4biddenknowledge.com founder Billy Carson and Elisabeth Hoekstra dive deep into how to hack the subconscious mind for radical reprogramming that anyone can do!

Is your life giving you lemons or lemonade? Of course, the latter is what most people would prefer, but somehow the sourness of challenge, trauma, disappointment and falling short of your best life are far too common and can hinder you – keeping you in a real-life ground hog day drama.

Many psychologists agree that the subconscious mind is a core catalyst when it comes to keeping people stuck in a less than desirable reality.

But many also agree that the subconscious mind can be re-wired or “hacked,” and that a literal reprogramming of this part of our multifaceted mind can be achieved.

Billy Carson and Elisabeth Hoeskstra, the powerhouse duo behind 4biddenknowledge and hosts of the podcast Bio-Hack Your Best Life sat down with me to share five effective techniques that you can use immediately to re-write your life and positively shift gears in your personal reality for lasting results.

1. Floatation Therapy

Floatation therapy, also known as sensory deprivation or isolation tank therapy, is a relaxation and wellness practice that involves immersing yourself within a buoyant solution of warm water and Epsom salt within a specially designed tank or pod. The primary aim of floatation therapy is to induce deep relaxation and sensory isolation. 

Elisabeth Hoekstra discusses this method in her book The Recipe to Elevated Consciousness, which features over 40 ways to reprogram your subconscious mind. Elisabeth counts floatation therapy as one of her favorites from her book.

“I was doing floatation therapy twice a week for a very long time. During my sessions, I found that I was getting visions. I was even doing regression work without even wanting or needing to,” Elisabeth admits. “I would literally just go back into these visions of things that my body would tell me, because during the therapy, my brain had a chance to really shut off and relax. So I was able to kind of tailor the way that I wanted to react to certain things. I was able to emotionally reprogram some of the things that had happened to me so they weren’t so heightened within my body during certain triggers.”

Some of the key features to floatation therapy include:

• The Tank: A floatation tank is typically a lightproof, soundproof, and temperature-controlled pod or room filled with about 10 inches of water, saturated with a high concentration of Epsom salt. This high salt concentration allows individuals to effortlessly float on the water’s surface.
  
• Sensory Deprivation: The tank is designed to reduce external sensory input, including sound and light, and to control temperature and buoyancy. This sensory deprivation environment aims to minimize sensory distractions, allowing participants to experience a profound sense of relaxation and inner peace.
  
• Mental and Emotional Benefits: Many people use floatation therapy as a means of stress reduction, relaxation, and meditation. The sensory isolation can lead to a deep state of mental relaxation and may help with anxiety, mindfulness, and creativity.
  
• Reduced Gravity Sensation: Floating in the tank can create a sensation of near-zero gravity, which is thought to reduce physical strain on the body and mind, promoting a sense of weightlessness and freeing the mind from the usual gravitational constraints.
  
• Mind-Body Connection: Some proponents of floatation therapy claim that it can enhance the connection between the mind and body, leading to a heightened awareness of physical sensations and relaxation.

Elisabeth says, “Floatation therapy is not only good for your mental health, but it’s also good for your physical health. Over 70% of American people are deficient in magnesium. With this method you get a hit of magnesium that will in turn bring your stress response into homeostasis and now you’re calm and peaceful. I mean, it’s just a really, really good modality.”

Hoesktra says that floatation therapy can certainly aid in the process of reprogramming your subconscious mind.

2. Gratitude Journaling

You’ve likely heard of this practice before – keeping copious notes on a daily basis about all of the things in life you are grateful for. But as Elisabeth explains, there is a specific technique to gratitude journaling that can definitely aid in digging deep into the subconscious in order to realign it to the positive things in life you prefer.

“As soon as you wake up, you write down five things that you’re grateful for. But first, you run through those five things in your mind.” 

She says to do this before you even open your eyes and sit up in bed.

“As soon as you run through the five things in your mind open your eyes and go straight to the pen and paper. Write it down because that actual movement of your hands – putting pen to paper, that really seals the deal for you.” 

She insists that you do this as soon as you wake up and then do the same thing right before you go to sleep. You write down five things you are grateful for, or five things that happened to you during the day. You then put the pen down and lay in bed. Close your eyes and then think of those same five things. Repeat the process again as soon as you wake up and again, right before you go to sleep. Elisabeth says the repetition of this process really helps reprogram negative thought patterns being processed by the subconscious mind. 

With regular practice your brain will align to the more positive experiences in your life and as with a like attracts like formula, it will look for more of the same quality of experience to bring into your life.

To make your daily & nightly journaling experience more meaningful, why not get a beautiful gratitude journal to keep by your bedside? By creating purpose using tangible items to emphasize the importance of the process, you help to commemorate the experience with your subconscious mind.

3. Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)

Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), also known as “tapping,” is a psychological acupressure modality that involves gently tapping on specific meridian points on the body while focusing on emotional distress or negative thoughts. This practice is used to help alleviate emotional and physical issues by clearing energy blockages and promoting a sense of emotional well-being. EFT is often used for stress reduction, anxiety relief, and as Elisabeth explains, it can even be used as a tool to reprogram unwanted subconscious thinking patterns.

“EFT is something that I’ve used multiple times throughout my life.

I had a whole other life as a chef in the kitchen and it was a very, very high stress environment. So I would get very anxious and overwhelmed at times. I would have to excuse myself to bring myself back down.

The best way to do that for me was tapping. Basically tapping on different meridians on your body that kind of open up your mind to be able to insert [preferred] programming and also emotionally reprogram things that have happened to you in your life like traumatic events. 

When I was a chef for example, I would just go to the bathroom, tap, and say, ‘I feel my body getting really, really stressed out right now.’ You basically repeat to yourself out loud what the issue is. And then you say your name. ‘My name is Elisabeth Hoekstra. I love and appreciate myself fully…’ So you’re repeating these affirmations basically while tapping on these different energy points.” 

Elisabeth explains that this process actually targets the subconscious mind and allows for a different response and thus a different expectation.

“I can now look at different traumatic events I’ve had in my life because I’ve done EFT on them. And I don’t react as strongly as I did before because I’ve reprogrammed my emotional response to that specific event.” 

Though research on the effectiveness of EFT is ongoing, it has been practiced for a variety of conditions that include:

• Stress and Anxiety
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
• Phobias and Fears
• Depression
• Pain Management
• Weight Loss and Food Cravings
• Addictions (e.g., smoking, overeating)
• Insomnia and Sleep Disorders
• Performance Anxiety (e.g., public speaking, sports)
• Emotional Trauma and Grief

4. Heart-Brain Coherence

Both Elisabeth and Billy Carson advocate for a method that has been made popular by the HeartMath Institute, known as heart-brain coherence.

Here’s what Carson had to say about this technique…

“I would tell people to start doing heart-brain coherence techniques. This really allows yourself to get back in alignment because the brain and heart are directly connected. 

You can do a couple of different breathing techniques. 

One is where you’re breathing and you’re focusing on your heart center. So you have a situation that’s stressing you out. You’re in fight or flight, you’re frozen or whatever it is, you’re stressed out. 

You go into a quiet place in your car or closet or room that you can close the door somewhere, and you start taking in deep breaths and exhaling deep breaths. You’re taking in about five to eight seconds of inhaling, really pushing from the diaphragm. Not just shallow breathing. A lot of people shallow breathe. That’s actually not good. Breathing from the diaphragm for five to eight seconds for the in breath, and five to eight seconds out. Doing that for about three or four minutes will literally get you back in heart-brain coherence. 

It will re-synchronize your body, focusing on the heart center the entire time, and focusing on positivity. It will reverse the negativity. It will drop the cortisol levels. It will get your body back to a homeostasis and calm you all the way back down again.”

Elisabeth adds, “There’s actually a tool, a technology that HeartMath has and I actually have it.

It’s a little device that you can clip onto your ear lobe and then clip onto your body and you connect it to your phone. Basically, you’re breathing through your heart center, but you can actually see it on your phone.”

5. The “3-6-9” Affirmation Technique

Billy Carson explains that with this technique, you write down nine affirmations about yourself and then you repeat them out loud three times a day. 

You do this process for six days in a row. 

He says that if done faithfully, you will find that it will begin to reprogram your subconscious. 

“What’s interesting about this technique, which has been done in actual scientific laboratories that have studied this approach is that they saw that it started the process of actually reprogramming your own DNA!” says Billy.

What is the 3-6-9 technique all about?

This technique is based on the idea that specific numbers hold a certain energetic component. When some numbers are used in coordination with one another, they can actually aid in manifesting our desires. Inventor Nikola Tesla is said to have had a unique obsession with the 3-6-9 number combination and its magical qualities. Many years later, the 3-6-9 technique has gained the attention of millions due to its simplicity and reported stories of success.

“If you look at the numbers, three, six, nine – what did Nikola Tesla say about three, six, nine?  If you can understand that, you understand the secrets of the universe,” Billy explains.

Carson goes on to say, “That’s also backed by conscious thoughts. So it’s the conscious thought that’s riding on the frequency and being absorbed back into the body on a resonance level into water. And now your body and your cells are resonating at a specific frequency based on the conscious thought and those affirmations.”

So whether you are up for submersing yourself in water with pounds of salt or simply giving thanks in writing on a daily basis, your subconscious mind will get the message and likely do an about face-forward march toward a life that’s more aligned to your highest goals, dreams, and ambitions.

Let us know if you have tried any of these techniques and which ones have worked for you. We’d love to hear your stories!

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