The Kip Cast Handstand is a challenge for many gymnasts—-This is a script I have used for one of my athletes. The skill dialogue is how she sees, feels, and perceives the skill.
Read moreHow Hypnosis Can Help a Gymnast Improve Confidence
The Gymnasts Mind Game
This is my Facebook page called The Gymnasts Mind Game. It’s about the mental game of gymnastics and discusses strategies to overcome the many challenges the athlete is faced with.
Read moreHypnosis to Enhance Figure Skating Confidence and Technique
Hypnosis to Enhance Figure Skating Confidence and Technique
How Does Hypnosis Help The Professional Rugby Player?
Hypnosis can be a beneficial tool for professional rugby players to improve their mental game and enhance their performance both on and off the field. Here are some ways in which hypnosis can help professional rugby players:
Improved Focus and Concentration: Hypnosis can assist rugby players in developing better focus and concentration skills. During a high-paced rugby match, maintaining focus is crucial for making split-second decisions, executing strategies, and staying aware of the game's dynamics.
Enhanced Visualization and Mental Rehearsal: Hypnosis can help rugby players vividly visualize successful plays, set pieces, and match scenarios. By mentally rehearsing different game situations, rugby players can improve their decision-making and increase their ability to react effectively during the actual game.
Reduced Performance Anxiety: Professional rugby players may experience performance anxiety, especially during high-stakes matches. Hypnosis can help manage anxiety and pre-game nerves, allowing players to perform at their best without being overwhelmed by stress.
Confidence Building: Hypnosis can boost a rugby player's self-confidence and belief in their skills. Increased confidence can lead to more assertive and effective gameplay, as players are more likely to take on challenges and trust their abilities.
Enhanced Emotional Regulation: Rugby can be an emotionally intense sport, and managing emotions is vital for optimal performance. Hypnosis can assist players in regulating their emotions, such as frustration, anger, or nervousness, helping them maintain composure and make rational decisions during the game.
Overcoming Mental Blocks and Injuries: Hypnosis can address mental barriers and self-doubt that may hinder a player's performance. Additionally, hypnosis can be used as a complementary approach to manage pain, accelerate injury recovery, and maintain a positive mindset during rehabilitation.
Building Mental Resilience: Hypnosis can help rugby players develop mental resilience, enabling them to bounce back from setbacks, learn from mistakes, and stay motivated throughout their careers.
Goal Setting and Motivation: Hypnosis can assist players in setting clear, achievable goals and strengthening their motivation to work towards these objectives. This can lead to better training habits and a more focused approach to the game.
Developing Rituals and Routines: Hypnosis can help rugby players establish consistent pre-game or pre-practice rituals and routines. These routines can serve as anchors to get players into the right mindset and optimize their performance.
How Does Hypnosis Help The Competitive Golfer
Hypnosis can be a valuable tool for competitive golfers to enhance their mental game and improve their overall performance on the course. Here are some ways in which hypnosis can help competitive golfers:
Improved Focus and Concentration: Hypnosis can help golfers develop better focus and concentration skills, which are crucial for maintaining attention during a round of golf that may last several hours. By eliminating distractions and staying in the present moment, golfers can make better decisions and execute their shots with greater precision.
Reduced Performance Anxiety: Many competitive golfers experience nerves and anxiety during tournaments, which can negatively impact their performance. Hypnosis can assist golfers in managing anxiety and staying calm under pressure, leading to more consistent and confident play.
Enhanced Visualization and Mental Rehearsal: Hypnosis can help golfers vividly visualize successful shots and rounds. By mentally rehearsing their swings, putting strokes, and overall strategies, golfers can reinforce muscle memory and increase their chances of executing those shots during actual play.
Overcoming Slumps and Mental Blocks: Hypnosis can address mental barriers that may arise during a golfer's career, such as loss of confidence, negative thought patterns, or fear of failure. By working with the subconscious mind, hypnosis can help replace limiting beliefs with positive and empowering ones, allowing the golfer to break through slumps and perform at their best.
Confidence Building: Hypnosis can boost a golfer's self-confidence and belief in their abilities. With increased confidence, golfers are more likely to take calculated risks and make assertive decisions on the course.
Improved Stress Management: Hypnosis can aid in managing stress, both on and off the course. A relaxed and composed mindset can positively influence a golfer's decision-making and shot execution.
Developing a Pre-shot Routine: Hypnosis can help golfers create and reinforce a consistent pre-shot routine, which can instill a sense of familiarity and comfort before each shot, promoting a more relaxed and focused state.
Pain Management and Injury Recovery: For golfers dealing with injuries or physical discomfort, hypnosis can be used as a complementary approach to manage pain and potentially aid in the healing process.
Enhanced Mental Resilience: Hypnosis can foster mental resilience, helping golfers bounce back from setbacks and stay positive and motivated throughout their career.
Hypnosis can create positive thought processes during the trials and tribulations of GROWTH SPURTS
Growth spurts can have both positive and negative effects on a gymnast's performance. Growth spurts typically occur during adolescence, which is the age range when many young gymnasts are involved in the sport. These growth spurts can vary in timing and duration, but they commonly occur between the ages of 10 and 16 for girls and 12 and 18 for boys.
Also known as the “Peak Height Velocity” (PHV) period, a “growth spurt” will have a significant impact on a gymnast. This is NORMAL and should be expected. Helping gymnasts understand this can have a positive impact on their health and their progression in the sport. Awareness and prevention are essential during this period of growth. (USA Gymnastics)
Here are some ways growth spurts can impact gymnasts:
Changes in body proportions: During a growth spurt, different parts of the body may grow at different rates, leading to temporary changes in body proportions. This can affect a gymnast's sense of balance and spatial awareness. Adjusting to these changes may require the gymnast to relearn certain skills and adjust their technique accordingly.
Decreased coordination: Rapid growth can temporarily affect a gymnast's coordination. As the body adjusts to its changing dimensions, movements that were once automatic may feel unfamiliar or awkward. Gymnasts may experience a temporary loss of fine motor skills and precision, leading to difficulties in executing complex movements.
Loss of flexibility: Growth spurts can cause temporary loss of flexibility as muscles and tendons adjust to the rapid bone growth. This can impact a gymnast's ability to achieve full range of motion and maintain proper form in certain skills, particularly in skills that require high levels of flexibility, such as splits or backbends.
Strength imbalances: During growth spurts, bones often grow faster than muscles, leading to temporary strength imbalances. This can make it challenging for gymnasts to control their bodies effectively and generate the necessary power for certain skills. Focusing on strength training and conditioning exercises can help address these imbalances and minimize their impact.
Increased injury risk: Growth spurts can temporarily weaken bones, making gymnasts more susceptible to injuries, especially stress fractures. The rapid growth can also strain muscles and tendons, increasing the risk of muscle strains or tendonitis. Proper warm-up routines, injury prevention strategies, and monitoring workload can help reduce the risk of injuries during this period.
Improved power and strength potential: While growth spurts may initially pose challenges, they can also bring positive changes. With increased bone growth and improved muscle development, gymnasts may experience an increase in power and strength potential. As the body adjusts to its new dimensions, gymnasts may find themselves capable of more powerful and dynamic movements.
Mental and emotional impact: Growth spurts can also have psychological effects on gymnasts. Dealing with physical changes and temporary performance setbacks may lead to frustration, self-doubt, or a loss of confidence. It is crucial to provide emotional support and foster a positive training environment to help gymnasts navigate these challenges.
Overall, growth spurts require gymnasts to be patient, adaptable, and focused on gradual progress. Coaches play a vital role in modifying training programs, adjusting skill progressions, and providing support to help gymnasts manage the impact of growth spurts on their performance.
Hypnosis can have a profound on restoring self-confidence. Reframing temporary performance setbacks as nothing more than a challenge that will be met.
Hypnosis and Imagery to Improve Golf Performance--Research Reviews
Performance anxieties and skill acquisition are innately intertwined. Every athlete has their own personal relationship with the mental game. Thus, every athlete should be treated as an individual.
GOAL: Enhance golf performance using a peer-reviewed scientific model of skill-focused imagery & hypnosis
Adding hypnosis as a method to upgrade skills imagery is akin to turbocharging your practice. Like using a magnifying glass to focus, hypnosis clarifies imagery and emotions.
Read moreHypnosis and Imagery to improve football (Soccer) performance
Performance anxieties and skill acquisition are innately intertwined. Every athlete has their own personal relationship with the mental game. Thus, every athlete is treated as an individual.
GOAL: Enhance football performance using a peer-reviewed scientific model of imagery & hypnosis
Adding hypnosis as a method to access imagery is like turbocharging your practice. Like using a magnifying glass to focus, hypnosis clarifies imagery and emotions.
Each of these disciplines/techniques are stand-alone methods for enhancing sports performance. I have incorporated them into a unique and extraordinarily successful multisensorial tool. The purpose of this article is not to go into detail about each of these techniques. Rather the focus is to integrate these methods into the PETTLEP model of imagery.
Read moreHypnosis and Imagery to Enhance Tennis Performance
Performance anxieties and skill acquisition are innately intertwined. Every athlete has their own personal relationship with the mental game. Thus, every athlete should be treated as an individual.
GOAL: Enhance tennis performance using a peer-reviewed scientific model of skill-focused imagery & hypnosis
Adding hypnosis as a method to upgrade skills imagery is akin to turbocharging your practice. Like using a magnifying glass to focus, hypnosis clarifies imagery and emotions.
Each of the following disciplines/techniques are stand-alone methods for enhancing sports performance. I have incorporated them into a unique and extraordinarily successful multi-sensorial tool. The purpose of this article is not to go into detail about each of these techniques. Rather the focus is to integrate these methods into the PETTLEP model of imagery.
Read moreGymnastic injuries: How hypnosis can help on the road of recovery
Recovery is when hypnosis can be a positive and powerful intervention. If an athlete's self-talk is the constant worry of a re-injury then the subconscious mind creates pictures of that happening. This negative pattern of thinking is what hypnosis alters. Look at the analogy of the brain and its likeness to a computer. The hypnotist can reprogram the subconscious mind to protect itself from injury, without focusing on the injury. Results can be dramatic and profound, and this sense of confidence can spread to other aspects of the athlete’s wellbeing.
Read moreSelf-Hypnosis Preparation
1. Create a favorable environment 2. Schedule Practise Time 3. Outline Goals 4. Prepare Hypnotic Suggestions ( Positive) 5. Be Specific. 6. Be Flexible Regarding Time.
Read moreUsing Hypnosis, Imagery and Autogenic Training to Enhance Gymnastic Performance
“The more imagery I did, the more successful and confident I became–—to do it just by seeing it go right in my head… if I fell a hundred times in my warm-up, it didn’t bother me because when I did it in my head, it was perfect, and I knew I could do it. So just as I – I gained more confidence in my routines and my skills like my mental aspects, really, really grew.”
BOOK A COMPLEMENTARY APPOINTMENT BY CONTACTING ME AT barryj@barryjones.com
Read moreWhat you need to know about online Hypnotherapy
First, hypnotherapy online is no different than a traditional hypnotherapy office visit. Prior to COVID many hypnotherapists were already practicing online. There are many benefits over the person to person hypnotherapy experience.
For example, online hypnotherapy negates that additional time and stress getting to an office visit.
Arranging your appointment around family and friend commitments is usually simpler. And if medical conditions and mobility are a limitation, online hypnotherapy is a wonderful alternative.
In so many cases the anxiety of making it to an office hypnotherapy session can outweigh its benefits. These anxieties produce VERY real emotions, both subjectively and physiologically. In the medical field, practitioners are trained to recognise White Coat Syndrome . In more extreme cases, Latrophobia and Agrophobia or social anxiety may also prevent clients from travelling or spending time in new environments.
Online hypnotherapy can remove many of these types of anxieties because you are in a familiar environment. You can also have friends and family present (as long as they do not disturb you).
How does online hypnotherapy differ to traditional hypnotherapy?
There is no difference. As long you commit to the process then the results will be exactly the same, (without that additional stress of getting to the hypnotherapists office).
Due to the coronavirus, many therapies have moved online, however telemedicine has been around since the 1950s with remarkable success.
Hypnotherapy in many ways is far easier to prescribe online than traditional medicine as the hypnotist prescription tool is his voice. As long as your audio settings are good then you are ready to go.
What conditions can online hypnotherapy treat?
Everything that a traditional office visit could help with.
In today’s coronavirus environment, anxiety has become the norm for many. One of the greatest benefits of hypnotherapy is creating a relaxation response.
Whatever condition you choose from the list below, you will feel a sense of peace and tranquility. The following list is just an example of what can be helped with hypnosis. Click on the green highlighted link for up-to-date evidence-based hypnotherapy treatment.
The tremendous volume of research provides compelling evidence that hypnosis is an efficacious treatment for state anxiety (e.g., before tests, surgery, and medical procedures) and anxiety-related disorders, such as headaches and irritable bowel syndrome. – quote from the study.
Hypnotherapy For Weight Management/Weight Loss
Go to the Store to purchase audio for weight loss with self-hypnosis
This study indicates that hypnotherapy in obesity treatment leads to weight loss in obese patients, and thus, to considerable changes in leptin, ADP, and irisin levels. Hypnotherapy is easy to apply, cheap, and effective; has no potential for side effects; and can be applied both alone and in combination with other treatments. – quote from the study.
Hypnotherapy For Smoking Cessation
Go to my Store to purchase my audio Quit Smoking with Self-Hypnosis
Efforts to stop a tobacco habit have components that are both physical and emotional in nature; and which produce periods of discomfort and high relapse rates. Hypnosis can be supportive for both the physical and emotional aspects necessary for successful cessation. – quote from the study.
There is a significant change in the decrease in phobia symptoms, by 51.87% after hypnotherapy. This study concluded that hypnotherapy was effective in reducing phobia symptoms with 2 therapy sessions in 4 meetings. – quote from the study.
Go to the Store to purchase Stop Nail Biting Self-Hypnosis Audio
Results for all subjects indicated an immediate and dramatic increase in fingernail lengths concomitant with the introduction of treatment. At 3-month follow-up, subject 1 demonstrated a moderate reversal effect while the remaining two subjects continued to indicate substantial progress. These findings were discussed with regard to the efficacy of hypnobehavioral treatment strategies and utilization of single-case experimental designs in future hypnotherapy research. – quote from the study.
Hypnotherapy For Sports Performance
This paper focuses on using hypnosis as a technique to enhance performance, reduce anxiety and increase self-efficacy in coaching and coaching psychology settings. – quote from the study.
Hypnotherapy For Pain Management
Go to the Store to purchase the Pain Management Self-Hypnosis audio
Reviews on hypnosis for internal medicine topics are impressive, with demonstrated efficacy for migraine headache, irritable bowel syndrome, and anxiety. Hypnosis improves procedural pain and emotional distress and reduces medication consumption up to 40%—in short, if hypnosis were a drug, it would be standard of care. quote from the study.
Hypnotherapy For Exam Preparation
In the test-anxiety categories, emotionality, worry, interference, and lack of confidence were evaluated. The effect of clinical hypnosis on test anxiety was observed in this study. The global test anxiety and lack of confidence scores were reduced significantly over time in the group that underwent clinical hypnosis, while not so in the control group. - quote from the study.
Hypnotherapy For Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)
Hypnotherapy has been shown to be effective at relieving global gastrointestinal symptoms (GGS) in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). This study examines the impact of hypnotherapy delivery and participant characteristics on IBS outcomes. - quote from the study.
How to a determine a reliable online hypnotherapist
You have a huge choice of hypnotherapists from all over the world to choose from.
However, Hypnotherapy is currently UNREGULATED in the UK and USA. There is no national or international organization that is solely responsible for hypnotherapy accreditation. In reality, anybody can self-accredit, and they do!
So, how do you navigate through the minefield of hypnotherapists?
Begin by finding a professional organization that has academic standards.
UK
The British Society of Clinical and Academic Hypnosis
bscah.com
USA
Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis www.sceh.us
American Society of Clinical Hypnosis www.asch.net
American Board of Medical Hypnosis www.abmh.info
What are the technical requirements for online hypnotherapy?
Multiple platforms are available that can be used for online hypnotherapy and, typically, all are free.
Please ensure that you have the following:
A high speed internet connection e.g., cable or DSL broadband.
A computer with integrated microphone or a headset with microphone.
A webcam for face-to-face therapy sessions and adequate lighting.
A valid online platform, Zoom, FaceTime, Skype etc. (or other application) account and the latest software. Keep these apps and your computer updated.
A location that is private (free from any distractions if possible). This includes pets that do not want to be away from their person. If a pet is not used to being isolated, they may cry. Let friends and family know ahead of time that you will need this block of time not to be disturbed. Turn off the notifications from your devices.
A location that is comfortable (sitting or lying position) and still in view of the webcam, phone or tablet video camera.
Prior to a hypnotherapy session it is always advisable to do a sound and picture testcheck.
Which are the best online hypnotherapy platforms?
I am going to cover four platforms. If you are interested in other formats, I have included additional companies. There are some great tutorials on Youtube, so rather than reinventing the wheel, I have included some of the most popular. They are all free for one to one communication and similar in their use.
Facetime
Skype
Zoom
Additional platforms are GoToMeeting, Google Hangouts, join.me, and ON24.
How do I know if hypnotherapy online will work for me?
To begin with lets reiterate that online hypnosis is just as effective as a traditional office visit, so the question really is: “Can I be hypnotized?”
I am going to refer you back to one of my blogs: Hypnosis, what we know . What we do know, is that some people are more hypnotically gifted than others. A hypnosis facilitator looks for physiological signs that indicate hypnosis. These signs are not necessarily consciously experienced by the client.
One of these is called an eye roll developed by Dr Spiegel .
You can try this out with friends and family, and although it is not a DEFINITIVE test, it is a great indicator.
1. Hold your head looking straight forward ;
2. While holding your head in that position, look upward toward your eyebrows— now toward the top of your head (UpGaze) ;
3. While continuing to look upward, at the same time SLOWLY close your eyelids slowly (Roll) ; I say try and close your eye lids over your eyeballs, it is a good image to visualise.
The amount of sclera visible ( White of the eye ) between the lower eyelid and the lower edge of the cornea is the most practical measurement.
Simply, the more you see of the white of your eye measures your level of hypnotisability.
If your eyes start to flutter you may be experiencing what is called REM or rapid eye movement
You may also notice a change in body temperature and a tingling sensation in the extremities, neither pronounced.
During hypnotherapy, we skip the first three stages of sleep. A hypnotized person is intensely focused but not worried about what they are doing. They are not worried about evaluating instructions, but are simply following those instructions, and they have a more direct connection between their minds and the physical function of their bodies.
Stage 1 non-REM sleep is the changeover from wakefulness and daytime wakefulness patterns into sleep.
Stage 2 non-REM sleep is a period of light sleep before you enter deeper sleep. You spend more of your repeated sleep cycles in stage 2 sleep than in other sleep stages.
Stage 3 non-REM sleep is the period of deep sleep that you need to feel refreshed in the morning. It occurs in longer periods during the first half of the night. Your heartbeat and breathing slow to their lowest levels during sleep. Your muscles are relaxed, and it may be difficult to awaken you. Brain waves become slower yet.
REM sleep first occurs about 90 minutes after falling asleep. Your eyes move rapidly from side to side behind closed eyelids. Most of your dreaming occurs during REM sleep, although some can also occur in non-REM sleep.
TRY THIS AUDIO TO SEE IF SELF-HYPNOSIS WORKS FOR YOU
Go to www.barryjones.com to book an online appointment. For self hypnosis audio downloads go to the STORE
For more clinical information you can also go to TAVISTOCK HYPNOTHERAPY
Does Hypnosis work to lose weight?
Does Hypnosis work to lose weight? Is hypnotherapy a good investment? The answer is yes and no. Let me explain
Should a hypnotherapist understand nutrition to create a more successful outcome? In my opinion, they should. But it is also my belief that they should have a good understanding of any therapy they are facilitating. Hypnosis is not a panacea, as medications are not to a physician. In fact, many medications mask the original problems and cause additional side effects.
A hypnotherapist prescribes words, however, unless they understand the power of those words, then most long-term therapy will not work. Especially so for weight management/weight loss.
With most hypnotically talented clients, you will get favorable short-term results. Yet, as with ANY hypnotherapy, long-term results will have greater success if your vocabulary is precise and relevant.
You would think if we could put a man on the moon that we would be able to figure out this ‘nutrition thing.’
Our governments are aware of the health issues caused by poor nutrition AND have the power to make changes. Consider the huge amounts of profit made from the fast food and sugar industry via investment as well as sales. Their lobby in Congress is powerful.
Another great benefactor of our rampant obesity is the Pharmaceutical companies. The pharma industry makes billions on statins and blood pressure medications… conditions, especially obesity, that poor nutrition causes. Piggybacking them is the diet industry, which in the USA market is estimated at $71 billion. That is a lot of money being made to confuse us into thinking we have no control over our lives!!!!!!!
As a hypnotherapist, we are in a unique situation to make a profound difference, but generic hypnotic weight loss dialogue is only going to take your client so far. I still hear the word fat consumption being used in a negative context… when taking in healthy fat is ESSENTIAL for a healthy lifestyle.
I do not have a degree in nutrition, but I have extensive knowledge in health education, a subject that I taught at University/College.
If somebody approaches me to discuss a specific way of eating, I feel prepared to alter my dialogue to accommodate their needs. I am blessed to have a wife who is a Nurse Practitioner with specialised knowledge of nutrition. www.stilljanet.com
If I feel stuck with anything then this is my go-to person.
Weight loss/management can be a complex problem especially if medications are involved. If you are unsure about a nutritional situation, you can refer out, or work in a partnership with a health care professional.
We all have individual constitutions and lifestyle circumstances, so it would only make sense that every hypnotherapy dialogue would be different.
Resources
Glycemic index for 60 plus foods
U.S. obesity as delayed effect of excess sugar
Obesity and overweight-World Health Organisation. While many population health studies have invoked sugar as a major casual factor in the obesity epidemic, few have explicitly explored the temporal delay between increased sugar consumption and rising obesity rates.
Obesity and overweight
Obesity and overweight-World Health Organisation.
In 2019, an estimated 38.2 million children under the age of 5 years were overweight or obese
Hypnotherapy Accreditation In The USA?
In America, hypnosis is an unregulated profession and there is no accreditation.
I read an article by a hypnotherapy school that said, “You don’t need a license, you just need to meet certain criteria.” There is NO criteria!
Only three States require registration, but anybody can do that as long as you pay the fee.
Similar in the UK, there are many “accredited” schools, and also an abundance of minefields to go through to find a course that meets your needs. If you can pay, you can take a course!
Your best alternative is to go through a professional organization.
Here are three I would suggest:
Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis www.sceh.us
American Society of Clinical Hypnosis www.asch.net
American Board of Medical Hypnosis
Also, look into: Hypnosis/Dental Hypnosis/Psychological Hypnosis and Social Work Hypnosis/Nursing
If you want to learn hypnosis, find like-minded minded people. Facebook has an abundance of forums you can join. Get involved with Skype/Zoom practical sessions and read! The only way to become good at hypnosis is by doing it. Once you become proficient, then decide if a course is worth the investment. So many are padded with irrelevant information and redundant techniques. KIS (Keep It Simple).
Hypnosis: What we know!
Some people are more hypnotically gifted than others. We still do not know the reason why, but scientific research is getting us closer.
A landmark study by Dr. David Spiegel, and colleagues, found a distinctive signature in the brain when a patient has undergone hypnosis. Functional and structural MRI scans of the brains were performed on 12 adults with high hypnotisability and 12 adults with low hypnotisability.
“Our results provide novel evidence that altered functional connectivity in the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex may underlie hypnotisability.” Spiegel also said the work confirms that hypnotisability is less about personality variables and more about cognitive style. “Here we are seeing a neural trait.”
I have calculated my own hours in the field of hypnosis: in 35+ years, I hypnotized well over 100,000 people. As a result, I have become acutely aware of the subtleties and nuances for successful outcomes in hypnotized subjects.
My experience of how people relate to hypnosis:
To a degree, everybody can be hypnotised
Success is primarily based on the facilitator
Even those with low levels of hypnotisability can improve their ability
Those who say they cannot be hypnotised typically have a high desire to experience it
Most peoples’ fear of participating is about loss of control and revealing personal information
Every research article has limitations, hypnosis has it in abundance
Related research articles
Dr. Brian Weiss MD: Past Life Regression
Past Life Regression: Dr Brian Weiss MD
A graduate of Columbia University and Yale Medical School, Brian L. Weiss M.D. is Chairman Emeritus of Psychiatry at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami.
In a series of bestselling books, Dr. Weiss has recommended hypnosis for patients, in order to overcome phobias. These phobias, Dr. Weiss believes, go back to experiences from previous lives. By going back to those experiences through hypnosis, the patient confronts his/her fears, and ultimately, becomes desensitized to his/her original fears.
Weiss says that 33% of patients recall past life experiences the first time under hypnosis, the number climbs to 80% after several sessions.
Past-life therapy "gives us a more expanded concept of ourselves," says Weiss, "for what we really are, not these bodies, which are vehicles to carry us around, but are they really us? So, when you can do that, you can begin to get rid of anger and fear and negative emotions and feel very peaceful on the inside."
Though Weiss is a member in good standing, the APA's official statement regarding his
controversial therapy is a withering condemnation:
"The American Psychiatric Association believes that past life regression therapy is pure quackery. As in other areas of medicine, psychiatric diagnosis and treatment today is based on objective scientific evidence. There is no accepted scientific evidence to support the existence of past lives let alone the validity of past life regression therapy."
His first book Many Lives Many Masters was an overwhelming success. Eight more books have followed. Workshops, speaking engagements and other commercial endeavors have Catapulted PLR into the mainstream.
Dr. Alan Stevenson’s work on Reincarnation met the highest standards of research, whereas Dr. Brian Weiss work has met the highest standards of commercialism.
I do not state this as a criticism, rather as a different approach.
Reincarnation? Dr. Ian Stevenson MD
“My aim has never been to prove reincarnation, but only to find and report whatever evidence there is to make it seem possible.” Dr. Ian Stevenson.
Ian Stevenson 1918-2007 University of Virginia School of Medicine, Chair of the Department of Psychiatry 1957-1967, Carlson Professor of Psychiatry from 1967 to 2001 and Research Professor of Psychiatry from 2002-2007.
According to Stevenson, “actual life memories may need a vehicle in order to emerge into the conscious mind, and the mind with its enormous range of powers creates a fictitious previous life to enable the delivery of real memories. Such a procedure may to some extent be correlated with a dream process. A few items of memory from a real previous life may become separated in some way and attracted to a fictitious previous life that is created by the mind. The outcome is the narration of an apparently coherent previous life”.
Rather than outline Dr. Stevenson’s work, I feel it is more important to view what others in the academic community have said about him.
In all his works, Stevenson adhered to the strictest standards of scientific exploration, including the collection and interpretation of data.
On reviewing his book, the Cases of the Reincarnation Type (1975), The Journal of the American Medical Association states: a "painstaking and unemotional" collection of cases that were "difficult to explain on any assumption other than reincarnation.”
In the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, September 1977, psychiatrist Harold Lief described Stevenson as a methodical investigator and added, "Either he is making a colossal mistake, or he will be known (I have said as much to him) as 'the Galileo of the 20th century.”
Doris Kuhlman-Wilsdorf, Medal for Excellence in Research of the American Society of Engineering Education (1965 and 1966), Heyn Medal of the German Society of Materials Science 1988, University of Virginia professor of Physics and Materials Science…
Kuhlman-Wilsdorf surmised that Stevenson’s work had established that “the statistical probability that reincarnation does in fact occur is so overwhelming … that, cumulatively, the evidence is not inferior to that for most if not all branches of science.”
Robert F. Almeder, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Georgia State University…
In the following video, Dr. Almeder examines the logic of believing, or not believing, evidence for reincarnation, like that provided by Dr. Stevenson. His discussion suggests contemplation, without automatically accepting or dismissing the evidence.
A video review of the book “Twenty cases Suggestive of Reincarnation” is found at:
Below is a summation of this video:
Almeder states that there is a force to the case studies that is enticing, enthralling! He says “it must be wrong” but that, the more he read, the more he realized the importance.
He states this is good empirical research -it rendered a scientific question- and he could not think of any other alternative or plausible explanation for the data that some people reincarnate. If the data is acceptable, it shows our way of explaining human behaviour has to break out of the existing paradigm.
Dr. Ian Stevenson MD