Do What You Are Told

Nearly 100 years after the death of Copernicus, the great Mathematician and Scientist who challenged the world’s belief about our planetary system, Galileo Galilei (1564 – 1642) stood trial before the inquisition for heresy.  He had published a book defying the Roman Catholic Church’s edict of 1616 that forbade anyone from supporting Copernicus’ view that the planets including the Earth orbited the Sun.  He was found guilty of heresy and sentenced to life imprisonment.  The book that Galileo wrote was written for the layman and in language everyone could understand.  It was called Dialogue concerning the Two Chief World Systems by Ptolemy and Copernicus.

Galileo was forced to sign a confession renouncing his ideas and he had to do so on bended knees with his hands on the bible.  He is however, remembered more for something he said under his breath as he rose from signing the confession than for allowing himself to bow before the authority in Rome.  His words were, “Eppur si muove”, which means “And still it moves”.

The vast majority of people in this world live their lives content to do what they are told. Some do so without question and there are others who do so unhappily. The end result is the same. By doing what we are told we condone and support the belief of the authority we obey. Galileo was a genius and recognised as such by all who came after him. Yet Galileo, like most of us, bowed to external authority. He did continue to write about his ideas in direct defiance of the church but he publicly renounced all his findings in exchange for something he held more dearly ... his life.

The authority we obey in our normal everyday lives is our belief system. We are not allowed to entertain any ideas that do not conform to our world view. We only take seriously those people who share our beliefs and fight with anyone who disagrees with our beliefs. We attract only experiences which reinforce and affirm our view of the world and reject or ignore the rest. If we believe something to be true then any experience that appears to contradict our conviction will be dismissed or even attacked. In the therapeutic setting the therapist is treating a condition based on the person’s belief about the condition. In many cases it is not always the disease that kills a person but the belief that person holds about the disease. In hypno-psychotherapy the client’s beliefs about his condition are questioned without the “inquisition” of critical factor present. The critical factor is that part of us which is always analysing every experience we have and checking to see if it fits in with our belief system. By using hypnosis to temporarily suspend the critical factor we can access the subconscious and suggest new ways of seeing things. Without the critical factor in place we are open to entertain suggestions that would normally have been dismissed as heresy and change the belief that is creating our dis-ease. Psychotherapy without using hypnosis is still a very effective way to address illnesses caused by the mind but takes much longer. The psychotherapist is always endeavouring to reach the client through a wall of defences as formidable as an army’s.

I have treated many people over the years using a combination of Hypnotherapy and Psychotherapy and following are just a few of the conditions I have successfully treated:

Depression, Panic Attacks, anxiety, Sleeping Difficulties, Post Traumatic Stress, Lack of Confidence, Fears and Phobias, Irritable Bowel, Eating Disorders (including Anorexia, Bulimia & being overweight), Sexual Problems (including Erectile Dysfunction).

Gallileo is like most of us on this planet. We tend to get on with things though a lot of the time we may not agree or support the system or institution we work for. We complain to each other and many of us just do our own thing but never actually standing up for what we believe in and refusing to comply with demands we see as unreasonable. Some of us remain in loveless marriages or jobs we hate. Like Gallileo we are afraid and our fear prevents us from doing what we truly want to do. We may believe that we don’t deserve any better or that we have invested too much of ourselves to walk away now. Gallileo died at the age of 88 serving his life sentence. This is how many of us end our lives in self imposed life imprisonment.

The mind is causing the problem so in order to achieve freedom we must learn how to use the mind to serve us. It is in mastering the mind that we learn to really live and receive all the rewards that life wants to give us. Gallileo muttered under his breath in defiance because he feared for his life. Who is going to burn you at the stake for claiming your happiness and peace of mind?