Questions & Answers
These are the most commonly asked questions about the Change Your Mind SuperSleep® program. Just click on a question below to take you to the answer. When you've finished reading the answer, simply close that window to return here.
How did Teri discover Change Your Mind?
Why should I use SuperSleep® products?
What can I expect listening to a SuperSleep® recording?
How will I know if it's working?
Why can't I tell when it's working?
What if I can't listen every night or accidentally skip a night?
Will I become dependent on SuperSleep®?
What if I can't go to sleep while the CD is playing?
How many times a night should I play a CD?
Can I play a SuperSleep® CD during the day? in the car?
Can a SuperSleep® recording hurt me?
What if someone else can hear my CD?
I can't believe statements like "Mommy and I are one" work. Can you give me an example?
How long have subliminals been around?
What is subliminal advertising?
I've heard some stores use subliminals to stop shoplifting. Is that true?
I've heard about subliminal tapes that use speeded up voices. Do they work?
I've used subliminal tapes before and they didn't work. Why not?
How did Teri discover Change Your Mind?
You've probably heard the greatest inventions are accidental. Change Your Mind is like that. I "discovered" it in 1985 when I accidentally fell asleep listening to a Suggestopedia audio tape I had made to improve my time management, delegation, and goal setting skills.
Thinking it wasn't working because I never "heard" it, I threw the tape away. Ten days later, I realized I had accomplished everything on that tape -- I had written goals, implemented a time management system, and delegated projects.
Intrigued, I began experimenting with family and friends. The results were amazing, and word of mouth created a coaching /consulting business for me. For several years, I worked with people individually -- creating a one-of-a-kind script for each person to record in his/her own voice using my specific method . In 1992, I began making pre-recorded scripts/tapes to address the everday issues we all face. Those first tapes became the Empowerment series, and other series followed.
Throughout the 1990's, I continued to research and revise, research and revise. In 2000, I rewrote all the scripts and reproduced all the series to bring them current with my new research.
Of course, I use Change Your Mind for myself. I am always searching for the best / easiest / most effective way to change. And so the program keeps expanding. And so do I. It expands with me, and I expand with it.
In other words, I'm still discovering.
Why should I use SuperSleep® products?
There are several practical reasons:
1. Because they add productive time to your day. You listen while you sleep, and do the "work" then, so it's like having a 25 1/2 hour day.
2. Because they're easy to use. You simply hit the "play" button on your CD/tape machine when you are going to sleep. The recording does the rest.
3. Because they are cost effective. A CD costs $20.00. The changes last a lifetime.
4. Because they're safe. Each CD begins with a go-to-sleep guided relaxation. Once you are asleep - and before you hear the suggestion statements - there is a protection statement which programs your mind to select the messages that work for you and dissolve any messages that are not right for you. The protection message is: "As you listen to these statements, know you are Divinely protected. Know your mnd-brain-body-spirit is surrounded by healing light and love, and you are sheltered and shielded from all else. You accept the messages that are for your highest good and perfect healing, dissolving al else."
5. Because they work! You listen to the suggestion statements while you are in the theta and delta brainwave states - so you reach your deepest levels and "re-program" yourself with positive, healthy, productive, life changing directive.
What Can I Expect Listening to a
SuperSleep® Recording?
You can expect changes! The exact form the changes will take and the timeframe for those changes are unpredictable, however. There are as many change profiles as there are individuals.
Adventurous people usually find this unpredictability and uncertainty exciting. More conservative people frequently find it uncomfortable or unsettling. People who fear the unknown often find it alarming and frightening. All of these responses are normal based upon individual characteristics and reaction patterns.
I assure you that anything and everything that happens as a result of listening to a SuperSleep® recording is normal. Every form of reaction and response is normal for the person, the situation, and the pattern that is being cleared, changed, healed, and transformed!
After working with hundreds of people and observing their responses, I have developed some general guidelines for what you can expect.
Clearing and Processing
Clearing and processing are terms I use to name what you experience while you are listening to a SuperSleep® recording. It is your mind/brain/body's personal and unique way of working through the issues. It is what is happening while you release and transform your core level thoughts, feelings and patterns. You are clearing the past from your long term memories, and your process to do this can occur on all levels - mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual. This can be intense and is usually over in a few days.
Mentally, you may have long forgotten memories surface. You may be cotton-headed, foggy, confused, or unclear for a short time. For instance, if you have issues with overspending and are clearing money, you may think of the times you spent foolishly or extravagantly. You may think nothing in your financial life is working, especially the way you spend money.
Emotionally, you may feel grief, anger, sadness, irritation, remorse - or any unexpressed or unhealed emotion around the issues you are addressing. For instance, if you have trouble saying no and you are clearing assertiveness, you may feel fear of speaking up for yourself. You may re-experience your anger about being ignored, denied, or ridiculed when you spoke up in the past.
Physically, you may become tired, experience flu-like symptoms, or have discomfort in areas of your body in which memories, experiences, and patterns are stored. For instance, if you had chronic stomach aches during childhood, and you are clearing childhood or family dysfunction, you may experience a stomach ache.
Processing is normal and usually over within a few days. When the clearing process is complete, you will have neutral or no feelings about the issues that were on your recording. They will no longer control you, and you will be free to create your future without their influence or effect.
Your processing experiences, while significant, will be minor in comparison with your new freedom from the past, comfort with the present and faith in the future.
Processing by Past Experiences
It seems logical that your processing is in direct proportion to the significance of the issues you are clearing and neutralizing. If you were raised in a wonderful, loving, stable, open environment and had a peaceful, harmonious life, your processing will probably go unnoticed.
To the degree your life experiences vary from that scenario, you will probably 1. have resistance to releasing and/or forgiving some people or incidents in your life and 2. have some form of mental, emotional, and physical release during your clearing process.
If you have abuse or abandonment in your past, you can expect significant processing. You may have a few intense days! Once you have completed the clearing process, you are through with that issue. It is well worth a few days of discomfort to empty that cup so you can refill it with positive loving experiences and living.
Processing by Emotional Style
Your emotional style of processing SuperSleep® recordings will follow your emotional norm, whatever that is. If you respond to emotional situations with fear or anger, you'll probably get scared or angry. If you respond to emotional situations with hurt and tears, you'll probably feel hurt or cry. If you respond to emotional situations by withdrawing, you'll probably withdraw.
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People who have ignored or denied their emotions for a long time often experience a release of those emotions. They get angry (if they have ignored or denied their anger) or grief-stricken (if they have ignored or denied their grief).
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You may say things while you are clearing and processing that you would not normally say. These are things you have been thinking/feeling and not saying. I often become brutally blunt when I am clearing and processing, so I avoid teaching/training and meeting with clients during those times.
For instance, while I was processing an intense personal script, I mistakenly took a phone call from one of my management consulting clients. I had been doing team building for one of her groups for two years and had just completed a no holds barred session to bring the dysfunctional group back into productivity. The manager calling me was most of the team's problem, as she was always stirring the pot and keeping everyone off center to maintain control. That day, in response to her drama, I unloaded. I told her she reminded me of a child playing in a sand pile, hoarding the shovel and pail, and she was the problem. Needless to say, I lost that consulting contract.
One of the most wonderful things I have observed is the appropriate way in which even violent people process their anger while listening to a SuperSleep® recording.
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Processing by Hemispheric Dominance
The left brain processors (logical, sequential thinkers; verbal expressers) often process verbally. They talk about each issue as it comes up for clearing. In most cases, that verbal release completes the clearing process.
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The right brain processors (visual, emotive, creative) often process in images. They see pictures float up from the past, see old scenes, dream about the people and issues involved. In most cases, that visualization completes the clearing process.
The more extreme right-brainers (about 5% of the people I have observed) seem to process in bad dreams or nightmares. Often, one person or issue clears per nightmare, which can mean several nights of bad dreams.
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Processing by Gender
There appears to be gender based processing patterns as well. For instance, the connection between the left and right hemispheres, the corpus callosum, is larger in women than men. Women process information more holistically, sharing it between the hemispheres. Men's brains are more separate or divided, and they focus on one side or the other more readily.
This could result in women and men responding differently to the SuperSleep® recordings. About half of the men I have observed go into denial about the program working.
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About 10% of the men I've observed deny ever hearing the recording, much less having it work.
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Learning Your Processing Style
To determine your unique response patterns, consider keeping a journal. You can be as brief or as detailed as you like. You may simply list the days by number (1, 2, 3, etc.) and make short entries:
Day 1 felt fine, no change
Day 2 felt OK and a little irritable
Day 3 awoke tired and achy, angry in the afternoon, to bed early
Day 4 flu symptoms
Day 5 feel clear and light
Day 6 told my partner what was bothering me last week
Day 7 feel really good about how I communicate
Day 8 same
Day 9 same
Day 10 same
Review your notes for patterns. We usually process in a unique yet predictable pattern. Once you determine yours (i.e. day 3 afternoon is your time to begin processing, day 4 is your time to "go down"), you can plan accordingly. If day 4 is your time to "go down" and you work a five day week, you might start your tape on day 2 of your workweek so you "go down" on your days off.
How will I know if it's working?
Consider keeping a journal. Record the dates you listened to each CD. Then note your behavior and feelings for three or four weeks. In three months, review your notes. And listen to feedback from family and friends, They'll probably notice your changes before you do.
It is easier to determine if a CD is working that directs you to change your behavior. For instance, if you listen to one stating you drink at least eight glasses of water each day, you can monitor that behavior. You either do or do not drink the water. It is a yes or no answer.
Monitoring results with emotional clearing scripts is more subtle, though not difficult. The script has worked when you no longer react emotionally to a situation that would have created an emotion in you before. You may continue the mental habit of thinking about that issue for awhile, but you will not have any emotional reactions or responses to it.
Charlotte wrote me about her first clearing script dealing with childhood abuse: "I have not listened except in my sleep. Today as I sat down to write you, I picked up the script to go over it. I couldn't do it. As I started to read it, it became boring, and I threw it away."
Clearly, the past experiences that had controlled her no longer had power over her.
May all of your negative past become just too boring for you to read or go over again!
Why can't I tell when it's working?
Because Change Your Mind interacts with the unconscious mind, the conscious mind may or may not recognize the changes. I have observed many people who vehemently deny the program is working, though they are changing daily.
I have observed others who recognize subtle changes in themselves and their habits and patterns. I believe this is determined by the person's level of self awareness and ability to see themselves objectively.
Even the people who recognize their changes often go through a denial stage. The five stages of change are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. If you're lucky, you go through all five stages in your sleep.
As a general rule, listen to each CD 21-30 nights. There are variables, however.
If you're working with an issue that is simple for you, you may take less time and notice fewer results. You may awaken tired for a few days and feel like you worked all night -- which you did. You may clear in three to ten days.
If you're working with a significant issue for you, you may take longer and notice more processing (see What Can I Expect Listening to a SuperSleep® CD?). Most people complete their processing within 21 - 30 days. A few need to listen longer and their process may go longer.
For instance, one woman with a twenty year history of physical ailments, accidents, and surgeries listened to Open to Heal for six months before feeling ready to move on. For her, that was appropriate.
When you are comfortable with the program, you will make these decisions naturally, and they will be right for you.
What if I can't listen every night
or accidentally skip a night?
That's OK. Just listen to it a few extra nights for each night you skip. If you skip two nights, then add three or so. You will know when to stop listening, so listen until you think it's time to quit. There are no hard rules with this system. It just flows with you.
Will I become dependent on SuperSleep®?
Because the CDs work so quickly and so well, you might use them a lot, but I haven't observed anyone becoming dependent on them. Remember, the more topics you listen to, the healthier you get, which means the less dependent upon external sources you become.
What if I can't go to sleep while the CD is playing?
If you have trouble going to sleep the first or second night, relax and keep listening. On night three, you'll probably go right to sleep.
I don't know the magic of three in the brain, but on the third night, 95% of the people who have trouble getting to sleep on night one and night two will go right to sleep. After you have heard your first CD, your mind/brain is usually "entrained" to the system and automatically responds to future CDs.
If you have trouble sleeping in general, try Balance Your Energy Centers, #3 in the Healing & Wellness series.
How many times a night should I play a recording?
Once is enough. I haven't seen any differences in effectiveness or immediacy of results based on repetitive listening. Some people listen only once. Some people play the recording over and over all night.
One engineer hooked up three machines to each other - so one machine triggered the next. He played three 90 minute tapes each night, all night long. However, we couldn't identify any added benefits with his system.
Can I play the CD during the day? in the car?
Do not play it in the car. It begins with a go-to-sleep introduction!
You can play a CD during the day, but listening while you're in the beta brain state doesn't provide any benefit.
Playing it while you sleep during your theta brainwave state -- twilight and sleep time -- by-passes the conscious defense mechanisms, reaches a different part of your brain, and creates change at the deepest levels.
If you are listening to a CD with a significant issue for you on it, you probably don't want to hear it awake. Your goal is to change things on a subconscious level easily and effortlessly. There is no reason to process your past while you are awake -- when you can simply sleep through it.
Can a SuperSleep® recording hurt me?
I have no experience of a SuperSleep® recording hurting anyone. However, in the early days of experimentation, we wrote some loosely worded statements that led us to actions we didn't intend to take.
For instance, when I first realized the method really worked, I got very excited. I decided to write a script to get everything I wanted. Struggling to write that script, I realized I didn't know what I wanted. I had spent my life focusing on my have tos, ought tos, shoulds, and musts -- without much thought for my wants. Unable to determine what I really wanted, I simply recorded, "I know what I want and I do it."
At the time, I was a full time college teacher and was building a management consulting/training company. I wanted to do the consulting/training full time, but my teaching salary was still my primary income. After three days of SuperSleep®, I resigned from my teaching position.
Fortunately, the dean refused my resignation and urged me to rethink it. Of course, it was much wiser to stay in that job until my consulting/training income exceeded my teaching income. In addition, I was positioned to vest in the teacher retirement program in another three years of employment. So I wrote and recorded a new statement for myself: "I know what I want, and I do it as appropriate."
I stayed in the teaching position three more years, and I am enjoying the benefits of that decision every month.
Years later, I uncovered a core issue around my doing and having. I was taught I could do anything I was big enough to DO, but there would always be things I couldn't HAVE.
Because of my own limiting thinking, I wrote the statement, "I know what I want and I DO it." My mind did not allow me to HAVE it. Before I developed my comprehensive scripting formulas, my CYM scripts simply mirrored my existing limitations. As Albert Einstein said, "Our present problems cannot be solved at the level of thinking at which they were created."
If I had originally written the statement, I know what I want and I HAVE it, I might have focused on HAVING the financial aspects (instead of DOING the consulting/training) and not resigned. Subtle refinements in scripting like this have taken years to discover, uncover, rework, and revise. And the results have been well worth the effort!
Most important, I have expanded my thinking in two specific areas:
- any ways the wording/phrasing of a script statement can be limiting, and
- any ways our minds can act and react to a statement to cause different results than we expect and/or desire.
This deep level of investigation and analysis brings a self awareness that is a mind changing activity on its own.
What if someone else can hear my CD?
Ask that person if s/he wants to change with you and share a copy of the script (provided with every CD).
If s/he does not want to hear the CD, you can use earphones (which are often uncomfortable) or a pillow speaker -- an ear sized speaker that plugs into the earphone outlet on your machine and fits into or under your pillow case. They are available in many electronic shops.
In a general sense, yes. The difference in effectiveness depends on (1) the brainwave state you are in when you hear the suggestions, and (2) the quality of the hypnotic suggestions. SuperSleep® assures you are in the theta brainwave state or lower.
I can't believe scripts like "Mommy and I are one" work. Can you give me an example?
At Queen's College, Dr. Kenneth Parker, an attorney and psychologist, offered extra credit to students taking his law class who agreed to participate in "a study designed to see if subliminal messages can improve academic performance."
Sixty students signed up and agreed to receive subliminal programming three times a week just before class from a tachistoscope, a device which flashes a quick, bright light with a written message imbedded in it (usually 4 milliseconds). The students looked through the eyepiece of the tachistoscope and consciously saw a flash of light while they subconsciously received a message imbedded in the light.
They were divided into three groups:
Group #1 received "Mommy and I are one"
Group #2 received "The Professor and I are one"
Group #3 received a neutral message
At the end of the course, the grading was as follows:
Group #1 got A's
Group #2 got high B's
Group #3 got low B's
And after four weeks, Group #1 and Group #2 remembered more of what they had learned than Group #3.
"Mommy and I are one" has been researched in many other settings with similar results. A few exceptions have been found in its effectiveness:
- "Mommy and I are one" doesn't work if the mother wasn't called "Mommy." Then the "mother" word must be substituted.
- "Mommy and I are one" doesn't work for schizophrenics who have not differentiated from their mothers (Silverman).
- "Mommy and I are one" isn't the most effective affirmation for male dart throwers in competition. In that setting, using the phrase "Beating Dad is OK" produced the highest dart scores. Conversely, the subliminal messages "Beating Dad is wrong" produced lower dart scores. (If the sentences were given supraliminally, they didn't work at all.)
How long have subliminals been around?
Subliminals are not new. For centuries, they have been used in physical and emotional healing and education. For instance, practitioners of ancient disciplines used a "whispering technique" to help students memorize lessons. The teacher whispered behind other sounds (strong winds, ocean waves, musical instruments) so students could not consciously hear the whispered lesson.
But the use of subliminal techniques is still not widely accepted. Subliminal techniques are alternately considered revolutionary, wishful thinking, powerful, snake oil, or devilry - depending upon the source. The U.S. educational system does not incorporate the techniques of subliminal learning, as some European systems do, and many health care professionals deny or ignore the possibilities for subliminals in physical and emotional healing.
Nonetheless, subliminals have become big business. Retail sales of $50 million were reported in 1987 for U.S. produced subliminal audio tapes, and in 1989, one company earned over $20 million in gross sales.
What is subliminal advertising?
It is something very different in advertising than in the research laboratory. In advertising, it originally meant triggering a pleasant thought or association with an ad so the consumer would buy the product.
One study involved Chivas Regal and Marlboro. An ad-photo of Chivas Regal scotch whiskey was manipulated to include a "subliminal" naked woman image. The ad with the image got higher ratings for credibility, attractiveness, sensuality, and the likelihood the viewers might buy the product than the ad without the women image. A similar study with a male sexual image in a Marlboro ad did not score higher ratings, however.
Subliminal advertising has a more subtle side today. One form it has taken is "cinematic product placement" and "plugging" in motion pictures. Movies advertise products "subliminally" by prominently placing them on the screen or by mentioning specific brand names in the dialog. For this placement and plugging, the movie producers receive large sponsorship fees to help finance making the film.
I heard about a movie theater that
flashed messages on the screen to get people
to buy popcorn. Did it work?
James M. Vicary, a motivational researcher and amateur psychologist serving as Vice President of the Subliminal Projection Company, supposedly tried this.
On September 12, 1957, Vicary held a press conference to announce a six week ad campaign at a New Jersey movie theater to sell more popcorn and cokes. Using special equipment, his company flashed messages on the movie screen for 1/3,000 second saying "Hungry? Eat popcorn," and "Drink Coca-Cola." Vicary announced sales rose dramatically, but he never produced sales figures to prove his claims. Evidently, the entire thing was a sales gimmick to promote the Subliminal Projection Company.
Vicary coined the term "subliminal advertising" to describe this form of advertising.
I've heard some stores use subliminals to stop shoplifting. Is that true?
Yes. Subliminals are being used in various business settings. One New Orleans supermarket buried honesty and productivity messages under background music and reversed cashier shortages and stealing, while two others reduced employee turnover.
The McDonald Medical Center used relaxation messages subliminally in the clinic which reduced patient anxiety 60% and eliminated patient fainting during treatment. Two surprising side effects were the development of more harmonious working relationships and the reduction of smoking among the medical staff members.
I've heard about subliminal tapes that
use speeded up voices. Do they work?
Some tapes use accelerated speech, claiming constant repetition at high rates of speed locks in messages. There is no research proving this, however. Normal speech is about 150 words a minute, and studies show that understanding declines rapidly above 300 words a minute. Accelerated speech tapes present subliminal (or sub-audible) messages at 2,300 words a minute or more which appears to be ineffective. None of the Change Your Mind tapes use accelerated speech.
I've used subliminal tapes before and
they didn't work. Why not?
Subliminal suggestion works, but getting the right message to your mind/brain in the right way is the key to success. There are many possible reasons subliminal recordings didn't work for you:
First and foremost, they do not reach your theta brainwave state
where long term memories are changed.
Most commercial subliminal recordings have ten to twelve messages embedded under the music. If one of those messages doesn't click for you, that recording won't work for you. Change Your Mind recordings contain 180 messages on each recording.
More than 90% of the commercial subliminal recordings are narrated in the male voice (a few are female or co-recorded male/female voices). My observations indicate many women don't accept subliminal messages in a male voice. So if you're female, most recordings may not work for you. I personally speak on all the Change Your Mind recordings, so you only hear a female voice.
Some commercial recordings are well written, but some are poorly written and are totally ineffective, and some are so inferior they actually worsen the conditions they are meant to correct.
Some recordings claim to be subliminal that are really music only. There is no recorded messages under the music.
Sometimes you can't find the answer to what works and what doesn't, as a 1989 University of Northern Colorado study shows.
A weight loss tape from one of the major tape producers was studied for 16 weeks. Sixty people were divided into three groups:
- Group A listened to a tape with music only.
- Group B listened to a tape with music and a subliminal message on weight loss in both a male and female voice.
- Group C listened to a tape with the same message as Group B, both supraliminally in a male voice, and subliminally in a male and female voice.
At the end of six weeks...
- Group A, lost more weight that Group B
- Group B had no visible trends of weight loss, and some actually gained weight.
- Group C lost the most weight.
The researcher is still trying to find some explanation for this one!