In this interview, Dr. Jenny Remington‑Hobbs recounts her rapid descent from a high‑octane London doctor to a critically ill multiple‑sclerosis patient, describing an intensive course of experimental bone‑marrow and stem‑cell transplants, prolonged quarantine, and subsequent autoimmune complications. A pivotal moment occurs when a nurse’s Einstein mug bearing the quote “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking that we used when we created them” prompts a profound shift in her perception of illness, leading her to view disease as the greatest awakener and catalyst for personal transformation. The host expands the conversation to the Hero’s Journey archetype, explaining Joseph Campbell’s mythic framework as an allegory for the soul’s quest, and connects it to unconscious programming, neuroplasticity, and the ego‑heart dynamic. Both speakers argue that habitual belief‑systems act as mental “highways” that perpetuate repeated patterns, and that making the unconscious conscious is essential to break the cycle. The interview concludes with a practical invitation to adopt an “I don’t know” mindset—cultivating curiosity, humility, and openness—to reveal hidden patterns and enable new, creative ways of being.
Chapters
I was on a bone marrow transplant unit, very sick and feeling very sorry for myself, very focused on all the misery of my disease and chemotherapy I was receiving and the treatment and life in general. And there was a nurse who used to come and sit with me in the early hours of the morning when I was feeling my most sick. And she had this mug with Einstein's face on it and a quote. And the quote said, We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking that we used when we created them. And I saw that quote sort of every morning at sort of 2 in the morning for quite a long period of time, in a very intense period of my life. And it just struck the deepest chord inside of me. And how profound is that, Claudia, that we can't change our problems with the same thinking that we used when we created them? And yeah, that was a real turning point for me. I started to think, What have I created here? And what kind of thinking am I using? I suppose that was a turning point moment, a real aha. But just to circle back before that image, I was a successful London doctor living a very high-octane life, you know, just really going for it. So yeah, Claudia, my health journey in was, and I was a doctor, and to go from the doctor to the patient in a very short space of time, and I got really quite sick. I had a rapidly evolving type of multiple sclerosis and was going downhill really fast, and my life was turned upside down. So pre that moment with the Einstein mug, I suppose the day I got my diagnosis, you know, that's a life-altering moment. And as I said, it absolutely flipped everything on its head. There's a story in a story with all of that, I suppose, leading all the way through all the different treatments and things I tried through to an aggressive, highly aggressive experimental treatment that I ended up having in the States. Involving a lot of work with my bone marrow and stem cell transplants and pretty much a year in quarantine. And yeah, by the end of that year, I had sort of new autoimmune diseases and my bone marrow sort of being attacked and platelet issues and needing more chemotherapy and daily transfusions just to be okay. So I think it's impossible not to have your life absolutely flipped on its head when you're going through that kind of a physical, emotional, psychological journey. For me, certainly, disease and the disease process has been the greatest awakener and gift of my life. We would not change a thing of the journey that we have been on. And I think the big thing is just how much I have learned.
The hero's journey, it is an allegory. It is an allegory of the journey of the soul and the psyche. And it was developed by Joseph Campbell, who was a professor of comparative mythology and religion. And he wrote the seminal book, you know, The Hero with a Thousand Faces., and in it he synthesized the myths and the legends from human civilizations across many cultures, many cultures over thousands of years. And it was remarkable, his findings, which were that, you know, he synthesized all of this into realizing that there's basically all those different sets and settings, and those were different for the different cultures and civilizations. Our human stories sort of share the same structure and the same themes. And the hero's journey, it really speaks to something intrinsic about who we are and why we're here and what our true nature is. It's almost sort of the unconscious beliefs that us humans have about our hearts not sort of being viable in the world. And the journey expresses the urge within us all at the deepest level to come back to our hearts, back to much more of who we truly are. Started to sense that I wasn't getting down to the heart of the issue. I didn't understand what was actually running me, what was creating my thoughts and my feelings, and therefore driving my behavior. I had some profound experiences, some mystical, but to be honest, still not understanding what was keeping me and my clients, you know, in their default ways of thinking. It's like you wake up to something and then you realize you're still back in it. And I think that's the struggle for all of us, isn't it? It's, you know, our heart versus our ego, our mind versus our creative spirit. It was just so clear that none of us had any idea really of our unconscious programming, you know, the lens you see the world through. And isn't that everything? It's like the lens dictates everything. It shapes how you think and it shapes how you act and ultimately how you experience life. And that was a big waking up. It was sort of Because until you wake up to your program or your programming, it runs you and you end up just creating situations and problems again and again. You know what I mean? That sense of just rinse, repeat. You know, where you focus creates your reality. And I think that we as a species, we don't know about that. Where you place your attention, you know, it determines what's happening in your life, you know, what's being created in your life. Coming through the hero's journey, coming through individuation, separating out into being the unique you, and all the stories that you have about that separation. And as one grows up, you know, believing that more and more, you know, we develop these negative beliefs about ourselves and others and the world. We don't even know it's happening. It's sort of very stealth-like. And in terms of the brain, in terms of neuroplasticity, those paths get laid down. It's almost like you get a really strong motorway, and that's where everything goes down. And the A roads or the B roads the sort of more minor roads will disappear. And you sort of just got the Autobahn with these thoughts just going up and down that. And everybody has these, you know, it makes us human. You can call it the ego, you can call it beliefs, you can call it the mind. But these beliefs, they sit at the heart of our identity, our personality. Most of our focus is on these beliefs, and therefore that's what's being experienced in our lives. It's like without being aware, we're focusing in on all of our flaws, and we therefore create the exact reality that those flaws look like. You know, we create the same thing that we're actually trying to escape from. Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life, and you will call it fate. And I think there's such profundity in that, that, you know, until we know what's actually driving us, this directs our life, and then we say it's just happened to us. So I think one of the things to say to the audience, to say to all of us out there, is to stay really curious, to stay open and curious, and where possible, to lead from the heart and to not play out the same old dance, to try to understand what is actually coming from inside of us and what we are creating, because we have the power to create so many magical, extraordinary, and beautiful things in this life of ours. So I think that the parting message is to drop into the most simple thing that we do and that we teach, and it's my greatest teacher, which are 3 words, and that is, I don't know. The I don't know mind is the place where you can start to see your unconscious, the place you can start to see your patterns, the place that you can start to have a different outlook and a different way of stepping into the world by not thinking you know and not playing out the same dance again and again from the tried and tested path of the ego.
