wwwSLouis Ravelle is a British hypnotherapist living in Mallorca, Spain. He is also well known for his many books and numerous articles on health, fitness and sport. He was the founder of Ravelle’s Health Centre in London. It was here, some 30 years ago, that he started his hypnotherapy career. At that time he concentrated on increased sports performance and numbered many top sportsmen and athletes among his clients. Lou, as he likes to be called, now lives in Mallorca and specialises in Smoking Cessation. He uses the latest techniques,includin NLP(Neuro-Linguisstic Programming) and has an amazingly high success rate. Lou has also been highly successful in the fields of Alcoholism, Phobias and various generic habits. Below is an extract from one of Lou’s recent articles. Hypnotherapy is a form of treatment, which induces behavioural changes. The therapy is given while the subject is in the hypnotic state. Smoking cessation, alcohol abuse, phobias and weight loss are among the more typical applications. * See Ravelle's Hynosis Blog on www.hypnogold.tv/ravelleshypnosisblog.htm WHAT DOES HYPNOSIS FEEL LIKE? Well, it doesn’t have any special feeling. And it can be different for different people. There is no special sensation or feeling that you can identify and say "This is it this is what they told me about, I'm hypnotised." After a session some people report that during the trance they felt very heavy, as if the body had turned to cement, solid. On the other hand others say they felt like a baloon, floating, weightless. There are a few, not many, who say that they felt nothing at all. They just had their eyes closed. And it doesn’t really matter. Most people experience time distortion when in trance. They are surprised that what seemed like five minutes with their eyes closed was in fact, a period of 35 or 40 minutes. Most people don’t know, or realise that they have been hypnotised until they are coming out of the hypnosis at the end of the session. Coming out of hypnosis is a bit like coming out of an afternoon nap or siesta. Perhaps with a bit of that, “Where am I”, feeling. The important thing to note here is that the subject has NOT been asleep norunconscious. No, hypnosis is neither of those two things-it is a state of deep relaxation and nothing else. In this states the barriers are down and the therapist can access the subconscious to implant the necessary suggestions and ideas. In my practice I always explain all of the above in what I call my pre-induction talk. I also say,” During the session you will be aware of everything that is going on, like the sound of my voice, passing traffic in the street etc. Because you will not be asleep and you will not be unconscious.” However, in spite of all this there are a goodly percentage of people who come out of the trance state and the very first thing they say, sometimes a bit indignantly, is, “I was aware of everything that went on- I remember everything.” Or, something like, "You didn’t put me out.” They usually say this as though it were something exceptional, even though I have told them in my pre-talk that it is quite normal to be aware of everything that goes on during the trance. Some people are nervous or apprehensive at the thoughts of going into hypnosis. Normally my pre-induction talk does much to take away this nervousness, especially when I explain that hypnosis is neither a state of sleep nor unconsciousness-just deep relaxation. Incidentally, I’d like to say here that I have found that the majority of these people who approach a hypnotic session with some degree of nervous tension, seem to relax quicker and go deeper into trance, than many of those who appear to have approached the session with calmness. During the session some people find that they drift off and start thinking about other things that have nothing to do with the problem being addressed. They may feel that they have spoiled the session through lack of concentration. In fact it doesn’t matter because that was the conscious mind that was thinking about something else, say football, but the therapist is talking to the subconscious on the other side of the brain. In this wonderful state of hypnosis we have complete separation of the two halves, so it’s OK. The subconscious is still receiving the therapist’s message. I always advise people that if they want to get the best out of their hypnotic session they should, once the proceedings are under way, just ‘go along with’ and accept everything that the therapist say. Don’t try to analyse what he’s doing. If you do this then that is the conscious mind coming to the fore. The conscious will be there it’s true, but we want to keep it in the background. I hope that in the above I have been able to give some idea of what hypnosis is and how it feels. It is not some dark mysterious art, as portrayed by some movie makers, but a real scientific entity – a tool for better living. ********************************************************************** FAQ The following FAQ are typical of the queries that a practitioner meets up with every day. Q. Why is hypnosis, or hypnotism, often thought to be in some way connected with the occult, or even witchcraft? A. Such fairy tales are entirely due to the ‘Hollywood Effect’. Films often portray victims who are forced by evil people to do terrible things while under hypnosis. Film directors and writers have found a very useful tool in their fictional -type of hypnotism. The truth of the matter is that a person can’t be made to do anything against his/her will, religion, or beliefs, while under hypnosis. Q. What’s the difference between hypnosis and hypnotherapy? Hypnosis is a scientific phenomenon, which has been known to man for countless centuries. Hypnotherapy is a treatment, which uses hypnosis as powerful tool and makes use of the subject’s own mind to relieve symptoms and alter unwanted behaviour, or cause changes in behaviour. Typical examples of changes are –Smoking, Alcohol and Nail-biting cessation. Many phobias and fears are also treated successfully using hypnotherapy. Q. Does Hypnotherapy have any unwanted or harmful side effects? A. No, there are no side effects and it is non-addictive and not harmful in any way. Q, Does hypnotism work on anyone? A. Almost anybody, but only if they want to be hypnotised. The client has to be willing to ‘let it happen’. Don’t try to analyse what the therapist is saying. Even if you find yourself thinking, “I know I’m not going to be hypnotised-but I’ll go along with it anyway” that’s fine. Just let yourself go and don’t try to make logic of what is being said to you. Just go along with it. Q. Why is it that stage hypnotists can only hypnotise part of the audience, the majority seem to be immune? A. Because of time limitations (the show must go on) stage performers use a very rapid induction system which only works on a percentage of any audience. The therapist however, uses a slow progression induction. This method is really reliable. Though sometimes the type of induction has to be varied to suit individual cases. Sometimes one therapist may appear to fail where colleague will succeed. Practcally everybody can be hypnotised. The degree or depth of the trance will vat greatly from person to person, but only a light trance state is necessary for most therapies. Q. Will I lose control and aware of what is happening? No. You do not go to sleep or into a state of unconsciousness. Most people remember everything that has been said while they have been in the Trance State. Hypnosis is really a form of deep relaxation- something like meditation. Q. Will the therapist have physical contact with me? Some therapists may, during a session, touch the client on the wrist, hand, arm, or forehead. Normally they will tell the client that they are about to do so. Q. Does Self-Hypnosis work? Yes, but it is not as effective as that induced by a second person. To achieve the trance state by one’s self is not easy and it may need some practice. It helps a great deal to use a pre-recorded tape, either of your own voice, or someone else’s. Q. Will I remember what happens during the sessions? Most people are aware of everything that is said during hypnosis and of all other sounds. Some say that they remember most of the therapist’s dialogue, though they admit to drifting off at times. There are some that remember little or nothing. The therapy is just as effective in all cases. Q. I have been hypnotised before, will that help? Yes, each consecutive time you go deeper and more rapidly. Q. Is hypnosis suitable for children? Yes, from about the age of six. Bed-wetting and nail –biting are typical applications. Also there are therapies for various phobias. Q. What if something happens to the therapist while I’m in the trance state –a heart attack, or something like that? You would come out of the trance naturally Oreo would possibly fall into a normal sleep and then wake naturally. Q. Are their any side, or after effects? Will it be safe to drive my car after a session, or will I feel ‘spaced-out’? No, you’ll come out of the Trance State feeling drowsy, rather like waking up from a siesta. This will pass off in a few seconds and then you’ll feel really good and relaxed. Q. How many sessions will I need? That depends on what the problem is. Some problems, like smoking, can be stopped in one single session. Other changes may take several visits. The therapist should be able to advise on this. Q. How effective is hypnotherapy for smoking cessation? Hypnotherapy is the most effective way to stop smoking. Using willpower alone, for most people, is very difficult. Patches are only about 20% effective. There is no doubt that hypnotherapy is the best tool available. The actual success rate depends on both the therapist and the technique used. A good therapist with a good technique should achieve a success rate well in excess of 90%. Q. When I stop smoking through hypnosis, will I put on weight as a sort of compensation? A good therapist will build suggestions into your therapy to prevent this. He will make sure that the ‘satisfaction’ that you got from smoking is diverted to some other field. Typically, sport / fitness, self-confidence, or even your job. Q.I want to have therapy to stop smoking, -but my husband (or wife) doesn’t want to stop. With the temptation always close at hand will I be wasting my time taking the therapy? No, no at all your case is by no means unique, in fact it’s quite common. The therapist should be informed of the situation and you will not be affected by others smoking around you. In many cases like yours, the rogue partner often, in time, comes into line and ‘ takes the cure’ himself. Q. Is hypnotherapy effective for weight loss? Extremely, as the subconscious is usually programmed so that you only eat the right types of food and only in sufficient quantities to satisfy the body’s needs. *************************************************************************** STOP SMOKING NOW! Stopping smoking has become a necessity today, because smoking cigarettes has been banned from restaurants and public places. In fact, it is the smart thing to do for more reasons than health alone. This article explores the very best hypnosis and Neuro-Linguistic Programming methodologies that can be utilized to make it as painless as possible to break the addiction to tobacco and cigarettes. There are 3 distinct factors to the addiction to tobacco. Two of the elements are mental/emotional, and only one part is physical. Part A: YOU SMOKE FOR RELAXATION AND PLEASURE. When you were a tot and you became upset, your mother would put a pacifier into your mouth to calm you down. You would get distracted, become calm, and often go to sleep. That sequence of events was repeated hundreds of times so that your unconscious mind was programmed: When something goes into your mouth, you get relaxation and pleasure from it. Now that you are fully-grown, if you feel nervous or tense, you crave something in your mouth for relaxation and pleasure - a cigarette! Part B: SMOKING IS A CONDITIONED RESPONSE. Remember Pavlov? He rang a bell every time that he fed his dogs. After a few repetitions, he would just ring the bell, and that would make the dogs salivate. When you associate smoking with any other activity, the other activity will trigger cravings for a cigarette and a compulsion that makes you want to light up a cigarette. This is called a conditioned response. For example: If you smoke a cigarette when you see someone else smoking, you will automatically get an urge to smoke a cigarette each time you see someone else smoking. Here is exactly how this conditioned response gets programmed into your subconscious: If a person smokes a cigarette and simultaneously drinks a cup of coffee, the mind takes a picture of the cigarette in the hand, and ties it to the cup of coffee. Thereafter, every time the person has a cup of coffee, her subconscious mind fills in the missing part of the picture. It flashes an image of a cigarette, and the smoker gets a craving for a cigarette. You may be unaware of the mental movie of the cigarette, because it may only be at the subconscious level of mind. Just as you are unaware of what you are seeing through your peripheral vision until something or someone draws your attention to it. But the image is there, creating a craving for a cigarette. Part C: THERE IS A PHYSICAL ADDICTION TO NICOTINE, BUT . . . I've worked with several thousand people for smoke cessation and I give you my personal guarantee that the physical addiction is the weakest part of the addiction. In fact, I believe that it is only ten percent of the smoking habit. ninety percent of the habit are the mental and emotional parts! (Parts A and B). HERE IS WHAT THIS MEANS TO A SMOKER WHO WANTS TO QUIT. As soon as you eliminate the anxiety that pushes a smoker to smoke a cigarette to create relaxation and pleasure (Part A) . . . and if you can extinguish the conditioned response of feeling cravings for cigarettes when having a cup of coffee, driving, or finishing a meal, etc. (Part B) . . . then you can break the addiction to tobacco without requiring willpower, and without having to experience withdrawal symptoms or weight-gain. Hypnosis can help motivate a smoker to stop smoking. Self-hypnosis will make it easy to break the addiction to tobacco because it takes care of Parts A & B! Here is how: Part A is where smokers smoke for relaxation and pleasure. It's a person's thoughts, which create feelings of tension. More exactly, people invariably run mental movies in their mind's eye. If the movie is negative, it creates a feeling of anxiety. We can use different NLP techniques to program the subconscious to rapidly take those tension creating mental pictures, and instantly exchange them for relaxation producing mental pictures and movies. This creates relaxation and pleasure, and obliterates the tension that creates the oral compulsions for cigarettes. Because of the elimination of tension, the smoker who is quitting doesn't experience the compulsion or need to substitute food in place of the cigarettes. So quitting without weight gain is possible. Part B is where smokers get cravings for cigarettes because smoking becomes a conditioned response to many different activities and locations. Remember in the earlier example how smoking became unconsciously associated with other activities and environments so that each time people get into that activity or environment, the mind flashes an image of a cigarette, and the image of the cigarette causes cravings for a cigarette? There are quit smoking hypnosis, and quit smoking NLP techniques that can effortlessly eliminate those conditioned responses so that a person's unconscious mind will lose the cravings for cigarettes, and the compulsion to smoke. As a matter of fact, you can even get a compulsion to reject the cigarettes. IN SUMMARY To summarize, when we use certain NLP methods, it becomes very easy to quit smoking without weight gain or having to suffer from withdrawal. And many of these hypnotic methods don't even depend on post-hypnotic suggestions. They depend on programming the subconscious mind to use the same thought processes that the subconscious is using to create the addiction to cigarettes, to eliminate the mental addiction. Author: Alan B. Densky, CH opened his practice in 1978. | |
Note on NLP by Lou Ravlle. In the above article the author mentions NLP and many will say “What’s that?” Foe tthis reason I have given a brief description below. NLP means Neuro-Linguistic Programming, a name that encompasses the three most influential components involved in producing human experience: neurology, language and programming. The neurological system regulates how our bodies function, language determines how we interface and communicate with other people and our programming determines the kinds of models of the world we create. Neuro-Linguistic Programming describes the fundamental dynamics between mind (neuro) and language (linguistic) and how their interplay effects our body and behavior (programming). To put things more simply you can influence behaviour by the words or language you using while communicating. Personally I have been incorporaating NLP techniques into my hypnosis session for years. NLP, many thin, is insepaarable from hypnosis. This is probably why many of my friends describe me as a ‘wordsmith’ hipno.info | 