Will Williams | 121hypnosis.com

“Mind Over Illness”: What Doctors Don’t Tell You (for a good reason)

Dec 03 2019

I happened to stumble upon an article called “Mind Over Illness” in a magazine called What Doctors Don’t Tell You (Oct 2017 issue), written by Lynne McTaggart (author of The Intention Experiment and The Power of Eight. By the way she’s also a self-acclaimed “Intention Guru”).

It had a nice big stock-photo of hands you see, and the reason I saved it to read (for two years) was because I thought it was about psychoneuroimmunology (the mind’s effect on the body’s immune system) which interests me.

Sadly, I was very mistaken. It was about bullshit, as usual dressing up a more universally accepted and applicable finding with enough hype and glitz that another self-appointed ‘guru’ is able to get rich at the expense of others’ desperation. Ugh. You won’t believe how she does it.

The Myth of the Conscious/Subconscious Minds

Dec 20 2016

Its really just a metaphor to distinguish various psychological processes and phenomena into “aware” and “not aware”. The subconscious mind isn’t really a “thing” like many hypno sorts would have you believe – and used as such, the metaphor can actually be very limiting. Let me explain why, because this gets very interesting.

UK Hypnotherapy = Relaxotherapy

May 16 2016

There’s a lot messed up about the UK hypnotherapy scene.

Here’s the basic unfortunate pattern, and it doesn’t seem to change:

1) Someone burns out of a sales or IT job, normally in their forties. Read More

Learning from a Stage Hypnotist

Dec 10 2015

So I went to a stage hypnosis show, with the eager goal of going on stage and experiencing it. I wanted to have a greater appreciation of how stagecraft, lights, audience and unpredictability affected things, as well as to experience being a hypnotic subject with a seasoned professional.

Unfortunately, the night didn’t live up to my expectations, but I found myself learning a lot by negative example. Read More

“I Don’t Believe in Hypnosis… But I’m Afraid Of It”

Oct 29 2015

One of the most common things I hear about hypnosis is “It’s not real though is it?” and “I don’t think I could be hypnotized”. If this sounds like you then good – because a) it means you’re normal, and b) it means I get to share some thoughts and ideas that will hopefully blow the lid off of hypnosis for you. Read More

The exaggerated and misjudged nonsense of NLP – as shown in the words of Richard Bandler

Oct 12 2015

I recently read Richard Bandler’s “Make Your Life Great” (2008). It reawakened my frustration with NLP as a whole, and how it preys on a crowd hungry for hope (the customers) or power (the practitioners) to perpetuate its inflated promises and flimsy doctrines. Here’s an example of the kind of bullshit I’m talking about:

“I had one case that was even more bizarre. Somebody had grabbed the victim from behind and covered the victim’s eyes. The police weren’t clear about what happened, so [in hypnosis] I slowed the [mental] movie down, froze it just before the hands touched the victim’s face, and magnified the image. Then I had the victim draw the fingerprint – and the police found the attacker. That’s how precise the mind is. Now I’m not saying that was quick by any means. That took me hours to do. The person concerned was a good hypnotic subject and could also draw pretty well. The image wasn’t perfect by any means, it was only what they call ‘a partial’, but it was enough to get a match” (p230)

Compliance – is it Hypnosis, or just being nice?

Oct 07 2015

Compliance vs Unconscious Response

I saw a hypnosis demonstration recently in a lecture hall of professionals. The speaker asked for a volunteer, then selected one based on their prior suggestibility. As the volunteer stood up, the speaker said “and you can just go into a trance right now… as you come up to the stage”. The guy shuffled along, slowly like a zombie, obeying the speakers every command. Gasps from the audience. Read More

Hype-nosis

Jul 15 2015

On most occasions, when I’ve met highly reputed hypnotists, I’ve had that realisation of “oh, they’re just people too”. What was I thinking? Many seem to become these almost mythical figures, wielding some special power that isn’t available to anyone else. Its all hype of course – suggestion and influence being the very thing that they’re using to market themselves as gurus.

Here are the common things used to build hype: Read More

The Dark Imagination: My Theory for Hypnotic Phenomena

Jul 02 2015

There are a few theories that attempt to explain hypnosis, all with their own strengths and weaknesses. I don’t particularly want to get into them all here to prove anything, but I will touch on a few that resonate with my intuitions and experiences the most.

Recently through studying the idea of conscious will being an illusion, I got to thinking about how:

the feeling of conscious will and voluntariness,
and
the nature of imagination and automaticity…

…tie together. Read More

The Most Powerful Therapy?

Sep 03 2014

No, I’m not just talking about hypnosis – that’s just a tool. I’ve been wondering for years whether there’s a pattern to all the therapies, that if harnessed, could provide the most efficient solution for “feeling better”. I think I may have found it, but it will take a little longer to refine. Read More

Author - Will Williams

Compliance vs Unconscious Response