Handwriting: Under Pressure!

 To minimize risk of exposure to and spread of the COVID-19 virus, I am temporarily suspending in-person hypnotherapy sessions with me in my office. However, phone, Skype and Zoom consultations ARE and WILL REMAIN AVAILABLE! 

 

(This blog was originally posted on April 26, 2016)

 

 

Image courtesy of Microsoft

 

 

The April 25, 2016 installment of The Family Circus cartoon strip featured one of the characters, Billy, working on a homework assignment. When his mom asks why he is pressing so hard, the little boy explains that he wants his teacher to know that he means what he is writing. I knew right away that I had the topic for today’s blog. In addition to addressing what is literally meant in the written word, this scenario also addressed the (literally) unwritten part of communication that is so often ignored: what we mean by the words we use and what the reader understands or infers.

Let’s start with handwriting. As I have explained in my previous blog titled What I Look for in an Informal Handwriting Sample, handwriting—a manifestation of what we consciously think—is motivated by a subconscious ideomotor (automatic physical) response. In addition to the various characteristics of writing such as the form of the letters, letter slant, and straightness of the lines of writing, pressure of the sample is also very important. In fact, this is one of the first things I consider when I analyze handwriting. The presence or absence of significant pressure of the writing suggests that the person invested more or less “feeling” in what he or she wrote. This is identified by checking for the presence or absence of indentations on the opposite side of the page. These are comparable to reflections of the writing sample that can be seen and/or felt on the reverse side. Sometimes you can see the deep formation of the letters or even pin-holes of light where the pressure was so strong that it actually made tiny tears in the paper.

The second feature that interested me about this cartoon is about suggestibility. In the cartoon, Billy tells his mother that he wants the teacher to know (see) that he means what he has written by the amount of pressure he used to write his essay. This is a trait of a Physical Suggestible: I mean what I say and I say what I mean. His apparent emotional investment in writing this assignment is to appear honest or, at least, that he has completed the assignment to the best of his understanding when he answered the question. (By the way, all young children possess Physical Suggestibility.) However, the teacher may not equate the pressure of the pencil on the paper the way he intends her to do. For example, if she is an Emotional Suggestible she might infer that the deep indentations in the paper indicate that Billy was frustrated or even angry about doing the assignment in the first place. Or, she may interpret that the force of his writing reflects his deep interest about the essay topic or questions. If Billy’s answers are wrong or if he misunderstood the question he was supposed to answer in the assignment, the teacher may believe that her student was expressing frustration about what he has been asked to do. Then again, she may not even notice or care about this feature of his writing and grade the assignment simply on the accuracy or correct interpretation of the boy’s answers.

Finally, when I ask someone to provide a handwriting sample for analysis, I instruct the person to write about personally meaningful topic to get a good sense of the ideomotor response being activated. Copying information off of a document or providing the rhyme used to memorize position of letters on a keyboard activates only the conscious mind and does not reveal very much about the person’s subconscious behavior and personality. I don’t know how old Billy is in this sketch, but he looks very young. Even if he is writing an essay, the amount of original thought and analysis he puts into what he is writing, versus stringing related facts into a series of sentences, would depend on his age. It is more likely that Billy’s writing sample constitutes parroting back information versus sharing a new idea that would bear more insight into his subconscious mind. Finally, you can see in that he is writing on lined paper. Ideally, a handwriting sample is done on plain (unlined) paper so I can get a good picture of the natural slant of the person’s writing and width of their margins, etc.

For more information about handwriting analysis, check out the following blogs: Handwriting Analysis for Hypnotherapy; And Your Handwriting Says; And Your Handwriting Says, Part 2; Handwriting Analysis: Doodles; and When Illness Shows Up in Your Handwriting. If you are interested in getting a formal analysis of your own handwriting, please contact me at (661) 433-9430 or send an e-mail to me at calminsensehypnosis@yahoo.com.

 

 

Special Offer! Free, 30-minute Phone/Zoom Consultation

This month, I am continuing to offer a FREE, 30-minute phone or Zoom consultation. This is a great opportunity to learn about hypnosis and how and WHY it is such an effective modality to help achieve your vocational and avocational self-improvement goal(s). Call/text me at (661) 433-9430 or send an email to calminsensehypnosis@yahoo.com to set up your free consultation! 

 

 

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. In July 2019 and in September 2020 she was voted the Best Hypnotherapist in Santa Clarita, California. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

© 2021

 

 

My Thoughts on the Milgram Obedience Experiment and Suggestibility

 

Experimenter is being promoted at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival this week. The film is about psychologist Stanley Milgram, whose 1961 obedience experiment famously demonstrated how obedient people could be when they are confronted with real or perceived authority.

I remember reading about this project while I was pursuing my undergraduate degree psychology. In Milgram's study, participants were made to deliver electric shocks of various and increasing intensity to other people. The Yale University psychologist was interested to see at what point and under what circumstance a participant would disobey authority: i.e., refuse to administer the shocks, which were portrayed as extremely painful and possibly causing permanent physical damage to the recipient. In fact, the “shocks” were imaginary and the people who were supposedly receiving them were actually members of Milgram’s research team. Ultimately, the researcher reported that 65 percent of the participants were willing to administer the electric shocks to others despite the extreme stress they reported feeling while administering the shocks and the pain they believed they were causing others.

Remembering and thinking about this study made me cringe, but it also made me wonder: Could John Kappas, Ph.D.’s models of suggestibility explain the social psychologist’s observations? Following are reasons why I think the Hypnosis Motivation Institute founder’s theories work very well to explain why Milgram’s research participants were willing (albeit begrudgingly) to continue to administer those shocks.

1.       He had authority. Milgram was conducting his research in a prominent and respected academic university. Since he held a Ph.D. in psychology his subjects would have called him “Dr.,” which automatically implies a position of power or authority.

2.       He had a message: The psychologist told the participants what to do and when to do it, and he did not waver from his instruction even when they voiced concerns about the harm the continued shocks must be doing to the shock recipients.

3.       He overloaded the participants’ conscious and subconscious minds with written and auditory information (message units) about the intensity of the electric shocks being delivered and the sounds/exclamations of pain that the recipients uttered. Milgram also continued to deliver his authoritarian patter of instructions that the participants should continue to administer the shocks even if and when they wanted to stop taking part in the experiment.

Afterward, Milgram and his team debriefed the participants to explain that the electric shocks used during the experiment were imaginary and reassured them that no one had been harmed in any way. I’m sure that was a relief for those who had obeyed each one of the psychologist’s instructions to complete the experiment. The questionable and controversial ethics of his research design reportedly resulted in the American Psychological Association creating ethical standards for ensuring the physical, emotional and psychological well-being of participants in future studies.

I also follow the APA’s guidelines for ethics and professional conduct when I work with hypnotherapy clients. I will not and would not ask you to say or do anything while in hypnosis that you would not say or do while in a fully alert state of awareness. Furthermore, your subconscious mind would not comply with any hypnotic suggestion(s) that contradicted your ethical and moral beliefs. For more information about hypnosis and how it works, check out the Hypnosis Facts link on my website.

 

 

 

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/.

© 2015

 

While My Computer Was at the Spa

Photo courtesy of Microsoft

 

                Recently, I had to take my computer in for maintenance (a.k.a. virus removal). How could this have happened to me? I wondered as the virus-detection software identified all the creepy-crawlies that were inexplicably, horrifyingly, inhabiting my hard drive. I admit that this discover made me feel a little (okay, a lot) embarrassed. I mean, I had anti-virus protection on my computer! I knew better than to open suspicious links on-line. What had I done wrong?

And yet, there I was: humbled and at the mercy of the technology wizards who promised that they could and would clean up the mess that my computer had suddenly become. They swore they could remove the nasty vermin on my hard drive. Furthermore, at my instruction, they would even install an even more powerful anti-virus program to prevent this from happening again. Or, if it did happen—provided I purchase a continued-protection/maintenance package on offer—I wouldn’t have to pay a dime to fix the problem while I participated in that program. “If it happened again….” What?

Of course, while the technician explained the pros and cons of installing (purchasing) the so-special-anti-virus-software-that-it’s-not-available-on-the-sales-rack, and the special protected-maintenance program he was describing, I went right into information overload. I was already worried and wondering how I had somehow exposed my computer to countless nasty and debilitating viruses. I was learning that the original anti-virus package I had purchased didn’t protect my computer, after all. If I went along with the technician’s recommendation to invest in the package he was offering, I would be entitled to enjoy x, y and z benefits as long as I continued the protection it provided. Oh, and did I mention that this anti-virus software is supposed to be the best available and is used by the government?

That little tidbit of trivia clinched the deal. I knew with every cell in my conscious and subconscious mind what was going on. I could almost feel my critical mind going on a 10-minute break as the technician continued his sales pitch. I could see Hypnosis Motivation Institute founder John Kappas, Ph.D.’s definition of hypnosis flash in front of my eyes. Overload of environmental message units? Check. Increasing desire to “escape” that sudden, increasing sense of anxiety I felt listening to and having to process all of this information? Check. Increasing state of suggestibility? Check. Very helpful computer technician—I mean, wizard and, at least today, metaphoric life-saver about to—I mean, making­—a sale? Check.

At least I’m protected now, right?

 

 

 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®, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

© 2014

Body Language

(This blog was originally posted on April 25, 2014)

 

                I am fascinated by one of the television advertisement for mobile (cell) phone services. In the ad, a group of potential customers puts a representative of a major, national phone company through her paces as they ask about various communications features that the company offers. Viewers are led to infer that the prospective customers are real-estate agents, because each of them is professionally clad in a tan sports blazer with a large emblem of a house on the left side of the jacket. The group pretty much verifies the identity of their vocation when one of the women says, “Let’s close!” and they all cross their arms over their chest and grin. But it is what the customers and the sales representative say with their bodies throughout the ad that is of greatest interest to me.

                Throughout the ad, the phone-company representative matches every physical and facial gesture that her prospective clients make. As a customer’s voice lilts at the end of a question, the salesperson uses a similar lilt in her response. When one person points a finger to make a point, the sales rep makes the same movement during her explanation. Someone steeples her fingers across her midsection; the sales rep makes the same gesture. Another person in the group nods and raises her eyebrows; so does she. When the camera pans back a little, viewers can see that the sales rep has even adopted a similar stance as she stands with the customers. At the end of the advertisement when one of the customers crosses her arms and announces they will all take (“close”) the deal, her colleagues look at her and immediately imitate the crossed-arms gesture.

                I like this ad because it is such a fabulous demonstration of how people mirror someone’s behavior in order to build rapport with someone. If your job entails selling products or services, you probably recognized every sales technique depicted in the advertisement I just described. But you don’t have to be a salesperson or a customer to identify with what went on. We mirror each other’s various behaviors—facial expressions, physical gestures, patterns of speech—all the time, often without realizing that we are doing it. These actions are like a “fast track” to building rapport with someone you would like to get to know better. People are naturally attracted to others who behave or seem to think like they do.

Think about a conversation you have had recently: Did you nod at some point during the conversation or lean forward in your seat as if to listen to your companion’s words even more closely? And did your companion then lean his or her body closer to yours, return your nod or mirror a hand movement that you were previously unaware of having made? Did you notice when your spouse or friend took a step forward, backward or sideways to mirror your stance, or raised or lowered his or her voice to match the tone of yours? These are examples of mirroring; and mirroring is a subconscious (or conscious) behavior that creates rapport and can facilitate social bonds by reinforcing similarity or familiarity between you. Rapport is an inherent and necessary component of every kind of relationship; it is the cornerstone upon which every relationship is built. It is only when we establish rapport with someone are we likely to explore the similarities and differences between us, and know whether we want to spend the time and energy to create a social, romantic or professional relationship with that person. Without rapport, we cannot come to trust, respect, like or communicate well with him or her, and a relationship—or a successful sale—is unlikely to result from the interaction.

 

 

 

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

 

Low Adrenaline, High Learning

Photo courtesy of Sara Fogan

With Monty Roberts at the Pomona Equine Affaire 2008

 

One of my favorite expressions is something that horseman Monty Roberts reminds his human and equine students: “Low adrenaline, high learning.” What he means is, when you are calm and relaxed, it is easier (possible) to complete tasks, learn and retain more information. This philosophy also applies to your horse. However, if something happens during the training session and you respond by panicking or becoming frustrated and/or angry, the body releases adrenaline to help you cope with the situation by facilitating the fight/flight behavior. This adrenaline dump is a subconscious response, not a conscious decision: the only thing that matters is protecting the body surviving the encounter to live another day. However, once you are mentally, emotionally and physically functioning (behaving) in fight/flight perspective, your horse—which as a prey animal already, naturally responds to stress in fight/flight mode—quickly perceives your panic and becomes afraid. At that point, whatever you were working on or teaching him before is over-ridden by the survival response until your adrenaline level returns to normal and you can reassure your horse that it’s safe to keep working and learning. When we can override this initial fear response we can literally save ourselves.

I frequently remind myself of Mr. Roberts’s philosophy, and not only when I am working with horses. It is also a terrific manta to repeat when I am stuck in heavy freeway traffic and start to feel impatient and frustrated. I know that I’m not going anywhere fast, but if I can remain calm and relaxed I will be more likely to notice a break in the traffic so I can change lanes and go on my way. I also remind myself of this philosophy when my computer freezes or I experience some other technological disaster. Following are some other instances in which Mr. Roberts’s “Low adrenaline, high learning” philosophy would apply:

·         In the feature film Gravity, Sandra Bullock’s character, Ryan Stone, is ultimately and only able to rescue herself when she starts to take deep breaths and focuses on what she needs to do to operate the computer systems in the capsule. When Stone is initially separated from the space shuttle and her colleagues, hurtling through space, she panics. She starts to hyperventilate and continues to spin out of control (literally and emotionally) until she is able to regulate her breathing and can follow her commander’s instructions that guide her to the safety of a capsule that brings her back to Earth. Once Stone is able to slow down her breathing and heart-rate to control the adrenaline coursing through her body, she can access the information and technological skills stored in her subconscious mind and focus on what she needed to do to get home.

·         Firefighters, paramedics and police seem unflappable during an emergency. The first thing these first responders do after assessing a crisis is to reassure the victim(s) that they are safe and being taken care of. They are trained to control the adrenaline surging through their own bodies so they can do their job efficiently and effectively. In turn, their calm demeanor provides comfort and increases the victim’s confidence to regulate his or her heart- and respiratory-rates to slow down or prevent shock, etc., which could cause further damage to the brain and body.

·         When athletes prepare to compete, they take slow, deep breaths and even stretch or do light exercise to help relax their body and focus on what they must accomplish on the field, golf links, ice-skating arena, etc. They know and understand that the calmer and more relaxed they feel, the less likely they are to react to or be distracted by background “noise” in the environment and focus on accomplishing their athletic goal.

 

What can—what do—you learn and accomplish when your adrenaline-level is low?

 

 

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

Follow Your Own Path

Photo courtesy of PresentationPro

 

                It is easy—too easy—to get carried away while planning somebody else’s life. From the moment a baby is born, its proud relatives start imagining the kind of fulfilling, exciting and successful life this new person will ultimately live. Will Baby grow up to be President of the United States one day? Will Baby become a doctor, lawyer, soldier, police officer or firefighter like Mom or Dad? Maybe our newborn is destined to live a life in the limelight as an actor or, even marry the heir to a throne in Europe and will become a monarch one day. (Hey, it’s happened before, why not to our tot?)

                There are a few problems with this fantasy game. First, each person who “plays” it can only project the possibilities that already exist as knowns in his or her mind. It is common to imagine your young child or loved one follow a similar life path as your own, because this is what you already know; this is your comfort zone. If you have chosen the same career as one of your parents, this association is likely to be reinforced even more: “Of course, Baby will do this, since generations of our family are already in this career!” Maybe Baby will do that; he or she will receive plenty of conscious and subconscious message units about this vocation, and is likely to nurture a subconscious mental script about it. But, what if other people’s plan for you isn’t what you truly want for yourself? What if you don’t even know what you want to do, or change your mind (and switch careers) down the road? How do you break this news to your “very disappointed” family?

                The second problem with this fantasy game is that each person may be influenced to pursue a life path that in which parents/caretakers and other relatives have no experience at all. For example, I decided that I wanted to be a psychologist at the tender age of 11. This decision was actually inspired by another student in my sixth-grade class who declared that this was what she wanted to do. I honestly didn’t know much about psychology back then, but I must have decided that career sounded pretty cool, and declared “psychology” as my college major eight years later.

The third problem with this game is that none of us know where our lives will ultimately take us, even when we have a definite career or life/lifestyle in play. Ten years after I earned a research Master’s degree in psychology in another country, I was working as an editor of a martial arts magazine when I finally found my way back to my original choice of vocation. Well, not the original choice, but very close. The day I started my training to become a hypnotherapist, I realized that this was the work I really wanted to do and should be doing. Perhaps my decision to abandon what could have been a very successful career in journalism was impulsive, impetuous and even short-sighted; but I have never looked back.

My young nephews recently also announced what they would like to do when they grow up. My family often has fun imagining ways that they can (or will) achieve their goals. In fact, we recently went to town embellishing details of how the youngest boy’s career can and will be successful (and fun for us, too). I know that’s not fair to him; he may well change his mind about what he wants to do, anyway. There was a time when I thought I would like to be a writer. One of my friends still (occasionally) tells me that I should be an author and how disappointed he is that I didn’t choose writing as my vocation. Whatever. I know that I made the right decision for me. There is really nothing like the feeling of doing what you know you want to do, what you are meant to do and what you truly enjoy doing.

If it takes a long and winding road to get where you know you are meant to be, so much the better.

                 

 

 

 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®, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/

Introduction to the Mental Bank Concept

The Mental Bank Concept is a powerful tool to help
you set and achieve your goals by changing
your subconscious mental script.

                According to John Kappas, Ph.D. everyone follows a subconscious mental script. This script is created very early in our lives, and we will behave and even think in ways that are consistent with it even when the script does not facilitate achievement of our personal goals. Fortunately, the Hypnosis Motivation Institute founder created The Mental Bank Concept, which posits that each of us can change the script from what we are, to what we want to or should be (www.hypnosis.edu).

In addition to the intended benefit of changing our mental script, he promised that by doing the ledger we would also start to earn more money, or even receive monetary gifts to boost our real income. I clearly remember the inference in current HMI Director George Kappas’s challenge to the class as he speculated about how many people would actually spend two minutes each night before bed writing in our Mental Bank Ledger. After all, is two minutes’ of writing before falling asleep too big a sacrifice to make to improve your life, especially when your efforts for self-improvement are measured by earning more money in the process? When the class broke up for a break, I was one of the first people in the room to rush down the corridor to purchase a ledger.

This is how the Mental Bank Concept works: Each night, right before you go to bed, you will allocate a value (symbolic money) to specific behaviors, activities or events that have occurred during the day. You can “pay” yourself for going to work, working out at the gym/exercising, spending time with your family, attending a religious service of your denomination, etc. It doesn’t matter what the activity is so long as they reflect your efforts to change your subconscious mental script and achieve your new, positive behavior or goals. Then, you will write an affirmation to reinforce these behaviors and encourage you to continue to make these changes.

In creating the Mental Bank Concept, Dr. Kappas intended that people write in the ledger just before going to sleep because this is one of the times during the day that we are most suggestible, or amenable to learning. (The other time is the first 30 minutes after waking up in the morning.) The suggestions for the desired behavioral change will bypass the critical mind and drop right into the subconscious mind; the SCM will continue to process these thoughts and behavioral changes throughout the night, he explained.

Although this process is very simple, many adults are very reluctant (subconscious resistance) to change their lives using the Mental Bank Concept, Dr. Kappas observed. “Only 30 percent of adults will ever change their original script. Everyone else passes the pattern on. To change the behavior, you must change the subconscious script,” he warned.

I have been following the Mental Bank Concept since 2004, and it does work. The more subconscious and conscious work I do to achieve my goals, the more self-confident I feel every time I accomplish one and the greater the tangential (monetary) rewards I receive. For more information about The Mental Bank Concept, check out the video link at http://www.hypnosis.edu/streaming/#Mental-Bank-Program.

Contact me today at (661) 433-9430 or send e-mail to calminsensehypnosis@yahoo.com to set up an appointment to experience how hypnotherapy and the Mental Bank Concept can help you achieve your goals. I will provide your first Mental Bank Ledger to help you get you started!

 

 

 

 

 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®, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/

Be the Author of Your Life!

 (This blog was originally posted on December 23, 2013)

 

 

 

At birth, the mind is essentially a blank slate.  As a newborn, it was hard-wired with only two reactions:  fear of loud noises and fear of falling. Everything you experienced during the first eight years of life is particularly influential on how you perceive and interact with the world.  The puppy that licked your face when you were three inspired your love for small animals; you still remember getting burned when you touched a hot stove while your mom was cooking dinner, and prefer to use the microwave if you have to prepare food.

Every behavior or belief that you learn during those formative years becomes rooted in your subconscious mind, and each of those experiences helps to create the “mental script” you will likely follow all of your life—or, until you decide to rewrite that script. For example, perhaps your decision as a teen-ager to “try out” smoking cigarettes in order to be like (or fit in with) your friends became a lifelong, pack-a-day habit.  But you can decide, today, to become a permanent non-smoker—or overcome a fear of flying, resolve fears/phobias, increase self-confidence, lose weight, manage chronic pain or whatever behavior you want to change. Hypnotherapy can help you do it.

Hypnosis is an effective, drug-free therapeutic tool that works by accessing the subconscious mind, which resists changing familiar or known behavior, and replacing behaviors that no longer work with those that will enable you to achieve your new goals.  It has been used as a therapeutic tool for centuries, and contrary to some popular beliefs, hypnosis is not a vehicle of remote mind-control.  During hypnosis, the body is very comfortable and completely relaxed.  You are conscious, alert and very aware of what is going on around you, perhaps more so than during your normal “waking” state.  You can hear and respond to everything.  You cannot be made to say or do anything that conflict with your personal, ethical standards and desires.

As a certified hypnotherapist and master in therapeutic guided imagery, I am dedicated to helping you achieve your therapeutic goals through the process of hypnosis.  All therapy is conducted in a safe, comfortable environment, and I follow the standards for complete confidentiality as outlined in the ethical guidelines of the American Counseling Association for the conduct of counseling therapists are observed at all times.  For more information and to make an appointment, call me at (661) 433-9430 or send e-mail to calminsensehypnosis@yahoo.com. 

 

 

 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®, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

© 2014