Post-Hypnotic Suggestion

James Richard Cocke (1863 – 1900), who had been blind since infancy, was an American physician, homeopath, and a pioneer hypnotherapist.

He was born in the South of the United States, and had been totally blind since he was an infant. His sight had been completely destroyed when acid was accidentally applied to his eyes when he was just three weeks old.
He was considered to be "highly educated"; and, despite his total blindness, "was able to go around the city at will", and "could play a piano with much skill":

Fantasy prone personality.

Fantasy prone personality (FPP) is a disposition or personality trait in which a person experiences a lifelong extensive and deep involvement in fantasy. An individual with this trait (termed a fantasizer) may have difficulty differentiating between fantasy and reality and may experience hallucinations and out-of-body experiences, as well as self-suggested psychosomatic symptoms. Three closely related psychological constructs are daydreaming, absorption[1] and eidetic memory[2].

[1] Absorption is a disposition or personality trait in which a person becomes absorbed in his/her mental imagery, particularly fantasy.

[2] Eidetic memory, commonly referred to as photographic memory, is a medical term, popularly defined as the ability to recall images, sounds, or objects in memory with extreme precision and in abundant volume.

American psychologists Sheryl C. Wilson and Theodore X. Barber first identified FPP in 1981, said to apply to about 4% of the population. Besides identifying this fascinating trait, Wilson and Barber reported a number of childhood antecedents that likely caused the foundation for fantasy proneness in later life, such as "a parent, grandparent, teacher, or friend who encouraged the reading of fairy tales, reinforced the child's ... fantasies, and treated the child's dolls and stuffed animals in ways that encouraged the child to believe that they were alive." They suggested that this trait was almost synonymous with those who responded dramatically to hypnotic induction, that is, "high hypnotizables."

Research in the 1990s by at Harvard confirmed most of these characteristics of fantasy prone people, but she also identified another set of highly hypnotizable subjects who had had traumatic childhoods and who identified fantasy time mainly by "spacing out."

Ah-ha!

A fantasy prone person is reported to spend a large portion of his or her time fantasizing, have vividly intense fantasies, have paranormal experiences, and have intense religious experiences. The fantasies may include dissociation and sexual fantasies. People with FPP are reported to spend over half of their time awake fantasizing or daydreaming and will often confuse or mix their fantasies with their real memories. They also report out-of-body experiences.  People with fantasy prone personality are more likely to have had parents, or closely related family members that have made their inanimate toys as children seem real. They also encourage the child who believes they have imaginary companions, reads fairytales all through childhood and re-enacts the things they have read. Children who at a young age were involved in creative fantasy activities like piano, ballet, and drawing are more likely to obtain a fantasy prone personality. This is due to the child being emotionally involved into these activities. Acting is also a way for children to "become" different people and characters which can make the child prone to fantasy-like dreams as they grow up. This creates the person to grow up thinking they have experienced certain things and they can visualize a certain occurrence from the training they obtained while being involved in plays. A person who has a lonely and isolated life is also prone to this personality disorder to create a fulfilling life. Sigmund Freud also stated that "unsatisfied wishes are the driving power behind fantasies, every separate fantasy contains the fulfillment of a wish, and unproves an unsatisfactory reality." This shows that being lonely you create a fantasy world of happiness to fill the void. Young children who once were treated with abuse and had a parent leave created a world of fantasies to escape from reality.

Wilson and Barber listed 14 characteristics in their 1981 study. They require having six or more of these traits to be characterised as "fantasy prone." These are:

1. excellent hypnotic subject
2. having imaginary friends as child
3. fantasizing often as child
4. having an actual fantasy identity
5. experiencing imagined sensations as real
6. having vivid sensory perceptions
7. reliving past experiences
8. claiming psychic powers
9. having out-of-body experiences
10. receiving information from higher powers, spirits, intelligences
11. involved in "healing"
12. encountered apparitions
13. hypnogogic hallucinations (waking dreams)
14. seeing hypnogogic hallucinations (ghosts, aliens, etc.)

More characteristics outside of the Wilson and Barber study:

• claiming to have been abducted
• believes they can receive sexual satisfaction without any stimulation
• believes they have mystical healing and can do great things. Research has shown that fantasizers often had a large amount of exposure to fantasy during childhood. People have reported that they believed their dolls and stuffed animals were living creatures and that their parents encouraged them to indulge in their fantasies and daydreams. For example, one subject in Barrett’s study said her parents’ formula response to her requests for expensive toys was, “You could take this (household object) and with a little imagination, it would look just like (that $200-whatever-Susie-just-got).” And she reported, “this worked for me—although Susie couldn’t quite always see it.” Fantasy prone people generally functioned well in their adult life.

Perhaps a lot of the subtle energy healing modalities and New Age people have sprung from  FPPs. In any event the 14 traits could be due merely from to the power of suggestion.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_prone_personality

Neville Goddard wrote in 1941(http://pvrguymale.blogspot.ca/2012/06/there-are-no-ascended-masters-banish.html) that there were no Ascended Masters, Masters, Adepts or Elder Brothers and these were merely false teachers, false idols and false lights. Idolatry has been common in history, even in biblical time with Moses. 

The interesting bit of FPPs is as it applies to New Age. I heard a psychic say he'd seen a Unicorn from another dimension, someone connected with a Theosophy background I knew of claimed to see Fairies ( she also saw auras and chakras, but not the sex chakra only a spleen chakra in it's place.).

Various people have written about Masters in Tibet. 
Various people have claimed to have spirit guides and animal guides.

If they are all FPPs then surely it's like a set of domino's and the entire paradigm is sure to collapse under close scrutiny. 

Psychologists stand to be busy what with the 2012 predictions closing in.

Harry Gaze stated back in the 50's that reincarnation perpetuates a belief in the an endless cycle of birth and death. (http://pvrguymale.blogspot.ca/2012/04/true-marriage-love-comes-from-minds-of.html)  
Past life regressions should probably be analyzed by trained professional in terms of content and context. Also, the script used, the person leading the regression etc. Dr. Cornwall Round hypnotized a street walker back in the early 1900's (http://pvrguymale.blogspot.ca/2012/04/means-to-perpetual-life.html). The script was obviously leading the subject and she acted accordingly. When the session was over she reverted to he normal ways.
The "Power of Suggestion", an open mind and rational perspective need to be maintained.
Before you take any course or get involved in any group: Check out the persons background and credentials online. The Institution as well. Also ask about the refund policy. If you later find out  it wasn't up to snuff chalk it up to experience. Dorthy Martin is a good example of FPPs perhaps. http://pvrguymale.blogspot.ca/2011/07/dorothy-martin-sister-thedra.html

 Qxci: Before you spend $30,000 it might pay to educate yourself.

Canadian Quackery

http://www.healthwatcher.net/quackerywatch/Quack-machines/qxci.html

Quackwatch

http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/Tests/xrroid.html

Philip Aylesford: Come out, come out where ever you are!

In 1972 some Canadian parapsychologists undertook an experiment. The members of the experiment attempted to create, through intense and prolonged concentration, a collective thought-form.
The group fabricated the fictitious identity, physical appearance, and personal history of their “Philip Aylesford” who was born in England in 1624. He had an illustrious role in the Civil War, becoming a personal friend of Charles II and working for him as a secret agent. But Philip brought about his own undoing by having an affair with a Gypsy girl. When his wife found out she accused the girl of witchcraft, and she was burned at the stake. In despair Philip committed suicide in 1654 at the age of thirty.
The group began conducting sittings in September 1972 during which they meditated, visualized, and discussed the details of Philip’s life. After going for months with no communication, the group attempted table-tilting through psychokinesis.
Some weeks after changing to the séance setting the group established communication with “Philip.” He answered questions that were consistent with his fictitious history, but was unable to provide any information beyond that which the group had conceived. However, “Philip” did give other historically accurate information about real events and people. The group theorized that this latter information came from their own collective unconsciousness.
One session was held in front of a live audience of fifty people and was videotaped to be shown on television. In other sessions sounds were heard in various parts of the room and lights blinked on and off. The levitation and movement of a table were recorded on film in 1974.
As the group became more comfortable with their encounters with Philip, they began to treat him as just another member of the group. They learned his personality as if he was a good friend. And Philip would play tricks on them. At times, he would move the table around the room, especially to rush up to those arriving late as if to greet them and say “Hi”. Other times, the table would trap certain individuals in corners.
During one especially active night, one of the members jokingly admonished Philip by telling him that he could be sent away and replaced. After that, Philip’s activity began to decrease until it stopped altogether and the experiment was ceased.

Abbé Faria

Abbé Faria (Abade Faria in Portuguese), or Abbé (Abbot) José Custódio de Faria, (1746 - 1819), was a colourful Goan Catholic monk who was one of the pioneers of the scientific study of hypnotism, following on from the work of Franz Anton Mesmer. Unlike Mesmer, who claimed that hypnosis was mediated by "animal magnetism", Faria understood that it worked purely by the power of suggestion. In the early 19th century, Abbé Faria introduced oriental hypnosis to Paris.

Power of Suggestion.

Points programs, points cards are forms of the Power of Suggestion inducing you to buy/collect.

Do you really need it?

The Power of Suggestion

Synesthesia is a neurologically-based condition in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. The most common form, colored letters and numbers, occurs when someone always sees a certain color in response to a certain letter of the alphabet or number.
"Indigo" has nothing to do with the color of an aura! It is the result of scientific observations by a woman who has the brain disorder called synesthesia.

The term "indigo children" originates with parapsychologist and self-described synesthete and psychic, Nancy Ann Tappe who developed the concept in the 1970's.

Indigo kids: Does the science fly?

Little Boy Blue



True-believer syndrome is a term coined by M. Lamar Keene in his 1976 book The Psychic Mafia. Keene used the term to refer to people who continued to believe in a paranormal event or phenomenon even after it had been proven to have been staged.

Cognitive dissonance was first investigated by Leon Festinger and associates, arising out of a participant observation study of a cult which believed that the earth was going to be destroyed by a flood, and what happened to its members — particularly the really committed ones who had given up their homes and jobs to work for the cult — when the flood did not happen. While fringe members were more inclined to recognize that they had made fools of themselves and to "put it down to experience", committed members were more likely to re-interpret the evidence to show that they were right all along (the earth was not destroyed because of the faithfulness of the cult members).

Everything comes from the subject and takes place in his imagination.

Abbé (Abbot) José Custódio de Faria, (30 May 1746 - 20 September 1819), was a colourful Goan Catholic monk who was one of the pioneers of the scientific study of hypnotism, following on from the work of Franz Anton Mesmer. Unlike Mesmer, who claimed that hypnosis was mediated by "animal magnetism", Faria understood that it worked purely by the power of suggestion.
Faria changed the terminology of mesmerism. Previously focus was on the "concentration" of the subject. In Faria's terminology the operator became "the concentrator" and somnambulism was viewed as a lucid sleep. The Indian method of hypnosis used by Faria is command, following expectancy.The theory of Abbe Faria is now known as Fariism.