Don’t let yourself be hypnotized by things that aren’t real at all

The other day, I was sitting at my desk and looked around. I picked up a marker. I looked at it and thought: this is a marker. Simple. It’s tangible; it has a color, a cap, and when I write with it on a whiteboard, it leaves a mark. This is a thing. A real thing.

Then I looked at my phone. That’s a thing, too. You can drop it, it has a screen, and when the battery runs out, it stops working. My computer mouse? Exactly the same story. It’s an object. You can pick it up, weigh it in your hand, and (if you wanted to) toss it into a wheelbarrow.

These are all concrete matters that we can all agree on fairly quickly. There’s little room for debate about what it actually is.

But then I thought about it further. Because in my practice, in my training courses, and in everyday life, I hear people talking all day long about very different kinds of “things.”

"Edwin, I miss the motivation." "Yes, but Edwin, there just isn't any safety more." "I’m stuck in confusion." "If only I could finally get that inspiration back, then..."

And that always makes me chuckle a little. Because I immediately want to ask: “Show me that motivation, then. Where is it? Can you point it out to me? Does it have a color? Can we put it in that same wheelbarrow?” The answer, of course, is no. Motivation, safety, inspiration, beauty, or the norm… they aren’t “things” at all.

They are abstractions. Words. And yet we treat them as if they were massive, immovable objects that suddenly stand in our way. We allow ourselves to be completely hypnotized by them. We talk ourselves into a problem that doesn’t even exist in physical reality.

How on earth did we end up in this collective hypnosis? And more importantly: how do you break free so you can get your life moving again? Let’s dive deep into that.

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The great confusion from your childhood

To understand why we do this, we need to go back in time for a moment. Imagine this: you’re a child. You’re small, your brain is like a sponge, and you’re discovering the world. You learn how reality works by watching your father and mother.

Your father points to the table and says, “Look, little Johnny, this is a marker.” You look at that little plastic tube with the cap and think: Okay, got it. I understand that. Anything that looks like this is a marker. A pen is kind of like that too, but it’s thinner. Check. Learned something new.

The next day. Your mom points to a little device on the table. “Look, this is a phone.” You think: Okay, great. I can remember that. Then she points to that thing next to the computer. “And this is a mouse.” Now you might be confused for just a moment, because you thought a mouse was that little gray creature that goes “squeak, squeak, squeak” in the shed. But you quickly correct yourself in your head: Okay, this is the computer mouse. I get it.

So far, so good. You’re learning to categorize the material world. But then something strange happens. Your parents suddenly start using words that have exactly the same grammatical form (they’re nouns, too), but that you can’t point to anywhere.

Your father looks at you sternly and says, “It’s very important, little Johnny, that you follow the rules.” You look around and think: The rules? Let me see… Um, where are they? Under the couch? In the closet? Where are those rules?

Or your mom says during dinner: “Yes, because the norm in our family is that we finish everything on our plates.” You think: The norm? What’s the norm? Ooh, that sounds serious. But where is it? I can’t find it anywhere. Apparently, I have to figure it out and interpret it all on my own.

Or how about this classic from modern psychology: “It’s good to express your anger .” And as a child, you think: Anger? Where exactly is that “anger” in my body? Is it an organ? Is it something I can pull out and put on the table?

Do you see what’s happening here? From our earliest childhood, we’re completely confused. We learn that words like “pen,” “phone,” and “mouse” are concrete things. And then we apply exactly the same logic to words like “the norm,” “anger,” “confusion,” or “safety.” We assume they are “things.” But they aren’t. They are fluid. They are highly open to interpretation.

What is a nominalization? (And the wheelbarrow test)

In linguistics and NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), we have a wonderful term for this. We call it a nominalization. A nominalization is essentially a linguistic trick: it’s a verb or a process that has been “frozen” and turned into a noun[1]. It’s turning something that’s actually an action or an experience into a thing.

I always use a very simple test to see whether we’re dealing with a real thing or a nominalization: the wheelbarrow test.

Will it fit in a wheelbarrow?

• A marker? Yeah, go ahead, use it.
• A phone? Sure thing.
• A house? Well, theoretically, with a really big wheelbarrow, you could transport the bricks for it.
• The universe? If we get really philosophical, you could even visualize it as a kind of ultimate container.

But what about safety? Can you scoop a kilo of safety into your wheelbarrow and take it to the neighbors? Can you order a box of attention? Can you sweep up confusion with a dustpan and broom? Can you put motivation or inspiration in the fridge so it doesn’t go bad?

No. It won’t work. Because they aren’t real things.

And that’s exactly why there’s so much conflict and miscommunication in the world. You and I don’t need to spend much time discussing that pen. We can argue about whether you like the color or if it writes smoothly, but there’s little debate about the thing itself. This is a pen. Period.

But when it comes to “safety”? Ugh. That’s when the trouble starts. Because you have very different criteria for that than I do. For you, safety might mean there needs to be more police on the streets—whatever exactly that might mean.

Or maybe you think a lot of people should leave the country: “Off with them all—then we’ll have the safety we all want!” While for others, safety actually means that the borders are open, or that everyone is financially well taken care of.

Everyone has their own completely unique internal definition of such a word. Why? Because “safety” isn’t something that exists autonomously in the outside world. It’s a thoroughly hypnotic word. It sounds like we’re talking about the same thing, but we’re all talking about our own internal movie.

Politicians around the world make grateful use of this[2].

The Hypnosis of the “Problem”

This brings us to the heart of the matter. Because where do we go most wrong? That’s right: with the phrase “the problem.”

People come to me all the time and say, “Edwin, I have a big problem.” And they look as if a massive granite boulder is resting on their shoulders. They treat “the problem” as something fixed, as an immovable object standing in their way that I must first smash to pieces before they can move on with their lives.

But if you apply the wheelbarrow test, you’ll already get it: the problem doesn’t exist as a thing at all. It’s a nominalization. You can’t grab “the problem.”

Once you truly break through and understand this, the door to enormous freedom opens. Because if something isn’t a “thing,” then you can break it down to see how it really works. After all, a nominalization always comes from somewhere. Broadly speaking, they fall into two categories:

1. Nominalizations derived from a state (a feeling): Such as “safety,” which stems from feeling safe, or “the problem,” which often stems from feeling anxious or confused.
2. Nouns derived from verbs (actions): Such as “motivation,” which comes from the verb “to motivate,” or “inspiration,” which comes from the verb “to inspire.”

What happens when you get stuck in a nominalization? You literally box yourself in. If you believe, “I have no motivation, ” then you treat motivation as if it were some kind of fuel that just happened not to be delivered today. You’re sitting on the couch waiting for this “thing” called motivation to be magically delivered to your door. Well, I can guarantee you one thing: you’ll never get it. Because there isn’t a package on its way. It isn’t a thing!

Liberation: Turn it back into a verb!

So how do you snap out of that hypnosis? How do you solve a problem that isn’t a thing?

The trick is to move the nominalization back to where it came from. You have to turn it back into an adjective or a verb. You have to shift from static possession to dynamic action. You don’t have it; you do it.

Why on earth would you do that? Because a verb immediately gives you more possibilities and options. You can only passively accept a thing or try to move it, but you can influence a verb.

Just take a look at the difference:

Safety as a thing doesn’t exist. But feeling safe does. If we change the question from “How do we restore safety?” to “Okay, how can you make yourself feel safer right now?”, something happens. Then you focus on the verb “feel.” Suddenly, you have ideas about that. You can influence that. You can change your breathing, you can remind yourself of a moment when you did feel safe, you can shift your focus.

The same goes for that so-called “problem.” Once you realize it’s not a thing, you can ask yourself: “What exactly am I doing here right now? Apparently, I’m feeling a certain way.” Okay, you’re focusing on the verb “feel.”

And if you’re feeling a certain way, you can also learn to feel something else. I’m not saying this because it’s super easy (it often isn’t right away), but it is a thousand times easier than trying to change something that doesn’t even exist in the first place!

Or take that frustration of: “I have no inspiration.” If we break that down to the verb, the question suddenly becomes: “Okay, how are you actually inspiring yourself right now? Or how do you allow yourself to be inspired? What do you do to get that flow going?”

Do you notice the difference in those questions? They’re no longer passive questions about what you do or don’t “have.” They’re action-oriented questions. How can I do it? How can I feel differently? This immediately gets things moving again.

And yes, “the movement” is, strictly speaking, another nominalization—you get that by now, right? But you know what I mean: it’s more dynamic. There’s action in it. And it’s precisely that shift that will help you immediately snap out of the hypnosis caused by all those things that don’t actually exist.

Space in your head (and that doesn’t exist either)

When you stop framing your problems in terms of abstract nouns and start turning them back into a state (feeling) or a verb (doing, moving, motivating, inspiring), you’ll notice that something changes immediately.

You feel it in your body. You feel it in your mind. Something is happening. It’s as if… space is opening up again.

And yes, “space” isn’t a “thing” either, is it? I don’t need to explain that to you anymore. You can’t go around scooping up a bucketful of space. But you get the metaphor: space is created again in your model of the world to view the situation differently. And that’s what it’s all about, ultimately. You can, in fact, completely hold yourself hostage and get completely stuck in a concept that exists only in language.

So, here’s my invitation to you for the coming days: pay attention to yourself. Catch yourself in those moments when you think or say, “I’m stuck on this problem.” Or, “I’m missing the connection.” Or, “Communication is poor.” Pause for a moment. Take a breath.

And ask yourself: Is this something that fits in a wheelbarrow? Or is it a nominalization? Is it actually a state or a verb? And how can I turn it back into an action? How can I start feeling or doing something? From that momentum, you can at least start taking steps forward again. Good luck with it!

Hypnosis for Help

Well, good luck with that!? If that sounds a bit too easy to you right now, then knowledge of hypnosis or hypnotherapy is incredibly useful. In a state of deep hypnosis , we bypass the critical, analytical left side of your brain. That’s exactly the part that keeps those rigid linguistic labels in place all day long.

In a trance, the unconscious mind regains direct access to the fluid reality behind the word. You experience that “fear” is actually just a physical sensation that starts somewhere in your stomach, moves upward, and then subsides again[3].

Hypnosis, as it were, de-nominalizes on the spot: it immediately melts the frozen, abstract “thing” into what it essentially is: a dynamic process.

Through targeted suggestions and visualizations, we transform the rigid inner movie. We turn a passive state (“I have a problem”) back into an active action (“I’m doing this, so I can also do something else”).

Because the unconscious mind does not distinguish between a vivid imagination and reality, you immediately experience within your nervous system that the power of the word is fading.

You literally regain space and freedom of choice. Hypnosis pulls you out of the linguistic illusion and puts you right back into action mode. Because remember: you’re not broken; you’re just temporarily misprogrammed by your own language. And that’s easily resolved in a trance.

Learn Hypnosis

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