December 16, 2014

Session 55: Black Hats, Reframes, Violets and Lavender

32 minutes

Welcome to Episode 55 of Brain Software with Mike Mandel and Chris Thompson! We’ve got a very full episode for you with lots of great content including some fun context free humour. If you want to learn hypnosis online make sure you check out the Mike Mandel Hypnosis Academy

Here are the show notes for this episode:

We discuss Mike’s last stage hypnosis show for the year, which took place last week. We brought a group of about 25 past hypnosis students with us and it was tremendous fun to have everyone able to see the structure of hypnosis in action.

The two of us have started using a strange and fun new way to refer to stupid behavior or stupid statements by others. It all started when Chris sent Mike an audio message, and Mike misheard the content, thinking Chris had referred to somone “Drinking from the bag of Pykthos.” So Mike crafted an entire Greek mythology back story included at the bottom of this post. Whenever you refer to the bag of Pykthos, or Lavender and Violets (or anything related to this), it now means you are referencing the stupidity of whoever you direct your reference towards.

The person who emails us with the funniest, most clever, or subtle use of this new context free humour mechanism wins a free download from our website of their choosing. Contest closes on December 24th, so you have just over a week. Have fun, and remember not to explain the reference! Let the recipient remain confused.

Getting back to serious business, we discuss the Black Hat, which comes from Edward de Bono’s book “Six Thinking Hats”. Mike explains that the “Black Hat”, which represents discernment, or applying logic to identify reasons to be cautious or conservative, should not be applied when you are in a creative phase. For example – if you feel stuck in your job and want to craft a new career, don’t hang around people who wear the black hat. They won’t be helpful to you in your brainstorming.

We also have a serious discussion about entering situations with the proper mental framing. Often times people will frame things as being very difficult, or requiring a lot of effort. This is not particularly useful if you are going into a business meeting where you need a new solution to a problem, or adopting a new lifestyle of healthy eating and exercise. We recommend reframing “I have to” into “I get to” whenever possible. Start noticing how other people around you frame things.

Empowering Question: What will it take for you to get off your butt and start transforming your life … NOW!

The Back Story to the Bag of Pykthos
King Menelaus of Ithaca hired his brother Pykthos who was skilled in the use of herbs, poisons and Pharmakeia. He filled a leather bag with various plants, including lavender and violets, and the witch, Circe, knitted a covering bag of the finest silver thread. The potion inside would cause abject stupidity, and would be given to all of Menelaus’ rivals, but he feared lest Pykthos might use it on him, so he threw it into the fire.

The leather burned away, but the silver remained, holding a sweet liquid, redolent of violets and lavender, a single drop of which would cause permanent stupidity.

Based on the above, here are the wonderful phrases at our disposal:

Your speech drips with the lavender fluid of Pykthos!

You have clearly dipped your straw in the silver bag of Pykthos…

Your tongue is redolent with the odour of lavender and violets…

Clearly, my friend, you have drunk deeply from the lavender bag of Pykthos!

Dined with Menelaus recently?

Is that a slight Ithacan accent I detect?

Please leave a rating for the show in iTunes, and send in your questions by emailing questions (at) MikeMandelHypnosis (dot) com.

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