Semantics and Hypnosis Can Be Joined

Students of the work fof Alfred Korzybski have made use of hynosis in teaching "general
semantics' to patients talking psychological training. As Korzybski points out, an
intellectual understanding of maturity does not bring maturity. Many erudite and highly
intelligent people are consistently  infantile in their emotional reactions and behavior
patterns. This is very confusing  to the average person and is one of the reasons why
intellectualism is so often held in contempt.

It is fairly easy to gain knowledge if the way the human body and mind  as a whole should
function if it were mature. It is much more difficult to train an individual's nervous
system to function in a mature manner.

A Method For Teaching Semantics in Hypnosis

Wilbur E. Moore has presented an interesting study of the use of hypnosis in the cure of
stuttering through the hypnotic teaching of the pronciples of 'general semantics.' Others
havce used similar methods in teaching the mechanics of discrimination and of
non-identification to people with emotional problems.

One method is to give the subject a post-hypnotic suggestion as follows: "I have a book
which can teach you a method of solving your own problems. I am going to lend you this
book. You will learn valuable methods of judgement and discrimination by reading it. Take
it home with you. Read it carefully. Study it. When you are through with it, bring it
back, and we will discuss it."

The patient is then lent, Lee, Hayakawa, Johnson or Korzybski, depending on the education
and personality of the individual. Such a post-hypnotic suggestion carries more weight
than a simple recommendation of the book. The patient as a rule reads the book rather
swiftly, and in the reading acquires an intellectual understanding of some of the
processes. He becomes acquainted with the terminology.

When he finally returns the book, he is hypnotized and the contents are discussed with
him. Certain portions of the book are then read back to him, and finally he is given
powerful suggestions to react in that way. In the terminology of the general semanticist,
the subject is conditioned to have a 'signal reaction' of a 'delayed reaction.' Or, as
Pavlov might say it, we establish in the subject a conditioned reflex to make mature
judgements, to discriminate.

To anyone who understands its significance, this will surely seem one of the great
possibilities of hypnotic reeducation.

Bibleotherapy

In our culture reading is one of the predominant methods of acquiring higher level
learning. More primitive methods, of courwse, are listening in order ot acquire higher
level learning. More primitive methods of course, are listening in order ot acquire the
second hand experience of others and actual life experiences which governs first hand
learning.

The doctor will find the printed word one of his most valuable allies. In many cases it
will be found helpful to read the hypnotized patient passages from books which give the
necessary information. Authoritative books carry a prestige value which can addd to the
prestige of the therapist and help him to gain quick acceptance of ideas which may be new
to the patient or even be proposed to his previous concepts.

Physicians who use bibliotherapy as a habitual procedure are advised to be well acquainted
with books they lend or recommend. Such books usually contain an essential idea which is
presented in nuumerous ways in ceratain passages. The physician who is familiar with these
passages can read them to the patient either with or without hypnosis.

The objection to bibliotherapy without hypnosis is that it imparts information on
intellectuals levels without reaching the emotional level where changes in attitude are
produced. By definition, hypnosis deals with emotional effects. The same words read to the
patient in deep hypnosis produce a far more profound emotional effect than if read by or
to the patient in the waking state.

The Hypnotism Handbook
copyright 1956 by
Charles Edward Cooke
and A.E.Van Vogt
1965 Borden Publishing
Chapter XII - Hypnotic Reeducation
http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0875050867.01._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ...

Book flap reads:
A.E. Van Vogt is known principally for his science fiction novels and short stories (SLAN,
THE WORLD OF NULL-A,etc) But an early interest in the mental therapies prompted, first an
investigation into hypnotism - of which his collaboration on this present work is a
tangible result - and then a novel, THE VIOLENT MAN (1962), a major work about Red China,
brain-washing, and the behavior patterns of angry men.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._E._van_Vogt#Post-war_philosophy

In 1944, van Vogt moved to Hollywood, California, where his writing took on new dimensions
after World War II. Van Vogt was always interested in the idea of all-encompassing systems
of knowledge (akin to modern meta-systems), the characters in his very first story used a
system called 'Nexialism' to analyze the alien's behaviour, and he became interested in
the General Semantics of Alfred Korzybski. He was also profoundly affected by revelations
of totalitarian police states that emerged after World War II. He wrote a mainstream novel
that was set in Communist China, The Violent Man (1962); he said that to research this
book he had read 100 books about China.

n the 1950s, van Vogt briefly became involved in L. Ron Hubbard's projects. Van Vogt
operated a storefront for Dianetics, the secular precursor to Hubbard's Scientology sect,
in the Los Angeles area for a time, before winding up at odds with Hubbard and his
methods. His writing more or less stopped for some years, a period in which he bitterly
claimed to have been harassed and intimidated by Hubbard's followers. In this period he
was limited to collecting old short stories to form notable fixups like: The Mixed Men
(1952), The War Against the Rull (1959), The Beast (1963) and the two novels of the "Linn"
cyle, which were inspired (like Asimov's Foundation series) by the fall of the Roman
Empire. He resumed writing again in the 1960s, mainly through Frederik Pohl's invitation,
while remaining in Hollywood with his second wife, Lydia Bereginsky, who cared for him
through his declining years. In this later period, his novels were conceived and written
as unitary works. On January 26, 2000, van Vogt died in Los Angeles, USA from Alzheimer's
disease.

Maureen

Visual Fixation is one of the oldest and most effective methods of hypnotizing. The
wording that follows is for  use with a spiral. Any other object, such as a flickering  or
fixed light, a nailhead, or a spot on the wall. or the reflection of highlights on a shiny
surface can be used. In that case, substitute the name of your fixation object for the
word (spiral, ital.)  which is in italics for wasy identification.

A Visual Fixation Technique for Inducing an "Educational Hypnosis"
Chapter II