Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Do you have to be a coach to take RAMP training?
A: No. RAMP training prepares you as a practitioner in this process. We invest a great deal of time in our students to ensure they are highly proficient at facilitating the RAMP method. Ours students are coaches, counselors, consultants, therapists, social workers, mentors, and entrepreneurs whose goal is to positively affect the lives of people in record time.
Q: How long does it take to become certified in RAMP to work on your own and is it a licensed practice?
A: RAMP practitioners are certificed in the RAMP method upon completion of training and are licensed to use the RAMP method. Practitioners are licensed by Dr. Sherry Buffington, the creator of the method through Quantum Leap Univeresity. Since RAMP is considered a complimentary and alternative method and practitioners do not treat illnesses, there is no federal requirement to be licensed and no state licens required in most states.
Q: What about alcohol or substance abuse and issues caused by physical abuse?
A: Almost all substance abuse is a form of self-medication and, when the reason for self-medicating is removed, often so too is the need to self-medicate. It is wise to refer those who are currently dealing with substance abuse to a doctor or treatment center to get the problem under control, but once the substance is out of the system, RAMP can certainly help ensure success.
Q: Can RAMP be used to increase reading speed and comprehension of what is read?
A: I have never applied it this way, but since the subconscious mind processes at thousands of times the rate of the conscious, and since it is ever willing to help people get all kinds of results, I imagine this would be possible too.
Q: If you are aware of a block, can you remove it yourself?
A: Sometimes. There are several ways to remove blocks which the subconscious mind does not consider critical to your survival or happiness. The modalities of NLP, EFT, The Sedona Method, EMDR, self-hypnosis, meditation combined with meaningful affirmations, and other methods can work when the source of the block is known; essentially surface blocks . Clinical hypnosis can work when the block is unknown unless the suggestions conflict with a source cause. The only process I know of that removes or updates deeply held source patterns is RAMP.
Q: Once a block is banished...are the steps to keep it unblocked the same as unblocking it in the first place?
A: Once a block is removed, there is nothing else that has to be done. Just as the subconscious mind maintained the old pattern without any effort on your part, so too will it maintain the new one without any effort.
Q: What causes self-sabotage? Can you remove blocks to self-sabotage? Also does this work for clutter or procrastination?
A: Self-sabotage occurs when what we desire at a conscious level conflicts with a subconscious program. The only ways to eliminate what is commonly referred to as self-sabotage is to either change conscious desires or change the subconscious program. The latter is a much better choice since to change our conscious desires would mean giving up our dreams and settling for less. It would mean accepting and even allowing defeat. You can end self-sabotage by updating subconscious patterns so they align with your conscious desires. And, yes, that includes procrastination and dealing with clutter.
Q: Can you remove blocks to winning large lump sums of money (millions) as opposed to only winning small lump sums (hundreds and or thousands) and keeping the money as opposed to losing it?
A: I don't know about "winning" money, but you can certainly remove blocks to earning large sums of money or to keeping and investing it wisely. And you can remove blocks to having a multi-million dollar mindset. With the right mindset, anyone can earn all the money they want because they are then willing and able to learn what they need to affect that outcome.
Q: Can you speak more about how you actually update the subconscious mind? Is it simply through suggesting a new belief or concept?
A: The RAMP method does not suggest new concepts or beliefs. With RAMP the individual's own subconscious mind directs the process. RAMP Practitioners simply guide the subconscious mind around any hurtles it encounters. Everyone's subconscious mind is very cooperative and very capable of getting exactly what the individual wants when it understands what that is. The subconscious mind will easily and effortlessly update old programs under the right circumstances. RAMP provides those ideal circumstances.
Q: I'm not clear how you access blocks that you are not aware of. Is this something you do as the practitioner or is that something I'm able to do once in Alpha or Theta state?
A: You can sometimes access blocks you were previously unaware of while in the alpha or theta states. That's the "aha" experience most everyone has had. But, as you are likely aware, that is a rare occurrence. To get to blocks you are not aware of quickly and effectively requires the guidance of a trained practitioner.
Q: Is it necessary that I be able to remember an event or feeling that created a block? What if I was so young that I have no conscious memory of it?
A: We have no conscious memory of most blocks, especially source blocks. Most of the blocks that people have occurred way back in early childhood and are completely submerged. It is not at all necessary to know what the block is. All you need to know is the result you want.
Q: Have you used RAMP with children? If so, what ages and what blocks were removed?
A: Yes. The youngest was a 9 year old girl with trichotillomania, a hair pulling disorder. She had great success and no longer is troubled by a disorder that, according to most studies, is very difficult to cure.
Q: Do all subconscious minds work equally with visuals or is there a difference between learning styles (auditory, kinesthetic etc)?
A: Learning styles and language preferences exist at a conscious level. The subconscious mind uses every sense in full measure. It uses sights, sounds, smell, tastes and touch much like you experience in a vivid dream.
Q: If we are working on vision boards, would we do better using pictures than words?
A: Because the subconscious mind processes in pictures, pictures are better than words, but words that have a visual or emotional component to them can be effective too because the subconscious mind turns them into pictures. The best vision boards have both pictures and meaningful words.
Q: Is the subconscious mind like a tape recorder and the RAMP process like erasing the recorded tapes?
A: No. The subconscious mind is more like a computer with really good password protection. The files it maintains literally become your operating system. But you can't go in and change or erase them if the subconscious mind thinks they have value or are critical to successful operation. Only the subconscious mind can get past all the safe-guards and make the changes, and it alone decides whether a file needs to be updated, erased or left alone. You are wasting your time trying to alter or erase a file that the subconscious mind wants to keep. The key is showing that amazing processor that the files it is manitaining are not the most efficient, effective or beneficial. Once it sees that, it updates the files instantly. The reult is that you experience more desirable outcomes that are effortlessly maintained.
Q: When we read self-help books, listen to tapes and make affirmations are we just affecting the conscious mind?
A: For the most part, yes. The exception is when something in a book, CD, workshop or affirmation impacts you emotionally, resulting in a powerful "aha" moment or what psychologists call a significant emotional event. When that occurs, the external event has impacted the subconscious mind.
Q: What are the four states of mind?
A: Beta, which is the wide awake alert state; Alpha, which is the relaxed, light trance, day dreaming state; Theta, which is the deep meditation or deep trance state; and Delta, which is the deep sleep state. Some research suggests that there may be more, but if there are, we don't yet have instruments to adequately track them.
Q: Does the fact that the subconscious mind does its own work mean that your process is not therapy?
A: RAMP and AMP are not therapy in the conventional sense. By definition, therapy is a means for treating illness. AMP and RAMP are not intended to treat illness. They are intended to remove blocks that prevent success and lead to illness. They have positive effects on "illnesses" such as depression, PTSD and even chronic pain, but that is a side benefit of removing the subconscious blocks that produced that effect in the first place. The beauty of this kind of "cure" is that the only side-effect is happiness, pure delight in the behaviors we observe in ourselves, more energy and greater effectiveness.
Q: Can anyone learn to use this in coaching without therapy training?
A: Yes.
Q: Can this process heal a trauma that causes PTSD?
A: Yes. It is very effective at healing traumas of all kinds.
Q: Can this be used to help heal physical pain or disorders?
A: Any good physician will tell you that all healing is ultimately self-healing and all self-healing is directed by the subconscious mind. Whether RAMP, AMP or any other process can heal a disorder or eliminate pain depends entirely on whether the subconscious mind finds greater value in the healing than in the disorder or pain. That may sound strange, but there are people who see pain or illness, or even death, as the only means to get what they want and those people will keep their pain, disorder or disease no matter what kind of intervention is tried. The subconscious mind does nothing without a reason. Find the reason and change it and the result will change. That is true at mental, emotional and physical levels so, theoretically, any disorder can be healed if the subconscious source of it can be found and removed.
Q: Is RAMP a form of hypnosis or visualization?
A: RAMP in neither hypnosis nor visualization. With RAMP you are in a focused light alpha state similar to what you are in when you are engrossed in a good movie or book or in a deeper, more relaxed alpha or light theta state. Both hypnosis and visualization rely heavily on suggestion, which is not the case for RAMP.
Q: Are concepts the same thing as beliefs?
A: They are similar. A concept is more full-bodied than a belief. Beliefs are often one-dimensional. Concepts are multidimensional. It's like the difference between a rich, colorful story and a single sentence.
Q: What is a good resource to explore this in more depth?
A: Explore the Banish Blocks site. Read the articles. Watch the video on the home page. There is a great deal of information here.
Q: What are some other resources to explore how the subconscious works?
A: I would suggest you go online and search using the search criteria "How the subconscious mind works." Unfortunately, there is about as much misinformation as good information, but there is plenty to explore.
Q: I was thinking about the statement that thoughts create feelings and that you said that is not totally true. Can you explain that further?
A: Thoughts are conscious processes. Feelings are subconscious processes. Everything begins with a concept or belief. The concept/belief then generates a feeling. This is all happening at a subconscious level so you are not aware of it. The subconsciously generated feeling creates a bodily response that the conscious mind then becomes aware of and tries to make sense of. The consciously generated thoughts then increase the feeling to a level that we are now consciously aware of it. We then become aware of the feeling, which induces an action, and the action leads to a result. The conscious part of the process does begin with thoughts, but several things have happened at an unconscious level before we become conscious of the process. I only know about the rest of the process as a result of working with people at a subconscious level for more than twenty years and seeing how this occurs.
Q: Can I do RAMP on myself, if not, why not?
A: You can use RAMP on yourself to some extent. It works as well as any of the other self-help processes and better than many to remove the blocks you are aware of. You cannot self-administer RAMP or anything else to remove source level blocks however, because they are almost never the ones we are conscious of and we have no access to them through conscious processes.
Q: Can you do RAMP on groups?
A: Yes, but since there are a percentage of people who will not be able follow the process to its conclusion on their own, the percentage of people who get the result they want is lower in a group setting. In groups, the success ratio is about 75%. In a private session, the success ratio is about 97%.
Q: Can I get trained in this methodology so I can help my coaching clients?
A: You qualify for training if you are already in a field where you work with people. Coaches, counselors, therapists, consultants, mentors, preachers, social workers, energy workers and such are all eligible. RAMP is not therapy in the conventional sense so you don't need to be a licensed therapist or psychologist to become a practitioner.
Q: Can a block or barrier be so big that RAMP can't handle it?
A: If one exists, I have not yet seen it.
Q: How is it that RAMP works so much faster than standard therapy?
A: Standard therapy is a conscious process and there are some pretty hefty filters between the conscious and subconscious levels of mind. RAMP works with the subconscious mind using its language and following its rules. What blocks our progress exists at the subconscious level so RAMP is going straight to the source without unnecessary filters to interfere with progress. The only essential filters, which no one will ever get around or ever should, are the subconscious mind's relentless pursuit of conceptual survival (happiness) and physical survival.
Q: Can a significant emotional event be a traumatic event as well as a life milestone (age, marriage, etc.) event?
A: Of Course. Traumatic events are very emotionally significant. The subconcsious mind does not care whether the event is viewed by the conscious mind as positive or negative. It acts on emotional content and trauma certainly has plenty of that. That's why people continue to suffer from PTSD long after the event has passed.
Q: Dr. Buffington, you said that the subconscious mind doesn't care whether the information it receives is real or imagined. Is that because the subconscious remains in an "infantile" state - never grows up?
A: If by "infantile" you mean innocent, yes that would be part of it. Primarily though, it accepts anything it receives in the right way. It does not sort and filter information. That is the work of the conscious mind. It does not receive mere words though. Words are not its language. It receives emotionally based concepts and specific sensory input.
Q: How does your work connect to EMDR, EFT, and hypnosis?
A: Like RAMP, all of those modalities are designed to connect with and affect subconscious processes. They go about it in a different way and most use directives from the practitioner or from one's own conscious direction. It is the conscious processing that makes things like EFT and EMDR, and even hypnotherapy, different. Though hypnosis is designed to work at a subconscious level, the hypnotist is still making suggestions that may or may not align with the programs and patterns of the subconscious mind so, in the case of hypnotherapy, visualization programs and similar methods, it is the consciousness of the one applying the method that acts as a limiter.
Q: How do you identify what your starting point is in what you believe to be a key block?
A: By simply asking the client what they want to achieve. Then I let their subconscious mind tell me where to go from there.
Q: Are you able to do this yourself, or does it require a practitioner's intervention?
A: You can do the process yourself for some things, but the conscious mind runs interference so the really deep, core issues don't usually get address and worked through when RAMP is self-administered.
Q: Can this be done over the phone versus face-to-face?
A: Yes. In fact, about 99% of the sessions are done by phone. Most practitioners and most clients prefer phone sessions because the client can be at home where they can just kick back and relax and let their subconscious mind continue to process (which it almost always does) after the session is over. The subconscious processing can continue for hours after the session ends and some people are inattentive during this processing, so it's actually best for clients to be where they won't have to go anywhere for a little while.
Q. I am interested in learning more about RAMP because I am interested in working with the subconscious. Are the sessions similar to hypnosis? Are they offered at a distance over the phone? How much for a RAMP session? On another note, is being in alpha during the day harmful to a person, such as after they meditate? Does this make them more suggestible?
A. RAMP is different from hypnosis in several ways. In hypnosis the individual is put into a relatively deep trance state and suggestions made by the hypnotherapist. With RAMP you go into an alpha state naturally and your own subconscious mind decides how the process unfolds. We all have our own best answers and since the subconscious mind wants only your happiness and survival, it is very helpful in giving you the outcome you want when given an avenue to do that. RAMP is the avenue.
Being in alpha during the day is not only NOT harmful, it is very beneficial. If you didn't enter the alpha state off and on during the day, you could not concentrate and you would soon become very agitated and stressed. Any time you find yourself engrossed in a book, a movie, a project, daydreaming, or staring out at a sunset and feeling relaxed and peaceful, you are in the alpha state.
In alpha, you are in a light trance state and suggestible, but mostly suggestible from your own thoughts, not from others. By the time we get to adulthood, we have strong enough filters that we have already decided not to allow others to impact us beyond what we want them to so the suggestions of others don't get in without your consent. You can use the fact that you can better receive suggestions you make to yourself in the alpha state by purposefully making beneficial suggestions during those deep concentration times.
The cost of RAMP varies by practitioner. I will send you a list of certified practitioners which you can contact for details.
Q. How would a coach use these methods to help clients without being considered practicing therapy?
A. The RAMP and AMP methods are not considered therapy any more than NLP, EFT, EMDR or other modalities are. As a RAMP practitioner, all you are doing is guiding the client through their own processing.
Therapy, in the broadest sense, is a term that is applied to treatment for an illness or disorder. A RAMP Practitioner does not make suggestions, prescribe or administer treatment for illness or mental disorders. Where it is obvious that the client needs treatment for either physical or mental disorders, RAMP practitioners are required to refer them to a licensed professional.
The vast majority of people seeking to remove blocks so they can be more effective are not ill. They are just stuck. RAMP is a highly effective method that gets amazing results better than most traditional therapeutic processes. Traditional therapy tends to focus on treatment of disorders where the focus of RAMP is on removing blocks and helping people move forward.