Life of Brian

Holy Shatner? Agnes of God, Hypnosis and well nothing really, that's about it . . .

This review of a local production of Agnes of God showed up in my email today as an example of hypnosis in the news . . . Holy Shatner! . . . other than an entertaining description of a REALLY BAD hypnosis scene in what the reviewer considers an awful play and a worse production, there really isn't anything to do with hypnosis here. However, I post the link anyway as I REALLY ENJOYED the review . . . this is a delightful razing. Makes me feel sorry for the actors and the production, but as I really don't like that play either, I let that slide.

All the best,
Brian

SUGGESTIBILITY HYPNOSIS FUN . . .. . . hypnotic video challenge

The Hypnotic Video Challenge for the month of April at the Society of Experiential Trance is SUGGESTIBILITY HYPNOSIS FUN.

This month's challenge is for participants to go out into the world and have some Suggestibility Hypnosis Fun. Take a so-called suggestibility test and convert it into a hypnotic induction or a waking hypnosis session. Participants are encouraged to be playful and have fun.

See the previous posting of several Imaginative Suggestibility Games for inspiration.

Submissions to this month's challenge may be for any context of trancework: therpeutic, educational, entertainment, recreational, and more, although the process needs to be related in some way to an imaginative suggestibility game used either as an induction into formal trance or as a bridge setup for a session of eyes-open waking hypnosis.

Be sure to submit your videos before the last day of April 2008.

Some of the previous challenges may provide some inspiration as will some of the future challenges (see the Society of Experiential Trance webpages) while the following are some videos that participants and others may also find helpful:

Rapid Progressive Relaxation

Happy Balloons

Finger Magnet Variations

Handclasp

Balloons and Rocks

Hot and Cold

Arm Catalepsy

Ideomotor Pendulum

Lemon Lemon Lemon

Energizer

The video challenge is a monthly community-building theme-based activity sponsored by the Society of Experiential Trance and the Hypnosis Technique Exchange in which hypnotists are encouraged to submit a video of themselves filmed within the month of the challenge in which they use or demonstrate a trance process based upon a common theme.  Folks may submit up to five videos each month, as long as they are with different subjects and demonstrate different processes related to the theme.  It's NOT a contest but a participatory activity.

Participants are encouraged to be playful and creative with their submissions.  Upload your video to any of the various free video server sites. You may wish to have your video permissions set on youtube or video google or wherever set so that webpage embedding is allowed.  Then post the video URL to the Hypnosis Technique Exchange . . . most of all, have fun!

All the best,
Brian

Sign Up NOW!SPEED HYPNOSIS
(Instant and Rapid Hypnosis Techniques)Taipei, Taiwan (two days, fifteen hours + out-of-class assignments).Hypnosis Shows, Sessions, Training . . . and MORE!
See http://www.BrianDavidPhillips.com for details!

Brian David Phillips, PhD, CH [phillips@nccu.edu.tw]
Certified Hypnotherapist
President, Society of Experiential Trance
Associate Professor, NCCU, Taipei, Taiwan
http://www.BrianDavidPhillips.com

You won't feel a thing...

The Yorkshire Evening Post has a profile on Graham Temple, a dentist who uses hypnosis in his practice . . . you won't feel a thing... . . . Temple first became interested in hypnosis after seeing a stage performance. He fournd a book that had a script which he read aloud while his kids were playing and before he knew it they were hypnotized. Dental applications of hypnosis are becoming more common now - usually with variations of waking suggestion or speed hypnosis inductions to keep the time down.

All the best,
Brian
http://www.briandavidphillips.com

EXPERIENTIAL HYPNOSIS FUN . . .. . . hypnotic video challenge

The Hypnotic Video Challenge for the month of May at the Society of Experiential Trance is EXPERIENTIAL HYPNOSIS FUN.

This month's challenge is for participants to go out into the world and perform processes that engage folks in some form of Experiential Trance. This may be any hypnotic, NLP, or trance process that engages the trance partner's imagination so fully that they experience the suggestions as if they are actually happening rather than as imagined events - effects can be physical or more intricate emotional-imagery setups. Participants are encouraged to be playful and have fun.

See the previous discussions of Experiential Hypnosis (the articles on the Vicarious Experiential Machine are particularly relevant).

Submissions to this month's challenge may be for any context of trancework: therpeutic, educational, entertainment, recreational, and more, although the process needs to be related in some way to experiential rather than merely imaginative or light trance-based imagery.

Be sure to submit your videos before the last day of May 2008.

While some of the previous Hypnotic Video Challenges may give you a few ideas for approaches, the following are some videos that participants and others may also find helpful:

Happy Toy Hypnosis

More Happy Toy Hypnosis

Psychic Power Hypnosis

Blissnosis Lost and Found

Fairy Dragon Experiential Trance
(The Magick Egg)

Furry Fun Hypnosis
Shapeshifter Variant

The video challenge is a monthly community-building theme-based activity sponsored by the Society of Experiential Trance and the Hypnosis Technique Exchange in which hypnotists are encouraged to submit a video of themselves filmed within the month of the challenge in which they use or demonstrate a trance process based upon a common theme.  Folks may submit up to five videos each month, as long as they are with different subjects and demonstrate different processes related to the theme.  It's NOT a contest but a participatory activity.

Participants are encouraged to be playful and creative with their submissions.  Upload your video to any of the various free video server sites. You may wish to have your video permissions set on youtube or video google or wherever set so that webpage embedding is allowed.  Then post the video URL to the Hypnosis Technique Exchange . . . most of all, have fun!

All the best,
Brian

Sign Up NOW!SPEED HYPNOSIS
(Instant and Rapid Hypnosis Techniques)Taipei, Taiwan (two days, fifteen hours + out-of-class assignments).Hypnosis Shows, Sessions, Training . . . and MORE!
See http://www.BrianDavidPhillips.com for details!

Brian David Phillips, PhD, CH [phillips@nccu.edu.tw]
Certified Hypnotherapist
President, Society of Experiential Trance
Associate Professor, NCCU, Taipei, Taiwan
http://www.BrianDavidPhillips.com

When is a Walkabout Trance just a Trance?

I saw a couple discussions on street hypnosis and walkabouts and the like and the got me thinking . . .

When is a Walkabout Trance just a trance?  It isn't.

There are just different experiences of context.

As most of you know, we had an absolutely wonderful time at the WALKABOUT TRANCE BEACH RESORT GETAWAY in beautiful Hermosa Beach at the beginning of the month . . . I mean WONDERFUL.

However, since that event was pitched as a context frame for my SPEED HYPNOSIS course where I taught my variation of instant and rapid hypnosis with a big ol' dollop of creative inductions and improvisizational adaptation to context and setting, there is a misimpression by some that Walkabout Trance or Street Hypnosis must inherently rely upon speed hypnosis.

This could not be further from the truth.

Nor is Walkabout merely about doing cold walkups or the like.

Speed Hypnosis is simple, straightforward, and fun but it is not the only model out there.  While I am all for folks experimenting with their comfort zones, I would not suggest that if your comfort zone is not the same as mine that you are somehow doing anything "wrong" . . . far from it.  As you experiment with new ideas and concepts, play with them and make them your own.  Let your comfort zone expand to encompass new truths you begin to experience related to your experiments and exposure to new concepts but keep that comfort zone your own.

In one of the reviews of the Walkabout posted to one of serveral blogs out there, there is a comment about how wonderful it was for the reviewer to discover how supporting the event environment was in that folks were encouraged to stretch their minds and comfort levels comfortably . . . but that when they discovered that where they might feel uncomfortable in one context others were downright at home and rather audacious and that folks were welcome to be inspired by others but never to feel less for their own experience.

Some folks are nervous about "speed hypnosis" techniques because they seem so shocking and intrusive to them . . . however, as I hoped I was able to demonstrate in some way . . . they don't need to be.  They can be gentle and very maternal if that's how you prefer to frame them.  Take whatever the trance partner's context is and frame the experience appropriately for that person and for yourself and all will be well.

Some folks are actually more comfortable in a bit of a slow take in . . . attendees at the Walkabout will recall the young woman who was brought in from outside as a demo subject who I ended up switching to a dial deepener for a whole slew of reasons.  :-)  Others will remember the wonderful opportunity presented during the Ideomotor Finger Signals demonstration (that was a great example of a beautiful opportunity for context-sensitive shift).  If the trance partner isn't quite ready for a slam-bam-thank-you-ma'am trance experience then slow down and let 'em smell those hypnotic roses and have a different sort of experience, one appropriate to their context and to your own.

It's not all stuck hands and unbendable arms . . . me, I tend to create as many Fairy Dragon experiences as happy fingers and name amnesias but I'll throw in a nice little chakra color visualization here and there and if there's time, play a bit with one person rather than steamrolling through ten . . . but, you . . . maybe your experience will lead you to something else . . . something congruent with your comfort zone and whatever you think a Walkabout Trance might imply.  I use the term Walkabout Trance so that it's a bit more inclusive than the impression many folks have from the term Street Hypnosis so feel free to define the experience within your own expectations, context, and the like then go out and play . . . really play . . . and let the context you find yourself in redefine it and yourself as you adapt and play and play at adapting.

BTW, the folks in this neck of the woods can sign up for the Speed Hypnosis course for April 12-13 here in Taipei . . . and . . . wait for it . . . we are working out the details . . . and topics have not yet been set . . . but . . . it looks like we're going to be going Stateside to Los Angeles in July and we will have at least two events within that timeframe.  Further details to come as soon as we've got 'em pinned down.

All the best,
Brian

Sign Up NOW!SPEED HYPNOSIS
(Instant and Rapid Hypnosis Techniques)Taipei, Taiwan (two days, fifteen hours + out-of-class assignments).Hypnosis Shows, Sessions, Training . . . and MORE!
See http://www.BrianDavidPhillips.com for details!

Brian David Phillips, PhD, CH [phillips@nccu.edu.tw]
Certified Hypnotherapist
President, Society of Experiential Trance
Associate Professor, NCCU, Taipei, Taiwan
http://www.BrianDavidPhillips.com

Sex after Prostate Cancer Surgery - What Can You Expect?

This is an issue I've been asked for advice on a number of times and it is one that many men are quite frankly frightened of . . . however, there are options and prostate cancer does NOT have to mean an end of happy sexual life . . . here's a very positive example of one man's success Sex after Prostate Cancer Surgery - What Can You Expect?

Hypno Hot and Hypno Kool show photos from last weekend!

Well, here are a few snippets from our last two shows . . . HYPNO HOT on Friday, Feb. 22 (full gallery here), and HYPNO KOOL on Sunday, Feb. 24 (full gallery here).

See the rest of the photos in their respective web galleries on my fotki - HYPNO HOT gallery here and HYPNO KOOL gallery here.

All the best,
Brian

Sign Up NOW!SPEED HYPNOSIS
(Instant and Rapid Hypnosis Techniques)Taipei, Taiwan (two days, fifteen hours + out-of-class assignments).Hypnosis Shows, Sessions, Training . . . and MORE!
See http://www.BrianDavidPhillips.com for details!

Brian David Phillips, PhD, CH [phillips@nccu.edu.tw]
Certified Hypnotherapist
President, Society of Experiential Trance
Associate Professor, NCCU, Taipei, Taiwan
http://www.BrianDavidPhillips.com

Frozen Grand Central

Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D Gives Good Monster

We saw a preview for this while we were in the US on our mini-tour and it just made me want to see it . . . Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D Gives Good Monster . . .

Journey sucks you deep into its zooming roller-coaster sequences (3D allows depth as well as making things stick out at you), throws glowing birds out into the theater to float around your head, and in one memorable moment snaps your face off with a toothy fish that jumps right off screen and into the audience. After about a minute of adjustment, it's easy to forget you've got those dorky-cool 3D glasses on your face (thankfully they fit easily over real glasses) and just get into the film

Now . . . I just HAVE to see it!

Well, I hope it actually comes to Taiwan in 3D . . . we have missed MOST of the new wave of 3D films.

Hotels introduce big fines for smoking

WalletPop notes a trend in which hotels introduce big fines for smoking - WalletPop. A number of hotel chains will be completely smoke-free by the end of 2008 and many are starting to introduce large fines for guests who smoke in their rooms . . . Sheraton and Four Points by Sheraton will be charging $200 while Disney World has a $500 fine. While smokers are complaining, others are not. WalletPop is correct that some enterprising "stop smoking retreats" might want to take advantage of the smoke-free and anti-smoking atmosphere by organizing their retreats there.