If you’re like most people you’ve tried everything to lose weight and or stop smoking. You’ve tried fad diets, nicotine patches, acupuncture, exercise 
programs, cold turkey, fad diets and nothing worked. Have you ever considered that your “mind” that is the problem in other words you been focusing on the physiological (physical issues) as opposed to the psychological (mental issues).
Have you ever considered that maybe you have been “brainwashed” to be attracted to overeating/junk-food/cigarette smoking/inactivity? Well let’s examine this.
… “Is this brainwashing?” 50 years ago, as crazy as this sounds, the average American lit 4000 a year, of these things that looked like a 5 inch long white pencils, inhaled smoke from them. The first few times they did this they coughed, choked, after a while, spit-up black tar like mucus, and sometimes even blood, it even made them stink.
… But women felt sexy, hot, and slim and men felt powerful, rugged, and macho when they smoked them. They even had slogans like “Winston tastes good like a cigarette should” I didn’t know smoke taste good, did you? What if it was “Winston taste like puke” would it be hit? Or “I would walk a mile for Camel” now that’s a really long way to walk, I don’t know if I’d walk that far for a lobster dinner, what is the message/program? Hard to believe that anyone fell for it. What if it was, “I wouldn’t smoke that crap, even if you paid me to”. Or still another one “Newport alive with pleasure” how incredible, is that brainwashing? Breathing in disgusting smoke and being programmed that it causes you to be, alive with pleasure? What if they said “Newport dead with pain” or “Virginia Slims” was instead “Flint Fats” “Lucky strike” was “unlucky strike”. How would you feel then? Is that brainwashing?
Now think about this for a second, isn’t it amazing that a human could be made/programmed/brainwashed to smoke a cigarette when at first it makes them cough and choke? When you think about it, that’s incredible power and control/brainwashing over another person isn’t it? I use this example because when you think about it it’s really hard to believe but if I pointed this out 50 years ago it wouldn’t sound so ridiculous when you saw these commercials every single day. Right now, you’re being programmed all the time, modern-day example “like me” on Facebook powerful programming/brainwashing, why? Because for the most part people don’t make decisions for themselves, they have other people make decisions for them. If everyone else is doing it, then I should do it. We are highly, highly influenced/programmed/brainwashed by what everyone else is doing.
Advertisers Brainwashing and Obesity
Recognize that the word brainwashing is a very strong word. However, consider a highly programmable toddler that is watching cartoons. Between the cartoons are commercials, and at this age your innocent toddler has zero ability to reject any sort of messaging, programming, or brainwashing, and they take everything in and immediately the messaging of the environment becomes the belief/security structure of their subconscious mind. Your toddler does not have the critical analytical factor, or the ability to reason, or to distinguish healthy nutritious food from junk food. So when the McDonald’s commercial comes on with a “happy meal”, all that matters is that it’s “happy”. The association of pleasure repetitively to any behavior anchors that behavior. Another thing that McDonald’s does is they have a playground that reinforces fun, playing, and joy with McDonald’s. To a child’s brain that can’t defend itself, it is pure brainwashing. Adults have difficulty and can’t defend themselves from repetitive advertisements, but we’re talking about children here.
It’s truly amazing, in this day and age with obesity the leading cause of death, that in this country advertisers are allowed to subject innocent victims in the form of children to damaging, destructive, food associations and beliefs. 30 years ago cigarette companies were forced to stop advertising to children, prevented from advertising on TV, and forced to put warning labels on their packaging, but even 30 years ago the cigarette companies weren’t advertising smoking cigarettes to babies, toddlers and tween’s during cartoons, were they?
When you watch cartoons, pay particular close attention to the programming and brainwashing that’s taking place, and yes again brainwashing is a strong word. But what is brainwashing? It’s using some sort of drug or sleep deprivation, to relax or preoccupy the conscious mind to plant messages/programs into the subconscious mind for the benefit of someone else. What benefit is it to a two-year-old hearing Tony the Tiger say “They’re Grrreat!”? What if Tony yelled “They’re repulsive!” what kind of success would they have? Or what if he told you the truth that “they make you fat and lethargic”? How would the ad work then? Are Frosted Flakes really healthy for children? Are frosted flakes Grrreat for children? What about Honey Nut Cheerios, the slogan Bee happy Bee healthy. Or the one that really makes me sick, Lucky Charms Magically Delicious, do you think all those marshmallows are magically good for your toddler? Fruit Loops has the slogan, follow your nose it always knows. And it’s not just the words that are damaging; it’s the imagery, the association with pleasure, and the crime of marketing to an innocent victim, a child.
Here is the slogan for Oreo cookies, “Kids everywhere know that magic happens when you eat an Oreo cookie”. Then when you see the image of a small child with a grin from ear to ear, what magic happens? Is the magic becoming magically fat? Is the magic becoming addicted? I know it’s starting to disgust you but I’m only just getting started. In a study by College University on a research project in 2013, the very same Oreo cookies that kids eat every day were found to be more addictive than cocaine on laboratory rats. Kindly take a moment and consider that. This country’s toddlers and children being programmed to consume cocaine would be outrageous, wouldn’t it? What really is the difference if this is true? Could Oreo cookies possibly even be worse because not only are they addictive, they also cause obesity?
In a report in 2008 by the FTC to Congress, the average child is subjected to two billion dollars’ worth of food advertisements a year. The Archives of Pediatric Adolescent Medicine reported that the average child is subjected to about 4000 food related ads a year. That’s 4000 brainwashing programming sessions that, that child is not in control of, but a victim of. In a research brief by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 98% of food advertisements viewed by children are for products that are high in fat, sugar or sodium, and 79% are low in fiber. In 2009, a study by Healthy Psychology found that children exposed to television food advertising consumed 45% more food than children that were not exposed to food advertising. It’s hard to believe that this would be allowed with obesity killing people in this country, with our young kids being subjected to programming that makes them eat 45% more food than kids that aren’t subjected to those food ads. The Center for Responsive Politics reported that in 2010 the food and beverage industry spent over $40 million lobbying Congress against several regulations, including those that would decrease the marketing of unhealthy foods to kids.
Loved Ones Brainwashing and Obesity
Enough now about the programming that’s taking place by our junk food advertisers. What really may be even more tragic is a programming that’s happening by our loved ones. In 2007, a study published in the journal Appetite found that 85% of the parents try to get their children to eat more even when they indicated they were full. As a result, 83% of the encouraged kids ate more, with 38% eating moderately to substantially more. Mothers would typically praise girls for eating and fathers used pressure tactics on boys and both parents used reasoning, praise, and rewards to get their children to eat more.
The Director of the Center for Childhood Obesity Research at Penn State, Leann Birch, studying the effects in 1987, found that preschoolers asked to focus on external signals of eating such as cleaning the plate, consumed more than children that were asked to focus on internal singles such as being full. In a 1999 study, obese adults remembered being encouraged to eat more food growing up than their leaner counterparts and “clean your plate” was the most common. There are many studies and research papers on the effects of parents and loved ones insisting our kids eat all the food on the plate. Worse than insisting that a child gorges himself is the rewards for doing so or being made to feel guilty for not doing so.
Common rewards for cleaning the plate, in other words for stuffing yourself beyond being full include:
- The food is better than sex. This is a very serious problem because for the most part sex is considered to be the most pleasurable behavior to partake in by the subconscious mind, and to associate food or a specific food to sex or being better than sex is a terrible message to give to your subconscious mind if you truly want to become fat-free and fabulously fit forever.
- Often in a joking manner suggesting that food or a specific food is better than a loved one. Yes I know that your conscious reasoning mind can distinguish the difference but your subconscious mind believes everything you tell it, especially with repetition anchored in pleasure. Even though you’re joking, the association to a loved one (pleasure) and that food is a powerful program to your subconscious mind. Example “I love chocolate more than my husband.”
- The food is happy, heavenly, and addicting, all plant seeds of insignificance, creating eventually powerful significance in the subconscious mind.
- Suggesting a food is to die for, of course an exaggeration but completely real and true if repeated and anchored with pleasure to the subconscious mind.
Last self-inflicted category is the exaggerations of how hungry one is, or how much someone can eat, or the appetite one has.
- I’m so hungry I could eat a horse/cow/elephant. Can you really, can you even come close? Of course not. Is that the message you want to be giving to your subconscious mind?
- My stomach is a bottomless pit. Is it really bottomless? Definitely not and should never be referred to that way.
- I have the appetite of a bear after hibernation, or some kind of crazy suggestion and association along those lines, which of course is untrue.
- My appetite doesn’t quit, not a belief that you want to program into your subconscious mind if you want to control your weight.
- I’m starving, or I’m famished. Are you really? What does a starving person look like? Is that how you look? Is that a good suggestion/program to give to your subconscious mind if you finally want to overcome the ravages of over eating? Worst yet, it’s the “feeling” that I’m starving is said with, the emotion, the passion.
- I’ve got the munchies. Do you really want to be telling yourself this if you want to stay away from potato chips and cookies and ice cream, etc.?
- Starving to death. You probably could go without eating for a month and still be alive.
- I could eat ox between two bread vans, I could eat the north end of a southbound bear, my belly thinks my throats been cut, I’m malnourished, I’m undernourished, I have of a voracious appetite, I could eat a horse and then go back for the rider. I believe you get the point.
At this point you have an idea of the psychological problem associated with food and overeating, and though some of you may use many of these expressions as a figure of speech or just a casual expression, I do want you to understand that they can have a real negative impact, as all words create a chain reaction in your mind. In addition, when words are said with emotion, they much more powerfully enter into the subconscious mind. Just think in terms of the emotion of which many of these are said with.
Is Hypnosis The Answer?
Hypnosis is a powerful friend in the weight loss battle. According to the University of Connecticut, an analysis of five weight loss studies revealed that “hypnosis can double the effects” of traditional weight loss approaches. Results of a test on television’s NBC Dateline® comparing six different weight loss methods found the person using hypnosis was by far the most successful; almost doubling the results of the next best participant. After three months of an ongoing program, hypnosis was 80% successful; Weight Watchers® was 45% extreme exercise 40%, Atkins Diet™ 33%, Slim Fast® Diet 29% and celebrity coach 20%.
I like to make the reference that your subconscious mind is similar to the hard drive on your computer in its capacity to store information and to use electrical impulses or electrons to communicate the information. However, the human mind is much more capable and complex than any computer or hard drive that can be found today. In addition to using electrons, our brains have receptor sites for chemical signaling. This chemical signaling plays a role in the programming of your subconscious, but it’s the electronic signaling that plays the majority of the role. With weight control, the chemical signaling plays a role in both the physiological and psychological challenges/solutions.
Our brains are composed of microscopic cells that cannot be seen by the eye without a microscope. A grain of sand could have millions in the same space. The types of cells that are in the brain that make up the conscious and subconscious mind are called “neurons”. Your brain contains an estimated 100 billion neurons that communicate with one another through electronic and chemical signaling, and the communication from neuron to neuron being that it’s both chemical and electrical, is called “electrochemical”.
Every thought triggers a magnificent array of electric and chemical impulses from neuron to neuron, an intricate chain reaction communicating electrochemically from neuron to neuron. Your brain simply and magnificently is the most complex computer circuit board ever created and likely never duplicated. It is made up of living cells and is constantly changing, mutating, and growing unlike any computer that man has ever created and likely will ever be able to create.
The ability for the human brain to change, improve, figure out, reprioritize, take orders, and accept commands is truly amazing and to imagine that we are so incredibly fortunate to have this magnificent factory, the greatest on earth, between our two ears. Even more magnificent, each and every one of these microscopic neurons has ever changing wires extending from them called “dendrites”. Dendrites connect these neurons to one another and in turn rapidly are able to change the pattern of messaging from one neuron to the other, simply by the most powerful force on earth, a thought, truly magnificent, and awe-inspiring. Plain and simple, you command this complex electrochemical processing, programming factory to communicate differently, and the dendrites do exactly as instructed at all times. Most of the rewiring is done, in what’s called the Delta/Alpha state (also known as hypnosis).
As instructed by you, the individual neurons create additional dendrites, or lengthen the connections, or change the connections, or create additional means of communication called “synapses”, which are used for a higher, more important means of communication. In addition, it’s hypothesized that neurons as needed work together to restructure one another, and that the network of dendrite connections and the inner-weaving of such respond to your very commands.
When you think about it in terms of what’s going on in your brain, every time that you “think” the gravitas of what’s taking place, it is truly extraordinary. The chain reaction that you create and control as a result of the thought becomes an extraordinary gift that comes with extraordinary responsibility. Every day it’s estimated that we have approximately 65,000 thoughts, 95% of them being the same as from the previous days. New thoughts that are born as insignificant, providing proper repetition, can stimulate and cause structural change or “dendrite cabling” when needed to improve the efficiency, messaging, cabling, and communications of your brain. Repeated thoughts typically will use the same set of neurons to efficiently carry out the tasks. The neural circuitries of the brain, and its capacity of extraordinary structural changes that take place every day, every moment of the day and especially during the Delta state, is a tool that we have available to us at all times.
This process of change normally happens over time however with hypnosis habitual behaviors (repeating the same 65,000 thoughts a day) relating to a desired benefit (weight loss stop smoking) can be quickly re-engineered and the neural networks in your brain in turn adjust the dendrite cabling to serve you better, and to ground you into the “being” that you engineer for yourself.
Which Hypnosis Program is Right for Me?
Two primary things you should consider when choosing a hypnotherapist/hypnosis program, first is there a strong guarantee? Second experience, how many clients have gone through the program in the past? Enjoy your adventure in hypnosis. -Alex Goen