Fire Drill...

Often I find it interesting how I find patterns in the seemingly most unlikely of places. Today I experienced a fire drill at my daily place of work, and the things I heard saw and experienced made me think about, problems and how we cope, brainstorm for a solution, and resolve our problems. The following is a brief description of what happened, after I will explain to you how it correlates to the nature of the human experience of problem solving.

Today I was experiencing a quiet moment at my desk that was suddenly cut short by the blaring of the fire alarms that have a sound likened to what would happen if you took a very loud and obnoxious cricket and put it in front of the mouth piece of a loud speaker, followed by flashing strobe lights that in some cases can cause seizures in epileptics. Now through out our building we have a very organized plan of action, color coded, with maps to exit routes and safe places in the parking lot for the employees to wait while the danger is evaluated. But even the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. As the alarm went off everyone quickly and quietly gathered their things and started towards he exits. This sounds text book, but the moment I reached the end of the isle there was a wall of people waiting to squeeze out of the single set of double doors assigned to our section of the building. My fellow employees and I, politely and as quickly as we could filed ourselves outside to find our assigned areas to await the all clear. Everyone gathered behind the signs for our waiting areas long enough to be counted and then scattered in all different directions to gather in their social groups, Very few people were actually concerned about what may be happening to the building and once the all clear was given we once again filed ourselves back into the building to return to our desk and go about the rest of our day.

When problems arise, most times it is when we are not expecting them, and depending on the severity sometimes they are accompanied by shock and alarm. Then we marshal our resources, for some this is a flood of thought and emotion that fills their minds and persists until a solution is found, for others solutions are very easy to find as if the solution is right at their finger tips. Which ever way we search for solutions amongst the many possibilities we present to ourselves we then select the best choice possible and the others return to the back of our minds. Then we implement our course of action and go about our business once it is resolved.

It is amazing how many processes we use everyday in our lives are so ingrained in our minds that they constantly reappear in other facets of our lives when were not paying attention. If you would like to test this out for yourself next time you go out to eat and your checking out the menu for what you would like to order just pay attention to how you order your food. Did you read everything on the menu? Do you have to ask others what they are having, and if so do you have to get something different from them? Do you read the descriptions of the menu items first or do you look at the pictures first? Then compare that to how you would buy clothes or even how you would choose a perspective mate. Chances are one or both of these processes are either a more simplified, possibly increasingly complicated system of choosing our prospective paths for the future.

Reallocating resources

Today I thought I would share with you another story that relates to a lot of problems that we have real and imaginary.  Now most people out there perceive their problems as something that is out of their control. When in truth when you just look inside problems we think are far beyond our control are really there only because we allow them to exist. But also consider this, what ever problem one may have, inside that problem exists a tremendous resource that is twisted or being used in a way that hinders us from reaching a goal we strive to achieve.

Again this is a story from the files of Dr. Richard Bandler. If you can find the videos for this particular case I would love to add them to my collection and I would be forever in your debt, as of yet I have only been able to read about it and hear the story told many times.

Once there was a man named Andy, and he was placed in a psychiatric facility by his twin brother who feared for him. He was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, now most psychiatrists will tell you a paranoid schizophrenic can not be helped by hypnosis and can not be hypnotized. Good thing Dr. Bandler had never hear this or Andy's life may have been destined to remain under heavy sedation and in a facility all of his life. But young Andy was only 25 and had spent the last 7 years undergoing treatment that included shock therapy and various doses, types, and strengths of sedatives and anit-psychotics.  Andy's problem his brother explained was this, every time Andy would watch television a character from the TV show would walk out of the TV show and follow him around for days berating and belittling him. Andy would then of course take to arguing with this imaginary person and sometimes get into loud shouting matches in the most unhelpful public places. Just imagine some guy is buying

groceries and gets into a huge verbal argument that sounds one sided behind you in the grocery store, and you can see how this cold be a problem for him.

Dr. Bandler was under close scrutiny and being tested by every psychiatrist that wanted to discredit and disprove the science called NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) as it was still relatively new on the mental health scene, so he would get called into tough cases like this, with eyes watching hoping that he would fail. But when he heard about Andy's problem he jumped at the chance as he had a solution within 10 minutes.

He asked the staff to take the man off of his scheduled medications for 1 week prior to his arrival, and this order was followed. Also 2 psychiatrists that were treating Andy were to be in the room when Dr. Bandler was to see Andy.

Dr. Bandler arrived in a suit looking very professional and when he walked into the room he simply took his coat off and sat down with Andy. He looked and Told Andy that he was a Dr. that his brother had hired to help him and with his help he could go home in just a few days. Andy smiled and asked "really?" Dr. Bandler smiled and said yes. He asked Andy to describe his problem and he told Dr. Bandler the following; " when I watch TV the people on TV come out and follow me areound and say the most awful things to me and about me. You know the show Little House on the Prairie? Than Bitch Mary god I hate her! I had a televangelist follow me around for 6 months telling me how I was going to hell and how evil I was. He the listed a few other shows and how the people followed him to different places and how they bothered him and how much trouble he got into, including being arrested on at least 3 occasions.

The Psychiatrists in the room listened also smiling thinking that there was no way on earth this mans problem could be solved as easy as Dr. Bandler claimed with just hypnosis, and that for sure he would fail at helping Andy. But Dr. Bandler smiled after Andy finished and said "son, that is a wonderful system you have there. That is a million dollar problem anyone in the world would love to have." Andy looked puzzled, and the Psychiatrists did as well. Then Dr. Bandler followed up by saying "have you ever heard of the Playboy channel?" Andy thought for a second and a smile spread across his face, Dr. Bandler said "if Hugh Heffner could duplicate your problem he would be selling it to millions of people advertising Playboys "new feature."

Andy then watched 2 minutes of Playboy programming and went the next 2 weeks without meds, treatments, or even one argument, but he did have a perma-plast smile on his face nothing could wipe off. With in the next month he was home living a normal life and never again reported having a single problem or argument with any of the visions he had previously had so many problems with.

Inside of every problem we have is the solution, and a drive that keeps it going. Most times we believe that this is a bad thing, when nothing could be further from the truth. The trick to solving  it is locating those patters that drive the problem and reallocating those resources to work for us and not against us.

Hypnotism real or no?

Originally I had another topic I was going to post, but after much consideration I decided that since my blog is still relatively new, I wanted to write about a question I am asked by almost everyone. “Is Hypnosis real? or Does Hypnosis really work?” I can tell you I have spent many hours contemplating these seemingly simple questions to answer them in the best way possible.

The most common misconception about hypnosis is that if you are hypnotized you will go into this zombie like state and follow any command you are give, nothing can be further from the truth. I admit that if you have seen a stage hypnotist at work it is hard to believe that. But the reality is that no one would do anything in trance that they wouldn’t do in their normal everyday life. Even hypnotized we have the choice to deny or follow any suggestion that is given at anytime. Often the people whom volunteer to participate in a stage hypnotism show, know that the hypnotists will probably be suggesting that they display some crazy and possibly outlandish behaviors, so by volunteering to participate in the stage show they give themselves permission to act in these ways. So therefore they are in essence doing what they would normally do.  

A hypnotic trance is actually a state of acute internal focus. In trance you are not unconscious; it is more accurate to say that you are more focused than you would be at any other time. According to recent statistics the average person goes into deep trance at least 18 times everyday naturally. This can be in a large variety of forms that most people would not attribute to be hypnosis. One of the most common is watching a movie or TV, have you ever been so engrossed in a movie that someone spoke to you and you did not hear a single word they said? Congratulations you were in a natural deep trance. In fact to go to sleep at night we all go into a trance right before we fall asleep every night. So to say “I am unhypnotizeable” is grossly inaccurate. Chances are if you went to a hypnotist and were not hypnotized, the hypnotist either did not pay enough attention or was not talented enough to help you achieve the state of trance you needed. Also there are many levels we call depths of trance, only a few of these reach the state that is commonly thought of as trance. Most levels of trance leave the subject wondering “was I hypnotized?” Either way real change can be achieved in very light states of trance, but can make all the difference in the changes anyone wishes to make in their lives.

As for proof does hypnosis work I could let the numbers speak for them selves, according to American Health Magazine people receive success rates as follows:

Psychoanalysis: 38% recovery after 600 sessions
Behavior Therapy: 72% recovery after 22 sessions
Hypnotherapy 93% recovery after 6 sessions

In addition to this when the skills of Neuro Lingustic Programming are applied the number changes. According to studies clients report a 99% success ratio in the cessation of smoking, nail biting, irrational fears, post traumatic stress, and many more disorders that plague many people today. I know many success stories and have witnessed miraculous changes that have changed people lives for the better. Not all of them are what you might deem as conventional therapy, or in description would ever believe really solve problems as complicated as post traumatic stress disorder or as simple as a common allergy. But in all these cases the improvement it made to the client that asked for help it was worth everything in the world, and gave them their lives back when they had no hope of ever recovering. So when you ask me “Does hypnosis really work?” the answer will always be “Yes” but behind my eyes if you look you will see many hours, days, and years of people whom have achieved success in many ways swirling past the filters of my memory. Waiting to be joined by the happy ending of another who had asked previously and only found the answers they were looking for.

Its like this...

I wanted to talk about something I find extremely fascinating. It is commonly know in the psychology world as a “Schema” (pronounced) SKEE-MUH. This is a pattern we have learned that operates so flawlessly, and is so well ingrained in our minds that we do not notice that the pattern exists. The best simple example I know to explain is like this; when you were a child you learned very early on that the thing known as a chair was for you to sit upon for various reasons. Now do you remember what kind of chair you first learned was a chair? Chances are that you don’t. But amazingly where ever you go you can recognize this piece of furniture. How do you recognize a chair? Is it defined by its shape? Possibly how sturdy it is crafted or the materials it is made from?  It could be that you have a check list of all of these elements that you look at the furniture and check off in your head to recognize and then based on how well it matches your criteria for chair that qualifies it as something you can sit down on.  This is a schema.

Now think about how many of these types of patterns are running around in your head right now. After all you’re reading this, and how do you know what the symbols your brain is processing actually mean? Do you have to take each letter and make its sound, then string the sounds together out loud to distinguish what the word is, after that then reference a dictionary and find out what each words means and finally figure out how it works in the sentence to get the much larger meaning of this post? No. You read it and you just understand the words and the sentence structure, put them together and enjoy the interesting nature of the meaning of the subject of this communication.

This learning system runs though out every aspect of our lives, and the more complex the subject yet again our minds take this and expand on it. Take for instance phone numbers. Do you think it is a coincidence that phone numbers were initially only 7 digits or that at max they are now 10? How about this why is it that our social security numbers are 9 numbers? A largely unknown fact about our potential as humans is that we are capable of processing information in what as know as chunks (highly technical term there) and we can only process 7 (+ or -) 2 chunks at once.  So we can handle minimum of 5 maximum of 9 chunks at one time. To illustrate this for you imagine this; you are talking on the phone to a friend about anything you like, your child is behind you practicing the tuba, and you are writing an email, while cooking tonight’s dinner in the oven and you have the urge to go to the bathroom. How much are you really doing at this point? How long do you think you can continue to function doing all of these things? How about this add to this your spouse walks in complaining that they need you to help them with the budget right now because they need to buy something, and the family cat runs across the counter and spills a glass of water onto the floor, the anti virus on your computer pops up and says its infected, and now the lights start to flicker in your house. You have surpassed 9 things at once; the mind at this point goes into overload and shuts down.

So how do we deal with all this? Schemas, we take this phone conversations and say ok too much right now to ourselves and say “uh can I call you back?” you know your friend will understand, you say “Son put the tuba down and help clean up this water.” Then “honey I know you feel the money is important right now, but can you go look at the breakers and make sure they are ok?” and you provide answers to all of these issues until they are all solved. This I would call a crisis schema, assess each problem by level of importance to you and resolved them based on individual schemas you have used to solve the same or similar problems you have faced in the past. Great thing is this system allows us to solve problems and learn very quickly.

This same system also has the potential and often gets us into trouble as well. I can sum it up into one piece of advice my mother told me, “When you make assumptions you make and ass out of you and me.” Often assumptions are us projecting a schema upon a situation and if we don’t know enough about it, it can be potentially disastrous. One of my favorite shows as a kid had a great example of someone that makes the worst assumptions, on Saturday Night Live Gilda Radner had a character on the new portion of the show, whom was an elderly woman called Emily Latella. The bit she did I remember the most to this day is when she asked “what’s all this I hear about the endangered fishies? Leave the fishies alone! What did they do to you?... and she goes on like this for 10 minutes and at the end Chevy Chase Interrupts her and says simply “Emily! Its endangered species!” She then looks at the camera and says “Endangered species? Oh that’s different…. Never mind.” She was in my opinion a true comedic genius.

The true potential of the human mind is limitless, and the mechanisms that make up our abilities to deal with any situation can be and often are strings of very complex systems that seem simple to the person and to the observer. But in truth potentially thousands of schemas are at work under the surface of our thoughts at all times. So the next time you find yourself confused, you might ask yourself, ok what is this like? Then Bang notice you have a schema that says “its like this!”

Known and unknown issues

Today the funniest not funny thing happened. My router went (professional term) CRAZY and locked us all out of its sacred electronic halls. The problem actually started on Friday. It was slowing down and we would re-boot it and everything would be fine again for a few hours and then we'd have to restart it again. Well we dealt with this all weekend until today, 30 minutes after my wife started working it locked up like a old Dodge out of oil running down the road at 80 miles per hour. BANG, nothing. It took me all evening and a few calls to At&t and Cisco to get the router up and running again. What happened? Honestly, I still don't know. I just know what it took to fix it. But now its running again like it was brand new out of the box.
This reminded me of another story.

There was this large luxurious hotel in New York, and over the summer the owners took the time and money to buy a new boiler and have it installed in their hotel. The old boiler was wearing out as it had given the hotel many good years of service, so the owners called a well known boiler maker in New York and had a custom built boiler crafted on site during the summer to ensure in the following winter months their exacting clientele would have the perfect heating you would expect from a hotel that charges over $300 a night for a stay in their 4 star rooms. The price tag for such a boiler was quite costly as you can imagine. Anyway the boiler was tested and proven to be in perfect working order in July, so when the winter time came and they fired up the boiler, they were quite angry to find no heat was coming out of the ventilation system. The owners called and complained to the boiler makers, whom in response sent a team of technicians out to check the boiler and were shocked to find the boiler was working perfectly. This went on for days. Technicians came and went and it seemed nothing was wrong with the boiler. One day the doorman heard the owners arguing about the boiler as he was opening the door for them and stopped and told them he knew the best boiler repairman in all of New York, he happened to be his dad and he could have him come out and look at it for them. Desperate they agreed and told him to have him come by the next day to look at the boiler. The next day the doorman's father arrived early in the morning. He was a short nondescript kind of guy and he carried a simple small tool box with him. He went downstairs with the owners and they showed him the large boiler and he asked them to be quiet for a moment. He listened to the pipes for a moment and reached into his tool box and pulled out a small hammer. Then he walked over to one of the many valves, listened for a moment and took the hammer and gently tapped it once. Immediately heat flowed from the vents upstairs and throughout the hotel. He put his hammer back into his box and walked upstairs to the lobby. As he was about to leave he handed the owners a bill. The owners were outraged at the cost $1000 for fixing the brand new boiler they had paid so much for. The repairman took the bill back and wrote on it for a second and handed it back. The bill read: Fee for tapping the pipe to fix the boiler $1.00, Fee for knowing where to tap hammer to fix the boiler $999.00.  The hotel owners paid the man summarily and he was on his way.

The problems we all have sometimes are like the new boiler. Knowing what the problem is, is often obvious. Knowing how to fix them is often difficult, and most times only requires a small amount of effort. But knowing both can make all the difference in the world.

Time to Lighten Up...

A friend of mine the other day asked me why I was being so serious with my blog posts and asked if I could lighten up for a moment. At first I thought, “Well this is a very serious subject to me!” But the truth is there is a lot of humor in the field of hypnosis. Humor is actually a very important tool for any hypnotist. It can sooth the nerves of a nervous client and allow them to relax and in some cases it is actually a way to induce profound states of hypnosis itself. So I thought I could acquiesce to my friends request and share with you a story…

Once years ago, probably the early 70’s the creator of the branch of hypnotism I study (NLP or Neuro Linguistic Programming) Richard Bandler was called to help a gentleman that that held the belief that he was Jesus Christ. The client had been in a facility for at least 4 years. After many attempts to alieve him of this disillusion thru various methods, including shock treatment. He held fast to the Belief that he was Jesus Christ. Well as it happened it was close to Easter so Dr. Bandler scheduled to see the client on Good Friday.

Now the staff was advised that Dr. Bandler was going to be seeing this particular patient that day and for 48 hours previous the client was taken off of all of his medication per the Doctors request and he was also provided with his robes he was checked in with. Dr. Bandler then went to the local hardware store and purchased some large pieces of wood. Funny thing is when he gave the clerk at the hardware store the list of items he wanted the clerk immediately asked if he was setting up for the local church’s passion play to be held that weekend. He told the clerk it was for a patient at the local facility and immediately the clerk gave him a full detailed description on how to make a very functional cross that could actually support the weight of the client in full details. Fortunately they also had all of the necessary supplies in stock. So once he purchased the supplies and with a little bit of work he made the needed modifications to the pieces of wood to see the client the next day.

Now when Dr. Bandler arrived he was wearing blue jeans, a t-shirt, and a large tool belt with some several VERY large nails about the size of the spikes commonly used on rail road rails and a huge wooden mallet. Additionally Dr. Bandler had called a couple of clients that were professional football players he had seen for some performance issues, to help him out with this particular client. He went to a local costume shop and rented for them Roman Centurion costumes and asked them to meet him at the facility about an hour before he was to see the client.

When Dr. Bandler walked into the room the client was in he was immediately greeted by the client “Greetings my child, I am Jesus Christ the son of our Lord. How are you doing today?” he said he was fine and that he was asked to see the client for a special event. And as they were speaking Dr. Bandler takes out a measuring tape and measures how tall the client is and the span of his arms from finger tip to finger tip. Then he opens the door and brings in the large pieces of wood and sets them on the floor. (Remember this client has stead fast said he was Jesus Christ through many course of heavy medications and even shock therapy.) The client then asks Dr Bandler “what exactly do you do here in the hospital?” He smiles at the client and responds “I’m a Simple Carpenter like your self” and sets one piece of wood over the other and fits the matching grooves he had carved into the wood the night before so that the cross pieces snapped together. Then the client now beginning to look a bit unnerved and asks “uh, what day is today?” Dr Bandler with a dead pan expression pulls out one of the VERY large nail and says “the day? Oh it’s Good Friday, good for me, not so good for you.” And takes the large mallet and begins to hammer it into the cross. Bang, Bang, Bang. The client walks to the door of the room and opens it to look up and down the hall to see if any of the staff is near by but only find the two large gentlemen dressed as roman centurions blocking his way. Visibly shaken the client shuts the door and asks “uh, may I ask who sent you to see me?” Dr. Bandler says hold on a sec and pulls a work order out of his pocket and squints at the information and says “It’s hard to make out the guys name but I think it says Punchious something or other. He had a real thick accent I couldn’t understand too well.” He then pulls out another nail and starts pounding it. Bang, Bang, Bang. The client then realizing something was definitely happening here that wasn’t going to be to fun for him begins to ask “Have you spoken to my Doctor about this?  I mean you know I am a patient here in this hospital?” the Dr. simply answers “yes” and continues Bang, Bang, Bang. Then the client gets a little more frantic “I have a very serious condition! I suffer from delusions. I have been here for about 4 years now receiving treatment for this.” And he recounts the number of times he has had shock therapy and the different medications he has been given and the doses. The whole time Dr. Bandler quietly nods his head while driving the last of the nails into the wood.

Then when he is done he looks up at the client and says “OK, all done here, I hope everything turns out ok for you.” He then knocks on the door, and then the two rather large Centurions open the door and step in holding a crown of thorns and place it on the clients head. Dr. Bandler then lifts the large and heavy wooden cross and places it on the clients shoulder and then, he and the Centurions begin walking the client out of the room and down the halls of the hospital to the front door. The whole time the client begins to sob stating that he is a very sick individual who needs further help to cure his delusions, then he begins to recount why he has these delusions, how he felt so insignificant in his life that he got the idea that if he was Jesus Christ people would listen to him and that he would be important to someone even if it was just a Doctor that would pay attention to him.  Finally as the came to the front doors of the hospital the client broke down frantically sobbing “My name is Dave Smith, I am an insurance agent from Hoboken, New Jersey, I have a wife and 3 kids my wife is named Susan, my Kids Sarah, David, and Kelly!! Please I just want to go home now and see them!!!! Please for the love of GOD!!!” as he fell to his knees dropping the heavy cross to the floor.

Dr Bandler then walks up to the client and asks “So you are not Jesus?” The client sobs “No, I’m Dave Smith” He smiles and asks “are you sure your not Jesus?” and the client says “Sir I’ve never been more sure of anything in my entire life!!” He the pulls the crumpled work order out of his pocket looks at it and then talks to the Centurions in Latin really quick and screams loudly. They slap their chest and runs off down the hallway. Dr. Bandler looks down at the client and says “Buddy I came here to find a guy named Jesus Christ, Thanks for wasting my time!!! Get the hell out of here, There was some woman outside looking for a guy named Smith when I came in, if you care, you liar!” Then storms off. The client then slowly stands up and opens the door and outside is his wife and kids, tears streaming down his face this time in happiness he runs to them and says to his wife “honey get me out of here! These people are nuts!”

 That was over 20 years ago; the client never again thought he was Jesus Christ. Sometimes our work as a hypnotist is very different that what people would expect, it’s not always about getting people into deep trances and having them recite affirmations till they become true. But it is all about providing the right stimulus to get the result the client needs in order to effect positive change in their lives.

I hope my friends That did amuse you, for a while at least.

Ben

Inside the mind of the hypnotist

When I started studying Hypnosis, my first teacher told me that I had such a great enthusiasm that I was destined to become one of the greatest hypnotists she probably had ever met. With these words I set myself out there talking to everyone I could possibly meet about hypnosis and the wonders that it could do for them.  That was over 3 years ago and I have come to the realization that there were a lot of things she didn't tell me. She did indeed teach me about the subject of hypnosis, but nothing about clients and how to get them. I was freshly trained and raring to show others about the fullest potentials they could reach, it never occurred to me that there were some people out there that did not want to change or achieve any more potential than they had already achieved without my assistance. So the first time someone told me that they were fine with the problems in their life I was completely dumbstruck. Why would someone want to keep a problem, or continue to repeat a failed pattern in their life they've never have any luck with? In time I have found out there are a lot of reasons. So now when I talk to my friends and my family I make it a point to mention from time to time that they know things can change. Also I make sure to speak to everyone as positively as is possible about the things they are capable of. But I do not offer my services unless I am asked, not because I don't want to offend anyone really but instead, to remind them that they are the ones that can change things in their lives. After all what I like to do best is to help others and sometimes being a good hypnotist, friend, brother, husband, or even dad is to remember that everyone likes to solve their own problems in some fashion, not just have the answer handed to them, even when I believe I know the solution they need.

Rebuilding

Over this weekend I took the time to repair my wife's truck. The head gasket was leaking and the truck was giving signs that it just wasn't going to work much longer if the proper attention was not paid to its needs. So I got out my tools and things and set to work on rebuilding the parts that needed to be repaired. Well In the midst's of lots of grease both from the car and my elbows, it occurred to the problems that this truck was experiencing was a lot like the experience of many others in this world. See things in our lives do not need a complicated reason to go wrong, but sometimes even the smallest of problems left unchecked for years can become much larger than they need to be. But no matter the problem with the right tools and just the right amount of work, well that can make all the difference in the world in how things run and the options available to us in the future.

And one other thing came to mind while I was working so fervently. Over the years a lot of people have given me really good advice about working on cars. I heard each and everyone of them in one moment or another while i was working. And I just wanted to say thank you for your valuable words of wisdom even when you thought I wasn't, I was listening and it really paid off for me. Some times the best advice comes from the most unlikely places and people. The best thing about advice is that if you really listen you can hear the voice of experience in every syllable of the person giving it, and you know they had to have made a mistake some where along the way that taught them about what they are telling you. Experience is how we all learn, even if we weren't the person that made the mistake and learned how to do things in a way that really worked well. After all we all have a light bulb or two in our houses today, and we never had to learn how to make one, Thomas Edison made over 250 mistakes before he made a light bulb that worked. So that we all could see our way through the darkness that held us back from achieving so many things previously thought impossible.

Reasons not to succeed

Someone whom has a serious problem actually turned down free help from me today. And when I asked why she told me her shrink said she shouldn't do anything about her problem, after all the therapy he is providing is working so well, yet she still has this problem after 3 years of paying this guy weekly. Now normally I would get up on my soap box about Shrinks and how they are robbing people by charging them for not helping them, after all if i took my car in for repair and was told the car wasnt ready to change right now and to bring it back in a week, but they would like full payment now I would have a few choice words. But Instead what got me was she told me without saying was that she didn't want help from someone that wasnt Christian. I have never been one to hide in the broom closet, and I have always been upfront about the things that I believe in. Funny things is is that Hypnotism is a tool that has been used in Christianity for thousands of years. But again I digress from getting on my soap box, The one thing I took from all of this is simply this, no matter the problem people will go to great lengths to avoid getting rid of problems they have allowed themselves to have for most of their lives so great of a length that any reason to hold on to them will do, whether its this breif example of prejudice, or simply losing their car keys for an extra hour or so, causing them to miss their appointment. Real change in any problem is always easy to effect in our lives all we need to really do is to simply decided that change is what we really wan't and let nothing, not even ourselves stand in the way of reaching our fullest potential. As I say to most of my clients when you think of things that may be holding you back, do you truly believe that after thousands of years of evolution and remebering all of the things you have gone through in your life and done well... Is this the finest example of what you are truly capable of doing? Everyone almost always says no. I ask the question for them to answer it for themselves... Because I know no matter the person or circumstance the keys to their happiness are in their hands, and that they have limitless potential only they have forgotten it and need a good reminder of how powerful they really are.