SELF HYPNOSIS LESSON 23

      Finding Each Other

      Goal

      To eliminate feelings of alienation, and to develope a sense of unity
      with others, through the sharing of the same life source.

      Time

      Like all group exercises, this one might best be planned for late
      afternoon or early evening. Though the exercise itself does not take
      long, some extra time should be allowed for allowed for reflection or
      meditation after it is completed.

      Introductory Note

      This exercise, like the preceding one, is designed for a group of six to
      eight persons, sitting in a circle. A loaf of bread is required. It
      should be firmly textured, but soft enough to break into pieces easily,
      without crumbling.

      Preparation

      Participants should be helped to reach an altered state of consciousness
      through the process of relaxing the body step by step-the top of the
      head, the forehead, face, throat, chest, abdomen, legs, and feet. Let one
      member of the group, with a pleasant voice, softly speak short repetitive
      phrases that suggest relaxation and calm well-being.

      The Exercise

      Now you are completely relaxed, your entire body, all of it. Your eyes
      are open and you are, at one and the same time, totally relaxed and fully
      alert. Look at the bread here before us, and fill your mind with all that
      it means, and with the images it evokes. Fields of golden wheat waving in
      the wind-grains of wheat pouring into bins in the flour mill-white flour
      in the bakery, a snowdusting over everything; the scent of fresh-baked
      bread, crisp crust, softly warm inside. {Pause.} Bread is life, the staff
      of life; making bread is like creating life, the yeast in the dough
      making it rise and live. To break bread is the joy of bread in your
      hands, crunching between your teeth, satisfying hunger.

      This loaf evokes such similar and individual thoughts in all of us. It is
      our loaf, full of all that it means to each and all of us. As we pass it
      from hand to hand {take the loaf and pass it around} each of us imparts
      to the bread all that it means to him or her. As each of us breaks off a
      piece to eat, he or she takes into himself or herself part of all of us
      here.

      We share in the bread, because we share in each other. We give, we
      receive, and the giving and receiving are the bonds that bind us
      together. Not only us, but each of us with the whole human race. As you
      chew the bread very slowly and swallow it, allow this knowledge to
      permeate you, in this atmosphere of relaxation and mutuality.

      {After everyone has completed the ritual, allow the members time to
      reflect. If there is bread left over, it may be returned to the center of
      the group. After the period of reflection is over, the leader concludes
      the exercise with like the following.}

      Carry the knowledge and the feelings that you have experienced here with
      you out into your everyday world; and realize that, even after the group
      has dispersed, a part of the group is still with you-and you, in turn,
      has given a part of yourself to every other member of the group.

      Now I shall slowly count from one to three. When I reach three, blink
      your eyes three times. As soon as you have done this, you will be back in
      your usual reality state, feeling extremely well, physically and mentally.