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
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
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