Take a good tour into the vast untapped world of hypnotherapy with Michael. R .Weir, a renowned clinical hypnotherapist from Pittsburg, U.S.A as he shares with us the benefits of this wonderful therapy, in an exclusive interview with Soul Curry.

Michael R. Weir is a highly talented, renowned certified clinical hypnotherapist, Currently based in pittsburgh u.s.a. For the past 19 years michael weir has been healing and treating people from all over through the wonderful science of Hypnotherapy. He successfully uses the therapy for medical, psychological and Spiritual upliftment of the people. His constant guidance has led people to freedom from allergies as well as chronic pain, and let stutters speak freely. He has helped people to be free of many other illnesses, fears, and joint problems. He is the member of the american board of hypnotherapy which is one of the world’s finest organizations dedicated to the excellence and advancement in the field of hypnotherapy and neuro linguistic programming (nlp). He is also associated with ‘the hypnotism society of pennsylvania’ which is america’s oldest established hypnotism society. The society was founded in 1943 and continues to thrive to this day.

• Soul Curry: Michael, let’s us start with some very basic questions. So what is hypnotherapy?

• Michael Weir: Classically, hypnotherapy can be defined as the use of hypnosis to modify or change a person’s behavior.
  On the level of form, hypnotherapy is used to cure issues like Addictions, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Allergies (Complete freedom from all types of allergies), Anxiety, Asthma, Bedwetting, Chronic Pain (including residual pain from accidents and surgeries), Chronic Sore Throat, Compulsive Eating, Depression, Drug Addictions - Cocaine, crack, emotional addiction to marijuana and more, Fears - Flying, Heights, Spiders, Closed in places, to name a few.
  But hypnotherapy is not confined only to the level of form. It is much beyond that. We will know as we proceed with the questions.

• SC: How does a person react in a hypnotic state? Is hypnosis sleep?

• MW: People in a hypnotic state are very aware of what is happening around them, but they do not care to judge. Their ability to judge or analyze is temporally suspended, as the conscious mind which is responsible for judging and analyzing is relaxed into the background.
  The term hypnosis came from the Greek root “hypnos,” meaning sleep. Contrary to popular belief, hypnosis is not sleep. It only superficially resembles sleep because the subjects are relaxed and usually, but not always, keep their eyes closed. Hypnosis is an amazingly wonderful feeling.

• SC: When hypnotized you can hear and understand everything your therapist says. You can talk with your therapist, and after the termination of the trance state, you have a full and complete recollection of everything that occurred while you were hypnotized. Can we get stuck in hypnosis?

• MW: No, we cannot. Hypnosis is a natural state of mind; you enter and exit hypnotic states naturally. In the therapeutic setting, the hypnotized subject still retains his or her control and can terminate trance at will.
  The therapist always brings the hypnotized subject back to the full awareness of his or her surroundings at the end of the session. Each and every time you go to sleep or wake up, you go through a state of hypnosis. Every time you have ever daydreamed you are in the same state of mind. Have you ever been driving and passed your exit because you were focused on the road and for a few minutes you did not realize where you were? The state police call this “highway hypnosis” because that is what it is! It’s very natural and very easy to do! All you have to do is be willing, expecting, and follow few easy directions and you are easily guided inside yourself and the healing begins.

• SC: What is the role of subconscious mind in hypnotherapy?

• MW: The subconscious is the first level of the mind you reach beyond the conscious mind. The Subconscious mind houses all memories, all emotions and all parts of our personality. Do you know how sometimes part of you wants to go and do something, and part of you just wants to stay home? This is a very good example of how we have many parts that make up an ego composite of who we think we are as an individual ego. This is also the protective part that focuses on protection of the individual’s ego self.
  Subconscious mind leads us into super-conscious mind but before that, it is subconscious mind where our illusions of current life and past lives are held.
  The super-conscious is the gate way to real knowledge as the level of your true-self. This true self is actually your true identity. So on the most upper level is layer of conscious mind, and then comes the subconscious mind; unconscious mind is in-between subconscious and super-conscious mind.
  When a person sinks into deep sleep he bypasses the subconscious mind and straightaway goes to unconscious level of mind. Then where do the dreams take place? Dreams happen at the threshold of subconscious mind and unconscious mind.
  These thresholds are not defined like fine lines or boundaries. From here conscious mind ends or subconscious mind begins but they are rather abstract or merged. As we move deeper, from sub-conscious mind we move to super-conscious mind, or we can say to the state of awakening, realizing our true-Self, the most pure-self, devoid of all exploitations! (Again these are not defined boundaries). Rather I would say we leave behind the conscious, unconscious, subconscious and even superconciousness mind. This is all the subtle anatomy of mind. Hypnotherapy operates mostly on the subconscious mind.

• SC: Can hypnotherapy be used on operating people and women in labor pain to ease out the stress?

• MW: Yes, it can be used on clients who are going to have operation. I have worked with many to overcome the stress and prepare the body to understand what is going to happen to it. I have worked with some and used hypnosis to remove the pain during an operation. Yes, it can be used to ease stress during labor also. Hypnobirthing is a process of using hypnosis to make a pain and stress free labor instead of using normal pain-numbing medications.

• SC: What is the difference between transpersonal hypnosis, hypnosis and hypnotherapy?

• MW: Hypnosis is the bypass of the conscious (rational, analytical, thinking, and judging) mind and implanting of selective thinking in the subconscious mind.
  Hypnotherapy is the use of hypnosis for therapeutic purposes to modify behavior, help with many health issues and to understand past lives. It is the use of hypnosis beyond just implanting pleasant suggestions. Transpersonal Hypnotherapy recognizes that the body-mind-spirit as an indivisible unit, and considers the higher purpose as a possible reason for the experiences we undergo in a lifetime. It also incorporates aspects of the higher self into the therapeutic session.
  There is also what I call as “God Therapy”. Here we try to understand and seek some basic questions like why we are here, to awaken from the illusion of our separation.
  Such long pondered questions become as simple as they have always been, before we decided to complicate them. Everything that we strive to achieve in life is just a symbol of reaching for that unconditional love that we feel we have left in the first place. In truth we have never left. Delusional separation is not real; that there is no separation at all.
  It is an illusion. My separation is an illusion. For all issues and problems in every illusionary life time is all based on perception of separation from unconditional love. At night you are dreaming and you forget that you are safe in bed. All life we are dreaming, having a nightmare that we are lost. Well some can be so inert that they may not even question it. Here we try to bring in ‘God Therapy’; I am sure every religion in this world, every therapy has talked about this, in their own way. Ways can be different and so can be names but the idea remains the same.

• SC: Why are some people successfully able to complete the therapy while others remain insensitive to it? Is it due to subject possessing strong or stubborn minds?

• MW: Therapy with hypnosis can happen as long as the subject is willing. At times subjects do not want to let go. If they resist we have many ways around that resistance, if they still resist we examine why they are resisting.
  Many times it comes from the uncomfortable behavior/ailment they are doing as they have started to identify themselves with it. Without that behavior or ailment they are not sure how to act as they have associated it as part of who they are for so long. In this case we just work and allow them to know who they will be without the behavior they are trying not to let go.

• SC: While going through the past regression therapies can one regress back to a desired age, say for example a subject wants to regress back to the time when he/she was 25 years old in his/her previous life. Is this possible or the subconscious mind just experiences the past life events rather spontaneously?

• MW: You can regress someone to a desired age in a past life. The subconscious mind experiences past lives just as it does this current life. Past lives are only as real as this current life, they’ve never happened, except in a dream based on separation from who you really are. But still they are important in finding Lost Tracks!
  We are travellers travelling on the path of destiny, the road may have been forgotten in the present life, or we were about to complete some task and we lost track of it in present life. Through past life regression we can recognize them and move on with greater determination.

• SC: Does it require special talent to learn hypnotherapy or with proper training anybody can acquire the art?

• MW: The only special talent is a willingness to self heal and then helping others to do so. One has to be very unconditional in order to understand this therapy.

• SC: How far do you think hypnotherapy has come in today’s time?

• MW: On the level of form, it is hardly known yet. Misconceptions are the norm. It will take a lot of time before it will be widely used for its true power to heal and spread love.