Today I’d like to chat with you for a bit on an extremely important topic. The topic of food and how it can, even when fresh, healthy, local and organic make you sick and literally feeling like you are falling apart at the seams and going crazy.

When you hear the term food allergy what comes to mind?

For most, the image of someone eating a piece of shellfish, pineapple or especially peanuts and then swelling up like a balloon, breaking out in a rash, being rushed to the emergency room or even death comes to mind.

I’m sure many of you remember the story of the girl in Canada with the peanut allergy who died after kissing her boyfriend who had eaten a peanut butter and jelly sandwich hours earlier. Intense stuff to be sure!

If that is what you thought then you are pretty much on the money but that is only part of the story.

Food allergy

Food allergies happen very quickly and occur when the immune system mistakenly attacks a food protein. Ingestion of the offending food may trigger the sudden release of chemicals, including histamine, resulting in symptoms of an allergic reaction.

The symptoms may be mild (rashes, hives, itching, swelling, etc.) or severe (trouble breathing, wheezing, loss of consciousness, etc.). A food allergy can be potentially fatal.

Most people make a big mistake when they think that because they do not have a sudden or overt allergic reaction that they do not have a problem with food. According to the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network only 4% of the population actually have true food allergies.

However, over 80% of us have food sensitivities or intolerances…

Food Sensitivities and Intolerances

Many years ago Lucretius made the statement, “One man’s meat is another man’s poison.”

I know from personal experience the truth of that statement. Before I found out I was gluten intolerant and had various food sensitivities, I was in pretty rough shape.

I went from being trained and ready to do my first triathlon to having seizures, severe fatigue and serious cognitive problems.

I was diagnosed with temporal lobe epilepsy, ADD, depression and peripheral neuropathy.

I was falling apart and it was very confusing because I was in great shape, cycling, swimming, going to the gym, doing yoga, meditating every day, eating an organic, largely raw, mostly vegetarian diet and taking great supplements.

What I didn’t know was that I had issues with food!

Like Lucretius said…

It doesn’t matter how pure, healthy and organic a food is if you are sensitive, allergic or have an intolerance and your body is unable to digest it safely or even at all!

It took a while to sort it all out, but when I did and removed the offending foods I quickly felt much better and slowly healed from the damage. On top of that, all of those diagnoses were lifted.

Turns out a more accurate thing to call them was diagnonsense!

I have also seen this happen over and over again with my clients and the clients of my associates.

My most recent case was a lovely woman who came to me with rheumatoid arthritis that was beginning to cripple her hands and feet. She was having a lot of pain and trouble walking and standing because of it.

We went over her diet, had her blood tested for food sensitivities and found through some other investigation that she had a yeast overgrowth. We modified her diet and started treating her for the yeast issue while we waited for her test results.

We also did two Integrative Trauma Release sessions to release her from some traumas that she believed played a major role in the onset of her symptoms.

Releasing past trauma is one of the most important, foundational things one can do to heal, if not THE most important.

It frees the body from the past, thereby allowing one to feel safe, connected and at peace in the present moment. Doing so makes it much easier to do all the little things that are so important for healing and feeling good without going back into old destructive patterns and self-sabotaging behaviors.

Our body is like a history book. It stores our past and no matter how much we put the past behind us mentally, the body always remembers.

Even when past dangers are gone, if they are not completed and resolved in the nervous system, they still exist in the body and surface as symptoms that can affect us in many ways – mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually – and significantly influence the way we perceive the world, act in our relationships and create our lives.

When the body lets’s it go, a level of health and happiness that one previously had no access to becomes available.

But I digress!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

When her results came back from the lab she was shocked!

It turns out that she was sensitive to many extremely healthy foods such as: spinach, blueberries, pumpkin, pecans, tuna, and about 20 more!

We immediately tweaked her diet before she went on a month long family trip.

By the time she came back, all of her pain was gone and except for a little stiffness in one of her knuckles she was totally symptom free.

On her birthday she thanked me for givng her the best present ever… her feet back!

How can this be? How can changing a person’s diet clear up “incurable” diseases and complicated symptoms?

The immune system is a double-edged sword. It should react appropriately and protect against infection when confronted with harmful invaders or “infectious agents” like viruses or bacteria. (The nervous system is as well with danger and safety. Hence the trauma release work)

Unfortunately for some, exposure to common foods, chemicals and molds may trigger chronic activation of the immune system. (Again, same goes for the nervous system with normal, safe situations and interactions).

White blood cells release harmful chemicals and generate damaging free radicals when they encounter incompatible foods just as they do when fighting the bad guys… and that means inflammation.

A wide variety of conditions have been linked to chronic activation of the immune system. Among these are:

Digestive Disorders
Migraines
Obesity/weight problems
Chronic Fatigue
Aching Joints
Skin Disorders
ADD/ADHD
Depression
Anxiety
Autism
And many more…

The tricky part is that symptoms can arise from several hours to a few days after the offending food has been ingested. From my experience, both with my own situation and through working with clients and talking to various health care professionals this is the biggest challenge…

Say today you ate some almonds and within a half hour or or so, you got a splitting headache and realized that the last time two times you ate almonds the same thing happened. It wouldn’t be difficult to figure out that your body reacts negatively when you consume almonds! You might try one more time to be sure but the pattern and message are pretty clear. Don’t eat almonds!

But what if the headache or symptom was delayed and occurred three days later? It would be pretty tricky, even while keeping a food journal, to figure out that it was the almonds!

That is why, whenever possible, I use the ALCAT test.

Why?

If you’ve previously suspected you may have food-related issues, then maybe you’ve already undergone testing such as the IgG or RAST. Although these tests can be somewhat helpful in identifying true food allergies, they are not helpful for identifying delayed type reactions.

This is because they measure only a single mechanism, such as the effect of mast cell release of histamine or the presence of allergen specific IgE molecules.

Remember that typical, textbook allergic (IgE) reactions occur rather rapidly so those tests don’t help us when we are trying to pinpoint the delayed ones.

In addition, IgG tests look at just one immune pathway and can give you a false positive, since it can indicate exposure, not necessarily intolerance.

The Alcat Test has been used for over 20 years and is clinically proven to accurately and reproducibly measure leukocyte cellular reactivity in the whole blood. Meaning it measures the final common pathway of all pathogenic mechanisms, whether immune, non-immune or toxic (IgG, IgA, IgM, IgD, complement, pharmacologic, toxic, lectin, etc.).

It is the only test shown to correlate with clinical symptoms by double blind oral challenge, the gold standard. Not only is the ALCAT Test the most accurate; it is the only test that can detect intolerances to both foods and other substances.

The Alcat can help us…

• Identify normally “healthy” foods that are not good for you
• Improve your metabolic function
• Decrease chronic inflammation, a major cause of premature aging, autoimmune issues and many other conditions
• Reach your goal weight
• Achieve optimal wellness through customized nutrition

About the Technology

Cell Science Systems, Ltd. Corp., developed The ALCAT Test to measure personalized nutrition at the cellular level. The core technology is a blood test that measures the body’s cellular response to challenges from a wide array of substances including various foods, additives, colorings and chemicals.

The individual’s cellular reactivity after exposure of the blood to the various test agents, versus the person’s own baseline control, tells me which substances may be causing a sensitivity-related response in the body.

The ALCAT Test has been validated by demonstrating a high correlation with double-blind oral challenges with both foods and food additives. In addition, a controlled study from Baylor Medical College reported 98% success for weight loss and/or improvement in body composition from patients that followed the recommended ALCAT Rotational Diet, an unparalleled achievement.

Test Results

The ALCAT Test results are presented in an easy to understand, color-coded format. They highlight each clients incompatible foods and the level of each reaction (severe, moderate or mild). The ALCAT Test results also clearly identify the foods which are non-reactive or “safe” foods by putting them in the green section of the results and organizing them by food groups.

Rotational Diet

History has shown that variety in the human diet is very important to health and wellbeing. Research in physical anthropology and nutritional science has shown that the human digestive system is more suited to coping with a seasonal diet as opposed to the traditional Westernized diet.

By eating foods in a particular family one day and then omitting them for at least the next three days, a cumulative sensitizing effect is avoided. This time allows the food molecules to “clear” the system, avoiding overload.

After the Test

When we get your results, we combine that powerful knowledge with our other findings and/or those of your other healthcare providers to create the perfect eating and lifestyle plan for you and your unique biology.

Eating healthy, local and organic is good but in many cases it is not enough. There are many other factors that must be considered when medical issues are involved. Some foods affect your hormones, others certain organs, etc.

Because of this, it is of the utmost importance that we know as much as we can to create a very specific diet and plan of action that considers all of your needs and works for YOU.

Using the ALCAT test as an adjunct to the other work I do is a big reason why my clients improve so quickly and dramatically. It is so much easier to make progress and move to the next level of health when we find out what is aggravating your system and remove it.

Trauma and stress are huge ones, but whether you know it or not, so is food!

I believe Hippocrates was right over 2,500 years ago when he said, “Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food.”

I went through hell before I knew about my body’s unique biological relationship with food!

That being said, I want this test to be available and affordable to as many people as possible.

So for those who are interested in and serious about healing and experiencing radiant health, I have decided to forgo a significant amount of profit and worked out a special arrangement with Cell Science Systems, Ltd. (developers of The ALCAT test) and Associated Clinical Laboratories and various labs throughout the country and am now offering this valuable testing at a discounted rate.

Change is difficult! So in addition, I will give you access to me (via text, Skype, phone, email) to help you understand the results and more importantly, support you in the process of making them work in your life.

Also, just to be clear, you don’t have to live in my area to do the testing or to work with me. I have worked with clients as far away as England, Costa Rica and Australia.

I will take care of all the paperwork, hook you up with a lab in your area for a blood draw, or if you’d prefer, I can even arrange for a licensed nurse or phlebotomist to come to your home and do it.

After we get your results we will create a plan of action that is tailored to and considers your current needs, other health issues, your budget, life situation and most importantly your specific biology.

For more information on testing and pricing click here or call me at 814-882-6678 for specifics…

I welcome any feedback, anecdotes or questions so please feel free to leave a comment below!

Until next time…

A

I am short on time right now but rest assured to those who have been encouraging and asking (more like pressuring ) me to share more of my knowledge and experiences with a broader audience and to make my stress management and trauma release work more public, I have been writing up a storm and am also almost ready to do some speaking engagements and workshops.

In addition, since being asked to do an impromptu presentation on trauma  for an audience of over 50 people at a recent event, I have been inundated with questions, comments and some absolutely touching and tragic stories.

Seems that the subject of trauma (trauma of all kinds – big and small) is an incredibly important one, one that touches everyone on this planet whether they are aware of it or not. Trauma affects us on all levels – physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually and culturally. It affects us as individuals, as families, as communities, as nations and as a species…

In many, if not most cases, it is the true root of the disease, dysfunction and suffering that pervades the lives of so many individuals.

In fact, a recent study by the CDC showed a shocking link between childhood trauma and a 20 year shorter life expectancy. It also showed that survivors of childhood trauma were much, much more likely to develop chronic diseases as adults. Serious stuff that I know to be true from the work I have been doing with clients.

Trauma is also the root of many wars – the internal, individual ones that many fight within themselves, and the external wars that occur within families and between races, religions, cultures and countries.

With the promise to share more on this incredibly important topic in the near future, here are the Facebook posts:

Post 1: Many people are invested in being stuck or ill. Often unknowingly and for good reason. Their behaviors, beliefs and thinking (mostly done unconsciously) served to protect them at some point. The entire nervous system gets built around that protection but it is a primitive response to something that has passed and needs to be released for a person to truly be themselves and live in the present instead of the past.

Post 2: Trauma is a condition of being unable to live in the present because the BODY is DETECTING (not perceiving) & reacting AUTOMATICALLY to past danger. It is wired into the system at a neuroceptive level and one has little say in the matter. As helpful as things like therapy, praying, meditating, etc can be they are limited, once the nervous system detects the “danger” and reacts, all bets are off. The effects of trauma occur in the body and ultimately must be resolved VIA THE BODY!

Post 3: Biologically/neurologicall​y speaking, we are 2/3 animal and 1/3 human. When danger arises (real or perceived) the more primitive systems in our bodies kick in automatically and our ability to be conscious and choose is greatly if not totally disabled. Think the immobility response or fight or flight.

For many of us who have experienced trauma, our systems are often way out of step with our surroundings and the people around us. Detecting danger where there is none, not detecting danger where it exists, being hyper-reactive or numbed-out. Some people don’t like to hear this, but it is a biological fact. We wouldn’t have made it this far as a species if we had to think about everything first! When the going gets tough or things get crazy, we run, fight or checkout.

Most of what we do is automatic and comes from our “from the factory” wiring. Once we understand and accept that we are also animals, what that means and how it affects our choices and how we operate in the world, we can TRULY begin to be more human and much “closer” to the source of what we are and where we came from, which is rumored to be one and the same…

Well, that is the end of this transmission. I hope the initiation of this dialogue creates more understanding, empowers people and leads to some more compassionate, intelligent action in helping to free individuals and nations from the shackles of trauma.

The world desperately needs some TRUE understanding and healing…

Until next time…

A

Anyone interested in celiac disease, gluten sensitivity, candida and any other food related issues knows there is an abundance of information out there.

The internet can be a wellspring of support and useful information but it can also be a wellspring of  half-truths and flat-out nonsense.

Some of this nonsense is perpetuated by well meaning individuals who are just trying to help, some of it by people with political or personal agendas and some of it by those who use people’s vulnerabilities and fears to separate them from their hard earned money!

Not cool to be sure but beyond that, it can be harmful.

One example is telling people with gluten sensitivity or celiac disease that it is okay to consume gluten containing grains if they are sprouted.  Not only is that not okay, it is dangerous and WILL injure the person who consumes the gluten if they are sensitive/intolerant. Gluten is gluten no matter how pure and nutritious the source!

Another is telling people with yeast and candida issues that the sugar in fruit or other natural and healthy things like raw honey won’t exacerbate things. Also not true and very counterproductive to arresting and healing the problem. Simple sugars feed yeasts and molds and if you truly have an issue and are trying to get the population down, don’t feed them what they need to thrive. Simple, right?

As a practitioner who also has celiac disease and multiple food allergies/sensitivities, I receive a lot of calls and emails from readers and other people seeking some enlightenment and clarification regarding the issue of gluten.

It’s been receiving quite a bit of attention in the mainstream press the last few years and I don’t think I’d be going out on a limb if I were to assume you’ve heard the term gluten-free and have seen the special little section in your grocery store by now.

My most recent wheat/gluten article is on how gluten affects the brain. If you’d like to check it out it is called, Getting High On Gluten With Jimmi Hendrix.  Don’t let the silly title or my often dorky sense of humor fool you. It’s packed with solid information!

Moving on…

Today I’d like to share four videos by Sayer Ji from www.greenmedinfo.com to assist those of you who have questions or are seeking information on gluten and how it affects the body, brain and mind.

They should go a long way to answer many questions and add clarification to this often confusing topic.

Sayer is an educator, researcher and speaker who lives in Southwest Florida and is, in my opinion, someone you can trust to give you valuable, well-researched and scientifically sound information.

The videos are not heavy on production value but they are heavy on what counts…

Solid, well researched, cutting-edge content!

I hope you find them as useful and as interesting as I do.

Please don’t forget to leave your questions and comments at the end!

Part 1:

The Dark Side of Wheat – New Perspectives On Celiac Disease and Wheat Intolerance

Click here to view the embedded video.

Part 2:

The Dark Side of Wheat – New Perspectives On Celiac Disease and Wheat Intolerance

Click here to view the embedded video.

Part 3:

The Dark Side of Wheat – New Perspectives On Celiac Disease and Wheat Intolerance

Click here to view the embedded video.

Part 4:

The Dark Side of Wheat – New Perspectives On Celiac Disease and Wheat Intolerance

Click here to view the embedded video.

Once again, I hope you found these as useful as I did.

Please let me know what you think!

Today we have a special guest author, Mr. Mark Tyrrell HGDip, DipHypNLP(BHR). Mark has been working as a hypnotherapist and trainer for 15 years. He has worked with a vast array of people and organizations, including the London Metropolitan Police. He has also given lectures to thousands of health professionals on self esteem, detraumatization and workplace bullying. He is co-author of Giant Within and has authored and co-authored over 100 hours of self help products.

In addition, he has helped develop a groundbreaking depression information website and treats clients with a range of problems – from clinical depression, panic attacks and PTSD to public speaking and sports performance.

That being said, I will shut up and let Mark take over…

Reassuring Reasons why Hypnosis is your Friend

Believe the hype or think for yourself

For too long hypnosis has had a bad or ‘difficult’ press. If a person doesn’t understand something they have 3 options open to them.

1) They might be sceptical and therefore save the trouble of looking further and possibly benefiting.
2) They may conclude it is dangerous and to be avoided at all costs.
3) They may spend time discovering the truth behind the hype.

If you don’t know much about a topic it’s easy to be suspicious. Some people assume hypnosis is akin to a carnival side show, others consider it mystic mumbo jumbo or ‘mind control.’ For those who look beyond the hype the truth is far more illuminating.

The most powerful tool you possess

There are potentially huge benefits for those who use hypnosis as part of everyday life. When you understand hypnosis you start to see its potential to improve human performance in the physical, emotional and intellectual realms. For me, rumour, gossip and suspicion weren’t good enough.

I determined to learn all I could about hypnosis – I learned every fact and practised every technique under the sun. I took several training courses – some good, some terrible. I invested thousands of hours of devoted study to hypnosis and discovered just what is possible. I hypnotised friends, neighbours and work colleagues. Hypnosis greatly changed things for me on a personal level

How hypnosis helped me

I used to be shy. Thanks to hypnosis I can now talk to thousands at a time and can approach anybody calmly and confidently.

I used to have poor concentration and procrastinate; thanks to hypnosis I can instantly motivate myself.

I used to find physical work outs and exercise exhausting but because of hypnosis I am now in the best shape of my life.

Incidentally I also stopped myself blushing with hypnosis. Now if ever I have a difficult call or conversation coming up, something I may naturally feel reluctant to do (you know the kind of thing) I spontaneously self hypnotise and rehearse the upcoming situation feeling good, with myself remaining calm. In this way I habitually set my own emotional ‘blue prints’ for up coming situations. Having said that it’s naturally that some people have concerns or half digested ‘hand me down’ ideas regarding hypnosis. A common one is the one about ‘mind control.’ However what does this really mean?

Why you are more in control of yourself in hypnosis

If someone expresses concerns about being ‘controlled’ in hypnosis what they mean is they don’t want to be like a robot, an automaton that is forced to obey the every whim of the hypnotist. We can’t help but influence others but we don’t control them. To understand why you need to understand hypnosis better.

So what is hypnosis like?

Hypnosis isn’t like a coma. It’s not unconsciousness – more a subtle shifting of consciousness. In hypnosis, you can still think logically but you also have access to the ‘software’ of your mind so that you can update instinctive emotional and physical responses. In fact the hypnotised subject (not the hypnotist) calls the shots. When I hypnotise someone I need to go at their speed and respond to their needs and expectations. Hypnosis will give you more control in your own life because of what it enables you to do.

How can I be so sure?

Because over the decades I’ve seen all kinds of people, all ages and from all backgrounds turn their lives around thanks to hypnosis. When you use hypnosis for yourself it improves confidence in all kinds of ways. When you use it to change other’s lives it just blows you away. This is what I mean.

When I first hypnotised someone to feel no sensation in a painful arthritic arm it was an incredible feeling. When I first cured life long phobias quickly and comfortably I was astounded. When I stopped hardened alcoholics from drinking and even got a heroin addict off the stuff and back into mainstream life again I started to feel angry that people could just associate hypnosis with entertainment.

With the aid of hypnosis I (and many people I have trained and worked with) have helped severely depressed people feel strong and positive again. The rewards and satisfactions are hard to describe. I’m going to take a stand against ignorance and short sightedness around hypnosis and here’s why.

Why you need to reclaim hypnosis for yourself

Hypnosis is your birthright. It’s nature’s optimum learning tool. In fact to learn and perform anything well you need to experience a natural focussing of attention, a natural kind of hypnosis. To be successful hypnosis needs to be your companion and friend.

Successful people use it naturally all the time because hypnosis is natural. It’s the way we learn new responses. Unlike medications its side effects are purely positive – one expectant mother I worked with to feel relaxed during child birth later reported that she was also more relaxed when flying!

Hypnosis is easy to learn and every body can benefit. Hypnosis is a safe environment to ‘try out’ new behaviours and emotional patterns before you experience them for real. So the young man can ask a woman out for a date many times in calm relaxed hypnosis so that by the time he does it for real it feels real and natural and relaxed. Sports people who use hypnosis learn new quicker and more accurately. So hypnosis gives you more control of yourself and your life, it’s natural and gives you instant benefits and it’s a way of ‘trying on’ and establishing new patterns of emotional response and behaviour, Hypnosis enables you to develop yourself as a human being.

Well, that’s it for today.

Many thanks to Mark for his informative article.

If you’d like to learn more about hypnosis, Hypnosis Downloads.com offers a free course called ‘Learn Hypnosis in 5 Days‘.

If you’d like to learn more about Mark and the work he is doing, you can find him at Hypnosis Downloads.com.

Until next time…

Kind regards, A

At this point, I am going so be so bold as to say that most of us are smart enough to know that we aren’t as smart as we think we are, that we don’t know as much as we think we know, and are not as in control of our behavior as we’d like to think.

We are pretty illogical and irrational much of the time.  We do things and then fabricate reasons after the fact.

We also believe certain things despite mountains of LOUD evidence indicating otherwise.

It can be a real pain in the ass for us and the world around us but it can also be a lot of fun if we see things for what they are and don’t take ourselves or others too seriously.

In the course of doing research for a book and an upcoming workshop, I came across some information, actually “facts” regarding the human brain and human behavior that I just did not agree with.

Some of these things completely defied my own personal experience and others just insulted my common sense and intelligence.  I became very curious. I wondered what mass delusions I was buying into, where some of this information was coming from and what it was based on.

So I decided to do a little investigating…

I got out my magical shovel and when I started digging deeper, it didn’t take long to find that some of my intuitions were right.

I found that much of the popular and generally agreed upon information regarding the brain, learning, psychology and human behavior was inaccurate, outdated and completely unfounded.

Most of this misinformation is perpetuated by the media, self-help people and plain old superstition.

I had already known for years about the myth that a full moon affects human behavior. I had read two very thorough studies indicating otherwise.

I also knew about the myth that we only use ten percent of our brains.

Apparently, I was not the only one who was curious…

In my journey I ended up finding a great book that delves deeply into this topic and I’d like to share and excerpt.

The book is called, 50 Great Myths of  Popular Pychology: Shattering Widespread Misconceptions About Human Behavior by Scott O. Lilienfeld

Top Ten Myths of Popular Psychology

Virtually every day, the news media, television shows, films, and Internet bombard us with claims regarding a host of psychological topics: psychics, out of body experiences, recovered memories, and lie detection, to name a few.

Even a casual stroll through our neighborhood bookstore reveals dozens of self-help, relationship, recovery, and addiction books that serve up generous portions of advice for steering our paths along life’s rocky road. Yet many popular psychology sources are rife with misconceptions.

Indeed, in today’s fast-paced world of information overload, misinformation about psychology is at least as widespread as accurate information. Self-help gurus, television talk show hosts, and self-proclaimed mental health experts routinely dispense psychological advice that is a bewildering mix of truths, half-truths, and outright falsehoods.

Without a dependable tour guide for sorting out psychological myth from reality, we’re at risk for becoming lost in a jungle of “psychomythology.”

In our new book, 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: Shattering Widespread Misconceptions About Human Nature, we examine in depth 50 widespread myths in popular psychology (along with approximately 250 other myths and “mini-myths”), present research evidence demonstrating that these beliefs are fictional, explore their ramifications in popular culture and everyday life, and trace their psychological and sociological origins.

Here, pace David Letterman, we present (in no particular order) our own candidates for the top 10 myths of popular psychology.

Myth #1: We Only Use 10% of our Brains

Whenever those of us who study the brain venture outside the Ivory Tower to give public lectures, one of the questions we’re most likely to encounter is, “Is it true that we only use 10% of our brains?” The look of disappointment that usually follows when we respond, “Sorry, I’m afraid not,” suggests that the 10% myth is one of those hopeful truisms that refuses to die because it would be so nice if it were true.

In one study, when asked “About what percentage of their potential brain power do you think most people use?,” a third of psychology majors answered 10%.1 Remarkably, one survey revealed that even 6% of neuroscientists agreed with this claim!2

The pop psychology industry has played a big role in keeping this myth alive. For example, in his book, How to be Twice as Smart, Scott Witt wrote that “If you’re like most people, you’re using only ten percent of your brainpower.”3

There are several reasons to doubt that 90% of our brains lie silent. At a mere 2–3% of our body weight, our brain consumes over 20% of the oxygen we breathe. It’s implausible that evolution would have permitted the squandering of resources on a scale necessary to build and maintain such a massively underutilized organ.

Moreover, losing far less than 90% of the brain to accident or disease almost always has catastrophic consequences.4 Likewise, electrical stimulation of sites in the brain during neurosurgery has failed to uncover any “silent areas.”

How did the 10% myth get started? One clue leads back about a century to psychologist William James, who once wrote that he doubted that average persons achieve more than about 10% of their intellectual potential. Although James talked in terms of underdeveloped potential, a slew of positive thinking gurus transformed “10% of our capacity” into “10% of our brain.”5

In addition, in calling a huge percentage of the human brain “silent cortex,” early investigators may have fostered the mistaken impression that what scientists now call “association cortex” — which is vitally important for language and abstract thinking — had no function.

In a similar vein, early researchers’ admissions that they didn’t know what 90% of the brain did probably fueled the myth that it does nothing. Finally, although one frequently hears claims that Albert Einstein once explained his own brilliance by reference to 10% myth, there’s no evidence that he ever uttered such a statement.

Myth #2: It’s Better to Express Anger Than to Hold it in

If you’re like most people, you believe that releasing anger is healthier than bottling it up. In one survey, 66% of undergraduates agreed that expressing pent-up anger — sometimes called “catharsis” — is an effective means of reducing one’s risk for aggression.6

A host of films stoke the idea that we can tame our anger by “letting off steam” or “getting things off our chest.” In the 2003 film  Anger Management, after the meek hero (Adam Sandler) is falsely accused of “air rage” on a flight, a judge orders him to attend an anger management group run by Dr. Buddy Rydell (Jack Nicholson). At Rydell’s suggestion, Sandler’s character plays dodgeball with schoolchildren and throws golf clubs.

Dr. Rydell’s advice echoes the counsel of many self-help authors. John Lee suggested that rather than “holding in poisonous anger,” it’s better to “Punch a pillow or a punching bag.”7 Some psychotherapies encourage clients to scream or throw balls against walls when they become angry.8 Proponents of “primal scream therapy” believe that psychologically troubled adults must release the emotional pain produced by infant trauma by discharging it, often by yelling at the top of their lungs.9

Yet more than 40 years of research reveals that expressing anger directly toward another person or indirectly toward an object actually turns up the heat on aggression.10 In an early study, people who pounded nails after someone insulted them were more critical of that person.11

Moreover, playing aggressive sports like football results in increases in aggression,12 and playing violent videogames like Manhunt, in which participants rate bloody assassinations on a 5-point scale, is associated with heightened aggression.13 Research suggests that expressing anger is helpful only when it’s accompanied by constructive problem-solving designed to address the source of the anger.14

Why is this myth so popular? In all likelihood, people often mistakenly attribute the fact that they feel better after they express anger to catharsis, rather than to the fact that anger usually subsides on its own after awhile.15

Myth #3: Low Self-Esteem is a Major Cause of Psychological Problems

Many popular psychologists have long maintained that low self-esteem is a prime culprit in generating unhealthy behaviors, including violence, depression, anxiety, and alcoholism. From Norman Vincent Peale’s 1952, The Power of Positive Thinking, onward, self-help books proclaiming the virtues of self-esteem have become regular fixtures in bookstores.

In his best-seller, The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem, Nathaniel Branden insisted that one “cannot think of a single psychological problem — from anxiety and depression, to fear of intimacy or of success, to spouse battery or child molestation — that is not traceable to the problem of low self esteem.

The self-esteem movement has found its way into mainstream educational practices. Some athletic leagues award trophies to all schoolchildren to avoid making losing competitors feel inferior.17 One elementary school in California prohibited children from playing tag because the “children weren’t feeling good about it.”18

Moreover, the Internet is chock full of educational products intended to boost children’s self-esteem. One book, Self Esteem Games contains 300 activities to help children feel good about themselves, such as repeating positive affirmations emphasizing their uniqueness.19

But there’s a fly in the ointment: Research shows that low self esteem isn’t strongly associated with poor mental health. In a comprehensive review, Roy Baumeister and his colleagues canvassed over 15,000 studies linking self-esteem to just about every conceivable psychological variable.

They found that self-esteem is minimally related to interpersonal success, and not consistently related to alcohol or drug abuse. Moreover, they discovered that although self-esteem is positively associated with school performance, better school performance appears to contribute to high self-esteem rather than the other way around. Perhaps most surprising of all, they found that “low self-esteem is neither necessary nor sufficient for depression.”20

Myth #4: Human Memory Works like a Video Camera

Despite the sometimes all-too-obvious failings of everyday memory, surveys show that many people believe that their memories operate very much like videotape recorders. About 36% of us believe that our brains preserve perfect records of everything we’ve experienced.21 In one survey of undergraduates, 27% agreed that memory operates like a tape recorder.22 Even most psychotherapists agree that memories are fixed more or less permanently in the mind.23

It’s true that we often recall extremely emotional events, sometimes called flashbulb memories because they seem to have a photographic quality.24 Nevertheless, research shows that even these memories wither over time and are prone to distortions.25 Consider an example from Ulric Neisser and Nicole Harsch’s study of memories regarding the disintegration of the space shuttle Challenger.26 A student at Emory University provided the first description 24 hours after the disaster, and the second account two and a half years later.

Description 1. “I was in my religion class and some people walked in and started talking about [it]. I didn’t know any details except that it had exploded and the schoolteacher’s students had all been watching which I thought was so sad. Then after class I went to my room and watched the TV program talking about it and I got all the details from that.”

Description 2. “When I first heard about the explosion I was sitting in my freshman dorm room with my roommate and we were watching TV. It came on a news flash and we were both totally shocked. I was really upset and I went upstairs to talk to a friend of mine and then I called my parents.”

Clearly, there are striking discrepancies between the two memories. Neisser and Harsch found that about one-third of students’ reports contained large differences across the two time points. Similarly, Heike Schmolck and colleagues compared participants’ ability to recall the 1995 acquittal of former football star O. J. Simpson 3 days after the verdict, and after many months.27 After 32 months, 40% of the memory reports contained “major distortions.”

Today, there’s broad consensus among psychologists that memory isn’t reproductive — it doesn’t duplicate precisely what we’ve experienced — but reconstructive.

What we recall is often a blurry mixture of accurate and inaccurate recollections, along with what jells with our beliefs and hunches. Indeed, researchers have created memories of events that never happened.

In the “shopping mall study,” Elizabeth Loftus created a false memory in Chris, a 14-year-old boy. Loftus instructed Chris’s older brother to present Chris with a false story of being lost in a shopping mall at age 5, and she instructed Chris to write down everything he remembered.

Initially, Chris reported very little about the false event, but over a two week period, he constructed a detailed memory of it.28 A flood of similar studies followed, showing that in 18-37% of participants, researchers can implant false memories of such events as serious animal attacks, knocking over a punchbowl at a wedding, getting one’s fingers caught in a mousetrap as a child, witnessing a demonic possession, and riding in a hot air balloon with one’s family.29

Myth #5: Hypnosis is a Unique “Trance” State Differing
in Kind from Wakefulness

Popular movies and books portray the hypnotic trance state as so powerful that otherwise normal people will commit an assassination (The Manchurian Candidate); commit suicide (The Garden Murders); perceive only a person’s internal beauty (Shallow Hal); and (our favorite) fall victim to brainwashing by alien preachers who use messages embedded in sermons (Invasion of the Space Preachers).

Survey data show that public opinion resonates with these media portrayals: 77% of college students endorsed the statement that “hypnosis is an altered state of consciousness, quite different from normal waking consciousness,” and 44% agreed that “A deeply hypnotized person is robot-like and goes along automatically with whatever the hypnotist suggests.”30

But research shows that hypnotized people can resist and even oppose hypnotic suggestions, and won’t do things that are out of character, like harming people they dislike.31 In addition, hypnosis bears no more than a superficial resemblance to sleep: Brain wave studies reveal that hypnotized people are wide awake.

What’s more, individuals can be just as responsive to suggestions administered while they’re exercising on a stationary bicycle as they are following suggestions for sleep and relaxation.32

In the laboratory, we can reproduce all of the phenomena that laypersons associate with hypnosis (such as hallucinations and insensitivity to pain) using suggestions alone, with no mention of hypnosis. Evidence of a distinct trance unique to hypnosis would require physiological markers of subjects’ responses to suggestions to enter a trance. Yet no consistent evidence of this sort has emerged.33

Hypnosis appears to be only one procedure among many for increasing people’s responses to suggestions.

Myth #6: The Polygraph Test is an Accurate Means
of Detecting Lies

Have you ever told a lie? If you answered “no,” you’re lying. College students admit to lying in about one in every three social interactions and people in the community about one in every five interactions.34 Not surprisingly, investigators have long sought out foolproof means of detecting falsehoods.

In the 1920s, psychologist William Moulton Marston invented the first polygraph or so-called “lie detector” test, which measured systolic blood pressure to detect deception. He later created one of the first female cartoon superheroes, Wonder Woman, who could compel villains to tell the truth by ensnaring them in a magic lasso. For Marston, the polygraph was the equivalent of Wonder Woman’s lasso: an infallible detector of the truth.35

A polygraph machine plots physiological activity — such as skin conductance, blood pressure, and respiration — on a continuously running chart. Contrary to the impression conveyed in such movies as, Meet the Parents, the machine isn’t a quick fix for telling whether someone is lying, although the public’s desire for such a fix almost surely contributes to the polygraph’s popularity.

In one survey of introductory psychology students, 45% believed that the polygraph “can accurately identify attempts to deceive.”36 Yet interpreting a polygraph chart is notoriously difficult.

For starters, there are large differences among people in their levels of physiological activity. An honest examinee who tends to sweat a lot might mistakenly appear deceptive, whereas a deceptive examinee who tends to sweat very little might mistakenly appear truthful.

Moreover, as David Lykken noted, there’s no evidence for a Pinocchio response,37 such as an emotional or physiological reaction uniquely indicative of deception.38 If a polygraph chart shows more physiological activity when the examinee responds to questions about a crime than to irrelevant questions, at most this difference tells us that the examinee was more nervous at those moments.

Yet this difference could be due to actual guilt, indignation or shock at being unjustly accused, or the realization that one’s responses to questions about the crime could lead to being fired, fined, or imprisoned.39

Thus, polygraph tests suffer from a high rate of “false positives” — innocent people whom the test deems guilty.40 As a consequence, the “lie detector” test is misnamed: It’s really an arousal detector.41 Conversely, some individuals who are guilty may not experience anxiety when telling lies.

For example, psychopaths are notoriously immune to fear and may be able to “beat” the test in high pressure situations, although the research evidence for this possibility is mixed.42

Were he still alive, William Moulton Marston might be disappointed to learn that researchers have yet to develop the psychological equivalent of Wonder Woman’s magic lasso. For at least the foreseeable future, the promise of a perfect lie detector remains the stuff of comic book fantasy.

Myth #7: Opposites Attract

The notion that “opposites attract” is a standard part of our cultural landscape. Films, novels, and TV sitcoms overflow with stories of diametrical opposites falling passionately in love. The 2007 smash hit comedy, Knocked Up, is perhaps Hollywood’s latest installment in it’s seemingly never-ending parade of wildly mismatched romantic pairings.

Most of us are convinced that people who are opposite from each other in their personalities, beliefs, and looks tend to be attracted to each other. Lynn McCutcheon found that 77% of undergraduates agreed that opposites attract in relationships.43

This belief is also widespread in pockets of the Internet dating community. On one site called “Soulmatch,” Harville Hendrix, Ph.D. (described as a “relationships expert”) states that “It’s been my experience that only opposites attract because that’s the nature of reality. The great myth in our culture is that compatibility is the grounds for a relationship — actually, compatibility is grounds for boredom.”

On the contrary, research suggests that Hendrix has gotten his myths precisely backward. When it comes to interpersonal relationships, opposites don’t attract.

Dozens of studies demonstrate that people with similar personality traits are more likely to be attracted to and hang out with each other than people with dissimilar personality traits.

For example, people with a Type A personality style, who are hard-driving, competitive, and time-conscious, prefer dating partners who have a Type A personality.44

Similarity in personality traits predicts not only initial attraction, but marital stability and happiness.45

Similarity on the personality trait of conscientiousness seems to be especially important for marital satisfaction.46 So if you’re a hopelessly messy person, you’re best off finding someone who isn’t a total neat freak.

The “like attracts like” conclusion also extends to our attitudes and values. The more similar someone’s attitudes (for example, political views) are to ours, the more we tend to like that person.47

Myth #8: People with Schizophrenia Have Multiple Personalities

A prevalent misconception is that schizophrenia is the same thing as “split personality” or “multiple personality disorder.” A popular bumper sticker, for example, reads: “I was schizophrenic once, but we’re better now.”

The schizophrenia-multiple personality misconception is widespread. In one survey, 77% of introductory psychology students agreed that “a schizophrenic is someone with a split personality.”48

The 2000 comedy film, Me, Myself, and Irene, starring Jim Carrey, features a man supposedly suffering from schizophrenia. Yet he actually suffers from a split personality, with one personality who’s mellow and another who’s aggressive.

In fact, Schizophrenia differs sharply from the diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder (DID), once called multiple personality disorder. Unlike people with schizophrenia, people with DID supposedly harbor two or more distinct “alters” — personalities or personality states — within them at the same time.

Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 novel, The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde, is probably the best known illustration of multiple personality in popular literature.

Nevertheless, many psychologists find the assertion that DID patients possess distinct and fully formed personalities to be doubtful.49 It’s far more likely that these patients are displaying different, but exaggerated, aspects of a single personality.

The schizophrenia-DID myth probably stems in part from confusion in terminology. Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler coined the term “schizophrenia,” meaning “split mind,” in the early 20th century, and many writers soon misinterpreted Bleuler’s definition.

By schizophrenia, Bleuler meant that people suffer from a “splitting” within and between their psychological functions, especially emotion and thinking.50 For most of us, what we feel and think at one moment corresponds to what we feel and think at the next.

Yet in the severe psychotic disorder of schizophrenia, these linkages are ruptured. As Bleuler observed, people with schizophrenia don’t harbor more than one co-existing personality; they possess a single personality that’s been shattered.51

Regrettably, many people in the general public don’t appreciate the fact that schizophrenia is often a profoundly disabling condition associated with a heightened risk for suicide, clinical depression, anxiety disorders, substance abuse, unemployment, and homelessness.

As Irving Gottesman noted, “everyday misuse of the terms schizophrenia or schizophrenic to refer to the foreign policy of the United States, the stock market, or any other disconfirmation of one’s expectations does an injustice to the enormity of the public health problems and profound suffering associated with this most puzzling disorder of the human mind.”52

Myth #9: Full Moons Cause Crimes and Craziness

Once every 29.53 days on average, an event of rather trivial astronomical significance occurs. But according to some writers, it’s an event of enormous psychological significance. What is it? A full moon.

Over the decades, authors have linked the full moon to a host of phenomena: strange behaviors, psychiatric hospital admissions, suicides, traffic accidents, crimes, heavy drinking, dog bites, births, crisis calls to emergency rooms, violence by hockey players…the list goes on and on.53

The word “lunatic” derives from the Latin term luna, or moon. Legends of werewolves and vampires, terrifying creatures that supposedly often emerged during full moons, date back at least to the ancient Greeks, and were popular in Europe during much of the Middle Ages.54

In 19th-century England, some lawyers used a “not guilty by reason of the full moon” defense to acquit clients of crimes committed during full moons.

Even today, the notion that the full moon is tied to strange occurrences — the “Lunar Effect” or “Transylvania Effect” — is deeply embedded in popular culture.

One study revealed that up to 81% of mental health professionals believe in the lunar effect,55 and a study of nurses demonstrated that 69% believe that full moons are associated with increase in patient admissions.56 In 2007, Brighton, England instituted a policy to place more police officers on the beat during full moon nights.57

Psychiatrist Arnold Lieber popularized the idea of a correlation between the full moon and behavior.58 For Lieber, the lunar effect stems mostly from the fact that the human body is four-fifths water.

Because the moon affects the tides of the earth, it’s plausible that the moon would also affect the brain, which is, after all, part of the body. Yet as astronomer George Abell noted, a mosquito sitting on your arm would exert a more powerful gravitational force on your body than would the moon.59

Furthermore, the moon’s tides are influenced not by its phase — that is, by how much of it’s visible on earth — but by its distance from earth.60 Indeed, during a “new moon,” the phase at which the moon is invisible to us on earth, it exerts just as much gravitational influence as it does during a full moon.

In 1985, two psychologists reviewed all available research evidence on the lunar effect, and found no evidence that the full moon is related to much of anything — crimes, suicides, psychiatric problems, psychiatric hospital admissions, or calls to crisis centers.61

Later investigators examined whether the full moon is linked to suicides,62 psychiatric hospital admissions,63 dog bites,64 or emergency room visits,65 and came up empty-handed.

What psychologists term the “fallacy of positive” instances may help to explain the persisting popularity of belief in the lunar effect. When an event confirms our hunches, we tend to take special note of it and recall it.66

In contrast, when an event disconfirms our hunches, we tend to ignore or reinterpret it. So, when there’s a full moon and something out of the ordinary, say, a surge of admissions to our local psychiatric hospital, happens, we’re likely to remember it and tell others about it.

In contrast, when there’s a full moon and nothing unusual happens, we typically overlook or discount it.

In one study, psychiatric hospital nurses who believed in the lunar effect wrote more notes about patients’ strange behavior during a full moon than did nurses who didn’t believe in the lunar effect.67

The nurses attended more to events that confirmed their hunches, which in turn probably bolstered these hunches.

Myth #10: A Large Proportion of Criminals Successfully
Use the Insanity Defense

After giving a speech on the morning of March 30th, 1981, President Ronald Reagan emerged from the Washington Hilton hotel. Seconds later, six shots rang out. One hit a secret service agent, one hit a police officer, another hit the President’s press secretary James Brady, and another hit the President himself.

The would-be assassin was a delusional 26 year-old man named John Hinckley, who had fallen in love from a distance with actress Jodie Foster and become convinced that by killing the President he could make Foster reciprocate his feelings for her.

In 1982, following a trial featuring dueling psychiatric experts, the jury found Hinckley not guilty by reason of insanity. The jury’s decision triggered an enormous public outcry; an ABC News poll revealed that 76% of Americans objected to the verdict.

Surveys show that most Americans believe that criminals often use the insanity defense as a loophole to escape punishment. One study revealed that the average layperson believes that the insanity defense is used in 37% of felony cases, and that this defense is successful 44% of the time.

This survey also demonstrated that the average layperson believes that 26% of insanity acquittees are set free, and that these acquittees spend only about 22 months in a mental hospital following their trials.68 Many politicians share these perceptions.

One study revealed that politicians in Wyoming believed that 21% of accused felons had used the insanity defense, and that they were successful 40% of the time.69 In 1973, President Richard Nixon made the abolition of the insanity defense the centerpiece of his effort to fight crime.

Yet these perceptions of the insanity defense are wildly inaccurate. Data indicate that this defense is raised in less than 1% of criminal trials and that it’s successful only about 25% of the time.70 For example, in the state of Wyoming between 1970 and 1972, a grand total of 1 (!) accused felon successfully pled insanity.

Members of the general public also overestimate how many insanity acquittees are set free; the true proportion is only about 15%. Moreover, the average insanity acquittee spends between 32 and 33 months in a psychiatric hospital, considerably longer than the public estimates.

In fact, criminals acquitted on the basis of an insanity verdict typically spend at least as long in an institution (such as a psychiatric hospital) as criminals who are convicted.71

How did these misperceptions of the insanity defense arise? We Americans live increasingly in a “courtroom culture.” Between Court TV, CSI, Law and Order, and CNN’s Nancy Grace, we’re continually inundated with information about the legal system.

Nevertheless, this information can be deceptive, because the media devotes considerably more coverage to legal cases in which the insanity defense is successful, like Hinckley’s, than to those in which it isn’t.72

As is so often the case, the best antidote to public misperception is accurate knowledge. Lynn and Lauren McCutcheon found that a brief fact-based report on the insanity defense, compared with a news program on crime featuring this defense, produced a significant decrease in undergraduates’ misconceptions concerning this defense.73 These findings give us cause for hope, as they suggest that it may take only a small bit of information to overcome misinformation.

We can all be fooled by psychomythology, largely because so many popular misconceptions dovetail with our intuitive hunches. As a consequence, we must turn to scientific reasoning, which is a set of safeguards against the tendency to confirm our initial beliefs, to evaluate whether the claims of the pop psychology industry pass muster.74

The good news is that by continually scrutinizng and questioning popular psychology claims with scientific thinking and scientific evidence, we can come to a better understanding of our mental worlds and make better everyday life decisions.

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60. Kelly, I. W., Laverty, W.H., & Saklofske, D.H. 1990. “Geophysical Variables and Behavior: LXIV. An Empirical Investigation of the Relationship Between Worldwide Automobile Traffic Disasters and Lunar Cycles: No Relationship.” Psychological Reports, 67, 987–994.
61. Rotton, J., & I.W. Kelly 1985. “Much Ado About the Full Moon: A Meta-Analysis of Lunar-Lunacy Research.” Psychological Bulletin, 97, 286–306.
62. Gutiérrez-García, J. M. & Tusell, T. 1997. “Suicides and the Lunar Cycle.” Psychological Reports, 80, 243–250.
63. Kung, S., & Mrazek, D.A. 2005. “Psychiatric Emergency Department Visits on Full Moon Nights.” Psychiatric Services, 56, 221–222.
64. Chapman, S., & Morrell, S. 2000. “Barking Mad? Another Lunatic Hypothesis Bites the Dust.” British Medical Journal, 321, 1561–1563.
65. Thompson, D.A., & Adams, S.L. 1996. “The Full Moon and ED Patient Volumes: Unearthing a Myth.” American Journal of Emergency Medicine, 14,161–164.
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73. McCutcheon, L.E., & McCutcheon, L.E., op cit.
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And you probably know exactly what you have to do in order to lose it.

Am I right?  You have probably read multiple books or are familiar with multiple diets that all work.

Then why aren’t you doing it?

Most people will tell you that all you need is more, “will power”.

I am here to tell you that they couldn’t be more wrong!

Here is why…

According to the latest scientific research, “will power” is a limited resource.

I’m not a scientist, but based on my own personal experience in regards to growth and change and my observations of friends, family and clients over the years, I wholeheartedly agree.

When you “will” yourself to stay away from bad foods (or anything else for that matter), it takes away your ability to concentrate on even the simplest of day to day activities.

For example, when subjects were told not to eat chocolate chip cookies, their persistence in puzzle solving deteriorated. And when they were told to suppress an emotional reaction to a movie, they had problems solving a simple anagram.

In short, any act of suppression is virtually unsustainable…

This is why once you start having to think about other stuff, it becomes almost impossible for you to stay away from the cookies, the burgers, the tacos, the beer, the chips, and the soda.

Even worse, whatever habits you have developed around eating lie deep in your unconscious mind. This dictates your “default” eating choices, and any changes to this using “will power” are met with massive resistance.

And this is a battle you don’t want to fight, because the unconscious mind always wins.

So if you want to get trim, you have to change your unconscious “default” eating choices. It is the only real way to get results that stick – and it is a whole lot easier…

How do you work with the unconscious mind, you ask?

Sometimes repetition works, and establishing rituals (even rituals require much willpower for the first 30 days or so) can help…

But the only method that is validated by current science and mainstream organizations like The American Medical Association is called medical hypnosis.

Hypnosis is basically the study of creating unconscious changes. Over 80 years of clinical research have demonstrated that with the aid of hypnosis, people are able to have control where they had none before.

Get this: at the University of Iowa they are doing MRI studies where you actually see the brain shutting off feelings of pain in the brain. . . all under hypnosis.

If hypnosis can teach you to block pain, it certainly can help you change your eating habits.

But make sure you get the real thing. You don’t want help from a ”stage hypnotist” – you want to find someone with a proven clinical track record.  And finding somebody in person with a proven track record for weight loss is extremely difficult.

This is why it is sometimes better to find a home-use program. And the program with the best track record in the industry was created by Dr. Roberta Temes (author of a hypnosis textbook used in medical schools).

I have helped many people lose weight over the years but unfortunately, I have also seen the many of them gain it back within a few months to a few years due to underlying fears and unconscious issues.

That is why when I (and many doctors and other health professionals) now work with clients who desire to lose weight and/or fat, I recommend Dr. Temes program.

It goes in deep to address the roots of the problem, which by the way is not food!

Simply put, it works and it works well…

Over 50,000 people have now used this program, and the satisfaction rate is 92%.

This means that over 9 out of 10 people are able to change their eating behaviors and get the slim body they deserve
using her hypnosis sessions.

This program is like no other in that it works with any eating plan or “diet”.

The publisher provides you with a year to try the program, and they even let you sample it for 28 days by just paying shipping. So if you struggle with, “will power” – then this program is truly a, “no brainer”.

Click the link below to find out more…

http://www.hypnosisnetwork.com/hypnosis/ewl/special?hn=2182

Kind Regards,

Anthony

P.S. Here are some stories from some users of this program:

“I am now down 20 pounds and still have not had any problems with stress eating (my lifetime habit is to overeat). I am into a size 16 from a 20/22 and people are finally beginning to notice. I personally thank you for your program even though I don’t understand how it works. I amstarting to like who I see in the mirror.”

Syndi Ellison
Advertising & Finance Manager
Washington State Magazine

“I had an addiction to sugar and my weight problems were so severe I was thinking of bypass surgery. I tried hypnosis programs in the past. Some programs made me tense and uncomfortable; the power of others seemed

to fade away. Within the first week I was getting obvious results. Since I started the program I’ve lost 30 pounds and I keep dropping them. My addiction to sugar is pretty much gone and decisions to turn down foods
are easy.”

Cynthia Roderick
Photographer
South Deerfield, Massachusetts

http://www.hypnosisnetwork.com/hypnosis/ewl/special?hn=2182

Me?

Yes, you!

Well, don’t we all have issues?  I mean everyone does.  Right?

Yes, but how about for now we just focus on ourselves and leave everyone else out of the equation.

Most of us don’t realize it, but when we say things like, “Don’t we all?” or some other all inclusive type statement, we are minimizing, rationalizing and stepping away from true ownership of and responsibility for our “stuff” and the work we could be doing to awaken and move to the next level of our development.  It’s a very clever and subtle cop out!

Today, I’d like to share a quick exercise meant to pull up and identify some of these issues.

It’s an exercise meant to show us how we project our strengths and weaknesses onto others.

You will need a piece of paper and something to write with.

I’ll wait right here.

Your back.  Good!

Okay, let’s get right into it…

1.  Make a list of the people you dislike or who give you the most difficulty in life.

2.  Make a list of the traits or the things about them that you dislike the most.

3.  Now make a list of all the people you look up to or admire in some way.

4.  Make a list of the traits about these people that you like the most.

5.  Now take the list of the characteristics you hate and take a good look at it.

6.  Take the list of the characteristics you love and look at it.

Do you realize that you are essentially looking into a mirror?

That all people are essentially mirrors that are reflecting ourselves back to us?

The traits you dislike the most about another person or people are likely the ones you dislike the most about yourself.

You may not be able to see it because we often disown these things, deeming them bad or unacceptable.  Truth is, they are part of us and when we try to deny them, they go underground become unrecognizable and cause us problems.

Likewise, the traits or characteristics that you admire about others have also been disowned and you are not allowing yourself to be your best by getting in touch with and cultivating these great qualities.

I used the phrase, “disowned” but another way we could say it is that we are “out of touch” with these traits in ourselves and seeing them in others.

As an example, I know a woman who is very paranoid, angry and controlling who is constantly at odds with all the “mean and angry control freaks” who are always trying to get over on her that she just seems to runs into all the time.

They’re everywhere!  The clerk at the store.  The waiter, waitress or bartender.  The vet.  You get the point!

I have seen her in action.  I have seen her create enemy after enemy out of some very caring, open and honest people.

She is also a good example of the converse.  She meets certain people, quickly sings their praises and puts them on a pedestal before ever getting to know them.

I have seen her idealize some pretty silly people who were very underdeveloped.

So what is the point of all of this?  What is the moral of the story?

The point is this:  Wake up!  Stop projecting these things about yourself onto others and take responsibility for them and yourself.

It is never about them…good or bad.

It is about you!

There is much power in really seeing that and integrating it into yourself.  It will help you see things more accurately and it gives you more of a choice about the quality of “you” that you create and share with world.

It will help you step up your game, so to speak.

And that to me is good news!

Until next time…

Kind Regards,

A

Todays post is going to be a short and quick one…

The sun is smiling, the ocean is calling and after the two challenging days I’ve just had, I need to practice some self-care and hit the beach for some much needed rejuvenation.

So let’s get down to it…

Although it is much more involved and complex than “just doing it”, we really only need to do two simple things to achieve optimal health.

When I refer to health, I include the mental, physical, emotional and spiritual dimensions of ourselves and our lives.

These dimensions cannot be separated and encompass the totality of who we are and ultimately determine the quality of our experience on this planet.

Imbalance in one will, sooner or later, subvert the whole system.

For example, you could eat right, exercise, sleep well and have a clean bill of health from your doctor (physical) but be disconnected from your values and any kind of purpose in your life (spiritual), have no real relationships of depth or conflict with your wife, lover, kids (emotional) and be a very unhappy, unsatisfied or lonely person.

Or…

You could have an amazing spouse or lover in your life, lots of friends, a great job, but be completely out of shape or physically unhealthy and unable to fully enjoy these hard earned blessings.

Or…

Have a deep and rich spiritual life with a clear and powerful sense of purpose and mission but not have the energy to effectively share your gifts with the world.

It’s about balance…

So it is important to attend to the emotional and spiritual as well as the mental and physical.

So what are these two things?

Drum roll please…

1. Out with the bad – remove or improve the bad things in your life.
2. In with the good – add good things to your life.

“What!”  ”That’s it?”  ”I want my money back chump!”

Yep, that’s it!

Would you like me to be a little more specific?

Removing or improving the Bad

When I say bad, I am referring to anything that causes any kind of burden on the four categories of your health. These can include but are not limited to:

• Unnecessary stress
• A nutrient deficient, processed diet
• Allergens
• Toxins in your body, home or at work
• Infections
• Unresolved conflicts with others that are ongoing
• No sense of direction of purpose
• No clear idea of what is TRULY important to you
• Unhealthy relationships

This list can obviously go on and on but it is important to identify and eventually remove or improve everything.

We just can’t take out a thing or two but most of us can’t do it all at once either.

Take on too much too soon and you will likely fail.

Adding the good

The next thing to do is to put in the good things.

These include:

• High quality, whole foods
• Good, clean, PH balanced water
• Exercise and movement
• Love
• Healthy relationships
• A sense of purpose and direction
• Relaxation
• Meditation
• Good stress (things that challenge us and help us grow by testing us, pushing our unseen buttons, exposing our blind spots and raising the bar of what we can handle)

Obviously, this list could go on and on as well but when we add these good things our bodies and Life itself will take over and do the rest.

That is it!

This seems like common sense and is so simple but we often don’t do so good with simple.  Note that I didn’t say easy?

Change is not what we are trying for, change is something that is continually happening and does not need our help.

What we are ultimately moving towards is transformation and that is an ongoing process.

It bears repeating over and over that there are many things that are good for all of us, but we must also remember that each person has a unique biology and biography and therefore their own particular triggers and needs.

What harms me drastically or holds me back from being my best may not harm you at all.  In fact it may help you!

Again, this is an intentionally short post and there is so much more to this.

In the coming weeks, I am going to go into more detail and do a post on each of the four aspects of health – physical, mental, emotional and spiritual and how we can understand how they specifically support and feedback on one another.

That way we can learn to leverage them in the service of living a happy and authentic life.

Until next time…

Kind regards,

Anthony

Lately I have been getting inundated with questions about gluten and wheat so I wanted to take some time out from my travels to address this very important topic.

So let’s get down to it!

As many of you know, there can be many different causes for one “disease.”

In the past, I used the example of depression, which could be caused by one’s thyroid, a deficiency in folic acid, blood sugar disturbances, hidden infections, deficiency of omega-3 fats, low testosterone and so on.

Today I’d like to flip the coin and turn to gluten in order to illustrate how one thing can be the cause of many problems and so called “diseases.”

Of course, this is if one is sensitive to gluten…which more of you are than you may think.

I was doing some research for a client awhile back and found a review in the New England Journal of Medicine that listed over 50 diseases that can be caused by eating gluten.

That was not a typo!

Many of the diseases are neurological and psychiatric. Among them are depression, schizophrenia, epilepsy, migraines, neuropathy, anxiety, dementia, and autism.

I know this first hand…

Before I was diagnosed with celiac disease and food allergies, I had seizures and was actually diagnosed with temporal lobe epilepsy, depression, peripheral neuropathy and ADD (I’m still a bit of space cadet!).

There were times when I definitely didn’t feel or act like I was right in the head but when I identified the food allergies and removed the offending foods, along with the gluten the seizures stopped, the depression lifted and I slowly but surely became me again and then some.

Back then, we didn’t know what we know now, so it was no easy task and took many years.

It often takes a very long time – up to 10 years for a person in the U.S to get diagnosed with celiac disesase as opposed to the three years it takes in Europe and Japan – to get an accurate diagnosis.

It can be a tough one to pinpoint if we or our doctors are uninformed, and in that time much damage…physical, mental, emotional and financial can and usually does occur.

That is why I have such a passion for helping others in the same boat. I know what it is like to feel like you are losing control of your body, mind and as a consequence, your life.

I know what it is like to go to doctor after doctor getting misdiagnosed and talked into managing symptoms with unnecessary and harmful medications that only make things more complicated and confusing.

I know what it is like to be completely misunderstood and viewed as a little weird or crazy by friends, family and uninformed health care providers only later to have them apologize or say that they knew it all along!

I also know what it is like to take matters into my own hands, do the research, figure it out and reclaim my health and life.

Many others share a similar story…

What is gluten?

Gluten is a protein found in wheat and other grains such as oats, rye, spelt, kamut, barely and triticale.

Why is gluten so bad for so many of us?

There are numerous reasons. For starters, we have not genetically adapted to the grasses, mainly gluten, that were introduced to our diets in the Middle Ages.

Thirty percent of people of European descent carry the gene for celiac disease. This greatly increases their likelihood of having health problems from eating gluten.

In what ways can gluten negatively affect the brain?

First, gluten can inflame the brain by causing an autoimmune response. Autoimmunity is an abnormal response to the body’s own tissues.

In other words, something comes into the body and the body goes on alert but somehow mistakes its own tissues as a foreign invader and declares war mistakenly upon itself.

Allergies are a prime example. In this case, antibodies meant to fight gluten also attack your body.

Secondly, during the digestion process, gluten can be broken down into into strange proteins that are a lot like psychedelic drugs. These are opium-like proteins called gluteomorophins.

As you can probably imagine, these can drastically change brain function and behavior. When is the last time someone dropped acid and smoked some opium and maintained their mental homeostasis?

So does this mean gluten can make music sound better and colors more vivid?

Hell yeah man!

I love eating bread, putting on some psychedelic music, turning on my strobe light and tripping out on my old Jimmy Hendrix and Pink Floyd posters!

All bad jokes aside, I don’t think that is the type of psychedelic experience anyone is looking for.

I don’t foresee a high (pun intended) gluten bread coming out bearing the Grateful Dead’s logo anytime soon. Cherry Garcia was pushing it!

But I digress…

The third way gluten can affect the brain is due to its high content of glutamate (think MSG), a molecule that accelerates, activates, irritates and damages brain cells through a special “docking station” called the NMDA receptor.

Excessive activity in this receptor due to glutamate has been linked to many psychiatric disorders. Glutamate is an excitotoxin (a substance that agitates and kills or damages brain cells).

So to summarize, these are the three ways gluten can harm the brain:

• Through inflammation
• As psychedelic, opiate-like proteins
• As an excitotoxin

Believe it or not, this is just the tip of the iceberg with gluten.

It can also cause arthritis and other autoimmune and inflammatory diseases/conditions.

However, I just wanted to stick mainly with the brain stuff for todays post.

I’d love to hear what you have to say so please feel free to leave a comment below.

Until next time…

Kind Regards,

Anthony

Please excuse the mess.  I am in the process of remodeling the entire site but still wanted to respond to an important question I received via email the other day.

A reader was a bit upset about the price of organic food in her area and was wondering exactly which foods were the the dirtiest and therefore an absolute must to eat organic and which ones were safe to buy in their commercial, less expensive form.

I can completely relate!  I just had this conversation with my girlfriend at Wholefoods yesterday while briefly holding and then setting down a small bunch of organic asparagus that cost about seven dollars!

Obviously, growing your own is ideal, but many of us cannot or do not for various reasons.

So, for those of us who cannot or do not grow our our own, here is a list of the dirtiest commercial foods that should only be eaten in their organic forms when possible.

The dirtiest foods that should always be purchased organic:

• Strawberries – At 302 lbs of pesticide per acre, they are the worst fruit.
• Peaches
• Dates
• Pears
• Cherries
• Cabbage
• Lemons
• Apples
• Cucumbers
• Cantaloupe
• Celery
• Spinach
• Peppers of all kinds
• Root vegetables of all kinds
• All meat -Beef should be grass-fed; chicken and eggs should be organic and free-range; fish should be wild-caught; pork and lunch meat should be completely avoided.
• Dairy – Those of you who know me, know I am not down with dairy.  If you want to know why then click  here.  If you are going to consume dairy, make sure it is raw, unpasteurized and comes from grass-fed cows that are not treated with hormones and antibiotics.  Finding raw cheese from grass-fed cows is not difficult but finding the milk may be somewhat of a challenge depending on where you live.

For some of us, going organic seems hard to fit into the budget and I completely understand.  However, I would also say that our health should be our most important investment.

Without our health we have nothing!

That being said, there is surely some way to adjust the budget in order to add more clean and healthy foods to our diet and increase the quality of our lives.

Seriously… many of us don’t think twice about spending money on frivolous things or on things that are not necessary, useful or important.

Think cable TV, eating out, expensive vacations when we have all these amazing state parks, driving your car when you can walk or take public transportation.

We also just flat out waste our money.  Think leaving lights or other appliances on while not at home or in the room (MLO would bust me on that!) or blasting heat when we can put on an extra layer of clothing or the air conditioning when a fan will do or windows can be opened.

I’d even take things a step further and venture to say that many of us spend our money on things that are flat out harmful.  Think fast food, junk food, cola, alcohol, cigarettes, gambling, tanning beds…

Hell, I’m currently in South Florida and see people every day who spend thousands on plastic surgery to look better but turn around and party, eat garbage food and get fake tans!

It’s really a matter of examining and getting back in touch with our deeper values and adjusting our priorities…

Do you consider your health to be the largest piece of your wealth?

I’d love your feedback on this one so please leave a comment!

Be on the lookout in the next couple of days for a list of the foods that are the cleanest and okay to eat in their non-organic, commercial form.

Until then…

Kind Regards,

A