Frequently Asked Questions

This is the place where most of your questions will be answered.

If after reading this page and visiting through the website you would like additional information, please feel free to call us TOLL-FREE at (888) 854-5467.

Also, if you have a question that you feel we should add to this list, please email it to [email protected] and we'll give you the appropriate credit and recognition, if you so choose.

For questions about Hypnosis, click here.

For questions about Handwriting Analysis, click here.

FAQs about Hypnosis

WHAT IS HYPNOSIS?
According to Stanford University, Hypnosis is a state of highly focused attention (absorption) with a reduction in peripheral awareness (dissociation) and a heightened sensitivity to social cues. Studies have shown it to be highly effective as a tool for pain and anxiety reduction, and well as certain kinds of habit control.

Simply stated, Hypnosis is a normal state of aroused, attentive and highly focused concentration -- comparable to being so absorbed in a movie or novel that one loses awareness of his or her surroundings.

More and more, hypnosis has been gaining ground in academia and the practical applications, ranging in acceptance from the Dentistry fields to reduce pain and anxiety, to its use as an intervention modality in Social Work.

WHAT HAPPENS IN A SESSION?
You're welcomed into a safe, cozy environment where Cesar devotes as much time as needed to learn about you and to answer your questions about hypnosis, so that you are completely comfortable before beginning hypnosis.

He uses a variety of modalities including TLT (Timeline Therapy), NLP (Neuro-Linguisitic Programming), and others to help you move quickly and easily through the blocks to your success. He uses relaxing music that is as soothing as his gentle voice to guide you to the place in your mind where all the resources you need are stored.

WILL I LOSE CONTROL?
No, you are always in control and cannot be hypnotized without your permission. You cannot be made to say or do or feel anything under hypnosis that you don't want to. You are simply guided to your most comfortable level of relaxation and given the suggestions that you and Cesar have decided will be most beneficial to you now and in the future.

WHAT HAPPENS UNDER HYPNOSIS?
Under hypnosis you are guided to relax the body and quiet the mind. You go into a state of focused concentration on specific thoughts or feelings of your choosing. You are not "asleep" in the traditional sense of the word, but are so deeply relaxed that healing and learning can easily and effortlessly take place.

IS IT SAFE?
Hypnosis is quick, effective and safe. No one has ever "gotten stuck" in hypnosis, although the experience feels so good that many people have said they wished they didn't have to come back!

WILL GETTING HYPNOTIZED MAKE ME REVEAL THINGS I DON'T WANT TO TELL?
No. We don't prompt you to tell us your deepest secrets. But whatever you choose to tell us so we can better understand your situation and help you find a solution will remain completely confidential, based on the provisions of the law.

WHAT IF I CAN'T BE HYPNOTIZED?
Anyone with normal intelligence and the ability to concentrate can be hypnotized. It is a natural state that people experience every day when driving, reading, watching a movie, or doing any activity that engrosses you so fully that you become unaware of outside stimuli.

I HAVE GREAT WILL POWER IN OTHER AREAS OF MY LIFE... WHY CAN'T I STOP SMOKING (OVEREATING/BEING AFRAID TO SPEAK IN PUBLIC/GET OVER MY ANXIETY, ETC.)?
Will power works when the logic of your conscious mind and the deep intention of your unconscious mind are in agreement. But in a power of wills between the conscious and unconscious, the imagination of the unconscious will always win out over the logic of the conscious mind. During hypnosis you will bring the unconscious resources into agreement with your conscious intent.

HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE?
Some problems, such as habits or fears, can be solved in as little as two sessions. Others, take longer. For Weight Loss there is a minimum 6-session commitment. The Stop Smoking program consists of an initial 3-4 hour session, at the end of which you will leave the office a non-smoker. There are daily follow-up phone calls, a follow-up session one week to 10 days later and a third follow-up session one week after that.

According to a study published in American Health Magazine on how well hypnotherapy works:

• Psychoanalisis: 38% recovery after 600 sessions
• Behavior Therapy: 72% recovery after 22 sessions
• Hypnotherapy: 93% recovery after 6 sessions

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
Prices are based on the type of program desired and will be discussed at the time of the initial complimentary telephone consultation.

IS HYPNOSIS COVERED BY MY INSURANCE?
Most insurance plans do not cover hypnosis, unless you have an "Alternative Medicine" Rider. Check your policy or ask your insurance agent.

However, it is a good idea to check with your accountant on whether any of these charges may be tax deductible.

HOW ARE HYPNOTISTS CERTIFIED?
Hypnotists are certified by specialized schools. They are not licensed by the state of California as alternative health care practitioners. Dr. Vargas holds certifications from several hypnosis-training centers and abides by the strict standards set forth by the American Board of Hypnotherapy, the International Association of Clinical Hypnotherapy, and the Society of Applied Hypnosis.

FAQs about Handwriting Analysis

Q1:   What is handwriting analysis?

A:   It is a scientific method of identifying, evaluating, and understanding a person's personality via the strokes and patterns revealed by his or her handwriting. It is not document examining, which is when a person examines a sample of writing to determine the author. Document examining is often used in forgery cases. In document examining, no comment of character or personality is derived from the handwriting.

 

Q2:   Do the terms graphology, handwriting analysis, and Graphoanalysis mean the same thing?

A:   Not in America. Although, graphology and handwriting analysis have been used for centuries to describe evaluating personality through the study of handwriting, a few distinctions have arisen in the past 50 years.

• The term handwriting analysis is the umbrella term that describes all forms and theories about understanding character from handwriting.
• The term Graphoanalysis is a trademarked term that refers to the scientific American form of handwriting analysis pioneered by Milton Bunker. Although these trait stroke methods taught by Bunker are not different from what dozens of authors around the world have published in the past 50 years, the term Graphoanalyst is used to distinguish those people who choose to associate with the company that holds the trademark.
• Also, the term graphology has come to symbolize an affiliation with the more holistic or Gestalt approach to handwriting analysis. Some graphologists disregard the trait-stroke method completely.

Most experienced analysts agree that combining the many schools of thought gives the analyst the most flexibility and resources that result in a more accurate personality assessment.

 

Q3:   What can be told about a person from his handwriting?

A:   Handwriting reveals hundreds of elements of the person's "personality and character," which include glimpses into the subconscious mind, emotional responsiveness, intellect, energy, fears and defenses, motivations, imagination, integrity, aptitudes, and even sex drives and issues of trust. There are over 100 individual traits revealed and an unlimited number of combinations.

 

Q4:   What can one NOT tell from handwriting analysis?

A:   It cannot identify age, gender, race, religion, whether a person is right- or left-handed, or the future.

 

Q5:   How does handwriting reveal personality?

A:   Handwriting is often referred to as "brain writing." Research scientists in the fields of neuro-science have categorized neuro-muscular movement tendencies as they are correlated with specific observable personality traits. Each personality trait is represented by a neurological brain pattern. Each neurological brain pattern produces a unique neuro-muscular movement that is the same for every person who has that personality trait. When writing, these tiny movements occur unconsciously. Each written movement or stroke reveals a specific personality trait.

Handwriting analysts identify these strokes as they appear in handwriting and describe the corresponding personality trait. Handwriting is like body language, but is more specific and is frozen for a more detailed analysis of our unconscious movements.

 

Q6:   How accurate is handwriting analysis?

A:   It is only as accurate as the analyst is talented. Most professionals claim to be 85-95% accurate. Compared to other personality assessment tools and tests, handwriting analysis is sometimes more accurate and much more revealing. When answering psychological questions in person or on paper, a person may consciously or unconsciously answer according to how he thinks he should answer rather than giving an honest reply. The clinical research is divided as to the validity of handwriting analysis. Again, it depends on who you ask.

 

Q7:   How old is handwriting analysis?

A:   Research has found references to handwriting analysis as far back as 4500 BC. In 99 AD, the Roman historian Suetonius studied Emperor Augustus' personality from his handwriting. The first handwriting analysis book was published in 1622 by Camildo Baldo. Most pioneering research was performed before 1929 in Europe. The modern scientific method of analyzing individual strokes in handwriting began in 1915 by Milton Bunker.

 

Q8:   Is handwriting analysis a science or an art?

A:   It is a clinical science. The Library of Congress categorized it as a credible social science in 1981. It is not a hard science like chemistry. It falls under the same category as psychology.

 

Q9:   Who uses handwriting analysis?

A:   Anyone interested in gaining a better understanding of themselves and others:

• Individuals for self-improvement:   they gain a better understanding of themselves and often incorporate aspects of grapho-therapy to change bad habits.
• Single people to aid in the selection of compatible partners.
• Couples to improve current relationships through better understanding and communication.
• All people of all ages in the work force for career counseling.
• Employers for personnel selection.
• The courts for forgery and questioned documents.
• Attorneys to aid the jury selection process.
• Law enforcement in investigating evidence involving handwritten notes.
• Businesses for credit rating assistance.
• Psychologists for personality evaluation and therapy.

 

Q10:   What about people who print?

A:   It is a generality, but worth answering. People who print have put up a barrier to keep the world from getting to know them. They do not easily express their inner-most feelings. People who print take longer to experience intimacy and tend to have a strong external protective mental shell that is often seen as confidence.

It is estimated that over half of men in the United States prefer to print rather than write cursive. This is the same tendency that says "I'd rather sit here in pain rather than express my feelings."

Some men learn at an early age to keep their insecure feelings hidden from the world. And yes, they do often have to print because of their messy handwriting, but the answer still applies.

 

Q11:   What about people who have a combination of both printing and cursive?

A:   People that mix and match both cursive and print are quite normal. It indicates a tendency to be in a hurry and be flexible given unusual circumstances. Too much printing - or block printing - indicates a barrier to intimacy and inability to express feelings.

Mixing printing and cursive really isn't an unusual event. In fact, it is so common that taken by itself, it's meaning is not terribly significant. We must look at the rest of the writing.

 

Q12:   Why does my handwriting change from day to day?

A:   Certain strokes represent emotions and moods. As your feelings and moods change from minute to minute, those corresponding particular strokes will change. However, the basic character-defining traits will remain the same. And, if you "really" have a total variation in handwriting styles, you are one moody person and should cut down on the sugar snacks.

 

Q13:   What can be told from a person's signature?

A:   The signature represents what a person wants the world to see or what he wants to be, an image that may or may not be the same as the inner self. Because a signature contains only a few letters, it does not provide enough information for the analyst to make a complete and accurate evaluation.

 

Q14:   My signature is illegible. What does that mean?

A:   It means people have a hard time reading your name. Seriously, illegible handwriting can mean a number of things. In general, an illegible signature reveals a desire to be seen but not known, keeping things private.

You may want to keep your true identity hidden. It could also mean you are in a hurry. People who continually sign their name all day long often do so in a hurry and, therefore, don't care what their signature looks like. Illegible handwriting in combination with other specific traits may indicate dishonesty, but there are a lot of variables.

 

Q15:   Why is my signature different than how I write everything else?

A:   Because the signature is a badge to the world. It is a representation of what a person wants the world to see about himself. A signature that is different from the rest of his writing says he does not want to reveal everything about himself. There may be some aspect of his personality that he wants to hide, so he creates a new "person" by creating a signature with a different look.

 

Q16:   Do you analyze the writing of a left-handed person the same as a right-handed person?

A:   Yes. Whether a person writes with the right or left hand, the traits revealed will be the same. Even people that have learned to write with their mouth or foot, due to amputations of their limbs, reveal the same information from their "brain writing."

 

Q17:   Why do left-handed people slant their letters backwards?

A:   The question contains an invalid presupposition... not all left-handed people slant backwards.

Although many left-handed people have a leftward slant to their writing, it is not because they are left-handed. Many right-handed people have writing that slants to the left, and many left-handed people slant their writing to the right. Handwriting that slants to the left, or backward, indicates a person who does not readily express his feelings. He keeps his emotions hidden and reacts to the world around him in a reserved and logical manner. People who have experienced a traumatic event in their life or a severe illness often pull their handwriting to the left because they turn their thoughts and feelings inward.

Often, left-handed people experience emotional pain because they feel "different" being in a world that is primarily right-handed. Teachers or parents may have tried to force them to write with their right hand which produced emotional trauma that caused them to turn inward resulting in a leftward slant in their handwriting.

 

Q18:   Are there "good" and "bad" traits?

A:   Traits are neither "good" nor "bad" in themselves. They just "are." Our judgment of whether or not the trait is useful in a given situation makes us label these traits "good" or "bad." However, each trait can have both negative and positive features depending on how the trait manifests itself in behavior as it combines with other aspects of one's personality. Handwriting analysis does not judge or label. It serves to identify and understand aspects of personality and behavior.

 

Q19:   Is handwriting analysis an invasion of privacy?

A:   No, but it could make someone feel a little naked. Seriously, the Supreme Court, in 1977, "United States v. Sydney Rosinsky" (FRP249), ruled: "What someone's handwriting looks like is considered public information -- similar to, for example, how someone dresses or their body language, and the psychological analysis that can be extracted from the information is not considered an invasion of privacy."

 

Q20:   How prevalent is handwriting analysis in companies for employee screening?

A:   Since the outlawing of the lie detector test (polygraph machine) as a prospective employee screening tool in the United States in 1988, the use of handwriting analysis has been on the rise as part of the hiring process.

Although the US has been slower than Europe to accept handwriting analysis, it is now growing in popularity by major corporations. In France, Spain, Holland and Israel, approximately 80% of companies use handwriting analysis for analyzing potential employees according to a 1988 report by "The Wall Street Journal." Research in England shows that approximately 7.9% of English companies use handwriting analysis.

 

Q21:   Can handwriting reveal a person's honesty?

A:   There is no single trait that indicates honesty. However, there are several traits that, when present in certain combinations with each other and with other traits, can give us clues about a person's integrity, or lack thereof. There are also traits that indicate talkativeness, secretiveness, and deceit. As anyone who has ever been to court will testify, ethics are a very subjective thing, so the trait of "honesty" has many factors that it depends upon.

 

Q22:   Can you tell if a person is a criminal by his handwriting?

A:   No, by definition a person isn't a criminal until he has been convicted of a crime.

A combination of certain traits can warn of possible criminal tendencies, but handwriting cannot reveal whether a person has committed or will commit a crime. You can make an educated guess about the person's likelihood to obey the rules, become gullible, be aggressive, or even steal... but you can't be definitive about his criminal intent.

 

Q23:   Why don't people write the way they were taught in elementary school?

A:   Some people do, just look at your local third grade teacher. As children grow and mature, their handwriting changes and becomes a unique representation of their individual personality characteristics. The more a person's writing varies from the model they were taught, the more their morals and attitudes move away from the conventional model of the world they were taught as kids.

 

Q24:   Is handwriting analysis the same for all languages?

A:   It depends on the alphabet. The strokes that are relevant in a Latin-based language are well researched and widely taught. Therefore, the character and personality traits in all Latin-based languages such as English, Spanish, Italian, French, etc. are easily identifiable. However, many languages have completely different alphabets and, therefore, different analysis techniques.

 

Q25:   Can I really change my personality by changing my handwriting?

A:   Grapho-Therapy is one of the most modern and effective behavioral modification tools available today. It works for two reasons. First, neuro-muscular connections have a direct impact on the neuro-pathways to the brain that hold patterns of behavior. Secondly, it gives the subject a clear and visual representation of the change she is making on a daily basis... reinforcing the belief system and cementing the change in behavior consciously and unconsciously.

 

Q26:   I have a tendency to imitate other peoples' handwriting. What does this mean?

A:   It could mean you admire and model other people... a good trait as long as you pick good people to model... make sure they don't have any hell traits.

 

Q27:   If I see writing on a daily basis which is uniform and attractive, I mimic the style. Does this show a lack of personal style?

A:   Not necessarily a lack of personal style, but the attraction to uniform and attractive writing reveals a need for security, possible conservative tendency, and maybe even an "anal retentive" need for control and perfectionism.

 

Q28:   After copying a style for a while, I can also mimic signatures. I wouldn't say they're perfect, but they do greatly resemble one another.

A:   As far as the signatures go... it will be useful in forging documents... at least you're not a criminal...

 

Q29:   Do police departments use the services of certified handwriting analysts?

A:   Police Departments use forensics specialists to determine the true identity of ransom notes and other handrwritten evidence. They hire or use in-house trained document examiners. However, any government agency is not going to pay as much as the private sector. You are not going to get rich working for the government.

In many homicide cases and FBI cases such as cases involving serial killers, a handwriting analyst is hired to help establish the psychological profile of the suspect if handwriting is available. The FBI has people on their staff for this purpose, with special criminal science background.

 

Q30:   Are handwriting analysts used by corporations when there is a theft and they are trying to find the culprit?

A:   Yes, but not always. You have to have a relationship with the head of security because it is also highly secretive.
Q:   Are writing samples taken from each employee?
A:   Yes, usually from the applications.

 

Q31:  I sometimes forget to cross my t's and dot my i's. What does this mean?

A:   Forgetting to cross your t's or dot your i's is a sign of NOT paying attention to detail. This is also called absentmindedness. Do you know where you left your car keys?

 

Q32:   I'm wondering about the correlation between handwriting analysis and the Myers-Briggs personality typing system. Are you able to identify personality type based on handwriting analysis?

A:   Good question. You can identify personality, that's the whole premise behind handwriting analysis. However, the language isn't identical to the other standard tests, which vary among themselves.

There are strong correlations between the M-B and the handwriting personality styles, but we've never found a book that "does" the cross-correlations. If you know both test methods well, you could figure it out.

 

Q33:  If I forward you by e-mail a scan of a handwriting sample, can you answer some specific questions about certain letters I have?

A:  Sure, we charge $225 for up to one hour of handwriting analysis by telephone.

 

Q34:   One graphologist told me that if the trait is in the handwriting, then it's a reality; another said it's possible to carry only the trait and never act on it. Please let me know your thoughts on this.

A:   The latter is correct. You have to weigh all the factors to predict "action," and even then it takes timing and opportunity before someone acts on it. The traits increase the risk factor.

 

Q35:   When a person is writing about something they like, such as football, or a sport, or even chess or gambling, is there any way to determine if they are good at this by reading the traits?

A:   No. You will be able to determine their level of optimism and emotional intensity for the activity, but it doesn't really vary that much simply by a single word.

 

Q36:   Can you find out what job one might excel at by graphology traits?

A:  Yes, it can be very helpful. It is a very common use for this science.

 

Q37:   Some people's handwriting looks alike. Is it really?

A:   No, although general appearance may appear similar, no two people have exactly the same handwriting. Once you start analyzing the many varieties of strokes, you realize that the overall "appearance" of a handwriting sample can be deceptive and that most handwriting samples have glaring differences.