Hypnosis: Attracting Your Success: Mind Control, Self Hypnosis and nlp pdfdrive com

Milton Erickson
One of modern hypnosis’s most prominent contributors is Erickson, who is the
father of Ericksonian Hypnosis and also the founder of the American Society for
Clinical Hypnosis. He is remembered for his sterling contributions to the
understanding of the subconscious mind as the source of solutions to waking
dilemmas and the root of healing for psychological and psychiatric neuroses. 
Milton Erickson is notable for many reasons, but some of these are the
challenges he overcame to become such a formidable contributor to the practice
of modern day hypnosis, as well as a variety of therapeutic models in
psychology and psychotherapy. Erickson was born both color blind and
dyslexic. He was also afflicted with paralyzing polio. It was this condition
which led him to his first auto-hypnotic experience, as a boy.
On what was to be his last night on earth (according to the doctors he’d
overheard telling her mother he would be dead by morning), Erickson resolved
to see his final sunset. As he gazed out the window at the sky, lit up by the sun’s

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final, fading glory, he became aware that in doing so, he’d blocked out the tree
in the yard. He knew it was there. He just chose to see the sunset unobstructed
by the tree.
After this experience, Erickson lost consciousness for three full days. When he
awoke from his coma, he became aware of his diminished ability to
communicate, which impressed upon him the importance of being able to
communicate without words. He began observing the behavior of his large
family, noting that what was said was not always what was meant. Without the
ability to speak or move, his powers of observation became extraordinarily keen
and these extended to his observation of a baby sister, just learning to crawl. As
he watched her, willing herself to use her body to move around, he began to
wonder if he couldn’t will himself to do the same.
Erickson began to spend his days practicing a new form of entertainment –
visualization. He drew on his memories of life before being stricken with polio;
how it felt to be able to move around at will. Painstakingly, he visualized
himself doing so again, by applying his muscle memory to his will. He also
used auto-suggestion to convince himself that he would soon be able to move
and speak. Slowly, he began to regain motor ability in more and more parts of
his body. Finally, he was able to move his arms and to speak.
But he wasn’t done. Erickson’s goal was to gain full function and so, he
embarked on a punishing canoe trip. He posited that his ability to row a canoe
would eventually result in his ability to walk. He was right. Following his
ordeal, he was able to stand and eventually, to walk with the assistance of a
cane. The canoe trip was to be the basis of the therapeutic method of using
physical ordeals to overcome psychological challenges.
Later in his life, he began to experience the consequences of his forceful re-
awakening of his once paralyzed muscles. Once again, though, he was able to
overcome his incapacity by using self-hypnosis. Following his recovery,

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Erickson was sadly confined to a wheelchair, suffering from residual pain. He
controlled his pain by using the techniques he’d learned in his earlier
experiences. These experiences and Erickson’s consistent challenges to them
led to the establishment of Ericksonian Hypnosis.
It was in 1973 that Erickson’s work in the hypnosis community was to come to
wider clinical attention, with the publication of Jay Haley’s book, Uncommon
Therapy. His work became a cornerstone of modern psychotherapeutic and
psychological practice. A little boy who’d been subject to multiple life
challenges not only overcame those challenges, but wove them into a unique and
incredibly valuable tool for clinicians all over the world. Through almost
insurmountable circumstances of adversity, Erickson’s legacy grew directly
from his encounter against odds that might defeat lesser people.