Last Updated on July 7, 2026 by Ishilta
Also published in thedailyaah.substack.com
When I was little, my mother once invited a folk healer to our home for a healing session. I don’t know how my mother found her, but she was exceptionally good at what she did. The healer was a kind woman with exceptional skill in hilot, a traditional Filipino healing practice similar to massage. It was through her that I first experienced hilot, and she left quite an impression on me.
Aside from being a skilled hilot practitioner, she also read fortunes.
I can vividly remember that she gave off strong Madam Rosa vibes. At the time, Madam Rosa was at the height of her fame as a celebrity fortune teller. After our hilot session, my mother asked her to read our fortunes. I was very young then, so I don’t remember what she said about the rest of my family or whether they believed her.
However, for some odd reason, there’s one thing she told my mother that has stayed with me, and I simply can’t forget it. She predicted that I wouldn’t finish my studies because I would keep shifting from one course to another. Although she said it only once, those words became etched into my mind.
Looking back, I don’t believe she meant any malice or ill intent. Perhaps she simply didn’t know how to frame her reading in a more constructive way. She may never have realized how deeply those words could affect a young person’s mind.
As someone who was probably under ten years old at the time, it didn’t make any sense. I was just a little kid, and all I could think about was play. College was the last thing on my mind. I may not even have understood what college really was. But somehow, those words got under my skin.
If there’s one thing my background in hypnotherapy and ThetaHealing® has taught me, it’s that children that age have very malleable minds. They haven’t yet developed the ability to evaluate and filter information critically. During early childhood, the brain is believed to spend more time in a predominant theta brainwave state, the same state commonly associated with hypnosis. Words spoken by an authority figure during this stage can sink deeply into the subconscious, quietly taking root as beliefs that may last a lifetime.
It makes me wonder: if one sentence spoken to me as a child had that much power, how many other things were said to us growing up that still influence the way we see ourselves and the world today?
Fast-forward to my college years. Ironically, I almost fulfilled the prophecy myself. I seriously considered shifting courses because the one I was taking wasn’t really my first choice. In the end, though, I stayed. I don’t know whether it was because I was afraid of proving the fortune teller right or because I had genuinely fallen in love with my course. I’d like to believe it was the latter.
After getting off to a good start in college, I began experiencing some setbacks, some self-induced and others circumstantial. Although I was very committed to my studies, I could also get distracted from time to time. I’m not trying to make excuses for my delinquent behavior as a student, but looking back, I can’t help but wonder whether I acted that way because, somewhere in the back of my mind, I had already accepted that I wasn’t going to finish school anyway.
And if this sounds far-fetched, let me assure you it’s more neuroscience than science fiction. There are documented cases of people responding to suggestions they received while under hypnosis. Olympic athletes even use hypnotherapy to improve performance. The subconscious mind is incredibly powerful and influences far more of our thoughts and behaviors than most people realize. Whether it works for us or against us depends largely on the beliefs we repeatedly feed it.
Despite all that, I managed to graduate, even though I had to extend my stay at the university by a year. I felt like the hero in a movie who had finally broken a witch’s curse through perseverance and hard work. It was finally over. Or so I thought.
After I graduated from college, I started having occasional nightmares in which I never finished school. The dreams always followed the same pattern. Either I had missed the deadline to submit a school requirement, or I had failed a class. Even though school was long behind me and I was no longer consciously thinking about what the fortune teller had said, it continued to haunt me in my dreams and quietly affected the way I approached other areas of my life.
It took many more years to finally clear that limiting belief from my subconscious so I could be completely free of it. That experience made me realize the power of suggestion and how a single, seemingly harmless statement can quietly shape someone’s life.
The fortune teller hadn’t predicted my future. She had planted a belief, and for years I unknowingly helped it grow.
I carry this lesson with me as a reminder to be mindful whenever I work with clients as an intuitive guide. As healers and intuitive readers, we carry a great deal of responsibility to translate the information we channel into messages that inspire and empower our clients. Even when I see something difficult in a reading, I do my best to help my clients see the potential lessons and blessings alongside the challenges. I don’t believe anyone should leave a session feeling doomed or helpless.
It’s not because I want to sugarcoat my words, impress my clients, or promote false hope. It’s because I’ve experienced firsthand how powerful belief and suggestion can be, and I know all too well that my words can become self-fulfilling prophecies. The future isn’t set in stone. Even a difficult reading doesn’t have to become a client’s reality. How we respond to it can change the outcome.
If a single negative belief can quietly shape a person’s life, then perhaps a positive one can do the same. That’s why, whenever I have the opportunity, I choose to plant positive beliefs in my healing sessions with clients. Because sometimes the greatest gift we can give another person isn’t certainty about the future, but a belief powerful enough to help them create a better one.
Join us this July for Unlock the Codes of Destiny, where you’ll have the opportunity to clear limiting beliefs and plant empowering new beliefs deep within your subconscious mind, so you can align with your highest potential and step more fully into your destiny.
To register, visit: https://www.thedailyaah.com/events/destiny/
