http://www.hypnocenter.com
This particular paper has to do with understanding the natural
and universal healing laws and how hypnosis and hypnotherapy relate to them.
Its intent is to express the ways in which the mind affects our body and its
health; and how hypnosis can be used to free people from imprints, or
memories, that have been set in their minds from experiences, beliefs, images,
and what people have said or projected -- real, or perceived as real.
What causes illness?
What causes illness, no
doubt, is still one of the major questions of life that, for
the most part, remain unsolved. To the strictly Western
medical mind, whatever hasn't been discovered through a
laboratory to be a cause, remains an insolvable medical
problem, without cure. Drugs can merely help the patient
tolerate their condition.
To the doctor of the Mind,
however, something lies behind whatever specific physical
matter or cause-effect the laboratory scientists search for.
What produces illness?
There seems to be
substantial evidence that it is caused by frequent negative
statements and/or experiences, especially in one's early
life; warnings given by authority figures; prolonged anxiety
or stress, and fear from incidents based on strong emotions;
or fed by an active and creative imagination. These
participate in creating an unhealthy body.
Frequent negative messages
can affect the body. In other words, an unhealthy mind can
create an unhealthy body. Conversely, a positive, healthy
mind can creative a healthy body. And, there is much
evidence that a positive mind can actually cure an unhealthy
body, as well. Generally, when that happens, especially if
the condition has been serious, we call it a "miracle."
What is a miracle,
anyway?
Jesus was seen as a healer
and miracle worker. The blind saw, the crippled walked, and
demons were exorcised. Sometimes, before he healed them,
Jesus asked a person if he/she really wanted to get well.
Other times, he just went ahead and healed. Perhaps he had
some perception of the readiness of a person to release
their natural ability for internal healing. Or, perhaps it
was an innate instinct about how dependent that person may
have been upon the benefits of being ill.
It is not unreasonable to
expect that some people harbor, either consciously or
unconsciously, some benefit to their illness or handicap.
Therefore, they may not respond to any therapy that can help
them obtain wellness, whether it is traditional Western
medicine, naturopathic medicine, hypnosis, or even Jesus.
Take, for example, the
"man at the pool" who had been crippled, lying on his mat by
the pool for years, waiting for an angel to heal him through
the water. He complained that he couldn't get anyone to take
him down to the pool. Now, here is a person who had decided
to be the ultimate victim. No wonder Jesus asked him if he
really wanted to get well! Look at the benefits to staying
on his mat. If he gets healed, there will be no one to pity
him. He will have to go to work instead of depending upon
alms. He will have to pick up his smelly, dirty mat and
carry it with him. Perhaps people will even think he has
been play-acting all those years. He has a lot to get
through, if he is to be healed. However, he doesn't seem to
hesitate. He says he wants to get well, and well he gets! He
believes it, and in Jesus' ability, and it happens.
And people afterwards
considered it a miracle. Was the miracle that Jesus touched
this man? Or, was the miracle that he willingly gave up
whatever benefits and degree of comfort he had with his
illness, to step out into a new way of life, which was
unknown to him?
So, what is a miracle?
I believe it is a miracle
that we have satellites in the heavens, which can send
images and messages to us all around the globe at the same
time, making us a "global village." It is a miracle to me
that in a few short years, human beings have found a way to
lift an object, weighing tons, up into the air, and have it
remain there and even travel across this earth without
falling! It is a miracle, even more, that such a heavy
object can be lifted up beyond this earth's gravity. After
all, for a large part of my life, I had understood that we
were limited in how far our communication could travel; that
time factors made it impossible to talk to anyone else
across the globe except in the middle of the night; and that
gravity held us to this earth -- that was the way it was and
would always be. Yet, not only could a huge metal object go
beyond that force, it could carry people to an orbiting moon
thousands of miles away, and could land on that moon, and
let human beings walk on it. And everyone got to participate
in that experience through the strange miracle of
communication waves... at the same time!
Even today I still don't
understand how voices and music can carry to my ear over a
radio, let alone television, and through satellites, at
that. Recently, I watched a program on the history of
computers. It was unbelievable to think of a document from
one computer being broken into little packets, sent through
satellites, and then reconstructed on another computer
across the globe by those little packets fitting together
like a jigsaw puzzle to create that document once again. And
yet all of this, which we once were convinced was
impossible, has been made possible by discovering the laws
of the universe which could make it happen.
At one time, it seemed a
miracle because someone traveled around the ocean without
falling off the edge. It seemed a miracle when the first
four-minute mile was run, because no one had ever done it
before. These were miracles only because, seemingly, it
wasn't possible before. Now it is possible to travel
frequently and easily around our globe; and many athletes
can run a four-minute mile. And our children are being
raised as if satellites and computers had always been in
existence. As soon as it becomes commonplace, it no longer
seems a miracle at all.
Thus it is with our own
healing processes. We don't understand them all. But our
body clearly knows how to heal us. A broken bone knits. A
cut closes up. An abscess breaks and releases its fluids and
heals without us doing anything. We might have our bones
realigned so that they will knit together better, but the
actual healing process is not done by us or by a doctor; it
is done by our own body.
How do nature's laws
apply to healing?
One first might ask, how
do we know that there are laws that govern the universe? If
you look into a powerful telescope at night you will see
thousands of stars, each of which is the center of some
system. As the earth rotates, those systems may change
slightly, but they will look as if they are in the same
place the next time you want to find them. The law of nature
holds them in place. Gravity holds us in place on the earth,
unless we choose to lift off from it by rocket. Gravity is
only one of the many laws of nature, consistent, except when
we find mechanical means of breaking those laws.
Atoms in a drop of water
look much like a universe. Every crystal is formed according
to some beautiful geometric pattern. Every seed gives birth
to its own kind. All creatures expect their young will be of
their own species. There is no such thing as dead matter.
The laws of nature uses everything over and over in creative
ways to keep everything alive and dynamic. An entire human
being is made up of the division over and over from one
single union of two cells. The operating systems of the body
perform millions of minute tasks to assure our daily life.
These examples, and many others, remind us that there are
laws in nature. We can actively or passively participate in
them. There are consequences that come from breaking those
laws or interfering with their designs, just as there are
consequences that come from following them, or tapping into
their power.
Jesus healed, or found
ways to use the natural laws of the universe. People called
them miracles, and yet he told his disciples that they could
do the same. And when they had trouble with that, he told
them that they were "men of little faith."
Many of the righteously
religious complained about "who" he decided to heal. They
felt some were not worthy to be healed or forgiven, or that
someone like Jesus didn't have the right to determine such
things.
The laws of healing are
exactly that -- LAWS. Laws are objective. They are for
everyone. They don't judge who is bad or good, right or
wrong. They don't apply to those who follow the rules, and
not apply to those who don't. If you push a "good" citizen
and a "bad" citizen off of a 20-story building at the same
time, probably they will both experience gravity, and the
sidewalk, in much the same way.
People all around the
world in every culture and religion create their own kind of
philosophy that can try to deal with the seeming unfairness
of life. We as human beings want very much to believe that
we have a better advantage in life by following the rules
and by being "good." But when we get our blinders off and
really look at life, we can see that it doesn't turn out
that way. Good people and bad people seem to be just as
likely to experience enjoyable and horrible things in life.
Both good and bad people experience early death, or living
to ripe old age. Because of this, we have to create some
special place, after we die, in which judgment can be made
and proper justice meted out. And then, we must create
places that can sort out people based upon that judgment,
called, in our culture, heaven and hell.
Questions of "good and
bad" and "right and wrong" are irrelevant when it comes to
healing. It seems clear to me that what we are left with is:
are we willing to discern and use the laws that are in place
in our universe for every single human being? Healing is a
matter of enabling our whole mind and being to be focused on
releasing our body's abilities. Hypnosis can help with this
in a powerful way.
How does hypnosis fit in?
I find it absolutely
fascinating that a religious evangelist can create a
spellbinding atmosphere of belief and expectation, and thus
merely bring about healing by touching a person. Yet, that
same evangelist will proclaim to his congregation that
"hypnosis is of the devil." It is that congregation's own
faith and expectation that releases their very own power to
heal and be healed. This is exactly what happens in using
hypnosis.
Hypnosis reaches
underneath that part of the mind which doesn't understand,
and may not even believe, to that part of the mind which can
understand, and believe. The hypnotherapist uses
altered-state methods to get at that deeper part of the
mind, which can have the faith to be healed. The therapist,
just like the disciple, must have faith in order to use
hypnosis to help another person be healed. The therapist is
not doing the healing, but is assisting that person to use
more of their own inner resources to release what is already
given to them.
However, if therapists
aren't convinced that hypnosis can help heal (or, more
likely, worry that they might be too audacious in suggesting
that a client can be healed), then they may betray their own
lack of confidence and expectation, and thus affect the
confidence and expectation of their clients.
What's the mind got to do
with healing?
If it is a fact, as many
physicians and scientists claim, that probably more than 90
percent of the diseases and disabilities we experience stem
from our minds, then it seems reasonable that our minds can
also heal us from them. I do not really agree with some of
my colleagues that 100% of those diseases and disabilities
come from our minds, but I certainly do believe our minds
are greatly involved in whether we let those diseases and
disabilities take over our lives. (If it were true that 100%
were caused by our minds, then I would have a difficult time
understanding why small children should be afflicted, or why
animals get diseases that have no human source.)
Be that as it may, there
is enough evidence that we largely create our own
environment, whether it be external or internal. Our belief
systems make a difference in how we relate to life, and how
we relate to our minds and bodies. We can create a healthy
or unhealthy external environment; and, we can create a
healthy or unhealthy internal environment. In other words,
it is our thoughts, or ideas, that create both our external
and internal environments. Another way to describe it is
that an incident or accident by itself is not the problem.
Rather, it is the relationship we take to an incident, and
the story we tell about it makes it either a problem or not
a problem to us.
The relationship and story
we tell about what happens to us in life is received by the
unconscious or subconscious mind. Negative programming has
been accepted for one reason or another -- trust in a person
or situation, threat and other trauma, misunderstandings,
repetitive comments or events, protection in order to get
through situations, etc. Such programming could be
considered to be made of "negative hypnotic spells."
Anything the unconscious
mind accepts as fact will be carried out in the body. The
unconscious part of the mind doesn't distinguish the
different between what is real and unreal, what is imagined
and what is fact. The stronger the impression on the
subconscious/unconscious mind, the more certain it will be
carried out. The stronger the emotion, the more effect it
has on the body. The more frequently said, implied, or
experienced, the stronger the suggestion.
As a child, how many times
were we told that we would catch cold if we didn't wear a
coat or boots on our feet. As adults, the assumption by many
is, that if you are around someone with a cold, you will
probably "catch" it. If someone merely says the word
"cancer," a sudden rush of fear can take over our bodies.
As children, when healthy,
we might do something wrong and be punished; however, if
sick, we would be comforted. Being well brings discomfort;
being ill brings comfort. Which would you choose?
Consciously we want to be well, but unconsciously, we want
to be comforted. Words and attitudes from an early age make
a difference in how we perceive health and illness. Since
illness is not to our benefit, then anything said that
promotes it could be considered creating a negative hypnotic
spell.
You mean, that what I
imagine is what happens?
When you believe
something, your subconscious mind accepts it whether it is
real or not. Whatever the conscious mind believes in, it is
accepted as fact by the subconscious mind. It doesn't
differentiate between what is being imagined or what is
actually happening. The unconscious mind doesn't distinguish
between what is real or unreal, true or false. Whatever our
unconscious or subconscious mind accepts as fact will be
carried out in our bodies. The imagination has a powerful
effect on the body.
There are written case
studies and medical records, which show people who have died
from the fear of being poisoned, when there has been no
trace of it within their systems. When totally convinced
that an onion is a delicious apple, over 50 percent of
blind-folded people will eat the onion as if it was a
delicious apple. In an episode of the popular series M.A.S.H.,
the doctors, who had run out of the supply of morphine,
created placebo capsules, which they gave to their very
uncomfortable patients. The only requirement was that the
doctors had to present a posture of total belief in the
placebo as actual morphine. Well over 50% of the patients
were relieved totally of their pain, and most of the others,
alleviated considerably.
There is a great story of
the King of Orange whose troops were trapped behind enemy
lines without any access to proper food. Scurvy abounded, so
that most of the soldiers were seriously ill. Upon word of
this, the King sent a special messenger to get through the
enemy's lines to his troops. The messenger carried two vials
of colored liquid. The message from the King was that those
vials were very costly medicine, which was to be put in
buckets of water, a few drops at a time. Each soldier was to
have one ladle from the bucket daily. This would heal
whoever drank the water.
After all, the King,
himself, had sent these very expensive vials at great risk
to his messenger. Within a very few days, all signs of
scurvy had totally disappeared. The vials, of course, merely
held plain colored water. Using one's imagination is crucial
in any field or situation, including medical. We think,
therefore, we respond. If a doctor tells a patient that they
will never get well, then the combination of the authority
of the doctor and/or the public's attitude toward the
disease can create powerful images in one's mind which
convince the patient of that suggestion. In other words, the
suggestion, unless consciously rejected, is received and
imagined to be true. And the patient will never get well,
unless convinced otherwise; that is, unless their
imagination is changed about that prediction.
If we believe that illness
is inevitable, we will respond considerably differently than
if we believe that illness and physical handicaps are NOT
normal. It is a known fact that whenever a new "illness" is
reported by the public media, the incidence of that illness
amongst the population suddenly and dramatically rises. In
other words, what we imagine is what happens. Such people
have accepted a new hypnotic spell.
There are many instances
in which people have been convinced simply by word or
implication. A diagnosis creates a label, such as
"bi-polar." At first, this may be very freeing to a person
struggling with manic and mania responses within themselves.
They realize that they are "not alone" or "going crazy." But
that diagnosis can also serve to continue to convince that
person that they are "locked in" to that condition for their
lives. They carry the label forever, until it is removed. It
is, therefore, important for the counselor or hypnotherapist
to be aware of what labels a client carries with them,
whether they were put there by themselves, or by others,
even if those other people are part of the medical
community. And then, the therapist, through hypnosis and
counseling methods, helps the client "peal off" those labels
and replace them with the more positive ones of health and
wholeness.
There are people we tend
to allow as our authorities-teachers when younger; peers
when teenage; doctors when older. How much we believe in
what other people say makes a big difference in how much of
a hypnotic spell we allow ourselves to be caught in. In this
light, it is understandable why parents are often concerned
about with whom their children play; or, whom their teenage
children are dating.
In the same way, a
counselor or hypnotherapist ought to be concerned about whom
their clients decide to let influence them. When I am
working with an addictive client, for instance, I encourage
them to get away from negative energy in which they are
immersed, and get among those whose energy is positive.
There is a high attrition rate in those who go through
addiction programs, for at least two reasons: 1) the work is
done primarily at the conscious-mind level; and 2) the
patients go out into the same old environment they came out
of. Physical and social "geography" does make a difference
in how quickly we respond to positive growth and healing.
Our external environment, just like our internal one, has
become part of our imagination.
How can hypnosis help
change the "environment"?
To overcome problems, the
negative information in the mind (or old hypnotic spells)
has to be reversed. It can be changed by hypnotic
suggestions, by watching positive action, and by using the
imagination. The unconscious responds to the strongest
impression. Only if the previous impression is less in
strength than the new impression, can reprogramming with new
ideas take place. Hypnosis has to get rid of the previous
imprint, and provide sufficient reasons and benefits to the
unconscious mind for that new imprint. This is what
reprogramming is about.
An example of this
replacement is with a client of mine who had come for weight
control. Consciously, he wanted to get rid of excess weight.
However, despite proper suggestions for changing unhelpful
habits, nothing occurred. In trying to discover the reason
for the block to getting rid of the enormous amount of
excess fat he was carrying on his body, we encountered his
childhood experiences. In his younger years, he was sickly,
exceedingly thin, and had trouble eating. His parents and
other relatives were so worried for him they told him many
times, "You've got to eat, or you'll die!" It is not
difficult to grasp the power of that type of suggestion,
which was, no doubt, accepted literally by the
unconscious/subconscious levels of my client's mind. As he
began to recover from his illnesses, he began to eat
enormous amounts of food, thus adding far too much weight to
his body. It took (1) regression and releasing methods
concerning those early memories; (2) suggestions to the
"child part" of himself that he no longer had to fear dying
from not eating enough because he had become an adult and so
obviously hadn't died; and (3) suggestions to the adult self
that he was alive and well and could now eat normally. It
worked. The client's "deeper" mind accepted this new fact,
and it became the new imprint. He was now willing to change
his poor habits; and began to shed the extra pounds.
Ideas can be positively or
negatively accepted, depending upon previous "programming;"
emotions surrounding the ideas, and whether those ideas are
understood or mis-understood. Hypnosis is a method used to
suggest positive ideas, which, if accepted by the
unconscious mind, affect the body and cause a positive
response. It is a powerful tool that can convince the mind
to create a healthy environment -- outside or inside.
Hypnosis helps clients overcome problems and get rid of
self-defeating images, by breaking the old "hypnotic
spells." the negative information in the mind has to be
reversed. Negative programming can be changed. However, the
"manager of the mind" awaits instructions before getting rid
of negative programming. Until then, it goes on using the
same program until told otherwise. It is like a computer
which, despite all the hardware, cannot run until you enter
a program. And that program cannot operate until you touch
the keyboard. Entering a new program is like adding a new
dimension to the imagination of the computer, or tapping
into more of its potential "mind." For the client, whatever
has been believed is imprinted on the mind. Proper use of
hypnosis can change those imprints into something more
positive and effective.
There is also the
possibility of previous incarnations providing imprints. The
question becomes: with whose illness are we actually
dealing? In such a case, it is necessary to treat that
previous incarnation as the client who is seeking relief
from that "hypnotic spell," or imprint. Whether it is this
existence, or a past one, or even some kind of incarnate
attachment, that "person" is the actual client, or patient,
and the one who needs the healing.
Can our minds really heal
our bodies?
Some force within us is
capable of repairing the body. This fact is acknowledged
even by the medical community, as evidenced most strongly in
the use of placebos in scientific medical studies. As
mentioned before, it isn't the doctor who mends the broken
bone who heals it. The doctor places the bones in proper
alignment, and puts something around that area to keep it
stable. But, that doctor does not do the actual knitting of
those bones. The body has an instinct to send whatever is
necessary to that site to stimulate the cells, fluids and
chemicals to do whatever is required for that healing to
take place. You could say that this very fact of nature
supports the belief that our body's "natural" state is to be
well.
The hypnotherapist, or
counselor using hypnosis, will not set bones in place or
wrap them for adequate support, nor do the job of the body.
What it can do, is to send signals to the mind of that body
to help that healing process respond more rapidly and
completely; and to help the patient through it all with an
easy, positive mind.
The body and the mind are
made to be completely whole, completely healthy. They are
meant to be continually recreated with new cells and ideas.
But sometimes something occurs which blocks that continuous
process of regeneration, or misdirects it. Hypnosis can be
used to get to that part of the mind where some "disconnect"
has occurred, and release it, so that the healing and
regeneration process can continue as nature intended it.
Because hypnosis has the
capacity to call forth this ability of the mind to
"re-think" how it is operating the body, the hypnotist or
counselor who works with hypnosis would be well advised to
study the human body's anatomy and its physiological
principles. By having a clearer idea of how the organs,
glands, and various other systems operate, the hypnotist can
encourage the client's practical imagination in helping the
body promote its own health by thinking of that area of
their body as healthy and operating perfectly.
Besides hypnosis and
medical care of various kinds, there are other helpful tools
for enhancing healing, such as humor, healthy sexual
contact, harmonious relationships, good friends, and
anything else that provides a positive atmosphere.
Summary:
-- The universe has been
created with laws. Laws are objective. They apply to
everything and everyone.
-- The subconscious (or unconscious) mind controls all
systems and processes of the body, including its healing
processes.
-- The body functions according to thoughts, ideas, and
beliefs accepted by the subconscious/unconscious mind. "We
are what we think."
-- Thoughts filter from the conscious mind into the
subconscious mind and affect the body positively or
negatively, depending upon the types of messages received.
-- Ideas don't have to be true to affect us; they need only
to be accepted by our minds as true. What we imagine
occurring is what occurs.
-- Positive emotions are instrumental in producing good
health. The body can usually withstand temporarily
unpleasant emotions, but unpleasant emotions over a period
of time can cause a negative effect on the body.
-- Destructive emotions can have a definite effect on the
health of the body, just as they do on the mind.
-- Since it is basically "thoughts", or ideas, that
determine how we respond, then thoughts and ideas can be
changed in order to determine different responses.
-- Hypnosis is a tool that can demonstrate the effect the
mind has on the body. It can show how ideas formed by a
person can affect the body positively or negatively.
-- Hypnosis can be used to replace negative programming with
positive programming, negative thoughts with positive
thoughts.
-- Hypnosis can be used to release blocks to the natural
healing processes, by strengthening the imagination
regarding healing.
-- Hypnosis can seek out inappropriate imprints on the mind
and change them to ones that are more beneficial to the
client.
Be
confident, more relaxed and in control. Be successful in
love, work and so much more! 
