Sunday's Sermon

In my work I use hypnosis, intuitive ability and energy healing to help my clients achieve their goals. in all of these modalities the person must choose healing; I cannot force hypnosis on an unwilling person; I cannot make a person accept my psychic intuition about their future or the cause of their medical condition, and I can’t compel a person to let in healing energy if they are unwilling to perceive themselves well.

The reputation and nature of these modalities is cause enough to select for the clients most open to change using these tools. Most of my clients come to me because they have an awareness of an obstacle, limiting belief or bad habit that stands between them now and what they perceive to be success.

Our minds work in mysterious ways, sometimes which are thoroughly baffling to us. I have clients who are completely certain they want to be thin, yet they sabotage every small success they achieve towards their weight loss goals. I have clients who swear they would do anything to be pain free, yet resist all efforts towards healing. I’ve worked with people who know their alcohol or drug use is undermining everything that’s important to them, and yet they cannot seem to stop.

I learned in my hypnosis training that when we sabotage ourselves it is in part due to conflicting subconscious desires. We’re literally of two minds. For instance: a woman may not want to lose weight because it may mean she will need to be intimate with her spouse again, and she really doesn’t want that. This is not something the conscious mind might even be aware of, but her subconscious motivations -- or secondary gain -- are quite clearly being expressed when she takes a second helping, binges on dessert, or is just “too tired” to go to the gym.

A man with knee pain so severe can’t walk more than a few steps comes in with a conscious mind motivation to get well. But his secondary gain, or subconscious motivation, may tell him “hey, you’re getting a disability check, you’ve worked so hard, you really need a rest. If this knee heals you have to go back to work and you’re just still so tired.”

A young teenager who abuses drugs and alcohol may see the downward spiral she’s riding, and believe and voice a desire to change. But her subconscious mind might recognize the frightening feelings of vulnerability in sexual maturity, or hear in her mind’s ear the admonitions of an over-cautious parent, and numb those feelings with alcohol. The subconscious mind always chooses safety over risk, and sometimes it feels so much safer to avoid or insulate or repress uncomfortable feelings than to process them.

Part of my job as a hypnotist, intuitive and healer is to listen for and recognize these subconscious motivations and to gently help the client acknowledge and then change them. For some clients this secondary gain is so strong we don’t succeed. They don’t come back for their next session; they get lost on the way, or get sick; sometimes they just come in and fight with me!

On my intake form, I ask my clients if they practice any form of prayer, meditation, faith or religion, and if they believe in God. Aside from that, I never initiate a conversation about God, nor do I include any reference to God in our treatment plan. The only time the subject comes up is if the client brings it up. I always felt that the client knows best what he or she needs to do to heal, and it’s my job to listen and then reflect that back through the tools of my practice.

Recently I did a kind of survey of the clients I know to be successful. How do I know they’re successful? They have stayed in contact with me, they’ve sent me referrals, and they return for follow-up sessions.

I have one client who has lost over 100lbs in less than one year, has completely come out of her shell -- independent of her weight loss by the way. She has gone from being thoroughly depressed, terribly obese, hating her job, living with an apathetic husband and caring for her elderly parents -- to a vibrant, optimistic, slender and motivated woman -- still living in the exact same circumstances but accepting her present situation with grace and serenity. She sent her sister to me who was also quite overweight, and over the same amount of time the sister has had only intermittent success.

What’s the difference between these two?

I saw another client who was desperate to change her abusive relationship, but fearful about leaving. Working together using the sixth sense and with help from her people in spirit, she could see a different future for herself, and confidently took her destiny into her own hands. Another client in a similar situation calls me regularly for my psychic input, yet continues to relinquish control of her life to outside circumstances and individuals.

Why did one of these women succeed and the other fail?

I began to go through my files and found some surface differences between what I would call the successes and the still-not-successes. But the one, constant, profound difference across the board, was that the successes not only believed in God, but practiced some kind of faith.

Let me say this again: those people who succeeded believed in God, and practiced that belief.

I know I’m good at what I do. My kind of therapy self-selects for open-minded people to begin with. And yet, there are still clients who fail to achieve their goals.

I truly believe we can help one another and we can help ourselves, but at some point, if we want true healing, we must make room for divine intervention. I know the 12-step programs, of which I’m only vaguely familiar, also include surrender to a Higher Power.
So let’s talk about how to do that. How can we invite God in, to complete the job we start with our own minds?

Let’s keep in mind that I’m talking about ALL kinds of healing: physical, romantic, financial, emotional, career... every field in which we might feel lacking or incomplete. I’m talking about healing from fear, doubt, grief, anger, resentment -- healing the past, old hurts or bad memories, and healing the present.

We can begin with prayer -- that is, we can ASK. As it’s written in Psalm 30:2, “I called to the Lord my God for help and he healed me.” One of my clients once said to me, when I suggested this to her, “I never talk to God, I can’t just show up one day and ask for help!” And I said, “why not?” God loves you. Just because you never prayed before doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to pray.

One of the things we can do is to stop thinking about God as a parent in the same way we think about our human parents. I don’t know about you, but I would NEVER ask my mother for help. Well, that’s not entirely true -- I’d ask her for certain kinds of help -- like, what color should I paint my kitchen cabinets -- but I’d never ask her for financial help for instance. It’s too fraught with conflict and obligation. I’d be paying her back long after the IOU was settled.

I don’t think God holds things debt over our heads like that. I don’t think he’s keeping score about how much we’ve already asked for and weighing it against what we’re asking for now. Remember, God is limitless. There is no end to God’s resources. He’s the creator!

So when you recognize that you need healing in any area -- losing weight, giving up alcohol, getting a job -- remember, God’s not measuring your request against all the other requests you’ve made in your life.

So ask for help. Don’t know how to do that? We’ve been given instructions: Try what is written there in Psalm 30:2 -- call to the Lord for help. “Lord God, please help me. I don’t know what to do. I’ve tried and tried to lose weight. I can’t see my way out of this. Please show me what to do. Please heal me.”

What happens next? You listen -- to yourself. God will speak directly to you through YOUR experience. If you’re waiting for a big booming voice from the sky saying “Don’t eat that” -- you’ll be waiting forever. God speaks to you with that still small voice we’re always hearing about in self-help books. It might feel like intuition, a hunch, an urge to do or not do something. It might just be expressed as the courage to sit with an uncomfortable emotion rather than numbing or distracting yourself with food.

To paraphrase the second-century gnostic Monoimus: “Abandon the search for God and take yourself as the starting place.”

The Scriptures are loaded with references to having God within us. Probably the most famous is Luke 17:21 “Neither shall they say, See here! or, see there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”

When you listen, you yield. Have you ever been in a conversation with someone who asks you a question and then argues with your answer? This happens for me in my psychic readings a fair percentage of the time. Someone comes in with a question, and already having the answer they want in mind. If I should give them a different answer, they argue with me or they ask me again and again in all kinds of different ways. They’re not listening; I’m giving them information on how they can see a situation differently or how they can direct their energies differently, but I’ve monkeyed with their plan and at that point they just shut down.

So after you ask, listen. Yield. Let go. Say, “God, Please help me stop drinking. I can’t do it on my own. I’m too embarrassed to go to a meeting or to admit it to anyone else but you. I need help, please help me. God, I’m listening. YOU tell me what to do. You direct me.” And when you get the idea or feel the courage, YIELD to it. Surrender to it. Follow where you are being lead.

We all know God helps those who help themselves, right? Or is that just a New England, Yankee thing? We help ourselves when we pray, when we listen, when we make good decisions. We don’t help ourselves when in spite of the answers or direction we’re getting we stick with what WE think is best.

If you involve God in your healing -- whatever it may be you seek healing from -- I promise you will meet with success.

Before closing, I’d like you to consider something else, quite profound and at the foundation of all prayer and healing. Consider -- just for a moment -- that you are NOT broken. John Dryden, the English poet who lived in the last half of the 17th century wrote “God never made His work for man to mend.” If you can wrap your mind around it, pray for God to reveal you to yourself, as you really are. Whole, complete, beloved. Pray for God to release you from your vulnerabilities, doubts and fears. Pray to see yourself as you were when you came into this world: innocent, beautiful, full of promise, open to everything, loving everyone.

Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will give you rest. [I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.]- Matthew 11:28