Confucius said, "Tell me, and I may not remember. Show me, and I may forget. Involve me, and I will understand."
Psychologists and educators generally agree that people learn best by experience which involves one's whole person in the activity or the material to be learned. This blog is dedicated to harnessing the power of psychologically-enhanced experience to show you how to change your life and get the things you want!
Don E. Gibbons, Ph.D., NJ Licensed Psychologist #03513
This Blog is published for information and educational purposes only. No warranty, expressed or implied, is furnished with respect to the material contained in this Blog. The reader is urged to consult with his/her physician or a duly licensed mental health professional with respect to the treatment of any medical or psychological condition.
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The New Center for Counseling and Psychotherapy, LLC
The New Center for Counseling and Psychotherapy, LLC, is located at 675 Route 72 E, Manahawkin, NJ 08050, Telephone (609)709-2043 and (609) 494-0009.
Driving directions: Take Mill Creek Road South, just off Route 72 E After about 400 feet, turn right into the office complex of Mill Creek Commons.Then, immedately turn right again and go past the Lyceum II Gym. Continue on to the Prudential Zack Building,which will be the only building on your right. We are the last office at the end.
We accept Medicare and most other major insurance.
The following video is the most instructive one I have yet seen on the topic of alternate and parallel universes, the multiverse, quantum entanglement. The fact that is has over five million downloads is what first caught my eye, and now I can see why. It features physicists from world-famous institutions making their points so clearly that practically anyone can understand them. If you have an hour to spare and would like to catch up with thie exciting new developments in quantum physics, I heartily recommend iit! The video also illustrates the conceptuall framework for the book which I wrote with Kelley Woods entitled, Virtual reality hypnosis: Exploring alternate and parallel universes. Amazon Books, 2016. (Both print and Kindle editions are available.) (Gibbons & Woods, 2016)
"For as long as we stay here, in this enchanted cottage,
even my words will be ehchanted."
As +Kelley Woods has pointed out, young children have no trouble instantly changing themselves into a monster or a fire engine, especially when parents encourage this kind of imaginative involvement. The following induction was originally written for children, but I later found that it was a favorite with the college students in my graduate hypnosis courses at the University of West Georgia. Perhaps we don't learn to become high responders in hypnosis. We un-learn it!
Just sit back, and close your eyes, and I am going to tell you a magic
story. It is a story about a very special place, deep in an enchanted forest,
where everything I tell you will come true. . . Imagine now that we are walking
together down a long, winding path which runs through the middle of a large
woods. We are walking along, early on a bright spring morning. Birds are
singing in the trees, and here and there a flower is poking its head out of the
soft, green grass which grows beside the path. And because this is a magic
story, the farther we go along the path, the more real everything around us
becomes. Now and then a ray of sunlight makes its way down through the
branches of the trees and falls upon the dewdrops in the grass, causing them to
sparkle like a million tiny diamonds. The air is fresh and cool, with gentle
breezes blowing now and then, causing the trees, and the grass, and the flowers
to move ever so slightly, as if everything in the world were feeling so happy
on this bright spring morning that nothing could keep still for very long. . . And because this is a magic story, the farther we go along the path, the more
real everything becomes. . . As we continue on our walk, we can begin to be
aware of the sound of rushing water. With each passing second, the sound is
becoming clearer and clearer still. And now we are standing beside the bank of
a forest stream, which is the source of the sound we have been hearing. The
water is flowing past us swift and clear, for it has come tumbling down from a
magic spring many miles away in the hills. And because the water from the magic
spring is enchanted, anyone who drinks it will be enchanted too. And anyone who
is enchanted in this way will be easily able to find that special place, deep
in the magic forest, where everything I say will come true. We dip our
hands eagerly into the bubbling stream and cup them together, bringing the
cool, fresh water up to our lips again and again, until we have drunk all that
we want. . . Now it is time to hurry on our way once more; for the water from
the magic spring has made it certain that we will soon find that very special
place in the enchanted forest, where everything I tell you will come true; and
we know now that it cannot be far away. As we continue on our journey, we
notice a tiny path leading off to one side, and we decide to go up this path to
see where it leads. Before very long, we notice that the woods are beginning to
thin out, and that we are about to enter a clearing. And as we approach nearer
and nearer to the edge of the clearing, we can see that the path we have been
following leads right up to a small cottage. . . This is that very special
place I have been telling you about, where everything will come true. For as
long as we stay here, in this enchanted cottage, in the enchanted forest, even
my words will be enchanted, and everything I tell you will happen exactly as I
say it will. The door to the cottage is standing slightly open as we hurry
up the path, and as soon as we reach the entrance we hurry on inside in order
to lose no more time. We have arrived now, at that very special enchanted place
in the enchanted forest which we have traveled so far to reach. And as long as
we remain here, in this enchanted cottage, everything I say and everything I
describe to you will come true as soon as I have said it. For as long as we
remain here in this enchanted place, even my words will be enchanted.
Gibbons, D. E. (2000). Applied hypnosis and hyperempiria. Lincoln, NE: Authors Choice Press (originally published 1979 by Plenum Press).
Gibbons, D. E., & Lynn, S. J. (2010). Hypnotic inductions: A primer. in S. J. Lynn, J. W. Rhue, & I. Kirsch (Eds.) Handbook of clinical hypnosis, 2nd ed. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, pp. 267-291.
As an experimental psychologist who has been formally trained in the methods of scientific research, I frankly do not know whether or not reincarnation exists, though half the world believes in it; and neither do I know whether or not we would be able to learn anything about if, if it did exist, by using hypnosis. In spite of abundant anecdotal evidence to the contrary, Lynn and Kirsch (2006, p. 204), flatly state: "In summary, hypnotically induced past-life experiences are fantasies constructed from available clinical narratives about past lives and known or surmised facts regarding historical periods, as well as cues present in the hypnotic situation.” It is just this kind of "anecdotal evidence," however, that is the starting point for any major revolution in our scientific view of reality. (Kuhn, 2012). Many of us know people who can tell of past-life experiences that are astonishing, to say the least; and some readers of this post may be able to recount such experiences themselves. If we are unable to completely dismiss all of this anecdotal evidence as merely delusional, then perhaps we might inquire what else science has to tell us about the possibility of communication with parallel and alternate universes.. By many accounts, Steven Hawking is the most intelligent man on the planet, even though his theoretical calculations are far too advanced for most of us to follow. Here's what he has to say about parallel universes:
If there is a theoretically infinite number of patallel universes, it is also to be expected that they do not always follow the same laws of cause-and-effect as this one. Hence, it is to be expected that we would not be able to understand PLR by using the same principles of scientific investigation that apply to our own universe. Perhaps these accounts of what is now referred to as paranormal experiences may form the starting point for demonstrating the actual existence of parallel and aternate universes, in which the commonly aƧcepted laws of cause and effect do not apply.
Re-framing past, parallel, and future lives to conform with he teachings of theoretical physics greatly expands our horizon of what we can do with them. What we need to do at this point is not to abandon our investigation into past lives, but to to include current, parallel, and future universes as well (reincarnation, pre-incarnation, co-incarnation, inter-carnation, and multi-carnation), and see where it leads us. 1. If you are living in a parallel Universe which exists prior to your own life, we may have support from theoretical physics for reincarnation
2. If you are living in a parallel Universe which exists after your own life, we may have support from theoretical physicsfor pre-incarnation.
3. If you are living in a parallel Universe which exists in roughly the same time frame as your own life, we may have scientific support from theoretical physics for co-incarnation
4. If you are living in a parallel Universe in which you experience several different lives within a similar time frame, we may have scientific support from theoretical physics for multi-carnation.
5..If you are living in a parallel Universe which exists in which you possess a set of genes which is partly yours and partly that of another person, we may have scientific support from theoretical physics for from theoretical physics for inter-carnation.
6 If you are living in an alternate Universe in which the laws of physics are different from those we experience on Earth, we may have scientific support from theoretical physics for intra-carnation.
References
Kuhn, T. S. (2012). The structure of scientific revolutions. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Lynn, S. J., & Kirsch, I. (2006). Essentials of clinical hypnosis: An evidence-based approach. Washington, D.C: American Psychological Association.
How will we know, when our lives are on the right track? In the words of +Michael Ellner,
The path that the people who beat the odds take does not seem to be as important as the way they walk the path that they have chosen. This is based on extensive experience assisting people with life-threatening diseases and conditions and assisting people living with medically unexplained syndromes and symptoms like chronic pain, FMS, IBS and CFS. What they do — does not seem to be as important as how they do what they do… The people who do what they do with a happy heart, peaceful mind and playful spirit seem to have the best outcomes regardless of what they are doing.
If a suggestion sufficiently enhances the ongoing narrative of a person's life story, then it will not only be accepted at the time it was given, but it may continue to be believed in after the hypnotic session is ended, There is a woman up the road from me who hypnotizes people and tells them the name of their guardian angel, and which angels to pray to for whatever request they would like make. A former client of hers, who is a Roman Catholic, told me that he had learned from her to "speak in tongues" several years ago; and that every night, he prays in tongues both to the Trinity and to the guardian angel whom this woman has identified for him. This man is now one of my hypnosis clients, and I am helping him with an entirely different problem. Although I have listened with great interest to his accounts of his experiences with the hypnotist up the road, I have made no attempt to discuss their validity with him.
Post-modern constructivnism is the point of view that we should help clients to piece together whatever conceptual framework will help them to make sense of their existence, regardless of the reality which we have constructed for ourselves. As a post-modern constructivist, I would not hesitate to utilize any kind of believed-in imaginings that will help clients to alleviate distress and find meaning and purpose in life. regardless of the beliefs which I personally employ in order to build such an understanding for myself. And if this means accepting or even enhancing, the religious or philosophical beliefs which they already hold, then so be it.
"Virtual Reality Hypnosis: Adventures in the Multiverse"
Kelley Woods and I are pleased to announce the publication of Virtual Reality Hypnosis: Explorations in the Multiverse, which allows you to hypnotically experience whatever events in parallel and alternate worlds you might care to imagine, and bringing the effects of these experiences back with you to improve your life.
Virtual reality hypnosis involves the systematic, comprehensive application of the BEST ME technique of multimodal suggestion to involve your entire being in the content of a suggested experience, using Beliefs, Emotions, Senssations and physical perceptions, Thoughts and images, Motives, and Expectations.
From the first glow of anticipation to the enduring treasures of fondest memory, the BEST ME technique provides us with a brush with which it is possible to paint upon the canvas of awareness practically any masterpiece we may desire, using the ultimate artistic medium of all -- human experience itself!
"Applied Hypnosis and Hyperempiria"
In contrast to a traditional hypnotic induction, based on suggestions of drowsiness, lethargy, and sleep, a hyperempiric induction is based on suggestions of increased alertness, mind expansion, and enhanced awareness and sensitivity. Both approaches have been shown to work about equally well. Naturally, some people prefer one approach and some people prefer the other; and some procedures are better suited to hypnosis, while others are best done with hyperempiria. This book shows you how to use hypnosis and/or hyperempiria in a wide variety of situations and for a wide variety of purposes.
Don received his Psychology training at the University of California, Riverside, and Claremont Graduate University. He has taught at the University of Portland, the University of West Georgia, and DeSales University, where he was Chairman of the Psychology Department. Don has written five books, presented at many professional conferences, published in scholarly journals, and has presented at the American Psychological Association and the British Royal Society of medicine. He is the senior author of the chapter on hypnotic induction procedures in the latest edition of the Handbook of Clinical Hypnosis, published by the American Psychological Association in 2010. He also initiated the petition to establish the Division of Humanistic Psychology within the American Psychological Association, which is now Division 32.