Malta has always been a geographic gateway between the European and Arabic worlds. Once firmly closed, the gateway is nowadays invitingly open.  Its continuing function as a gateway is in underlined by the dozens of schools teaching English as a foreign language.  It is an educational hive of activity in subject-areas spanning the past and the future. On the one hand, the world-class training courses at the Malta Centre for Restoration draws professionals and students from Europe and the Arab world to learn how to preserve and restore relics of stone, paper, cloth and other materials. On the other hand, Microsoft has created an IT Academy that will be a regional hub for training in computer hardware and software.

The Hypogeum at Rahal il-Gdid is emblematic of another kind of gateway -- a gateway into the inner mind. It is impossible to reconstruct with certainty how this three-storey underground complex was used when it was built, but it is believed it may have been used for iatromantic, or 'dream-therapy' purposes. This large subterranean temple, built around 3600 BC, was discovered in 1902 but not opened to the public until 2000.

The deepest part was undoubtedly used for ritual burials, and up to 7,000 human remains have been found there. But the middle chambers are more enigmatic. A key to the use of those chambers of the temple is the pair of identical statues of a sleeping woman, which were found there. It is believed that the chambers were used for a spiritual process known as incubation-- in which individuals would sleep for one or more nights in the chamber and received prophetic or healing dreams.

The iatromantis was a professional 'dream-healer', a sort of shaman who would sleep in the chambers and have prophetic and healing dreams for others. Researchers such as Dr Peter Kingsley have traced the tradition of incubation and the iatromantis back into the mists of time, throughout the Mediterranean region. (See his book, In the Dark Places of Wisdom, Element Books:1999)

A more modern way to delve into the inner mind is interactive hypnotherapy. Hypnosis is essentially a state of deep relaxation, which opens up a gateway into the mind whilst retaining conscious awareness. Unlike the ancient practice of incubation, where you are literally sleeping, in hypnotherapy you are definitely awake. You remain aware of what is said by yourself and the therapist.

The hypnotic state is not really exotic or strange. It is a perfectly natural state in which your relaxation allows the doors of perception to open up to your subconscious mind, whilst at the same permitting you to remain able to converse, slowly and quietly, with the therapist.

Hypnosis is very much akin to the trance-like states that we often enter into, in every day life. For example, when you drive your car whilst conversing with your passenger, you enter a mildly trance-like state in which your mind can readily navigate familiar routes without any need to engage full conscious deliberation.

As you might expect from its naturalness, inducing the state of hypnosis is quite easy. Some people seem to think that attending a weekend course in inducing hypnosis is enough to set them up as a hypnotherapist. In fact, this merely opens the door into the inner mind: the effective therapist must then lead the subject through that door and guide him or her through a process of self-discovery and interior negotiation. And it is the successful navigation through the inner mind that requires the intuition, empathy, skill, and professionalism of the therapist.

There are two kinds of hypnotherapy: direct suggestion and interactive hypnotherapy. Direct suggestion is the simpler type: it consists of reading out 'suggestions' while the subject is in the hypnotic state. The heightened suggestibility of this state makes the subject more susceptible to embedding the suggestion, which will then take effect when they leave the trance state. For example, it might be a suggestion that cigarettes no longer seem enjoyable. This technique of direct suggestion is something that anyone can do once they have mastered the first step of hypnotic induction. It is just a matter of reading out a script for whichever issue the subject wishes to deal with. Whilst this can be a useful technique, it is limited. The subject cannot explore, and understand, the past experiences and present psychological forces that lie beneath the surface of the mind. Moreover, changes that are made using direct suggestion tend to be less deep and less likely to be permanent than changes made through interactive hypnotherapy. 

Interactive hypnotherapy involves an active dialogue with the subconscious, or inner mind.  The therapist's role might be likened to that of a choreographer of a dance that the subject enacts with the images, emotions, and ideas within the inner mind.

One technique within this approach is that of regression.  This involves taking the adult mind back to an earlier time -- when the problem in question first started. This might be a traumatic incident in childhood. Having found this key event, there are specific techniques that therapist uses to elicit the inner mind's own capacity to neutralize the memory of it, and heal the damage it did.

Regression is not the only approach. The therapist may instead call forward the 'players' of the inner mind -- the sub-personalities that make up a whole person, There may be one 'inner player' that is a rogue and is preventing you from moving forward in the way that you want. The hypnotherapist will therefore negotiate with this rogue player to either dissolve or to change its characteristics.

It is part of the therapist's skill and intuition to know which technique to use, and how best to guide the subject through the application of it. This is not something that you can learn from a book. It requires the tuition and guidance of an accomplished and seasoned practitioner, either in small groups or in one-to-one sessions.

Such workshops are being offered in Malta by Whole-Being Hypnotherapy. The training workshops take place in one of two venues in the south-east quarter of Malta -- one venue an ancient town-house in Zabbar, the other a spacious and light apartment in Vittoriosa.

In your free time outside the workshops, you will find that Malta is replete with the presence of history. The so-called 'Three Cities' -- of which Vittoriosa is the foremost -- formed the original medieval settlement that the Knights of St John founded in Malta. Across the Grand Harbour you can see the unique city of Valletta. Laid out in a grid surrounded by impregnable defenses, and overlying a sophisticated network of defensive tunnels and drains, this was probably the world's first systematically planned town. Valletta is a thriving commercial and tourist centre, and capital of Malta. In the west, you can visit the magical city of Mdina -- Malta's former capital before Valletta was built in the sixteenth century.  Going back further in time, you should visit the Hypogeum and other megalithic structures on the islands of Malta and Gozo.

UNESCO has recognized three World Heritage Sites in Malta: the City of Valletta, the Hypogeum, and the six overground megalithic structures (the latter being counted as one Heritage Site in UNESCO's scheme).

Travelling around Malta is easy but bumpy in the old-fashioned private buses that ply the length and breadth of this small island. Or you could hire a car to explore the areas that buses do not reach. There is also a frequent ferry between Malta and Gozo, carrying cars, buses, and foot passengers. You will find a range of hotels and restaurants -- new and ancient, for different tastes and budgets.

Deborah Marshall-Warren has run her own hypnotherapy practice in London for more than ten years, and worked as visiting consultant in hypnotherapy in such prestigious venues as the Harbour Club in Chelsea, London, and the Chiva-Som Spa in Hua-Hin, Thailand.  She has published two books, "Mind Detox" (Thorsons:1999) and "I'm Afraid of Hypnosis but I Don't Know Why" (Whole-Being:2003). For the past three years, she has been running training courses, for both beginners and for professionals, in interactive hypnotherapy