AHA Hall of Fame

Joe Kee

I have told my story many times, so I will mention a number of incidents that happened along the way. They say people on a mission in life are the survivors; well I have been on one for sixty years and still going. Although there have been many ups and downs. Upper most in mind is the saying “The road to success is always under construction.”

As a school boy I was always interested in Hypnotism. I was one of the original pioneers of hypnosis in Australia, and participated in forming the Australian Hypnotherapists’ Association in 1948.

I was born in Melbourne and as a sixteen year old I did a number of concerts for charity, during World War II. They were called 3M shows. “Music, Magic and Mystery.” At the age of eighteen I was in the armed services, three months into my training I was involved in the Japanese Outbreak at Cowra. A horrific experience and days later I was in the burial group. This changed my life forever.

On my discharge from the army I started the Newcastle Hypnotherapy Clinic. I wanted to help people. I have been married to a Newcastle girl, Beryl for 61 years and have two daughters, Cheryl and Lisa. Both became full members of the Australian Hypnotherapists’ Association and have now retired after many years of practice. I have always promoted Hypnotherapy giving talks at Rotary, View and Probus Clubs. Also, T.V., Radio etc.

In 1958 I was the first Hypnotherapist taken to court by the Health Department, for imposing my will on people and for advertising. This made the National News and business has never looked back. I was fined £10.00.

A week later I was visited by a professional wrestler who had a gym in town and who dabbled in Hypnosis. He told me to get out of town within a week. But I am still here 60 years later.

My interests have been many. Gardening, 1st Prize (3 years), Walking, Businesses, Mind Aerobics, Sound Being, (balance your mind and body). In 1989 I was given an opportunity to work in the Honolulu Hypnotherapy Group. I declined because who was going to look after my garden? I was selected by a Russian Group as a member of their experimental group.
In 1976 I went to America to meet a Psychiatrist who was using hypnosis. On arriving at his clinic in San Francisco I was told he had committed suicide a few days earlier. I was greatly disappointed and when I came back to Australia, I gave a talk at the Regent Hotel, “Who cares for the caretaker while he is taking care.”??

A night I will never forget, I was giving a demonstration of Hypnosis at the City Hall for the Lord Mayors Charity Appeal in 1952 when halfway through the Lord Mayor came onto stage and stopped the show with the announcement that King George had died. It was a capacity crowed. This was the end of my stage career.

I have been a member of many community groups –

Past President of NSW branch of AHA
Past President, National AHA (25 years inclusive)
Past President, Newcastle Business Club (Life member 52 years)
Past President, Newcastle Forum Club

Past President, Newcastle Probus Club

In 2003 I was told I had end stage renal failure and spent 3 years on dialysis and told I would be having treatment for the rest of my life. Using self hypnosis I have now been off treatment for 21 months, but I have to be careful. So far so good, thanks to “The Power of the Mind.”

I am also sending you a copy of my work of some many years ago, I would always include a poem or two in my after dinner talks. This one came from, “Those Magnificent Men and their Hypnotic Techniques: 1986 in New Zealand – I thought that it might be good for the magazine, it has never been published before…

Give it a go

‘Be not the first by whom the new is tried
Nor the last to cast the old aside.’
In those sage words lie comfortable security,
A smug career, respectable obscurity.
I don’t know how we’d ever learn—do you?—
Unless someone dared try out something new.
For doesn’t each worthwhile technique we’re sharing
Come from someone’s imaginative daring?
Without those pioneers who took the plunges,
We might as well be rows of passive sponges,
With time-approved conventions quite obsessive,
Mentally programmed not to be progressive.
Perhaps you’re not an Einstein, Freud or Moses,
Yet you’ve a lot to offer to Hypnosis—
Try something new sometime. Yes, risk derision!
Learn from the past to gain a clearer vision!
Always remember, if you’d reach a star,
Never lose sight of what and where you are!
(Strangely, you’ll find that your rear-vision mirror
Enables you to see the future clearer.)

So here’s the message from your old mate Joe:
Don’t be too timid, friend! Give it a go!
Don’t spurn the past, yet never fear the new!
(The next big name we talk of could be you!)

Joe Kee. F.L.A.H.A.
 

Back To AHA Hall of Fame