Mind Experiment

This week I have started what I consider a mind experiment.  When I was at Barnes & Noble the other day I picked up a book on the sale counter.  It is Hypnotic Gastric Band by Paul McKenna and it intrigued me.  I have been overweight for years.  I hate diets.

The premise is that by listening to the trance on the included CD, your subconscious mind believes you have had a surgical procedure that installed a gastric band.  And if you eat too much you will feel nauseous.   I know that the mind is a very complex entity.  And it can do some amazing things.  But believing you have had a surgery??  Hmmmmm….  that’s a stretch.

In the book, Mr McKenna says that it is ok to be skeptical.  That’s good, because I am very skeptical.

He says there are 4 basic rules to follow:

1. Eat when you are hungry.  That means not when you are lonely or sad or bored.  That makes sense to me.  I can go along with this.
2. Eat what you want.  Really???  didn’t eating what I want get me into this shape??  He says that means there are no forbidden foods; no calorie counting; no bad carbs.   Well, ok.  I can not give up pasta or ice cream or cookies.
3. Eat consciously.  Chew each bite 20 times.  Savor your food.  Don’t eat while watching tv, driving, working on the computer, etc.  I do like to snack in the evenings while I watch tv.  This could be a problem.
4. Stop eating when you feel full.  In other words, you don’t have to clean your plate.  If you feel full, stop eating.  Sounds simple.  We’ll see.

So I read the book and last night I listened to the CD.  I leaned back in my recliner and turned off the tv so I wouldn’t be distracted.  The CD says it is a trance, but I didn’t feel like I went into a trance.  He talks sometimes in the right ear, and sometimes in the left ear; sometimes he says the same thing in both ears; and sometimes he says different things in each ear.  He said it is ok if you don’t hear or understand everything he says. That’s a good thing, because when he was saying different things in each ear, I couldn’t understand either one.

During the “trance” he describes the surgery and I was visualizing it — entering the hospital, the nurses taking my temp and blood pressure, putting on the hospital gown — but then, being a Brit, he said that I was on the trolley, meaning gurney.  And I, being American, visualized myself climbing onto a street car and whizzing down the road with my hospital gown flying in the breeze, parents covering their children’s eyes.  Before that vision got too out of control, we were in the “theatre” (British for operating room).  Well, ya, I saw myself in a theater watching a movie.   Then he described the surgical procedure.  He also said things like how much I was going to savor my food and I would feel my body change, and have energy and enjoy exercise.  I have never enjoyed exercise.   It’s a good thing he says its ok to be skeptical.

And while he is talking, in his soft, soothing voice, my mind is wandering. I check the clock. I ponder the differences between British English and American English.   Bud comes in and hops up on me demanding pettings.   I wonder what it would be like to be the significant other of a hypnotist…… wouldn’t you go paranoid wondering if you were doing things because you wanted to or because he had planted the seed in your mind??? Richard passes through the room once or twice.  And Topper attacks my left hand.

When I finished listening to the CD, I got up, closed up the house for the night, ate a donut and went to bed.

I’m not sure the hypnosis worked.    My starting weight is 236.4 pounds.  I’ll check back with you in a week or so and let you know what happens.