Story of the Week with James Hazlerig

In this episode, James Hazlerig sits down with Scott Sandland to discuss hypnotic storytelling, along the way connecting hypnotists, court jesters, plastic bricks, the Great Wall of China, and how to not get killed for telling the truth.

"Ships are safe in the harbor, but that's not what ships are for." In this episode, James Hazlerig shares an actual recording he made for a client coping with a fear of success--or at least with many of the situations success would bring with it, including public speaking opportunities. This example shows how to combine storytelling and metaphor with more conventional hypnosis techniques, such as direct suggestion and future pacing. The client is a fan of The Secret and the Law of Attraction, so James utilizes that information to build the hypnotic work.

As one of "The Flying Jameses," Master Storyteller Hazlerig is known for loving zip lines. In this episode, he reaches into the archives for a story about what zip lines mean to him and how he overcame his fear of heights.

Fiddlin' Johnny may have bested the Devil when the latter went down to Georgia, but true artists co-opt their inner demons and make them sing back-up. In this episode, James Hazlerig tells a nested loop collection of stories about playing the fiddle, and indirectly what that means about being an artist and living life with passion. Also included are announcements about upcoming events.

When a fellow hypnotist wants to keep her perspective while hearing medical news, James draws on a familiar story and his own introduction to it. This week's story is an excerpt from James's upcoming class at the 2017 ACHE virtual conference.

This week, I offer up two stories about win-win negotiation: One from Aesop, and one from Erickson, though I put the good doctor in a Biblical disguise. The stories were recorded during a class I taught called "How to Teach Anger Management in Recovery." It is a live recording, so I hope you'll overlook a few pops. Also, I answer a question from the mail bag: "How do I know when my story is being effective for change?"

Storytellers are collectors--but are they collectors of lore, trivia, or useless knowledge? In this episode, I tell a nested loop story that reveals how Erickson impressed professors and farmers, how I used knowledge from Dungeons and Dragons to shine in biology lab, and why my family was visited by the Phantom Junkman.