Shifting Dimensions
15. Hypnosis, The Mental Universe, Subjective Truth and Trance States Ft. Joshua Peters
Have you ever wondered about the mind's ability to transform itself and your reality? Join me as I sit down with professional hypnotist Joshua Peters, who guides us beyond the smoke and mirrors of stage hypnosis and into the profound depths of the subconscious. Together, we explore daily trance-like states that we all experience, and how hypnosis can harness them to reprogram our brains to fight anxiety, stress, and past trauma. This episode isn't just a discussion; it's an invitation to witness the incredible plasticity of your own mind and the possibility of reshaping your life.
Joshua shares his personal journey with hypnosis, from a childhood enchanted by magic to a life-changing realization in adulthood. His stories of overcoming fear and personal challenges are interwoven with professional insights into hypnotherapy and neuroplasticity, offering a unique perspective on the transformative power of changing thought patterns. We tackle the subjects of trance states in our everyday lives, the misconceptions surrounding hypnotherapy, and how embracing mental flexibility can lead to profound self-empowerment and growth.
Finally, revealing the layers of our constructed realities, we delve into the philosophical—examining how our perceptions form our individual truths within a shared reality. Joshua introduces his innovative hypnosis program that promises to confront fears and encourage change from within, and we discuss the impact that these tools can have on personal development and overcoming life's obstacles. Get ready to unlock the boundless potential of your mind in this thought-provoking episode that could be the key to a more empowered, fearless you.
Where to find Joshua:
linkedin.com/in/joshuareypeters/
facebook.com/joshuareypeters/
YouTube channel
xfactorhypnosis.com/shift
superstatespodcast.com
joshua@xfactorhypnosis.com
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr0p1zDPaPLmnmI3AIWhDFQ
FOLLOW US:
TikTok - @shiftingdimensions444
Instagram - @shiftingdimensions_pod
DISCLAIMER:
The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the guest’s own and do not represent the views, thoughts, and opinions of Shifting Dimensions. The material and information presented here is for general information and entertainment purposes only.
Have you ever wondered about the mind's ability to transform itself and your reality? Join me as I sit down with professional hypnotist Joshua Peters, who guides us beyond the smoke and mirrors of stage hypnosis and into the profound depths of the subconscious. Together, we explore daily trance-like states that we all experience, and how hypnosis can harness them to reprogram our brains to fight anxiety, stress, and past trauma. This episode isn't just a discussion; it's an invitation to witness the incredible plasticity of your own mind and the possibility of reshaping your life.
Joshua shares his personal journey with hypnosis, from a childhood enchanted by magic to a life-changing realization in adulthood. His stories of overcoming fear and personal challenges are interwoven with professional insights into hypnotherapy and neuroplasticity, offering a unique perspective on the transformative power of changing thought patterns. We tackle the subjects of trance states in our everyday lives, the misconceptions surrounding hypnotherapy, and how embracing mental flexibility can lead to profound self-empowerment and growth.
Finally, revealing the layers of our constructed realities, we delve into the philosophical—examining how our perceptions form our individual truths within a shared reality. Joshua introduces his innovative hypnosis program that promises to confront fears and encourage change from within, and we discuss the impact that these tools can have on personal development and overcoming life's obstacles. Get ready to unlock the boundless potential of your mind in this thought-provoking episode that could be the key to a more empowered, fearless you.
Where to find Joshua:
linkedin.com/in/joshuareypeters/
facebook.com/joshuareypeters/
YouTube channel
xfactorhypnosis.com/shift
superstatespodcast.com
joshua@xfactorhypnosis.com
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr0p1zDPaPLmnmI3AIWhDFQ
FOLLOW US:
TikTok - @shiftingdimensions444
Instagram - @shiftingdimensions_pod
DISCLAIMER:
The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the guest’s own and do not represent the views, thoughts, and opinions of Shifting Dimensions. The material and information presented here is for general information and entertainment purposes only.
What I like about hypnosis is it is magic, but it is wrapped in science and it's something that's been happening, like the think of, like a shamanic trance. That is essentially hypnosis. So ever since humans have been able to speak, we've been able to shape our reality with our words. We've been able to shape our reality with our words. In fact, my personal belief is that all of this is held together with the stories that we tell ourselves, and not just individual stories, but the collective story that humankind has been telling us.
Speaker 2:You're listening to Shifting Dimensions. I'm your host, jimmy Moses. Many of us have heard the term hypnosis before and, if you're like me, you're probably not 100% sure what that actually is. When I think of hypnosis, I think of being at a show. At least, this is what I've seen on television or on YouTube. You have a bunch of people at a show, you have a hypnotist on stage and they're like I'm looking for three to four volunteers to come on stage. Three to four people go on stage, they sit in a chair and the hypnotist hypnotizes them and they look like they're asleep, their eyes are closed, their heads are kind of bowed down and the hypnotist says as soon as I snap my fingers, you're going to wake up and start mooing like a cow. And then he snaps his fingers and the people on stage start mooing like a cow, and then he snaps his fingers again and they go back to their original frame of mind without the mooing, and sometimes they have no recollection of what they just did. And that, to me, was my understanding of hypnosis, which was also very scary because it felt like the people were not in control.
Speaker 2:Well, that's not really what hypnosis entails, entails and on this episode we're going to dive deeper into hypnosis and really talk about the power of the mind. We know that the mind is powerful and we know that the mind is dynamic, it's ever changing, it's malleable and as an entity, the mind is an entity. As human beings, we're constantly trying to understand it. We're constantly trying to hack it and control it, because if we are able to control our minds, then we can transcend a lot of suffering, which starts from the mind. Hypnosis is one such way to hack the mind, and on the show today is Joshua Peters. Joshua is a full-time professional hypnotist who empowers his clients in the most efficient and effective way, using neuroscience-based tools and processes. Joshua helps clients, through hypnosis, reprogram their mind to get rid of the things that hold them back from living their best life, and some of that stuff is stress, anxiety, past traumatic experiences.
Speaker 2:In our conversation, joshua and I talk about trans states, and this was important because Joshua really emphasized that hypnosis is kind of being in a trans state and we are all constantly shifting from different trans states. When we're angry and we see red, we can't think outside of our anger. That is a trans state. When we are in a constant state of anxiety, that's also being in trans of anxiety. That's also being in trance. When we're in the flow of something that we're doing that we enjoy, whether that's dancing, podcasting, singing, just being hyper-focused on something that we find interesting or cool or exciting, that's also being in a trance state.
Speaker 2:And hypnosis is a controlled trance state. It's a more intentional trance state and because we're so focused on the mind, we also talk about the subconscious mind, consciousness. We talk about the power of the mind. We talk about subjective reality. What is the truth? Because a lot of things that we experience in this world start from our mind. This was a very fun conversation and we went down several rabbit holes. Can't wait for you guys to listen. Dimensions, I'm really excited to speak with you. How are you.
Speaker 1:I'm great, jumi, thanks for having me on the show. I'm excited speak with you.
Speaker 2:How are you? I'm great, jumi, thanks for having me on the show. I'm excited. Yes, you know, I think the topic of hypnosis is something that I've always been intrigued by, but also a little bit skeptical, right? Because I'm like can you really hypnotize?
Speaker 1:people. How does that actually?
Speaker 2:work Right, like how do you really get people to release control and just go under, or however people describe hypnosis right? So I want to get from you the official definition of what you would consider to be hypnosis, and how did you get into hypnotherapy?
Speaker 1:Okay, so I have to unwrap what you just said there a little bit. So first of all, I'll give you the definition of how I see hypnosis. Hypnosis is a relaxed, focused state. That's how I look at it, but a lot of times I like to take away the word hypnosis because there's so much wrapped up in that which it's good. When I go out and I introduce myself or I reach out to a podcast, they're like hey, hypnosis, that sounds interesting. But also there's all of these misunderstandings, expectations that aren't really correct, like you just said, putting you under right. This is what we think of as hypnosis from all of the television shows we've seen or maybe the performances that we've watched. So the reason I like to take out the word hypnosis and what I replace it with is the word trance. That's what this really is. This is a state of trance, a relaxed, focused trance state, and the other thing to remember is we are in and out of different kinds of trance states all the time. In fact, you are probably in a podcasting host trance state right now. Right, and I know I'm a podcast host too.
Speaker 1:There's a certain way of being that you kind of step into when you're interviewing somebody. That happens with other things too, so that happens with the problem states that people have Anxiety trance is a very common one Worry trance. But you also get trance states like watching television. That's a trance state. We're just kind of staring at a flashing light on the wall. Right, you can get into a trance state. We're just kind of staring at a flashing light on the wall, right. You can get into a trance state driving. You drive and all of a sudden you realize you missed your exit. That's a driving trance. So the point of all this is that we're going in and out of trance. That gives us access, in that relaxed, focused state, to our internal resources that we always have available to us, but sometimes we forget.
Speaker 2:And so this is how we can heal. That's what it's all about is getting to that place where you can now heal yourself. Yes, and I actually want to quote something that you said that I pulled from your website. You said hypnosis is a normal and natural state of mind. You've experienced many times similar to a daydream, or getting lost in a good book or movie.
Speaker 2:And I think you kind of explained that with you know someone's driving they could be in a drive driving trance state, even me podcasting. Now I'm in a you know podcast host trans state. So to really kind of make sure I fully understand what you're trying to describe, are you talking about just being lost in something like you're completely focused on that?
Speaker 1:one thing. That's exactly what I'm talking about. That's exactly what I'm talking about, and you know that this is true, because you might be watching that flashing light on the wall and you're watching images and you're hearing sounds, and all of a sudden you start crying. We're watching an actor go through an emotional moment, but we connect with that and in some levels, we are in that moment. That's why we're having that emotional experience. So it's, and so that's why I use kind of getting lost into that experience as a example of that. Whether it's it's a book, where you get just totally engrossed in the, in the moment, whether it's meditation, and you're just sitting in a position and you're in the moment again, right, that's really what it comes up to. What it comes to is when you're so engrossed in where you are, right, here and now, that you can go somewhere else. It's kind of the best way to describe it.
Speaker 2:Did you ever watch that movie Soul on Disney Sold Soul S-O-U-L.
Speaker 1:Oh Soul. No, I have not.
Speaker 2:So what you're describing reminds me of a particular concept and scene in the movie where, whenever someone is hyper focused on what they're doing, so they were kind of making an example with if you are so in love with making music, for example, so they had this guy playing the piano. He loved music and he wrote music and he played music, and every time he was playing the piano he would be in a trance and he would kind of find himself on this different mental plane that probably was also physical as well, but also invisible to us in this earth realm. So it was a a very cool depiction of just being so in the flow. I think that's what they called it being in the flow. So it kind of sounds similar to what you're describing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and from a neuroscience point of view because there is science behind it we are calming the beta brainwaves and bringing us down to an alpha state or even to a theta state. So that's the deep trance theta state and a flow state. It's kind of going down into theta but then back up into beta, down into alpha. Alpha, like a flow state, kind of jumps back and forth, which is why you get those insights of creativity, but also you're in that relaxed, focused state at the same time.
Speaker 2:And is this different to meditation? I'm assuming that it is, but I would also assume that meditation is a form of being in a trance state as well. Is there some sort of correlation between meditation and hypnosis?
Speaker 1:It's similar. It's not quite the same but it is very similar and when you measure it like similar things are happening. But you can tell there's differences between the two. The way that I experience it differently, because I meditate pretty much every day for a length of time not for a ton of time but for enough time and when I'm meditating I'm just kind of focusing on my breath, I'm being present in the moment.
Speaker 1:I don't usually listen to a guided recording. When you listen to a guided recording and you're meditating, that is way much more like hypnosis, because now you're following the, the trail of whatever the story that's being told or whatever the visualization is. With the kind of work that I do it's it's kind of similar to that. But at the same time we are I am with my client in the in the moment, with them, kind of following them in their trance, and I can help to guide them and I can shift that, I can change that as needed, where if something might come up for them, because they're not just sitting there or laying there with their eyes closed and I'm saying words. That is happening, but I'm also getting feedback from them, so I might have them describe to me what they're experiencing and that will help shift the words that I give them next that keep that experience kind of growing and changing for them.
Speaker 2:Very interesting and you know, I know we're starting to creep into the notion and subject matter on hypnotherapy and I want to talk about that and how you got into hypnotherapy because I think you have a very cool and interesting background. And I want to talk about that and how you got into hypnotherapy because I think you have a very cool and interesting background. So I know that you have an extensive background in design within the corporate world and you also have a background in magic. So can you just talk a little bit about your background and then how did you get into hypnotherapy?
Speaker 1:Yeah, for me. I developed an interest in hypnosis at about the age of 13 when I found a book in my school library and it was really fascinating to me. My dad was an amateur stage magician so I kind of liked all that stuff and had seen him practicing card games and I knew some tricks and things like that and this felt sort of similar but different. The book basically taught me some very simple things like what's called a progressive muscle relaxation. You've probably heard that. Most of the listeners probably haven't heard that term before, but that's where you relax from the top down or from the bottom up, every muscle in your body, just nice and slowly, and by the time you get to the end you're probably asleep. And that's essentially what I used it for was to just fall asleep at night or to feel a little bit more relaxed. When I needed to take a test. I promptly forgot about hypnosis as I grew up and uh, and then I got into. But I was always interested in the other side and you know I I played Dungeons and Dragons and so I was very visual in my imagination, telling stories. I like to kind of be the one making up the stories for people, which is kind of like what a hypnotist does, but we're all in this hypnotic trance together right and over time I kind of became a young adult and had some really challenging relationship moments and felt totally out of control, like I felt like my life was out of control. And that was when I started to get interested in magic and there was a bookstore across my work. That was a used occult bookstore and so I would go there pretty much every day and find some new book and just got fascinated by the idea and so I practiced some relatively simple things and then I kept living life.
Speaker 1:So at about the age of 35, I found myself really stuck. All this time I had been practicing different magical acts, trying to better my life, but at the same time I was really frozen by fear and I was afraid to put myself out there. I was afraid to try new things. I was afraid to tell people that I didn't know something, like I would literally pretend I knew everything that everybody ever talked about and I learned nothing. But I didn't want to like be stupid or whatever it was in my mind.
Speaker 1:I was really afraid of all that stuff. And uh, all this time I'm basically not really making choices in life and kind of letting life just take me this way in that way way, and really felt like I was a victim, so that there was a moment when I was 30, I'm 35 and I'm uh, I'm I'm waking up out of a trance and I'm holding the torn, destroyed remains of a wicker basket that I just kicked to pieces, destroyed it in in rage, and, uh, my wife had told me that she was done, she had found somebody else, she was done, and I had five kids at the time and they were all sleeping in the room kind of right next to me, but I knew they had just heard everything.
Speaker 1:They had heard my rage. I'd been angry more than that. That wasn't the first time and I knew this was a problem. They had heard my rage. I had been angry more than that. That wasn't the first time and I knew this was a problem. She's going to leave.
Speaker 1:Life is not working out the way I wanted it to. My sister suggests I take this workshop, and it was a landmark forum. You've probably heard of landmark forum, but it's essentially a weekend workshop that really shakes you out of your stuckness and you start to get new perspectives on things, shifting your perspective right. So and it worked really well to shift my perspective what the biggest thing that I got from that was there is no meaning to anything in life. Got from that was there is no meaning to anything in life except the meaning that we give to things and we get to choose that meaning ourselves. And that blew my mind and it started me on this path of making choices.
Speaker 1:I I had been working as a graphic designer and I had this job that I thought was this amazing job that I always wanted, but it was eating away my soul. It wasn't working for me. I was living in this town that I grew up in, that I never wanted to live in, but I was there for 20 years Living in a house I didn't want to buy but I owned it for 20 years and in this marriage that was just falling apart. It was not a good fit. It hadn't been a good fit for a long, long time. So I made choices. I filed for divorce. I quit smoking. I got a job close to my kids that was in line with my values, in an organic food company. I started getting involved with the community, which I had ostracized myself because I wasn't like them, like all these things that I had stopped myself from doing. I started doing, but I didn't have hypnosis. So it was very like, just kind of like pummel my way forward, which is a way to make change.
Speaker 1:But it's hard and it takes a long time and it took me about 10 years to basically pull myself out of this pit. I had dug for myself over 15 years. At the end of that 10 years I had kind of taken my life where I was you know where I could go in that town and I wanted to move from. I was living in Southwest Wisconsin at the time and I wanted to move up to the twin cities where I live now, minnesota, about four hours away. I still had a couple of kids in high school. They didn't want to come with me.
Speaker 1:I was really uh. It was really important to me to be a dad and to be there for them. And again all that fear came up. I went and saw a hypnotist and she helped me realize doesn't matter if I go, I can still set my life up to support my kids and to be there for them. And yes, it's going to be a little bit more challenging, but it's not impossible. And that worked so well that I realized if I could do this for a living and help other people empower their lives, get past their own stuckness in less than the 10 years it took me, that would be the most empowering way I could think of to live. So then I found a mentor. I started working with him. I worked with him for about a year and a half, started seeing friends and family and coworkers, and about a year after that I had built up the business enough to go full-time and been full-time since 2018.
Speaker 2:You said so much there. There's so many things.
Speaker 2:I want to touch on. I don't even know where to start. I mean, honestly, in your story I heard two distinct things, right, one kind of touching on the power of the mind and how we shape our reality. And also, as you were talking, it made me remember this podcast that I listened to called Hidden Brain, and they had an episode where they were talking about a contamination story versus a redemptive story, right, and it kind of ties back in again to what stories are we telling ourselves? And a contamination story could be synonymous to being in victimhood and feeling like you don't have any power over your life and just kind of literally sleeping through life, not literally but figuratively. And then the redemptive story. The redemptive arc is when the person, the protagonist in their own story, wakes up and realizes actually, I have a lot more control, and it all starts with my mind. The mind is such a powerful thing and I want to dive deeper into the mind.
Speaker 2:But before we dive deeper, I want to know what hypnotherapy is. So we talked about hypnosis, right, and kind of being in a trance state, but hypnotherapy mixes hypnosis, right, and kind of being in a trans state. But hypnotherapy mixes hypnosis, obviously, but the therapeutic part of it is to get someone to. For example, I know you work with people to release anxiety, release self-doubt or self-sabotage, so can you talk about that a little bit and how you work with clients to release those things?
Speaker 1:about that a little bit and how you work with clients to release those things. Yeah, for sure, those different things that you just talked about whether that's anxiety or self-doubt, or even a phobia like fear of driving or flying in the brain, these are pathways and this can be measured. There's neuroscience behind all of this. Those pathways are literal pathways neurons connected to neurons, with synapses to create a path. Those types of pathways are created all the time. Many of them, like the most powerful ones, tend to be created around an emotional situation. So something highly emotional happens and we most of the time it happens when we're young, when we're kids, and we can happen any time in life, but a lot of times these things happen when we're kids. So something highly emotional. You could call it traumatic if you want. I prefer a highly emotional past experience because it's actually more truthful to what it is. So something happens as kids, we don't know what's going on, we don't understand life, so we make something up. We make up things like well, I guess I don't matter, and we create this pathway and what the brain does is it is looking for those pathways because it wants to be efficient and it wants to use as little energy as possible. So it looks for pathways that are getting used. Anxiety is a great example. So something happens in life scary maybe, or a little bit scary when we're kids. Emotion comes up, we feel anxiety. We get away from that situation, oh, we're okay, we're safe. Safe means we didn't die. And so the brain goes okay, well, let's store that. A little while later, something else kind of similar happens. Anxiety comes up. Oh, remember we did that thing before and we stayed safe. Okay, we'll do that again. Oh, yeah, it worked, I didn't die again. Great, every time that gets used, it gets stronger. This is a concept called neuroplasticity. Right, when the brain uses these pathways, it gets stronger and stronger. Well, eventually, that one kind of situation where anxiety worked, it works so well that the brain starts to map that across other areas until usually, by the time somebody comes to see me, they feel anxiety in a healing, that changing the way the brain is working and literally rewiring those pathways.
Speaker 1:Uh, and we do lots. We do that in lots of different ways. Obviously we go into a hypnotic state, which can be deep or light it, it doesn't matter. Like you don't have to be you, you aren't unconscious in hypnosis and you, a lot of times I will guide somebody into a deep state, but sometimes I can just have them close their eyes and they just naturally go into that state. Like we have access to our imagination. Whether or not we walk down a flight of stairs very slowly and I say 10, 9, 8, and all that stuff, right? Or if you just close your eyes, you can also just imagine things, and that's honestly hypnosis too, just not what we think of it as hypnosis.
Speaker 1:So we go into a hypnotic state deeper light, and then we use different processes, and those can be imagination, visualization. They can be working with memories, they might be working with different aspects of us. I might have you just uncover a metaphor that is related to the problem, and we use that to help go past it. Like, uh, like, if, if, if, you could imagine that your challenge was, uh, a block of some sort, what would that be like? And then they'll, it'll pop up for you.
Speaker 1:Well, what would you like to do with that? Well, I'd like to smash it down with a hammer. Okay, what happens when you do that? There's a path in front and I can just walk down the path, right? Things like that just kind of unfold when we go into that hypnotic state and we give ourselves permission to think differently. From a neuroscience point of view it's even simpler. We are talking about your problem. That activates the pathway, the problem pathway. We use these processes to send those neurons down a different pathway and we do that over and over again to rewire the brain, to change how you're feeling in the moment.
Speaker 2:So I'm assuming that probably takes several sessions. That wouldn't just be a one and done type of thing.
Speaker 1:It's not a one and done type of thing. It's not a one and done Like. You've been building this pathway for your lifetime and it would be. It would be false of me to tell you that you can eliminate it in a single session, although that can happen, and typically even after a first session, people are starting to get some traction and some changes happening Because, outside of like the work that I just described, I also give people lots of different ways of lots of different tools, things they can do themselves that are not hypnotic but are neuroscience based, ways to calm the nervous system, to get out of a fight or flight response, to get out of your head and into your body, and those things can go a long way. Those are the ways that we start to have control ourselves and we don't have to feel like a victim all the time.
Speaker 2:That's good, it's so interesting. My concept of hypnosis was from when you would go to a show and someone has a couple people on stage and they're like I'm gonna put you in a trans and as soon as I snap my fingers you're going to start making pow noises or something silly, and then the person um starts doing those things and then they snap their finger again and it's like, oh, they don't even realize what happened. But you know, in talking with you about this, obviously I know it's not, you're not doing the caricature version of hypnosis, but I'm saying all of this to say that it's just so interesting how much power lies within the mind, right, and to me it almost comes off like magic being able to get people into these states and have certain thought pathways in certain patterns or behaviors or decisions that they are so used to making all of a sudden shift Right. And what's interesting why I brought up that example as well is that it seems like the person has still has control. They still have, they know what's going on, right. So which is good to know, cause I'm sure people listening to this again might have had the same perception I did where it's like oh, someone puts you in a trans they can. They hijack your brain and then when they want to unhijack your brain, they snap their fingers. But that's not all hypnosis is, and it goes way beyond that and has really good benefits for people who choose to go into hypnotherapy specifically.
Speaker 2:But speaking about the mind, right, are you? We talked about neural pathways, so I know that there are three levels to the mind, for example, we have the unconscious, the subconscious and then the conscious, right. So are you hacking the unconscious mind? Are you hacking the subconscious mind? And just a level set for the listeners, right?
Speaker 2:How I think about the unconscious mind is that part of us that is kind of automated. We're so used to doing things a certain way we're not even aware that we're doing certain things. It's just automated within us. And then the subconscious mind, to me, kind of influences the unconscious. I guess they all influence each other, but I think of the subconscious mind as a part of our brain that houses a lot of pivotal moments in our lives that affect us in a way that we might not be privy to. And then the consciousness piece of the mind is the awareness. That's the part of us that if we're able to connect with, we can, most of the time, map out our actions and kind of wake up to how we're living our lives. We're more conscious to and more intentional with how we're moving through life, and you can let me know if I have that correct or not.
Speaker 1:Sure.
Speaker 2:But long story short. So with hypnotherapy, what part of the mind are we really interacting with?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a great question. So there's, first of all, all, there is no way to determine what is the subconscious mind, what is an unconscious mind? These are essentially metaphors that humans have created for these different experiences that we have. Right I I like to look at it a little bit differently. So for me, there is the conscious mind. This is the awake part of us. This is more like the ego kind of mind, right, the one who wants to be famous Like that's the conscious mind. And then the next layer I look at as the unconscious mind, and these are just different semantics.
Speaker 1:Right, to me, the unconscious mind is the part of us that is the automatic response, whether that's automatic part of our body or the automatic reaction when a trigger moment happens. So it's the part of us that holds those moments that you're talking about. And then the next part I think of as the deeper mind and that is and we're going to get a little spiritual here that is that spark of the greater consciousness that is housed within all of us. So that is us at our highest potential, right when we are living full out as a fully activated human being that is not thrown this way or that way by those unconscious habits, beliefs and behaviors. That's the part of us that is, if we didn't have any of those things and we were just like a spirit floating through. That's who we are, that spark of the greater consciousness expressing itself through our body. That's how I look at it.
Speaker 2:Thank you, and I love getting spiritual. So would you say that when you have someone in a trance that you're trying to get to, that spark, that deeper mind that you were talking about?
Speaker 1:I'm often helping them connect with that part of them or at least making it more real for them. You know, and you can think of that like bringing in your guides or having your ancestors come in. It's all very similar ideas, just maybe a different kind of wrapper to the idea. Right, yeah, and what I like about hypnosis is it is magic, but it is wrapped in science and it's something that's been happening. Think of like a shamanic trance that is essentially hypnosis. Think of like a shamanic trance that is essentially hypnosis. So, ever since humans have been able to speak, we've been able to shape our reality with our words. In fact, my personal belief is that all of this is held together with the stories that we tell ourselves, and not just individual stories, but the collective story that humankind has been telling us, and the story gets bigger and bigger as we can see further into the universe with the work of Dolores Cannon.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, sure, yeah, so he has a similar.
Speaker 2:I think he got a certification from her organization I think it's called HHT and he kind of does something similar to what you do, right, but, like you said, everybody has a different way of going about it. But he taps into people's past lives and kind of takes a look at their karmic I don't know if you believe in karma or any of that stuff but kind of takes a look at their karmic blueprint and the journey that they've had in past lives, because some people say that some of the things, some of the phobias that we might have, or some of the things that kind of hinder us to reaching our fullest potential, some of that is not necessarily created in this reality. It's probably created from a past life, right? So he kind of goes. I think it's a pretty deep trance what he does to uncover some of these memories from past lives. So it's just all very, very fascinating and I want to kind of dive deeper into the mind, right. So we're going to get a little bit more philosophical and spiritual here, which I'm very excited about.
Speaker 2:So what are your beliefs about the mind? So you kind of kind of gave us a sneak peek right, so you talked about what you went through and how you were viewing your world. What you went through and how you were viewing your world, and then you had a breakthrough moment and realized that you can kind of start taking new action, make new decisions. You work with a hypnotherapist and I think you've unlocked new levels of your mind and you were able to control your life. But I kind of want to hear a little bit deeper. With the work that you do, how do you view the mind? Because I think the world is mental, right? So kind of what we talked about right before we started recording Hermetic Philosophy One of the first principles is that the world is mental. So I just threw a lot at you there. But I just want to hear if you have any sort of deeper insights or thoughts on the mind and the mentalism of this reality that we live in.
Speaker 1:I mean, I do have lots of thoughts around that and, first of all, it's impossible to know what the truth is and ultimately, my personal belief is that there really isn't any truth. We create that truth and so we get to decide what that is right. That was that insight that came from, uh, the landmark forum for me. But I look at the mind. If I think about it like the way you just asked me, I think about it like a filter and because we're taking in information of, and really my experience has told me that all of this around us is energy and actually science tells us that too and it's at the smallest level. There's pure energy and that's when you break everything down. You're down to energy, and all of this, everything is made up. My desk back there, this microphone, everything at its core is energy and is moving. It's literally active.
Speaker 1:So I guess my point is that we're surrounded by all of this energy and this brain filtering through our eyes, our senses, is what puts together the pieces that we experience as the consensus reality that we're all in right now. So to me, that's what the brain is. It's this kind of this filtering mechanism that takes all of the senses that our sensory organs are sending us and makes some kind of sense out of it, which might be different to you than it is for me. There's no way to know, because you can't be in me and so we can't understand what is happening. And we can try with words and things like that, but still it's a subjective experience. We're all within our own subjective experience and I don't know to me. That's the best way that I can think of to describe it.
Speaker 2:I 100% agree with you, and part of the reason why I wanted to start a podcast called Shifting Dimensions was to curate conversations that could get us closer to what the objective truths are Right, because, to your point, I do believe that we are all projecting our own version of reality and everyone thinks their reality is the true reality, right. So then you get to this juncture where you're like OK, what is the truth Right? And I always say where I've landed on this right now is that everyone, like there's a picture landed on this right now, is that everyone like there's a picture, right and it's. Everyone has a different puzzle piece and they think their puzzle piece is the whole picture, but it's like no, I actually need to put my picture, my puzzle down, my puzzle piece down, you need to put yours down and we need to create this unified image, right? So I think what you said rings so true to how I see things as well is just that what really is reality.
Speaker 2:I think reality is what we create in our minds and, like you said, everything that we have, everything that we are seeing in this world, is held together from what we have in our mind Right, our stories as well, which is, I think, is so fascinating, because there have been moments in my life where I had a specific perception of something or someone and then, all of a sudden, it feels like that reality is just so untrue, I can no longer relate to it, that constantly shifting, relate to it, that constantly shifting. So, anyways, that was just me rambling a lot, but do you feel like there are objective truths? Right, so we just talked about like we all have our own version of what we consider to be true, but do you think that there are certain things in this?
Speaker 2:world that are just objectively true, without any sort of interpretation. I don't. That's a hard question, because someone could ask that's the easy question but you okay. So playing devil's advocate, right? Because someone could ask you know, um, when we talk about violence, for example, yeah, is it an objective truth that violence is wrong? Some people might argue that violence is wrong. And then some people might argue that it's not an objective truth that violence is wrong, because sometimes people need to protect themselves, right.
Speaker 1:I mean, look, even a little bit larger than that, because throughout the universe stars are exploding and tearing apart whole solar systems. That's pretty violent. Is that wrong that that's happening?
Speaker 2:wow, that's true right.
Speaker 1:I mean, yeah, trees fall over and they smash a whole ecosystem of insects, and birds are killing other like raptors are killing rabbits to eat. This is, I mean, I understand what you're saying. Right Like now we're talking about morality, which is not a truth. It is something that we're placing on. It's kind of like a law that we create for ourselves so we can live in a human existence. So this is a truth. We're creating for ourselves a law maybe not a truth, but a law that we're creating for ourselves that we, uh you can only be violent in certain situations, and if it's outside of that situation, then it's wrong. But I mean, are you a meat eater?
Speaker 2:Yes, I am.
Speaker 1:So you have to kill the animal to eat the meat. Is that violent? I would say that's probably violent.
Speaker 2:Yeah, some would argue that is violent. Yeah, I mean, you just made such an excellent point where, when you talked about nature and also, like the universe, that is such an excellent point because there is a lot of violence within creation and nature. So is violence inherently wrong? Right, and, like you said, now we start talking about morality, and that in and of itself could also be subjective.
Speaker 2:But I think this is the part that I think get a lot of people overwhelmed, right, and I think this is what gets people so fixated on their belief systems or having a set of rules that they can abide by, because I've had conversations with people where I'm like, yeah, but you know, there's no such thing as the ultimate truth, and that freaks a lot of people out, because then what do we have to hold onto Then? What is the purpose of being a good person? Or and not to be dramatic, but those are some of the thoughts right, if everything goes and everybody, anybody can make an argument for this could be true, or this is a possibility, then how do we, how can we agree on a collective Truth of what's good or bad, if that makes any sense? I just think people need to feel grounded, and I think sometimes with these conversations People get a little weary Because it's like so are you telling me that my reality Could potentially be incorrect, and that scares people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, to even think about that. It does scare people, and you don't need a moral code or a set of laws to act in a way that is good for a collective. We know what is right, like, even though my belief I'll put it that way is that nothing is true. That doesn't mean that I am going to go out and kill my neighbor. I like humans. That doesn't mean that I am going to go out and kill my neighbor. I'm I like humans.
Speaker 1:I like being part of of this whole thing and exploring life. I'm like I am not an inherently violent. I mean I eat meat, so I guess I am violent because I do that. But but other than that, I'm a relatively peaceful person that enjoys life and enjoys loving people and being part of something bigger than myself, and most people are like that. We don't need, in fact, the people that are out there doing violent acts. A lot of times they will be followers of all of the laws that tell us not to do certain things and they'll still do them. So you don't. It's just because you have a set of laws that you're supposed to follow doesn't mean you actually follow them. There's nothing that stops you from following laws. What is it? What do you feel like in your heart is the right thing to do in a situation? And just do that, because you're probably just going to be kind to each other.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's, that's very true.
Speaker 2:And you know, even kind of going back to talk about the mind, I think one thing that has been one of the biggest breakthroughs for me and understanding that everyone is just projecting their own version of reality.
Speaker 2:So, for example, just again to level set for the audience, I could kick you and tell you oh my God, that was an accident.
Speaker 2:From my perspective it was an accident, but from you, depending on what filters you have on and how you see the world, it could be like here's, someone else is hurting me again, nobody cares about me, et cetera. Right. So in understanding how deep the mind and how powerful it is and how we are all kind of living on our own individual planets, it has helped me not to say I shouldn't hold people accountable or stand up for myself in situations where I need to, but the mental anguish that it normally would have caused me or caused me has a lot of that has been released. It also makes me want to ask, like I know you work with clients on anxiety and self-limiting beliefs and giving them tools to be more empowered and becoming the best version of themselves. But are there limitations to hypnosis? Can you get someone to rethink trauma, for example. Right, because I know that you also talk about shadow work being integrated in your work sometimes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and to me, short answer yes, hypnosis can help with trauma and it's not something that you have to re-experience to go through it. There's ways to heal that without having to have another traumatic experience again. Shadow work is all of this Like. Shadow work is integrating the parts of us that we just don't like. So, for me, that anger part right, that part of me that was angry and felt frustrated and felt trapped in the situation and was kind of reaching out or like reaching out is the wrong word acting out by getting angry that was the part that I needed to, I needed to come together with and I needed to be okay with.
Speaker 1:And because it's a, it's a powerful part of us the, the anxiety is the same way. Or all those parts that, those pieces of us that show up in those trigger moments. They really just need to be loved. And that's what shadow work is is loving all of the parts of us, the good parts, the parts that we label as bad parts, loving them all to integrate them all to be a whole person, which is kind of what you just described like being able to get kicked and take a step back to realize, oh, that had nothing to do with me. That wasn't just an accident. That's healing, that's living in a conscious way instead of in an unconscious way.
Speaker 2:Right. And is hypnosis? Hypnotherapy? Is it permanent? So let's say I was coming to you because I struggle with anxiety and I have, I don't know, eight to 10 sessions with you and I'm able to significantly reduce my anxiety, because obviously different things can trigger us. But is hypnosis? Is this a long-term solution? Because I could have anxiety around my job and I work with you and I release that anxiety. Something else might come up in my life to start to cause anxiety, so does it look at the whole picture I'm trying to make sure I formulate my question correctly.
Speaker 2:I don't know if you're understanding what. I'm trying to make sure I formulate my question correctly.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you're understanding what I'm trying to say. I think what you're asking me is if we focus on this one area, on anxiety, does it fix everything related to anxiety? Yes, so it's a little bit more complicated than that. I mean short answer is it helps. It may not eliminate it in every situation, but typically the way you do one thing is the way you do everything, and so if we focus over here on this anxiety, it does spread across to all these other areas.
Speaker 1:Because, remember, we're taking this pathway that's been grooved into the brain. It's like a superhighway and we're breaking it apart, tearing it down, building a new pathway. And that's so. As we're using neuroplasticity to build this new pathway, it becomes the path of least resistance, it becomes a new superhighway. This one might still be a little bit of a trail here, and it's very comfortable, it's familiar, so it's easy to kind of slip into that sometimes.
Speaker 1:But once you've done this work, you can start to recognize oh, that's right, I'm doing that again. Well, let's come back over here to this pathway. When I'm working with somebody, I am giving them tools, and those include the hypnosis work that we're doing. If I'm doing my job right, I'm working with somebody, I am giving them tools, and those include the hypnosis work that we're doing. If I'm doing my job right, I'm working myself out of a job because I'm teaching people how to do this work themselves, and those are the people that have the best results are the ones that take the work we do, take the ideas that are coming up and they run with them and they learn to do them themselves that are coming up and they run with them and they learn to do them themselves.
Speaker 2:I like what you said If you're doing your work right, then you'd be working yourself out of a job because you're trying to teach people how to do this themselves. And something else I've come to realize is that a lot of and I'm not a psychologist, but this is just my theory at the moment and it's not a blanket statement but I've come to realize that a lot of anxiety and depression and angst that people feel within themselves usually stems from not giving themselves permission to do what they want to do with their lives right, and it could be as basic as maybe not being in that relationship, not being in that job, pursuing a different career, traveling or expressing their ideas or, you know, going against the grain. And I find that a lot of times what causes people so much suffering is because they're trying to fit into a life that no longer fits them.
Speaker 1:That describes me in my mid-30s for sure, and it's like stepping out of your comfort zone, right? So my method it was a little bit of a weird method. My method was I just started to follow my curiosity and one of the things that I got curious about was performing. So I told you, I started getting involved with my community. One of the ways that I did that was I uh did some murder mystery dinner theater Like I, I uh, I posted these and kind of made them happen and it was a way of raising money for my kids, for their school, for the drama department, because I was interested in all of that. Eventually, we did a show that had a circus sideshow element to it and I learned to eat fire for this performance and I was fascinated by oh, this is really amazing the sideshow art. I found myself a mentor and I trained with a world famous sideshow artist for uh and then built out a show that toured around the Midwest for about 10 years.
Speaker 1:So the reason I'm telling you all of this is these are so sideshow is like eating fire, laying on a bed of nails, escaping from a straitjacket, walking on broken glass. All of those are traditional sideshow acts and they're all relatively easy to do, except you have to get past your mind. It's relatively easy to lay on a bed of nails In fact there's a lot of science behind that because there are so many nails that when you lay on it, no one nail takes up that much pressure and it's uncomfortable, but it's not going to hurt you. Nothing pokes through you, you never bleed. But you have to get past this idea that I'm going to lay on these nails. Lay on these nails Broken glass is the same kind of thing. It actually doesn't feel hard at all when you do it, but you're putting bare feet on a bunch of broken glass, eating fire. If you know the techniques, it's not hard, but you're still shoving a burning flame into your face.
Speaker 1:So the point of all of this is what I was doing for myself was I was teaching myself to face fear, and then I was teaching people that were watching the show. They can do this too, because these are all relatively simple things and I would teach kids I've taught thousands of kids how to lay on a bed of nails and there's this beautiful moment when I kind of help lower them down and they're looking at me and they're afraid, but they're trying to relax and I tell them to take a breath when they're laying on the bed of nails and they take this breath and then their eyes change. They realize I did this, I can do this. It's this amazing experience to watch all these children realize they can do more than they thought they ever could by just teaching them how to lay on a bed of nails.
Speaker 2:That's beautiful. That was an amazing story actually, and I had all of the imagery in my mind, picturing someone lay on a bed of nails or step on glass. I'm like, oh my God, that seems so daunting. But, like you said, when you do it it's easy, but you have to get over the mind.
Speaker 1:You have to get over the fear.
Speaker 2:You have to get over the fear. Everything starts from the mind, which I think is again just so fascinating and I have to ask you, because I asked this question to all of my guests, especially with the work that you do, it seems like you're obviously constantly reflecting or having deep, you're in deep thought. Probably you think deeply about a lot of things right, I do yeah.
Speaker 2:So what do you think the purpose of life is? And again, that's a loaded question. I just want to hear your perspective because, to your point about, like nothing is real, everything's real but not real at the same time right, everything could be true, but nothing's true at the same time. So why do you think we're here? Like what do you think the purpose of this reality is?
Speaker 1:reality is my, my thought, my belief around. That is, the purpose of this reality is to experience this reality in all of its full exploration, the, the good stuff, the negative stuff. So, if you think about it as if, if we are universal consciousness so we already talked about that spark of consciousness, right, we are all this spark of consciousness. What I believe anyway, you can believe something different, but I believe we are all. This spark of consciousness like the bigger consciousness. It's like pure bliss. It's something that is unexplainable to us now, but when we're in it it's just, it's everything. It's like everything that's ever happened, everything that's ever will happen, all happening at once and it's just this blissful joy.
Speaker 1:Love, pure love. It's kind of boring, boring, and so this great consciousness wants to experience the physical reality because it's in the energy. The energy is just the energy and it's, like I said, it's this universal love. So to do that, it has to break up into these little sparks and go into a physical medium us, as an example, but probably trees and pieces of grass and everything, everything that is existing, suns, planets, all of it Anything that has anything that's physical is also energy and that energy has that spark in it. So my belief is that that spark is coming through us so that it can experience the full range of what the physical plane can give it, which, again, the hard stuff, the good stuff, in fact.
Speaker 1:It wants to feel the stuff that we're considering negative, but to the spark it's just a feeling, and if you think about it in the body, it's literally just a physical feeling. Within the body, we label it with emotions, but if you take away the label, all you have left is a feeling in the body Anxiety. Your heart's racing, your palms are sweating, maybe there's this kind of thing in your gut that you're feeling. Well, that's the exact same feeling as excitement. It's just a matter of what's the label that you're putting on the feeling. Somebody who is going to stand up in front of a bunch of people and speak could choose I'm feeling anxious about this or I'm feeling excited about this, and whichever frame they want to put on that feeling in the body is what they get in the mind.
Speaker 2:It's interesting. I've heard people say the same thing quite a few times. So I think to my mind I'm like, oh okay, well, god just got bored. And I was like I think to my mind I'm like, oh okay, well, god just got bored. And I was like, oh, let's see what, let's see what I created, let's see what all of this is. And it's like, okay, well, you've learned now. Like, can we wrap this up? Just kidding. Anyways, I think that was a great perspective. I really enjoyed that so much. This has been such a great perspective. I really enjoyed that so much. This has been such a great conversation and thank you for indulging all of the different rabbit holes that we kind of went through. Briefly, I really enjoyed it, thank you so much, absolutely, jumi, it's been fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's been fun. So I have to ask one last question. It's a fun question to kind of wrap this all up and is have you shifted in perspective on anything recently? And it could be as lighthearted as you want it to be, or it could be as deep as you want it to be.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have a lot of shifting happening. That's all around relationships with me right now and uncovering a lot of old stories that I thought were important that are not important, but I thought they were, and so there's been a lot of. I've had a lot of growth in the last couple of months as I'm exploring that, and a lot of challenges, but, luckily for me, I have lots of tools and, if it's okay, I'd like to share one of those tools with with your audience.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Please go ahead.
Speaker 1:So one of the things that I have really wanted to do is have a uh, a simple, basically a low cost or free way even for people to get a transformational experience, because sometimes it's a little daunting to reach out to, whether it's a hypnotist or a therapist or somebody who's doing any kind of those healing modalities and and uh. So what I've done is I I have a it's basically an hour long session that I like if we were going to do it now, I could run you through this probably in about 30 minutes and we could transform a fear, a worry or an anxiety in your life in that amount of time. Hard to do that without me being there. So what I did is I created a seven-day program that runs you through this experience using just emails and a couple of audios. So if you think that would be of value to your listeners, oh, absolutely.
Speaker 1:So if you go to xfactorhypnosiscom slash shift, that's going to take your listeners to a page to have that experience. However, there's one caveat to this. This requires engagement. This requires engagement. So this isn't like all of the other email things that you do, where you sign up for it and you get to it later. If you sign up for it, you need to be involved, you need to put energy into it, and if you don't put energy into it, I boot you out, because it's not any point in being in it if you're just going to be there as a consumer. This is about making a transformation in your life. So if that's, you, go to xfactorhypnosiscom slash shift and transform your life.
Speaker 2:That's amazing. So is it sort of like a virtual hypnosis program, or is it more of people watching videos and you giving them tools to rewire their brain or start to thinking a different way, to release anxiety or fear, for example?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's literally taking a one-hour hypnosis session that I would do with somebody, which would include some kind of conversation and kind of understanding where they're at, giving them some tools, understanding how they do a problem, finding out where it comes from and then transforming that.
Speaker 1:So it's basically a session, but it's blocked out in seven days, mainly because I wanted it to make it simple. So every day there's something really small, just a simple task to do. But there's a task to do and you have, to like, do it, and I know if you've done it or not. And then, if you do it, then you go to the next day and then you do the next little task there and you go to the next day and it's going to run you through a, like I said, real simple process, but at the end, uh, you're going to have a hypnosis experience. So there is a recording that's going to walk you through a transformational experience. And then the final thing is in. The arguably the most important piece is we're going to take what you got from that session and we're going to integrate it into your life so that it, which makes it solid, grounds it into your reality, into your story.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's amazing. And do people have access to you? So if they sign up for the program and you're, they're getting.
Speaker 1:I'm an email away. In fact, that's it. I, I. This is about transformation, first and foremost. So if anybody, if you, if you're starting this and you're like I'm, I'm there, I'm on the other side of those emails. So this is not like a fully automated thing that I don't even know what's happening. I know everybody that comes in. I see them come in, I'm tracking them, I'm making sure that they're getting what they need.
Speaker 2:Is this just for mental health or it could be a shift in anything that anyone is looking for? Or is it catered to people who are dealing with anxiety or fear? What about people that have used?
Speaker 1:it for all kinds of things, um, any kind of thing that triggers you, right? So if you're in a moment and you get triggered, that's a great thing to use this process for Cause cause. That trigger is likely related to lots of other times when you get triggered. So if we can pull out that charge, so now that moment can happen and you can make a different choice, you can respond the way you want to instead of just automatically reacting.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, that sounds very cool and interesting. Thank you so much for sharing that with the guests. I'm sorry with the listeners, and where else can people find you so outside, you know, outside of your website? Where can I know you have a podcast? Where can people find you? So my podcast?
Speaker 1:my podcast is called Superstates. We explore some similar things to you, but really we're exploring consciousness and altered states of consciousness. In particular, I like to focus in on hypnosis, obviously that's. That's a one of the ways. Psychedelics is another way of altering your consciousness, sex is another way, and then breath work. So those are kind of the four bigger buckets, and sometimes I talk to other people as well. I've had people, musicians come in, witches have come in. There's lots of ways to talk about altered states. So that's one way. Superstatespodcastcom If you go to xfactorhypnosiscom and everything is there. There is a link to my podcast there. The free program is there as well. If you're into're into social media, I'm on basically all the social medias using at joshua ray peters and that's r-e-y that take that like. I'm on youtube, facebook, instagram, linkedin, tiktok, I think, all of those in there and I'm sharing a lot of different pieces of the podcast but also different tools that can help people make shifts in their own dimensions.
Speaker 2:I love that. I love the pun. Thank you so much, Joshua, for stopping by the Shifting Dimensions podcast. It's been great speaking with you.
Speaker 1:It's been fantastic. Jumi, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2:Guys, just a friendly reminder that if you are enjoying the show, please make sure you subscribe, make sure you rate, leave a review, engage with us Honestly. Your engagement, your subscriptions, you sharing helps to bring visibility to the show. And if you're enjoying it, please show the show some love. And if you want to continue to rock with us, you can follow us on TikTok at shiftingdimensions444, or you can follow our YouTube page or subscribe, I should say, to our YouTube page at Shifting Dimensions. You can find us there. Thank you again for tuning in. See you next time.