Some time ago, I started to write a series of articles about the subject of hypnosis, ranging from hypnosis, hypnotherapy, and NLP, but also how it affects us every day and how it's been/ is used on a daily basis to keep us docile.
You can read the start of it here and the first part of it here: Hypnosis, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly Part 1 My Story.
In last week's Ecotrain Question of the Week, we touched the subject of the unconscious mind, and I had such a great time writing my post on the subject, it reminded me of this series that I started. I feel it's time to keep writing...
You can read my last post on the Unconscious mind here if you like.
The start of my journey
I started my journey in the world of hypnosis years ago, as a teen, by reading every book I could find about the subject in our local library. Of course, I had no understanding of a lot of the information that was provided and being an impatient teenager, I only sifted through what I thought were the most important parts. However, it's always remained in the back of my mind, even the 'less important stuff'. Years later when I started my studies, I realized that I must have moved it to my subconscious mind and that part of it had always been in my unconscious mind somehow, because by the time I started my course, things just fell into place and I already knew a lot of what our teachers tried to teach us, without ever 'learning' it.
I truly believe that even though some doctors or psychologists have put hypnosis on the map, it's been part of humanity in one way or another for much longer than that and I'm sure that the people who had that knowledge have been using it too.
My teachers
My teachers are two amazing people who each studied and practiced hypnotherapy for respectively 20 and 30 years.
It was a teacher/student relationship that brought this particular course to life in Belgium. The founder of the school (R) is a man who studied under quite a famous hypnotherapist from the Netherlands, famous in those circles that is. He practiced for a while until his mentor told him that he shouldn't keep his knowledge to himself, and offer courses to find his own prodigy, who he could train to teach as well.
He found her in the form of O., who is not only a brilliant teacher and hypnotherapist but also has a gift for knowing exactly what's behind each person she trains. In the time I was studying with them, she seemed to know us better than we knew ourselves and she managed to find each individuals' talents and subjects they were drawn to, and work with that.
My personal experiences
I started the course because I wanted to do more for mothers-to-be.
That was the initial plan. After doing a short course of hypnobirthing I found that it helped, but not as much as I would have liked. Also, most people giving those courses are only trained on that course and aren't actual hypnotherapists, so I thought I'd be able to do more if I was.
But as I went through the course and saw the possibilities, I realized there was so much more I could do.
We watched a few videos and heard stories that were quite impressive. But there were two videos that impressed me the most.
The first was of a woman who had to have a C-section. However, she had had bad reactions to anesthesia in the past, so there was a problem. She worked with a hypnotherapist for a few weeks leading up to the C-section, and he was there during the operation.
I won't bore you with the details of the work they did, but I can tell you that this woman was singing throughout her C-section, and had the baby without any pain medication or anesthesia. The therapist found what the woman loved, which was singing, and he used it during hypnosis. After the baby was born, the woman recalled everything, she was fully aware of what had happened, and how things were done, but she hadn't felt a thing. Hypnosis = magic if you ask me...
Then we learned about a man who suffered 3rd-degree burns in the face and his upper body at work. He was brought in to the hospital where a clinical hypnotherapist worked. The therapist went to work with him right away, and didn't only save the man from a lot of pain, but also his wounds started healing almost instantly. The next day doctors came to see the man, expecting blistering since that would be a natural response after burns that severe, but instead his skin was a rosy pink, and already in its healing stage. The doctors didn't believe this man just got burned the day before because this kind of healing wouldn't start to happen until two to four weeks later.
During our practice sessions, I've also seen some amazing things happen, but the best thing about the whole time we were students there, was probably how I got to know myself better and in a different way and how we could see this happen for everyone on the course.
The things that can be achieved with hypnosis are truly amazing, sometimes even magical, but it also showed me something else. I proved to me, that it can and is absolutely also used for things that are not good or worse...
There were things that suddenly fell into place for me. Not only good. After my studies with this institute and a little break, I started on NLP and with that, I learned even more about how these practices are used every day, for good...but also for evil.
Exactly how though...that will have to wait for another article.
Thank you for reading!
