By Bhaskar & Rajni Vyas

Take this as a parody; take it really seriously: Fact of the matter is Hypnotherapy is a Science is a parody.

This may sound to be a platitude for those who are learned and practicing hypnotherapy with demonstrable results. However, for those who find them novice to the field, it does come as a surprise. Any idea that is novel, fascinating, luminous, dazzling or may be even, bizarre, – like a girl in the magic box being cut into two and jumping alive as one – produces a specific response from the observer. That also is common sense: One gets dazed and at times aghast! Hypnotic processes and magical demonstrations both appear extraordinary and yet, there is no magic about it: and, both are based on certain psychodynamic processes that are just being discovered – though such phenomena are a part of our every day life! Even noting certain details at a murder or terror scene and forgetting some is based on functioning of certain neurons and genes (!) at such times.

People mistakenly say; with the advent of quantum physics, Newtonian physics is outdated. They forget we are talking about an apple falling from a tree to the ground and the planets going round the solar system – even stock market functions as per the law of cause and effect! But did not Newton say that give me a long enough stick and make me stand in the solar system outside the earth and, I shall lift up the earth with my stick!” For those who take a cue from this and try to use the law of gravitation for pulling money out of stock market through self- hypnosis – thinking themselves to be great telepathic  programmers of the markets forget  the elementary principle that in gravitational pull mass is the important factor. The gravitational pull of greed can be like a black hole so that huge finance institutions across the world also get sucked, shrunk and disappear. This is also science as the hypnotic process is: if you do not believe it, wake up some corpses that commit suicides following stock market crashes, and ask. They would tell you that stock market cast a hypnotic spell on them and, they likened themselves to Napolean Bonaparte – out to conquer the world.

So science is all about cause and effect, that cause causality to change the environment; results and variables, predictability and certainty. If physics and mathematics are such high precise sciences conforming to the principles of deductive logic, believe us when we say, hypnosis will also confirm to those principles. If you do not believe us, ask; but do not ask us; ask politicians! They will go a step further to prove that bluffing is also a science and, holding shares and not holding shares in IPL is all a make believe! Did not Sankaracharya say about the world being a mirage? Brahmam satyam: jagan mithya!  If all the world is a stage and we are but players in a drama, was Shakespeare not a great hypnotist to create such illusions that Romeo and Juliet still exist?

Some innocent genuinely nice people –  to be innocent genuinely nice people is a hypnodrama being played most frequently by good, bad and ugly; all across the band – ask us: do you believe in the ghosts? We refer them to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It is pathetic to see that Mr. Hyde hides in most of us, most of the times – and some of us secretly love him too! and several expert psychiatric doctors Jekylls cannot exorcise him. Yet it may take a fresher in Clinical Psychology who has just walked out of the hypnosis workshop, a few sessions of cold fusion with hypnosis that the pathological ego states fuse into one forever.

Life is like that! Did not Meera Bai sing about the fools being rewarded with kingdom and Pandits going a begging? Even Freshers in hypnotherapy will crack the psychodynamics of a schizophrenic by just cataloguing the few years backwards of the  young man to discover when was it that he was bit by a scorpion girl – vishkanya to be precise– that left him beaten, battered and perceptually blind so as to have disorientation in time and space. Most high profile psychiatrists will ravel in uncovering the schizophrenic gene and keep changing molecules after molecules for this young man. Yes, they are right in ridiculing psychoanalysis as the pursuit of lazy nineteenth century psychologists. Who has the time today to browse, read and mull over Romeo and Juliet!  All the world is a stage, and we the doctors are just the actors in the melodrama that is played about: let us do our role to prescribe and change from one molecule to another.  Never mind that it may be an ordeal for most mentally wrecked! However, do not be surprised that a naïve hypnotherapist age regresses empathetically this wreck if a human being so as to erase the traumatic memories by selective ablation of the past event; and, lo and be hold, schizophrenic is restored to normalcy. Even beyond, it is astonishing to see the post hypnotic suggestion work so that the boy passes his final examination with distinction. That should remind us of the fact that Jonathan Nash won a Nobel Prize: It  is a real life story.

Yet, if some credit is to be given to quantum physics as some kind of hypnodrama, it tells us about every particle changing its action with presence of an observer. Einstein refused to believe that a mouse looking at the Universe does change it. He said, God does not play dice. The hard core psychopharmocologists and psychiatrists would not believe that a tiny-mini clinical psychologist can look into the psychodynamics of a ravaged mind and, through the cyclic rotation of time dimension, can bring about a cure that would very soon be drugless.

Neil Bohr’s reply to Einstein was : let God do his work and physicists their own. Let psychopharmocologists and psychiatrists not agree and keep doing what they well know that they imperfectly know: hypnotherapists when committed to what they know they are doing and do it perfectly; will help schizophrenics with lasting support.

The energy, which is unknowingly being provided by the consciousness of the observer in quantum physics, seems to be playing the same truant in the relationship between the subject and the therapist, particularly in severe illness like schizophrenia . The charisma of therapist influences, at times, so greatly that one sees God when none exists.   Poor hypnotherapist is trapped with the difficulty of studying the human behavior which changes its route with presence of each different observer. There may be more interpretations of psychodynamics than the number of therapists and, Thomas Kuhn and Karl Pribram will back us with this that none can be proved wrong! Knowing the real self, what lies deep within, what stirs up and stimulates unconscious mind with every new experience; such questions  can be innumerable! Like they say, knowing Shiva is enough for many, but for few it is the search of Mahadev, and for even fewer, it goes up to the search of Mahakaal.

As such, who would and who would not dare to discern the darkness which is lying deep within the realms of Unconsciousness? Once again, hypnotherapist will answer such questions most humbly that he is just a scientist: a poor scientist:  for him the success of such probing lies in restoring his subject to functionality.

Humans are the most trainable species, and we train our minds with everything that we see or listen or just experience. Why would the Panch Tantra or Anderson Tales be so effective in teaching a child about morals and discipline? Story telling being one of the oldest arts is enough to explain suggestibility and also to predict when someone is highly suggestible. We do not need to quote Milton Erikson. We can easily find the references of ill/well effects of the daily televison soap operas on the families following them. With the women having greater difficulty in finding peace and being content, and the men having trouble of searching the satisfaction with uncontrolled drive of ambition, we are talking about a society which is very high on indulgence. So, when a hypnotherapist cures a long history of infertility in just a few sessions, it is not miracle. It is a hundred percent science, that restores the milleu interior to normal natural pulsatility that some one out there programmed the female since the times of Eve. It sounds incredible. So let us take a simpler case: What happens when a women is humiliated for her good looks? Very simple, she develops twitching of face. It is wonderful to see hypnotherapeutic suggestions work and the women being rid of her six years long abysmal trouble in just sixty days!

After all this persuasion, if the reader is now convinced that hypnotherapy is indeed a science as much is surgery, beware that we might just be fooling you as much as when we tell you we are sure that rebirth exists! Only a few centuries back, surgery was done by barbers: British respect that tradition even to-day! And if you respect British for all the imperial glory that they once had, how ingenuinely incongruent they may might be to carry on with the tradition of Royalty? Ask Milton Erikson. He will carry on the tale till such times that you will end up convinced that any barber may become a surgeon but it requires a real creative genius to paint a Mona Lisa.

We agree. Milton Eriksons are not made: they happen as the flowering of the creative upsurge of a huge human potential. So, in the end, may be, we were just fooling you: hypnotherapy is not  science: it is an art at its excellence: no Large  Hadron Collider will ever produce a Leonardo da Vinci or a Milton Erikson!

Kumar Venkatachalam

Psychotherapy per se would not have flourished a lot in India pre 2000 time period. But that has changed a lot. Even now people in villages may not come for it. Urban and sub urban do. 15- 20 years back when I started my hypnotherapy practice I could still manage a decent practice. Most of my practice was 2 – 5 sessions even though there were a few I could not do much for, (my failing) but who had nowhere else to go since there was no one else in my whole state who was practicing psychotherapy. But I think with hypnotherapy things can be brief and also impress people that something is being done. otherwise people discount psychotherapy in India, as talk therapy. They would not go for it. They get enough counseling and advice as part of the community interaction, extended family etc. and they say they do not need more of the same from a professional and also pay for it.

Kumar Venkatachalam

When I first learnt hypnosis I learnt it from a person “with a different background” only. He was a retired manager from a rubber company, But he did much better hypnotherapy than a psychiatrist that I knew. I used to spend hours and hours of time with him, watching his sessions etc. till almost his death in 1993. Then I continued his practice in the same place till 1997. It is the nature of hypnosis practice even now in India, a lot of people with no formal health or psychology background have a lot of interest in hypnotherapy and do a lot of good work. Madras Hypnotic circle of which I used to be a member had about 95% folks without formal training in medicine or psychology but good therapists nevertheless. I certainly believe that healing is not just for physicians. Healers can come from any background.

Two of Indias greatest Hypnotherapists, Dr Bhaskar and Dr Rajni Vyas, authors of the Indian Handbook of Hypnotherapy are conducting a unique “once-in-a-lifetime” workshop in Stockholm October 6-7 with the International Hypnotists Guild.

We have the incredible fortune to be able to present this opportunity thanks to a coordination with a large workshop for Hypnosis in Bremen.

If you are involved in hypnotherapy, curious about Indian Philosophy in combination with Western Medicine and prefer hands-on example taught workshops this is The One. If you need to travel from anywhere in Europe to Stockholm to attend, rest assured it is shorter than going to India.

Sat-Sun 10.00-17.00 (6.900 kr plus moms).

Apply here for one of the last slots: APPLY HERE

P.S. If you can’t attend this workshop, come thursday to the introduction at the NLP-society in collaboration with IHG: NLP-Society of Sweden

A CLOSER LOOK AT PROVOCATIVE THERAPY
Interview with Nick Kemp about Provocative Therapy and Provocative Change Work by Ulf Sandström for the International Hypnotists Guild.

Nick Kemp is a greatly experienced British practitioner who is passionate about the concept of provocative therapy (PT), and provocative change work (PCW). He has trained with Richard Bandler for five years, and assisted him on countless events which makes him very familiar with NLP and hypnosis. In addition to this he has a long experience working together with Frank Farelly who initated the concept of Provocative Therapy 1963, years before the concept of NLP emerged. As happens, both Bandler and Grinder were strongly impressed by Franks early work and referenced him in “Frogs into Princes”.

…

U: Nick, having heard of your work I am curious about the core of the provocative aspect – which seems to be adopting the stance of being the devils advocate. Is this correct?

N: Yes a practitioner working with PT or PCWwill always adopt the stance of being devil’s advocate in a client session. This can be done in a lot of different ways. When I first met Frank and read his original book “Provocative Therapy” I was really taken by the many facets to his work and how the practitioner always presents the benefits for the client in maintaining the problem rather than changing it. Having worked with thousands of clients I keep finding that provocation greatly accelerates client change.

Humor is vital!
U: The element of humor seems to be vital in provocative therapy, what are your reflections around this?

N: My experience is that with a few exceptions NLP trainers don’t often use humour with great effect and instead tend to reply far too much on techniques.

U: Thats a pity, humor is a powerful tool, would it be correct to say that PCW and PT seem to focus on the actual “how” of applying the tools of hypnosis and NLP in an efficient way, using gentle, friendly, dark humor siding with the negative view of the clients current process?
N: Yes. Many practitioners who use NLP and Hypnosis and want additional tools, find that provocative therapy provides these tools. Here are some specific examples of ingredients in Provocative Change Works…

The three key ingredients of Provocative Change Works
Provocative Change Works consists of three approaches to shift clients from “a stuck state” to a more fluid state, allowing for greater freedom and choice. This conversational way of working requires the practitioner to pay close attention to client responses, whilst maintaining their own excellent state control

These are
1.    Provoking or stimulating client responses by verbal and non verbal interactions
2.    Using non-specific or indirect Hypnosis and metaphor explorations – to create “fluid states” for the client
3.    Time Framing – Promoting new ways of moving through time and space
The practitioner deliberately provokes (calls forth responses from) the client by adopting different discrete stances, which stimulate the client into new ways of thinking and feeling.  The practitioner seeks out resistances in the client and then approaches most what the client seeks to avoid in the discussion, and identifies the client’s “blind spots”, using a great deal of humour and by working in an improvised manner. This means “running suggestions up the flagpole” and seeing if the client responds. The practitioner creates the movement in the session and can be talking for large sections of the interaction.
Great use is made of “sensory rich language”, and the full expression of this, to engage the client, and thus take them on a journey outside their existing beliefs and experience, to a new sense of freedom. The key attitude is of interacting as if chatting to an old friend means that the practitioner quickly creates real rapport with the client and the client often discusses the issue as it is rather than how they believe “they should respond”.

Many witnessing this style of working can be initially quite surprised at the amount of energy, fun and honesty that results from this approach. This makes a client session very much seem like interaction between old friends where each person may interrupt the other, tease the other, wander off the point and behave in other ways which typify such encounters. This apparent freedom is of course underpinned by all the ethical and professional principles of good practice. The benefit of this is that one can have warm caring and human interactions, which enables the client to find their own solutions from a new and useful state.

In Provocative Change Works™ the practitioner either starts with the question

“As you think about this problem now (note reference to time), what’s the whole thing like?”
or
“What’s the problem?”

(This is the classic opening question used in Provocative Therapy that forces the client to defend reasons for having the problem)

My experience is that one of the best ways to help a client is to take what the client is saying literally. When you ask a client “As you think about the problem now, what’s the whole thing like?” the answers from this question reveal how the client thinks about this issue at “this point in time”. Most clients respond by saying ‘It’s like X or Y” and the metaphors the client uses are crucial for being able to change the client’s stuck state to a state of greater freedom. The reason for using the term “the whole thing” is to request an overview of the problem, rather than specific details.

PROVOCATIVE STANCES
Here are some examples of Stances thar are useful in provoking responses…

Blame versus Don’t blame…
It’s not your fault (blame everything and everyone else for the problem)

This stance allows the practitioner to blame everything else for the client’s predicament. This is often done in the most extreme manner. Here are some examples of blame and not blaming that can be used

“It’s not your fault; it’s just that you were born in the wrong place”
“It’s not your fault, it’s because you wear brown shoes”
“Not only is this your fault, but here’s a whole bunch of other things that are your fault as well!”
“Well of course it’s you, nobody else was there!”

Speak louder or speak quieter
Changing the volume of how you speak, can be hugely impactful in client sessions. In Speaking hushed tones and speaking louder produce all manner of responses that provoke new ways of thinking and feeling.

Go into more detail or going to greater universal descriptions
Adopting stances of asking for more detail or a more universal view provokes a wide range of useful responses. Here are some examples of adopting these stances

“What was the colour of that car?”
“How many times did you think that?
“What astrological sign are you?”
“That’s just how things line up from a cosmological perspective”

Suggest the client does more of the same
Here the practitioner suggests the client continue to do more of the same problem behaviour. In NLP this could accurately be described as “reframing”

Here is an example of the more of the same stance –

Client – “I have a phobia of public speaking”
Practitioner – “That’s great; it allows more opportunities for the rest of us to speak in public”

Tell a story
Milton Erickson used storytelling to great effect. By adopting this stance it’s possible to provoke a wide range of client reactions. Here are some examples of how this can be done

“That reminds me of a story…”
“I heard that…”
“I read that”

TRANSCRIPT – ANGER ISSUES
Here is an exchange from an interview I did with Harry who had anger issues. In this exchange I adopt the stance of insisting that the problem is a good thing in order to provoke a series of responses from him

NICK: So what’s the problem?

HARRY: Anger.

NICK: Alright. There’s nothing with anger. Anger’s a good, motivating, powerful force that if more people had it, the world would get things done. It’s full of … you know … you got people all over the planet who just can’t be bothered. Really they don’t care enough to generate enough emotion to be able to express what it is that’s actually going on. So you are like a beacon for others. So that the apathetic, time-wasting, slothful, no-energy, slacker types can start to take some note and realise that those who have more energy and have more passion have something to contribute.

HARRY: The only problem with that is that it does work to a certain extent but it spills into anger.

NICK: There’s nothing wrong with anger. Anger’s a good thing. If more people were angry, more stuff would get done.

HARRY: Sometimes in the world more people would get hurt.

NICK: Well it’s a by-product. It’s like collateral damage. It’s like Buddha said “All change is pain”. Yeah. And are we saying he’s an idiot? Are you saying like Buddha’s not the smartest kid in the class?

(Harry laughs)


TRANSCRIPT – ANXIETY
Here’s a transcript of me working with a client with anxiety issues. This shows me adopting some of the provocative stances I use in this approach. The client is a highly successful manager who feels extremely anxious when talking to what he describes as “people in authority”

NICK:   So Mighty Greg, what’s the problem.

GREG:  When I am talking to, or dealing with, Senior Execs in the company, I lose …(Nick interrupts – example of adopting the interrupt the client stance)

NICK:   Smart people?

GREG:   Not necessarily.

NICK:   Ok. Stupid people?

Here I am also adopting the “digital choice” stance to provoke the client

GREG:   Not necessarily.  We have all of the above. (Greg responds in a defensive and animated manner)

NICK:   Ok.  So they’re intermittently smart.  On a good day they might make some good decisions and on a bad day they’re like the village idiots.

GREG:   True.

NICK:   Alright.  Yeah.

I deliberately now pause and look at him for a response (This is an example of adopting the pause stance)

NICK:   In Egyptian times you had the Pharaoh, who might say “I want that pyramid moving a little bit to the right, go to it boys“

GREG:   Yep.

NICK:   Then you had the guy who’s in charge of doing the work.  Then you have the workers and then you have people who assist.

NICK:   They’re not going to be the Pharaoh anytime soon.
In this exchange I am presenting the image of a hierarchy and then proceed to place Greg in the lower parts of the hierarchy to provoke a response.



SUMMING UP….

Thanks for taking your time to explain Provocative Therapy and Provocative Change Works Nick, if we arrange a workshop in the future in Sweden with you to learn the core of provocative therapy, what advice would you give those who consider taking it?

N: Bring a sense of humour, a desire to learn, an open mind and a willingness to work in new ways!

Resources
For information on Provocative Therapy see
www.associationforprovocativetherapy.com
For information on Provocative Change Works see
www.nickkemptraining.com
www.provocativechangeworks.com

This is a great sketch that some of you may find interesting for several reasons, especially those of you who have experienced Bandlers ways of working or run into provocative therapy theories….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYLMTvxOaeE

This is a pretty interesting article about how our biggest sex organ is… the brain. As a hypnotist you are probably familiar with the fact that an orgasm can be induced by power of thought….

According to the article, apparently “female brains go mysteriously silent during orgasm. In particular, the left lateral orbitofrontal cortex and the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, areas involved in self-control and social judgment, respectively, are deactivated.

What was more interesting is that “Brain activity also fell in the amygdala, suggesting a similar, albeit more drastic, drop in vigilance and emotion as in men. “At the moment of orgasm, women do not have any emotional feelings,” Holstege was quoted as saying.”

Read the full article: http://bigthink.com/ideas/24021

We all have run into discussions about the power of Placebo… in this great video Bruce Lipton talks about the power of our minds in healing in a great interview from the Tapping World Summit. Enjoy how clearly he talks about the power of placebo – and the negative power of the opposite: nocebo….

He also has some great metaphores about conscious, sub-concsious and spirit….

www.2011tappingworldsummit.com

Have you tried treating IBS?

This is a study where clinical hypnosis was proven an impressive 80% success rate in treating Irritable Bowel Syndrome patients.

www.theharwoodgroupny.com

Placebo is a fantastic example of how our minds can heal our bodies to a certain extent.

This is an interesting study about the importance of Placebo in knee surgery – where no differenct was found between those who cut open the knee and performed surgery and those who simply cut open and closed the knee… what does this tell us about the power of the mind in healing?
Read here.