disturbed children amnesia stuttering nervous tics sexual inhibitions dental anxiety and pain heart palpitations abdominal cramps tension and anxiety overeating reduction or elimination of smoking Both men and women are equally hypnotizable. Children are generally better subjects than adults. As already noted, clients who are more anxious tend to accept hypnotic suggestion more readily. Clients who are motivated to change respond best to hypnotic suggestion. Individuals who are imaginative, who had fictitious companions in childhood, who read a good deal, and who can become readily absorbed in nature are inclined to make good subjects. Good rapport between client and therapist and a sense of trust in the therapist's goodwill and ability contribute greatly to successful hypnotherapy. Russian-born Lewis R. Wolberg (1905-1988) was a leading New York hypnotherapist originally trained as a psychoanalyst. He is recognized for the comprehensiveness and eclecticism of his approach. After forty years of practice, he came to see its main limitation: Because hypnosis is so dramatic a phenomenon, it is easy to overestimate its potential. A great many things may be accomplished with a subject in a trance, even the removal of psychologically determined symptoms.... But almost immediately after hypnosis has ended, or shortly thereafter, the symptoms will return _if the subject has a psychological need for them_. [italics added] ... Quite often patients on disability compensation are sent to me by insurance companies for hypnotic examination and treatment. Almost invariably, these casualties cling to their symptoms with the desperation of a drowning man hanging on to a raft.... There are other secondary gains a person may get out of holding onto his symptoms. The need to punish himself for his guilt feelings, the desire to abandon an adult adjustment and {223} return to the protective blanket of infancy in order to be taken care of.... Symptoms do not magically vanish; they must be worn down. It is essential to replace them with productive habits."[8] [8] Wolberg, _Hypnosis_, pp. 237-239. MEDITATION _For individuals who are able to make a long-range commitment to the practice of a discipline that, over a period of many months and years, can strengthen them and help them to become more fully integrated and centered._ /* Don't go outside yourself, return into yourself. The dwelling place of truth is the inner man. Saint Augustine, _The True Religion_