All right. First off, my apologies for disappearing for so long. I got distracted for a bit by other things and wound up neglecting my online efforts for a while. Some of those distractions are promising in both the professional and personal levels, though, so in the long run, worth it.

Starting tomorrow at noon Pacific Time, I'm going to be doing a show on ustream.tv. I'm loosely going to have a theme of priming, minimal cues and intuition--in other words, the kind of thing discussed in the book Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell. This is the slot Wendi normally does her show, and I'm being a bit opportunistic (hope you don't mind, Wendi!) and taking advantage of her not doing her show this week due to a large project she's working on.

I'm planning on Tuesday through Friday for this, barring any unforeseen changes or developments. Also, this will only be this week. For now. I'm going to be out of town next week and the week after.

Also, my friend Michael White has asked me to host his monthly meetup on Wednesday night, as he has another engagement.

Now for the "and more" part.

I'm planning on moving to Michigan at the beginning of next month. Various reasons behind this: one of which is I'll be much closer to my girlfriend. Yes, I met someone online and it's incredible how well-matched we seem to be. Will this hold true when we can physically be together? I certainly hope so.

And that leads me to the last part of this post. If any Michigan area hypnotists out there would like to take me under their wing and help me get started out there, I'd greatly appreciate it. Knowing what the laws are, etc. would be very useful. Heck, if you could use an extra hand with your caseload, I'd be more than willing to help out and work something out with you.

Joshua

PS. http://www.ustream.tv/channel/FiregoldTV is the URL for the show I'll doing tomo--later today now. Also, I'm twittering now. Look for me: firegold21 is my user name there.

Okay, so here's a potentially new way for you to change your self-talk. This idea arose while attending Wendi Friesen's "radio" show earlier today: she asked us how we changed our negative self-talk and I remembered a process I do for something different that could be adapted to this purpose. Wendi liked it so much she made it the "homework" for the group today (she's going through manifesting all week this week, so if that's something that interests you, be sure to drop by tomorrow at noon Pacific).

So what is this wonderful process? Let me explain how I currently use it first, and then get to using it for self-talk.

This was originally a memory technique, for remember phone numbers to call later or other short bits of information. For example, I'd be driving on the freeway, listening to the radio, and I'd hear an ad I wanted to follow up on. Only problem is, I can't write while driving (that's not a safe thing to do) and I'm not in the habit of bringing a voice recorder with me (and the few times I've tried, I often can't understand what I said, and I tend to forget to check the thing when I get home). So instead, I write a "mental note" and file it in a "For Later Recall" slot.

Here's my specific visualization for that. I see a piece of paper, note-sized, kinda parchment-like. The whole scene is lit in a soft golden glow. I see the letters of the message forming as though they were being written, and sometimes I imagine the pen as well. Once I have the entire message there (and I look at it as a whole when done to "cement" the message on the paper), the paper is folded, then slid into a slot on the wall labeled "For Later Recall" or "To Remember When You Get Home" or "To Recall After 5 PM" or ... you get the idea.

Then I stop thinking about it.

This does work; I've used it many times to remember a number and name from a radio ad and had the recall hours later. The reasoning behind seeing the letters forming as opposed to "just there" is that it makes it more real, in a way, more permanent.

Now, how to turn this into a reprogramming tool? If you're as smart as I think you are, you're probably ahead of me on this. Write the new self-talk message down on the paper and put it in a slot marked "For Reprogramming" or whatever works for you.

It may take a little practice to get this process down, or it may start working immediately. I don't know which will happen, but I do know it will have a positive effect on you.

Okay, enough with the double binds already. I haven't tried using it this way yet, but I will do so tonight before going to bed. Given its success as a memory technique, however, I do feel confident it'll work for this as well ... don't you? ;)

Joshua

PS. As you no doubt noticed, this is a very visual process. It can easily be modified for the other modalities, I think; for auditory, you could "imagine" instead of visualizing and add in the audio of the message, with maybe a bank teller voice accepting the new program "for deposit" or something. For kinesthetic, *feel* the pen writing the message, the texture of the paper, the smoothness of the wall and the gap where the slot is, etc., while "imagining" the visual aspects. Heck, even if you're visual, throw in the other stuff, too! The more senses involved, the better, right? :D

Okay. I'm back from the Walkabout Trance Beach Resort Getaway and I think a review is in order. But before that, I need to apologize for my most recent post; I didn't get a product up in time. I'd intended to, but didn't quite get anything finished before I left.

Now for the review. Hypnoticon was fun, though it definitely was a mixed group. It was an inclusive event, so people from all walks were there: recreational, stage, clinical, metaphysical. All in all, everyone got along and treated each other with respect and learned from each other. Which was, after all, the entire point.

There was a workshop on balancing different aspects that had useful information; even if you're not into the more recreational aspects, many people do a combination of stage and clinical. And it's important to decide which one is more important to you, and which one you'd be willing to sacrifice if you had to. Also, you need to decide on your level of openness. Are you comfortable with people knowing both aspects, or do you need one or the other to be more private?

The first day of the convention had a beginner track and an advanced track. The advanced track was taught by Brian David Phillips and included several of his instant inductions, along with an exercise for coming up with an induction on the spot. This exercise was a lot of fun.

Take 5 to 7 people and line them in two lines facing each other (like this: ---> <----). One of the two people in the front of the lines is the hypnotist and the other is the "trance partner" (Brian's preferred term). One of the other people in the line is the "challenger," who comes up with an everyday object, idea, concept, etc. (or a specific induction to use, depending on how you want to work it), then the hypnotist has a limited amount of time to start talking and complete the process. For example, start talking within 15 seconds, and the whole process takes less than 3 minutes.

There were some ... creative inductions invented during this exercise. One group had a "jock strap" induction. Not sure how practical that is, but ... ;)

During the lunch break, we broke off to do walkabout trance sessions. This didn't go too well, as pretty much everyone went to the same place for lunch, so the waitresses were too busy taking care of us hypnotists to have the time to be hypnotized.

Saturday and Sunday were the other workshops and seminars. Tom Vizzini gave a 2 hour seminar on his 3D Mind process, which was interesting. John Cerbone and Richard Nongard gave a 2 hour seminar on their Speed Trance techniques and were very entertaining. There were several stage shows in the evening, as well.

Now to the Walkabout Trance event I just got back from. This was held in Hermosa Beach, CA, and was also very fun. In some ways, it was a repeat of Brian's advanced track at Hypnoticon, only more in depth. This one had more therapists than recreational hypnotists, I think, so the atmosphere was a bit different.

This time, when we broke for the walkabout sessions, things actually happened. That may have been partially because of the different environment (on a beach full of young people, and in an area open to the "woo-woo") and partially because Brian learned his lesson from Hypnoticon and did *not* arrange for a particular establishment to expect us.

So we didn't all go to the same place this time. ;)

I would have loved more time going around doing the hands-on stuff, personally, but I had a great time down there nonetheless. I got to meet some of the people I've only known online; Seth-Deborah, Stephanie Rothman, and others. And I got to see Wendi again, which is always fun. I even went clubbing with Wendi Saturday night! :o

I'd recommend attending either of these if they're offered again. I know Hypnoticon is planned to be done again next year, and I don't know for sure about the Walkabout Trance event. Great people and great tips and techniques.

Joshua

As you may have noticed when you logged in, I just posted a new event: the Walkabout Trance Beach Resort Getaway. Long name, but sure to be fun times. There's intensive training and hands-on practice in instant and rapid inductions as taught by Brian David Phillips of http://briandavidphillips.com. If you've never experienced Brian's method of teaching and aren't registered for this event, you're really missing out.

I just got back from Hypnoticon in Atlanta. Hypnoticon is an event that you wouldn't find at the NGH, as it's an inclusive event. That means there were people from all walks in the "World of Hypnosis" there, including "recreational hypnosis." This event was put on by David Fontenot and Brian David Phillips and, frankly, it was a blast.

Brian did a full-day accelerated review of hypnotic techniques on Friday, while there was a beginner's track in the room next door. The accelerated review introduced an excellent practice technique that I'd highly recommend.

The practice technique is based on the idea that *anything* can be an induction. Anything.

You take an odd number of people and line them up in two lines pointed in opposite directions: --> <---. The two people immediately facing each other take the role of Hypnotist and Subject. The person in back of the Subject is the Challenger. The Challenger then names an object, concept, idea, whatever and the Hypnotist has then 15 seconds to start an induction incorporating that word/concept and the entire session can't take more than about 45 seconds. Afterward, the Hypnotist and Subject move to the end of the line facing them and the next pair goes.

The Challenger can also name a specific induction to be used.

This is a fun, fast-moving exercise and really ingrains the hypnotic process.

I also got to meet, briefly, Josh Houghton there. He wasn't registered, but he came by and showed up for a bit anyway. If you're reading this post, Josh, hi!

I got a lot out of Hypnoticon and I fully expect to get a lot out of the Walkabout Trance event this weekend, as well. However, there's an unfortunate chance that I might not be able to attend. I was unemployed from my regular job last year, as I believe I've mentioned before, and so wasn't able to get my airfare purchased on the schedule I'd planned for.

Actually, I wasn't able to get the airfare for this until this week, and I haven't yet because the airfare is now last minute airfare and like 2-2.5 times what is affordable for me.

There are a couple reasons I want to still find a way to attend: Wendi Friesen will be there, and I'll get to see her again; I'll get footage I can put on YouTube and help drive traffic to my site; I'll be working with Wendi on a possible reality TV show idea (she wants to come up with a pitch video); and it'll be just plain fun. This will help me out in my business, basically, both in getting more training in speedy hypnotic inductions and some wonderful trance techniques (Brian has some excellent material that he uses both in the walkabout setting and with clients), as well as in getting more advertising and networking.

So my goal is to get a couple hundred or more in my PayPal account so I can use that to take some of the sting from my bank account. As soon as I'm off here, I'm going to go work on some "$7 products" and another MP3 session for my site.

Can I count on you guys to point people at that stuff, if you think they'd be interested? I'd greatly appreciate any help you can provide in that regard. My website URL is http://firegoldhypnosis.com

Joshua

PS. Before anyone asks, yes, I did sign up for Cal's affiliate program. I only *just* signed up, however, so haven't had the chance for it to succeed yet.

Yep. I finally got my first audio product on my website. It took a lot longer than I thought it would, but I got it done. Yay!

There's one problem, though. I used a YouTube video for it as well and embedded it into the page. In IE 7, it displays properly. In Firefox, however, the page seems to display oddly. I'm hoping it's just me, as if it's not, that means I need to fiddle around with the blog template code. And I'd really rather not do that right now.

If anyone here is willing to take a look and test things for me, I'd greatly appreciate it. I'd love comments on all aspects of it: the video, the sales page (admittedly short and hurried), the PayPal sales process, and the product itself.

To make it easier and as a way of saying 'thanks' to anyone who helps me out, I've given the product a $20 discount for this weekend only.

What is the product? Glad you asked. ;) It was inspired by this weekend, actually. It's called You Have a Dream and contains a morning session and an evening session, both designed to help you find (or re-find) your dream, your passion.

Because, as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. showed, a powerful dream can accomplish wonders.

Joshua