Jumping to Conclusions

(This blog was originally posted on August 7, 2014)

Photo courtesy of Fotolia

Children are cautioned to not jump to any conclusions about what they might have seen or heard on the playground because it might not be accurate or true. Scientists must follow specific research guidelines when they conduct an experiment to ensure that what they observe in the lab is a legitimate result and not a fluke produced by confounding data. Criminal investigators are also expected to follow a protocol when they collect clues so they can correctly deduce not only who committed a crime but also know when and how it was done. Without this information, there can be no case to prosecute; and if the evidence is incorrect or prejudiced, the mystery will not be solved. Despite these warnings, it can be very hard to resist the temptation to fill in the blanks and provide some kind of answer to an unusual situation, even if our explanation is equally likely to be wrong. 

Two stories have been featured in the news recently that likely fall into the category of erroneous conclusions versus actual fact. Around this time last year (2014), speculation was rife that the Duchess of Cambridge might be pregnant with her second child really amped up a couple of days ago when some photographs were released that showed Kate clutching a handbag in front of her abdomen. The fact that she and Prince William were apparently planning to stay at their new home that month only added fuel to people’s new-baby theory. Why else would they stay home, right? Then, just a few weeks ago the rumor mills were at it again: having just given birth to Princess Charlotte in early May of this year, the Duchess has seemingly “disappeared” from public view. Apparently, she even missed attending a friend’s nuptials, sending her younger sister to the event as Prince William’s plus-one on the invitation. Could her absence mean she is suffering from acute morning sickness again? the tabloid headlines scream.¹

In the second story, a security camera recently filmed a grainy image of a large cat- or dog-like animal was prowling a neighborhood in Norwalk, California.² Local residents and wildlife experts have pitched different explanations for the creature: it’s a cougar; no it’s a large dog; uh-uh, it’s an African lion that escaped from the zoo, and so on. Television viewers and social media are also discussing a possible identity of the mystery animal; I have even heard speculations about it being a cross between a large dog and a mountain lion (unlikely). Having said that, at the time I wrote that blog no one had identified the animal. One biologist speculated that it could even be an African lion, which someone is keeping illegally as an exotic pet. Then, on July 22, 2015 reports surfaced that a large cat—also possibly an African lion—was prowling the neighborhood streets of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.³ Human mythology is rife with tales about mysterious creatures of the night. It is fun to imagine what this one is and how it got here. We ultimately may learn that it is just a very large dog that jumped out of its yard, or a mountain lion that came down from wherever to scavenge for food and water. However, the grainy quality of the surveillance video combined with the eerie night lighting and the ambiguous form prowling around a peaceful neighborhood set our imaginations into overdrive. The fact that no one knew what it was gave us license to imagine what it could be.

I am fascinated with these stories not because of their content, but how people react and respond to them. I am interested in which message units and subconscious knowns these news reports trigger in us that we want to look for reasons, information and explanations to support our beliefs about what is really going on in these situations. Not knowing something or not having a believable explanation is uncomfortable, even painful. As John Kappas, Ph.D. explained in his Theory of Mind, the subconscious mind will default to a story or mental script that it already knows and is comfortable with to avoid the discomfort of not knowing, said the Hypnosis Motivation Institute founder. This is true even when the conscious mind also doubts that this script is accurate. The mindset seems to be, “Well, that’s our story, and we’re sticking to it,” regardless of the facts. “The truth is out there,” as they used to say in The X-Files. Well, it’s out there somewhere.

Stay tuned…

1. Where Is Kate Middleton? http://www.eonline.com/news/687906/where-is-kate-middleton-on-the-trail-of-the-missing-royal-wedding-guest

2. Big Cat Prowling Streets of Norwalk, CA: http://blogs.discovery.com/animal_oddities/2014/08/is-an-african-lion-roaming-the-city-streets.html

3. Big Cat Prowling Streets of Milwaukee, WI: www.foxnews.com/us/2015/07/23/milwaukee...report-lion-roaming-streets

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

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 Primitive Fear

(This blog was originally posted on July 31, 2014)

Photo courtesy of Microsoft

     I was born and spent the first few years of my life in the Midwest. I can still remember the way the clouds turned pea-green, almost the color of bile, in a summer sky just before they erupted into a big thunderstorm. There is nothing like the booming and cracking sounds of thunder during one of those Super-Cell thunder storms, and I was terrified of that thunder. My mother would comfort me when I got scared; when I got a little older she taught me how to count the seconds between flashes of lightning and the rumble of thunder so I could determine how far away the storm was getting. At the time, this technique gave me an illusion of having control over the weather, I guess. It was certainly distracting—at least until a burst of thunder crackled at the same time a bright fork of lightning lit the sky brighter than the sunniest day. That combination was too much for me and would send me diving under my covers or under a bed for protection.

 

    John Kappas, Ph.D., the founder of the Hypnosis Motivation Institute, postulated that people learn every one of their beliefs and behaviors except for two: a fear of loud noises and a fear of falling. This leaves us plenty of opportunity to learn how to manage these reactions—or not. Maybe. Sort of? Since I completed my hypnotherapy training at HMI, I realize that my original fear of storms was originally a phobia since, at the time, I had never personally experienced lethal danger from a big storm. First, I watched those programs on television when I was probably less than eight years old. I would have been very suggestible at that age since the capacity for logic, powers of reasoning, decision-making and will-power had still not fully developed in my conscious mind. Combine that factor with the natural fear of loud noises with which everyone is born, I was understandably terrified by what I saw happen/heard about happening during big storms. It would be a natural next step to develop a phobia about them. Like kids tend to do, I would try to distract myself from my distress during severe weather with cookies and milk or by eating a bowl of ice cream during a storm. Ironically—and unbeknownst to me at that time—I was more likely exacerbating my symptoms of anxiety when I turned to these sugary snacks for comfort. (For more information about the relationship between nutrition and development of a phobia, check out my blog titled Nutrition and Development of Phobias.)

    Just when I was finally almost over my fear, I happened to watch two television shows that featured a thunderstorm in the story-line. The first was a movie about Frankenstein’s monster, or it had something to do with Frankenstein, but not the original story. I stopped watching the show right after the scene in which a prisoner was hoisted to the top of a mast on a ship during a thunderstorm: lightning flashed, thunder boomed and then only a skeleton remained where the prisoner’s body had been. Equally traumatic for me was an episode of the 1960s’ television series, Please Don’t Eat the Daisies. In it, the main characters sit out a tremendous storm called “The Big Train.” During this storm, which occurs every 10 years according to the legend, someone “disappears” and is never heard from or seen again. The family survived the event unscathed, but not my nerves. These shows almost permanently derailed my progress to overcome this fear.

    Another thing that really helped to ameliorate my anxiety during and about storms—which I actually started to do back then—was to learn about how, when and why they formed. When I found out that the sound of thunder is a by-product of lightning and not the other way around, the loud noise stopped scaring me so much. I pored over information about them in Encyclopedia Britannica; I watched documentaries about extreme weather on Leonard Nimoy’s In Search of series. Eventually, after repeated virtual exposure (systematic desensitization) to big storms via television documentaries about them, my fear turned to fascination and even exhilaration when I heard thunder. I learned which precautions I should take during a storm—stay indoors and away from windows, avoid using electric appliances, don’t swim or take a bath or shower, etc., so I could stay safe during them. (I still haven’t worked up the nerve to find out if that legend about The Big Train is more than an urban myth, though.)

      During the summer, even Southern California gets its share of extreme weather. Electric storms typically pop up in the local mountains and deserts, triggering flash floods and warnings about severe weather that could affect nearby regions. Occasionally, these storms also hit valley and beach communities; and on July 27, 2014, lighting killed one person and injured twelve others at Venice Beach when a freak storm blew in from the ocean. That news chilled me to the bone and instantly revived my old anxiety about being caught in thunderstorms. I have even had a few close calls myself. The first time, I was riding in a car when forked lightning almost hit the hood (bonnet) of the vehicle, thus transforming my phobia into a legitimate fear of thunder storms. The second time, a bolt struck a commuter jet I was flying in to Chicago. Obviously, I survived both events and was apparently never in any real danger either time. But the people who were affected by the storm that hit that Southern California beach community a few days ago were not so lucky, and I am truly sorry for their pain and unspeakable loss.

               

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/

(2015)