Almost exactly three years ago, I travelled to LA to train with Gil, where I found his experienced awareness and compassion inspiring. Later he moved to London, and only weeks ago he called me to discuss the possibility of working with him, based on an email I sent two years ago. We talked for a while about various things, including the nature of hypnotherapy in Britain and the challenges of doing it professionally. I found his candid and honest views reassuring. The conversation was cut short by someone calling at his house, and I never got round to following it up. Maybe it was nerves, maybe it was being too busy, but I deeply regret not having made more of the opportunity to learn from Gil whilst I could. All those times suddenly become immensely precious. And whilst I am deeply saddened by losing the last great remaining hypnotherapist, I’m grateful for being reminded not to take anything for granted. Gil was a personal hero, and a massive influence on my thoughts and personal philosophies about the human condition.

Here’s a music video I made for a favourite song by Exeter based singer Ellie Williams (www.EllieWilliams.co.uk, no relation!). I like the song’s themes about feeling distant to your own life, which can also be a liberating experience, and the visuals of Lovely Bones seem to be a good match. If you like the song, buy the album, its great.

The quote I am going to use is from Awareness by Anthony De Mello, and it goes like this:
“What does it mean to love? It means to see a person, a situation, a thing as it really is, not as you imagine it to be. And to give it the response it deserves. You can hardly be said to love what you do not even see. And what prevents us from seeing? Our conditioning. Our concepts, our categories, our prejudices, our projections, the labels that we have drawn from our cultures and our past experiences. Seeing is the most arduous thing that a human can undertake, for it calls for a disciplined, alert mind. But most people would much rather lapse into mental laziness than take the trouble to see each person, each situation, each thing in its present moment of freshness.”

You can download a page about how language patterns reflect your inner beliefs and attitudes here, and you can download a free extract of my book, Self Help Hypnosis, here.

I really hope you enjoy the evening, that you don’t spot the gorilla, and that you make a horrendous fool of yourself by shouting “milk” when I try to trick you. I hope I remember what I’m doing, and that I don’t get distracted by your about-to-fall-asleep faces.

If you have any feedback or questions about the talk, would be great to hear from you, just click ‘add a comment’ below!

Thank you, Will

I’ve recognised for a while that the therapy industry is frought with problems. The real tragedy of it is that the people who are exposed to it are at their most vulnerable, and could easily have their problems reinforced and leave feeling hopeless (thinking “well, I tried…”) Hope is the ultimate weapon of the self-help and therapy world, and its exploited far too much.

Since taking a break from hypnotherapy I have been studying and thinking about the patterns that make people get stuck, become free, and the most useful and efficient ways to achieving that. So far my learnings circulate around the ideas that:

- Tools, techniques, and fixes are not the answer, except to small trivial issues. They just delay the greater issue at hand, which is normally that people are living too much in the imagined world in their heads, and not reality.

- Peoples imagined worlds in their heads are full of false meanings, false associations, a need to control life rather than flow with it, anxiety. It prevents people from being able to truly appreciate and ’see’ reality for what it is, as well as other people. They only see what they expect to see, and its usually fear-ridden and negative.

- Becoming aware of yourself and reality is one of the most useful things you can do. Letting go of your expectations, and imagined world, is an essential part of that.

There are all sorts of implications of this. Peoples problems and barriers are actually incredible useful opportunities, because sometimes it takes a massive shock to reach the point of being ready for change, and having the confidence to let go of expectations (of life, self and others). Helping people in small ways to overcome problems but not face the bigger underlying barrier that caused it in the first place can actually be a disservice, because you’re ridding them of the opportunity for true growth. I’ve read lots of case studies of people who in what looks like really unfortunate circumstances, have actually found a new sense of personal freedom. They have let go of something that was previously blocking their perception of reality.

Its all interesting, and it feels right. That isn’t to say it is right, but it is for me right now, and is likely to form the focus of my future workshops.

Any feedback or thoughts on the site would be most welcome, thanks.

I have just finished work on a new site offering portrait sketches. This is following a recent creative outburst which has had me drawing a few actors on big A2 sheets. I love the peculiar sensation of recognising a portrait sketch – its not exactly a photo – but its enough to fire off your recognition neurons.

Since starting sketching again, I have come into touch with a few others who used to be creative, but then stopped. So if this includes you – get started again! You might be surprised at how much you enjoy it, once you get going.

willwilliams.co.uk is the new version of 121hypnosis.com, my old hypnotherapy site. I no longer operate my fulltime hypnotherapy practice due to other projects, so this re-vamp has allowed me to bring together more of my personal interests without being restricted by SEO or ‘pleasing potential customers’. It’s now collectively about subconscious psychology, which reflects my interests much more accurately:

• Hypnosis & Suggestion
• Therapy & personal change
• Subconscious dynamics
• Irrationality
• Neuroscience

Using the Site

I very much welcome feedback, comments (which are allowed on all pages and posts), typos, questions etc. so feel free to contact me. If you have something you want to add to a page, whether some general thoughts, ideas, reflections, anecdotes or articles, please make use of the comments boxes at the bottom of the pages. Thanks!

Will Williams