My Third Book Release!

I am pleased to announce the publication of my third book Many Blessings Will Come.

Back in the day when I just started on this hypnotherapy journey, I devoted all my time to studying, reading, obsessing, and binge-watching everything about hypnotism. People close to me would say, “You don’t have a life. You only care about hypnosis.” To that I would reply, “But hypnosis IS my life, so haha I do have one.” I’m a hypnotist, I can’t help but reframe and redefine things.

One of the motivational places for me to binge was HMI – Indeed, M stands for Motivational at Hypnosis Motivational Institute. All those fabulous instructors in LA. They were like superhumans to me. The instructor who especially stood out from the crowd was Michele Guzy. She is beautiful, charismatic, personable, fun, witty, spiritual, and commanding. She was on TV, on the radio, on the stream… She could take a whole team of big football players into hypnosis and send them on their way to some peak performances. I was so hooked.

Now, can you imagine that feeling in me when this same person, Michele Guzy, all these years later, offered to write a Forward in my new book Many Blessings Will Come?! Putting her name in my book would have been the reason enough for me to have written the book! But of course, I would not have discovered that until I had finished writing the book.

Life’s full circle.

Just in this process, I have also discovered another quality of this amazing human being: humbleness.

I am stoked.
 
This book, with the subtitle Tales of Recovering Inner Commitments, Gifts, and Wisdom Through Hypnotherapy, is written for those who want to go beyond the traditional use of hypnotherapy for behaviour change, into the spiritual realm. 

Here’s a little excerpt from Michele’s Forward: 

Both Ebook and paperbacks can be found in most places that books are. I have a few copies in my Vancouver downtown office. I’d like to invite you to check out the links below for you,  and maybe for anyone you know who is interested in this subject matter.

Purchase it on Amazon Kindle

Amazon Paperback

Barnes & Noble

Available from other E-Book Stores.

iBook

When you get a copy, I would LOVE that you leave a review where you get the book! Many many thanks! 

Counting My Blessings

I would like to give an update on my new book: Many Blessings Will Come, Tales of Recovering Inner Commitments, Gifts, and Wisdom Through Hypnotherapy.

We have revised the second draft of the manuscript. Both my editor and I are liking how it has developed – an engaging read with strong chapters opening and closing the book.

I believe all the authors out there would agree with me that on the book writing journey, a good editor is crucial to success. I am very happy to have Melanie Christian as my editor for both Carol’s Lives and Many Blessings to Come.

Not only does Melanie perform the full set of editing functions: structural editing, developmental editing, copy editing, and proofreading, but also, she shares with me her observations and analysis of the book as a whole and gives me many suggestions.

Some words from Melanie:

Many Blessings Will Come is a beautiful anthology and unique showcase of your current life’s work in the form of 21 narratives. It evokes the wonder and blessings of visiting past, inter-, and probable lives, while demonstrating the healing power of hypnosis.

A suggestion Melanie gave me was:

Following the Acknowledgements, add Back Matter reviews of previous books from any clients who have recognized professions (e.g., celebrities, mental health practitioners, such as other therapists or coaches); or from other writers/authors, hypnotherapists, book critics, online book reviewers, local celebrities, or notable wellness specialists.

I initially resisted this idea, feeling that “A good book speaks for itself.” I didn’t mind if it took time for people to find a significant book like Many Blessings Will Come.

But after letting the idea sit with me for over a month, I finally made a list of some esteemed hypnotherapists who I truly have learned from, and a few others whose work I respect and honour. Then it came to the real part: asking for their help. I can’t say that I’m particularly good at it, however, I sent out a number of emails and heard back from some of them who are willing to read my book and give it their recommendations. This is so humbling and encouraging, and thanks to Melanie, I am so grateful for their assistance.

Current Manuscript Outline

Introduction
Chapter 1, Part I – A Prior Engagement
Chapter 2, Part I – Past Life Drama
Chapter 3, Part I – A Friend of My Father’s
Chapter 4, Part I – One Hour, Seven Lifetimes
Chapter 5, Part I – Boundless Love
Chapter 6, Part I – A Secret Beach
Chapter 7, Part I – Yesterday and Tomorrow’s Child

Chapter 8, Part II – Pain Body, Wolf, Ghost and Laughter
Chapter 9, Part II – Coaching A Ghost
Chapter 10, Part II – On the Run
Chapter 11, Part II – Just Do It!
Chapter 12, Part II – Seer’s Plight
Chapter 13, Part II – Free To BE
Chapter 14, Part II – Falling to Grace
Chapter 15, Part II – Ancient Visitations
Chapter 16, Part II – Death Walker Julie

Chapter 17, Part III – Mystic Tree
Chapter 18, Part III – Samantha’s Book of Life Chapter 19, Part III – Lost and Found
Chapter 20, Part III – Many Blessings Will Come Epilogue – Remember Who You Are
Acknowledgments

Pre-order your PDF copy of the book here: https://kemilahypnosis.com/downloads/many-blessings-will-come/.

I don’t want to keep Melanie my best-kept secret. If you wish to check out her work, you can find her at: https://forwardmusesolutions.com.

Letter From Eric

My dear friend Eric bought my book Carol’s Lives. After reading it, he kindly sent me an email thanking me “for the opportunity to read your mind-expanding, interesting, and unique book.”

I took it all in when he described how the book was a “page-turner” for him as he couldn’t put it down, after initially deciding to read a chapter per bedtime.

It is really hard to sum up my feelings about the book because I had many thoughts when I was reading it. First, it is very well written. It flowed very well from chapter to chapter and the descriptions created clear images in my mind.

I was totally surprised to learn that one could have future live regressions (or maybe these are called progressions?). I found the future stories fascinating.

And, of course, the stories of Carol and Rick were fascinating too. The “dark and light” story near the end of the book in New York was pretty mind blowing.

It was delightful for me to hear that this dear friend who called himself an atheist, like Tim in the book, said in his email that “for the first time this week, after reading your book, I am starting to think there is more to this life than meets the eye. I am starting to think I need to trust my intuition more. And I need to allow for possibilities in my life.”

Yes please. Trust your intuition more. Intuition is actually the only consistent trustworthy source of one’s life. Eric and I like to agree that “life flows through us and we are a vessel.” If life flows through me, I absolutely have everything I need when I need it. How can I not trust life itself? Certainly, trusting life makes my life much easier. I’ve been teaching a course called Effective Intuition in Vancouver’s West End Community Centre for some years. My opening line in the class has always been, “I cannot make you more intuitive than you already are. I’m here to help you trust your intuition a little more.”

Eric is very much into music. He told me he has loved the Fleetwood Mac song “You Make Loving Fun” since childhood, particularly these lyrics:

I never did believe in miracles
But I’ve a feeling it’s time to try
I never did believe in the ways of magic
But I’m beginning to wonder why

In his email, Eric added, “Maybe it is time for me to start believing in something other than science and so-called facts. As you say, return to being a child.”

Magic and miracle are two of my favourite words in English. And I truly feel they are just fancy words on Earth to point to what’s actually the universal norm. For a while, I have been living my professional and personal life in which “paranormal” is normal; “supernatural” is natural, and “metaphysical” is simply physics. Earth is a very interesting place to come up with those unnatural ways to look at things and mystify what’s natural.

Another beautiful word Eric mentioned in the email, “allow” is another of my favourites. The easiest word, the hardest thing to do, for a human. Welcome to the earth school, in which science and facts have become almost a religion in the past 300 years when the prevailing model of gaining knowledge has been a scientific one, a science of deductive reasoning based on visible evidence. It influences our language. When we say something is reasonable, we mean it’s true. Reasoning is a good tool, yet it can kill intuition.

If I allow myself to be bold enough to say, facts are always aftermath. I have to create something first for it to become a fact, and for a scientist to collect data. Unless I create, where is the data? Science certainly has a history of being wrong in so many ways. For me, the beauty of science is an attitude that simply says, “I don’t know. Let’s find out.” Curiosity is what I like about science, not authority. Taking it to the lab, and coming out with references. But those “facts” are definitely changeable, always.

In 2013, I went back to China, my mother was about to undergo major surgery. I asked the doctor how confident he was. He brought me aside, and said given my mother’s age and the conditions, the survival rate was about 5%. It was horrible to envision my mother being 5%. So I told the surgeon, “My mother is going to be one-hundred-percently in the 5% category. And YOU are going to make it happen.” He did. Maybe I hypnotized him. I sometimes laugh at how applicable it is to MY life when scientists tell me average percentages. For my life, I’m either 100% alive or 100% dead. I just can’t settle for less than 100%.

And in order to stay in this physical realm with some semblance of sanity and grace, it’s imperative to understand the underlying energies of personal and global situations, because nothing is as it appears to be on the surface. There are always people who make a lot of money in bad economies. And people who find great jobs in high unemployment rate societies. We each create our own reality. And we each are such creative beings.

Living a magical and miraculous life is simply to create. I am too alive to be facts and figures, which points to the -end. But in my life, I am always at the beginning-. In that sense, all the books after they are written, are literally “released” by the author to take life on their own. I let science and scientist chase and analyze me if they wish, while I’m having fun creating all the right’s and wrong’s and good’s and bad’s. A never-ending creative journey is all my life is about.

True spirituality is fluid, like creativity itself. There is no division or boundary you can draw in water. There is nothing to believe in. When I believe in something, I start to have a position to defend. An atheist in itself is also a position one can take. Any position we take, we will need to defend it. True spirituality is so open that everything is seen, heard and allowed. Omnipresence is the closest word. It is everywhere. It does not have a particular shape or form to take. It is that free.

Carol’s Lives is about experiencing life. There is nothing to believe in. But I’m very glad, Eric, that it has given you an enjoyable reading experience.

A Note from Tim

In May 2018, I came up with this fancy idea, that was to have Tim write a note, or a preface for my book, without him reading it first.

I thought the entire book is about him, in and out of this life, it just made sense for him to have a say, at the beginning of the book. And without being too much influenced by my points of view, which are the tone of the book, it would be a great idea to put his original points of view into the book.

Tim gracefully cooperated and wrote the following piece. When you read the book, you will find, this “note” or the “preface” is not actually included in the book.  After this note was written, we discovered most of his “points of view” were already covered in my “points of view”. What a coincidence!  (wink)

Kemila told me about her idea for this book and asked me if I was okay with it. I am a private person and this book talks about events of my life, contains expressions of my personal feelings, and portrays experiences that I had while in a hypnotic trance. So this request made me deeply uncomfortable.

But then there is the story that the book would tell. At its core that is a story about love. And the person wanting to write it is the love of my life. So of course I gave her my blessing and encouragement and helped in any way that I could.

A core facet of the book involves my experiences while in a hypnotic trance and regressed (or progressed) to different points in time. What are those experiences? I certainly visualize events when guided through a regression process. Some events are easier than others to visualize and some questions easier to answer. Often, although not always, events become more clear and the experience becomes more tangible as the regression progresses. Feelings and emotions are almost always easier to identify than concrete details though sometimes those details are extremely vivid.

And afterward, coming out of a trance, opening my eyes, and re-joining the world that I generally inhabit, I feel a sense of dislocation much more pronounced than when waking from a powerful dream.

But did those things I experienced while in trance actually happen? Or are they instead an invention of my imagination, a fantasy? My professional background is computer science and science and logic ground my thinking. To my knowledge, there is no scientific basis to believe in reincarnation. Yet of all the world’s great belief systems, Buddhism makes the most sense to me. So even though it is almost impossible to prove a negative, I am skeptical that what I experienced in trance was a manifestation of actual past events.

I am inclined to think of those trance experiences as originating from my imagination. This makes sharing them with the world seem more troubling to me than if they had actually occurred. Why did my imagination take those specific forms? What, if anything, do those trance experiences say about me as a real person?

I try and content myself in the thought that giving light to my trance experiences says no more about me than creative works say about their creators. Authors write fiction, and although their stories and novels may be informed by their life experiences, we generally do not think the stories reflect on the authors. Yet my experiences differ in that they were not shaped by conscious thought and hence are more like dreams. So I wonder, what do these “dreams” say about me?

Behind the Scene Is a Heroine

It took me a while to find an editor for the book, but after I found Melanie Christian, I’m very glad that she is my editor. She does predominantly a line-by-line edit of each chapter, making amendments to follow The Canadian Press Stylebook, as she told me, it’s required formatting guide for published works. Editing the book this way must be tedious work but Melanie has taken it so diligently.

Adding her intuition to her dedication, Melanie sends me a few chapters at a time, and I found her work establishes a more clear and fluid narrative. I know I will look and sound better because of her.

At Forward Muse Solutions, she’s holding it so true to her statement:

Continue to do what you love with the peace of mind that your content needs are inspired & running smoothly!

The sweet thing about Melanie is that she always inserts positive energies in each editing note she sends me.

And am so enjoying this story and your journey. You are an engaging storyteller!

Thank you again for your patience with my process. I hope you enjoy reading my revisions? And look forward to hearing your thoughts and comments. It really is wonderful. Believe me, I recognize that you have entrusted me with something precious. So, I’m handling with great care 🙂

Thank you again for such a fun opportunity of editing your book. You and Tim truly do have such a sweet story. And there are wonderful moments when I laugh out loud, because your sense of humour shines through. I hope you are happy with my revisions? And look forward to hearing your thoughts and comments.

I must say, I am really appreciating how you’ve chosen to divide up the chapters of Carol’s Lives. And the chapter titles are very captivating.

You can also find Melanie on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MelanieCWriter/

The City

This book is coming along. It really is.

I have promised myself to focus on finalizing the book this summer, which means, no travel until September.

Some days, my hypnotherapy client work can be intense, in both its depth and the volume. I try blocking at least one day per week to dedicate my time to the book.

A long way to come, but it has come to the last round of editing.

Today I had a last-minute cancellation with a client, and it gave me some room to reorganize where I’m at on the journey of this book-writing time-travelling project.

It brought my mind to New York again. Tim and I were visiting it in April, for his birthday.

Struggling to remain objective, I am aware of a strong and ridiculously comforting sense of familiarity, in New York, even though it’s only my second time visiting it, in this life.

I have judged the city, before I even came here. Now I’m madly in love with New York.

I am standing in a portal between memory and reality; it was clear at last that the only gap between the two was of time, of past and present.

Let me bridge the gap now by presenting a book, of me and Tim, in the present, and Carol and Rick, in the past.

P.S. I have made a little video on memory recalls in this city full of memories, for me.

History Drifts by the River

Standing by the Richelieu River flowing to NY

Looking back, I truly couldn’t have asked for a better place to finish off the first draft of the book Carol’s Lives.

The Richelieu River can be as still as a mirror

It was in late May, 2018, invited by Lorraine and Daniel, I went to a small riverside community called Saint-Paul-de-L’île-aux-Noix in Quebec for two weeks, a perfect place and length of time to finish the book that had taken me too long to finish.

Enchanted Canal of Richelieu River

On the shore of the Richelieu River, 45 minutes away from Montreal, I got up every morning, settled in the screened gazebo, and opened my laptop. It felt like a boathouse, with an enchanted canal and the Richelieu River all around me. Here I was 10 kilometers away from U.S border and 500 kilometers away from New York, writing about that hectic and sentimental life in Manhattan, in a peaceful and quiet setting. It felt surreal. A lifetime had come to an end. Here I was again.


For two weeks I did nothing else but write. My body and mind felt quite relaxed sitting and writing by the riverside everyday, yet my heart could ache with the darkness and hardship in the life of Carol and Rick. Like the wide river itself, peaceful and calm in the morning and evening, often full of waves following the whims of the wind in the afternoon, yet never giving any indication of the direction it flowed.

Sunrise over Fort Lennox

The act of writing was very smooth and inspirational. Words flew onto my computer screen as I watched the ever-changing sunlight drifting over the water and the procession of boats going in and out of the canal and down the river.

Across the river I could see Fort Lennox on the island called Ile-aux-Noix, a fortification still standing on a structure that was completed in 1829. History must have witnessed battles here. But right now, it has all come back into this single moment of peace where my finger hit the last key on the first draft of my book.

Final pages of Carol’s Lives
So close to New York

The Birthing of the Book Cover

One Vancouver summer’s afternoon, Tim and I met Silmara, our photographer and book cover designer, in Kitsilano (Don’t you like the sound of that name? So soft but firm, nearly romantic.)

We were to take some benching pictures overlooking the water for the book cover, to illustrate Tim and I, sitting in Vancouver in this life, looking ahead, through time, into New York City in the 20’s.

That was a relaxing afternoon. Silmara was working at her own pacing, directing and instructing us occasionally. At the same time, Tim and I had our conversations going on sitting on two different benches without being interrupted by Silmara’s work.

Silmara is the owner of The Orange Lamp studio in Kitsilano. We trusted her. Even though the original idea was mine, we had no idea what the final look of the book cover would be. But I could feel the excitement knowing Silmara was going to do the work.

A few weeks later, Silmara delivered three versions.

  

I liked them all for different reasons. Hard to decide, I put all three cover designs to my FaceBook page asking for opinions. And people say:

Through the covers we can almost read the book.. Great feeling I got from it.
Thank you for sharing yourself with the world my friend.
Despite the third also being great, I feel that the first is “closer” to the story.

Aesthetically the 3rd option pulls my attention more readily. The 1st is more subtle yet feels like you’re stepping into a private moment. Exciting times Kemila.

I am drawn to the third one (post cards).

Sitting with the designed covers for a couple of weeks, I knew I wanted something closer to the content to represent the book. And I knew Silmara hadn’t had the chance to read the book.

So we had another meeting with Silmara. Tim came up with the idea of ocean background, as in one of Carol’s lives, Sijo is living in a pristine ocean island. Tim sent an ocean picture that he took when we were visiting Oregon coast last summer.

And Silmara turned it into a beautiful cover background. Voila, our final cover was born. Even though Silmara went further designed another almost abstract version of the ocean bubbles, the moment I saw them coming into my email inbox, I knew which one I was going to take.

                  

Now what do you think?

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