into the state of being in the compulsion. How does it feel when you “Have To” do this behavior — where you simply must have it? The next step is to take a physical step back, and elicit the state he was in just before being in the “Have To” space. This is the “Want To” state. Another way of describing this is to ask, if time continued naturally, would would happen right before he got in that state of absolute compulsion?

Then the third step in the process is that he takes another step back, into what Dilts calls the “?” space, which is the state that comes right before the “Want To.” When I first learned this technique, I was very confused as to what the question-mark state was. I didn’t get it — what was this state supposed to accomplish?

The “?” state is what comes right before the “Want To.” So, what is the state, before the state, that leads to the state… of having to do something? We are 2 steps removed from actually being “compelled” to do it, but it is linear — in other words, if we continued to stay in the “?” state long enough, as time progressed we would then move into “Want To” and then to “Have To,” and in fact, for someone with a compulsion, this is exactly what they’ve been doing. Look at the diagram on the NLP Pattern of the Month page for a visual layout of this.

Now the interesting part of the technique is that after getting into the question-mark state, you then have the person take a step to the right, which you establish as the “Choice/Creativity” state. In this space, you elicit a state of choice, where they could choose to continue doing the compulsive behavior, OR they could make another decision which leads them to a better place.

Then what you do, is move the person back and forth between the “?” state and the “Creativity/Choice” state while playing around with the submodalities, so that you “collapse” both of the states and the natural consequence of being in the new, transformed “?” state is that they are pulled more into creativity and choice, and less into the compulsive behavior.

I find this pattern to be very useful for a situation where someone wants to reduce the impact of a particular compulsive behavior, or even to work on lessening the impact of negative internal voices which was another example that was demonstrated in the class.

My challenge to everyone is to go and USE this technique… If you have clients, use it on every client that you can for a week or so, just to drill it into your brain. This will allow you to have a tool bag full of skills, so that if you have a tough client, you can pick exactly the right technique for them and use it skillfully.

This is a great technique. Read both of Dilts’ webpages on it (He has an entire encyclopedia of NLP patterns online), and if you have ANY questions on this … post a response to this article and I’ll do my best to solve anything that is unclear. Have fun!

Do you enjoy reading hypnosis blogs?  I think it’s great that hypnotists are blogging about their experiences, although some of them don’t know how to start a blog. If that’s you, then contact me and we’ll talk.

At any rate, here are the Top 10 Blogs that I always find myself reading:

1)  Whats On My Brain Hypnosis Blog

One of the most popular hypnosis blogs on the internet, Whats On My Brain is updated by my good friend Joshua Houghton, who puts all sorts of good content on there. This is probably the blog I check most often. Highly recommended.

2) Life of Brian

Second on the list is this site by Brian David Phillips. This site gets updated probably once a day, and even though the blog does go “off topic” of hypnosis quite a bit, Brian’s worthwhile posts often make up for it.

3) Champion Mind Skills

This is VelvetMallet’s blog, and he posts all sorts of great things on here! Definitely one to check out and put on your RSS feed.

4) Keys to the Mind Blog

Keys to the Mind was started by Nathan Thomas, a brilliant young hypnotist out of New Zealand who is always promoting one thing or another. Good blog to keep an eye on.

5)  Regression Hypnotherapy Blog

Matt Sison and Randy Shaw’s blog talks about Advanced Hypnotherapy concepts and techniques. These guys are probably the best people around to learn hypnotic regression from.

6) Cal Banyan’s Blog

This site by Cal Banyan has a lot of advertisements, but Cal does deliver a lot of great free content, and I would be remiss not to put it on the list. His podcasts are lots of fun.

7) The Transparent Hypnotist

Ellie Blunt’s blog, The Transparent Hypnotist, features a ton of good information and interviews. In fact she interviewed me a while ago, which was a lot of fun.

8 ) Dave Sabat’s Exuberance Hypnotherapy

This blog is updated once in a while with some interesting things — the latest post while I am writing this is one on persistence, which I am sure all of us can use in our lives.

9) Success Work Hypnosis

Even though I’ve never met Jeff, this is a pretty cool blog with lots of interesting documents intermixed in. It might appeal more to the “conversational hypnosis” or “persuasion” crowd rather than the clinical hypnotist, though.

10) Your Hypnotist

And last by not least, Andy Mitchell’s blog contains guest articles and information for professional hypnotists. Andy and I have been friends for some time, and it’s always interesting to see what he comes up with!

That’s it! Did I miss any? Let me know if I did, and your thoughts on how you like these blogs. These are the ones that I read so you should be good in adding all of these to your RSS reader!

Here are three things that have come about as a result of my learning hypnotherapy (and learning hypnosis). Each one of these things has been a major force in my life, and has provided plenty of changes!

1) Sensory Acuity and Reading Body Language.

I used have a quality that a lot of guys have — which is being totally ignorant about body language. I didn’t know how to distinguish between different “eye codes,” and I wasn’t aware of the differences between confident and non-confident body language.

Through my study of Hypnosis and NLP, I’ve become very acutely aware of these presences, and it’s not because I am “analyzing” the different patterns. One of my friends does this — he will look for clusters of body language cues. I don’t do that. For me, it has become largely unconscious.

Because I am able to tell exactly what is going on, I actually know when the right time is to drop someone’s arm, or the exact intonation I’m going to use with an induction. It helps me to live much more in the moment instead of having to catch up with whatever just happened.

2) Dreams Are The First Step Of Any Outcome

In order to do anything, you have to go inside and make a picture, sound, or feeling. It might not even be consciously noticeable.  What I have found is that by simply making an intention or a dream towards what I want to have happen, my brain rewires itself to meet that goal.

What is really cool is that if my goal is to be in the moment with someone, I can do that. There’s a specific strategy for how to do it, and now it’s just automatic. Learning hypnosis helped me to understand consciously how all of this worked, so that I could trigger it.

3) It’s Okay To RELAX!

While it might be funny to a lot of experienced hypnotists out there, most people do not believe that they can simply decide to relax. They believe you have to do something before it. Hey, I used to think the same thing! Emotions just happen to me, right?

What I know now is that I can simply decide to relax and go with the flow. And I can do it in cool ways! The other day I was doing a hypnosis training, and I did the “Drug of Choice” induction with one of the women.

She wanted to have a “hypnotic joint”. What’s great about this is that she can now feel relaxed and feel pleasurable feelings any time she wants, without breaking any laws or spending any money!

Learning hypnotherapy has taught me that you can relax in the moment, be peaceful about whatever is going on, and feel complete all without effort.

There is no doubt about it…

Networking, meeting, and knowing other hypnotists when you wish to become better is one of the most  helpful things you can do.

Just yesterday I had a bi-weekly hypnosis lunch here in Washington DC, next week I will be going to a monthly talk that a group here does, and a couple hours from now I am due to talk hypnosis yet again.

It is priceless to attend this type of hypnosis meeting, because you will learn insider information that most people simply are not exposed to. It is akin to getting free training.

Here are the Top 5 Ways to Meet Other Hypnotists:

1)  The Sleepwalkers Organization

In most major  cities, there is a sleepwalkers hypnosis group which you can get in touch with and go to the meetings. Not all of the groups are active (for example, the one here in DC is not very active), but I have had a lot of fun by attending the sleepwalkers meetings and by instructing them.

2)  Groups on MeetUp.com

MeetUp.com allows you to create groups which have local meetings on topics that might interest you. Don’t just look for a “hypnosis meeting” but also “hypnotherapy meetups” and “NLP meetups”.

There’s at least 4 major Meetup groups near me that I could go to that are listed on the site. It happens that I know more than that, but this is a great start.

3) Visit Hypnosis Communities and Groups

Oftentimes with a simple search on a community site (such as FreeHypnosisCommunity.com), you can find people locally who are practicing in your same area. When you get active in discussions and post your name and location, you are announcing for the world to come and find you.

Also participate in groups such as the HypnosisTechniqueExchange, where you will not only find great information, but by posting your location you will attract the attention of others near you. You could even do an introductory post asking people to introduce you to other hypnotists!

4) Call up any practicing hypnotists in the area and introduce yourself.

This can be very effective. It may seem scary at first, and some hypnotists (especially some Ericksonian hypnotists who also have PhDs) may be off-putting on even talking to you, but MOST hypnotists will be more than glad to help you out and become friends with you.

Offer to buy them lunch and find out about them. You will be surprised at the high-level responses you get. Whenever someone calls me in this way, I am always VERY impressed.

5) Check with your hypnosis certification body for local events.

If you are a Certified Hypnotist or a member of any hypnosis organizations (such as the SET, NGH, IMDHA, and so on), check with your organizations to find out about local meetings. The NGH here in DC has a once-a-month meeting which I am going to in a couple of weeks.

You might be surprised that events exist that you didn’t know about. And if any or all of the above aren’t enough for you, go to The 6th Way:

6) If no groups exist, create one.

This is how I started up The Hypnosis Club, which turned into the biggest hypnosis group in my area during college. I’ll never forget the first time we got 20 people to come to a hypnosis seminar in a near-by hotel. It was an experience, and because I had put so much publicity out about it, a professional stage hypnotist (Hypnotic Blaze) decided to drive down and do a show for us.

Are you ready to lead up your own events? This is the way to go. When you get a regular amount of people coming to the group, you can sponsor professional trainers to come and do trainings there. I’ve flown across the country just because someone took the time to start up a group and followed through with it!

Whatever the way that you meet up with others, it is very important to get out there and start learning techniques. You will grow much faster, and I have learned tons from my friends who are hypnotists, completely free of charge.

Imagine an absolutely-free hypnosis training, all through the comfort of your own home, that lasts 10 days with over 20 of the top self-hypnosis and personal change experts in the world presenting lessons to you while you relax with a cold beverage in your favorite easy-chair…

Welcome to the Hypnosis World Summit.

My friend and fellow hypnotist Tom Nicoli (who, if you’re familiar, is the creator of World Hypnotism Day) e-mailed me recently to let me know of a great event coming up called the Hypnosis World Summit.

If you have heard of names such as Paul Scheele, Jerry Kein, Tim Brunson and Dick Sutphen (all speakers at the event), you know that these people -always- produce quality no matter where they are, and they are going to make this event really shine.

The Hypnosis World Summit event is 100% virtual and online, and includes many topics about how to use the tools of hypnosis to grow our lives in many ways, like:

• How to get relief from physical pain and discomfort
• How to open the door to attracting abundance into your life
• How to end unhealthy eating patterns to lose weight
• How color can influence your life and how to use it to your advantage
• How to improve study skills and academic results
• Ways to manage your life more easily and relieve tension and stress
• And much more…

That’s something worth checking out! Here is the link to the hypnosis summit:

Tom Nicoli’s Hypnosis World Summit