About us

Who is Simone?

I am a bi-continental, quadrilingual opera diva and an eater-of-things. I am Chief Resident of the House of HipGnosis.

Job description: The Chief does many things, like drink tea, dance, sing, write, draw, take naps.  But most importantly, the Chief tends to the House of HipGnosis and all the goings-on in its various rooms. The Chief creates safety and comfort for everyone who enters. She builds spaces, writes things and publishes them, brews projects and casts spells. She plays with Ollie and watches him send out telegrams. She sees to it that everyone who enters the House of HipGnosis (wherever one may actually be) leaves at least a little bit transformed.

(Uh, ceasing to refer to myself in the third person, now.)
An Un-resume: I got a BA in religion and a master’s degree in public health. I used to crunch a lot of numbers as a data analyst doing psychiatry research. Oh, I’m also a seminary drop-out (just wanted Truth and Light, not another dusty class on the Old Testament). In Summer 2011, I had an Awakening while at my 9-to-5 and in the following months, I birthed this online space and became certified as a clinical hypnotist by the National Guild of Hypnotists. As of January 2012, I became a full time Woman of the World (a Michelle-ism for ‘entrepreneur’.) In January 2011, the space that used to be called Freckled Brilliance transformed into the House of HipGnosis. This is now where I live and play.

 I am completely fanatical-obsessed-evangelical with things I care about. Like, HipGnosis. And Shiva Nata.

Who is Ollie?

Ollie is an elephant. It’s unclear whether the it is a girl or a boy. Or whether that even matters. I switch pronouns throughout the website as I refer to Ollie because I’m really not sure. I tried asking at one point, and s/he just looked at me with a quizzical look, like s/he doesn’t understand the concept of gender.

Ollie is my assistant and muse and play date. I met him one day and fell in love and asked him to come play with me in the House of HipGnosis full time. Now he runs errands, sends telegrams to my people and does funny elephant dances while I sit down to work. He asks me a lot of really questions, some of which are silly and some of which are thoughtful.

Ollie loves being in shavasana; I tried to get her to do Shiva Nata with me but,  um, elephant limbs aren’t really meant for flailing. I don’t think it matters, though, since I think Ollie already has the most plastic, zen brain ever and never gets phased by anything. Ollie is very hypnotizable.

 

And HipGnosis? What’s that?

It is an integrative approach to all sorts of magical transformation. It combines elements of classical hypnosis with NLP, energy work, play and brain-training martial arts. It is my greatest passion and Life Porpoise. I am a student and a practitioner and a teacher of it.

Everything here is a container of HipGnosis. Everything. And you can read more about it here.