Written by: Todd Calongne, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
“I can cure you!” is something I can’t say as a hypnotherapist, but, it doesn’t mean that I can’t do it. Can I or can’t I? Let me walk you through the process.
The human mind can do miracles. We are all aware of how our minds take complete power over every part of our bodies and have the ability to effect any change required to treat any condition. If the mind can affect it, then so can hypnosis. Suppose the human mind can exert complete control over the human body, like how a Buddhist monk can lower their heartbeat. If that is the case, it shows how capable we are of accomplishing anything with our minds, even if it does not appear to be possible.
For example, imagine a person who is undergoing gastric bypass. Do you think a hypnotherapist can give the client the same result even without surgery if he puts them under hypnosis? Of course, he can. This may sound like an unbelievable answer at first, but there is an explanation for it. The outcomes of hypnosis dramatically depend upon how willing the client is to accept the change. If someone is ready to change, then the hypnotic treatment can give the same results as the surgery. After all, the result is “feeling full” in the mind as a result of a smaller stomach. This brings us to another question. Can we create a feeling from hypnosis? Yes.
Here, we are not to say that the doctor's treatments are unnecessary, but to present a reasonable alternative, rather. If someone needs to fix his bad knees, for example, a hypnotherapist can treat his knees without a scalpel. However, if the person has some underlying reasons forcing him to stay hurt or disabled, even a hypnotherapist cannot ask the body to fix bad knees or regrow the cartilage. There are many reasons behind this, for one, maybe the client receives money for a disability or the injuries become part of their identity their mind is not fully committed towards healing and change.
But if we look more closely into this, we can say that a human body's cells replace themselves multiple times during an average life span. This process of cell death and replacement happens at different rates at different parts. The question arises here: if the cells are continuously replacing, why is this process taking place in the kneecaps but not in one’s cartilage? What is inside the mind that allows the right knee’s cartilage to regrow and replace but not the left? Here is a story for you to ponder.
I had a client who complained about bad knees. The thing which caught my attention was "both knees." How did he get two bad knees? It is understandable if a person has a damaged knee cap at some point in their life. They may complain now and then of pain or discomfort, but how does one have two bad knees? It baffled me and I could sense at that time that my client’s body needed changes. And true enough, after checking with his body in hypnosis, my counseling was to shift his professional focus and mindset. As a result, his knees were completely fine once he agreed.
This client, who only had a couple of singing hits in the 1990s, depended on old songs to push his career forward. His body told him he could no longer go from stage to stage playing his old songs. But once he decided to make new music and speak to the souls of millions of people through his words, melodies, and vibrations, he stepped down the stairs of his London apartment for the first time in years without using the handrail. Later on, he said he is getting the new sounds and words while still doing some old hits, but now he can move around without any trouble. He reported back to me and said, "Mate, I think the knees are cured. It's been weeks without pain." From a simple complaint of knee pain, we figured out that he only needed a change in direction.
Association between Body Parts and Mind:
Julie Cannon leads and trains a group of hypnotherapists in a process called Quantum Healing Hypnosis. Julie is the daughter of the famed Dolores Cannon and is following in her mother's footsteps. Both Julie and Dolores researched the body and what each part means to the mind. Julie was a practicing nurse working from an emergency room to an end-of-life hospice nurse. She has observed it all. She just needed to find a way to develop some connections between her knowledge of science and her late mother's contribution to the metaphysical mind-twisting reality, which Dolores gathered from almost 50 years of hypnosis regressions.
In her 2013 book, "Soul Speak," Julie mentions that knees have a connection with people's path and direction. When Julie and her colleagues helped a client in shifting their path, their knee problem was resolved.
The technique allows a person to heal themselves, usually with the help of a hypnotherapist, through contacting their subconscious mind. The subconscious we are referring to here is a part of the soul or our higher self. It is the DNA coding making us human, mindful, and healable presences.
I cannot proclaim as a hypnotherapist to be able to heal your internal organs or diseases like cancer by talking to your subconscious. Clients must allow the hypnotherapist to help them push out the disease. It is this pesky human resistance keeping most hypnotherapists from making bold claims, however, most have also seen miracles of this nature in their work.
Our Mind Protects us:
Our minds serve as a shield for us. Frequently, this protection is a sign that we need to slow down, work less, or put more of our focus on taking care of ourselves. Sometimes, it's a message to stop worrying about things and to start looking at the bright side of life. Other times, it's just the silly connections the mind has with different scenarios that need to be sorted as they keep popping up in unexpected ways.
If you stop paying attention to the signs your body is sending, it will lead to a long-term illness, pain, or even death. Picture the "flight or fight" response happening in your gut. If someone feels something but doesn't pay attention to it or tries to get rid of it, the body has a way of making the feeling stronger or louder. If a person is aware of something but chooses to disregard it or push it away, the body has a way of amplifying or intensifying a feeling that may be suppressed. The “louder cry” from your gut may sound like suffering from irritable bowel syndrome or leaky gut, or something more serious such as cancer.
It is a logical assumption that addressing the factors causing these symptoms can reverse the illness. However, any hypnotherapist cannot claim this because of the patient's willingness to let the therapist in and make necessary changes in the most crucial step.
In one method of performing hypnotic regression sessions, the hypnotherapist takes the patient to a previous part of his life. After that, he drives back their focus and questions the subconscious mind directly with, "Why did you show us these memories? What was the message we needed to get from this?"
Believe it or not, the client's subconscious answers. And it sounds different from a client in a normal trance. The subconscious only answers direct questions, not questions with no clear answers. Therefore, questions like, "How does this make you feel?" from a therapist which invites your conscious mind to ponder, usually will not get through to the subconscious. At this point of subconscious dialogue, the complicated dance continues; because the patient is in a light trance state, it is crucial not to confuse them with the wrong type of questions. It can result in feeling the need to bring in their conscious mind and start analyzing. This could break the deeper trance.
It is fascinating to speak to the mind and body through the subconscious in a completely different way. It drives my curiosity and the desire to ask questions. While I'm there, I must ask about body restoration, healing, old hurts, etc. As a result of these questions and suggestions in trance, the mind starts to heal the body and change the underlying causes of difficulties.
Other times, a different answer is received from the subconscious, which is more like "nope" or "not so fast." In a single hypnosis session, a client may be able to let go of, for example, some part of his habit of poor spending and heal the burden they are feeling on their shoulders. But it may not be ready to undo the other bad habits at the same time. This is because the subconscious mind tends to be resistant as a way to protect the client. If the client's mind sees a vulnerable state for the person, it can feel like that's the case. Because it was awful when something, for example, X, happened in the past, the subconscious will strive to avoid X. As long as there's a viable solution or no longer a perceived need to protect the person, the subconscious can resist.
Dealing With Stubborn Subconscious:
A qualified hypnotherapist has to be agile, tenacious, and persistent at shifting a client. When confronted with a resistant subconscious, a hypnotherapist will ask the subconscious to look at something specific they are avoiding. Then they will try to figure out why the subconscious is using this avoidance to support the client. Then he'll investigate whether there are any alternative options for safeguarding the patient without causing any undesirable consequences and seeking to avoid X as a protective measure. Next, he will ask the body and mind to adopt any new protection method and let go of the old one. Then, he will start all over again with the question of where they sensed initial resistance. It will help in assessing whether there is any improvement after adjustments are made or if the same resistance is continuous.
This process is very demanding and exhausting, especially if the client’s mind is resistant or stubborn. It may take a few hours and sometimes a few sessions.
There are additional things to consider. There is a possibility that there is a part of the patient's soul requiring a challenge or disease to learn a life lesson to enable them to develop. This is manageable up to some degree. For example, the client may have chosen parents to provide them with a specific growth experience. Then they grow up, but after becoming adults, they are suffering from early childhood trauma. Hypnosis helps them let go of this trauma, and it is possible to be a newly renovated person without the trauma anymore. Therefore, total mind and body healing over time is possible with a willing client and a persistent hypnotherapist. After all, how many years do we need to live out childhood issues? Do we need to hold on to them for 10, 20, or even 30 years before letting them go, or are they a lifetime sentence?
Conclusion:
A hypnotherapist, even a qualified one, cannot guarantee he can heal all your ailments. You are the one who will cure yourself. Amazing results can be achieved in this treatment if the patient is willing to go deep into the treatment. However, this willingness varies, and results are not the same in all circumstances. I can be consistent, resourceful, and flexible in my strategies and methodology, but I can't force someone to do anything they are not ready to do. If a client needs his sick body to get changed into a healthy one, he needs to get himself ready to embrace new and positive changes and let go of the old ones.
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Todd Calongne, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Todd served as a senior people leader for the US Government and has since moved on and become an experienced Executive Coach and Hypnotherapist working with clients online. He has advised and built trust with CEOs, entrepreneurs, cabinet secretaries, foreign dignitaries, and members of Congress through his forward and often very direct approach. He leverages his political savvy and communications expertise to ensure his clients are effective leaders and help them reach their goals.
