Eric Webster is a Hypnotherapist, Lifestyle Engineer, and Akashic Reader.
Hypnotherapy is a proven method to deal with specific issues that affect health, such as weight loss, performance or situational anxiety, smoking cessation, and pain management, among others. Akashic records allow access to the spiritual consciousness of a client’s soul through their past, present and future life experiences to provide understanding and guidance. Lifestyle Engineering is a comprehensive approach that uses hypnosis therapy—and sometimes Akashic records—to identify diverse sources of personal dysfunction and resolve them.
What concerns do people have about hypnosis or hypnotherapy?
There is misinformation about hypnosis, as there is in every arena right now. Historically, some folks were afraid that hypnosis was the “work of the devil.” This view is not common today, although those folks probably wouldn't seek me out. Today, folks are more likely to have concerns about giving up control of their mind. They are reassured when I explain that they can rely on their own subconscious mind to be their guardian and the gatekeeper.
As a therapist, I can only implant a suggestion in the mind of client that they find acceptable in terms of their own morality and innate desires. What would happen, for example, if I was a crook and planted a hypnotic suggestion in a client’s subconscious mind to go to their bank, empty out all their accounts, bring me the cash, and have no memory of the event. Their subconscious mind would recognize that suggestion as nonsense and would just slap that suggestion away like a hockey goalie. In my experience, understanding the role of the subconscious mind tends to allay the biggest fears that people might have. I've been doing this for 9 years and find people to be far more open and accepting than you might expect.
What usually convinces people to give hypnosis a go, especially for weight loss?
The one line that I hear most often is: “Well, I've tried everything else, and nothing works… so I figured I've got nothing to lose by trying hypnosis.” I understand that reasoning and it always puts a smile on my face, but wouldn’t it be great if we could turn that around, and people said: “Well you know, rather than trying all of the miraculous but ultimately ineffective weight loss programs out there, I think I'll go see a hypnotist who can help me reset my relationship with food and with eating.” They could save themselves a lot of self-abuse.
Hypnosis is a method that works and could save people from counterproductive years when they repeatedly lose 20 pounds and then gain 30--which seems to be the norm. Many weight loss efforts are based on deprivation, and people can't live in deprivation forever. When they stop depriving themselves, they gain back what they lost and add another 10 pounds for good measure.
Hypnosis helps people get over their programming. We’ve all been programmed by our moms, dads, teachers, peers, ministers, siblings, spouses, and the culture in general. They sent us messages about who we are, what we deserve. Oftentimes the message from Mom regarding weight is “Clean up your plate, honey, you'll be a big boy, or you'll be a big girl.” I don't think Mom knew what a what a prophetic statement that was. And as a reward for being a big boy or a big girl, we got dessert, which just drove that nail in a little further. We're taught to ignore the wisdom of our bodies; we're taught that if there's still food on our plate, we must still be hungry and that if we clean up our plate, we're being a good boy or girl.
But belonging to the Clean Plate Club is not good for us. It’s one of the many reasons we eat that don't have anything to do with being hungry. It could be a matter of how much we put on our plate, but a lot of times it is a matter of habit, boredom, frustration, loneliness, anger, or distraction. We eat because it's mealtime or for one of those emotional reasons.
When we eat distractedly, we miss the signals from our body saying: “Okay, we're good here, that’s enough.” Oftentimes we just keep on eating in a hurry so by the time the signal gets where we can hear it, we've shoveled in another whole helping that we didn't need. I ask my clients to imagine taking their car to the gas station, filling up the tank, and then pumping 2 or 3 gallons out onto the pavement. That's what they are doing to their bodies. So, what convinces them to try hypnosis? They are looking for something that works for them, customized to their subconscious messages, their awareness, and their intentions.
Can hypnotherapy be used instead of bariatric surgery?
I use the Virtual Gastric Band process developed by Sheila Granger from the United Kingdom where she works out of a doctor's office and her services are covered by the national health plan. Our non-surgical method doesn't involve cutting people open, risking infection, or requiring weeks or months of recovery. It is particularly suitable for those who aren't eligible or don’t want surgery for whatever reason.
We are working to connect with bariatric medical facilities on this side of the pond to provide alternatives and therapeutic support. Bariatric surgery patients may lose a massive amount of weight, but don’t keep it off because they haven't worked on the head part of it, like woman I met who lost over 100 pounds several years ago and has unfortunately now gained it all back.
From what I hear the bariatric centers are getting better about involving the mind, but there is a lot of truth to the statement that: “It isn't what you eat that makes you heavy... It's what's eating you.” That's the realm where my work is so effective… I’m convinced that when bariatric surgeons include hypnotherapy in their program for surgical clients, the outcomes are significantly better and more sustainable.
How could the causes of significant life issues be determined and resolved by Lifestyle Engineering in a few hours when regular therapy takes months or years?
Well, not to take away from conventional therapy…I've done a lot of it over my lifetime and have found it to be incredibly valuable and helpful. I do not work with clients with mental illness, and I rarely work with alcoholics or drug addicts since it requires a different skill set and training than I possess.
I do help people with a wide spectrum of emotional and behavioral issues, such as performance or situational anxiety, smoking cessation, and pain management, among others. I am able, with hypnosis, to cut through much of the resistance. Many of the stories we consciously tell ourselves may not be 100% accurate. Hypnotherapy goes right to the source of where those decisions are made and where corrections can be are made. Essentially, we do some reprogramming. Each client is consciously aware of the entire process and can evaluate what rings true and what doesn't.
Successful behavioral change relies upon the client continuing to make good decisions. For example, a smoking cessation client is perfectly capable of walking out of our session and buying a pack of cigarettes, but they are much less likely to want to do so. There are never any guarantees, but making better decisions is mightily reinforced by the process. Hypnosis helps determine specific triggers for an issue and allows the client to resolve them and redirect their energy in a positive way.
What kind of reinforcement do people typically need after hypnotherapy sessions?
Well, the weight loss is 4 sessions spread out over four or five weeks, and so that sort of hammers itself down. I also created a support recording that I place in that in their private Dropbox folder, so that they can access it from wherever they are. I encourage them to listen to that every night as just as mental support for what they're doing.
Just yesterday I finished creating a smoking support recording. I actually have not found a great need for that since people tend to respond to hypnosis like we've shut off the switch. This was true even for a client who had been a two-pack a day smoker for 40 years. He said he had tried everything and thought: “Well, I guess I’ve got nothing to lose.” He needed both of his knees replaced and his surgeon wouldn't touch him until he'd been off cigarettes for 6 weeks.
I did a little bit of pain control in the first session, because it just hurt me to watch him walk in. He was obviously in anguish when he walked in and sat down for his second session and said: “So I've not had a single cigarette since I walked out of here and I can't even believe it. The guys I work next to on either side are still smoking like chimneys and it doesn't bother me a bit. I know you did a little bit on my pain last week. Could we just focus on pain today?” And so, I did a little reinforcement on smoking, but I spent most of the session on the managing and alleviating pain, and he walked out of here looking fairly human. He has sent me quite a few referrals since then.
How do Akashic Records readings help your clients?
Akashic Records are essentially a metaphysical storehouse containing the stories of each person’s soul. You can imagine it as similar to a massive computer cloud database. The records include all lifetimes—past, present, and future—and everything they have ever thought, said, been, or done. I have benefited greatly from reading my own record and have set up a separate Lifestyle Engineer path that I can use in during my hypnosis business to connect with the records of my clients.
If the client gives me express permission, there's a prayer that I read 3 times during the hypnotherapy session to access their Akashic record—one time out loud and then two more times silently. I connect with the client mentally and spiritually and my mind channels information. The record suggests what will happen if the client keeps going in the direction that they are going. With understanding about what is influencing them and guidance about their past and future, clients have free will to change direction and outcomes. Sometimes direct messages appear in my mind and come out of my mouth that are directly from the record… they do not have the phrasing or specific words I would normally use. These often are laser focused to be received by the client in exactly the right way.
Any behavioral area where the client feels like their life could be enhanced is an area that I can help with, such as athletic, professional, or academic performance. A lot of people have severe anxiety about taking exams, flying, heights, confined spaces, all those sorts of areas. I can certainly deal with diverse types of stress and anxiety, reset sleep patterns, smoking cessation, and the weight loss we have already discussed. I also do past life regression with people and use a hypnotic place help them guide them into traveling back to other lifetimes.
Can you describe what past life regression is like?
My gosh, it's fascinating stuff. I do believe very firmly in reincarnation, that we have all been here before, and we are very likely to be back here at some point again. A recent client and I did a past life regression reading. In the lifetime we traveled to, he was the commander on a German submarine that got sunk, and he died. The event was all so very clear to him, and in the regression, he was pulled out of the sub before he knew he was dead and was taken to his home back in Germany. It was Christmas Eve when the navy officer came to inform his wife and 2 children that he had died. And so, he witnessed his wife from that lifetime. There is more because this guy is a researcher. He went online and found in that timeframe there were only two U-boat captains with his name and only one perished in the war. He sincerely believes that he knows the identity of the real person that he was in another lifetime.
I always make sure the client goes back as an observer to a previous life because I don't want them to go back into the trauma that they might have experienced, and I want them to watch it from above. One of the questions we always ask that version of the client is whether there is any lesson here? Is there any nugget that you would like this soul to take with them? As we left the session, he was told that his current wife and two children are the same souls as the wife and two children that he had in the lifetime in Germany, so it was almost like he wasn't supposed to have perished. Because he did die, however, it seems those souls got another shot at being a family. He was just remarkably moved by all of that, and he went on to be a virtual gastric band client and so did his wife. And now both his wife's mom and dad have come in because they've been so pleased with what they see in the kids that they're all they're all doing it.
It's fascinating stuff, but it’s hard to describe and I could never do it without source. I'm kind of the Tour Guide and as long as I believe, as long as I stay in pure intention, committed to doing no harm, I can help people live as the best version of themselves. I have seen incredible changes and relief firsthand and repeatedly. I did a reading for a woman who had miscarried, and she was still absolutely devastated. Sadly, the miscarriage process damaged her body so that she will never carry another pregnancy. Well, the soul of the baby that she was carrying came through in the reading with a message that explained what had happened, that they had been together in other lifetimes, and they would be together as mother and child in another lifetime. She walked away so comforted and relieved, and hopeful. I always have one or two meaningful encounters at spiritual fairs or events that just leave a mark on me because they are just so powerful. At that event, I realized that's why I had to be here that day, that woman needed that closure, that peace of mind, and I was lucky enough to receive the message on her behalf.
Is there anything in the Akashic record that involves ancestral issues for families or other groups?
Yes. I believe, have read, and been told the powerful thing about ancestral issues is that when a person in this lifetime does the healing work to eliminate an issue for themselves that the work clears it for all generations. Their ancestors are like… “Oh, thank God somebody finally dealt with that!” And that chain has been broken for all future generations, so that they aren't they aren't locked into repeating an unproductive pattern.