CRY, BABY, CRY, CHAPTERS 10, 11, 513

One of the young mothers of my acquaintance asked if I would keep her five year old daughter for the evening. I was delighted, because she is one of the sweetest little girls I know and so well behaved. It was the Friday after Thanksgiving, and I was surprised to learn that they hadn't gone to visit the grandmother. The young mother said, "No, I had a disagreement with my mother the day before Thanksgiving, so I didn't go home." I wasn't surprised to learn that the little daughter had had an upset stomach for two days, throwing up and feeling generally miserable.

Although the little girl is fairly lively, that night she wouldn't leave my side. She just wanted to be held. After about an hour, she was hungry and we ate cereal together. Then, about an hour later, she was hungry again. She kept telling me how much better her stomach felt. The next day the young mother phoned, and my wife asked her how the little one was feeling. "Oh, she's feeling chipper as ever", she reported. My wife then told her why the little darling had become sick. Children are super sensitive about picking up the feeling of adults. When the mother got all upset with grandma, the child picked up the turmoil and translated it into an upset stomach. Of course, neither the mother or child knew why the little one became sick. (I didn't find out until later that the child's mother also had an upset stomach.)

Unfortunately, I know of no way to shield a child from these "negative vibrations ", as some people call them. One solution is to remove the child from the environment until everything gets back to normal, but this is usually not practicable. And too, when a parent is upset it is not likely that he will be thinking of how he is affecting a child.

I really wish I had a good method for shielding oneself from these negative vibrations. One adult can pick up the feelings of another the same way a child picks up from his parents. Some are more sensitive than others. I, myself, am very sensitive, and although I have had some success at turning it off, I don't know yet how to pass the technique on to others.

You, too, may have experienced this many times and not know it. Headaches are caused by tenseness. Tenseness is caused by you own thoughts or worries (except when you pick up this tenseness from another). If you work around other people, the next time you get a headache, ask yourself what you have been thinking about that has made you tense. If the truthful answer is "Nothing", then examine the people around you and find out whom you are picking up from.

If you are a wild child and have experienced a few hangovers, you have probably already challenged my statement that headaches are caused by tenseness. You know that some of them are caused by drinking too much the night before. Well, you are partly right. But, the real cause is the guilt feeling you have, because you drank the night before; this guilt, not the alcohol, causes your tenseness. Again I say, "Headaches are caused by tenseness."

If you don't want any more hangovers, either quit drinking or quit feeling guilty about it. As it says in the famous DESIDERATA, "Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself."

In the place where I work, there are many people who strongly resent any challenge to their capabilities. Consequently, violent arguments and high levels of emotion arise quite frequently. More than once, I have been quietly working when all of a sudden, I would begin to feel nervous and tense for no reason at all. Now, all I have to do is look around to determine from where the tenseness is emanating. Sometimes it is an individual sitting at his desk, quietly fuming over some supposed slight; but, more often, it is an argument going on a few desks away. If I can afford the time, I simply stroll slowly over to the coffee machine and hope that the air has cleared by the time I get back. Otherwise, I shield myself from it the best I can and go on working. It helps considerably just to know where it is coming from, and, that if it drags on too long, you can always get up and leave the area.

There's a, not so simple, solution to all of these situations, whether it be between parent and child, workers in the same environment, or husband and wife. The solution is for the people who create the tense situations to adopt a new outlook on life; to stop long enough to evaluate a situation and determine whether or not it is as all-fired important as they have always supposed it to be; to gain enough self-confidence that they don't have to always be on the defensive; to stop wallowing in self pity; and to start letting their mind rather than their emotions rule their life.

I said it wasn't a simple solution. In fact, I have had people tell me it can't be done. I know better. I am my own best guinea pig for these experiments. It would be hard to find anyone who has spent 50 years in any more "up tight" condition than I have. I was king of the migraines, the tight heart muscles, the constipation and the diarrhea. Fortunately for our children, they had several things going for them which counteracted, to a great extent, my frequent bouts of "up tightness". When I would get upset, my wife was always her sweetest self. She would pamper and sweet talk me until I got over my meanness. Then when my wife got upset, I'd treat her like a queen and baby her until she got over it. This sort of balanced things out, and the children didn't have to put up with so much negativity.

Another thing our children had in their favor was that neither my wife nor I ever made a big fuss when one of them got hurt or got sick. If one of the little ones stubbed a toe, we went through the old "kiss it and make it well routine, and told them to go on back to their play. If it were something more serious, like a sprained ankle or a cut lip, they got a little more attention but no more sympathy and only enough attention to start the hurt on the road to healing. We never mentioned it again or allowed them to dwell on the subject.

I know some parents who have to tell all the neighbors and talk about it for days when their children get hurt. Consequently, when the child needs attention again, he hurts himself again. The parent says the child is unlucky when, in fact, the parent causes it. You have heard of people who are called accident prone. These are people who have found that having an accident gets them the attention they need or gets them out of unwanted situations. If you told them that they were doing these things to themselves, they would swear you were crazy.

I used to have a neighbor whose children had one cold right after another, summer and winter. This neighbor was from up North, so he blamed the colds on the changeable Texas weather. I often wondered why his children had so many colds and mine never had any. I couldn't see how it could be caused by the weather, because my children were living in the same weather.

Not until many years later did I understand what caused his children to have colds. This neighbor was very unhappy in Texas and wanted to go back home, and he finally did. His children were picking up his unhappiness, and, consequently, crying almost continuously. A cold and runny nose are nothing in the world but outward manifestations of unhappiness, another way of crying. After the neighbor moved back home, I could bet that his children ceased to have colds so often.

I'm sure he said, "See, those colds were caused by that Texas weather. I'll never go back to Texas again." He didn't use the children's colds as an excuse to go back home though. He found a more manly way of bringing it about. He proceeded to ask his boss for a raise that he didn't deserve, and, when the boss refused, he quit in a huff. Everything worked out for the best, as it always does. I'm sure the children are much healthier and happier, because the dad is happier now. He was just a little boy grown tall who wasn't ready to leave mama and papa.

Quite often when I tell someone that disease is only a result of wrong thinking, their answer is, "That can't be true all the time. How about when little babies get sick?" It's hard for them to understand how a child can pick up the feelings of an adult and use it for its own. They have seen pictures of bacteria or have seen them in a microscope. They have also been conditioned all their lives to believe that microbes cause diseases, so it is reasonable that they find it hard to understand that the microbes do not cause the disease, that they only assist in making it manifest after the thoughts have caused it.

They can't see the waves of negative energy moving out from a person who is unhappy; and they can't see the waves of negative energy being absorbed by the child, so it is hard to believe that they exist. Thankfully, there has been some success in photographing these waves and detecting and recording them with electronic instruments, so in the near future this concept of the cause of illness will be much easier to accept. Once we accept the cause, then we will be better able to prevent the illnesses and better able to cure them after we have let ourselves develop them. In the meantime, anyone who has a child can easily prove this for himself by simply stopping to analyze his own feelings after he notices abnormal actions or dispositions in his child.

About the most dramatic evidence that I ever experienced surfaced one day when I had had a hard day at the office, I came home fully clothed in my mantle of negativity. I was sitting on the couch, just feeling depressed and gloomy when my little granddaughter came running into the room radiating sunshine and happiness, so glad to see me. She came running to within about three yards of me, stopped suddenly looking startled, then turned around and walked back toward the door, looking over her shoulder all the time. I knew the problem immediately so I mentally dissolved my gloom, held out my arms to her and she came sailing back to me, all smiles again. If you are observant, it is just such incidents that will confirm to you that the parent is capable of making his children sick or unhappy.

One New Year's morning, my wife and I were returning from a party. We were crossing a long narrow, ice covered bridge, as we neared the middle of the bridge, a car suddenly approached the bridge in front of us at a high rate of speed, hit the ice and started spinning out of control. All I could do was start applying my brakes gently and hope that he would, somehow, miss us. He didn't. It was a traumatic experience. I was hurt only slightly, but my wife sustained severe injury.

When an incident such as this occurs, quite often the emotional damage is more severe than the physical damage. For two or three months afterward, I would pull my car as far to the right as possible, or even pull off on the shoulder when an approaching car seemed to be too close to the middle of the road. I thought I recovered quite rapidly, with no after effects. My wife also claimed that she had developed no fear of driving or fear of other cars approaching, so I considered we had come out of the experience in pretty good shape.

About two years later, I had to go to Los Angeles on a business trip for a week, and took my wife with me. It rained all the time we were there. The only way to get around the Los Angeles area is to drive on the freeways. I was exceedingly nervous and fearful every time we went somewhere, but attributed it to the rain and the high rate of speed. No matter how often I told myself that there was nothing to fear, I couldn't shake the fearful feeling. Just as I was ready to leave Los Angeles, my office called and told me to go to Orange County to see one of our suppliers. It was still raining. By the time we got to Huntington Beach, where we were to spend the night, I was a nervous wreck.

The next morning, I left my wife at the motel while I drove on several miles to see the supplier. It was still raining. About half way to my destination, I noticed that I was perfectly relaxed and not the least bit nervous or fearful. Why?

When I had completed my business and was driving back to the hotel, it suddenly occurred to me why I had been so nervous. I wasn't nervous or fearful. It was my wife who was scared out of her wits, and I had simply been picking up her feelings. With this knowledge, the drive back to Los Angeles that night was quite different. All the way back, I stayed in the far right lane, and drove as slowly as the law would permit. Instead of trying to sooth myself, I was talking all the time to my wife, and trying to keep her as calm as possible.

Several times, I was bombarded by her feelings rather heavily, because we weren't the only car on the road. But at least I knew where the feeling was coming from and could cope with it.

As we flew back home that night, I let my mind wander back over the past two years, remembering the times I had become so upset when my wife was riding in the car with me. If I had only thought of it sooner. Even then, I was aware that a person's feeling are transmitted and can be picked up by another.

Only two days ago, I witnessed an instance of transference of feelings. I am putting this book together out at my lake cabin. My son and his friend came out to do some duck hunting. None of us had eaten since midmorning, so before they left for home that evening, I heated a pot of tamales and ranch style beans and we all ate about the same amount.

The next morning, about 10 o'clock, my son showed up again and wanted to know if I had been sick the night before. I hadn't. I felt great as usual. My son reported that both he and his friend had become extremely sick at about the same time, vomiting and with a bad case of diarrhea. He said he thought it was caused by the beans and tamales we ate. Now, he has been around me long enough to know that sickness is caused by thoughts, nothing else. So I corrected him once more. Then we sat down to try to figure out just what kind of thinking had caused their problem. I was pretty sure I already knew but I don't like to jump to conclusions.

I asked him what they discussed on the way home, what he thought about, and what he was unhappy about that he wanted to reject. Vomiting and diarrhea are often a physical manifestation of a mental rejection, and, when you have diarrhea and vomiting at the same time, you are really opposed to something. All of my questions revealed nothing that would indicate that my son had any problems. My son goes to college and was out for the Christmas recess, so he couldn't have been happier. But my son's friend had to go back to work the next day. He had a monotonous job, and, just before they left for home he was telling me how much he hated his job and how he hated to go back the next morning. Needless to say, he didn't report for work the next day, and the only conclusion I could reach was that he had brooded all the way home; and my son, who is as sensitive to other peoples' feelings as I am, had picked up his friend's feelings, accepted them as his own and manifested them physically and just as violently as his friend had.

Wouldn't it be marvelous if we had someway of relieving these tension, rejections and pent up emotions, whether they be our own or picked up from someone else? If we could only relieve them without suffering all the aches, pains, vomiting, diarrhea and colds.

We do have such a relief mechanism. Unfortunately, society says we can't use it, even though it is safe for all concerned. What a wonderful world it would be if it were socially acceptable for men to cry. Just think of all the hostility, hate, bitterness, resentment, rejection and just general unhappiness that could be released through the tear glands. We all have the most wonderful tension remover any one can imagine. Why don't we use it for our benefit?

Most women cry, Why don't men cry? Probably the most baffling thing I had to figure out in my early married life was my wife's crying. I would walk into the bedroom and find her crying as though the world had come to an end. Naturally I supposed I had done something to upset her. I would put my arms around her and try to comfort her. Her answer was always the same, "Leave me alone. I just feel like crying." It took me years to understand this. On a few occasions, I have come home from work and found her to be in a foul mood. Naturally I tried to cheer her up, but she would say to me, "Quit being so damn nice. Say something mean to me so I can cry."

Of course I know why so many adults can't cry. When they were young they were constantly reminded, "Big boys (or girls) don't cry." Tommy rot! Every parent who says that to his child should have his mouth washed out with soap. How much longer must we live with these old taboos which make our lives so miserable?

Maybe you think we couldn't have adults going around crying all day. Wouldn't it be better than filling the hospitals with them and having them going around assaulting and murdering people? Maybe we could have a crying room in our factories and office buildings. But this wouldn't do any good until parents stop programming their children that "big boys don't cry."

Maybe we really do know how to cry. I heard a long time ago that if you are depressed you should go to a sad movie, and, if you feel happy, you should go to a cheerful musical. I know what that means now. I have seen men cry at movies, men who probably never cried anywhere else. Why not? The theater is dark. No one will know. Maybe we do know how to cry and all we have to do is lift the stigma.

I have a compromise solution. We can change our way of looking at life's situations so we don't build up these frustrations and tensions in the first place. But if sometimes we slip up, then CRY, BABY, CRY.

11 HYPNOTISM - FEAR NO EVIL

When hypnotism is discussed, the question heard most often is, "Can a person under hypnosis be made to do something he wouldn't do if he weren't hypnotized?"

The answer is "No". But no one will ever be able to prove it. It is easy to find out what you can be induced to do under hypnosis, but there is no means of knowing whether or not you would do it if not hypnotized. Even you yourself don't know.

Our programmed subconscious mind (the sum of all our reactions to our past experiences) plays such an important role in determining our actions that when facing an unusual situation, there is no way of knowing how we will react.

I remember hearing one of the TV talk show hosts tell about visiting one of the movie actors. When they entered the living room there was a lady sitting in the far corner of the room. The movie actor said, "That is my mother." The TV host asked, "Do you like her?"

When he was telling about his embarrassing incident, he kept saying he didn't know why he asked such a stupid question. Who ever knows?

I remember when I was just out of college and was getting a business started. The business fluctuated during the first year, causing me to have to obtain several small bank loans. Each time I went for a loan, the bank president simply asked me to sign a note and then gave me the money.

One day I went back for a loan that was a little larger than usual. The president said, "Sure you can have the money, but I want a lien on your truck to secure the note." I was surprised, shocked, and my pride was severely hurt.

"Haven't I always paid you on time and in full?" I asked. He said, "Of course you have, but this is our depositors' money and even though you have always paid on time before, I don't know what you would do if your wife and child were hungry."

As I walked across the street to the courthouse to get my truck title changed, making the bank a first lien holder, I started to think about what he said. It took a while to get my wounded pride out of the way so I could think.

Maybe the president was right. My wife and child had never been hungry. Even though I had been raised to honor debts as a sacred duty, what would I do if they were hungry? Would I pay the bank?

I honestly didn't know. We really never know what we will do or say. If someone suggests you do something when hypnotized and you do it, you don't know whether you would have done it or not if you hadn't been hypnotized, given the right set of circumstances.

Fear of hypnotism is caused by thinking hypnotism is something it isn't. It is not a profound statement when I say we tend to fear those things we don't understand. But that is why people fear hypnotism. You won't find a hypnotist or student of hypnotism who fears hypnotism.

The only thing you have to be cautious of in hypnotism is the hypnotist. And since all of us are hypnotists (yes, even you yourself), this word of caution is just telling you to use good judgement.

Hypnotism is not a toy; it is a tool. You don't ordinarily play with tools, neither should you play with hypnotism.

After extensive research, a well known hypnotist stated, "There is no such thing as hypnotism." Kreskin, the hypnotist, entertainer demonstrated this theory on TV one night. But Kreskin rephrased the other hypnotist's statement slightly. Kreskin said, "Hypnotism, as you know it, doesn't exist."

From my experience, I would be inclined to agree that Kreskin's statement is correct.

Unless you have studied hypnotism, hypnotism as you know it is stage hypnotism. Stage hypnotists and movie writers have caused misconceptions in the minds of many people. The stage hypnotist has to put on a good show and the more dramatic he can make it, the better you will like it. To enhance this drama, he would have you believe that he has complete control over the subject's mind and body.

This is the type of hypnotism that Kreskin says doesn't exist. This is hypnotism, as you know it. Kreskin demonstrated that he could accomplish the same thing without hypnotism that a hypnotist could accomplish. However, this demonstration was misleading. Actually, he had the subjects under hypnosis. What he was using instead of stage hypnosis was medical hypnosis.

I call it medical hypnosis only for want of a better name. It really has nothing to do with medicine except that it is the type of hypnosis the medical doctors use when they use hypnotism in their practice. Hypnoanalysts, hypnotherapists, hypnotechnicians, and hypnodontists (dentist who use hypnotism in their practice) use this type of hypnotism. This is the type Kreskin used when he said he was not using hypnotism as you know it.

Dr. S. J. Van Pelt, M.D., is the past president of the British Society of Hypnosis. He retired about four years ago after more than 20 years of treating his patients with hypnotism. Dr. Van Pelt does a good job of defining medical hypnosis by the technique he uses to hypnotize his patients.

When hypnotizing a patient, he tells him, "I want you to do only three things; relax, concentrate on what I say, and imagine what I suggest." Relaxation, concentration and suggestion; that is medical hypnotism. Actually, relaxation is not necessary to achieve hypnosis, but it is so helpful in achieving concentration that it might as well be considered part of hypnosis. That is also the reason a hypnotist asks a subject to close his eyes. The more unwanted stimuli he can remove from the five physical senses, the easier it is for the subject to concentrate his mind.

Hypnosis is the state of concentration the subject is in when he is said to be hypnotized (sometimes called the trance state). Hypnotism is the act of causing the subject to concentrate his mind, then giving the subject suggestions. Now that is easy to understand, and it makes sense. We all know that it is easier to communicate with a person who is paying attention to what we say than it is if his mind is wandering off somewhere else.

There are two other important ingredients in hypnotism which you should know about. They are desire and ignorance.

Dr. Van Pelt tells about a woman patient he was to treat. The woman said, "I don't think I can be hypnotized." Van Pelt asked her why she thought this. She said she had been to a hypnotism performance where the hypnotist had called for volunteers from the audience. He had hypnotized them and then caused them to do various things. "I don't think I could ever do those things," the woman said.

The doctor asked her, "When the hypnotist asked for volunteers, did you go up on the stage?" "Oh, no, I would never do such a thing as that, she replied."

Van Pelt said, "All right, the fact that you didn't volunteer shows that you are different from those people who did. But that doesn't mean that you can't be hypnotized. You may or may not be a difficult subject. But you came to me wanting to get well, so I will hypnotize you and we will see how things work out." (These aren't Van Pelt's exact words, but the best I remember them.) Dr. Van Pelt is a very down-to-earth, no-nonsense hypnotist.

It turned out that the woman was a very good subject. What the woman did have in common with the people who volunteered for the stage hypnotist was "desire". The woman was cooperative because she desired to get well; the volunteers desired attention or maybe just a new experience. Or maybe one of them desired to make the hypnotist look foolish by not cooperating. If he did, the hypnotist spotted him in a hurry and sent him off the stage. When a stage hypnotist is performing, he takes no chances on having his performance spoiled. One of the first things you learn when studying hypnotism is how to spot a spoilsport.

Although I myself have no interest in using hypnotism for entertainment, I don't have the same aversion to stage hypnotism that some doctors have. What if it does mislead the audience and give them the wrong conception of hypnotism. That is the reason I felt it necessary to write this chapter, to correct this misconception, caused by stage hypnotists.

So does a magician mislead the audience, and the audience knows he is not doing everything he appears to be doing. But both the magician and the stage hypnotist are entertaining the audience and that is what the audience came for.

How about those volunteer subjects the bungling stage hypnotist has left with a neurosis? Every doctor who practices hypnotism can cite his favorite example. But how about all the graves which are filled with doctors' mistakes? I certainly wouldn't advocate that doctors quit practicing medicine.

How about all the priests and preachers who have developed neuroses in their parishioners while the good people were unknowingly in a state of hypnosis? I certainly wouldn't advocate that we close down the churches.

There is no absolutely safe way to get through this life. By using your knowledge and good judgement, you can improve the odds, however.

Desire plays a very important part in effective hypnosis. The subject must want to cooperate with the hypnotist, and he can't want to cooperate if he fears hypnotism or doesn't trust the hypnotist. You have probably heard of instances where a person was hypnotized by a stage hypnotist against his will. Baloney! If you know of a case personally, were you able at that time to read the subject's mind and know what the subject's will was at that time?

I haven't forgotten the first time I was hypnotized. There has probably been no one more fearful of hypnotism than I was. Nobody, and I mean nobody, was going to control my mind. Little did I know that people were controlling my mind constantly without my knowing it. It was only through learning hypnotism that I learned how to keep people from controlling my mind.

I was very fearful of hypnotism, but there came a time when I had a very important job to do, and it appeared that I could best do this job if I learned some self-hypnotism techniques. The hypnotist assured me that I would remain in complete control. My fear was so great that, even though he was a very good friend, and I trusted him in every other way, I didn't necessarily believe him.

When he was inducting me into the state of hypnosis, he came to the part where he says, "When I tell you to open your eyes, you will not be able to open your eyes. The harder you try, the tighter closed they will become. No matter how hard you try, you will not be able to open them."

"Open your eyes," he said. I opened my eyes and looked my friend squarely in the eye. He frowned slightly because, obviously, I wasn't cooperating. But I had satisfied myself that I was in control. From then on, I relaxed and enjoyed it.

Dr. Van Pelt likes to tell about one of his women patients who was a very good subject. She would do everything he suggested but would never close her eyes. "I guess she wanted to make sure there wasn't any hanky-panky going on," he says.

A person can not be hypnotized against his will. Every day you are being hypnotized against your will. WOW! What a contradiction. That is the reason I say ignorance is such an important part of hypnotism. This is not to imply that you are ignorant, but those of you who don't know what hypnotism is (and you are the ones I am writing this for) have been hypnotized over and over again without even knowing it.

From the time your little brain started forming in your mother's womb until about the age of 13 or 14, you were in an almost constant state of hypnosis. When that old TV commercial used to say "FAST! FAST! FAST! FAST!", you were being hypnotized. In fact, every time you have drowsed in front of a radio or TV, you have been in a state of hypnosis and absorbed every suggestion and action which hit your ears. When the man in the car behind you honks his horn, you are hypnotized. When the preacher hits the lectern with his fist, you are hypnotized. (He has a lot of other techniques, too.) Anything which concentrates your mind, puts you into a state of hypnosis. Then it is very easy to follow up with a suggestion.

It may seem strange that two decidedly opposite conditions could cause the same effect. A state of high emotion or a state of mind relaxation; both produce a state of mind which will more readily accept suggestions. Both of these conditions concentrate the mind (more evidence that hypnosis is mind concentration).

You are aware that a person under hypnosis can be given a suggestion which will cause him to perform a particular act at a later time. This is called a post hypnotic suggestion. When he later performs the act, he doesn't even know why he does it. If someone asks him why he did it, he will even come up with an explanation.

Do you recognize this as being similar to a neurotic act? Oversimplified, this is what a neurosis is; a person performing an act or having a reaction for no apparent reason.

Dr. Van Pelt treated all neurosis cases as though they had been hypnotized and given a posthypnotic suggestion. His cure was simply to hypnotize the person and remove the suggestion.

You have no doubt heard of surgery cases where "the operation was a success but the patient died". The medical profession now calls these cases "psychic deaths". The patient has been inadvertently hypnotized into believing that he must die as a result of the operation, so he dies. Most often this suggestion has been implanted prior to the operation by someone not ordinarily known to be a hypnotist. It can also be implanted by the surgeon or nurse while the patient is under anesthesia (his mind is concentrated). Of course, none of these suggestions are planted knowingly. Ignorance causes psychic deaths.

"Ah! Ha! You have admitted that people can be made to do something under hypnosis they wouldn't do otherwise," you are thinking. I have admitted nothing of the kind. I still don't know what they would have done if they had not been hypnotized.

I know one hypnotist who refused to let another hypnotist remove any detrimental, post hypnotic suggestions he might have had implanted prior to his going into the hospital for a very serious operation. Figure that one out.

How can you prevent being hypnotized? Obviously, you don't volunteer to be a subject at a stage hypnotism demonstration. You don't play with hypnotism at a party or anywhere else. You don't let anyone hypnotize you who has not been professionally trained.

First, the high emotional state of mind concentration: Learn to act instead of react. Change your way of thinking so that the things which used to get your attention (concentrate your mind) no longer are able to attract your attention, especially those things which irritate you. As you face each situation which you feel to be important, ask yourself why it is important. Ask yourself if it is really as important as you had thought in the past.

If you are at a lecture and the speaker suddenly pounds the lectern, instead of reacting, listen quietly to what he has to say, then decide whether or not you want to accept it. If he catches you unaware and follows his fist pounding with a dogmatic suggestion you disagree with, immediately give yourself a countersuggestion. Of course, if you are a school student and are going to have to repeat what the lecturer says on a test later on, go ahead and let him hypnotize you. You'll retain the information better. You can get rid of anything you don't accept after you have taken the quiz.

The drowsy state of mind concentration: Lecturers have other ways of hypnotizing an audience. They might speak in a monotonous tone of voice, chant, or go through a ritual which will concentrate your attention on a physical object such as a flickering candle, a watch swinging from a chain or some other device. Once they have your attention (your mind concentrated), they tend to repeat one point over and over again. Do you recognize this situation as something you have experienced in the past? You were hypnotized, and the speaker knew his method was effective whether or not he knew it was called hypnotism.

If you get into such a situation again, decide whether or not you want the programming you are going to get. If you want the information on a conscious level only, don't concentrate on the speaker's hypnotic techniques. If you can't seem to resist, then get up and leave. If it is a speaker or commercial on TV or radio, turn off the set.

Now you know how you are being hypnotized so you can prevent it. Think about what you hear. Ask yourself if it makes sense. Don't be a sponge and soak up everything you hear; sort, accept or reject. Think.

If hypnotism is so detrimental, why don't we outlaw it all together? Hypnotism is not detrimental. Only ignorance of hypnotism is detrimental.

You might also say that automobiles, trains and airplanes are detrimental since people get killed in them. Should we outlaw automobiles, trains and airplanes?

You might be safer if you stayed in bed continuously. But then again, the house might burn down. Hypnotism can be very beneficial. It is nothing to be feared as long as you, the subject, know what it is all about. Hypnotism can be used for improved learning, improved memory, to relieve pain, to remove neuroses, to stop bleeding, to overcome habits you don't want, to prevent and cure psychosomatic illnesses, to have natural child birth, to have surgery without drugs, to eliminate fear and to save your life.

You don't have to have a hypnotist to use hypnotism. There are many beneficial things you can do with auto-hypnosis (self-hypnosis). I am not going to tell you how to achieve self-hypnosis. There are many books already written on this subject. I don't recommend any of them. It is my opinion that you should learn auto-hypnosis under a good teacher. The same things can be achieved under auto-hypnosis as under medical hypnosis. The primary difference in the two is that in medical hypnosis, you willingly turn over the instruction to the hypnotist; whereas in auto-hypnosis, you make your own suggestions. That is the reason I recommend you learn under a good teacher. You don't want to be the bungling hypnotist and give yourself a neurosis.

I can't close this without telling you of an amusing incident. A friend of mine went to observe a faith healing service. She was sitting there taking notes on the hypnotism techniques the preacher was using (whether or not he knew he was using hypnotism is beside the question). He had the whole audience hypnotized, except my friend, who is a good hypnotist herself. The people were pledging contributions of thousands of dollars; and even as they made the pledge, some of them admitted that they didn't have the money and didn't know where they would get it.

One woman sitting next to my friend went completely under. My friend was concerned that the woman might fall off her chair. She didn't touch the woman; she simply leaned over and whispered in her ear, "Your wig is about to fall off." The woman jerked upright and straightened her hair, wide awake.

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Thanks to Pat H. Hadsell, the many sources and the teachers for this knowledge
and wisdom that is helping us on our journey.

Cry, Baby, Cry

Create a New You

by Pat H. Hadsell

10 CRY, BABY, CRY

11 HYPNOTISM - FEAR NO EVIL