Golf_ The Mind Game - Marlin M. Mackenzie [53]
Put yourself into an altered state. When ready, turn on the VCR with the sound off. While watching put yourself into the picture and feel in your muscles the mechanics of the setup and swing.
When finished allow yourself to come back to your “normal” state.
If convenient go to the practice tee or putting green to reproduce the video images as closely as possible. You may use the Get-It or the Get-It-Back Process, whichever is appropriate.
Here is a summary of the steps to follow when using self-hypnosis to improve your game.
ACHIEVING OUTCOMES WITH SELF-HYPNOSIS
Carefully specify what you want to accomplish.
Ask your unconscious mind to uncover all of the appropriate abilities and emotional states that will be needed to achieve the outcome, and to apply them when it’s most appropriate.
Put yourself into an altered state, being curious about whether or not your unconscious mind will communicate in the form of spontaneous images, sounds, and feelings. Note what transpires and analyze their meaning after you come out of the altered state.
Interpret any images, sounds, and feelings as being possible ways to achieve your outcome. Put those ways into action and evaluate their effectiveness.
If you have no direct communication in the form of sights, sounds, and feelings from your unconscious mind during the altered state, do nothing deliberately to achieve your outcome. Trust your unconscious mind to do its work. Wait for several weeks. If you still haven’t achieved your outcome, repeat the entire process.
Golf is a safe and civil sport, but not always. In 1975 at a public course in suburban Washington, D.C., a golfing joust took place on one of the early holes. The second group claimed the first was holding it back; the first insisted the second hit into it. Carts sped at each other, their occupants waving clubs. Among the injuries was a fractured skull.
In a court in Inglewood, California, a man was convicted of beating and choking an opponent during a dispute over where a ball should have been placed on the green. A local rule in Uganda read, “If a ball comes to rest in dangerous proximity to a crocodile, another ball may be dropped.” In Texas, Moody Weaver used such force during a swing that he broke his leg in two places, above the knee and above the ankle.
My techniques for generating energy, controlling pain, and getting healed more quickly are not limited to golfing Lancelots, or even golfers.
They are based on the principle that the mind affects the internal working of all the organs and systems of the body. Although we have very little hard scientific data that verify this principle, many physicians and other health specialists support it.
I know from my clinical experience, as do other medical and mental-health specialists, that the mind is a fantastic energizer. I know it acts like a powerful anesthetic, and it heals without chemical supplements or scalpels.
It is evident in the experience of those who undergo chest and abdominal surgery with self-hypnosis and without anesthesia; it is clear through the work of faith healers, shamans, and Indian medicine men; and it has been demonstrated by hundreds of people who cure themselves of all sorts of diseases.
All I ask is that you experience doing the techniques. Find out what happens when you use them. The absolute worst that can happen, if they work, is that you’ll no longer have excuses for not playing well.
Before you use these techniques, however, I encourage you to consult with your physician if you are run down and out of shape, have unexplained pain or physical symptoms, or are emotionally upset. My techniques are meant to complement the work of health specialists, not to replace their services.
Energy Regulation
The spirit and physical capacity of the human being to accomplish extraordinary tasks in the face of utter fatigue is amazing. War veterans know only too well the meaning of carrying on with little or no sleep for days on end. As a coach I observed firsthand almost unbelievable performances