Deep Down

Posted By a starsoul on September 1, 2011

In hearing people, I learned a common concern that people have is that they tend to feel “under hypnosis” means giving up control to a therapist. Well, if your knowledge of hypnosis is from stage shows, that’s quite understandable. But do you know those volunteers on the stage actually want to act out clucking like a chicken and barking like a dog? Hypnotists facilitate the show that is co-acted by volunteers. Stage hypnotists do not control anybody’s mind, unless that’s what you want.

We have an analytical thinking mind. This mind tends to think it is the boss of our life, because it reasons, makes decisions, judgements (mostly judging ourselves unfortunately), rationalizations, and imposes will-powers. It likes to think it is “in control” by trying to understand – “As long as I can find a label for it, I am in control. ”

But do you really think so? Do you actually want this mind to be in control? The analytical thinking mind cannot even protect you. How can it be in control?

Suppose an emergency happens, say, the place you are in is on fire. I’m sure your analytical thinking mind wants to look around trying to find the reason for it, decide whose responsibility it is and understand it; however, before you do so, there’s a voice inside you simply saying, “Run!” What is that voice? You beautiful marvelous subconscious mind, the mind that always protects you.

Do you know going through a day we are 85% living unconsciously? You can drive long distance with your mind thinking about something else, planning, reasoning and calculating. Who is doing the driving? Your beautiful marvelous subconscious mind. The mission of your subconscious mind is nothing but your safety and security. That’s why it can do a better job driving. That’s why when people have inner conflicts – for example, to smoke or to quit, to lose weight or to keep it, to go to gym or to lie on couch, to success or to avoid it – their subconscious mind always wins, no matter how many benefits your conscious mind can conjure up. As long as there is an unconscious agenda, you can’t win the battle.

Hypnotherapy is a process of communicating with your subconscious mind, so insights can be gained, concerns can be learned, misinterpretations can be resolved, and misunderstandings can be corrected. Hypnosis or not, the hypnotherapist cannot control your mind, your conscious mind cannot control your mind, it’s always your subconscious mind that is in control, so we’d better work with it not against it.

Category: Muse | 1 Comment »
Tags: Control, Fear

Posted By a starsoul on August 17, 2011

What is the mystery of life?

A question without any answer. If you know an answer, then life is not mystery anymore.

Life is meant to be lived, to be experienced, not to be answered or understood.

Because even if you understand life, which is actually impossible, it doesn’t change anything in life. In another word, life doesn’t care if you understand or not. Whatever happens in the now, it’s life. Let’s live it.

In every situations we encounter, we human beings constantly try to analyse or understand our state of being, our state of mind, the situation we are in, other people, why they are saying this, why I’m feeling that…so we are constantly busy in understanding life, while missing the well-being, the beauty, the connection, the wholeness and the fulfillment. In reality, life is simply here, not to be labeled or conceptualized or understood.

It’s the embrace of the mystery that we instantaneously feel what’s right here when we can be in life without trying to understand everything. There is nothing to understand.

Even when you think you can understand this concept a little better, or you can label that emotion a little more accurately, does that mean you understand more of life? Will you be free?

On the contrary, freedom is as simple as not trying to control your experience. When you are “in control”, you are not free. It’s a laughable logic to think that when we understand something, we can label something, then we are in control. Just because I call it a fancy name doesn’t change anything. Does life care what we name it? Life doesn’t even care why it’s here. It’s simply here. Trying to understand life creates the missing of life. Life will never be anything than it is right now. Let life be in control, so you can get off the treadmill and enjoy everything — well you don’t actually “let” life be in control. Life IS in control. You don’t have any choice rather than useless resistance.

Why do we think anyways? We live constantly in this conceptual world, constanly interpreting, evaluating the “reality”. Whatever we “understand”, it’s not the reality. It doesn’t matter how I think, reality is. However I think about something is choice. And whether I need to think or not at all is optional. We think we understand pretty well, right? Hahahaha…

I find ecstasy in living; there mere sense of living is joy enough.

-Emily Dickinson

Everything else you do is trying to avoid this ecstatic feeling of being alive. Everything that you think will bring you closer to joy is actually a distraction. It may be possible that all misery is just a story you are telling yourself, in trying to understand life, and when you let myself be, just be, you can be unimaginably happy.

Category: Muse | No Comments »
Tags: Life Mystery, Relaxation, Unknown, vulnerable

Posted By a starsoul on August 9, 2011

Someone asked me what I do. I told him I work with people’s mind, to align different parts of mind, or to have different aspects of mind on board to have success, happiness and satisfaction towards life.

“What do you mean different aspects of mind?”

“Subconscious mind, in its common term.”

The guy looked away, saying, “I’m not sure if I want to know what’s in my subconscious mind.”

“Are you telling me you are afraid of your own mind?”

“Emmm…” He found an excuse and walked away.

And of course his subconscious mind walked away wth him.

It never ceases to amaze me how people are afraid of their own mind. The mind creates monsters to scare the mind itself. And the way to get away is to suppress, to not talk about it, without realizing the scary monster is still with them, 24/7, no matter how illusory it is. It’s like closing your eyes and telling me nothing is there because you can’t see; or blocking your ears and telling me the bell is not ringing.

Why are we afraid of our own mind? The mind is so powerful that it knows how to create monsters. We can, if we choose, make peace with it and create solutions to all our problems.

I do not have a TV, and I do not read newspaper. When a friend’s friend heard it, she showed her surprise, and asked, “how can you know what’s going on in the world?”

“I don’t know what’s going on in the world.”

“How can you not know?”

“By not reading and watching news.” I laughed.

“I mean, ” She paused, “for me, the first thing I get up in the morning is to drink my coffee and read newspaper. If you don’t read newspaper, what can you do? Drink your coffee? Sit there? Just like that?” She looked dazzled, almost horrified, in the image she created.

Yes. I get up in the morning; drink my coffee. Sit there. Just like that.

Puzzled by this disturbing image of “doing nothing in the morning”, she explained news is such an important part of her life. She can’t imagine living without it.

“Then tell me,” I looked at her, “what is it about your mind that is so horrible to sit with?”

And why do we always need things like news to feed the mind, the what’s-next activities to occupy the mind, so that we can get away with the mind?

There is no secrets in your subconscious mind. There is no dirty disgusting thoughts in your deep mind. There is no shame there. There is no boredom there. Your secrets might be common human wounds, your dark thoughts might be common human misunderstanding, your boredom might be common human need for love. The wholeness is what we want, and to do so, we need all aspect of mind on board, and love can be easily expressed.

Category: Muse, Trance State | No Comments »
Tags: Fear, Subconscious

Posted By a starsoul on June 19, 2011

At bedtime, my eyes landed at my CD player, and I had a thought, tomorrow morning I’ll remember listening to the CD – Sometimes it’s hard to finish a thing that I start. I listened to the CD halfway two years ago, during a lunch break from the office – Oh those office hours. I was so busy swamped in the reports and Office Excels – How funny I learned Excels on site. I remember when I first started, I knew nothing of it. Dan was a good person who helped me a lot – We actually shared an apartment – Yes, later we moved to a bigger apartment and had more roommates – Funny the guy Xiao Fang used to wait for me to get back at night while I was out and had fun. He acted as if we were together, but we were just roommates… Wait a minute. Why am I thinking about Xiao Fang?

Oh yes, it all started at the bedside CD player.

Does our subconscious really “think”? Yes, it thinks in association. The neurons are wired in a very illogical way, by experience and images, or you can call it “faulty logical links”. Anything can be associated together. That’s why a certain song brings you back certain memories. That’s why skilled hypnotists use post hypnotic suggestions to work for you, “Each time you drink a glass of water, you feel a surge of wellbeing and satisfaction that you don’t feel need for any other food.” “Each time you start your car you notice how much control you have over your life”…

Do they have innate link with each other? What a question! We just use the mechanism of brain to work for you. Does food have innate link with comfort? Food is for hunger, period. But why do people eat when they are lonely, angry, or bored? They have successfully and unfortunately used the same mechanism of brain to work against them. What, on earth, has innate link with one and another?

We need to be careful though. We hear comments like this all the time, “The only rich people I know are unhappy.” As if being rich or poor and being happy or unhappy are necessarily linked to each other somehow, so that our being poor is justified. You may even feel superior in this illusion.

If that statement rings so true to you that you want to argue with me, you may have this subconscious belief about rich and unhappiness. Unless to be poor and happy is your goal, this belief is not serving you.

I brought my mind back to the CD player, blessed all my other thoughts and they released me, allowed me to drop into a deep sleep.

Category: Muse, Use of Hypnosis | Comments Off
Tags: Subconscious

Posted By a starsoul on May 24, 2011

I often remind people that as a hypnotherapist I do not have any “healing power” but the use of words, which bring out healing power within their minds.

Now here’s another unforgettable reminder of The Power of Words. In this 1’48” video, the same thing said differently means a world of difference.

So Do you think the first sign and the second sign are saying the same thing?

Category: Video | No Comments »
Tags: words

Posted By a starsoul on May 11, 2011

Next time when you want another beer or another bananna nut muffin, pause! And say to yourself it is ok to be vulnerable.

What makes us vulnerable makes us beautiful. I’m sure you will find this video enlightening, empowering, and yet fun and interesting.

Category: Video | No Comments »
Tags: vulnerable, words

Posted By a starsoul on December 11, 2010

In this cold dark winter days, one of my favourite activities is to go swimming and then use the sauna in the building. Today, I listened to an interview with Reggie Ray, a teacher and scholar in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, talking about his Dark Retreat. That’s spending weeks in darkness. I pondered on this idea: I don’t mind a silent retreat, where I don’t talk and I don’t have TV or radio, but it would be nice if I can at least read a book during my retreat. A retreat with pure darkness? Unimaginable. I have had issues with darkness ever since I was a child.

And I then heard him say: You have only yourself to face, to be afraid of, to look into. If you are afraid of darkness, you have only your subconscious to be afraid of.

I have nothing to fear but my own mind. Wow. I set the maximum timer of 30 minutes and go into sauna in darkness.

My heart is pounding. I open my eyes wide to try to see, and I close them because I can’t see and closing them seems to have some protection. My body clings to one corner. I imagine scenarios and get myself more scared. I listen very carefully to any sounds as listening is now almost the only function to conduct. I then remember Reggie talking about in the developing process having two minds. One mind is always scared, limited, freaked out; but that’s not the problem, the problem is that we are completely identified with that mind and get lost. When we are scared and can acknowledge it and be with it – then who is acknowledging and being with the mind and oberserving it? Our bigger, wholer, silent mind.

So I remind myself which mind is closer to who I am. I start to breathe, and relax, and actually enjoy.

In that darkness, I have nothing and no one but myself to face. That is a state of being without much doing or knowing. I find myself more and more in the state of not knowing and learn to be fine with it. “I don’t know.” is a state we acutally mostly are. It’s not a problem. The problem happens when we get confused and frustrated by saying, “I don’t know, but I need to know.” Or I should know. Or I’m supposed to know…

There might still be a scary monster coming out of the darkness, but I don’t know for sure. When it happens, I’ll deal with it. Right now it’s not happening, so I will just sit there, breathing.

The magzine I usually read “Common Ground” changed astrology contributor and Mac McLaughlin’s fresh “prediction” for Aquarius is “This is a bit weird, but here we go. 2011 is a blank canvas and you are invited to create your own masterpiece. The planets are not focused on your sign. They are out and about ministering to the other signs. You have a free pass to create what you want, in the way that you want. Spiritual revelations open your heart.” There I go, a blank canvas. Can things get better than that?

In the darkness, I touch the beauty of T.S. Eliot’s poem:

I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope
For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love
For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith
But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.
Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought:
So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.

Category: Muse | No Comments »
Tags: Astrology, Common Ground, Dark Retreat, Reggie Ray, T. S. Eliot, Unknown

Posted By a starsoul on December 2, 2010

One of the fun non-physical entities that I like is Veronica. Here on YouTube are radio interviews with another fun personality Filippo. it’s a very interesting interaction. Yes this was meant to be a radio interview but somehow they video taped it and put it onto YouTube.

I love Veronica’s simple messages.

When living in your linear reality, you have to look at things a little differently than what’s in front of your face.

Have a time out everyday from linear experience, to re-connect with your soulful entity. Feel that re-connection again. Everyday when the sun goes up and when the sun goes down, connect with your soul, who doesn’t have judgment, who doesn’t have competitive spirit, who wants to create harmony and growth. Take that time everyday, you might prosper a lot better in your linear.

In part 2, there’s this fun incident that Filippo guided Veronica speaking from insects to “in sex”. Filippo’s misunderstanding was totally understandable though. Look at Veronica’s other worldly flirtatious cunning face.

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Posted By a starsoul on October 3, 2010

When some people tell me, “I just can’t relax. No matter what I do, even under hypnosis.” I would recommend to them the book Relaxation Response, written by a very mainstream medical doctor, Herbert Benson from Harvard Medical School, in 1975. It became national bestseller and was updated and reprinted in 2001. For those who like “scientific measurements”, this book is full of diagrams and charts.

This book is especially helpful for people with chronic stress and high blood pressure.

People can’t relax because our usual thinking is concerned with events outside ourselves. Through emotional attachment, social feelings, ideological beliefs and sensory contacts, we are constantly diverting our thinking toward external factors. Any attempt to redirect this outwardly directed consciousness requires a different mental process.

The book explains “Fight or Flight Response” in details. This term was fist described by Dr. Walter B. Cannon at the turn of the twentieth century, as an “emergency reaction”, in the same institute as Benson – Harvard Medical School.

Fight or flight response is the inborn mind mechanism. In the past, it had considerable evolutionary significance. Individuals with this response could survive more effectively, passing it on to their offspring. However, we are living in a very different world now than our ancestors.  Nowadays, this mechanism is activated when we face stressful events. We may differ in what is stressful to us individually, depending on our own value systems, but our society poses enough stressful circumstances to affect all of us. When this happens, blood pressure increases, including heart rate, increased rate of breathing, increased body metabolism, or rate of burning fuel, and marked increase in the flow of blood to the muscles of the arms and legs.

People then start to have associations, and develop fear, or phobia. And chronic elicitation of the fight-or-flight response leads from the transient elevations in blood pressure to a permanent state of hypertension. In the brain, it is hypothalamus that controls the evocation of he fight-or-flight response. When a single situation requiring behavioral adjustment occurs again and again, the fight-or-flight response is repeatedly activated.

When the fight-or-flight response is evoked, a part of the involuntary nervous system called the sympathetic nervous system becomes highly active. It deals with the everyday bodily functions that normally do not come into consciousness, such as the maintenance of heartbeat and blood pressure, regular breathing, the digestion of food. The sympathetic nervous system acts by secreting specific hormones: adrenalin or epinephrine and noradrenalin or norepinephrine. These hormones, epinephrine and its related substances, bring about the physiologic changes of increased blood pressure, heart rate, and body metabolism.

The fight-or-flight response happens in an integrated fashion, as it’s controlled by a part of an area in the brain called hypothalamus. And as it’s involuntary, we think we don’t have control over it.

We don’t need to give examples of monks who meditate years to show you it is absolutely possible to control and change your blood pressure, heart rate, breathing or metabolism. We as hypnotherapist, can show you, and guide you, to use the power of your mind to achieve this by hypnosis and self-hypnosis, because there is another response in us that we can activate and it can lead to a quieting of the sympathetic nervous system. This is Relaxation Response.

Your hypnotherapist can help you activate this involuntary response anytime you want. So that we don’t have to change your environment to avoid fear, phobia or stress, we can train ourselves to have a different response.

Think of those surgeries without anesthesia. Your mind has greater power than you want to give credit for. Needless to say all my clients may feel hot, warm, or cold, raise one of the arms… and last but not lest, feel relaxed by simply accepting the suggestions. By the way, hypnosis is mentioned in this little book and is described as “a widely known but still poorly understood technique”.

Just in case that you are curious. The way to bring forth the Relaxation Response is to have the following four components:

1. a quiet environment
2. a mental device – a mantra or sound, or a fixed gaze
3. a passive attitude
4. a comfortable position

Category: Book Review, Use of Hypnosis | No Comments »
Tags: List of use of hypnosis, Relaxation

Posted By a starsoul on August 23, 2010

Ever since I had great success in Past Life Regression sessions, I tried to bring clients into between life “the Bardo” zone. Most will just tell me “the white”.

Maybe their states are not deep enough for spiritual regression. I decided to re-read Michael Newton’s book Life Between Lives: Hypnotherapy for Spiritual Regression for some insights of how to assist clients in seeking the truth about themselves.

He says the therapist’s self-awareness is directly relates to her influence on the client. Her energy is affected by her own intuition, motivation, and integrity. Michael, as he says, has great respect for Taoist philosophy.

The Taoists believe that inspiration occurs when one’s conscious mind gets out of the way of their natural unconscious energy. In a sense, our cosmic qi is what brings harmony and clarity to the body. Having a keen internal focus also makes a better therapist. This, in a sense,  is also what preeminent psychologists Carl Rogers did when he placed the client in control of the therapeutic process. Rogers believed that people were essentially good and healthy. This differed greatly from the psychoanalytic focus on abnormal behavior.

Taoism talks about intuition, a state of non-doing. If it’s true that clients have all the answers they seek within; it’s also true we as therapists have answers to use for a session, something we can’t learn from taking more courses.

Newton believes the best regressionists have a perception that allows them to know something without the use of conscious reasoning. These therapists sense things at appropriate moments when working with people.

So it is a matter of training myself to recognize and analyze symbols which illustrate spirit-world experiences that cannot be defined in a material way. And it makes it natural to assume feeling telepathic with client during a session is possible and helpful. Of course when it happens, the energy can go another way, so it’s critical for the therapists to block our conscious thinking otherwise clients can easily pick up our thoughts.

All of this, speaking in another way, is to get into the flow. We all have these experiences when we do things well -  public speaking, sports, writing… Daily meditation and controlled breathing are helpful in having conscious mind get out of the way – The Beta brain wave energy are tight and compact because they are suppressed by the conscious mind – so clients can go to more open, larger fluctuations of energy as Alpha and Theta.

Qi, the life force or energy that is manifested in each of us through our breath, in yoga tradition, is called prana. It is not the breath itself nor the oxygen involved with breathing but the energy connected to the breath. It is a connection to the energy of all iving things as a universal life force.

Here’s where I will start, training myself to seek the energy pathways by training my breathing.

Category: Past Life Regression, Use of Hypnosis | No Comments »
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