Was Elizabeth Holmes Hypnotizing Herself?
Was Elizabeth Holmes Hypnotizing Herself? The Power of Belief
Do you have to be a little delusional to achieve extraordinary things?
I recently watched, “You Can See Everything” about Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of Theranos, and walked out with one thought:
“I think Elizabeth Holmes is a somnambulist!”
In hypnotherapy, a somnambulist is someone who is highly suggestible. I like to think of these individuals as having a particularly open line of communication between their conscious and subconscious minds.
Here's why I find that so fascinating: Imagine believing something so strongly on a conscious level that your subconscious mind gets on board, too! Instead of your thoughts, beliefs, and automatic responses working against each other, they're all moving in the same direction. It's like having your whole mind on the same team, working toward your goals.
In hypnotherapy, we sometimes describe this as having a more porous veil or wide open communication between the conscious and subconscious minds, allowing suggestions to be more readily accepted.
And that's what got me thinking about Elizabeth Holmes. She didn't just convince herself—or at least, I wonder if she did—she convinced some of the world's most powerful investors that she was going to revolutionize healthcare. At its peak, her company, Theranos, was valued at an astonishing $9 billion.
Could her extraordinary conviction have been part of what made her so persuasive?
And while I obviously can’t determine someone’s hypnotic suggestibility from watching a movie, I couldn’t help looking at Elizabeth Holmes through my hypnotherapist lens.
And I kept wondering…
What if she actually believed everything she was saying?
What if she wasn’t just convincing everyone around her, but was also so deeply convinced of her own vision that it became her reality?
Of course, believing something doesn’t make it true. And in Holmes’s case, the consequences of that disconnect were enormous.
A Quick Personal Story of My Own Delusion
And speaking of believing something doesn't make it true, I had my own humbling experience with this just this week.
For months, I've been watching my 8-year-old play soccer from the sidelines, thinking to myself, "If I had the chance to play soccer again, I would absolutely crush it."
Mind you, I haven't played soccer since I was 10 years old. But in my 43-year-old mind, I've grown into this confident, fearless woman who would charge after that ball, take risks, and hold absolutely nothing back. I was convinced I'd be a soccer star if given another chance.
Well, this week, the coach invited the parents onto the field for a parents-versus-kids scrimmage.
MY MOMENT HAD ARRIVED.
After weeks of cheering from the sidelines, it was finally my turn to show off all the confidence and personal growth I'd developed over the last 33 years.
And within the first three minutes, the ball came my way.
This is it. My time to shine.
I went for it with all the confidence in the world, and within approximately a step and a half, I tripped over the ball and had quite possibly the most spectacular wipeout of my life.
Turns out, my brain was fully convinced I could be a soccer star at 43.
My body, however, had not received the memo.
And now I have a bruised, painful knee to remind me that sometimes our beliefs can get just a little ahead of reality.
So yes, believing something with every fiber of your being is incredibly powerful. But apparently, a little practice, physical ability, and a healthy dose of reality are helpful, too.
The sweet spot? Believing in yourself enough to go for it, while staying grounded enough to know you might fall flat on your face. Literally.
But here's what I keep coming back to: Even knowing how spectacularly that could go wrong, I'm glad I went for the ball. Because how often do we hold ourselves back before we even give ourselves a chance?
And that's what I find so fascinating about the extraordinary power of suggestion and belief. Our beliefs may not guarantee success, but they can certainly influence whether we even try.
Are Some People Just Wired to Believe More Easily?
In hypnotherapy, we talk a lot about the critical mind, that part of our brain that wants to protect our core beliefs and subconscious programing! It will questions, analyzes, and evaluates information before accepting it.
Some people seem to have a more flexible relationship with that critical filter. They can become deeply absorbed in ideas, imagery, and suggestions.
In my work, I find this fascinating because our beliefs can have such a profound influence on our behavior.
When someone truly believes something is possible for them, they may approach the world differently.
They take chances. They notice opportunities. They persist when things get difficult.
I sometimes think of these people as goal magnets.
Not because the universe magically delivers everything they want, but because their attention, expectations, and actions become so strongly oriented toward what they’re trying to achieve.
And I wonder whether Holmes’s extraordinary conviction was part of what made her so persuasive.
Was she consciously constructing an illusion? Was she caught up in her own vision? Some combination of both?
We may never fully know what was happening inside her mind.
But the question itself is fascinating.
What If Your Whole Mind Was Working Toward the Same Goal?
Now here’s where my thoughts took a turn.
Forget Elizabeth Holmes for a moment.
What if you could harness that same intensity of belief, but direct it toward something healthy, honest, and meaningful in your own life?
Think about how often we consciously want something, yet another part of us seems to be pulling in the opposite direction.
You want to start a business, but something inside whispers, “Who do you think you are?”
You want to find love, but a deeper belief tells you that you’re not worthy of it.
You want to be confident, but you keep anticipating rejection or failure.
It’s as if your conscious mind is pressing the gas while your subconscious patterns are pressing the brakes.
Imagine what might happen if those two parts of your experience began working together.
What would you go after if you weren’t constantly talking yourself out of it?
This Is Why I Love Hypnosis
One of the things I find so exciting about hypnotherapy is the opportunity to work with those automatic beliefs and responses that can operate beneath our everyday awareness.
Hypnosis uses focused attention and suggestion to help us explore different ways of thinking, feeling, and responding.
I love helping clients move from “I want to believe I can” toward actually experiencing themselves as more confident, capable, and deserving.
It’s not about abandoning your critical thinking or convincing yourself of things that aren’t true.
It’s about questioning the limiting stories you’ve been telling yourself for years.
Because sometimes the most powerful suggestion isn’t something someone else tells us.
It’s the story we keep repeating to ourselves.
And if those stories can hold us back, perhaps we can learn to tell ourselves better ones.
So, Do You Have to Be a Little Delusional to Succeed?
Maybe not delusional.
But perhaps a little more willing to believe in possibilities before there’s proof they’ll work out.
A little less attached to the voice that says, “That’s impossible.”
A little more comfortable imagining yourself succeeding.
Elizabeth Holmes’s story is a cautionary tale about what happens when conviction becomes disconnected from reality.
But it also left me thinking about the incredible influence our beliefs can have on the lives we create.
And that’s the part I want to borrow.
Not the deception. Not the denial of facts.
Just the audacity to believe that something extraordinary might be possible for you.
So I’ll leave you with the question that’s been running through my mind since the movie:
If your conscious and subconscious minds were working together toward the same goal, what would you dare to pursue?
I’d genuinely love to know.
And if you’re curious about your own suggestibility, or want to explore the subconscious beliefs that may be standing between you and your goals, I’d love to work with you.