Rotary Fellowships: Hypnosis and Healing

Dr Harleen, pictured with Rotary International President, Yinka Babalola

Story by Glyn Mon Hughes, a member of the City of Liverpool Rotary Club. This story was published in the September 2026 issue of Rotary GBI magazine.

Anxiety. Depression. Lack of confidence. Loneliness. They’re all words which pepper the news each day. Young people seem to be the main casualties of these medical phenomena but they’re not the only ones in a scourge affecting communities worldwide.

They’re also words punctuating the conversation with Dr Harsimran Singh Chowdhary and his wife Dr Harleen Kaur. They are based in Himachal Pradesh, in north India and are leading the newly-founded Rotary Fellowship of Hypnosis and Healing, approved at the beginning of 2026.

Within weeks, the membership was building towards 50 Rotarians concentrated, so far, in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal, as well as the USA, Nigeria and several other African countries. That number is set to grow after the group’s first attendance at a Rotary Convention, held this June in Taipei.

“Today, if there is an upcoming epidemic, it won’t be a physical disease but it will be
about mental problems.”

Harsimran, a paediatrician, is a member and executive secretary of Chandigarh Royale Rotary Club while his wife, an alternative therapist, is a member and past president of Paonta Sakhi Rotary Club.

“What I have seen in Rotary is that everyone is financially sound and that is why we give service above self,” said Harsimran. “But, sometimes, when we have everything that we want for a peaceful life, what we can lack is mental peace.

“Today, if there is an upcoming epidemic, it won’t be a physical disease but it will be about mental problems. All of us are working more than our potential, we are all overburdened and many of us have some sort of anxiety or depression.”

As a result, this dynamic pair of 41-year-olds seeks to bring together like-minded Rotarians who might want to bring positive change to their lives, and those of others, by using the potential of their subconscious minds.

Harsimran likened the human mind to an iceberg. “The tip of the iceberg is 5% above sea level, and 95% is below,” he said. “The mind we are using in our day-to-day activities is our conscious mind but 95% of our mind is our subconscious which contains our feelings, our emotions, our aura.”

The subconscious is very much the area of Dr Harleen, pictured above with Rotary International President, Yinka Babalola, who specialises in past-life regression therapy. She explained how something which happened 40 years previously can be stored in the subconscious and, sometimes, this can be negative. Someone bullied in school, for instance, can still be scarred, even if they are 60-plus.

Harsimran likened the human mind to an iceberg. “The tip of the iceberg is 5% above sea level, and 95% is below.”

“I’ve treated someone who had never gone into the water because they had a phobia of drowning,” said Harleen. “I used subconscious mind therapy, which you can also call hypnosis.

“Within minutes they lost the phobia and even went into the water. It is such a powerful therapy. If you want to achieve something, by putting positive thoughts into your subconscious, you can 100% achieve what you wish.

“The same happens if you are in a negative situation. You attract negativity. You have a negative view of a situation, people around you will speak negatively, you’re concentrating on your negative situation day and night. But if we remove those thoughts and if we know how to remove those thoughts, we’re introducing positivity into our lives.

“In general, people do not know how to think positively, and someone in a negative situation finds it very difficult to think positively.”

Hypnosis, however, tends to attract its own negative vibes in many parts of the world, India included. “People think somebody can take over your mind and tell you do anything, but that is totally wrong,” observed Harsimran. “Hypnosis is about bringing positive change to your life.

“We also teach self-hypnosis, how to help yourself, how to get into that trance-like state. Think about getting into your car and driving to your office, and you have no recall of the journey. You knew the way. You stopped at the red lights.

But when you do the same thing again and again, that repetitive behaviour goes into your subconscious. So, when you get into your car, your subconscious mind takes over.”

And yet . . . achieving a thought-free mind is very difficult. Attempting meditation can be difficult because the trance-like state we seek is hampered by thoughts that pop up here and there.

“Studies have shown that around one million thoughts pass through our minds every minute,” added Harsimran.

“it’s early days for the new Fellowship, but with a good deal of positive thinking, it’s bound for future success.”

The new Fellowship aims to bring together like-minded Rotarians to help them explore these areas.

“These can be dealing with stress, depression, negativity, anxiety and dealing with bad memories or incidents,” said Harleen.

“We can help deal with phobias, fears and addiction as well as allergies. For diseases, we can prescribe medicines. But for some of the conditions I see, meditation and alternative therapies may help people avoid the need for medicines.”

It’s early days for the new Fellowship, but with a good deal of positive thinking, it’s bound for future success.

Email: rotary.healing@gmail.com

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