Is everything that’s playing out in my mind also playing out in the world? Is my dramatic, at times, brutal internal dialogue producing and directing my external reality?

Gulp.

“We all have our own inner world – our micro world – and we're all connected to the macro world, the collective,” says Hypnotherapist and Energy Healer Faye Ryan. “The collective is created from all of our own individual micro worlds.”

Based on the observations of my own micro world, I realize why heaven on earth hasn’t manifested … yet. 

But here’s the beautiful thing: when we tend to our micro worlds, we tend to the whole world. Healing ourselves is healing the world.

Sure, it sounds like a lot of responsibility, but we don’t have to take ourselves too seriously. After all, the universe has a great sense of humor. With its love of irony, the universe brings people and situations to reveal where we still doubt, play small, or overreact. While it can feel infuriating (and painful) to run into the same wall again and again, that wall can be an invitation for our transformation: a reminder that the old program no longer works and it’s time for a new one.

“I had no idea how much junk programming I was still holding on to from childhood,” says Phil, one of Faye Ryan’s clients. After hypnotherapy Phil noticed big changes. “My memory recall has improved, I sleep better at night, and my thoughts are now consistently working in my favor. The process was simple and effective … best decision and investment of my life.”

Faye Ryan and I sat down to chat about what it really means to get hypnotized. (Spoiler Alert: It happens WAY more than you think!) From energy clearing to past life healing, Faye spills the tea on how the techniques of hypnotherapy can help us embody the highest version of ourselves.

Kirstyn: What's your definition of a healer?

Faye: I would say it's someone who has done the work on themselves so that they can be a clear channel for healing energy to move through them and out to others. It's someone who has an open heart and genuinely cares about people, but the healthiest healers I've observed are those who are able to send that universal life force energy out instead of their own. 

Kirstyn: Could you give some advice for those of us who’d like to cultivate being clear and clean with our own energy? 

Faye: Well, what I do every day is a grounding and clearing meditation. I actually do it in between all of my clients as well. I'll sit with feet flat on the ground and then I visualize bright light coming down from the heavens through my crown all the way down the center of my body out the root and into the earth. I fill my whole body up with it. I release anything heavy down into the earth and draw in the higher vibration. 

Kirstyn: Do you find that there has been a recent shift in human consciousness and if so, how would you describe it?

Faye: It's interesting. It's like this split is occurring. We saw it heightened during COVID. Certain people dropped down to a lower vibration and there were others who rose up because of it. It was almost like this awakening for them. What I'm seeing is that people are becoming more aware of what's actually happening behind the scenes, more aware of the things that could only happen in shadowy places in the past. We're getting more information from the sun coming through – more downloads. There are those who will try to cling to the old ways and that's fine. But more people are waking up. 

Kirstyn: And we’re seeing the shadowy places not only in the external world, but in our own internal worlds too. This week I noticed my own limiting beliefs getting quite loud. They can’t hide anymore either.

Faye: What spirit has shown me is that we all have our own inner world – our micro world – and we're all connected to the macro world, the collective. The collective is created from all of our own individual micro worlds. It's the inner world that is actually the root. We'll see the branches of the tree in the outer world, but it always starts in the inner.

The micro world is also the subconscious mind and it has all of our programming in it. So if we really want to change anything that we don't like in the outer world we have to change our inner programming. Our programming came about during childhood. We can go back to that time and make adjustments to change what we view on the outer screen. You could think of the outer world as being a projection screen and your inner world is playing out on that screen. So when people have drama or they're blaming this person or that person - yeah, that might be an actual bad guy - but what's going on in the inner world that has allowed that person into your space? Changing the micro has to do with personal responsibility and self honesty which can be very difficult sometimes. 

Kirstyn: What was the first transformation in your life that happened as a result of hypnotherapy? 

Faye: It was introspection. I was finally able to take a look at myself and see all of my childhood trauma. Up until that point I'd been in complete denial. I'd just stuffed it. I know this sounds crazy but I just thought it was normal. I didn't know any different. Growing up in such a traumatic household, because that was all I knew, I didn't know what it was like to be in a loving environment. I didn't know what it was like to feel safe. I didn't know what it was like to feel loved. So [in hypnotherapy coursework], I'm learning all about the mind and realizing that this tiny world I grew up in is not the totality of experience. I can experience something else. I began to use the techniques of hypnotherapy – the same ones that I use with my clients –  to create new associations, a feeling of being comfortable with being safe, comfortable with being loved. All of a sudden, my life began to change.

Kirstyn: A lot of people ask about the past life regression hypnosis. How does knowing our past life transform us in this life?

Faye: Past life regression is always so fascinating to me. Every time I do one I learn something new. When we go into a past life oftentimes it will bring a sense of understanding to us in this lifetime. For example, I had a client who came in and said, “I cannot drive over bridges. I don't know why. Can we look into that?” So we did the past life [regression] and there was a tragedy that occurred that had to do with a bridge and an accident a very long time ago. Once we were able to see that from the past life perspective and bring resolution, the phobia in this lifetime went away.

Kirstyn: Do you think that the soul, or the essence of who we are, comes back and inhabits different bodies in different lifetimes? Are we reincarnated? 

Faye: What Spirit has shown me, especially from doing the Akashic records, is an image of the spirit – the totality of what we are – as this giant beam of light. It's huge and there's no way that it could fit into one body. The body is so dense it would not be able to contain all of the energy that we actually are. When I look at a spirit what I see are these smaller beams of light going out in different directions and it’s very circular. Outside of this 3D reality, which is very linear, time is actually a circle not a straight line. We call them past lives, but they're actually all happening at the same time. It's a stream of consciousness from the totality of what we are that goes into the body and has an experience and an individual ego. When the body expires that essence is drawn back into the whole. So if we identify the person as the ego, then I would say no, it's not the same person because it's not the same ego. But the energetic essence is the same. When I'm doing a reading my goal is to always move through the layers and get to the energetic core – the energetic essence. I call that the soul. That energetic core is going to have the same energetic essence throughout the lifetimes but it's going to have a different mask, a different personality.

Kirstyn: Some people get very nervous before their first hypnotherapy session. It seems vulnerable to give someone else access to a part of yourself that perhaps you don’t even have access to. What would your advice be for the person who experiences anxiety or fear prior to hypnotherapy? 

Faye: First of all no coffee, no caffeine before the session. It's completely normal to feel nervous. But also know that you are not going to be put to sleep. Even though we use the word deep sleep in hypnosis, we're actually just talking to the voices in the head that are so loud and normally try to sabotage us. Whenever we're thrust into a completely new situation, that survival mechanism – those voices – are going to try and do everything they can to talk us out of it because they want us to stay the same. If that aspect of the brain knows things are about to change, it's going to go into hyperdrive to try and talk you out of it. That's what happens sometimes with some people when it comes to nervousness. There's an aspect of the psyche that knows things are about to change. Focus on your breathing. You can record the session if you want to. Hypnosis is actually a trance state. For many people it's a heightened awareness state, so you're not going to fall asleep. 

Kirstyn: Is that the ego wanting us to stay the same and stick to the same patterns because it's safe?

Faye: It all goes back to the reptilian brain and the survival mechanism. If I'm comfortable with it, I know it. If I know it, I can control it. If I don't know it, I can't control it and therefore I may not be safe. So that's why all humans have the tendency to try and control everything around them so that they can try and stay safe. That's why even if we have a good thing that comes along, if it's very far outside of what we know, it's going to feel very uncomfortable and likely very scary because we can't control it. When people are about to do a hypnotherapy session, they don't know what's going to happen, and of course that triggers the survival mechanism.

Kirstyn: Speaking of being uncomfortable, these times that we are living in can be very destabilizing because we are letting go of so many old paradigms. More of our soul light is coming in and at the same time there’s this freak out because it is the great unknown, which we can’t control. 

Faye: Yeah. There's actually a lot of hypnosis that goes on in mass media and the news. So I always tell people not to watch the news because the way it’s set up is to hypnotize you. It hooks you and makes you watch. Here's how the hook works: it gets you emotionally. If it causes you to feel fear or sadness, then you’re going to tune in. You’re going to watch because now you have to find out. Your survival is on the line. What we found out in hypnotherapy school is that a lot of times these news sources have this tune that plays in the beginning. Most of them are designed to stimulate the fight/flight mechanism to cause you to tune in.

Kirstyn: So you enter a trance-like state while you’re watching the news? 

Faye: Yes. It's the same when you go in to speak to a doctor, a police officer, or anyone in a position of authority over you. You'll be in hypnosis. You have to be really careful about what you take in. But back to the news, if you're able to watch and observe without getting hooked, you'll see they say the same thing over and over again. It's a form of brainwashing and that’s especially true for those people who have it playing in the background all day long. It goes into your subconscious mind and you might start to regurgitate it. I've actually seen this happen to people where they will regurgitate certain things that they've heard from the news. I'll ask them well why they believe that and they can't tell me why. They don't know why. Well, I know why.

Kirstyn: Wow. That is so relatable. I've given up TV, but certainly with an authority figure I can feel my whole physiology change in that circumstance. 

Faye: That’s how it is for most people. I’ll tell you a story they taught us in [hypnotherapy] school. There was this woman who went to see her doctor. The doctor comes in with test results and he says, “I'm so sorry. You have stage 4 cancer. We could try chemotherapy if you want but it's unlikely that it's going to work for you. I would say you have about three months to live so get your affairs in order.” So she gets her affairs in order and she basically prepares to die. Three months later she dies, almost exactly when the doctor told her that she would. Later on, an investigation was opened and they found that the [medical] files had been switched by mistake. There were two patients with the same exact name and the woman who died didn't even have cancer. She had something else that was curable but she still died three months later. Why? Because she was told that she was going to. She accepted that as her reality. That's the power of suggestion. You hear a lot that doctors will give a prognosis and so often that’s exactly when the person passes away. It serves to wonder if they were given a different diagnosis, maybe they would not pass away or maybe they would live longer depending on what the diagnosis was. I always tell people your diagnosis is not a death sentence. 

Kirstyn: Then the question becomes first, how do we not get hypnotized by these external forces? Second, how do we create the life of joy that we're looking for?

Faye: Ok, first, how to not get hypnotized. It's really hard because you go in and out of hypnosis on a regular basis. It's actually a natural state of being. If you know that you're going to go into [an emotionally charged] situation like that it would be really important to do some sort of grounding meditation first. Make sure you keep your feet flat on the ground. Make sure that you're taking very slow and steady deep breaths. If you start to breathe really fast you'll go into more of an anxiety state and that state is a form of hypnosis in and of itself. Eating really grounding foods can also be helpful.

Kirstyn: Is it possible to hypnotize yourself?

Faye: Yeah, I do it all the time.

Kirstyn: It must take some practice to hypnotize yourself.

Faye: Practice and a lot of self discipline with my mind so that I cause myself to only focus in a very specific direction with a very specific intention. For somebody who's not able to hold that focus, I would say they’re probably not ready yet because when you're in hypnosis what you're visualizing becomes more real. If you can hold that focus of whatever it is you desire and you go into that trance-like state, you're making that thing you desire more real. If you can cause yourself to feel it, all of a sudden you're manifesting it because the body doesn't know whether it's actually happening or not. So that's the answer to your second question: how do we create more joy or more of what we desire? We have to bring ourselves into a state of awareness where what we desire feels comfortable. 

There are a few key ingredients to manifesting. So let's talk about the mind for a moment. When we are children, the brain itself is essentially a blank slate. We are programmed based upon everything that is occurring around us: everything that we hear, perceive, and how we feel about it. That becomes our programming, or what we call our known associations. From our known associations come our core beliefs about life. For better or worse, those core beliefs are there for our entire life until we do something to change them. From our core beliefs come our expectations. If we believe a thing to be true, we're going to expect it to continue.

From our expectations come what we are focusing on. What we are focusing on, we are manifesting. So I'd like to give this example. If you were walking down a sidewalk and it is straight, and your intention was to continue walking straight, but something to your left catches your eye and you start looking to your left, you will automatically start walking to your left. It's the same with driving. If you're in your lane and it's straight and you start looking over to the left or the right, you're going to automatically start driving in that direction. It's the same with the mind. So whatever it is that you are focusing on, you are automatically moving in that direction energetically for better or worse. And that's how we are all manifesting 24-7 every second of every day. 

In order to change that, we can actually go from the bottom up. We change what it is that we are focusing on. We have to be very disciplined with this. Manifestation is not a one and done. If you're on Facebook or Instagram, you'll find people that say, “I'll teach you how to manifest in this one course and that's all you have to do.” Manifestation is actually a discipline. You have to be disciplined with the mind to focus only in the direction of whatever it is you want to accomplish. Whenever the mind strays away into fear or worry or doubt, you gently bring yourself back. No judgment. The mind is just doing what it does to try and protect you. Bring the mind back to whatever it is that you are focusing on. 

If you can hold that focus for long enough, you'll create a new expectation because the body will begin to feel comfortable with that thing happening. When you create a new expectation, all of a sudden you have the ability to create a new core belief. 

For example, if somebody believes in lack because they grew up in lack, being wealthy is going to be uncomfortable. And so what we do is we start to visualize and imagine what it will be like to be wealthy, but not just for the sake of being wealthy. What does it give you? Is it freedom? Is it the feeling of no worry over bills? What is it that you really want out of it? Then we look at that old belief in lack and create a belief in abundance instead. So we focus on abundance, and the more you focus your mind in that direction, the more you're actually going to bring it to you. 

The second thing is allowance. When we want to manifest a specific thing, we have to allow it to come to us in whatever way the universe is going to bring it. What that means is we have to let go of control. The biggest thing I see people doing that sabotages their manifestation is they try to control how it's going to happen. When we try to control how it's going to happen, we're only allowing ourselves to see the potentiality within our programming. But that's our limitation. We're not going to manifest what we want from within our programming. We would have had it already if it was our known. If we try to control how it's going to happen, it will never happen and we just keep running the same hamster wheel. So we have to let go of trying to figure out how it's going to happen. 

The third aspect is faith. Most people only associate faith with religion. I don't associate it with religion at all. I say we all have faith in something. We can either have faith in love or faith in fear. Most people have faith in fear. And so what are we placing our faith in? Are we placing our faith in the positive expectation that what we desire to happen will actually happen? Or, are we placing our faith in the worry, fear, dread and self-sabotage? Whatever we're placing our faith in, that is propelling us in that direction.

Those are the three core aspects of manifesting that have to be in place. And if we actually do it and we're disciplined with our minds, we can move forward very quickly.

Kirstyn: When you’re focusing on your desire are you also feeling it? 

Faye: Yes. This is very much like a daydreamy state, which is a trance-like state, very similar to hypnosis. You're in the imagination just like we were as children. Allow yourself to daydream, feel happy and free, and let your mind expand. As children, we have all these wild ideas and we don't think about limiting ourselves, but as adults, we do. So you could allow yourself to get back to that childlike state where you're just daydreaming and having fun doing it. Place yourself in the future. What does this look like and feel like so that you can actually bring it into the now-moment?

Kirstyn: What are your upcoming projects?

Faye: My upcoming project is teaching. I have discovered a love of teaching. I actually teach in almost every session anyway because I want my clients to be able to do the work on their own. I want them to take away something that they can continue to use over and over again. I teach Reiki I and II and offer group classes or one-on-one remote sessions as well. This has been very advantageous for people who can't get to Sedona or need to do it on a specific time schedule. For those who want to start meditating but they don't know where to start, I offer a two hour meditation class. I'm also offering intuitive development for people who want to expand their intuitive abilities.

Kirstyn: What’s one important message you’d like people to know?

Faye: You ultimately are in control of your reality and you can change anything. Regardless of what you've been through, who you are or what you've done, you can create a completely new world for yourself if you truly desire to do so. Allow yourself to be empowered.

Kirstyn: What's your favorite spot in Sedona?

Faye: I have a few favorite spots. One of them is Indian Gardens. That general area feels like magic to me. I feel the fairy when I'm there. When I'm sitting in back, I go into this very interesting trance state. I feel like I'm at home. The other one is Thunder Mountain. I love the energy of Thunder Mountain. I quickly learned when we moved near Thunder Mountain why it's called that. It is a magnet for lightning. It's the craziest and it's so beautiful. The other night the thunderstorm was so loud and it shook the entire house. I started putting up Reiki energy grids to protect the pine trees from the lightning. Flash! Boom! You can feel the raw power of it. Yeah, I love Thunder Mountain. 

Faye offers a variety of services at Gateway Cottage Wellness Center. To schedule a session with her, call us at 928-862-4400.

Story by: Kirstyn Lazur 

Kirstyn Lazur is the author of I Was Cursed in Connecticut, a memoir that recounts her unique and supernatural journey after the death of her mother. Her book is available through Amazon and Gateway Cottage Wellness Center’s online store.