: feare A. STRAUS, PH.D. Author of CREATIVE SELF-HYPNOSIS HOW TO OVERCOME STRESS, IMPROVE PERFORMANCE, AND LIVE TO YOUR FULLEST POTENTIAL REV 1S ED ESTRATEGIC SELF-HYPNOSIS How to Overcome Stress, Improve Performance, | and Live to Your Fullest Potential Revised Edition ROGER A. STRAUS, Ph.D. Foreword by Theodore X. Barber, Ph.D. PRENTICE HALL PRESS NEW YORK LONDON TORONTO SYDNEY TOKYODedicated, as all first books should be, to my parents, a Prentice Hall Press Gulf + Western Building ‘One Gulf + Western Plaza ‘New York, New York 10024 Copyright © 1982, 1988 by Roger A. Straus, Ph.D. All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. PRENTICE HALL PRESS and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Straus, Roger A. (Roger Austin), Strategic self-hypnosis. Includes index. 1, Autogenic training. 2, Stress (Psychology) 4. Success. I, Title. RC499.A8S77 1988 158.1 8B-9877 ISBN 0-13-851627-8 Manufactured in the United States of America 9876543524 First Revised Edition CONTENTS Foreword by Theodore X. Barber, Ph.D, Preface to the Revised Edition How to Get the Most from This Book ONE Hypnosis Is Something You Do TWO Yourself Is Also Something You Do THREE What Do You Do When You Do Hypnosis? FOUR Doing Strategic Hypnosis FIVE Organizing Your Plan of Action SIX Your Self-Hypnosis Routine SEVEN Making Self-Hypnosis Work for You vii xi xv 18 40 62 a4 101vi CONTENTS EIGHT Strategies for Solving Problems NINE Psychosomatic Self-Control TEN Programs for Maximum Performance References and Suggested Readings Index 135 160 187 211 217 FOREWORD More has been learned about hypnosis and self-hypnosis in the past twenty-five years than in the preceding two hundred years, Foreshadowed by R. W. White's influential theory in the forties and the seminal work of Sarbin in the fifties, vast strides were made both clinically and experimentally during the sixties and seventies when a “hypnosis renaissance” occurred and the fog that had so long clouded this topic began to lift. The many new understandings that have accu- mulated during recent decades have been beautifully inte- grated and extended by Roger A. Straus in this useful book, Strategic Self-Hypnosis. The hypnosis renaissance of the sixties and seventies yielded at least four major insights into self-hypnosis: 1. Self-hypnosis is much broader and more important than was previously thought. Since it involves a direct attempt through goal-directed self-suggestions to change one’s own feelings, thoughts, and fantasies, it can markedly change the course of a person’s life. 2. Self-hypnosis can be viewed as a learnable skill; stu- dents learn how to take an active role in their own guidance, how to word goal-directed suggestions for viiviii FOREWORD themselves, and how to use creatively their imagina- tion and fantasy. . As implied above, self-hypnosis, from the new view- point, refers to individuals purposively giving them- selves useful goal-directed suggestions. In fact, self- hypnosis loses its aura of mystery and becomes much more applicable when one sees that it actually refers to certain types of goal-directed self-suggestions. A very important set of self-suggestions are those for absolute calmness and total mental-physical relaxa- tion, These kinds of deep-relaxalion suggestions, which are typically given subvocally to oneself while alone, with eyes closed, are especially helpful for relieving stress and tension and for alleviating psy- chosomatic ailments. A second very important set of self-suggestions are those for active relaxation, which are to be used in ongoing daily life. Active-relaxation suggestions can be helpful throughout the day, since the individual suggests to himself or herseli—while actively working, studying, performing, playing, etc.—that he or she is calm, at ease, not worried, and concentrating in a peaceful, proficient, focused man- ner on the immediate life situation or task. Other useful self-hypnosis procedures include self-sugges- tions to feel more alive, strong, healthy, energetic, and aware; self-suggestions to appreciate again and to feel deeply again both the wonderful free things of life (the sunrise, the birds, the animals, the plants, the children, the rain) and also the many miracles of our existence (seeing, hearing, feeling, thinking, imagin- ing, dreaming, walking, talking, being conscious, be- ing aware); self-suggestions to enjay the flowing events of life, to have fun, and to feel good and happy again; and self-suggestions to allow our loving, kind, com- passionate feelings to come forth and to feel them flowing out to others. Dr. Straus has given examples of many of these types of self-suggestions in this text, and he has also commendably emphasized the importance of (a) let- FOREWORD ix ting go, “not trying,” and allowing the self-suggestions to flow deeply into our mind/body, (b) combining the self-suggestions with self-guided imagery and visual- ization of oneself in the suggested situation, and (c) loading the self-suggestions with rich sensory details (not “I feel warmth from the fireplace” but “I feel warmth from the crackling orange and red flames, which are licking upward and sending out little shaw- ers of glowing sparks") . Although self-hypnosis has commonly been viewed as most useful in psychotherapeutic situations, it has even more potential in educational settings. The focus in formal education is far too much on mastering specific subject matter—mathematics, history, lan- guages, sciences—and far too little in mastering our- selves and our own lives. Learning to block negative self-suggestions (‘I can't..." “What if..." “I'm tired and bored . . ."’) and learning to give oneself positive goal-directed suggestions for greater enjoyment and more effective functioning should be part of formal education throughout our life span. I expect this text by Dr. Straus will play a significant role in publicizing the vast educational potentials of strategic self-hyp- nosis. —Tueonore X. Barer, Pu.D. Cushing Hospital Framingham, MassachusettsPREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION The idea seemed like a winner to me. Reveal to the public for the first time what a new generation of social and behaviorial scientists have learned about hypnosis. | already knew from my workshops that people were hungry for a no-b.s. introduc- tion to the subject. And I loved proving to them that it was they, themselves, who really had the powers everybody attrib- uted to the mystery of “hypnosis."' That was easy. The hard part was figuring out a way around training people myself. It was considered almost axiomatic that somebody else had to teach you how to do self-hypnosis. To me that not only seemed like a paradox, it seemed downright wrong. Almost like a confidence game in which I got you to think that I had the power that was yours all along—and then expected you to be grateful when I gave you permission to use it on your own. Well, you can learn to play a musical instrument from a book, so why not set up a self-instructing “method” for playing the human mind? Let you, the reader, explore for yourself how you can use these insights to manage stress and gain a new level of control aver your own life and mind.xii PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION So I sat down at my typewriter and turned that idea into a manuscript. When I tried to find a publisher for Strategic Self-Hypnosis, editors told me that these were the eighties and the readership simply wasn't there, Hypnosis was passé. The subject wasn't popular enough. People wouldn't read a factual book about hypnosis, let alone one arguing that hyp- nosis boils down to nothing more than using your thinking, feeling, and imagining in a new way. So there were a host of new understandings emerging from the explosion of scientific research into hypnosis during the sixties and seventies, but it just wouldn't sell. Perhaps I should write something for professionals, instead... . And then there was my goal of giving readers tools for solving their own problems, Wasn't that going a bit too far— showing readers how to do something on their own? Isn't it dangerous to give them tools—and guidelines for using those tools—to solve their own problems? After all, tampering with the mind is a dangerous thing (here you have to imagine sound effects from a 1930s horror movie). As a clinical sociologist, I felt that there was a basic principle involved here: Do we, as individuals or as a society at large, commit ourselves to expanding people's control over their own lives and minds or do we gull them into believing that they should either be content or seek professional help? Is it by mistake that we are not born with a label stating that there are no user-serviceable parts inside? Are humans so essentially fragile, so powerless, that we must seek profes- sional help for even run-of-the-mill problems? Only Dennis Fawcett, a senior editor at Prentice-Hall, Inc., was willing to gamble on my book. Now, well over fifty thousand readers later, it's clear that there is, indeed, an intelligent reading public out there willing to spend time with a book that teaches readers how to make self-hypnosis work for themselves. You can be your own clinical sociologist, analyze and overcome your problems, overcome stress, and get rid of old unwanted habits. Actually, Strategic Self-Hypnosis has accomplished an- other of my goals: sharing my ideas and methods with my fellow professionals as well as lay readers. I have heen deeply PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION xiii gratified by the widespread acceptance the book has received from practitioners ranging from professional hypnotists to internationally recognized authorities like T. X. Barber, and by the fact that it has been used as a textbook in university courses across the nation. This revised edition allows me to build on what have proved to be solid foundations. It incorporates what I have learned from working with these techniques over the inter- vening years and the feedback | have received about the book itself from my readers and students. To keep things manage- able, the present version updates the original edition while a companion volume, Creative Self-Hypnosis, forthcoming from Prentice Hall Press, will cover new approaches and methods that take this material several steps further. Readers who wish to do so can simply browse through the text. They will find it to be a nontechnical introduction to the “nonstate” hypnosis of the 1980s as well as a handbook of tactics based on those new insights. Since techniques are only as useful as the strategy toward which they are applied, this volume also introduces a unique approach to problem solving and self-development, drawing on the rapidly grow- ing discipline of clinical sociology (the application of the perspectives, methods, and knowledge of social science to solving human problems). This volume offers more than mere reading material, however. Explicitly designed to serve as a method for training the reader in how to use and apply self-hypnosis, it provides a complete program of experiments and exercises allowing you to gain the skills you need. To get the most out of this book, why not use it the way in which it was intended? The more systematically you approach it, the more you will get out of it. When you come to an experiment, stop reading and try it out. When you come to an exercise, do it. Take nothing on faith; taking nothing for granted. Things are rarely quite what they seem (and hypno- sis, as you will learn, is one of the most remarkable examples of this). So what should you do? Put it to the test. Check it out. And, by all means, let me know how you do. I have beenxiv PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION delighted by the many letters I received from readers of the first edition, If you write care of Prentice Hall Press, it may take some time for mail to be forwarded to me, but be patient and I'll gladly respond. —Rocer A. Srraus, Pu.D. Cherry Hill, N.]., 1988 HOW TO GET THE MOST FROM THIS BOOK To get the most from this book, approach the key techniques, experiments, and exercises systematically. The directions that follow tell you how to use the book and give directions for all the exercises. How to Use This Book PURPOSE To learn through actual practice how to use strategic self- hypnosis to overcome stress, improve performance, and live to your fullest potential. METHOD A structured progression of text to read, experiments and exercises to practice, and a personal journal. Word-for- word scripts are provided. By tape-recording these scripts and working with your own tapes, you can master these techniques just as if you were working with your own personal counselor. WHAT YOU WILL NEED Besides this volume you will need a cassette tape re- xvxvi HOW TO GET THE MOST FROM THIS BOOK corder, at least three blank sixty-minutetapes, anda spiral- bound (or other) notebook in which to keep your journal. PACING You will have to decide how best to pace yourself. It’s not how fast you read, but how much time you'll need to perform the experiments and work with the exercises until you are ready to move on. If you are like most of my students and clients, you'd probably do best follow- ing a schedule like this: WEEK 1 Chapter 1 WEEK 2 Chapters 2, 3 WEEK 3 Chapters 4, 5 WEEK 4 Chapter 6 WEEK 5 Chapters 7, 8 WEEK 6 Chapters 9, 10 How to Do All Experiments and Exercises DIRECTIONS A. Prepare yourself. 1. Always familiarize yourself with the instruc- tions and the script. If the script is to be taped, you may want to give it a practice reading. Just read it out loud once (but only once) with the tape recorder off. Naw tape it. B. Reading scripts. 2. Read in your own natural voice, not a “hyp- notic” monotone. 3. Emphasize italicized words. 4. Leave a pause where you see three dots (. . .). 5. Dramatize the words; ham it up a bit. You're the director, the actor, and the audience so let your guideline be “whatever feels right.”” C. Taping (or listening to) your script. 6. Always leave about 30 seconds of silence before you start to speak to give yourself time to get ready after you start the tape playing. HOW TO GET THE MOST FROM THIS BOOK xvii 7. Don’t worry about how you sound. It’s for your ears only, right? In any case, if it “doesn’t sound like you” that is probably all for the better. 8. Don’t worry if it’s not perfect; it's going to be good enough, D. When you're ready to actually do the exercise. 9. Sit or lie down (ideally on a recliner, but any chair or couch will do that comfortably supports your neck and back in a slightly raised position, preferably not flat on your back). 10. Just let yourself think, feel, and imagine along with your own suggestions. If you pretend you are actually experiencing what your words are suggesting, you will be able to get the most out of it, so play along. SPECIAL DIRECTIONS FOR WORKING WITH PARTNERS, As written, directions are set up for a single person working on his or her own. You may want to work through the material with a partner. By all means do so. Based on my experience using this book as a text with my own clinical sociology students, I would suggest following five procedural rules when working with a partner or larger group: 1. Meet together at least once a week to discuss readings and do experiments and exercises together (you can still try experiments on your own, when you come to them in your reading). 2. Open discussion is crucial—talk about the material you have read, and bring in outside readings and experiences. Don’t take anything written in this book as gospel; treat every word as a working hypothesis and test it all out for yourselves. Keep your own private journals. 4. Take turns at taping each script so that you can listen to it together at your next session, but afterward make up your own individual tapes (so you can work with them on your own). ooxviii HOW TO GET THE MOST FROM THIS BOOK 5. Read shorter scripts for one another, or have one person tape and then play back the experiment at your meeting. IMPORTANT NOTE Although this volume is designed for working on your own, a qualified professional can, of course, take you beyond what I am able to include here. Professional guidance is an absolute must if you are severely troubled, are currently in counseling or therapy, have a history of psychological problems, or cannot make satisfactory progress on your own. Play it safe and get the job done right: Consult a clinical psychologist or social worker, sociologist, psychiatrist, or other counselor. [f you have medical problems—even if you just want to lose weight— first check with your physician. ONE Hypnosis Is Something You Do You are in a psychiatrist's office, reclining on a comfortable chair. The doctor is saying, ‘Please take this large, helium- filled balloon in your right hand, That's right. This is a special balloon—it is your own favorite color. Notice how it begins to tug at your hand and arm just like a real balloon. It is so big and light it wants to float your hand and arm right up all the way into the air. Why don’t you tell me what your pretty balloon looks like to you?” You reply ina tiny, childlike voice, “Oh, it's ared Mickey Mouse balloon." Somehow you haven't noticed that your right hand is slowly lifting off your lap. Before long, it is just hanging there in midair. The doctor talks on about this and that. Then he inter- jects, “Oh, why don’t you let go of your balloon now and just watch it float away into the clouds?” Your hand opens—by itself, it seems. Then it begins very slowly to settle back into your lap. The session continues. That's hypnosis, isn’t it? Under what other circumstances would such a thing take place? A person hallucinates a red balloon that then pulls a hand into the air. Of course that’s hypnosis! What else could you think? You are reading this book because you are hoping to learn more about hypnosis and what it can do for you. Therefore, you have some notion of what hypnosis refers to. You read a scenario in which we saw 12 STRATEGIC SELF-HYPNOSIS a hypnotist making your hand do something unusual, Proba- bly you assumed that he had first “put you into hypnosis.” Isn't that why his suggestions could have such an extraordi- nary effect? If that’s the case, what good can reading this book do? Without somebody to hypnotize you and tell you what to do, what can you get out of it? One heck af a lot. You see, we have a backward under- standing of hypnosis, We believe hypnosis is something done to you—first you are placed into a trance state and then, if you are a good subject, you feel or think or do whatever the hypnotist suggests. Hundreds of intelligent, otherwise well-informed people have come to me asking me to ‘‘do it to them.” They seem to assume that it’s something like fixing a car or programming a computer, They seem, in other words, to have swallowed the lie that they themselves do not have the power. Rather, that they are objects like automobiles or electronic computers. This is the big lie of our era: that you are a thing, a more or less passive victim of all kinds of forces beyond your control, that you are programmed to think and act in a certain way, a sort of biological computer who needs to find a good reprogrammer. There is a kernel of truth in this, as in most of the myths by which we are persuaded to live our lives. However, we need to address the unspoken question: Who is doing what to whom, and how? So let's try an experiment. Keeping Your Journal PURPOSE To keep a record of your experiences, observations, and progress; to facilitate both the process and the awareness of change as you work through this program. DIRECTIONS Starting right now, this very moment, begin keeping your journal. Use your notebook. HYPNOSIS IS SOMETHING YOU DO 3 Every day while you are working through this text and every time you read a few more pages, perform an experiment or practice an exercise, jot down what you did, when you did it, how it went, what you experienced or observed, what you learned, what you thought, what happened or didn’t happen, how you're feeling, ete. Nobody but you is going to read this journal, so do it whatever way works best for you, not worrying about spelling or legibility or anything else. Feel free to invent your own form, combining “regular” written-out notes, cartoons, sketches, secret codes, musical notation, what- ever, For maximum benefit, 1 strongly suggest that you keep an “intensive” journal. Go for it. Don’t just keep a record of what you do; jot down anything and everything that seems appropriate whenever or wherever it occurs to you—stray thoughts, observations, unusual feelings, insights, worries, discoveries, ruminations, fantasies, events, encounters, highs, lows, dreams, daydreams, sud- den flashes, whatever. I have consistently seen that those | have worked with who keep a detailed, intensive journal obtain the most benefit. Consider it a “hardcopy” record of your journey toward your goals. Experiment One: How Does It Work? DIRECTIONS Tape this script, following the general directions given in “How to Use This Book.” While always a good idea, for this exercise it is imperative that you don’t stop listening and imagining to think about what you are doing. Just keep on imagining, pretending, making-believe, as if what your voice is de- scribing were actually happening. SCRIPT “Okay. | am closing my eyes now. I shut my eyes and focus my attention on what it feels like. I let myself feel4 STRATEGIC SELF-HYPNOSIS what it feels like to feel my eyes closed, and when I do this I notice them closing more and more tightly shut ... 1 tell myself my eyelids feel very heavy, very very heavy, tightly closed . . . | imagine that I can actually feel them become more and more tightly, tightly shut... . “I want to see how closed I can think and feel and imagine my eyelids become . . . so I think about the stickiest glue that I can possibly imagine, and | tell myself I can feel this sticky, sticky glue on my fingertips and now | imagine that | am gently, gently brushing some of this magical surgical glue onto my eyelashes . . . carefully stroking this sticky, sticky glue over my eyelids ... gluing and sealing them shut .. . and I tell myself | can feel it now . . , | can feel this glue becoming stickier and stickier... gluing my eyelids very tightly shut . sealing them shut . . . as if they were becoming one piece of skin. .. I let myself really feel it now, more and more, more and more tightly shut... “Now, because I don’t want my eyelids to come unsealed until | count them open in a little while, I imagine some wide, brown package sealing tape . . . the plastic kind . . . two inches wide and very, very sticky ... and [ am taking a six-inch long strip of this special sealing tape . . . two inches wide and very, very sticky ... very, very strong... | am taking this six-inch strip of plastic package sealing tape and | am sealing my right eye shut... tightly, tightly shut... and I am taking another, six-inch strip of sealing tape and | am taping my left eye shut now ... very carefully smoothing down the tape over both my eyes. . . sealing them shut... very neatly taping my eyes shut... . “T let myself focus on my left eyelid now . . . feeling how tightly it is shut... it feels like a smooth rubber sheet .. . glued and taped and sealed tightly shut... and 1 let these feelings become even stronger now as I focus on the right eyelid... it wants to become even more tightly shut . . . sealed and glued and taped so shut, like a sheet of rubber... smooth... sealed... rubbery. . . like one piece of skin... both my eyes want to stay HYPNOSIS IS SOMETHING YOU DO 5 closed now, I can feel it... they don’t want to open. . . and the more I strained to force them open, the more they would resist . . . the tighter and tighter shut they'll want to clamp ... all by themselves .. . it feels more and more useless to even try and pull my eyelids open now ... it's like they’re one piece of skin . . . the more I try, the more they'll shut. .. . “I keep on telling myself my eyes are glued and sealed and taped shut tight . .. 1 keep on feeling and imagining the glue and the tape sealing my eyes tightly, tightly shut .. . they feel like somebody else's eyelids now . . . and I know it's useless, but when I count down from three to one, I’m going to try and force them open, | will strain as hard as | can to force them open . . . the more I strain to make them open, the more tightly shut they'll feel... . “Okay, here goes nothing . . . It's useless but I'm going to try to force the eyelids apart... Three... two ... one! | imagine the strong, strong glue and the sealing tape and I strain to force them open . . . I can feel it in my eyebrows and my forehead now .. . a strange sensa- tion . .. my eyelids want to stay shut... like a rubber sheet . . . like one piece of skin . . . but I'm going to try harder now . . . with all my might, I'm going to try and force them open now... now .. wan't... they're stuck tight . .. the harder I try the more tightly they shut. ... “But now, I'm going to stop trying to make my eyes open, I'm going to just relax now and let my eyelids relax ... I'm going to just let go of my eyelids and imagine that I'm painlessly taking off the tape and the glue is begin- ning to dissolve ... and I'm going to count up from one to three and take a deep breath and relax completely and the glue is going to vanish and my eyes will open and feel completely normal once again .. . only very comfort- able, very relaxed .. . very nicely rested . . . I will count to three and allow my eyes to open once again .. . here I go: “One...two... three... 1 open my eyes and the experiment is over.” End of script.6 STRATEGIC SELF-HYPNOSIS AFTERWARD Make it a habit to immediately turn to your journal, write in the date and the experiment/exercise number, and then jot down some notes. What happened—what was it like for you? What do you think was going on? How does it work? So what? What does your experience teach you about yourself, about your mind, about hypnosis and suggestion and how they work? if you experienced nothing out of the ordinary, try the experiment again. What probably happened is that you either did not allow yourself to really get into the imagining process, or else you stopped to think about it somewhere along the line. Make the script come alive for yourself by imagining as vividly and as realistically as you can. In other words, just pretend that you are already experiencing what you are suggesting to yourself. When you deo that, you'll find that you can experience some degree of eye catalepsy, as it is called. You will have difficulty or complete inability to open your own eyes. Before you go any further, repeat the experiment until you can really notice this effect—it is very important. Catalepsy, its opposite—called levitation, as in the float- ing hand described earlier—hallucinations, and amnesia are all classic examples of hypnotic response. Yet you weren't hypnotized just now, were you? You didn’t have to be. Nobody was doing anything but you, yourself. Of course, there were some tricks involved. For one thing, we set up what is called a double-bind situation. You were asked to do one thing and then, while you were making your eyes feel stuck tight, you were asked to do the opposite—to open your eyes. Unless you stopped to think about it, you couldn’t open them because you were making them stay closed. Asking you to try and force them open only com- pounds the effect by getting you to interfere with the mecha- nism by which your eyelids open. Straining often has that effect, It’s rather like judo. In this and most examples of invol- HYPNOSIS IS SOMETHING YOU DO 7 untary hypnotic response, your own effort is used to create the illusion of automatic behavior. A conventional hypnotist would never clue you in to this—rather, he'd lead you to believe that your eyes weren't opening “because you were hypnotized.” That would have fit your expectations, wouldn't it? Yet the truth of the matter is that whatever happened happened because you were cooperating with the suggestions and striv- ing to do your very best! Hypnosis, you see, is something you do. You made your eyes stick tight because you were imagining along with your script. If you succeeded, that’s because you did it correctly. If you had trouble keeping your eyes feeling stuck tightly closed, you were probably going about it the wrong way. What, then, is the right way to go about doing hypnosis? You can start with three basic “how to do it” principles: First principle: Relaxing and letting go. The secret of hypnosis is doing make-believe in the same way a small child goes about it. You allow yourself to ignore “reality.” Forget your ideas about what is real and what isn't real, what is possible and what is impossible, what you are experiencing right now and what you are only imagining. Just let go of your grawn-up’s mental set, forget all the rules, and just indulge yourself. Hypnosis is a form of play. When you are doing make-believe, you don't need to worry about a thing; you can just let yourself experience it as if your fantasy were actually happening. This can be quite difficult for us. Ever since age five or six, we have been taught that we must keep our attention in the real world. We must constantly ensure that we are in control. As I said, hypnosis is a form of play, so you can just forget about all those rules. Easier said than done, right? Of course. However, there's a trick you can use to let go. That trick is relaxation. When one's mind and body become deeply relaxed, it becomes easier to let go. It becomes natural to just drift; everyone experiences this in that period right before falling asleep. Now, don’t misunderstand. The term relaxed covers a lot