About John Wakefield

A former monk teaching hypnotherapy and past life regression — not because they’re the same thing, but because both demand the same qualities: presence, patience, and the willingness to sit with the unknown.

The Monastic Foundation

John spent ten years in monastic life. Not as a retreat or a gap year — as a lived practice of meditation, self-inquiry, and inner discipline, day after day. That experience shaped how he understands the inner world: not as something to be managed or fixed, but as something to be met with sincerity and care.

Monastic life teaches you to sit with discomfort without looking away. To listen beneath words for what is actually being communicated. To hold space for transformation without needing to control it. These are the same qualities that make a great hypnotherapist and regression guide.

The Clinical Training

John brings the same rigour to clinical practice that he brought to inner discipline. Trained in hypnotherapy and past life regression therapy, his approach combines proven therapeutic methods with the depth that only years of contemplative practice can provide.

He is the founder and lead educator at What Was I, where he trains practitioners who want to do meaningful inner work with others — grounded in both clinical competence and inner literacy.

What This Means for Your Training

When you train with John, you learn from someone who has lived both worlds. He understands clinical boundaries and emotional safety — and he also understands what it means to work with questions of meaning, purpose, karma, and the deep consciousness. He doesn’t pretend these are separate domains. In his teaching, they support each other.

Students consistently describe his teaching style as clear, grounded, and deeply respectful — a rare combination of professional rigour and genuine human warmth.