Back to the past....riffing on THE PRESERVED

[Mark Kohut]

Very informative post.....

Yes, the writer of Directive Hypnotherapy makes clear that the statement about statements only happens in the context of self-accepted behavior (my phrase)

--- On Tue, 1/26/10, Page <page at quesnelbc.com> wrote:

> From: Page <page at quesnelbc.com>
> Subject: Re: Back to the past....riffing on THE PRESERVED
> To: "Mark Kohut" <markekohut at yahoo.com>, "Keith" <keithsz at mac.com>, "David Morris" <fqmorris at gmail.com>
> Cc: "pynchon -l" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Date: Tuesday, January 26, 2010, 9:03 PM
> Thanks to Mark for his quote below
> about the subconscious taking orders.
> 
> Most hypnotherapists, including me and the ones I know
> well, would tread carefully on claims like "the subconscious
> mind takes a statement as an order." That is a primitive and
> misleading claim at best. For instance, you cannot make
> someone in a deep hypnotic state act like a chicken simply
> by telling them to. This one of the functions of the
> unconscious mind. Even in a deep hypnotic state, the
> unconscious mind protects the integrity of the whole
> person.
> 
> Having said *that*, hypnosis is a powerful way to help
> people change behaviours and thoughts. One can change
> dangerous, or even just unwanted, behaviours easily and
> comfortably using hypnosis. This kind of work is based on
> some idea of an unconscious mind. Indeed, a good fractioned
> can help people facilitate important, even life-changing,
> work without knowing what "problem" the client wanted to
> change. The means of change often remain in the client's
> unconscious mind. One of the common definitions of the
> unconscious is, "an internal focus of awareness."
> 
> However one construes the unconscious mind, it is at the
> least useful fiction. (It doesn't need to be reified, though
> that does not much matter.) There are simple examples to
> support, but not prove, the notion of an unconscious mind.
> Speaking loosely, where are your memories "stored"? Not in
> the conscious mind. (See the wikipedia entry on George
> Miller's work, 7 plus or minus 2.) When you drive a car with
> a standard transmission, how do you know what to do with the
> clutch and the brakes? Surely, you don't always think about
> specific muscle movements? You may in certain situations,
> but ordinarily you don't. If you did, you wouldn't be able
> to drive and converse.
> 
> Then there is language. We can generate syntactically
> well-formed sentences without thinking about syntax at all,
> and the "fight or flight" response is not generated by (in)
> the conscious mind. You don't have to think about it to
> generate it.
> 
> Hypnotherapists take a pragmatic view of the unconscious
> mind. Fiction or not, positing it helps the hypnotherapist
> do his or her job. You cannot see it, hear it, taste it, or
> touch it, but some version of what we call the unconscious
> mind is in there (or out there in the collective
> unconscious).
> 
> Perhaps I ought to confess that I am a certified
> hypnotherapist, but not a medical doctor. For a more
> accurate look at hypnosis, and profound hypnotherapy, read
> most anything by Milton H. Erickson, M. D., of Phoenix,
> Arizona. He was a psychiatrist and a hypnotherapist, though
> not a licensed one. There wasn't anyone to license him. No
> one had the temerity or the ability.
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark Kohut" <markekohut at yahoo.com>
> To: "Keith" <keithsz at mac.com>;
> "David Morris" <fqmorris at gmail.com>
> Cc: "pynchon -l" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, January 26, 2010 11:26 AM
> Subject: Re: Back to the past....riffing on THE PRESERVED
> 
> 
> > David M. wrote:
> >> One cannot see the entirety of "the unconscious,"
> only
> >> small bits at a
> >> time, as it reveals itself to the extent one is
> able to see
> >> it, in the
> >> course of an entire life's journey.
> > 
> > From a book called Directive Hypnotherapy, on
> hypnosis, by a licensed doctor-practitioner: "The
> subconscious mind moves by steps..."
> > 
> > 
> > And, also interesting: "the subconscious mind takes a
> statement as an order"...
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> 
> 
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