Bruce Whealton: On Being a Poet and Other Existential Ideas

I was reading the book “Trance-formations: Neuro-Linguistic Programming and the Structure of Hypnosis” by John Grinder and Richard Bandler. This book includes some transcripts of some actual seminars or workshops with the authors. This is some excellent information on the use of hypnosis. However, what is most exciting is the understanding that these communication patters are the same as anything else. What I mean is that poetry is hypnosis is so far as it creates an altered state of mind. A good poem will alter one’s consciousness.

In a poem, in the reading of the poem, if it is done well, our mind become narrowly focused upon the images used in the poem. For example, if I described hiking in the mountains, the sound of birds above, the sight of the trees, and places where the sun pokes through an opening in the trees above… coming into a clearing, seeing the cliff’s edge ahead and the rolling hills beyond, the sound of the wind and the feeling of the wind against oneself… hopefully, you’ve come with me along this hike. You may have noticed that you became more and more focused on this hike, what you saw, heard and felt.

These same patterns can be applied to hypnosis. The same skills that I learn under the auspices of hypnosis can be applied as well toward poetry. It’s all one in the same.

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