411612020 How Dave Elman’s classes changed as the techniques evolved. How Dave Elman's classes changed as the techniques evolved. Print Author: Elman, H. Larry Date Sep 22, 2012 Words: 4592 Publication: Australian Journal of Clinical Hypnotherapy and Hypnosis ISSN: 0810-0713 Introduction Many students of hypnosis are aware that Dave Elman was inspired to spend his life researching hypnosis because, as his father (Jacob "Jake" Kopelman) was dying from cancer, an unidentified hypnotist provided enough pain relief for Jake to live his final time normally. This was in 1908, when Dave was eight. (As a side note, Gil Boyne believed that the unidentified hypnotist was Dr Henry Munro. Documentation on this has not been found, but Gils analysis fits most of the known facts; Larry Elman believes Gil may be correct.) Not often noted is that Jake left some books on hypnosis in which Dave's siblings showed no interest. (All evidence is that Jake was a student of hypnosis but not a competent hypnotist.) Dave began reading these. All of them used some form of ting the eyes to achieve induction-fixation and/or the swinging pendulum predominated in the books. Dave approached the local eye doctor who explained that the human eye evolved to see in jumps, not in staring and certainly not in slow smooth motions. The eye darts around. Dave immediately concluded that any method of eye tiring would do. Next, Dave read "Suggestive Therapeutics’ by H. Bernheim (1889). ("Suggestive Therapeutics" is still available in a paperback reprint.) Dave Elman described Bernheim's book as "the most honest book on hypnosis ever written," because Bernheim reported his failures with the same care and accuracy that he reported his successes, (Dave Elman’s philosophy was that a person leans more from his failures than he does from his successes.) One of Bernheim's observations was that his patients went into a deeper state of hypnosis with each succeeding visit. The visits (like most visits to a physician) were a week apart or longer. Dave, by this time in junior high school, wondered why Bemheim did not emerge a patient, send him to the waiting room for five minutes, and then induce him again. (The fact that such was impractical for a physician did not occur to the young man.) Dave began experimenting on his classmates. These experiments led directly to two important items in his theory and practice of hypnosis. First, he realized the THEORY OF COMPOUNDING OF SUGGESTION, which is widely recognized today. Second, he conceived of what we call today FRACTIONATION, but which Dave Elman always called "Three Visits to Bernheim," in honor of where he learned the basis of this procedure. For those who are unfamiliar with these two items because of different terminology among the different schools of hypnosis, FRACTIONATION is employed during a rapid induction and involves having the subject open his eyes and close them again (emergence and re-induction), while the operator gives a suggestion that this act will deepen the state. FRACTIONATION is best done with the operator's hand so positioned that the subject cannot focus in the short time of opening and closing, and no items of distraction can be seen The THEORY OF COMPOUNDING OF SUGGESTION states that each suggestion (of almost any subject) strengthens the preceding suggestion, even if the two suggestions seem unrelated. If Compounding does not happen, the operator is probably “getting sloppy" on something, Because most hypnotic procedures involve several suggestions, each compounding the preceding, repetition of the primary suggestion is not required to obtain the major benefits of Compounding. However, a common hitps ww. tneoelorary.comi_fprndPrintAtile agpx2id=339488746 w411612020 How Dave Elman’s classes changed as the techniques evolved. practice today utilizes several repetitions of the same suggestion based on the concept that because each repetition compounds, one should compound the primary suggestion several times. Dave left home in his early teens to pursue a career in vaudeville, where he was eventually billed as "THE WORLD'S YOUNGEST AND FASTEST HYPNOTIST." He spent the next several years in vaudeville. While he also performed as a stand-up comic, a bit actor, a jazz musician, and several other vaudeville positions, his top billing was normally as a hypnotist. During this period Dave Elman carefully studied hypnosis and compared notes with other hypnotists. It was in this period that he discovered how to handle the hypnotic coma ("Esdaile State"), which was terrifying most stage hypnotists because they did not understand how to emerge someone from this state. Dave Elman also perfected his Rapid Induction technique because he realized that a hypnotist who was too slow might bore the audience and thus get fired. He gave up this billing when, to quote him, "I noticed that the parents of young ladies | was interested in were wary of their daughters dating a hypnotist." As Dave Elman's son, who used his same stage billing starting at age 11, Larry Elman put it more bluntly. Being a teenage hypnotist stunts one's sex life. Apparently Dave Elman did no stage hypnosis from his arrival in New York City in 1921 or so until shortly before starting his Medical Hypnosis classes in the late 1940's. This is clear from the fact that his wife did not even know he had been a hypnotist until one appeared on Hobby Lobby during World War II. His son, Larry, might have known earlier if he had been able to read at age 4. At age 4, Larry was hired to dust all the books and bookcases in the house, one book at a time at 5 cents per shelf, high wages for a 4 year old. While performing this employment, Larry discovered several "double rows" -forming a "secret" extra bookcase--where books were hidden behind other books. The hidden ones later showed up in Dave Elman's Medical Hypnosis library. This incident provides insight into society's view of hypnosis in the Twenties and Thirties; unacceptable and hidden. Further insight into society's view are receipts and price tags showing that many of these books could only be purchased in stores, specializing in witchcraft and the occult. In understanding the evolution of Elman’s course, one must keep in mind that Dave Elman had never attended medical school—he was not a physician, but he was teaching medical hypnosis. How was this possible, and does it provide any guidance for today's hypnotherapist attempting to assist the medical profession? Dave Elman’s initial course was at the invitation of a medical society physicians had taken courses in hypnosis but been unable to use it as their inductions usually failed. Elman had demonstrated excellent knowledge of hypnosis in several local hypnosis shows for charities, and his fame as a radio personality provided credibility in his character. He made very clear in that first class that he would teach hypnosis, BUT he would not practice medicine. The most "medical" thing he did at that time was to show that hypnosis could control pain--a fact that most parents leam from their toddlers but do not internalize. What is, "Mommy kiss the boo-boo and it won't hurt” if not a primitive form of Waking Hypnosis? He taught induction, emergence, pain control, some regression, and a solid dose of hypnosis theory. He showed that a Rapid Induction ("The DE!" in today's parlance) provided the physician with a more tractable patient when injections, internal exams, and other unpleasant tasks were required. He showed that hypnosis benefitted the doctor. BUT he refused to practice medicine. In restricting his initial lectures in this manner, Elman posed no threat to the medical community in either a financial/ competition sense, or in the form of endangering the physician's (usually overly inflated) egos. The present-day hypnotherapist would do well to note this policy. (And for any of those readers who may want to take offense at my comment on doctors’ egos, remember that all during my teenage years | had to contend with them while helping out in the family business-t is one of the main reasons | disappointed my father by choosing engineering rather than medicine for my own career.) Elman's initial students were encouraged to practice inductions on their patients, to report their progress, and to bring medical problems up in class. A major argument of the period (1949-1951) was hitps Aww. tneoeloary.comi_fprndPrintAtile aspx2id=339488746 an411612020 How Dave Eimans classes chong asthe techniques evolved. what percentage of illness is psychosomatic. Dave Elman, understanding hypnotic semantics and extending that to medical situations, insisted that a very large percentage of pain and illness was either caused emotionally or aggravated emotionally, and that any physician could use hypnosis rapidly and easily to alleviate that portion of the problem--one does not need to be a psychiatrist to treat these situations. By the second time the Course was given, all the students were bringing in problems--"Can hypnosis assist with....". Working from hypnotic theory and a belief that the body will heal itself faster if the emotional aggravation is reduced, Elman would plan suggestions to try for that malady. The Physician would try the plan and report-f it worked, which it usually did, the other students would then try that approach on additional patients. With enough successes, the approach would become a method taught in subsequent classes. This led to student input writing the medical side and Elman's hypnotic knowledge and theories writing the hypnosis side. Also, by the third time the Course was given, Elman would be giving the Course simultaneously in six to 10 separate places and times at once each week--Monday night in Town A, Tuesday afternoon and evening in Town B to two separate classes, etc, Larry Elman was in either the third or fourth such cycle and well remembers former students returning to the classes to report their latest methods to add to the Course content. In a lot of cases, Dave Elman would perform the hypnosis while the attending physician watched and performed the required medical tests and procedures. When Elman states on a recording that he has done something himself and done it several times, he is describing this sort of thing--the patient's doctor was always present supervising the procedure from a medical perspective. Dave Elman taught and practiced hypnosis he did NOT practice medicine. But by 1951, he could discuss most medical situations in the terminology and with the accuracy needed for student acceptance. And his "database" included many thousands of successful applications of hypnosis to medicine. Eventually, he taught about 10,000 physicians. When Dave Elman began teaching Medical Hypnosis in 1949, his stage hypnosis background both helped and hindered his early classes. His primary insights were three: 1. SPEED OF INDUCTION: The stage hypnotist must use Rapid Induction because no audience will sit stil for a ten to twenty minute induction. The physician is under the same constraint; Medical Hypnosis is only useful if it takes under 3 minutes to induce a working state. Do the math; a General Practitioner (often called Family Medicine today) sees five patients per hour, or 12 minutes per patient. Psychiatrists, billing by the hour, could and did use longer inductions (and still do), but GP's and most specialists could not afford to. (Side note: By 1958, Dave Elman expected each physician to achieve somnambulism on virtually all patients in under one minute and to demonstrate this in class in order to successfully complete the course.) 2, HIGH PERCENTAGE OF SUCCESSFUL INDUCTIONS: The stage hypnotist must find hypnosis very repeatable--80% to 90% successful inductions allows one to stay employed; 50% gets you fired. Again, the physician will not use hypnosis if the repeatability is not in the high range of the successful stage hypnotist. (Again, an example is in order. Most physicians were reporting 50% to 70% success by half way through the 10 week course. Virtually all reported over 85% by course completion.) 3. EFFECTIVENESS OF SUGGESTIONS The stage hypnotist cannot afford very many cases of a suggestion either not "taking" or "taking, but weakly." Again, the physician is under the same constraint. Hypnosis is only useful if it can compete with proven medical procedures. (This parameter is best explained by citing specific successes~the statistics are not available. Elmans students performed the first hypno-birth, performed open-heart surgery using only hypnosis for anesthesia, routinely extracted impacted wisdom teeth using hypnosis, and reported other successes in allergies, sports medicine, dislocated limbs, etc. Today, some of these might be considered remarkable and others quite routine. Some physicians even reported progress with cancer tumors using hypnosis, but Dave Elman [probably remembering Jake's death] initially treated that claim with just a bit of skepticism. Among his later recordings is his discussion of his emotional problem on this.) Each of these insights was a key parameter to Dave's early class objectives. However, in the first year or two of his courses, he used stage methods much more heavily than he did later. A good example is Iitp:hwtnteoloary.comi_fointPrnthtil. aspx id= 333448746 an411612020 How Dave Eimans classes chong asthe techniques evolved. catalepsy of the arm--a rigid arm the subject cannot move, stretched out in front of him. That is the method Larry Elman (taking the course three times while in junior high school and high school) was trained in. On a recording made in 1958, Dave Elman remarks that, "we don't need a lot of stiff arms all over a medical office," and also that, "those people | have the hardest time training not to use this are people in the medical area who used to be in vaudeville or something." Probably only family and a few very close friends would recognize that "those people” he was talking of was himself! Catalepsy of the arm is a wonderfully impressive thing on stage, but a good stage hypnotist does not do it solely to impress his audience, nor even to test his subjects. (Elman remarked in one recording that every competent hypnotist also made the "rigid arm” a deepener.) Hypnotists should test their subjects frequently, a procedure skipped by many, perhaps most, hypnotists today. Today many hypnotists skip testing their subjects out of fear —"What do I do if the test comes up differently than | expect?" The clear and obvious answer is to stop what you are doing, back up a step, deepen the subject, distract the subject, and then proceed again (including retesting, but possibly changing the test). Also, do not tell the subject the test failed-fib a little about success or failure, and then add an item that may well have been in your pre-talk. For example, on failure of eye-lock: "That's right--you did fine! But | wanted you to test whether you COULD NOT open your eyes and you instead tested whether you COULD open them because you wanted to see if you were in control. Under hypnosis you are always in control, the operator is but a guide.” (Followed by backing up and deepening, and then:) "OK, lets try that again— you'll do fine." The dialogue illustrated here is found almost verbatim in Dave Elman recordings of the late 1950's, but also occurs in recent Dave Elman Hypnosis Institute DVD's that discuss testing the subject. In summary, the truly professional hypnotist does not omit testing, but understands testing, uses testing, sometimes conceals testing inside other procedures, but does NOT skip testing. Dave Elman instructed his students that any properly performed test in hypnosis has three goals. 1, AS A DEEPENER. This is extremely important, On one recording, when challenged as to why stage hypnotists used arm catalepsy he remarked, "Watch how and why it was done—~it was never primarily to impress the audience. If done correctly, it was always done as a deepener.” 2. TO INCREASE THE CREDIBILITY OF THE OPERATOR. This is also very important. Every properly done test reminds the subject that the operator knows what he is doing. The key to the effectiveness of your suggestions --especially the post-hypnotic ones--is the faith the subject has in your professional knowledge and ability. Thus, tests are often called "convincers." 3. TO INFORM THE OPERATOR ON THE STATUS OF THE SUBJECT. This appears to an audience (and often to the client) as the primary goal, but in reality it is usually the least important. If you do not have a pretty good idea where the subject is, perhaps you should take up a different profession. If the hypnotist is properly "Client-centered,” most tests will only confirm or adjust what the hypnotist thought was the client's status. That does not mean that good hypnotists are not surprised--Dave Elman was on many occasions. He always admitted this and explained WHY to the class. In doing so, he had an ulterior motive: it made each student more willing to inform Elman of his every failure. ONLY IF THE INSTRUCTOR KNOWS OF YOUR FAILURES CAN HE TELL YOU HOW TO CORRECT THEM. But getting back to catalepsy of the arm. See a medical dictionary--Dave Elman carried one to each class he taught, and his old one is proudly displayed in Larry Elman's library. Catalepsy has two distinct forms--total rigidity of a muscle and total relaxation of a muscle. Either one is acceptable today as a depth test just before the "lose the numbers” amnesia test for somnambulism. Today, the "wet dish rag” drop of the hand and arm is used in place of the rigid arm, Dave Elman taught it this way when his course began substituting techniques more suitable to a medical office in place of the earlier stage ones. This was a point | had totally forgotten until approached in an e-mail several years ago. | totally “muffed" the answer, and a friend who is a superb hypnotist resisted the temptation to correct me. He just used waking suggestion to make me research my answer. He knows who he is, and he knows | am thanking him. hitps ww. tneoelorary.comi_fprndPrintAtile agpx2id=339488746 ar411612020 How Dave Elmar's lasses change asthe techniques evolved Hypnotists should use separate tests for catalepsy of a group of small muscles and also for a group of large muscles, and use both of these during an induction—but separately. The eye closure test and the arm test (rigid or limp) are the two commonest ones. On stage, achieving eye closure is often done very dramatically for the benefit of the audience, and in Dave Elman's first year or so of teaching, that was often the case. (Larry Elman's early training followed this approach.) Physicians, who of necessity must keep their voices lower and more understated, soon showed enough discomfort that Dave Elman adopted an eye closure timing and patter much closer to modern usage. In both cases, eye closure tests follow very soon after initial eye closure. Because of Dave Elman's initial exposure to "Why fixate?" (mentioned above when talking of the Fargo, ND eye doctor), some of the Elman recordings continue to include dramatic eye closure dialogue. But today, many hypnotherapists simply say, "Close your eyes" and proceed from there totally by suggestions. Examples of this more modern approach do appear on some of the Elman recordings. In either case, eye-lock testing is done almost immediately after closure. The eye-lock test, like all tests, has the three goals mentioned previously. The important thing for the subject, whether the dramatic (stage) closure form was used or whether the more recent simple "Close your eyes" form was used, is the credibility / "Convincer" effect--not whether the onlooker sees drama. Today, many hypnotists are adamant about "permissive touching," including a request for this in their pre-talk, Dave Elman never raised this issue, nor so far as Larry Elman knows, ever even considered it. There are two distinct reasons for this, The primary one is that his students were all doctors, who by virtue of that office already HAD "permissive touching" assent. But equally important for today's operator is a stage trick Elman insisted his students learn. It is very simple—just shake the subject's hand, In our culture, very few people will refuse to shake hands. A hand shake establishes a limited primitive "permissive touching’ attitude, but it also provides much desired information to the operator. If a subject's hand shake is notably hotter, colder, drier, wetter, clammier, or more rigid/ tense than is normal, the person is clearly apprehensive because of some fear, phobia, or whatever. Dave Elman went so far as to have listed the probable meaning of each of these. Larry Elman, being a teenager more interested at the time in memorizing young ladies phone numbers (Speed Dial hadn't been invented yet), remembers only one thing-if a subject's hand differs notably from normal, be alert that the subject may be harder to handle because of some fear or other. A better pre-talk needed? Possibly. By now many of you are wondering about Dave Elman's attitude towards stage hypnosis as one of his very often quoted statements seems to demean stage hypnosis and stresses that "hypnosis should not be used as a parlor game." His statements and views seem both ambivalent and inconsistent. They are not, nor did they change very much over time. Dave Elman never let his students forget that their techniques--even those of his competitors—evolved from stage hypnosis (primarily from vaudeville) and that stage hypnotists deserved respect as the "elders" of the hypnotic world. To stress this, my father insisted that | perform as a stage hypnotist and even that | do so under his old vaudeville billing of "THE WORLD'S YOUNGEST AND FASTEST HYPNOTIST.” Part of me had no problem claiming this title because, at age 11, | clearly was the world's youngest stage hypnotist. As for fastest, | was using Dave Elman's Rapid Induction technique, which was the fastest method in the world at the time, and is still a contender if you ignore the "Instant Induction.” But | never even came close to his ability, and often felt uncomfortable using a title | had not earned. Why did my father ask that | do this part way through the first portion of the first of three times that | took his course? Because he could assign "homework" to his other students (the physicians and dentists) since they had patients to work on. Without such "homework" no hypnotist achieves acceptable skill. So stage hypnosis was my "hypnosis homework" and it taught me much about hypnosis and about people. On the other hand, why did Dave Elman make statements against the practice of stage hypnotists? Because of two things. First, many stage hypnotists of the 1950's spread misconceptions of hypnosis which could prevent proper use by medical practitioners and others, and which worsened the negative view of hypnosis among the general populace at that time. Second, Dave Elman firmly believed that hypnosis’ proper place is in assisting health issues, whether in a physician's office, an ER, a dental Iitpa:hwntholorary.comi_forintPrinthtil. aspx id=333448746 sr411612020 How Dave Elman’s classes changed as the techniques evolved. office, or in today's hypnotherapist's office (although hypnotherapists did not exist when Dave Elman taught) Perhaps Dave Elman's two greatest contributions were Hypnotic Semantics and his Dave Elman Induction ("The DE"). This Rapid Induction has been discussed already, and a DVD set on it can be obtained from the Dave Elman Hypnosis Institute on-line. But Hypnotic Semantics may well be even more important. Another in my series of these articles is devoted entirely to Hypnotic Semantics. Semantics in hypnosis begins with the realization that a person in hypnosis is NOT asleep, but rather in a state of heightened awareness. During an abdominal operation performed under hypnotic anesthesia by one of Dave Elman's students, an OR nurse called out, "My God! Look at that spleen. It's a miracle that hasn't Killed him already." The surgeon and the anesthetist had to work doubly hard to prevent the man from emerging himself and to complete the operation rapidly, The man survived, but with a long and unpleasant recovery period, the problems caused by the nurse's horrible semantics. Waking suggestion and waking hypnosis share the same semantic problems. Soon after the operation just described, Pauline Elman had a hysterectomy. The surgeon was an old friend who had grown up with Dave in Fargo and whom Dave trusted implicitly. When that physician came to inspect the stitches, he made a number of what are best described as "gallows humor" remarks, including the statement, "Now I'l rip out those stitches." My mother was crying heavily when Dad arrived, He was angered, recognizing that this action might drastically lengthen his wife's recovery time. These two back-to-back incidents made a very deep impact on the Course, Before them, Dave Elman always cautioned his students that inadvertent remarks and bad choice of terminology can easily lessen or totally negate a hypnotic treatment. From then on though, semantics became almost an obsession. Gone were eyelids which "got heavier'~use other words. The scalpel became "that instrument." Physicians were urged— ordered to train their staffs to either speak appropriately or to just plain SHUT UP! By 1957 or earlier, the course from 1950 was totally different in such details. Stage hypnotists watch their semantics, but that is not totally critical because the audience semantics are worse. Medical hypnotists and hypnotherapists must reach a much higher standard Dave Elman's attitude towards change--towards the evolution of his methods~can be shown by two incidents. One of his pediatric students developed a technique for children that came to be known as ‘The Magic Spot-~a form of hypnotic local anesthesia quite useful in injections, blood tests, and the like. Dave Elman never failed to mention that pediatrician by name and give credit whenever hypnosis of children and similar topics came up. Furthermore, when Larry Elman visited him after his heart attack and shortly before his death, Dave Elman was busy making certain that improvements discovered by his students received clinical trial by others of his students; had he lived, there would have been a second larger edition of Hypnotherapy (Elman, 1970). Today, Hypnotherapy (Elman, 1970) is stil in print and widely used. It is almost as widely misunderstood. | have met many hypnotists who own it, have read the Rapid Induction portion, and then skipped the rest of the book. When asked, they say that since Dave Elman primarily taught physicians, it must be a medical book, Not so. It is a book on HYPNOSIS in a medical setting, When Dave Elman discusses regression, the techniques and methods he advises apply to all hypnotists who use regression. When Dave Elman discusses the hypnotic coma ("Esdaile State"), the techniques and methods he advises apply to all hypnotists who pursue this state, When Dave Elman discusses phobias, his methods apply to all hypnotherapists who treat fears, phobias, and so forth. And the main thing is, this book answers the question of all new hypnotists: "Well, | induced the subject, so what do | do now?" Gerry Kein has stated that if he could buy only ONE book on hypnosis, that book would be Dave Elman's Hypnotherapy (1970). Finally in passing, there are only two persons in the world who took the Dave Elman Course in Medical Hypnosis without having a medical license: Gerry Kein and Larry Elman. They may also be the last two persons on earth who took the course from Dave Elman himself. They both still use what they learned there. Gerry has added a number of additions and extensions to what he learned from Dave Elman, Ips beteelbrary com! JprnPrntArtleaspx2id= 330488745, er«41612020 How Dave Elman’s classes changed as the techniques evolved. and these simply prove two things--that the methods and basic principles of Dave Elman’s work remain valid, and yet they can evolve and be extended. And that is how my father would have wanted it References Bernheim, H. (1989). (Herter, C.A. trans.), Suggestive Therapeutics: A Treatise on the Nature and Uses of Hypnotism, (De la Suggestion et de son Application a la Therapeutique, [Second Edition], 1887), New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. Elman, D. (1970). Hypnotherapy. Glendale, CA: Westwood Publishing. To Contact: Dave Elman Hypnosis Institute 920 Barker Road Henderson, NC 27537-8688 USA (252) 432-2205 or (252) 432-2237 E-Mail: DaveEImanHypnosis@gmail.com Website: www.DaveElmanHypnosisinstitute.com Colonel H Larry Elman, USAF Retired, CH, Cl CEO, Dave Elman Hypnosis Institute Henderson, NC USA Colonel H Larry Elman son of the legendary Dave Elman, is the CEO of the Dave Elman Hypnosis Institute. He writes, teaches and lectures internationally concerning his father’s methods. COPYRIGHT 2012 Australian Copyright 2012 Gale, Ceng: | Hypnotherapists reserved tps tntroeibrary.comi_fprinuPrinttile.aspx2id=339448 748 m