In the early 80s I was sent to visit my cousin in Georgia. It was a heavy, hot summer, and when I arrived, my cousin was still at summer camp for one more week. I don’t know who messed up the itinerary, but my aunt and uncle had to scramble to figure out what to do with me in the meantime. They thought they had a week of freedom to do whatever they wanted before my cousin returned home. Instead, they had a week of freedom to spend with a little kid they didn’t know. I don’t remember too much about that trip except for two major things that occurred before my cousin came home. One of those things involved a skateboard, a really long road on a tall hill, and a fall that ended my visit early, sending me home with a few “cool” scars from head to knees that I still have to this day. The other was a very strange night in a hotel banquet room full of strangers and a bearded hypnotist leading the crowd.
To give some perspective, I was a very skeptical kid with major trust issues where adults were concerned. I had a running thought that went, “If their lips are moving, they are probably lying.” And I looked at everyone older than me that way. I grew up in a state of fight or flight and I can say with hindsight that I was not on the path to a rich and wonderful life. I was likely to be heading for something quite the opposite. I was a child who experienced tremendous anxiety, paralyzing muscle spasms, cluster-headaches, and I suffered from chronic night-terrors for as far back as I could remember.
As the show progressed, I watched several adults acting foolish at the simple command of the hypnotist. I recall being completely stupefied by the gullible people surrounding me. I could see that they all believed that by some special slight of mouth skill, full grown adults could be turned into chickens and monkeys, or simply made to jump up and hoot at the utterance of a single chosen word. I thought, “don’t they know that they are all paid actors? These people are so stupid!” I looked at my aunt and uncle and they too seemed to be completely buying the joke being played on them.
My face was probably giving me completely away because halfway through the act, the man at the front of the room called on me to come up to the stage to be hypnotized. I was ready too. I walked straight up to the front, and I was going to prove this guy to be the fraud he was. And instead of turning me into a chicken or a robot or something foolish, he simply told me that I would experience relaxation deeper than ever before in my life. And he did relax me. And I fell backwards and trusted that I would be caught, just as he directed. The people who caught my fall walked my limp, relaxed body over to the side of the stage, and I went deeper and deeper into relaxation with every word the hypnotist spoke, just as he directed I would. While I lied there, basking in a feeling I had never experienced before, marinating in deep trust and calm, I knew that there were two little boys nearby where I was lying. And as I fell deeper into relaxation, one of them started splashing me with water from his cup. I wanted to jump up and beat the shit out of them, but the relaxation felt so good that I stopped myself and thought, “I’ll go after them when this is over. This is too good to waste on stupid boys playing games.” A few moments later, I felt a splash on my body again. I stayed still, unperturbed and knowing proudly, that I was probably driving those kids nuts by not reacting. Time had passed and soon I was brought back into awareness. As soon as I sat up, I turned toward the waterworks perpetrators and realized they were not splashing me. The two boys were seated farther away than I thought. But there was a styrofoam cup covered in condensation on a table close by, sitting in the path of an oscillating fan. I was stunned. In that brief amount of time, I experienced a paradigm shift that changed my life forever.
What happened for me was a multi— level expansion of what I believed the world and life to be. Most of our hangups as adults are due to experiences from our childhood, and my childhood was filled with disappointment, struggle, adults with harsh limited beliefs, who were not great role models. But in that moment, I was given the gift of a totally different perspective. I saw that there was magic in each of us and that magic was real and accessible.
I went home with my aunt and uncle knowing that I would try to hypnotize myself every night before bed for the rest of my life! That night, as my head hit the pillow, I counted myself backwards from 8 to – I’m pretty sure I fell asleep. But I did end up waking into one of my night terrors. It was a fairly regular experience unfortunately, and it always took my parents’ help to bring me fully back into the room. In the in-between state, my nervous system climbed outside of my body and all sounds, sensations and sights were intensely painful and terrifying. These terrors took a lot of patience and soft coaxing, usually lasting for several long minutes before I came to fully awakened. But on this night, I didn’t have the help of my mom and dad, and I didn’t know my aunt and uncle well enough to call out to them. I had to do it myself. I trundled out of bed into a pitch black living room, nestled myself in a huge, green, leather, wingback chair and quietly began soothing myself. “It’s going to be okay. You are going to be alright.” I repeated to myself over and over again until the stress and pain gave way to an opening. I returned fully back into the living room, back inside my body, safe and sound. I never once had that dream again. My other painful issues also never showed up again. I had an amazing healing that night and I did return to the process of counting myself into relaxation night after night throughout the rest of my pre-teen years and off and on again throughout my life.
I often joke that my hypnosis experience at 10 years of age was my gateway drug for personal growth. And I’ve been chasing that first high ever since. I’m so grateful that I had my first altered state with hypnosis and not a street drug. What a gift it was.
It’s a gift that has kept me curious my whole life. It’s why I became a board certified hypnotherapist as well as gained credentials in many other modalities. My goal is to discover as many of our super powers as possible. Hypnosis is my first love, but since, I’ve discovered that our capabilities are endless. There is no bottom to the well of human greatness.
I would love for you to take your first steps on your greatness journey with me as your guide and confidant. It’s amazing how wonderful life can be when you gain access to your own powers.
Thank you for reading my story. I hope you are inspired. Be well and please spread kindness.