My profession of hypnotherapy is the most unique profession I ever have been involved with, and  I have been  in a few.

You never know what to expect from current and new clients.

Every person is totally different in the way he or she presents and how each hypnotizes. No two hypnotize in the same way. One minute I am dealing with someone suffering extreme panic and anxiety, the next someone wanting to quit smoking, lose weight, improve motivation, wanting pre- and post-operative relaxation, easing and eliminating chronic pain, birthing and much more.

Recently I have been seeing a retired professor,  over 80 years old and suffering extreme fatigue since a surgery two years ago. His problem is almost resolved. All that is required is a change in his diet and his drinking habits. He accomplished the changes with little difficulty, Now he is experiencing renewed energy and vigor. After visiting several doctors and acupuncturists, he said I have been the only one able to eliminate his fatigue.

He was telling me about a hypnotist friend at college many years ago. My client had seen him performing a full body rigidity with an audience member, laying him in his rigid stance between two chairs and having someone stand on his stomach. He wanted to experience this so badly that he turned up at his session with a camera to take photographs.

I was willing to try even though I knew it would not work. I told him I did not think it would work.

The Way a Performer Works

At a stage show the hypnotist will perform a series of suggestibility tests with his audience. Suggestibility is how we take in and speak out information. We learn it from our primary caretakers, usually our mothers. All of us speak in a combination of literal and inference. I have only met two people who were 100 percent literal and 100 percent inferential. Without going in to too much detail, however we take in information, we speak out 180 degrees the opposite way.

If we take in information literally, we speak out inferentially. Suggestibility is the bread and butter of what a hypnotist does. Hypnosis is created through suggestibility. The more suggestible you are, the deeper you go, the quicker the changes.

The hypnotist does these suggestibility tests with the audience to see which person responds best to the suggestions offered. He brings the ones who are reacting to the suggestions most quickly and dramatically onto the stage and test them until he is left with five to 10 deep hypnotic candidates. From them, he creates his show. The person who goes the deepest is the one he would use for the full body rigidity between two chairs.

These people are somnambulists. One person in five is a somnambulist, that is, has a suggestibility of 50 percent inference, 50 percent literal. It means that they have no real filters. They absorb everything they hear, frequently acting on what they hear. All day long, they are consciously overloaded. That means they are in a state of hypnosis all day, which can cause problems if they are not careful.

One lady was so suggestible that she was walking past a television showing a commercial for Miracle Grow that before she knew it, she was at Home Depot buying a bag. When she came home to her apartment, she could not figure out why since she does not have any garden or growing plants. That is really open suggestibility.

You fix it by helping the person understand suggestibility and helping the person change it one way or the other by as little as 1 percent. Then the person no longer is a somnambulist.

Anyone for a Stiff Upper Lip?

As for my client, he was not a somnambulist, but we tried the experiment anyway. He was able to maintain a good rigidity, not enough, though, to be laid out between two chairs, and certainly not enough to have someone stand on his stomach. He understood and had to satisfy himself by having his arm become rigid. He did that well. As an inquisitive man, he wanted to know exactly how much pressure I applied in my attempt to bend his rigid arm. I explained I could not measure it, but I was trying with no success to bend his arm. Thankfully he was satisfied with this experiment, and we were able to return to tackling his other issues.

Do not hesitate to contact me by telephone, 310.204.3321, or by email at nickpollak@hypnotherapy4you.net. See my website at www.hypnotherapy4you.net