Hypnosis Reading Test

Your mind is more powerful than you may have ever realized. The above test is a great example of how your mind uses past learning to interpret an experience you are having in the moment. This example being your ability to read, what should be unreadable, due to the fact that you learned these words in the past.

Can we find a connection to this when we are seeking ways to improve our living experience? I believe so. At times in our lives, we learn certain behaviors, that at the time, benefit us in one way or another. As time passes, we find that some of these behaviors no longer benefit us. Sometimes we are able to very easily change the behavior, but other times we get stuck in the behavior. Much like you were able to read the above based on what you have learned, these unwanted behaviors continue to replay themselves automatically.

So, what do we do when this happens? One very effective way is to enter a state of re-learning through hypnosis. I have always viewed hypnosis as a focused state of learning. Every challenge we have, whether it be fear of situations or an unwanted habit, was learned at some point in our past. I understand that sometimes it seems as if these behaviors come suddenly from no where, but this is usually due to a continual confirming of something learned in the past until it becomes realized.

Imagine then, entering a state of hypnosis, a state of re-learning, where you can gain new perspectives and understandings to transform these unwanted behaviors. Scientifically, when you learn something new, your brain begins to create new neural pathways which trigger new behavior. Its like re-programming your mind to create the behaviors that you want. The instant you accept new learning, in the subconscious level of the mind, these new behaviors will become automatic and just as easily acted upon as it was for you to read the above test.

Now aren't you simply the most amazing being?

And here you can find a wonderful selection of hypnosis recordings to help you reach your dreams faster
http://www.deeptrancenow.com

Affirmations for Prosperity

Clear Negative Voices

After the last newsletter on Clearing negative influences that adversely affect your prosperity, several people have emailed me and asked how to clear negative voices. The origin of these voices may be that someone told them something disempowering, when they felt vulnerable and now these words keep on replaying in their minds and preventing them from pursuing their goals.

Sometimes people clearly remember incidents during which these negative voices became imprinted and sometimes the origin of these voices is unknown. The negative voices may sound as if they belong to someone else or as if the words are spoken by the person who is hearing them.

The negative voices may be statements or questions like: "Who are you kidding?" or "You can't do that" or "You'll fail" or "What if you fail?' or "You are not good enough" or "You'll never make it", "This will never work", and anything else along the similar lines.

Sometimes these negative voices are accompanied by images of possible disasters and anything that may go wrong, and they give rise to the feelings of uncertainty, fear, anxiety, and taking no action seems like a safer, but not more satisfying choice. The issues that pop up may be fear of competition, jealousy, fear of rejection, natural disasters, or simply the possibility of bad luck.

Sometimes the origin of the negative voices may be unrealistic expectations, where a person may have attempted to do something once or twice, without even knowing how to do something properly, didn't get satisfactory results and then gave up concluding that if whatever it was didn't work instantly then there's no hope.

Here it may be appropriate to remember the Serenity Prayer:

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.

The techniques that follow are designed to help you to change those things that you can change.
You can change the way those negative voices sound, you can change what they are saying, or you can transcend them.

To change the way those negative voices sound, you can change the pitch of the voice and make it sound very high, or very low, or like a voice you may hear in a cartoon. You can change the speed in which those words are spoken, so that it may sound as if an audio tape played at high speed, or you can lower the speed and make the words spoken so slow that they are practically indiscernible. You can have some funny circus music playing in the background or you can have the words come out garbled or muffled. As you experiment with changing the voice, you should notice how its impact upon you changes. You can imagine that the voice is played on a tape deck and you can simply push the stop button to stop it. You can imagine the voice moving further and further away in the distance and disappearing or you can blow it up and imagine those disempowering words exploding.

If there are any threatening images that accompany those negative voices, you can do similar things with those images, as you did with the voice. You can imagine them shrinking, or you can imagine color draining out of them and if they were paintings; you can imagine rain falling upon the painting and all the colors melting and washing away until all that is left is a blank canvas. You can imagine the image blowing up or burning it in a fire.

If you are up to it, you can take a piece of paper, pour out your hear and write down those disempowering statements that are haunting you and then burn the paper. As you watch the paper burning, imagine all those disempowering statements burning up also. Even when the paper has burned you may remain beside the fire and imagine any residue of negative energies within you burning up. When you are done, you should have some sense of completition and of lightness.

If you remember a particular event, when you first experienced those negative voices, you can mentally transform that event and the imprint that it left upon you. You can replay the event in your mind, as if you've had the resources to handle it appropriately in a way that would've left you feeling empowered.

If you are spiritually inclined and you like to meditate, you may observe those negative voices with a sense of emotional detachment. The words have no power of their own. They have no meaning except whatever meaning you attach to them. You may notice that when you resist some ideas, they tend to become stronger, just the same as when you try to reinforce them. When you resist the idea, you are feeding it with your energy, just the same as if you wanted to reinforce it. If you remain emotional detached and stop feeding ideas with your energy, they will dissolve of their own accord. If you just witness your thoughts, without becoming emotionally entangled, they will have no power over you - they will just come and go, and eventually, they'll dissolve.

Another technique, similar to the one last one is to simply accept whatever thought or negative voice emerges in your mind. Again, if you just accept it and you don't fight it, the negative sting will ultimately dissolve. When you accept everything, you stop judging it as good or bad - you acknowledge that it just "is" or that the thought is meaningless in itself and your response to it may be "so what?" You don't identify with the negative voices so they don't have any effect on you.

Different techniques may be suitable for different people and the way you'll know that you have found one that is suitable for you is that you will feel a change within you, an inner transformation, more or less instantly.

Turn your life around with convincers

Nothing is as convincing as your own personal experience. That's why before a hypnotist begins working on any change, he performs suggestibility tests, and may even elicit few hypnotic phenomena during the session, which act as convincers. You will never get as convinced that something is possible for you just by reading about someone else's experience, as you will by having the experience yourself.

Whenever you hear or read that someone has accomplished something that you would like to accomplish, you automatically go within and search your memory for any information you have gathered throughout your life, for any experience you have ever had, and based on the information you are aware of, you conclude whether such a thing is possible at all, and more importantly, whether you have what it takes to do it.

Suggestibility tests and convincers in hypnosis are structured in a way that gives you an opportunity to explore the power of your imagination. When you are in hypnosis, you give precedence to your inner world, to the world of your imagination, so if I were to ask you to close your eyes and pretend that you cannot open them, you have a choice. If you choose to rely on the reasoning faculty of your mind, you know that you are fully capable of opening your eyes and you are free to open your eyes at any time you like. However, if you choose to experience a trance state, you allow yourself to play the game of pretending, you pretend that you cannot open your eyes and if you let yourself have fun exploring the realm of your imagination, you will discover that you cannot open your eyes. Then you will know that you are in hypnosis. Trying to open your eyes and discovering that you cannot because you have chosen to play with your imagination, is an example of a convincer that tells you - you are in an optimal state of mind for creating changes in your life through hypnosis.

You can use convincers in your daily life to enter into optimal states of mind where you can accomplish your desired goals faster. Whatever it is that you desire to accomplish in life, it begins in your mind. Changing your life around becomes much easier when you are in a state of mind in which you know that you can do what it takes because your own experience tells you so.

Whatever it is that you desire to accomplish, you can recall a time when you have accomplished if not exactly the same thing, something similar to it, in your past. Hypnosis is like a magnifying glass. Whatever you focus your attention upon, becomes magnified in your experience and it overrides, for a while, your awareness of any other experience.

At any moment in time you can focus on what you know or on what you don't know, on what you can do or on what you cannot do, on the skills and abilities you have already mastered, or on those you know nothing about. Whatever you focus upon will influence your state of mind and your ability to overcome new challenges. You can decide whether it will be hard or easy, whether you will enjoy the process or couldn't wait to get it over with. You can get into any state of mind you choose because you have already experienced doing things in a way that feels natural for you, easy for you, or practically impossible, and you already have lots of experiences where you just couldn't wait to get over with something and others where you have thoroughly enjoyed the process. You can transfer your states of mind from one experience to another, from one area of your life to another.

If you want to dance and you never danced before, you can begin by acknowledging that you can walk, you can use your legs in ways that you have learned how to use them so far. Then you practice easy steps, and you keep on building upon what you have learned until you can perform as well as you desire. In the beginning you may feel as if you have two left feet, but if that is what you choose to focus upon, you will be in a state of mind where learning will be challenging to the point that you may discouraged, frustrated, conclude that you have no talent for dancing and perhaps even give up. You also have a choice to pretend that you were a born dancer, to enjoy the learning process, to feel grateful for any progress you make, to feel good about yourself for the effort you invested in learning something new, and to find it easy to make some progress each day.

If you want to change your financial situation, you have the power to focus on what you have and on what you can do now to change your situation or you can focus upon what you don't have and everything else that may seem to work against you. You can always do something constructive to improve any condition in your life. Whatever you choose to focus upon, you will use as a convincer to determine your next step and your future experience.

If you want to create changes in your body with your mind - either for healing or esthetic purposes - you may begin by acknowledging that some intelligent force has been taking care of your body throughout the years and that your body is constantly undergoing some changes. New cells are constantly replacing the old ones, according to the blueprint in your subconscious mind, in your energy field, in your DNA. And even if this entire process has been unfolding out of your conscious awareness, you can choose to participate and actively influence how will the cells of your body keep on renewing. You can learn how to establish a rapport with your subconscious mind, you can do all sorts of fun experiments that will provide you with a rapid feedback letting you know that what you are doing is working, and you can use your experience as a convincer and a spring board to easily create the changes you desire. If you just try to work on changing your body, merely wishing that you can do it, but without any verifiable experience of your own, you may be constantly plagued with doubts, wondering if you are just deluding yourself and wasting your time, or whether you are truly creating any changes. When you have doubts, you are essentially programming your subconscious with the opposite of what you desire - that is why having your own convincing experiences is important in helping you to create rapid changes.

To help you overcome new challenges you face in your life, you can take a piece of paper and write down all of your past successes and all the reasons why you know that you can accomplish anything you set your mind to. Write down all the skills and resources that you have or are willing to develop; all the actions you are willing to take. That way, when you determination, your faith, your conviction, your endurance get challenged, you will have something to hold onto, something to carry you over the rough spots, because you will have a long list of convincers ready to tell you that you've got what it takes to make it.

How to communicate with your subconscious mind through your body

One of the ways in which we can communicate with our subconscious minds is through our bodies.

Perhaps you can recall a time when you walked into some place for the very first time and without knowing anything consciously about the place, the place felt just right for you, you felt "good vibes", or you felt at odds with the place, you felt "bad vibes" and the only thing on your mind was getting out of there as fast as possible. Even though you consciously you couldn't put your finger on what exactly felt right or wrong, your body communicated what you sensed in some way. When you found yourself in a place with "good vibes", perhaps you felt you could breathe deeper, or you felt more relaxed or open; whereas when you found yourself yourself in a place with "bad vibes", perhaps your breathing became more shallow, and you felt constricted in some way, maybe you felt tightening in your guts, in your solar plexus. And you may recall having the same experiences with people - when you felt comfortable with them, you unconsciously inclined your body toward them, and when you felt in some way repelled, you unconsciously pulled back. These were just some of the ways in which your subconscious was giving "yes - this is appropriate for you" or "go ahead" and "no - this is not beneficial for you", "better stay away" - signals.

In hypnosis, when a hypnotist desires to get a response directly from a person's subconscious, he may set up a communication system through the person's fingers. This is referred to as "ideomotor response" or "ideomotor signaling". For this purpose, a hypnotist would designate one finger to represent a "yes" answer, another finger to represent a "no" answer, and he may designate yet another finger to represent "I don't know" or "I don't want to answer".

You can establish this system of communication with your subconscious by yourself also. The first step is to programming your body with signals that will represent "yes" and "no" responses, and if you like "I don't know" or "I don't want to answer". To program a finger with a "yes" answer, you can choose a finger, perhaps an index finger, and simply lift the index finger up several times while repeating, silently or aloud "yes". You can then choose another finger, perhaps a small finger, lift it up several times while repeating silently or aloud "no". You can likewise program another finger with "I don't know" or "I don't want to answer".

Once you have programmed your fingers, you can ask questions to which you can get an immediate feedback, questions to which you can verify the answers.

Based on your inclinations and preferences, you may program different responses through different parts of your body. You may program your fingers or hands to create gestures or produce different sensations e.g. sensation of warmth, coolness, tingling sensation, etc. You can program your entire body to slightly bend forward as a "yes" response, or to bend slightly backward as a "no" response.

Besides programming your body just with "yes", "no" or "I don't know answers, you can instruct your body to take you to a desired location. If you have misplaced something, you can instruct your body - your legs, if you like - to take you where what you're looking for is. I have used this method successfully both to find things that I have misplaced, as well as to find things in other people's places which they have misplaced. Our minds are all interconnected and our bodies are in a way extensions of our minds. I would simply instruct my body to take me to wherever the misplaced object is.

All of the above are forms of what is also called "body dowsing (BD)" or "deviceless dowsing (DD)". Some people find it easier to get the information from their subconscious minds through movements of the body, while others find it easier to first work with devices like pendulums, L-rods, or bobbers. If you desire to learn how to dowse with pendulums, L-rods and bobbers, you can download free ebooks from the Deep Trance Now newsletter subscriber section.

Whatever method you choose, becoming proficient will most likely require a certain amount of practice. When learning how to work with your subconscious mind, you will make the fastest progress if you work on questions where you can get an immediate feedback. Through feedback, you will become more aware of when the answers you are getting are genuinely coming from your subconscious mind and when they are coming from your conscious mind, from what is called "an analytic overlay" (AOL). The answers coming directly from your subconscious will have a different feeling to them than those coming from your conscious mind. One of the easiest ways for getting analytic overlay out of the way is by asking a question and then getting into an open state of mind where instead of asking if this or that is the right answer, you are simply focused on the question "I wonder what is the answer?"

You can use dowsing to help you make the most beneficial choices in any area of your life. People have used dowsing for all sorts of things: to look for water, mines, and hidden treasures; to choose the most suitable person for a relationship, to choose suitable business partners, to choose suitable doctors, dentists, restaurants, to select the best company to work for, to selecting the best investments, to find best car dealership, to choose the most appropriate car, to get parking spots, to select best nutrition, to correct health imbalances, to clear emotional issues, to pick the best place for vacation, to find lost pets, and the list goes on. You can think of many ways in which you can use the information available from your subconscious mind to help you live your life in an easier, more comfortable and more fulfilling way.

Instant Results

Since the article on "Becoming Lucky" came out, several people have emailed me asking "But, how do I become lucky NOW, how do I get instant results?"

You get instant results by getting into a state of consciousness of oneness - where there is no differentiation between yourself and what you desire to experience. In that state of consciousness there are no obstacles, there is no friction between conflicting ideas, and consequently there is no time lag. In that state of consciousness you perceive the world as your Self, realizing that the subject (you) and the object (whatever you are perceiving or desiring), your inner and outer worlds are all one and the same.

To practice this, as you move around in the world of form, you maintain your awareness on the unity which exists beyond all physical appearances. You may look at the computer and still have an awareness that from the perspective of quantum physics it is ultimately made out of subatomic particles, out of pure energy, or if you like spiritual terminology, that it is made out of spiritual substance - out of the same spiritual substance that everything is created. You can think of it as the Light.

Many years ago I had some problem with digestion for several months. Nothing I ate seemed to agree with my stomach. I tried different ways of preparing food and some natural remedies, but none of it helped. One day I was fed up with suffering so I put a plate with food in front of me and took few minutes to contemplate the fact that on a subatomic level the food on the plate and my stomach are made out of the same substance and that therefore they must be harmonious. I perceived the food on a plate and my stomach as being made out of divine Light and then I ate the food with this state of consciousness and the stomach problem disappeared. It was instantly gone as I got into what I like to call "the right state of mind".

If you take some time each day to contemplate your oneness with everything, you will begin to accustom yourself to this state of consciousness and to impress it upon your subconscious mind - thus dissolving inner obstacles and conflicting ideas. In turn whatever crosses your mind will begin to manifest faster and faster and many times you will have an experience where one moment you think of something and the next moment you experience it in your outer world, because you are eliminating differentiation between the two, and you are consequently eliminating the time lag.

You introduce a time lag in the realization of your goals when you have conflicting ideas. Conflicting ideas create friction. You introduce a time lag in the realization of your goals when you start mentally comparing ideas and experiences - instead of just fully focusing on the present moment.

The ideal state of mind for practicing self-hypnosis is as if you were conducting an experiment. You don't know what is going to happen because even if you had hundred or thousand hypnosis sessions before, each one is unique, so you allow whatever is happening to happen. You are fully present in what you are doing and you are fully focused on your mind-experiment. You are in an open state of mind, filled with childlike curiosity. You are enjoying the experience and you are surrendering to the experience. You can analyze your experience as much as you like before or after the session, but NOT during the session. During the session you allow yourself to surrender totally and completely to a state of consciousness in which anything is possible, you are like a child in a wonderland, and whatever is happening is fantastic.

Many times people begin their explorations of self-hypnosis with this open state of mind, with childlike curiosity and have experiences that are more amazing then anything they could've imagined. When people participate in playing games of chance with this state of mind, they experience "beginner's luck". Note that the beginner's state of mind is totally open, like an empty glass waiting to be filled.

What makes this luck and wonderful experiences evaporate is that once a person has some experience or knowledge, he is now full of preconceived ideas and as he drags them into new experiences, he is like a full glass that doesn't have any space left to receive more. It becomes more challenging for the person to put all that he has experienced, all that he has read, all that he knows aside and to experience the freshness of each new moment, of each new experience, to experience fully the magic of whatever is present right now.

What makes hypnosis work is this one-pointed focus on the present experience, where you are so totally immersed in your subjective experience - in whatever is going on right now, in whatever you are creating right now with your thoughts and emotions - that nothing else exists in your awareness. It doesn't matter what you do with your body - whether your body is still or you are moving around, but your mind is so totally absorbed in your subjective experience to the point that you begin to experience yourself as the realized outcome of your session - as your goal manifested right now.

Hypnotic Power of Music

Music is intimately related to the subconscious mind because it stirs our emotions. Perhaps you can recall listening to a jingle and finding the tune and the advertising slogan replaying in your mind over and over, even if you disliked the jingle. It just stuck in your mind.
Sometimes we may be consciously aware of the suggestions which are becoming impressed upon our subconscious minds. Many others times we may simply act unconsciously upon those suggestions - without any conscious awareness of why we feel propelled to act in a certain way. Big corporations spend billions of dollars on advertisements in order to create exactly that effect - to get you to purchase specific product or to act in a certain way.
Knowingly or unknowingly, all of us get affected by music we listen to. Here is one example from an email I have received:

"I want to tell you a story that you may find interesting. About two weeks ago whenever I walked on the streets, people would stare at me. I am not used to it, so at first I thought that there was maybe something odd about my outer appearance on that day. I looked in the mirror and there was nothing strange about either my clothes or my hair - I was totally normal. This lasted about a week - day after day. I must say that I was quite amused by all this, particularly because sometimes I would notice that these strange gazes were in fact gazes of admiration.

Later, however, I have discovered the possible cause of all this - a song. An ordinary pop song called "Superstar" by Jamelia. Basically, during that week I used to listen to this recording with my headphones while being engaged in other activities (such as working) sometimes without even noticing. One of the main phrases of the song which are repeated over and over again in the song are "You've gotta be a superstar, 'cause you've got eyes on you no matter where you are." My subconscious mind understood the lyrics literally and wherever I would go I "had eyes on me".

I later decided to stop listening to the song and noticed that gradually people stopped staring at me. Isn't it amusing?"

I suppose you can imagine what happens to people who listen over and over to music with words such as "I am a loser" and similar. Perhaps you want to pay closer attention to the lyrics of the songs you are listening to. It's also good to remember that when we watch TV, we are in a state of hypnotic trance and what we watch and listen to in that relaxed and entranced state does get into our subconscious minds to a lesser or greater extent - so you may want to choose your listening and watching menu wisely.

Another aspect of music, is the music itself. Some music helps you to feel more relaxed, some music makes your body move, maybe even dance, some music puts you into a sensual and lovemaking state of mind, while other types of music makes you feel unsettled or perhaps inspire you to engage in some form of combat or on a more positive note, jump up and plunge yourself into a vigorous physical exercise.

When you are practicing self-hypnosis without hypnosis recordings, you may want to pick some music that by itself elicits within you the emotional state that is most appropriate for the goal you are working on. The music does not have to be slow and relaxing - it may be quite energizing. If you feel like moving and dancing, rather than lying down, it is OK to use your body and dance your self-hypnosis outcome. There may also be times when you would prefer to relax into your self-hypnosis outcome, and there may be times when you feel more like getting into physical action. Rhythmic, repetitive movement is trance inducing.

One of the main reasons for using music for self-hypnosis is to help you maintain mental and emotional focus on your outcome. The music that helps to elicit within you emotions which are appropriate for your self-hypnosis outcome, will take care of the focus. Your intention can then ride of the wave of music, making focusing an effortless process.

If you are working on increasing sex appeal, the appropriate music would be the one that makes you feel sexy. If you are working on increasing financial abundance, the appropriate music would be the one that brings feelings and images of opulence and wealth. If you are working on healing, the appropriate music would be one that helps you to feel relaxed and peaceful, allowing your body to rest, regenerate and heal.

The Power of Gratitude

Gratitude is not some mushy feeling. It is a powerful way of conditioning your subconscious mind for success. So many people focus on what they do not have and in this way further program their subconscious minds with the idea and feeling of lack and loss. And guess what? That is exactly what they keep on enhancing in their lives. In time, this turns into a habit of expecting lack and fearing loss. Some people then embark on a journey of looking for further proofs that life is a dreadful thing, filled with meaningless struggle, so they abandon all effort to make something out of it and begin acting in ways that actually invite more losses and dismal experiences. Then they wonder why they feel depressed.

Step 1

While gratitude does include saying "thank you" to others, it really begins within, by appreciating things, people and circumstances we may have taken for granted - even if all we have is the air that we breathe, food, clothing, shelter.

Perhaps you can think of some things that have been beneficial to you and which you might have taken for granted. If you stop now, for a moment, to appreciate what you already have in your life, you will already begin to feel happier and wealthier.

Step 2

More challenging for most people, is feeling gratitude for dismal experiences in our lives, for those people and situations in our lives that brought us even some pain and discomfort and in that way pushed us to challenge ourselves, to reach deeper within and discover incredible resources within ourselves, untapped powers we did not even know we had. Or perhaps they pushed us to develop some new skills, skills that have tremendously enriched our lives.
Maybe the skills we have learned have enabled us not only to emerge victorious out of our own struggle, but also to be of greater service to others.No one may be better equipped to help a person going through a challenging experience than someone who has already been there, experienced it, and knows.

Think now about some of your life experiences that you wished you did not have to go through at a time and consider what have you learned from those experiences, and how have they actually enriched your life.

The benefit of this new perspective of looking upon seemingly dismal situations from your past is that once you have learned what you needed to learn from your experiences, you would not have to go through them again - you will set them free, and you will be able to move on. You will feel lighter and happier. By transforming this emotional baggage, you will open new space in your life for new and wonderful things to come your way.

Step 3

Now, go one step further and think of all those things you would like to have in your life - feel how would you feel having them right now and express gratitude for them as if you already have them. Gratitude is the fastest way to draw those experiences into your life.

When you feel gratitude for something, you acknowledge that you have already received it. You program this desirable experience as your reality into your subconscious mind, you expect it to happen, you begin looking for proofs that it is a part of your life, you begin acting as if this is true for you now and you begin to experience what may be nothing short of miracles.

Remember that you program your subconscious mind by what you FEEL to be REAL for you NOW! When you express gratitude for something you would like to experience as if you already have it now, you acknowledge that this desired experience is REAL for YOU now, you CLAIM it as YOUR OWN and you open the way for it to come into your life! The Power of Gratitude