FIRST ASIAN CONGRESS 2019, MASHHAD, IRAN

Congress report by Nicole Ruysschaert

AN OVERVIEW OF PREVIOUS CONGRESSES IN IRAN

These congresses were organized by the Iranian Society of Scientific Hypnosis in collaboration with Mashhad University and other Iranian medical universities and the very active ISSH Board of directors with Ali Sharifi, Mehdi Fathi, Enayat Shahidi and Fahrad Simab and other ISSH members.
The first international congress on clinical hypnosis and related sciences in Iran was held on April 26-28, 2012 in Mashhad. More than 800 specialists participated in this congress and only a few international presenters attended.

The second international congress on clinical hypnosis and related sciences also took place in the Holy City of Mashhad, May 2013 as a result of intensive cooperation of ISSCH and Mashhad University of Medical Sciences. The International Society of Hypnosis (ISH) and Razi association of psychosomatic (Germany) offered scientific co-sponsorship: the congress attracted more than 800 attendants, and welcomed 14 lectures from abroad and 70 Iranian lecturers. Another accomplishment was achieved again for Iran and the world of hypnosis science in April 2015 with the third congress, this time held in Tehran. There were 700 specialists in different medical fields such as psychology, anaesthesia, psychiatry and consultation attending the congress. This congress was welcomed widely and had 22 international and 42 national lecturers. It was the first congress in Iran I at-tended. I enjoyed the interest, the warm welcome of the Iranian participants and was surprised by the eagerness of the participants to learn! After the congress I visited Shiraz en Persepolis with Giuseppe De Benedettis and Consuelo Casula, two ISH board members. The First World Congress on Hypnodontics, organized by the Iranian Scientific Society of Clinical Hypnosis and Dentistry School of the Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, took place 28 – 30th September, 2016. It was another important milestone for exchanging Eastern and Western experiences and knowledge and an opportunity to emphasize the important role and additional value hypnosis can have in dentistry. The First International Congress on Mental Training 2017, October 26 - 28 at Mashhad University, attracted more than 700 participants. Joining the Swedish group with Lars-Eric Unestahl for a precongress tour, perfectly organized by Najmeh Kazemi, I discovered another part of Iran and decided to revisit Iran and present at their congresses whenever possible.

A NEW IDEA WAS BORN… EVERY CHANGE STARTS WITH A DREAM!

At the end of the 3rd International Congress that the Iranian Team of Prof. Mehdi Fathi organized in Tehran , Mehdi Fathi, Enayat Shahidi, Kris Klajs from Poland and Bernhard Trenkle were sitting together and discussing a future congress that would be held in 3 or 4 years . At this meeting, Kris Klajs had the brilliant idea to plan the first (ever) Asian Congress of Hypnosis. His motivation was to give colleagues from Asian countries, which previously were part of a Russian Hypnosis Society such as Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, the opportunity to reconnect with the international field. He noted that many colleagues from these countries are not yet able to afford to travel to Paris or Montreal to attend a con-gress, but they can afford to come to a neighbouring country like Iran. His idea resonated with each of those there. So they started to plan. Col-leagues from China, Japan, India and other Asian countries were included in this process. From the seed of this idea the Iranian team developed the idea to use this Congress to establish an Asian Society of Hypnosis.

2019 - THE FIRST ASIAN CONGRESS, MASHHAD, IRAN

Dr. Farhad Simab in his opening speech nicely compared a hypnotherapist with a jeweller. How is that possible? A jeweller is someone who works with gold and utilizes the malleability of gold. A small amount of gold can be spread and refashioned. The hypnotherapist is the jeweler when conducting hypnosis. He will take hidden mind resources and spread and refashion them. Another important point to consider are the growing concerns about efficacy and safety of conventional medical treatments in the field of mental health. The effect of psychotropic medications is questioned and one can notice differences in delivering mental services to different economic classes. Lack of mental health services into primary care and other medical sub-specialties are a concern. Hypnosis has proven its worth amid such concerns, in enabling individuals to high levels of selfactualizations, promoting awareness of the most inner re-sources.

A hypnotherapist is the impressionist, when viewing the therapist as a co-creator in the art of focus, as the miner when he mines for reserves, the originator when taking hypnosis into the individual means, the farmer when foreshadowing future targets, the utilitarian when he utilizes what the patient brings, visitor when entering into the patients world, the dreamer when having faith in what the patient can bring about: he elicits rather than he prescribes. And with these words the congress is officially opened and the “Dreamer” Dr. Mehdi Fathi is called on stage. He feels honoured as part of the hosting society to welcome so many participants and proud to have the most active society in Asia with around 7000 participants in 400 workshops nationwide. The congress welcomed 1005 participants, among them 108 coming from abroad. Participants from 25 different countries travelled to Masshad, there was a faculty of 65 faculty members, there were 42 plenary lectures in the main hall with simultaneous translation and 28 workshops, with consecutive translation. On top of that there were 2 additional symposia: a symposium on mental training and a symposium on psycho-oncology and palliative medicine. Looking at the history of hypnosis different names are regularly mentioned, but looking forward to the future history perhaps somewhere,sometime other names will be added like Bernhard, Enayat, Loriedo and the dreamer, Dr Mehdi Fathi… For me it is always a pleasure and a discovery to attend and present at congresses organized by ISSH! The technical equipment is excellent and the most advanced applications are working perfectly. There is a helpful and skilled technical team. The way each speaker is introduced is with photographs, videoclips of previous presentations, interviews and music.

In the welcoming there was an introductory documentary “Here is Asia” – movie clips that brought you to different places in Asia. We were welcomed in all languages from the participating countries, with their national flags. Day 1, October 15th we had 10 keynote lectures and another highlight of the congress: the establishment of the Asian Scientific Society of Hypnosis. Mehdi Fathi invited Bernhard Trenkle on stage, naming him “father of hypnosis in the world” “advisor for around the world” and renaming him instead of ‘Bern – hard’ ‘Warm - Heart’ . After him also all representatives from Asian countries present were called on stage, coming from India, Indonesia, Armenia, Turkey, Japan, China, Iran, India, Iraq, Pakistan. It is a memorable moment – a kick-off to spreading and growing the science of hypnosis, joining science and traditional practices of hypnosis in Asia, where there is already a long history among ordinary people. For the future, it was a time to bring together cultural wisdom and experience with science and mind changes through the skills of hypnosis. The Iranian society, as the most active society in Asia, is happy to know other societies from Asia and to be the host for them now, in Iran.

Another important accomplishment was the creation of an “International Flag of Hypnosis”. It was designed in Iran with input and feedback from other countries and colleagues in the field from all over the world. The result of this common endeavor was were several components: A lovely soft, silk tissue mainly white colored as a symbol of PURITY, an important goal of treatment where science and hypnosis come together in a joint venture. A GLOBE to show it is worldwide, encompassing the whole globe without borders, inclusive for every country, society, university and telling that all of them can use it. The Eyes, not as mislead-ing representation of fixation induction but to emphasize the VISION or the way we perceive the world. The BLUE colour represents CALMNESS and the GREEN represents GROWTH and highlighting the green means to highlight DYNAMISM the main goal of hypnosis.
The Flag for the Asian Society of Hypnosis, is different and also has some yellow in it to represent the sunrise and the colour of Asia. All lectures of the congress program were in the morning in a beautiful large congress hall.
On day 2 the congress and tour organizers expressed their special thank you to a very important person who in some way made it possible to have all these people from abroad coming and having hotel and other reservations in advance paid. As you probably know or heard, it is not possible to transfer money to Iran and on the other hand payments needed to be done in advance.

After a video conference of Bernhard Trenkle with Najmeh Kazimi and Enayat Shahidi an Iranian generous man took the full risk of prepayment for all of us. He said he was happy to have us in Iran, a land of peace and love – and that “our hands are open to have you and your family again in Iran.”
Workshops took place in the afternoon. They were clearly announced at the entrance – no way to miss the room where you are expected to present! And you were translated by a nice skilled translator volunteering to do this work.