The Power of Suggestion - Key West Style
2004 Boaz Rauchwerger
Something amazing happened the other day when I was in Key West, Florida. The short ride from the Hilton Hotel to the Key West Airport will be embedded in my mind forever because of the cab driver, Margarita.
The flights back to Miami that afternoon were all oversold. Thus, I was heading for the airport in order to pick up a rental car and drive the 150 miles along the Florida Keys toward Miami's airport.
Those few minutes I spent in Margarita's cab proved the amazing power of suggestion. The experience showed what a powerful affect the mind can have over the body. I believe the term is psychosomatic.
The fact that this event took place in Key West added to the intrigue of the moment. If you haven't been there, Key West is a unique place. It is the southernmost city in the continental United States. I was amazed to find out that it lies 755 miles further south than Los Angeles.
The town was first settled in the 1820s and is situated at the tip of an island chain that stretches southwest from mainland Florida. Key West is actually closer to Cuba, just 90 miles away, than it is to Miami. As I drove toward Miami, I crossed a series of 42 bridges that connect the chain of islands.
Flying into the airport in Key West is like flying into a Caribbean country. The sign on the terminal building reads: Welcome to the Conchs Republic. Key West natives are commonly called Conchs. They get that name from the tough, tasty mollusk found in the waters that surround the island.
During my cab ride from the airport to my hotel, we passed Whitehead Street. At 907 Whitehead is the Earnest Hemingway home and museum. It's nestled in the heart of Old Key West and was the home of one of America's most honored and respected authors. Hemingway lived and wrote here for more than ten years. He found peace in the turquoise waters that surround the island of Key West.
This Caribbean-flavored culture is both a colorful seaport and a cosmopolitan getaway. Writers and artists find it a tranquil haven. The Early history of Key West found a mixture of inhabitants. There were West Indian pirates, southern aristocrats, cigar-makers from Cuba, New England ship captains and Bahamian salvagers.
Many a ship in the early and mid 1800s foundered on a reef seven miles out. Thus, the island drew its primary income at that time from salvaging cargoes from those wrecked ships. As ships would strike the reef and begin to sink, hardy wreckers would often fight near gale-force winds to rescue crews and cargoes.
The wrecking industry ultimately became so profitable that it made Key West the richest city per capita in the United States. It was in the early 1900s that millionaire Henry Flagler constructed an "Overseas Railroad" from the Florida mainland to Key West. A 1935 hurricane destroyed this amazing railroad. Leftover track and bridges were then sold to the government, which built an Overseas Highway by 1938.
Thus, in such an interesting place, I met Margarita on my cab ride to the Key West airport. She was born in the Bahamas and had come to Key West in the 1980s seeking work. Her husband had been a fisherman and her two sons grew up on the island.
However, the afternoon we met, Margarita had a severe pain in her jaw. I asked if she wanted to get rid of the pain. She said, "Sure. But how can you do that?"
I related that, in addition to being a professional speaker, I am also a hypnotherapist. I explained that the mind dictates feelings to the body. When the mind focuses on a pain, it expands. In the same fashion, the mind can diminish pain.
I told Margarita that I wanted her to describe her pain as if it was an object that I was going to build. With that in mind, she had to tell me how wide this imaginary object (her pain) was, how deep it was and how tall it was. She guessed it was 12" wide, 18" deep and about 12" tall.
I then asked if these measurements formed a block, a cylinder, a cone or a ball? She said a block. I asked about the material of this block. She guessed concrete. I then asked if the outside surface was smooth or rough. Margarita said rough. The last question dealt with the color of the block. She said black (95% of the time I ask this question the answer is either black or red – each of those colors exemplifies pain.)
I then told Margarita that I would ask the same questions a second time and that I believed she would find the size of the block smaller, the surface smoother, the material softer and the color lighter. By stating these points, I was using the power of suggestion to get Margarita to shrink her pain.
The answers to the same questions a second time proved my point. The object was smaller in Margarita's mind. It was smoother, made of a softer material and lighter in color. I did the same thing a third time and she suddenly realized that her pain was gone.
Margarita and I parted at the Key West airport with her pain gone and she amazed at what had just happened. I explained that it was not me, but rather the power of her own mind.
If a little lady cab driver in Key West, Florida can make her own headache go away during a 10-minute cab ride, what can you and I do when we focus our minds in the right direction? Perhaps some headaches in our own lives will also disappear.
An Affirmation of Suggestion
I now focus the power of my mind on positive and productive desires in my life.
Article reproduced with permission from Boaz Rauchwerger. You may reprint any of these articles in any publication or Web site so long as you credit Boaz Rauchwerger as the author and include this Web site address, www.Boazpower.com.