YouSaid · the spoken record

Paul McKenna

lines on the record: 50
first: 2007-05-27
most recent: 2007-05-27
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“I take a pitcher am I allowed to make like a collage of pictures and stick them into one frame? Yes, okay. It would be family, friends, my girlfriend, and I would take that with me.”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I discovered something last year, a process called Big Mind. It's created by a guy called Dennis Mazell. He's a really eminent Western Zen master, and the book is called The Path of the Human Being. Your consciousness expands and you become one with everything. You are part of the eternal is, if you like. It's the only way I can describe it. And this technique has significantly changed my life for the better. So I'm going to take that book with me. It's phenomenal.”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“This is primal scream and moving on up, and I've always liked this song, and I found it very uplifting. The opening lyrics are I was blind and I can see. Even when I hear it now, you know, it reminds me of this story, and I am in the hope business, because I don't know what is and what isn't possible, but I'm prepared to get stuck in and find out.”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes. I'm saying, yes, there is always hope. But I'm not saying that I'm going to work miracles or anything like that. You're absolutely right. There's a duty to be responsible with this and not give people false hope. And I hope that I'm not doing that. But at the same time, let's not forget, nothing was curable once upon a time. And look how much we can cure now.”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The thing is we don't really know what took place there, and you know he can't see as well as he used to, but he can see things. He can see his granddaughter's face, see his wife's face, he sees things in black and white, it flashes of colour. But it's more the change in him that's so uplifting. So that's my favourite incurable case.”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I think my favourite of all of these cases the man called Ray Mash, who was hit on the head at building sites. And as a result of this, he went blind. Now, the doctors at the time believed that he had hysterical blindness, which is like a post traumatic stress response when he hadn't seen anything for eight years when I met him. And I'd never done a case of hysterical blindness, but I'd always wanted to. And I began working with him. We didn't really get very far at first, and then suddenly we had the most phenomenal moment when I think about it now it just is overwhelming when suddenly after eight years he could see his wife's face one day and it was one of the most beautiful moments I've had as a therapist and we then had another evaluation, and it's now believed that he did have neurological damage.”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, eventually I have been after working with people in the areas you would expect a hypnotist to work in, you know, helping people lose weight, quit smoking, overcome phobias. I started working with people who were inverted commas, incurable, just to see what was possible and have had some success there. Likewise.”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The next piece of music well you see, this relates very well to what we were talking about just before we got on to the cars. So this next piece of music is by everything but the girl. It's called I didn't know that I was looking for love but I found it. And there's a lyric in this song that I really, I like the song, but there's a lyric I think is pretty good which is And now you're here there's a full brass band playing in me like a wonderland, and if you left I would be two foot tall, and every tear would be a waterfall. And I always thought if I ever got married this would be a song I'd like to have played at my wedding, and it's a beautiful song.”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, I am very shallow there's that side of me that likes a glamour, that likes the obvious, if you like. I admit it, and I embrace it. I like James Bond, like cop shows, you know, I never read any novels. Like fast cars, you know, part of me is still a 12-year-old boy.”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You do Well, but you know, I don't know anyone who has all the answers, and particularly this is the whole thing about being in love, is, you know, you look at that person through rose tinted spectacles.”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I'd had my heartbroken several times, and you know, and basically it comes down to this, you know, I'd invested in a future, I'd assumed, made the assumption that I was going to be with this person forevermore, and when suddenly it was cancelled, so was my future, and so I'd feel immense upset.”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I was very flattered to read that, I have to say, but yeah, I don't like the Guru tag because, you know, it's got so much baggage, you know, it's just so many negative connotations. And also the Gurus always seemed to get into trouble at some stage.”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We even hear it. Well, it's going to sound like a racket, especially on radio four. But when I work out, it gives me that extra lift of motivation. This is definitely a reflection of who I am.”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The next piece of music is by Leftfield Space Shanty. I like music of repetitive beats, and not everyone understands this kind of music.”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, the scientific community should be sceptical because that's how we test whether something works or not. As to common sense, I'm always secretly glad when people say that because a great deal of work goes into taking very complicated psychological theories and techniques and making them so simple that they sound like common sense and so that's a real compliment.”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Will we do studies for example I'm very proud of the weight loss system that I've developed over it's taken me about 15 years to get it to this stage now and it doesn't work for everyone I want to say that I don't know any technique that does work for everyone every single time any drug that does but it works for most people most of the time and so that will do for me to”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh well, yes it is as far as I'm concerned I see human beings very mechanically and yet they're mysterious and wonderful and complex, but ultimately it's mechanics. Human beings very much like a computer. We have programs that”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“What was wrong with it? I just want it fixed. You know, if the garage say, ah, we can't fix it, but we can tell you why it's broken, sir. That will not really wash with me.”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm not a fan of traditional psychoanalysis. Getting somebody to go back and remember in vivid technicolor rather than in a disassociated way the way I was just describing it, all of the worst things that have ever happened to them. To me it's like taking somebody with a broken leg and throwing them down the stairs until they feel better. I mean, I give an example. I was at a function a couple of years ago and this lady came up to me. She's a Freudian analyst, right? And we had a chat for a while. And I said, look, why don't we do this tomorrow we'll find a phobic and we'll see which one of us can cure the phobic and she went oh no We're not interested in curing phobic in analysis I went Oh well what's the point of it? she went helping them understand why they're phobic And I said what's the point in that? If my car breaks down I take the garage I don't really care”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, right. So you make a TV screen, you see a still image in black and white of a traumatic time. And you stop the world still, you float over into the screen, you tell the younger you that he's going to survive this time, that you're from the future, you've come to tell him everything's all right. He's totally good enough, you love and approve of him just the way he is, and that he's always good enough. His self worth is the same today as it was the day he's born and will be the day he dies.”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes I feel happier to day than I think I have ever felt, and yet at the same time you know I still have problems, challenges you know that's how we learn and grow, I think”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“This next track is Space Cowboy by Jamiroqui, and I think following this court case, I had an opportunity to let off some steam and to really enjoy myself. And this song was playing in all the clubs. So, you know, it reminds me of a time of sort of, of Euphoria, really.”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“God it was a massive relief. And I'm a professional broadcaster, but my hand was shaking. And I looked at a picture of this the other day I saw it, and I was gaunt. I could see I looked really quite stressed. It aged me. It was a very tough experience. And yet it was a big relief.”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Badly I woke up one day to see my face on the front page of one of the tabloid newspapers and the headline harmless or deadly. Even now thinking about it it was tough it was a very tough time because this was not about the commercial ramifications. This was about the fundamental essence of my character.”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He did, he sued me. The court case, I think, was perhaps the last witch trial that we had in this country. They had found a psychiatrist who said that I cast spells on people, and yet if I'd lost it, I would have been finished, I would have been bankrupted, the whole implication was that I cynically made money for making fools out of people, this sort of thing.”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I was shocked You're right this gentleman does have schizophrenia which is a biological brain disorder and the whole incident you're referring to resulted in the high court case”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, well, actually it's nice to look and see how much hair I had. In fact, one of them was on television on satellite TV the other day and I was sitting there looking out thinking that's me but that's not me anymore.”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, that's right. We try to make a very sexy light entertainment program, and I think of its time. In its day, it really stood up. I mean, I'm not sure we would do that now. But the style of it was of its time. Does it make you blame?”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Isn't it that I am in? Rather unfortunate creatures. Yes, what you're describing there is an unfortunate sort of side of the self-improvement community, if you like. It's something that I think puts a lot of people off reading a self-improvement book. But I don't think there's anything wrong with wanting to better yourself, but not in that sort of cheesy evangelistical sense that we see so many American motivational speakers speaking.”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“This record by Banderis This is your life reminds me of that time at Capital Radio, walking down Tottenham Court Road, that time went, you see, I believe we have moments where we can make a choice, a sort of a junction, a destiny moment, if you like. And I could have stayed as a DJ quite happily, and I think done well as a DJ. But there's a saying risk is the currency of the gods, and I've got creative in my thinking.”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, there was a moment when it was I was walking down Tottenham Court Road one day, and suddenly I realized I thought, hang on, we own a theatre, Capital Radio owned a theatre in those days, so I went to see Richard Park, who, you know, you may well know from the famous academy, but he was the program director at Capital Radio at the time as my boss. And I fully expect him to say you must be joking in. He sat back and went Okay, Paulie, we'll back you It was like a destiny moment for me and to me all success in life comes down to people saying I'll back you that's what it is”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Unless you had two jobs, yeah, you're absolutely right. The radio was my main job. I would be DJ by day, hypnotist by night, and so I had these two careers that were running in parallel.”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, I think so. I think part of it was this in a lack of self worth. But also it's a search for there must be something more to it than this you know who am I, all that sort of stuff were things I would think about”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Absolutely. That's right. That's what it's all about. At times I fell out of control, so I've compensated for it ever since, and now I do this job where I get to control lots of people around me. You're absolutely right.”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Transformed Fantastic, but also intrigued, and I borrowed a book from the sky by Richard Bandler, who was later to become my mentor in this area, and I went home and read it, and then I began to hypnotize my friends to help them quit smoking or lose weight or overcome phobias, and it pretty much worked.”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“In my early twenties, I suppose, but my first experience with it was that I was radio broadcaster and I was interested in yoga and meditation. I went one day to interview the local hypnotist and I'd had a particularly bad dad split up with my girlfriend, the people in the apartment where I was living were making a noise, I had a row with my boss at work. And so I arrived at this interview fairly stressed and I said do your weirdy mind thing on me and I sat back. I was quite, I was sceptical, but benevolently so I said let the process begin.”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“This has led Zeppelin Stairway to heaven. Very cliche choice, but it's still just one of the best records ever made. And I believe at one stage was the most requested record in the world on the radio.”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, we'd share certain duties, but there were some people that would do those kind of things. And I think there was something about being on a ship, the romance of that, and also Ronan O'Reilly, who started Radio Caroline, encouraged us to talk about nice things and send out, he called it loving awareness, which I know would sound like some big hippie now, but to send out a sort of a peaceful, happy message and to play what you wanted and to have that freedom and to look out of the porthole and see this extraordinary view of the North Sea was amazing and you just couldn't help but convey that to the listeners.”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh, absolutely, it was one of the best real life adventures I ever had. I was a great big Icelandic trawler, and we'd sneak out on a fishing boat, and I can't tell how exciting I found the whole thing. I was twenty years old. It was a bunch of blokes, and we had a lot of fun we used to muck up. I remember one night we were all up to about four in the morning having a water fight throwing buckets of water over each other running around the superstructure of the ship. And I really, really enjoyed it.”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, the nice thing is with radio is there's not that many people looking at you. In fact, there is that saying has a perfect face for radio. And so many DJs have a fantastic voice when you meet them. They don't look exactly as you'd imagine.”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh, it's brilliant. My friends are stacking shelves in the supermarket and I'm playing records in a store surrounded by beautiful women and being paid to do it. I thought this is fun. This is not like real work. This is so much fun, so I thought maybe this is what I should do.”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I love this. I think it's a great disco record. In fact, the other night I was at dinner with some friends and we were saying when you hear a song back in say the seventies, the first time you heard it, it sounded absolutely fantastic and it will never sound like that again. And I was thinking about this later and I thought, you know, I do age regression sometimes when I'm working with a client. I take them back to a time they're childhood and they can remember it like they're really back there again and I thought I wonder if I can do that. So age regressed myself. I know this sounds a little unusual. Took myself back and then whacked on Sister Sledge on the iPod is the greatest answer and it just sounded phenomenal. It sounded like it did years ago. It sounded as fresh and as one of those amazing big disco drums kicked in and the funky heart started playing it just sounded fantastic.”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“there was cruelty, and I think sometimes some of the good things have come from that is having seen cruelty and repression. It makes you appreciate compassion more. Did your appearance have any sense of your unhappiness? Oh, absolutely, yeah. I'm in Iised. And I think when one of the teachers was convicted of sexually assaulting one of the kids at the school, then they began to suspect that actually it wasn't this fantastic place that they thought they were lucky to get me into. Tell me about your next track This is Sister Sledge, he's the greatest dancer. What a change of pace This was about the time, I think it would be about 7980 when I was really starting to work as a disc jockey. I used to work in top shop as a DJ writer.”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“reinforce what the church had to say at home? Yes, but equally I should say that my parents, I think, get a benefit from going to church. I don't like church. I'm not religious. I believe in God. I mean, I know I read frequently, and I've read it in quite a few interviews that I'm an atheist. Absolutely not. But I didn't find that religion worked for me. Were you very unhappy at school then? Yeah, the secondary school, absolutely. I thought it was a repressive environment. I don't like authority in many respects. If somebody I think is pushing me, it makes me want to push them back, you know, rather than conform.”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, that's how I felt as a kid, you know. I suppose I was quite athletic, but that was how I felt about myself. Why? I don't know why, actually. It's just, you know, like a lot of kids growing up, you know, everyone that's bigger than you is smarter or has it more together, it's easy then to have a negative self-image. But it would have to have been, well, I don't need to tell you this, it would have to have been reinforced. I mean, if you were feeling, if you had those tendencies to be rather introspective and self-critical, somebody must have been reinforcing that. Oh, absolutely, and that would be the Catholic Church. Because, you know, I went to a Catholic school, and it's very much about making you feel guilty less than, you know, somehow if you go to church often enough and a good enough to the church, then somehow you can make up for it. And, you know, that was really, I suppose, where the negative aspect was reinforced. And your mum and dad were good Catholics.”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Last words that Lennon McCartney wrote together, and without wishing to be morbid, I suppose this is what I'd have at my funeral. The Beatles and the End Take us back then, Paul McKenna, to the early years, to little Paul McKenna. What was life like at home in the early days? I grew up in North London, my My father was builder, my mother teacher, I was a nerdy, gimpy kid, I suppose, and I think I had a good childhood. That's harsh, isn't it?”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think that, as you say, the Hollywood archetypal image of the man with a swinging watch, black suit, you know, goaty beard, and malevolent intentions has sort of played a part in creating that idea in the psyche of lots of people. But I'm hoping to dismantle that. I want to avoid all the psychobabble or the ooga booger kind of esoteric associations. Because really hypnosis is just another word for thinking. And when we use hypnosis, we can get extraordinary outcomes, but it's really just a way of thinking. Tell me about your first piece of music. First piece of music is the Beatles. I couldn't do a list of eight songs without putting the Beatles in there. I particularly like the end from Abbey Road, the lyric at the end is and in the end the love that you take is equal to the love that you make.”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Can people be hypnotized to do absolutely anything? No, people won't do things that violate their morals or values. However, people can be tricked, coerced and manipulated into that. We don't need hypnosis for that. Politicians are very good at persuading us to do things that are not necessarily in our best interest as are high pressure salespeople or cult leaders. And these are really the modern day persuaders that use psychological techniques to get people to do things that are in their best interest, but not in the interest of the individuals they're persuading. Very firmly placed in all of our imaginations is this idea of the bloke usually in a black suit with these rather worrying eyes and a bit of a pendulum, you know, the fob watch things look into my eyes. I mean, it's been updated, of course, by the Little Britain character of Look into My Eyes, Luke Deep into my eyes. People do have that idea that behind it all there's evil at work. Yes.”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He won on both occasions. We're going to come back to those tribulations later, Paul McKenna, because they are fascinating. But can we start with the very basics? How does it feel to be hypnotized? Well, for everybody, it's different, but usually it's deep relaxation. People find instead of being aware of lots of things, we tend to focus on one idea at a time. You could probably compare it to meditation or, you know, in business, people do a thing called strategic planning, where they relax and then imagine what their company will be doing, what product or service they'll be offering in the future and what their competitors will be doing. That seems to me to be just the same as hypnosis or the great creatives throughout history, Einstein, Mozart, Tesla, Goethe, Walt Disney, I don't know, lots of great creatives have referred to that reverie, that creative state where they get their ideas from in similar terms when they describe it, as hypnotist would to hypnotism.”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music. The program was originally broadcast in two thousand seven. My castaway this week is Paul McKenna to describe him as Britain's best known hypnotist would be accurate, but not the full picture true. He made his name on prime time TV with millions watching incredulously as he mesmerized ordinary people into doing extraordinary things, but it's in his role as a modern day guru that he's gained significant credibility and a fortune to match, as Britain's best selling non fiction author his paperbacks fly off the shelves. And it's little wonder, with titles like I Can Make You Thin Quit Smoking today and Change Your Life in seven days. He taps into the angstridden preoccupations of our age with promises of serenity, contentment and control. And yet his own life has been anything but a breeze. As a boy, he was chronically unconfident and terrorized by bullies, and in his career he has twice stood in the witness box, accused of causing a man's schizophrenia and to defend himself against possessing a fake PHD.”
2007-05-27 · Desert Island Discs · Paul McKenna · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source