An Interview with D. J. Bowers, Hypnotherapist

by Brent Raynes

D.J. Bowers is a hypnotherapist. She lives in Florence, Alabama.

Editor: Dr. Bowers, please share with our readers what hypnosis is.

Bowers: In my self-hypnosis classes, I teach that hypnosis is simply a state of concentration and focused attention. It is actually a state of consciousness that we enter naturally. In fact, all hypnosis is really self-hypnosis. For example, how many times have you driven down the road, deep in thought, preoccupied in thinking about something? Before you know it you suddenly get to your destination. It’s a little like daydreaming.

Editor: How did you come to get involved in working with hypnosis?

Bowers: I got hurt in 1993, and went to a clinical hypnotherapist for pain management. It was the most relaxing time of my life. There were no hypnotherapists in North Alabama. So I kind of changed my profession and became a certified instructor of the American Academy of Hypnosis, licensed by the Alabama Board of Education.

I am a member of the National Guild of Hypnosis, American Association of Professional Hypnotherapists and American Board of Hypnosis. I also was on the board and editor of International Parapsychology. I was a member of MUFON (Mutual UFO Network) too.

Editor: What kind of work have you done in the field of hypnosis?

Bowers: In my private practice, I use stress management for smoking, weight loss, fears, phobia, drug abuse, age regression, anxiety, improve study habits, self-esteem, sales motivation, addictions, improving your health, plus many other areas.

Editor: What kind of results have you achieved from your work? How have you helped your clients?

Bowers: I have done a lot of non-smoking and I am 99% effective the first session. I also did a lot of age regression, where I took them to past experiences of fears, phobias or whatever frightens them. To see it at a distance and to release old fears, emotional ties to the past, and let them go. Sometimes, it could be a fear of crowds, heights, water, and I had a lady fly in from Michigan that had a fear of spiders.

I also do the past life regression and accessing your subconscious where you enter into your subconscious safe and secure and to ask questions that maybe you are seeking answers to. This induction also can open up your chakra centers.

In most cases, I use relaxing music to help a person to let go and to open a person’s mind to receive the helpful and beneficial suggestions. Everyone is different and therapy should be different for everyone. My sessions are personalized and individualized. I do take couples for smoking and weight control.

Editor: Naturally, a lot of folks have fears and misconceptions about hypnosis. Can you talk some about that?

Bowers: No, I do not make you cluck like a chicken. I am not a stage hypnotist. What I use is progressive relaxation induction. It usually achieves excellent results when performed correctly. Every normal person is hypnotizable. But there are some exceptions. For instance, infants under six because of their lack of a concentration span; a person with an IQ under 70; psychotics are generally not good, as they are usually withdrawn, there’s no rapport and they can’t concentrate; a paranoid person because of distrust or of being suspicious.

You will not lose consciousness or reveal deep secrets about yourself. Not to worry about waking up either. Contrary to popular belief, people under hypnosis are not captive and spellbound and under no circumstances will you be made to do things that you do not want to do.

There are many myths about hypnosis. One of the most common myths is that someone takes control of your mind and programs you like a computer. This is not true. No one can be hypnotized if they don’t wish to be, and you cannot be made to do anything in hypnosis that would be contrary to your values. No one can violate your free agency. No one can make you reveal anything in hypnosis that you don’t wish to reveal.

Another misconception is that when you are hypnotized you lose consciousness or go to sleep. A few individuals go to the very deepest levels of trance like state and experience spontaneous amnesia for what occurred in hypnosis, thus fitting the common stereotype. However, most people remember everything that happens to them in hypnosis.

Hypnosis works much like a magnifying glass in the sunlight. Now picture this in your mind. When you use a magnifying glass to focus and concentrate the rays of the sun into a pinpoint of light, the sun’s rays become more powerful. When they are concentrated, the sun’s rays can burn a hole through sheer metal or start a fire. When we focus and concentrate our mind’s attention, it allows us to use our own mind in a much more powerful way.

Hypnosis is a method of focusing your mind and then using your imagination and thoughts to stir feelings and to alter your behavior and attitudes. In a sense, in hypnosis you are altering your internal world. When you change how you think, visualize and imagine things to be, your feelings and behavior will begin to change.

It is commonly believed that we use only five or ten percent of our mental potential. Hypnosis is simply a focused state of attention and concentration that allows you to use more of that potential and power of your own mind. In a very real sense, hypnosis is actually the ultimate in a self-control skill.

Editor: How many years now have you been doing hypnosis?

Bowers: I have been a clinical hypnotherapist for over ten years.

Editor: Besides the traditional, mainstream work you’ve done in this field, you also came to apply the hypnotic process to situations involving paranormal and UFO phenomena. Can you share some about those experiences and discoveries you’ve had along the way?

Bowers: Some of my greatest experiences was with the use of regression. When regressed, one woman had experiences with aliens (greys) and going into a pyramid shaped ship. She actually felt the greys sticking her with a needle. Her abductions started when she was 5 years old.

I have had good experiences with past life regressions. One lady was put under and saw herself in three different lives. One as a young girl on an island during a volcanic eruption; another standing on a tall building during an earthquake in a place called Alia, waiting for a flying ship to pick her up. The point was that she was in all three earth changes and was here for the next earth change.

One lady was actually talking French while under hypnosis. There are so many cases.

Editor: If anyone has a question about hypnosis or would like to be hypnotized by you, could they contact you directly?

Bowers: They could email me. Send the email to: DJBowers@Joimail.com

Editor: Are there any other thoughts regarding hypnosis that you can think of that should be shared with our readers?

Bowers: There is a saying, which goes like this: “That which you wish to achieve, you must first mentally conceive.”

The process is really very simple. Here it is step-by-step:

1. Picture clearly in your mind the things you wish to demonstrate or the things you have been mentally projecting or acting out in your life.

2. Make a blueprint of the things you are trying to achieve. Review it in detail, in your mind first, and then sit down and write out the plan indepth.

3. Sit in silence and ask the higher mind within the steps you should take to achieve the things you are asking for.

4. Now visualize yourself doing these things.

Last but not least: “Never speak negatively about yourself because your subconscious mind doesn’t have a sense of humor. It does and believes everything it’s told.”

Also Sigmund Freud said, “What the mind creates, the mind can heal. Hypnosis is the shortcut.”