[img]560|left|Nicholas D. Pollak||no_popup[/img]I had the good fortune, and also misfortune, of having to empty “stuff” from my garage the other day to make room for more stuff.

Clearing more space required me to go through many boxes to see what would stay and what would go.

Opening every box, a flood of memories came pouring from the objects in question.

I was again reminded of the amazing power of our subconscious minds, our ability to immediately remember things through the stimulation of sight, sound or smell.

As a clinical hypnotherapist, I am aware of this power.

It has been scientifically proven that of all the brainpower available to us, we only use 5 percent.

Of that 5 percent, 10 percent is our conscious mind, 90 our subconscious. To effect change, we must change our subconscious, difficult because you have 90 against 10.

From the moment of our birth to right now, everything you have ever seen, felt, smelled or heard is stored within your subconscious, ready and available to call up when you want. Sometimes, of course, we don’t know we know something until an association is triggered.

Divide by Two

What is hypnosis? Whether you realize it or not, everyone has experienced hypnosis. It simply is your body being in one place and your mind in another.

How many of you drive to work?

How many remember what you saw on your way to work? How many cars do you remember?

What people did you see? What buildings did you notice?

Most people barely remember anything —unless it was so unusual it forced them to break from their trance and notice.

When you look in your rearview mirror, you may notice the driver behind you looks as if he is in a trance. His eyes do not have a focused look, a little dazed, not quite there. That look is hypnosis.

You may even see it when you talk to others, especially children. They can tune out and be somewhere else. This again is hypnosis.

We have all had that look.

When you look at an old photograph, you remember where and when it was taken, what you were doing and who you were with. Hypnosis.

Sniff, Sniff

When you smell fresh bread, a cake, a flower, gasoline, oil, a new car, garbage, coffee, tea. Remember that is Hypnosis.

Many years ago I was in Tel Aviv in Israel, when I passed the doorway of a building, I smelled fresh concrete. It stuck with me. Now, whenever I smell fresh concrete I see that doorway in Tel Aviv. I remember clearly not only where I was but what I was doing, where I was going, what I was wearing. It was a particularly hot day and the shade in the doorway was very inviting

When I smell new tar, I go back to when I was 14 years old , and working a summer job on a construction site in London. I remember Paddy, a 50-year-old, 280-pound Irishman. He was so strong he could literally carry cast iron bathtubs up two or three flights of stairs, all day.

He used to say, “No matter where you go or what you do, you will always remember me!” He was right.

The smell of a cigar reminds me strongly of my childhood, particularly Sunday afternoons when my father would make a cup of coffee for everyone in the family, then sit to read his Sunday newspaper with a fat cigar in hand. (To this day, although the memory is a fond one I cannot stand the smell of a cigar.)

Music is just as powerful. When I hear music by Robert Palmer, a great rock singer from the U.K., I remember the friendship I had with him when he was a rising star. When I hear certain classical music I remember many places and occasions when I had heard that music before.

I remember going to the opera, to musicals and plays, so much so that when I hear music associated with any of those I had seen, I am instantly transported back to when I first heard them.

I have many more memories. I am sure you get the point.

I encourage each of you to be more aware of the power of our subconscious, to enjoy the amazing ability that our minds have to recall many things we thought we had forgotten.

Happy memories.

A clinical hypnotherapist, handwriting analyst and expert master hypnotist, Nicholas Pollak may be contacted at nickpollak@hypnotherapy4you.net