An axiom is a statement that is always true. Suppose an axiom states,
"All crows are black." We find only one white crow. The axiom is no
longer an axiom.
We have mechanical models
of the human condition. These split apart the body and mind. Perhaps
the dualism of Descartes staged this in science. He described them
as totally separate and independent. This led him to a severe difficulty.
How could the mind control or experience the body? He resolved this
by saying that God did it. He didn't have to explain God because God,
by definition, transcended explanation.
In our modern sophistication
we have resolved that difficulty in a more modern way. We ignore it.
We have retained the idea of the mind and body as separate stuff.
Cells make up the body.
They collectively form organs, information systems, and all the structures
and processes of life. These cells, in the mechanical view, function
analogously to computer chips. Each has its program. Each has duties
and primary tasks. That includes reproducing itself. It definitely
does not think.
This leaves the mind dependent
on the cells of the brain. These specialized cells have to communicate
directly with the cells of the body. The brain received information
from the body. The body received instructions from the brain. This
information and these instructions make up our total consciousness.
HEALTHY SKEPTICISM
Reductionism itself forces
us to conclude that cells of the brain depend on the whole body, the
body depends on the brain, and all depend on the mediation of consciousness.
Nevertheless, we can ignore that. In our culture, we train people
to ignore that.
Somehow, the ideas of
the mind as separate from the body, of consciousness existing only
as a triviality arising from a specialized area of the brain, of the
body as sophisticated machinery only mechanically responding, and
of disease or illness as rust in the machinery, led to the current
methods of maintaining health and wellness.
Processes of thought and
emotion had no role in this orthodoxy. It not only ignored but denied
religious healings, placebo effects, mental curatives and a lot more.
"Don't investigate anomalies. They don't originate with normal people.
Seek to prove what you already know. Don't you know what re-search
means? Only fanatics and lunatics, like faith healers or psychics,
search for white crows."
Most people believe that
fitness and exercise, genes and constitution, diet and nutrition,
exposure and immunity, lifestyle and experience, and luck determine
health. Some know that behavioral characteristics influence the forms
of disease people experience. Few know of the connection between individual
beliefs, personality traits, and wellness.
Nearly everyone expects
to get the common cold or various flu viruses from time to time. They
usually do. Usually they manage it on a seasonal basis. Does that
surprise you? It should. We may have some choice regarding most of
the illnesses that each of us may experience.
MY HEART BELIEFS
I lecture about health
and wellness. At this point, I often see raised eyebrows in the audience.
I tell some of my story before I start to explain the scientific basis
for my beliefs. You know that our life experience guides interpretation
of facts. You have a right to know what led to my personal attitudes.
Two older boys chased
me home from school. My father got upset. He got upset with me, not
them. He promised to "whip" me if I ran away again. I felt scared.
Panic set in.
I did not want to go to
school the next day. Alas, I didn't have to. The next morning I felt
ill. I stayed ill. Days later the physician diagnosed rheumatic fever.
The physician told my parents and me what course the disease might
take. It took that course - for a while.
A year and a half passed.
The benefits of a continual sore throat, shortness of breath, liquid
diets and special attention declined. I distinctly remember deciding
not to be sick. It was time to go out and play, to ride a bicycle,
to say hello to my first girl, to have my first crush, time to just
shoot marbles. I decided to get well. Almost overnight I did.
When I went back to school
the tough guys did not bother me any more. I had become the poor skinny
kid, sick with a mysterious disease for over a year and a half.
Months passed. Soon I
grew by leaps and bounds. I reached almost my full height very early.
My father spent his entire
life either in the military or in some form of law enforcement. He
carried a gun for some 50 years. He had no patience for a "sissy"
boy, especially one with the same name as his. He paid for a health
studio where I learned self-defense.
In the sixth grade all
those tough kids wanted to bully or fight me again. Pretty soon I
fought very frequently. Then I found myself in a double bind. My father
spoke to, and treated me like scum---trouble waiting to happen, always
fighting.
At first I had thought
he wanted me tough. Then he apparently condemned my ability to fight.
He had told me, "Never run from anyone, or face having to fight me."
Then he changed to a father who treated me as a rotten juvenile delinquent
for not running. The mixed signals and perceived shifts hurt me and
left me confused.
Now the depth of my confusion
seems improbable. Remember, we have two responses to a threat wired
in. Fight or flee. We can resolve dilemmas by creating new choices.
I didn't recognize that. I wanted to make the right choice. I didn't
conceive that we need to create those.
I think my father felt
equally confused. Certainly he did not intend to place me in this
situation. Perhaps I never understood him. However, I can illustrate
my choices.
Children need to please
a parent. I didn't know how. Suddenly I had a relapse of rheumatic
fever. This sudden relapse occurred in my teens, at my fittest, involved
in sports, scouting and other strenuous activities. No physical warning,
just a relapse. I distinctly remember thinking that I no longer threatened
anyone.
Again, many of the kids
who had threatened me, felt sympathy for me instead. I did not think
to connect my becoming ill with the need I had to escape my dilemma.
While sick, I did not have to work out how to please my father. A
heart murmur, that my mother said I had after the first bout with
the disease, also returned. I lost weight. I took myself back to the
circumstances where my parents had lavished me with care and attention
and the outside world held no threat over me.
Fortunately for me this
strategy soon failed. What if it had produce the desired result? I
could well have never recovered entirely. Once again, I thought I'd
had enough of being ill. I regained my good health.
I wanted to enjoy life.
Athletics attracted me. I threw myself into them. Sports often serve
to sublimate the fight or flee response.
In a basketball game,
I played all four quarters without substitution. Later, the team coach
arranged for our team physicals. I did not have a heart murmur or
any other difficulties. One of my friends seemed fit as the proverbial
fiddle. His physical diagnosed high blood pressure. The physical benched
him, not me.
Years later a physician
friend of mine examined me in a routine physical. No murmur. I told
him of the history of rheumatic fever. He explained that back in the
fifties physicians misdiagnosed many diseases as rheumatic fever.
Years passed and one day
I fell prey to the usual seasonal influenza. Home, ill, pampering
myself, I received a phone call that required immediate attention.
I decided to exert some "mind over matter" and try to make myself
well. By the time I had traveled across town, most of the symptoms
had gone. Perhaps I had some active part in the choice of when and
where, and even what I might become ill with.
BODY OF BELIEFS
At this time in my life
I studied eastern philosophy. I kept coming across the idea that we
have the ability to heal ourselves. Could we? How? I searched the
literature.
Hundreds of anecdotal
accounts matched the one I just shared with you. Volumes recorded
a time in history when Asclepiad healing centers proliferated and
cured people with drama, humor, exercise, and dreams. This led me
to very many stories, too many to count. Religious persons of every
faith had experienced miraculous cures. Surprisingly, at least to
me, a number of scientific papers, articles and books also suggested
a mind/body connection with abilities and implications that challenge
at every level the notion of mechanical body and disembodied mind.
I began to question the
popular views of disease. What if dis-ease was not something you "caught"
but a behavioral strategy, a solution to problems, an unconscious
choice, even a habit. Developing rheumatic fever certainly helped
me avoid a situation I did not wish to deal with!
HEALTHY SPECULATION
Ernest Rossi in his wonderful
book, The Psychobiology Of Mind-Body Healing, reports a demonstration
by Bernheim in 1886. The subject expressed hypnotic suggestions as
body processes. For example, the idea of running resulted in the sensations
of running and then fatigue (Rossi, 1986). Simple words, suggestions,
converted into body processes? This may sound strange. Think about
it for a moment. How does a blush happen? Thoughts lead to emotions
which produce body processes. I spent years administering lie detection
tests: watching physical responses to the psychological associations
of verbal stimuli.
Some established hypnotic
phenomena defy conventional explanation. Many of us have witnessed
these. The late Professor Carl LaPrecht performed one such phenomena.
He taught a polygraph counter measures course to lie detection examiners.
During a session, he placed himself in wide eyed hypnosis. On cue
his body became rigid. Two local officers picked him up and suspended
him between two chairs. His head rested at mid skull on one chair
while his ankles rested on the other. In this complete body catalepsy
he continued to lecture! If I had not seen this with my own eyes I
would have doubted nearly anyone who told me such a story. There,
in front of some thirty law enforcement people, LaPrecht did things
with his body that defied possibility. How can anything defy possibility
and still be possible? How could simple words or thoughts turn a living
organism into a rigid bar?
Cleve Baxter has pioneered
novel research with lie detection devices. His experiments with plants
demonstrated that they respond to their surroundings without physical
contact. They can respond specifically to individuals. This challenges
notions about consciousness.
While speaking at the
Ohio Academy I met a fellow presenter who extended some of Baxter's
work. Dr. Bruce Lipton does research and teaches at the Stanford School
of Medicine. Bruce specialized in cellular biology for years. He told
me of an experiment with human cells. They removed cells and took
them as much as five miles away from the host organ, or person. They
closely monitored both. When one was traumatized, the other responded,
even five miles away. A cell five miles away from the original host,
perhaps one of your cells five miles away, will respond immediately
when you suffer trauma. It will not so respond to anyone else. Somehow
the distance does not entirely separate the cell from the donor. Conversely,
when the cell suffers trauma the body responds. (Lipton, 1991).
Have we verified voodoo?
Does this imply cell consciousness? Could the cell mediate behavior?
Could the cells of the body actually provide the impetus for behavior?
Individual neurons can develop conditioned responses in stimulus response
experiments. This has been done with cocaine. Does this explain some
addiction?
Could a two way system
operate? Could both levels operate to produce behavior? Might they
even cooperate? The brain cooperates with the cells to get them nutrients
- or narcotics. The cells cooperate with the brain to produce vitality
- or illness or disease. That meets the needs of the "stuff" we call
consciousness or mind. Maybe we should just say mind. Maybe we should
even say brain. Consciousness, as I use it, presupposes mind and independent
will. Perhaps consciousness extends to every cell. Perhaps it makes
no sense to distinguish between mind and body as distinct and independent.
The questions remain. Does the mind have a role in dis-ease? Does
the body imitate the mind's expectations?
Let us ask questions.
Let us use the answers.
A well publicized study
treated 110 patients (Simonton, 1976) at the Cancer Counselling and
Research Center in Ft. Worth. It indicated that visualization procedures
could enhance remission (Brain Mind, Vol. 1, 23c). Krieger demonstrated
in 1971-73 and again in 1975 that therapeutic touch affected hemoglobin
(Brain Mind, vol. 1, 2c).
Chopra uses an analogy
for depicting the mind-body relationship. The analogy goes something
like this. Imagine iron filings on top of a piece of paper with a
magnet below. As the magnet goes, so do the iron filings. The thin
piece of paper, the difference between mind and body, serves as a
necessary barrier for the interaction to occur. The idea of independent
mechanics makes no sense what-so-ever. The apparent separation exists
only for the purpose of interaction. (Chopra, 1989).
Dr. Lipton believes that
the cells in each body tune to a frequency, all 75 trillion of them.
When cloned they remain tuned to this frequency. Lipton suggests this
as scientific evidence for the analogy of receiving a broadcast from
spiritual self, quintessential self, higher self, or whatever one
would call that universal human experience. (Lipton, 1991).
Thus far, what might we
conclude? Cells mimic behavior and thought patterns; the thought patterns
respond to cellular input. Do they? Dr. Bruce Lipton believes that
the interrelationships of society recapitulate those of the body which
recapitulate those of the cell. He believes this holds true for all
structures and processes, including consciousness itself. Lipton envisions
technology as extensions of models from the body. Societal organizations
function by specialty and cooperation as do the cells of the body.
Allow me to recommend
a huge and elegant book: Living Systems by James G. Miller. He divides
all life into seven levels: cells, organs, organisms, groups, organizations,
nations, and supra-national systems. He details 19 specific functions
common to all. Does society mimic the cell? Yes. Society mimics the
cell in at least 19 identified ways. So does everything in between.
Does the cell mimic society?
Could plagues match, on a cellular level, the cultures they rage through?
This regenerates the old nature/nurture argument from a different
perspective.
AILING MEDICINE
Can one alter an attitude,
a belief, an assumption and alter at least personal reality? Can I
just imitate health and be healthy? Old assumptions about health and
wellness, and consciousness and mind stuff, permeate every aspect
of our health care.
Robert Becker has demonstrated
some ability for limb regeneration (1987). Bruce Lipton told me that
the "problem today in limb regeneration is that doctors misunderstand
the nervous system and so close off an amputation. This has the effect
of inhibiting the regeneration procedures." (1991, private communication).
I recognize this as a highly emotional, as well as highly speculative
area. I emphasize it because limb regeneration, if indeed possible,
will not occur without altering established treatment. Altering established
treatment will not occur without altering established attitude.
To what extent might our
cells mimic social behavior? No genes directly control behavior (Lipton,
1991). Genes only direct building materials. Our learning generates
the psychology behind behavior. Could it inhere to cellular memory
of some kind, from some source? Could it depend entirely on enculturated
mimics of social behavior?
Solomon charts the mind-body
communication model this way (BMB, Vol 13, 8G):
1. Certain personality
patterns appear to suppress the immune system with respect to specific
diseases;
2. Life crises lower immune
responses;
3. Emotional disturbances
are accompanied by immune abnormalities;
4. Some immunological
disorders are accompanied by psychotic symptoms;
5. Stressful early experiences
impact the immune system;
6. Certain brain injury
influences the immune system in both direction;
7. Activation of the immune
system alters neuron firing rates;
8. Neurotransmitters,
such as peptides, influence immune mechanisms;
9. The Central Nervous
System (CNS) at least partly regulates immune functions; and
10. Hormones from the
thymus, which regulate immune mechanisms, are influenced by the CNS.
Solomon concludes, "The
preponderance of evidence links both the central and autonomic nervous
systems and the immune system "beyond a reasonable doubt.""
Nelson Panj, a biologist
with the University of Colorado School of Medicine, sees the immune
system as a cognitive process. He asserts that the immune system "reacts
to certain antigens not because they are foreign but because they
are non-sense. They don't fit into the orderly system." (BMB, Vol
3, 6A). By an analogous process, children learn not to babble. Perhaps
a body has learned, or needs, a disease. Pathogens that fit into the
"orderly system," go unapproached by immune functions.
We can teach (condition)
immune responses. Can we "unlearn" them? Can we learn (condition)
immune responses when needed and unlearn (decondition) them at will?
Is disease natural? Could it be a living myth? Does any of this make
sense for anyone ill? It's one thing to evaluate and philosophize
about health if I am well and quite another if not. What then?
INANE MAGNETISM
In 1765 Franz Anton Mesmer
employed magnets to produce miraculous cures. Later, most critics
said that Mesmer obtained results due to the power of suggestion in
what Braid termed hypnosis (Krasner, 1990). That term persisted despite
Braids attempt to alter it.
The word originated from
the observation that subjects under the influence of Mesmer seemed
to enter a state of "nervous sleep." Later Braid decided that the
term monoideism more appropriately described this state. A single
idea, held to the exclusion of other ideas, produced the phenomenon
demonstrated by Mesmer. Others also used imagination and imitation
to produce an altered state of consciousness, and so healed the chronically
ill. Braid discounted the magnets entirely.
History twists. Science
plays with opinions. We've come the better part of the way to admitting
that hypnosis and magnets contributed to the miracles of Mesmer's
time. For years Mesmer and his followers cured patients of a host
of different illnesses using his methods. In time Mesmer suffered
disgrace. He died in obscurity. The disgrace stemmed in part from
the scientific community's inability to replicate Mesmer's work. They
maintained that the magnets in and of themselves did not work! Something
worked. People could see again, people could walk again.
Why do we often overlook
cures in favor of indictments? Mesmer had it wrong. But, by and large,
the ill who had been cured remained cured. Many factors tangled together
here. Even referring to both hypnosis and magnetism is an over simplification.
The fact remains. Something totally out of the ordinary model of mechanical
body part models worked. Braid settled on the power of suggestion
or hypnosis. Hypnosis has demonstrated results for asthma, hypertension,
bleeding, dermatitis, various emotional disorders, speeding the rate
of healing and much more. (Udolf, 1981). Words working curative powers?
In the 1880's Jean Martin
Charcot regularly demonstrated one of his favorite hypnotic procedures
to medical personnel at the Salpetriere hospital in France. He would
hypnotize patients suffering from hysterical paralysis. In hypnosis
they would stand and walk on Charcot's command. In ordinary consciousness,
the same person would "crumple to the ground" (Locke & Colligan, 1986).
Did these suggestions, given during hypnosis revivify a cellular memory
of wellness? Did they remove or circumvent psychological barriers
that sustained the dysfunction? Freud theorized that "emotions not
expressed in words or actions would find expression in some sort of
physical ailment" (Locke & Colligan, 1986). Did hypnosis alter such
unexpressed emotion?
PERSONALITY
Examine the human condition.
Medical professionals often deal with personality as experimental
scientists deal with random variables. However, without the natural
variations in personality, such terms as "normal" or "pathological"
have no meaning. The variable we call personality is the essential
of the human condition. In fact, personality extends beyond the human
sphere into at least the animal kingdom. Does personality have anything
to do with illness?
A number of well documented
cases clearly demonstrate that it does. Personality can influence
the manifestation of disease. This is so well documented that specific
personality types have gained recognition as leading candidates for
each of the "seven psychosomatic ailments." These are peptic ulcers,
ulcerative colitis, hypertension, hyperthyroidism, rheumatoid arthritis,
neurodermatitis and asthma (Locke & Colligan, 1986).
Multiple personality patients
routinely devastate mechanistic beliefs about the body. A patient
in one personality may test totally normal in every physiological
sense. With a shift of personality, some as quick as the snap of a
finger, the second personality may exhibit hypoglycemia or even diabetes
(Lipton, 1991). Blood chemistry altering in seconds? How does a personality
shift alter body chemistry in seconds? Can a personal belief system,
such as personality, alter cellular behavior instantly? Granted, a
state bound memory can manifest profoundly in physiology - but within
the time it takes to snap your fingers?
Dr. Frank Putnam of the
National Institute of Health (NIH) studied how people with multiple
personality disorder go from one personality to another. He found
that their electroencephalograms (EEGs) "change as dramatically as
though the electrodes have been taken off one person and placed on
another." Other such patients have demonstrated everything from eye
color change to having one menstruation cycle per month for every
personality housed within the patient. (Noetic Sciences, May 1987).
A change in personality
can cause an instant change in the way the cells behave. What mechanism
allows for such a dramatic shift in a person's blood chemistry? What
"trigger," exists to make this possible?
Madelaine Visintaines
of the University of Pennsylvania has linked helplessness to cancer.
She concluded that helplessness is somehow inferred by the body as
an absence of "the ability of the organism to resist tumor development."
Duke University showed
hostility and mistrust to be key predictors of heart disease and early
death. (BMB, Vol. 14, 6G). H. J. Eysenck summarized a group of European
studies and found the following:
1. Individuals who tended
to repress their emotions in the face of stress were far likelier
than others to die of cancer.
2. Those who rated high
on emotional frustration and aggression had a high rate of cardiac
related deaths.
3. Personality variables
were more predictive than smoking in the occurrence of lung cancer.
For example, smoking was virtually a pre-requisite for getting lung
cancer, but of the smokers, only the emotionally repressive types
seemed to contract the disease. (BMB, Vol. 14, 6B).
Personality ties in with
clusters of diseases. At Georgia State University, researchers discovered
that people with eating and drinking disorders also suffered depression,
indecision, chronic fatigue, low self-esteem, physical weakness and
hopelessness. (BMB, Vol. 11, 16F). At the University of Texas, Austin,
higher cancer rates occurred in under-stimulated mice and mice with
minimal expressive behavior. (BMB, Vol 11, 11G).
Karl Goodkin of Stanford
University School of Medicine reviewed studies of women prone to cervical
cancer. He created a composite personality type. He suggests a personality
at higher risk for cancer as:
1. overly cooperative,
2. extremely self-sacrificing,
3. overly optimistic to
the extent that they are in a state of denial of reality, and
4. sociable to a fault.
However, women who developed
cervical cancer were additionally characterized as:
1. tended to be hostile,
2. fearless,
3. hard-headed,
4. punitive toward others,
and
5. blunt in social situations.
What have we discovered
from these pathogenic personality models? Nearly every type or characteristic
has appeared. The reader need not fear that "Personality Kills." Notice
the qualifiers of excess: over cooperative; not altruistic, but extremely
self sacrificing; hostile, rather than assertive; fearless instead
of brave. Traditional cultures always associate health with balance.
We may catch up with that tradition.
We have already recorded
personality profiles characteristic to many illnesses. (B/M, Vol.
2, 4d). Personality profiles might already serve to predict disease
prone, or at risk persons. Researches have linked precursors to many
illnesses: mononucleosis to stress in school; herpes to loneliness;
positive mood, hope and social support to cancer survival; tough mindedness
and a will to live with AIDS survival. If only people would start
using this!
STRESS
Hans Selye introduced
stress as a factor effecting health. "Selye's lifetime of ground breaking
research culminated in a theory of how mental and/or physical stress
is transduced into psychosomatic problems by hormones of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal
axis of the endocrine system" (Rossi, 1986). Scharrers (1940) and
Harris (1948) confirmed and expanded Selye's work. They gave us the
discovery that "secretory cells within the hypothalamus could convert
neural impulses that encoded mind into the hormonal messenger molecules
of the endocrine system that regulated body." (Rossi, 1986).
In the August 31st issue
of Science News (1991), Sheldon Cohen, of Carnegie Mellon University
in Pittsburg, reported a study that links emotional stress to the
common cold. "Cohen's group found that the rates of respiratory infection
and colds increased in accordance with stress levels reported on questionnaires...
The (stress) pattern held despite statistical controls for various
influences on immune function, including age, sex, education, allergies,
weight, viral status prior to the study, cigarettes and alcohol, exercise,
diet, quality of sleep, number of housemates, and housemate infection
rates. The link between stress and colds also proved to be true independent
of the personality characteristics assessed by questionnaires" (p.
132).
Life's various circumstances
connect with wellness. An Ohio State University researcher reported
that marital stress weakened the immune response. (BMB, Vol 13, 8G).
George Soloman of UCLA fathered the concept of psycho-neuro-immunology.
He also reports that the stress and strain of life crises "states"
diminished the immune response. (BMB, Vol. 13, 8G). Ted Melnechuk,
director of research communications for the Institute For The Advancement
Of Health adds the following observations:
1. Men married to dying
women have a lowered immune response;
2. Monkeys separated from
their mothers experience immune suppression;
3. Visual imagery has
been shown to decrease tumor growth; and
4. Nerve cells have been
shown to travel from the brain to the thymus and back to the brain
demonstrating a two way communication with this important relay station
for immune substances. (BMB, Vol. 10, 2B).
Dr. Henry Bennett at the
University of California Medical School at Davis believes that he
can demonstrate the connection of the bio-chemical stress hormones
epinephrine, norepinephrine
and vasopressin --- to more than just the immune system. Bennett plans
to study the degrees of stress as they relate to the degree of memory.
He expects to find a strong relationship. He has cited evidence that
these hormones have something to do with consolidating memories (Locke
& Colligan, 1986). Now remember that. I believe that this, added to
our other data, will become more significant.
APPLICATIONS
During the years 1988
and 1989 Dr. Robert Youngblood, a cosmetic surgeon, employed a subliminal
audio cassette that I made to lower stress and anxiety in patients
about to undergo surgical operations. We hypothesized that lowering
patient stress, anxiety and associated feelings would result in lowering
anesthetic requirements. He examined the records of 360 patients who
had undergone the same or similar surgical procedures to determine
total anesthetic usage. Our hypothesis proved valid.
He applied the audio cassette
during pre and post operative procedures and throughout surgery. The
overall anesthetic requirement declined by 32% in the patient group
that received the subliminal tape. Thus, group B, our experimental
group which also consisted of 360 patients, required almost 1/3rd
less medication (anesthetic) than did group A, our historical control
group. On analysis, another result emerged. The post secondary care
requirement also substantially declined.
We conducted a study at
a medical facility in Nevada. Their facilities offer a number of different
"high tech" procedures including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
This test allows 3D pictures of the inside of the body, including
soft tissue. No other test can offer information that it can give.
MRI requires that one be "loaded down a skid into a chamber," in the
words of one of their techs. They have to put patients slowly through
a long very narrow complicated metal tube. Inevitably, some patient's
fear closed in places. In addition, most patients have some anxiety
about the shear quantity of high tech machinery, the sterile surroundings,
the kinds of tests, medical care in general, and hospitals in particular.
For a CAT scan, you just have to go through a ring. Some patients
needed sedation even for that.
The medical facility asked
us to create an audio tape that would ameliorate these conditions.
We employed a combination of special frequencies designed to entrain
the brain while stimulating certain effects, and added subliminal
messages and guided imagery. The chief CT technician reported a complete
elimination of phobic responses.
The mind, the brain, the
brain/mind again altering the physical/emotional experience. While
in Nevada, I learned that some hypnotists in Nevada apply hypnosis
for breast enlargement. Where are the boundaries? Where should we
make them?
EMOTION
Emotional states, such
as grief, lower the immune response. (B/M, Vol. 2, 15b). Soviet scientists
demonstrated the elimination of pleasurable feelings by the injection
of blockers of natural brain opiates. Further, they linked negative
emotions to the release of norepinephrine, a messenger biochemical
known to suppress the immune system. (BMB, Vol 10, 2B). Positive emotions
have proven to increase the immune response. (Locke & Colligan, 1986).
In fact, epinephrin and nor-epinephrin, which act to turn up or down
the immune system, have repeatedly displayed links to mood states.
(Locke & Colligan, 1986). Dr. Ziad Kronfol observed that depressed
patients have less responsive immune systems than those of normal
individuals and relates this to stress hormones in the body (Locke
& Colligan, 1986).
Candace Pert, chief of
brain biochemistry for the National Institute of Mental Health, suggests
that "emotions are the key to health." (BMB, Vol. 11, 4A). She and
her colleague, Michael Ruff, have been working with Peptide T, one
of the "messenger" molecules in the body that apparently converts
emotions into physiological events. Drs. Pert and Ruff have found
that this substance can help alleviate AIDS symptoms, stop the spread
of the HIV virus and, in some cases, even neutralize its toxicity.
Dr. Pert asserts that "the same chemicals that control mood in the
brain control tissue integrity of the body." For Pert, it is clear
that the immune system processes information, as does the nervous
system. Neurology associates the limbic brain, rich in neuro-peptides,
or messenger molecules, with emotion. Pert has discovered these substances,
with their receptors, located throughout the body. Brain chemicals
for the body?
Pert insists that "the
emotions are not just in the brain; they're in the body." One peptide,
CCK, forms a lining from the esophagus through the intestines and
according to Pert may "explain why some people talk about gut feelings."
Additionally, and all important as one of our clues, Pert insists
that placebo analgesia, analgesia triggered by suggestion, is an altered
state dependent on messenger molecules. Pert asserts that "even certain
hormones, like insulin, have turned out to be part of the peptide
system." Body chemicals for the brain?
CONDITIONING
Most people know of Pavlov's
work. Pavlov rang a bell for his experimental dogs every time they
were fed. He observed that, after some repetitions of this, the bell
would ring and the dogs would salivate before the dispensation of
food. In other words, the dogs were conditioned by association to
salivate at the sound of the bell. This is known as associative conditioning.
Again, we find a physiological
response to an idea. The dogs had not even smell, only the idea of
food. Is it possible that classical conditioning is an element of
wellness? What is classical conditioning?
In the mid-1970's Robert
Ader conducted a series of experiments that may further enlighten
us at this point. Ader conducted associative conditioning with rats,
attempting to condition them to an aversion to saccharin in their
water. After the animals drank the water, Ader injected them with
a drug, cyclophosphamide. While harmless in itself, cyclophosphamide
produces nausea. The rats would associate the nausea with the saccharine.
Then they would avoid it.
During this experiment
many of the rats died. This was totally unexpected. Rats can drink
enough saccharine to make you vomit for months without any ill effect.
After careful review, Ader discovered that cyclophosphamide could
powerfully suppress immune responses. Had he inadvertently conditioned
the rats's immune system? At some points in the experiment, the rats
had to drink saccharin water. Did the rats immune system respond to
this as if to the drug? Was it possible to condition a suppression
of the immune system? Ader decided, "Yes." He later discovered that
two soviet scientists had conditioned a guinea pig "to release antibodies
when they scratched its skin." (Locke & Colligan, 1986).
David Phillips at the
University of California, San Diego, in a new study just hitting the
headlines, evaluated the beliefs of individuals associated with death.
His study compared Oriental people born under a rising sign (astrological
sign), which allegedly provided them with certain resistances and
weakness in relationship to various diseases such as cancer or cardiac
difficulties, with caucasians born under the same sign but without
the same belief. His statistical findings demonstrated that belief
influences the outcome of certain diseases and can lead to early death.
We have our own conditioning.
Could many of us experience miraculous healing or super longevity
and wellness except for our conditioning? Television commercials tell
us the cold season has come. Advertising gives us, and our families,
the expectation to catch this and that. Health professionals, with
the best intentions, spread most of the ideas supporting all this.
Did we ever get sick because something taught us to? We know that
the pathogens that "cause" illness are "real." But can the individual
have ultimate control as to how the body will respond?
The mind can respond to
classical conditioning techniques. Can the body? Or can the mind transfer
this information into the body? That could cause responses as though
some absent agent were present. That could also cause immune reactions
to skin scratching. We must conclude that at least some organs and
systems of the body, besides the brain or with the brain, can be conditioned
or even learn.
STATE DEPENDENT LEARNING
Psychologist Ernest Rossi's
research convinced him that "human beings cannot always rely on "nature"
to reinstate health because certain short-term responses can become
habitual and pathological." Rossi believes that mental events can
imprint themselves in the body as disease and chronic conditions.
Originally, this "learned-state" helped us to cope with a particular
situation. However, when similar situations occur, we may automatically
react the same way we did the first time, even though we could make
better choices.
In order to avoid a particular
situation an individual may become ill. However, rather than relating
the illness to that situation, the individual could associate it to
the time of year, a certain food, a particular fragrance, etc. (Rossi,
1986). A seasonal cold may come from such an association. The association
triggers that past state of mind, which triggers that state of illness
- or health. The change of season started the chain.
We do not recall the association.
We just respond to it. Amnesia conceals this process of "state-dependent
learning." A multiple personality's shift to an entirely different
set of memories about who they are? That will serve at least as the
ultimate example.
How can we unbind the
state? Are we any closer to solving the mystery?
Dr. Charles McCusker,
a clinical psychologist, and I proposed in 1987 that a value system
is anchored along a strategy calculus that segments itself according
to value/state learnings or conditionings. A value norm anchor point
along the scale contains memory-state conditioning that, when accessed,
gives rise to the production of feelings and strategies originally
experienced as a part of the conditioning event that produced the
anchor point in the first place.
At the annual SKY Foundation's
convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1990) I met a fellow presenter,
Dr. Joel Posner, a professor of physiology. He was speaking on yoga
and longevity. He emphatically stated that research clearly demonstrates
that the cells of the body have a life expectancy of 144 years. The
body should not therefore die for at least 144 years unless the mind
somehow interferes with the natural pattern of the cell. Incredible?
When subjects in their
seventies exercise at the same level as subjects in their twenties,
both groups grow the same amount of muscle mass (Posner, 1990, private
communication). Use it or lose it. But what value norm system, or
anchor point, conditions us to accept age as synonymous with decay?
How may we decondition this association? What experiences, including
expectation or attitude, defeat the natural life expectancy displayed
by our cells? We apply diet and drugs and other physical factors to
stay healthy. How can we apply the essential mental features to wellness
and longevity?
A HEALTHY WORLD
Many cultures have myths
of miraculous healings, and of a time when we lived hundreds of years.
Humans expected vitality and longevity. Could expectation do it? Did
the myth of disease replace the myth of wellness? Do we expect to
get sick, become ill, decay, go senile, and die early? Does a self
fulfilling prophecy limit our time here on earth to a fraction of
the 144 years the cell expects to maintain perfect life?
How many of us expect
illness as a normal course of events in the path of our lives? How
many of us learned getting sick each year? How much of an investment
do each of us and our society at large have in the "illness" paradigm?
Can we stay well for all of life---for whatever period of time that
may naturally last? Is it responsible to suggest such an idea? What
would happen if all of us shifted our beliefs and energies and other
investments into a mode of expected wellness? Would that make the
world a healthier place?
Imagine a world free from
television commercials selling remedies for the dreaded annual maladies.
No more constipation commercials. No more hemorrhoid commercials.
No more "the world sucks, take a pill and numb out the bad times before
you die." Not from television, or radio, or print. No conversation
about preparing for illness, physical and mental disabilities as we
grow older. What if we didn't have a world of afflictions to discuss,
ponder and otherwise expend our energies? Does all of this really
even matter? Is it relevant to health and wellness? Truly relevant?
A SUFI STORY
The Sufi's have a story
about time and pomegranates. A young man desired to become a healer
in a far away land of days long ago. He knew of a legendary healer
who he wished to learn from. He therefore set out on a journey to
find the healer and entreat upon him for the secrets to his practice.
After a long and trying journey he finally found the healer and without
hesitation approached him. The healer observed the boy's sincerity
and decided to take him on as a student. After long training, the
two sat together on the porch of the healer's modest home. A stranger
approached from the distance. He was bent over and hobbled in an odd
and peculiar manner. The healer said to his student, "See that man
approaching --- he needs pomegranates." The young man observed as
the healer listened to the patient tell an agonizing tale of woeful
experiences with his infliction, including the struggle to make the
journey to the healer's doorstep. Finally, the healer put his hand
on the patient's shoulder and spoke softly, "Yes, I can see you have
suffered. I can see you are ready to leave your illness behind. My
friend, I am certain that your disease is due to a shortage of a particular
substance available in high concentrations in pomegranates. Eat three
pomegranates a day for the next week and your health will return."
The patient left. After
three weeks he returned, standing erect, with a basket of food, and
deeply grateful blessings, for the healer.
Within another week another
stranger came down the road to the healer's home. He walked in the
same odd and peculiar manner and was also bent over. The student noticed
the stranger and excitedly said, "What he needs is pomegranates!"
The healer nodded without looking up from his chair. The student pleaded
with the healer to allow him to treat the patient. Finally the healer
agreed. The student went out to meet the patient. The student blurted,
"What you need is pomegranates!" The stranger looked upon the student
and said, "I came all this way for this nonsense! Pomegranates - rubbish!
Some healer you are!" He turned and went away.
One moral to this story
has to do with the expectation factor of the patient. The student
did not understand the necessity of timing. The student entirely overlooked
the afflicted person's expectation of the great healer and his ability
to tell of his suffering and finally find relief. The student had
taken only a mechanical learning from the healer. He assumed that
pomegranates really held some substance entirely curative in and of
itself. Perhaps both the expectations of the student healer and the
patient met with disappointment.
READ IT AND REAP
In the spring of 1991
I conducted a study with physicians. They had provided their patients
with a note authorizing Progressive Awareness Research to provide
them with the experimental subliminal program Cancer Remission. The
study would compare life expectancy with actual mortality of patients
with cancer who used the tape.
We sent a questionnaire
to physicians whose patients had received the subliminal program two
to four years prior. It had 12 questions, with instructions to rate
each on a five point differential as: 1 strongly disagree; 2 disagree;
3 neutral; 4 agree; and 5 strongly agree. We subdivided the twelve
questions into four general categories: A. patient's attitude toward
their disease on a pre-tape basis; B. patient's attitude toward their
disease on a post-tape basis; C. patient's survival and quality of
life; and D. physician's attitude toward their patients involvement
with regard to the mind's role in wellness. We have the study in press
now.
The findings include significant
remission rates. 38% of the patients were in remission at the time
of this writing.
Another overwhelmingly
obvious statistic jumped out at us. It surprised us. I think it would
surprise nearly anyone. Of the four sub-categories, which do you think
would most reliably indicate the improved life expectancies and remission
rates of the patients?
Most people say the patient's
attitude. That even includes most people who maintain that a terminal
disease, such as cancer, will not respond to the patient's attitude.
However, the patient's reported attitude did not have the most powerful
influence over the length of the patients's lives.
Patients lived and died
primarily by the physician's attitude! If the physician rated the
patients involvement with the subliminal tape and mental approaches
as 3 or less on our scale, the patient died. The patient died regardless
of their treatment procedure (radiation, chemotherapy, etc.). The
patient died regardless of their initial mind-set in terms of their
positive adjustment to the disease or its ultimate outcome. If the
physician responded neutral to negative with respect to the mind's
role, the patient died.
Apparently the attitude
of others in authority around us may bring victory or defeat to our
own natural health. What is this power of authority about? How do
we learn to imitate or act so as to please an authority as a priority
more important than life? A physician's prognosis of terminal may
itself deliver the terminal blow. Do each of us rely so totally on
the opinion of professionals that we fulfill their expectation even
into suffering and death?
We narrowed our analysis
to exclude the physicians neutral to negative. That left patients
with physicians positive about the mind's role in wellness. The survival/remission
rate increased to 46%. We further narrowed our analysis to patients
whose physician's responded with the score of 5 on our rating scale.
These physicians strongly agree that the mind or attitude of the patient
influences health and health care. The survival/remission rate increased
to 60%. We finally narrowed our analysis to only the data from patients
and physicians who shared strong agreement to the mind's role in wellness.
We found a survivability/ remission experience rate of 100%!
Notice I used "experience
rate" in this last category. Two of the patients died of other causes
during the study. Nevertheless, they experienced remission and outlived
their prognosis by 3 years.
Our study suggests that
health care requires alignment of patient and physician, rather than
mere cooperation.
MEMORY
Mental characteristics
influence health. We can expect memory to play a role. Memory of health
works as a magic key.
Dr. Deepak Chopra argues
in his marvelous work Quantum Healing (1989), that patients at the
edge of despair, struggling for hope, can replace fear and uncertainty
with the memory of health and "the moment when the memory of health
returns and brings with it enough power to last a lifetime," they
experience spontaneous regression of a disease.
I remember jubilation
when I read that PET scans had confirmed a crucial role for the hippocampus
in memory. Memory was normally thought to be stored in the cortex
and hypothalamus. The hippocampic- limbic system was viewed as controlling
the peripheral nervous system, endocrine and immune systems. Here,
published in the November 23rd, 1991 Science News, was the announcement
"the first evidence in living brains that the hippocampus - a banana
shaped region deep within the brain - plays a key role in memory."
This involves memory directly with the modulator of the immune system.
This does not reduce the
importance of the hypothalamus in memory. The literature shows the
relationship between emotional memories and hypothalamic functions.
This adds yet another piece to the puzzle. What anatomy determines
the relationship between memory and wellness? This is an important
piece. It strongly suggests hypocampic-limbic transfer of what we
have defined as cerebral or cortical information. The hypocampic region
may contain a trigger that takes mental processes and transduces or
converts them into body processes. It may also maintain some priority
system, with self-preservation near the top of the heirachy.
This established a hard
wire connection between brain events (memory) and the immune system.
We should expect memory of wellness to contribute to health. Then,
we should also expect this to contribute to longevity. Right after
thrilling to the Science News article, a friend brought me another
article. He knew that I was going to give a presentation in Israel
on Memory Dependent Wellness, and that I had started a research project
on remembering youth.
The article headed with
the caption, Reversing The Clock. It went on to describe a landmark
research project by Dr. Ellen Langer of Harvard University. Participants
reversed some characteristics of aging. Dr. Langer took "old people"
into the country where they stayed isolated for one week. The older
persons spent time with "photographs, discussions, newspapers, radio,
music and even advertisements that were strictly limited to topics
current 20 years earlier. At the end of the week, the group became
younger looking by three years, gained weight, behaved more independently
and could actually hear better." (Patel, Body, Mind, Spirit, February
1992). Memory --relived! Youth - revivified?
I can only understate
the importance of the memory of health to wellness - no matter how
much enthusiasm I muster!
BELIEF
Dictionaries define beliefs
as "that which we hold as truth." We might think of them as a sort
of super-memory. Ornstein writes that "the brain works by constructing
a reality from a narrow trickle of information received, reduced and
filtered through the senses... these constructed beliefs, many based
on denial and illusion, have adaptive value" (Ornstein and Sobel,
1987).
Even the most fanatical
scoffers tend to admit the importance of hope. Perhaps that happens
because everyone knows what helplessness means. I don't think we know
enough.
Martin Seligman of the
University of Pennsylvania conditioned dogs in a sling with electric
shock, under circumstances where they could not escape. Later, they
did not try to escape, even when they could. They suffered shocks
on a grid where they could have escaped. They simply accepted the
shocks, whimpered a lot, but made no attempt to help themselves. Dogs
not so conditioned would move a few feet from the grid.
As you may have guessed,
the animals whose conditioning gave rise to behavior of a helpless
sort, also experienced suppression of their immune system. (Locke
& Colligan, 1986). Here lies another partial explanation for our finding
regarding the physician's attitude and the patient's life expectancy.
Some people act like the whimpering shocked dog Seligman discovered
in his research. The conditioned dog, patient, immune system; the
hopeless, helpless behavior of the conditioned dog, patient, immune
system.
What does hopeful mean?
Skip false hope. We want good, sound, productive hope with plenty
of muscle to it. Stories indicate that people who have hope, who look
at life from the perspective that all will ultimately work out for
the best, live happier and healthier lives. Optimism works.
In all the cases of remission,
extended optimal health, miraculous healings and the like, one thing
seems to be present always. We could call this one thing our known
common denominator. That one magic bullet---BELIEF! For some this
means belief in their own higher power, for others it means knowing
wellness will return, for still others, it joins with the touch of
a healer. Always, there is TRUE BELIEF.
Belief is not stagnant.
Belief is dynamic. It reveals itself daily in the way everyone conducts
their own lives. Active, it creates expectation. I tend to use the
word expectation more even than hope. It implies anticipation, it
implies the imminent fulfillment of hope. We re-enforce it over and
over again when we rely upon it each day. Each of us can thoroughly
instill belief in ourselves. Do that - in every sense of the phrase.
Some may argue that all
this sounds like a placebo. That supplies nonsense arguments for uninformed
"would-be" academics. The fact is, you can experience medication,
or any other treatment care, and know something happened as a result.
Something out of the ordinary. Something not experienced routinely,
something not experienced without the medication or care. Experience
instills belief. It's that simple.
Belief may produce magic.
Many refer to placebo with disgust: the infamous sugar pill trick.
These so infamous effects remain absolutely real. Patients get suddenly
well due to the influence of a sugar pill. In true placebo findings,
a patient indeed suffered physical illness. Tests attest to this.
The belief in the "pill" as some new and potent medication produces
a complete reversal in the body. The individual is healed. Do patients
ever suffer for no more than a need to believe in healing?
Why shame such a marvelous
intrigue of the human experience? We have all heard remarks like,
"It only works if you believe it." Even this refutes the mechanistic
reductionism that limits our ability to experience the majesty of
the highest character of humanness. Good scientific double blind studies,
clinical findings, and other hard science that so many of us pledge
to, demonstrate clearly the mind-body reality in wellness and longevity.
Power that science with your belief. Each of us can power the new
model, the new vitality, with the same force of belief!
WHAT IT'S ABOUT
A childhood story of myself;
scientific findings with multiple personality patients manifesting
different physiological conditions; miraculous healings in the ancient
temples of Asclepias; the attitudinal and arts and entertainment work
of men like Jampolski and Cousins; the genetic engineer's perspective
of Lipton; and more. We have barely begun the mind-body connection
to wellness and longevity.
What can we say for certain?
Mechanical orthodoxy attributes autonomy to the immune system. Suppose
the body is mechanical and maintains health strictly through some
mind independent way. Then we have a vast number of white crows present
that we have to ignore.
Some of us will do just
that---ignore! Recall the conditioned dog, patient, immune system,
the hopeless/helpless behavior of the conditioned dog, patient, immune
system. Even when we know what we can do, we don't have to. But we
must. Really, we must.
PRAGMATICS
You can take the same
position I did. The pragmatist says, "The proof is in the pudding
and what have I got to lose?" You can expect to experience a life
of health and wellness and see what happens. You can try accepting
the responsibility for your own well being. Ask yourself simple questions
if you sense or feel a sickness coming on. The best ones I have found
are; What am I getting out of this, What is the conflict and Who would
I blame? We can take responsibility for health and use a health care
professional who shares the mind-body experience as the truly miraculous
wonder that it is.
I decided that maybe I
had a share in my illnesses, especially those pesky regular bouts
with sore throats, colds, influenza and the like. As a pragmatist,
I decided to try it out. Maybe I created, at some level of my being,
discomfort known as illness. Then it occurred to me, "Hey---wait a
minute. Am I really ready to give up all those comforts that accompany
the sickness? All those advantages like added attention from loved
ones, time off with pay, laying around with a good book or a good
movie, some soaking in the tub and doing nothing? Did I really want
to give all that up?" I could see that sickness was not all bad. I
got something from being ill.
One can recognize benefits
from illness. Does that mean one can control illness? Many of the
conflicts dealt with in life get shuffled into matters which become
submerged in the subconscious. Research in this area, like the work
of Benjamin Libet, even indicates that subconscious processes precede
all conscious awareness. What if I fail to remember a state bound
memory which produces a physical illness? How can I access this memory?
How can I alter it? How can I take charge of something out of my awareness?
In 1982 I decided to try.
In 1982 I decided, just for me, that if I wanted a break, time off,
an end to conflict, to hide from something or someone, some special
attention, I would use more productive and fun ways to enjoy these
pleasures than getting sick. My annual average of 4 to 6 bouts with
this and that affliction stopped. Only twice since then have I been
ill. In both instances, I found a reason and remembered wellness.
I left the illness behind in only a fraction of the time considered
normal. That's a lot of remedies that I haven't bought. That's a lot
of kleenex that I haven't used.
A PATIENT
In 1987 a gentlemen flew
in to see Dr. Robert Youngblood and myself. A terminal degenerative
disease confined his son to a wheelchair. In my book Subliminal Learning
(1988) you can find a picture of this young man walking up a flight
of stairs. In my office I have a more recent picture of him, standing
beside his car, holding up his driver's license.
We theorized that this
young man's illness derived from a mechanism to produce the attention
he had experienced at birth due to a minor birth defect corrected,
by tracheotomy, at the age of two. Following the total restoration
of his health a younger sister was born.
She became the center
of attention. Illness had provided the mechanism for attention from
birth to two years of age. The onset of his disease followed the birth
of his younger sister by a few months. The theory seemed to offer
a possible hypothesis for the boy's illness. With this hypothesis
we approached the boy's health issue via a subliminal intervention
program.
We observed what could
be fairly termed as a true regression in the young man, where he returned
physically and mentally to a time in his life when he suffered from
his birth defect. The regression was so complete, that circumstances
were created where a second tracheotomy was required. Just as with
the first at age two, the surgery was followed by a regenerating strength,
which has continued to this day. A subconscious motive treated with
a subconscious modality - that of subliminal communication. Coincidence?
You can find the case study and details in my book.
Even though I witnessed
the event, even planned the approach, it still intrigued and amazed
me. Is this healing process possible for everyone? I believe so.
GET IT TOGETHER
Learning, behavior and
personality all tangle together in illness. Cousins writes in The
Anatomy Of An Illness that he healed himself of a terminal condition
in just this vein. Bernie Siegel, M.D. has written about such ideas
in Love Medicine And Miracles, and his other fine books. Jampolski
asserts that attitudinal directions can and do heal in his works,
Love Is Letting Go Of Fear and Teach Only Love (1981 & 1983). His
attitudinal healing center in California has become famous for this
genre of healing.
Perhaps I have saved the
best for last. Jampolski points out that patients in incontractable
pain "forget" their pain when they go to the aid of another patient
in an urgent situation. My own work supports this. I have referred
to "the warm, fuzzy, fully feeling human experience," to describe
that sense each of us has experienced when we have gone to the aid
of an injured life form. At that moment, we so fully feel the "fuzzy
stuff" that glows within us that we become lost in the event; submerged,
if you will, in our concern for another. Not only does this experience
exclude sensations and fear of pain and discomfort, it lives on in
us as the highest expression of human activity. In short, it feels
so good, so natural, so "warm and fuzzy." We enjoy remembering it.
Serving others is generally the most rewarding of all our activities.
Personality, hypnosis,
multiple personality divisions, needs, emotions, fears, all of these
things effect wellness in dramatic ways. From body catalepsy to ending
paralysis through an altered state of mind (hypnosis), a healthy individual
to a chronic hypoglycemic via a personality shift, an illness or dysfunction
due to behavioral characteristics inherent to personality strategies
or avoidance mechanisms---is all of this possible? Could it be that
wellness is itself inherent to "mindedness?" If emotion, learning,
behavior and personality are all tied up in wellness, then how we
learn to act and think and feel is crucial.
Our clues to the mind's
role in wellness and longevity include: 1. the memory of health, actively
applied; 2. emotions - preferably positive, and expressed in productive
ways; 3. a hopeful vs. helpless attitude; 4. the benefits of illness
vs. health; 5. social support and nurturance; 6. the attitudes and
expectations of the patient and caregivers; 7. belief in healing and
a way to achieve it; 8. the conditioning of the immune system; 9.
avoiding stress, and dealing with it; and 10. service.
Take a few main points
for application. First, without a doubt, the mind connects to wellness!
Further, the personality, mood states and the attitude of an individual
are related directly to various forms of illness. Second, the level
of willingness a patient assumes for their own care directly relates
to their recovery. Third, the expectation factor, whether of the physician
to the patient or of the patient independent of the health care provider,
directly relates to wellness and recovery. Fourth, for health to be
restored, the individual must often return "mentally" to times before
the illness.
Memories of wellness can
regenerate us, as suggested by the words of Chopra, and wellness ensues.
Therefore, give yourself strong memories of wellness. Encourage remembering
wellness during any period of disease. Hypnosis has proven effective
over many diseases. It proves more broadly effective if it incorporates
regression to a state of "health" memories.
Belief can apply to the
future more than memory. Of course we have beliefs about the past.
These have less importance. Our beliefs about the future determine
our choices and attitudes. Collect worthwhile beliefs.
My work has led me to
believe, especially on the basis of findings with interventions, that
psychological events start most disease. These events anchor on usually
subliminal calculations of values. That generates automatic coordinated
responses, a gestalt response, to the event. The calculation ascribes
utility to the disease.
We can make a formula
for the mind's interface with the body. Use W to represent wellness
and E to represent expectation. Expectation means a dynamic form of
true belief, directed to the future and connected with emotion, some
strong anticipation at the very least. Use M to represent memory.
Then W=EM. Wellness equals Expectation multiplied by, or emersed in,
Memory of wellness. That puts memories and expectations, your past
and future, together. To multiply in this equation, the memory of
wellness should revivify you and project solidly into expectation.
The hit and miss record of visualization depends partly on finding
powerful "memory" variables. As Maltz (1960) suggests, a reverie generated
during visualization actually works as real for some due to the incorporation
of memory. It fails for others because of the absence of sufficient
detail or emotional intensity for it to become "real."
I used forensic hypnosis
in investigations for years. On many occasions I witnessed a revivified,
fully remembered, experience translate meaning through the body. Take
this example. A young man had been held up at gun point. He talked
to detectives at Sandy City Police Department after the robbery. He
could only tell them that a "very big gun" was shoved in his face.
Under hypnosis I had him replay the incident in his mind, in slow
motion, freezing some frames just as you would on a video tape. In
this state of consciousness he fully detailed descriptions of the
suspects and their automobile. When the film came to the gun in the
victim's face, I thought his artery would jump out of his throat.
I had to fast forward the film and assure him that it was only a replay.
Otherwise it appeared that he could literally experience a heart attack
under the stress of the memory, for that is indeed what we dealt with.
I remember that vividly. When I say, revivify a memory, I mean bring
it fully alive and into the now.
Alright now, what can
each of us do right now with what we have discovered? Let's go through
some simple things.
First, pick a time in
your life when life was wonderful. You felt great! It was an optimal
period of well being. Remember, this is your memory of a time, or
your tale of a time, that you are going to remember and enrich with
feelings and emotions appropriate to that time. If you have pictures,
recordings, or what not of that period, get them out and surround
yourself with them. I got music selections from the sixties and the
next thing I knew, I found myself bouncing around like a teenager
in the hey day of rock-n-roll. Of course I felt good -- every cell
in my body enthused with me. You try it with your own period of time
but remember, choose an optimal period. Merge a few of your best.
Remember, fully revivify an era where you were at your best! Second,
laugh and smile. Do whatever you need to do. Play old funny movies,
watch a stand up comic, go to the park and play with your dog, or
so on; but laugh. Start by smiling even if you have to force it. The
brain doesn't know you are faking the smile. The pure mechanics of
contorting the face into a smile causes the brain to release chemicals
that naturally improve the way you feel. So fake it until you make
it if necessary, but smile! Third, get some sunlight and fresh air
like you did when you were a child. Breathe deeply and evenly. Take
a walk, do some exercise, but get outdoors. Remember your youth. Fourth
do your emotional work. Let go of blame, shame, guilt and the like.
Be happy. Finally, after you've taken care of yourself, do things
to take care of others.
CONCLUSION
The role of behavior and
memory play significant parts in the drama of dis-ease. Subliminal
beliefs may actually choose the type of illness one experiences. Conditioning
can alter the experience and susceptibility one has with or toward
disease. Training the whole mind can increase vitality and promote
longevity.
The role of mind as creator
dictates that training the mind, conditioning the mind, has as much
importance as teaching motor skills, writing and math, or higher learning.
This aspect of the human condition, in our culture, has been traditionally
overlooked, ignored, and even denied.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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