Some truths which will help us forgive others are (some are based on various spiritual beliefs or Christian concepts which might not be acceptable to you or the subject):

1. All happens according to a divine plan which brings me exactly what I need at every stage of my evolutionary process in order to learn the next lesson.

2. Others are simply actors in my life drama, the script of which I write daily.

3. Others are the hands of the divine showing me the direction in which I must go.

4. All are souls in evolution, who act negatively out of ignorance and fear.

5. Forgiving does not mean saying that what the other did was right, it simply means that I forgive his ignorance and weakness as a fellow soul in the evolutionary process.

6. Forgiving does not make me vulnerable. Still needing something (security, affirmation, love ) from the other makes us vulnerable. Forgiving and loving without needing any thing from the other is my real protection.

7. I am the sole creator of my reality. I abuse others when I hold them responsible for what I create.

8. I have the power to create my life and need not hide behind excuses that I cannot because of something which others have done or are doing.

9. As souls in the process of evolution we all make many mistakes. This is natural. What is unnatural is not forgiving ourselves and others for these mistakes.

10. The other is a divine creation. Although he may not realize it, the divine is functioning through him. Not forgiving him, is to not forgive the divine.

11. We create as much pain in the world when we feel hurt as when we hurt.

And the words of Christ

12. “Let he who has not sinned, throw the first stone.”

13. “Judge not, that you be not Judged.”

14. “You will be judged with the strictness with which you have judged.”

15. Peter asked Christ, “How many times should we forgive someone for what he has done, seven times?” Christ answered, ” No Peter, Seven times seventy times.”

See also truths for forgiving ourselves.

When it comes to exploring the history of hypnotism, you will find both scientific and unscientific pit stops throughout time. There is also an artistic aspect that warrants attention regarding the subject. As you study the records associated with this unique mental journey, an assortment of characters illustrate the power that hypnosis has possessed throughout the years.

To truly appreciate the longevity of hypnosis, it is vital to take a look at its use throughout ancient civilizations. While there is evidence showcasing the use of hypnosis rituals during pre-historic times, you may find one of the first intriguing visual accounts through hieroglyphics decorating the early 3000 BC tombs of ancient Egyptians. It is believed that hypnotism was utilized within various “sleep temples,” which had connections to healing or religion.

Throughout ancient history, a wide range of ancient proof surrounds the fact that hypnotism was understood and practiced during numerous medicinal practices and rituals. Celtic druids to ancient Greeks to Chinese religious leaders have all shown a respect for hypnotism, as the accomplishment was also prevalent throughout Africa, Persia and South America. It is even thought that details regarding the practice of hypnosis can be found throughout the pages of the Jewish Scriptures and the Hindu Vedas.

Surrounded by spiritualism, magic and divine power, hypnotism was met with plenty of opposition for those who questioned this mysterious practice and technique. During the early years, hypnosis was a popular exercise associated with shamans, witch doctors, as well as high priests. With each passing year, there have been thousands of influences upon hypnosis, as scientific, as well as unscientific approaches contributed to the advancement of this captivating entity.

Hypnosis in the 1700s

During the 1700s, one of the most well known figures in hypnosis history is an Austrian by the name of Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815). Throughout the 18th century, he led the way in the usage of trace, which earned him the nickname, “Father of Hypnosis.” It is also through his name that we find the term, “mesmerism.”

At the urging of Mozart, Mesmer purchased a space where he could perform magical “cures” on people. While many praised his healing powers, which were often accompanied with lights and other gimmicks, there were others who dismissed his results as a figment of the imagination. One notable critic was none other than Benjamin Franklin.

Hypnosis During the 1800s

In France, one of the first scientific explorations regarding hypnosis took place with the help of Abbe Castodi de Faria. He investigated the ins and outs of the practice as it related to trances and willing participants. Faria is also credited with establishing what is known as the “fixed-gaze method,” which became a rage throughout stage hypnotism shows.

Also during this time, without the effort of John Elliotson of England, the use of magnetism and hypnosis may have never found its way in easing the pain of surgery. As for the concept of autosuggestion, the thoughts and teachings of Emile Coue brought this to the public. Coue contended that all hypnosis was influenced by self-hypnotic techniques.

But during the 1800s, it was the work of Dr. James Braid that really catapulted hypnosis. Through his studies, suggestibility, as it related to trance, was thought to be an individual occurrence. Using vocal suggestion, he was able to explore the influence that hypnotists had on their subjects. Braid is also honored for discovering “waking hypnosis.”

Entering the 20th Century

The history of hypnotism travels throughout a vast record in time. It was used to treat trauma victims during both World Wars. Dentists utilized its power as hypnotic-anesthesia. In 1955, the British Medical Association began to consider hypnotherapy as a legitimate medical treatment. Three years later, the American Medical Association (AMA) agreed. Following these acknowledgements throughout the medical world, a host of professional associations for hypnotists started to pop up across the globe. To date, the National Guild of Hypnotists is still the oldest and largest of its kind.

During the 20th century, many researchers, doctors and other medical figures began to take interest in learning more about hypnosis. Important strides on the subject were then made by the likes of John Kappas, Ormond McGill, Milton Erickson and Dave Elman.

To explore the history of hypnosis, one will encounter a wealth of personalities who have shaped the way people viewed and accepted the field. Well-known characters, such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Thomas Edison, Winston S. Churchill and Albert Einstein have also shown interest in hypnosis or self-hypnosis.

A writer said, “The shores of fortune are covered with the stranded wrecks of men of brilliant ability but who have lacked courage, faith and decision and have therefore perished in sight of more resolute but less capable adventurers, who succeeded in making port.” Most of the times we start the beginning of the year with dreams, goals or aspirations but one common occurrence to most people is that by the end of the first or second month, they have completely detoured and forgotten about all they have planned to do.

When we have something to achieve, it is our style to look at the obstacles we have to overcome instead of looking at what we need to start with immediately. When we list everything we need for a certain project/vision, we get overwhelmed most of the times and will want to wait till we have everything at our disposal. If this is your approach to visions, I want to tell you that you may NEVER start at all and procrastination will always be something you will indulge in. You will be waiting for a breakthrough that may NEVER come and you will keep postponing what you are supposed to do.

When God told Moses he will deliver the Israelites, the question He asked Moses was, “What is in your hand?” Moses wouldn’t have believed the rod he has been holding for years will be enough to get started the process of liberating the Israelites. The sling in David’s hand was enough to wipe Goliath off the face of the earth. He didn’t need all the armoury in Israel to slay Goliath, he went with what he had and victory was his.

If the above-named have looked at the task before them and compared it with what they have, they wouldn’t have become great and OBSCURITY would have been their lot.

When God has planted a dream in your heart, the first thing for you to do, is to START! I have heard people say it is good to count the cost and I don’t disagree with that but counting the cost in order for you to stay action will do you no good at all. If you will need about a million to start a project, instead of waiting for a lucky break, won’t it be wise for you to break the money down so that your inability to start with the required money won’t hinder you.

One important thing I have learnt about taking action is that you never know where you will get to until you begin to act. The breakthrough you may be expecting may even be tied to your getting started. I have seen a man who started his business with a mere $650 and has grown it to over $250 million businesses in this same country. I believe the man wouldn’t have done anything if he was to look at all the things he would need for the business to get to the level he wants it to be. So if there is anything you want to carry out this year, don’t allow anything deter you from starting. You don’t need all the resources in the world to get started, just determine that you will do something and DO IT ANYWAY.

If a snail and a rabbit start a race, the rabbit will get to the finishing line before the snail, but the snail will also get to the finish line EVENTUALLY. The truth is that no matter how long it took the two of them, they both crossed the finish line. Others may have all they needed, but that shouldn’t deter you from starting your own. We all have different races to run and our paces won’t definitely be the same.

This is to your Success,

Adebola Oni

When it comes to perceiving a woman’s beauty, the range of possibility is enormous. I have been lucky in this lifetime to have known several men who love all kinds of women all types, body shapes, sizes, colors, races. Blonde, brunette, redhead. Short and round or tall and rectangular. It’s all good. Sadly, I have known far more who have such a narrow window for what is lovely that most women can’t even get an “acceptable” rating. They may be liked well enough as people, but they would need to change, sometimes drastically, to be perceived of as a beautiful woman.

One particular year, inspired by the men I knew who loved all women, I set myself on a course to learn more about this kind of openness.

In the several years between my two marriages, I dated a lot. A lot. I love men, and while I had my standards, they were not so high that I sat alone most Saturday nights. Even so, this one year, I really challenged myself. I decided that, for twelve months, I would not turn a man away because he was not good looking enough (nor because he was not as financially secure as I would have liked, since that is a more subtle but very real social attractor factor to most women). I wasn’t going to force myself to into a relationship that had no merit, of course. But if there was a draw of some kind, the looks and money “magnets” that I had been culturally trained to gravitate towards were not going to be mandatory. In short, I made myself push past my knee-jerk criteria for courtship and experience whatever came.

It was a good year. I made some good love and some good friends. As I had hoped, I learned that a perception of beauty was not required for love or intimacy. Neither was sex, for that matter. But there was more. I also learned that once I got past the standard issue version of physical beauty I had been trained to see, I saw new levels of beauty I never imagined.

Beauty as A Whole Body Experience

When it comes to true beauty, the single greatest challenge I can think of is to actually see it, even when it hits you upside the head. We are so culturally indoctrinated into accepting common standards of what is beautiful, and what is not, that finding our own true perception of, and response to, a person or object of beauty is a fantastic feat.

Notice in the last paragraph that I wrote “to actually see it.” You probably didn’t pick up on that limiting language, because most of us don’t. We have been trained to think of beauty in terms of the visual. Yet what about the beauty that wafts through our sense of smell, trails the beloved through the fingertip touch, greets us in a bird’s chirp, or tastes like down-home goodness? Are these not aspects of beauty? Must we see beauty as a movie with no sound not to mention no color, no popcorn, no friend laughing with us, touching arms as we huddle in the darkened theatre?

We have been so bombarded with stimuli to the visual senses, we seem to have atrophied in all the others experiences that beauty brings us. Yet when we stunt the visual (which is what I did when I decided to date men that in my visual perception were physically unattractive), other senses come alive. It is not unlike the blind who develop a heightened sense of hearing.

In that year, beautiful men who were physically unattractive (to me) taught me about this. I learned that you can close your eyes as the tongue is awakened with tiny bits of dozens of different foods, in order to reawaken the sense of taste. I learned that you can close your eyes as the nose is awakened with the scent of roses, oranges, and evergreen needles. You can also close your eyes as the body is stimulated with feathers, fabrics, and fingers. So much so, you feel your skin, your arms, even your toes, as if you have never really felt them before. I learned you can close your eyes and awaken to the voice of the violin, then the cello, then the bass, finding them within the symphony as it plucks at your heartstrings and begs the blood in your veins to come along for the ride. Maybe best of all, I learned that you can close your eyes and awaken to the still small voice that speaks of what is true, what is not true, and what can’t yet be known.

If we must judge our experiences of beauty, we can at least learn to judge them on a full-sensory basis. Dating men I found unattractive physically, I discovered that is not all that I found attractive. I found I liked the smell of one man so much, I would anticipate his scent all day before a date. I came to love the skin of another, not because he was a muscle-man, but because his skin was so soft. His hair too. The sound of one lover’s voice always kept me laughing (in a good way), for he seemed to perpetually have joy in it. And the way I felt sleeping safely next to one particular partner a big, rough and burly bouncer at a bar who was ever ready to fight any problem character at a moment’s notice is a feeling of beauty I will never forget. We had nothing in common in the outside world, but his soul touched mine, and he brought the woman in me to life in a completely new way.

We can never fully appreciate the beauty of another with only our eyes. They have been trained to look astray, to judge in the nanosecond the gaze is focused. Only through the full body experience can the beauty of the body be the wonder it is meant to be. Only then will our perception be acute, and our memories vivid enough to savor, again and again. That year, I learned to live with my eyes closed and my capacity for perception wide open. It is a beautiful way to live.

Tyson, my dog, is a powerful Staffordshire Bull Terrier. Tremendously strong, huge jaws and a tremendous bite. Which I know to my cost when he misses his rope tug-of-war and accidentally catches me instead!

The only thing which subdues him is a sharp command from my wife. And down he cowers. [A bit like me?]

Gorgeously natured, he is afraid of nothing. That’s how it should be. He is able to go wherever he chooses when I allow him.

But I have observed on so many occasions an important fact.

A sudden loud noise completely throws his mind off-balance; instead of his usual ‘Boss of the World’ demeanour, he transforms. He closes in upon himself, his Power VANISHES. His Mind-Force depletes and he could at that instant be eaten by a little Yorkshire Terrier. For just those few seconds …
But a few seconds is enough to survive in a street survival mugging or rape confrontation.

There is a little-known martial arts system called Kiai-jutsu. Essentially a method of uttering a loud shout at the psychological moment to render the attacker witless and mentally thrown off balance. It is very effective, but can be done by everyone, if they have given it consideration and adequate training.

On the tennis court you will have heard the grunt or gasp the player makes at maximum impact with the racket. As the weight lifter desperately drives the iron up to full stretch. As the boxer strikes his lightning-fast ultimate uppercut. On a social scale, as the crowd erupts its roar as the ball curves into the net.

This is the kiai. Or at least, a form of it. The automatic instinctive release of sound-energy at a moment of maximum exertion. Focussing and directing body forces through a central all-destroying direction.

Destroying Tyson’s mind. Nullifying your attacker’s. Reducing their attacking force to zero.

I used the kiai to defeat a champion of Germany in perhaps two seconds flat. It worked for me. It can work for you! It is an important self defence tool.

Take your weapon a walking stick or Sjambok? Put up a cardboard box. Stand back perhaps several feet, tip of the stick on the ground just behind your foot.

IN THE INSTANT slash the end of the stick up through the box, as if through an attacker’s left chops. But IN THE INSTANT tightening your belly muscles sream sharply and loudly AS you slash. If your power is ‘turned-on’ you may feel yourself tremble and shake from the force you have just out-put. Put everything you’ve got into that kiai scream. Absolutely! In effect, there should be no more energy left in you. Or almost so, anyway. Just as well that his head is tied onto his neck. So that it stays attached!

Any self defence action you ever take MUST be output through a kiai. No half measures. If you hit him, you hit him with maximum force. Surrounded by a kiai. The shout and the impact are one and the same.

WHACK!