Why I created EnTrance.
Welcome to EnTrance.
I've said those words hundreds of times over the years while recording sessions, but I've never properly welcomed you to the website or explained how any of this started.
The short version is that I didn't set out to create a hypnosis company.
I wasn't trying to become a therapist.
I wasn't looking for a new career.
I was simply trying to make sense of my own life.
A CD on a Sunday Morning
Sometime around 2005, I was at home on a Sunday morning.
I was living with my then-wife. She was at work. The kids were in the garden.
I was staggering around with another hangover, feeling dreadful and looking longingly at the bed for a bit more sleep.
On the bed was a portable CD player.
I picked it up and wondered what was inside.
It turned out to be a Paul McKenna stop-smoking CD.
I'd been thinking about quitting smoking anyway, so I put it on.
What happened next caught me completely off guard.
The only way I can describe it is like that scene in Trainspotting where Renton sinks into the floor.
I suddenly felt myself dropping inward.
Deeply.
Very deeply.
In fact, I dropped so quickly that I almost launched myself off the bed.
For a split second I genuinely thought I had died.
I stopped the recording, put the CD down and walked away wondering what kind of wizardry I had just experienced.
Looking back now, that moment changed everything.
It was as if someone had pushed a pin through a blackout blind.
Only a tiny amount of light came through, but once I'd seen it, I couldn't ignore it.
For the first time in years I realised something wasn't right.
I wasn't really living.
I was surviving.
The Calm I Didn't Know I Needed
The funny thing is that the experience frightened me so much that I ignored it for a while.
But eventually I went back.
Then I went back again.
And again.
I started listening regularly.
Not because I understood hypnosis.
I didn't.
Not because I thought it would transform my life.
I didn't.
I listened because afterwards I felt calmer.
That was it.
That was the entire reason.
I began tracking down recordings from some of the great pioneers of the field. People like Lee Pulos, Dick Sutphen, Paul McKenna and others.
I listened on trains.
I listened before work.
I listened after work.
I listened before bed.
Sometimes I listened four times a day.
Looking back, I don't think hypnosis magically changed my life.
I think relaxation changed my life.
The calmer I became, the better my decisions became.
The better my decisions became, the more my life began to change.
Not dramatically.
Not overnight.
But steadily.
And genuinely.
Recovery and a Different Direction
Alcohol didn't disappear overnight either.
Far from it.
That was a long battle.
Years rather than weeks.
As my life crumbled around me.
One day I met a woman who didn't drink.
I asked why.
She smiled and said:
"Probably for the same reason you don't."
She told me about AA and invited me to a meeting.
That conversation changed the direction of my life.
AA gave me a framework.
Meditation became part of that framework.
Hypnosis remained part of that framework.
And gradually life began moving in a better direction.
I stopped trying to hold my breath and survive.
I started learning how to live differently.
Everybody Is Carrying Something
One of the things I learned along the way is that almost everybody is carrying something.
The people who seem confident.
The people who appear successful.
The people standing on stage in front of thousands.
The people who look as though they've got everything worked out.
Most of us are wearing some form of armour.
Most of us are compensating for something.
Most of us are carrying old fears, old stories, old habits or old wounds.
I certainly was.
And while I don't think hypnosis solves everything, I do think that creating space, slowing down and learning how to relax properly helps people see things more clearly.
Sometimes that's enough.
Sometimes seeing things clearly is exactly what allows change to begin.
Meeting Mick
Several years later I started playing music again.
My band happened to cover a song written by Mick Crudge.
I'd admired his earlier work for years, so when we ended up in the same venue one evening I introduced myself.
We met for a coffee.
As conversations do, it eventually turned to drinking.
I mentioned that hypnosis had played a significant role in helping me change my life.
Mick looked genuinely surprised.
Then he told me he had recently qualified as a hypnotherapist.
His own journey had begun through another chance encounter, when somebody handed him a book about hypnosis during a train journey in India.
The more we talked, the more similarities we discovered.
Music.
Personal change.
Recovery.
Hypnosis.
The feeling that life could be better than the version we'd previously been living.
It turned out we had travelled surprisingly similar roads from very different starting points.
Building EnTrance
By 2013 we had started working together.
At the time I was working professionally in television and audio production, so recording and producing the material felt like a natural extension of skills I was already using every day.
Mick wrote.
I produced.
We recorded sessions.
Experimented.
Refined ideas.
Recorded again.
The original vision wasn't YouTube.
It wasn't downloads.
It wasn't even really a business.
The original idea was to create enough material to power a dedicated relaxation and hypnosis platform.
Today people know names like Calm and Headspace, but back then the idea of large-scale relaxation and mindfulness apps was still in its infancy.
Unfortunately the funding we needed to compete never arrived.
But after spending nearly two years writing, recording and producing the material, neither of us wanted to see it disappear.
So in 2015 we launched EnTrance on YouTube.
The response surprised us.
Stories arrived from people around the world who were using the recordings for sleep, confidence, relaxation, recovery and personal change.
The channel never exploded in the way modern social media channels sometimes do.
But people genuinely connected with the work.
That mattered far more.
Then something unexpected happened.
In 2021, several EnTrance recordings started being shared heavily on a video platform and suddenly the numbers went from thousands to millions.
It was exciting, surreal and flattering all at the same time.
For years we had focused on creating recordings that genuinely helped people rather than chasing trends or algorithms. Suddenly those recordings were finding audiences far beyond anything we had originally imagined.
The streams arrived.
The views arrived.
The app never did.
Which turned out to be another lesson in being very specific about what you actually want from life.
Still, the response was incredible validation that the work connected with people in ways we had always hoped it might.
Why EnTrance Exists Today
Sadly, Mick died in 2021.
His loss was enormous.
The timing felt particularly cruel because he never got to see the full scale of what happened afterwards.
Not long after his death, EnTrance recordings began reaching audiences in the millions through social sharing and streaming platforms.
I often think he would have been amazed by it.
And probably quite amused by it too.
By that point, however, EnTrance had already become part of many people's lives.
The work deserved to continue.
Today I'm still creating sessions.
Not because I think EnTrance has all the answers.
It doesn't.
There are many excellent books, teachers, therapists, coaches, meditation systems and approaches available.
EnTrance is simply one tool among many.
Use what helps.
Ignore what doesn't.
Take what works for you.
Leave the rest behind.
The Best Analogy I Know
Imagine heavily backcombed hair.
A complete tangled mess.
You can pull a comb through it all day long and get nowhere.
But add conditioner.
Leave it for a while.
Then gently run the comb through.
The knots start loosening.
The strands begin separating.
Things move again.
That's always been my view of hypnosis and deep relaxation.
Not magic.
Not mind control.
Not a miracle cure.
Just a way of creating enough space and softness for things to begin untangling themselves.
Why I'm Still Here
This year marks twenty years of sobriety and more than a decade of EnTrance.
Looking back, the thing that stays with me most isn't hypnosis.
It's peace.
Because peace gave me enough distance from my problems to start making better decisions.
And better decisions changed my life.
One of the reasons EnTrance still exists is because I've yet to meet many people who don't need some form of peace in their lives.
The details differ.
The stories differ.
The struggles differ.
But underneath it all, most people are trying to untangle something.
And sometimes a little space is enough to begin.
I don't want to preach to anyone.
I don't think hypnosis is the answer to everything.
I don't think EnTrance is for everyone.
What I do know is that a chance encounter with a CD on a Sunday morning changed the direction of my life.
If something here helps you in a similar way, then all these years of writing, recording and rebuilding have been worth it.
Where to Start
Session 000 - The starting block.
FAQ: Questions about EnTrance.
EnTrance Timeline
2005 — First experience with hypnosis
2006 — Recovery journey begins
2009 — Returns to playing live music
2012 — Meets Mick Crudge
2013 — EnTrance production begins
2015 — EnTrance launches publicly
2021 — Mick dies
2021–2022 — EnTrance recordings reach multi-million audiences through social sharing
2026 — A renewed focus on the original mission
