Erik Bragg had said to look for a beard and a big blue coat. And here he is, though not quite as hirsute as imagined, and wearing an anorak rather than the more theatrical style somehow envisaged. He has traveled in from Kashiwa, in Chiba Prefecture, where he practices as a certified clinical hypnotherapist and a master practitioner of NLP (neuro-linguistic programming).
This is very nice of him considering it is so close to New Year's, with 101 things to do and an equal number of resolutions to make concerning 2003. Erik, however, is a very nice, gentle, giving person who believes he can help people break bad habits and overcome personal blocks and difficulties.
"My aim is to make people realize how hypnosis is a natural part of our lives," he says. "The kind of hypnotherapy you see used on stage and on TV can give it a bad name. But when you get involved reading a good book, or gardening, or sitting with hundreds of other people fully involved in watching moving pictures on a wall, you are in a self-induced, natural, normal trance-like state."