What is Hypnosis? | El Paso, TX (2021)

 

In this Functional Medicine podcast, Dr. Alex Jimenez invites Master Hypnotist Eric Richmond CRNA, BCH, CI, RM, and Connie Pemberton – retired RN to talk to us and take us a little deeper into what Hypnosis is and the benefits it can bring into our lives. Enjoy our newest podcast and stay tuned for more content during the week. Thanks for Watching!

 

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: And hey, guys, we’re doing a really special, unique presentation today. As you guys know, we discuss different health topics. We’re going to be dealing with hypnosis because we have a very well-known hypnotist, Mr. Eric Richman will be giving us a huge insight as to what hypnosis means. Now a lot of people, when they understand the mind, they really don’t have a grasp of what the mind is. The mind is composed of a lot of different components; memory, creativity, will and desire, intuition. All these things are part of the mind. But it really is an enigma to many people. Mr. Eric Richman, who’s here today, he’s going to be discussing with us a little bit about hypnosis, what it means, what it is, and what we have here in our town as an option. A lot of people don’t know that we have this kind of individuals with these great skill sets and abilities. So today I’m going to present Mr. Eric Richman and wonderful Connie, who is his right-hand individual. So they’re going to be going and talking to us. So here we have Eric Richman. So hello, guys. How are you? How are you doing?

 

Eric Richman: I’m doing great. How about you?

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: I am so happy to have you here. One of those things gives me great joy to present this kind of information to the public. Tell us a little bit about what you do and what brought you into hypnosis? What is hypnosis, first of all?

 

Eric Richman: Well, hypnosis. It’s not an easy question to answer. With hypnosis, Let’s talk about your subconscious mind. Your subconscious mind controls everything that you see, feel, hear from, time of birth to right now. Everything that you do right now has been learned in your subconscious mind. Your subconscious mind is like a computer; when a computer is first made, it’s blank. A computer can’t do anything until it’s programmed. Once the computer is programmed, it has to do what’s programmed. Your subconscious mind is the same way once it’s programmed. It has to do what’s programmed. Here’s what’s called a critical factor. And I look at the critical factor I think about over in England, these guards over there wear the red, red suits that have the big black hats and the rifle, and they paced back and forth in front of the palace, guarding the palace. If somebody comes up to them, they stop. They aimed the rifle. They say, “Halt, who goes there?”, “Stop who goes there?” So I look at the critical factor that guards the subconscious mind like this guard when a suggestion comes to your subconscious mind. The critical factor should be “Stop, who goes there?” Now, if they like it and it sounds great, it goes through; if it’s not so hot, it doesn’t like it. It won’t go through. With hypnosis, we bypass the critical factor, we go in the back door, and we reprogram the subconscious mind so that it can do what you want it to do. So with hypnosis now. Give me an example. If you’ve ever driven down the highway and you’ve gone from point A to point B, you don’t remember going in the middle, but you got to point B, okay, that’s called highway hypnosis. If you ever daydream, You sit there and look at when you daydream and come back. That’s a form of hypnosis. Okay, so basically, with hypnosis, the individual gets really relaxed. Contrary to what you see on TV; with hypnosis, you are three or four hundred percent more alert than you are right now. You’re not in a trance. It can’t make you do anything you don’t want to do. Can’t make you bark like a dog or cluck like a chicken unless you want to; I can make you to. But you get so relaxed that you don’t care what’s happening around you at any time during the hypnosis session? You can open your eyes and end it because you are in control. It was just a relaxation technique and that would send suggestions to the subconscious mind and help to do the things that we want to do.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: Let me ask you when we deal with individuals who want to learn about hypnosis. How would they go about searching for somebody that is well versed in hypnosis? Because we’re going to go deep into it, we’re going to discuss the arenas in terms of what kind of issues somebody seeks out hypnosis for and how it could affect them, if that makes sense.

 

Eric Richman: There’s a lot of things that you can do with hypnosis. For instance, stop smoking. I have many clients come in for stop smoking in one session, and the majority will stop smoking. There’s weight loss, and of course, weight loss isn’t as fast as smoking. It takes several sessions, and people come for weight loss. Sports improvement. I get a lot of athletes that want to do better in sports. As you know, sports is mental, and you have to be mentally in the game to do well in all the sports. So I do a lot of sports. I’ve had athletes that come for sports improvement and ended up getting scholarships to college.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: We were privy to see some real interesting things here recently in the Olympics. And we saw some individuals go through some real tough times in the Olympics as a result of mind or emotional or mental health issues when we were actually right now in the Push Fitness Center. And we have a lot of athletes, as you indicated, that want to become better. The deep mind is a place where the body goes through it and alleviates a lot of the issues that limit us. Now I wanted to know, in terms of your experience, how do you get an athlete to perform at its optimal best?

 

Eric Richman: Well, we would start with the hypnosis session. I would talk to the athlete and see what they want to accomplish, what they want to do, and then under hypnosis, we have them visualize doing what they want to do, and that’s very powerful. We have them visualize them doing it. And we have them set a practice regimen. Then I have them, for instance, baseball, okay, at some time, a person has made a spectacular catch, a catch that they didn’t think they could possibly make, but they made it. So I have them go back and relive that catching that ball and then tell them, “Hey, you can do this again.” Well, you’ve done it. It’s just your mind. You know, you can do it now. Just go do it.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: Wow. What kind of environment would they have to go to to begin the process of hypnosis? Is this something that can be done in person or online? How do you approach it?

 

Eric Richman: I can do it, well with COVID. My policy now is if they’ve had their vaccinations, I do them in person. Okay. If not, I use Zoom, and Zoom works very well.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: It does. Any limitations with Zoom and its processes? In terms of the sound and times, the presence?

 

Eric Richman: It does. Zoom is interesting, and we do very well. But, they need to have a computer.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: A computer, okay.

 

Eric Richman: The telephone. You know, for them to hold the telephone and be on Zoom and then when they get relaxed, their arm falls down, then I can’t see them anymore. I’d like to be able to see them. Makes sense, makes sense. And also with sports, I can do groups.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: You can do groups. Yes. That’s interesting because Zoom does offer the ability to have multiple people in a group. What is a good-sized group that we could do it in? Because I see there’s a lot of people online right now that are watching, actually, and some of them might be a coach. And whether the sport is… volleyball, for example, volleyball is a very intricate sport that gets highly intense and the moments of activity can really be hot and heavy, and someone could be winning. Some of these teams I’ve seen winning from always 16 or 17 points ahead. And the top point is 24 or 25 points, and somehow they end up losing when they were 15 points ahead because of a mental breakdown. And that process, when it occurs, needs to be rehashed over and over again, and a coach sometimes has to work with the mind. For those coaches that have multiple individuals, how would you approach a group session or a team session?

 

Eric Richman: Well, the largest group I’ve done has been 70 some people. 70? Yes.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: Oh, is this in person or online?

 

Eric Richman: This was in person. Okay, great. But they would just have to contact me, and we could set it up. Each person would have to have their own individual computer and do it that way.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: and we could do it. Excellent, excellent.

 

Eric Richman: But you were talking about the coaches and things. Yes. If you saw on the swimming and I forget which swimmer, it was one of our swimmers was favored for gold. She stares at her opponents before she starts. She stands there, and she slaps her leg like she’s psyching out her opponents before they start. She’s always done this. That is wild. Yeah. And they did a little story about what they showed her. They showed her when she was standing in the waiting room before she went there, she slapped her leg. Then when she gets out there before she stands upon the platform, she would stare off towards the competitors. She’s not staring at the competitors, but they don’t know that they see her staring. And then she starts slapping her leg. And then she gets up there, and she swims, and she wins.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: Talk to me. What is going on in that moment? I really am interested, like what’s going on? A. in her approach and the individual who’s is like kind of psyching out the opponent.

 

Eric Richman: Well, the individual doesn’t know what she’s doing. She can’t figure it out. She doesn’t know why she’s doing it. She thinks, Oh, wow, she’s staring at me. What? What is the matter with me? Is there’s something wrong with me? So it’s putting an element of doubt there. So like the gunfighters stare at each other before they draw.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: And that catches them, and it does. It creates enough, I guess, variability in the brain function. Right. That allows the almost like a deviation of thought and performance. Right.

 

Eric Richman: There are professional athletes who carry hypnotists with them on their tour.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: No way. Tell me about this. I want to know about this.

 

Eric Richman: I have a friend in Florida, and he specializes in golf hypnosis. He travels with the professionals, and he has several professionals. He does hypnosis before each tournament.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: And does he do it like during the day, in the morning, in the evening? When would you do it? When would you do the hypnosis? Would you do it early in the morning before the event?

 

Eric Richman: You can do it before the event, or you could do it that night after the event. But you know you could do it before for sure.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: Before the event? Before the night before or even the morning of the event? Either or both. Wow. Okay. And what’s our goal with that? What is our goal with the obviously to perform better? But what is your approach in working with athletes, particularly?

 

Eric Richman: My goal is to help them to become better.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: Gotcha. And to improve in function or dynamics or open up a deeper chasm of thinking?

 

Eric Richman: Just improve overall, everything.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: Now, you mentioned a little bit about the health components and health like weight loss and those components. How is that different, and how as you approach differently in those?

 

Eric Richman: Well, for instance, with weight loss. We reprogram and try to teach them not to eat so much each time. Eat smaller meals. Tell them to instead of eating their meal with a big plate, get a small plate, put their food on the small plate, and the subconscious mind thinks they’re eating a big plate of food. Okay, so then you eat until you no longer feel hungry until the hunger pain goes away. If you eat until you feel full, you’ve eaten too much. We program this in the subconscious mind. Now, if you’ve ever sat down to a plate of food and you start eating, oh, wow, it was so good! Nice. After two or three bites, the taste changed. That is your body telling you that you don’t need that food anymore that particular food. So you go from there and eat something else on your plate.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: That makes total sense.

 

Eric Richman: Yeah, you have to listen to your body, and under hypnosis, we teach them to listen to their body.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: Wow. So what are the cues? And that’s because that’s fascinating. I’m a big believer in the micronutrients in the body because it gives you the desire to want certain foods, such as certain needs and certain proteins and certain fats. And it’ll make you, you know, it’ll make you go to the store and buy the stuff. So you need those supplements, whether it’s peanut butter or chocolate. What are the cues in terms of when someone feels that change in their taste? What kind of things should they be looking out for? They say, you know, that’s enough and move on to the next?

 

Eric Richman: You know, take the next bite. Not long ago, I love fried rice.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: Yeah, I love fried rice too, man.

 

Eric Richman: And I sat down with a big plate of fried rice, and after two or three bites, it just didn’t taste the same. And I wanted to eat it, but I couldn’t because I just knew. So I went on to something else on my plate, and you know, eat that.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: I’ll tell you that is very exciting because I, you know, I’ve seen myself eating fried rice and the truth be said when I can’t stop, I can’t stop. I mean, it’s just I mean, I know by a lot of people, but I love fried rice in it. And I was needed in some capacity because it just by the time I can’t breathe and the stuff swirls in my stomach. So those are great concepts, and I love the approach to that. Now let me ask you some things in terms of the questions that I want to ask you because I have a lot of questions here. You mentioned stuff about past life regressions. That sounds fascinating. Talk to me about that subject if you can touch on it because we’re going to have many more podcasts, and we’re going to go deep into the subject. So tell us a little bit about what that means and what kind of concepts that’s about.

 

Eric Richman: Now, not everybody believes in past lives, but now, whether you believe in a past life or not, I’ve done hypnosis sessions where I wasn’t intending to go into a past life. But the person ended up in a past life because under hypnosis, sometimes you go back to childhood and uncover things that are causing things to happen, you know, right now. And so we went back to uncover what was causing this person’s problem. And it was in another life. So everybody has lived lives in the past multiple lives. And you could have been a male. You could have been a female. Everybody’s been both. So there are some people, and I have a friend in California who’s also a hypnosis instructor, but they did a past life regression on him. He went back to a past life where he was a concert pianist. He brought that ability back up to this day and time. He’s never had a piano lesson. He cannot read music, but he can sit down to a piano and play beautifully.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: Wow, that’s amazing.

 

Eric Richman: Yes, there are things that you do in this lifetime, and that may be seated in something that happened to you in a past life. So we could go back into the past life where this occurred and find out, neutralize it and then get better in this lifetime.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: Let me ask you something about the hypnosis and the design; what we’re looking at is this when you say past life regressions because I want to analyze that and see where this is coming from. Is this knowledge or this energy or this space of a thought process? Is it maintained in something that is of a, let’s say, a genetic component? Or is it in terms of it is pulled through the genes or is it getting through to us in this present state, and how does it come through?

 

Eric Richman: It’s coming through your subconscious mind. Your subconscious mind had everything stored there, all your past life; everything is stored in your subconscious mind.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: Talk to me, open this up. Teach me a little bit about that because I know that for the scientist that’s out there, they want to learn more about the subconscious as to how it. It contains the power of data that can be brought forward.

 

Eric Richman: Well, this could be some heavy stuff.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: You know, that’s what we’re here. That’s why we’re here. You know what I got to tell you? I know we all want to know, okay, I know I do want to know. And there are so many things. If there’s one thing that I believe that we know very little in this present state, and to open those portals or those thought processes or those understandings of that information, I guess bolus that exists in our existence. It’s fascinating to a lot of people and me. So I definitely want you to, you know, kind of as best you can talk to me about it because there are a lot of people out there, specifically in El Paso, because they don’t know. They may fear it, but we want to talk about it, and we want to understand it.

 

Eric Richman: Well, if we do a past life regression, you’re totally safe. And you go back, and you look at it and, you know, like you look at a TV screen or a movie, somebody, but you totally safe, nothing’s going to happen to you. And a lot of times, what I’ll do is talk with the client. And if there is a specific problem they’re having now, they ask to go back to a past life that might be having to deal with this problem. Many times people will say, well, let the subconscious mind choose which past life they go to say. Do you go to a past life that I most need to see right now and go back to that past life. And then I take him on a journey to the Moon. Mm-hmm. And then from the Moon? Well, this tractor beam of light goes back to the past life if it’s got any.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: Well, I’m really excited to do this. I, as an individual, want to improve myself if there’s any place where I can, you know, make me a better me. A version of me, I guess. And to bring out the better me in a very safe environment and very comfortable dynamics. I want to bring it out for those that this may be new to; how do we make them comfortable in understanding the experience of being safe in it? Because many people don’t want, I mean, I deal with a lot of people. For example, I’ll give you an example where it’s a delicate issue. I do a lot of body composition, weight loss assessments. And believe it or not, when I ask someone, I’m going to know a little bit about their muscle density, and I’m going to know how much muscle and body fat they may have. They put it up there. Some people don’t like that when it comes to the mind, that’s even more guarded for a lot of people. How do you go about making them feel very comfortable in the whole hypnosis presentation assessment and the protocols that you follow?

 

Eric Richman: Well, we sit down, we have a talk, we have a visit for, and then I do a little test to let him kind of experience it, call a lemon test.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: What is a lemon test, by the way?

 

Eric Richman: We can do the lemon test if you like.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: I would love to do a lemon test for those. We may not want to do this what we’re driving, but it’s pretty interesting. But go ahead. I want you to at least give a personal understanding of what it is and the journey like, so to speak. Is it? Is this going to make me…

 

Eric Richman: Or just sit back and just listen?

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: All right. I’m going to sit back and listen. Go ahead.

 

Eric Richman: Okay, now if you’re driving, don’t do this. If you’re operating heavy equipment, don’t do this.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: OK? All right.

 

Eric Richman: So get in a comfortable position. Sit back. Close your eyes. And take some nice, slow, deep breaths; in through your nose out, through your mouth. Just let your body relax. I want you to picture, imagine, think, or just know that you’re in the most favorite kitchen of your whole life. It could be the kitchen you have now. It can be your mama’s kitchen. Grandma’s kitchen. Friend’s Kitchen. Or you can make one up; it doesn’t matter. Be in that kitchen. Notice any familiar sounds. Familiar smells. Notice the ambiance. Look at the floor; is it carpet, is it tile, is it linoleum? Now walk across the kitchen floor and stand in front of the refrigerator. Reach up. Open the refrigerator door and feel the cold air rush against your face. Look on the shelves of the refrigerator. One of the shelves is the most beautiful lemon that you’ve ever seen. Reach in, take the lemon, close your refrigerator door. Hold the lemon in your hand. Look at the texture; it’s perfectly ripe. Now someplace in that kitchen. It’s where they do the cutting. It could be the stove, countertop, table, cutting board, sink, wherever. Take the lemon over to where they do the cutting in their kitchen. Give yourself permission to safely use a sharp knife. Take the sharp knife, cut the lemon in two; as you cut the lemon in two, the cold juice just squirts all over your hands. Now you have two halves. Pick one of those halves, and cut it into two. Now you have two forths. So pick up one of those small pieces and smell the lemony aroma, just perfectly, perfect lemon aroma. And now take a bite of it. And when you’re ready, open your eyes. Okay, so the first question is who’s kitchen where you in?

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: Wow. I was a kid. Okay.

 

Eric Richman: Did your mouth water? Yes. Did you taste the lemon? Yes. Did you feel the cold air? Yes. Did you see the lemon? Yes. Okay. You’re not in that kitchen now. You don’t have the lemon; you did taste it, but yet your mouth watered, you taste it, you saw it, you felt it. That’s hypnosis.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: Amazing.

 

Eric Richman: That is a light state of hypnosis. But that’s exactly what it feels like to be hypnotized.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: It’s very insightful, and I felt very, very safe with that, by the way. That good.

 

Eric Richman: Now, if you didn’t feel all the senses, it doesn’t matter as long as you felt one or two. That’s great.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: It’s amazing. I have here Connie, who’s going to give us an insight, and Connie is bringing us an insight, and I would like to learn about what you have to say, Connie.

 

Connie Pemberton: Well, I just wanted to say that at the same time that you were in your kitchen and experiencing the lemon and all, you weren’t unaware of where you really were; you weren’t under any kind of spell. Or anything like that. And I think that’s something that people need to understand that you still have control of all your faculties, and you’re not going to be told to do something. Or feel a way that you are uncomfortable with because your mind will fight that.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: You know, I say thank you because I always wondered what it felt like. Then I’ve seen it before in comedy shows because sometimes they have, like the hypnotist come in, in a comedy environment. But it turns pretty interesting very quickly for a lot of people. I’ve seen it done to others, but I really didn’t allow myself to sit down like I just did, just to do a basic because, you know, you just worry about, you know, someone having control. That was very safe. And I’d like to talk a little bit about that and a bit of your credentials because it’s important for people to know who you are and tell us a little bit about how you got into hypnosis because we obviously know that you know it. But I want to know a little bit about the path of learning processes that you’ve taken for hypnosis science.

 

Eric Richman: OK. First of all, I am a certified registered nurse anesthetist. I put people to sleep for surgery. I do epidurals on women having babies. I’m in my forty-fourth year of doing anesthesia, Amazing. Okay, so years to go. There was a hypnosis ad in our journal every month. A Greater New England Academy of Hypnosis, every month had an ad in there. Learn hypnosis. For years, I kept looking, looking, looking, looking, and I kept thinking; I want to do it, I want to do it. Finally, in 2003, I did it. There was another individual in Greater New England, but I took the course and became a certified hypnotist. And I just couldn’t get enough. So I studied and got more and more and more and more I became board certified. And then, I became a hypnosis instructor. And at the time, I was working in Honolulu. I flew from Honolulu to London to take the hypnosis instructor’s course because the instructor there was so well known that I wanted to have him be my instructor. So then we were there, and now I’m an instructor. So I can teach hypnosis.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: And that’s amazing when you say board-certified; what does that entail? What did you do to get board certified?

 

Eric Richman: Well, I’m a member of the National Guild of Hypnotists, which is the oldest hypnosis organization of its kind. And you have to be in so many years; you have to have so many clients. You have to write a paper, and the paper has to be published, then you have to go for oral boards, sit down, ask you, you know, oral questions. And then a written test.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: Interesting. Interesting. Now your education in terms of teaching. Where did you teach at?

 

Eric Richman: I’ve just taught individuals.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: Individuals?

 

Eric Richman: Individuals and classes all over.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: You got an award recently, and I noticed that you were wearing a very special where you can hold it up on the camera a little bit right there. We’ll zoom in on it. And what does that mean? What is that?

 

Eric Richman: It’s called the Order of the Braid; it is with the National Guild of Hypnotists. It’s one of their highest honors. When did you get that? Just a couple of months ago.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: Awesome. Congratulations. Thank you. You know, and what would someone have to do to get that level of accolade?

 

Eric Richman: Well, you know, I have been a speaker at their annual convention for several years, see clients, do seminars and just, you know, work for the guild, you know, doing things for the guild, helping them out.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: Well, I’ll tell you what, I’m going to give a little pan out here because I know we’re going to talk about it. He’s located at nine six eleven Acer Avenue Building B Suite 109 El Paso seven nine nine two five. The phone number we have here, we’re going to be putting this on the front just on verbalizes, so it stays in the written component. In the written script is nine one five four nine zero ninety-five forty-three. The website is Hypno-tique, h-y-p-o- dash t-i-q-u-e dot com. And we’ll put that stuff up there for you. You know, the more and more I talk to you, the more I want to understand what other things we can work with and that you do. We talked about sports; we talked about weight loss; we talked about smoking. What are the things? Do you enjoy working with and become part of your passion for certain individuals?

 

Eric Richman: I do a lot of working with students for study habits, test-taking. Oh wow. That kind of thing. I’ve helped a couple of doctors pass their certification boards. No way.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: Talk to me about that.

 

Eric Richman: Well, you know, they had not passed them in the past, they came to me, and I helped him study and develop a way of recalling their information. The next time they took it, they passed.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: That’s incredible. You know what? That’s a source of, you know, in nursing, there’s big things like the end collects, which is a huge, dynamic, fearful factor for a lot of nurses in today’s world. And it’s probably limited; I’d say, 50 percent of nurses from becoming nurses. And it’s because of the anxiety about these test boards. So the approaches that you would take for, let’s say, a professional to help them with learning. Tell us a little bit about that in terms of, you know, without too much. But how would someone go about prepping, and where should they put this science in their learning design?

 

Eric Richman: Well, basically what your program is is that when they take the test, they’re going to be relaxed. They enjoy test-taking. And when I read the question, and the answer comes to them. It’s not something you don’t have to sit down to cram and think and think when you read it, read it; it comes up, then take the first thing that pops your head. And you take it. But it helps them to recall what they studied when they need to.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: Wow, that’s life-changing.

 

Eric Richman: Yeah, it is.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: It’s life-changing. You know, once you pass that the state boards or whatever that that is required, that opens up a whole new life for you. And these fears are limitless.

 

Eric Richman: Wow. Like with younger students or some older students, I helped them develop study habits, you know, pick a particular time during the day. No telephones, no TV, nothing. Then you study and help helps them to do study. Better quality of study. Okay.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: In terms of the ideas and where we want to at least I want to understand a bit of the sessions and how long would it take and how many sessions do you recommend in terms of, let’s say, the concepts of, let’s say, weight lost versus taking a test versus a sporting? How do you determine the amount, of course settings?

 

Eric Richman: Basically, the individual would determine, you know, smoking as we talked about as one session. Okay, then I give him a guarantee if they pick up a cigarette in the next 30 days, I’ll repeat the session free. Nice. Nice. That’s really good. And I don’t do many free.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: That is amazing, and I can see many people asking some questions here. One of the questions is, How often should the sessions be done, and is there a cost that they want to know? And I know there’s probably a variable in costs, I’m sure. But in terms of do they have cost, are payment arrangements that you can do with them?

 

Eric Richman: Well, with the stop smoking, one hundred and fifty dollars one session, if you pick up a cigarette next 30 days, I’m happy to repeat the session.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: No way, that’s amazing. Yeah, yeah. You know, I got to tell you, you know, this seems like a no-brainer because smoking is such a cause of so many diseases and so many disorders. Many of the cancers we have today are related somehow, indirectly, or directly to smoking. How about the weight loss design in terms of when you do that? What’s the approach you take there with people?

 

Eric Richman: Well, weight loss is a minimum of four sessions. And then you just have to look at the individual, see how they’re doing? And I usually see them a couple of weeks apart.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: And what do you and what do you look for in terms of to show progression? Obviously, weigh the number. But what are you looking for something in terms of their mind as it progresses through acceptance of a new order for them?

 

Eric Richman: Well, I tell them don’t weigh yourself every day. You know, don’t even weigh yourself now. What I do is on the first session, I have a list. And we take a tape measure; we measure forehead, the neck, upper arm, the wrist, chest, hips, waist, upper thigh, ankle, a bunch of different measurements, and you add up the inches. Then in a month, you do the exact measurements and make sure you do it at the same place. People often lose inches and not really be losing pounds, you know, a plateau or something. And even though they’re doing well on their program, they feel like, “Oh, I’m not losing any weight.”, but then they do the inches, and they go: “Oh gee, six inches! It makes a difference.” I tell them to look at your clothes. So then you notice your clothes are feeling looser. Okay. But don’t weigh every day because you can fluctuate daily. You know, just with water.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: You know, when we’re dealing with moms, okay? I work with athletes, and parents get involved. What’s the earliest stage that hypnosis is appropriate? Or do you have you worked with? At what age would you say is it comfortable for parents? Is there a limit or not?

 

Eric Richman: Well, if I’m doing child or, you know, a youngster, I let the parent stay in the room with me. You know, that helps kids at ease. And actually, the younger they are, the easier it is to hypnotize. Wow. Because, you know, kids get in a fantasy world anyway.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: Wow. Wow. And so when you say the younger they are, what’s the what do you where do you think that a mom who has a child, let’s say within, let’s say, eating disorder? Do you work with eating disorders like bulimia or anorexia or things that can be detrimental for them in terms of habits?

 

Eric Richman: Well, we can certainly work with the habits and help them. You know, I’m not a doctor, I don’t diagnose or, you know, anything like that, but I could help them overcome what they’re doing now.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: You mentioned something that was very interesting to me because my mom recently had her knee replaced, and the orthopedic surgeon sent her over to an acupuncturist to do a protocol prior to the surgical procedures. Do you find that in your world of anesthesia and the doctors you work with, do they use the addition of the science in terms of helping them through some sort of recovery?

 

Eric Richman: Well, many doctors I work with use nerve blocks when they do the surgery. I myself have had surgery, and I’ve had hypnosis before the surgery, and afterward I didn’t take it hardly any pain medicine at all. Excellent. Just like Tylenol or naproxen.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: So is that something that is used in general or is that something that is not commonly used in the surgical intervention?

 

Eric Richman: In El Paso? Probably not.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: Probably not. Got you. Well, I’ll tell you what, I am learning so much in terms of this process. How would someone go about it? I know I have given them the information to get a hold of you, but how would you like them to get a hold of you?

 

Eric Richman: If they call me during the day on that number and I don’t answer it, it generally means I’m either with a client or I’m doing anesthesia. So what you would do is leave me a message. Okay. You can also go to my website and leave me a message on my website, or you can send me an email.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: And your website and we mentioned it. Let me go over that again and see if I can bring it up for people over the next few minutes because it’s essential to be able to. And for some reason, my internet seems to be having a little happy time today, and it’s called Hypno; h-y-p-n-o dash tique t-i-q-u-e dot com, and let me see if I can present it to you so you can actually see it right there. There it goes. What is hypnosis? And as we kind of go through it, it goes over different components of it. What is a past life progression? Can you stop smoking? Can you do weight loss? Study? Help exams? Sports improvements and stress relief? Now I know we haven’t talked about stress relief, but let’s talk about it. And in terms of the approaches you have in terms of stress relief, how do you approach those?

 

Eric Richman: OK? I want to say one thing before we get to stress relief, like weight loss or stop smoking. If someone says here, go see him and stop smoking, that won’t work. The individual has to want to quit smoking. You can’t force it on somebody else. They have to want to be hypnotized to quit smoking. They have to want to be hypnotized to lose weight.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: Excellent point, because I’ll tell you what, I live by an adage that advice not wanted is ill-received. So it’s got to come from them when they want it, and their bodies got to be ready for that particular insight of knowledge. Tell me a little bit of that stress?

 

Eric Richman: Now, with stress, stress is a huge factor in everybody’s life. Stress causes many diseases. You know, it can kill you. So with hypnosis? I take them to a deep state of relaxation and get all the stress out of the body. And then I create, under hypnosis, I create a safe and secret place. This is a place where they can go anytime they want to get rid of any problem, get rid of any stress, and work out problems. They get to that safe and secret place; all they have to do is close their eyes, take a deep breath, count three two one and enter the safest secret place. And this is all made possible because I plant a suggestion in their subconscious mind. You know, don’t do it while you’re driving, but you know, you can stay in the safe and secret place for a minute or in an hour, whatever, whatever you want to. And when you’re ready to get out of your safe or secret place, you just open your eyes and leave. I can also sometimes depends on what the situation is. I have the people rub their thumbs and first finger together to relieve stress. Maybe they’re at work or something, and you’re stressed out; someone is hollering at them. They put their hands under their desk and rub their thumbs and first finger together to relieve their stress.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: You know, we deal with many stress-related sacoolas in my practice. You’re so right that it does kill you, it does kill you, and it causes so many issues. Stressful moments can impact your entire life. Moments and events, if not dealt with properly, they rattle your entire life, and they have to be dealt with somehow some way. This has been very insightful. I want to show you guys the website again. As you can see here, we can actually see the website. You can actually… hypnotic. When you go to the site, it will be what is hypnosis? We have our good specialist here, right here, and it is Mr. Eric Richmond, CNHA. That’s a nurse. And what is BCH and CIRM? What are those good little letters for?

 

Eric Richman: Board Certified Hypnotist.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: Wow.

 

Eric Richman: Hypnosis instructor or certified instructor. And RM is a Reiki Master.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: Well, this sounds like another podcast. I want to bring in Connie here. So dig in, Connie. Tell me a little bit about how your relationship with hypnosis has developed over the years. What have you done that could give insights to the individual out there that could benefit them understanding the experience?

 

Connie Pemberton: I think the biggest thing is realizing that you’re safe, that that you can’t be made to do anything you don’t want. And also have to really want to change whatever the habit is; you want to get over your anxieties. Some people don’t. Some people hang on to them like a cloak. You have to want to quit smoking or using smokeless tobacco, the snuff, and chewing tobacco, and I know that’s real popular back east. And Eric actually hypnotized my ex-husband. One session, he had been addicted to smokeless tobacco for decades. And he had one session, and he’s never picked up since. Amazing. Yeah, it can be very effective. But you have to want to because, you know, I was with him when he was going through the quitting process, and he never picked up again. But there were times he wanted to, but he wanted more to quit. I had seen him try to quit before and been unsuccessful. You know, he’d quit for a week or two, and something will come up, and there he would be at it again. But this time, he wanted it. With the help of the hypnosis, he succeeded that time because, from what I understand, smokeless tobacco is so much more addictive than cigarettes; it’s a lot higher nicotine content. But I’ve also seen where Eric would get a call from somebody’s mom, and they want to help their son or their daughter with various problems. And can you help them, and it’s like, yeah, no, the person needs to want it. The individual. If they’re just calling because the daughter is shy. Just to break the ice, then that’s, you know, one thing, but because mom wants them to do it.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: Let’s talk about that because I think that’s a shoehorned thing where, for example, you have an individual and children are very wise, and many times they are wiser than we give them credit for and they want to change. But mom knows. So how do you present it to an individual? Say, Hey, you know what? There’s this is out there. Do you want this? And where do we get the green light so that this child is individual? You know, they’re totally open because they may not know about hypnosis, and we got to be able to present it to them and say, is this something that we can help you with this son, daughter, or husband? Would you look into it? Would you be open to that?

 

Eric Richman: Yeah. You know, I do free consultations. They can come to me, talk to me, see what to think, and we can explain it and talk about it. If they’re comfortable with it, we proceed; if they are not comfortable, that’s okay.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: OK, excellent. That means that that seems like a very sure way of knowing, which makes it understandable for the individual. Well, I got to tell you, I know that that I can see a whole lot of people online and go ahead, and I know you want to mention something. Go ahead.

 

Eric Richman: OK. So, Connie mentioned her ex-husband and the smokeless tobacco. I have used smokeless tobacco for over 20 years. I quit after one hypnosis session when I first started in hypnosis. One session, and I quit. I was so bad that would take those little skull bandage. I would put them in my mouth, and I’d go to the hospital and do anesthesia, not swallow all day long. I was addicted to it. One session and I haven’t picked it up since 2003.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: That’s amazing. Yeah. That’s amazing. You know, you are not only qualified to teach, but you’re qualified to be a part of it because you have gone through it. Yeah, that’s amazing. That’s a huge thing. I got to tell you, I could break this thing open, and we could talk about it for about a good two days, I think. But I believe that Facebook limits me to about 45 minutes, and I think we’ve crossed it. So what I want to do now is to take at least the opportunity to thank you both for coming out here. Connie, thank you so much. I want to let you know that we will probably be having a little bit more conversations with you. And Mr. Richmond, I got to tell you; it’s been nothing but a pleasure to learn. You took me back to a childhood. You know, it’s I not only did I smell lemons, but I smelled my favorite bread, and I was there, and I felt safe. It was in my mom’s neighbor’s house, and for my whole life, I think my limbic system has burned into those thoughts, and I didn’t have those experiences until just now. That was amazing. And I want to thank you, and I felt very safe, and I want to let you know that we need to discuss a little more. We’ll break apart the subject matters, and we’ll go into the stress direction that as you wish. You guys are welcome on, and we’re going to be talking about this, and I’m sure I’m going to get a lot of people over the next couple of months seeing this particular presentation and want to know more. We’re going to leave all those numbers and that information and your links to the bottom of the page so they can connect with you directly. It’s a blessing to have this kind of knowledge and this kind of awareness in our town. Not many people know we have this and maybe never really saw a true individual who has the level of education behind it like you do. So any final thoughts that you want to leave the people with? Go ahead, Connie.

 

Connie Pemberton: Yes, he has done classes for a Hispanic friend, and so for individuals who have Spanish as their primary language, and they’re more comfortable with it. He can refer to other hypnotists that can help them.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: Yeah, absolutely.

 

Eric Richman: Who I trained.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: Excellent. On that note, I will say this. I used to think that that would be a barrier to many people, and it may be to some, but it’s a lot smaller a barrier than I thought in El Paso. A lot of people do know both those languages. So Mr. Richmond, any final thoughts on what we can leave the people with so that they can kind of understand what you do a little bit more and any other tools that you want to leave them with so they can find you?

 

Eric Richman: Well, feel free to contact me. If it’s during the day and I’m doing surgery, I can’t answer the phone, but I will get back to you. Also, something that I do is, give people affirmations. Homework. So after the sessions, I’ll give them affirmations to repeat every day to strengthen the session with the smoking and weight loss. Like smoking, I give them little cue cards that say, “I am now a nonsmoker forever and ever.” Then if I ever get a desire to say to pick up cigarettes, to say Rainbow Rainbow Rainbow and the desire goes away? Wow. That’s also on my website, by those cards.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: Yeah, I did see that. I saw the areas of the sessions, the books now, the galleries, the testimonies, and some other, you know, useful components in the website. Here’s the website again. And you can actually look at it. It’s again h-y-p-n-o dash t-i-q-u-e dot com. I love the name. I got to tell you as a final note; I’m very impressed with you as an individual. You have not only brought this subject matter to my awareness and a different level and a deeper insight placing in my mind. I’m excited that the population of El Paso is exposed to this too, and probably from a farther site because this site people will be able to see it from a distance and find you from remote. And since now, with the advent of Zoom, there’s no limit to the barriers. It’s not just El Paso; they can find you elsewhere at their expense.

 

Eric Richman: Well, actually with Zoom. The National Guild of Hypnotists has an annual meeting every year in Marlborough, Massachusetts, in August. And like I said, I’ve been to speakers for several years at the convention, and this year, they’ve gone virtual. So I had to record my session on Zoom and dropbox to them. I’m learning all this stuff, you know?

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: I got to tell you, I’ve learned a lot about Dropbox. I love about five, nine, and Zoom, and it’s a change. But here’s the constant. Science and this art can facilitate the mind changes and the changes people want in their minds. And I want to thank you for coming on.

 

Eric Richman: Go ahead. So I was going to tell you my topic for this year’s convention is Spirit Guide Healing.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: Spirit Guide Healing? Well, before I go, you got to now. If you say that, you got to tell me what that’s about. Okay, go ahead.

 

Eric Richman: All right. So everyone has a spirit guide. They’re with you all the time; they helped to guide you throughout life. So with Spirit Guide Healing is I introduce them to their main spirit guide. And they let the spirit guide take them within themselves. There is a deep, subconscious mind, the inner mind, the higher self, whatever you want to call it. And let the deep in her mind tell you what’s wrong with you and how to fix it. Now it could be just merely a diet. You eat a particular food to fix what this is. But you go within yourself and let yourself tell you what’s wrong or what you need to do. It’s pretty powerful.

 

Dr. Alex Jimenez: It sounds very powerful. And I just almost walked off without even talking about the spirit guide. I got to tell you there’s more to talk about, and guys, don’t worry. We’re going to be figuring out which kind of topic, and we’ll isolate the issue, isolate the topic, and he will run with it. And this forum is only one Facebook and YouTube, and some video presentations that will present other ways. And thank you both. And thank you for spending this time. I may be on this Friday, but we’ll be talking more about these issues. Connie, thank you so much. And you guys have a blessed day. Thank you. Thank you, guys, and we’ll chitchat with you guys. And my people, we’ll see you back at the next one. Thank you very much. You’re very, very welcome.

_______________________________________________________________________________________