Latest news with #hypnosis
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Jim Curtis' Freakish 'Past Life' Where He Was 'Shot' Exposed Amid Romance With Jennifer Aniston
More details continue to emerge about 's new boyfriend, Jim Curtis. The "Friends" actress sparked news of a reignited love life after she and the wellness coach were spotted enjoying a romantic vacation in Mallorca, Spain. With the romance now confirmed, a look into Curtis's past reveals some bizarre truths. Jim Curtis Was A Different Race In His Past Life Before becoming a celebrated hypnotist, Curtis first ventured into the world of hypnosis in the late 1990s while in front of a live audience. A close source disclosed his past to the Daily Mail, discussing his introduction to the world of alternative wellness. "Jim is a big proponent of past life regression and its healing potential," alleged the informant The wellness guru reportedly endured a spiritual awakening during an appearance on "The Maury Povich Show," which confirmed he was a Native American in the past. "He was invited on the Maury Povich show to do a past life regression with Dr. Brian Weiss, who is one of the pioneers of using past life regression as a therapy technique," the insider said. "That's when he discovered he was a Native American in a past life." Jennifer Aniston's New Beau Was Killed In His Former Life With the romance now confirmed, a look into Curtis's past reveals some bizarre truths about his past. Curtis confirmed the unusual revelation just weeks before his romance with Aniston was confirmed. He talked about the experience in a June episode of Emily Fletcher's podcast, "Why Isn't Everyone Doing This?" "The first time I was regressed into a past life was with Dr. Brian Weiss," he recalled. "Yeah, he hypnotized me, regressed me, and then [we] came and talked about it on national television." Curtis continued, "I realized I was a Native American Indian. He took me back to the point of my death, and I was killed. I was shot." The hypnotherapist explained that the encounter happened when he was 20 years old. A production assistant he was dating at the time asked if he was interested in volunteering on the show. Aniston Has 'Hit The Jackpot' With Her Hypnotherapist Beau Although it seemed like a random event at the time, the encounter with Dr. Weiss set the tone for Curtis' life as we know it. He is often hailed as a transformational coach and master hypnotherapist, knowledgeable in matters of spiritual healing. Curtis' love for spirituality and hypnosis is something he and Aniston have in common. Before the pair became a romantic item, they had been friends for years and often moved in the same social circles. The "Murder Mystery" star, who has an outdoor spiritual temple in her Bel-Air mansion, also posted about reading his book, "Shift: Quantum Manifestation Guide." Their shared interest keeps the relationship thriving, says the source. Curtis is also a big dog lover, just like Aniston, making their bond even tighter. "He's all about rescue dogs, and that's what really sealed the deal with Jennifer," the insider told the publication. "Let's face it, Jennifer hit the jackpot with Jim. What's not to like about him? He's a cool guy and down to earth." A Shocking Revelation About A Past Girlfriend This isn't the first time troubling details about Curtis' past have made headlines. As The Blast reported, the 50-year-old made shocking confessions about his past failed relationships in his memoir. In his 2017 memoir "The Stimulati Experience," he recounted an intense relationship with a woman he referred to as "Lucy Lou," saying he almost proposed to her. Calling Lou his "greatest support," Curtis wrote, "I couldn't imagine my life without her. In fact, doing so created some anxiety." Unfortunately, she broke up with him, causing him to spiral into a phase of "not-enoughness" where he began stalking her and her new partner on Facebook. Luckily, he managed to escape the cycle by writing the details of "his shame on little pieces of paper and setting them on fire." Jim Curtis Breaks Silence On Jennifer Aniston's Romance The negative truths about Curtis come days after the hypnotherapist broke his silence on his romance with Aniston. Days after the lovebirds returned from their getaway, he shared a newsletter detailing the experience. "I am back from vacation, and what an experience," he wrote. "When I was sick, sad, stuck, and in pain, I never thought I would have the abundance, joy, and love I now experience on a daily basis." Seemingly referring to Aniston as "magic," Curtis noted that "The possibility of something better, more aligned, more free, more meaningful, is always here." Solve the daily Crossword
Fox News
6 days ago
- Health
- Fox News
Alzheimer's prevention, rare disorders and the truth about Biden's doctor
ONE AND DONE – New weekly injection for Parkinson's could replace daily pill for millions, study suggests. Continue reading… CRAZY CURE - Should you try hypnosis to stop drinking? Here's what the experts say. Continue reading… Fox News LifestyleFox News Health
Forbes
14-07-2025
- Health
- Forbes
Inside The Digital Coaching Revolution Behind High-Performing CEOs
Leadership is never easy, which is why you need to invest in the right habits to make you succeed. Few tools have undergone as radical a reappraisal in high-performance coaching circles as hypnosis. Once the realm of Vegas acts and therapeutic sidebars, hypnosis is now at the centre of serious neurological and behavioural science, thanks in large part to pioneers like Dr. David Spiegel, the Stanford psychiatrist behind the app Reveri. 'There's a myth that hypnosis is useless, dangerous, or both. In reality it's neither,' Spiegel begins. 'Hypnosis is a highly focused state of attention. You disassociate the distractions, you inhibit noise,' Spiegel explains. In his work at the Stanford Center on Stress and Health, Spiegel has shown that hypnosis can lower pain, regulate stress responses, and help reorient goal-setting through mental framing, not brute force. For some, these claims still echo like they're read from the side of a can of snake-oil. But the science has moved on from suspicion to carefully qualified validation. 'We now have imaging that shows how hypnosis turns down activity in the brain's default mode network and enhances connectivity in the insula,' Spiegel says. 'It's the same pattern we see in deep meditation and even with psychedelics. These are brain mechanisms that can change how we experience the self.' But Spiegel is the first to admit: hypnosis is not a panacea. 'It doesn't work on everyone. Roughly two-thirds of people are suggestible enough to benefit, and even then, it has to be done right. You have to use it for what it can do, shift perception, ease stress, build focus. It won't rewrite your personality or give you superpowers.' Still, in the right hands, and with the right expectations, hypnosis offers something most CEOs desperately need: a fast, non-invasive, and repeatable way to regain agency over their mind and stress responses. 'What enables people to range and accomplish is focus,' Spiegel says. 'We're too goal-oriented. Hypnosis lets you choose what to focus on and let go of what's irrelevant. That's how people get effective again.' Executives have noticed. David Johnson, CEO of Genexa that produces clean over-the-counter medicine, adopted Reveri as part of his mental stack. 'I used to power through stress; now I work with it,' he says. 'My clarity's better, I sleep more deeply, and my team feels it too.' It is this sense of heightened focus that draws CEOs like Johnson to the tool and the habits it fosters: 'When I need to reset before a high-stakes meeting or call, I run the 'focus' session on Reveri. It's like flipping a switch. You go from scattered to sharp in four minutes.' Spiegel explains how hypnosis can be a particularly powerful tool for managing stress and anxiety, two main blockers of focus. 'Hypnosis is a way of letting the body define its own limits and rebalancing the cognitive stage with only the actors you want to shine a light on. You can't override biology, but you can steer it.' For CEOs dealing with relentless demands, steering their own stress response may be the difference between burnout and brilliance. And hypnosis is just one piece of the puzzle. In Search Of A Commanding Voice In leadership, what you say often matters less than how you say it. Studies have shown that a deeper, more resonant voice correlates with higher perceived competence, greater trustworthiness, and even stronger stock market reactions. Elizabeth Holmes may have been a fraud, but the depth of her voice, deliberately trained, was part of what helped her raise nearly a billion dollars. Other CEOs, and those who would be leaders themselves, are paying attention. Vocal Image, an app co-founded by Nick Lahoika is capitalizing on that insight. Originally launched as a simple loop, watch a video, mimic the sound, record yourself, the app has since evolved into a vocal gym for executives. 'When a CEO speaks, they need to carry conviction,' says Lahoika. 'They represent certainty about the company each time they open their mouths.' Lahoika's personal story fuels the app's ethos. Bullied as a child for his unclear diction he later founded a video production company, met a vocal coach, and realized how transformative voice work could be, not just socially, but psychologically. 'The voice is one of the most underutilized assets in business,' he says. 'And yet it's what people remember most.' Lahoika explains how their app is being used by leaders preparing for board meetings, earnings calls, and town halls. 'Some use it to smooth their cadence, others to expand their range or eliminate uptalk. In all cases, the goal is the same: presence.' Whether through suggestion or sound, the larger point is clear. Habits are the infrastructure for success. And one of the most vocal champions of this philosophy is Dean Graziosi, a bestselling author and entrepreneur who's spent decades reverse-engineering success habits with Tony Robbins. 'You don't rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your habits,' Graziosi often tells audiences. 'Most CEOs don't lack ambition. They lack structure that scales with that ambition.' After a panic attack at age 47, Graziosi flew to see Robbins. 'Tony came five inches from my face and asked, 'Who are you going to become in your 50s?' That night, I went home and wrote it all down.' That became the foundation of his new loop-based habit system: daily intention, focused work, and intentional exploration. 'I started thinking about values in my 50s,' Graziosi reflects. 'I asked myself: if in the future my children hired a private investigator to film me for a week, would they love me more or less when they saw what I did?' It's not a rhetorical question. For Graziosi and a growing number of leaders, the answer is a test of integrity, and systems. 'You can't coach character in crisis. You need the structure before the storm.' Leadership entails showing up, instead of knowing the most. And more and more, CEOs that are looking to outperform are showing up with an app in hand and a habit system underfoot. If you're looking for getting started with your own success loops, here's an easy trio to get started with:
Times
10-07-2025
- General
- Times
Namaste, fascists! The racist history of yoga
Judging by the front page of The New York Times, January 29, 1898 was just another day in the United States of America. Mary Both of 74th Street burnt to death after her shawl caught fire as she warmed herself by her kitchen stove. A once wealthy man who lost his money in railroad stocks was committed to hospital after he was found on Fifth Avenue proclaiming to be the king of Poland. A race war was imminent in Lonoke County, Arkansas. Ah, yes … And Pierre Bernard of Des Moines, Iowa, put himself into a self-induced state of hypnosis in front of a crowd at the San Francisco College of Suggestive Therapeutics and submitted himself to surgical tests such as having his ear sewn to his cheek and his upper lip to his nose. He awakened — after the threads had been removed — to say he had felt no pain. Supposedly that's what happened, anyway. Bernard — the founder of the Tantrik Order of America (which may or may not have actually existed) — had a funny way of making things up. Stewart Home's Fascist Yoga is about how the story of yoga is built on lies, and it begins with Bernard. The book is an original and entertaining analysis of the dubious origins of the western middle class's favourite postural exercise. Home argues that there is every possibility that Bernard, dubbed 'the Great Oom' by the New York press, invented the kind of yoga that people do today. This, he argues, is drawn 'more from Western physical culture than Eastern meditation'. He started teaching it around 1905, and there isn't much record of anyone doing it before him. Almost nothing, however, is known about who Bernard was or where he came from, other than that New York Times story. Home says his name was not even Pierre Bernard. He was born Perry Baker and sometimes went by the name of Peter Coon. Bernard told people that he had learnt yoga from a guru called Sylvais Hamati, who had apparently emigrated to America from Calcutta. Hamati was of Indian or Persian or Syrian or French or Bengali heritage, depending on who you believe. Home suspects Hamati may have never existed and the yoga we do in the West was never an Indian tradition. Home is trenchant in his views about western yoga — 'in my experience, the overwhelming majority of yoga instructors peddle false historical accounts of what they teach, even if most of them actually appear to believe the drivel they spout'. Worse, 'the overly subjective, inward-looking mindset fostered by this form of embodied spirituality makes practitioners vulnerable to backward ideologies'. Bernard surrounded himself with racists and white supremacists, Home says. In 1933 one of his acolytes, Hamish McLaurin, wrote a book asserting that yoga was devised in about 3,000BC by members of an Aryan race, the ancestors of modern-day Europeans and Americans who moved to India. 'Having gained control over their dusky brethren through a superior knowledge of physical and mental phenomena,' McLaurin wrote, 'it was no part of the Aryan scheme to let the people of the lower castes have access to that knowledge until such time as they had evolved to a point at which they became capable of handling it.' Yoga, you see, was a beautiful method for a white person of a certain class to absorb the ancient teachings of their forebears. There is a recurring theme in the history of yoga: western gurus invent and shed its Indian origins on a whim. • 6 ways to boost your flexibility without hitting the yoga studio Home pursues his promise of fascist yoga to the Free State of Fiume in 1920. After the First World War, Fiume (today the Croatian city of Rijeka) was seized by a one-eyed, cocaine-snorting sex-addict novelist and former soldier called Gabriele D'Annunzio. He established a regime with all the symbols and violence of fascism, if not the complete ideology. There were balcony addresses and Roman salutes and the troops guarding D'Annunzio used the bellicose slogan 'I don't give a damn', which was later co-opted by Benito Mussolini. Those around D'Annunzio in Fiume formed a group called YOGA, Home says. They were mystics and nudists who danced and hugged trees and believed in a spiritual hierarchy based on the Hindu caste system. The group emblazoned its shortlived weekly paper with swastikas — they believed the swastika to be a symbol of their Aryan ancestors after it was discovered scrawled on ancient artefacts. The Nazis used it for the same reason. Like YOGA, the Nazis also twisted Hinduism. They tried to use it to justify the Holocaust. Home shows how Heinrich Himmler, the chief planner of the Final Solution, was influenced by a German Indologist called Jakob Wilhelm Hauer, who was enchanted by Hinduism. Hauer founded the German Faith Movement, which sought to promote a new religion, a fusion of paganism and Nazi ideas. When writing in 1934 about the Bhagavad Gita, the Hindu text, Hauer said it called on men to meet the hereditary or 'innate duty' demanded of them by their caste and fate, even if that deed is steeped in guilt. Himmler believed that his caste — the SS — were called upon by fate to exterminate Jews. The weakness of Home's book is there is no clean link between yoga and fascism. There is no record of Mussolini or Hitler ever doing a downward dog. This mostly doesn't matter because so much of the history is strange and interesting, but sometimes Home stretches his thesis too far. A few pages are wasted trying to prove that Ezra Pound's fascism was 'very much entwined' with yoga. As evidence, Home relies on a sign that Pound once put in the window of a bookshop he owned that said something or other about marijuana and communism — it's thin and convoluted evidence. • Read more book reviews and interviews — and see what's top of the Sunday Times Bestsellers List Fascist Yoga ends abruptly in the 1970s. Home describes the beginnings of mail-order yoga courses, the rise of the television yoga instructor Richard Hittleman, and the start of today's wellness obsession, then stops. He says that 'technological change' and the increasing popularity of modern yoga means the practice is too diffuse to track in a serious way. Still, he draws some brief but insightful lines between yoga's past and present. Bodily purity, for example, mattered to the proto-fascists in Fiume and to the Nazis, and remains important to a strand of extreme yogis today. Those old practitioners wanted people to have clean blood for nationalistic reasons; the present ones are afraid of vaccines. Their anxieties have retreated inwards, and so have they, lurking in the backwaters of Instagram, spreading conspiracy theories about Bill Gates and the 'Covid hoax'. Bernard called his self-hypnosis trick a 'death trance', and he did it, allegedly, to prove that patients did not need anaesthetic to undergo surgery. Yoga might not be fascist, but it is a little bit dumb. Fascist Yoga: Grifters, Occultists, White Supremacists and the New Order In Wellness by Stewart Home (Pluto £14.99 pp224). To order a copy go to Free UK standard P&P on orders over £25. Special discount available for Times+ members
Fox News
10-07-2025
- Health
- Fox News
Should you try hypnosis to stop drinking? Here's what the experts say
While some people may be skeptical of hypnosis, experts say it's a legitimate therapy that can help with a range of physical and mental challenges — including, possibly, alcohol use disorder. Clinical hypnosis has shown to be effective in the treatment of pain, anxiety, stress, cancer treatment side effects, phobias and habit control problems, such as smoking and weight control, according to past randomized controlled trials. "Hypnosis is the oldest Western form of psychotherapy, but it is underutilized," Dr. David Spiegel, associate chair of psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine in California and a leading authority in the field of hypnosis, told Fox News Digital. Hypnosis is not itself considered a therapy. Rather, it enhances other treatments by inducing a state of increased concentration while reducing peripheral awareness, experts say. The practice aims to put people in a deep state of relaxation so they can learn more easily. Shawn Criswell, Ph.D., a mental counselor practicing in Oregon, defines it as "a gentle way of shifting people's focus to new ideas and perspectives that can help improve their lives." Added Criswell, "It does this in part by connecting them with their strengths and resources, empowering them in the process, and directly contradicting the old, tired myth that in hypnosis, you'll give up control of yourself." He co-authored, together with Michael Yapko, Ph.D, the latest edition of "Trancework: An Introduction to the Practice of Clinical Hypnosis." Past research suggests that hypnosis may alter brain activity related to attention and consciousness. "The brain activation patterns during hypnosis — such as for color, pain and sound — are similar to those observed during actual experiences," Dr. Ryan Sultan, attending physician at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and director of the Mental Health Informatics Lab at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, told Fox News Digital. Some people may choose to practice self-hypnosis, which he described as the process of entering a trance-like state without the guidance of a hypnotist. Sultan compared it to entering a "controlled, simplified state" in which people may be more open to certain ideas and therapeutic suggestions. "I have had patients stop drinking by focusing on respecting and protecting their bodies." But the effects can be short-lived, he noted, and some individuals may find it difficult to maintain the hypnotic state without external cues. The treatment technique has been approved by the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association. To maximize its safety and effectiveness, Sultan recommended hypnosis by a qualified professional. Hypnosis may help support people with drinking problems by encouraging motivation, reducing cravings and helping to manage stress, according to Dr. Lama Bazzi, a psychiatrist in private practice in New York City. The expert emphasized, however, that hypnosis is not a standalone cure for problem drinking. Instead, it's part of a comprehensive treatment plan that includes focused cognitive-behavioral therapy, psychiatric support and targeted medications when necessary. "There is less evidence about alcohol problems, but I have had patients stop drinking by focusing on respecting and protecting their bodies," Spiegel noted. "One of my patients thought about that concept in hypnosis, and said, 'You mean, the body is the temple of the soul?'" he added. Hypnotherapy presents little risk, according to Spiegel. "The worst thing that can happen is that it may not always work," he told Fox News Digital. "It is best to seek care from a psychiatrist or psychologist with specialized training in clinical hypnosis." Possible mild side effects include dizziness and emotional release. There is also a risk of false memories if used for memory recall, Sultan cautioned. The therapy is also not recommended for people with severe mental illness, such as psychosis, experts say. Mayo Clinic also notes that side effects are uncommon, but that some people may experience anxiety, sleepiness, headache and nausea. "It is best to seek care from a psychiatrist or psychologist with specialized training in clinical hypnosis," Bazzi told Fox News Digital. "These professionals can objectively assess your susceptibility to hypnosis, determine whether it is an appropriate and potentially effective intervention for your specific concerns, and develop a comprehensive, multimodal treatment plan tailored to your needs," she added. For those seeking a hypnotist, experts recommend visiting the websites of the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis or The International Society of Hypnosis, both of which offer directories of professionals who have expertise and often certification in the practice. Some 28 million Americans aged 18 and older are living with alcohol-use disorder, according to 2023 estimates from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. For more Health articles, visit People may be drinking excessively if they consume enough alcohol in one sitting to raise their blood alcohol level to greater than 0.08, or if they drink more than a certain number of drinks in one week, experts say. This generally equates to women having four or more drinks or men consuming five or more drinks at once — or a weekly amount of eight or more drinks for women or 15 or more drinks for men, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Signs of an alcohol problem include experiencing a loss of control when drinking, continuing to drink despite adverse consequences, and experiencing compulsive cravings when not drinking – often referred to as the "three Cs." Those who think they may have an alcohol-dependence problem and are interested in seeking alternative therapies should contact their doctor for recommendations.
