I LEARNED
TO HYPNOTIZE
MYSELF
(Continued)
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an addiction. Her health was being
shattered, and she sought Dr. Wol
berg's aid. First, it was determined
that a guilt complex was driving
her to punish herself through ex
cessive smoking. Only after psy
chotherapy had cleansed her of this
complex was hypnosis used to dis
pel the lingering habit of chain
smoking. It took almost two dozen ses
sions to train Mrs. D. to relax and
precondition her for self-hypnosis.
The doctor discovered that, to
reach the proper state, she re
sponded more readily to a "floating
downward" sensation.
Each morning after breakfast,
she lay down, closed her eyes, and
visualized herself starting down
from the top of a 20-step escalator.
She would count each imaginary
step and, before reaching the bot
tom, would fall into a trance that
"was-I -awake-or-was-I-asleep?"
state we all are familiar with. Now
she was susceptible to the key
phrases with which the physician
under direct hypnosis had pre
conditioned her. These were:
"Chain-smoking is hurting me. I
find it is more and more distasteful.
I am not going to smoke so heav
ily." She was conditioned to repeat
this a number of times and then
"wake up." Eventually, this idea
took root in Mrs. D.'s mind and
freed her of her addiction.
Similar techniques have been
used successfully with many
ailments. The key conditioning
phrases are different, of course. For
example, in the case of blinding
migraine headaches, Margaret M.'s
key words were: "I must shut off
the valves that stem the excessive
flow of blood to the head, and the
blood will flow freely and normally,
and then I will wake up."
Because her head would burst
into excruciating pain at unpre
dictable times, Margaret was trained
from the beginning to bring herself
into a hypnotic state by sitting at
a desk. Thus, when she felt a head
ache coming on, she'd be able to
sit in her office, put her head in her
hands, and appear to be resting
quietly for a few minutes.
In alleviating intractable cancer
pain, it has been found that, in ad
dition to using key phrases, meth
ods which bring the hands into use
Hypnotism may end agony of sleepless
nights for many insomnia sufferers.
are most effective. The patient is
conditioned to believe that as he
strokes the affected area his mind
gradually will numb itself to the
signal of pain it receives from the
affected tissue.
Basically, how does hypnotism
work such wonders?
"You must realize," Dr. Wolberg
explains, "the mind is like a sponge.
Without your being aware of it, it
is always soaking up impressions
and suggestions, both good and bad
that's how habits are unwittingly
formed."
When in this highly susceptible
state under hypnosis, the doctor
feeds the mind a positive sugges
tion which replaces the negative
ones that have taken over. He says
"You can!" to the smoker who says
"I can't!" and eventually the per
son is no longer victimized by the
"bad" suggestion.
How long it will take a person to
accept "good" suggestions depends
on himself and his problem.
One week after I first success
fully practiced self -hypnosis, I was
able to make myself return to sleep
minutes after awakening. And one
month later, having broken the
pattern of staying awake, I no
longer awakened at night at all!
It's three months since I was intro
duced to Dr. Wolberg and self-hypnosis,
and I haven't yet reverted to
the nerve-wracking habit that
gripped me for three years.
I personally can testify to the
marvelous relief this age-old, yet
only recently accepted, medical tool
provides. I can only hope it will
offer the same help to many others.
Family Weekly. May 15, I960