Fields of Application of the Will

Individual

Psychotherapy

Alchemical Hypnotherapy

“The great wisdom teacher Gurjieff once said that Will – the capacity to make decisions and consistently act upon them – is not, as we often assume, a universal trait of humanity. Instead, most of us, he teaches, are little more than stimulus-response machines, responding to immediate sensory stimuli in predictable and habitual ways, sort of like Pavlov’s salivating dogs. One day we respond to a hormonal change and stimulating sexual experience with promises of eternal love. The next day, a broken dish or a crying baby, and our precious commitment looks like a prison cell. It is in fact Gurjieff’s perspective that the measure of a person’s spiritual evolution is one’s ability to follow up on decisions and be consistent in one’s attitudes and feelings. Developing a coherent identity and Will is the purpose of Conference Room technique. In this technique, the client’s adult self goes down a flight of stairs to a Conference Room to confront and negotiate with all the separate sub-personalities who have an opinion on a particular issue. We then work with these conflicted voices to help them come to an agreement about working together to solve the client’s problem. This involves establishing a “contract” in which each of these inner voices agrees to work together in very specific ways to help achieve the client’s goal. I have found it important to choose an issue of immediate importance to the client’s personal life, for this is the best way to evoke the conflicting sub-personalities, and develop the Will. Common issues always involve either a decision to be made or a behavior to change, and include addictive behaviors (smoking, drugs, over-eating), relationship and commitment issues, sexuality, and specific job or career choices.”

An extract from Alchemical Hypnotherapy: A manual of practical technique by David Quigley

Related Article

• Power of the Hypnotherapist Conference Room by Debbie Unterman

Education

Self-Actualization (Personal Psychosynthesis)

Self-Realization and Spiritual Psychosynthesis

Interpersonal and Social Relationships

Between two individuals

Family group

Communities and social groups of various kinds

Racial groups

Religious groups

National groups

International relationships

Planetary Relationships ecology between the Four Kingdoms of Nature

Mineral – Vegetable – Animal – Human

Relationship between the Human Will and the Universal Will

Co-creative Group Suggestions

The following is based on work carried out by the co-creative group on the Will Project during the International Congress of Psychosynthesis in Canada from 11 to 15 September 1998. Initially this is provided to give some form of structure to pages. Please edit freely.

1. Medical – “All disease originates in the lack of love and the lack of will; the lack of love is a symptom of the lack of will”
   1. Develop and research a theory of the relationship between will and health (life-style choices)
   2. Develop a new model of stress management (for use in wellness coaching and in group seminars) centered around the development of the will
2. Education (see Methods for the Development and Training of the Will)
3. Publishing
   1. Magazines
   2. Periodicals
   3. Books
   4. Internet
4. Explore relationship of will to Native American Spirituality (article)
5. Enforce support and promote writing
6. Provide members of the Will Project (and others) with training in research and writing techniques (logging field notes and compiling condesing them)
7. Translate material on the will into other languages