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Trace History of Leroy, Retired Policeman with Acrophobia
Leroy is a friend of James Friedman's. He came to the Exchange Club meeting today as a guest of James. James had told me earlier that Leroy had a fear of heights. This is Leroy's story as it unfold earlier today.
We drove to Leroy's house, a big sprawling house whose backyard faced a lake. The house was spotless. James commented to me later that Leroy is a neatnik, and always ensures that his house is spotless. Everything dust-free, everything in its place. Like the guns on the wall on in the gun rack.
We were there for his "fear of heights," but I was in for a surprise: he was not afraid of heights, we found out later, but something else that had become attached to heights. James, as we had planned, got up and excused himself to run errands for about 20 minutes. I suggested that we pull Leroy's motorhome out of the garage so that Leroy could show me what happens when he tries to climb to the top of it and can't.
He climbed till his right arm was reaching over the top holding tightly onto the handhold and said this was a little higher than he'd gone before, but he couldn't go any further. I suggested that he do a trace right there. I started him off, saying, "I'm 61 and I'm experiencing this doyle." and continued down to -1 day before birth. [Fear of heights per se is not likely to go before birth, since there are no signals of height, I thought then. Of course, riding in an airplane or bus and being afraid can go before birth due to the proprioceptive doyles stored while in the womb, so very likely my generalization was wrong.] When it was done, I asked him what he thought. He said it didn't work. I asked him to go one step higher, and he girded himself and moved up one step very carefully, holding on for dear life. He was very scared, so I told him to come down and relax.
I took us over to the outside wooden steps so we could see the Motor Home and the ladder he'd just been on, in case I needed to fire off the doyles associated with being on the top of the ladder. [Note: the wooden steps are important to recovering the memory that led to the final and successful trace. This was completely unconscious on my part my Angels must have led me to the steps. Thanks.] As I prepared him for a longer, more detailed speed trace inside, he remembered a concrete stoop in front of his family home in Massachusetts when he was six. One day with a cape around his neck, he climbed to the top of the stoop about ten steps high and jumped off. He wasn't scared of heights then puzzling how could he have earlier stored a fear of heights if he didn't have a fear of heights at six years old? [Note this kind of revelation must be taken to indicate that one has been tracing the wrong doyle.] Something else was going on. But what?
I said, "Let's go inside and get comfortable to do the trace." We went back to the chairs in the living room facing the Tommy Gun. I went over with Leroy how to place himself at 1994, 1984, 74, 64, 54 (16), 44 (6), 43 (5), 42 (4), 41 (3), 40 (2), 39 (1), and 1938 (birth -1 day).
When we got to 1954 he stopped me to say that he remembered something he did when he was eleven. His mother took him and his friends to a swimming pool that had a high diving board. He and his friends jumped feet first off the diving board several times. Once more note: No Fear of Heights! And now at eleven years old. But after several jumps feet first, he decided to "show off" to his buddies by doing a flip. He didn't complete the flip and he stung his back. The next time he went to climb up the high dive ladder, he couldn't. What was going on, I thought. I still had no clue, but forged ahead. James came back about this time and took his seat to my left as I worked with Leroy. I signaled James to be quiet and he did. I quickly filled James in on what Leroy had done as I led Leroy into the regular speed trace after some intense training in time marks. [Note: this intense training in time marks is an excellent way to help a person begin to recover the memories that will help them to a successful doyle trace. This became very clear to me as the tracing progressed further.]
Leroy went down to 1949 when he was eleven years old. I designed the time marks to ensure that the ages of 11 and 6 would have a time mark for them. At the age of 11, Leroy's "fear of heights" went away. This was extremely puzzling. He didn't have a fear of heights at six and when he went back before eleven, the fear of heights went away. What happened at eleven? I stopped the trace and went back to working on time marks. [Gathering more data, giving Leroy a chance to recover more pertinent memories, but I didn't realize that at the time. I was mostly still lost, so far as I knew. I had no idea of where this was all leading me, but I kept forging ahead.]
Leroy remembered something else before he was five, they lived in a four-story building and they used to jump from the second floor railing into the piled up snow. Again no fear of heights! [What in the world was going on? The episode at six didn't cause a fear of heights, the episode on the diving board at eleven apparently did, but that's above the memory transition age of five. Here's a case where it's easy to get lost without the compass that the theory of doyletics provides: "Doyles are stored below five years old." This is a crucial element to permanent eradication of doyles, and it would be easy for other individuals to have stopped at ten, right before eleven and not succeeded in removing the doyle that was instrumental in creating Leroy's "fear of heights" we had not recovered that doyle yet, the theory of doyletics predicts, for the simple reason that no doyle existing before five years old had been isolated at this point in the tracing. I knew that what we were looking for was not a fear of height per se but exactly what I was not sure yet.] They jumped from 30 feet into a pile of snow some 20' feet high and slid down. As I queried Leroy about this apartment building he began to describe to me the back steps which were wooden steps. He often had to climb up the back steps and they were very rickety and shaky. My ears perked up! That was a giant clue! What if the unsteadiness was the doyle and not a fear of heights was the doyle it was certainly stored below five years old so it qualified as a real doyle. My mind was spinning the possibilities very fast. Unsteadiness on a high step when he was three got stored as a doyle. On the high concrete stoop, nothing to trigger the unsteadiness, so he could jump off it at six with his cape on, no problem. Even hurt his head at the end of the jump against a building and no effect, so far as we know from that jump. Then at eleven, he can climb to the top of the sturdy high dive and dive off the board feet first. No problem, since the steps were not unsteady. Not until he hurt himself. Another clue: he mentioned that his mother would yell him not to climb up those rickety stairs, that he would hurt himself. Perhaps after he hurt his back diving from the diving board, he heard his mom's voice tell him, "You're gonna get hurt." Would make sense, since now he was actually hurt. Her voice coming back to his head and he got out of the pool would also fire off the doyle associated with being unsteady because she said those words while he was actually on the rickety, unsteady stairs. So he walks over to the high dive to climb up again, but something has changed inside of Leroy: a doyle of unsteadiness has been attached to climbing up to high places. Diving board high dive ladders are designed almost exactly like the ladder he has on the back of his motorhome.
I now had a plan. I suggested another trace. This time, I told Leroy, we will be tracing the doyle associated with your being on that rickety staircase when you were three. He went 61, 54, 44, 34, 24, 14, 5 (yes, doyle still there), 4 (yes), 3 (not quite sure if it's still there), 2 (definitely gone). His doyle of unsteadiness was gone. I thanked him and asked him if he wanted to test it now or tomorrow and let us know. [Note the presupposition is: he will test it. Only question is when. This is the illusion of choice technique.] Leroy said, "Sure, I'll do it now, but I don't think it'll work."
I told him that he had no way of knowing, that only testing by climbing the motorhome would tell us. What I didn't say is that I was positive that his unsteady doyle was gone, and that it was the source of his so-called life-long "fear of heights". Leroy walked over to the ladder, climbed to the top as far as he had gone before, and continued to climb over the end of the ladder up onto the roof of the 34' motorhome. On his knees now, looking down at me with a big smile on his face, he said, "Wow! Look at me!" I said, "Now crawl over and inspect your air conditioning unit, Leroy, pretend to undo the bolts." He crawled over to it and put his hands over the bolts as I had instructed without hesitating. "Now come down, Leroy, you've done it."
We helped him quide his feet down to the ladder rungs since it was the first time he'd done such a thing, coming down from the roof of his motorhome. "When you're doing something for the first time, Leroy, it's best to take your time." Leroy was all smiles when he stepped down from the ladder. I shook his hands and gave him a hug. Then James congratulated him.
We went inside for a coke, talked a bit, and then said goodbye. I told him he had just peddled that bike for about ten feet. [Note: I'm referring here to the third step of habit formation four step model of Don Robinson, Leroy had just become Consciously Competent at climbing to the top of his motorhome. Best to take it slow while he builds up confidence and motor skills for the task.] With practice, I told him, you'll soon be riding all over town, tracing other doyles, such as anger doyles by using a similar process to what you've just used.
[END OF LEROY'S TRACE HISTORY]Met with Leroy today for coffee. He again told me about his
experience high up in the hotel in Reno. He said he got this tingling
sensation in his limbs but the symptoms fro the height was not near as
severe as those he used to have climbing up the motor home or other high
places.
16 Feb 2000
Leroy climbed up on one of my neighbors motor home and thought
nothing of it except he was happy that he was able to do that. I don't
think he has any knowledge of the tremendous ability he has aquired at
your hands.
Notes From Leroy [not his real name]:
4 Feb 2000
Thanks for the shout. I hope things are going well "down south." Yes, I
seem to be doing OK with the ladder thing, although I must admit, I don't go
looking for reasons to climb. Thanks again for the help.
Yesterday a friend of Leroy's called him up early in the morning and invited him out to go flying in his new airplane. After a moments hesitation, Leroy said OK.
They took off and were gone most of the day all over the state, up to
the lake north of here, etc.
Later on I had coffee with Leroy. He said he loved it and explained
that he would never even gotten in the plane before he met you and was
helped by you to eliminate his fear of heights. His statement to me
was that although there were maneuvers the pilot went through that
made him a bit up tight but that he was at least 75% better than at
any time prior to having met you.
