Finding True Magic, the blog

One of my favorite quotes from myself (eye roll!) is,

“We think we live in the world, but we live in our minds.”

Another (double eye roll!) is,

“Once you realize your innocence, you can accomplish anything.”

I am surprised when people don’t have a clue about what I am saying with these statements. (jaw drops)

Regarding the first quote about living in our minds, try entertaining the awareness that the outer world is really a creation inside your mind. We think our mind is in our head and our chattering certainly seems to be located there. But our mind is more than our chattering. Spend some time thinking of your mind containing all your sensory fields.

Don’t mistake this to mean I want you to pretend the outer world is in your head. No, just simply consider that your mind is outside of your head. Consider your mind to be that which contains your body and its chattering thoughts, and everything in the outer world. Relax and sense your mind’s pervasiveness and spaciousness.

That brings us to the second quote: “Once you realize your innocence, you can accomplish anything.” If you have the thought that the above exercise is too strange or difficult to even try…that is a sign of lack of awareness of your innocence. Don’t let yourself miss this opportunity to play with your mind because of some stodgy old judgments. (Stodgy old judgments = opposite of innocence.)

Click on this Podcast Link to hear me discuss my ideas with Greg Voison of Inside Personal Growth.

Greg recently interviewed me about, Finding True Magic: Transpersonal Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy/NLP.

Greg kindly says,  “Jack’s mind blowing, thought provoking ideas you really need to listen to, and take action on. This interview could truly transform your relationship with yourself, and more importantly everyone you love.”

In our talk, greg and I get at the root of most of  our struggles. When you listen you will better understand how hypnosis for pain,  for weight loss, for depression, for phobias and trauma, for anxiety, and virtually any other issue is a tremendous life-enhancing tool.

May we all prosper together.

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Jack Elias, CHT is founder and director of the Institute for Therapeutic Learning in Seattle, Washington. He is the author of Finding True Magic: Transpersonal Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy/NLP, a book and course which blends NLP training modalities with philosophical traditions of both East and West. Jack offers private sessions in Lucid Heart Therapy and Life Coaching. He offers live trainings and distance learning trainings in Transpersonal Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy/NLP. Jack also presents keynotes and other programs to teach audiences how to use the techniques of  Transpersonal Hypnotherapy/NLP to achieve success, confidence, and a consistent sense of well-being.

Book Jack Elias to speak to your group or organization.

Inception, the new film about the mysteries, dramas, and possibilities existing in our inner life, relies on many hypnotic principles to develop its story.

Inception explores the intricacies of implanting an idea in another person so that they think it is their own original idea.

It is actually much simpler than they make it out to be. In hypnosis jargon its called a suggestion. All that is required is to successfully bypass a person’s critical faculty (the ability to evaluate and say “No!”) and deliver the suggestion while the  critical faculty is suspended.

Hollywood must make it mysterious and dramatic, of course. But the goal of inception is quite easy and we are the constant subjects for inception through the ever expanding technology of mass and social media propaganda and advertising. The recently deceased Dr. Herbert Spiegel, psychiatrist and master hypnotist, demonstrated time and again how easily people can be made to adopt a suggested reality.

Even though hypnosis has been around for over 300 years, few people understand hypnotic principles. This makes it a big box office draw stimulating interesting analysis as if these are new and rare phenomena.

Besides the critical faculty bypass, all you need is repetition of a suggestion that is vivid and emotionally engaging. The more vivid and emotionally engaging the suggestion is, the less repetition is required.

Sorry to say, we must make a great effort to guard our minds and sanity in this age of expert spin doctors spreading their suggestions with ever more powerful technological and media advances. All too often they are serving money, power, and greed rather than the uplifting of humanity.

Here is a CD that will help you guard your mind and stay connected to your best impulses:  Opening to Higher Self Purification.

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Jack Elias, CHT is founder and director of the Institute for Therapeutic Learning in Seattle, Washington. He is the author of Finding True Magic: Transpersonal Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy/NLP, a book and course which blends NLP training modalities with philosophical traditions of both East and West. Jack offers private sessionsin Lucid Heart Therapy and Life Coaching. He offers live trainings and distance learning trainings in Transpersonal Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy/NLP. Jack also presents keynotes and other programs to teach audiences how to use the techniques of  Transpersonal Hypnotherapy/NLP to achieve success, confidence, and a consistent sense of well-being.  Book Jack Elias to speak to your group or organization.

I am happy to present this insightful article by  Michele Rosenthal, founder of HealMyPTSD. Michele is a trauma/PTSD survivor who now does healing coaching for people suffering from PTSD. We are trading blog posts. Look for my entry, Insights and Strategies for Dealing with PTSD and Profound Challenges, at her HealMyPTSD blog site.

Enjoy Michele’s article:

PTSD makes communication difficult. Many survivors can’t find the words to express what they’re feeling. Even when they do, it’s very normal for them not to be comfortable sharing their experience. Elements of shame, fear, anger, guilt and grief often get in the way of a calm, focused discussion.

Friends and family (and anyone else who is not the source of the PTSD but is standing by while someone attempts to heal) need something that translates PTSD language. Armed with knowledge, insight and awareness you’ll have an easier time knowing how to react, respond and relate to your PTSD loved one during the healing process. The more you appreciate things from the PTSD perspective the more helpful and supportive you can be. Now is the time for empathy, compassion and patience.

#1 – Knowledge is power. Understanding the process of a triggering event, the psychic reaction to trauma, the warning signs and symptoms of PTSD, and available treatment options for PTSD allows you to help recognize, support and guide your PTSD loved one toward diagnosis, treatment and healing.

We need you to be clearheaded, pulled together and informed.

#2 – Trauma changes us. After trauma we want to believe —as do you—that life can return to the way it was; that we can continue as who we were. This is not how it works. Trauma leaves a huge and indelible impact on the soul. It is not possible to endure trauma and not experience a psychic shift.

Expect us to be changed. Accept our need to evolve. Support us on this journey.

#3 – PTSD hijacks our identity. One of the largest problems with PTSD is that it takes over our entire view of ourselves. We no longer see clearly. We no longer see the world as we experienced it before trauma. Now every moment is dangerous, unpredictable and threatening.

Gently remind us and offer opportunities to engage in an identity outside of trauma and PTSD.

#4 – We are no longer grounded in our true selves. In light of trauma our real selves retreat and a coping self emerges to keep us safe.

Believe in us; our true selves still exist, even if they are momentarily buried.

#5 – We cannot help how we behave. Since we are operating on a sort of autopilot we are not always in control. PTSD is an exaggerated state of survival mode. We experience emotions that frighten and overwhelm us. We act out accordingly in defense of those feelings we cannot control.

Be patient with us; we often cannot stop the anger, tears or other disruptive behaviors that are so difficult for you to endure.

#6 – We cannot be logical. Since our perspective is driven by fear we don’t always think straight, nor do we always accept the advice of those who do.

Keep reaching out, even when your words don’t seem to reach us. You never know when we will think of something you said and it will comfort, guide, soothe or inspire us.

#7 – We cannot just ‘get over it’. From the outside it’s easy to imagine a certain amount of time passes and memories fade and trauma gets relegated to the history of a life. Unfortunately, with PTSD nothing fades. Our bodies will not let us forget. Because of surging chemicals that reinforce every memory, we cannot walk away from the past anymore than you can walk away from us.

Honor our struggle to make peace with events. Do not rush us. Trying to speed our recovery will only make us cling to it more.

#8 – We’re not in denial—we’re coping! It takes a tremendous effort to live with PTSD. Even if we don’t admit it, we know there’s something wrong. When you approach us and we deny there’s a problem that’s really code for, “I’m doing the best I can.” Taking the actions you suggest would require too much energy, dividing focus from what is holding us together. Sometimes, simply getting up and continuing our daily routine is the biggest step toward recovery we make.

Alleviate our stress by giving us a safe space in which we can find support.

#9 – We do not hate you. Contrary to the ways we might behave when you intervene, somewhere inside we do know that you are not the source of the problem. Unfortunately, in the moment we may use your face as PTSD’s image. Since we cannot directly address our PTSD issues sometimes it’s easier to address you.

Continue to approach us. We need you to!

Michele Rosenthal is a trauma/PTSD survivor, Self-Empowered Healing Coach and the founder of Heal My PTSD, LLC.

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Jack Elias, CHT is founder and director of the Institute for Therapeutic Learning in Seattle, Washington. He is the author of Finding True Magic: Transpersonal Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy/NLP, a book and course which blends NLP training modalities with philosophical traditions of both East and West. Jack offers private sessionsin Lucid Heart Therapy and Life Coaching. He offers live trainings and distance learning trainings in Transpersonal Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy/NLP. Jack also presents keynotes and other programs to teach audiences how to use the techniques of  Transpersonal Hypnotherapy/NLP to achieve success, confidence, and a consistent sense of well-being.  Book Jack Elias to speak to your group or organization.

“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it”

George Santayana

My clients often look at me with a sense of despair and express the belief that their past is determining their future. Well, according to George, if you’re not learning from your past experience, you’re right!

But what is really going on? What is the most important thing to learn from our past experience, and what should be discarded? Surely we need to retain all manner of common sense things about the world, like, ” look both ways before you cross the street.”

You’d think it would be easy for us to cultivate this kind of common sense. And yet these days, as we assess the state of corporate greed, political hostility, and lack of civil discourse, it seems there isn’t much interest in developing common sense for the common good. If you look at history, no good has ever come from trying to create a society in which the common good is disregarded (witness the fates of the Roman Empire, the Third Reich, and more recently, Enron). But we don’t seem to get it!

It seems to me that what’s most important to learn from past experience is that you — and only you — are the one in charge of your self respect and self approval. As a wise older friend said to me when I was a young man, “Unless you approve of yourself, you will always be afraid.”

I learn from clients daily that this is a daunting task — primarily because people generally believe that whatever they have thought, or said, or done determines whether or not they have a right to exist.  By extension, the “worthiness” of their thoughts, words and deeds determine whether or not it’s okay to be kind to themselves. I usually propose to my clients that their actions are about their actions, not about their human value. I just explain that they will experience the fruit of their actions, because that’s the way things work, but that their essential value remains untouched no matter what they do. They always have the right to choose to act with love, kindness, and encouragement towards themselves, even if they’ve made the worst mistake of their lives.

In my experience, this is the best way for us to keep a clarity of mind, and the strength of spirit, to rectify any mistakes we may have made.  Those who put themselves down with blame, shame, and guilt when they make mistakes are doomed to repeat the past. Why? Because their focus is failure. Wise people, on the other hand, use their energy kindly and patiently learning from their mistake and figuring out how to do better next time.

The wise make mistakes, too. But all the while, regardless of the outcome of their actions, they maintain respect for the miracle of their being and the gift of their life. They keep their self-respect. And that is the very best kind of common sense.

Our life is not ours to judge. It’s a mystery.

May we all prosper together!

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Jack Elias, CHT is founder and director of the Institute for Therapeutic Learning in Seattle, Washington. He is the author of Finding True Magic: Transpersonal Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy/NLP, a book and course which blends NLP training modalities with philosophical traditions of both East and West. Jack offers private sessionsin Lucid Heart Therapy and Life Coaching. He offers live trainings and distance learning trainings in Transpersonal Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy/NLP. Jack also presents keynotes and other programs to teach audiences how to use the techniques of  Transpersonal Hypnotherapy/NLP to achieve success, confidence, and a consistent sense of well-being.  Book Jack Elias to speak to your group or organization.