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"We have met the enemy, and it is us." Pogo
The Pogo quote in the post title is, to me, the essence of why hypnosis is necessary. Can you think of one client situation where it does not apply? Don't we all want to "do the right thing," or at least want to want it? If we were able to "Just Do It" like the Nike slogan says, we wouldn't need hypnosis. We wouldn't smoke; we would lose weight; we wouldn't be restrained by irrational fears; we would pursue our life ambitions single-mindedly. But, there seems to be a committee at work in our heads, and some members of the committee aren't health-conscious, rational, or positively goal-oriented.
Why we are this way has been argued for millenia. Even the Apostle Paul described this battle with self when he said in Romans 7:18-19, "For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing."
Isn't this, in a sense, what good hypnotists do, to try to help motivate their clients to "do what is good" for them and to assist the client to overcome the reasons why they "cannot carry it out"? It is also important to help the person marshall the mind's and spirit's positive resources to overcome the "evils" they also carry within.
I don't want to characterize a hypnotist's profession as some kind of shaman or spiritual guru. That realm is best left to the person's religious life. But, this battle with one's inner "good" self and one's inner "evil" self should be very familiar to every practitioner. Clients have to deal with their external realities, but what they bring to a session is not their reality, but their perceptual memory of it. And they may present their "good" desire and hopeful goals, but it is up to you to uncover why they have been unable to "do what is good" for them," or why their mind perceives something else to be a greater good than doing what they present as their desired good.
Best wishes to you.
Bren
Why we are this way has been argued for millenia. Even the Apostle Paul described this battle with self when he said in Romans 7:18-19, "For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing."
Isn't this, in a sense, what good hypnotists do, to try to help motivate their clients to "do what is good" for them and to assist the client to overcome the reasons why they "cannot carry it out"? It is also important to help the person marshall the mind's and spirit's positive resources to overcome the "evils" they also carry within.
I don't want to characterize a hypnotist's profession as some kind of shaman or spiritual guru. That realm is best left to the person's religious life. But, this battle with one's inner "good" self and one's inner "evil" self should be very familiar to every practitioner. Clients have to deal with their external realities, but what they bring to a session is not their reality, but their perceptual memory of it. And they may present their "good" desire and hopeful goals, but it is up to you to uncover why they have been unable to "do what is good" for them," or why their mind perceives something else to be a greater good than doing what they present as their desired good.
Best wishes to you.
Bren
Comment
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Comment by GIL BOYNE on July 14, 2009 at 7:17am
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Well spoken! Simple and directly to the point. GB
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Comment by James Hazlerig on July 14, 2009 at 6:12am -
"I think between song lyrics, cartoons, and comic strips, I have all the insight into life that I need...lol."
Amazing amounts of wisdom get conveyed in lyrics and cartoons--and amazing amounts of misinformation. All of it slips right past the critical factor, y'know?
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Comment by Susan French on July 13, 2009 at 8:43am -
LMAO. James, thanks for the correction and additional info. That is by far one of my favorite of all lines. Thank goodness I'm not the only one here that's old enough to remember Pogo.
I wonder where you could find old comics like those? I guess I'll have to search,
When I was a kid around 10ish or so, I started collecting every cartoon or comic strip that I thought was really funny. Sometimes I would go back and read them just to laugh again. Somewhere in my families many, many moves (my dad was an electronics engineer in the defense industry...we moved around as if we were in the miliary, that collection go lost.
I think between song lyrics, cartoons, and comic strips, I have all the insight into life that I need...lol.
Thanks for that Bren. It was refreshing and so very right-on.
Susan
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Comment by Bren B on July 12, 2009 at 11:37am -
Ah...thank you for your correction.
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Comment by James Hazlerig on July 12, 2009 at 10:20am
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Walt Kelly had a wonderful insight when he penned that line, which I think originally read, "We have met the enemy, and he is us." It's a variant of a message sent by a victorious captain in the War of 1812, who reported, "We have met the enemy, and he is ours."
Good points in your post.
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