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Re-Energizing a Mystical Experience
Mother Teresa had a mystical experience while she was in her teens, and spent the rest of her life futilely trying to re-capture it. But as hypnotists we know that this is possible, at least for the experientially gifted.
Many other people have had mystical experiences, and when such a history is present, it can serve as a focus for re-energizing their present view of life. For example, a 58 year old retired English teacher and mother of five grown children who recently had been divorced after a marriage of forty years came to me for help with depression. She was spending the greater part of each day in bed, with the blankets drawn up over her head. She was taking antidepressants, but they did not seem to help. She responded well to hypnosis, and early in the course of therapy, she mentioned that when she was about sixteen, she had a mystical experience: "I could step beyond the ordinary world of reality, and I felt totally loved."
I asked her if she would like to re-visit this mystical experience as a way of getting over her depression, and she immediately agreed. I told her that for best results, it would help if she were to re-capture her mystical experience with the same life-changing intensity that she had experienced it the first time. She readily agreed to this also.
Pulling out all the stops in order to provide an experience of life-changing intensity, which she obviously needed, I regressed her to her earlier mystical event, and told her that we were going to make it even stronger using hyperempiria, or suggestion-enhanced experience. I suggested that we were reaching down into her vast, untapped potential for feeling happiness and joy. This potential for happiness and joy was flowing out from the innermost depths of her being in many different ways and on many different levels, like water from a hundred secret springs. As these feelings continued to flow without limit, they were healing and cleansing every muscle and fiber and nerve of her body, driving out all of the worry, and all of the stress, and all of the care that she had ever felt, and leaving her glowing from head to toe with such an intensity of happiness that she could not bear it if she were not hypnotized.
She remained outwardly impassive as I continued in this vein, emphasizing that this happiness was greater and more intense than anything she had ever hoped for, dreamed of, longed for, or imagined. To further emphasize its strength, I suggested that when she returned from hypnosis, she would not be able to bring all of this intensity back with her, because it would be more than she could bear in the everyday state of consciousness in which we live and move and have our being. But nevertheless, it would transform her life, and turn each new day into a thing of wondrous beauty.
Her depression lifted within two more sessions. Because she was a Buddhist, it was easy to frame her mystical experience as evidence that true happiness comes from within. She no longer remains in bed all day, and frequently goes out to go shopping, play cards or to visit with friends. Her demeanor is pleasant, relaxed, and cheerful. She is continuing to come in for monthly sessions in order to keep her orientation focused on the positive aspects of life, and as a means of continuing her personal and spiritual development.
The client's youngest daughter, who has had a great many personal difficulties of her own, has recently moved in with her. Even though she frequently serves as a lightning rod for her daughter's wrath, the client has remained impassive, and has managed to maintain a generally congenial relationship with her daughter (when the daughter is on speaking terms!)
Experientialism is the philosophical theory that experience is the source of knowledge. I would like to invite anyone who is interested to join the new HypnoThoughts group entitled, "The Experientially Gifted." This group is open to everyone who has experienced phenomena associated with high responsiveness to hypnosis and who would like to develop these abilities for their own personal growth and fulfillment. It is also open to everyone who would like to develop their hypnotic abilities more fully, in order to make better use of them.
Don
Tags: experience, experientally, experientialism, fulfillment, gifted, growth, personal
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Susan French on -
Hi James and Don,
Yes, I try to do the same. I like the way you phrases it, James: "wrap feeling wonderful around the hypnosis (or was it the other way around?). What I realized was that hypnosis itself creates a physiological state in which our brain/bodies release endorphins and other feel-good brain chemicals. I utilize that endorphin-drenched state for many positive associations.
For instance: when dealing with clients who have addiction/habit/obssessive-compulsiveness issues, I suggest to them that we use these behaviors to change "how we feel." Then I suggest that the feeling that we're really looking for is the way we feel when in hypnosis, coming out of hypnosis and after hypnosis.
They always agree (especially since they're usually in the hypnosis 'after-glow' as well as being very suggestible). I anchor that state by bringing their attention to it. I often also suggest that they take a 'sensory snapshot' of the feeling so that they can return to it whenever they choose.
As they emerge from hypnosis, I use that very suggestible time to suggest that they now know that they are on the right track, that hypnosis was the right path to success, that they now know that they will succeed bc hypnosis is so powerful, as they can see.
This helps to lock it in as well as to anchor everything to that feeling of bliss that most of us experience when we come back from hypnosis, which is the hyperemperia that Don talks about.
I think that physiologically induced of feeling-good is very under-utilized. When I forget to include it myself, I notice a big difference in the effect.
Susan
James Hazlerig said:I always wrap up a hypnosis session with suggestions to feel wonderful.
Are there some people who don't do it that way? Crazy . . .
James
Don said:Hi James and Kelley,
Since any suggestion that is accepted is by definition a self-fulfilling prophecy, I'm wondering why we shouldn't routinely incorporate descriptions such as these into the suggestions we use to conclude our hypnosis sessions whenever we are workiing with a highly responsive client? Think of all the good it will accomplish in their lives if all of your experientially gifted clients should experience hypnosis as "the most profound experience of love, peace, and joy they've ever known," and if they "literally float up out of the chair, glowing with joy and embracing their new learnings with optimism!" Think of how they will look back upon the experience of hypnosis, even as they look forward to their next session with you. Think of what they will tell their neighbors about hypnosis, and what it will do for your own careers and reputations.
If Mesmer could get people to go into convulsions and faint, why should we be content with telling our clients such mundane things things as, "Your mind will be clear and alert, and you will be feeling wonderful" at the conclusion of a hypnosis session? If we can re-define hypnosis with our experientially gifted clients as an experience which is intrinsically filled with joy and happiness, and a life-changing event in and of itself, why shouldn't we?
Just a thought. . . .
Don
P.S. Happy World Hypnotism Day!
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Permalink Reply by Don on -
Hi Susan,
Experientialism is the philosophical view that knowledge comes from experience; and this is how II use hyperempiria. I think a lot of us are employing hyperempiria, or suggestion-enhanced experience, to create the kind of knowledge in our clients that will change their lives for the better. And I don't think that I fundamentally disagree with anybody whose postings I have read on this thread or on others.
As you have wisely pointed out, positive experiences create one set of chemical changes (knowledge) in the brain/body, and negative experiences create another. The stronger we can make these positive experiences and the chemical changes that go with them, the greater our chances of overriding the negative ones and the chemical changes they have created.
I also agree with you when you indicate that what we say to our clients before an induction influences the way that induction will be experienced, and what we say to them afterwards influences the way the session will be recalled and interpreted in memory, the way they will experience the suggestions they have been given while they were hypnotized,and the manner in which they will look forward to the next induction.
This morning, I saw a client who had been once before with her husband for an intake interview. She is happily married and has two young sons. Her third baby, however, died of brain cancer when he was only a few months old. Then, a few months later, one of her surviving sons had to be rushed to the emergency room with a temperature of 104.5. Shortly after that (about two months ago), she noticed one of her legs beginning to twitch and developed a full-blown panic attack, convinced that something terrible was going to happen to her and she would not be around to take care of her remaining children. She had no history of panic attacks or any other psychological difficulties before this series of events overtook her.
She had been to a hypnotist once before to stop smoking, which was effective. She recently started going to a social worker who diagnosed her with post-traumatic stress disorder and generalized anxiety disorder, and is seeing a psychiatrist for medication for depression and anxiety, but her panic attacks have continued. "Let's go straight to the hypnosis," her husband said last week during the initial interview as I was explaining her treatment options.
She was frequently tearful both this week and last as she referred to her symptoms. One of the physicians she has been seeing has scheduled her for three MRI's, beginning tomorrow. One will check whether or not there has been any damage to her spinal cord in giving birth, which might be responsible for her leg twitching. Another will check for the possibility of a brain tumor (she could hardly get the words out as she told me this, with tears streaming down her face). I'd have to check my notes to see what the third one was for; I don't recall at the moment. But naturally, she is terrified at the prospect of having to undergo all these tests and at the prospect of what they might find.
After an appropriate preliminary discussion, which was briefer than usual because of her previous successful use of hypnosis, we began an induction. She was obviously responding well, but it took a while until the signs of stress left her face and were replaced by an expression of calm. I told her that we were reaching down into the vast, untapped depths of her potential to release pleasant feelings which would counteract the unpleasant ones, and the stronger we could make them the more effective they would be. Then I gradually proceeded to "pull out all the stops," much as I had done in re-energizing a mystical experience as described above, and in my blog posting entitled, Hyperempiric Therapy of Depression. Eventually I told her that she was feeling much more happiness than she could posssibly bear if she were not hypnotized, and she would only be able to bring back a fraction of this happiness to the everyday waking state. And as she plunged ever deeper, she was able to transcend the limits of time an space and go beyond the Universe itself, to another dimension which was beyond everything, where she was immersed in total reassurance and total love, feeling totally safe. But even though she would probably not remember most of the hypnotic experience itself, it would be enough to change her life because she would realize that true happiness comes from within. This happiness would remain deep within the core of her being, like a fortress which nothing could overcome; and the stressful thoughts and events that she would encounter in the future would bounce off of her like arrows bouncing off of a suit of armor. She would emerge from hypnosis radiant and smiling, and full of strength and confidence.
There was more, but this was the gist of it. When she emerged, the signs of tension had left her body, and her expression was one of serenity. I told her that I would leave my cell phone on in case she needed to call me for a telephone session, and simply knowing that she could do so would be reassuring in and of itself.
She made another appointment a week from tomorrow, because of all the other appointments she had in the coming days. How effective it's going to be is yet to be determined, but based on similar experiences with other clients I'm going to stick my neck out on this one by including it in our discussion this afternoon.
I don't think what I am doing is very different from what anybody else does, except possibly for the fact that my suggestions might be worded a bit more strongly because I was using historical accounts of mystical experience as a model. Extreme situations, however, call for extreme remedies. (Interestingly, when I asked my client at the conclusion of the session if she had ever heard of a mystical experience, she merely shrugged, and her facial expression indicated that she only had a vague idea of what it was -- and neither did "Jennifer," the client who was the subject of my earlier posting, Hyperempiric Therapy of Depression. Perhaps you don't actually need to have a mystical experience yourself in order to experience one if it is suggested in enough detail.
Of course, I may come back next week with egg on my face if she calls up and cancels her appointment, or if she comes back and tells me that it didn't work. I'll keep you posted.
Don
P.S. As a technical note, I changed her diagnoses to PTSD and panic disorder without agoraphobia.
Susan French said:
Hi James and Don,
. . . .hypnosis itself creates a physiological state in which our brain/bodies release endorphins and other feel-good brain chemicals. I utilize that endorphin-drenched state for many positive associations.
I think that physiologically induced of feeling-good is very under-utilized. When I forget to include it myself, I notice a big difference in the effect.
James Hazlerig said:I always wrap up a hypnosis session with suggestions to feel wonderful.
Are there some people who don't do it that way? Crazy . . .
James
Don said:Hi James and Kelley,
Since any suggestion that is accepted is by definition a self-fulfilling prophecy, I'm wondering why we shouldn't routinely incorporate descriptions such as these into the suggestions we use to conclude our hypnosis sessions whenever we are workiing with a highly responsive client? Think of all the good it will accomplish in their lives if all of your experientially gifted clients should experience hypnosis as "the most profound experience of love, peace, and joy they've ever known," and if they "literally float up out of the chair, glowing with joy and embracing their new learnings with optimism!" Think of how they will look back upon the experience of hypnosis, even as they look forward to their next session with you. Think of what they will tell their neighbors about hypnosis, and what it will do for your own careers and reputations.
If Mesmer could get people to go into convulsions and faint, why should we be content with telling our clients such mundane things things as, "Your mind will be clear and alert, and you will be feeling wonderful" at the conclusion of a hypnosis session? If we can re-define hypnosis with our experientially gifted clients as an experience which is intrinsically filled with joy and happiness, and a life-changing event in and of itself, why shouldn't we?
Just a thought. . . .
Don
P.S. Happy World Hypnotism Day!
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Permalink Reply by David Chervick on -
Don, You are correct sir. Still trying to get time to read the rest of "Ordeal Therapy" Jay Haley. I think you might enjoy it as much as you choose. Passing on some shaman words. "Suffering lessens with the experience that pleasure is not separate from pain".. Advaita. Best in the new year 2012. Dave
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Permalink Reply by Don on
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Hi Dave,
I agree that it may not be necessary to turn it into an "either-or" proposition. The woman I mentioned earlier on this thread returned today for her second visit. She had lost her third baby to brain cancer and, while she was being treated for grief and depression, she developed panic attacks when one of her other children had to be rushed to the emergency room with a high fever, and later she developed a nervous twitching in her legs.During her first visit, she would occasionally burst into tears as she described her situation; and during the first part of her second visit she was little better until I began her hypnosis treatment. At the beginning of her third visit, this afternoon, she reported that she no longer experienced panic attacks, she was sleeping better, and her leg twitching had vanished. Her demeanor was relaxed and cheerful.Using hyperempiria, or suggestion-enhanced experience, to alter her perception of herself, the world, and the future, I pulled out all the stops once more, in order to induce as close to an approximation of a mystical experience as I could. I suggested that she was dissolving into an ocean of infinite love at the center of the Universe, where she felt totally supported, totally cherished, and totally loved, as safe and as trusting as a little baby nestled in its mothers arms. I suggested that fear and apprehension came from being separated from this ocean of infinite love, but that this connection had now been restored and would remain deep within her. I concluded by suggesting that she would remember her session as a life-changing event which would turn each day into a thing of wondrous beauty.So far so good. She responded very well to the two inductions, I did during the treatment session, and she certainly looked and acted like a different person when she left than she had when I first saw her three weeks before. Her treatment is ongoing, and will be followed up to monitor her progress when her therapy has been concluded.Don
David Chervick said:Don, You are correct sir. Still trying to get time to read the rest of "Ordeal Therapy" Jay Haley. I think you might enjoy it as much as you choose. Passing on some shaman words. "Suffering lessens with the experience that pleasure is not separate from pain".. Advaita. Best in the new year 2012. Dave
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Permalink Reply by Carolyn Ann O'Riley, CHC, CHt, on -
Don, I work with a lot of Life Between Lives Regression and find that those experiences for my clients as well as for myself are positively life altering. It is such a freeing experience to realize that you are not really this physical presence but something so much larger and grander.
Carolyn Ann O'Riley, CHt, PLRt, LBLt
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Permalink Reply by Don on
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Hi Carolyn,
As I've mentioned elsewhere, experientialism is the philosophical point of view that experience is the source of truth. Someone who is experiening a panic attack, for example, is convinced that they are going to die, or going insane, and no amount of logical persuasion can talk them out of it. The woman I am working with currently had been having panic attacks, after the death of her third baby from brain cancer, then having to rush one of her two surviving children to the emergeny room with a very high fever, and then developing a nervous twitch in her legs which made her fearful that she might have a brain tumor and not be around to care for her remaining children. She was seeing a social worker who was taking her through the cognitive-behavioral stuff, such as having her fill out and discuss the exercises in the Anxiety and Phobia Workbook, but it wasn't working.
She was an excellent hypnotic responder, having recently stopped smoking in a single session. I suggested in deep hypnosis that she was merging with an ocean of infinite, unbounded, and everlasting love at the center of the Universe, which would leave her cherished and cared for no matter what happened in the everyday state of consciousness, pulling out all the stops and using every superlative that I could muster. I must confess that I myself was pleasantly surprised when she told me at the next session that her panic attacks had completely been eliminated.
Postmodern constructionism is gaining a number of adherents in clinical psychology. It stems from a recognition that reality is constructed as the mind tries to understand the world in its own particular and personal style. The way to help someone in therapy, then, is to aid them in making sense of the world in a way that is appropriate for them as an individual. It is indeed "such a freeing experience to realize that you are not really this physical presence but something so much larger and grander." More power to you! The only thing I might suggest is that perhaps there is no single experiential truth which is appropriate for everyone. If someone is more comfortable in coming to such a realization by experiencing past lives, or future lives, or parallel lives, or merging with an ocean of infinite love, perhaps you might also wish to include these or other options for those who may desire them, as discussed in my Blog posting entitled, Hyperempiria for Facilitating Meditation and Prayer.
With best wishes,
Don
Carolyn Ann O'Riley, CHt said:Don, I work with a lot of Life Between Lives Regression and find that those experiences for my clients as well as for myself are positively life altering. It is such a freeing experience to realize that you are not really this physical presence but something so much larger and grander.
Carolyn Ann O'Riley, CHt, PLRt, LBLt
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Permalink Reply by Brian David Phillips on -
I absolutely love working with folks and guiding them into ecstatic experiences and have devoted a number of workshops in this.
- Brian
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Permalink Reply by Kelley Woods on -
Hi Don,
Some time ago, I followed your direction to begin to invite certain clients to experience spiritual and even religious hyperemperia. I have since introduced a wide range of believers, including non-believers (who were seemingly bereft of any conscious thoughts on such matters) to experiential mystical engagement.
What a pleasure it is to provide the opportunity for someone to meet their Higher Self...or other appropriate beacons of love and guidance! The many applications of such work include: healing, release, forgiveness, self-discovery, core transformation, ego strengthening, hope and faith building, etc.
I wonder if you would consider creating some guidelines for practitioners regarding this approach; perhaps even a series of experiences that would be "belief-system" appropriate? Although our clients bring us everything we need to help them, it is only with our own belief that we can assist them in this way that it will happen and direction from experts such as yourself may help. I, for one, would be happy to purchase such a product from you!
Best Me,
Kelley
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Permalink Reply by Don on
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Hi Kelley,
Thanks for your encouragement and support! Much of what I have been doing to date has been following Richard Nongard's recommendation a while back, to "give hypnosis away" as a means of creating a demand for it. Only in this case, I've been "giving hyperempiria away" -- in my blog postings, in The Experientially Gifted group, and in my postings in the Discussion Forum on HT --- while simultaneously working with the experientially gifted clients who come my way in my private practice, all the while getting feedback on how best to refine and utilize the technique to make it more effective.
It did blow my mind last week when a woman whom I had only hypnotized once before came in with no further reports of panic attacks or nervous leg twitching. (As I'd mentioned, her third baby died of brain cancer, one of her remaining kids had to be rushed to the emergency room with a high fever, and then the subsequent leg twitching made her fearful that she might have a brain tumor which would keep her from being around to raise her remaining two kids.) She had been trembling with fear and intermittently tearful when I first did an induction, and I had to make it nice and long in order to get her to thoroughly relax. I'll e-mail you soon with more info.
Best,
Don
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Permalink Reply by Walt on -
Hi Kelly, Don and All,
I have also been providing some of my clients with hypnotic experiences of a spiritual nature. Deep moving experiences are really life changing and, I believe, beneficial for good health.
I've made some up on the spot that were 5-10 minutes long. I knew my trance partners over several sessions. I have not written any long sessions.
Ronald Havens has written "Self Hypnosis for Cosmic Consciousness". It contains several long, about 30 minute, sessions. These are very good. I've read them to partners who are in trance. They are well accepted with a WOW!
I like to make up stories for kids. Maybe I can do the same for adults.
Walt
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Permalink Reply by Don on
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Hi Walt,
Thanks -- I'll check it out. I think there's a long tradition of using stories in hypnosis, going back to Milton Erickson. Fable Goodman is an expert at this too! But the deeply moving part, as in mystical experiences, I think could use some more work. Go for it!
Don
Walt Potter said:Hi Kelly, Don and All,
I have also been providing some of my clients with hypnotic experiences of a spiritual nature. Deep moving experiences are really life changing and, I believe, beneficial for good health.
I've made some up on the spot that were 5-10 minutes long. I knew my trance partners over several sessions. I have not written any long sessions.
Ronald Havens has written "Self Hypnosis for Cosmic Consciousness". It contains several long, about 30 minute, sessions. These are very good. I've read them to partners who are in trance. They are well accepted with a WOW!
I like to make up stories for kids. Maybe I can do the same for adults.
Walt
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