The Power of the Mind: Healing Through Hypnosis and Regression by Joe Keeton

Overview by Steve Freier

This book was first published in 1989 and so the material and many of the findings made were somewhat new in that time-frame – 1960s through 1990s. Mr. Keeton may not have been aware of similar work in regression hypnotherapy taking place in other parts of the world such as that of regression pioneer Dolores Cannon in the United States. Joe passed in 2003 and the book was re-released in 2012 with a few minor updates. Joe thought the idea of a biography of him to be an hilarious idea, so there is a dearth of information about his life, despite the fact that he influenced the lives of thousands. The books’ co-author/Joe’s ghostwriter, Simon Petherick stated that this book was “the definitive account of hypnotherapist the late Joe Keeton’s work in accessing past lives and inducing physical and emotional healing through hypnosis.

Joe Keeton was born in Clay Cross, Derbyshire, UK and lived in Meols, Wirral, UK. Joe discovered his hypnotic abilities while still very young, though he did not take these abilities seriously until many years later. He devoted most of his adult life to the development of his skill as a hypnotherapist and over a period of twenty-five years, he conducted over 8,000 regressions. In order to finance his pioneering work into regression and healing through hypnosis he worked as a soldier, a catering manager, a taxi-driver, an electrician, a college lecturer and a photographer. And for several years, he lectured about ESP (Extra-Sensory Perception) for the Liverpool Education Committee and also made a number of television appearances. I was amazed to discover that he charged no fee for conducting hypnotic regressions as he felt that any other approach would be open to serious exploitation.

Joe Keeton’s most fascinating cases are included in this book. Here’s one example I found particularly fascinating. It involved a healing past life regression concerning a twenty year old young lady named Pauline who had been frightened of heights all of her life, but nothing in the memories of her current life provided any reason for such a phobia. In the third regression, this is what occurred; She found herself in an incident in the life of the 15-year-old son of a wealthy London gentleman who worked in a bank. Her name at that time was John Roberts and they lived in a large house overlooking Regents Park. She related, “It was towards the end of the last century and I was standing on the third floor balcony of the house watching a parade pass by in the street below. I witnessed a gold coach with mounted soldiers in their colorful uniforms. The next thing I was lying on the ground looking up at a rider who's horse was rearing up in terror. I saw the horses hooves coming down towards my head. And then there was nothing.”

To summarize the story, it turned out that a few days after the treatment a newspaper photographer took Pauline up to the roof of a high building in Liverpool and took a picture of her leaning over the edge. This was proof that reliving the experience in the past life regression had obviously cleared her phobia about heights, but was the regression true? They surmised that since the event had sounded like the Golden Jubilee Procession of Queen Victoria, they went to the files of the Liverpool Echo Newspaper and found many pages reporting the parade. And then almost at the end of the report were two lines stating that several people had fallen from high points of vantage. That goes to show that sometimes past life incidents can be proven and correlated with documented evidence such as newspaper articles.

What do we really know about the power contained in our minds? Is it possible that we are losing out, every day, on the powers which could be available to us to heal physical ailments and pyschological distress? Joe Keeton’s book also includes numerous examples of healing from everyday aches and pains, arthritis, etc. without having to resort to the use of past life regression, just simple regular everyday hypnosis. Many times the subject is healed or relieved of their malady in one session and then are then taught a simple technique of ‘self hypnosis’ which the patient can use on their own for relief of pains such as migraine headaches, joint pain etc. I just wish that they had included at lest one script as an example so the reader might be able to learn a self-hypnosis technique as a further benefit from reading the book!

In this book, Joe talks about how he helped thousands of people to face up to and then take control of physical symptoms which were holding them back in life. The truth is in the telling of their stories. I recommend it! Get it on Amazon.