Not for Naught

"It works. It actually works!"

That was my first thought when I was working with a friend last night, doing some basic hypnosis trance stuff, to help him concentrate and relax a bit... and then I decided we were going to work together to rid him of his unrealistic phobia of Spiders. (Okay. Maybe HE decided to be my guinea-human for the sake of experimentation. Besides, the worst that could happen is he would feel relaxed, but still be scared of spiders.)

See, prior to working with me, he had a phobia of spiders severe enough that he wouldn't want to even touch a picture of one. Seeing a picture would have him start being apprehensive, and have feelings of fear, and anxiety.

Now the good thing about a fear is that it's immediately testable. You can't really "fake" a phobia. Either you're afraid or not, but if you are, it's easy to test.

Anyway, using a combination of swish pattern, and the 15 minute phobia cure (Bandler), within 20 minutes I had him touching and looking close up to a picture on my TV, the nastiest, uglyiest spider I could find readily on the internet.

And without apprehension.

What was hilarious though, after we were done, he said:
   "They're still ugly."

I can't say I am in love with spiders, but I'm not nearly as afraid as he was, but I was feeling quite pleased with myself, being able to actually make a change... And give him a tool he can use if he ever feels threatened.

Now just to clarify - I didn't remove ALL fear of spiders. We're supposed to fear them, mostly because they have a tendency to be deadly if you find the wrong type. Around here, they're not really an issue, but the further south you go, into warmer climates... They can get incredibly dangerous. (Tree-dwelling Funnel spider, Brown Recluse, Black Widow, Red-Back spider, and Brizallian Wandering spider, Linky for more info)

But I digress.

The point overall here was that this stuff WORKS. It was just theory to me, lots of reading, lots of videos, watching, and observing. I even tried it on a basic level to myself and it did work to a degree (The degree to which it was effective was directly proportional to how hard I tried and followed the steps in order; I didn't try that hard but I can tolerate the presence of bees now)

Now that I've found an actual usage, and a working solution... and actually practiced/employed my skills that I didn't fully know I had... I have confidence that it actually works, and that I can be effective and make change.

Little by little, I'm taking over the world getting more confident in my ability to help others.

Maybe finding someone who wants to quit smoking is next? Who knows.

30 Nerd goes live

Not too much here yet, but I've decided to launch a new blog that is a sort of online web diary of my experiences with Rubik's cubing, NLP/Hypnosis, Psychology, Human Sociology, Music, Magic, Computers, Fitness and weightloss, and just about everything else in between I feel like writing about.

So why 30Nerd? Well, I turn 30 soon, and while it's the end of a decade for me, it's the beginning of another. Hopefully the next decade will allow me to accomplish more than the last.

And I'm a nerd. Duh.

Since I haven't a good source of information about anything just yet, I WILL post something I think is awesome and call it a day:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_z5yIdA3iHw

It's pretty straightforward on how it's done, though I can't help but think how amazing it would be to do this to others for "fun" :)