By Peter Blum, C.I., C.Ht., M.S.C.
2020 – a year unlike any other… a year we will never forget that changed our lives inexorably. As David Byrne and The Talking Heads asked in Once In A Lifetime – “And you may ask yourself, well, how did I get here?”
In 1985, I was ending a 12-year career in journalism. My friend Richard Zarro, who had a successful practice in hypnosis and NLP, offered to train me. I never looked back, and after getting certified in 1986, I have spent the past 35 years seeing thousands of clients, in NYC and Woodstock, as well as becoming a Certified Instructor for the National Guild of Hypnotists in 1993 and training hundreds in the art of hypnosis.
Richard said, “It’s a dream job. Every day you get to have fun; help people live healthier, happier, and more fulfilling lives; and make money!” Making money is good, but I was also drawn to find ways to help those who, for one reason or another, did not have financial resources. In the mid 90’s, I connected with a group in NYC, called “Healing Works”, a not-for-profit organization that offered free holistic care to at-risk members of the City’s population. For several years I would spend a day doing hypnosis pro bono every month, until they closed in 2002.
About 10 years ago, Angel Ortloff, a massage practitioner, invited me to be a practitioner with Healthcare Is A Human Right. At that time, Angel was the director of the Darmstadt clinic in Kingston. This particular clinic was specifically for individuals staying at the shelter. I loved going there and offering my services to help people deal with stress, stop smoking, overcome fears, etc. Soon after, I began participating in the clinics open to the general public. HCHR had begun a quarterly clinic in Woodstock, but then started a monthly clinic at the Kirkland House in Kingston. After some years, it moved to The Lace Mill.
Fast forward to 2020. Every year, I typically would attend several hypnosis conferences around the country. On March 5, I flew out to Los Angeles to present at the International Hypnosis Federation’s annual retreat and conference. Things were a bit quieter than usual at JFK and LAX, but the “Wuhan flu”, or “China Virus” was not front page news yet. A few people at the airport were wearing masks, but when my friend and I arrived at the conference, there was little evidence of any concern. People were hugging and dancing and sharing food in a carefree environment.
We flew back on March 11 to a different world. HCHR’s monthly Kingston clinic, scheduled for Thursday, March 12, was cancelled. There was much confusion and a lot of conflicting reports and information flying around the news and the internet. Seemingly overnight, the pandemic became a very real thing in the U.S. Businesses closed, schools closed, statistics of those stricken, sick and dying, rose at an alarming rate. I can only imagine what life was like during the holocaust for my Jewish ancestors in Eastern Europe. No comparison! But this certainly was becoming the darkest hour that many of us had ever experienced – on a global scale.
The annual conference of the International Medical and Dental Hypnosis Association, scheduled for late April in Orlando, FL, was moved to Zoom. Typically, one submits proposals 6 months before a conference. The lecture I gave on a topic I had selected pre-pandemic, was “Mending The Funny Bone”. Well, I can tell you, it was a stretch to find anything humorous at that point!
Besides my hypnosis practice, I have spent decades studying the effects of sound and music on health and consciousness. This has led to the development of a parallel practice of sound healing. In addition to private sessions, often utilizing tuning forks, Himalayan singing bowls, gongs, flute, drums, etc., I have offered group sound baths or sound immersion meditations, averaging about one a month for the past 20 years.
As we progressed through increased alarm and mortality rates from COVID19, almost all the avenues I had utilized to offer my services came to a halt. No private sessions, no HCHR clinics, no conferences, no hypnosis trainings, no sound baths… My world, like that of millions of others, had become much smaller and more restricted. For the first several months I kept myself busy with long postponed projects – going through old file cabinets, clearing clutter, finishing a book I had been writing. I had a mindset that I could get through this as it was a finite thing; that soon things would return to normal.
Before long, the busywork, and projects became boring. Things were not going to return to anything near normal anytime in the immediate future. I live to be of service – to help others, to be useful. Phone calls and Zoom meetings took the place of live interactions but, as we all know, it’s not the same. I offered hypnosis sessions by phone, FaceTime, Skype, or Zoom, but had virtually no response.
Finally, towards the end of May, I started to receive communications from people seeking in person hypnosis sessions. Some were old clients, wanting a “booster shot”, and others were new clients, coming to me through referrals. I cautiously began to reopen my practice – seeing one or two people a week in my office – with appropriate social distancing, and the option of masks. While often I would question what the meaning and purpose of my life had become, during sessions, I felt totally centered and filled with clarity and joy.
For my own sanity and nurturing of soul, I gathered on a number of Sundays in May, June, July and August, with a few musical friends. We would meet outside, under a large pavilion, and spend hours playing music. I also have been fortunate enough to have my daughter, son-in-law, and two beautiful grandsons a 15-minute drive away from me. It is a constant source of upliftment to be in the presence of a 7 year old and a toddler.
I am in my early 70’s – most of my life has been a fantastic adventure, and I am so grateful for what the Buddhists call “this precious human birth”. If I were to die next week, or next month – well, no regrets. Or very few. But I am truly troubled by the thought of the world that my grandchildren, and all of the rest in that generation, are walking into. No one knows what the future will bring and the challenges of evolving and staying sane in a world-wide pandemic are unprecedented. Perhaps the best advice I give myself and others is “Live One Day At A Time”, and stay focused on what I can do every day to bring a smile to my face, or to yours.
