Hypnosis and Spirituality

In the early days of my Hypnotherapy practice, the primary issues I found myself dealing with were stress, weight loss, smoking cessation, spiritual pursuits, and overcoming fears -- pretty much in that order. Gradually, that order shifted and I can now say that spirituality is the most prevalent of my clients' interests.

By spiritual, I mean non-material or metaphysical, and not religious. In my practice, such pursuits focus on getting helpful information and answers from different spiritual sources, e.g. what seem to be past lives, spirit guides, individuals who have died, etc.

You will notice that I said "seem to be..." That's because I can't prove what they are. They could be figments of the client's imagination, they could be the subconscious mind speaking in metaphors, or they could be just what they appear to be. In my opinion, it really doesn't matter what they are as long as the content is helpful to the client.

As is becoming more apparent in science, many physical issues, once you dig into them, have metaphysical origins and solutions. For example, in a previous article, I cited the case of an obese woman who couldn't loose weight until she discovered that she was badly abused, in what appeared to be a past life, and vowed never to be beautiful again. I once had a client who was devastated by the death of her father. In hypnosis, she saw her father, spoke with him, laughed with him, and received a great deal of comfort when he appeared to tell her that he was fine, that she needed to get on with her life, and that he would always be with her. A number of clients have met and spoken with what appeared to be spirit guides, and in all cases, they received information or guidance that they considered to be valuable and helpful.

Sometimes, clients show up with no burning issue and are not looking for any particular guidance; they just want to explore these metaphysical realms. They may believe in past lives and want to explore some of them. Some clients want to meet their principal spirit guide. Others may wish to contact the dead. Hypnosis can facilitate these encounters, but not with absolute certainty.

Hypnosis works when the client is willing to let go and allow themselves to be hypnotized. The research shows that about 3% to 5% of the population can't bring themselves to do this. As well, there are various depths to which a person can be hypnotized and not all clients can allow themselves to relax into the depths required for this type of pursuit. So, this is to say that there are no guarantees here. Such an adventure will not happen for everyone. In my experience, the 3% to 5% holds up and I'd say about three quarters of the total population is capable of experiencing some of the spiritual realms.

Clearly these days, my practice is attracting more clients with this sort of interest. We might speculate as to why this is happening. Perhaps, it's a "Law of Attraction" thing or maybe this interest is heightened by the publicity given to "The Great Shift." I think it's some of both. Oh yeah, and do I believe in past lives and that other stuff? A B S O L U T E L Y!!