Most people who have done any type of research on the possibility of trying to grow taller from using hypnosis, neuro linguistic programming and anything related would have heard of the legendary story of how the late great hypnotherapist Milton H. Erickson managed to get a supposed 20 year old man to grow 12 inches taller in one year from using a specific type of visualization technique.

I have written about and referenced at least two post about this unique case. The original post was  “Milton Erickson’s Legend of 12 Inch Height Increase“. The subsequent posts like about praying, wishing, NLP, hypnosis, and hypnotherapy, this specific case was referenced multiple times to show that maybe there is something to hypnosis.

I remembered back to this specific case and wanted to do some research to find out whether this story was true or not and find the exact origin of where this story came from.

The first clue I got was from the article I had originally published about Milton Erickson. There was the title of a certain book which I didn’t even realized I had copy and pasted in the 1st post. It was entitled “Ericksonian Approaches“. I checked Amazon.com and found that the title referred to a specific reference manual on Erickson’s methods. It is “Ericksonian Approaches: A Comprehensive Manual”. The cost of it was 26 British Pounds.

I searched for a free PDF copy of the book looking on Google and found none so I spent $35 of my own money to buy the Kindle Version of the book. I set up a Kindle Reader for my Mac OSX and Apple computer and started to search through the entire book trying to find the exact passage of the original. It would turn out the passage does exist.

Exceptional Growth

Erickson recognized the importance of healthy body imagery. He used hypnosis to help at least two young women allow their breasts to grow in response to their own hormones. They had previously inhibited such interaction, considering themselves unfeminine and unattractive (Erickson and Rossi, 1980b, p. 183–5).

In 1960, he told me about a 20-year-old man who grew 12 inches in height in the span of one year. In hypnosis, at the start of therapy, this stunted young man looked out on his world as though unwilling to grow, a modern-day Peter Pan. For example, he described a room as though he were standing beneath a table. Similarly, a cow on his farm was visualized as though it were ten feet tall; his eyes were on a level with cow’s udder. Growth began to take place when Erickson encouraged the man to hallucinate his world as though he were standing part way up a staircase. I said, “Why have you kept this report out of the literature?” Erickson smiled and said, “No respectable editor of a scientific journal would publish such an impossible thing.” “Dr. Erickson,” I answered, “You are the editor of a respectable journal.” He smiled again and said, “I would like to keep my job.” (Cheek, 1982, p. 282.)

Erickson did some things that bordered on the unbelievable!

I. Posthypnotic Behavior

Me: I am not sure which page it is on but the passage is there. What is most important is the fact that the exact passage is referenced and it points at another book on Erickson’s Methods. The reference is…

Cheek, D.B. (1982). Some of Erickson’s contributions to medicine. In J.K. Zeig (ed.), Ericksonian approaches to hypnosis and psychotherapy. New York: Brunner/Mazel.

• Study/Article Author: Cheek, D.B.
• Article Title: Some of Erickson’s contributions to medicine
• Year the article was published: 1982
• Book Name: Ericksonian approaches to hypnosis and psychotherapy
• Book’s Author/ Editor: J. K. Zeig

Currently I am outside the USA and the place I live in does not get any type of packages. Even if I buy the book, I will never be able to receive it. I would like to request one of the readers of this website to kindly pay the $6 to get it from Amazon and tell me what exactly is on page 282?

The link below is an Amazon Associates link so if you buy from the link, I do get a small commission fee of roughly 25 cents. That’s right, I am get a nice quarter for all of my work on this research.

Click HERE! –> Ericksonian Approaches to Hypnosis and Psychotherapy – Editor: Jeffrey K. Zeig – Cost: $6

Conclusion:

I can not continue any further with the research because I can not get any copy of the book entitled “Ericksonian Approaches to Hypnosis and Psychotherapy“. It seems that Google Scholar and Google Books does not have a copy of this body in electronic or PDF form yet. Can Anyone help in seeing just how valid is the idea of increasing height from using hypnosis really is? The story have been validated to be true since it is in a professional manual written. Traced back a little further, it seems that the real origin of the book is from another Ericksonian Techniques Manual or Guide.