News (mini-blog)

1. Latest news

MP3, THAT IS (M)ASQUERADE TO THE (P)OWER OF (3), NOT TO SAY SCAM!
(19 Sep 2017). Some people listen free MP3 with a music in background and a voice that utters things like the following: "and now you are relaxing, and now you are feeling better, and you are becoming stronger", and so on; other people, then, more gullible and simpleton, do worse: they meet a 'professional' in order to listen these MP3 and they even pay a fee for that! For the consumer protection, I believe that the voice in the MP3 should also suggest this: "and the more you listen to this crap and the more you prove your gullibility"; these opinions of mine are based on three valid reasons (this is why I have talked in terms of masquerade to the third power): 1) all the true experts in hypnosis know that the so-called suggestions are accepted by a person only if they are pleasant, otherwise they are rejected; and so why should one suggest pleasant things given that anybody would do them in any case by herself/himself without the need of wasting money in order to be spurred by someone? 2) each person reacts to stimuli in a peculiar way, and everyone is different, but the MP3 file is as is, and it cannot dynamically adapt to the client, because the recorded content goes on as programmed, independently of the listener's reactions; therefore that's not only a masquerade, but it's also a form of total disregard toward the person, because (s)he is put into a situation of absolute passivity, where (s)he can only listen and withstand; and lastly 3) the employment of these MP3 is without a doubt another clue of the increasing submission of people to every sort of abuses; moreover, the MP3 case is even more serious because the submission is voluntary (in fact a psychiatric patient cannot take position against a straightjacket, just as a baby cannot escape a vaccination, while here we are in front of adult people who pay for a role play where they basically accept to become victims of an economic exploitation); someone could put forward excuses as: "I didn't know, I trusted in that, I have been deceived", but in my opinion the only possible reply is this: "impostors exist only where suckers exist".

HYPNOLOGIC REPORT (NUMBER 140): THREE YEARS OF RELIEF AFTER TWO HYPNOLOGY SESSIONS
(30 Aug 2017). A man under treatment for GERD (Gastro-Esophageal Reflux Disease) was searching for a complement to the medical therapies, and wanted me to train him hypnotically; he said: "since the psychological and psychotherapeutic help has been completely useless, I don't want any longer such help, also because it costs a lot, and the last session never comes; in short, I want to learn something useful which I can do at home by myself, in autonomy.. you know, I am unemployed, and I don't have money to waste"; during the hypnological training the client developed a very high level of concentration and wellbeing, and a clarity of mind that surprised him; after two sessions, one-hour each, he has learned the exercises very well, and for at least three years he continued to enjoy a great relief of his reflux, despite that was not the reason why he asked to do hypnosis.

HYPNOLOGIC REPORT (NUMBER 139): THE SYMPTOMINS
(29 Jul 2017). A person stopped me in the street and told me: "I have been able to break free.. I thank you a lot". This person was regularly seeing X (a psychologist) since several years, and she cannot end those sessions because the psychologist continued to scare her by repeating every time that she still had certain "symptomins" which, if not treated, were able to dramatically worsen her mental situation; my comment had been simply this: "the so-called symptomins disappear miraculously and immediately as soon as one stops paying the sessions".

BAD NEWS FOR THERAPISTS, GOOD NEWS FOR HYPNOLOGISTS
(26 Jun 2017). At the website "http://woebot.io" I have just found the following testimonial: "Loved Woebot, definitely felt like was a replacement for my counsellor. More useful in that I learned things from Woebot instead of just having someone listen and give feedback". Now, what is this Woebot which is deemed more useful than a counselor? Well, it's just an app for the mobile phone! In fact the website says: "Hi, I'm Woebot. I'm ready to listen, 24/7. No couches, no meds, no childhood stuff. Just strategies to improve your mood. And the occasional dorky joke". Then, about the price, it says: "Here's how much I cost. Guess what? Our first 14 sessions together are free!" (after that, the cost ranges from 6 dollars per week to a maximum of 12 dollars per week). Such an offer seems too good to be true, but Woebot on the website tells the reader: "In a randomized controlled trial at Stanford University, college students who chatted with me significantly reduced symptoms of depression in just 2 weeks"; here the website gives also a link to the published scientific material, which offers evidence that psychotherapy can be delivered by an artificial intelligence, with the satisfaction of the patient, who also saves a lot of money. Consequently, it is likely that only non-profit talking therapists (priests, volunteers, etc.) will survive chatbots, while for the others the actual risk is to completely disappear from the market; in addition, since the chatbot therapist is scientifically already effective at the present time, while, at least for now, artificial intelligence is still a moron in comparison with the human intelligence, it seems absolutely legitimate to deduce that a very low-level and immature intelligence is sufficient for delivering a satisfactory talking therapy. Fortunately for the hypnologists, hypnology is not a psychotherapy nor a talking therapy, and in fact it cannot be delivered; this is why you will never see on the market any mobile phone app which is able to replace a human hypnologist.

SCIENTIFIC UPDATE
(28 May 2017). The new free collection of 2367 selected scientific abstracts on hypnosis is available (see the document PHD here).

APRIL FOOL?
(01 Apr 2017). "Everything is backwards, everything is upside down. Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, psychiatrists destroy minds, scientists destroy truth, major media destroys information, religions destroy spirituality and governments destroy freedom" (Michael Ellner).

HYPNOLOGIC REPORT (NUMBER 138): TWO BIRDS WITH ONE STONE
(21 Mar 2017). A woman came into my office with her husband and said: "whenever I take the plane I feel fear, and I don't want to make fearful also my child; since psychotherapy has been completely useless, I searched for something different as an alternative, and I would like to try hypnosis". After several minutes of hypnotic training, the woman addressed her husband saying: "I am on board, on the plane!"; the husband started on the chair: "what are you saying? You are in doctor Torelli's office"; she replied: "I know, but I feel myself on board, I'm on the plane despite being here in the office.. that's unbelievable"; since that moment on, the husband continued interrupting, disturbing, and asking questions; and since his wife was visibly becoming irritated because her husband's incredulity, I told him: "sorry if I intervene, but you are here as a chaperon, and therefore it is unfair to steal precious time to your wife making her nervous.. listen to me, now sit comfortably, watch what's happening, don't disturb, relax, and remain silent, if you can, thank you!"; the husband immediately replied to me: "actually I'm under treatment for my irritable bowel, but seeing what my wife is doing now my belly is fine, and that is surprising for me, and so I want to try hypnosis too"; I offered him to take advantage of the situation and to be a relaxed spectator utilizing his wife, and then I asked her to tell his husband what was happening, and she said that she was more and more definitely on board; her husband was completely unable to believe her words, and the more he was asking explanations to his wife, and the more she was going deep into a trance; and when I said to the husband: "you are bringing your wife into a deep somnambulistic state.. therefore, contrary to what I told you few minutes ago, instead of staying silent, please continue to talk and ask freely!"; at that point also the husband entered into a somnambulistic trance, and while he was talking with his wife he began to rub his belly with his hand, and when I asked why he was doing so, he replied: "I don't know, my hand is moving by itself"; after that one session the husband remembered almost nothing of the trance events, and he just reported that he has been always conscious, and that however he was in a situation where a voice was speaking on the outside, but he was elsewhere with his mind; moreover he said that symptoms of irritable bowel were greatly decreased (such reduction persisted in time for at least two years); his wife, additionally, remembered only the "flight in the office" and the fact that I have explained that I could teach them a self-control method, and she reported that she used such method and got great benefits from it (the improvement lasted at least one year).

IT'S TIME TO AWAKEN FROM HYBERNATION
(28 Feb 2017). By now it's almost springtime, therefore.. "it is time to awaken to a simple truth, and that is: there is no help but self-help" (Bruce Lee, 1971); and furthermore: "in martial arts we have an assortment of routine performers, trick artists, cream puffs, organized despair.. but you will have to find out your way all by yourself". Also in the so-called helping relationships there are similar problems; fortunately, however, "if you want something done, do it yourself"; infact, for example, I have personally trained a seven-years old child to build up with his parents a relationship that made possible to recover easily and quickly the lost harmony in the family; facts like this are extreme cases, but they nonetheless prove clearly that it is perfectly possible to learn to help other people in a very short time, without any diploma, despite being immature and naive, and without studying any book (that is whithout spending one cent); the secret is to remove the theory (which is for its 99% the true obstacle to success) and go straight to the point. But for now the winter is still here, therefore the intellectual hybernation can continue.

HYPNOLOGIC REPORT (NUMBER 137): THE JANUARY HEALING
(31 Jan 2017). In order to complete his professional hypnotherapy training, a student called a very experienced therapist for a session of hypnoanalytical work about his unconscious insecurities and also for experimenting the trance as a client; this therapist spent an hour and half explaining her method, which required many sessions and not certainly one as the student wanted, and then she spent another hour asking questions of any kind; then, at last, the therapist started with her hypnotic inductions, but after almost half hour the student, caught by despair, said to himself: "I must to enter into a trance by myself because this therapist is just wasting time"; his desire to compensate the therapist's inadequacy was so strong that the client went into a trance in a very short time, then cried briefly and unexpectedly, and then concluded by saying: "I just had a dream where I watched myself on a sidewalk when I was a baby, and that scene really moved me"; then he paid the therapist, left her office, and refused further sessions, contrary to the suggestions of the therapist. After several months the student, at that point certified and ready to practice, called again that therapist but, this time, only in order to get some supervision for his practice, but she answered with these words: "my only concern is for my clients, of which you are one [..]. When the analysis is over, there is no contact between the analyst and the analysand [..]. Therefore, if you had been seeking further analysis I would have been happy to see you, but, for your sake, it would be most unwise to see you for any other reason. They are the rules, not just my opinion [..]. I am really happy for you that you feel that you have solved your problems, and I am sure that you will become an excellent therapist"; at that point the hypnotherapist contacted me in order to get a professional supervision, which I started in this way: "since that therapist knows that, for your refusal, there will be no analytical work, and that, for her refusal, there will be neither a non-analytical work, why does she continue to say that you are her client? (He: That's right.. why did she use the present tense? Is it a pen slip?) She is clearly projecting on you a relationship that is no longer actual (In fact she wanted me to undergo other sessions, at least ten) In fact when you contacted her she didn't tell you 'you have solved' but 'you feel that you have solved' (She presupposes that I have problems because I didn't want to take orders from her) And, oddly enough, she also said that you will become an excellent hypnotherapist, and therefore, if she tells you that you will became excellent, she is also telling you that now you are not excellent (She is devaluing me again.. these manipulations are practically invisible.. how can people safeguard themselves?) It is enough to keep in mind that in any interpersonal relationship with fee, the one who pays is the one who decides, otherwise (s)he is doomed to economical exploitation.. in January you got your epiphany, or healing, or enlightenment, call it as you want.. and you are no longer a client of that therapist.. you also told her that you are very well despite her anticipations, but she didn't believe you.. therefore if she negates your reality that's her problem.. technically it's her counter-transference, do you see it?) (Now I do.. a last thing: I don't like the expression 'interpersonal relationship with fee' because that reminds me prostitution) Well, everybody needs intimate and private interpersonal relationships, and if these are not available free of charge, then people are willing to pay for them (Hence the relationship in exchange for money is the true source of exploitation) Yes, it's the relationship, not the content of it, for money creates a conflict of interests, and therefore you cannot keep a complete trust any longer into that type of relationship.. you talked about prostitution.. well, then you can meditate on the well known fact that sometimes a client pays sex professionals for being listened to by them in their beds, and some other times pays listening professionals for having sex with them in their offices".

HYPNOLOGY BEGINS WHERE PSYCHOTHERAPY ENDS
(27 Dec 2016). Milton H. Erickson, whose name is exploited by many psychotherapy schools all over the world, actually has always despised every school of psychotherapy, as I have already reported (see 09 Nov 2016). But this is only the tip of the iceberg. In fact, Erickson also stated that, in his opinion, psychotherapy is practically useless (see for example here [1 KB]), and that hypnotic psychotherapy is even worse (see for example here [2 KB]). Indeed, it seems to me that psychotherapeutic hypnosis is too similar to stage hypnotism (see for example here [23 KB]), and, unfortunately, I think that the same holds true also for hypnotherapy (see for example here [84 KB]), and therefore I believe that Erickson had good reasons for showing some criticism also toward hypnotherapy (see for example here [1 KB]). All of this pushed me, in 2005, to establish my professional hypnology school, also because, in my opinion, even the Ericksonian approach has two flies in the ointment (compromising defects): 1) Erickson's personality, as Erickson in person confessed when he was 57 years old, and 2) Erickson's physical handicaps, which prevented him from discovering the most important part of hypnotism.

WHO BELIEVES IN PSYCHOTHERAPY?
(09 Nov 2016). This is a very uncommon post (and probably as surprising as the election of Donald Trump in the USA which happened today!), so it is better for you to read the text slowly and carefully with an open mind, in order to give to yourself the opportunity of meditating deeply on its true meaning and consequences. As I have previously reported, there is no scientific proof of the existence of any mental disorder (no blood tests, no objective exams, no confirmation measures), and therefore any so-called mental disorder is actually a mere description of a behavior; the logical consequence is that the so-called psychological diagnosis should be called not a diagnosis (e.g. "the x-rays prove that you are ill") but a nocebo effect (e.g. "believe me, you are not normal and you need my help"); as you can easily evince from this point of view, considering the emotional pains as disorders (instead of as absolutely normal and unavoidable components of life) is a plain personal conviction and nothing more; a confirmation of this reasoning comes from the fact that all schools of psychotherapy yield quite the same results; in other words, the type of therapeutic approach is clearly irrelevant, and therefore the logical consequence is that it is a placebo effect and not a therapy; in addition my question is: how can one even just think to try to validate a technique that claims to cure a mental disorder whose existence is not confirmed? In summary, it appears very plausible that psychology is seriously invalidated by a nocebo suggestion improperly called psycho-diagnosis ("you are mentally disturbed", which is fully unproven), and by a placebo suggestion improperly called psycho-therapy ("with my help you will become normal", which is fully unproven as well); the conclusion is that the validity of psychological diagnosis and psychological therapy is imposed by law, but scientifically it is unproven; the pioneer of this opinion has been Milton H. Erickson, who indeed despised all schools of psychotherapy (see for example here [221 KB] and here [26 KB]), and indirectly also psychology and psychiatry (see for example here [99 KB]). Hypnology holds these same empirical beliefs (for a scientific introductory material see here [103 KB]), and as such hypnology despises as well every school of psychotherapy and their psycho(patho)logical theories. Such position is confirmed more and more by many personal hypnotic experiences of my clients, whose life improved significantly and quickly without any therapy.

OPTIMIZATION OF THE ACCESS TO THE WEBSITE
(31 Oct 2016). The web address "www.ipnosi.pro", currently parked under "www.altor.org" will be completely absorbed into "altor.org", and therefore within few days it will be no longer available because it is redundant.

HYPNOLOGIC REPORT (NUMBER 136): HYPNOGENIC HYPNOPHILIA
(28 Sep 2016). For brevity I put client's words between quotes, and mine in parentheses. "I have read on your website that people merely pretend to obey to suggestions (yes, in fact people resist to any coercion).. that's exactly why I came into your office.. a psychologist gave me many advices which however I did not follow, and then I had to put on headphones and listen a relaxing music while the psychologist was speaking into a microphone and repeating: 'sooner or later you will enter into a hypnotic trance.. my therapeutic words will be more and more helpful at each session'.. then I gave up because I had spent a lot of money without any result, so here I am.. because you have a non-psychological approach.. (hypnology is founded on the idea that..) I know, there are no diagnoses and no cures.. (the idea, already put in evidence also by Erickson since 1952, is that the personality cannot be modified in any way by the words).. do you mean by the suggestions? (of course.. and therefore, if words change nothing, then it means that they have at best a cultural and social value, that is intellectual but not curative value.. consequently, for me the so-called talking therapy doesn't exist, and I consider it a childish superstition, like magic spells in fairy tales).. this opinion of yours fascinates me.. go on.. (maybe it's even more fascinating the trance which you are now in.. but do you believe in my words, or actually you know that you are in hypnosis?).. boh, I feel as usual, except the fact that I feel no longer my legs, and I'm having fun.. (to lose sensibility in your legs.. is that amusing?).. for me it is, because I suffer psychosomatic pains, and now, on the contrary, I feel well.. why? (it's a matter of hypnophilia!).. liking for hypnosis? (that's it).. but is that the reason why the psychologist has been useless? (useless maybe for you, just as for almost all my clients.. but we cannot generalize.. in fact who is at ease with a psychologist probably won't go to the hypnologist.. the unconscious immediately notices the difference).. what difference? (for example the one that brought you here.. in fact you did learn Italian unconsciously by yourself when you were two years old, while consciously you had to wait to reach the age of six for undergoing the suggestions of your teacher of Italian language.. they are two different worlds, and so they should stay, because each of them has its unmistakable characteristics..)". At that point the client's somnambulistic trance was quite deep. For reasons of ethics I prefer to truncate here the report because I want to protect the reputation of the psychologist.

HYPNOLOGIC REPORT (NUMBER 135): ENDOGENOUS NEUROPHYSIOLOGICAL CONTROL
(16 Aug 2016). A man came in my office saying: "I'm under treatment because of Parkinson's disease, and I would like to try also hypnosis"; since this person was insisting that hypnosis is a therapy, at some point I started to repeat continuously the following statement: "you should become aware of the fact that hypnosis is not a cure", and after many repetitions I told him again the same words while I was looking at my wristwatch, and then I used my calculator in order to execute certain operations. At that point the man asked what I was doing, and I replied: "based on my chronometric evaluation and my calculations, I esteem that I have told you more than two hundred and fifty times that hypnosis is not a therapy"; the client smiled and asked to be formally trained in self-hypnosis; during the hypnotic training he succeeded in stopping almost completely the tremors in his hand, and near the end of the third session he told me: "now I reveal you a secret which has nothing to do with my hand.. I do know that my neurological disease cannot be stopped, and therefore despite my hypnotic control of my hand I understand that there are limits.. but the true surprise has been that I have no longer the fear of darkness.. now I can state that with certainty because I experimented a lot during the whole past week.. you know, I even entered in my cellar in the middle of the night, and I had no fear at all.. that's incredible.. I have never talked about this with anybody because I had that problem since my infancy, and I always felt ashamed for that, but now I can talk about that because I cannot have fear of darkness any longer, and I cannot figure out how this is possible.. I'm astonished.. how did I heal?". Since the client was particularly insistent, I told him the following: "the answer is simple: if a bird is kept into a cage, at the end it will believe that to fly is a disease". He reacted to these words with an intense amazement and a brief deep trance, and then he began to laugh, and finally told me: "here with you the surprises never end.. I don't know why, but.. now I don't give a shit about why my fear has disappeared". My comment was: "I am not interested in mental masturbations.. I am a hypnology practitioner, and I don't want to repeat this 250 times!".

SOMEONE STILL CALLS IT PSYCHOTHERAPY, BUT IT WILL BECOME A CRIME
(27 Jul 2016). I'm talking about the recent Italian proposal of law (n. 2402) which states that "whoever, while practising as psychologist, psychiatrist, psychotherapist, therapist, clinical counselor, counselor, psychological counselor, welfare worker, educator or pedagogist, makes use on underage people of activities aimed to convert the sexual orientation is punished with imprisonment up to two years and with the fine from 10'000 to 50'000 euro". In short, the conversion therapy on homosexuals is now seen no longer as a therapy but as a crime against vulnerable individuals. By the way, also the so called ADHD (Attention Deficit - Hyperactivity Disorder) is now regarded by some experts as another form of violence against normal children; therefore, it seems legitimate to wonder how much part of psychotherapy is acceptable. In fact, as written by MH Erickson long time ago, "one may consider the few troubled people who are benefited by psychotherapy of all kinds and the countless numbers who, while also having problems, still succeed without therapy". From all of the above one can logically infere that psychotherapy probably is not satisfactory, at least in certain cases, simply because a psychotherapist cannot cure something that actually doesn't exist. Consequently, a non-diagnostic and non-therapeutic approach (aka hypnology) can be far superior but also a lot more difficult, because it is based not on psychological theories but on unique real people.

HYPNOGENIC BREXIT!
(25 Jun 2016). In 23 June 2016 the Great Britain choose (through a referendum) to leave the European Union in order to become more free and independent, and the next day the Italian stock market has lost more than 12%, which is the worst historical performance of all times. The growing wave of change is flooding rigid and hopeless countries like Italy, and this is only the beginning of the hypnotic shock.

SHEEPLE
(25 May 2016). "Sheeple" are people that behave like sheeps. Such individuals are psycho-passive, naive, and they wrongly and uncritically believe in the as much apparent as inexistent power of suggestions and behavioral advices, and therefore they have the tendency to let other people command and exploit them. This concept has been magnificently explained by a famous dictator (therefore by someone who was really expert in the matter), that in 1945 said: "I didn't create fascism: I got it out of the unconscious of the Italian. Otherwise they would have not followed me for twenty years. [..] I'm sure that historians and psychologists will wonder how a man has been able to carry with him for twenty years people like the Italian. [..]. Others maybe will be able to dominate with iron and fire, not with the consent as I did [..]. Rigorously speaking I have been not even a dictator because my commanding power was perfectly coincident with the willingness to obey of the Italian people". Hypnology helps people to recognize that the so-called suggestion is technically an absolute bullshit (or, in the worst cases, a sort of scam or an exploitation of the popular gullibility), and moreover it can also damage or hinder individuals when it limits their right to auto-determine themselves.

SCIENTIFIC UPDATE
(27 Apr 2016). The new free collection of 2328 scientific abstracts on hypnosis is available (see the document PHD here).

HYPNOLOGIC REPORT (NUMBER 134): THE HOLISTIC BALLISTOCARDIOGRAPH
(25 Mar 2016). A girl came into my office saying:: "I'm under treatment for my insomnia.. doctor P prescribed some drugs and I'm also undergoing psychotherapy with him, but I'm not satisfied, and therefore I would like to add some holistic, natural tool, because therapies are not enough"; since the girl was already quite aware of the nature of my hypnotic training, I shifted quickly to the hypnologic training, and in order to further deepen her unconscious understanding of hypnosis I started to explain what is a ballistocardiograph; after a while she asked me what has that instrument got to do with hypnology, and I replied: "in my profession no instrument or device is used, but there are some special ballistocardiographic data suggesting that holistic hypnotism, contrary to medical and psychological hypnotism, does have an acceptable scientific foundation.. about your personal hypnosis, before the end of the session you will find your answer without any need of my help", and I went on with my description of the ballistocardiograph, while warning her that such description was doomed to become more and more technical and focused on the holistic implications; after several expressions of skepticism and then of calmness, at some point the girl showed a smiling expression and said: "now I'm feeling completely asleep, but nevertheless I'm seeing you and I'm talking to you, and I'm feeling here and present with you.. it's an incredible situation, it's like being sleeping and also alert at the same time.. I never felt an impression like that.. I'm experiencing an extraordinarily intense sensation of total calmness.. I love it". During the next session she told me that her life had improved a lot, and moreover she was sleeping better, and therefore she now wanted to learn how to prolong and deepen that type of trance; during the third and last session she wanted to demonstrate in front of me what she was able to do with hypnosis [details omitted for privacy], and after my supervision she also told me that even her physician asked her some questions about that "hypnotic training" and manifested a considerable interest in it.

HYPNO-TRIBUTE TO ENNIO MORRICONE
(29 Feb 2016). Yesterday night the legendary Italian composer Ennio Morricone won the 2016 Oscar prize for the best original score (the soundtrack of "The Hateful Eight"); the hypnotic part of this tribute consists in underscoring that Morricone, born in 1928, had to wait until 2016 for getting the Oscar despite his incredible success since many years. Common people are unable to understand why this process is profoundly hypnotic, but within few years hypnology will reach its complete development, and a new and a-lot-healthier lifestyle will arise and spread.

CHEATING PRACTITIONERS? NO, IDIOT CLIENTS!
(29 Jan 2016). Recently, a client of mine started, near the end of the session, a verbal attack against a practitioner: "you know, that psychologist made me hear a recorded voice.. the voice was telling that I was relaxing and that I was entering into a special state of consciousness, and that the subconscious was working in a beneficial way, and so on.. but I got nothing.. the psychologist asked me to be patient, because the results are unconscious, and therefore the consciousness cannot see them but they are in place.. in this way I have wasted 50 pounds.. what a scam.. then I came here for the hypnotic training, and.. wow, it's another world!". Hence I commented: "excuse me, you continue to attack the psychologist, but, in your opinion, how many persons would accept to pay 50 pounds for listening to a recorded voice?". Her answer was: "that's right, it's my fault, I have been really stupid".

HYPNOLOGIC REPORT (NUMBER 133): A FOREARM AT THE CENTER OF ATTENTION
(16 Dec 2015). A girl told me that she underwent several session with a psychologist who had diagnosed her with a persistent condition of anxiety-depression (appeared after a deterioration of an important affective relationship) and an associated obsessive-compulsive behavior (the girl was touching her right forearm many many times); then, because of the lack of improvement, she posed some questions to me about non psychological (holistic) approaches and a possible hypnotic training, but when I asked her whether she had seen a physician, she answered that she felt no need to see a doctor, because her condition of nervousness and stress was very well known to her; I replied by describing her the difference between a psychological diagnosis and a clinical diagnosis, and I dismissed her. After about a month, that girl wanted to tell me that she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and that the neurologist has forecasted a particularly favourable course of her illness thanks to the extraordinary precocity of the diagnosis, which is usually a lot more belated in these cases.

AND FINALLY: WHO BELIEVES IN PSYCHOLOGICAL DIAGNOSIS?
(25 Nov 2015). David L. Rosenhan, professor of psychology and law, wrote in his paper "On Being Sane in Insane Places" (published on Science, New Series, Vol. 179, No. 4070, Jan. 19, 1973, pp. 250-258): "if sanity and insanity exist, how shall we know them? [..] It is commonplace, for example, to read about murder trials wherein eminent psychiatrists for the defense are contradicted by equally eminent psychiatrists for the prosecution on the matter of the defendant's sanity. [..] the view has grown that psychological categorization of mental illness is useless at best and downright harmful, misleading, and pejorative at worst. Psychiatric diagnoses, in this view, are in the minds of the observers and are not valid summaries of characteristics displayed by the observed". Now, since there is no scientific proof at all about the existence of the so-called mental disorders, the logical consequence is that to believe in mental disorders is an act of faith (the dictionary defines the faith as a belief not supported by proofs), and therefore any action based upon such belief is not part of the science but it is part of a religion (the dictionary defines the religion as the practice and observance of faith). This is why professional hypnologists and many other holistic practitioners can be considered not "anti-psy" (psychiatry/psychology), but just and simply "non-psy".

AND AGAIN: WHO BELIEVES IN PSYCHOLOGICAL DIAGNOSIS?
(31 Oct 2015). The necessity of answering to this question arises directly from the same DSM (the dictionary of mental disorders). In fact, in DSM-IV and then, unchanged, also in DSM-5, there are these exact words: "it is precisely because impairments, abilities, and disabilities vary widely within each diagnostic category that assignment of a particular diagnosis does not imply a specific level of impairment or disability [..]. Even when diminished control over one's behavior is a feature of the disorder, having the diagnosis in itself does not demonstrate that a particular individual is (or was) unable to control his or her behavior at a particular time". Therefore, the DSM itself indirectly recognizes its scopes and limits, and also the unavoidability of coexisting with other different professionals that don't like and don't use the DSM (e.g. the hypnology practitioners).

WHO BELIEVES IN PSYCHOLOGICAL DIAGNOSIS?
(22 Sep 2015). The answer to this question requires a very careful study, and it should be made the object of a deep and prolonged meditation, but approximatively we can say that psychologists, psychotherapists, and psychiatrists believe in psychological diagnosis, while empirical people, researchers, hypnologists, and other professionals and scientists do not. In order to understand the reason, the following example is useful: if you break your arm and consult several medical doctors, you will always get the same diagnosis, because the X rays prove that your arm is really broken, and the treatment for your arm will be invariably the same. On the contrary, if you discuss a psychological problem with different psychologists or psychiatrists, almost certainly you will receive different diagnoses coupled with different proposals for treatment. This situation has also legal consequences, because a person can easily fake a mental disorder by enacting the proper behavior (for example a serious depression) in order to receive an invalidity pension or other advantages and privileges, but that same person will never be able to fake a medical problem, for example diabetes, because blood tests and other objective exams will always reveal the truth. Also the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) published (see www.nimh.nih.gov) that "while DSM [the diagnostic manual of mental disorders] has been described as a 'Bible' for the field, it is, at best, a dictionary, creating a set of labels and defining each. The strength of each of the editions of DSM has been 'reliability' - each edition has ensured that clinicians use the same terms in the same ways. The weakness is its lack of validity. Unlike our definitions of ischemic heart disease, lymphoma, or AIDS, the DSM diagnoses are based on a consensus about clusters of clinical symptoms, not any objective laboratory measure [..]. NIMH has launched the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) project to transform diagnosis by incorporating genetics, imaging, cognitive science, and other levels of information to lay the foundation for a new classification system [..]. But it is critical to realize that we cannot succeed if we use DSM categories as the 'gold standard' [..]. That is why NIMH will be re-orienting its research away from DSM categories". Note that this is an evident departure from the DSM, with the explicit intention to transform, sooner or later, the psychological diagnosis into a medical diagnosis. From such premises one can logically deduce that psychological diagnosis can exist only as long as there are no scientific and objective proofs of the existence of a psychopathology (otherwise it would be within the medical scope), and therefore it is also possible to infer the conclusion that the psychological diagnosis is, from a scientifical point of view, a mere expression of medical ignorance. This is why the hypnologists consider the psychological diagnosis devoid of any relevance in their profession (moreover, the hypnologist is an intellectual practitioner, not a sanitary one).

HYPNOLOGIC REPORT (NUMBER 132): HYPNOTIC ACTIVITIES OF A SLUMBERING PERSON
(25 Aug 2015). A woman (who came in my office as a mere escort of her husband) fell asleep, but even in that state she showed the ability of responding hypnotically to stimuli, shifting from physiological sleep into hypnosis (and then from hypnosis to the waking state) during an improvised experiment on-the-fly, started immediately after the conclusion of the husband's training. [To know more about this case, go here].

THE ITALIAN SUPREME COURT FORBIDS EVEN MAGISTRATES TO IMPOSE A PSYCHOLOGICAL HELP
(21 Jul 2015). In Italy the supreme Court has taken position against the common, typically Italian, tendency to force unwilling people to see a psychologist-psychotherapist. More precisely, the supreme Court judged the case of two parents that have been diagnosed as immature and that a court wanted to undergo mental therapies and psychological support. Well, the supreme Court ("Corte di Cassazione", first civil section, decision n. 13506 year 2015) revoked the prescription of the mental therapy. In fact, about the human rights, the supreme Court stated that "the prescription to parents of undergoing an individual psychotherapy and a couple treatment for supporting the parental role violates the right of personal freedom which is constitutionally protected, and [violates] the prohibition of imposing health treatments when they are not provided by law". And then, about the magistrates, the supreme Court stated that "the prescription of an individual psychotherapy and a couple therapy for supporting the parental role is outside of the judge's powers in a case of custody of minors even when the aim of the prescription is to overcome a condition, described by the Appointed Technical Consultant, of immaturity of the parental couple which prevents a reciprocal respect". This is why the supreme Court concluded that the personal maturation of the parents "can only rely on their right of self-determination" (which is, by the way, the same fundamental right that is actively promoted by the professional hypnology, and which led to the revocation of the illegitimate prescription of the psychological help).

IN HYPNOLOGY THE PSYCHOLOGICAL TALKING HAS NO VALUE, OR, WORSE, IT'S AN OBSTACLE
(25 Jun 2015). Usually, those who want to talk go to a psychologist for a talking, while those who want to act go to the hypnologist for a training. This description is rather approximative and simplified, but probably it's the most informative and useful for promoting the understanding that in hypnology there is no place for the psychological talking. This professional layout from my part is fully supported also by very authoritative publications on Ericksonian hypnotherapy. In fact, as reported by the same Erickson, "no person can really understand the individual patterns of learning and response of another" (MH Erickson, 1952); and here a question comes spontaneously: then, why should we talk about mental processes if we cannot really understand them? But the same holds also for the so-called mental disorders; in fact, in Erickson's opinion, people understand a lot more than their therapists, as he personally stated: "regarding this matter of psychopathology [..] there is very very little you can teach people about psychopathology that they are not capable of understanding far better than you can explain it to them. [..] each person is entitled to his own standards, and I haven't got the right to force my standards, whether lower or higher, on any patient" (MH Erickson, 1965). In addition, Erickson wrote that he never knew "anybody who has ever really understood the variety and purposes of any one patient’s multiple symptoms despite the tendency of many psychiatrists to hypothecate, to their own satisfaction, towering structures of explanation often as elaborate and bizarre as the patient’s symptomatology" (MH Erickson, 1966); here Erickson is saying that the psychological and psychiatric explanations are "elaborate and bizarre", and that they satisfy at best the therapist, but certainly not the patient, because actually nobody can read into the mind of another person, despite certain common popular beliefs. In fact, Erickson wrote that those who try to understand others' problems are often wrong: "what the therapist knows, understands, or believes about a patient is frequently limited in character and often mistaken" (MH Erickson, 1973). As a further confirmation, I can say that in my professional experience as hypnologist, many clients told me that they came in my office because they discovered that they were no longer willing to talk about their problems.. I'm telling this in order not to attack the psychology, but to definitely separate it from hypnology; in fact, as I always say to my clients, usually the "patients" go to a psychologist (mental-health professional), while the "impatients" go to the hypnologist (holistic-intellectual professional).

SCIENTIFIC UPDATE
(27 May 2015). You can now download the new free collection of 2159 abstracts on hypnosis (see the document PHD here).

IN HYPNOLOGY THE SO-CALLED MENTAL DISORDERS ARE USELESS THEORIES
(25 Apr 2015). MH Erickson has written (1968): "not only have psychologists been at fault, but even worse, so have psychiatrists [..]. Throughout the ages everybody has tried to believe that normal psychological behavior includes only that which is good at the social level". This belief still persists as a foundation of the psycho-theories: in fact, in the most recent DSM-5, which describes the mental disorders, you can read (p. 14) that "mental disorders are defined in relation to cultural, social, and familial norms and values", and that "the boundaries between normality and pathology vary across cultures". Note that, based on such official definition, mental disorders become very similar to a sort of popular tradition, folklore, style, or local fashion. In addition, note that more than half a century ago, the DSM-1 had 132 pages, while today the DSM-5 has 947 pages; such abnormal proliferation of mental disorders indicates that an exaggerated culture of illness has grown in a society where almost everybody is doomed, sooner or later, to be defined as mentally disturbed and in need of cures and assistance, unless (s)he behaves exactly as prescribed by the DSM. Consequently, the modern Ericksonian hypnologist (while respecting those who still base their work on the so-called mental disorders) neglects completely that concept, because the hypnologist considers it arbitrary, unrealistic, dogmatic, and too invasive into personal freedom, and in fact the hypnology is interested in the healthy part (which is also the stronger part) of the individual. With this comment I don't want to make comparisons nor criticisms nor exclusions, but, on the contrary, I'm meaning that there are different "religions", multiple "philosophies", and therefore distinct professional activities, each one with its peculiar (and sometimes very innovative) points of view. We hypnologists do have approaches, concepts, ideas, and visions of the world that are profoundly dissimilar from psycho[patho]logy.

ALSO MILTON ERICKSON HAS BEEN UNJUSTLY ATTACKED BY UNETHICAL PSYCHOTHERAPISTS
(21 Mar 2015). During a conference, Milton H. Erickson (as reported in volume IV of his "Seminars, workshops, and lectures") told to the audience: "I'm going to give you an example in which a group of psychoanalysts decided to take me before the Board of Ethics of the Wayne County Medical Society. A psychoanalyst had a patient in therapy. For three months, the patient had been resisting. The patient had gone for sessions one hour each day, for six to eight weeks [..]. Finally [..] the patient came to me [..]. At the next meeting [with the analyst][..], when he [the analyst] asked her how she had overcome that resistance, she answered very simply: 'I was running out of funds to pay you, so I asked my friend, Dr. Erickson, to interfere and put an end to my resistance' [..], and so her psychoanalyst took it up with the Ethics Board [..]. My statement to them was rather harsh and unkind. I said that I did not agree with the ethics of any person who would manipulate a patient for three long months for so many dollars per hour [..]. I had done something for free that helped the patient. That ended that inquiry into my ethics! [..] I think it is an utterly unjust denunciation of hypnosis or of the use of hypnosis to say that it is manipulative [..]. There are so many people who like to attach derogatory terms to something that they don't understand".

HYPNOLOGIC REPORT (NUMBER 131): THE DISCOVERY OF HYPNOLOGY
(25 Feb 2015). The case reported here (see cases) describes the experience of a client who has wasted a lot of time and money on trying in vain to solve a problem; therefore the client, not knowing what else to do, attempted a hypnological approach while cutting down most of his worries about the problem, and in that way (that is without any therapy, counsel, or support) he got an unexpected, sharp, and persistent improvement of his quality of life.

ERICKSONIAN HYPNOLOGY HAS DEPARTED FROM PSYCHOLOGY DECADES AGO
(28 Jan 2015). In "Experiencing Hypnosis" (1981) Milton H. Erickson says: "now, Dr. Rossi here is somebody who is trained in psychology. He has been oriented to place individual meaning or interpretations on everything according to his past teachers. He does not know very much about looking at or experiencing reality. He must experience reality in terms of what he has been taught and read". Indeed, indoctrination is a problem that plagues psychology but also (at a lesser degree) classical hypnotherapy, while modern and naturalistic hypnology (which we are actively developing) is, on the contrary, immune from such rigidity and irreality, and in my opinion this is exactly why hypnological observation (based on the absence of any ready-made theories) is a lot more difficult than psychological observation (based on fixed, universal, and dogmatic rules), and it requires personalities endowed with sufficient strenght and versatility; in other words, I consider correct to state that psychology is accessible to anybody, but hypnology is not.

HYPNOLOGY CAN IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF LIFE WITHOUT ANY THERAPY
(24 Dec 2014). Hypnology is one of the new pathways of wellbeing, and in fact it is centered on the healthy part of the individual. This concept has been underlined very clearly by Milton Erickson since the beginning of his career, when he wrote the following words: "one may consider the few troubled people who are benefited by psychotherapy of all kinds and the countless numbers who, while also having problems, still succeed without therapy in achieving goals that they and others regard as constituting real personal and social success" (The collected papers of Milton H. Erickson on hypnosis, vol. 4). This citation doesn't want to be an attack on psychotherapy, but it merely wants to help the public (and also psychiatrists and psychologists) to understand that the profession of hypnologist is very different from their profession, and it satisfies different and far more common needs.

2. Older news

2014: to analyze the infancy is ridiculous because the childish understanding has gone (see case n. 130)
2014: after years of useless psychology, a non-psychological (hypnotic) approach greatly ameliorated life (see case n. 129)
2014: bye-bye forever, psychotherapy! Also in Italy hypnotherapy is now a distinct profession (PNG in Italian, 51 KB).
2014: consumer protection: hypnotherapy is not psychotherapy and viceversa (PNG, 10 KB).
2014: after useless and costly psychotherapies, a training in hypnosis has been very useful (case n. 128).
2014: towards a more sustainable health system: the United Nations promote yoga (JPG, 34 KB) (PDF, 115 KB).
2014: Erickson mocks psychiatrists and psychologists about hypnosis (MP3, 1.6 MB) (GIF, 25 KB).
2013: hypnotherapists are persecuted by the Italian "psicoglioni" (GIF, 8 KB).
2013: Italian magistrates under the scrutiny of the European Commission (GIF, 24 KB).
2013: in memory of Bruce Lee: "be water my friend!" (flux and adapt) (GIF, 228 KB).
2013: Italy doesn't execute judgments from Strasbourg (PNG, 82 KB).
2013: European Court of Justice subdues "orders" to competition (PDF, 54 KB).
2013: Italy recognizes non-licensed "intellectual" practitioners (PDF in Italian, 1.5 MB).
2012: is Monti's government hindering the access to the professions? (PDF, 58 KB).
2012: Italy decrees that hypnotherapy is not psychotherapy (PDF in Italian, 277 KB).
2011: meeting in Brussels for free competition in EU market (PDF, 221 KB).
2011: meeting in London on hypnosis and psychosomatic medicine (PDF, 82 KB).
2010: doctors and therapists know hypnosis poorly (PDF, 79 KB).
2010: hypnosis increases self-defence abilities (PDF in Italian, 55 KB).
2010: hypnosis is innocuous and beneficial (PDF in Italian, 58 KB).
2009: psychology spreads lies about hypnosis (PDF, 67 KB).
2009: my public conference on clinical hypnosis (PDF, 209 KB).
2008: studies on hypnotic trance (PDF in Italian, 79 KB).
2008: hypnosis in medicine (PDF in Italian, 81 KB).
2007: hypnosis in oncology (PDF in Italian, 70 KB).
2006: hypnosis for pain control (PDF in Italian, 83 KB).
2005: the science knows little about hypnosis (PDF in Italian, 77 KB).
2005: antidepressant trainer (GIF, 658 KB; GIF, 175 KB).
2005: anxiolytic trainer (GIF, 661 KB; GIF, 188 KB).
2004: board-certified hypnotherapist (GIF, 239 KB).
2003: my first public conference on hypnotherapy (PDF in Italian, 569 KB).
2002: clinical hypnotherapist and hypnoanalyst (GIF, 272 KB).
2002: certified hypnotherapist (GIF, 206 KB).
2002: member of an UK professional association (PDF, 2.2 MB).