Q: Anything else?
A: When I was a student you tricked me into volunteering to come to the front of the class as a 'guinea pig' for one of your demos. You told me to "try to pick up" a chair. I couldn't do it. Then you told me to stop trying, and just "pick up that chair". I did it.

Q: That was my sneaky way of showing the class how the "try to open your eyes" deepener works. Do you use the "try" method in class?
A: When my students are doing power lifting I do the demo so they then learn to stop trying to lift, and just lift.

Q: You told me once that hypnosis training clarified further for you your belief that we are all responsible for our own lives. How does that help in martial arts?
A: As hypnotists we were taught that people would try to hand over to us all responsibility for stopping them smoking or losing weight. Instead, we needed to tell them that the hypnotist is a guide and a helper with some useful tools. But the patient needed to take responsibility for, and be proud of, making changes in his or her own life. I teach a lot of self-defence classes. In most similar martial arts training schools, the instructors teach students to react to a first move made by an aggressor. They even swear at their students to get them angry and create an "adrenaline dump" to get them in a defensive fighting mood.

Q: What's your method?
A: At Evade we teach personal responsibility in not becoming the target of an aggressor. We do role playing. You know how on the Certificate we learned the importance of body language? “Head down posture makes patients depressed. Get them to look up and they will think more positive thoughts?" I get my students to imagine they are in a dangerous situation, e.g. walking down a lonely dark road. They must hold their bodies confidently, have correct spatial awareness of what is around them, and be alert to any danger so they can avoid it, before they have to defend themselves physically.

Q: I am delighted to see how hypnosis training seems to fit so comfortably with the many years of mind power learning that have made you one of the best martial artists and trainers. Do most people in your field share your views?
A: No. I recently gave an interview to a leading magazine in which I mentioned how useful hypnosis had been to me. A reader wrote back to say: "Hypnotherapy gives power to the hypnotist... which establishes unfavourable control circuits in the mind, a bit like a robot... (It is) implanting from ignorant minded dabblers."

Q: How do you deal with this type of criticism?
A:I'm still looking for a suitable reply. But I was very amused that the same magazine carried an interview with Frank Juarez Shamrock, one of the world's greatest martial artists. He said of his preparation for fights: "I use visualisation, meditation, and a little self-hypnosis."

Q: Many thanks, Dave. And may you and Amanda go on from success to more success with your training school. How can readers find out more about your courses?
A: They can phone the Evade centre on
01457 860178
e-mail: www.evademartialarts.com