May 20, 2002
Something to think about from Dr. Wil Horton
Captain's Chair: After talking with many of you, we will be bringing back the regular newsletter. We thought people preferred the e-zine versus a paper newsletter. (That's what we get for thinking!) The quarterly newsletter will go out in June to all of our current members. If you are not sure if you are a current member check your membership certificate or call us and we will check. We are always looking for ways to improve our service to our members; check the web site for new changes and coming soon there will be a new format for our directory of practitioners.
In the first part of this year we gave out over 100 referrals to our members. When I am on the road, I get a lot of people wanting more "private" sessions, so we refer them to our current members. Check our directory to make sure your info is up to date. Let us know if you have any ideas on ways to help our members.
From the Road: Shark Diving and FEAR. This month it is a pleasure to talk about an experience I had "on the road". With the stop smoking/weight loss seminars over for the time being, my wife and I took off for a much-anticipated Scuba diving, sailing trip. We stayed a week on the Blackbeard ship, "Morning Star". We highly recommend this excellent, professional dive organization. We had not had a vacation in nearly five years and my wife found it was sheer joy to have their excellent cook serve us some of the best meals we've ever eaten. They even worked around my wife's many food allergies. (We will not comment on how many pounds we put on from the excellent meals.) Many of you can appreciate a vacation involving no cooking or cleaning. We left from Miami and sailed to the Bahamas for a week of diving. The highlight of my trip was the Shark Dive. As usual, my wife's and my tastes differ. Her highlight was the pod of dolphins who escorted our boat on the return crossing.) I had been looking forward to the shark dive for nearly a year when we first planned this trip. The shark dive is where you get to be a part of a unique, natural experience, the feeding frenzy. You dive down to 50 feet and settle on the bottom, shoulder to shoulder with the other divers. It is in a beautiful arena-like reef, with lots of other fish. Then the dive master brings down a line of cut fish, and the sharks do their thing. Before the start of the dive, the instructions were quite clear." Settle to the bottom, get next to the person next to you, don't move, and watch. Only move when they, the staff, tell you to move, then do what they say. The crew does this dive every week, and the sharks are ready, they have been trained, much as Pavlov's dogs, see divers and get food. According to the crew this gets to be a rather routine dive, but it can be dangerous, and they do have you sign a release.
Well, this dive started in the usual fashion, but when the feeding started, the largest shark, around 8-10 feet, got caught in the line. A loop had opened up in the cable allowing the shark's head to slip through and then tighten around its gills. It dragged the mooring rock like a pebble. The other sharks followed along because the fish was still on the line. The sharks were swimming among us. It was an experience. The crew literally chased after the shark in an attempt to cut the line and free the shark, but each time they approached it, the shark went into a frenzy. We aborted the dive and the crew gave us instructions to go up SLOWLY. The slow ascent would assure no decompression problems, as well as not draw any shark's attention. So the group followed the instructions and we all moved slowly upwards, among the sharks. We didn't know it was a bad situation until the crew was back on board and you could see they were visably shaken up. I have a lot of respect for the crew. They had already proven their experience and professionalism on all of our other dives, but now they demonstrated that they had caring hearts. They searched the waters quite some time hoping to find the shark and free it.
The reason I bring this up is, unexpected things happen to all of us, and it is our reaction that matters. How do you act and react? Divers say, "Plan your dive, and dive your plan." Warriors say, "You fight like you practice." Your ongoing training is very important. If you stay calm, you are more resourceful. Your training will get you through. Not all Hypnotists and NLPers are equal. How do you handle these unexpected fears?
On a personal note, I used less air on this dive than any other (which is a good thing!) I got lost in the experience and actually slowed my breathing down. I stayed centered and focused. I used my Circle of Excellence, and all of my zone anchors. I knew I would use this as a teaching tool. In fact, the next weekend I taught part of a self-defense class for women, and I talked about turning fear into power.
Last March, I went to a Karate competition, and my match was against a gentleman who was 6'2" and around 230. (I am 5'8" and 170) He was also 12 years younger. So bigger, stronger, faster, and younger. Sounds like a learning experience to me. What could I do? Learn a lot about myself. Sparing, or Kumite as we call it, is for you to see how well you do, the competition is secondary . I did OK I lost 2 1/2 to 1 1/2. I also took a Gold medal in weapons, and a 4th in Kata. Not bad considering I travel 2 weeks out of the month. I went to the event to see how I handled not being at my best. Just doing it to learn. I will do the same this weekend. I do not want fear to control me.
Theory into Practice: Star Wars and telling a story. As you can guess I was at the premier midnight showing of the new Star Wars movie. Most of you know I am an avid Star Wars and Star Trek fan. I am also known as a great storyteller. I am always asked how I became a master of the metaphor. Well to become a master storyteller, you have to be a person who can get lost in a story yourself. Why do I ask that my students to watch movies? Star Wars, Star Trek, Joe vs. the Volcano, are a few that can get your metaphor juices going. Also, watching movie releases some of that inner child-like creativity we all need. (Yes, the new movie is great! It is the best Star Wars since "The Empire Strikes Back," and it also reveals the events that led Darth Vader into his personality. It also starts to close a lot of "nested loops" that were started 25 years ago. Now, that is a long metaphor!)
Something a little more clinical:
I recently got part of an article from Scientific American, and in it there was a study done where they had a subject experience pain (hand on a hot plate), then they mapped which neurons in the brain fired in response to the pain. They then gave the subject a shot of a painkiller and mapped the response. Later they repeated it but instead of a painkiller they gave H20 and the same neurons were affected as in the drug response. So a placebo actually does affect the brain. Can the brain be "tricked" into pain relief? Does this mean we can use "altered states" to change the brain chemistry? Next time, more on hypnosis and pain control.
Techniques and Tips:
This technique comes from one of our newest trainers, Dr. Russell K. Elleven. It is called, "A Forgiving Goodbye." I used a version of it recently with good results for a man to release some negative parenting issues.
"A Forgiving Goodbye"