I wrote this article several years ago (1996) for Austin NLP, the Neuro-Linguistic social and learning club for Central Texas.  It is simple, but it is still a very useful NLP tool to learn.  So with the NLP Practitioner Course coming up, I wanted to share it with the new people who might be interested in learning NLP tools, techniques, and skills.  It works like a charm and people will think you are a wizard when you help them painlessly and fearlessly get rid of their hiccups. Enjoy!

~ Keith

Kelsey, a 19 year old, UT Student had been hiccupping all morning.  It was ruining her Saturday outing with her friends to Austin’s new Blanton Museum.  Not that the hiccups were so painful, they were relatively mild so she was putting up with them.  But they were beginning to be chronic and several hours of continuous convulsing was beginning to make her muscles ache. 

She had tried all the regular remedies, holding her breath, swallowing a glass of water with her head between her knees.  Her friends had tried to frighten her when she wasn’t expecting it.  She had even tried eating a spoon each of sugar and peanut butter, but nothing seemed to work.  She just kept hiccupping.  And it was getting rather annoying and she seemed to be out of options and resigned to live with it until it went away. 

I noticed her hiccuping plight.  As a stranger (there are few people stranger than an NLPer on a mission) … as a stranger, I would have to be quick with rapport and in defining her outcome.  I jokingly asked if she had been suffering long?  “Do you want them to go away?”

“Of course,” came Kelsey’s reply, "but I’ve tried everything." 

"But you are sure you want them to go away, now?”

For me, NLP is about helping people Live better.  That may be by changing emotional states to feel better and perform better.  It may be about getting to clearer thinking in order to achieve goals that they didn’t even realize are possible.  It may be about reorganizing their physiology or changing habits to support them getting what they want out of life.  And it may be about solving problems and making immediate changes that put their troubles behind them. 

I am always looking for ways to give away pragmatic samples of NLP that make a difference.  If you can help people they usually want to know more.  So the best way to spread the word about NLP is to give it away.  Making life better and enticing people to grow and learn, one solution at a time.  That is what I did with Kelsey at the art museum that day.  I showed her and her friends a surefire way to get rid of hiccups.  Like so much of NLP, it looks and works like magic.  Asimov once wrote something like, “Any sufficiently advanced technology appears to be magic.” 

This is the first in a series of articles where we will explore simple techniques that you can learn and then give away as FREE NLP Samples.  My goal is to pay it forward and create a critical mass of people interested in helping people live better quality lives and learn fantastic tools that support that goal.  In fact, that is one of the goals of Austin NLP, so perhaps we will create an alignment that may have more power than individuals working alone could ever have.  If you have short, easy technique that consistently makes a difference, then I encourage you to write it up an submit it to us at Austin NLP.  I would love to help you edit the article and get it published as part of this series. 


NLP is about helping people.  Lets give it away and stir up some interest in these extraordinary skills. 


FREE NLP Sample # 1:  The Eye Scanning Hiccup Cure

I learned the basis of this from a man, Mark, back in the early 1980’s.  He was a magician and puppeteer, six foot six tall, blonde with blue eyes and he took his puppet shows to Central America where he performed for kids who often didn’t have access to the sorts of entertainment, like TV and even books, that we take for granted in the North.  In fact, the countries he went to like Nicaragua and El Salvador were pretty devastated by war in those days, and so he told me he often played to audiences of kids who were holding machine guns.  And because he was tall, blonde and blue eyed and stuck out like a soar thumb among the Latin locals, he also often got arrested by the “police” who wanted to know if he was with the CIA.  He would just open his duffle bag and show them his puppet shows and eventually they would let him go.  Amazing state control in the form of bravery and sense of purpose this man had.

Where Mark learned it, I don’t know.  But this technique reliably removes hiccups and it does so with anybody who can maintain a focus of attention.  I have only had it fail once in hundreds of demonstrations, and that was with a person who was so drunk that they couldn’t follow the instructions.

The steps are as follows:

Steps:

1. Gain committed agreement that they want their hiccups to go away - 
   Ask, “Do you want to be rid of your hiccups?”  They generally answer yes but show some skepticism since they don’t know what you are going to do.  So confirm it with them to ramp up the commitment and arouse their focus of attention.  I usually say something like,  "I promises it won’t hurt.  It will only take a couple of minutes at the most.  I won’t scare you or even touch you in any way.  But if you want your hiccups to go away, I need your commitment to follow my directions exactly and precisely while I guide you through a short exercise.  So do you really want your hiccups to go away now?  If you don’t, that’s OK, you don’t have to get rid of them.” 
   
   
2. Explain what you are going to do and give instructions about what they are expected to do - 
   "I am going to place my thumb and index finger together like this, and I want you to watch the line where they come together very closely.  I will move my hand in front of your face, and I want you to follow that point between my two fingers precisely.  Do not move your head, only follow it with your eyes.  Your success depends on you maintaining your focus and tracking exactly where my fingers go."
   
   
   
   
3. Slowly make the Cross of St Andrew followed by the Cross of St George in front of their face -
   Position your thumb and index finger together about 8 inches from their face and slowly move your hand, first in diagonal lines radiating out from the center of their nose then back to center.  Go up Northwest first about 6 or 7 inches.  Then return to center.  Then go down Southeast about the same distance and then return again to center.  Then move on the other diagonal from center to Northeast and back, and from center to Southwest and back.  Each time return to center.  This completes the Cross of St Andrew.  Now do the cross of St George, from center up vertically 5 or 6 inches and back, then down, then back.  Then left horizontally and finally to the right and back to center.
   
   
4. Make sure eye scanning is smooth and fluid -
   As you make each move moderately slowly and very deliberately, watch their eyes to make sure that they are scanning smoothly with the point where your finger and thumb touch.  If they loose focus of attention and look away or if their eyes make little jumps over any part of the line you are tracing, go back and repeat that line a couple of times to smooth it out.  Tell them to pay focused attention, that they must follow your fingers exactly.  This technique was around long before EMDR but obviously has some similarities in the procedure.  You are striving for smooth eye scanning.
   
   
5. Explain that you are about to give them an important instruction -
   After you have successfully finished the smooth tracing and the client has followed the Cross of St Andrew and St George, hold your fingers still at center in front of their nose and tell them that in a moment you are going to give them an instruction and that it is very important that they try their best to follow it.  Watch for understanding and agreement.
6. Convincer Finale to Ratify Success -
   Now in one continuous motion, pull your hand back two inches and open it wide, spreading all of your fingers so that the palm of your hand is flat toward their face while simultaneously moving your whole hand forward, toward their nose about 2 and a half inches in a sort of flourish.  If done right this should cause a blink reflex, but should not startle them severely.  As you make that motion, tell them emphatically, “Try to hiccup.”  You will see a response as they process your instructions and try to figure out what to do with them.  Within a second or two, tell them even more emphatically, “No really, try to hiccup.”  They won’t be able to on demand, of course (hiccups are an unconscious spontaneous process, but don’t tell them that.)   Just watch for a moment as they struggle with those instructions and finally, say “So where did they go?:”  Smile confidently and say.  “It’s amazing what your unconscious mind can learn to make your life so much better, isn’t it?”

Very often you will notice that their hiccups are actually gone long before the big finale.  That is OK for you to notice, but don’t say anything to the client.  They need the ratification of the finale to feel confident that they are gone.  And without that they may restart the hiccup pattern.  I believe that the high focus of attention, the unusual procedure, and the hypnotic structure of the intervention all combine to contribute to its effectiveness.  I realize that many hiccups have physiological cause, water on the epiglottis, so I can’t explain why it works so well, but I have had only success with hundreds of trials.  The one exception was when, due to intoxication, the subject was unable to follow my fingers exactly. 


I offer this to anybody and everybody who I see with hiccups.  When I did it with Kelsey, she was amazed, but her friends and family were blown away.  People usually want to know more so I tell them that they can learn to do this sort of thing too.  I ask them if they enjoy helping others and if they would like to learn more about how to be effective helping other.  Usually they say yes.  So I give them my card.  Tell them about Austin NLP and the NLP Booklist and ask if I can send them an e-mail about our meetings and FREE Intro Evenings.  It is a great way to spread the word and get to know people who enjoy helping others and who already have a great reference experience for how powerful NLP can be. 

Good luck and enjoy taking this out into the world and sharing it with others.  You will love it, and the people you help with love you for it.

~  Keith

Keith Fail is an NLP Trainer, Coach, and Master Modeler in Austin, Texas, and Director of NLP Resources Austin.  He writes and speaks about tools and techniques that help people to communicate better and live their dreams.  He works with teams and individuals to create contexts and communities that support a better world.  He can be reached at +1-512-507-5464.