Self Honesty

Living with reality requires a truthful heart and mind.

Use Hypnotherapy Tools During Crisis

In this Covid 19 pandemic, our emotions make us more vulnerable to suggestion. It’s a problem when the suggestions are misleading and false. The good news is we can secure our own minds and change our habits using hypnosis to undo outside messaging, it’s actually a de-hypnotizing process. We turn hypnosis to our own benefit rather than having it used on us by others.

Fear inducing headlines, true and false are hypnotic because they are repetitive. This seductive method bypasses conscious thought and critical thinking. It enters our subconscious mind using symbols that are meaningful to us. Our attention and data are now worth more than oil. Our habits of mind become strings used to manipulate us. Hypnotic suggestions create powerful impressions on the subconscious mind. How do we get hooked? How do we remain clear of manipulation when our feelings are led by the agenda of others?

We turn hypnosis to our own benefit rather than having it used on us by others.

When watching TV or scrolling through social media notice the symbols being offered to your subconscious mind via repetition. Emotionally powerful means are employed like fear, hope, beauty, emotionally powerful images and more. These become post hypnotic suggestions. Anyone who thinks hypnosis doesn’t work needs to ponder why so much money is poured into advertising. Whether it’s goods, services, faith or political beliefs, we are being led by our subconscious mind. We’ve been witnessing poor decisions around us like denial or the panicking bandwagon effect where people hoard toilet paper that can’t stop a virus, etc. This is a kind of reaction resulting from suggestion. It touches a desire for some control to offset the dread of being in the unknown. Truthfully, we need our energy and attention to be addressing the reality, not the narratives in our mind fostered by others.

Try a few hypnosis sessions. (I’m offering emergency sliding rates now and expanding my services to sessions by phone and video). Now more than ever, we need to learn how to remain clear in the midst of uncertainty, to act rather than react for our own benefit and that of others.

Try a few hypnosis sessions.

We’ve never encountered a situation like the one we face now. Our typical distractions are stripped away as we isolate at home and our emotions can get supercharged. Using post hypnotic suggestions, you can clear your subconscious mind of unnecessary anxiety and become more realistic. By breaking free of habits triggered by stress, fear and other people we develop the fortitude to ride out this pandemic and adapt to change as sanely as possible, even if we’re forced to face tragedy. We are in uncharted waters. Life has changed suddenly, and we don’t know what lies ahead. Use hypnotherapy to help you cut the strings pulling us useless directions. Grow the clarity to carry on.

By Sharon Schlotthauer

World Health Organization – Corona Virus (Covid 19) Update

Centers for Disease Control – Covid 19 Info

How Myofascial Release Helps

How Myofascial Release helps.

First it’s not massage. It’s called bodywork because no oil or lotion are used during treatment. Fascia is the connective tissues in the body. Myofascial Release works by softening scar tissue, increasing mobility in joints or muscles that have been injured, as well as in giving a sense of being more relaxed and open.

When fascia is released often memories arise and become conscious to our mind. The previously subconscious memory, along with the tension that was trapped, no longer have the same effects on the psyche. This brings a wonderful feeling of freedom from the memory and tension.

I was fortunate enough to learn Myofascial Release from John Barnes himself, who spearheaded the research into this method when he had become frustrated with the limits of physical therapy.

I offer this bodywork combined with a specific type of hypnotherapy. Both techniques compliment each other to achieve a transformation. It’s like updating the map of reality. New and more accurate content is consciously offered to the subconscious mind.

Myofascial Release is a kind of stretching technique that allows stuck fascia to release without deep physical pressure or force, regardless it can be quite an intense experience because we feel the body let go. We literally feel the heat called a vaseo-motor response. This also happens in Cranial-Sacral bodywork which I also offer.

I have been a licensed practitioner of these methods for over twenty years and have helped many people heal from old injuries, tension, chronic pain and habits of destructive thinking. Some people like it just because it makes them feel good in their body and that is worthwhile.


By Sharon Schlotthauer

Power to Change

Advertisers understand the power of the subconscious mind. That is why they spend so much money to imprint it with their messages. I am impressed at the power of the subconscious mind, having learned for myself how hard it is to overcome some bad habits.

I’ve practiced hypnosis and somatic massage for over twenty years along with various forms of meditation. My meditation practice alone did not entirely crack the code of my subconscious mind, though it was important. Subconscious systems of thought ran in my mind automatically, they were both trusted and familiar. These habits reflected a self concept that did not budge, regardless of my insight and knowledge. You see, my map of reality included a recurring sense of self in danger. This crippled both my ambition and self care. My energy and attention seemed to be on the edge of a minefield. I felt fear of getting blown to smithereens. For a long time I refused to move forward living and used various avoidance strategies. By questioning my beliefs I previously took for granted, meditation, therapy and massage, I found partial relief, still my fear of disaster remained embedded in the map of my personal reality.

“How do we know hypnosis works? Because advertisers wouldn’t spend hundreds of millions to influence us with their messages if it didn’t work.”

Hypnotherapy is the method that allowed me to change the map of reality that became a habit in my youth.

It is really a kind of de-hypnotizing that brings the subconscious mind into alignment or harmony with the conscious mind. I’m more effective, as a result of this deconditioning. I’m liberated from the fear based habits which subconsciously sabotaged my best efforts to live. Hypnosis frees energy from old fear driven habits to create a better map of reality.

Hypnosis is a tool that updates the conscious and subconscious mind that’s capable of addressing and adapting to actual circumstances. Living now is an adventure in discovery in ever changing circumstances. Discovery is what the unknown offers and no longer is it simply a dangerous threat to me, it’s an exciting adventure.

By Sharon Schlotthauer

Orgasms of this conscious Body

I am seventy-one but I discovered my orgasm at twenty-five and enjoyed a great deal of orgasmic sex in the years after; until I experienced what I shall describe as a time of sexual hibernation. Thankfully, I went on to re-emerge from that hibernation, and I want to share my experience of a new sexual blossoming in what are my twilight years.

I’ll begin my insight into sexual experiences with a question: Why reach for a more conscious sexuality? The actuality is that we either love consciously or we love (and live) based in memories from the past. Those memories become automatic routines which attempt to support our ego, that is, how we imagine ourselves. We circle the drain—just going ‘round and ‘round the same old stories as death approaches. (In honor of that fact, I confess that I am seventy-one, and closer to the end than the beginning.) Conscious sexuality is the ability to disobey old habits and prejudices while discovering our body’s sensual wonders.

I want to share my experience of a new sexual blossoming…

Before getting too heavy, just so you know, I would be skeptical reading this if I hadn’t experienced it myself. I’m continually discovering more of my body’s capacity, which includes a love of truth. As I clarify and honor this love of truth, I find there is more and more freedom and joy in my body, and what I want is to support and invite you readers into your own discovery. Furthermore, while I am polyamorous by nature, I am not suggesting non-monogamy is the only means of discovering more of your own capacity for clarity and joy. Different expressions of sexuality are a huge part of my experience and still I understand that such diversity is not for everyone.

Conscious sexuality is the ability to disobey old habits and prejudices while discovering our body’s sensual wonders.

As I said above, after many years of orgasmic joy, my sexuality went into a state of deep rest when I turned sixty-eight. It was a winter-like hibernation that lasted about two years, and I wondered constantly what had caused such a withdrawal. I felt during that time that I might be dying, though medical tests proved otherwise. So I inquired into circumstances. There were circumstances and people who I could not control, and my efforts to do so were futile and draining. There were also negative emotional reactions happening within and without that I could not understand, and could not accept. Due to this exceedingly uncomfortable experience, I fell into my old habit of trying to explain it all, trying to find some sense of security. All my efforts at explaining what was going on left me with a dormant libido. I felt reduced to ash in dark, cold endless space. That sounds awful, and indeed, I didn’t feel very good during that time, until something surprising happened. An event came to pass wherein I felt an astounding flash of heat in my body, like a sunburst, and came back to life. What rekindled the fire in my belly? – My longtime  lover passionately connected with a wonderful woman who exuded an amazing life force. Their connection had something to do with the thaw-inducing sunburst I experienced. Odd as it may seem, I felt completely included in his almost instant love for her. Unfortunately, within a few months, she became unable to continue meeting with him (or us) even as friends. She disappeared and wouldn’t respond. I think it was his unique and intense love for this woman – love that was so inclusive, so bright with aliveness – that brought me out of sexual hibernation. Most interesting to me is that who I was before this happened is not the one who came back. My sexuality rekindled like a phoenix rising from ashes.

“I felt completely included in his love for her.”

My interest in this new sexual life affirmation brought me an even deeper understanding of my body-mind. In every way the body expresses, be it physical, sexual, emotional, mental, imaginative or mysterious, I felt a clarifying consciousness occurring in my body. This has been a great gift for me and has been a boon for my work as a massage practitioner and hypnotherapist. I came back to sexuality better able to see how our subconscious mind makes it easy for us to live on auto-pilot. We run our lives on habits found in our memories and limited by our past. They are driven by the fear of loss, making self-centered fear the basis for the choices we only think we are making consciously. I could also see that the satisfaction of any desire can never free us from the past that…

Join us in Santa Cruz. One night in October

makes fear the driver. Only truly conscious choice can free us from automatic habits of behavior learned in the past. I came back to life knowing one can only disobey entrenched habits of mind consciously—habits the mind has made to create and protect an identity. With this new conscious understanding, and as my lover was enduring waves of passionate longing for someone who ghosted him, I felt I was meeting myself anew. My sexuality felt rejuvenated and my orgasms were different as I felt the inclusiveness when he shared his passionate love, for her and for me.

“Only truly conscious choice can free us from automatic habits of behavior”

Since my new emergence in this twilight blossoming, I am experiencing orgasmic joy beyond what I have known before. This body’s orgasms are longer and more full body than ever, and they continue to include visions of color and other inexplicable phenomena while radiating passionate intensity in utterly remorseless pleasure. That is a joy! While my sexual appetite is not as urgent as when I was younger, this doesn’t concern me. My body still roars often, just not every day. When I was younger my orgasms burst from my clitoris like fireworks flashing across the night sky. Now they are longer and sweeter than ever before. Instead of orgasms like geysers with a sudden force that then pass quickly, I have orgasms that start and just go on and on, like a bubbling, laughing river running through me, and at other times, cascading over a waterfall. Orgasm ripples across my skin and across my face, while also moving deep inside my body. Other times I feel somehow I am the string holding a kite that is wafting in the sky, the wind lifting it higher and higher, carrying me as I soar in the unknown skies of joy, with colors of the night and of the dawn, twilight and mid-day shining sun, high in the sky. And these colorful, long, luxurious orgasmic waves of bliss just keep coming. All this at the age of seventy-one, as this body exposes and goes right on exploding the myth of ageism. A myth that I believed until I discovered the truth. As my lover mentioned above said, sometimes it‘s wonderful to be wrong.

This body’s orgasms are longer and more full body than ever

I find orgasmic joy with such variety, fun, and free-falling beauty and grace, that I’m continually astounded. Gratefully and happily I’m leaning into new adventures and possibilities with old and new friends and lovers. I feel more at home and interested in exploring for fun and for free as an open, loving, responsible adult. I’m fulfilling an intuition of inherent freedom that I somehow knew as a small child, and it comes to life as I am living conscious sexuality as an adult. I have enjoyed experiencing sex clubs, free spirit events, and tantric exploration, and I will continue to live this conscious adventure. I think this is possible for whomever is willing to go beyond the known. Again (because it is so important,) when we subconsciously rely on the past for our map of reality, it traps us in routines, and keeps us from realizing our full capacity. It keeps us crashing on the same old shore, while we keep longing to fulfill that intuition that there is somehow more. Well, that “more” is not “out there,” it’s in our own body, opening to our real capacity for joy, for conscious awareness of this gift of being alive.

We feel the intensification of aliveness when in the unknown, outside of the routine that gives us a false sense of security. If we fear the unknown, we are probably fixated on safety and security, relying on amusements and diversions that involve little if any discovery. And while a belief may seem to console fears, no belief can actually guarantee safety and security. The alternative to living in variations of memory over and over is to live in the world of more conscious discovery. Here, discovery includes gain and loss, the coming and going of subjective and objective events including intense feeling. A capacity to endure intense mental and emotional states including discomfort is part of the capacity to soar like a bird without any strings attached.

Discovery is a trial and error exploration in the midst of life. It‘s been my experience that open sexuality is relating intimately with others directly and indirectly. This actual interconnection has allowed me to find my own capacities. The joyful, full body, sensual living color and oceanic orgasms I experience in this open universe that exists beyond what I’ve known in my past. It’s actually the great gift of non-identification with how I imagine myself in my mind. It’s why I meditate and work in hypnotherapy—I want to invite others out of whatever habits of mind are limiting them so they can discover their own life, love, and clarity. Now is the moment where discovery awaits.

I am living this joy, and it’s here for whomever wants to feel fully alive and dares to discover their own conscious choices.

Why Explore the Subconscious Mind?

By Sharon Dalzell-Schlotthauer CMT CCHT |

When I say subconscious, I mean that dimly lit dreamy depth in mind where we store snapshots of past events, where actions we learned run automatically. Subconsciously, we don’t need to think about tying our shoes, how to ride a bicycle (once we’ve learned) or what is right and what is wrong in beliefs or behavior. We just react from an already known library of preconceived ideas.

What we do and how we do it can arise today, formed from habitual systems of thought, that  some call second nature.  Often these are really some of our earliest experiences that are deeply entrenched in the subconscious. Some may be a result of repeated suggestions through advertising that makes its way into our subconscious mind (beginning with the former).

This input  is instructing a  child’s mind, a mind that  is not developed enough to distinguish the difference between say, approval and survival because both may involve intense fear. In actuality, a more developed mind comprehends that  disapproval and a threat to life are not, in most cases,  the same thing. However,  as the child matures, decisions based on ideas, some of which are untrue or half true still exist as a habit of mind and are treated as facts automatically.  

The further development or lack thereof concerning the child above is based upon systems of belief that the child treats as facts. Indeed the sub conscious mind does NOT make any distinction between fact , fantasy,  a fiction. It’s all experienced in the subconscious, as real , like falling in a dream seems real even though it isn’t. We can also experience feelings arising from a daydream world in our waking life and our bodies treat what we think as fact.

Imagination is not bad, it can conjure something as a starting point for the creation of something no one might think possible, but we bring it to fruition in the physical world. The Wright Brothers proved man could build a flying machine. They first imagined and brought it from the mind into physical reality. We can see the vast potential of the subconscious and conscious mind mingling but past conclusions and fears can prevent  such  development.

When a body is on auto pilot, hypnotized into a trance through repetitions of mind (like the confirmation bias of advertising) it takes a conscious choice to step out of the habit. A habit can also be born as a result of a sudden intense event producing a traumatic response like PTSD, which greatly diminishes conscious actions and critical thinking.

The attempt to control present  events based on questionable beliefs based in the past on some snapshot of a highly charged event,  often leads to stagnation in the human experience. We don’t want an overbearing child mind habitually running and directing our adult life.

Decisions based on a child’s notion of survival are stupefying to an adult’s decision making process and our ability to adapt to new circumstances.  Remember unconscious beliefs running in the subconscious remain automatic until we consciously engage them. Those beliefs and prejudices keep the adult in check as if she/he were still that child. The fact is that as stated above,  decisions based on snapshots of frightening experiences or beliefs will continue to determine an adult’s actions and experience of life. A redundant living is boring but we now have endless entertainments at our fingertips that sooth the captive mind, caught in a fenced childhood yard, even as an adult.

The purpose of creating a trance with hypnosis is to consciously reevaluate both new and old habituated beliefs to create a better map of reality. We consciously view unconscious beliefs and bring new experiences and judgments to those conclusions made either long ago or merely accepted as true because of redundant suggestion. Hypnosis becomes a rescue and a repair operation as we consciously handle what was previously an unconscious memory.  We bring awareness of present events and new facts to old beliefs and that changes things. We can let go of a child’s conclusions and adult beliefs too.

A child’s mind is susceptible to fairy tale worlds of dark woods and closets containing scary monsters. Unconsciously this child mind can be manipulated quite easily. Ruthless con artist lie to us to activate our habits of mind and then rip us off because it’s like “taking candy from a baby.”

As a nation hypnotized by advertising that markets us dubious lifestyles based on preconceived notions, we’re repeatedly told what to do, what to like, and what to fear. Hypnosis is tool, like using a thorn to take out that thorn, then throwing both thorns away, realizing that we are actually free of the chains born of poor conclusions.

Entertainment is now more a tool of suggestion than ever before. This is often a redundant simulation of living that misses much of what it’s like to consciously be here. Our vulnerability existing consciously unbound by suggested conclusions keeps us open to what life really offers. We adapt, engage and live more fully. It’s is perhaps a cause for suspicion to consider hypnosis as a means to change one’s own beliefs to something more beneficial because they are more true, meaning more in tune with reality. It’s worth a look. The unconscious or child-mind can also be looked at from many perspectives. A conscious adult who understands the dangers of a subconscious or inner child mind, is in an entirely different position to respond. It’s a  matter of making contact with reality consciously.  

 

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SharonBy Sharon Dalzell |

In service of survival we imagine ourselves but we mistake this dreaming to be our real self. This self concept can have many parts that have different jobs. It’s an adventure describing how a conscious noticing can be introduced into this habitual (unconscious) world of mind. The self we’re imagining and the many sub selves it juggles thinks and feels itself real. To introduce noticing this self is rather like listening to conversations among imaginary friends. Noticing, or paying attention to these imagined selves operating subconsciously is powerful. After spending couple of days talking to and mostly listening to my own different selves and inviting them to come forth, they spoke out loud and it went something like this…

The imagined self lays down the ‘law’ regarding what we allow as socially proper behavior, for me. But, wait, here comes another self, with another set of ideas. A self who wants out from under the pressure of societal norms and it insists on saying ‘yes’ to a nontraditional lifestyle. This self thinks she has a right to a juicier, more lively living experience. Another self sighs and shuffles in, a worn and torn mother speaking about how sick and tired she is of the struggle that goes on among these different selves. It is lively and energetically charged, how these different selves step into the conversation. The mother self seems a bit of a martyr, managing the squabbling and manipulative mind stuff of and child and adolescent selves. The mother self is stoic and forever worn out. She feels guilty that she has not been able to reconcile these warring and childish selves. She wanted her kids to have better than she had. She now  wants the kids to go away because they don’t listen, they’re unruly and refuse to co-operate. They know she’ll take care of them no matter how they argue and refuse to co-operate with one another.

There is a conscious awareness is in the midst of mental stories, a noticing of the perpetual cycling of these selves as they are being taken care of or belittled by another imagined self like the martyr mom above. But who notices  what or who  holds all of this that is circling within. The martyr mom would be out of a job if the kids ever reconciled. Who notices this play in the theater of mind?

As I play with and listen to these selves I become aware that these so-called selves are habitual systems, created in my mind, developed from some snapshot in the past where this thought of ‘I’ made a decision about how to get by in the world, that decision has since become automatic. I don’t have to think about it for the habit to work. I am convinced all of us formed such survival strategies that are a bit like my personal example.

A baby learns and adapts to whatever circumstances are present. Familial influences are present along with an onslaught of hypnotic advertising. These things influence a human being by six months of age. Whatever beliefs (systems of thought) influenced us from culture e.g. spiritual or religious influence, it seems a sense of self will be created and form strategies to cope with the world. With media influence especially with the advent of the internet reaches into us more powerfully influencing what an person or group comes to believe. Primitive and modern values converge forming the foundation of notions ‘about’ ourselves built out of all the information bombarding the mind. All aspects of this self presumes to do different jobs and even struggle with conflicting beliefs. Survival is presumably the goal of these beliefs.

As an experiment let’s let these selves come forth and speak. This changes things because we do it consciously instead of habitually. It is illuminating and begins to separate awareness from what is a magnificent complex of thought that is typically automatic. We see these routines are often emotionally charged and it’s quite astounding to see them as a kind of thought software as opposed to ‘who we are.’

To help this witnessing of the mind, creating an altered state like a mild trance serves as a tool to break us out of our habitual thinking. Hypnosis is similar to a meditative altered state of mind, except in meditation we are quieting the mind, in hypnosis we are consciously exploring it. Our own Awareness simply begins to see what’s happening within the mind BECAUSE we are not operating automatically we bring NEW conscious insights, facts and judgments to these previously habituated thinking and this dramatically changes how we value these ideas. We may see some habits no longer serve us, if they ever did. Our whole view of ourselves and how we see the world can change. In this way hypnosis works in favor of the individual’s conscious freedom to choose.

Finding our own capacity to redirect previously automatic processes of the mind counters and, often, breaks the ‘spell’ cast by the constant hypnotic influence of marketing, cultural and religious influence. Many of these strategies simply guide consumers to products or beliefs that serve outside interests.

Conscious use of hypnosis can undo the influence of hypnotic techniques that we’ve been exposed to our whole life.

We begin to use the mind more consciously and less habitually to direct our own choices. This can be playful too. It’s joyful to find out there is more to life than habits formed many years ago. Let’s create a life worth living and a world in which it’s a joy to live.

My name is Sharon Dalzell Schlotthauer CCHT. I help the process above. I use hypnosis to undo a lifetime of hypnosis that no longer serves a purpose, if it ever did.  

The neti neti of relationship, not this or that

todd-sharonBy Sharon Dalzell |

I wanted to offer my point of view after Todd wrote a piece about our relationship. I met a sixteen year old Todd back in the eighties. We felt an immediate connection regardless of the twenty one year age difference, we seemed kindred spirits. We discovered an ongoing friendship lasting over thirty years. We meditated together and found many altered states together without drugs. We swam in the big waves of risky conversation.

Todd and I both wanted to understand and get closer to the truth. I sought answers to questions I’ve had since I was four years old. “What is going on here?” was my question. Todd had similar questions. “What is the restlessness that drives us to the next discovery? And why does truth seem so elusive in spite of being as honest as possible. The desire for clarity united me with Todd in a mutual affection and interest in “truth, freedom and affection that we valued above many other things like money, property and prestige. Our growing platonic friendship included these conversations among many other friends with different points of view. This friendship we enjoyed for ten years. Then we went from affectionate friendship to intimate sexual friendship after I left a twenty-eight year marriage.

In 1994 Todd underwent some sort of change in India that I could feel acutely. It seemed some sort of awakening. At this time I asked him to be lovers with me and he accepted my invitation. Our mutual love and desire for truth and freedom became clearer as I began to understand non-identification with mind. I felt fascinated and captivated at the change in him. How was he able to remain free of his mind’s demands and free from conclusions based on the past?

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Link: Todd writing about our relationship

Our relationship began open with no commitment and that is how it remains. We invite others who might be interested in affection in the midst of desire for truth. We share joy without limiting it to fears of not getting what we want or losing what we have. Not that those fears don’t exist, but those fears do not control or limit our choices. That is why this openly sexual loving friendship extends beyond the horizon of expectations.

The term neti neti means not this and not that. I have experienced neti neti in this relationship with Todd as a vehicle for my clarity. I don’t know if I am able to make you the reader understand but let’s try. I will come back to neti neti.

This long lasting friendship moved through many intense changes and places of confusion that resolved into more clarity. Clarity has always been what I’ve really been after, more than clinging to any passing event. I used to define myself by my upbringing, but what I do now is so far beyond my past it requires, a better definition, perhaps a negative definition. Definitions don’t change but we do. The problem is trying to share with others because they tend to define Todd and I according to cultural ideas. For example Todd and I might be seen by others only within the confines of polyamory. That conclusion is a mistake.

Now for neti neti, I am not his wife, I am not his primary partner, I am not his business partner, I am not his stand by or his stand in, not his owner, not his possession, I am not his to define nor defined by him (nor anyone else.) I am autonomous and enjoying an intimate friendship, while it exists, with this different sort of man. Neither of us have a limit on who we love either as friends or lovers. There is no hierarchy among us or our lovers. There is a desire not to cause harm.

I love women and want them to have such freedom in their life too. I am not competing with other women, I am not a foe, I am not playing a role, I’m not perfect, I’m not obligated to obey my feelings or those of others. I’m not denying my feelings. I’m not peddling a lifestyle but I do invite clarity. That’s why I chose the work I do. I am not a good girl, I choose how to be, free-standing, free-falling and free flying even in the midst of uncertainty. We happen to live in a shared household but this home we purchased doesn’t define me or us either. We invited a friend to recover from surgery here and she has been here ever since. That is one small example of how spontaneous this our life can be.

In an age of image, to take a snapshot of what this relationship is in any moment and define it as such is to miss the much larger picture. Life is offering so much more than what could be contained in such a snapshot.

Edit: Grammar 12/03/2016

Make your own memories

recreate-your-story

By Sharon Dalzell

Consider trying hypnosis to reconstruct past traumatic memories, construct and anchor new memories of confidence and success in whatever you wish to accomplish, and/or let go of what no longer serves you in the present. Consciously changing one’s story is natural and effective. Memories of past events are reconstructed by the mind, but are not the event itself. The event has come and gone and is no more. It is an echo as only a memory of the event remains. In fact, that memory is only a facsimile of the event itself. Whether it is a reasonable facsimile is food for discussion.

Memories of traumatic events give us pause and help us to decipher what is safe for us to pursue. If we’ve had experiences that were far less than satisfying, then they have likely either left us apprehensive and overly cautious or reckless, flaunting a devil-may-care attitude in our choices. The outcome of either reaction to our past experiences has probably dominated our lives and been the driving force that has brought us unnecessary suffering.

Desiring satisfactual, zippity doo dah days, such as we see advertised via the media, we try to overcome our memories of past harm and focus on anything that catches our attention and offers us a bright and better future. However, we never seem to get to that future.

Still, we say that ‘we gotta play the game the way that it is’ and we are swept away by any mesmerizing promises dangled in front of us. In addition, we are either mesmerizing others with our charms or being mesmerized. We are enchanted by this or that notion or belief. We are charmed by this or that suitor. We are smitten by a desire to have what will make and keep us satisfied. All of this indicates that we are being induced into trance like states by those individuals selling material goods, expensive vacations, promises of great love, and/or adventure. All of this so that we will feel better about being alive. The question that we must ask is ‘How well does this work?’ However, that question never seems to be fully answered.

What I am suggesting is NOT chasing the next promise of fulfillment or satisfaction sent as a hypnotic suggestion. What I am suggesting is reconstructing past memories by induction of a light to medium trance , or altered state of mind. Such states appeal directly to the subconsciousness or inner child mind. The transformation and conscious creation of new memories that neutralize or heal memories of past wounds are meant for one’s own benefit. Thus, rather than lining the pockets of those individuals who sell ‘lifestyles’ loaded with all sort of products that we don’t need and will not help us in the long-run (because the underlying memories that we are trying to change will not have changed), creating new memories will allow the wounded memories to heal and the restlessness, fear, or concern to dissipate, negating the need for such lifestyles.

Hypnotic suggestion in a deeply relaxed state of mind is quite powerful and can be of great personal benefit. Reconstructing traumatic memories, just enough to be able to enter them consciously, allows the individual to gain victory and satisfaction by healing the memory. This collapsing of the old traumatic memory is accomplished by consciously bringing new experiences, facts and judgment into the subconscious or inner child mind.

Exploiting Trust

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By Sharon Dalzell-Schlotthauer

Hearing a commercial come on the radio, I turn the radio off. I am tired of being bombarded by suggestions that I probably have termites or rodents in the basement and I need an exterminator for my house that I can ‘refi’ as easily as falling off a log. These repetitive suggestions are meant to bypass our conscious recognition. The most powerful suggestions operate in the subconscious mind and become our prejudices, assumptions, and habits of thinking. These suggestions given to us from outside sources, such as radio tv, movies, operate like the way we chew gum without thinking about it, the way we reach for certain brands, and shop at particular stores. The method used is post hypnotic suggestion, or neuro linguistic programming, known as NLP, and is profoundly effective, especially with repetition. The idea is to implant the name of a brand into the subconscious mind. Then, when the roof leaks, we automatically think of that particular roofing company, the one that we always hear on the radio.

TV marketing or advertising uses hypnotic suggestion to encourage or lead us to whatever is being offered for sale.

Hypnotic marketing strategies sometimes if not oftentimes exploit our trust, utilizing suggestive evocative images and phrases meant to tug at our sentiments and inspire a willingness to buy whatever is being offered for sale. An introduction followed by some free information, or gift , or help is given . The marketing strategy is to ignite in the individual the spirit of reciprocity. The target market means a group or an individual being led to desire a product or process, that supposedly, will give that group or individual satisfaction. Through a gift being offered, the desire to purchase the product or process is being inserted into the subconscious mind . The strategy instills trust in the receiver. By this means, our, ( the target market ) sense of fairness is triggered because we think that the giver has shown faith and trust in us by giving us something, perhaps, truly valuable. And, we begin to show faith and trust in return by buying product from what we consider a trusted vendor, After accepting a free gift, we “take the bait” or trust and believe that what is being purchased will benefit us , meet our needs, and satisfy our desires. Sometimes there is some satisfaction, often times just the opposite. How many times has the consumer felt and actually been sold a promise in a product or service that fell far short of that promise.

How strange I felt when I realized that that marketing techniques, post hypnotic suggestion, guided imagery, NLP were the same techniques that I was learning in my study of hypnosis. The difference being that my intention was and is to use the techniques to benefit the individual as she or he decides. For instance hypnosis can be successful in it’s power to break habits that my clients no longer want, beliefs running automatically below the level of consciousness via the subconscious mind, sometimes the very beliefs put there by marketing strategies. Those advertising campaigns glamorizing junk food, cigarettes, or other legal addictive substances, using alluring images of good feelings , hypnotic suggestion that these products have great value .

It is clear that hypnotic suggestion is a double-edged sword.

It can be used to manipulate the subconscious mind destructively or constructively. It’s a tool that depends on the integrity of who is using it. Considering hypnotic suggestion that goes beyond even marketing strategies selling products to consumers, notice the absurd or destructive behavior in which crowds can be led by a hypnotic speaker, to offer huge amounts of money in return for some notion of abundance returning ten fold, or worse the hypnotic power of a speaker who can stir up a hate driven lynch mob. It is important to notice and to remember that suggestion is not a trifling matter.

Our ability to trust our perceptions and our environment is as vital to our survival as our ability to be learn from whatever events we have experienced as painful , sometimes traumatic. When our trust has been exploited, manipulated by outside forces, we either begin to refuse or become afraid to trust what is going on in and around us, or we become denizens believing and doing whatever we’re told. Either way, obedient or rebellious, we are still, more often than not, at the mercy of hypnotic suggestions coming at us and into our minds, from outside influence that bypass the conscious mind and influence our thinking without our being aware of what is being placed in our minds.

We can use hypnotic suggestion for our own benefit.

We can use this same set of hypnotic tools to undo thinking habits that have been inserted into our subconscious minds, provided we do it consciously. We can anchor the notion to disobey no longer useful or wanted old ideas that are running automatically in our subconscious minds and take advantage of a hypnotic trance to instill in our subconscious minds the notion of confidence, freedom of expression, freedom to make new and different choices. We can dislodge old fear based limits and anchor belief in freedom to make mistakes, engaging in trial and error to find new and better ways of living, creating a world in which we want to live. We can change the content of our subconscious minds, for our own benefit. We can break free of what has been inserted by in authentic authorities. We can move beyond whatever limits in mind that keep us frightened of the unknown, of failure of success. Finding we can change and clear our minds for our own benefit is an awakening of our creative power. It s a genuinely valuable use of the mind.

 

5 Reasons to Question Monogamy at Elephant Journal

Sketch of ClassicLet’s look at both monogamy and commitment with fresh eyes and consider five reasons to question both cultural ideas.

Let’s not oversimplify the deceit exemplified by Ashley Madison. Widespread cheating suggests sexual impulses exist beyond monogamy.

Many arguments against freer sexuality provoke fear and even persecution exemplified in slut shaming, honor killings and LGBT harassment.

The discovery of trial and error expands our choices. Discovery also exposes our mistakes.

For example, discovering what sex will not do liberates us from our imagination. Read More … Got to Elephant Journal 

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