Reviews: Unleash Your True Potential

The first time I listened to a recorded hypnotic session was back in the sixties. Hypnotism was then still associated with smoke and mirrors, since hypnotic demonstrations had been a mainstay of vaudeville. It was also considered somewhat sinister, due to movies like The Manchurian Candidate which associated the practice with brainwashing techniques. In many movies of the day, the sight of a hypnotherapist swinging a watch in front of a person's face was something of a cliché.

At the time, people were just beginning to realize the potential that hypnotism held for helping people rid themselves of bad habits or for recovering traumatic memories, but common everyday use of the technique was still reserved for the future. Hypnotism, like computers, existed in the 1960s, but not for the personal daily use.

The recording I heard was on an LP and was a pretty crude attempt to bring at-home self-hypnotism to John and Jane Doe. There was no music, sub-audible noise or subliminal messages, the mainstays of modern hypnotic recordings, just a male voice, presumably belonging to an experienced hypnotherapist, who kept repeating, slowly and methodically, "you are going deeper and deeper into relaxing slumber."

To his credit, he used all of the tricks of the day, like counting backwards from ten to one while assuring the listener that "with each count you will be taken deeper into relaxation." Oddly, once he supposedly had the listener sufficiently prepared for receiving positive suggestions, he dropped the ball and did nothing at all. There were no affirmations like "you are a good person" or "you deserve to succeed." He simply attempted to take the listener to a "hypnotic state," then brought them back to waking consciousness.

Listening to the album was a most unrewarding experience, leaving me with the impression there wasn't much to this hypnotism stuff. Certainly it was nothing like the movies, where a sweet and sensible everyday housewife could instantly be turned into a murderess through a single hypnotic suggestion. The recorded session left me feeling very much like Peggy Lee when she sang "Is That All There Is."

In the thirty-some years since I listened to that album, we've certainly come a long way. We now live in a world where hypnotism has become a daily part of many peoples lives. During the ensuing decades we've unlocked many of the secrets of the unconscious, and as our understanding has grown, so has our ability to use hypnotic techniques to access and enhance unconscious content.

Again, many of us use such techniques daily, without even realizing that we're practicing self-hypnotism. For example, if you're one of those people who goes through a litany of "positive affirmations" upon arising in the morning, you are hypnotizing yourself. If you've ever gone to a self-help seminar where the speaker led the group through a guided meditation, you've been part of a group hypnotism. Even prayer is considered by some to be a hypnotic act.

It turns out that audio recordings are the single most effective tool in the modern hypnotists arsenal. Research by people like Tom Kenyon, working with Duke University, has proved that certain sub-audible, computer generated sounds can actually open access to different portions of the brain with uncanny accuracy. Researchers have also developed the art of mixing subliminal affirmations to a nearly exact science. Nowadays there are a plethora of hypnotism-based self-help tapes and CDs on the shelves of any New Age store.

Although many of us are using these tapes and CDs on a daily bases, the term "hypnotism" is hardly ever used, however, partly because many of those who call themselves "hypnotists" have given the term a bad reputation. There are "meditation tapes" and "self-help tapes," all using hypnotic techniques, but hardly ever do you see a CD proclaiming itself to be a "hypnotism tape."

Because of this, I was recently a little surprised, when I received a copy of Unleash Your True Potential, a CD released by Diviniti Publishing, to see the words "hypnotherapy techniques" on the cover.

The recording is the work of British hypnotherapist Glenn Harrold, a member of the British School of Clinical Hypnosis, and the CD he's produced combines full unabashed hypnotic sessions with the best that modern audio research has given us. He uses a full bag of audio tricks to aid the listener in getting into a receptive state, then helps the listener with positive affirmations, both audible and subliminal.

I was most impressed with the project's creative use of background music. The common wisdom is that the music backing meditation tapes should be completely without a discernible rhythm, to keep the mind from focusing on the music instead of drifting into the meditation session. Harrold takes a different track and combines extremely rhythmic and up tempo music on the title track's beginning and end with more typical "New Age Muzak" during the middle of the session. The result is surprisingly effective.

Unleash Your New Potential is recommended for anyone who would like to experience a textbook hypnotherapy session. The CD can be ordered from Amazon.com.

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