Have you ever been hypnotized before? I have. I was a total skeptic but, made an appointment with a hypnotist because I was at my wit's end. So many things were going wrong so fast, I was desperate for some kind of "magic" that would reign in my self-destructive behavior and thoughts. I had considered therapy, drugs, psychics, exorcism.... What was really driving me nuts was my persistent and overwhelmingly negative thinking. I found a hypnotist and prayed that she could help to expunge the madness and hopefully uncover the source of this downward spiral which seemed to come out of nowhere.

I entered her office feeling jaded and ravaged by my own emotions, very probably hungover on top of that. I told her what was going on and she proceeded to hypnotize me.... asking me to mentally focus on a point of light within my own mind and physically relax my whole body. All of this was not easy. I was wound up like a toy and my mind was a carnival ride that I could not get off. She asked me to breathe, to focus. Gradually, I began to relax but, my skeptical mind kept reminding me how stupid I was for trying this and how it obviously, just wasn't working. My inner critic kept abusing me, calling me names, calling the hypnotist names, but out of spite- I just kept focusing on the inner point of light and breathing. I was going to relax, despite myself. I needed this. I needed some help and it couldn't come fast enough.

Suddenly, it seemed as though my hypnotist was speaking to me from a loft about 10 feet above me. In reality, she was less than 3 feet away and she was asking me to walk down a staircase. She was counting. The stillness was sublime. She asked me to describe where I was. I felt myself jolt a little in the deep black velvety silence. Is black a place? I felt as though I was in the womb of time itself.

Suddenly, like a dream; a room began to materialize around me. I was standing in it. Only, I wasn't in the form I knew. I was someone else. A man, a father, a husband, English, wealthy, a driven doctor and it was sometime in the Victorian age. I wasn't just seeing these things, I was there. I was aware of every detail of this man's life, as intimately as my own. It was my own. It was me, in another life. I could smell smells and hear the clatter of horses and carriages outside the window. Although my appointment was only for an hour, I was there for three. And for each hour, I visited a different life.

I think the hypnotist was just as astonished as I was. We did not discuss past life regression. I came to her originally to be a more positive thinker and to understand why I was so deeply tortured. I didn't know what to make of the experience at first and was deeply shaken and moved by the three lives I had re-visited. I went home that night and wrote them all down because I didn't want to forget them. Eventually, I began to see a pattern. It was the difference in life choices these three people had made, had lived, loved and suffered by. I began to see how those choices, in their different extremes, were ingrained in me, my personality, my life choices... and I understood. I understood why I had revisited those three lives. When I put them all together and after deep introspection, I found the answers I was looking for. I feel that it was in this realization, that I knew myself more authentically and more fully than ever before.

That was the first and last time I was hypnotized, 5 years ago in Reno. I've come to another crossroads in life, with questions I cannot find answers for on my own, and am seeking hypnotism again. Not only as a patient but, also as a potential practitioner. I am completely intrigued by the science and art of it. Hypnotism is widely used to help people replace negative behaviors or thought patterns with positive ones. Insomnia, anxiety, smoking, binge eating, aggression, addiction, abuse; all common subjects for treatment by the hypnotherapist.

Past life regressions and issues of a more spirtitual or supernatural nature, fall within the realm of the transpersonal hypnotist. Like a trans-personal psychologist, a transpersonal hypnotist acknowledges the spiritual aspect of every human being in addition to our psychological, biological, emotional, and mental properties.

The stage performers you see, who are able to subject random audience members to their usually, highly embarassing suggestions- are actually not hynotherapists, nor trans-personal hypnotists but, hypnotists who use the practice as a form of entertainment and perhaps give this valid form of therapy and focus, a rather ridiculous appearance.

James Braid, is the father of hypnotism. His book, Neurypnology, published in 1843, began a whirlwind of studies and discussions which, eventually led to several different theories and methods, as the book made its way across the globe. He writes of the similarities in the practices of self-hypnosis and meditation. Realizing after indepth studies into Oriental texts thousands of years old, that the Yogis of India and Magi of Persia all use the same methods of a singular focus, be it the tip of their nose or a candle, to throw themselves into an ecstatic trance, deep meditation, or a state of relaxed focus he states that 'all Oriental saints were self-hypnotisers'. Meditation, is in fact, the precursor to the science of hypnotism. Self-hynotism and meditation can be practiced by anyone for an enhanced connection to your deep, inner self as well as overall health benefits. Hypnotherapy can be used to alleviate pain, ease the process of childbirth, and quell the storms of an unsettled mind or emotional state.

And from personal experience, I know it works. Instead of spending years in therapy or thousands of dollars on anti-depressants, lithium, packs of Nicorette, or whatever your problem is.... cut to the chase and get hypnotized. You'll get your answers quick. Then try getting into a routine of daily meditation or self-hypnosis (auto suggestion) to maintain your self-control and relaxed awareness. It really comes down to creating a moment of relaxed focus for yourself and continuing to suggest positivity, either through meditation, prayer, affirmations, self-hypnosis techniques, or moving mediations like Tai-Chi and labyrinth walking. If you have an acute concern however, I'd suggest finding yourself a good hypnotherapist to jump start your recovery. The answers you seek, are always within.