Magazine
for Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy
SUGGESTIBILITY AND SEXUALITY By Chaplain Paul G. Durbin, Ph.D. * For
books by Dr. John G. Kappas Professional Hypnotism Manual, Your Sexual
Personality, and Improve Your Sex Life Through Self-Hypnosis, and information
on their very excellent video extension courses go to http://www.hypnosismotivation.com/
Use of material from these book are used with permission of George Kappas,
son of Dr. John Kappas. George Kappas, M.A. M.F.C.C., is Executive
Director of the Hypnosis Motivation Institute. SUGGESTIBILITY No matter what objective use is made of hypnosis, whether it is in therapy, clinical research, relief of symptoms, or merely for amusement, we cannot get away from the fact that none of it would be possible without the use of suggestion. Suggestion is used to induce the hypnotic state, suggestion is used to control the responses while the person is hypnotized, suggestion is used to attain responses after the session has been completed, and suggestion is used to get the person out of the hypnotic state. (NOTE: If something happened to the hypnotherapist before the count out, the client would come out of the hypnotic state even without the suggestion by the therapist.) Except for the exception give, the entire procedure of hypnosis, from pre-induction to attainment of the goal one is seeking to attain after being hypnotized, is all founded on suggestion. Therefore the proper use of suggestion is the most important aspects of hypnosis. The word "suggestion" used in the hypnotic context, is the acceptance of an idea or belief to the point of causing changes in an individual's actions, body responses, attitudes, emotions, or characteristics. Over the years, I have discovered the power of suggestion. Stop for a moment to consider the power of words as one method of conveying suggestion. By words, the preacher proclaims the Good New of Faith. By words, the politician conveys his agenda. By words the sales person sells his goods. By words, the teacher teaches. By words, thoughts are imparted from one person to another or from one generation to another. There are words that make us laugh and words that make us cry, words that bless and words that condemn, words that wound and words that heal. The old saying, "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me." is a false statement. Some people respond better to direct suggestions, while others respond best to indirect suggestions. Most of us can respond to both direct and indirect suggestions but generally have a preference for one or the other. Because I believe in the importance of an individual's suggestibility, I have everyone who comes into my office for counseling fill out the John Kappas suggestibility questionnaire which will generally give an indication of that person’s dominate response. Dr Kappas calls the persons who responds best to direct suggestions, “a ‘physical suggestible” person. The individual who responds best to indirect suggestion as “an ‘emotional suggestible” person. I use the terms “direct suggestible” and “indirect suggestible” because I believe that the client is more familiar with the meaning of these terms than they would be with “physical suggestible” and “emotional suggestible.” Some hypnotherapist say that only a certain number of people can be hypnotized because they use on direct suggestions. To the question, “Why do some subjects respond to hypnotic suggestion and depth, while other do not?” The answer was discovered back in the 1967 by Dr. John Kappas and published in his book Professional Hypnotism Manuel which is still in print. He recognized the existence of two distinct types of suggestibility “physical and emotional” which I call “direct and indirect.” Before that Dr. Milton Erickson had shown that some people responded better to direct suggestions and others to indirect suggestion. He was such a master at using indirect suggestions that many of his disciples tend to go to the extreme with indirect suggestions and use them exclusively. Dr. Kappas was the first to show how to use a person’s suggestibility to get the best results. Our suggestibility
usually comes from our primary care giver (usually our mother).
If the child experiences his mother as saying what she means and meaning
what she says, he will usually be more responsive to direct suggestions.
I tend to be close to the middle with a slight dominance for direct suggestion for when my mother told me to do something, then I believed should do it. If she told me not to do something, I knew she meant it. There was a cause and effect. Mother laid down the law and I followed it or I reaped the consequences. On the other hand, mother could be indirect in her request. She might say to me, "Paul, don't you think you should go visit Mrs. Smith. She is sick and she gave you a Christmas present last year." Now that sounds like I have a choice but I did not. She meant for me to go see Mrs. Smith and if my answer to her was "No", she would let me know in no uncertain terms that I was to go. An interesting aspect of our suggestibility is that there is a tendency for a person who hears direct to speak indirectly and for the person who hears indirect to speak direct. I learned this with my communication with my wife. Bobbie and I have been married since 1958 but it was not until the 80's that I learned about suggestibility. When I began to study how people communicate in regards to direct and indirect suggestions, I remembered an incident that had occurred a few years before. Bobbie was cooking supper and we were having meatballs and spaghetti. She was preparing the french bread by buttering the bread and putting garlic salt on top. I don’t like garlic salt on my toast and she knew that I did not like dry toast. I always wanted my bread buttered before it was toasted. When I saw her putting the garlic salt on the toast, I said, “Don’t put any thing on my toast.” When we set down at the table to eat, I noticed that Bobbie had put dry toast by my plate. I asked “Why do I have dry toast?” Bobbie said “You told me not to put anything on your toast.” I said, “We have been married for more than 20 years and I have never wanted a piece of dry toast.” She said “Well I just did what you asked me to do.” She hears direct and speaks indirect. Bobbie likes the room temperature warmer than I do. She may say “Does it seem cold to you?” For many years, I would say, “No.” and in a short time she would be angry at me and I would not know why. I would say “What is the matter?” and she would respond, “Nothing!” You seem to be upset about something. What is the matter?” “You know.” “No, I do not know.” After we went through that exercise for a while, she would say, “I asked you to turn up the air condition and you didn’t do it.” “Well, I finally learned that Bobbie’s questions were really request. Now when she says, ““Does it seem cold to you?” I respond, “No, but if you would like for the air condition to be turn up, I will be glad to do it.” Or I say, “No, can I get you quilt so you can be warmer?” HUMAN SEXUALITY Much of the
following are from Dr. Kappas’ books: Professional Hypnotism Manual,
Your Sexual Personality, Improve Your Sex Life Through Self-Hypnosis,
and my own experiences and interpretation of the those resources.
As therapists, people come to us to help them overcome problems. Included in these problems are those which are sexual in nature. Many times the presenting problem may be something else, but when the real problem is discussed, it turns out to be a sexual problem. To be better prepared to help those people, we should aware of physical and emotion sexuality. As there is physical (direct) and emotional (indirect) suggestibility, there is physical and emotional sexuality. I will use physical and emotional in reference to sexuality because sexuality differs from suggestibility. A physical suggestible may be an emotional sexual person and an emotional suggestible may be a physical sexual person. When I was in college, I read many books on sexuality and how to please the female sexually. Most all the books dwelt with the physically sexual female. Of course, at that time I was totally unaware (as were most experts on sexual behavior) of the sexual behavior of physical and emotional sexuality. An illustration of misinformation is revealed in that all those books said that when the sex act was over, the female wanted the male to continue to touch, caress and be affectionate. As we shall discuss later in this article, one of the characteristics of an emotional sexual person of either sex is that when the sex act is over, he or she wants to go on to other things such as going to sleep, go to the bathroom, get dressed, etc. Well, it so happened that I am a physical sexual person and my wife is an emotional sexual so that when I wanted to continue the courtship, she wanted to go on to others things. My response to her reaction was that I felt rejected. When I learned about physical and emotional sexuality, I understood her reaction was not rejection but just her built-in response. There are a lot of other differences between physical and emotional sexual people which if know can prevent a lot of misunderstanding between sexual partners. The two categories of emotional and physical sexuality, with the one subcategory called intellectual sexuality, fits all human beings. As mentioned earlier it is important to recognize that a person will not necessarily have the same type of sexuality as they do suggestibility. An emotional sexual man or woman can be either physical or emotionally suggestible, and vice versa. We have found that suggestibility has a strong effect on sexuality, but the two should not be confused. Suggestibility is created by the mother; sexuality is created by the father. As a rule, a child
will develop “physical sexuality” if he raised in a home where the father
is more outward and open in his demonstration affection. If the
father is passive and undemonstrative, or if he is absent all or most
of the time, the child tends to become “emotionally sexual.”
Many marital and relationship problems are really about sexual misunderstandings which, in many cases, lead to a total lack of communication between men and women. In the beginning of the relationship, when the newness and excitement of sex are present in both male and female, each seems to communicate sexually. They build expectation, stimulating the suggestibility to sex. As their honeymoon stage wears off the tendency for their dominate sexuality come to have a greater influence. Their true sexual response is then evident. Communication sexually and verbally becomes less and less frequent until the inevitable takes place - they look for something new or close their minds to sexual response with their partner. It is generally acknowledged that 60% of all females lean toward emotional sexuality and 40% toward physical sexuality. It is interesting to note that among men, this same 60/40 balance seem to exist in the opposite direction. 60% of all males that have been tested prove to react to physical sexuality and the other 40% were more susceptible to emotional sexuality. It is also interesting to note that the old saying that opposites attract is certainly true of human sexuality. In discussing the characteristics of the physical and emotional sexuals, I will discuss the extreme behaviors (from 90% to 100% physical or emotional). Of course, the closer to 50% one comes the more the extreme characteristics change. It is important to keep this in mind and to be aware that the majority of people have a combination of physical and emotional sexual characteristics and do not fall into extreme categories. However, if you are aware of the extremes, some of the experiences you have or your sexual partner have or your clients share with you can be better understood. Understanding your own, as well as your partner’s sexual response factors can improve your relationships, enhance your sexual relationships and reduce the possibility of misunderstandings. When the understanding of your client’s sexual response factors are needed in the therapeutic situation, the knowledge can improve your counseling. A proper understanding can and will allow you and the people you counsel to change direction from a possibly disastrous pattern to a happier and more successful way of life. It can also help you to improve or eliminate certain sexual traits that have caused you to lose or to hurt in a past relationship. To be a physically
sexual female does not mean that she does not feel emotions, but that
she places her physical body in front of her to protect her emotions
and therefore requires a great deal of physical attention. There are
basically two reasons why a female becomes a physically sexual person.
If she receives a lot of affection from her father and a lot of physical
attention, she becomes a physical sexual person. On the other
hand if she is abused or feel emotional rejection, she tends to become
a emotional sexual person. Some special aspects of the physical sexual:
Characteristics of a physical sexual male:
Intellectually sexual men and women functions essentially like emotional sexual in the sex act, but with one added trait; they see their sexual experiences as experimentation to point where sex becomes almost a mental exercise. The intellectual sexual individual usually end up with an intellectually sexual partner. Characteristics of the intellectual sexual person:
Another question that is asked, “Can anyone who is gay go straight?” My answer to that question as was Dr. Kappas is “Yes.” [Durbin: There may be a small percentage of homosexuals who have internal organs of the opposite sex or who have a hormonal imbalance that would make it difficult to change, but they are few in number.] The first consideration must be the homosexual’s own personal attitude toward her/his homosexual tendencies and practices. In any consideration of conversion or adjustment, the homosexual must first arrive at the moment of truth in which she/he makes the personal decision and commitment to either abandon or embrace a future life of homosexual activities. If the wish of the client is to go straight, she or he can be helped to do so with proper therapy and the understanding one’s personality. A therapist should work with a homosexual to change his/her sexual orientation only if that is his/her desire. At any rate one under hypnosis can not be made to do anything against her/his will or desire unless you use hypnosis as a brainwashing tool and as far as I am concerned that is unethical. Chaplain Paul G. Durbin, Ph.D. Director Of Pastoral Care Pendelton Memorial Methodist Hospital 5620 Read Blvd. New Orleans, LA 70127. (504) 244-5430. FAX: (504) 244-5495. EMAIL: pgdurbin@hotmail.com Author of Kissing Frogs: Practical Uses of Hypnotherapy 1996 Kendall/Hunt (800) 228-0810 ($19.95 plus shipping/handling $4.00 for first book $.50 for each additional book. 5 or more books $15.00 each plus shipping/handling) Web site: www.durbinhypnosis.com |
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