Happy New Year

How many of our thoughts deal with past regrets or an uncertain future.
A multitude of advisors through the ages have told us to learn and live in the present, but few of us do.

In reality all thoughts take place in the present.
The past is looking back from the present.
Today’s yesterday.
Today’s thought, thought Today.
The future is the concern of what is unknowable.
Today’s tomorrow.
Today’s thought, thought Today.
We move from experience to experience, event to event.
Whether pleasant or unpleasant they can only occur in the present, the NOW.
In reality you live in the present moment, the NOW.
The past is dead except as memory revives it.
The future is a present thought, conceived and nurtured NOW.
We can never deal with the past or future except as thoughts, our concepts of them reflect our likes and dislikes.
Our pleasures or dis-pleasures.
The mind bouncing back and forth like a ping-pong ball between yesterday and tomorrow robs the mind of the present.
And it gets hung up, incapable of forward motion.

It is never

what happens to you

but

what you think happens to you.

This is the difference between happiness and misery, success and failure, health and illness.

This the great principle.
Today is the life of life.
Live one day at a time.
Learn to manage this hour, this minute.
You then redeem the past and ensure the future.
Ideas from “Take Off from Within” by Ervin Seale

Be joyous and happy this NEW YEAR!

SEVENTY-FIVE PER CENT OF DRINK DUE TO TOBACCO

John D. Quackenbos, A.M., M.D., emeritus professor in Columbia University, New York City, is one of the most eminent members of the medical profession. Speaking recently before the American Society for the Study of Alcohol and Narcotic Drugs, at Washington, D.C., Dr. Quackenbos said:

"Physicians who have had much to do with alcoholic inebriates realize that there is a direct relationship between alcohol addiction and tobacco abuse. The first affect of tobacco smoking is stimulating, with a rise of blood pressure; and if the smoking be continued, the nerve cells are depressed. The depression is cumulative in the system of the smoker, and after a varying interval (of days, weeks or months) it creates an instinctive demand for the antidote to tobacco poisoning – and that is alcohol. The intemperate use of tobacco thus explains 75 per cent of all drink-habit cases. The alcoholic is engendered and inflamed by smoke."

Excerpt from: The Case Against the Little White Slaver (1914), by Henry ford

DR. JOHN DUNCAN QUACKENBOS of Columbia University has cured STEALING BY HYPNOTISM,
IMMORALITY AND DRUNKENNESS BY HYPNOTISM,
THE CIGARETTE HABIT BY HYPNOTISM.
Ever since the announcement was made a few days ago that this physician could overcome crime and vicious habit? through suggestion his house and office have been In a state of siege. Day and night appeal has been made at his door by those who insist that they have no strength to resist thieving or strong drink. Young boys and little girls are brought to this man by unhappy father and mothers,who have about lost hope seeing their sons and daughters weakening slowly into cigarette funds. But to one and all Dr. Quackenbos has given the cheering counsel that there is no crime or sin, no matter to what degree of viciousness the victim has fallen, but can be overcome by a hypnotic sleep, when high moral alms are suggested to the patient's mind.
It was early In the winter Just passed that Dr. Quackenbos began his self-imposed task upon the young boys who lived In the Newsboys' Home. New York. One or two of the little fellows at first rather timidly presented themselves to the doctor to be cured of the excessive use of tobacco were treated with such success by this physician that it was not long before dozens of these small chaps were urging the doctor to enable them to do without the cigarettes which were shown to be injurious to their strength and lives.
While petty stealing has been cured in many cases by Dr. Quackenbos since he began to use suggestion for the correction of crime among faithful offenders, the case in which he takes the greatest pride and upon which he bases the theory that even an habitual criminal may be reformed is the case of a young fellow who for five years had stolen right and left. He had been arrested, and was in a fair way to spend a part of his life in the State reformatory, when his case was brought to the attention of the doctor.
Quackenbos stands high In the medical world, where his specialty has been the nervous diseases. He belongs to an old Dutch family, and low of the New York Academy of Medicine, as well as of the New Hampshire Medical Society. Before the latter association in June he read a paper upon "Hypnotic Suggestion in the Treatment of Crime," In which he will tell of his work the past year among the vicious and degenerate of the New York slums.(Excerpt 1899)

According to letter in the ``Annual report of President and Treasurer`` By Columbia University, dated March 30, 1889, Quackenbos also taught English.

A fixed idea of Health, Happiness, Success, implanted in the mind by his power of Auto-Suggestion is worth more than a fortune to any man. In this way we should, by a steady habit of Auto-Suggestion, fix in the Subjective Mind the strongest possible faith in our own ability. Dr. Quackenbos of Columbia University has accomplished seemingly miraculous results in developing great ability in music and art in boys and girls in a few months by Suggestion, which would ordinarily have taken years of training, and which ability might never have manifested under any length of training but for the strange power which Suggestion has of calling out the latent powers of the soul. Suggestions given to a pupil under hypnosis are accepted with unquestioned faith, and faith seems to have a mysterious power of healing and inspiring, and especially of awakening talent lying dormant. Men generally can do what they believe they can do, and they cannot do what they believe they cannot do. We see this in the hypnotized boy who being told he cannot cross a certain line on the floor, struggles in vain to cross it, his belief holding him in captivity and utterly suppressing his natural physical powers. On the other hand, I have frequently heard the hypnotized lad, under suggestion that he was a noted orator, arise and deliver a surprising address, of which he was utterly incapable in his normal state. And I have seen the hypnotized subject leap over a man's head under the stimulus of suggestion a feat he could not possibly accomplish in his waking state. No one knows the reserve powers of the mind. If you would awaken them, you must cultivate daily by Auto-Suggestion unlimited faith in yourself. From B.F. Austin - How To Make Money – 1918

Quackenbos wrote:

• Body and Spirit: An Inquiry Into the Subconscious ...
• Magnhild: A Tale Of Psychic Love (1918)
  
• Hypnotism In Mental And Moral Culture Suggestion As A Means Of Perfecting The Orator, Teacher And Businessman
• Erotomania, Infatuation And Moral Perversion - Pamphlet
• Enemies and Evidences of Christianity;
  
• Thoughts on Questions of the Hour
  
• Illustrated history of ancient literature
• Illustrated History Of Ancient Literature: Oriental And Classical
• Hypnotic Therapeutics in Theory and Practice
• Moral Disease Suggestion As A Means Of Perfecting The Orator,
  
• Teacher And Businessman - Pamphlet
• The Value of Suggestion to Players, Singers, Musicians and Artists
  
• Body and Spirit, an Inquiry into the Subconscious
• Lessons In Geography: For Little Learners (1889)
• Advanced Course of Composition and Rhetoric: A Series of Practical Lessons on the Origin, History and Peculiarities of the English Language ...

SPELL OF HYPNOSIS INSPIRES AN ACTRESS

Dr. Quackenbos Helped Her to Win Fame in a Night.

HE EXPLAINS HIS METHOD

Startling Disclosures of His Influence Upon Halting Ministers, Artists, and Students Whom "Stage Fright" Has Paralyzed.

From December 20, 1901.

The medical fraternity of the entire city discussed yesterday the paper read Wednesday night before the Medico Legal .Society by Dr. John Duncan Quackenboss, emeritus Professor of•Psychology In Columbia University, in which be told of a young actress who a few months ago won fame In a single night while under the spell of hypnotic suggestion.

The spell was put upon the actress by Dr. Quackenbos himself after she had come to him a -sufferer from stage fright at the very threshold of her career. Under its influence, according to Dr Quackenbos, she appeared in a new play -in a Broadway theatre, and under the management of one greatest managers of the country. After her performance the press of city united in commending her work. The audience called her before the curtain seven times. and she became famous at once.

This case was cited by Dr. Quackenbos, as he stated, to give point his contention that hypnotism or Mesmerism is a tremendous force in the being not only of man but of the lower animals, and even of insects, and the scientists of •today are but standing at the threshold of a mysterious realm.

Quackenbos seen yesterday at his office supplemented this example hypnotic suggestion with others equally startling. He denied, however that the actress mentioned in his paper was at the time she made her great success this Fall in a trance-of the Trilby order.

He said:

“I applied in her case principles that are not entirely new. As the time for her first night drew near she became attacked with stage fright and her manager brought her to me as a last resort. In her case I studied her part in the play, and as near as-it was possible for me to do so, saturated myself with its spirit. She was to visit me three times. She made two visits, and on each of these occasions I put her into a hypnotic sleep, and while she was in this state I impressed upon her by the power of suggestion that she was actually the character that She was to portray.

“I filled her with the idea that she was superior to her surroundings, and brought out by suggestion every dramatic capability that had lain dormant within her. I impressed upon her that her acting throughout would be consistent with her interpretation of the heroine of the play in which she was to take part, and would be sincere and natural in,its tone. After two sleeps she became imbued with absolute confidence, and, refusing a third treatment, went before the footlights a consummate mistress of art.

“She was not in a. trance the night she made her first appearance, and I was not even present in the theatre, but the subliminal force in her being had been made for the time the dominant force, and her self-consciousness was completely obliterated.


“That is all there is in the treatment. The operator brings into activity the dormant psychic power in the subject. Hypnotic suggestion will not give a man knowledge. It simply enables him to comprehend things that he has known, but half forgotten; It will bring to his fingers’ ends all the knowledge he has ever had and Inspires him with an overwhelming confidence in himself.

“There is a young woman violinist appearing In this. city to-day, who a short time ago was almost ruined In her art by self-consciousness. I know nothing about violin playing, but by putting her into a hypnotic sleep and impressing on her that she was capable of the very highest expression on her instrument, she performs now as. one Inspired. See her some day and notice the utter absence of self-consciousness in her work.

“I have also had a 'number of ministers of various denominations who got in that state where they dreaded coming of Sunday. They come to, me at regular intervals. I put them into a hypnotic sleep and by suggestion make them think that it is not themselves talking, but the spirit of God talking through them. Some powerful sermons preached in local pulpits recently and reported in the press have come immediately after a hypnotic sleep.

-
“Recently I had a young woman singer come here from California to study under one of the most distinguished teachers In the city. She has a splendid voice, but had certain vices of expression which the teacher, told her would take. two years to .correct. One hypnotic sleep was sufficient to correct these faults entirely. and almost Incur the enmity of her music teacher. It was done by simply impressing her with, a conviction that the faults did not exist.

“The same method has ,worked successfully with scores of students in Columbia University. I had one young man last June, the son of- a wealthy man in the city who was promised a trip abroad if he successfully passed hi examinations. He felt absolutely hopeless of being able to pass and came .to me in despair to be experimented upon. The experiment was a complete success, and he took his coveted trip through Europe. By hypnotic suggestion all the knowledge gained by him during the year was simply brought to his fingers’ ends, so to speak.

“Hypnotism is a vast subject, and has been abused by charlatans and tricksters, but there is much in it.”

From December 20, 1901.

Who would you be without your story?

Visualization is neither here nor there; negativity is neither here nor there. Don't bother with them. If you question your thinking, negativity naturally disappears; you don't need to do anything about it.
How can you know that a “true soul”, “soul-mate” or “twin-soul” even exists. This is a very stressful thought, when you don't have a clue what or where such a thing as a “true soul”, “soul-mate” or “twin-soul” is.
How do you know that you even have a “vibration”? This kind of magical thinking--”The Secret” and the Abraham-Hicks stuff on wanting--is pure ego. The Secret is trying to get what you want; The Work is wanting what you have, loving what is.
How would you know if you “choose your own reality” or not? Just because some “spiritual” writer says so? How does he know? How do you know that any such “entity” as Abraham is being channeled in the first place?
The Work cuts to the chase, beyond all spiritual concepts or any other concepts. And The Work works, if your mind is open to it.

Who would you be without your story?

Ask yourself that question as you sit down to dinner, not just during the holidays, but every day of the week.

http://www.byronkatie.com/newsletter_december2011.html

How can YOU live in the Now?

You do. You just haven’t noticed.
Only in this moment are we in reality.

Seasons Greetings

May you be happy.

May you be healthy.

May you never suffer.

May you feel loved!

Hypnotism, It's History, Practice and Theory

“Although Braid believed that hypnotic suggestion was a valuable remedy in functional nervous disorders, he did not regard it as a rival to other forms of treatment, nor wish in any way to separate its practice from that of medicine in general. He held that whoever talked of a "universal remedy" was either a fool or a knave: similar diseases often arose from opposite pathological conditions, and the treatment ought to be varied accordingly. He objected being called a hypnotist; he was, he said, no more a "hypnotic" than a "castor-oil" doctor.”
— John Milne Bramwell

John Milne Bramwell (1852 – 1925) was a Scottish physician and author, born at Perth, and educated at the University of Edinburgh.
He collected the works of James Braid the founder of hypnotism and helped to revive and maintain Braid's legacy in Great Britain. He studied hypnotism thoroughly, including that employed in France at Paris and Nancy. He was himself renowned a practitioner of hypnotherapy.
Bramwell is best remembered for his classic text, "Hypnotism, It's History, Practice and Theory," which even to the present day remains one of the finest books ever written on hypnotism.

The Mind

• Recent investigations have shown that the study of hypnotism throws much light on the nature of mind. The mind is even more susceptible to hypnotic suggestion than to opinion. Opinion itself often comes in the form of suggestion, and brings hypnotic influence with it. The so-called magnetism that accompanies the spoken word is often more effective than a strong argument. Thus the strong-minded sway the the weak; positive leaders draw negative minds about them and new dogmas are forced into fashion. As knowledge of the power of suggestion grows the dangers are greater. Hypnotism itself becomes a cult, in due course, and all kinds of occultism, spiritism, and the like, follow hard upon the new cult.
• . . . bread pills, for example, when given to a hypnotised subject with the suggestion that they are a powerful drug, produce the effects of a drug . . .
• What is hypnotism if not an induced direction of mind suggested by the hypnotist? When the subject is under control, and hypnotised, for example, to see a picture on the wall where there is none, the whole mind of the subject is absorbed in seeing the supposed picture, and there is no time or power to detect the deception. Many self-hypnotised people are equally at the mercy of some idea which is the pure invention of their fears.

• The hypnotist shapes the conduct of his subject when he has gained control of the subject's attention.

Excerpts from
Power of Silence by Horatio. W. Dresser – 1895 Revised 1904

A few thoughts.

1. It bears the question whether placebo studies been significantly stringent with double blind methods to avoid the taint of the power of suggestion.
2. Have politicians, world leaders, writers, healers etc. exercised the power of suggestion on the weak and gullible. The 2012 Mayan calendar is a fair example. It had been written about since the 1980’s or sooner that it stops in 2012. We now know it rolls over in 2012. Much the same as we exchange our 2012 calendars for 2013 ones at the end of 2012. How much mis-information in the last 40 years has been due to the power of suggestion? Have the weak and gullible inadvertently spread these ideas in much the same way as rumours are spread?

Imagination and cryptomnesia were the sole sources of a large number of Automatic writings

Automatic writing in "Martian" produced by Smith at a séance

Théodore Flournoy (1854 –1920) was a professor of psychology at the University of Geneva and author of books on spiritism and psychic phenomena.


In 1894 he met the medium Catherine Elise Muller , which he renamed " Helen Smith " in his important book “From India to the planet Mars” . The medium said writing under the dictation of a certain Leopold, which is another name for Joseph Balsamo. Impressed by the extent of her talent, Flournoy decided to study the case. To do this, he attended many sessions and subjects it to some experiences that change her trances and plunge into sleepwalking .

1. Helen Smith wrote novels in a somnambulistic state, divided into three cycles. In the Martian cycle, she communicates with people in the world in Mars and written in another alphabet.
2. Hindu Cycle, she is the reincarnation of a princess Indian , daughter of a Sheikh Arab , and speaks Sanskrit by glossolalia .
3. And finally, the Royal cycle she takes the personality of the Queen of France Marie-Antoinette of Austria .

Professor Théodore Flournoy’s studies of the medium Hélène Smith were turned into a book, Des Indesà la planète Mars, which caused a considerable sensation in psychological and parapsychological circles in Europe and the United States. In it he described the phenomenon of "cryptamnesia," forgotten memories that reappear without being recognized by the subject, who believes they are new. These memories disappear because of their association with childhood sexual emotions. These involve a "subliminal process capable of achieving a degree of complexity and extent comparable to the work of composition and reflection in the thinker or novelist." They are "reminiscences or momentary returns to earlier phases, which have long since been forgotten and which, normally, should have been absorbed during the individual's development instead of recurring in strange forms."
Flournoy asserted that imagination and cryptomnesia were the sole sources of a large number of mediumistic communications. With regard to the remaining part, he referred to the supernormal powers of man as a fact which seemed to make superfluous the assumption of the participation of the dead.
He called on Ferdinand de Saussure[1] to examine the language she wrote spontaneously. It shows that it uses alphabets which are fanciful and mimic French, and resumed the dreams of knowledge which she had access. Smith, who composed in trance romances about the conditions on the planet Mars, and for one thing invented for the use of the inhabitants a language that in the most naive manner imitated her own mother-tongue.
The following, quoted from Esprits et mediums, by Professor Flournoy, is another typical example:

Madame Dupond, a well-bred and cultured lady from Geneva, of literary taste and philosophical and religious leanings, took up the study of spiritism at the age of forty-five. She tried automatic writing, and, at the end of eight days, was able to get the names of dead relatives and friends, who gave her messages of a philosophico-religious nature. About three days later, after having received various communications, her pencil wrote suddenly, and quite unexpectedly, the name of a young Frenchman she knew Rodolphe X., who had recently entered a religious order in Italy. As she did not know that he was dead, she was surprised and shocked; but her hand continued to write, confirming the sad news in the following circumstantial details :
" I am Rodolphe. I died last night at eleven o'clock, the 23rd. I had been ill for several days, and I was not able to write. I had an inflammation of the lungs, caused by a sudden change in the weather. I died without pain, and I have been thinking of you. ... I am in space. ... I see your parents, and I like them also. Good-by. ... I am going to pray for you. ... I am no longer a Catholic, I am a Christian."
After her first astonishment, Madame Dupont believed more and more in the authenticity of this message, because for almost a week she continued to receive communications from Rodolphe, making numerous allusions to their past relations. She had met Rodolphe, who was then a priest, during a stay in the South the preceding spring. He had returned from Italy, where he had spent the winter on account of his poor health, and had stopped a few days at the same hotel. Between this Genevese, a confirmed Protestant and republican, and this man from the north of France, an ardent legitimist and Catholic, in spite of the difference in their ages (he was scarcely twenty), a real moral and intellectual intimacy was formed, as a natural con- sequence of the analogy of their temperaments and the unity of their idealistic aspirations. Each of them had tried, without success, to convert the other to his own ideas; and when they were separated, they had continued this discourse by correpondence, even after Rodolphe had entered the religious order, pouring out their souls to each other in full confidence. At the moment of Madame Dupond's automatic writing, it was Rodolphe who owed a letter to his friend.
Do we not see there an excellent case of the apparent intervention of a " discarnated spirit " to use the expression familiar to the partizans of the spiritistic doctrine in the affairs of this world?
Unfortunately, six days after the first communication from the supposed dead man: . . . there reached her by post a letter from Rodolphe, who, far from being dead, was in perfect health. It shook Madame Dupond's recent spiritistic convictions so thoroughly that she was discouraged from pursuing further such disconcerting experiments.
It is necessary to read in Professor Flournoy's book (Esprits et mediums) he detailed a penetrating analysis to which he has submitted all the circumstances of this interesting case, and which fully justifies, we think [see THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE FUTURE BY EMILE BOIRAC-1918], the conclusion he has reached: viz., that all the communications received by Madame Dupond reflected her own dispositions, conscious or not, and corresponded exactly to those which could not fail to be in her. " She alone, in other words, and not Rodolphe, was dead at that moment, and can be considered as the real source of the communications."

[1] Ferdinand de Saussure (1857 –1913) was a Swiss linguist whose ideas laid a foundation for many significant developments in linguistics in the 20th century. He is widely considered one of the fathers of 20th-century linguistics and the founder of structuralism in linguistics.

Repression is one of the most haunting concepts in psychology. Something shocking happens, and the mind pushes it into some inaccessible corner of the unconscious. Later, the memory may emerge into consciousness.

I found this on a popular new age metaphysical website:

“One of the best-known automatic writers was Helene Smith, an early 20th century psychic who felt that her automatic writing was the attempt of Martians to communicate with Earth. She claimed she could translate their Martian language into French.”

But it fails to mention that Smith by and large made it all up by her own imagination.

A "quack and compulsive liar"?

Dr. Alexander Cannon (1896–1963) was a British psychiatrist, occultist, hypnotist and author. He became well known in the 1930s for his occult writings, and more recently for his alleged influence on King Edward VIII shortly before his abdication.


He was born in Leeds, England, and educated at Leeds, London, Vienna, Hong Kong, and several other universities, eventually receiving both an M.D. and Ph.D. Later he trained in various Eastern spiritual disciplines, acquiring or claiming such titles as

"Kushog Yogi of Northern Thibet"

and

"Master-The-Fifth of the Great White Lodge of the Himalayas.”

In Hong Kong in the late 1920s and early 1930s, he became vice president of Hong Kong Medical Society, medical officer in charge of prisons, head of the Department of Morbid Anatomy at the University of Hong Kong, and psychiatrist and medical jurist to the High Court of Justice. He also served as British Consul and Port Medical Officer in Canton (Guangzhou). He studied occultism and yoga, and travelled in India, China and Tibet. In his book The Invisible Influence (1933), he claimed that during his travels he was levitated over a chasm in Tibet, together with his porters and luggage. The book was structured as a conversation between Cannon and a series of mystics, yogis, and other sages, and offers anecdotes of crystal gazing, levitation, hypnotism, distant-touching, and other supposed phenomena.
After his return to England, Cannon served as psychiatrist and research scientist at Colney Hatch Mental Hospital. After learning of his book, London County Council dismissed him on the grounds that he was unfit to practice in charge of a mental hospital, but he was reinstated after bringing action for wrongful dismissal. He then set up in private practice as a consultant in Harley Street, London, where he used hypnotherapy and psychic mediums in diagnosis. He became well known for prescribing exotic remedies such as electrotherapy and Tibetan hypnosis techniques as treatments for stress, alcoholism, sex and confidence problems.
King Edward VIII consulted Cannon, and received hypnotic treatment from him for a drink problem. This was drawn to the attention of Dr Cosmo Lang, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Two days before the King's abdication in December 1936, Lang wrote to another Harley Street doctor, William Brown, that he had been "informed by a credible person that a certain Dr Cannon... has been recently attending the King... Would you kindly tell me whether you think this Dr Cannon is a really trustworthy person? He seems from the accounts I have received to be one who encourages somewhat dangerous methods of treatment." Archived letters suggest that it was believed that Cannon — then known as "the Yorkshire Yogi" — was having an adverse influence on the King.
By the late 1930s, Cannon's London clinic, where he billed himself as "His Excellency Sir Dr Alexander Cannon", had become highly lucrative. He continued to work and publish. In 1938, in his book Sleeping Through Space, he gave directions for bringing the dead back to life:

"[administer] a severe kick with the knee between the shoulder blades" at the same time shouting in [the] left ear "Oye," "Oye," "Oye." He added: "It is rarely necessary to repeat the operation before life is again resumed, but this can be repeated up to seven times in long-standing cases."

In 1939 Cannon left London and established the Isle of Man Clinic for Nervous Diseases. On the Isle of Man, he was a friend of Captain George Drummond, a Nazi sympathiser who had entertained Edward VIII before he became king and was interned in his mansion on his island during the war. Cannon was himself suspected of being a Nazi sympathiser and German spy, his telephone conversations with Drummond were recorded by MI5, and he was forced out of his home. However, MI5 concluded that he was a "quack and compulsive liar" rather than a spy.
When the war ended, Cannon began to produce live magic shows using two assistants, Joyce and Rhonda Deronda (born Joyce and Eleanor Robson), who helped with performances. One act involved putting Rhonda into a hypnotic trance to diagnose physical and psychological problems, as she glared at the patient. Some of his apparently magical techniques were exposed in 1952.
His books on the general subject of thought stirred up controversy here and abroad. He declared that while today a man cannot grow a new leg (as a crab can grow a new claw), he could if the mind of man hadn't rejected the possibility. The eminent scientist claimed that if the thought is changed in the innermost depths of the unconscious mind, then man will grow a new leg as easily as the crab grows a new claw. I know, such a statement may sound incredible, but how do we know that it will not be done some day?
Do hypnosis, occult and New Age mix well?
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Cannon_%28psychiatrist%29

SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE MIND.

The great truth which the science of hypnotism has brought to light is the dual nature of the human mind. The subjective mind is only able to reason deductively and not inductively, while the objective mind can do both. Innumerable experiments on persons in the hypnotic state have shown that the subjective mind is utterly incapable of making the selection and comparison which are necessary to the inductive process, but will accept any suggestion, however false, but having once accepted any suggestion, it is strictly logical in deducing the proper conclusions from it, and works out every suggestion to the minutest fraction of the results which flow from it.
the subjective mind is entirely under the control of the objective mind. With the utmost fidelity it reproduces and works out to its final consequences whatever the objective mind impresses upon it; and the facts of hypnotism show that ideas can be impressed on the subjective mind by the objective mind of another as well as by that of its own individuality. This is a most important point, for it is on this amenability to suggestion by the thought of another that all the phenomena of healing, whether present or absent, of telepathy and the like, depend. Under the control of the practised hypnotist the very personality of the subject becomes changed for the time being; he believes himself to be whatever the operator tells him he is: he is a swimmer breasting the waves, a bird flying in the air, a soldier in the tumult of battle, an Indian stealthily tracking his victim: in short, for the time being, he identifies himself with any personality that is impressed upon him by the will of the operator, and acts the part with inimitable accuracy. But the experiments of hypnotism go further than this, and show the existence in the subjective mind of powers far transcending any exercised by the objective mind through the medium of the physical senses; powers of thought-reading, of thought-transference, of clairvoyance, and the like, all of which are frequently manifested when the patient is brought into the higher mesmeric state; and we have thus experimental proof of the existence in ourselves of transcendental faculties the full development and conscious control of which would place us in a perfectly new sphere of life.
But it should he noted that the control must be our own and not that of any external intelligence whether in the flesh or out of it. But perhaps the most important fact which hypnotic experiments have demonstrated is that the subjective mind is the builder of the body. The subjective entity in the patient is able to diagnose the character of the disease from which he is suffering and to point out suitable remedies, indicating a physiological knowledge exceeding that of the most highly trained physicians, and also a knowledge of the correspondences between diseased conditions of the bodily organs and the material remedies which can afford relief. And from this it is but a step further to those numerous instances in which it entirely dispenses with the use of material remedies and itself works directly on the organism, so that complete restoration to health follows as the result of the suggestions of perfect soundness made by the operator to the patient while in the hypnotic state.
Now these are facts fully established by hundreds of experiments conducted by a variety of investigators in different parts of the world, and from them we may draw two inferences of the highest importance: one, that the subjective mind is in itself absolutely impersonal, and the other that it is the builder of the body, or in other words it is the creative power in the individual. That it is impersonal in itself is shown by its readiness to assume any personality the hypnotist chooses to impress upon it; and the unavoidable inference is that its realization of personality proceeds from its association with the particular objective mind of its own individuality. Whatever personality the objective mind impresses upon it, that personality it assumes and acts up to; and since it is the builder of the body it will build up a body in correspondence with the personality thus impressed upon it. These two laws of the subjective mind form the foundation of the axiom that our body represents the aggregate of our beliefs. If our fixed belief is that the body is subject to all sorts of influences beyond our control, and that this, that, or the other symptom shows that such an uncontrollable influence is at work upon us, then this belief is impressed upon the subjective mind, which by the law of its nature accepts it without question and proceeds to fashion bodily conditions in accordance with this belief. Again, if our fixed belief is that certain material remedies are the only means of cure, then we find in this belief the foundation of all medicine. There is nothing unsound in the theory of medicine; it is the strictly logical correspondence with the measure of knowledge which those who rely on it are as yet able to assimilate, and it acts accurately in accordance with their belief that in a large number of cases medicine will do good, but also in many instances it fails. Therefore, for those who have not yet reached a more interior perception of the law of nature, the healing agency of medicine is a most valuable aid to the alleviation of physical maladies. The error to be combated is not the belief that, in its own way, medicine is capable of doing good, but the belief that there is no higher or better way.
Then, on the same principle, if we realize that the subjective mind is the builder of the body, and that the body is subject to no influences except those which reach it through the subjective mind, then what we have to do is to impress this upon the subjective mind and habitually think of it as a fountain of perpetual Life, which is continually renovating the body by building in strong and healthy material, in the most complete independence of any influences of any sort, save those of our own desire impressed upon our own subjective mind by our own thought. To afford a solid basis for this conviction is the purpose of Mental Science.
AN intelligent consideration of the phenomena of hypnotism will show us that what we call the hypnotic state is the normal state of the subjective mind. It always conceives of itself in accordance with some suggestion conveyed to it, either consciously or unconsciously to the mode of objective mind which governs it, and it gives rise to corresponding external results. The abnormal nature of the conditions induced by experimental hypnotism is in the removal of the normal control held by the individual's own objective mind over his subjective mind and the substitution of some other control for it, and thus we may say that the normal characteristic of the subjective mind is its perpetual action in accordance with some sort of suggestion.

From: THE EDINBURGH LECTURES ON MENTAL SCIENCE
By THOMAS TROWARD[1909]


On May 16, 1916, at the age of 69, Thomas Troward passed on.

Horatio W. Dresser published A History of the New Thought Movement, in 1919 and The Quimby Manuscripts, in 1921.


"The Ego and the Id" is a prominent paper by the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. It is an analytical study of the human psyche outlining his theories of the psychodynamics of the id, ego, and super-ego, which is of fundamental importance in the development of psychoanalytic. The study was conducted over years of meticulous research and was first published in 1923.

Signs of hypnosis.

Here are 17 signs of hypnotic trance a subject will demonstrate:
1. Expansion of Eyelids;
2. Fixation of Glance;
3. Tearing of Eyes;
4. Eyes are Closing (but not always);
5. Blinking Movements Slow;
6. Reddening of the Eyes;
7. Color of Face Changes;
8. Swallowing Movements Slow;
9. Pose of the Subject Becomes Fixed;
10. Muscles of the Body Relax Slightly;
11. Breathing Slows Down and Becomes more Rhythmic and Typhoid;
12. Heart Rate Decreases;
13. Facial Muscles Relax, the Face is flattened, especially the Cheeks, Forehead, Lips;
14. Reaction to External Noise Reduces;
15. Delayed Motor Reaction;
16. Appearance of Spontaneous Reactions, such as Vibration of Hands and Eyelids, a Slight Jerk of the Body, the Lips;
17. Body Temperature Changes.

I took a stress test on the street last week. I was curious about the machine. The operator had me hold two paddles and to think of someone who caused me grief (leading or pacing). And followed with a barrage of questions. I didn’t mention I did hypnosis. He mentioned buying a book and talked about their program and used the phrase “auditing” so I looked it up on WIKI.

The procedure of auditing is a two-person activity. One person, the "auditor", guides the other person, the "preclear". The preclear's job is to look at the mind and talk to the auditor. The auditor acknowledges what the preclear says and controls the process so the preclear may put his full attention on his work.
The auditor and preclear sit down in chairs facing each other. The process then follows in eleven distinct steps:
1. The auditor assures the preclear that he will be fully aware of everything that happens during the session.
2. The preclear is instructed to close his eyes for the session, entering a state of "dianetic reverie", signified by "a tremble of the lashes". During the session, the preclear remains in full possession of his will and retains full recall thereafter.
3. The auditor installs a "canceller", an instruction intended to absolutely cancel any form of positive suggestion that could accidentally occur. This is done by saying "In the future, when I utter the word 'cancelled,' everything I have said to you while you are in a therapy session will be cancelled and will have no force with you. Any suggestion I may have made to you will be without force when I say the word 'cancelled.' Do you understand?"
4. The auditor then asks the preclear to locate an exact record of something that happened to the preclear in his past: "Locate an incident that you feel you can comfortably face."
5. The preclear is invited by the auditor to "Go through the incident and say what is happening as you go along."
6a. The auditor instructs the preclear to recall as much as possible of the incident, going over it several times "until the preclear is cheerful about it".
6b. When the preclear is cheerful about an incident, the auditor instructs the preclear to locate another incident: "Let's find another incident that you feel you can comfortably face." The process outlined at steps 5 and 6a then repeats until the auditing session's time limit (usually two hours or so) is reached.
7. The preclear is instructed to "return to present time".
8. The auditor checks to make sure that the preclear feels himself to be in "present time", i.e. not still recalling a past incident.
9. The auditor gives the preclear the canceller word: "Very good. Cancelled."
10. The auditor tells the preclear to feel alert and return to full awareness of his surroundings: "When I count from five to one and snap my fingers you will feel alert. Five, four, three, two, one." (snaps fingers)

Yes, it’s Dianetics. The above is remarkably very similar to a hypnosis session. Notice the “trembling eyelashes” and the various embedded commands. Even the count down and snapping of the fingers to return them to a waking state.

Various New Age authors also use a form of hypnosis or “Power of Suggestion” on various CD’s and tapes I’ve had over the years, especially Past Life regression ones. Use a little discernment over what you buy and who you talk to. It’s always a matter of choice.

The late, great Milton Erickson often used embedded commands or simply metaphors without inducing a hypnotic state. He also said some of the best work is accomplished in a light trance.

Judge Thomas Troward did write of this in the early 1900’s.

How are you relating that is not working for you (or supporting you)?

Great question isn’t it?

If you believe that ‘You can’t do anything right’. How would you react when someone approaches you and says “You did a great job preparing that report.”? Depending on the circumstances, you may dismiss, discount or deflect their positive feedback. It depends on whether you have an internal or external frame of reference.

Suppose all day, people tell you that you have done a great job - do you really hear them? Not likely! And then one person points out that you made a couple of spelling mistakes on page 21. How does this resonate for you? It verifies your belief about yourself. You filter the feedback, you delete and distort the positive feedback and focus on the negative. The beliefs you have about yourself, about others, about the world, limit who you can be or what you can accomplish?

We all make decisions (generalizations) so that we do not have to relearn things every day. If you want to open a door, you learned a long time ago (made the generalization) that you grasp the doorknob, twist and pull or push and it opens - you do not have to go through the whole process of relearning how to open a door each and every time. Generalizations are useful shortcuts but they can also get us into trouble.

In an experiment, researchers put the doorknob on the same side of the door as the hinge. What do you think happened when they left adults in the room? They would go up to the door, grasp the doorknob, twist and then try to push or pull the door open. Of course, it would not open. As a result, the adults decided that the door was locked and they were locked in the room!

Young children, on the other hand, who had not yet made the generalization about the doorknob, simply walked up to the door and pushed on it and exited the room.

The adults, because of their decisions, created a reality of being locked in the room when in fact they were not. So how many of your decision (generalizations) about your spouse, your boss, the way it is at work, … leave you ‘locked in’, when others are not stopped by it?

Sometimes we can be our own worst enemies just by how we view ourselves. We can't always make the changes we want because some hidden part of us believes that the behavior is good for us.

As you change, your world will seemingly change.

Happy Thanksgiving

The first important step in the very obscure subject of the connection of the anatomy of the brain with mental derangement.

Sir John Batty Tuke (1835 - 1913) was one of the most influential psychiatrists in Scotland in the late nineteenth century. Tuke’s career in Edinburgh from 1863 to 1910 spanned a period of significant social and political changes in asylum governance and care in Scotland. Tuke’s professional success in public and private practice and his powerful role in several prominent medical societies allowed him to influence his colleagues toward a more physiological understanding of mental illness and its treatment.

He graduated from the Edinburgh University Medical School in 1856 and was registered at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. Shortly thereafter he went to New Zealand as a medical surgeon for seven years in the Maori War.
Upon his return to Edinburgh in 1863 Tuke was appointed to the Royal Edinburgh Asylum (later re-named the Royal Edinburgh Hospital) as an assistant physician. Under the tutelage of the then superintendent Dr. David Skae he quickly developed a niche in puerperal insanity and published influential articles on the subject.
As his career progressed Tuke also occupied positions of leadership within the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and wrote an influential article on the "cottage system" of care for insane people where he criticised the traditional Scottish practices of caring for "incurable" insane people by boarding them out with often destitute members of the community in exchange for meager compensation.
Tuke also contributed to a series of “Health Lectures for the People” delivered in Edinburgh during the winter of 1881-2. His lectures on “The Brain and its Functions” debunked the science of phrenology (Something P.P. Quimby had done some 20 years earlier) and used visual demonstrations to teach the public about the brain.
In 1894 , as the appointed to the Morison Lectureship at the RCPE, he chose “The Insanity of Over-exertion of the Brain” as his topic. This series would be the culmination of Tuke’s theory of physical disease as the cause of mental illness. Tuke proposed that both the public and profession had been hampered by Hippocratic classifications of insanity that were entirely psychological and led to an ignorance of brain anatomy, physiology and pathology, and a focus on behavioural symptoms. He condemned the popular notion the public needed protection from lunatics as well as the idea that insanity was manifested through perversion of the intellect. According to Tuke these elements had combined to create communities and medical terminology that regarded insanity as “a disease of the mind.”
Tuke directly avoided the task of trying to explain “the dynamics of delusion” and focused on his theory of cell overexertion by injury, parasitism, deficient cell functioning or defective cell growth. By focusing on cell functioning and cure through rest and nutrition, Tuke rejected attributions of moral infirmity or deficiency in the insane. Tuke saw these ideas as slowing the progress of treatment and scientific understanding since they “construct a psychological nexus between cause and symptom without demonstration of structural change in cortical tissues.” Tuke heralded the study of mental illness through brain anatomy as the way to “a rational system of treatment”and enjoined his colleagues to consider their patients “first as invalids and as an insane person after.”
Aside from the immediate exposure of the lecture hall Tuke’s talks were published in London and Edinburgh as well as in the Journal of Mental Science. He was noticed and respected by his contemporaries and a few years later received his first honorary degree (D. Sc.) from Trinity College, Dublin where he was praised for having made “the first important step in the very obscure subject of the connection of the anatomy of the brain with mental derangement.”
In 1898 he was knighted.

Fascination.

I’ve always been intrigued as to how P.P.Quimby mesmerized his young assistant Lucius Burkmar. He never stated that. There is someone in Italy that teaches Fascination but Weltmer made it clear and simple.

After having tested your subject with the falling test, seat him in a chair with a high back where he can be comfortable.

Tell him to relax all muscular and nervous tension and to look you steadily in the eye without letting the eyes wink or waver; that if he feels the eyes must wink at last, to close the eyes and keep them closed.

Then gaze steadily into his eye, looking into one eye and one eye only, with a strong determination that he shall fall into sleep.

When he shall close his eyes, pass the hands over the eyebrows and eyelids, giving the suggestion that they are sticking fast and that he will be unable to open them.

Then, after having given this suggestion two or three times, lay with firmness and determination, “You cannot open them;" and you will find that he will be unable to do so.

Chapter 14~Hypnotism

The mystery revealed: or, The handbook of Weltmerism; a supplement to the author's new and illustrated mail course of instruction in his science of healing By PROF. S. A. WELTMER
1901

HYPNOTISM ~ A glimpse at the work S.A.Weltmer.

The Mystery Revealed
or the
HAND-BOOK OF WELTMERISM
A Supplement to the Author’s New and Illustrated Mail Course of Instruction in His Science of Healing.
By PROF. S. A. WELTMER
1901
{Excerpts}

It is not the purpose of this chapter to enter into an extended discussion of the subject of Hypnotism.

Hypnotism as an art is as old as history, as a science it is just beginning to be investigated. Dissertations and treatises on hypnotism abound, the bulk of which is devoted to a discussion of the origin and the development of the science; one writer copying from another both the truths the author has demonstrated for himself and the mistakes he has copied from others.

Hypnotism is derived from the Greek word “hypnos”, or sleep; and yet it is only a small part of the phenomena of hypnotism that resembles sleep in any degree. Hypnotism. has been defined so as to include nearly every mental condition from the reverie or day dream down to the deepest trance or the wildest hallucination.

The reader will remember that the cardinal doctrine of Weltmerism is the doctrine of agreement: that is, two minds sounding as one, responding to the same vibrations, synchronizing, thinking the same thought. This the author believes and teaches is the basic principle of hypnotism" There can be no hypnotism unless two minds agree; and when two minds, one being positive and the other receptive, agree as to the thought of the positive mind, the passive mind may be said to be in the hypnotic condition. All those conditions in which there is an agreement may be divided into two states; the passive condition of the subject and the hypnotic condition of the subject; the hypnotic condition beginning where the paslive condition ends. In the passive condition there is no change in the relation of the conscious mind to the external world; in the hypnotic condition there is a change in the relation of the conscious mind to the external world. Therefore, the author defines hypnotism to be “a psychic condition in which there is a change in the relation of the conscious mind of the subject to the external world.”

Grave mistakes have been made in investigating this science. It has been the popular opinion that only weak-minded, nervous persons were susceptible of being placed in the hypnotic condition. The contrary is the case. In all the experiences of the author and in the almost numberless cases with which he has experimented, it is the person of strong will and power of concentration that is the most susceptible to hypnotic influence; because no one can be hypnotized against his own will. There must be an agreement or a willingness on the part of the subject to be hypnotized before hypnosis can be Induced, Hypnotism, then, is very-largely a self-induced condition, and the one who has most control over his own mental activities is the one who can most readily self-induce the hypnotic condition.
The phenomenon of hypnotism, then, being a psychic condition in which there' is a change in the relation of the conscious mind of the subject to the external world, and such condition being largely self-induced and depending upon the agreement of two minds. one mind which must be positive to the agreement and the other passive or receptive to the agreement, the stronger the positiveness of the operator and the stronger the receptiveness of the subject the quicker and deeper will be the influence exerted.

The hypnotic operator, then, is one who must be able to control his mind so as to have a dominant, imperial will; the hypnotic subject must be one that is passive or receptive. The successful hypnotist must have self-reliance, self-confidence and a determination to succeed in doing what he undertakes to do.

He must have the power of mental concentration, the power to fix and hold his attention on any desired idea or thought for any length of time, This power of which I speak is largely a natural gift, but may be highly cultivated by persistent training in concentration. If a person desires to be an hypnotic operator, he must train his mind to concentration—that is, be able to hold one thought to the exclusion of every other thought; he must cultivate self-reliance, self-confidence and a determination to do what he undertakes to do.

Try the following experiment: Take your subject and explain to him what hypnotism is; that it is only an agreement of two minds; that one cannot be hypnotized against his own will; that there is nothing harmful in it; that in fact it is beneficial, as it serves as a means of training even the mind of the subject, training it to passivity, which is just as important to physical welfare as the training of the mind to positiveness. Have your subject stand up, eyes closed, feet together and hands by the side. Tip the head back slightly, the china little elevated. Place your finger on the middle of the forehead; tell the subject, while keeping his eyes closed, to turn his eyes upward as though looking at the spot on the forehead where your finger is, Then make some passes downward over the body of your subject and pass around behind him. Extend your arm with the fingers extended pointing to the base of the brain and will your subject to fall backward to you. Tell him to do whatever he feels like doings and if he feels as if he wants to fall backward, to fall and you will catch him. If your minds have come to an agreement, the subject will fall backward or forward as your will shall determine.

…

Another method: Let your patient recline, on a sofa or table in a comfortable position, head not too elevated. Tell him to relax all muscular and nervous tension, to look you steadily in the eye as before, and he will feel sleep stealing over him, his eyelids becoming .heavy. Tell him, when he shall have closed his eyes, to think of some friend or scene that he loves to look upon and call that up as a mental picture and look at it steadily, but not think about it. Then make long passes from the bead downward over the body, giving the suggestion that sleep is stealing over him; that he is sinking into sleep, In ten or fifteen minutes you will see, by the breathing of the patient, the relaxation of the chin and the stillness of the eyelids, that the patient is asleep to everything except your own voice; he is oblivious to all things but you. This is the best method for the giving of suggestions to heal disease; for then the conscious mind is most nearly in abeyance and you are in communication with his unconscious mind; and the suggestions you give him he will take and act upon, thus healing his own diseased body. In the hypnotic condition the suggestion must be repeated often and impressed into the unconscious mind; but in the passive condition the suggestion must be given gradually and not too 'frequently, lest you arouse the subject from the passive to the positive condition. [This paragraph implies that a number of modern energy healing methodologies are inadvertently inducing a hypnotic state.]

In the use of hypnotism for the healing of diseases, the last method is the best. Never try to hypnotize anyone for any other purpose than that of giving suggestions for the healing of disease. In experimenting with a friend in order to learn your own power, never give any unpleasant or foolish suggestions, nor try to do the silly things you lee hypnotists do upon the stage. The only legitimate use that can be made of this great power is to relieve one from pain or heal him from disease.

…

Remember that hypnotism is not absolutely necessary. The writer has demonstrated that more than 90 per cent of cases that are healed by his system are healed by the passive attitude. In the administration of his system none is never hypnotized except at his own request or when other methods have failed and hypnotism is taken as the last resort. In the thousands that have been healed in the Institution of which the author is the proprietor, not 1 per cent have ever been placed in the hypnotic condition.
Weltmerism is not only the science of healing disease without drugs or medicine or any material remedy, but it is the science of doing this without hypnotism.

Weltmerism is the term applied to the teachings of the author by a magazine writer who paid him a visit in May, 1899. It was used by him to distinguish the teachings of the author from those of other exponents of Mental Healing and it’s allied branches.

The Weltmer Institute of Suggestive Therapeutics, established in 1897, consisted of a school and sanatorium. The school consisted of a four year program that included courses in the art of healing and the Philosophy of Health, Suggestive Therapeutics, Anatomy, Physiology, and Pathology and resulted in the degree of a Doctor of Suggestive Therapeutics (D.S.T.).


In 1899 Professor Weltmer wrote a Mail Course in Magnetic Healing, of which some forty-five thousand courses were distributed among the English speaking inhabitants of all parts of the world. This course was little more than a statement of principles, with instructions for the demonstration of the principles stated.





In 1900 a concerted attack was made to destroy the Weltmer Method of Healing. Persecutions and prosecutions followed one another in rapid succession until November 17, 1902, when the litigation had finally reached the United States Supreme Court, which sustained Professor Weltmer's work, and among other things declared his methods and practice to be "sound and practical" "legitimate and lawful” and in no conflict with the laws of Congress.

Sidney A. Weltmer died in Nevada, Missouri in 1930. The Weltmer Institute of Suggestive Therapeutics remained in operation until 1933.

The Weltmer Institute of Suggestive Therapeutics "Where every known disease is cured without medicine or surgery".

6 Stages of Hypnotism

Around the turn of the century, thousands of persons flocked to Nevada, MI, for cures for all kinds of diseases. Nevada, for several years, was famous as a center for Magnetic Healing.

The Sydney Weltmer Institute of Magnetic Healing had been in existence for three years when Dr. Leonard Stanhope, who was already a physician in Nevada, decided to treat patients by hypnotism and magnetic healing as well as teaching it to others.

He wrote a book on hypnotism, in 1899, which became a best seller. After two years he wrote a second book called "Magnetic Healing Explained." The second book also did well.

The treatments there involved hypnotism. Dr. Stanhope's book, (The science of magnetic healing, embracing hypnotism, vital magnetism, and mental science by Leonard E. Stanhope (1899)), includes explanations of three sciences, hypnotism, vital magnetism and mental science.

He used post-hypnotic suggestion to cure contracted habits and addictions.

He describes six stages of hypnotism.
The first is when a suggestion is made to the subject and he acts upon it.

The second is a hypnotic or induced sleep. During this time the subject will communicate with the operator but will not hear any other person unless the operator transfers the communication.

In the third stage, the subject's muscles become rigid, and he has no power or desire to move.

Later, the muscles will relax, and in the fourth stage he will answer questions.

When the fifth stage is reached, the hypnotist can send the subject to any place he chooses whether the subject has ever been there or not. He can visit distant friends, tell the hypnotist what these friends are thinking and doing, and describe places he has never seen in his waking state.

The last or sixth stage, according to Dr. Stanhope, "appears to be a condition of perfect knowledge. The distinguishing feature between it and the fifth seems to be that while in the fifth they have to travel to gain their knowledge; in the sixth everything appears right before them; they do not have to seek for knowledge."
He then went on to describe Vital Magnetism and Mental Science.

After a few years Dr. Stanhope suddenly left town. The story was that after treating so many for drug addiction, he himself became a drug addict.