It’s not psychic. It’s science…
Tomorrow I begin teaching the five-day Architecture of Hypnosis training here in Toronto. A mix of local and international students are arriving, and many have already settled into the beautiful uptown hotel where we hold our events.
But I’m not ready to teach them. Not yet.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I could teach the course today if it came to that. After more than fifty years practicing hypnosis and twenty-five years teaching it, since my mentor Derek Balmer passed away, the material lives in my bones.
Still, I don’t walk in cold. Despite knowing an enormous amount about hypnosis and related fields, including material going all the way back to the 1800s, I always dedicate over a week beforehand to intensive study. I sit down and power-read thirty or forty textbooks. There’s an expectation that I know just about everything related to hypnosis, and the only way to come close to that ideal is through this kind of deep preparation.
So I return to the old masters. I read about Mesmer and Esdaile and Bernheim. Then I move forward to Milton H. Erickson, Dave Elman, and many others. I include the giants like Clark Hull, but also the lesser-known figures who fascinate me, such as A. Betts Taplin, Ralph Slater, and Konradi Leitner.
At some point during this process, without any fanfare, something clicks. A switch flips inside me, and I suddenly know I’m ready. It’s a subtle but unmistakable feeling, a kind of calm excitement that tells me my brain is tuned and my thoughts are sharp. When it comes to hypnosis, that’s the signal that everything is aligned and I can stop studying.
But this isn’t just about hypnosis. What I’m talking about is intuition. That quiet, intelligent part of yourself that notices patterns before your conscious mind catches up. The unconscious is constantly observing, constantly evaluating, and when it decides you need to pay attention, it lets you know.
Intuition improves the more you use it. It’s not guesswork or hunches or magical thinking. It’s a process of drawing conclusions or making choices based on computations that happen entirely beneath your conscious awareness.
Your conscious mind can track maybe seven bits of information at once. Some people handle as many as nine. Others, like me, are good for about five.
But that’s just the surface.
Beneath that, your unconscious is managing somewhere between three million and twenty million processes at any moment. It’s regulating your blood pressure and heart rate. It’s tracking your blood chemistry and monitoring five hundred liver enzymes. And it’s scanning your surroundings for anything it believes you need to notice.
This happened to me about thirty years ago while wandering through the warm, dry streets of Las Vegas one night. The lights were bright, the crowds lively, and I was moving through it all without a real destination. Occasionally I ducked into a casino, watched the games and energy, then stepped back outside to continue my walk.
Then, for no apparent reason, I stopped. Something shifted inside me. I turned around and started walking back the way I’d come. It was enough of a surprise that I stopped again and asked myself why I had just reversed course. At first, I saw nothing unusual, so I resumed walking forward.
About a hundred yards later, I noticed it.
The street had changed. There were fewer people now, and something about the energy felt off. Garbage lay scattered along the sidewalk. The lights were dimmer. The sense of safety had slipped away. It was subtle, but unmistakable. There was a whisper in the environment, something almost spoken, and it hinted at danger. The kind that waits quietly and doesn’t announce itself.
I listened to that inner signal and turned around again. This time, for good.
That’s the power of intuition. It’s not only for avoiding trouble. It also shows up when something is right. Like when I’ve prepared enough to teach. My unconscious mind lets me know it is time to stop cramming, time to relax and trust what I already know.
This is why I tell my students to treat the unconscious mind as a friend. It is not some mysterious force working against you. It wants to help. It will send messages in dreams. It will nudge your attention to something important while you are walking or driving. It will push an old memory to the surface or remind you to call someone at the exact moment they need to hear from you.
And the more you develop your connection to it, the clearer and more reliable that guidance becomes. You’ll learn to heed that inner voice, prompting you to make better decisions.
Self-hypnosis can help build that connection. It’s a powerful tool that strengthens the communication between the conscious and unconscious parts of yourself. It creates a kind of inner highway, a two-way route for insight, clarity, and direction.
Because in the end, intuition isn’t mystical. It’s not magic. And it’s certainly not psychic.
It’s science. And more than that, it’s your mind—doing what it was designed to do.
- Mike Mandel
The Brain Software Syndicate (BSS) is our low-cost ($9) private community for smart, motivated people who want self improvement and development (not to become a hypnotist). It includes over $670 in courses and trainings. We drop new videos every week. Discover The Syndicate.
