Hypnosis- An Unexpected Experience

Confession time: I am very overweight. And every time I’ve followed a diet, I’ve lost weight. The most successful program I used was Weight Watchers. Lost about 45 lbs. But, there is always “something” that is still with me that makes me turn to food the way any addict turns to their substance of choice. And because we need to eat in order to survive, I can’t just kick my habit. So, the weight comes back time and time again- and then some. Over the years I have realized that dieting is not the answer for me. Dr. Phil’s advice of engineering your success does not solve my problem. Having gastric bypass surgery or a lap band will not solve my problem because my problem is not food; it’s just the vehicle. Just ask Oprah or Carnie Wilson.

Why food and not alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, shopping, sex, or self-mutilation? I ask myself that every once in a while, and don’t know the answer. In searching for the answer, I have found using hypnosis to be powerful. The last hypnotherapist I used, Richard, was particularly skilled in helping a person to discover a trigger that sets them off; and to make that trigger go away.

The premise that he works under, is that a person who eats when they are not hungry, but rather eats for emotional reasons, is trying to satisfy an emotional need by using food. Because the need isn’t met, it keeps coming up. And no amount of food is enough. If this emotional need can be uncovered, back to its origin, there is usually a misbelief that can be identified and corrected. As young children, we form core beliefs about ourselves- we are good or bad, lazy or high-spirited. And they are set in place by the time we are around 5 or 6 years old. So, Richard regresses a person in time, usually to when they are very young, to uncover a misbelief when it was formed.

One of the first times I worked with Richard, we were trying to uncover a misbelief that was triggering me to eat. He had me relax and talked me down until I was in hypnosis. At that point, I was completely relaxed, not hearing anything but his voice, with my conscious mind quieted.

In hypnosis, the subconscious mind is addressed. One thing about the subconscious mind, is that it can’t lie. It is receptive to suggestion, so a hypnotist has to be careful not to lead the client who is in hypnosis. It is during this time, that the hypnotist will make suggestions that the client wants, such as wanting to eat healthfully and wanting to go for walks. These suggestions can last for a few weeks- hopefully long enough that a new habit has been established.

Now that I was in hypnosis, Richard asked me to revisit a feeling that had me turning to food. It took a minute, but soon enough a very uncomfortable emotion took ahold of me. He asked me to feel it very strongly. Pretty soon I was feeling physically uncomfortable, too: my chest felt tight. I was crying. Richard asked me to go back to the very first time I felt this feeling. At this point, the feeling hadn’t been labeled; it was just emotional pain. He counted down from 5 to 1 and when he got to one he asked me a series a questions that I was to answer quickly, without thinking about the answer. Is it light or dark? Are you inside or outside? Are you with someone or alone? What are you feeling (physically in my body)? How old are you?

After I answered those questions he asked me if this feeling was familiar or was it new. If the feeling was familiar, he’d ask me to go back in time to the very first time I felt this feeling. When he said that, somewhere in my head I was saying, “Hey, you just said that. I just went there.” But then I’d go back further in time. At one stop I was about 3 yrs. old. How did I know that? I don’t know. It just popped into my head when he asked. I was sad and crying for my mommy.

Then he took me back further and asked me the same series of questions. It was dark, I was inside, I was alone (sort of), and I was feeling physically squeezed all over. All of a sudden, I realized I was in the birth canal, being squeezed. [Holy crap!] I was scared and did not want to come out. Because the feeling was familiar, he took me back again- still looking for the initiation of the feeling.

This time, I was in the womb and very happy to be there. I did not want to leave and go out into the big, bad world. He had to regress me further after this stop. As this was going on, I was asking myself how can I go back further than being in the womb? Well, it happened.

When I arrived at the next stop back in time, I was in an ethereal nothingness. It was weird. There was a mist around me. When I looked around, I could see people’s heads and not much more of them. Then it came to me: these were souls that were in a holding area, waiting to enter into their lives. They were waiting to be born, as was I. [Holy crap!] Because the feeling we were tracking down was still familiar, Richard regressed me in time, yet again.

This time, when I arrived, I was in a small room. I saw two people wearing simple robes sitting by a low, round, domed table. They were looking down at the table, but it wasn’t a table, it was some sort of device that they were using to plan my upcoming life. They could watch it unfold, with all of its potential. I recognized the two people as me and my spirit guide. We were going over the details of the life I was about to enter into: what lessons I was going to be challenged to learn, who I would share my life with, and every other important detail.

In a moment, it all became clear to me. My purpose in life is to be a humanitarian, to help people. And in order to be able to better sympathize with people’s pains and struggles, I thought I had to feel the pain of all humanity. That exact phrase popped into my head, “the pain of all humanity.” [Whoa!] Once we realized the misbelief that was causing the pain, Richard asked if I still needed to feel this pain. I looked over to my spirit guide and she said that I had learned this lesson and could move on. In that instant, I was forever changed.

Richard talked to me further to make sure that the old belief was gone. He had my adult wisdom speak to my younger self, to reinforce the changed belief. To make sure the old belief (and trigger) was gone, he stepped me forward in time, revisiting each stop we had made on our way back in time. At each stop where I had been scared, sad, and feeling like my head, chest, stomach, or entire body was physically uncomfortable, I was now calm, comfortable, peaceful, strong, and hopeful. It was amazing.

That trigger was permanently eradicated. For the next several weeks, I didn’t feel like eating unless I was hungry. Weight slid off easily. Yes, more triggers existed, and more came up. What I never expected was that this hypnosis session, and more after this one ignited a spiritual revelation and explosion in me that really caught me by surprise. I have never been particularly religious or comfortable talking about matters of God and Soul, but before this day, I did consider myself somewhat spiritual.

I had read that we all have a purpose, and I know what mine is. I don’t have to have faith or believe in these things, because I have experienced things that I know to be true. We plan our lives before we are born. We have a guide that was with us before we were born, and they are with us throughout our lives. During our lives, we learn lessons to bring us spiritually higher, closer to God. And after we die, we review our lives to see how we did. Did we bite off more than we could chew, when we planned our struggles? Or were we able to overcome them in the end. We are not judged by God. We judge ourselves. If we choose to incarnate again, what do we want to work on during our next life? Do we even want to incarnate again, or is this “hell” of a world too tough for us. No, I don’t believe there is such a place as hell, other than this place where we all live.

What I thought was going to be a few hours devoted to help me lose weight, ended up catapulting me into a spiritual epiphany that blew my mind, and continued to do so in future hypnosis sessions. I’m still working on the weight issues, and the closer I get to the answers, the closer I seem to be pushed toward my highest self and God.