Part 1- How I Discovered my Inner Guide
For many years, I had treated my patients with the therapeutic methods that I had learned: psychiatry (which involved psychotherapy and the use of psychiatric medications) and psychoanalysis. But I then was referred a new patient who had Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly known as Multiple Personality Disorder). In studying how to help this patient, I learned that hypnosis was a useful modality.
Learning about Hypnosis and Self-hypnosis
I attended a conference at the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis (composed of doctors, dentists, nurses and social workers), where I learned that hypnosis was being used for many purposes: to stop unwanted habits (such as smoking, gambling, overspending), to ease various kinds of fears and types of pain, and to eliminate stress. I initially had trouble being hypnotized in this setting. But when I described my distress about this failure to one of the presenters during the lunch break, he sat me down and, yes! he succeeded in hypnotizing me. I will feel forever grateful to this man who took the time to help me. It's been lifechanging for me, my patients, and many others whom I've helped to acquire their own Inner Guides.
At this conference, I also learned to do self-hypnosis; and I read a book that described many different ways of entering a self-hypnotic state (a "trance" state). I chose the one that seemed the simplest.
Unusual Experiences While in Trance
I also read about one man's discovery that, while in a trance state, he could develop an imaginary council of advisors to help him. He chose people throughout history who he felt had been the most intelligent and accomplished. He found that when he had a problem, he could go into trance, ask them for their advice, and get wise and helpful answers. I also read about the "Inner Advisor Technique." One enters trance with the expectation of finding an "Inner Advisor" and an image will appear that will represent that. One can consult it for answers to questions.
My Discovery!
I thought, "Wow! This seems very far-out, incredible, seemingly impossible; but if it could be done, I sure wanted to have my own council of advisors, or my own inner advisor." So I entered trance daily for several weeks, wishing for that. But I acquired something different, something better. One day, while in trance, I saw three mental images that represented aspects of what an ideal person would be: wise, kind, and emotionally comfortable. They were aspects of a new mental pathway that had just been created in my mind; a pathway that I came to call an Inner Guide. Why was this better? Because an Inner Guide doesn't just respond to questions. It knows all of one's discomforts and problems, and is dedicated to eliminating them. Its goal is to bring one complete emotional comfort.
How Does an Inner Guide Do All That?
At the time, I didn't fully understand what an Inner Guide was, how I was able to bring it into existence, or how it functions. I learned these things only later, as my Inner Guide worked to help me understand these things and develop the theory that explains them. During this series of posts I'll explain everything to you. Before this series is over, you will have learned the answers to all of these questions, and how to create your own Inner Guide.
Next time, I'll describe many of the different ways an Inner Guide can be helpful.
If you would like to start right away to acquire your own Inner Guide, you can do so with my course, Achieving Emotional Comfort®, which is available at: go.emotionalcomfort.com/getcourse
