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JACOB BIMBLICH HAS ALWAYS LOVED THE SPOTLIGHT. BEING ON CAMERA GIVES HIM BUTTERFLIES IN HIS STOMACH. For fourteen years, working without a staff and shooting every scene himself, Bimblich has hosted and produced a cable television show dealing with alternative medicine called Discovering Yourself on Brooklyn Community Access Television (BCAT).
“I was working with BCAT when it wasn’t fully formed yet. I was very excited to be on television and that they had accepted me. They didn’t have a studio at the time so everyone was left on their own to make their own programs. I created a show from my living room,” he says. He recalled how he used to prepare for his show by interviewing himself, shooting the questions and answers from different angles. “I would ask myself a question and then go change my clothes and sit at another chair to answer that same question. I learned about dual personality that way,” he quips. When he was seven years old he’d attended a vaudeville show where he saw two men on stage: one with a faucet coming out of his stomach and another filling a bucket from the faucet – or at least he thought he did. The hypnotist who had convinced the two volunteers on stage that the faucet and bucket were real had also put the young boy under. That day Bimblich decided what he would be when he grew up – a hypnotist! Born and raised in Cuba, Bimblich immigrated to New York, alone and poor, at the age of 16. He put himself through high school and college, where he majored in psychology. After college, he continued his study of hypnosis by attending every workshop and seminar available. His pursuit eventually led him to become a certified hypnotherapist. Hypnosis is an altered state of consciousness that feels like something between sleeping and waking and has qualities of both states. While it still conjures an image of men in black capes dangling gold watches in the front of the eyes of their subjects, hypnosis has become a recognized theraupetic tool in treatment of smoke addiction, weight control, phobias, physical pain and mental disorders. “I just love delving into people’s minds and learning about individuals. I always try to make both my practice and my show interesting and entertaining. I make people think outside the box. I get a lot of satisfaction from doing it and it gives me a natural high,” he says. Bimblich was awarded the Member of the Year Award in 2003 by the National Guild of Hypnotics, of which he has been a 17-year member. The Brooklynite is also a life member of the National Psychiatric Association and a fellow and charter member of the Academy of Scientific Hypnotherapy. He is currently the executive director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Hypnosis and Holistic Sciences. His show discusses alternatives means to improve people’s lives and features interviews with various professionals like nutritionist and hypnotist Laura Olsen from Gerritsen Beach, and Lawrence Galante, an acclaimed homeopathist – two guests he felt honored to have on his show because of the way they were able to define the concept of alternative medicine. Laura Olsen, who has known Bimblich for over thirty years, describes him as a fascinating man. “I’ve worked with him and he is just an amazing person. He’s very skilled in his field and is extremely interesting,” she says. While a guest on the show, Olsen discussed the topic of eating healthier and explained that many people are unaware of the levels of sodium, fat, and trans fat in the foods they eat because not everyone reads labels. The show was able to encourage people make wiser decisions about what they eat. “I love television. I love being on TV, working on a project, filming others – it’s what I live for every day,” he says. For more information about Jacob Bimblich, log on to http://www.jacobbimblich.com. Discovering Yourself can be seen in Brooklyn on BCAT on Thursdays at 1:30pm and 9:30pm on Time Warner Cable channel 35, Cablevision channel 68, and online at www.bcat.tv/bcat. |
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