"The art of suggestion depends upon the use of words and the varied meanings of words. I've spent a great deal of time reading dictionaries. When you read the various definitions that the same word can have, it changes entirely your conception of that word and how language may be used."M.H.Erickson and Ernest Rossi - Experiencing Hypnosis, 1981
"[...]The most blinding, dazzling flash of light occurred in my sophomore year of high school. I had the nickname in grade school and high school, "“Dictionary,"” because I spent so much time reading the dictionary. One noon, just after the noon dismissal bell rang, I was in my usual chair reading the dictionary in the back of the room. Suddenly a blinding, dazzling flash of light occurred because I just learned how to use the dictionary. Up to that moment in looking up a word, I started at the first page and went through every column, page after page until I reached the word. In that blinding flash of light I realized that you use the alphabet as an ordered system for looking up a word. The students who brought their lunch to school always ate in the basement. I don'’t know how long I sat there completely dazzled by the blinding light, but when I did get down to the basement, most of the students had finished their lunches. When they asked me why I was so late in reaching the basement, I knew that I wouldn'’t tell them that I had just learned how to use the dictionary. I don'’t know why it took me so long. Did my unconscious purposely withhold that knowledge because of the immense amount of education I got from reading the dictionary?"
The American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, July. 1977
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