| Vernon Frost is a name you may have encountered along the way, but he’s not the sort of person who is easily put into a box. In fact, there is no real working definition of what he does, beyond saying that he helps people as they heal themselves on many levels. |  |
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| Sandi McLeod spoke to Vernon for Odyssey to shed some light on who he is, what he does and how he does it. |
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There’s little in Vernon Frost’s background that would lead you to believe that he would become an internationally recognised workshop and
self-development facilitator, working with individuals, groups and corporate clients. Born in Cape Town, raised in Mowbray, |
| schooled at Rondebosch Boys Junior and then High schools, he wasn’t great on the academic side, being your average sporty chap who enjoyed rugby, cricket, badminton, squash and all the usual South African things. |
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| Perhaps the first hint of what was to come came in his last year at high school when he witnessed a hypnotherapy demonstration. Vernon picks up the story: ‘While under hypnosis a 16 year old boy was given a hiding with a cane, a real hiding! However when the boy stood up there were absolutely no marks on his body. When I saw that I thought, “This is amazing,” and so I pursued hypnosis. Part of my training at that stage was to read everything I could lay my hands on. |
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Later, when I did my military service I started to practice what I had learnt.
I just did it, I was trying everything out; they were good guinea pigs, so I tried all kinds of weird and wonderful things and found I had a gift and flair for it. This resulted in my formally studying to be a clinical hypno-therapist and I received my certification through the American Council of Hypnotists.’ |
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| But the path to where he is today was never going to be an obvious one. Despite his interest in hypnotherapy, Vernon went a more conventional route, becoming an electrical contractor, and was involved in the refurbishment of the Houses of Parliament and the Castle in Cape Town. He was also a member of the team that built South Africa’s first ski resort, Tiffendal, in the North Eastern Cape. In his early twenties Vernon was involved in building the second weather station for South Africa in Antarctica. |
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| A big turning point came in his 30s when he had his first ‘mid-life crisis’, feeling a strong urge to break away from a conventional working career and go back into hypnotherapy. |
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| ‘I opened my own practice in Cape Town in my mid-thirties. One day a woman came to see me to help her loose weight. During the session she suddenly said, “By the way, your room has a lot of dust in it.” Then I heard this laughter in my mind and I wondered what was going on. I saw us both in the desert, as brothers. This was my first paranormal physic experience. I was totally stunned’ |
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| The whole process lasted about 45mins and during that time the two of us moved from one past lifetime to another….. where the two of us were monks in which I was whipped and then she was killed, and then onto another and another. Near the end of it, both of us felt ourselves lifting, and flying through the air and again I heard this giggle of laughter in my mind and I braced myself, because knew I knew something more was about to take place. |
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| The next minute, we were both flying over Galilee and we landed in front of a crowd of people gathered around Jesus who said, “You too have greater gifts, use them in my name.” and we just burst into tears. It was such a powerful experience. Then she left because the time was up and I never saw her again. |
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| During that period I was learning more about esoteric principles and had started doing hands on healing and energy work. I had begun to teach groups of people and on Wednesday nights 25 to 30 people would squash into my house. |
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| On this particular Wednesday night I was given a book by one of the members, The Hands of Light, by Barbara Anne Brennan, I opened it and flipped through the pages and there boldly on one page was “You too have greater gifts, use them in my name”. The next day I decided to look at this page again but couldn’t find it. I’ve never found that page again in that book. My resonance had shifted in some way and we had been given the proof of my earlier experience. |
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| Subsequently my psychic ability started to open up. For example a person would come to me to help them stop smoking, and I found I could just look at them and see exactly where the pivotal moment was in their lives that they need to heal in order to clear the emotion that led them to start smoking. I would ask them to connect with the age that this happened, memories would surface and their limiting belief system was released. |
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| I became more aware of wanting to develop my intuitive side and I was very blessed in meeting different teachers such as Stuart Lawson, Jen Weiss and Patrick Desplace, that gave me information to push me forward in my development. Ultimately, that led to where I am now, where I am able to look at thought patterns of a person, and by using that kind of intuitive tool, it shifts people very quickly into whatever they are wanting to heal.’ |
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| ‘I had been doing lots of weekend workshops:– past life regressions, hypnosis and releasing of emotional trauma and so on. Then one day I saw a documentary on the labyrinth and walked the one in Barrydale. This experience was very inspiring and thought-provoking and I was aware of a new, different feeling inside of me. It opened me in some way. I decided to use the labyrinth as a modality in my workshops because when people walked the labyrinth they became calm, more centred and it was easier for me to take them into different levels of awareness, to shift more quickly. |
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| I always wanted to travel and to teach what I knew, I seem to have a different slant. I was now able to formulate what I called a journey into the labyrinth. As soon as I started doing that, it just escalated all by itself. I didn’t really have to do much. I saw how many people were healing and their lives were changing. So for me, doing workshops has always been a very satisfying process.’ |
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| ‘My unique gift is that I have this ability to see peoples’ belief systems and because I can see that, it is easier for me to formulate a workshop or a process where I could work with that thought pattern. For example, a group might share a fear of money. I would be able to see that and take them into a meditation, guide them through that process and release the emotional charge behind the belief system that’s stopping them from making more money. I never push it, it just seems to open up to another level. I use a lot of relaxation in the processes because I realise that the more relaxed you are, the more open you are to letting what you are wanting to heal come through. The more relaxed one is, the easier it is for them to see their own belief system or to accept that something is holding them back, and to release it. The labyrinth process has also shifted and evolved over time, but the theme has always been the same – helping people to shift. In watching other people shift, I myself have healed. |
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| ‘Years ago a teacher once asked me why I was a hypnotist. I said, “To help people.” I remember very clearly that person saying to me, “You are not helping that person, you are helping yourself to heal.” It has always stuck in my mind; it is one of my key memories – when you are doing healing on a whole group of people, it is actually you that is healing.’ |
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| So as I heal I notice the changes taking place in my world, my reality, and then the reality changes. I find the people that are coming to me are also increasingly keen to make changes. They are wanting change, but they may not know that on a conscious level. Also I find that people on the courses are able to understand the concepts very quickly. In this time now, its easier and easier to teach and people are just getting it so quickly.’ |
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| ‘I would say it is easier to heal and time is shifting – everything is changing, so the modality of the way you are healing people is also changing. A lot of the old philosophies, or the old modalities of how you heal, are still around but people are looking for different ways of moving quicker and healing faster. |
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| What is your passion? What makes you get up every morning and do this? ‘The fun of watching people jump; the fun of watching people understand something; understanding that they actually know everything. To watch them comprehend it right into the cells of their body, to see them getting it. For me, to watch how people change and shift is an honour. |
