Part I: Seven Strengths of Hypnosis

1. Holistic
Hypnosis unites the physical, mental, and spiritual parts for healing, health, and betterment. It involves the whole person by providing guidance and procedures for integrating conscious goals with unconscious ideals.

2. Natural and Safe
Hypnosis is 100% natural and 100% safe because it comes from within the self It provides emotional nourishment for the mind by connecting the goal with feeling and emotion.

3. Positive
Hypnosis uses a positive approach for positive results. It has evolved from reaction (fixing problems) to action (creating a more productive way of life). It addresses problems by reframing them. Secondary gain is noted, catharsis is managed, and spiritual lessons are presented for learning. Positive affirmations are used.

4. Creative
Hypnosis uses creative imagination which is a building block of reality. It directs the inner mind to perceive a goal as accomplished, thus enabling the client to determine an outcome before taking action.

5. Learned
Hypnosis is a learned skill. Success is determined by the amount of time and effort involved and by the desire to achieve. It lasts throughout life.

6. Doorway to Memory
The mind opens its storehouse of the soul’s total remembrance. After putting the pieces together, understanding is reframed through insight. The patterns discovered are eternal gifts.

7. Universal Application
The narrow, sharp focus of hypnosis has wide application. It can help everyone in all areas of life. The dignified responsibility with total integrity has led to the acceptance of hypnosis as a distinct discipline in its approach to the healing arts and to mind exploration.

Part II: Seven Language Areas To Be Upgraded in Our Profession

1. Fear-based Terminology
Sometimes, fear is used as an attempt to accomplish something which the hypnotist believes will be long-term good for the client. Such words often alienate the client. Effective hypnotists build hope and courage through the choice of words.

2. Negative Terminology
The use of negative words, phrases, and sentences tends to creative negative results. Such words as don’t can turn a simple positive statement into a complicated two-step procedure. Effective hypnotists use positive, constructive affirmations and imagery.

3. Subjects
Referring to people as subjects implies subservience and inferior status and that the person is being manipulated and measured as a lab rat running a maze. That term was banned by the APA decades ago. Effective hypnotists use such terms as participants and volunteers.

4. Under Hypnosis
The altered state of hypnosis is recognized as a higher level of functioning--not a lower level. The term under can have frightening connotations. To say, “I put him/her under hypnosis,” exposes a power complex and a flagrant disregard for the integrity of the client. Effective hypnotists realize that they create a comfortable, trustful environment in which hypnosis can occur.

5. “Now, I want you to...”
The above words are arrogant, authoritarian, controlling, degrading, ego-oriented, and exploitive. Expressed as a desire, the phrasing shows malignant self-importance. Wariness on the part of the client tends to creative a negative response and, thus, becomes counterproductive. Effective hypnotists enable and empower their clients to take responsibility in learning productive and purposeful ways of living

6. Susceptible
The term susceptible implies weakness, e.g., susceptible to a certain disease. Individuals choose hypnosis willingly because they want to experience it. The term receptive indicates the strength of acquisition. Effective hypnotists refer to their clients as being receptive to hypnosis.

7. Resistant and Uncooperative
The above terms imply that the client is to blame for a difficult session. Rapport and trust are essential to hypnosis work. The ineffective use of language, the main tool of the hypnotist, can diminish the desired effect. Effective hypnotists gain full cooperation by the use of empowering vocabulary to show respect for the client.

Part III: A Vision for Our Profession

Where are we headed?

1. Hypnosis will move completely from an appearance of external control to a realization of the internal experience. People will realize that all hypnosis is self-hypnosis for self-motivation, self-direction, self-discipline, self-evaluation, self-harmony, self-trust, self-responsibility, self-empowerment, and self-transcendence through self-understanding.

2. Hypnosis will be used holistically for improving the quality of life. It will go beyond a focus on the details of the multitude of applications.

3. Fear, which is rooted in a misguided belief system, will be transformed into trust. through understanding. Self-hypnosis, including assistance by professionals during the learning stages, will be accepted as commonplace.

4. Hypnosis will continue to expand in its use by people in the arts and in sports. Much practice work and many trial runs will be done in trance states. Inspiration will be common.

5. Hypnosis will continue to expand in areas of self-evaluation and self-appreciation. Past-life work will be used to explore what seems to be injustice and to seek possible ways to make amends. Most people will seek conscious knowledge of their learning during life in the spirit realm between earth incarnations; they will want to live what they have learned.

6. Governmental, business, and military applications of hypnosis will shift from the enforcement of laws and regulations to the use of humanitarian guidelines. (It might take more than a hundred years.) Self-discipline and self-empowerment through self-understanding will bring the brotherhood of humanity into realization.

7. Hypnosis will be taught at regular educational institutions, beginning at the pre-school level. The name might be changed but the concept will be taught.

Henry Leo Bolduc, P.O. Box 88, Independence, Va. 24348
Marjorie V. Reynolds, 202-237 Wellington Cres. Winnipeg, Mb. R3M OA1 mvreynol@mb.sympatico.ca

(The above materials may be copied and usedfreely, as needed)