A Different Perspective

(This blog was originally posted on August 8, 2014)

 

Photo courtesy of Microsoft

    It’s uncanny how spending time and distance away from something gives you a brand new perspective on that situation when you come back. For example, as I finish re-reading Night Fall by Nelson DeMille, just about every page is yielding new details or references to the looming Al Qaeda attacks of 2001 than I remember reading before. The words on the pages and the plot twists in the book have not changed. However, my familiarity with the story, protagonists and the author’s writing style has probably enabled me to notice details I overlooked before.

     One explanation for this phenomenon could be that I am actually more relaxed than I was the first time I read the novel. This makes sense: Night Fall is a very exciting and fast read. I still remember how hard my heart pounded as I got swept up into the action. I couldn’t read fast enough to find out what would happen next, and it was all I could do to not turn to the next page before I finished the one I was on. Even though reading is typically relaxing for me, my physiological response indicated that I was actually agitated—even anxious or stressed—than relaxed. My conscious mind knew that I was not in imminent danger, but DeMille’s writing conjured specific images in my subconscious mind and convinced it that the opposite was true. In other words, my SCM translated the anxiety/excitement I felt while reading the novel as “danger” and my sympathetic nervous system probably went into fight/flight mode to protect me (my body). I couldn’t take the extra time to consider and digest each word on the page because I was literally “running” away from the danger my SCM believed I was in. Without intending to do this, I started skipping words or phrases that my mind identified as triggers of my anxiety before my conscious mind could process their meaning or implication.

     Now that I am reading the book for the third or fourth time, I am more desensitized to some of the more shocking scenes in it. Since my conscious and subconscious mind know what is coming next, I can allow myself to linger over or even re-read a paragraph that I don’t remember from the last time(s) I was on that page. Night Fall is still a thrilling thriller for me, but now that I am able to be more relaxed as I read it, I am able to enjoy each and every word of it.

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

© 2014

A Different Perspective

Photo courtesy of Microsoft

 

                It’s uncanny how spending time and distance away from something gives you a brand new perspective on that situation when you come back. For example, as I finish re-reading Night Fall by Nelson DeMille, just about every page is yielding new details or references to the looming Al Qaeda attacks of 2001 than I remember reading before. The words on the pages and the plot twists in the book have not changed. However, my familiarity with the story, protagonists and the author’s writing style has probably enabled me to notice details I overlooked before.

                One explanation for this phenomenon could be that I am actually more relaxed than I was the first time I read the novel. This makes sense: Night Fall is a very exciting and fast read. I still remember how hard my heart pounded as I got swept up into the action. I couldn’t read fast enough to find out what would happen next, and it was all I could do to not turn to the next page before I finished the one I was on. Even though reading is typically relaxing for me, my physiological response indicated that I was actually agitated—even anxious or stressed—than relaxed. My conscious mind knew that I was not in imminent danger, but DeMille’s writing conjured specific images in my subconscious mind and convinced it that the opposite was true. In other words, my SCM translated the anxiety/excitement I felt while reading the novel as “danger” and my sympathetic nervous system probably went into fight/flight mode to protect me (my body). I couldn’t take the extra time to consider and digest each word on the page because I was literally “running” away from the danger my SCM believed I was in. Without intending to do this, I started skipping words or phrases that my mind identified as triggers of my anxiety before my conscious mind could process their meaning or implication.

                Now that I am reading the book for the third or fourth time, I am more desensitized to some of the more shocking scenes in it. Since my conscious and subconscious mind know what is coming next, I can allow myself to linger over or even re-read a paragraph that I don’t remember from the last time(s) I was on that page. Night Fall is still a thrilling thriller for me, but now that I am able to be more relaxed as I read it, I am able to enjoy each and every word of it.

 

 

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

© 2014

In Memoriam...Then and Now

Photo courtesy of Microsoft
 

 

                I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when TWA Flight 800 fell from the sky and into the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Long Island, on July 17, 1996. I remember thinking, “Planes just don’t explode for no reason. It must have been terrorism or sabotage!” Right away, reports started coming in that eye-witnesses claimed that they saw something streak through the sky up to the doomed jetliner right before it exploded. There were no survivors, but there were a lot of questions—and suspicions.

Some people believed (and still do) that a missile brought down the plane. The United States government, CIA and FBI ultimately rejected that theory and attributed the cause of the tragedy to mechanical error. In 2004, bestselling author Nelson DeMille re-examined the cause and possible cover-up/conspiracy about the explosion in his novel, Night Fall. To this day, that is my favorite one of his thrillers. Perhaps the story really resonates with me because I was (metaphorically) “there” when the plane went down and, like the protagonists in this novel, I never quite bought the mechanical-error explanation why that plane blew up. Last night, I even put my copy of Night Fall on my bedside table, intending to start re-reading it today in honor of those lives lost in 1996.

And then I heard that Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 really was brought down by a missile over Ukraine. It is probably just coincidental that the Malaysia Airlines tragedy happened today, on the anniversary of another mid-flight explosion that is still so painful to recall. Another coincidence? The context in which I received this news was eerily similar to how I found out about the TWA Flight 800 explosion in 1996. Since I was living in England at that time, I heard about it on the radio first thing on a Thursday morning, many hours after it happened. Today—also Thursday, but the same date (July 17); this time—I was watching the news. But it is incredibly spooky to me that while there is no physical evidence that TWA Flight 800 was shot down, there is no question that someone fired a missile at a passenger airliner today.

There are no words to express my sadness and horror about this senseless tragedy. I hope and trust that the respective authorities and governmental agencies will be respectful, compassionate and patient when they contact relatives of the passengers on Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 to confirm that their loved one was on that plane. I hope that these authorities are able to return the passengers’ bodies to their families, soon. I hope that they conduct a complete, fair and lawful investigation of the explosion so that the perpetrators can be brought to justice.

I hope that the family, friends and acquaintances of those who lost their lives today will always remember the love and joy that they felt and shared during their lives. Terrorists may have stolen lives today, but they did not and cannot take the love and happy memories that those people have shared with the people they care about.

May you rest in peace.

 

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.