Brian Weiss is the psychiatrist who wrote Many Lives, Many Masters, and many people who contact me say that book is what first made them wonder whether the fears, relationships and unexplained patterns they carry might have a story that reaches beyond this lifetime. His other books include Only Love is Real, Messages from the Masters and Same Soul, Many Bodies. I took a class with him in Austin in 2005 through an Omega Institute program, right after I started learning hypnosis. It was a large group, around 150 people, and watching him guide a group process made the work real for me. It was no longer only something I had read about. If Many Lives, Many Masters is what brought you here, you are in good company. The full story is in the Teachers and Influences section of my blog.

You need a computer, a solid internet connection, a webcam and a headset. A laptop or desktop is much better than a tablet or phone, and it needs to be plugged directly into power so nothing shuts off in the middle of a four to five hour session. High speed internet keeps the connection steady. Position your webcam so I can see your face and upper torso, because I watch your breathing throughout the session. The most important piece is a headset, headphones or earbuds with a microphone close to your mouth. Your voice gets soft and relaxed in trance, and that close microphone is what lets me hear you clearly and record the session for you.

It is just the two of us. The session needs to be one on one, because if someone else is in the room with you, something might come up that you do not want to talk about in front of them, and you might hold back, you might not open up, and whatever it is might be important. The recording is yours too, and you can share it with anybody you want, or with nobody. Beyond that, there typically are not embarrassing or private things that come up. It is always a possibility, but the things that come up are things that need to come up. There is always a reason. So if something private or embarrassing does come up, the question becomes, why did it come up? What is it getting your attention about? It is usually something in your life that needs to be addressed in some way, not by me, by you, and if there is something I can help you with, I am more than willing to help you with it.

No, I do not read from a script. There is a term, Scripnosis, for a hypnotherapist reading a generic pre written script word for word to a client. I avoid that approach because a canned script cannot respond to your unique personal issues and what your subconscious needs in the moment. My sessions are interactive and client centered. I listen closely to your words while you are in trance and create custom suggestions in real time based on what you say. That is also how I teach my students to work. The result is a session built around you, shaped by your own language and your own experience rather than a page of text written for someone else.

Yes. Positive talents and abilities from past lives, things like writing, teaching, music or healing, are carried forward in your soul's cellular memory. One client of mine had always been drawn to flying, and on his very first lesson he could handle the plane by instinct, because he had been a pilot in a previous life. When we access those lifetimes in trance, I ask your subconscious mind to bring those positive talents forward with you. What tends to happen is that abilities you have barely touched become easier to learn and to amplify, and clients often find themselves using them in their careers or creative work in ways they had not expected.

You do not need to deliver eloquent descriptions for this to go well. There is no right or wrong way to experience trance, and once the analytical mind steps aside, words come more easily than you expect. I keep my questions gentle and open, things like what do you notice and tell me more, and I let your impressions come out at their own pace. It is a collaboration rather than a performance. Quiet and anxious clients typically find they feel comfortable within a few minutes and share their journey just fine, and some of the richest sessions I have facilitated came from people who barely said a word in everyday life.