Story of Hope & Perseverance

The crowd stood mesmerized as the ball soared through the night sky.  It arrived gently in the hands of a Newtown High School wide receiver who scored as time expired to deliver a stunning state football championship for a town still deeply wounded.

   

The holiday season remains a solemn time for the 28,000 residents of Newtown, Connecticut.  It has been seven years since the horrific and unimaginable shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.   

Many of the players on the Newtown High School football team attended Sandy Hook.  The brother of the team’s star linebacker was a victim.

This championship – the school’s first in more than 25 years – ignited a sense of pride and perseverance in the Newtown community.  Riley Ward, the player who caught the touchdown pass, told the Hartford Courant, “I couldn’t have asked for anything more.  I love this town.  I love everybody.  I’m at a loss for words.”

For me, the story of Newtown High School’s victory is a reminder of hope.  That even in such divisive times it is our ability to rise, to love everybody, that defines who we are.      

The Hausman family wishes you a wonderful holiday.

Pilot Project Helps Young Patients Change the Expectation

Here is a link to an interesting article about a pilot project at a Canadian hospital in which hypnosis is employed to ease the stress and tension patients typically experience with common imaging procedures.

 

The positive results are consistent with what I’ve found when sharing the practice of self-hypnosis.  The expectation of pain and discomfort is often as powerful as the actual pain and discomfort.   

Hypnosis empowers a person to change the expectation.  

Montreal Children’s Hospital Uses Medical Hypnosis to Reduce Anxiety, Pain

Canadian Press (December 2019)

In Hypnosis Is There Really a "Sunken Place?"

In November I had the opportunity to speak about and demonstrate hypnosis as an altered state of consciousness to psychology students at Richard Montgomery High School, Sandy Spring Friends School, Clarksburg High School, Sherwood High School, Northwest High School, Our Lady of Good Counsel High School, and Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School.  It was an awesome experience as I had more than 250 students volunteer to try hypnosis.

During my introductory remarks I mention the misconceptions created about hypnosis in movies and television.  One of the films I cite is the 2017 film Get Out, written and directed by Jordan Peele.

While the hypnotic induction is compelling and realistic, the ability to compel someone to act against their beliefs (i.e. The Sunken Place) is not.  Here is a link to a blog post I published in March 2017 that explores the use of hypnosis as a critical dramatic element in the film:

How Real is the Hypnosis Scene in the Movie Get Out

I’ve included below a video of Get Out’s hypnosis, along with the actual script from the movie.  Take a few minutes to watch the video.  Do you think hypnosis could ever take a person to the Sunken Place?