Steven Heller - Monsters & magical sticks - theres no such thing as hypnosis?

Monsters & Magical Sticks

There's No Such Thing As Hypnosis?

by

Steven Heller, Ph.D. & Terry Lee Steele

NEW FALCON PUBLICATIONS TEMPE, ARIZONA, U.S.A.

All rights reserved. No part of this book, in part or in whole, may be reproduced, transmitted, or utilized, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher, except for brief quotations in critical articles, books and reviews.

International Standard Book Number: 1-56184-026-2 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 87-80595

First Edition 1987 Second Printing 1991 Third Printing 2001

Cover by Amanda Fisher

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials Z39.48-1984

Address all inquiries to:

NEW FALCON PUBLICATIONS 1739 East Broadway Road #1-277 Tempe, AZ 85282 U.S.A.

(or)

320 East Charleston Blvd. #204-286 Las Vegas, NV 89104 U.S.A.

website:

It is my belief that all presenting problems and symptoms are really metaphors that contain a story about what the problem really is. It is, therefore, the responsibility of the therapist to create metaphors that contain a story that contains the (possible) solutions. The metaphor is the message... Hypnosis is, in and of itself, a metaphor within a metaphor...

Steven Heller, Ph.D.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Once upon a time, in a far off land, there was a man known as the "Weaver of Fabrics." People would come to the weaver with their yarns of many colorsyarns they had collected for many, many years. And the weaver would help each person learn how to weave the yarns into beautiful tapestries, each with a unique pattern to be used in many different ways.

Steve Heller, together with the help of his dear friend and colleague Terry Steele, has provided readers with a dynamic and brilliant entrance into a magical world within each of usa world where it is believed our true abilities, inner learnings, and healing resources reside. Through the use of humor, metaphor, and enlightening case examples, Heller takes us far beyond the conscious world of what we "think" and "perceive" reality to be, and stretches our minds into the dimension known as the unconscious. His original, and often provocative, theories and approaches help shed new light on the classic question confronting many of us: "Why can't I overcome my problem when I'm so competent in other areas of my life? Why am I continually stuck in this area?"

Heller's views take us into a powerful realm within the unconscious mind that not only perpetuates the problems, but also contains solutions. It is here that Heller offers the field of psychotherapy a major contribution: his conceptualization of the "unconscious/out-of-conscious" sensory system finally provides clinicians with a tangible and precise means of working with the elusive and problematic aspects of unconscious functioning. By creatively evoking, assessing, and utilizing the language of our sensory systems, Heller is able to identify the out-of-conscious sensory system that is generating the system, pain, or unwanted behavior. He then shows us how he playfully and hypnotically helps clients enter into their own out-of-conscious sensory systems to bring back into conscious awareness the innate resources of this pivotal area.

This process facilitates the clients' discoveries of choices in their lives, and activates their abilities to break unwanted patterns of feeling and behavior. What was once creating the problemout-of-conscious sensory systemnow becomes an ally and a resource for generating growth, not only within the previous problem area, but into other areas of life as well.

Those who would see the beautiful fabrics with unique patterns wanted to know who was their teacher. "The Weaver of Fabrics," the people would answer proudly. And so the legend of the Weaver grew and spread throughout the land.

Joyce C. Mills, Ph.D.

Encino, California

Richard J. Crowley, Ph.D.

North Hollywood, California

Although I have been using a form of "hypnosis" for more than fifteen years now, I found this book by Steven Heller and Terry Lee Steele not only illuminating, but intellectually staggering. It occurs to me that I have never really understood "hypnosis" before.

When I was first taught "hypnosis," it was called "guided meditation," and was supposed to be a sort of synthesis of psychoanalysis and Buddhism, bringing one rapidly to the bedrock of consciousness. Then I was taught it all over again, but it was called "astral projection" and was supposed to be literal journeys of some literal "ego" outside the body. By then I was being asked to lead seminars myself, and began including some of these techniques without making any specific claims about them except that they showed some unusual properties of the human mind. Since I had no degree at the time, if the word "hypnosis" was raised at all, I always said that we were using "guided meditation," which was only somewhat similar to very mild "hypnosis." I did not want anybody to think they were going into deep hypnosis, since I was not sure I knew how to handle that.
Well, of course, many people very obviously went into "deep hypnosis" whether I intended it or not, and I learned eventually that I could handle that, and I got a degree and was qualified to mess with people's minds. But somehow "hypnosis"whether "mild" or "deep"always seemed a bit weird to me and I preferred to work with techniques I thought I understood better.

Now I have read Heller and Steele and realize that I am using "hypnosis" all the time, whether I know it or not. But then, it appears that every salesperson, every lawyer, every politician, every cop, and every husband and wife having a quarrel, are using "hypnosis" as well as they know how and the world is, in many respects, a circus with rival gangs of hypnotists trying to hypnotize one another.

Of course, some of this is not entirely new to me. Several years ago, bothered by a set of "allergy" symptoms that puzzled my physician, I was persuaded to try a Christian Science healer. I was healed in one session. The alleged "allergy" has never come back. This was not only gratifying, but also aroused my curiosity, and I began reading a great deal of Christian Science literature. (I even went to their church services a few times, but my allergy to churches seems incurable, and that phase did not last long.) I then began experimenting on myself, using what I understood of Christian Science to heal other ailments when the symptoms did not appear so serious that it was obvious damn foolery to avoid medical treatment. I found that I could heal quite a few minor conditions in myself, and once or twice in friends. I did not set up shop as a psychic healer or anything of that sort because I seemed to have only minor talent in that field, but I suspect that everybody has as much of that talent as I do, but most people are just afraid to try using it.

What is comical about this little story of my mediocre career in faith healing is that the principles I learned from Mrs. Eddy's books and her disciples are the same principles you will learn in the following text, but Mrs. Eddy never admitted she was using hypnosis. In fact, one whole chapter of Science and Health is devoted to denouncing hypnosis and hypnotists. Hypnosis, she thought, was the work of the devil (who doesn't exist) and Christian Science is the work of God (who does exist) and hence hypnosis does not work, but Christian Science does. The Strange Loop in that logic is typical of Christian Science-and of many other systems that use hypnosis without realizing what they are doing.
I think you will gain even more insight into why Dr. Heller explains the success of hypnosis by saying, "There is no such thing as hypnosis?" ifyou pick up a copy of Mrs. Eddy's Science and Health somewhere and read ten consecutive pages (any ten pages will do, since her style is hologrammic and the meaning is everywhere). After ten pages in Eddy-land come back and read a little of Dr. Heller again. You might begin to understand that there literally is no such thing as hypnosis and we are all in deep hypnosis more of the time than we realize.