Cluck like a chicken by Wally Muller Published August 2006 in the Hawkwood Journal
With the summer under way many of you may have gone to the Calgary Stampede. I’m sure that many of you have sat on the grass or lack there of, at the Coca Cola Stage, free show and watched while a hypnotist did his hilarious stage presentation. As you watched in wonder and amazement you probably thought to yourself, that you would never go up on stage and be made to act so silly. You probably said to yourself, “I would never go up there and get controlled by the hypnotist. I don’t want to cluck like a chicken”. Do you remember at the beginning of the show the hypnotist asked for volunteers and you saw all the hands shoot up. Did you see the smiles on the faces of the people that went up on stage? They were happy to be picked to act silly. They are only doing what they want to do. During the show if the hypnotist gave them a suggestion that they didn’t want, they would reject it. He would then change the suggestion or just tell them to close their eyes and move to another person. A person can’t be made to do anything that goes against what they feel they should not do even while in hypnosis. So you didn’t want to be hypnotized. Well guess what? You have been hypnotized many, many times without you even knowing it.
Have you ever read a book that was so captivating that you could hardly put it down? You could imagine what every character in the book looked like. You could imagine being right there watching things unfold. Even when you put the book down you were still thinking about what you read. Yes, you were hypnotized.
Have you watched a two hour movie that was so good that the time passed so quickly that you couldn’t believe it was over? Yes you’ve been hypnotized. Hypnosis is nothing more than allowing your sub-conscious mind and your imagination to flow freely. Our lives are governed by the events and experiences we have had. You can’t ride a bike unless you have learned how. The body can’t go where the mind has never been. Yet even if you haven’t been on a bike in many, many years you can still get on one and ride. That’s experience.
In 1958 the American Medical Association, approved and published a report stating that there are definite and proper uses for hypnosis in the practice of medicine and dentistry? The British Medical Association had done the same in 1956 and in 1961 hypnosis was recognized as a legitimate treatment modality by the American Psychiatric Association. In 1966 The National Institutes for Health recognized hypnosis as an effective and legitimate treatment for pain and other symptoms associated with cancer treatment. The Mayo Clinic proceedings, from April, 2005, review a wide range of legitimate uses for hypnosis in medicine and can be viewed at: www.mayoclinicproceedings.com/inside.asp?AID=888&UID
People that go to a hypnotist for therapeutic reasons want to be hypnotized. They have feelings, emotions, experiences and other things that are affecting their lives and they want help.
There are things in our lives that have happened that may have a negative consequence in our minds. It has been said, “The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken”. We may have experienced a negative event as a child or as an adult that we have dismissed or forgotten about. This negative situation imprinted a feeling from that event. This is an emotional feeling not a physical feeling so as we went on with our lives that feeling stayed with us. As our life changed we may have run into situations that were significant enough for that feeling too show up again. That same powerful feeling that we experienced during that original negative event now comes back probably much stronger. It may come back as something that we now label as anxiety, stress, a chronic pain, an upset stomach (IBS), or a powerful overwhelming fear of something. The feeling may be understood by the mind as an emptiness inside of us that we cover with things that make us feel good like food that causes unwanted weight gain. This feeling can become so strong that it may cause what doctors refer to as syndromes. They don’t know what the physical cause is or how to fix it so they experiment with different medications that may or may not help. It may be caused by the emotional feeling that has mutated and become so strong that it is unrecognizable from the initial feeling from the negative event of our past.
The appropriate use of hypnosis to find the “initial sensitizing event” can eliminate that overwhelming feeling. If the root of that feeling is gone so will the effect it has at this time in our lives.
There are many types of hypnosis. Some hypnotists use direct suggestion attempting to reprogram and overwrite the event. This will probably take many sessions and can be very effective for some people. There are hypnotists that use regression techniques to take the client’s mind back to the initial event and help the person understand the event with a more mature mind and to show them that it’s ok now. The types of hypnosis are as varied as the ailments for which people seek help. The hypnotist is the guide through the client’s thoughts and feelings. If the client truly wants help they will follow the hypnotist’s guidance. At any time if a client feels uncomfortable about the process the hypnotist is using they could reject the suggestion, open their eyes and be out of the hypnosis.
Many medical doctors, dentists, psychiatrists and psychologists are introduced to hypnosis during their training. It is, for some, a misunderstood segment of their training. They may dismiss it because they can’t physically touch it. Others like psychiatrists and psychologists will use it only for certain clients. Hypnosis can be used for virtually any ailment labeled a syndrome and many chronic conditions. It is very successful for smoking cessation if the client truly wants to quit.
That constant irritable stomach problems you are having that the doctor has not been able to help with that shows up every time you get into a certain situation. Maybe the migraine you get at certain times. The anxious stress that causes your breath to become labored and tight that is called stress induced asthma. They could all be caused just by that old feeling. The internet is a great place to research what ails you. Go to the internet and Google your ailment and add the word hypnosis. See what comes up. Remember we are a product of our feelings, emotions and experiences. Those feeling may not affect everyone in a negative manner but if you read through this information and you said to yourself, “that’s me”, then maybe you should check out a certified hypnotists in your area. By the way the hypnotist can get you cluck like a chicken but only if you want them too.