Welcome to TRANCE TUESDAY-- GRAY MAGIC

You're driving down the highway, heading home . . . It's a nice day . . . balmy . . . a lot of sun . . .  in an otherwise blue sky . . . The aroma of freshly cut grass . . . the last cut of the season . . . wafts through your window . . . bringing back a memory . . . lost in time. You glance to the left . . . as a silver car passes . . . The driver reminds you . . . of a person you once loved.

Suddenly . . . you can smell her freshly washed hair . . . feel her love . . . hear her voice . . .   see her face . . . You're walking . . . arm-in-arm . . . The full moon illuminates the path . . . an owl hoots . . . you talk about something you both cherished.    

By the time you finish revisiting that memory, you're safely home, yet no matter how hard you try, you can't remember getting off at the proper exit, or making that right turn at the light, or negotiating the traffic circle, though you know you must have done those things.                                                                          

How many times have you had a similar experience?

I call that phenomenon gray magic—the ability to operate efficiently and simultaneously at two independent tasks, one conscious, the other unconscious—otherwise known, by definition, as trance. Spontaneous trance is a normal state of mind that many of us experience six or seven times a day.

A couple of examples:

You're engrossed in a book, and you don't realize your cat has draped herself around your shoulders—trance.

You begin to peel a bunch of potatoes, your mind begins to wander, the next thing you know, the potatoes are peeled, cut into quarters, and in the pot, but you can't recall doing it—trance. 

If there was a hypnotherapist sitting in the passenger seat, and she noticed you were in a trance while you were driving, and she made a few positive suggestions, you would most likely respond to them. BUT, just as you can't consciously recall exiting the highway, or making that right turn at the light, or negotiating the traffic circle, because you were deeply immersed in a memory, you also can't remember the therapist's suggestions (if she did her job well).  

The therapist was speaking directly to the part doing the driving, your best friend who always makes good decisions for you. Why would she want to speak to you, with all your emotional baggage (your neuroses, your obsessions, your resistance, the stuff that keeps you mired in your programmed responses)?

By the time most people visit a hypnotherapist, they have already tried many other modalities yet haven't reached their therapeutic goals. A hypnotherapist's job is to send the conscious you—with all your baggage—off on a pleasant journey, while she communicates directly with your unconscious mind, who will respond to positive suggestions because they are . . . well . . . positive suggestions! Your mind, just like your body, has an internal dynamic drive to heal itself.

10 . . . Until next Tuesday, then . . . 9 . . . I bid you goodbye . . . 8 . . . and in the interim . . . 7 . . . Ranting Ed Rubin . . . 6 . . .my alter ego . . . 5 . . . Rer to his friends . . . 4 . . .will probably return . . . 3 . . .and dribble his shit . . . 2 . . . without apology . . . 1 . . .until his knees give out . . . but you will feel refreshed and relaxed now . . and though you may or may not remember what you've just read, you will feel a compelling urge to return to Write Makes Might often to visit, relax, and share your thoughts.