Turning off the Critical Voice Part 2

Since my previous blog post I have been developing this idea still further, road testing ideas, and putting it into real world contexts of both hypnotherapy and street. This morning for example I utilised the methodology to remove a client’s phobia of spiders, and then her fear of confined spaces, all in about 10 minutes including repeated testing. Along the way I may have used a new approach to phobias?

To simplify, I removed the critical voice that believed she had a phobia of spiders. I did so linguistically, rather than the process in my previous blog. Whilst this voice was suspended I had her exposed (ethically) to spiders. She was fine. I then allowed the voice to return and left her with a state of confusion. She knew that she had just been nicely with a spider, reacting neutrally, and yet she also knew she had a phobia of spiders – a quick piece of linguistic guidance to make a choice between her reactions, and she decided to be neutral, and was again successfully exposed to the spiders to embed the new response.

I then repeated the same with the fear of confined spaces, again successfully.

It is important to note that just removing the critical voice IS NOT enough to make the changes stick. To do that the exposure is necessary, so they have the new experience. I don’t want my clients relying on faith that it will work – I want them to have the absolute belief based on real world tangible experience. The removal of the critical voice just allowed this to be possible.

(For reference, the phobia of spiders was not anticipatory, so my first tool of choice would previously have been the FPC. The fear of confined spaces was anticipatory, so I would have used Nick Kemp’s excellent voice tempo process. I just decided to do some real world testing of my current line of thinking.)

I had seen this client at her place of work, and I gave a few HWT card and hand sticks to her colleagues as a warm up for what was to come afterwards. I wanted to continue to play with the idea of just removing the voice responsible for reality and just suggest a new reality directly.

I popped into a sports shop on the way back to my truck to test my ideas in a real world situation. Again, I don’t want to rely on faith that these new thoughts would work – I want belief based on tangible evidence.

I asked a shop worker if he was willing to experience a mind trick that was really cool, got his agreement, got him to place his hand flat on the wall, and asked “what do you think if I told you your hand was stuck to the wall?” I quickly then elicited his critical voice which was responsible for that reality, turned it off, told him his hand was stuck fast and this he could believe, now, and got a perfect hand stick. From here I could have used James Tripp’s hypnotic loop and ramped up the phenomena, but was too excited!

I’m going to continue to play with it in a street setting, to see what works and what doesn’t, continuing to test and explore. I hope the readers who are hypnotists will also do so. And I will also continue to explore in my hypnotherapy setting, as my clients can only benefit from the results.

Now, I’m not a stage hypnotist, yet if I was, I can already see a few really good applications for this methodology. To start with, how about removing the critical voice which blocks entry into hypnosis? And then removing the critical voice responsible for holding back inhibitions, allowing the subjects to be more extroverts? And then removing the critical voice that is responsible for that subject’s link with reality? I’ve already been using this linguistically, and I’m sure it won’t take someone long to work out how to bring it into their stage patter. Imagine having nearly the whole audience as possible good subjects, or even using the whole audience as a subject unified as one? In my mind I’m seeing some massive changes to stage hypnosis as a result of this, shaking off the old tried and tested for something new and fresh. Combine this with AIM and HWT and you may just be bringing something new, and much needed, to the show.

As before, if as readers you are a hypnotist, please go out and play with the ideas presented here. Let me know your thoughts, ideas, questions, developments – pop me an email to gary@garyturner.co.uk. You can’t patent an idea like this – taking methodologies that have been around for decades and applying them in a new direction – so let’s get our knowledge out there, and all of us become better hypnotists.

Turning Off The Critical Voice

This post will be of interest to all hypnotists. I believe I am utilising a methodology that I can’t find reference to anyone doing before. This methodology completely removes the major blockage to hypnosis and phenomena produced – the critical voice. I have kept the descriptions and explanations simple and generalised.

With hypnosis, especially with more classical work (and I am not referring to relaxatherapy or scriptosis, both of which I don’t think use hypnosis), attempts are commonly carried out to quieten the critical voice. Eye fixation is the usual, often combined with confusion methods to occupy any critical voice which is left.

In Anthony Jacquin and Kev Sheldrakes’ Automatic Imagination Model (AIM) attempts are made to imagine the critical voice away, and imagine it happening automatically. On the rare times when AIM has failed for me, it has not been possible for my subject to imagine this happening automatically, and the voice remains to spoil the fun, preventing the client from having the required experience.

In James Tripp’s Hypnosis Without Trance (HWT) the hypnotic loop is set, building belief, which when in place becomes its own feedback loop deepening the effect of the phenomena, supported usually by eye fixation and occupying the subject’s mind with continued instructions. Yet again, here, on the rare times when I have failed with this methodology, it is usually because the critical voice pops up.

I also find that when talking to subjects who do not enter more classical methodologies of hypnosis, the blockage is the critical voice. This is often the case with those who are highly analytical, those who think very fast, the ones who are always questioning their reality.

The critical voice, that internal self-talk of the client, always seems to be the saboteur.

We all have self-talk (“we all hear voices in our head, apart from psychiatrists and dead people, and we try and avoid those” to misquote the ever humorous Andy Austin), and all self-talk voices are elements of the multiplicity of personality, whether minor or major (see ‘Multiplicity’ by Rita Carter), often referred to in the metaphor of a ‘part’ in Neuro-Linguistic Programming. The critical voice is the self-talk that a client has which keeps his hold on reality, the one which holds them back from automatic imagination – hypnosis.

 So I decided to turn the critical voices completely off.

To do this I already knew a good methodology, courtesy of studying the works of Andrew T Austin, and turn negative voices off almost every hypnotherapy client session. I normally turn off the negative voices, the ones which are the saboteurs, the ones calling for bad food, the ones saying “go on, just have a cigarette” and so forth. I find the methodology incredibly effective.

 Here is the methodology: (Credit here must go to Andrew T Austin – I learn so much from every one of his products and trainings)

1. “Can you hear that voice? Find that negative voice and let me know when you can hear it.” (Elicit the voice, that ‘part’ of the “subject’s personality.)


2. “What would that voice look like if you could see it?” (Changes the submodalities from auditory to visual.)

3. “Where would that voice be if it were in the room?” (Again changes the submodalities and also dissociates, the voice is no longer part of them.)

4. “Get some black duct tape, and in your mind, tape the mouth closed so tightly that you can’t hear it.” (Mentally shutting off the voice.)

5. Tell it “ok, I’ve heard, yet you’re not helping, so now’s the time to just be quiet, and relax.” (This is what I would do for a negative or problem voice, and normally the person relaxes with the voice too, therefore getting a somatic reaction – after all this voice is an element of them – for the purposes of what follows I’ve been putting it so far behind them they can’t even see it)

This methodology has never failed (for me) to turn off a voice, and therefore an element of personality can be shut down. Knowing how and why it works I’m doing it linguistically too, putting it into conversation, which could sit better with street hypnosis or stage hypnosis for example.

In testing I used the AIM with a simple hand stick:

“Imagine your hand becoming stuck, stuck fast to the table. Imagine it become stuck automatically so much that even if you wanted to pull it away it would just stick tighter and tighter the more you tried. Now try and lift your hand…”

Sometimes even this simplified version of AIM gets a secure hand stick, often much to my surprise!

Yet when it comes free and I ask for feedback I usually get “I knew I could lift it if I wanted to.” I then get creative to elicit the voice. Conversations in this respect are usually simple though, and generally go:
Me: “How did you know you could lift it?”
Subject: “I just knew.”
Me: “How?”
Subject: “I just told myself I could lift it…”

And there we have the critical voice. And then I promptly turn off.

Since starting with this methodology I have had zero failings with getting hypnosis (automatic perception changes, automatic ‘unconscious’ following of suggestions) utilising this methodology of turning off the critical voice. This is with traditional ‘induction’ led hypnosis, waking hypnosis, conversational hypnosis, AIM, and HWT. I’m playing and getting inventive with the applications, and I have messaged and had discussions with some of my leading peers to let them develop and expand this concept further in their own direction.

Hypnosis has stayed still too long. Anthony and Kevin with AIM, and James with HWT, are looking at hypnosis with a critical eye, and stripping back everything unnecessary from it. Jorgen Rassmussen is applying hypnosis in a new direction – provocative hypnosis he calls it. Mavericks like the ‘new kid on the block’ Craig Galvin are already pushing boundaries. I’d like to think that my new application of a technique (taught to me by Andy Austin) is my contribution to moving hypnosis forward.

If you are a hypnotist – please go out and give it a go – I anticipate your hit rates will increase dramatically, leaving you much more confident in your work and having more ‘good’ subjects available. Get creative with the concepts I’ve created, see what you can develop. I’d love to hear how you get on, and developments you create. Please let me know at gary@garyturner.co.uk – and remember, if I can find something new there is more out there – what can you find?

Dog Phobia

I have the pleasure of owning a couple of huskies. Both are rehomes and my latest, Max, has been with us just a couple of months. We were warned that Max had a phobia of water when we picked him up and over Christmas this phobia became manifest for the 1st time.

While out enjoying canicross (running with dogs using harnesses bungee cords and waist harness) over a local woods and pond we went to run over a small slatted bridge which had running water beneath. The moment Max’s front paws hit the bridge he went into full anchor mode, all four paws and legs braced to stop him moving forward. His body language was clear – he was not going to cross the bridge.

I am very experienced at removing human phobias, but this is the 1st time I had a dog as a client. Huskies aren't your usual dogs either, being highly independent and of high intelligence. I needed to think quickly as with this phobia manifest in front of me there was a perfect opportunity to solve it.

Dogs are just like humans in that they work from reference experience to guide them how to act under current stimulus. So I know that Max had learnt this fear from past experience. Unlike with the human I couldn't question him or use hypnosis to discover the genesis of the phobia. So instead, in order to resolve the phobia I needed to give him a new, positive experience, to allow him to know exactly what he needs to do under this stimulus. I knew that he would only need one such experience as dogs live ‘in the moment’.

The 1st thing I did was to not reward him or give him attention for failing to cross the bridge. If I started to sympathise with him he would start to read that his behaviour was acceptable - it would be reinforced. As with humans, the behaviour that is rewarded is the behaviour that persists.

So I instantly grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and started to drag him with me over the bridge. I maintained confidence in my mind and kept calm, allowing Max to understand that he was not being punished and instead was to follow the leader. I started to move him over the bridge like he had no option and gave him no time to think. The interesting thing is that almost instantly he relaxed and just trotted nicely over the bridge, meaning I could immediately let go of his neck. The moment he realised his fear was far worse than the actuality he just carried on like nothing had happened.

Working on the human neurology rule of 3 repetitions to help encode the change, I then reinforced this new behaviour by guiding him back and forth over the bridge 3 times. At no time did he show any sign of fear or phobia and just showed perfect willing to accept my leadership and that all would be fine.

Some people may say that I was cruel to drag him over the bridge however the manner in which I did so was no different to the way he plays with my other husky. And it acted as a perfect pattern interrupted to his old behaviour. There is no pain or punishment in handling a dog in this way in such an instance – I consider it to possibly be cruel to allow this phobia to persist or pamper to it.

The next day we tested our work and did the same run again. This time Max ran comfortably and happily without even noticing the bridge. Job done.

Human phobias develop in exactly the same way that dog phobias develop. There will either be a one-time event which encodes fear to the stimulus or it will be learned through observation of others experiencing fear to the stimulus. And, just like with a dog, the plasticity of the brain can be employed to give a different reaction to the stimulus without fear. Many clients of mine who come to me reporting phobias often leave with a sense of wonder about their old fear stimulus instead.

While walking the Huskies I often see the genesis of phobias to dogs being taught to children. I often walk past schools at drop-off or pickup time and every so often as I walk past mother will usher their child behind them, looking at the huskies in fear, while commanding “watch out – big dog” or similar. Quite nicely allowing their own insecurities and fears to pass the children. Of course, I just ignore this behaviour and walk past with my dogs under control and wonder when it will be that this child will become a future client of mine…

Fight Hypnosis Testimonial

Here's a fantastic fight testimonial I've received from Dave Garrett - thanks so much mate, and your fight performance was incredible!


"It has been 3 days since I won my debut semi-pro MMA fight and I find myself searching the forums for future events where I can experience the same success as I did on Saturday night. I attribute my success to the hard work that was undertaken by my Coaches, training partners and myself. The following testimonial highlights some of the preparation that was given by Gary Turner.

My background:
Professional: 13 years service in the armed forces (10 years as a Physical Training instructor and 5 years in the Royal Army Physical Training Corps as a rehabilitation specialist)
Sporting background: 19 years playing competitive rugby
7 years Martial arts experience (Training in aikido, Vale tudo, BJJ (Currently blue belt) and kickboxing.

I took the fight in June this year, which gave me 5 months to prepare. I had already spent the best part of 8 months Strength and Power training which had resulted in me gaining a lot of extra bulk (muscle and fat). I decided that there were 3 main priorities from the outset:

1. Prepare my physical fitness specifically for the MMA environment.
2. Lose the weight to fight at light heavy weight (93kg) - I weighed 108.5 kg.
3. Improve my martial arts skills to competitive MMA level.

Having a solid base in the grappling arts I decided that the majority of my focus should be on kickboxing, this was coupled with a groin injury which prevented a lot of guard fighting (an essential part of grappling).

July - August.

This far out from the fight, my focus was to finish my strength training cycle and progress to power. I also began private tuition under Gary to sharpen up my kickboxing skills. I already studied under Gary at his kickboxing class and had grappled with him on many occasions so knew he was a good coach, I was yet to find out that he had a whole other level of teaching ability in a 1 to 1 environment. The skills and conditioning sessions delivered by Gary here really picked my training up a notch and helped me identify areas to improve. I noticed a cross over into other areas of training...I started to flow and move more efficiently during sparring both in kickboxing and grappling.

September - October

With the summer out of the way I had lost alot of weight already and by September I had dropped to 102 kg. I had noticed that as the event drawed closer, I was getting anxious about fighting. It’s normal to experience nerves with a challenging event pending; only this time was different. I started to go into flight or fight mode just thinking about what was to come, this would also happen when watching similar contests on the TV and had started to affect my concentration and my sleep. I decided to discuss this with Gary who offered to do some sports hypnosis with me.

The hypnosis session lasted about 2 hours (although it felt alot shorter) and I remember much of the session. I had told Gary about my nerves, which I thought were related to some other situations. I spent most of the session laughing my anxiety away and left feeling alot more focused. Following that first session my anxiety returned to a normal level and my concentration and sleep problems were resolved.

A couple of weeks of preparation passed with this new level of focus and then some new problems appeared. I was stuck at 98 kg and also was concerned that my ability would be up to scratch. Gary offered to do some more work with me which I gladly accepted. This time I don’t remember much of what went on, it was on a Saturday morning and we had already done a little warm up training. I asked Gary if there was any way he could help me with: i. my weight loss, ii. tying together everything I had learned and iii. my adductor strain (which had gotten quite sore).
During this session I remember Gary asking my subconscious if it knew how to heal my adductor, to which the reply was yes and whether rehabilitation was required, to which the answer was no! Following the session my adductor no longer gave me trouble during training or indeed the fight. I also began breaking through the 98 kg barrier.

Following the hypnosis this time Gary wanted to trial some of the cue words he had installed suring the session, he asked me to strike his stand up dummy 'BOB' and promptly delivered the command 'continuous'. On hearing this my strikes began to flow naturally and continuously and I felt more relaxed, the next command that followed was 'pick it up!' This command gave me an uncontrollable urge to strike the dummy continuously as fast as I could. The strange thing was that I was getting tired and wanted to slow down...but couldn’t! It wasnt until Garys next command which told me to slow down that I managed to get a break (albeit a short one before the next 'pick it up!'.

I know about pushing myself to my physical limits, or at least I thought I did. It doesnt matter how hard you try and push, your body will always find a way of slowing down...with these new commands I had a way of pushing through my own self-imposed barriers. We retested the commands during our Monday night sparring sessions and they worked a treat, giving me the ability to relentlessly work on my sparring partners (who I must thank again for their support).

November - Pre fight

The week leading up to the fight I was asked on many occasions if I was confident, to which I replied 'I am just Ready!' I was as ready as I had ever been, for anything. On the Wednesday prior to the event I had another session with Gary to refresh all the work we had done, I had also undergone a couple of intense pressure testing sessions which really prepared me psychologically for the intensity I was going to have to work. The Thursday and Friday was spent cutting the last remaining weight (i had already practised losing the last 3 kilos in th Sauna but it turned out unnecessary). During these 2 days I felt no nerves and had a clear head, I hardly even thought about the fight! I made weight, replenished my body and had a normal Saturday before making my way down to Andover for the Into the cage 4 event.

Gary arrived shortly after me and helped me to warm up. We did some warming up and I felt some slight jitters on the initial couple of minutes which I think was due to my start up system kicking in. 30 minutes prior to fighting Gary did a final hypnosis session with me. Following this I got my gloves on and prepared to go out. From the moment I began my walk out to the moment I was stood in the cage apposite my opponent, I was in a state of complete focus. I had a job to do and it was as simple as that. As the fight started I heard my 2 cue words 'continuous...pick it up!'. My goal for the fight was to execute my skills exactly how I had trained which I achieved. Once I got into a mounted position on my opponent, I was able to sustain a constant work rate which caused the fight to end in 1 minute 18 seconds of the first round. The end of the fight felt exactly as I had visualised it, a triumphant end to months of hard work and preparation.

A massive thanks to Gary for all the time and effort he put in to helping me prepare for this fight."

Insomnia Testimonial

It is important to get feedback on the work you do, and it really makes me happy when clients give a testimonial like this! Thanks Adam, and good work fella!


"I first met Gary Turner just over a year ago at a seminar he gave at Andy Roberts BJJ in Farnborough. I was impressed with Gary and his presentation style as his warm personality immediately make’s you feel at ease and as if you have known him for years.

For about 18 months before I arranged finally to see Gary Turner, I was in a bad place emotionally as I had broken up with my fiancée and had insomnia for the best part of the time afterwards. I literally felt like I was up at 2 in the morning each and everyday of my life. It was starting to affect me negatively at work and I was becoming more and more stressed out.

I decided to see Gary as I had a tremendous amount of respect for him as he is widely respected in the spheres he lives and works in. Basically I felt Gary had been there done that. The two hour hypnotherapy session was awesome a lot of time for me was talking through unresolved clutter in my head and Gary was basically the broom that swept it away. He resolved my sleep issues and made the self-defeating dialogue that I had running, go away.

It is now a month on and I am sleeping so much better than before, this has made me virtually stress free at work and my training is improving week by week.

I cannot thank Gary enough he has put me back on track and I feel so much happier with my life.

Thank you once again Gary.

Adam Collins"

Hypnosis in Personal Training

I tend to blur the lines between my Hypnotherapy and my Personal Training. Doing one helps me to be better at the other, there is a skillset that crosses over nicely, and most importantly helps my clients get the results that they want.

During Personal Training I have to constantly monitor my client’s body language, emotions, mental outlook – yes I even monitor their thoughts – and guide them to where they need to be. I have to be sharp when on the pads, noticing every movement in my opponent to know exactly how and where my client will strike – holding the pads safety for both of us is my responsibility. I have to use a heightened state of sensory acuity. I utilise a whole number of linguistic skills from hypnotic language patterns, cognitive linguistics, and the realms of metaphor, clean language – every pattern I need to guide the thoughts in my client’s head, be better understood, and perhaps most importantly understand my client better. This doesn’t just help my clients, but also sharpens my skills for hypnotherapy.

A couple of weeks back I brought full on hypnotic phenomena into a standard Personal Training session. I have a talented 6 year old as a client, who enjoys his judo and mixed martial arts training with me. Training a 6 year old one-on-one for an hour keeps you on your toes! You have to make the session interesting, constantly changing what you are doing, keeping attention, monitoring his physical and mental condition. And you can’t train him the same as an adult. It is a challenge, and one that I thoroughly enjoy.

And in this session I was being challenged by his weak grip during judo throws. When he pulled hard he would lose his grip, therefore losing control, and not succeed in throwing. I needed to do something about this. So I got his hand, put it on the wall, and without a formal hypnosis induction stuck it to the wall so he couldn’t pull it away. Kids respond so well to hypnosis that it was achieved in about 20 seconds. I got him to transfer that ‘stuck’ to a grip on my sleeve – and suddenly his relatively weak grip was really strong – he could pull and pull me but because his hand was ‘stuck’ to my jacket sleeve the grip wasn’t broken. We’d captured his imagination and his body responded in kind.

After some throwing practice I got him to stand up. Using a principle currently being seen used by the street magician Dynamo (very talented, nice style, entertaining and fresh, check him out!) I first lifted him up easily off the ground. I then taught him to follow a mental process to stick his feet to the floor, to make him so heavy that he just couldn’t be moved. It was funny watching his mum try to lift him up when he was doing this – he had become so heavy!

I applied this principle to his holds, where he would do this mental process to stick himself to the floor – and with brilliant results pinning me so much more easily. For me underneath him, being held, he felt twice as heavy when he was using the mental technique.

Of course as with any training, it takes deliberate practice and repetition for the procedural memories, the muscle memories, to just allow this all to happen without conscious thought. Yet this was a lovely start, and a fun blend of hypnosis to get better results from my personal training. It made the session fun for both of us and the results came quicker. It opened my eyes, yet again, to what was potentially possible.

And this has got me wondering what other approaches I can use from hypnosis to speed up my client’s results…

World Titles – Are You Swimming In A Pond Or An Ocean?

Well, what’s a blog for if you can’t have a bit of a rant. Here’s one of mine. I was chatting to a top Thai boxing trainer/promoter last week and we started to rant about this, so I think its time to put it into a blog post and see what you all think.

And just to let you all know, this is aimed at no-one, and no show in particular. It’s the way I feel, and I put this out for discussion.

What better way to start but with a bit of trumpet blowing.

I’ve been fortunate to have had a long fight career, one where I’ve won more than I’ve lost, where I’ve tested myself, and along the way achieved thirteen World Titles. Yet, what does being a ‘World Champion’ actually say you have achieved?

The title that I am most proud of is my WAKO World Champion title for Heavyweight Full Contact Kickboxing. This one was an amateur World Title, yet it is the one that means the most to me. The competition raged in Poland over 5 days and I fought in a tournament against National Champions from nearly 70 countries. I earned that title the hard way – through blood, sweat, tears, and injuries – picking myself up and throwing myself time and time again into the ring. The fact that Britain has only won gold medals for Full Contact three times (me, Dev Barrett, Chris McNeish) in a competition that has been taking place for nearly twenty five years tells you something of the achievement. Yep, I’m pretty proud of this one.

All of my titles are what I consider to be true titles – apart from this one that follows. I hold a Thai Boxing World Title for beating Azem Maksutaj in Switzerland (the year he bust up K-1 Vegas and was tipped as the hottest fighter on the scene.) It is a fight I am very proud of though – for me, the challenge has always been in the opponents and not the prize, and Azem was one tough cookie to beat. Me knocking Azem down during this fight is currently my Facebook profile picture. The title itself though was for a pretty obscure governing body, although even this one was an international body. The title didn’t represent much at all.

So what makes my World Titles ‘true’ titles? They are all from truly international bodies, I fought foreign opponents and travelled the world for the fights, and the standard of competition was high. I put out challenges and I was challenged. The fights all took place on the world stage – I was a fish swimming in a massive ocean.

Even back in the day, in the 90’s, I won the biggest two British kickboxing titles against the top level opponents in Ricky Nicholson and Lee Swaby (WKA and WAKO). Back then titles really meant something, and these British Titles probably mean more of an achievement than most of the World Titles being won today.

Because nowadays it seems everyone is a World Champion. And whereas I know that all have been earned through effort and emotion, I do wonder about how much value these titles hold.

Most of the ‘World’ Champions aren’t really champions of the world. Instead, they are champions of a ‘show’. There are so many shows out there giving their versions of world titles, where the challenged only take place on their shows, often just fighting domestic opponents, some only ever featuring local fighters.

With these shows the pond is small, and often the fish aren’t even that big.

I think it totally devalues what a title actually is.

I’ve always enjoyed the challenge more than the titles, and I’m proud to say that I’ve fought against the best in the world, on a true world stage. Some I won, some I lost. For me, the challenge was in my opponents not the prize. So with titles being devalued I can still hold my head high and know where I’ve been and who I have fought, and the quality of my opponents.

I may be a little fish but I definitely have been swimming in the biggest ocean.

What are you swimming in?