Hypnosis is gaining popularity and credibility as a treatment for a multitude of troubles. Recently, much research has been done using the latest brain-imaging technology. PET, MRI, and EEG scans show that hypnotized subjects actually have altered sensory perception. A 2000 study in The American Journal of Psychiatry revealed that when hypnotized subjects were told a black and white picture was in color, their brain activity was consistent with seeing colors. Other studies indicated brain activity congruent with hearing noises when there were none, or not feeling pain when a subject's hands were submerged in painfully hot or cold water. Researchers at Harvard University have found it diminishes the need for anesthesia during invasive procedures such as angioplasty and breast reconstruction and speeds post-operative healing.

The treatment of ailments by suggestion has ancient roots but is earning widespread recognition in modern medicine. The American Medical Association recognized hypnosis in 1956 as a legitimate form of therapy. The benefits of hypnosis are profound. Hypnosis is able to make rapid and substantial change because it helps a person to access the “programming” of their mind in order to make a desired permanent change. As positive change is made a person becomes healthier mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. A healthy, happy person who is feeling positive and fulfilled in their life radiates this success and therefore attracts even more success into their life.

When a person is in HYPNOSIS, they are deeply relaxed physically. However mentally, they are far more alert than in their normal state of awareness. They hear and respond to everything and are an active participant in the session. A person has COMPLETE CONTROL over what they will or will not do and they will instantly reject any suggestion that is uncomfortable. If they like and want the suggestions given, for instance, to stop smoking, the suggestion is allowed to enter the subconscious mind. This part of us is like a computer and must respond to everything that is allowed to enter it.

We ARE the programming our subconscious has received. If that part of our mind views us as fat, fat we become. If it perceives we smoke, then we smoke!

Using HYPNOSIS, we are able to access this subconscious computer and reprogram ourselves to be whatever we wish to be.

First, it is important to understand how your mind works. We have three separate and distinct parts of our mind. These three parts are: the conscious mind, the subconscious mind, and the unconscious mind, each having different responsibilities with very little communication among each other. Imagining that the parts of our mind are at different levels, first, we have a conscious mind. Our conscious mind is actively working right now. Below our conscious level of awareness, is where we will find our subconscious mind. And going even deeper to find our unconscious mind.

Our unconscious mind is basically responsible for two things. It controls the strength or weakness of our immune system and it controls our automatic body functions. Automatic body functions such as the beating of our heart and the blinking of our eyes. Our unconscious mind is basically unaffected by hypnosis.

Our conscious mind is where we spend most of your time. Basically, it has four responsibilities. First, it analyzes by examining information or an event and then deciding how to solve it. It also makes the thousands of decisions that we face through out a typical day. Decisions that appear to be automatic, but in fact, are not. Examples of such decisions are: "Should I turn the light on? Should I open the door? Should I dry my hands?" These type of decisions may appear to be automatic but really we make a decision as to whether or not we want to do them.

The second part of our conscious mind can actually get us into trouble some times. It is the rational part of our conscious mind. It must give us a reason why we behave in a particular fashion. Understanding that if we don't have a reason for why we behave in a certain way that we become anxious, nervous, frustrated. If this goes on to long it can lead to serious mental illness. Now, just because the rational conscious mind gives us a reason doesn't mean it is an accurate reason. And the biggest problem is that the reason is never original. The following are examples of this problem: a smoker says "I smoke because it helps me to relax. I need a cigarette when I drink coffee," or "I need a cigarette after I eat;" an overweight person says "I eat when I am bored, I eat when I am upset," or "I eat when I am happy." Really, before the smoker developed the habit, he actually heard other people that smoked say, "I smoke because it makes me feel calm and relaxed" etc. And the same with the overweight person, who heard other overweight people claiming "I'm overweight because I eat when I'm nervous" etc.

One of the real reasons people are smokers or overweight is because of a need of security or belonging. Security being a basic need for all human beings. As an example: generally, a smoker starts smoking when he is young and because he wants to belong to another group of friends. If he feels that he doesn't belong to this particular group, his subconscious mind (which must protect him against danger, real or imagined) recognizes the lack of security as a definite danger. In order to feel secure and accepted by the group, he accepts a cigarette, immediately rewarded by feeling accepted with his level of security going up. Having nothing to do with feelings of relaxation.

The next part of our conscious mind is what has been labeled will power. This part of our conscious mind is weak and we are all familiar with it. A person might say, "I am putting down this pack of cigarettes and I am never going to smoke again." We all know how long that lasts! And just as familiar for the person who has tried to diet. Will power weakens and the old habit patterns return again.

The last part of our conscious mind is called working memory or short term memory. It is the memory we need every day, to get through an average day. "How do I get to work? What is my husband or wife's name? What is my phone number?" Etc.

These four responsibilities make up the conscious mind. In summary, the conscious mind is very logical, rational, and analytical; and frequently WRONG.

Now, where the REAL you lives, in the level below the conscious, called the subconscious mind. The subconscious mind is extremely powerful, it is the most powerful part of our mind. It can make you into anything that you want to be. Like the old saying, "What you perceive is what you shall be." Whether you think of yourself as rich and famous, poor, thin, overweight, happy or sad, it is the REAL us. To understand the subconscious mind, you need to realize that it is very similar to a computer. A computer, if bought new with no programming will not respond when given a command.

It will only respond to a command once the programming has been put there. Once the programming is there, the computer must operate according to that programming, it has no choice. If you purchase new programming, put it in the computer, and eliminate the old programming; it can no longer operate according to the old programming. It must respond and operate according to the new programming. Well, this is the way our subconscious mind works. It is a computer, functioning with the same type of rules and regulations. Only much more powerful. When we are born, our computers are basically unprogrammed- there is some programming, but not very much. We program our computer each and every day through our life experiences. The primary rule of our computer is this: It MUST make us into the type of person that it perceives us to be based on the programming that has been placed into it. And programming is continually added to it day after day until we die. As an example: if that computer subconscious mind of ours says we are fat, then we are fat! If it says we are thin, a smoker, a success, or a failure then that is what we are. It adds up all the programming and makes a decision about us, about the type of person that we are, and then that is exactly what we are! Never rising above that label until we change the perception of ourselves.

So, thinking along the lines of a computer... our subconscious mind has operational software. The first software being our memory... our long-term, permanent memory which goes as far back as birth or prenatal, depending on your beliefs. The subconscious mind is similar to a video camera. Everything that has ever happened to you, that you have heard, seen, touched, smelled, and tasted is locked permanently into the memory banks of your subconscious mind. We never 'forget' anything. If necessary, in hypnosis we can access that memory bank and appear to travel back in time. For example, in regression hypnosis we can travel back and re-live your first birthday or your birth. Now, this is much more than recall, it actually feels like you are there, it is happening all over again. You can hear very clearly, see what happened, feel, smell, and taste. We never forget anything in the subconscious, only at the conscious level.

The second programming we have in the inner mind, the subconscious mind, is habits. Now, you really only have three kinds of habits. Some are good and some are bad, but most of our habits are utilitarian. We automatically respond in a certain fashion when something else happens. For example, when the telephone rings we don't look at it and wonder what it is and why it is making that sound. We decide to pick it up or not depending on our mood.

Emotion is the next thing in our subconscious mind. Of course, we wouldn't want to be without emotions like love, caring and all the other good emotions. But sometimes our emotions get us into trouble. The conscious mind can not deal with emotions in any way, that is not part of its job. Any time we need emotion our conscious mind parts like the Red Sea and we deal with the particular situation from our irrational, juvenile like, but highly intelligent subconscious mind. And as I said, sometimes it gets us into trouble. Many times we deal with situations with an extreme amount of emotion that really isn't necessary. Then after the situation is over and that analytical conscious mind takes over again, you find yourself thinking or saying, "Why did I say that?" or "Why did I do that?" This has happened to all of us at one point in time.

The next thing in our subconscious mind is our protective mind. This is likely the most important part. It must protect us against danger, real OR imagined. Understanding that something imagined by our subconscious mind is just as real as something truly experienced, it can't tell the difference and it MUST protect us.

The last part of the subconscious mind is a negative part of us. Even though the subconscious is the most powerful part of our mind, it is extremely lazy. It doesn't like to do the work that is required to accept positive suggestions. To give us change in areas where we would like to have change. It likes to keep things the way that they are, it takes too much work to make change in a positive way. Positive suggestions are one of the most difficult things to get into our subconscious minds. On the other hand, negative suggestions go into this inner part of us like a hot knife through butter, because it doesn't take any work to accept a negative suggestion.

As an example: a very heavy person gets out of the shower and looks at herself in the mirror, saying to herself, "I am fat." That idea or thought goes right into her subconscious and her subconscious mind says, "Yes, that matches the programming that I have in here, that matches my perception of you." Therefore, it accepts that suggestion and her perception of being fat becomes even stronger, causing her to get heavier. On the other hand, if she said to herself, "I’m thin," her subconscious would reject the suggestion because it wouldn't match her programming.

It is important to understand if a thought or a concept is allowed to go into the subconscious mind, it must happen. You could revise or eliminate the old programming and the inner, subconscious mind would then have to respond to the new programming. But it is not that easy.

There is one more part of your conscious mind that I failed to mention earlier. It is the critical factor of the conscious mind and it communicates with the subconscious. Its only job is to stop and put on hold any suggestion of positive change that we give ourselves or receive from an outside source. As an example: a man wants to stop smoking. His critical factor communicates with his subconscious, "He wants to stop smoking, can I let this suggestion in?" Now, remember, if this suggestion enters his subconscious mind, it must happen. But his subconscious mind says, "Wait a minute. He's been smoking for twenty years, he needs cigarettes for security." (Or whatever reason he has). "Besides you realize I would have to do years of re-programming and I just don't feel up to it. I don't want to do it, reject the suggestion!" And so the suggestion is rejected and can not go into the subconscious, inner mind. The only other place to take that suggestion is will power in the conscious mind. And we all know how long will power lasts. How many diets have we been on? How many times have we tried to stop smoking?

Hypnosis by-passes the critical factor of the conscious mind. By definition, hypnosis is a state of mind in which the critical factor is bypassed, and selective thinking is established. Ninety-five percent of the general public have misconceptions about hypnosis. Because of these misconceptions, hypnosis is not what most people expect it to be. Our bodies, if we are using the relaxation type of hypnosis, are very relaxed; but the more we go into hypnosis, the more our conscious mind becomes alert. In the deeper levels of hypnosis, your conscious mind is two to three hundred times more alert than it is at this very moment. All of your five senses, including hearing, smelling, tasting, and seeing are hundreds of times better than they are right now.

So when you are in hypnosis, you are not asleep, you are extremely alert, probably more alert and clear minded than you have ever been before. The important thing to understand is that the conscious mind takes on a different role when you are in hypnosis. As if it were playing the role of guardian of the gates, there to protect you. When you receive a suggestion in hypnosis, you hear it loud and clear. You then have one of four choices, success or failure is based on what choice you make. Which choice you make determines whether or not the suggestion is allowed to enter your subconscious mind. If it is allowed to enter, you will have the change that you desire; if it is rejected, there will not be a change.

After hearing the suggestion, you have a choice of thinking or saying to yourself one of these four thoughts:

1. "I like that suggestion, I know that one is going to work for me!" With this mental attitude at the conscious level, the suggestion goes into your subconscious mind, and change begins.

2. "Well, that suggestion sounds good, but I don't think it will work for me." With this uncomfortable, mental attitude, the suggestion is rejected, and there is no change.

3. "I'm not sure if I like that suggestion or not." With this neutral, mental attitude, the suggestion is rejected, and there is no change.

4. "Oh, I like that suggestion, boy, I hope it works for me!" The word hope sets you up for failure. It is similar to saying, "I will try," versus saying "I can do it." When you decide that something is a priority in your life and that you can do it- then there is no need to hope for it. And so with this mental attitude, the suggestion is rejected, and there is no change.

So, suggestions enter your subconscious mind when YOU take the mental attitude of, "I like that suggestion, I know it is going to work for me!" You are completely responsible for your own success. You are completely responsible for your own failure.

What mental attitude you take when you hear a suggestion determines success or failure.

Hypnosis is up to you. As hypnotherapists, if asked about our success rate with smoking cessation and weight loss, we have to be completely honest. Our success rate is 100%. With excellent training in hypnosis and a lot of experience, we know exactly what to say to our clients to help them to achieve their goals. If they choose to accept the suggestions, they will have wonderful change. If they choose to reject the suggestions, they will have no change. So, as hypnotherapists, our success rate it always perfect. Will yours be perfect? If you accept the suggestions with the correct mental attitude, "I like it, I know it will work," then you will have 100% success. If you don't have this mental attitude, then you will fail. It is all up to you!

Ok, the truth be known... I will let the cat out of the bag! There is no such thing as being hypnotized by another person. As a hypnotist I can not hypnotize you! Never have been able to and never will be able to! There is really only one form of hypnosis and that is self-hypnosis. ALL hypnosis is self-hypnosis. You don't need a hypnotist do go into a beautiful, deep state of hypnosis all by yourself. You certainly don't need a hypnotist to give you suggestions of positive change in any area of your life. You can do that all by yourself. What you do need is a hypnotist to teach you how to do it. To be a facilitator, to guide you, and to give you a jump start.

A hypnotist can show you how to place yourself into a beautiful state of hypnosis. Feeling the physical relaxation and mental alertness. If you allow the hypnotist to be your guide, she can show you how to stay in the state until the session is over. At any time, if you don’t want to be in this beautiful, relaxed state, you simply decide not to be, and it is over. You then return to your normal state of awareness. But, if you follow the hypnotist's guidance, you will be shown how to stay there.

If using hypnosis for change, then the most important thing of all is allowing yourself to accept the suggestions given to you with the correct mental attitude. "I like it, I know it is going to work!" Knowing that if you have any other attitude, you will not accept the suggestions. A hypnotist can not force a suggestion into your mind. Only YOU can ALLOW it to happen.

Hypnosis is a 100% consent state... by you. You must allow things to happen. If you don't want them to happen, you can stop them from happening with the slightest thought. Anyone with an IQ above 70 can go into a very deep level of hypnosis. As long as you want to be! Are you wondering how fast? As long as it takes to snap your fingers! The only thing that keeps a person from going into that beautiful state of physical relaxation and mental alertness is if they have any fears or misconceptions about what hypnosis really is.

In the beautiful, deep state of hypnosis you are completely relaxed and comfortable. This relaxed state can be used for all of the following, and more. Habit problems can be brought under control, whether smoking, overeating, alcohol, drugs, or unwanted mannerisms.

Relieve pressures of stress at home and at work

Alleviate insomnia

Improve self confidence, self-esteem and other opinions about yourself

Sales success

*Hypnosis is effective in countless physical and mental illnesses, often under a physician's referral. Physical and mental conditions including, but not limited to, the following:

Phobias / Fears

Pain Management

Degenerative condition

Anesthesia requirements

Mood alteration

Improve positive attitude necessary for healing

Question: "Will I be aware of what is going on?"

Answer: Absolutely! Some people feel that when they are in hypnosis, that they are asleep. On the contrary, your mind is two to three hundred times more alert than it is at this very moment. A state that is extremely opposite of sleep. Hypnosis has nothing to do with sleep.

Question: "What if I don't wake up?"

Answer: There is only one thing that you "wake up" from and that is sleep. Since you are not asleep, then... yes, you don't wake up. What you do is emerge. Anytime that you want to emerge from hypnosis, all you have to do is have the slightest thought that you don’t want to be in this relaxed state anymore. Instantly, the hypnosis is over and you are back to your normal state of awareness.

Concern: "Hypnosis is mind control! The hypnotist can make you do anything they want you to do!"

Response: Nothing could be further from the truth! You are in complete control from beginning to end. First, you decide if you even want to be hypnotized... no one (not even a hypnotist) can hypnotize you against your will. All hypnosis is self hypnosis.

Can I Be Hypnotized? 

Once you choose to go into hypnosis, the hypnotist can give you suggestions. When you hear a suggestion you have one of four choices to make. One of those choices is having the thought "I like it, I know it is going to work." When you think this way about a suggestion, then that suggestion is allowed by YOU to enter your subconscious mind. Learn more, Creating Wonderful Change. The hypnotist can not force you to accept a suggestion. Lastly, at any time, if you choose to emerge, all you have to do is have the slightest thought that you do not want to be in this relaxed state and you instantly return to your normal awareness. The hypnotist has absolutely NO CONTROL over you at any time! You are completely responsible for your own success. You are completely responsible for your own failure. What mental attitude you take when you hear a suggestion determines your success or failure.

Question: "I have seen stage hypnosis shows. The people on stage are controlled by the hypnotist, aren't they?"

Answer: Sorry, they are not being controlled by the hypnotist. Even though some people would like to claim that their actions were out of their control! Starting at the very beginning, a stage hypnotist advertises that he is coming to town. People that are excited by this type of entertainment decide that they are going. Many of those people want to get up on stage. When the show begins, the hypnotist asks for a show of hands, those people that would like to volunteer to come up on stage. Numerous hands go up. But the hypnotist doesn't stop there and settle for those volunteers. He tells those volunteers, "really good subjects are those with the best ability to concentrate and who have wonderful imaginations." So he says he will give the audience a test for concentration and imagination. In reality, the hypnotist is testing the audience for two very important things. First, which people allow themselves to go into hypnosis very rapidly and easily. He has a show to put on and doesn't want to waste time with long hypnotic techniques. Secondly, and more importantly, he is testing those people to find out who wants to have fun and who is uninhibited public. These are the people that he invites up on stage. And since these people want to have fun, when they hear a suggestion, they take the mental attitude, "I like it, I want it to work." And the suggestion is accepted. Now, as you may remember from the stage show, some people, once on stage, didn't respond to the suggestion. They did not accept the suggestion with the right mental attitude and so the suggestion was rejected. These people are usually asked to return to their seats. If it is late in the show, the hypnotist will just ignore them for the rest of the show. All hypnosis is the same, whether it is on a stage or in a hypnotherapy office. You always have the choice as to whether or not you want to accept the suggestion. If you don't want it, it will be rejected and there will be no change.

Question: "Will I tell all my deep, dark secrets?"

Answer: No! When in hypnosis your mind is two to three hundred times more alert than it is at this very moment. You are in more control of what you say or do then you are right now. If there is something that you don't want to talk about, then you won't. No one can make you divulge information that you feel is prohibitive. As a matter of fact, a person would be more likely to get that kind of information from you in your normal state of conscious awareness. Since, while in normal consciousness, your mind is mentally dull compared to your mental capabilities when in hypnosis. 

ANSWER: "There are people out there that have secrets that they do not want people to know. I've had people that are doing things that they don't want people to know, but I've also had military people want to hire me and they're like, “I have top secret clearance and I'm concerned. I do not want these secrets to come out. I swore my life that I wouldn't let these secrets out.” There are concerns for many different reasons as to whether a person, while in hypnosis, will tell all their secrets, and they will not because you do have awareness of what is being said to you, of your total environment, and of what you are saying. That is just a fact of the state of mind. It is alpha theta. You pass through it when you go to sleep at night; you pass through it when you wake up in the morning. Just like lying in bed, if you wake up at 4:00 a.m. and your partner's there next to you, you are not gonna tell her all your deep, dark secrets. Right? The alpha-theta state is a normal place for your brain and your mind to go, and you're not going to tell the hypnotist anything that you don't want to say, and they can't dig up anything. They can help you to, if you wanted to. That is one of the things people have hired me for. For example, if a patient has misplaced an item and they hid a ring and they cannot remember where they hid it, your subconscious mind holds all your memories and all your experiences. It is programmed in there. Everything you have ever seen, heard, smelled, tasted, and felt. If somebody actually wanted to try to recall something, it's very easy to recall information in hypnosis, but it's only if you're willing."

ANSWER: People do ask me a lot the difference between meditation and hypnosis. And a lot of people that teach meditation actually, I think, don't like it when I tell them that they’re the same state of mind because there's almost this ‘meditation is cool’ and ‘hypnosis is the evil stepchild or evil stepmother or the Ugly Duckling or something.’ I think hypnosis has been kept more mysterious because it has been dramatized in movies and on stage comedy shows where meditation is like spiritual or whatever. But ultimately, they are the same state of mind. So you've got beta where you're fully alert and conscious and lots of brainwave activity and chatter going on. Alpha is the stage right below that, less conscious brainwave activity. And theta is right below that, and Delta is ‘sleep.’ So there's not two different paths between wide awake and sleep. It's the same path. So you can't really say that they're different. The state of mind is identical. What we do in meditation versus what we do in hypnosis is really where the difference lies. Meditation, a lot of times, it's guided meditation. You can go on a little visual journey, you know, walk along the beach. There can be suggestions thrown in there, something like: when you get to the end of the path, you feel hopeful and excited for your life and all the opportunities before you. That's something that can be said in a meditation. So that's still a suggestion and, to me, that's more hypnosis related. In hypnosis, suggestions are given to a person while they're in that state of mind that are very deliberate and very much about the change that that person's wanting. Meditation is a little bit more, like I said, like guided meditation. There's actually many, many different kinds of meditation. Sometimes people just focus on a mantra and they repeat it over and over again. Some people go into meditation as an opportunity to try to practice the skill of quieting your mind. So there's lots and lots of different kinds of meditation, but ultimately, the state of mind (alpha-theta) is identical. And in hypnosis, we just deliberately use that state of mind to access the subconscious which is where you're able to change programming and habits and such, and really cool things like that.

ANSWER: "The convenience of being able to download an audio is pretty awesome. Over the years, I have seen that the biggest problem with downloadable hypnosis is the fact that some people are not really being tech savvy. When you download a hypnosis session from my site it is super easy, and the Web site is setup for it to be very easy. What you want to be able to do though is download and audio file onto a PC. As of right now, you cannot download a file onto an Apple device unless you have an app that allows for that. And one of the apps is Dropbox. My Web site is set up so that a person can bring the hypnosis audio into a Dropbox, and then that Dropbox app would have to be installed on the Apple device. If you do not have an Apple device, you have an Android device. With Android devices, you can save a file directly onto the Android device. The other thing that I recommend, is just to download the audio file straight onto the PC. The next step is to remember where you save the file on your PC, and if you have an Apple device, you can sync it into your Apple device using the syncing process which is iTunes. All downloadable Hypnosis are in a MP3s format. The MP3 is identical to a song file. If you ever get confused or run in to issues you can always contact us for support."

ANSWER:  "So since 2001, I've been mostly doing private sessions but I've also been hired by corporations to do lectures, keynote speaking, and workshops. One of the companies that hired me was a mortgage company and they had a sales department. And so I was doing weekly workshops with their sales team for confidence, to get over fears, to get over worries, to be able to truly set goals and visualizations that were gonna be effective and not just superficial. And then their executives had me fly to different executive events throughout the country. And I really enjoyed doing keynote speaking, and I really enjoy doing lectures. And because of the nature of who I am, I like to help people and I like to see that and I like to see them nodding and smiling and getting it and, obviously, to have that kind of impact on their lives where they're having positive changes. So, for me, I get like this natural high from one-on-one private sessions, but I get a bigger high from one-on-five and one-on-ten and one-on-fifty-thousand. So that's the direction that I'm deliberately taking my business now. So I less often do private one-on-one sessions. I'm actually discouraging it. But in order for me to have a conscience about that, I needed to have products available to people. I still want to help people. I don't want to turn them away. So there are online courses and downloads and everything else is an on demand mental training subscription. But my primary focus, I want to do lectures, I want to do clinics like three-day clinics, and week-long workshops, and even retreats. So I'm offering them at my shotgun club Amelia Shotgun Sports. One topic per month occupies a whole week where the lecture is on like a Friday night. The clinic would include the Friday night plus the Saturday, Sunday, full day workshops, or I should say, clinics. And then the six day workshop includes the lecture, the weekend, and then a total that ends up being six days. And there's different topics for that. So there's stress-free mindful living is one topic, weight loss and wellness is another topic, athletes mind game is another topic, and executives — actually, peak human performance which just so happens to typically be executives and military peak human performance also. So there's a lot of places where that can be implemented. So when I teach an athlete to have peak performance, it's identical information for any human being to have peak performance. So it depends on where that person is attempting to be their best. So if it's an executive, then that's something that they can come in for and come to one of my lectures, clinics, or workshops. But I do those abroad as well. So for many years not only have I been hired to do it for corporations, but golf clubs, sporting clay clubs, different facilities like that that are sport-related have hired me to come in and do either lectures or clinics. I'm really interested in that broadening to executives. So the ability to come in and do keynote speaking or an actual full day lecture, workshop, clinic, however they want to do it, I'm flexible. And that's definitely my primary focus right now is to come to people and to be a part of either a monthly meeting or an annual program or conference or something to that effect. And it is very unique information. My understanding of the mind is very comprehensive and different than just like a motivational speaker giving a pep talk. The ability to go in there and make change and to understand how to make change and then also the benefit of the hypnosis and teaching people the self-hypnosis and how to actually change their programming and get past fears and get past whatever's causing their confidence issues. And so it's very comprehensive and a lot more effective in my opinion."

ANSWER:  "So hypnosis can help people in a really cool way. We're used to attempting to make changes at the conscious level, but your subconscious mind is where your habits exist and where patterns exist. And habits and patterns can be related to actual physical actions. Like, I have a habit of pulling out my hair, I have a habit of smoking, I have a habit of eating a gallon of ice cream every evening. That all exists at the subconscious level of your mind. I like to explain it like a timeline of information. Somewhere back here a behavior started, and then it got reinforced to the point that it is now an automatic behavior. Consciously, you could know better or you can be like, “I shouldn't be doing this; I don't want to do this anymore.” But when you try to make change with your conscious mind to something that exists at the subconscious, it's a very challenging process, and most of the time, not very successful. That's why they say it takes 28 days to change a habit. That's if you can be deliberate every single day and get the repetition, the reinforcement, of that new behavior. At the same time, you're trying to decrease the frequency of the older behavior. So even wanting to start exercising more, that would be the increase of a new behavior and you need to reinforce that. But if your habit is already to go home and get on a couch for three hours every night, you have to end the old reinforced behavior at the same time you get repetition of the new behavior, and that's all very challenging. This pertains to belief systems as well. So a habit in a belief system is something like “I'm not very good at..." I'm not very good at winning. I don't maintain the lead. Every time I'm in it, I fall apart. I'm not good at relationships. I'll never amount to anything. These are repeated thought patterns that have grown through repetition and then become a belief system. So I consider those like habits also. So in the same way I just said about a physical habit, it's hard, consciously, to change that when you've got reinforced thoughts over the years. And even if somebody said it to you, that's reinforcement also. So it's very difficult to change things like that from a conscious level. If you can think of your mind as having two different layers: the conscious mind is more of the top outer layer of an onion; the subconscious, where all the programming is and all that repetition has grown, is at a deeper level, the subconscious. And hypnosis is able to access that part of your mind. So it's through the quieting of the conscious brainwave activity, so you're dipping down into alpha and theta type states. And what we're not really taught in school that makes hypnosis seem miraculous is that you're opening a door there. Nobody's ever told you about it, but when you quiet your conscious mind and you stop all that “I can't do it” and “this won't work for me” and all the negativity and all the worry and regret or whatever, you quiet that, at the same time there's like a door opening to the subconscious and suggestions can be given to you that instantly change that programming. It would be like going into a computer and changing the software. And literally you can have change right then and there and never go back to that behavior again. And it does seem miraculous but only because nobody ever taught us how to do this. You don't learn about it in school. That ability to go in there, either a hypnotist can give suggestions for positive change like “I want to start exercising? Ok. Every day at 7:00, you have this really awesome urge to go to the gym and you love it, and when you're there, you feel great and you feel better than you've ever felt and you feel really good about what you're doing.” Like, those are all suggestions that if a person wants them, they hear them, they receive them, and they go into that programming, and the next day it will just be there. And it doesn't feel weird. It just feels like you kind of feel like going to the gym today. And they can even consciously observe that they're feeling that way. Then they just are like “well that's weird. I wonder if that hypnosis really worked.” But that's how it is. So it can change anything."

ANSWER:  "To increase the likelihood that you'll actually have positive change by using hypnosis, you have to know first that all hypnosis is self-hypnosis, that a hypnotist just happens to understand the mind and understands the techniques to help you to go into a relaxed state where you're able to access your subconscious and you’re programming. To be successful at hypnosis, you need to first not have any misconceptions. You need to understand what it is, learn about it from a reliable source, there are a lot of videos are on our site right here that you can look at to understand it. The more you understand it, the more you will let your guard down, the more you'll trust the process, the more you'll trust me as the hypnotist, and that's 50% of the equation. The other 50% is how much you want the suggestions that are being said to you. If you are choosing the suggestions or the person is really clear as to what you want — I'm super clear as to what you want — then that's what's going into the hypnosis. My experience has made me really clear as well, there's a lot of hypnosis downloads on my Web site that are topic specific. If you're open to hypnosis and trust me and want the suggestions, that's the recipe for success. And the further you are in the direction of ‘I could say yes to all that and I feel good about it,’ then the more successful you'll be. When a person's in hypnosis because you are aware of what is going on around you, one of the things I recommend is that my clients feel ‘I really want this.’ If you can think about the reasons you want that change. Many years ago, I quit smoking, and the reason I wanted to quit was because I didn't want my daughter to know what it was. She asked me at two years old, “What is that?” At that point I do not want to ever explain this to her. When I went to a hypnotist to quit smoking, I kept that in my mind. That was my motivation. That's one of the things I tell my clients is to come up with seven reasons why you want this change and remember them. At any time during hypnosis you find your self doubting it, questioning it, or saying “yeah but…” on any level, then bring in your motivation and that will help you to stay positive and receptive to the suggestions for the change that you want."

ANSWER:  "So I got my degree in psychology — it's a bachelor's degree in psychology — with the intention that I wanted to help children and families. And when I first came out of college, that's what I did. I was a children's caseworker in a very traditional setting. Within the first year out of college, I felt actually a little frustrated because I really wanted to see change. Like, I saw people struggling in their lives and I felt like we were offering them a glimmer of hope by therapy and behaviorists and even medication management, but, in my opinion, I didn't see the change happening like I thought or to the level that I really wanted. So I started dabbling in all different things professionally. Different jobs, different careers, all still related to children. Big Brothers, Big Sisters, I was a child victim advocate with the state attorney's office. But in my personal life, I'm a very spiritual person. So I'm actually quite obsessed with trying to understand the spiritual side of things and who we really are, what we really are, and what we're really capable of, and all different things like that from more of a spirit having a physical experience. So that's my full time obsession, and I came across a book. It was a true story. It’s a psychologist who was working with this woman for several years in traditional therapy and she had social anxieties and relationship issues and some different fears, and he felt that they would make progress in their therapy sessions. But then the next week she'd come in and she still report a lot of the same kind of problems. And so he was getting pretty discouraged and it had been several years of that. And so he just thought, “What the heck. I'm going to try hypnosis.” And it's not something they did regularly but he had some training in it, and he did and she immediately started having successes and changes. And that just spoke to me because by then I was already out of college and in the traditional therapy world for, I don't even know, eight years or something like that. So that was the kind of impact I wanted to have on people's lives. It made me excited. I did all the research. I found the best and most recommended hypnosis training school, and I went to Omni Hypnosis Training. I got a hundred hour course program to learn to be a certified hypnotist and opened up an office immediately. And that was right before 9/11. And I was helping people with quitting smoking and losing weight and sleep issues and confidence issues. 9/11 happened, and I'm not kidding, my 9:00 appointment was a guy who had fear flying and that all happened. He didn't have his appointment because obviously the news was releasing what was going on. So my business slowed down a bit, but over the next few years it grew more. And it's up there in Amelia Island, small town. It became my full time work. Within a few years because I do live in a small town, I would run into a lot of my clients out and about and some of them would say, “Hey that was super cool” and “you saved my life” and “I haven't touched cigarettes since” or “I haven't touched soda since” or “I've been sleeping great ever since.” And, of course, that makes me feel really good because that's what I want to do, right? And then I would run into other people who would say “it worked really great until… until I got fired, until I got in a huge fight with my husband, or until you know something.” And ultimately, I felt like the “until” was related to stress and anxiety and anger and whatever else. So I started using my understanding of the mind and what would help someone be successful over the long term and started what I call mental training, and I also stopped doing hypnosis as a drive by. Some people would come in and they would think ‘oh hypnosis and finally I'll be done with all my problems.’ So I immediately stopped doing one session, instant in-and-out type things because I wanted people to be successful for the long term. So I did a combination of mental training with hypnosis. I started teaching people how to use their mind better and that's not ever stop. So now, hypnosis to me is a tool not only for the topic and the subject they want to change but — like my 20 minute hypnosis for transformation — I call it an invisible tool belt of skills that a person can use to quiet the chatter in their mind. I work a lot with athletes and just regular folks. But, ultimately, it's all the same. You can't have the type of thoughts that are making you angry. You can't have the types of thoughts that are making you regretful. You can't have the type of thoughts that are stressing you out. Whatever the dysfunctional chatter is, there's an instantaneous cause and effect relationship between the mind and the body. So if you're having dysfunctional thoughts, they're actually then creating what we call stress in our body or anxiety. You have high blood pressure. You can have disease in your body. You can have depression. There's all these kind of cause and effect type situations. So if somebody learns how to manage their mind and their thoughts and quiet their mind and — almost I teach them to have kind of like a third person perspective in watching their thoughts — and then if they have the tools to not only watch and manage and supervise their thoughts but also quiet them, then they eliminate things like stress and anger and regret and all that genuinely from their lives. So I do hypnosis and mental training at this point and then have developed products springing off of both of those. So I've mental training products like online courses and clinics and lectures and workshops. I have downloadable things like mind mastered. There's many different ways to give people the tools to help them make really profound, positive, and permanent changes."

ANSWER:  "Hypnosis seems miraculous to most people because they're so used to struggling with a bad habit, struggling to implement a good new healthy habit. They take on that 28 days to try to change behavior. And the only way for that to be successful is if you are super deliberate, super mindful, very strict with yourself for as many days as you can so that you can get repetition of the new behavior enough so that it's reinforced and becomes automatic. And that's tough especially if you're trying to overcome a bad habit at the same time you're trying to implement a new healthier one, like eating more healthy means also stopping drinking sodas every hour or something like that. So there's kind of two sides and that all can be very tricky and that's all attempting to make change at a conscious level, but programming exists at the subconscious level. If you think of the subconscious mind like a timeline of information, behaviors start somewhere along that timeline, thought patterns start somewhere along that timeline, and then with repetition, they grow and they strengthen and they start to have like a life of their own. And that's what you're up against when you're trying to change something consciously, and it can be very difficult to make that change consciously. So the super cool thing about hypnosis is that if you're open to it and you're trusting the hypnotist and you're wanting the suggestions then that means you've quieted the conscious mind — the chatter, the “I can’ts”, everything else — you've opened the door to your subconscious and your programming, and if you want the suggestions, you'll receive them. And if they're the right suggestions positively stated and productive and there's a way to say really good suggestions, they come in here and they literally plant into that timeline and it feels as if the habit was never even there. You just have a desire for the new behavior. You just have a desire to not want to do it that way anymore. Whatever it is. And it can be instantaneous."

ANSWER:  "Another misconception about Hypnosis, is that the hypnotists can make you do things you don't want to do and that it's mind control. There are actually some religions even that believe that it's evil or witchery. This often comes with the territory of hypnosis. There's a lot of misconceptions about it. It is not mind control. It seems mystical because we're not taught about the subconscious and the conscious in school. We have very powerful minds, and we have the ability to access basically our software and our programming. Nobody can make you do anything you don't want to do. One of the ways that someone's successful when they hire me is they have to feel comfortable with me, they have to feel comfortable with hypnosis, and they have to like the suggestions that are being said to them. If somebody comes to me and they say, “I want to quit smoking” and I'm giving them suggestions to quit smoking, if I throw in “and by the way, you love running 30 miles a day and starting tomorrow this will be your morning routine” and then person's like, “Hey, oh no. No, I don't want to run 30 miles a day. That's not what I came in here for. I have no interest and I hate running,” they won't accept that suggestion and they won't receive it. That being said, somebody can hire me for some positive change. Let's again say, quit smoking, but what if they come in because their doctor told them they needed to or they come in because their spouse told them they'd better? If they don't really want the suggestions to be a non-smoker, they won't receive them. You have to want what's being said to you. There's tons of proof that a hypnotist can't make you do anything you don't want to do, and there's tons of proof then that it's not mind control. I cannot make anybody do anything they don't want to do. They have to be receptive to the process and they have to want the suggestions that are being given to them."

ANSWER:  "So Mind Mastered really, to me, feels like I have knowledge of a secret weapon that people aren't taught about in school and that they even have misconceptions about that keep them from gaining the benefit from it. For me to be able to reach the masses with a tool that can instantaneously change bad habits or help them to implement healthy habits in a very, very quick short period of time versus struggling for months or years at something, it's life changing and that's exciting to me to be able to offer that to the entire planet. As many people as possible can have access to a tool that can really help them to eliminate the struggles with wishing that they could be different, wishing they can fix something, wishing they can change something, feeling successful for short periods of time but then it comes back again, like whatever it is. Mind Mastered has the ability for people to master their mind and stop feeling like they're a victim of their mind or thoughts."

ANSWER:  "A misconception people have is that they will not come out of hypnosis. They think that if they go into it that they won't be able to come out and that they've lost control. That's not true. You are very aware of what you're doing. You make the choice to follow along so much so that if you don't want to follow along, you won't. If you're anxious or worried or fearful, you won't relax. When you do choose to relax and if you have a good hypnotist that helps you to feel comfortable, then you can go into these deeper states of relaxation. Again, this alpha-theta state. You're very familiar with it; every time you go to sleep and every time you wake up. In that relaxed state, just like every night and every morning, you know what's going on, so you can very easily decide that you want to emerge which is the same as deciding you want to wake up or you want to get out of bed. Like, let's say it's 4:00 a.m. and you are struggling to sleep. You can either keep struggling or you can implement some techniques to help yourself relax deeper or you can say, “I'm done trying to go to sleep. I'm going to get up.” And that's the state of mind that's identical to hypnosis. If you say to your self, “I'm done doing this and I don't want to do it anymore,” you just decide to emerge."

ANSWER:  "There is a lot of misconceptions about hypnosis. It's not what most people think. The preconceived ideas are typically related to movies and how things have been dramatized in movies, or maybe someone's been to a stage hypnosis comedy show where it's meant to look shocking and surprising and mysterious. But hypnosis is actually a state of mind that's normal for your brain to go through. You pass through hypnosis every single time you go to sleep at night and you pass through it again every single time you wake up. So if you think of kind of like a slope and down here is sleep and up here is your wide awake, the process of falling asleep, there's a light state of relaxation, and in hypnosis we call that light somnambulism. But you could also say I was just starting to relax or you closed your eyes and you just started to zone out and starting to daydream a little bit. Technically, that's called the alpha state, and the alpha state is a label for a certain amount of megahertz of conscious brainwave activity. So beta is the higher level. There's a lot more conscious mind brainwave activity in beta. Right below that's alpha, and the one right below that is theta. So that's even less conscious mind brainwave activity, and we might describe that as I was practically asleep or I barely knew what was going on. I was so out of it, and then you woke me up, or something like that. So it's really deep relaxation is theta, and then delta is super low megahertz activity of your conscious mind all the way down to like 1 and 0 megahertz. Like, your conscious mind is asleep. That doesn't mean your subconscious mind is asleep though. So your conscious mind is asleep. That's measured with the brainwave activity of the conscious mind, and so when you wake back up, you pass back through these stages as your brain, your conscious mind, wakes back up. So alpha is also called light somnambulism when we reference it related to hypnosis and theta is called deep somnambulism. That whole chunk is what we call hypnosis. Obviously, then you pass through it when you fall asleep; you pass it when you wake up. And it's very natural. You might consider it like a power nap. People typically have done power naps and they know that they're aware of what's going on around them. You always hear what's going on. You're just in between. You're kind of half awake, half asleep."

ANSWER:  "A lot of people have concerns as to whether or not they're going to be aware of what's going on when they are in hypnosis. That's a possible concern that can keep a person from relaxing. If they fear that they're not going to know what's going on, then they won't let their guard down and they won't follow the directions or the guidance to relax. It is important for a person to know that they will be aware of what's going on around them when they're in that hypnotic state. It's an alpha-theta state. It's the same state you pass through before you go to sleep. During sleep, you're less aware of what's going on. But you can think about it as, you wake up in the middle of the night just because you're adjusting your position and then you come up from delta to more theta when you do that. If you have a lot going on in your life, you might come up to alpha. If you are stressed out and freaking out in your life, you might come up to beta and start trying to solve all your problems. But if you just come up a little bit from sleep into what we call theta, then you can see that you know what's going on around you. You might know what your partner is doing or, let's say, you have a partner that you're sleeping with and that person gets up to go to the bathroom and you're just aware enough to know that they just got out of bed. Or for example you have a pet walking around the middle of the night. So that awareness when you come up from deep sleep into what we call theta or a little bit more up to what we call alpha, alpha and theta happen to be the state of hypnosis. You already know from your own personal experience that you are aware in alpha and theta. In Theta, you're much more relaxed, that's called deep somnambulism, but you still have an awareness. And at any time, just like if you're laying in bed, you tell yourself “I'm going to get up. I'm going to open my eyes. Or I'm going to go with this.” You have free will through the whole thing."

ANSWER:  Ok, so there are people that will say to me “I can't be hypnotized” or “I tried it and it didn't work for me.” Yeah, those are two misconceptions. If a person actually understands what hypnosis is — and you can look in the video that explains in detail what hypnosis is — that everybody can be hypnotized because it's a natural process for the conscious mind to go from very active to less active to less active to what we call asleep. And the fact is hypnosis is the state of mind between wide awake and asleep, and a hypnotist helps a person to go into that state of mind and then we try to help them to hover there. So the only reason a person can't “do it” is if they won't let their guard down, and there's a lot of reasons for that. It can be I don't really trust this hypnotist, I don't really trust hypnosis, I have a lot on my mind and I'm stressed out, I have a lot of misconceptions about hypnosis and so I don't want to really go into it. So there's a lot of reasons why a person would keep themselves in more of a beta state. It can be because they're anxious, it can be because they don't want to let their guard down, they're fearful, whatever the reason is, or they just don't really believe in it. Whatever it is, they're keeping themselves at beta by their free will. Hypnotists can guide anybody into relaxation, but you have to be a willing participant. So you can see like if somebody just doesn't trust me or doesn't trust hypnosis then it doesn't matter if they're in my office, they're barely going to close their eyes let alone follow my guidance on helping them try to relax. So everybody can be hypnotized. It's a natural process for the brain. It's just a matter of whether or not a person's a willing participant, wants to follow along, trusts the hypnotist, trusts the situation. I feel it's part of my job for them to be successful, to set them up for success by explaining to the best of my ability what hypnosis is and whatever they need to know to help them trust me and the process.

ANSWER:  "If you're new to doing hypnosis and you're at home, then the first thing you want to do is kind of set up your environment so that you're most comfortable with the least amount of distraction. So a new person at doing hypnosis should probably turn off the ringer on their phone, and they could even put a Do Not Disturb sign on the door. They can tell if people are in the household, “please be quiet for, whatever, 20 minutes or 30 minutes.” If you have animals, you can make sure they've already gone to the bathroom. You can just do different things like that to set up for success for the quietest of environments. And actually, over time, when somebody gets used to doing hypnosis, it's good to be able to not let those things distract you, to actually have some noises around the house and still be able to stay in that meditative or hypnotic state. But for a new person, you want to set yourself up for success by controlling the environment. And the other thing is to get yourself comfortable whether it's lying down or in a chair where you can put your head back. You can get a blanket. If at any point you're uncomfortable like you have to sneeze or scratch an itch or something like that, you want to know you can do that and it won't affect the hypnosis. So whatever it takes to be comfortable on the front end but also to be comfortable going through the process. You want to feel like you can do that. It's all about being able to relax."

ANSWER:  "Some people think they've already tried hypnosis or they already tried meditating and they'll say “it” didn't work. I'd like to say there's no “it…..” All hypnosis is self hypnosis. A really good hypnotist will help you to feel comfortable with the hypnosis process, with the hypnotist, with your environment, with everything so that you can feel comfortable enough to actually close your eyes and then relax. If that's not been done and somebody has anxiety or worries or concerns, then they won't allow themselves to relax. If you have had this occur prior, that doesn't mean that you can't be hypnotized or that you just can't go into meditation. It just means that you didn't understand it well or you didn't truly get what it was. You didn't realize that all hypnosis is self hypnosis, and you just need someone to teach it to you and guide you into it. The other thing is if there's just a bunch of chatter, whether it's worry about your life or your day or the situation. If you've got so much chatter going on and you don't know how to quiet it then you won't quiet it enough, to go into the alpha state or the theta state. I take it as part of my job to teach people the skills to quiet their mind so that they can actually use the state of hypnosis and the process of going into hypnosis as a way to manage their mind, become more mindful, to be more present in situations. That's all part of what I teach with the mental training side of things. Everybody can be hypnotized, and, ultimately, it's really just helping them to get past their misconceptions about hypnosis and that they become a willing participant so that they can be guided into the relaxed state."

ANSWER:  "So I've been a hypnotist since 2001 and technology has changed a lot in those years. My generation, we didn't even have the Internet. So we had dial up and then we had fast speed and high speed. I went from doing private sessions to eventually Skype sessions and FaceTime sessions to being able to offer webinars, and all this has happened over 20 years and was starting a little bit before 20 years. So for a long time there you would only do hypnosis in person. It's not like we're going to do it through the dial up phone or something like that. So we did it in person. And way back when, I would have recorded with a cassette recorder and then it moved to a digital recorder and then I was able to start offering digital downloads. So, again, that's evolved over these years. So the question has come up: can I really be hypnotized from my home using an audio? And the answer is yes because one of the first steps is close your eyes. So right now if you close your eyes, you don't really know if I'm sitting next to you and talking in your ear or if I'm talking through FaceTime or if I’m talking through Skype or I'm talking through a webinar or I'm talking through an app on your phone. It's all the same. So what sets somebody up for success is that they trust the process, they trust the hypnotist, and they want the suggestions. So you can close your eyes in my office. You can fly across the country or across the planet to come to my office, or you can stay in the comforts of your living room and listen to me through earbuds.."

Make yourself comfortable and get ready to relax!! It is time to enter into the peaceful, serene state of Hypnosis.

You want to recognize that you will get the most benefit from your hypnosis session if you are comfortable about what hypnosis is and allow yourself to enter the relaxed state. Your success teeters on how open you allow yourself to be.

So, With That Being Said... How About If You Just Try Hypnosis First (13 minutes)...

Now You Are Ready For Some Great, Positive Change...

Take a look at my Store and find a Hypnosis Audio what will help you to make the change you desire. Hypnosis has the potential to significantly effect change with just one listen.

It's important to know there are two main factors that determine your success with hypnosis. First, how open you are to hypnosis so as to allow yourself to let go and relax. If you still have questions or concerns, my videos address the most common ones. Second, you have to have the desire for the change that is being suggested to you. I have witnessed (thousands of times) profound change with one hypnosis session.

Once you make your Hypnosis Audio purchase... I suggest frequent use in order to allow for the influence of your comfort level. You will notice that the more often you listen to your hypnosis audio... the more comfortable you feel with hypnosis and the suggestions... and, therefore, the more receptive you will be. The suggestions will undergo significant compounding in your subconscious via this process.

Listen to the 25-30 minute Hypnosis Session Audio at least once a day for the first week, preferably at bed-time or before starting your day. Weeks two through four, listen at least three times a week. After the fourth week you can listen as often as you would like reinforcement. In order to get the most benefit and greatest change from your Hypnosis Session please be sure you have already viewed the 15 minute "Intro to the Mind Video" that comes with your purchase.

FYI- Download the file onto your computer and listen to it from there. Since this audio is a MP3 file you can also put it on your Smartphone or MP3 player.