You're getting sleepy, very sleepy…

By MICHAEL RICHESON

Whitefish hypnotist, psychic also a 'normal' grandmother

The Daily Inter Lake

She's surprisingly normal.

No incense. No beads. No witch's brew.

Kathleen Hansen may look more like a schoolmarm than a psychic, but for more than 40 years she has made a living by "seeing" chakras and auras.

"A lot of people don't know I'm a psychic or a hypnotist," Hansen said. "I'm just a little, old lady, actually."

There are a few tell-tale signs that she might not travel a typical path. The walls along the stairs of her Whitefish home are completely covered with Buddha sketches and pictures from her world travels.

But intermixed are photos of her grandchildren's prom.

The packed bookshelves show she's well-read, but like everything else about her, the commonplace is mixed with the paranormal. She has "Goddess" on the same shelf as a dictionary, a book filled with Monet's paintings and a local phone book.

The lack of fulfilled stereotypes and her nonchalance about what she does are disarming.

"Some people think I'm very weird, and they don't want much to do with me," she said. "That's all right. I'm just able to see. It's a natural thing. Sometimes people are really good at certain types of sports or are better artists than others."

Hansen said her ability to hypnotize people or read past lives isn't much different than her example of a man who came over to fix her washing machine.

"He just knew how to fix it because he had the skill and the training," she said. "It's just skill, training and experience, that's all."

Like most people, I found Hansen when I read the small advertisement she has been running for 17 years. I was fishing for story ideas, though, not a hypnotist. I thought I'd hit the jackpot when I read her ad that tells people they can stop smoking in one hour. Like any good skeptic, I thought it was a dubious claim at best.

"How about a sweet tooth?" I asked. "Can you cure that?"

Most days, I'd sell my entire family for a doughnut.

"Oh, sure," she said. "Want to try it?"

I was hesitant at first.

Hansen uses an instant hypnosis technique rather than a slow, relaxation method. I simply sat in a chair with my eyes closed while she spoke. I was listening and taking deep breaths when she suddenly said, "Sleep!"

Being "under" is incredibly relaxing. It's like taking the best nap ever, only also being cognizant of everything. Hansen believes people can change anything through hypnosis, including addictions or irrational fears.

"It's about changing your thinking so you can do things differently," she said. "It's better when you do it through hypnosis because it works much better. If you try it normally, you tend to argue with yourself later."

She was right.

While I was hypnotized, she kept telling me that I didn't need sugar. In fact, she didn't stop talking the entire time. It's a positive and affirming tool that is very convincing.

Most hypnosis sessions last about 45 minutes, but this was the abbreviated version. After a few minutes, Hansen counted to five and poof, I was awake. I felt very relaxed and a little sleepy, like I'd just received a really good massage.

Hansen sat back down in her chair and that was it.

So did it work? So far. So far it has been 14 days of being sugar-free. I even stood in front of the doughnuts at a grocery store as a test. I don't suddenly hate sweets now. I just don't care that they exist.

HANSEN never planned on being a psychic and hypnotist. After receiving a bachelor's degree in psychology and sociology from the University of California-Los Angeles, she moved to Hawaii for her graduate studies. She then spent a year learning Spanish at the University of Madrid and settled down in California as a teacher.

A car accident in her 20s changed everything.

"I was unconscious for about three weeks, and I had a blood clot in the back of my head," Hansen said. "It just changed me."

Hansen found herself with the ability to "see" what other people couldn't.

Almost a decade went by before she decided to pursue a life as a psychic. She attended the Berkeley Psychic Institute, where she studied under Evelyn Beard.

"She was incredible," Hansen said. "I feel her energy very strongly in how she's helped me."

Her family wasn't sure what to think at first.

"My mom didn't even know if [being a psychic] was legal," Hansen joked.

They came to accept her new abilities, and now she occasionally gives readings to her daughter and her grandchildren.

"Sometimes they listen to me, and sometimes they get tired of it," Hansen said. "They aren't impressed with me."

After her training, she began earning a living by giving life readings and doing past-life regressions.

"Readings are so much fun," she said. "It's like going to the movies and seeing this great story of a person coming on."

During a life reading, which is essentially a conversation in her living room, Hansen said she helps people see why they think and act the way they do. For her, it's a learning tool that helps people change unwanted behavior.

"As soon as they see why they are doing some things, they can let it go so they don't do it again," she said. "That's when the healing comes into play. A lot of people are carrying a lot of pain. It's not because they are doing anything wrong. It's because of what's happened to them and what they've put into themselves."

Hansen claims she can also see people's past lives. In her previous lives, she believes she was an artist, a psychic in Africa and a sea captain.

"I was never a princess or anything like that," she said.

While the past may fascinate her, Hansen refuses to read the future for people. She said the future is generally a person's own creation and highly fluid.

"That isn't my job to look at the future," she said.

SHE FOUND Whitefish while traveling from her home in Lake Tahoe to Minnesota for a canoe trip. Lake Tahoe had become crowded and overpriced, and Montana drew her in. Plus, she was an avid ski bum, and the opportunity to hit the slopes was too much to pass up.

"I saw what a neat place to live this was," Hansen said. "It seemed to have everything I wanted with the mountains and the lake."

Whitefish, however, was not California. Psychics and hypnotists still aren't what anyone would call "the norm" in Northwest Montana. She still did decent business as a psychic, but she decided to expand her skill set and became a certified hypnotist and neuro-linguistic programmer at the Esalen Institute in California.

Now, at 74, Hansen plans to continue working as a hypnotist and a psychic. Since she's moved to the Flathead, a handful of hypnotists also have made their homes here.

"There still isn't anyone like me who can do what I can do," she said. "This is what I'm good at, and this is what I enjoy. It's been my life's work."

Reporter Michael Richeson may be reached at 758-4459 or by e-mail at mricheson@dailyinterlake.com