How to lose weight by enlisting the aid of the subconscious

Press, 8 February 1980, Page 8

How to lose weight by enlisting the aid of the subconscious

From

ROSALEEN McCARROLL

in Seattle, Washington.

If you want to lose weight, you. should ■ eat less. Even though they are certain there is no easier way slimmers are always looking for one. One option offered in Seattle is ‘“weight loss by hypnosis.” Dozens of hypnotists in Seattle offer private consultations. Their credentials vary but not one is a medical doctor — not even those operating from the National Academy of Medical Hypnosis. They are often called “doctors” but the title comes from a

Ph. D., usually in counselling. Fees vary from $lOO to $lO per session (the former advertises a lot and the latter sounded desperate) but most charge about $35 for a 45 to 60 minute session.

The Y.M.C.A. sponsors group clinics for one hour each day for five consecutive days. They cost $25 and are conducted by a hypnotist of unknown credentials. Always the sucker, I signed up. The hypnotist turned out the lights and started his spiel. He told us to make ourselves comfortable, and one extremely overweight girl lay on the floor. •

We are now dealing

with the subconscious, he told us, and in weight loss by hypnosis it is essential to get the subconscious on 'side. Impress it ■with the weight loss you are aiming for and don’t change it. Otherwise the subconscious gets confused and won’t help at all. (I toyed with the idea of asking for

15 lb. then settled for 10, hoping like hell I hadn’t blown it).

The spiel drones on. First of all you have to think of yourself as slim. That’s positive. “You are lying in front of the fire on a tiger skin rug looking very, verry, verrry attractive. You are slim. Slimm. Slimmm.” Now the aversion bit *‘to cut out the junk foods.” "Sweets and cakes will make you feel sickkkk. Beer and wine all taste verj’. verry bitterrr. Water will taste delicious. Drink six glasses of water a day. “Drink water with your meals.-By the end of the. week you will love water

and hate alcohol. Alcohol will taste veiy, verry bittern.

“Always sit when you eat. Never eat standing up. You will not eat snacks. Just good wholesome nutritious food. Leave some food on your plate at every meal.” That, with variations

and repititions, was the gist of what he said each - night. Many people in the & class were disappointed r that they had heard every J word. They expected, as I did, that all this therapy would be sinking into their subconscious which would then be responsible for carrying it out. No, said the hypnotist, that was the first fallacy about hypnosis. It did not mean sleep. A light trance was all that was required. Everyone in the class had been hypnotised whether they thought so or not. ,

By the end of the week ( we could look forward to S an addiction to water and KJ an aversion to alcohol. ■“

That would be the proof. Someone noticed the very overweight girl still snoring peacefully on the floor. She had to be shaken awake. I think both her conscious and her subconscious had missed the spiel.

There were no scales in the room and the hypnotist did not check our weight. However, he did have a lot of paraphernalia or “positive reinforcement.” We all got little bundles of notices which said “Slim” to stick on the fridge; a record of his spiel was available for

$22, and on the final night we got our graduation certificates.

I did not gain (or lose) anything at the clinic, but I am prepared to take the blame. I distrusted the hypnotist for no more deepseated reason than his constant use of the grammatical construction “j’ou was.” His “you wases” disturbed my concentration.

And I was not prepared to give up beer. At the end of the week, water tasted as boring as ever and beer still tasted fine.