Ericksonian Hypnosis - Covert Hypnosis
One evening, a group of friends and I were having dinner at a local restaurant. Our waiter was very distracted and he appeared to be agitated and depressed. He was abrupt, slow and unfriendly. As a result, our service left a great deal to be desired. Since I wanted to have an enjoyable evening, I decided to "talk funny" to him in order to help him feel better.
As he walked by our table holding a coffee pot, I touched his arm and said, "I'm sorry that you forgot that special night ... with that special person ... those exciting things that happened ... those very warm feelings that would embarrass you to talk about ... since we are all strangers."
For a moment his face went blank; he looked up to his left; his face then lift up and he said, "How do you know about that?"He then smiled and began to laugh, and his whole attitude changed as if by magic. He said, "Hathaway was some night. I don't know how you know about it."
The next time he came to our table, I said to him, "Wasn't it simply amazing that when you remember those happy, warm feelings, your attitude continues to change, and you continue to feel even better?"
We received a delightful service throughout the rest of the evening. What was even nicer, was that as we left he told us that we were one of the nicest parties he had ever waited on. He also asked us to be sure and ask for him whenever we returned.
Now, I have absolutely no idea as to what he hallucinated, but my communication resulted in his going back into his own history. He then found an experience that filled in the blanks, and that memory helped him to change his whole attitude in a matter of seconds. Of course, there's no such thing as hypnosis, and if there is, he should have gone deeper and deeper into a trance.
From the book "Monsters and Magical Sticks"
Monsters and Magical Sticks:There is no such thing as hypnosis?
by Steven Heller, Ph.D. and Terry Steele
Steve Heller, together with the help of his friend and colleague Terry Steele, has provided readers with a dynamic and brilliant entrance into a magical world within each of us - a world where it is believed our true abilities, inner learnings, and healing resources reside. Through the use of humor, metaphor, and enlightening case examples, Heller takes us far beyond the conscious world of what we "think" and "perceive" reality to be and stretches our minds into the dimension known as the unconscious.