A relative of mine recently decided to try hypno therapy because he has panic attacks. It seemed to help a bit and I listened to an interview that the therapist did with a "client" and as he sounded like an alright guy and the woman being interviewed said that she had overcome severe mental health problems and totally changed her life I agreed to give it a go as well.

I've had one session where he said that he wanted to clear stuff like feelings that I was holding on to and that were holding me back. Anyway, he's given that relative of mine a video to watch and I've just seen it myself and it's all about what these people are calling "the secret". They are obviously actors and they make a lot of claims about what this "secret" can do for you and tell their stories and reenact scenes from these events.

It's all about the "law of atraction" and positive thinking. It has most of the trappings of a religion. You need to have faith and you basically have to pray for the things that you want and believe in them. One example that they gave was a guy that wanted to test if it really works, so he wished for a hundred thousand dollars. They claim that anything is possible if you use this secret. You just think about what you want and have the right emotions and you will atract it into your life somehow. They are even claiming that you can recover from physical illnesses and disabilities by doing it.

I've got sight problems and their philosophy is that you somehow ask the universe for everything that you get, so according to them, I brought it upon myself and it's possible to cure myself with their techniques. Needless to say, I'm a bit suspicious about this. The video was a comercial. The hypno therapy or "life coaching" is expensive. It has all the hallmarks of a pyramid or ponzy scheme. People at the top saying that they made a lot of money etc out of it and selling it to others that can be told that they're not doing it properly and that it's still their fault somehow if it doesn't work for them. It seems like a lot of the techniques could be genuinely useful and I'm certainly not knocking positive thinking but this thing seems to involve embracing a philosophy and world view that's a bit far fetched and they just tend to use bits of popularised science (like saying that everything is energy) to legitimise it for the modern day and the emphasis is upon recieving, rather than giving.

I'm not entirely sure what to make of it. Needless to say, I'm a bit cynical about it and I have tried "alternative" therapies and medicine before and even faith healers because you will try anything if you're desperate enough and hear about success stories.

A relative of mine recently decided to try hypno therapy because he has panic attacks. It seemed to help a bit and I listened to an interview that the therapist did with a "client" and as he sounded like an alright guy and the woman being interviewed said that she had overcome severe mental health problems and totally changed her life I agreed to give it a go as well.

I've had one session where he said that he wanted to clear stuff like feelings that I was holding on to and that were holding me back. Anyway, he's given that relative of mine a video to watch and I've just seen it myself and it's all about what these people are calling "the secret". They are obviously actors and they make a lot of claims about what this "secret" can do for you and tell their stories and reenact scenes from these events.

It's all about the "law of atraction" and positive thinking. It has most of the trappings of a religion. You need to have faith and you basically have to pray for the things that you want and believe in them. One example that they gave was a guy that wanted to test if it really works, so he wished for a hundred thousand dollars. They claim that anything is possible if you use this secret. You just think about what you want and have the right emotions and you will atract it into your life somehow. They are even claiming that you can recover from physical illnesses and disabilities by doing it.

I've got sight problems and their philosophy is that you somehow ask the universe for everything that you get, so according to them, I brought it upon myself and it's possible to cure myself with their techniques. Needless to say, I'm a bit suspicious about this. The video was a comercial. The hypno therapy or "life coaching" is expensive. It has all the hallmarks of a pyramid or ponzy scheme. People at the top saying that they made a lot of money etc out of it and selling it to others that can be told that they're not doing it properly and that it's still their fault somehow if it doesn't work for them. It seems like a lot of the techniques could be genuinely useful and I'm certainly not knocking positive thinking but this thing seems to involve embracing a philosophy and world view that's a bit far fetched and they just tend to use bits of popularised science (like saying that everything is energy) to legitimise it for the modern day and the emphasis is upon recieving, rather than giving.

I'm not entirely sure what to make of it. Needless to say, I'm a bit cynical about it and I have tried "alternative" therapies and medicine before and even faith healers because you will try anything if you're desperate enough and hear about success stories.

Yeah. It seems apealing and seductive in a lot of ways. I even think that it's likely that physical problems that I've had could have been triggered by emotional stress that I had. I'm aware of my own emotional or psychological problems and want to feel more positive about the future and believe that it could be good and I know that I have to be more motivated and start seeing more solutions than obstacles and all of that.

It's just when these people tell you about things that really do seem out of a person's control that it really starts to sound like sheer superstition. There's a difference between someone wishing for a hundred K and then using the resources and ideas he already had to get it and somebody saying that they want to live in Germany and then their husband getting a job in Germany out of the blue. There does seem to be the caviat that you have to wish for something reasonable. I suppose that it's got to be something that I can really believe is possible and it has to be physically possible for the universe to give me it. They won't claim that an amputated leg will grow back but there is a story about a paralysed man that walked again on that video.

The therapist did tell me to take a week and to email him and tell him how I'm getting on anyway. I'm really not sure about it and yes, the fact that money changes hands makes me cautious about it, when I might be more into it if it was free. I wasn't looking for miracles when I considered trying this thing and it seems great and even plausible that this guy has had success with people with serious issues and mental health problems but he's virtually saying that I can have anything I want and told me that he did help someone to recover from partial sight loss.

I do not doubt that some illnesses and disabilities are just the result of psycological trauma and that the body is better at healing itself when you're feeling positive but part of this therapy seems to be asking patients what "secondary gains" you get out of staying as you are and because I told him that I tried to see some sort of upside or "silver lining" to it when I developed sight problems he tried to say that that had been the thought or wish that I had had, when it was after the fact. I just feel skeptical about it being a scam or a cult obviously and it seems like if you don't totally buy into it and have total faith you can't complain about it not working but that's actually quite a lot to ask.