Product Description

If you want to know how hypnosis really works (and, no, it has nothing to do with waving of hands or other similar nonsense), you will want to read this book. If you want to know the "magic" behind Ericksonian techniques and Neuro-Linguistic Programming, you have to read this book. From one of the true masters of hypnotherapy, this is one book that can really change your life!!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #78896 in Books
• Published on: 2001-08-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Customer Reviews

Great examples - good principle - re-cycled NLP theory
This was the book which initially got me excited about how suggestion works and how it can be used.
The point Heller makes is that hypnosis extends far beyond the common conception of a hypnotist sending a subject into a trance through a set-piece induction. He believes that we go in and out of trance quite regularly and spontaneously like ……… sorry, I was miles away ……… to the point that the process of learning is itself a form of hypnosis.
Best about the book are the illustrative examples. One describes experiment in which the woman carries out an unconscious post-hypnotic suggestion to stuff roses into her shoe at a party. When challenged, she comes out with imaginary conscious justifications and becomes distressed. This makes me think of much behaviour in the real world. Hypnotic amnesia is naturally-occurring.
I also like the “Pavlov’s Dog”-style experiment that proves rats to be more intelligent than humans. Rats were conditioned to associate food with a sound. The food ceased to be given after a while and eventually the rats gave up responding to the sound. The same experiment was done with humans and money but the humans never gave up even long after no money was being given.
In terms of theory, much of the book is a summary of NLP and Ericksonian theory, although Heller’s depiction of eye accessing cues differs from standard NLP teaching.

Simply a Classic
OK, let's start with the flaws:
1. Neuroscientist Michael S. Gazzaniga is mentioned about half a dozen times, and almost every time, even in the Bibliography, his name is spelt "Gazzaneza".

That's it. End of flaws.
Everything else is just terrific and for anyone interested in hypnosis, or NLP, or both, this is one of those rare books You simply Must Have.

At the time of writing Amazon were pairing this book with "Training Trances" - which is a pretty powerful combination. But the books aren't just two stabs at the same material, they are significantly different views of much of the stuff that NLP is based on, and in particular the work of Milton Erickson.

The difference between the two books, and I say this with respect to all the authors, is that where "Training Trances" tells you what to DO, "Monsters and Magical Sticks" shows you how to LIVE "it".
(And in case you were thinking that "it" is Ericksonian-style hypnosis, as the book's subtitle says: "There's No Such Thing As Hypnosis?")

Just like "Training Trances", and despite its apparent simplicity this is a book that can be read over and over again. And each time you read it you'll find something that you didn't get before.

If this book is anything to go by, Dr Steven Heller seems to have been very much in the same mould as Milton Erickson, gentle, tolerant, humorous, caring, etc., etc.
At the end of the Epilogue, Nicholas Tharcher has included a brief obituary that includes these words:

"Though his work and his legacy endures, his presence, his sense of humor, and his enormous energy are gone. As one of his many friends I miss him."

By the time you finish reading this book, the only book by Heller now in print, I wouldn't be at all surprised if you feel much the same way.

A great book. Do yourself a BIG FAVOUR and get it.

Excellent introduction
Fantastic introduction to NLP/hypnosis - written in a simple, practical style with a good overview for people with no experience to the field, and enough meat to be worth reading for people who already know a bit about it. This and Bandler's Frogs into Princes are my top two introductory books to the subject.