Mary Elizabeth Raines

MARY ELIZABETH (LEACH) RAINES, of Sedona, Arizona, is a writer of fiction, as well as books and articles about hypnosis. She has a lifelong background in theater and film as well, and has won regional, state and national awards for her scripts and plays.

Her formal education was in piano performance at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, and she also spent several years in independent film and theater studies. She still plays the piano, and occasionally directs or acts. Sometimes she combines her love of theater and her skill as a hypnotist, and performs as a stage hypnotist.

UNA, a gripping story about a woman struggling for survival during WWII in Germany, is her first novel. It was developed from an award-winning but unproduced film script she wrote in the 1990s.

HYPNOSIS:

The founder of the Academy for Professional Hypnosis Training, Ms. Raines has been hypnotizing people since she was 14 years old, and has been training top hypnotists for over twelve years.

An adjunct faculty member for the National Guild of Hypnotists, she developed and teaches the organization's Guided Imagery Certification Course. She has taught self-hypnosis and guided imagery for the Continuing Education Dept. of the University of Wisconsin, and continues to present seminars and workshops at hypnosis conventions across the country. She is a regular columnist for the "Journal of Hypnotism," and has been featured on the cover of that international magazine.

At age 17, she became fascinating with past-life regression after reading Kahlil Gibran's "The Prophet." She currently trains people from all over the world to become past-life regression counselors.

Ms. Raines is director of Laughing Cherub Unlimited, founder of the Midwest Professional Hypnosis Associates, and the creator of the Laughing Cherub Self-improvement CD series.

Ms. Raines has been a newspaper reporter and an editor, and is a regular contributor to professional hypnosis magazines and books about hypnosis. According to the National Guild of Hypnotists, Raines is "recognized as one of the leading practitioners of the art and science of hypnotism."