071- Finding True Magic with Jack Elias

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There is a quote that’s attributed to the Austrian neuropsychiatrist and holocaust survivor, Dr. Viktor Frankl that goes, “Between stimulus and response there is a space. And in that space is our power to choose our response. And in our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

I love this quote. It’s the perfect quote. It’s simple. It makes sense intuitively, and it’s true. The problem is Viktor Frankl never said it. I’m pretty sure the self-help writer Steven Covey did, and it sort of got misattributed to Viktor Frankl over the years. It’s become one of those “Luke I’m your father thing’s.” Darth Vader never said that either

I still love that quote, and I wish I would have remembered it the other day when I got triggered by something and I totally lost it with someone I’m supposed to love. In the moment, I felt like I had been betrayed and disrespected, and so I got angry and freaked out. I launched into a tirade and said a bunch of mean and cruel things… until I finally caught myself. By then it was too late. It took a few apologies and about a week to get over that one.

Things are better now, but some things can’t be unsaid. Whaat? You? Mr Zen. Mr Hollow Tube. Yeah me, except it was more like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde at least in that moment. I did the exact opposite of what our hero Viktor Frankl would have wanted me to do. I didn’t slow down and create some space and respond consciously. I reacted unconsciously, reflexively. I tensed up and lashed out.  

That night I laid awake in bed thinking “Where the hell is this all coming from?” Where do any of our insecurities, indignation, self doubt, unconscious pathology, and patterns of behavior come from? What is is that is keeps us from being a Hollow Tube or a pure open channel and a manifestation of creation flowing through life with joy, awareness and gratitude? Well that’s the million dollar question. Isn’t it?

That’s why we’re here to figure it out. In the Hollow Tube, we know that we ask, and we shall receive. On this episode, our guest that will answer all of those questions and more. Jack Elias is a Zen Buddhist master and the founder of The Institute for Therapeutic Learning in Seattle, Washington. Where he teaches a certification program in transpersonal hypnotherapy and NLP or neuro linguistic programming.

He’s also the author of the book, Finding True Magic: Transpersonal Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy/NLP.

I met Jack at a workshop in Scottsdale, AZ hosted by some good friends of mine. All they said was, come meet Jack. It’s going to be life changing. I was like, yeah, I don’t know. I’m kinda busy. It sounds expensive, and I don’t really feel like driving to Scottsdale. My friend says, “thats cool. If you’re not feeling called, we’ll just give your spot to someone else.” 

I changed my mind and went. Those two and a half days with Jack were life changing, and now Jack is my personal “life coach.” Listen to this podcast carefully and you’ll understand why.

Topics Discussed Today
[08:00] In 1965, during Jack’s freshman year of college, he started reading a book about Zen stories and realized that he was home. 
[10:21] He discovered that he had a pain or unnoticed missing connection. 
[10:55] In 1967, he went to San Francisco where he met Shunryu Suzuki.
[12:05] He went to Colorado to study. In 1986, his daughter was diagnosed with an incurable illness. 
[12:56] He went to Seattle, and everything fell into place. 
[14:03] He had an interest in hypnosis and took an NLP class in 1980.
[15:05] He had lost everything, and it was time to start a new career. He taught as well as being a student. 
[17:31] NLP is a packaging of wisdom primarily from hypnosis.
[20:45] We’re manifestations of life itself. We are natural healthy and thriving.
[21:06] We are like waves on an ocean. The waves are not independent of the ocean.
[21:30] The billions of things going from the galaxies, billions of stars, to the supernovas to the insects and earthworms is one unified gesture.
[22:04] Thoughts dumb down our perceptual awareness.
[23:19] We used our thoughts to numb ourselves to the pain and trauma we were experiencing growing up.
[25:02] As children, life unconsciously expresses itself. At a certain point we get socialized by adults who have lost their spontaneity, with their own ideas of what’s good, bad, right or wrong and proper, and generations of unconscious patterns and trauma.
[27:02] Children accumulate self attacking judgments.
[28:46] Children learn to hate their own joyful nature and their true identity. 
[29:17] Stories are hypnotic suggestions.
[33:10] To manifest your motivation in your life, get your house in order and reconnect with your own good heart.
[33:45] It requires humility and courage to become curious.
[35:30] Notice that you are being suggestible and develop space.
[36:52] When you’re not ruled by rage, you can start negotiating how to work out the situation. You have to develop awareness. 
[39:48] There’s no such thing as a break. You’re either making a loving gesture towards yourself or a hateful gesture towards yourself.
[44:48] We can have a diluted notion of causality which can create disagreements and fights. 
[47:54] We need to take responsibility and agency over our emotional life and stop blaming people. Blame is a delusion.
[50:57] Don’t get bound by ideas of how things are. Doctors are notorious for giving patients hypnotic suggestions. We have a boundless capacity to heal if we let our minds be free.
[53:38] Ask what it would be like to heal. They must go there to think about it.
[56:04] Everything is produced by thinking, so it’s helpful to drift into curious inquiry. 
[01:00:02] Hateful thoughts are from other sources. 
[01:01:10] To get to a state of relaxation, practice awareness and be open. 
[01:04:27] Take some kind to study loving kindness in other people and practice it. Say something encouraging regardless of the activity. Talk to the being. 
[01:09:35] We honor the gift of our lives by paying attention to it. That’s awareness.

Links and Resources:
Uncle Michael @TheHollowTube on Twitter
Uncle Michael @TheHollowTube on Instagram
Michael Bays on Facebook
The Hollow Tube Facebook Page
Dr. Viktor Frankl
Steven Covey
Episode 070 – Toltec Shamanism, Researching the Paranormal and Time Travel with Marcus Leader
Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
Finding True Magic
Finding True Magic: Transpersonal Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy/NLP
Jack Elias YouTube
Steve Anderson
CurPoint

Quotes:
“We’re still being ruled by a speedy, fear-based mind, that was formulated out of broken heartedness.” Jack Elias
“NLP is a packaging of wisdom primarily from hypnosis.” Jack Elias
“The root tenet of Buddhism is that we’re inherently pure.” Jack Elias

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