I'm Still Posting

I'm not really going crazy, but the studying has been intense. (And I like the above image by Sam Brown.) You may have noticed lately the infrequency of posts to this blog.

I'm still in Santa Fe. Still attending the Hypnotherapy Academy of America.

My typical weekday is attending class from 9-7, with before and after hours that sometimes stretch the day from 6 AM- 11 PM.

Weekends are devoted to reading, study, review, practice and documentation for full certification. I will be testing (a written and a practical) this Friday to earn official certification as a hypnotherapist. Then, with some more work, class time, etc., I will be able to add "clinical" to that title.

In class, we continue to see powerful demonstrations. Equally as interesting is our own work with clients (both student and non-student). What a gift to be able to participate in people's breakthroughs and achievements of their goals! My own personal breakthroughs (from sessions with me as the client) have alone been worth the time and energy.

I'm moving ahead simultaneously with the work needed to establish my own practice. This involves getting an office, beginning to schedule clients, hiring an accountant, etc. My wish list is available upon request!!

Thanks to everyone who has sent mail to me c/o of the school during this time. Your encouragement has been great and I really appreciate it.

Sleep Deep.

As of yesterday, I'm a hypnotist. Next level master hypnotist. Then hypnotherapist and clinical hypnotherapist. I will test and certify for the master level and final level.

In the meantime, I am practicing with classmates and have been hypnotized over a dozen times in the last two weeks and am hypnotizing others as well. It is really cool!

Off to go read (lots of that these days) and I have to document three inductions before Monday.

Wow. Simply Wow.

I am totally and completely enthused by my hypnotherapy training that began this week!! There are 38 students in the class, of all ages and from all over the world (Mexico, New Zealand, England, Spain, Hungary) and from all over the US (Florida, Utah, Ohio, California, Illinois, Georgia...). The school--The Hypnotherapy Academy of America--is renowned for its excellence and I am very pleased to have found it and to be a part of the education. They are fantastic teachers.

The process of self-transformation alone is worth the cost. I had expected some personal change, of course, but the depth of this work is blowing me away. Plus I am learning the practical skills necessary for my own future career. I can't wait to sit with you and share this new knowledge and firsthand experience!

Some of the things I'd enjoy talking with you about include:

• A breakthrough in my ongoing internal debate of free-will vs. determinism.


• How one of our students had the brucitis in her shoulder healed as we watched a video of a post-op hypnotherapy session.


• The really amazing and fun inductions I learned this week.


• Some of the intense individual and group catharsis experienced throughout this week.


• The confirmation of my faith and many things I've held to be true, but have never really acted upon.... Jesus turned water into wine, etc., and then said that we'd do even greater things. Hmmm. When's the last time that I turned water into wine, let alone something even greater?


• The cool timing of my reading a Bob Dylan quote: "The picture you have in your own mind of what you're about will come true."


• Theoretical models of how and why hypnosis works.


• Very real examples of how I can help you through hypnosis.... In fact, I'd love to take you through an experience of the hypnotic trance for yourself!

There is so much more, but that's all for now.

If it will arrive before November, you can send a postcard or letter to me:
Dennis Plummer
c/o: Hypnotherapy Academy of America
509 Camino de los Marquez, Suite 1
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501

Do You Know the Way

to Santa Fe? (I hope you sung that. I know the song says "San Jose," but that wouldn't make sense here now would it?)

I'm leaving for my crash certification course in clinical hypnotherapy. I don't know what kind of access, if any, I'll have to computers during that time. But I will be taking copious notes and making lots of observations to post here ASAP.

Hope to hear from you via comments on this site!

What to Buy?

I received a calendar advertisement in the mail today. I'm not sure if I want to buy "Hot Buns", "Under the Uniform", or "Pope John Paul II".

Maybe I'll combine my purchase to get "Hot Buns: Pope John Paul II Under the Uniform."

Or maybe not.

1,000 Pound Pig

Yep. I saw it.

What I found interesting was that it was housed right next to a big bar-b-que pit.

I wonder what that is like, smelling your future so nearby?

Coincidence?

Went to the doctor yesterday for my annual physical.

Came home to transcribe more of the Borden interviews. Borden's recorded advice of the day?

"The doctors today, they's a-skinning you alive. And then they charge ye to fix the skinning."

Hmmm.

I tried to post a photo of myself to my profile, but can't figure out how to do it. It won't let me simply upload like images in the posts. Anyone out there know what I should do?

Play Week

Besides working on the Borden stories (mentioned in my previous post), I'm enjoying a visit from my Aunt Linda and Uncle Harry. They arrived two days ago and I'm using their visit to see all of my favorite haunts in town before I hunker down in studies in Santa Fe on the 19th.

Getting Burned

Today I spent my time adjusting to life alone (after living two months with Susan, Howard and 17-month-old Jude, plus their black labrador, Gracie, and cat, Elvis). Quiet.

The time alone is surprisingly a challenge. I tend to go into auto-sluggard mode. Today that meant a dip in the pool, nude sunbathing (the landlords are gone) and, after tanning my own hide, going to a local grocer to bask in the aroma of roasting chilis. It is one of my favorite, among many, southwestern traditions. I only wish that I could add scratch-n-sniff to your monitor!

I'm attempting to use these 13 days to focus on getting some long-overdue writing done. This particular project is 16 hours of recorded story-telling by Borden, one of the late, great Highlander storytellers of North Carolina. I was privileged to know Borden and even lived a couple of summers in a nearby (20-minute walk) cabin that, like Borden's, had no running water and used a wood stove for cooking. He died few years ago, and after acting as minister and eulogist for his funeral, I think that his stories will probably trump my own walk across America for getting into print first. Although some progress is being made, I find myself simply letting the tape role and envisioning long afternoons at Borden's home, listening to history unfold.

If anyone has Smithsonian connections, I honestly think that these recordings--edited and upgraded in quality--are heirloom material. If I get the money to get my own Web connection, digital camera and the like, I will add some sound bites for you to hear. For now, my small and limited pile o' cash is going towards paying off debt, my upcoming hypnotherapist certification...and, of course, roasted New Mexican chili.

In the Same Boat...

For reflections on Hurricane Katrina, please visit my alter ego site, Attack Chicken.

Travel Report

For image, see post below and add a thousand bug splats to the shine on the car's finish.

• $2.99 – price of gas in Springfield, MO
• "Do Not Drive Into Smoke" –signs posted throughout OK. Okay…. You’re driving. Along a turnpike. There’s smoke. Now what is it you are supposed to do?
• Oklahoma City – first reception of an all Spanish radio broadcast. You gotta love the tuba and accordian duets.
• $2.93 – price of gas in Oklahoma City
• 5 miles west of Oklahoma City – sighting of first armadillo road kill
• OK Turnpike restroom – sighting of two stars of a boy band. I have no idea which one. (You do a google search on "boy band" images and you'll see why I couldn't precisely locate one of them.) How did I know they were a boy band? My car would fit 10x into their extravagant chauffeured bus. And they were too young to be a man band.
• 4 – the number of Louisiana license plates seen heading west
• Custer City, OK – Cherokee Restaurant and home of the “Collectible Porcelain Dolls”. Yeah, well. Can’t anything be collected, thus making it a collectible?
• $3.04 – price of gas in Amarillo, TX (88 octane)
• 51.5 miles – distance west of Amarillo when radio reception was reduced to only one station
• 7 miles more – distance traveled before losing all radio reception
• NM state line –first sighting of a NM license plate. I kid you not; it was simultaneous with the state line. Spooky. Do New Mexicans exist outside of New Mexico?
• $3.09 – price of gas in Albuquerque, NM (86 octane)

Go West

I'm on the road again.

Gas is $3.19 per gallon (87 octane) in Springfield, IL.

Selma Bluebird Days

Returned home to Indiana one more time before departing the midwest. Visited my grandmother, who is in the hospital after a fall in her home. She broke the coffee table, but no bones.

As in my visit before (see "Country Roads" post), I had a wonderful chance encounter with an old high school friend. This time, instead of the theatre, it was in the emergency room where my friend was awaiting her husband's recovery from a bee sting. They say it's a small world. I guess it gets even smaller in a small town.

Other high school friends were enjoying the annual Selma Bluebird Days festival, which has grown considerably since I was living there. Twent-one years after graduation, it was fun to be with people "who knew me when" and to learn about all of their comings and goings, who is in jail, who is out, who is now teaching our kids (and their kids!) and other interesting facts. My aunt and uncle won their divisions in a 5K run, with my uncle also winning the eldest participant award at age 71.

I will finish consulting on Wednesday and plan to drive back to NM on Thursday and Friday. Time to dry out from the midwestern humidity. I'll return just in time to catch the fall aroma of roasting chilis. Nice.

In the Land of the Living

What better way to kick off a visit with my broter and sister-in-law, Dustin and Rebecca, than to tour the Museum of Funeral Customs? That's right. We couldn't think of any, either. After viewing various elements of how to bury the dead, I opted to pass on buying a chocolate coffin complete with removable lid and a little chocolate body inside, although I do know now the difference between a coffin and a casket (shape). I did add New Orleans jazz funeral music to my CD collection. (The museum has a great Web site; click on the hotlink in this paragraph to see it.)

Dustin and Rebecca were here for Friday and Saturday and we filled the time as completely as was possible. On Friday, they visited the Abraham Lincoln Museum while I finished my work week. Afterwards, we met and visited the Lincoln tomb, followed by a leisurely cook out at home.

We began Saturday by eating a local traditional breakfast horseshoe: toast, (optional) meat choice, eggs, cheese or gravy and hash browns all stacked up on top of one another. We digested this while viewing the dead.

Then it was off to tour the Dana-Thomas House, a stellar example of Frank Lloyd Wright's genius. When one of the kids on the tour asked our tour guide for what the basekment safe had been used, I ominously whispered, "Dead bodies." Too bad I didn't have one of the chocolate coffins to give the kid.

To balance our morbid-leaning agenda, we checked out both new and old state capitol buildings, ate a great middle eastern vegetarian smorgasboard and ventured off for five hours of the Illinois State Fair. This included an elephant show; the high school national rodeo competition; deep fried pickles; a drop from the Mega Drop ride; reggae; viewing the 400 lb. butter cow (see photo above...yeah, that's all butter, even a butterfly that you can't see); and a departure heralded by fireworks. Although late, we also stopped to walk by Lincoln's old Springfield residence on our way home.

I'm in my final week and a half of working for The Autism Program, then it's back home to Albuquerque.