From: martinher@urvax.urich.edu
Newsgroups: alt.hypnosis
Subject: RE: hypnosis to quit smoking
Date: 26 Dec 92 00:20:22 GMT
Reply-To: martinher@urvax.urich.edu
Organization: University of Richmond

>      This is amazing! I have 2 students who want me to use hypno
>sis to get them to quit smoking. I'm inclined to be interested,
>though my facilities at school aren't perfect, & I'd prefer to
>work through an integrated program, of which hypnosis is just a
>part.
>      I think that when kids come to you with problems, it's
>usually another, especially when they opt for a 'quick fix'. I'm
>a firm believer in hypnosis, but not solo.

This is the reason that NLP uses the idea of a (personal) ecology
check.  Before doing any substantive work with direct methods
such as hypnosis (or indirect methods either) an ecology check
is conducted.  First, to make sure that a worse problem is not
created, and second to increase the chances for completing a
useful session successfully.  Occasionally (often enough to make
it interesting in its own right) the 'ecology check' itself will
enable some useful change in the client.  

As an NLP practitioner, I almost never ask someone to enter a
hypnotic state and JUST CHANGE.  It just isn't polite and it
does not work as effectively either.

Even in the case of my wife's broken arm which I described in an
earlier post, I first asked her if she was willing to take
responsibility for protecting the arm on the way to the hospital
or if she preferred a splint to help her.  She agreed to protect
the arm without the need to be reminded by any discomfort and
agreed to allow the arm to remain as comfortable as possible
with the understanding that proper attention was going to be
shown to healing and caring.  
 
NLP hypnosis practitioners will of course be able to HEAR the
induction beginning in that previous paragraph.  Of course,
I was insuring the ecology of the change (comfort in the arm)
so that she COULD make the change, but I was also making sure that
she was going to be VERY CAREFUL to protect her arm.  At the
same time, I was pacing her breathing and overall state, changing
my voice to one that is thoroughly anchored as a conversationlly
hypnotic one for HER.  By the time I reached that point I
had her sobs alleviated and her breathing back to 'heavy normal'.
It only took a couple of more sentences for her to reach a 
truly comfortable stage. 

I have aided people to stop smoking.  In my opinion this is
one of the more difficult changes to assist.  Weight loss is
even harder.  In the case of weight loss the feedback loops 
are all stacked against you.  Even if the person changes 
TOTALLY, it still takes many weeks or months before an 
appreciable weight loss can be measured.  Don't kid yourself,
almost every overweight person has lost 10-50 pounds over 
and over during their life.  They have no way of KNOWING that
a change has taken place for quite some time.  NLP is a two
way street, the methods that allow it to help are the same
way that people get themselves into a problem.  Smoking is 
not as bad, first not as many people have ever quit smoking
for more than a week with no craving.  Second, since they
KNOW (going in) that they are going to want a cigarette (after
all, this is what happens when they wait more than an hour)
they can be convinced very rapidly that SOMETHING is different.
Once again, though ecology is very important.  Most people
started smoking in some half hearted attempt to 'fit in' or
else in the mistaken belief that it would 'calm their nerves'.
(Even if the above is statistically accurate, there is still
a need to find the reasons for the real human being in front
of you.)
They have become used to having a cigarette in their hand
whenever they are stressed or interacting with others.  You
must generally prepare them for this with some new behavior
or you cannot be completely sure that you will succeed.

Now, how can YOU do that?  Well, there are many answers offered
in Richard Bandler and John Grinder's books, as well as in the
works of Milton Ericson.
Robert Dilts and Todd Epstein have done some interesting work
on 'breaking behavior chains' which can also be useful.  I think
that this may have come from some ideas of Richard's.  Richard
loves to play around with causal behavior chains.

Herb Martin
martinher@urvax.urich.edu
           

BTW>  It is my opinion that one of the reason for the difficulty
in reproducing NLP successes is the over simplistic design of 
most tests, usually in a laudable attempt to isolate what is 
being tested.  Everyone who is seriously interested in hypnosis
has at some time or another read the studies on who and what
percentage of people ARE HYPNOTIZABLE.  So have I, and yet 
NO ONE that I have ever tried to hypnotize has been unable to
succeed in reaching a useful state of hypnosis, recognizable to
them as being qualitatively different than their normal waking
state and clearly evident to me.  Why?  Because I am not forced
to follow some preconceived pattern, I adjust the induction
based upon feedback from that real human being in from of me
and I am extremely flexible in what I will say or do.  
This includes people who have attended several NLP workshops,
genuinely appear to want to learn hypnosis, and who have yet
been unable to find a comfortable way for themselves to 
experience it.  It also includes people who have no significant
knowledge of hypnosis or who believe that it is what some stage 
magicians do.

As far as facilities are concerned they are just another form
of ecology.  You cannot generally do good hypnosis unless the
person is free (e.g., from embarassment) enough and safe enough to 
participate.  I have done usuable hypnosis in a crowded businiss 
setting but it looked nothing like what I would do in a therapists 
office (most of the time).