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His wife died from an aggressive form of cancer that doctors could not treat. I remember the day he told me that she had died, after I asked him the usual questions during the short conversations we had when he came to the door to let me know he was performing the quarterly pest service.

Previously, we had talked about the birth of their baby and how happy they were, their search for a home, and their plans for the future.

This time was different. I asked him how his family was doing, whether they were still looking for a home, and asked about his wife and daughter. His eyes filled with tears and he told me his wife had died 2 weeks before.

I started to cry and told him how sorry I was. He broke down, sat on the porch steps, and cried. I brought him a glass of water and sat next to him, letting him have his moment of grief.

The pain in his face was indescribable. He told me how she had suddenly developed cancer, had sought treatment, and they could not stop it. He talked about the funeral, his fears around being a single parent, and how every plan he had made was suddenly gone and he did not know what to do.

I spoke about how he would survive, that he would be a good father, and that he would make new plans. There was nothing more I could say. Grief follows its own path to healing and that takes time.

I think about him often, and take the time to speak to him every time he comes by. I ask how he is doing, about his daughter, who is now 6 years old, and his life. I want him to know that I care, that I see him, and that I remember.

We never know what people are going through in their lives and how they have to move on, no matter what they are dealing with. In spite of his pain, he is at my house every 3 months, he does a thorough job, and he is always smiling and pleasant.

I offer him water, a chance to sit in the shade, and a listening ear. I don’t offer platitudes, I offer to share parenting advice if he asks, and tell him how much I appreciate his efforts.

He will be here again in 3 months. And I’ll ask about his daughter, how he is doing, and offer a place to sit in the shade if he wants to talk.

​=====================

​​About Jennifer Hoffman

Jennifer Hoffman is the celebrated master intuitive, iconic Energy Savante, 8x best selling author, host of the Enlightening Life LIVE broadcast and the longest newsletter in publication, starting in February 2004.

Jennifer is the expert on energy congruence, alignment, and integration, the leading voice in self awareness and energy boundaries, and the author of more than 5000 articles and publications. You can find out more on the celebrated website at enlighteninglife.com, which has been online since February 2004.

She is a business and technology expert, with degrees in Finance, Economics, and Business Administration, and extensive experience in business, technology, and law. Her first website went online in 1999 - a decade before most ‘business coaches’ or ‘creators’.

She founded the GPS Business Academy, (gpsbusinessacademy.com) where she shares her business education, experience, and expertise to help people start, manage, and grow their business. Her trademark Expert Skills Audit helps you identify your 7 Expert Revenue Skills to build multiple revenue streams which you can do using the 5 Step Business Startup, the only expert sourced business training for startups and re-starts. Learn more about Jennifer’s business training and mentoring at gpsbusinessacadaemy.com

And Jennifer’s new skin care line, Peau D’Ange is gaining international acclaim as a source of high vibe, restorative, and nourishing skin treatment. This is Jennifer’s unique formulation, developed over 15 years of use, to which Jennifer attributes her youthful, glowing skin. Learn more about Peau D’Ange Skin Care at femmeforcenow.com

“Why should I,” I replied, “when their actions just showed me the truth I had been ignoring for years?”

“Well, that’s not very spiritual,” she replied.

“How is it spiritual to continue to let people stay in my life when they have shown me, time and time again, that they do not love, honor, or respect me and that is not going to change?”

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I do not plan to forgive them for anything they did because it is not necessary. I have already done all of the forgiving I need to do, by forgiving myself for believing that fixing this family dysfunction was my job and that somehow, if I worked hard enough, overlooked enough toxicity, and forgave often enough, that some day the Norman Rockwell version of family bliss would somehow be mine.

The idea that forgiveness should be given to people who do not want it, care about it, or deserve it has kept us locked in toxic relationships for years or longer. And especially if you consider yourself to be spiritual, you believe that you should unconditionally forgive people for being cruel, unkind, and mean to you. At some point, we accepted the belief that granting forgiveness was going to change their behavior.

It will not and it never has.

But there are two factors at play here, forgiveness and pardons, and neither should be confused with the other or granted lightly. Forgiveness, in modern terms, is excusing bad behavior or behavior that goes against what we believe is acceptable in a relationship.

A pardon is erasing the memory of that behavior and allowing that person back into our lives as though nothing had happened.

I never grant forgiveness or pardons and I suggest that we re-think this entire concept which I believe has caused more harm to people than anything else that we accept as truth.

Because this is the truth. People who treat you badly are just showing you who they are. When you do not believe them or you doubt that this is who they are, you are ignoring the truth that they are declaring loudly and boldly.

If you grant forgiveness and pardon them, and then let them back into your life, you are doing yourself a disservice in most cases. I won’t say that all people who act badly are not capable of change, but most are not.

Forgiveness must be granted with clear boundaries and expectations of future behavior. Otherwise, we’re just allowing bad behavior to be repeated with no consequences. And there is a caution here because bad behavior and toxic behavior are two different things.

I separate the two by defining ‘bad behavior’ as thoughtless, unintentional, and rare. Toxic behavior, on the other hand, is well considered, intentional, deliberately cruel, and repeated.

In my case, my family’s behavior was toxic, and it has been for a very long time. I tried to fix it, be more kind and loving and forgiving, only to be met with the same kind of behavior every time.

The truth was revealed to me in a dramatic incident 18 months ago that made this truth too inconvenient to deny. There would be no family bliss, no close relationships, no communication that went beyond strained meetings at required family events. Now there will be no family events, no communication, and for me, the peace that comes with acceptance.

The best gift we can give to toxic and challenging people is acceptance. This is not forgiveness or pardon, it is acknowledging who they are and have always been. It is not making them wrong for being who they are by engaging with them in yet another attempt at creating relationships they do not want or care about, and are incapable of having.

And with acceptance comes the loss of expectation, the loss of denial, the loss of pain, and the loss of the belief that it is our job to fix them or the relationship. Truth is an inconvenient reality when it reveals who people really are in ways that we can no longer deny or ignore.

In that moment of realization we have clarity and a path forward that does not include them. Acknowledging who people are and who they choose to be is emotional, spiritual, and energetic freedom.

With that freedom comes the release of forgiveness. It is not logical to expect to forgive people for who they are and who they choose to be. It is illogical to think that giving them something they do not want or care about is going to change them or their behavior.

I have discovered this fact after decades of thinking that the next phone call, after months or years of silence for an imagined slight, was going to change everything. So I let them back into my life with joy that was short-lived. And the behavior started again.

There is a point at which hope ends, tolerance ends, and forgiveness ends. And it should come sooner rather than later because once someone shows you who they really are – and you believe them – the truth becomes an inconvenient reality which lights the path to the exit for you.

You can choose to exit or to stay. But know that staying doesn’t change anything and you will eventually find yourself in front of that exit door again and again, until you decide to finally open it and leave, removing yourself from the toxicity and taking the path that leads you to people who can ‘love, honor, and respect’ you, who want to be in kind, loving, balanced relationships with you, and who don’t create drama and trauma.

And forgiveness should be granted to yourself first, and then to people who are genuinely sorry for their behavior, who can make a promise to do better and keep it, and who admit that they have made a mistake that they have the desire and means to correct.

Without this new perspective on forgiveness, you will continue to find yourself with unmet expectations, disappointment, and continue to try to fix relationships with people who don’t feel they are doing anything wrong. It is a hard truth to acknowledge, but some people genuinely will not like you. They will be petty, mean, jealous, spiteful, angry, and toxic.

Yes that includes your family, relatives, children, good friends, partner, and people that you think should love you. Acknowledge who they are choosing to be, accept their behavior, and take the exit door. Don’t burden yourself with the responsibility of forgiveness. Don’t give forgiveness to people who have shown you that they do not want or care about it.

How do you protect yourself from toxic and mean people? Some people say you should have stronger boundaries, without explaining exactly what that is. I have been teaching energy boundaries for over 15 years. It is not just a matter of saying no or deciding that you are not going to do something. This is about deciding where your energy goes and who gets to be part of it.

It is also learning why you do not have energy boundaries, are afraid to impose them, or hesitate to do that around certain people. It is understanding what your agenda is and what you believe is your reward for not having energy boundaries.

I call energy boundaries your ‘keys to emotional, spiritual, and energetic freedom,’ and they are. Once you set your energy boundaries you no longer blame yourself for the actions of challenging and toxic people. You no longer force your expectations on others. You can choose acceptance and then the exit as you move towards a new relationship path with people who are more aligned with your definition of relationships. And best of all, you no longer believe that giving forgiveness will fix everything and do not force yourself to give forgiveness to people who do not want it, do not care about it, do not care about you, and do not want a relationship with you.

Energy boundaries are not punishment, control, or emotional walls. They are the decision to stop giving your emotional, spiritual, and energetic resources to relationships that repeatedly create pain, confusion, exhaustion, and disappointment.

When you learn to establish true energy boundaries, you stop trying to fix people who do not want to change. You stop negotiating with toxic behavior. You stop abandoning yourself in the hope of receiving love, approval, acknowledgement, or acceptance from people you hold on to because you believe that they should give you those things because they are ‘family.’

And most importantly, you begin to trust yourself again.

My Bold Brave Boundaries Blueprint - the unique Energy Boundaries program - teaches you how to identify the patterns that keep you emotionally entangled, why boundaries feel difficult for so many people, and how to create relationships that are grounded in mutual respect, balance, and emotional safety.

This is not about becoming cold, disconnected, or unforgiving.

It is about becoming free. And freedom does not begin with forgiveness, it begins with clarity. If you are ready to stop carrying emotional burdens that were never yours to carry, the Energy Boundaries program is available at this link.

==========================

About Jennifer Hoffman

Jennifer Hoffman is the celebrated master intuitive, iconic Energy Savante, 8x best selling author, host of the Enlightening Life LIVE broadcast and the longest newsletter in publication, starting in February 2004.

Jennifer is the expert on energy congruence, alignment, and integration, the leading voice in self awareness and energy boundaries, and the author of more than 5000 articles and publications. You can find out more on the celebrated website at enlighteninglife.com, which has been online since February 2004.

She is a business and technology expert, with degrees in Finance, Economics, and Business Administration, and extensive experience in business, technology, and law. Her first website went online in 1999 - a decade before most ‘business coaches’ or ‘creators’.

She founded the GPS Business Academy, (gpsbusinessacademy.com) where she shares her business education, experience, and expertise to help people start, manage, and grow their business. Her trademark Expert Skills Audit helps you identify your 7 Expert Revenue Skills to build multiple revenue streams which you can do using the 5 Step Business Startup, the only expert sourced business training for startups and re-starts. Learn more about Jennifer’s business training and mentoring at gpsbusinessacadaemy.com

And Jennifer’s new skin care line, Peau D’Ange is gaining international acclaim as a source of high vibe, restorative, and nourishing skin treatment. This is Jennifer’s unique formulation, developed over 15 years of use, to which Jennifer attributes her youthful, glowing skin. Learn more about Peau D’Ange Skin Care at femmeforcenow.com

You are always in pain, it never stops, it never goes away.

It wakes you up and makes it hard to fall asleep.

It intrudes on your life in ways you cannot imagine.

Every movement has a cost you must be willing to pay.

Every effort will make the pain worse in some way and you have to decide whether the effort is worth the hours of additional pain you will have to endure.

Chronic pain's effects are all encompassing - physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.

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Chronic pain narrows bandwidth, drains motivation, disrupts emotional resilience, and makes even simple decisions difficult.

It is depressing and stressful. You begin to worry that it will never go away - and sometimes it does not.

It becomes your constant companion - unwanted and unwelcome - but it is always there.

If you enjoy good health, the sudden onset of chronic pain, which is how mine started, is a shock. You try everything to make the pain go away and return to health.

You do what you have to do, you just do it more slowly and deliberately.

You stay busy and try to accomplish things in spite of the pain. You are not really productive, you are just trying to stay one step ahead of the pain.

I was lucky, mine finally went away, after 7 years. I am no longer in pain but I remember the pain well and I hope it never returns.

Good health is a blessing we rarely think about - until something reminds us that it is not to be taken for granted.

I'm out of pain now and hope to stay that way. My journey through chronic pain has given me compassion for those who suffer quietly, miserably, and with great difficulty because I know what it is like and I hope you recover to become pain-free, as I did.

==========================

About Jennifer Hoffman

Jennifer Hoffman is the celebrated master intuitive, iconic Energy Savante, 8x best selling author, host of the Enlightening Life LIVE broadcast and the longest newsletter in publication, starting in February 2004.

Jennifer is the expert on energy congruence, alignment, and integration, the leading voice in self awareness and energy boundaries, and the author of more than 5000 articles and publications. You can find out more on the celebrated website at enlighteninglife.com, which has been online since February 2004.

She is a business and technology expert, with degrees in Finance, Economics, and Business Administration, and extensive experience in business, technology, and law. Her first website went online in 1999 - a decade before most ‘business coaches’ or ‘creators’.

She founded the GPS Business Academy, (gpsbusinessacademy.com) where she shares her business education, experience, and expertise to help people start, manage, and grow their business. Her trademark Expert Skills Audit helps you identify your 7 Expert Revenue Skills to build multiple revenue streams which you can do using the 5 Step Business Startup, the only expert sourced business training for startups and re-starts. Learn more about Jennifer’s business training and mentoring at gpsbusinessacadaemy.com

And Jennifer’s new skin care line, Peau D’Ange is gaining international acclaim as a source of high vibe, restorative, and nourishing skin treatment. This is Jennifer’s unique formulation, developed over 15 years of use, to which Jennifer attributes her youthful, glowing skin. Learn more about Peau D’Ange Skin Care at femmeforcenow.com

My father was not fully mobile so he needed a lot of care. He was terminally ill, was taking a lot of medications, and had numerous doctor appointments.

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And he was a private man and in my desire to respect his privacy, we did not have the discussions that we should have.

If I were to care for an aging parent today, here is what I would do. I know this impacts many people so I hope my experienced advice is helpful.

1. Have the tough discussions about their Will, life insurance, beneficiary designations, and any end of life wishes.

2. Gather their important documents and know what they contain. Contact any lawyers or financial planners they have been working with.

3. Speak to their doctors and care providers and know their medications, special needs, and their full medical condition.

4. You will have to care for your parent like a child, so be prepared to be the responsible person in their life.

5. Discuss care with siblings and other family members and get help. This is an emotional, mental, and physical process and it is very difficult to handle on your own.

6. Know when you can no longer provide care and it is time to move them to a facility. Have this discussion with them, if appropriate, and with family before it happens.

7. Prepare yourself mentally and emotionally for when they pass. No matter how much you are prepared for it and know it is inevitable, it is still difficult when it happens.

It is extremely difficult to be a parent's caretaker because of the emotional and mental strain, that go beyond the physical demands. Be prepare for it and have the difficult discussions at the start so you are prepared when it is time to act.

Above all, get help. You should not bear the burden of this alone and you need support and time away from this responsibility that can become very difficult to manage. These are your parents, not your children, and caring for them as you would a child takes its toll - mentally and emotionally.

Have you had to become a parent's caretaker? What was your experience? Let me know in the comments.

===============

About Jennifer Hoffman

Jennifer Hoffman is the celebrated master intuitive, iconic Energy Savante, 8x best selling author, host of the Enlightening Life LIVE broadcast and the longest newsletter in publication, starting in February 2004.

Jennifer is the expert on energy congruence, alignment, and integration, the leading voice in self awareness and energy boundaries, and the author of more than 5000 articles and publications. You can find out more on the celebrated website at enlighteninglife.com, which has been online since February 2004.

She is a business and technology expert, with degrees in Finance, Economics, and Business Administration, and extensive experience in business, technology, and law. Her first website went online in 1999 - a decade before most ‘business coaches’ or ‘creators’.

She founded the GPS Business Academy, (gpsbusinessacademy.com) where she shares her business education, experience, and expertise to help people start, manage, and grow their business. Her trademark Expert Skills Audit helps you identify your 7 Expert Revenue Skills to build multiple revenue streams which you can do using the 5 Step Business Startup, the only expert sourced business training for startups and re-starts. Learn more about Jennifer’s business training and mentoring at gpsbusinessacadaemy.com

And Jennifer’s new skin care line, Peau D’Ange is gaining international acclaim as a source of high vibe, restorative, and nourishing skin treatment. This is Jennifer’s unique formulation, developed over 15 years of use, to which Jennifer attributes her youthful, glowing skin. Learn more about Peau D’Ange Skin Care at femmeforcenow.com

During my career I have been managed critical network systems serving thousands of users and I believe that my parenting experiences prepared me to handle issues successfully. In Critical systems operations, like parenting, you have to be prepared to handle unexpected events with speed, aplomb, and creative thinking.

Situations happen at critical moments and a quick, effective, pain-free solution is necessary.

The day my son’s finger was stuck in the seat belt buckle is an example of the kind of quick thinking, fast action, and cross-systems application that parenting requires, a skill that transfers well to mission critical platforms.

I knew something was wrong the moment I got into the car. It was unnaturally quiet. The kind of quiet that happens when children know that they have done something that Mom is not going to be happy about.

To clarify, this happened in the 2 minutes from when they walked out of the house to get into the car, I locked the front door, and then I got into the car.

I turned to look at my son Bryan in the back seat. He had a strange look on his face.

“What is going on,” I said, “and why don’t you have your seat belt on?”

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“Bryan’s finger is stuck in the seat belt.” I looked at my youngest and he moved his hand to reveal his finger in the round hole of the seat belt buckle.

Although it was useless to ask, I asked anyway. “Why did you stick your finger in the seat belt buckle hole?” “I don’t know,” was the predictable reply.

I got into the back seat to examine the situation and yes, his little finger was stuck and because he had been trying to remove it, with his brother and sister’s help, it was swelling.

While I was concerned, I tried to be calm, thinking about possible solutions, including calling the fire department. I went back into the house and got the dish soap from the kitchen, put some on his finger, rubbed it around, and it slid out of the buckle.

We were all relieved and I was glad that we did not have to deal with the fire department and a procedure that would have traumatized us all. I got him cleaned up, gave him some water, dried his tears, gave him a hug, and we were off for our day. Late, but with fingers intact and a lesson learned.

After that my son refused to touch the seat belt buckle, asking one of his siblings to do it for him, as if it was the seat belt’s fault that his finger got stuck.

Those kinds of situations are everyday examples of what parents deal with and on a systems level, what we encounter in situations where you have to learn to find efficient, creative solutions to address immediate problems. And keep the system running in any disaster.

When you need a calm, rational viewpoint in a tough situation, in your personal life or in business, from an experienced, rational perspective, schedule a strategy call at this link.

===========================

About Jennifer Hoffman

Jennifer Hoffman is the celebrated master intuitive, iconic Energy Savante, 8x best selling author, host of the Enlightening Life LIVE broadcast and the longest newsletter in publication, starting in February 2004.

Jennifer is the expert on energy congruence, alignment, and integration, the leading voice in self awareness and energy boundaries, and the author of more than 5000 articles and publications. You can find out more on the celebrated website at enlighteninglife.com, which has been online since February 2004.

She is a business and technology expert, with degrees in Finance, Economics, and Business Administration, and extensive experience in business, technology, and law. Her first website went online in 1999 - a decade before most ‘business coaches’ or ‘creators’.

She founded the GPS Business Academy, (gpsbusinessacademy.com) where she shares her business education, experience, and expertise to help people start, manage, and grow their business. Her trademark Expert Skills Audit helps you identify your 7 Expert Revenue Skills to build multiple revenue streams which you can do using the 5 Step Business Startup, the only expert sourced business training for startups and re-starts. Learn more about Jennifer’s business training and mentoring at gpsbusinessacadaemy.com

And Jennifer’s new skin care line, Peau D’Ange is gaining international acclaim as a source of high vibe, restorative, and nourishing skin treatment. This is Jennifer’s unique formulation, developed over 15 years of use, to which Jennifer attributes her youthful, glowing skin. Learn more about Peau D’Ange Skin Care at femmeforcenow.com

A news agency reached out to me this week to ask my opinion about it. They had seen my website and noted my more than 23 years of expertise in the spiritual space and wanted to know what I thought. That expertise, combined with my many years of experience in the tech industry, gives me a unique viewpoint into both of these areas, and their applications for good and not so good.

I told them that this was news to me. But this trend doesn’t surprise me as people have sought spiritual guidance, connection, and validation from many sources for centuries. From soothsayers and religion, to angels, ‘divine masters,’ and spiritual gurus in recent decades, people want spiritual validation from someone or something they believe has more authority and knowledge than they do.

With the spectacular fall of the guru industry, featuring Deepak Chopra as a prime example of misplaced trust, people need new spiritual ‘leaders’ and they are finding them in AI.

This is not surprising in light of multiple cultural shifts are happening now:

1. Loneliness and social fragmentation as remote work, social activities like grocery shopping become replaced with online options, further remove us from human connection,

2. Distrust of institutions at all levels, most recently the guru and ‘coaching’ community as behavior conflicts with their messages of authority, trust, and reliability,

3. Declining participation in traditional religion as church attendance drops partly fueled, in my opinion, by the rise of mega churches whose leaders display shocking examples of wealth and who preach ‘abundance’ rather than true humility and service,

4. Increasing anxiety and uncertainty around world events which comes from being flooded with endless sources of information about what is happening in every corner of the world without proper context, and

5. The human desire for meaning, reassurance, stability, and certainty, which has been part of the human condition for centuries.

People are looking for comfort, validation, and guidance. They want interpretations of things they do not understand or find threatening or destabilizing. And they want emotional mirroring and interaction that lets them feel that they are being seen.

And AI can simulate all of those surprisingly well.

Something else that I have observed since I have been online since 1999, the generations who were born after 2000 or who were children around that time have never known a technology or online free world. For them, the online world is a valid construct, a real thing and it is part of their everyday world. So why wouldn’t they seek any kind of information and support from AI, including spiritual support?

For those of us born in the pre-tech eras, our view of the online world is vastly different. In my family, we did not have a television until I was around 13 years old, and since I lived in Europe, there was no daytime programming so we only watched a few TV shows in the evening, as a family. Everyone watched the same thing and when my mother said it was time for bed, the TV was turned off.

Our single household phone was a rotary model that we were allowed to use for 5 minutes at a time, and if you wanted to talk to someone you went to see them. We played outside with our friends, read, and did other things to occupy our time.

The world is vastly different today. Young children have access to 24x7 technology with unlimited programming on every topic imaginable, many of them inappropriate for both children and adults. No facet of life is exempt from technological intrusion. And it is creating a crisis of identity and connection for many people.

To my surprise, I found many examples of spiritual AI resources:

• AI “Jesus” confession/chat systems

• AI tarot readers and astrology bots

• AI grief companions

• AI meditation and manifestation coaches

• AI-generated sermons and spiritual teachings

• AI “dead relative” simulations

• AI girlfriend/boyfriend emotional attachment systems

Some are novelty. Some are becoming psychologically significant to users. But keep this in mind – AI is not creating spirituality. It is merely exposing unmet emotional and spiritual needs that already exist. These needs have existed for centuries, they have not changed. What has changed is where people are going to have these needs met. Where they once went to church or spoke to friends, they are now turning to AI.

AI gives them what they need. Immediate responsiveness, no judgment, 24/7 availability, personalized language that lets them feel heard, emotional reinforcement that lets them feel validated, and interaction that sounds great as it should because AI adapts to their language and their needs. It is not an unbiased source of spiritual clarity and discernment.

Traditional institutions often cannot compete with that level of immediacy or intimacy. But there are important concerns too and significant risks which include:

1. False authority

People may assume AI possesses wisdom, divine insight, or spiritual legitimacy when it is fundamentally pattern prediction. That becomes dangerous when:

• users are emotionally vulnerable

• AI reinforces delusions

• AI presents certainty instead of reflection

• people outsource discernment

2. Emotional dependency

Some users may form attachment relationships with AI systems that replace human relationships, mentorship, or grounded community. This is already happening with AI companions.

3. Spiritual manipulation

Commercialized spirituality already has credibility problems. AI can scale manipulation dramatically:

• automated prophecy

• emotionally targeted messaging

• personalized persuasion

• synthetic authority

4. Collapse of discernment

One major issue in modern spirituality is that many people already struggle to distinguish:

• intuition vs projection

• wisdom vs validation

• truth vs emotional comfort

AI can intensify that confusion because it is designed to sound coherent and supportive.

The Other Side

There is also a legitimate constructive use case.

AI can potentially:

• make spiritual education more accessible

• help people explore philosophy or religious texts

• guide meditation practices

• support journaling and self-reflection

• help isolated people feel less alone

• provide language for emotional processing

The technology itself is neutral. The issue is how authority is framed and how vulnerable people use these AI resources.

Spiritual growth requires discernment, self-awareness, and energetic congruence. AI can provide information and interaction, but it cannot replace human intuition, lived wisdom, spiritual maturity, or authentic energetic presence.

I have been a spiritual teacher for over 30 years and one thing I have always said is that I do not want to become anyone’s guru. My role is to provide insight and information, and to nurture understanding and self-awareness. And to guide my students and customers to new levels of alignment which some may call ‘healing’ but I prefer to call it energetic congruence, a topic I have taught for 2 decades.

Empowerment is a word that is highly overused but my interpretation has always been to encourage someone to find their own source of power. AI does not do that unless it is specifically instructed to do so.

And that is not what emotionally vulnerable people do. This is where AI spiritual chatbots can become a source of delusion, misunderstanding, a false sense of grandiosity, and lead to erratic behavior, which we have already seen.

People who use AI this way are not necessarily searching for God in AI, they want connection, certainty, comfort, and meaning in a world that they feel disconnected from. While chatting with AI about fears and anxieties can be a source of comfort, lines must be drawn or it can turn into a descent into delusion, that ends in disaster.

As someone who has a long history with both spirituality and technology, I see the benefits and dangers of both systems. I have always said that it is just as bad to be too spiritual as it is to be not spiritual at all.

And too much technology is not good either. I have been involved in the tech world since the early 1990s and I like many aspects of technology. But I do my grocery shopping in person. I call and visit people I want to connect to. I don’t hold conversations via text. And my phone is not a permanent presence in my life.

Excess in any direction is never beneficial and can result in great disappointment. We need balance – emotionally, spiritually, and energetically. And we won’t find balance if we turn AI into the spiritual guru that replaces the fallen human gurus that we feel have betrayed and disappointed us.

AI can be a great resource when used with discernment and care. Just remember it was not designed to be a critic and having a resource that never disagrees with you is not a valid source of critical thinking and discerning opinions.

For the people who think that AI can become their new spiritual guru, be aware that AI will not replace human connection, reasoning, and critical thinking. Use it wisely and well, within the boundaries of sound judgment.

And if you find yourself in need of spiritual guidance, reach out to someone with real expertise and experience, someone who provides information and support and provide discernment, guard rails, and who is willing to apply the brakes when things get out of hand.

And who will provide the support you need while also setting important guardrails in place so you find your own empowerment through self-awareness, and not from an AI chatbot who will never disagree with you.

=================================

About Jennifer Hoffman

Jennifer Hoffman is the celebrated master intuitive, iconic Energy Savante, 8x best selling author, host of the Enlightening Life LIVE broadcast and the longest newsletter in publication, starting in February 2004.

Jennifer is the expert on energy congruence, alignment, and integration, the leading voice in self awareness and energy boundaries, and the author of more than 5000 articles and publications. You can find out more on the celebrated website at enlighteninglife.com, which has been online since February 2004.

She is a business and technology expert, with degrees in Finance, Economics, and Business Administration, and extensive experience in business, technology, and law. Her first website went online in 1999 - a decade before most ‘business coaches’ or ‘creators’.

She founded the GPS Business Academy, (gpsbusinessacademy.com) where she shares her business education, experience, and expertise to help people start, manage, and grow their business. Her trademark Expert Skills Audit helps you identify your 7 Expert Revenue Skills to build multiple revenue streams which you can do using the 5 Step Business Startup, the only expert sourced business training for startups and re-starts. Learn more about Jennifer’s business training and mentoring at gpsbusinessacadaemy.com

And Jennifer’s new skin care line, Peau D’Ange is gaining international acclaim as a source of high vibe, restorative, and nourishing skin treatment. This is Jennifer’s unique formulation, developed over 15 years of use, to which Jennifer attributes her youthful, glowing skin. Learn more about Peau D’Ange Skin Care at femmeforcenow.com

I did too and I think I found something that explains it.

Something about the May 1, 2026 full moon has been bothering me lately. I knew there was something significant about it because it is exactly square my natal Moon. So I did some research to see when it happened before.

It has happened 7 times in my lifetime, in every critical year of my life, when important life events happened and my life situation was impacted in very significant ways.

I can trace every big life event - from the year I was able to leave the hospital and 3 years later, I started to walk again after spending 5 years paralyzed by a vaccine, to my first marriage, when I moved to Australia, my 6th job layoff and when I went into my business full-time. All years that a 12 Scorpio full moon happened. Not an eclipse, just a full moon that exactly squares my natal Moon.

And it is happening again on May 1. What will it involve this time? Well, if my total house re-organization of the past week is any sign, it’s going to be epic. I have moved every piece of furniture, including my 4 bookshelves (which meant moving all of my hundreds of books) and changed the layout of every room.

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It is not something I had planned to do but I do move furniture, clean, and organize when there is a lot of energy moving or right before something big shifts in my life. Many of my readers and followers do too.

The first square to my natal moon happened 3 weeks after I was born and I think that was the trigger. It set up a theme that activates every time that lunar sign/degree happens.

This is not the same as when a natal planet is aspected by transits.

This is a more significant point that sets up a life challenge and lesson, something that becomes a focal point in our life and activates at turning points, critical junctures, and times when we need to change our perspective, move in a different direction, and there is an important life event. Things like a major move, career change, wedding, a celebration, challenge, or a life trauma.

I have checked a few charts of people I know and this has happened in their chart too.

You have to know the house placement, sign, and exact degree of your natal moon, which is possible when you know your date, place, and time of birth. Then you can find out when these full moon squares to your natal moon happened by doing the research. You need to find the first one after your date of birth.

I think this holds important information for us to understand why certain years are more difficult than others, why life events happen at certain times, and why we seem to have the same lessons repeating over and over again.

I believe that this sets up a life challenge trigger, that we unconsciously follow whenever this point is activated. It explains difficult years, decisions we may later regret, things we do without fully considering the consequences, or when important life events happen.

Learning this has made sense of certain difficult themes in my life and has made it very clear that they were not random. Now that I know when this happens - and the next one is in 2034 - I can prepare. I wish I had known this sooner.

Let me know what you think about this theory and check out your moon placement. If you want me to help, book a 5D AstroDestiny with me and I will let you know how it works, plays out, what to look for, when it happened in the past, and when it will happen again. Click here to schedule now.

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About Jennifer Hoffman

Jennifer Hoffman is the celebrated master intuitive, iconic Energy Savante, 8x best selling author, host of the Enlightening Life LIVE broadcast and the longest newsletter in publication, starting in February 2004.

Jennifer is the expert on energy congruence, alignment, and integration, the leading voice in self awareness and energy boundaries, and the author of more than 5000 articles and publications. You can find out more on the celebrated website at enlighteninglife.com, which has been online since February 2004.

She is a business and technology expert, with degrees in Finance, Economics, and Business Administration, and extensive experience in business, technology, and law. Her first website went online in 1999 - a decade before most ‘business coaches’ or ‘creators’.

She founded the GPS Business Academy, (gpsbusinessacademy.com) where she shares her business education, experience, and expertise to help people start, manage, and grow their business. Her trademark Expert Skills Audit helps you identify your 7 Expert Revenue Skills to build multiple revenue streams which you can do using the 5 Step Business Startup, the only expert sourced business training for startups and re-starts. Learn more about Jennifer’s business training and mentoring at gpsbusinessacadaemy.com

And Jennifer’s new skin care line, Peau D’Ange is gaining international acclaim as a source of high vibe, restorative, and nourishing skin treatment. This is Jennifer’s unique formulation, developed over 15 years of use, to which Jennifer attributes her youthful, glowing skin. Learn more about Peau D’Ange Skin Care at femmeforcenow.com

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When my sister and I were teens we wanted to get our ears pierced. My mother refused to allow it. She said it was not dignified (you would have to know my French mother). But all of our friends had their ears pierced and we did not want to be left out.

So we plotted. We saved our babysitting money to buy our first starter earrings, simple gold studs. Then we talked to our friends so we knew the process they had used.

And we chose a day when my mother would be busy and would not notice that we were in our room with the door shut.

The process was simple.

First, carefully marked the exact spot with ink, making sure to get the same spot on both ear lobes.

Then use the ice to numb the earlobe.

The potato (cut in half) was held behind the ear lobe, to make sure the needle did not go too far (yes, really).

And the large darning needle was used to make the hole. Finally, you had to quickly insert the gold stud and the back.

My sister went first. I froze her earlobe so hard the needle would not go in so we had to let it thaw for a bit. When it was ready, I put the potato at the back of her ear lobe, carefully put the needle on the blue dot and pushed hard. Then I quickly inserted the gold stud and the back. It worked. I did the second ear love and it was done.

Then she did my ear lobes. I admit, it was not painless but as we say in French, “pour etre belle il faut souffrir.” To be beautiful you have to suffer.

We sat on our beds, when it was over, admiring each other’s pierced ears.

Then came the moment of truth. We would not be able to hide the sparkly gold dots on our earlobes from our very discerning mother.

The fallout was as expected. My mother was furious, sure that I had talked my sister into disobeying her. She was surprised that my sister admitted that she wanted it done.

We proudly showed off our earrings at school the next day.

My mother was angry for a long time and yes we were grounded and appropriately punished for disobeying her.

Looking back, it was equal parts ingenuity, daring, intention, courage, and just a little bit of madness.

My mother still talks about it decades later.

In hindsight, it was one of the few times my sister and I ever did something like that together, and one of the only times she went directly against my mother’s instructions.

Which probably explains why it stands out so clearly.

But that moment wasn’t really about earrings.

It was about process - having a clear, intentional outcome, gathering information, planning, and strategic execution. And being prepared for the consequences.

It is the same process I have followed all my life, personally and professionally.

And yes I still have pierced ears and I think about that moment every time I put earrings in.

I don’t take reckless risks. But when the outcome matters, I’ll find a way to make it happen.

There are times to bend the rules - and times to break them. And there are times when you have to make decisions that others won’t appreciate or like.

I’m not saying that reckless rule breaking is the answer to everything, but sometimes making your own choices, no matter what others say, think, or do, leads to the kind of satisfaction that you remember for decades.

What was your rule breaking moment, when you decided that the consequences were worth the risk?

If you have strayed from that boldness, schedule a strategy session to discuss how to bring it back. Whether it’s in your business or personal life, let’s create a plan so you can having daring moments again, and the satisfaction of remembering them.

Schedule your session here.

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About Jennifer Hoffman

Jennifer Hoffman is the celebrated master intuitive, iconic Energy Savante, 8x best selling author, host of the Enlightening Life LIVE broadcast and the longest newsletter in publication, starting in February 2004.

Jennifer is the expert on energy congruence, alignment, and integration, the leading voice in self awareness and energy boundaries, and the author of more than 5000 articles and publications. You can find out more on the celebrated website at enlighteninglife.com, which has been online since February 2004.

She is a business and technology expert, with degrees in Finance, Economics, and Business Administration, and extensive experience in business, technology, and law. Her first website went online in 1999 - a decade before most ‘business coaches’ or ‘creators’.

She founded the GPS Business Academy, (gpsbusinessacademy.com) where she shares her business education, experience, and expertise to help people start, manage, and grow their business. Her trademark Expert Skills Audit helps you identify your 7 Expert Revenue Skills to build multiple revenue streams which you can do using the 5 Step Business Startup, the only expert sourced business training for startups and re-starts. Learn more about Jennifer’s business training and mentoring at gpsbusinessacadaemy.com

And Jennifer’s new skin care line, Peau D’Ange is gaining international acclaim as a source of high vibe, restorative, and nourishing skin treatment. This is Jennifer’s unique formulation, developed over 15 years of use, to which Jennifer attributes her youthful, glowing skin. Learn more about P

As the plane began to fill two men walked towards me and I sent them ‘do not sit next to me vibes’.

Unfortunately, it did not work and they took the seats next to me. We said a brief hello and got ready for departure.

After liftoff they began to speak to me and then introduced themselves – one man was Kenny Aronoff, a famous studio drummer who has played with all of the major bands, and the other man was Benny Rietveld, the bassist for Santana, one of my favorite bands.

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I asked them why they were on a Southwest flight instead of flying private. They laughed and said that ‘the music industry was not what it used to be.’

Kenny Aronoff was interested when I told him that in my teens I wanted to be a drummer for a rock and roll band but my mother would not allow it. She was already mad about my fringe leather jacket (see link to story below) and did not want her daughter on stage beating on drums like a ‘hippie’.

Kenny said he would give me lessons and said that more women drummers were needed in the industry. I said that I would probably be the world’s oldest female drummer by the time I got around to it and he laughingly replied that most of the great drummers were old so I would be in good company.

I shared some great Santana memories with Benny as I have been a fan for decades and attended many Santana concerts. We talked about music – I have been a musician for most of my life – and artists, concerts, and many other topics.

The flight went by quickly and we were soon landing at LAX. We walked together to the baggage claim and people recognized my companions – then stared at me, wondering who I was. I was a ‘celebrity by association’ and a woman of mystery!

I was just the person who had met two musicians on a plane and had a great conversation.

What was memorable about the meeting was where it started – they were in Kansas City, catching a flight to LA. Who would have thought you could meet two great musicians at KCI?

I still have Kenny Aronof’s business card and may take him up on those drum lessons one day. And I’ll be sure to wave to Benny Rietveld next time I am at a Santana concert.

We meet thousands of people in our lives and then there are those meetings that feel intentional, purposeful, and meant to happen.

It goes to show you that you never know who you’ll meet and they can sit next to you on a plane even when you do not want them to. And maybe you’ll meet someone who will inspire you to fulfill a dream - and offer to give you drum lessons.

About Jennifer Hoffman

Jennifer Hoffman is the celebrated master intuitive, iconic Energy Savante, 8x best selling author, host of the Enlightening Life LIVE broadcast and the longest newsletter in publication, starting in February 2004.

Jennifer is the expert on energy congruence, alignment, and integration, the leading voice in self awareness and energy boundaries, and the author of more than 5000 articles and publications. You can find out more on the celebrated website at enlighteninglife.com, which has been online since February 2004.

She is a business and technology expert, with degrees in Finance, Economics, and Business Administration, and extensive experience in business, technology, and law. Her first website went online in 1999 - a decade before most ‘business coaches’ or ‘creators’.

She founded the GPS Business Academy, (gpsbusinessacademy.com) where she shares her business education, experience, and expertise to help people start, manage, and grow their business. Her trademark Expert Skills Audit helps you identify your 7 Expert Revenue Skills to build multiple revenue streams which you can do using the 5 Step Business Startup, the only expert sourced business training for startups and re-starts. Learn more about Jennifer’s business training and mentoring at gpsbusinessacadaemy.com

And Jennifer’s new skin care line, Peau D’Ange is gaining international acclaim as a source of high vibe, restorative, and nourishing skin treatment. This is Jennifer’s unique formulation, developed over 15 years of use, to which Jennifer attributes her youthful, glowing skin. Learn more about Peau D’Ange and the Femme Force community at femmeforcenow.com

at this link.

I hear people saying ‘I am not perfect’ and ‘no one is perfect’ all of the time and it is irritating because it is not true.

Everyone is perfect – all the time. No matter who they are or where they are in their life.

The word perfect has been given a context that is not aligned with its original meaning and when you understand the true meaning of ‘perfect’ you will realize that not only are you perfect now, you have always been perfect, and there is no more perfect version of you than that which exists right now.

Because I study words and their meanings and usage as a hobby, it’s called lexicology etymology, I frequently research how words are used versus their origins and what they actually mean. And because I speak multiple languages, I also pay attention to how they are derived from and used in different languages.

Let’s look at the word ‘perfect’. To research it I asked 3 questions:

• Where does it come from?

• What does it mean?

• How does its true meaning differ from how it is used today?

First, where does the word ‘perfect’ come from? It was first used around 1250AD and is from the Latin word ‘perfectus’, which means ‘finished’ or ‘completed.’

What does ‘perfect’ mean in its original context? That something is finished or completed. In Latin, perfectus is the past participle of the verb ‘perficere’ which means to finish. So if ‘perficere’ means to finish, then perfectus means it is finished.

This brings us to the third question – how does its true meaning and original use differ from the current meaning and usage of the word ‘perfect?’

How did we get from ‘finished’ to ‘the best that can possibly be’, which is what we imply when we use the word perfect today.

And this is why we say that ‘we are not perfect’ and that ’nobody is perfect’.

But is that even true? Not if you consider the original meaning and use of the word. In that context, I am the best that I can be right now, just as you are, and that is perfect.

Like you, and everyone else, I am the only person that I can be given what I know and have experienced to this point in my life.

Could I be ‘better’?

What exactly does that mean?

Better than what?

Better than whom? Myself? Someone else?

I cannot be ‘better’ unless something changes – I know more, I make different decisions, and I want to do or become something different. In that case, I have to declare that I am finished with my current iteration and move on to the next.

I have to declare that I am perfect or perfectus, which is the original meaning of ‘perfect’.

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Until the time I decide that I need to change, I am a finished product, within the path that has led me here and according to the original definition of the word, I am perfect because I am a ‘finished product,’ which is exactly what the word perfectus means.

At some point in the past 150 to 200 years, the word ‘perfect’ started to take on a far different meaning than its original perfectus, more in line with what we use today.

Its usage shifted to a method of comparison rather than as an indication of completion. It became a method of standardizing value in a way that meant everyone was lacking and insufficient.

We have all been forced to measure ourselves against this invisible standard that no one has defined or clearly identified. It is just there and we are always lacking because we do not compare or measure up to it.

But if you go back to the original meaning of the Latin word, perfectus, it means complete, not the best, not ‘better than’. It is a declaration of a state of being, not an opportunity to point out our perceived flaws, or to have someone else point them out to us. Flaws, I will add, which only exist when we are compared to this invisible standard.

So I am claiming my state of perfection and that I am perfect. And so should you.

Because ‘perfect’ was never meant to be a comparison. It is a milestone, not a demerit. And it is something to be celebrated, not judged. When you declare that you are perfect you are stating that you have reached a point of completion.

Whatever learning you had to do to get you to where you are is finished.

Now you are ready for the next step.

Maybe the next step will result in your betterment and that means a new state of perfect. It does not make your previous state wrong or unacceptable. We don’t say that an infant is not perfect because they can’t walk even though they have legs.

The idea that we are always ‘not perfect’ puts everyone at a serous disadvantage, especially given that the state of perfection is undefined.

On an emotional level, this means that we are never complete, finished, and have an end point to our journey where we can begin something new. It means that we are always judging and criticizing ourselves because we are not capable of meeting a standard that we do not even know exists.

On an energetic level, our energy resources are always going towards achieving a goal that is not defined and is not meaningful to us. I have no desire to be ‘perfect’ by any socially accepted standard of that definition. Just as I have no desire to be ‘rich’ if that means buying designer handbags (which I personally think are ugly and not very useful).

Imagine how much of your energy may be going to fix your lack of perfection - that could be used instead to empower your next level of being perfectus.

And it means that we never feel complete because we are never ‘finished. I know that I enjoy finishing things – like finishing an article, a book, completing everything on my ‘to do’ list, finishing a project. There is something very satisfying about being complete, and in the true meaning of the word, being ‘perfectus’, or perfect.

So instead of constantly saying that we are not ‘perfect’, let’s celebrate our perfection. Let’s celebrate being finished, complete, and ready for the next step because that is when change and transformation can occur. When we know that we are done, over it, fini, complete, it is time to move on. And that means that we have achieved one state of being perfect and we are ready for the next one.

Celebrate being perfect today because you are – in every way.

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About Jennifer Hoffman

Jennifer Hoffman is the celebrated master intuitive, iconic Energy Savante, 8x best selling author, host of the Enlightening Life LIVE broadcast and the longest newsletter in publication, starting in February 2004.

Jennifer is the expert on energy congruence, alignment, and integration, the leading voice in self awareness and energy boundaries, and the author of more than 5000 articles and publications. You can find out more on the celebrated website at enlighteninglife.com, which has been online since February 2004.

She is a business and technology expert, with degrees in Finance, Economics, and Business Administration, and extensive experience in business, technology, and law. Her first website went online in 1999 - a decade before most ‘business coaches’ or ‘creators’.

She founded the GPS Business Academy, (gpsbusinessacademy.com) where she shares her business education, experience, and expertise to help people start, manage, and grow their business. Her trademark Expert Skills Audit helps you identify your 7 Expert Revenue Skills to build multiple revenue streams which you can do using the 5 Step Business Startup, the only expert sourced business training for startups and re-starts. Learn more about Jennifer’s business training and mentoring at gpsbusinessacadaemy.com

And Jennifer’s new skin care line, Peau D’Ange is gaining international acclaim as a source of high vibe, restorative, and nourishing skin treatment. This is Jennifer’s unique formulation, developed over 15 years of use, to which Jennifer attributes her youthful, glowing skin. Learn more about Peau D’Ange and the Femme Force community at femmeforcenow.com

With the 2026 revelation of Deepak Chopra’s odd friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, the collective spiritual audience had a moment of truth. If a notable ‘guru’ in the spiritual world was friends with a known criminal, what were they doing supporting his work?

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And when I released my 6 part series on NLP - Neuro-Linguistic Programming, revealing that the spiritual teachers, trainers, mentors, and gurus had been using mind control techniques on their audiences for at least the past 17 years, there was a collective pause.

That series has well over 20,000 views on Substack alone and I published it on social media too, where I have a much bigger following. I even published it on LinkedIn because many of those ‘spiritual teachers’ provide corporate seminars and trainings. I am sure a few executives made some well-placed phone calls after reading those articles and questioned the source of their excitement about their ‘investment’ in a $50K ‘high performance’ program. Of course these ‘spiritual’ teachers use NLP on their corporate audiences.

What these revelations have shown us is that the industry which has been so out of control under the influence of its own hubris is finally being reined in, which is a good thing.

But where do we go from here? I made some suggestions in Article 6 of my NLP series because the spiritual industry cash register has stopped ringing and it ‘stars’ have fallen out of the sky but there is still a need for spiritual training, insights, and teaching.

There are plenty of great spiritual teachers but they do not have the big stages or money interests behind them, as I stated in Article 6. What they have though, is integrity, alignment with a real desire to teach, interest in their students’ transformation, and now they can have a place on their own stage.

I introduced a new term for my Spiritual and Holistic Business Training students, the Transformation Architect. This is a teacher or mentor whose focus is on learning and transformation as a connected partnership, not as the ‘leader’. Leaders imply followers and that is a dependency model.

We are in the age of energetic sovereignty and new teachers must respect that. And the concept of being a Transformation Architect addresses that issue. How does that work and what does that mean?

An Expanding Awareness and Audience

With more than two decades of being part of this movement, I have watched the interest in spiritual topics and spiritual work grow and move into the mainstream. But spiritual terms and language we use to describe ourselves have not changed and they need to so they can become more meaningful and relevant to a larger audience.

The old terms – healer, intuitive, channel, and light worker – are vague and non-descriptive. They are passive and often imply dependency.

Most spiritual practitioners struggle to explain what they actually do.

Titles like healer, intuitive, and lightworker are vague and confusing to the people who most need their work.

We often describe what we do using tools – tarot, reiki, intuition – rather than what we specifically provide.

I want to introduce a new terminology to the important work that spiritual and holistic practitioners provide, one that highlights their true expertise and what they provide.

The Transformation Architect™

Welcome to the new era of the Transformation Architect™. This term implies structure, process, and outcomes. It is professional, adds clarity and meaning, and translates what we actually do into specific transformation domains.

A Transformation Architect is someone who intentionally designs the internal and external conditions for how they assist with a client’s personal evolution. You do not ‘heal’ someone – you provide them with specific tools, resources, and processes that are aligned with your unique skills and abilities, for them to heal themselves and transform their own lives.

In the building industry, an architect provides the blueprints for the builder to work with. Without the architect there is no plan, no blueprint, no vision for what the finished building will look like.

This is what you do for your clients and customers as a Transformation Architect.

This new model grounds spiritual and holistic work in terms that people can understand and relate to. While they may not understand the terms ‘healer’ and ‘energy worker’, and the term ‘light worker’ means even less to them, they can understand what you do and how they could benefit if the terminology you use provides real benefits and transformation. And establishes you as a professional, operating at a professional level.

In our path of ascension integration – because we are integrating 5D energy into the 3D paradigm - we need to move from terms that are too spiritual and ungrounded, into terms that reflect the new reality of this new integrated paradigm.

We need terms that show how we provide structure, we have mastery over our transformational domain, we have systems for transformation, and can deliver real, grounded, and repeatable results.

Telling someone to just ‘visualize the outcome and it will be manifested’ is both unrealistic and not serious. That may have worked in the days of the Law of Attraction and “The Secret” frenzy of 20 years ago, but it does not work today.

People have real problems, pain, fears, and anxiety and they want real frameworks for transformation, real results they can understand, work with, and that make sense to them.

Which is exactly the direction the spiritual industry must go if it wants to establish new levels of credibility. And if you want to work with your strengths, abilities, and the genuine transformation that you can provide, to work with clients who have a real desire and need for them, this is how you do that.

Your audience and potential customers want a clear definition of what they will get from you.

What are your strengths and are they aligned with what they need and want.

The bigger questions that you must be able to answer for your audience are:

Why should I buy from you? What can you do to help me overcome what I am dealing with?

Don’t worry if you are wondering what to do. There is a path to clarity here.

Most spiritual and holistic practitioners work in five core transformation areas, even if they don’t realize it. These 5 Core Domains of Transformation are the framework for Transformation Architects.

As you read these 5 Core Transformation Domains note which one applies to you and to your work.

Which one are you drawn to and is fully aligned with your unique gifts, talents, and abilities?

IDENTITY TRANSFORMATION DOMAIN - Who you believe you are

EMOTIONS TRANSFORMATION DOMAIN - What you carry from the past

ENERGY TRANSFORMATION DOMAIN - How you manage your energetic state

CONSCIOUSNESS TRANSFORMATION DOMAIN - How you interpret reality

REALITY TRANSFORMATION DOMAIN - What you create in the world

Maybe you have never defined that before and this is your chance to do that. I have created a business training framework to support this, and you can learn about it here.

Or, maybe it is time for a change – which is happening to many spiritual and holistic practitioners, and you see an opportunity to establish a new line of work using skills and abilities that can be re-purposed into new pathways with a new audience.

And there may be more than one way to apply your work– you get to decide that for yourself. What this new paradigm of Transformation Architect does for spiritual and holistic workers is to provide them with a framework for defining their core abilities and services in a way that is more grounded, clear to their audiences, and has a more visible and well-defined purpose and outcome.

We have been talking about evolution and new paradigms for years and until now, our work has focused on helping others to achieve that. Now it is time for us to evolve too.

The Transformation Architect framework is part of the Spiritual and Holistic Business StartUp Lab program. You can learn more about it here. The training is open for registration and we start March 21, 2026.

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About Jennifer Hoffman

Jennifer Hoffman is the celebrated master intuitive, iconic Energy Savante, 8x best selling author, host of the Enlightening Life LIVE broadcast and the longest newsletter in publication, starting in February 2004.

Jennifer is the expert on energy congruence, alignment, and integration, the leading voice in self awareness and energy boundaries, and the author of more than 5000 articles and publications. You can find out more on the celebrated website at enlighteninglife.com, which has been online since February 2004.

She is a business and technology expert, with degrees in Finance, Economics, and Business Administration, and extensive experience in business, technology, and law. Her first website went online in 1999 - a decade before most ‘business coaches’ or ‘creators’.

She founded the GPS Business Academy, (gpsbusinessacademy.com) where she shares her business education, experience, and expertise to help people start, manage, and grow their business. Her trademark Expert Skills Audit helps you identify your 7 Expert Revenue Skills to build multiple revenue streams which you can do using the 5 Step Business Startup, the only expert sourced business training for startups and re-starts. Learn more about Jennifer’s business training and mentoring at gpsbusinessacadaemy.com

And Jennifer’s new skin care line, Peau D’Ange is gaining international acclaim as a source of high vibe, restorative, and nourishing skin treatment. This is Jennifer’s unique formulation, developed over 15 years of use, to which Jennifer attributes her youthful, glowing skin. Learn more about Peau D’Ange and the Femme Force community at femmeforcenow.com

No we don’t. We definitely do not need another round of ‘leaders’ in the spiritual industry.

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Using the word leaders implies that there are followers. I am not a follower - are you?

Since I have been in the spiritual industry since early 2004 and before that, in the early 1990s, I know quite a lot about its evolution.

In fact, while Michelle Barr was doing a lot of other things, I was sharing spiritual advice, resources, and training. I was holding classes and teaching programs and courses, holding live events, writing a newsletter with 5 million weekly readers that I started in February 2004. It was the first spiritual newsletter to be published online, and broadcasting a live online show which I started in March 2004.

I also published 10 books and was one of the first spiritual authors to self publish as one of CreateSpace’s first customers. They are now part of Amazon KDP.

I know a lot about the spiritual industry and its evolution over the past 30+ years.

What I find interesting about Michelle Barr’s narrative is that while she talks about how the spiritual industry turned to ‘6 figure this’ and ‘high ticket that’, if you look at her website’s services page, the first thing available is a ‘Create your High Ticket Offer’ program for $2500.

What is that about?

After 23 years as a spiritual icon and a leading voice in this movement, I can make some suggestions about what this industry needs. And I wrote about it in Article 6 of my 6 article series on NLP or NeuroLinguistic Programming - the Mind Control System Hiding in Plain Sight, which is right here.

What we need is for people to stop claiming to be ‘spiritual’ and use that as the foundation for their services when they have no idea what it means - except it does not require a psychology or counseling license. And it can be very lucrative when you teach about high ticket offers and a 6 figure business.

What we need is for self proclaimed leaders to be pushed off of their ivory towers where they have been grifting and scamming the public for decades. And that applies doubly to those who have been using NLP to ‘overcome objections’.

What we need is a shift in the scope of the spiritual industry, and it is an industry sector worth hundreds of billions of dollars, to acknowledge that there is a partnership with their clients and students. They are not a leader, they are a facilitator of learning in what I call the new ‘Transformation Architect’.

The relationship is similar to that of a builder and an architect. The architect’s job is to provide the vision and blueprint, the builder creates the structure.

No leader, no followers. More self awareness and self empowerment. And more respect for individual sovereignty too which is a big factor in the new spiritual industry.

What became a financial engine that made a lot of people very rich - think Doreen Virtue, Deepak Chopra - has finally run out of fuel and steam. What’s left is the teachers and mentors who never became part of that structure and who are now still teaching and training as they have been for decades - quietly, off-stage, out of the limelight. It’s their time to shine now.

They will build the new Transformation Architect framework and others can join if they wish. But there is no space for those who want to be a ‘leader’ because that title no longer exists. They have to earn their place in the structure, which happens by being authentic, having a genuine ability to teach and knowledge and insights that can be transferred, and wanting their students to transform instead of paying them dues for life.

This may be a tough realization for those who think that delivering spiritual fluff and nonsense is going to create a ‘leadership’ role in the industry. That time is gone - it is no longer 2014. This new business model is now available to teachers and mentors (I am deliberately not using the word ‘coach’) who are focused on the ‘transformation architect’ role and who see themselves as stewards of learning - not get rich quick artists who are trying to make millions before someone figures out their act.

Those who want to be leaders are going to find themselves with empty chairs because no one wants to follow and that is no longer the operating module for spiritual teaching and mentoring.

I have watched good people sidelined by large publishing houses and their puppet cash registers for decades. One good thing that came out of the news about Chopra’s strange friendship with Jeff Epstein is an awakening shock to the masses who are now re-thinking their allegiances to their so-called spiritual leaders. That’s good. Now let’s keep up that momentum.

To reiterate - the leader/follower model of the spiritual industry is gone and it is being replaced by the Transformation Architect model which requires authenticity and integrity from those who want to be part of the action. There has to be a genuine commitment to training, teaching, mentoring, and transformation. And with the true spiritual teachers no longer shackled by the big publishing house stars, let’s see who steps forward and becomes the architect of transformation that helps millions.

And one more thing - no more ‘high ticket offer’ training allowed.

It is time to allow spiritual training be what it has always been - a way for people to learn, heal, grow, and transform. If you know my work, that was a quote on my website starting in 2004.

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About Jennifer Hoffman

Jennifer Hoffman is the celebrated master intuitive, iconic Energy Savante, 8x best selling author, host of the Enlightening Life LIVE broadcast and the longest newsletter in publication, starting in February 2004.

Jennifer is the expert on energy congruence, alignment, and integration, the leading voice in self awareness and energy boundaries, and the author of more than 5000 articles and publications. You can find out more on the celebrated website at enlighteninglife.com, which has been online since February 2004.

She is a business and technology expert, with degrees in Finance, Economics, and Business Administration, and extensive experience in business, technology, and law. Her first website went online in 1999 - a decade before most ‘business coaches’ or ‘creators’.

She founded the GPS Business Academy, (gpsbusinessacademy.com) where she shares her business education, experience, and expertise to help people start, manage, and grow their business. Her trademark Expert Skills Audit helps you identify your 7 Expert Revenue Skills to build multiple revenue streams which you can do using the 5 Step Business Startup, the only expert sourced business training for startups and re-starts. Learn more about Jennifer’s business training and mentoring at gpsbusinessacadaemy.com

And Jennifer’s new skin care line, Peau D’Ange is gaining international acclaim as a source of high vibe, restorative, and nourishing skin treatment. This is Jennifer’s unique formulation, developed over 15 years of use, to which Jennifer attributes her youthful, glowing skin. Learn more about Peau D’Ange and the Femmeforcenow.com

Although I knew they were using NLP to some extent, I had no idea that it was so widespread and that they were using its most weaponized form until I did the research and wrote this series. .

My series has been read and shared by thousands of people. On Facebook alone, my post on Part 1 of the series has over 500K views. My Substack posts have accumulated nearly 20,000 views and that is growing. There is interest in this topic and for good reason. We are just discovering just how much we have been manipulated, coerced, and groomed by people we have trusted, supported, and looked up to.

This was a hard series to write because I followed some of these people too. I went to their events, thought they were honest and trustworthy, and I am just as shocked by their methods and behavior as you are. And I know that many people are disappointed, angry, and disillusioned.

So where do we go from here? The speaker, coaching, and training industry is not gone, it will just have to change. Some of the people who have been part of it will go away; others will stay and change their methods.

They have violated our trust and that will take time to rebuild, and if they do get some of the trust back, it will never be the same. Once someone violates your trust, you never go back to where you were before the violation.

Now there is space for new teachers, trainers, coaches, healers, and mentors. Their voices have previously been limited, marginalized, and silenced by the big pay to play organizations, and that will change too.

While I have been speaking out against this industry for over 15 years, I had no idea just how bad it really was until now. But the ‘guru’ era, had already started to unravel. Audiences were getting tired of the positioning, exclusivity, limited scope of teaching, high prices, and the lack of respect they were receiving from this industry that has dominated the business, health, wellness, coaching, sales, lifestyle, self-help, and spiritual teaching spaces for nearly 25 years.

The collapse didn’t happen because these topics lost relevance. It collapsed because people began to ask questions and finally woke up to how deeply they had been manipulated through techniques imported from behavioral-influence research, including the NLP systems.

What had been sold as ‘transformation,’ ‘success,’ and high performance was underpinned with psychological priming, emotional hijacking, stage manipulation, identity bypassing, and the ‘selling from the stage’ techniques grounded in NLP.

We have seen what is broken, and now we rebuild - intentionally, intelligently, and ethically.

And here is what the next era can look like – these are my thoughts based on being a mentor, coach, trainer, teacher, author (I write my own books) since 2004, online business owner since 1999, and over 25 years of business and technology expertise in business operations, finance, and systems design, implementation, and analysis.

Honesty Replaces Performance

The high-gloss persona model is collapsing and so is the era of the performance. The people who wear weird costumes, dance on the stage, who talk about ‘movements,’ ‘nervous system calibration,’ their latest download and new direction, and use spiritual bypassing will be replaced by professionals with real credibility who focus on substance, information, and results.

A ‘high ticket’ program promoted by a stage presence with a headset is no substitute for clarity, confidence, congruence, credibility, and dedicated and committed teaching.

The next era favors professionals who teach clearly, sell transparently, and do not rely on psychological priming. Clarity is the new foundation for relevance and revenue.

Credentials Must Be Real

Manufactured authority is over and that includes fabricated millionaire claims, ghostwritten ‘bestsellers,’ inflated student results with shady testimonials, and implied expertise without demonstrable or provable experience.

Credentials do not have to mean degrees, licenses, and certifications – unless they are required. Credentials refer to proven competence, experience, expertise, and proven authority, where you have done something long enough and well enough that you can be authentic in what you teach.

The future belongs to teachers who can demonstrate that they have actually built, implemented, or achieved something.

Ethics Is Not Optional

The most serious damage of the NLP era was ethical erosion. When the speaking, coaching, and training industry normalized NLP-based pressure selling, identity manipulation, trauma activation for sales, false scarcity, high pressure tactics, , and upsell ambushes, they traded ethics for profits.

A strong ethical foundation is not optional. This new industry reset requires informed consent, providing psychological safety, strong boundaries, non-coercive sales practices, and transparency in terms.

That last element addresses two of my strong issues with this industry – illegal contracts that do not contain valid exit clauses, ‘coaches’ who demand that clients pay contracts even when they are not receiving services, and not following basic contract law – specifically for mutual consideration – when writing their contracts. And payment plan pricing that violates state usury laws and unfairly penalizes people who choose payment plans over the pay in full option.

Ethics must become operational in all areas of these new business models.

Transparency in Pricing and Process

Hidden pricing eroded trust across every vertical. At some point in the past 7 or 8 years these industry leaders stopped posting prices. The theory was that if they could get you on a discovery call they could ‘overcome objections’ and get you to buy. Can you see the NLP techniques there?

If I can’t see a clear price and terms, I move on. I find it insulting and devious, and so do many others.

The new standard requires clear pricing, terms, and deliverables. Clear refund policies that are actually legal, with expectations of service, and time commitments.

And prices should be fair and reasonable. If you are selling to high net worth individuals your pricing can reflect that. But if you are marketing to everyone else, pricing a program at the equivalent of a down payment on a house - or more - is ridiculous.

Results Must Be Measurable

Transformational language without measurable outcomes is false advertising. This goes across the entire industry. Using one successful student in a testimonial and ignoring the fact that no one else had a successful outcome is deceptive. While individual results may vary, promising glowing results without proof that they are possible is dishonest, at best.

Integrity Becomes the Differentiator

Integrity includes honesty as well as congruence, reliability, and respect for customers. For those who are still processing the reality of what is going on in the speaking, coaching, and training industry, a new way and methodology is required. They do not want excitement and theatrics. They want safety, reliability, direct communication, clear boundaries, respect, and to know that they are not being manipulated on any level.

Now we want to do business with professionals – speakers, trainers, coaches, and mentors who treat their businesses as a real business and who treat their customers with professional courtesy. An audience is no longer their personal ATM. And it may take a while for some of these industry ‘millionaires’ to realize that.

Community Will Replace Cult Dynamics

Even in the age of Zoom and online learning, people want community with peers, teachers, trainers, in environments where learning can happen, achievement is the focus, and results are celebrated.

In the next era of speaking and training, learning is collaborative and teachers are more interested in training than the next high ticket event. Expertise is part of the curriculum to be shared and learning is more collaborative. Authentic connections replace entertainment and ‘exclusivity’ is replaced by community.

That is not to say that small groups are not going to exist, but real learning, training, and access won’t be reserved for those who are willing to pay top dollar for it.

People need to learn techniques and methods to improve their lives, create success, have joy, learn fulfillment, and to know more. And they deserve to have that happen with real conversations, mutual support, grounded guidance, shared sovereignty and respect, and healthy boundaries.

We don’t need more ‘trauma bonded’ tribes, no high pressure, high cost masterminds, exclusive access, or NLP engineered exclusivity. New learning, training, and coaching communities will serve their members with information they can use and implement with real results.

Psychological Safety Will Become the New Gold Standard

This one is so important because NLP based theatrics have caused a great deal of psychological harm to people for decades. These new business methods must include aspects like emotional safety, boundaries, non-coercive teaching and selling, the absence of manipulation, and clear standards of behavior.

Above all, it has to be psychologically safe for the audience and students. This means no background psychological NLP-based foul play. Training should be focused on knowledge, information, and results without the hype, theatrics, and emotional and energetic manipulation.

As I wrote in earlier parts of this series, the speaking, training, and coaching industry created the framework for its own demise and their lack of respect for their audiences, students, and customers would eventually boomerang on them, as it has.

I wrote:

“Greed, grift, glamour, and the targeting of the gullible is a business model that does not have long-term stability.”

All the best branding in the world does not make someone an expert. Even the best and most experienced NLP master is not going to be able to hypnotize, manipulate, and sell to everyone. And now that we know what has been done, we are at the next step.

In fact, we are the next step.

We cannot expect an industry to change if there is no consequence for trying to maintain the status quo. We collectively have a lot more power than we know because the two things these trainers, coaches, and speakers want – fame and revenues – come from us.

Use this information to have discernment with who you speak to, spend your money with, give your time to, and allow to be your teacher, trainer, mentor, and coach. Choose your information sources carefully and make sure they are ethical, honest, reliable, and professional.

New teachers can now step forward because interest has shifted, expectations are changing, and there is a desire for real learning, grounded teaching, achievable transformation, and a strong sense of community between teacher, trainer, mentor, and coach, and student.

The party is over and it is time to clean up. Now that we know what has happened, we must move on. We do not need someone to tell us which path to follow, we just need to pick a path, and a teacher to provide us with guidance, and we are on our way. We know what we can achieve, and we have all of the tools and resources at hand to do it.

So grieve the passing of the ‘guru era’ if you must, but make it short because we have things to learn, accomplish, and to do and the teachers who can guide us along the way are stepping up. They have been waiting for us and it is now time for all of us to take control of our own learning, training, and teaching instead of giving our power away to someone whose focus is on how they can use NLP to ‘overcome objections’ to their high priced program.

One final thought- the great teachers that I know and have worked alongside for many years are thoughtful, respectful, professional, committed, dedicated, and genuine. These are the people to seek out when you want guidance, support, and learning. These are the people who have a soul for their mission and are soul-serviced, not self-servicing. You will find them – and they will be there for you.

Discovering that many people in this industry were using military grade mind control behavior modification technology on millions of people for over 20 years has been shocking. But now we know and we will not let ourselves be manipulated any longer.

An industry requires transformation and we will enforce it while also allowing a more level playing field so that territorial behavior and theatrics no longer allow an industry to use access to learning and personal growth and transformation as its personal ATM.

If you need help, guidance, support, learning, or training, it is there for you. Take your time in finding the right person who will provide you with what you need and maintain your sovereignty. Use your discernment, and let them help you map your path to the transformation you seek - with you in control of the process.

Thank you for reading and sharing this series on NLP – The Mind Control System Hidden in Plain Sight. It has been difficult to write and to share this information. I know many people are upset at what they have learned – I am too. My purpose was not to destroy an industry. It was to expose what this industry has been doing to people who trusted them, and to stop it from happening now and to never allow it to happen again. And now we know.

Please share this with everyone so they can make empowered, thoughtful decisions about who they trust and have resources that allow them to use discernment and knowledge to choose the best teachers, guides, trainers, and mentors.

Jennifer Hoffman
March 1 2026

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About Jennifer Hoffman

Jennifer Hoffman is the celebrated master intuitive, iconic Energy Savante, 8x best selling author, host of the Enlightening Life LIVE broadcast and the longest newsletter in publication, starting in February 2004.

Jennifer is the expert on energy congruence, alignment, and integration, the leading voice in self awareness and energy boundaries, and the author of more than 5000 articles and publications. You can find out more on the celebrated website at enlighteninglife.com, which has been online since February 2004.

She is a business and technology expert, with degrees in Finance, Economics, and Business Administration, and extensive experience in business, technology, and law. Her first website went online in 1999 - a decade before most ‘business coaches’ or ‘creators’.

She founded the GPS Business Academy, (gpsbusinessacademy.com) where she shares her business education, experience, and expertise to help people start, manage, and grow their business. Her trademark Expert Skills Audit helps you identify your 7 Expert Revenue Skills to build multiple revenue streams which you can do using the 5 Step Business Startup, the only expert sourced business training for startups and re-starts. Learn more about Jennifer’s business training and mentoring at gpsbusinessacadaemy.com

And Jennifer’s new skin care line, Peau D’Ange is gaining international acclaim as a source of high vibe, restorative, and nourishing skin treatment. This is Jennifer’s unique formulation, developed over 15 years of use, to which Jennifer attributes her youthful, glowing skin. Learn more about Peau D’Ange and the Femme Force community at femmeforcenow.com

In the NLP series that I have been publishing you have read about how NLP – Neuro-Linguistic Programming – has been used in every aspect of the speaker industrial complex that includes health, wellness, spiritual, coaching, business, and sales programs. This was not optional – every speaker on the big stages was required to use NLP in their presentations because it converted thousands of customers and made millions of dollars.

Was this honest or ethical? I don’t think so but you may have your own opinion.

What’s clear is that the people who felt compelled to rush to the back of the room after a sales pitch had no idea that their eagerness to buy had less to do with having access to great products than it did with the coercive communication via NLP techniques that was being used by that presenter to convince them to buy.

And I think that is deeply unethical. I wonder how many people who now realize, after reading this series, that their actions were being deliberately manipulated through the use of language that has its basis in mind control research from the 1950s. I have been to those events too and while I did not buy the products, I remember being troubled, feeling confused, and wondering what was happening as I watched the full NLP suite being delivered by the speaker and how the audience responded.

Who knew that the event we spent thousands to attend was being led by an expertly trained NLP practitioner? I did not know this until now.

With the recent announcement of Deepak Chopra’s suspect friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, people have been questioning their level of participation with gurus and leaders in the spiritual industry and in other sectors. You may be doing that too.

We are seeing the collapse of these industries in a fairly rapid way now, and especially with the people who are reading this series on NLP. But this collapse has been gradually building over the past several years and recent events are accelerating it.

And at the center of it all was one central force:

NLP-based psychological manipulation masquerading as leadership.

This article brings everything together — the origins, the rise, the peak, the abuse, and the fall. Let’s map the arc of how this all started and where we are now.

The Origins: NLP Enters the Speaking and Coaching World (2000–2010)

NLP, Neuro-Linguistic Programming, has its early roots beginning in the 1950s and was connected to behavioral research streams at institutions like MIT, Stanford University, and funding influences involving DARPA. Don’t underestimate its purpose – it was designed to be a weapons grade system of psychological and behavioral manipulation. While some argue that 1970s work is where it began, the 1970s researchers started with the original NLP research from the 1950s and it was derived from the MKUltra mind control systems.

Its purpose was to use a variety of techniques, processes, cues, and actions to manipulate, guide, and coerce behavior. These techniques included persuasion, influence, compliance, behavior modification, and psychological steering. And since NLP is based on the original MKULtra work, it was extremely effective.

As I wrote in Part 3, I watched Lisa Sasevich, whom I now recognize as an NLP expert, use an NLP technique called emotional flooding + compliance anchoring to compel hundreds of women to rush to the back table and spend thousands of dollars on products.

By the early 2000s, NLP was being introduced into the live seminar and conference industry but it was not called NLP. It was repackaged as:

• “communication training”

• “transformational coaching”

• “high-performance influence”

• “heart-centered sales”

• “selling from the stage”

No one wanted to use the term ‘neuro-linguistic programming’ to define what is essentially coercive communication and behavior modification techniques used on unaware audiences to compel their behavior. And if you have ever heard the phrase ‘overcoming objections,’ you know where it comes from.

This is where people like Tony Robbins, Brendon Burchard, Lisa Sasevich and dozens of business, self-help, spiritual, health and wellness, and coaching celebrity speakers adopted its techniques. And it made them very, very rich.

The Rise: Performance + NLP = Manufactured Gurus (2010–2016)

During this era, events exploded into stadium-sized experiences. I attended a few events during that time and there were hundreds of attendees, with multi-day events held at big hotels and conference centers. There was music and bright lights – it was like being at a rock concert.

And I witnessed the NLP being used first-hand, you probably did too, although at the time I did not know what it was – and you probably didn’t either.

If you were at an event where the presenter was on stage jumping around, running, shouting, and there was loud music, clapping, dance breakouts, they were using NLP.

Or if you saw people from the audience being given the microphone so they could share tearful experiences, emotional confessions, testimonials, or share their choreographed breakthroughs, they were using NLP.

And even stranger, if you were asked to repeat phrases, chant with the group, or do group bonding exercises – these are all NLP mechanisms used by these speakers.

The NLP mechanisms I have written about in these articles includes the following and read this list carefully because nothing about this is benign, moral, ethical, or fair to the audience. This is not simple suggestion – these techniques were developed by the military as weaponized tools for psychological control of the people they are used on.

These NLP mechanisms include:

• pattern interrupt

• state manipulation

• entrainment

• trance induction

• identity disruption

• emotional flooding

If these sound sinister to you, it’s because they are. And if you have read Parts 1 through 4 of this NLP series, you recognize these concepts and have read about what they do and what their true purpose entails as far as getting the audience in the right ‘mindset’ to buy, buy, buy.

But these NLP techniques had a longer term effect that extended beyond the event. Remember this is psychological manipulation and cognitive modification. The people left the event euphoric – on a dopamine high, destabilized because they were emotionally traumatized, bonded to the speaker who had established themselves as ‘the authority’ in their lives, and ready to buy anything in the future to support the speaker and get more of that dopamine high from buying their products.

The guru era was created. Not through wisdom, caring, true insights, real expertise, genuine credentials, or concern for the well-being of their followers and believers. No, these gurus were created through a process of psychological engineering using mind control techniques developed by and for the military. Let that sink in for a minute.

The Peak: NLP-Sales Machines Generate Billions (2014–2020)

The era of the NLP based sales machines started around 2010 but really began to peak around 2013 to 2014. This is when these speakers were marketing 5 figure masterminds, starting around $25K, $50K certifications, $100,000 elite memberships.

It wasn’t spirituality or empowerment. It was coercion theater. And it created a lot of millionaires. But it limited the industry as other people who were not part of this inner circle of NLP experts who claimed and dominated stages around the world, were denied access.

Lisa Sasevich marketed a program called ‘The Invisible Close’ and I remember her talking about ‘seeding the conversation.’ At the time, I thought she meant using specific keywords in the conversation but I think it was more than that, she was talking about NLP techniques. I never could get that process right – and now I know why.

These speakers published books – that were written by ghostwriters. They talked about their bestsellers – that were paid for by their publishing houses. Did you know that ‘best seller’ just means that a book has to sell at a certain threshold in a specific period of time?

For years, I thought that ‘best seller’ meant ‘best book.’ But publishers just recruit people to buy a book at a specific date and time and it moves to the top of the list. How disappointing – and dishonest. If you have ever seen someone market their ‘free’ book and you just pay for shipping, it’s because they have thousands of books to get rid of, which were purchased to get that ‘best seller’ status.

If you have heard the term ‘high ticket closer’ it refers to someone who has a reputation for selling a lot of products and services at events. The best ‘high ticket closers’ are the ones who are the best at using NLP on their audiences. Lisa Sasevich used to brag about having a 75% to 80% close ratio at her events. She cried because it was not 100%. Now I understand how she managed to get so many people to buy her products – do you?

And if you will remember the NLP sequence that I experienced at a Lisa Sasevich event which was pure NLP theatre presented by a master NLP practitioner. The NLP process included a staged breakdown with Lisa sobbing into the microphone, emotional guilt anchoring, and then transitioning smoothly into the pitch, which resulted in a back of the room buying frenzy by hundreds of women who had no idea they had just been emotionally hijacked, psychologically controlled, and energetically compromised.

The industry began to fall under its own hubris – how many Tony Robbins seminars can anyone attend in a year or even in a decade? The pay to play speaker industry had created the framework for its own demise.

Everything these ‘gurus’ did was done to maintain their image of authority, their connection with their audience, their high close ratio, and their revenues. But it was all fabricated authority because once they lost their access to use NLP on live audiences, their sales and influence began to go down.

The Cracks Appear: Audience Fatigue Sets In (2020–2023)

As happens in every situation, too much of a good thing – or in this case, too much greed, starts to create a downward spiral. Here’s what I think – they were able to control and manipulate all of the people they could and they ran out of people because those people ran out of money to spend.

If you remember from Part 4 of this series, which you can read here, NLP does not work on everyone – it does not work on energetically sovereign people. That is why it may not have worked on you, or at least not as well as it did on others if you did not run to the back of the room to buy products, or see your favorite speaker or presenter as the most important person in your life.

And because these ‘gurus’ had created an aura of authority with no real expertise or authority, they were selling people promises and fluff, so people started noticing that their lives were not changing, the breakthroughs did not last, the gurus kept repeating themselves, and spouting empty promises.

But here’s another factor – people began to have access to a wide range of resources thanks to the growth of social media. They did not need to go to a live event or read a book (ghost)written by their favorite ‘guru,’ they could go to YouTube, Instagram, or Facebook.

They could visit a Facebook group, read a blog or listen to a podcast, or get a reference from someone they knew who was following an unknown, non-industry resource, who was interesting, knowledgeable, authentic, and relatable.

I have been online since 1999 and I remember the early days of the internet when websites and information were limited in scope. The internet has grown in the last 10 to 15 years but before that, the resources were not there. These ‘gurus’ had captive audiences because they had control of their information. Once they could no longer gatekeep information or resources, they lost total control and their influence began to decrease.

Finally, burnout replaced transformation as people started to tire of the guru mentality – probably brought on by continuous requests for money with a level of entitlement that began to turn audiences off.

And when the pandemic forced everything online from 2021 to 2023, the NLP stage tricks could no longer be used.

Without the loud music, lighting, crowd energy, and NLP stage choreography, the “gurus” lost their magic touch This was not only about people waking up, although that was a factor. It was about the loss of direct contact in live events which is where NLP was most effective. Without access to live events, which were non-existent during that time, the NLP ‘selling from the stage’ sequences that had been so effective could no longer be used.

The Collapse: Scandals, Unmasking & Industry Implosion (2023–2026)

It took quite a while for the events and conferences to re-start after two years of shutdown and they have never really come back to where they were before. People no longer want to travel, online conference sites are often preferable, and people have lost their desire to attend multi-day events with hundreds of other attendees.

What this means is that the NLP takedowns that worked so well on live audiences do not have the same flow or intensity when they are delivered over Zoom.

And here’s another aspect to this. When you are at a live event, sitting in large ball room or conference room, the speaker is looking at you. You have no choice but to watch the speaker as they can see everything that you are doing. So can everyone around you.

But when you are on a zoom call, you can be in your pajamas, multi-tasking, playing video games, turn your camera off, or not even be in the room, and no one knows. For NLP to be effective, the subjects have to be present and that just does not work in the new online conference world.

Then in February 2026 there were several scandals: Deepak Chopra was mentioned nearly 3600 times in the Jeffrey Epstein files and some salacious and suspicious emails were leaked about his visits to various notorious places that are part of the Epstein network.

Days later, no one in that industry said a word although Deepak Chopra is one of its most highly regarded agents and has been in that industry for over 40 years. Silence from every big name speaker, coach, and guru.

Then Lissa Rankin wrote a tell-all Substack post about the ‘guru industry’ and what was going on behind the scenes – from clandestine affairs to temper tantrums to extraordinary displays of entitlement – it was all there for the internet to read. And people did – and the carefully created façade of the fake guru industry began to crack. You know how fast information spreads on the internet – and this one was shared with speed.

And the public is angry – understandably so. They have given their loyalty, trust, support, and money to people who were not worthy of those positions – who never earned them and on top of that – who were using mind control techniques to manipulate their followers.

Once that curtain was pulled back people started to look closely and they could see the manipulation and hypocrisy, the manufactured identities and financial exploitation, they were done – and they were angry. They are now rejecting the cult dynamics and emotional abuse that have been exposed. And the coercive selling using NLP’s carefully timed and purposed sequences was already on the way out. But now it is truly over, especially with this series on NLP which has been viewed by a very large global audience.

The bad thing about spells – and NLP uses hypnosis, disassociation, disembodiment, and other behavior modification tactics to cast ‘spells’ on audiences - is that they cannot last forever and when they break, they break quickly. Then reality steps in to burst the rest of the bubble of the illusion.

That bubble has now burst and the illusion of the untouchable, all powerful, guru era has fractured and it will never function the same way again. That may not mean that you will see an immediate collapse of the biggest institutions in it, like Hay House, but their reputation is damaged and this is something they cannot ignore and pretend it never happened. There is no coming back to the ‘old ways’ from this.

To use my favorite saying, ‘You cannot unring the bell.’

The public rejection of spiritual teaching – and the entire speaker industry as a whole - as a pay to play industry, as a source of manipulation and an ATM is over and it is not coming back. The theatrics and performative teaching and speaking that have dominated the industry are over.

The industry has no one but itself to blame for its fall. As I wrote in my NLP series,

“Greed, grift, glamour, and the targeting of the gullible is a business model that does not have long-term stability.”

The pay to play speaker industry – not just the spiritual sector – the entire industry that encompasses self-help, business, coaching, sales training, health, wellness, and spiritual teaching – collapsed under the weight of its own greed, insistence on guru worship, psychological manipulation, unethical sales tactics, creating customer trauma, inflated pricing structures, and its own arrogant hubris.

It was inevitable. But that is not the end of this story – it is just the end of ‘their’ story and of NLP. The model built on coercive influence and psychological manipulation has reached its limits.

As I say, “it has reached the end of its energy road.”
And that creates space for something different. A new era of teaching is now possible.

The Return of Real Teachers (2026 and beyond)

We now have an opening for real spiritual teachers, as I mentioned in Part 1. “New teachers will come forward. Real people, grounded in authenticity, real authority, genuine credentials, with a mission of soul service, not self-service.” What that looks like remains to be seen and I will address that in greater detail in Part 6.

But the future of teaching, mentoring, and leadership in the self-help, spiritual, health, wellness, business, and coaching sectors is changing and that happens now. The future of these sectors is grounded in reality – not in fake guru mentalities, entitled personas, backing by big corporate interests, with non-coercive language, and no NLP to manipulate audiences and their behavior.

The new leaders will be ethical, sovereign – both in themselves and they will respect the sovereignty of their audiences. Their teaching and mentoring won’t be a performance, it will be genuine learning. There will be a business structure but it won’t be the frenzied, sales driven, revenue generating machines of the past decades.

These new, authentic teachers, mentors, and leaders will not be using NLP and all of its techniques to coerce, force, overwhelm, manipulate, and trick their audiences. Authentic teachers do not do that. And they won’t run high-ticket NLP processes to prey on their audiences. That model has changed.

If reading this series has made you angry – you have every right to be angry. Knowing that an entire industry decided to use military grade psychological manipulation techniques to bamboozle their audiences for decades makes me angry.

But this is the time to reconsider, regroup, and recalibrate the possibilities into a model that we can use, learn from, and benefit from. In Part 1 I said that there have always been great teachers, they just were not part of the ‘speaker industrial complex’. They were not on the big stages, they did not have multi-million dollar event revenues, and they did not use NLP – coercive communication- hidden in plain sight.

Their voices were limited, marginalized, and silenced by those who had more money, corporate interests, publishing houses, and other gimmicks to promote their interests. It was not a level playing field because authentic, genuine, real teachers did not use NLP – behavior modification – on their audiences.

Instead, they have been quietly teaching in the background, doing their work, holding their light, and waiting for their moment.

While I am glad to see the truth about this pay to play industry finally become public, after speaking out about it for the past 15 years, what I know about it and what they have done is a real tragedy. They took ideas that could have helped people and turned them into their private ATM. Whenever they needed more money, they would just hold another event, brush up on their NLP training, and get their audiences to buy, buy, buy.

With this series, I feel like a spell that held millions in its grip has been broken – and that is good for all of us. And now it’s time to talk about what comes next because we will have teachers, mentors, and leaders, they just won’t be the same ones you have known for the past 20 years.

Next up, in Part 6 of the NLP – The Mind Control System Hidden in Plain Sight – we finish up the series on a positive note. What’s possible, where we can go from here, and how that could work.

If you have benefited from this series please share it with others. I know many of you have and I appreciate that. This is something everyone needs to be aware of so that they become immune to the NLP targeting by these groups. Once you know what is happening, you become immune to it and that is good for all of us.

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About Jennifer Hoffman

Jennifer Hoffman is the celebrated master intuitive, iconic Energy Savante, 8x best selling author, host of the Enlightening Life LIVE broadcast and the longest newsletter in publication, starting in February 2004.

Jennifer is the expert on energy congruence, alignment, and integration, the leading voice in self awareness and energy boundaries, and the author of more than 5000 articles and publications. You can find out more on the celebrated website at enlighteninglife.com, which has been online since February 2004.

She is a business and technology expert, with degrees in Finance, Economics, and Business Administration, and extensive experience in business, technology, and law. Her first website went online in 1999 - a decade before most ‘business coaches’ or ‘creators’.

She founded the GPS Business Academy, (gpsbusinessacademy.com) where she shares her business education, experience, and expertise to help people start, manage, and grow their business. Her trademark Expert Skills Audit helps you identify your 7 Expert Revenue Skills to build multiple revenue streams which you can do using the 5 Step Business Startup, the only expert sourced business training for startups and re-starts. Learn more about Jennifer’s business training and mentoring at gpsbusinessacadaemy.com

And Jennifer’s new skin care line, Peau D’Ange is gaining international acclaim as a source of high vibe, restorative, and nourishing skin treatment. This is Jennifer’s unique formulation, developed over 15 years of use, to which Jennifer attributes her youthful, glowing skin. Learn more about Peau D’Ange and the Femme Force community at femmeforcenow.com

If you have ever wondered why you were never a fan of the popular ‘gurus’ in the spiritual industry, or did not really resonate with popular speakers, teachers, and mentors in business, coaching, health, wellness, self-help, and lifestyle industries, you may find answers in this article, part 4 in my series on NLP - Mind Control Hiding in Plain Sight.

Or if attending a conference of 500 or more people to see a noted speaker was just not appealing even if people you knew had spent thousands on their tickets and were excited about going?

There is nothing wrong with you - you just cannot connect with that energy because you are energetically sovereign. This is a long article but you will find answers here to questions you may have about yourself, your lack of interest in the ‘guru industry’, and why NLP may not work on you in its intended way.

Parts 1–3 of this series titled NLP - exposed how NLP was developed, how it works, and how it was used in live events by all of the big names in the pay to play spiritual industrial complex, corporatized wellness and self-help industries, and life and business coaching.

You may be wondering if any of the people you know and have followed or supported financially in the past 25 years are not using NLP. The short answer is NO, they not only used it, they were required to use it. If they did not use NLP techniques to boost sales and revenues, they were kept off of stages and told that their ‘presentation’ was not up to par.

Even the national speakers organizations encourage the use of NLP because it encourages audience connection and participation – meaning it generates millions in revenues.

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And if you’re reading these articles and wondering how people can fall victim to these unethical tactics – because they are unethical, and NLP is derived from the mind control research of MKUltra programs. I will address this in this part of the series.

As I said in previous articles, I remember sitting at events and wondering why I was not tempted to spend thousands of dollars on products, why I felt annoyed and troubled by the tears, smooth words, and stage performances while others around me seemed to have an entirely different experience and perspective of the event. You may have felt that way too.

There is a reason for that – you were not hypnotized, your energy could not be captured, and your defense systems were protecting you. That may have meant that you did not enjoy the event very much, and that’s actually a good thing.

You are energetically sovereign and that makes you immune to NLP.

Here is the simple truth: energetically sovereign people are energetically immune to NLP. Now that doesn’t mean you are 100% immune and you may not fall prey to it occasionally or even a little bit. It does mean that you cannot be completely overtaken by an NLP process, system, or performance. And I will explain this to you so you can celebrate your victory over what you now how is a devious and unethical system of mind control – instead of thinking that you were weird, uninformed, or just didn’t get it.

As I wrote in Part 3, 75% of the women I saw at the Lisa Sasevich event should not have been there. They were not far enough along in their business to really get any benefit from Lisa’s remarks. Many were just starting out and others were dealing with personal issues that made them too vulnerable to what they were about to experience.

This is true of people who are wounded, traumatized, who have too much self-doubt, no self-confidence, who are troubled, unsure, and who are looking for a savior rather than information. These people are prime targets of NLP. And if that doesn’t describe you, then you cannot experience the full NLP takedown.

Most people who are manipulated by NLP have no defense system against its processes. Remember NLP was developed by DARPA, behavioral psychologists, defense agencies, and people who are highly trained in mind control. This is weapons grade emotional, intellectual, and energetic manipulation.

People who are influenced by NLP have no way to ignore or process the NLP tactics:

• engineered emotional breakdowns – because they are emotionally traumatized, wounded, damaged, or susceptible, they think the speaker is connecting to them and mirroring their emotions in a way that allows them to be seen and acknowledged

• false vulnerability displays – they are already vulnerable and have low self-esteem, so when someone who is celebrated, famous, and known shows vulnerability they feel that this person is on their level

• hypnotic cadence – because their nervous system is already susceptible to manipulation and influence, they feel the hypnotism as soothing and sympathetic

• guilt-anchoring – they already feel emotional and psychic pain in their lives and don’t want to be accused of creating pain for someone else so it is easy to manipulate them through guilt – “I suffer because people are not buying” is one way to guilt people into buying programs and memberships they do not need

• trance induction – someone who is already damaged has no emotional filter and their inner pain is right at the surface so it is easy to ‘make them feel better’ by using language that induces a trance because they are desperate and looking for relief

• scarcity pressure – susceptible people live with scarcity – there is never enough love, acknowledgement, appreciation, and validation. So when someone they respect and want to be acknowledged by tells them that they will miss out if they do not act now, they are the first ones to the table in the back of the room

• identity disruption – when someone’s identity is already at risk or practically non-existent, it is easy to impose a new identity of buyer or follower on them.

• group entrainment – emotionally traumatized, energetically disrupted people with low self-esteem, low self-worth, inner doubt and confusion, and no self-awareness, need to belong and they quickly adopt group think and group actions because this makes them feel better – even temporarily. Their internal loneliness is looking for an anchor or foundation and they find it in the group.

But energetically sovereign people - people with strong intuition, internal stability, and a grounded self-identity - often walk into these events and feel much different. The trance inducing talk is irritating. The performances are annoying. The loud music is too much, and the attempts at creating group cohesion are not tempting.

Instead of feeling inspired and motivated, their response is to feel physically ill or nauseous, left out, isolated, and apart, as I did at the Lisa Sasevich event.

They feel violated because they are – their energy, emotions, and nervous system are being attacked.

Energetically sovereign people feel confused, as I did, as I watched Lisa’s emotional display which I thought was very inappropriate behavior for a business conference. So was her silver, sequined, short cocktail dress which she was wearing at 9AM. In retrospect, I believe that was part of the NLP process too.

They feel repelled and suspicious because there are too many conflicting things going on – the unprofessional behavior, displays of emotion, words and language that feel and sound manipulative (because they are), the extreme and consistent focus on sales.

And they feel energetically attacked because people who are energetically sovereign do not have their emotional energy body as a dominant presence. Their energy field is balanced. So being in a situation where the focus is on emotional manipulation – and that is the primary focus of NLP – feels like an attack to them.

It’s like someone is trying to re-arrange their energy field to suit their needs. And that is exactly what these people who use NLP are doing. They need their audiences to act from emotion, from the most vulnerable, sensitive, and wounded part of themselves. And if that is not something you can do – you feel manipulated.

You are not being dramatic or overly sensitive. You are energetically immune to NLP. And now we’ll discuss why this happens, why it’s a good thing, and how you can continue to protect yourself from the mind control and coercive communication of NLP.

1. Sovereign People Have Internal Authority — and NLP Requires External Authority

NLP relies on the practitioner positioning themselves as:

• the guide – they are the only person who can ‘guide’ you to the ‘life of your dreams’ or any other promises they make regarding the outcomes they say they can help you achieve

• the expert – differentiate someone wanting to be ‘the expert’ in a field in which they have no actual expertise from real experts who have dedicated the time, energy, and effort and have years or decades of real experience

• the savior – the person who will save them from their sadness, failure, trauma, loneliness, emotional wounding, and lead them to success

• the emotional center – they can help you deal with your emotional pain and suffering as long as you make them the center of that process – and you buy their products

• the access point – they and their programs or solutions are how you will be able to enter this new paradigm of peace, success, fulfillment, and prosperity

• the authority – they must become the central decision point in your life, the person you will turn to for help with every situation and answers to every question.

This is why the entire pay-to-play speaker industrial complex built elaborate false hierarchies and placed themselves at the top. They were the ‘higher authority,’ the main voice, the central figure, the source of all information, understanding, and truth.

But sovereign people do not outsource authority. They intuitively hold their own center. People who willingly submit and allow others to become their authority and to have authority over them have unbalanced energy fields. This is why they capitulate so easily, can be manipulated, and see this ‘other’ as someone they can trust more than they trust themselves.

This makes NLP largely ineffective when you are sovereign because the root mechanism, which requires you to replace your internal compass with the practitioner’s, cannot take hold.

Your intuition doesn’t hand the wheel to anyone, ever. It is not even a consideration. I had to laugh when I wrote this because my audience has heard me say ‘No one drives my car,’ and it’s true. I never let anyone drive my car. If I am in my car, I am driving. I would not think of letting someone drive my car for me or worse, borrow it. And there is a deeper meaning to that – I do not let someone lead me around or influence my thinking, emotions, or energy. Sovereign people do not do that.

2. Sovereign People Don’t Collapse Under Manufactured Emotion

NLP creates the following emotional hooks which you may find annoying, irritating, and even embarrassing – where you are embarrassed for the speaker. It does not embarrass you. What happens with energetically Sovereign People with these displays of fake and manipulative emotion is you do not and cannot engage on an emotional level.

Here are some important NLP techniques to create manufactured emotion and emotional energy overrides, which were detailed in Part 3:

• emotional flooding

• sudden crying

• confession circles

• self-revelation pressure

• vulnerability ambushes

These techniques destabilize the average nervous system, the one that is open, vulnerable, and unprotected.

But sovereign people feel something else:

• “This feels wrong.”

• “This isn’t real emotion.”

• “This is embarrassing (for them).”

• “This is manipulative.”

• “Why do I feel repelled?”

You don’t merge into the open emotional field and can easily resist the invitation. Instead, you observe it without ever crossing that boundary. That’s energetic natural immunity. And it cannot be displaced by anyone, especially someone who tries to force their way in.

3. Sovereign People Feel the Difference Between Energy and Technique

Sovereign people are aware of energetic resonance – the way we connect to others via our energetic frequency. When someone is being coercive, manipulative, and controlling, your energy field instantly blocks them.

Sovereign people have an intuitive system that is highly attuned to reject NLP’s most powerful techniques:

• energetic dishonesty

• emotional manipulation

• performative vulnerability

• psychological coercion

• frequency distortion

• intention misalignment

When someone performs an NLP “vulnerability breakdown” on stage, you don’t feel compassion. You feel energetic revulsion – you are not sympathetic, you feel detached, separated, and even disgusted.

That is why I did not react in the same way as others in the room to Lisa Sasevich’s tears and emotional flooding. It bothered me, I felt uncomfortable, and I thought she was performing – and she was. Emotional flooding is a strong NLP technique that relies on energetic vulnerability, trauma bonding, and pre-existing emotional overwhelm.

Because your sovereign energy system can detect the absence of authenticity, while others feel moved, you feel uncomfortable. And you withdraw, close off your boundaries, and remain untouched. That’s energetic immunity and that is what sovereign people have.

4. Sovereign People Monitor Their Own Nervous System — NLP Attaches to Those Who Don’t

NLP is fundamentally a nervous system hijack but it requires someone whose nervous system can be hijacked. I know that ‘nervous system’ is a term a lot of people throw around today and it has replaced ‘mindfulness’ as the new connection hook by unscrupulous people. By nervous system, I mean the body’s general system that processes and interprets emotional and energetic information at a high level.

NLP specifically targets the nervous system, because most people are not aware of or can control or manage their nervous system, especially people dealing with emotional or energy trauma.

NLP uses specific words, language, tone, and cues to target the nervous system and it works by:

• interrupting your cognitive processes

• overwhelming your emotion centers

• redirecting your fight/flight response

• inducing trance-like suggestibility

But sovereign people (especially intuitives, empaths, and experienced healers) have strong awareness of their physical, emotional, and energetic states. Because they often work with people who have been traumatized or wounded, they are experienced in maintaining emotional and energetic distance to protect their own energy.

So when they feel a dark, manipulative, controlling energy being directed at them, their first response is not to open up and let it in. First, they notice the energy immediately. Then they feel the attempted intrusion, and they recognize the sensation of being pulled away from their energetic center.

And their response is protective and defensive. Their energy system notices that something is wrong and it maintains control. It goes even farther than that – it automatically sets up energy shields to block that energy and they detach from the source. You zone out and feel disconnected.

That’s why you can be at the events where the speaker or presenter is using NLP tactics and you feel isolated, alone, and outside of the community energy. Your energy field is protecting you – that’s energetic immunity.

5. Sovereign People Don’t Collapse Under Scarcity Tactics

NLP relies heavily on scarcity triggers:

• “This is your only chance.”

• “If you don’t sign up now, you’re blocking your abundance.”

• “People who hesitate miss their destiny.”

• “Your resistance is fear.”

These phrases are engineered hypnosis, not spiritual truth.

But sovereign people don’t respond to those tactics. Because we know that we live in an abundantly unlimited universe where everything exists in unlimited abundance. And we also know that scarcity is a non-entity. There is no lack, there is only limitation.

Sovereign people do not care about FOMO – or fear of missing out or fake urgency. They know that what is right for them appears at the right time. And if it is not at that moment, another moment will present itself. As a friend of mine used to always say, ”If it’s for you it won’t go past you.”

Sovereign people do not get coerced or manipulated by shame, group pressure, or authority pressure. They assess from the content, not the emotion around it or that it is presented with.

Too much emotion and your energy system rejects the pitch. In these situations the more pressure that someone projects, the less you are inclined to engage, much less buy. That is energetic immunity.

6. Sovereign People Have No Psychological “Gaps” to Hook Into

NLP relies on finding and exploiting gaps. These can be energy gaps, emotional gaps, doubt, anxiety, low self worth, fear, or confusion. NLP looks for exploits these gaps which include self-worth, approval, identity, savior, belonging. Anywhere someone feels they are not enough, do not have enough, or are inadequate. These gaps represent energetic voids, places where someone believes something is missing or incomplete. This is where people have ‘needs’ and are ‘needy,’ and NLP is quick to provide reassurance.

If someone needs to “belong,” NLP hits belonging.
If someone needs “guidance,” NLP hits guidance.
If someone fears “failure,” NLP hits fear.
If someone wants “transformation,” NLP hits identity.
If someone wants “connection,” NLP hits connection.

But sovereign people rarely have these unfilled voids. Their internal world is not governed by need. Your center is already occupied — by you. And that makes NLP ineffective because you are energetically immune.

7. Sovereign People Are Not Addicted to Adrenaline-Based “Breakthroughs”

For sovereign people, and especially empaths, energy sensitives, and experienced healers, this can be the most annoying part of the events that use NLP techniques. The loud music, fake friend communities, manufactured fun, the dance moments – they all feel stressful, not stimulating.

That’s because this is an NLP technique that is designed to create a sense of community so ‘group think’ can prevail.

People who use NLP understand that group think is a powerful motivator if you want everyone to engage in the same activities, including all of them jumping out of their seats and running to the back tables at the same time, to buy, buy, buy.

That is why they encourage group sharing and activities – not to foster close relationships, connection, and belonging in the positive sense. It is much less work to sell to an entire group and to let the group shame members who do not participate, than it is for the presenter to sell to one person at a time.

And if you think about it, that is why there is so much attention to creating a ‘community environment’ at the beginning of these events. The presenter wants to create the feeling of togetherness and sharing, because then there is less work to do when it is time for the sales pitches. If it sounds devious to you – it is.

NLP creates artificial transformation highs through:

• group energy

• emotional catharsis

• peak states

• sudden “aha” spikes

• physiological arousal

These highs mimic spiritual activation. It is part of the NLP hypnosis sequence.

But sovereign people know the difference between activation and adrenaline, manipulated emotion and genuine insight. And they know when NLP processes that create nervous system overload are being used. Your intuition doesn’t get fooled by the high.

That is energetic immunity.

8. Sovereign People Recognize the Frequency of Ego-Based Leadership

The entire NLP-driven coaching, self-help, business, lifestyle, and spiritual industry relies on performance, using performance based tools like showmanship, charisma, false vulnerability, stage tears, savior positioning, hyper-confidence, bullying, and manufactured intimacy. It also requires the establishment of the speaker or leader as ‘the authority.’ For sovereign people, that can be an immediate turn-off.

High-pressure seminar environments often combine known NLP tactics that we have already discussed, like state manipulation, group dynamics, authority conditioning, emotional overload, and public reinforcement loops. And authority positioning is required to establish dominance and a hierarchy. Many large seminar leaders trained in NLP and similar methodologies use these tactics.

Have you ever experienced public humiliation or bullying at an event? Maybe it was subtle, maybe it was overt, like this example. Here, the seminar leader established the hierarchy from the beginning of the event – with unexpected results.

I was at a Suzanne Evans seminar, where an audience of over 700 people watched her publicly bully, humiliate, and scold 3 people who had declined to participate in the pre-registration activity, on the stage, in the first 20 minutes of the event.

Have you ever wondered how quiet 700 people can get as they watched this behavior in shocked horror and feared that they could be next?

People seated near me looked stunned, some were crying, others were angry. Over 100 people walked out immediately and the crowd was noticeably smaller after lunch. I stayed but I did not buy anything and I spent part of the time away from the event, sightseeing instead of participating. I later overheard her staff talk about them not meeting their sales numbers for the event. I wonder why that happened.

NLP’s insistence that the leader become ‘the authority’ can create authoritarianism, and this is another element in NLP sequencing that is required to make it work.

And adding humiliation to the NLP bundle ups the compliance factor even higher to include

• group psychology manipulation

• dominance hierarchy enforcement

• harsh coercive persuasion tactics

This is authoritarian group conditioning often seen in high-pressure seminar culture. Have you ever experienced this before?

These performers are taught the NLP techniques to first assert their authority to create dominance as the ‘leader,’ and then they can establish the fake trust and intimacy, because the NLP sequences flow more smoothly. But sovereign people can feel ego-driven, bullying, dominant frequencies instantly.

This establishment of authority based on ego is a red flag to sovereign people. They reject the notion and then have challenges with their participation. They are at the event to learn but the speaker’s insistence on being the central authority in everything – including how you use your energy, what you think, and how you act, creates energetic dissonance in sovereign people. You maintain your right to independence and self-governance. And that cannot co-exist with NLP methods.

You sense the lack of alignment between what you feel from them and what you see them doing. The ‘trust me’ message collides with the threatening energy you feel , and you immediate realize that this is not real – it’s fake and worse – it is manipulative and controlling. Your discernment filters catch what others miss.

That is energetic immunity.

WHY YOU CAN FEEL DREAD WATCHING PEOPLE AT THE ‘BACK TABLE’

I would feel sick when I saw event attendees rushing towards the back table, eager to buy whatever the presenter was selling. I felt genuinely sorry for them because I knew they were being taken advantage of in so many ways.

But they did not know this and would have protested loudly if anyone had tried to stop them because the NLP mind control programming had done its work – they believed that they were buying their own personal ‘ticket to success’ and they wanted to make sure they did not miss that opportunity.

What you are seeing, as a sovereign person, is:

• ethical violation

• psychological exploitation

• identity targeting

• emotional hijacking

• spiritual distortion

• financial predation

What makes you feel bad is not about the money, it is the violation of sovereignty being carried out on a mass scale by someone trained to do it - and being rewarded for it.

The reason that sovereign people see and feel this way is because they are the only people in the room who are not in the NLP trance.

That is energetic immunity.

HOW TO STRENGTHEN NLP IMMUNITY IN YOURSELF & OTHERS

Here are the core practices to strengthen NLP immunity in yourself – and to help others if they want to or can be helped:

NLP Immunity practice What NLP targets

Stay grounded in your body NLP targets disembodiment.

Listen to early discomfort Your first feeling is the true one.

Don’t ignore frequency mismatches Energy speaks louder than words.

Notice urgency True intuition rarely feels urgent.

Track your emotional spikes Engineered highs are not spiritual guidance.

Ask: “Do I really want this, or am I That question breaks the trance instantly.
being influenced and/or manipulated?”

Preserve your internal authority If someone positions themselves as the key, the guide, the only authority, walk away.

FINAL: Why Sovereign People Are the Antidote to NLP

NLP is only effective with emotionally and energetically vulnerable people. That is why it is most effective on people who have trauma, wounding, low self esteem, low confidence, and low energy.

NLP collapses in the presence of these qualities and notice how these are the qualities which are embodied by Sovereign People:

• discernment

• sovereignty

• self-respect

• intuition

• inner authority

• grounded energy

• emotional intelligence

NLP used as a form of coercive communication cannot override a centered, grounded, and well managed nervous system and it cannot influence a stable identity.

It cannot manipulate someone who knows who they are and who has firm, strong, and clear energy boundaries . That is why sovereign people are energetically, emotionally, and intellectually immune to NLP.

And this is why the new paradigm for spiritual teaching, training, and mentoring will be with sovereign people. Not fake, airbrushed, AI generated, phony people who have to rely on NLP to create an aura of success, generate connections with an audience, and make sales.

But real, grounded, soul resonant people who have a genuine mission and calling for their work.

Is that you? It’s time to stand up, speak out, and share your message because the limitations have been shoved out of the way and it’s your time to shine. Where will you shine it? That platform is already being formed and it happened because the pay to play guru industry created its own collapse which we are witnessing in real time.

Next up in the NLP – The Mind Control Technique Hidden in Plain Sight series is

Part 5: The Great Undoing: How NLP Manufactured Gurus & High-Ticket Psychology Led to the Collapse of the Pay-to-Play Industry

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About Jennifer Hoffman

Jennifer Hoffman is the celebrated master intuitive, iconic Energy Savante, 8x best selling author, host of the Enlightening Life LIVE broadcast since March 2004, and the longest online newsletter in publication, starting in February 2004.

Jennifer is the expert on energy congruence, alignment, and integration, the leading voice in self awareness and energy boundaries, and the author of more than 5000 articles and publications. You can find out more on the celebrated website at enlighteninglife.com, which has been online since February 2004.

She is a business and technology expert, with degrees in Finance, Economics, and Business Administration, and extensive experience in business, technology, and law. Her first website went online in 1999 - a decade before most ‘business coaches’ or ‘creators’.

She founded the GPS Business Academy, (gpsbusinessacademy.com) where she shares her business education, experience, and expertise to help people start, manage, and grow their business. Her trademark Expert Skills Audit helps you identify your 7 Expert Revenue Skills to build multiple revenue streams which you can do using the 5 Step Business Startup, the only expert sourced business training for startups and re-starts. Learn more about Jennifer’s business training and mentoring at gpsbusinessacadaemy.com

And Jennifer’s new skin care line, Peau D’Ange is gaining international acclaim as a source of high vibe, restorative, and nourishing skin treatment. This is Jennifer’s unique formulation, developed over 15 years of use, to which Jennifer attributes her youthful, glowing skin. Learn more about Peau D’Ange and the Femme Force community at femmeforcenow.com

In this article I will show you how a room of 400 women was psychologically steered into buying high-ticket programs and products at a Lisa Sasevich event.

If people want to understand NLP, they shouldn’t look at textbooks. They should look at what happens on a stage. Because NLP is not an academic concept — it is a performance art of influence – and here the word influence means coercion, manipulation, and control, complete with:

• emotional triggers

• pacing

• pattern interruption

• hypnotic phrasing

• rapport manipulation

• urgency induction

• subconscious anchoring

And nowhere was this more visible than at a 2014 live event run by Lisa Sasevich that I attended. The event was at a luxurious hotel in Phoenix Arizona, attended by over 400 women. It was marketed as professional, high end, and empowering. 3 days of talk, networking, and of course the opportunity to buy Lisa’s ‘signature products’, along with high pressure sales tactics.

Because these events are not for learning – they are for selling and that is the main objective. The event speaker – in this case Lisa Sasevich – wants you to buy, buy, buy. And to do that they have to create the atmosphere, the ambience, and to use some behind the scenes coercion.

It was the morning of the second day and Lisa Sasevich was on the stage, speaking about her latest product. She was talking about how much she wanted people to have the training, be able to build their businesses, to have the money to ‘live the life of their dreams’.

Suddenly she started sobbing into the microphone. Not crying little tears, real sobs. Everyone in the room was looking at her with genuine concern. She stood there on the stage, in her short, silver sequin cocktail dress, headset on, with perfect makeup, crying.

Then she started talking, in between sobs, about how much it hurt her that more people were not getting this training, how sad it made her, and how she felt ineffective and powerless because of it. The room of over 400 women went quiet – it was a pin drop moment.

Then Lisa collected herself with a big sigh, someone brought her tissues, and she continued with her spiel for another 15 minutes which was also the final piece of her sales promotion for that part of the day.

When it was time for break – you guessed it – dozens of women rushed to the back to be the first to buy the product at the ‘event only price’ which was around $1498 or $2798 for a bundle.

How many of them now realize that they had been psychologically manipulated, primed, groomed, and coerced into that buying mentality? I did not buy anything because I thought it was overpriced. And I wondered why I felt so violated, sitting in the audience, watching Lisa cry and talk about her hurt feelings when people were not contributing to her already substantial income.

Here’s the 4 part NLP sequence that Lisa Sasevich used on her audience. This may make you angry but you need to know this so you can avoid it in the future:

THE MOMENT: Sudden Tears — The Pattern Interrupt

In the middle of her pitch, Lisa suddenly began sobbing. Not just tearing up, not gently emotional with a small sob, this was dramatic stage-impact crying into the microphone.

This was not genuine sadness. It is a powerful NLP mechanism called a ‘pattern interrupt’. And it is extremely effective, as it

• shocks the nervous system

• freezes analytical thought

• bypasses resistance

• increases subconscious openness

• creates group entrainment

• induces emotional compliance

The room went silent. It was a pin-drop moment because everyone’s nervous system got hijacked at the same time.

THE HOOK: Attaching Her Tears to YOUR Behavior

This is where NLP becomes manipulative.

She said things like:

• “It hurts me so much that more people aren’t getting this training…”

• “I just want you all to have this…”

• “It breaks my heart when people don’t step up…”

• “I feel powerless…”

These statements weaponize guilt, obligation, and responsibility. The unspoken message was “ YOUR lack of buying is hurting me.”

And especially in an audience of hundreds of women, this induces guilt, sympathy, emotional bonding, urgency to relieve her suffering, and unconscious compliance.

The manipulation is not subtle. It was precision engineered and timed to the perfect moment. Because what happened next was the Switch.

THE SWITCH: Collecting Herself → Returning to the Pitch

After the emotional flood, she wiped her tears, took a deep breath, and continued. This is called emotional anchoring.

The audience’s empathy was activated while their critical thinking was still offline.
Their identity was now tied to her feelings. She continued pitching for 10–15 more minutes, now to an audience that has been softened, is now vulnerable, has bonded with her, has been destabilized, is compliant, and primed to buy.

This stage is where NLP “lands” its effect.

THE RESULT: The Psychological Rush to the Back Table

And when the break came, 15 minutes after Lisa’s performance, dozens of women ran to the back of the room to buy the program. The price points were high - $1498 per program, $2798 or more for the bundle but the big sale was yet to come, the Sassy club, an exclusive member only club with annual membership dues running from $25K to $100K per person. And several hundred women joined.

These women did not buy because the offer was life changing or special, unique or really good. They would have bought anything because:

• their emotions were hijacked

• their intuition was bypassed

• their nervous systems were overwhelmed

• their critical thinking was suspended

• they were guilt-conditioned

• they were manipulated into “saving” her

• NLP was running through their subconscious

This is exactly the buying frenzy NLP is designed to produce because it is a mind control system.

Do you recognize yourself here and have you felt the same way? At the time I was not sure what was happening but I was sure that something was wrong. My body felt cold, I was confused – this was supposed to be a professional business conference so why was she acting so unprofessionally? I have been in many high level meetings and board rooms in my career and I have never seen someone act like this before.

I did not know what this was but I do now – it is a textbook NLP manipulation sequence. Yes it is a sequence. A rehearsed set of steps designed to manipulate and coerce an audience. This is engineered emotional coercion and a specific NLP process called emotional flooding + compliance anchoring.

Let’s go over this process in detail because while I described the setup earlier, this is the actual process in action and it is used by many speakers so you need to be familiar with it.

The NLP Sequence – Emotional Flooding + Compliance Anchoring

When Lisa Sasevich broke into sudden tears during her pitch, what looked like real vulnerability was a well-known NLP technique called “emotional flooding + compliance anchoring.”

This is how it works:

1. The “unexpected breakdown” shocks the nervous system.

Your brain freezes for a moment: What is happening? Is she okay? This is the pattern interrupt.

2. Emotional vulnerability disarms the audience.

Sudden tears create instant empathy. Empathy lowers resistance. Lower resistance increases suggestibility.

3. She ties her emotions to YOUR behavior.

That is manipulation at its core. She wasn’t crying because she was hurt. She was crying to make the audience feel responsible for her pain.

That induces:

• guilt

• obligation

• “I need to help her”

• “I should support her”

• “I don’t want to disappoint”

• and the big one: compliance

4. She then seamlessly transitions into the pitch.

That’s the “anchor.” Your nervous system is still affected by the emotional shock, so the pitch slides in under the rational radar.

5. “Event-only price” is the scarcity tactic.

Classic NLP scarcity tactics are something everyone in the industry uses:

• limited access

• limited time

• fear-based urgency

• elevated emotional stress

All engineered to drive purchase behavior.

6. The women rushing to the back?

Not because the offer was good. Because they had been manipulated, guilt-tripped, emotionally hijacked, psychologically primed, and most of all – linguistically controlled.

This is EXACTLY the kind of scenario NLP was designed to create. While I was not the only person who did not run to the back of the room to buy everything Lisa was selling, there were not very many of us who remained in our seats.

I felt violated, angry, and I wanted to leave. So I did. I went outside and sat in the warm sun for a while. I needed a break from the heavy energy in that room and I was beginning to see the manipulation but I still was not sure what it was.

Why I felt uncomfortable while everyone else felt “compelled”

I am not suggestible in the way NLP depends on. That is not to say that it would never work on me, it may if my intuition was not so strong and my logic and reasoning were not so powerful. Here’s what I have that makes me question NLP and the people who use it.

I have:

· a powerful energetic boundary field – I have always had strong energy boundaries. I had to if I was going to survive my parents’ narcissism and criticism

· an extremely strong intuitive radar – this is something I am well-known for, extremely strong and accurate intuition

· years of spiritual clarity – I have been a spiritual teacher, author, and mentor for over 25 years so I have a very strong spiritual foundation

· the ability to sense manipulation immediately – honed from years of living with and being around very manipulative people

· an unwillingness to abandon sovereignty – I laughingly say that I hate being told what to do but it is true. I have a strong sense of individual sovereignty and I do not relinquish that sovereignty especially in the face of manipulation.

· a grounded nervous system – I can stay calm and logical in every situation, even under a lot of stress and this keeps me grounded and clear. I do not have FOMO and hate being part of a herd or crowd so I am the one who questions actions and ponders the situation before ever taking action. This means that I missed all of the ‘event discounts’ on these products.

Most of the women in the room were vulnerable, emotionally, financially, and professionally. I remember saying to a friend of mine, who had also attended the event, as we were at the morning break on the first day, that at least 75% of the women at the conference should not have been there.

They were not far along enough in their business to implement many of the things Lisa taught, they did not have the financial means to purchase them, and they simply had no idea what they were doing. It was not a judgment, it was an assessment based on my decades of expertise in business.

They went to the conference for emotional validation, they were looking for answers and transformation. They were susceptible to authority and were awed by being in the presence of someone of Lisa’s stature and presence in the business coaching industry.

And most dangerous of all, they had not been trained to recognize manipulation. In fact, the opposite was true – they were prime targets for NLP’s manipulation. And Lisa knew that.

NLP doesn’t work on strong, aware, sovereign people. It works on people who are vulnerable, hopeful, overwhelmed, desperate, and searching for truth, strength, and purpose.

And THAT is why I felt sick to my stomach, angry, manipulated, and violated, because my intuition recognized the predatory structure behind the “performance.”

I am sharing this story to help you and many thousands of people who may see themselves in this story and know that they have been victims of NLP mind control techniques. I want to validate their experiences and give them the emotional tools and resources to avoid it in the future because it is still being used today.

My purpose is to expose these techniques that millions of people are exposed to and whose behavior is being influenced by, and they have no idea what is happening to them or what is being done to them. It’s disgusting – but it is true.

I want to help people understand why they felt off and even excluded when they were not compelled to rush to the back of the room and buy everything in sight, maxing out their credit cards so someone like Lisa Sasevich would not feel bad, powerless, or ineffective because she was not making enough sales.

And I want to break the spell of NLP-based selling because it is a ‘spell’. NLP techniques, by design, create hypnotic states, emotional overwhelm, confusion, and render vulnerable people helpless, powerless, and suggestible to manipulation. While it may not have happened to you, you have probably seen it done to others if you have ever been to a conference style event hosted by a big name ‘business coach’, spiritual teacher, high performance coach, sales training, self empowerment, financial, health, or wellness seminars, or any other large scale conference style event.

In this series I am sharing information that is not theory, this is real. NLP is a real mind control technique that is being used on people every day – in ads, movies, on TV, in articles - everywhere.

I am not offering a theory when speaking about this Lisa Sasevich event. I was there, in the audience, 3^rd row from the front, watching this spectacle happening in real time, and wondering what the heck was going on. Feeling the discomfort, watching the reactions of people around me, never realizing, until years later, that I was watching a well-trained NLP expert at work.

And now, with the collapse of the pay-to-play spiritual industry, and the guru industry in general, people are finally ready to hear this truth.

If you see yourself in this series on NLP and mind control, either as a victim or someone who felt left out, uncomfortable, violated, and manipulated, I hope it helps you understand your experience. It is hard to know that people you trust and admire use psychological manipulation and mind control techniques on a trusting audience for financial gain. But it did happen and it is still happening.

All of those people who tell you to buy before it’s gone are using a version of NLP. The ones who use performance instead of professionalism to get your attention – like the Instagram people who talk about their wild income claims, their staged photo shoots, their fabulous life, their results – it’s all NLP.

You may have been susceptible to those using NLP and mind control before, but now you know. And truth and knowledge are great shields against those who believe that they can and should use psychological tools, mind control, suggestion, coercion, manipulation, and emotional flooding to get you to buy their products, become their followers, and trust them with your money, energy, and your beliefs.

You are a sovereign being and sovereign beings are not subject to unethical mind control techniques. So use this information to stay strong and to choose your teachers wisely and carefully. Look for integrity, truth, humility, and wisdom. Connect with teachers who respect your will, discernment, and your sovereignty. They are out there – and they do not use NLP mind control techniques on their audiences.

You may be asking the same question that I did when I was writing this series, especially this article. Do people like Lisa Sasevich, and every other speaker, teacher, or mentor who uses these tactics have any shame?

This is deeply unethical behavior – and it is something I could never do and you probably could not do either.

People who use NLP at this level - emotional flooding, compliance anchoring, guilt-association, and trance induction – what I would refer to as the full NLP lineup - cannot feel shame about it, or they wouldn’t be able to do it.

This is not a spontaneous emotional breakdown or authentic vulnerability. It is not even impulsive behavior that someone does once and never repeats again. This is a trained, rehearsed, learned, perfected, and weaponized sequence whose specific purpose is to use mind control technology to control, manipulate, and coerce behavior.
These people practice, rehearse, and perfect these techniques the same way actors learn stagecraft. It is performance psychology, not spiritual or ethical leadership.

And because the industry Lisa is part of treats this type of manipulation as:

• “high conversion”

• “powerful selling”

• “service-based selling”

• “heart-centered persuasion”

there is every incentive NOT to feel anything that might interrupt the ability to perform.

Shame requires empathy, a conscience, reflective awareness, accountability, and emotional responsibility. That’s why you may feel sick or deeply bothered by this article and this series on NLP.

NLP-based selling selects for the opposite traits of shame :

• compartmentalization

• emotional detachment

• self-referencing logic

• financial justification

• audience objectification

• belief in the moral right to influence

In that psychological ecosystem, shame is eliminated as an obstacle. You can’t feel shame if you have decided that you will make millions by manipulating people to buy from you and then spend a lot of money to get the training to be able to do that. NLP training exists and at Lisa’s performance level – she has probably spent a lot of money and time on NLP training and practice. So let’s be direct here: Lisa knew exactly what she was doing. And so do all of the big name speakers who use NLP.

I don’t know all of them but you do. Many of you who are reading this right now can remember how you also experienced these tactics and events you have attended.

Do these people who knowingly use NLP techniques on their audiences have any shame, remorse, and guilt? They cannot indulge in shame because:

· Their business model and revenue require the absence of shame - since they are generated using NLP and mind control tactics.

· Their NLP methods and training requires the absence of shame because they pay for and do the training knowing exactly what it is for.

And the machine they are part of was built on systems that reward psychodynamics bordering on the antisocial and psychopathy - as long as they bring in revenue.

If Lisa had shame, she wouldn’t have been able to run that NLP process at that event – and that was only one part of the event. There were many more, especially the sales pitch for her expensive Sassy Club. Let that sink in for a moment.

And she is not alone – these tactics are used by many speakers – you have probably been at events where you now recognize what they are. I remember being at a Brendon Burchard event around 2010 and wondering why he was jumping up and down on the stage, running around, playing loud music at odd times, having the audience repeat words and phrases, and on cue, sharing stores of his father’s death right before he launched into a sales pitch. This is classis NLP training.

People like Brendon Burchard and Lisa Sasevich – and many others like them – have used these tactics for years. They convert incredibly well. And in that industry, conversion is king.

Now I know that Lisa didn’t stop crying because she “regained composure.” She stopped because the mechanism had achieved its purpose. She could see the glazed eyes, sympathetic tears, and other signs from the audience that they had been groomed, and it was time to proceed to the next step in the sequence.

The timing was perfect. The execution was clean. The audience response was textbook. That is not an accident. It is training in achieving NLP perfection – mind control. Her teachers would have been proud – and if her audience knew what had just happened, they would be horrified.

So now you know and I hope you’re aware and protected.

The next time you attend an event, read this series before you go and especially this article, as a reminder to avoid being hijacked by the NLP mind control tactics so you can enjoy the event, save your money, meet new friends, and return home feeling good about yourself and not wondering why you just maxed out your credit card.

Next up in this NLP series - Part 4: How Energetically Sovereign People are Immune to NLP. If you have ever attended an event or seminar or retreat and wondered why you were not ‘feeling it’ while everyone around you was excitedly buying and saying ‘yes’ to every speaker comment, this will help you understand why you cannot be affected by the mind control tactics of NLP to that extent.

=======================================

About Jennifer Hoffman

Jennifer Hoffman is the celebrated master intuitive, iconic Energy Savante, 8x best selling author, host of the Enlightening Life LIVE broadcast and the longest newsletter in publication, starting in February 2004.

Jennifer is the expert on energy congruence, alignment, and integration, the leading voice in self awareness and energy boundaries, and the author of more than 5000 articles and publications. You can find out more on the celebrated website at enlighteninglife.com, which has been online since February 2004.

She is a business and technology expert, with degrees in Finance, Economics, and Business Administration, and extensive experience in business, technology, and law. Her first website went online in 1999 - a decade before most ‘business coaches’ or ‘creators’.

She founded the GPS Business Academy, (gpsbusinessacademy.com) where she shares her business education, experience, and expertise to help people start, manage, and grow their business. Her trademark Expert Skills Audit helps you identify your 7 Expert Revenue Skills to build multiple revenue streams which you can do using the 5 Step Business Startup, the only expert sourced business training for startups and re-starts. Learn more about Jennifer’s business training and mentoring at gpsbusinessacadaemy.com

And Jennifer’s new skin care line, Peau D’Ange is gaining international acclaim as a source of high vibe, restorative, and nourishing skin treatment. This is Jennifer’s unique formulation, developed over 15 years of use, to which Jennifer attributes her youthful, glowing skin. Learn more about Peau D’Ange and the Femme Force community at femmeforcenow.com

You felt it physically and emotionally, and you knew that something was wrong. And now you know: it was NLP, Neuro-Linguistic Programming, a mind control system originally developed in early behavioral-influence labs funded in part by defense-related research agencies such as DARPA, and shaped through the psychological research cultures of MIT and Stanford University.

This isn’t conspiracy theory, it’s academic fact, and psychological and behavioral science history.

And in Part 2, we’re going to walk through exactly how to spot NLP as it is happening — so you never again confuse coercion with communication or manipulation with real enlightenment.

Awareness of NLP or mind control programming in effect happens with your body because your body is sensitive to these subtle cues and it recognizes that something is ‘off’ before you realize it.

Here are the 10 signs to watch for so you know when NLP – mind control – is being used on you.

1. The Tell-Tale Feel: Your Body Knows Before Your Mind Does

Before you even identify the techniques, you will feel:

• a tightening in your solar plexus

• a sense of being “drawn in” artificially

• internal pressure to agree or comply

• confusion mixed with emotional intensity

• an odd loyalty you can’t explain

• slight dissociation or “floating” sensation

• guilt or FOMO (fear of missing out) if you don’t follow the prompt

These feelings are physiological responses to linguistic pressure, not spiritual activation.

When your nervous system screams “something’s wrong,” it is telling the truth.

2. The “Hypnotic Cadence” — Talking in Rhythms That Bypass Logic

NLP practitioners often use:

• unusual sentence rhythms

• elongated pauses

• downward vocal tones

• gentle hypnotic pacing

• “sliding” into the subconscious via tonal shifts

If someone suddenly shifts into a slowed, trance-like speech pattern while “teaching,” you’re not receiving wisdom. You’re being put into a suggestible state. This is a form of hypnosis being used on you.

This is one of the core techniques used by the big names in the pay-to-play spiritual arena – including figures promoted as authorities during the era dominated by Deepak Chopra, big Hay House authors and speakers, and many others.

3. “Embedded Commands” Hidden in Casual Sentences

This is one of the most manipulative NLP tools. A practitioner speaks a normal sentence but emphasizes the part they want you to obey.

Example:

“When you step into your power, you’ll realize today is the moment to say yes.”

To the conscious mind this is an inspirational phrase but to the subconscious this is a command sequence

Look for unusual emphasis, especially on:

• yes

• now

• this moment

• you’re ready

• step in

• trust me

• you know this is right

Your intuition doesn’t need commands. Your ego does. True teachers don’t do this.

4. “Future Pacing” — Guiding You Into a Decision Before You Make It

This is used aggressively in high-ticket selling and retreat recruitment.

Example:

“Imagine yourself six months from now, transformed, wealthy, confident — all because you chose to take this step today.”

This creates:

• emotional priming

• dopamine flooding

• suspension of critical thinking

• fear of missing the imagined future

It’s not visualization. It’s compliance engineering. You are being manipulated, coerced, and groomed to buy a lot of merchandise.

5. “Pattern Interrupt” — Creating Confusion So You Accept the Next Instruction

This is one reason many events felt “off,” chaotic, or emotionally jarring.

NLP disrupts your normal cognitive flow by using:

• sudden shouting

• unexpected laughter

• abrupt topic changes

• bizarre physical actions (jumping, pacing, clapping)

• unexpected profanity

• emotional whiplash

Your brain’s logic momentarily shuts down. The next instruction slips in unfiltered.

This is why many guru-style teachers behave theatrically — it’s not authenticity; it’s a disruption tactic.

6. Mirroring & “Artificial Rapport”

NLP teaches practitioners to mimic many of your behaviors, or those of their audiences. Thinks like tone, posture, gestures, and breathing.

This creates a false sense of connection, making you feel seen, understood, familiar, and bonded. Everyone wants to feel connected and this is an emotional trigger. That’s why it is used so often in NLP. But this is not empathy. It is a mind control technique. And it is why so many people bonded intensely with gurus they never actually knew.

7. Emotional Flooding — Overwhelm to Create Obedience

If you’ve ever cried during a seminar and didn’t know why, know that it was intentional. It is a process of overwhelming the emotions so the brain lowers resistance. If it sounds sinister, it is.

NLP practitioners intensify emotional experiences through:

• storytelling loops

• trauma references

• tear-jerking music

• crowd energy

• confession circles

• repetitive phrases

This serves a purpose. A flooded brain is a compliant brain. Ever wonder why the music is so loud at these events? Why they have breakout dance moments? Or why they wear suggestive or inappropriate clothing for the occasion, like a sparkly, short sequin cocktail dress for an event that starts at 9AM? Or why the speaker gets emotional, shares a sad story, or shows videos of the orphans they are supporting - right before they announce that registration for their big $100K ‘exclusive’ mastermind is available? This is designed to create emotional flooding.

You weren’t “breaking open” when you were crying. You were being overwhelmed on many different levels.

8. Urgency Manipulation Masquerading as Intuition

NLP is heavily used in sales — spiritual or otherwise.

Look for lines like:

• “If you feel it, act now.”

• “Your hesitation is fear, and fear is the old paradigm.”

• “Your ego will talk you out of this — don’t listen.”

• “Resistance means this is your next level.”

In healthy teaching resistance is information you need to process before making a decision – it helps in your decision making and actually gives you a choice. Hesitation is wisdom, and discernment is self protection. True intuition is never urgent. But for someone wanting to enhance their bottom line your hesitation is limiting their income.

9. The “Savior Hook”: Positioning the Teacher as Your Missing Piece

If someone positions themselves as:

• your access to activation

• your spiritual elevator

• your missing link

• your destiny unlock

• your frequency upgrade

• your breakthrough catalyst

…they’re not teaching. They’re recruiting. NLP elevates the teacher as the answer. This create dependence, obedience, control, and servitude. You become someone they can manipulate – and what they really want to do is manipulate your credit card. Real spirituality elevates you.

10. The Easiest Way to Spot NLP:

You feel something is being done to you, not shared with you.

Your body recognizes coercion before your mind does. Remember the objective of NLP – mind control – is to create confusion, emotional overwhelm, uncertainty, and to make you easy to influence, manipulate, and control.

If you feel:

• pressured

• confused

• “pulled”

• emotionally hijacked

• overwhelmed

• disconnected from intuition

• embarrassed to say no

• obligated to follow

…you’re not experiencing teaching. You’re experiencing control.

What Real Teachers Do Instead

Real teachers do not use manipulation to reach and teach you. They do not need to use those things because they are not interested in control or in becoming your savior. They have a genuine interesting in your growth and learning. While they may want you to buy their products, they are not willing to go to extraordinary lengths to do so.

Real teachers do these things – without the mind control tactics of NLP:

• tell you to trust yourself

• give you tools, not dependency

• don’t elevate themselves

• don’t manufacture urgency

• don’t use trance induction

• don’t create emotional whiplash

• don’t override intuition

• don’t speak to your pain to sell you something

• don’t “anchor” emotions

• don’t mirror you to manipulate rapport

They don’t need to because they want you to trust your judgment and intuition, to find the truth within you because truth stands on its own.

Final Thought: NLP Has Finally Been Unmasked

People are shocked to learn the origins of NLP — and even more shocked to realize how often it was used on them. Researching this made me feel sick, used, and taken advantage of. Now I understand why I felt so manipulated at these conferences. I went there for the networking and community, not realizing that I was stepping into a viper’s pit of emotional manipulation and mind control.

This is an awakening moment because once you know this and you are aware of NLP’s systems and processes, you become immune to them. You learn to tell the difference between communication and coercion, between influence and intuition, manipulation and guidance, and performance versus real authenticity.

And this is where sovereignty begins and the era of real teachers returns.

This was as difficult to write as it may have been for you to read. And now that I have explained all of this, I am going to share my personal experience of NLP in action with you. For many years I wondered about this particular spectacle that I witness at a Lisa Sasevich event around 2014.

I went to the event for networking and community, and to meet other business owners. While I did make some connections, what I witnessed at this event, and in particular the incident I will describe, was shocking and deeply unsettling.

You will read about it part 3 in my series on NLP – Mind Control in Plain Sight

==================================================

About Jennifer Hoffman

Jennifer Hoffman is the celebrated master intuitive, iconic Energy Savante, 8x best selling author, host of the Enlightening Life LIVE broadcast and the longest newsletter in publication, starting in February 2004.

Jennifer is the expert on energy congruence, alignment, and integration, the leading voice in self awareness and energy boundaries, and the author of more than 5000 articles and publications. You can find out more on the celebrated website at enlighteninglife.com, which has been online since February 2004.

She is a business and technology expert, with degrees in Finance, Economics, and Business Administration, and extensive experience in business, technology, and law. Her first website went online in 1999 - a decade before most ‘business coaches’ or ‘creators’.

She founded the GPS Business Academy, (gpsbusinessacademy.com) where she shares her business education, experience, and expertise to help people start, manage, and grow their business. Her trademark Expert Skills Audit helps you identify your 7 Expert Revenue Skills to build multiple revenue streams which you can do using the 5 Step Business Startup, the only expert sourced business training for startups and re-starts. Learn more about Jennifer’s business training and mentoring at gpsbusinessacadaemy.com

And Jennifer’s new skin care line, Peau D’Ange is gaining international acclaim as a source of high vibe, restorative, and nourishing skin treatment. This is Jennifer’s unique formulation, developed over 15 years of use, to which Jennifer attributes her youthful, glowing skin. Learn more about Peau D’Ange and the Femme Force community at femmeforcenow.com

I had heard about NLP in conferences in the early 2000s when I heard people talking about it, offering training, and promoting it as an essential tool to ‘overcome buyer objections’ and to build audiences. When I began to research NLP and found out what it was, I was immediately skeptical of anyone who admitted to using it and questioning their ethics, motives, and morality.

Once you learn about NLP, what it is, how it began and who developed it, and what it is for, you may share my opinion of these people and my disgust with this methodology.

In Part 1 of this series I provide an overview of NLP and its use in these industries.

In Part 2 you will learn how to identify NLP and how to avoid being manipulated and coerced by it.

And in Part 3 I describe a unique experience I had with the use of NLP on an audience of over 400 men and women by Lisa Sasevich in 2014.

Parts 4 to 6 discuss how to move beyond NLP and establish a more ethical, credibility-based system and where we go from here.

NLP: The Mind Control Mechanism Hiding in Plain Sight

Most people who attended professional conferences, spiritual events, sales trainings, or “high-performance coaching” programs over the past 20 years have no idea how much NLP—Neuro-Linguistic Programming—was being used on them. And even fewer know where it actually came from.

I remember being at large conference style events from 2010 to 2015 and watching as people flocked to the back tables, eager to buy whatever the speaker was selling. They were falling all over each other to be the first to grab what was being sold and price was no deterrent.

I never bought them because I thought they were too expensive and I also questioned the credentials of the people selling them. I prefer to get business advice and training from people who actually know something about business – and that does not apply to more than 95% of the people selling you their ‘must have’ business training products. This was true back then and it is true today.

But what puzzled me was the format of these events. Loud music, tearful testimonials, and what I later realized were carefully chosen words whose purpose was manipulation, even though they sounded inspirational.

You may not know this but your favorite spiritual, business, and self help leaders use language training that comes from the same source – NLP – which is Neuro-Linguistic Programming. If it sounds sinister, it is because it is nothing more than language used for mind control.

Most people believe NLP emerged in the 1970s as a communication technique but it started 20 years earlier, back to the 1950s. What also started during that time? If you guessed the MKUltra mind control programs, you would be right. And the foundational NLP research comes from the same labs. These studies go by fancy names like ‘behavioral science’ but they are all about how to control energy, thought, and actions.

Some of the earliest financial and research influences behind NLP’s development ran through institutions involved in defense-related behavioral research at MIT and Stanford and got their initial funding from DARPA (or DARKA as I prefer to call this agency). Programs involved human behavior modeling, influence science, and experimental communication systems were heavily funded. And the NLP programs flourished beginning with the heyday of marketing in the 1960s.

When the spiritual coaching world exploded in the early 2000s, a handful of charismatic leaders realized NLP could do something very powerful. It could manufacture trust, create artificial emotional bonding, override skepticism, induce obedience, increase sales conversions into the thousands. make people dependent on the “teacher”, and replace natural intuition and reserve with reliance on external authority.

NLP wasn’t used to help people think for themselves, it was used to make them easier to sell to.

This is why so many speakers at conferences and events followed the same trajectory – the hypnotic cadence, the forced “breakthrough moments”, the emotional flooding, the exaggerated rapport-building, the carefully timed “now is your moment to enroll” pitch, the mirroring, the anchoring, and the trance-like story loops.

None of that was accidental, it was specifically engineered. And most participants thought they were being “activated” by the charismatic, concerned, and supportive speaker or leader. But they were being handled, manipulated, and – mind controlled.

I remember Lisa Sasevich talking about NLP and what a powerful tool it was for speaking to audiences and ‘getting them to buy’. I thought I would find out what it was so I bought a book by the top authors in NLP training. I could not get past the first 2 pages. It felt wrong, cold, predatory, and manipulative – and now I know why. Read more on this topic in Part 3 of this NLP series.

This was not something I would do to my audiences. If they wanted to buy from me it was not going to be because I just spend 45 minutes engaging in mind control to make them believe that all of their money and life problems were going to be solved by buying my overpriced programs that were for sale ‘at the event special price’ at the back tables.

NLP, when used this way, is not spiritual, it is not ethical, and it is not a form of empowerment. This is scientifically derived behavior programming that is designed to influence, persuade, re-direct, destabilize, override resistance, and re-pattern thought. So the next time you hear someone talking about ‘overcoming objections’, you know where that language comes from.

If that is the case, why do so many speakers use it? Because it helps them make money, become a ‘savior’, influence their audiences, gain followers – and make money. And that’s the only reason to use it.

If NLP feels wrong to you, if you have sat at events, like me, and wondered why people were going nuts, it’s because they are literally being mind controlled into submission, obedience, and engaging in behavior that the speaker has spent a lot of time crafting the right words and phrases to use for that purpose.

But NLP does not have this influence on everyone. People with strong intuition and energetic sensitivity react to NLP far differently because their body registers it as intrusive, coercive, manipulative, energetically predatory, and invasive. It feels like someone is ‘reaching into your mind’ because that is what NLP was designed to do. Remember it is associated with MKUltra programming and was heavily funded by the defense industry and DARPA.

NLP is behavior programming that is designed to circumvent intuition, inner authority, discernment, individual sovereignty, and emotional autonomy.

You may have a different reaction to it because your energy field rejects it, as it knows the difference between communication and coercion.

That’s why I could not read the NLP book and why you may feel left out of the general ambience of conference events because you aren’t ‘feeling it’.

NLP is coercion wrapped in coaching language.

Why This Moment Matters — And Why NLP Is Being Exposed Now

The current collapse of the high-glamour, high-ticket spiritual industry which has been accelerated by revelations involving figures like Deepak Chopra, has created a mass awakening, like people being brought out of mass hypnosis. Because that is what NLP does and what it was designed to do.

The people who feel betrayed, abandoned, and emotionally bereft are realizing that a man they allowed to become a central figure in their lives, someone they trusted more than they trusted themselves, has betrayed them.

And in a way he did but for people like me, who never followed him or liked him, and who always felt something about him was ‘off’, this is a confirmation and vindication, not a betrayal.

This is not just about Deepak Chopra – it is about the entire pay to play spiritual industry, the corporatized self-help industry, and much of the coaching industry. Many of the people you see in top spots in those industries use NLP with their audiences and followers. And now that you know this, you know what to look for.

This forces people to ask deeper and difficult questions:

• Why did I believe what I thought I believed?

• Why did I feel so loyal to this teacher?

• Why did I ignore my discomfort, my intuition, and my own feelings?

• Why did I feel “activated” around them?

• Why did I buy so much and spend so much money?

And here’s the truth people are waking up to -- these teachings were not about enlightenment or success, they were about engineered compliance and manipulation using coercive communication – NLP doing exactly what it was designed to do. And the purpose was to coerce people into becoming followers, paying participants, and making a lot of money.

NLP makes the illusion of transformation feel real, on a temporary basis. Have you ever returned home from an event and when you get your credit card statement weeks later wonder, ‘what was I thinking?’

It’s not you – it’s NLP! You feel it when you are at the event, under the spell of NLP’s effects but as soon as you leave, the effect is gone and your reality moves back in. The ‘spell’ is broken and you may feel betrayed. Because you were.

But here is the more important part of this message - NLP Has No Place in True Spiritual Work

True spiritual evolution, transformation, and learning requires sovereignty. self-awareness. inner coherence, energetic congruence, truth-telling, real alignment, and grounded integrity.

NLP is based on manipulation, control, domination, energy suppression, obedience, trance inducement, emotional override, and psychological compliance. Maybe that is why NLP doesn’t work well on me – I hate being told what to do.

These two worlds – transformational teaching and NLP – are diametrically opposed and cannot coexist. You cannot put your trust in someone who uses mind control tactics on you. And your favorite ‘guru’ has probably been using NLP on you for the past 20 years.

So the next question is – where do we go from here?

I have been watching the spiritual industry takeover for over 15 years, have always spoken out against what I saw as phony, manipulative, and fake people climbing to the heights of fame and popularity. Propped up by the media machines, money, and influence of publishing houses and other organizations, they invaded, infiltrated, and intimidated the entire spiritual training and coaching industries.

People who were not part of their circle could not compete and their voices were marginalized, limited, or silenced. Their books did not become ‘best sellers’ – which is an industry scam by the way. They did not have the big stages, the tours, the product lines, or the money behind them.

It makes me wonder – who is responsible for their presence because I hardly think it is benign, whoever or whatever it is.

Understanding NLP, what it is, where it came from, and how it is being used, now explains why I felt so uncomfortable at conference events. If you have experienced this, thank you intuition and your inner guidance because they were working overtime to protect you from the mind control influence of NLP.

Next up: part 2 of this series on NLP and mind control where I show you how to recognize it and to avoid its effects on your mind.

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About Jennifer Hoffman

Jennifer Hoffman is the celebrated master intuitive, iconic Energy Savante, 8x best selling author, host of the Enlightening Life LIVE broadcast and the longest newsletter in publication, starting in February 2004.

Jennifer is the expert on energy congruence, alignment, and integration, the leading voice in self awareness and energy boundaries, and the author of more than 5000 articles and publications. You can find out more on the celebrated website at enlighteninglife.com, which has been online since February 2004.

She is a business and technology expert, with degrees in Finance, Economics, and Business Administration, and extensive experience in business, technology, and law. Her first website went online in 1999 - a decade before most ‘business coaches’ or ‘creators’.

She founded the GPS Business Academy, (gpsbusinessacademy.com) where she shares her business education, experience, and expertise to help people start, manage, and grow their business. Her trademark Expert Skills Audit helps you identify your 7 Expert Revenue Skills to build multiple revenue streams which you can do using the 5 Step Business Startup, the only expert sourced business training for startups and re-starts. Learn more about Jennifer’s business training and mentoring at gpsbusinessacadaemy.com

And Jennifer’s new skin care line, Peau D’Ange is gaining international acclaim as a source of high vibe, restorative, and nourishing skin treatment. This is Jennifer’s unique formulation, developed over 15 years of use, to which Jennifer attributes her youthful, glowing skin. Learn more about Peau D’Ange and the Femme Force community at femmeforcenow.com

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We are watching, in real time, the collapse of the guru era — the for-profit spiritual industry built on glamour, paid access, and manufactured enlightenment. This is not only about Deepak Chopra’s infamous relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, although that plays a part.

For nearly two decades I’ve witnessed people pour their faith, money, and power into authors and teachers who positioned themselves as the sole keepers of truth.

I knew it could not and would not last, something I have been saying for many years. I have been part of the spiritual world longer than most of the people who are now writing public apologies. While others built high-ticket empires and declared themselves enlightened, I did my work quietly, consistently, and with integrity. I turned down publishers, refused to share stages with those I thought were fraudsters, and never sold access to myself as a product.

So this moment of reckoning does not surprise me. The truth always rises. And the collapse of the guru economy was inevitable. Now the curtain has finally been pulled back and people are left wondering whom to trust.

My work as a spiritual mentor, teacher, and guide began by accident, first in 1991 when I started a spiritual group in Houston, Texas that quickly grew to include hundreds of members. Then in 2004, when I answered a calling that required me to give up a career I loved in business and technology. I never saw myself as a ‘leader,’ I did not want to be a ‘guru,’ I just wanted to help people find their own path and learn how to be in control of their own energy.

Since 2004 I have written 8 books, all self-published, all best sellers. No ‘famous’ author has ever written a promotional blurb for me, I was not part of their crowd. I have written over 5000 articles, started the first internet-based live weekly broadcast in March 2004 that I still host today. I started teaching online courses in March 2004, an early pioneer in online training.

I have millions of followers and students – but I do not have millions of social media followers.

You have probably never heard of me, and I am OK with that.

When I began teaching and writing on spiritual topics, which was a true calling for me. I knew I never wanted to be a leader or a guru. I wanted people to learn, heal, and grow. If they followed me it was because my work resonated with them, not because I promoted myself as THE source of information and they needed me to be their light – and pay for the privilege.

I watched as the pay to participate spiritual industry was formed, populated with people who said they had all of the answers and would share them with you, for a price that started at 4 or 5 figures.

Here’s something to ponder: If someone claims to be enlightened but charges $10K to access them, and an extra $5K for a photo op, that’s not enlightenment, it’s a pay to play business model.

What began as a movement rooted in personal healing and self-awareness gradually shifted into a business model built around high-ticket access, curated personas, and the illusion that transformation required proximity to a personality rather than one’s own inner work.

When major publishing houses approached me I turned them down because I did not like their terms or contracts. And I was not comfortable with charging exorbitant prices or sharing stages with people I knew were not authentic or aligned with my own values.

I could not promote people who I thought were, to be honest, scamming their audiences and were only in it for the money. So I did my work in the background while others gained fame, fortune and now, notoriety.

You won’t find my name on the Epstein list, or hear about me shacking up with other authors on promotional trips. I do not have to write long Substack articles talking about my errors in judgment and apologizing for my past misdeeds.

Because I never wanted to be a guru, a ‘leader’, or be known as The source. And I will continue to do the work that I have done for 23 years while they will fade into obscurity. There is value in authenticity – you do not have to apologize for yourself.

During those frenzied years, many people placed enormous trust in authors and teachers who seemed to have all the answers. Audiences were encouraged, either subtly or directly, with a shocking amount of NLP inspired language, to believe that enlightenment was something delivered to them rather than cultivated within them.

NOTE: NLP refers to Neuro-Linguistic Programming, which was started in the 1950s at university labs at MIT and Stanford. DARPA provided early and ongoing funding. It is literally language used for mind control.

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And during that time I have observed as people hung on every word of the likes of Deepak Chopra, and the Hay House authors of the moment, and warned that the model would fall one day under the weight of its grift, greed, and glamor. I said that the true nature of those they held up as gurus and spiritual pundits would one day be revealed and the ivory towers they built for them would eventually fall.

And so it is. If you have read Lissa Rankin’s recent expose of the dark side of this spiritual profit center, you may be heartbroken to know that your favorite author is named among those she calls out. And many people are understandably hurt, some are emotionally bereft, others, like me, are not surprised.

It’s understandable that so many people feel hurt or disillusioned now. Their trust wasn’t misplaced; it was simply invested in an industry that evolved into something that could never last over the long term. In the famous words of WC Fields , “… you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.”

If ‘awakening’ was their objective, they have now reached liftoff. It just happened in a way they did not predict would be achieved, as a side effect of the revelation of the dark side of the for profit spiritual industry, and that would lead to its downfall.

Greed, grift, glamour, and the targeting of the gullible is business model that does not have long term stability.

The truth is out and now it is time to forge a new path. The sad truth we have learned is that things never end well when you turn your power over to someone you think has all of the answers. And when you have to pay thousands of dollars to get close to someone, you’re probably being scammed.

Watching your spiritual heroes and heroines fall off of their pedestals, as a result of their own grift, greed, and self-proclaimed moral superiority, has angered and saddened many.

It’s a moment that we see played out in history through fairy tales – the moment we realize that the emperor has no clothes.

I have never liked Deepak Chopra, something about him always bothered me. Maybe it was the smugness, the self-importance, the spiritual bypassing on every topic. And if you have not read his recent response to the revelation of his name being in the Epstein files over 3600 times, please read it. It’s a classic example of spiritual bypassing, with words carefully selected by his legal team to avoid admitting guilt, and limiting possible future litigation. I know, I was a paralegal and I know how lawyers and PR teams work to protect a reputation. They call it ‘damage control.’

After over 20 years of spiritual glamor, grift, greed, and targeting the gullible, it’s time to get back to normal.

There was a time when spiritual teachings were about self-awareness, empowerment, and self-growth.

This was before spiritual teaching became a profit center.

Then, you did not need to pay someone 4 or 5 figures to be declared healed, whole, and free from ‘sin’. We are watching the collapse of an old and outworn paradigm in real time, to be replaced by people who have a genuine calling and who are authentically aligned with their work.

And watch out for the people whose tone is now shifting from ‘I have all the answers’ to ‘you were always your own source of information.’ Sadly, they are just trying to avoid obscurity and stay on their stage.

Their hypocrisy is truly boundless.

Here is what I see happening now. New teachers will come forward. Real people, grounded in authenticity, alignment with their teaching, grounded in the reality of focusing on self-awareness, not hero worship. These people have always been around, they have just been overshadowed by an industry that could buy press time, bolster book sales, and fund stages.

They won’t be loud or obnoxious, they won’t promote themselves as your source. You may have to look for them to find them, and that’s OK . ’When the student is ready, the teacher appears.’

And they won’t be air-brushed, retouched, AI generated, use ghost writers, or steal others’ content (that has been a problem for me – having my work stolen by so-called ‘spiritual’ or’ business leaders’.)

What we can learn from the fall of the for profit spiritual industry is this – you really were the source of your own healing and growth all along. You were scammed into thinking that other people had the answers you needed to come to terms with the reality of your life and create your own authentic alignment

And you never needed to pay anyone thousands of dollars for answers that you could get yourself, when you learned to ask the right questions.

It’s time for a new path and a new paradigm. And whatever was blocking it just got shoved out of the way. If you have a calling, get started. The path has been cleared for you and it is time to shine your light and let others see it.

And me? I have been doing this work for 23 years, since 2004, and I am still here. I will continue to do what I have always done – write, teach, speak, and share. If you like my work, great. If you don’t that is great too – there are plenty of teachers out there for you to find. But if you want a guru, I am not the person for you. I know that you must shine your own light and I am only here to help you find it for yourself.

About Jennifer Hoffman

Jennifer Hoffman is the celebrated master intuitive, iconic Energy Savante, 8x best selling author, host of the Enlightening Life LIVE broadcast and the longest newsletter in publication, starting in February 2004.

Jennifer is the expert on energy congruence, alignment, and integration, the leading voice in self awareness and energy boundaries, and the author of more than 5000 articles and publications. You can find out more on the celebrated website at enlighteninglife.com, which has been online since February 2004.

She is a business and technology expert, with degrees in Finance, Economics, and Business Administration, and extensive experience in business, technology, and law. Her first website went online in 1999 - a decade before most ‘business coaches’ or ‘creators’.

She founded the GPS Business Academy, (gpsbusinessacademy.com) where she shares her business education, experience, and expertise to help people start, manage, and grow their business. Her trademark Expert Skills Audit helps you identify your 7 Expert Revenue Skills to build multiple revenue streams which you can do using the 5 Step Business Startup, the only expert sourced business training for startups and re-starts. Learn more about Jennifer’s business training and mentoring at gpsbusinessacadaemy.com

And Jennifer’s new skin care line, Peau D’Ange is gaining international acclaim as a source of high vibe, restorative, and nourishing skin treatment. This is Jennifer’s unique formulation, developed over 15 years of use, to which Jennifer attributes her youthful, glowing skin. Learn more about Peau D’Ange and the Femme Force community at femmeforcenow.com

My oldest son was the worst at never shutting the toilet lid and although I reminded him constantly, he always ‘forgot’. Aside from the esthetics, I told my children that something was going to fall into the toilet and they would be sorry.

And one day it did.

My son came to find me and breathlessly told me that his dental retainer had fallen into the toilet. “Come and see Mom,” he said urgently.

So I followed him upstairs and there in the clean toilet water, gleaming brightly, was the $500 retainer.

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“This is why I keep telling you to shut the toilet lid. Didn’t I tell you that something would fall into the toilet?” I told him, sounding exasperated but I was enjoying a silent victory. Now he had a living example of why I constantly reminded him to shut the toilet lid.

My son asked, “What are you going to do?” I told him to get the rubber gloves from under the kitchen sink. He ran off and a few minutes later came back with the long, bright pink rubber gloves.

“Here Mom,” he said, handing me the rubber gloves.

Now I raised 3 babies in cloth diapers. I had no trouble sticking my bare hand in the toilet but I did not cause this problem and this was a ‘not to be wasted’ teaching moment.

“The gloves are not for me,” I said. “I did not leave the toilet lid open, and it is not my retainer in the toilet. You put the gloves on and you get the retainer out of there now.”

My son looked at me, horrified. “But Mom, it’s the toilet.” You would have thought I had asked him to put his bare hands into an open sewer.

“The water is clean, so you put those gloves on and get that retainer.” Slowly he put the gloves on – both hands – and after a few moments, gingerly stuck his hand in the toilet and grabbed the retainer, which he handed to me.

I wrapped it in a tissue and told him to shut the lid and follow me downstairs. We sanitized, washed, and disinfected it and put it in the sun for UV cleaning for good measure.

That night, at the dinner table, my son told his siblings how he had to fish his retainer out of the toilet, ignoring the part where he had once again forgotten to shut the toilet lid. And that he was wearing my elbow length heavy rubber gloves.

They were appropriately sympathetic and horrified. And no one left the toilet lid open again. In fact my son was the one who went around the house, making sure the toilet lids were shut and I heard them, more than once, telling each other that they needed to keep the toilet lids shut or ‘mom would make them put their hands in the toilet.”

But lesson learned and even today, they all keep the toilet lid shut in their homes. Sometimes parents get a little help in the form of a life situation that closes a teaching cycle in an unforgettable way. My son still makes sure the toilet lid is closed in the bathroom, to this day. And he occasionally talks about the day I made him put his hands in the toilet.

What that day really taught wasn’t just “close the toilet lid.”

It taught ownership and was a stark reminder that warnings come from experience and consequences follow actions.

We ignore small habits until something expensive, uncomfortable, or embarrassing falls into the metaphorical toilet of our lives — a missed opportunity, a strained relationship, a financial oversight, a neglected health issue, a business system we meant to fix “someday.”

And then we’re standing there, staring at the consequences.

Sometimes the most powerful growth happens when we stop asking someone else to fix what we left undone — and we put on the gloves ourselves.

So here’s a question worth sitting with:

Is there something in your life you’ve been meaning to close, clean up, or take ownership of… but haven’t?

Those are the conversations I have in my strategy sessions.

Not surface-level advice. Not motivational slogans.

We identify what’s been left open, what’s at risk, and what needs to be handled — calmly, clearly, and strategically — before something more expensive falls in.

Because it’s far easier to shut the lid than to fish something out later.

If a confidential strategy call would help, click here to learn about your options.

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About Jennifer Hoffman

Jennifer Hoffman is the celebrated master intuitive, iconic Energy Savante, 8x best selling author, host of the Enlightening Life LIVE broadcast and the longest newsletter in publication, starting in February 2004.

Jennifer is the expert on energy congruence, alignment, and integration, the leading voice in self awareness and energy boundaries, and the author of more than 5000 articles and publications. You can find out more on the celebrated website at enlighteninglife.com, which has been online since February 2004.

She is a business and technology expert, with degrees in Finance, Economics, and Business Administration, and extensive experience in business, technology, and law. Her first website went online in 1999 - a decade before most ‘business coaches’ or ‘creators’.

She founded the GPS Business Academy, (gpsbusinessacademy.com) where she shares her business education, experience, and expertise to help people start, manage, and grow their business. Her trademark Expert Skills Audit helps you identify your 7 Expert Revenue Skills to build multiple revenue streams which you can do using the 5 Step Business Startup, the only expert sourced business training for startups and re-starts. Learn more about Jennifer’s business training and mentoring at gpsbusinessacadaemy.com

And Jennifer’s new skin care line, Peau D’Ange is gaining international acclaim as a source of high vibe, restorative, and nourishing skin treatment. This is Jennifer’s unique formulation, developed over 15 years of use, to which Jennifer attributes her youthful, glowing skin. Learn more about Peau D’Ange and the Femme Force community at femmeforcenow.com