The Power of Hypnotherapy with Anthony Peters

A Personal Note from Orion

In today’s world, the term hypnosis conjures images of people on a stage barking like dogs, or questionable tactics used by others trying to control your mind. But the reality of hypnotherapy is, it doesn’t work if you are not open to the experience. With hypnosis, you are in control of how deep into your subconscious you want to go.

If you allow yourself to go deep enough, you can heal your past traumas by processing them in a relaxed state. In the end, hypnotherapy will work only if you allow it to happen and trust in the process.

You also need to trust and feel comfortable with your hypnotherapist. My guest today is a good friend and hypnotist who’s been guiding people through hypnotic healing journeys for years. Anthony Peters discusses everything from the science behind hypnosis to how to use it in everyday situations to get people to help you out – you’ll be surprised how well these techniques work!

About Today’s Show

Hello, welcome to Stellar Life Podcast. This is your host, Orion. My guest today is Anthony Peters who is also my friend. In this show, we’re going to share a really funny story about how he somehow – we were at this restaurant, it was already 1 AM and the chef went home – made waiter cook our meal, which was extraordinary. And he did it with his super magical hypnotic techniques. Anthony Peters is a hypnosis, science, martial arts, and relationship nerd. From a young age, he applied scientific principles to everything he learned. Hoping to be helpful, he tried to pass along his wisdom but found out there is too much resistance in getting results. This is when he discovered hypnosis, a misunderstood tool of change that allows his clients to overcome obstacles and change their lives. And now without further ado, on to the show. Hello, Anthony! Welcome to Stellar Life podcast.

Hello. How are you doing?

I’m doing fantabulous. How are you?

Amazing.

Today’s episode is going to be amazing because you are my amazing friend and I know that firsthand. Before we start, why don’t you share a little bit about yourself?

I am a practicing hypnotist in Maryland, USA. I’ve been doing it for several years now. I’m also a software engineer and an instructor in various martial arts. Quite all over the place. But right now, hypnosis is my focus.

I didn’t know you do martial arts. Which martial arts do you do?

I have an instructor’s certification on Hanshi Kobudo Jiu Jitsu, third degree, black belt in that. I am also an instructor in Filipino Kali and CSA combat. It’s been a while since I’ve taught. Combat Application Systems. It’s an MMA system. I was a martial arts nerd in my 20s but I’ve taped it back a bit.

That’s pretty cool. You’re a dangerous person physically and mentally.

NLP gives you the tools to take away artificial barriers in your mind.

I try to keep it under control.

Use your power for good. I studied Aikido, MMA, and a little bit of Krav Maga back in the early days and I really enjoyed it. Let’s talk about your current passion which is hypnosis. For people who are wondering, what is hypnosis?

Hypnosis could be thought of as many ways. The simplest way to think of hypnosis is getting yourself into a state of deep learning so that you can get changes that you can’t normally get under normal circumstances. For example, you have a trauma. That trauma is impacting your life in some way, but you don’t know where that trauma came from. The trauma is deep. You can’t recall, you have no relay, but you’re doing things in your life that you can’t explain. You’re like, “Why do I eat that extra Snickers bar? Why do I seek out dangerous activities? Why do I go into bad relationships?” You look into yourself and you find there’s just no real answer, but you might feel like there might be a reason. Well, through hypnosis, we can help you get to the core and resolve it pretty quickly. There are also other things that you can do in hypnosis besides trauma. That’s just one thing. It’s really about opening up the mind’s capability of changing.

How does hypnosis compare to conventional psychological treatment?

In normal psychological treatment, people take you through a practiced and structured path. When it comes to medicine, it’s very much around doing the same thing over and over again. When they prescribe drugs, they research and they try to optimize it to the best of their ability. What they don’t do is they don’t create a proper relationship with the client. What happens is they get disconnected with their client and they don’t resolve the real fundamental underlying issues. I’m not talking about things that are chemical in nature like Schizophrenia or other deep-seated psychosis. I’m talking about general, you’re having a problem and you want to resolve the problem. You’re going to somebody to try to help you resolve this problem. If you go to conventional therapy, they’ll help you on the surface. They’ll help you with the direct problem, but often our problems come from within, from what I like to call or what’s known in hypnosis as the subconscious mind. In that sense, they put a bandaid on the problem and consider it good to go. Whereas hypnosis seeks to get at the root of the problem and fix it once and for all.

Hypnosis is getting yourself into a state of deep learning so that you can change what you normally can't get under normal circumstances. Click To Tweet

Because 5% of the way we operate our habits, everything we do consciously is only 5%, but most of our patterns, traumas, things that we’re doing that we’re not aware of are in the 95% of the subconscious mind.

I don’t know about the percentages but I do definitely believe that’s a good metaphor because the conscious mind and the subconscious mind kind of operate in two different kinds of distinct ways. Which I can go over if—or at least a model that we have and go over it with you. But yes, the majority of why you do what you do is all happening subconsciously. There are many tests that even neuroscience have shown that when we decide to do anything, it happens inside our head almost seconds before it happens in actual reality.

What’s the process of hypnosis? What does it look like?

Well, there’s many different types of hypnosis. I’ve been trained in several different types. From the standard progression course of hypnosis which takes you back to an earlier memory to resolve the memory. To a more neuro-linguistic programming or NLP styles which as you work with the issue out in the open and resolve it in more active states. It really depends just on where the client is, which therapy will be more effective for them. Most of these different therapies work. I’ll just say for regression therapy, people often get worried because they’re worried about digging up the past and having an emotional reaction. The truth of the matter is if you follow along and you really get the hypnotist your all, and presence awareness, no matter the emotional state you might find yourself, they will help you navigate through it. It will be a very cathartic experience. However, if you’re a little too worried and there’s resistance, it’s very important that if you see a hypnotist that you say your resistance, what you are willing to do, what you aren’t willing to do because the reality is you don’t need to go directly to trauma, you can also work around the trauma through metaphor, through visualizations, through simply talking and talking in a way that really allows your mind to expand. There is a lot of options available for those who are interested in hypnosis or NLP which kind of work in tandem.

In regression therapy, how do you know that it is a real thing or that the patient is not making it up?

You always have trust in your patient. Before they even come in, we have a proper conversation about their responsibility as part of the therapy. In reality, there is no real hypnosis. There’s only self-hypnosis. All I can do as a hypnotist is guide you to where you need to go. If you’re having an experience in your mind and you are through your attachment of your emotions; through that experience, regardless if it happened or not; the fact that you have an emotional connection to whatever comes up means that in your world, it’s true. By going through regression, it can be resolved right then and there, when you’re at that peak emotional state and you can just change right away.

You said that all hypnosis is self-hypnosis. How so?

When you go into life, generally, you have to have a mindset of what you’re willing to accept. When you’re going through a hypnotic process, ultimately, you’re opening yourself up through suggestion. The way you do that is through relaxing. You let yourself trust the hypnotist to guide you where you need to go and to do the things you need to do. The hypnotist will not make you do anything. At any point during a hypnosis session, if you have resistance and you don’t want to do something, the hypnotist will not make you do it. There is no forcing change. It’s only acceptance of change which means that you are in control of the hypnosis. You direct what you’re willing to have. As a good hypnotist, I make sure before we even get started that we have a good conversation about what your goals are. I make sure that you’re focused on specifically the tasks and the behaviors you would like to change, and really change in a root level and how you feel about them, and by going inside and letting them guide themselves to where they need to be. It’s very clear that they’re in control of the hypnosis session. What can also be done is through a little bit of preparation. If the client is interested, I can also give them tools to bring themselves back into this hypnotic state even when I’m not around and it will still have the same power as if I am there, but only if the client is willing and ready to make those actions happen. At any point in the process, if there’s resistance, there’s no change that’s going to happen which is why it’s all self-hypnosis because nothing happens without the full engagement of the person that’s there.

Hypnosis seeks the root of the problem and fixes it once and for all.

If you want to go to hypnosis and you are resistant, then don’t waste your time, because it’s not going to happen. You have to come with an open mind and allow yourself to relax into the hypnotic state and expect a positive outcome.

There are four different kinds of suggestions that I tell people about. There’s a suggestion where within yourself, you say to yourself, “I like that suggestion. I know it is going to work.” That’s the kind of suggestion that’s actually going to resonate in a hypnotic session that will give you change. Another type of suggestion is one that you’re uncomfortable with, that will never permeate deep. Your critical faculty will stop it dead in its tracks. Another thing is the suggestions that you’re neutral about. If you’re neutral about it, generally speaking, we’ll just keep doing what you’re doing. If you don’t have a fire to do something, you want to do it, you like the idea of doing it, and you know it’s going to work, being neutral will eliminate its ability to stick. Lastly, the most kind of pernicious one or tricky one is that people say, “I like that suggestion. I hope it works.” They get into this mindset of hoping that something’s going to happen. To that, I say, “Leave that at the door. There is no hope, there is only you know it’s going to work or there’s some resistance.” If there is resistance, you should let your hypnotist know. That way, you can work around that issue because often issues are very multilayered and there are stacks of resistances in different ways and, one at a time, it’s going to the place where you can go. As a hypnotist, I’m helping you get there. That’s where you should go.

Just like, not all doctors are good or not all therapists are good, how can one know that they are in good hands with the hypnotist?

You need to make sure that the hypnotist listens to you. If the hypnotist is not listening to you, and you’re getting this feeling that they don’t get you, then that’s a sign that they may not be for you. There are many different hypnotists with different specialties, different personalities, and most of them can guide you through some successful hypnosis. I would say that if you want a good hypnotist, you really have to talk to them first. Go to their website, or whatever stuff they have. Get a feeling of what they do, and then go and just talk to them to see how comfortable they are. It’s coming down to communication. Do you feel you’ve been heard? Do you feel like your issue is going to be resolved, that they have an awareness and they are keeping your primary goal at hand? Sometimes hypnotists get a little carried away like, “I know, this person has this unresolved issue.” If you’re talking to somebody for a couple of minutes and like, “This is your problem,” they’re probably not a good hypnotist. In reality, the hypnotist doesn’t know what your problem is. Only you really know. The hypnotist’s job is to guide you to that place so you can discover for yourself and help resolve it. Definitely, a good hypnotist is one that listens to you specifically in a way that you feel like you’re being heard.

I love it. I think with anybody who you’re going to hire to help you, you have to be super intuitive and attentive. Make sure that regardless of what accolades they have, they are a good fit with you and you feel comfortable and you trust them because that will determine the success of your treatment.

Absolutely. For me, I go towards the neuroscience and science aspects of hypnosis. If you’re somebody that’s more in tune with the woo-woo kind of spiritualism, that’s possible in hypnosis, I may or may not be the fit. It just depends on where your mind is. But if you’re looking for somebody who’s going to really take a very structured stance and give you the best tools, and have knowledge about those tools, and can explain to you on a scientific level why this works, I’d be your guy, for certain.

Majority of why you do what you do is all happening subconsciously. Click To Tweet

Let’s dive into the science and the neuroscience hypnosis. Before we start, let’s talk a little bit about the history of hypnosis. How did people keep a map with hypnosis?

Hypnosis has been around for practically forever. It’s been around in the guise of tribal chieftains or more specifically the kind of witch doctors, or priests, or people who do that kind of spiritual thing in their practice. What that means is basically people who create emotional reactions around change. Like a priest would liven somebody up and have them filled with the spirit of the Lord, and then have them believe that emotional state goes into a new behavior that they’re going to take on.

These kinds of techniques have been around forever because this is a normal thing. It didn’t really start to coalesce into a kind of system until Anton Mesmer came up with the practice of mesmerism. Basically, this guy was one of the socialites in I believe it is France, one of the European countries. He would have these parties where basically, he would do these miraculous things where he would have people feel a little pain and do weird things in these parties. People call this mesmerism and people really took to it because he could do all sorts of things that people thought were impossible, like almost witchcraft. For example, he could stop people’s bleeding just through a wave of a wand over their arm and stuff like that. That’s how it first kind of popped into the culture.

Then, it permeated its way as people started to deconstruct it. Interestingly enough, if you do the research, Sigmund Freud had some experience in hypnosis too before he moved on to try to develop his own thing. Then, another high point in hypnosis history is that it started to get used in World War I. Was it? No, actually it must have been in an earlier war, sorry. I’m trying to remember now. There’s a doctor by the name of James Esdaile who is treating wounded soldiers on the battlefield and they didn’t have an anesthesia at that time. What he would do is he would put somebody into a deep trance-like state to take people’s arms off, treat bullet wounds and pull bullets out. He was able to get immense success from this. It’s often thought that this style with hypnosis, the pain relief style, would have taken off; if not for the fact that 10 years after he developed and was using this style to heal, anesthesia was discovered.

In hypnosis, there is no forcing change. It’s only acceptance of change. Click To Tweet

It’s interesting to think about what would have happened had a history taken a different course. From James Esdaile, it permeated. People were interested in learning it. Interestingly, dentistry seems to have a strong point for this because the anesthesias for dentistry weren’t as quick as some of the other ones. The forerunner of regression therapy, or the person that people most know, is a guy by the name of Dave Elman. He was a guy who practiced in the 1940s, 1950s, actually up until his death. He was very much in using not only hypnosis for pain relief, but also for the relief of any symptoms. He was one of the big names to come up with the therapeutic practice of regression style hypnosis. In tandem with Dave Elman was another guy by the name of Milton Erickson, who was a very famous hypnotherapist. He didn’t do regression as much as he did metaphorical change. He started to use the nature of language to get people to change.

Milton Erickson was more of the basis for NLP, Neuro-Linguistic Programming.

Neuro-Linguistic Programming had three co-founders. It was Richard Bandler and John Grinder. They basically studied three people, Virginia Satir, Fritz Perls, and Milton Erickson. Fritz Perls and Virginia Satir are actually kind of forebears for modern psychology if you want to look at what they’ve done and who inherited from them. That’s where a lot of those techniques started to take formation. That’s a whole interesting tangent, but I highly recommend people look up those histories. What Bandler and Grinder did is they modeled those three and some others as well, to create their own system based on language and other modalities to get people a pretty good change. What’s really interesting to me is that one was a linguist and the other was a computer programmer. That’s how they were able to come up with their analysis and breakdown and basically create some pretty simple systems that people can use to create change quickly. Whereas with regression hypnosis, it takes a little while to do the entire procedure. NLP can happen in five minutes. It’s really fast. It can be as effective as regression. It’s not more effective in certain scenarios. It’s fascinating stuff.

I’ve experienced NLP. I actually helped my clients with NLP techniques and it really works. I’m fascinated with the whole idea of NLP and hypnosis. A long time ago when I used to be a personal trainer, I used to put people on the table at the end of the session and stretch them, but while I was stretching them, I was talking to them. I would put them in a trance state and put embedded commands or positive affirmations that will help their training. They really accelerated. It really helped them. I was fascinated with the body, and then, I got even more fascinated with the way our mind works. How we can influence people with Neuro-Linguistic Programming and with the embedded commands. I really enjoyed it because I can see the change that it has on people when I talked to them in a certain way. I love the idea of metaphors because our brain really is susceptive to metaphors. It understands symbols. It understands metaphors. That’s a beautiful way to change, reprogram, and break some old patterns that are not serving one’s purpose.

The power of the language to change people’s minds is very interesting. Especially between the words you say, the way you deliver them, the timing of how you deliver them, the intonation, the context of how you deliver them and making sure that it’s the right place for it. It is very interesting that it all really comes together to really motivate people to do different things. They’re not even realizing that it has such power.

Some people don’t use it for good. There are those people that are into the game to seduce ladies. They use some techniques to get their phone numbers or to persuade them that they are the best thing since they’ve invented the peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Then, there are people in the religious sector, when I see those, “You are healed in the name of the spirit,” and people are shaking and moving. I’m like, “This can be great to heal them, but it also gives a lot of power to the person on stage that is running the church.” It has so many followers. What do you think about that?

I think it’s fascinating. I don’t know how I feel about it. At one level it’s a kind of way to control people because if you control the language…

A good hypnotist is one that listens to you in the way you want to be heard. Click To Tweet

You can control people with this for sure.

At another level in society, you want a certain level of control. You want to be able to make sure that society wants to gather, that people have a common dialogue. When these people use this kind of tricky language in a context where they’re supposed to be trusting them, but the person in question is actually using it to get a personal gain, that’s really dangerous. It’s helpful to arm yourself around this language. Like right now, you’re seeing it getting more prevalent in politics.

I saw a video where they analyzed one of the speeches of Obama. They broke down all the Neuro-Linguistic Programming techniques that were used in that speech. It’s not specifically Obama, most of our politicians are using those techniques.

It can be disconcerting. It’s also their job. They got to convince people to come onboard with their way of looking at the world. Unfortunately, that’s where we’re at right now. The best thing you can do as a citizen is just to become aware of these techniques and really become more aware of what your personal values are. If you can get aware of what your personal values are, these kinds of techniques won’t make you do things that you don’t want to do. It’s one of these things where just having awareness helps a lot.

I’m going to ask you this question just because I’m sure somebody’s asking that in their mind. What about stage hypnosis? When somebody goes onstage, barks like a dog, or do something that is quite embarrassing. How does that happen?

Stage hypnosis is one of those wonderful things where people basically are going there with an expectation. A hypnotist’s job is basically to build an area of trust around what he’s doing on stage. If you go to a stage hypnosis show, you might notice at the very beginning of the show, he has a long talk about hypnosis. What it is and what it does and how it is that when you’re coming up to the stage, really, it’s you that’s doing whatever it is but he’s just being like a funnel for you to have an absolute fun. There’s kind of a deal being struck between you and the hypnotist. Kind of like a subversive deal that if you come up here, and this is not being overtly said, this is more subliminal. If you come up here, you’re going to have a lot of fun if you just let go and follow along. Otherwise, you’re free to leave and go back if this is not for you. He’ll do a bunch of tests within what he does to find people that are very much in line with what he wants. Now, those people can have very amazing experiences. Some people can go on stage and completely forget everything that happened on stage even though they were doing so many things, or they remember what happened, but believe everything that happened was real. Say for example, as the hypnotist, you say to them, “You are going to not see me anymore. I am invisible.” He will hold up a pen or something, and they will, honest to God, feel like there was actually a floating pen in their memory. That’s how into it they get. But at the end of the day, as I’ve said before, all hypnosis is self-hypnosis. The people who go up on stages are the people who are ready to have fun and are basically leaving their trust in the hypnotist to make it so that they will have fun. They let go of all the ideas of propriety and just let themselves go and have fun and just be guided through this experience which is what it is. It looks to the audience like the hypnotist is in control all the time, but to be perfectly straight, the people are always in control. It’s just that they’ve figured out, at that moment onstage, that it was just the most fun thing they could do, to listen to the hypnotist.

You said that some people remember their sessions and some people don’t. When you do one-on-one sessions, do the people remember any sessions?

Generally speaking, yes. I’m glad they do because it’s a very important thing for me as a hypnotist to make sure that the lessons that were learned, were learned. If they remember the session, the changes will stick. Now, what’s interesting is sometimes, people don’t remember anything that happened. When you do your due diligence and you ask them about their issue, the issue is gone. I don’t know. This is a very interesting thing that some people find that they just lose consciousness in the middle of the hypnosis session. As we know about the subconscious, the subconscious is always awake. Unless, if you’re dead. But if you are alive, your subconscious, even when you’re sleeping, it’s always working, always observing the world, always taking in information. What happens I think for people who lose their conscious awareness and lose their memory of the events that took place during the session is simply that their conscious mind relaxed completely, and they just let their subconscious mind completely takeover. As a tangent, there’s some interesting research, if people want to see scientific unconscious thought or more specifically people having instructions when they’re “unconscious”, look up information about split-brain patients. People who have in the middle of their mind, due to trying to prevent a seizure or something like that’s stemming from something like this, or they divide the brain into two halves and cut all the connections in between the two halves of the brain. What they can do with these people is they can divide their vision. One part of their vision is their more logical conscious side of the brain and the other side is their more creative side. They can actually have them do things like get up and leave the room with complete unawareness of why they did that thing. I highly recommend people to look that up to get an idea of what unconscious experience that actually results in behavior change looks like. But yes, it’s fascinating when it happens. It’s not common. I would say that whenever I’ve encountered it, it would be like maybe 1 out of 20 so far. Most people remember, but there’s that 5%, some of the hypnotists have more than that, maybe 10% or 20% for certain ones. It’s interesting. If it happens to you, don’t worry. You still got all the change that you want. If you’re looking forward to losing consciousness, well, there is some hypnosis that can actually help you lose consciousness, but that’s a little bit more experimental. I can’t really talk to that too much.

What happens when you’re in a trance state? What happens in your brain as far as brainwaves? What is a trance state when we think about the neuroscience behind it?

When you’re in normal waking awareness, generally, you’re in beta waves. You’re processing at that level. That’s like a one way people can gauge that you’re at just a normal waking state. As a hypnotist, what you do is you have them move through their different brainwave states. First move into that alpha state, when you start to do a hypnotic induction or you start having a deep conversation with them, or something like that. We start to get their focus. That’s where that alpha wave starts. Once you start to go further, you can go further into different brainwave states. You can get them into the theta state. You can get them really deep. I can’t recall the state where if you want to go into a healing state, there’s a state that’s identifiable called the Esdaile state where you can basically put somebody in a complete numb state. Basically, they “feel pain” but they have no relation to it. They don’t react to pain. They’re completely numb. This is what people who do hypnotherapy in surgical settings, they put them into this state. Ultimately, we go around alpha or just below alpha to a state that we like to call somnambulism, it’s the part of the brain that’s devoted to listening, it activates it. It really smoothes out the pathways in your brain to immediately put information directly into long term storage instead of the usual thing where you’re trying to force memories by thinking about them and seeing if there’s something to think about and putting it out. It just bypasses it out altogether.

I did a program called 40 Years of Zen from Dave Asprey. It was really cool. It was doing almost a week of neurofeedback and we went to this beautiful house in the countryside. We had a chef that cooked our meals. That will be like food that will support brain function, super high in fat for example. We took some brain enhancing supplements because what we did there was, they compared it to doing a brain marathon. Because we have not trained before, we needed those supplements to support the process and we would go to 2-hour long sessions of neurofeedback twice or three times a day and process our traumas. Neurofeedback looks like, there, you are lying on an antigravity chair and your brain is hooked in two electrodes that are hooked into a computer that will measure your brainwaves, and then you hear sounds; you hear a brook, or you hear the beach, and the gong. You tune into those sounds that are rewarding for the brain and they will put you in the alpha-theta state. We did a few protocols, a lot to get into the alpha state but also to get into alpha-theta state. When I did those, I would process the trauma and reframe it. It was just very healing. In between the sessions, we had a talk with a coach. It was super powerful. It looks like we were putting ourselves in a hypnotic state using those brain-enhancing technologies.

It’s more than that. I find it always fascinating when I listen to this because all changes are through processes. Whether it’s going to the doctor and getting a pill, or going to a therapist, or going through something really intense like 40 Years of Zen process, or going to hypnosis. It’s all about trying to get the structure to resonate with you as somebody who wants to make a change. At the very beginning, you’re getting a little bit of elicitation because a celebrity, Dave Asprey, did the process. That in and of itself is kind of buy-in. I mean this thing is already seated in your mind, this is something special. The next thing is when you go through and you start eating for this change that you’re about to have. You’re eating things that could or could not be, probably are, I don’t know the science, but on a neurological level, you’re already pre-framing your mind for a change. This is brilliant.

Then you go through all this process and make sure you’re going to the zero gravity chair, then you’re having this coach that’s helping you work through it and you’re really getting…

There is probably a sense of significance that contributed to the whole process.

I can totally see how that process works. That is quite a well-formulated state of learning to process past issues. I’d like to say to anybody listening, you don’t need to have to go through that to get change. If you can afford it, it’s amazing and I’m jealous. If you’re listening to this and you’re like, “I need the 40 Years of Zen so I can resolve all my issues.”

No. That’s not what I’m saying. I really believe in hypnotherapy. I had hypnotherapy sessions in my life. I am constantly listening to guided meditations. I even listen to meditations from myself that I created. I really believe in that. It’s also really nice to combine the knowledge of hypnosis with neurofeedback. I’ve been doing more neurofeedback lately. I’m going to Peak Brain Potentials with Dr. Andrew Hill who was here on the show. The neurofeedback did help me even though it wasn’t spoken hypnotherapy and just training my brainwaves, it was very helpful. I’m thinking that if somebody will combine, like a coach in the room, you do the neurofeedback, you still hear the neurofeedback sounds, and there is somebody in the room that will be talking to you while doing that processing trauma, I think that will be like, why don’t people combine those two?

Well, it’s still a nascent thing. People have to come around to hypnosis and its techniques. Actually, it is happening right now. There’s a bunch of research out there that shows that hypnotherapy is incredibly effective. There’s also some new research that comes from the school that I’m a part of. They’re working with the neuroscience labs in Sweden showing that the different hypnotic states actually do deep level changes in the brain. They’re actually predictable changes that a specific hypnotic state will occur in people. There’s a lot to be done. It’s something I’m exploring. This is why I’m so keen on the neuroscience angle of hypnosis because it’s something that I feel needs more attention. I’m always looking for people to work with when it comes to enhancing things. I will also say though that while it would be nice to have a technical guarantee of brain state, as a hypnotist, there’s actually a lot of techniques and skills on an observation that we have to know when people are in different states of mental awareness. If somebody’s going into that alpha brain state and they’re really getting that trance state, there are physical signs, they give off all the clues. If you find a couple of those different signs, you can actually be pretty certain without any technology that they have entered an alpha state or a theta state.

What are the signs? What are the physical signs?

You’re looking for all my secrets today.

All of them. People tell me, “You’re getting all my secrets.” “I’m just curious, and yes, I know all your secrets now.”

If you’re talking to somebody and you really want to know if they’re tracking. One sign is their breathing. You notice a change or deepening of their breathing. Another thing that you can look at is their skin. Seeing if their skin kind of starts to change or gets a little bit more flushed. That way, there’s a little bit more relaxation happening. Another thing is to look at the eyes. Their eyes are close to seeing if their eyes are fluttering them out. Then there’s also paying attention to how they’re swallowing, how their muscles on their face look. If you’re really being attentive as a hypnotist, you’re keeping all these signs all at ones, and you’re just being aware, not focused, just aware that these things are happening. When enough of them happen, you can be pretty certain that they have achieved a state of hypnosis and help them from that point forward.

I like that you brought up this point because it looks like western medicine lately is relying on technology so much that they are losing the human connection. When in the past, the doctor could actually look at their patient, talk to their patient, and know something intuitively and holistically. Now, it almost feels like doctors are disconnected from their intuition or are really looking at the body because they rely so heavily on technology.

Well, doctors are doing only what they’re trying to do. My brother’s a doctor. We have some interesting conversations sometimes. To give it kind of a whole perspective, you have to understand, doctors have to be reliable to a degree. They are insured, they have to get the changes that they want, they operate on a structural basis which is based on research. They’re also kind of the guardians of narcotics essentially. If you’re like an addict to medicine, the doctors have to be the one to stop it or make it happen. If you’re a responsible doctor, you’re trying to make sure that you get the best outcomes in the least amount of time. The knowledge that is available to them is basically procedural and chemical. When it comes to the human relationship, oftentimes, that’s being outsourced. I know a lot of hypnotists, and I’ve gotten some referrals myself for pain, the doctors will just refer them to other people. A hypnotist such as myself or other kinds of therapists to help people deal with their pain because they’ll realize that they’re out of their depth. What would be nice is to have a one-stop shop where doctors create that personal relationship, understand the mental issues at play, and really getting to help people with their issues. If they did that, they would have to spend a lot of time with you, and because they’re like these gatekeepers of procedure and chemicals for various reasons, they just don’t have the time which is sad. This is also why I am so passionate about doing hypnosis. I’m very happy that there are all sorts of alternative therapies that people practice to fill these gaps. The way the society runs right now, doctors had to give up basically.

The power of the language to change people’s minds is very interesting because it can motivate people to do different things than what they normally do.

I think it was about five weeks ago or so that we were supposed to have this interview. I was so freaking sick and you were so sweet. You texted my husband and you said, “Hey if she wants, I can give her a session to help her.” We did a session, and you really helped me with my pain management and you really put me at ease. I remember leaving the session feeling so much better. I just wanted to acknowledge you. I want to thank you for that.

You’re absolutely welcome anytime.

Let’s talk about how do you use hypnosis to have some fun.

There are many ways to use hypnosis for fun. One memory I have of using hypnosis for fun is, I was doing an event with some people over in LA. I was taking out basically a friend of a friend out on the town, I was showing her a special time. We had planned to do some fun stuff, but the stuff is not resonating with her. More specifically because I think we got a little bit carried away with our theme which was a secret agent. We were driving to our first venue which was an amazing little escape room. I decided that I want to make this a special experience for her. I asked her if she’s heard of hypnosis and she’s like, she’s heard of it but she never experienced it. I was like, we were just talking about what it would be like to be an elephant; what’s the consciousness of an elephant actually feel like. We were also talking like, I wonder what an elephant would say to another elephant to talk about a dog. Like, how does an elephant communicate with another elephant about a dog? I was like, “Well, you know through hypnosis, you can actually hold back ancient ancestral memories that may be not available to you in your normal mind, but you can tap into the global unconscious mind to actually get this ancient knowledge. How would you like to do that?” She was a little skeptical at first. I did a little bit of induction. I started getting her into the zone then she just burst out laughing. She was just all very silly. That was fine because I wasn’t going to quit. Once again I was like, “We must have hit a nerve, you know we’re getting close. Give it one more go.” We gave it one more go, and this time I got her in real deep. I got her really into that mindset of being an elephant. Then I asked a question, “What does a dog sound like?” The sound was amazing. I have no way to describe it, except it sounded kind of wailing. The people driving in the car and everybody including her had the most riotous possible. It was so much fun. That’s the thing, if people want to just let go of their inhibitions and just have fun, going through a hypnotic process where say, you want to have a night of fun, and you will let all your cares go, you like a little preparatory hypnosis session, that’s pretty fun. A little self-hypnosis. There’s also erotic hypnosis which I don’t know if it is appropriate for this podcast but…

Everything is appropriate for this podcast. I’ve used erotic hypnosis. I’m very good at that. I’m going to not saying anything else about it. Was that the same night that we went to the escape room together?

Yes. It was that night.

I wasn’t in the car, but there was another thing that you did that was super cool. When they closed the kitchen, do you remember?

Sometimes in life, you need to get things accomplished. You really want to make things special for people, and people put up roadblocks in your way. What learning NLP specifically can do, is give you the tools to take away artificial barriers. They closed the kitchen and they mistook your order and they mistook the order of the special guest, I will leave her name.

We were so bummed. I was so sad because we were waiting for food forever, and I was hungry, and it was midnight, and there was no food. Then, you came to the rescue.

I just went over to the kitchen. I’ll leave somebody with a little gift, a little bit of a technique that they can take to their life. If you want to go and get past some resistance, say if you have special events and they close the kitchen and you want to get them to reopen the kitchen so that way you can have a special evening. What you’ll do is first, you go to the person that you have the point of contact with. Then you tell them what you want. Like, “Hey!” In this case, I told them, “Hey, we’re having a special event tonight. It’s really important that they eat. They will eat tonight because it’s important.” I am basically stating my case very clearly with a lot of compelling languages. The first thing they’re going to do is they’re going to tell you, “Sorry, we can’t do that for you. The kitchen is closed.” What you do right after that is you’re listening intently, you’re looking them in the eyes, you’re just really feeling them from their perspective, and then you repeat back to them what they just said. “I understand, you’re sorry the kitchen is closed right now,” and you state your case again. “Tonight’s a special night. My friends were really hoping to eat something special. I believe because it’s a special night, they will eat tonight.” Then, they will say again, “Well, the kitchen is closed,” “I understand, the kitchen is closed. My friends, they’re having a special night tonight.” You basically repeat this over a couple of times. Eventually, what happens is that they go and say, “Well, let me go get my manager,” which is what happened. Then you do the same thing again with the manager.

Eventually, after a couple of times, unless if there’s a really specific reason, people want to help you. They have their own lives, they want to make sure that they’re helping you for a reason. That’s why this technique, you shouldn’t have used. You should use it when it’s appropriate. It will work if it’s possible. If you’re in that situation where you find yourself frustrated at a result like, “The store is closed.” But you’re talking to the person in the doorway that you need to get into the store and say you need to go in and get some cough medicine. They’re like, “Sorry, the store is closed,” and then you say to them, “I understand the stores closed, and I’m coughing, and I feel really sick because some stuff happened this week. I need to buy the medicine now.” They’ll be like, “Well, we just closed.” “I understand you just closed and I have this medicine that I would like to buy because it’s very important to me that I get healthier.” Or whatever it is you’re saying. You’ll be surprised that people are willing to do things for you. Go out of their way, change the rules a bit to help you. You’re just clearing the path for them.

They really went out of their way because the chef wasn’t there. One of the waiters went to the kitchen and cooked the fish for us. That was crazy.

I actually went a little too far apparently, because I put a lot of emphasis on a special occasion. They also brought out a little birthday dessert for our special guest. That was a little awkward, but either way, lesson learned.

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Thank you. Thank you so much. Amazing. What are your three top tips to live a stellar life?

My number one tip for living a stellar life would be to find fulfillment. One of the things that people really often look past is how important it is to have parts of their life where they feel like they’re contributing, that they feel like they understand what they’re doing, that they’re part of a team working towards some goal. Fulfillment is a key part of living a stellar life. If you feel like you haven’t found that part in life, I would encourage you strongly to go find something that fulfills you. Second thing, practice friendship. It’s very important to make friends and to practice the act of friends, getting friends, making friends more close. It’s really understanding what friendship means to you. Really practicing all aspects of friendship. It’s one of the best life skills I’ve ever learned. It brought me to know you for example. Number two, practice friendship. Number three would evolve your values. When you have your set of values, you have this group of things that you believe in wholeheartedly, and they are worthy of being defended, and at the same time, there are times that you might have to change. You have to observe the world around you, and observe yourself, and your relationship. You got to change over time, but not too much, just the right amount for you. That would be my number three is evolving your values.

Amazing. What if somebody wants to work with you and heal some trauma, or heal some pain, or just improve their lives overall, where can they find you?

The first place they can go it is to my website, neuronosis.com. You can fill out the form and go ahead and give me some information. We can set up a discovery session to figure out if we’re the right match. Also, you can email me at anthony@nullneuronosis.com. After that, I’m more than happy to work with anybody. It really gives me great joy. If I’m not right for you, I’ll make sure that you will get exactly what you need.

Beautiful. Thank you so much, Anthony. It was a pleasure having you on the show.

It was amazing. Thank you again for having me.

Thank you and thank you, listeners. Go find something that fulfills you, practice friendships, evolve your values, and live a stellar life. This is Orion. Until next time.

Your Checklist of Actions to Take

✓ Get to the core of things to resolve them quickly. Whenever you notice a negative pattern of behaviour, get to the root cause so you can tackle the problem effectively.
✓ Keep an open mind about hypnosis. It is a misunderstood process of change that can help you overcome obstacles and trauma.
✓ Learn more about the different types of hypnosis. There are several standard progression courses and styles of neuro-linguistic programming (NLP). Find out what works best with you.
✓ Do some research before consulting with a hypnotist. Check their credentials and once you’re in session, make sure that they listen to you with intent and that they get you.
✓ Develop a trusting relationship with your hypnotist. Be honest if there is a feeling of resistance whenever you want to deal with a traumatic experience. You don’t need to dive into it right away because there are ways to work around it.
✓ Rely on yourself and take responsibility for your own healing. The hypnotist/therapist can only guide you. It is up to you whether you want to disrupt a negative pattern that affects your life.
✓ Value your relationships and friendships. It’s a blessing to have a support system who understands and accepts you for who you are.
✓ Make time for activities that give you pleasure and fulfillment. Doing something that you love, even in challenging times, is an important act of self-care and can have benefits for your mental health.
✓ Learn ways to communicate more effectively with others, and with yourself. There is power in language. It can change people’s minds or motivate them into becoming something better.
✓ Learn more about hypnosis and Anthony Peters’ work by visiting his website, www.neuronosis.com.

Links and Resources

About Anthony Peters

Anthony Peters is a hypnosis, science, martial arts and relationship nerd. From a young age he applied scientific principles to everything he leaned. Hoping to be helpful, he tried to pass along his wisdom but found there to be too much resistance in getting results. This is when he discovered hypnosis a misunderstood tool of change that allows his clients to overcome opticals and change their lives.