We have seen it written over and over that you should never meet your heroes, and the internet holds so many accounts of people who upon meeting their heroes, found that it was simply not as they had hoped. Some had unrealistic and high expectations that could not be met, others had fantastical ideas about how someone is and so on.

Nearly 10 years ago now, I wrote about meeting one of my sporting heroes Stuart Pearce and that went pretty well. So when my Phd supervisor and head of research in the Psychology department of Bournemouth University told me that he would be entertaining Irving Kirsch for a couple of days and wanted me to present my current research to him, I was incredibly excited even if I was also riddled with nerves.

Those who have ever attended my courses know that I refer to Irving Kirsch’s major contribution to the body of research that the field of hypnosis boasts. He is currently the programme director for Placebo Studies at Harvard University and is officially retired. His books on hypnosis and placebo adorn my shelves and are vital reading for any evidence based hypnotherapist and/or psychotherapist.

Yesterday morning I met up with Irving and Dr Ben Parris in a training room at the Bournemouth University campus to deliver a presentation on my current research. It was the smallest audience I have ever presented to, but certainly the most nerve-inducing one. I usually get to teach my subject to audiences who wish to know more, who are looking for insight and knowledge development, yet here was a man whose work has informed my own greatly throughout my career. He was challenging myths and misconceptions of hypnosis while I was a teenager, he is a lifelong academic, researcher and clinician with an incredible wealth of experience and I could not help feeling a tad over-awed.

You can call me Irving” were pretty much his first words and when I openly admitted my nervousness, he told me “aah, take a marshmallow… have a cream puff…. there’s nothing to be nervous about here.” I attempted to condense my research into a single hour-long presentation and at the halfway point of the time allotted, I’d probably got a quarter of the way through my material. I overran, but delivered it all and as well as receiving some satisfying praise, I got some excellent guidance on future direction, some components to consider adding and exploring and some incredibly useful feedback.


(If you follow my Twitter, Facebook or Instagram accounts, you’ll find much better quality versions of the photos I took yesterday)

We headed out for lunch and with the pressure off, the self-induced sense of a scrutinising glare over, we relaxed and got to talk about hypnosis, placebo and much more in a thoroughly enjoyable manner. I found out so much, asked him about his research, we joked, laughed and it became an absolute pleasure to just be around him and dipping in to his knowledge and experience and his natural thought processes.

Later that evening, Irving delivered a lecture “The Wonderful World of Placebo” at one of the large University lecture theatres and plenty of my college students and graduates attended. It was not just incredibly insightful and filled with studies that I have been digging out to read already, it was humorous, quite surprising at times, and very useful for me as a hypnotherapy trainer and hypnotherapist. In particular, the references to how placebo can be enhanced by the manner of it’s delivery, the relevance of placebo research into the therapeutic alliance and the varying forms of expectancy, and the importance of context within placebo were all areas that really stood out for me and I was delighted that these are all central topics covered in my own teaching, though I saw ways that my own coverage of these topics can be enriched further as a result of the lecture.


I wish I’d have had more time to spend with those students and graduates of the college, but after a post-lecture drink, I drove Irving over to the restaurant where we were booked to have dinner. In the car, we talked about his written correspondence with Bertrand Russell as a younger man which delighted me, and in return I got to tell him about how I used Bertrand Russell’s teapot theory when confronted with people telling me I cannot prove the subconscious mind does not exist, you can read that here if you like:
More Tea Vicar? Bertrand Russell’s Teapot Theory & That Big Hypnosis Field Discussion

I found out about how Steven J Lynn had taken him under his wing in the early days of his academic career, I discovered his love of theoretical research and became much more familiar with his clinical approach and experience that I had previously been unaware of. I asked him about everything I had ever thought of and it must have felt like how I feel when one of my kids has a major stream of consciousness and just wants answers to everything at once “how many sleeps until Christmas Dad? Can you get my favourite shorts out for me Dad? Can we play hot wheels Dad? Why does ice cream melt when it’s hot Dad? Can we have the paddling pool out Dad? Are you working tomorrow Dad? Can you take me to the park tomorrow Dad? Why can’t we go to space Dad? etc”

We had dinner right on the sea front on a very warm and balmy evening and were joined by Dr Ben Parris and Alethea from Bournemouth University. I managed to convince Irving of the best Gin and Tonic to drink, and we talked non-stop about hypnosis, placebo, future research ideas and life in general. It was wonderful. I simply can’t do justice to the ground I felt got covered in our discussions and the depth of benefit to me. We even talked about Douglas Adams and other sci-fi comedy – how happy was I!??


So for me, I was delighted to meet my hero. I love to discover the real people beneath their work, but also recognise what it was about them that enabled them to be the person that they are. Irving Kirsch was incredibly insightful, very warm and generous with his expertise and advice, driven by a desire to do good and help others contribute valuably too, and he was a lot of fun to be around. I feel very motivated as a result of my time with him and have spent plenty of time this morning charting my ideas and deciphering the masses of notes I made throughout the day and night yesterday. He has offered to help me further in the future and we’ll be keeping in contact. Adopting the role of humble student was incredibly valuable for me yesterday and I feel like I really made the most of it. Happy days.

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Have some of themes here resonated with you? Then have a read of these pages:

1. Do you need help or support in a particular area of your life?
Coaching with Adam Eason Or Hypnotherapy with Adam Eason
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Likewise, if you’d like to learn more about self-hypnosis, understand the evidence based principles of it from a scientific perspective and learn how to apply it to many areas of your life while having fun and in a safe environment and have the opportunity to test everything you learn, then come and join me for my one day seminar which does all that and more, have a read here: The Science of Self-Hypnosis Seminar. Alternatively, go grab a copy of my Science of self-hypnosis book. Self-hypnosis can help you to be more proud of yourself too, in a number of ways.

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