Hypnosis – Imagery and Disease
There have been so many experiments using imagery to combat certain diseases. One of the first known clinical work of this kind that I was shown in the mid1990s came from an oncologist and a psychologist. They were pioneering the use of visual imagery as an additional treatment for cancer patients.
The first steps were to teach the patient to relax with a form of progressive relaxation. The patient would be asked to mentally picture each muscle and every muscle group and then the releasing of the tension in the muscles.
After achieving a state of deep relaxation, patients were then asked to picture their cancer cells as being very weak and their own white blood cells and immune system as being very strong. They were also encouraged to see their own defenses as powerful, virile warriors, and the cancer cells and tumors as being various weak animals, such as snails and slugs, which powerful warriors can easily vanquish.
There is sound and logical reason to believe and embrace the knowingness that your unconscious attitude toward disease plays a key role in mustering your internal forces to combat the viruses, bacteria, or tumors associated with any disease. Imagery helps create a positive unconscious attitude toward getting well.
Further research from the same team did scientific analysis of imagery combined with conventional therapy used by cancer patients. One of their patients was a man who had cancer of the pancreas, a cancer with a recovery rate of only five percent.
He imagined his cancer cells as armadillos and his white blood cells as white knights. The knights would charge through his system spearing the armadillos with their lances and each knight had a quota to fill.
At one point in his therapy, the patient mentally observed that many of his white knights were disappearing. A blood test confirmed that his white blood cell count was dropping. When he learned this, the man resolved to fortify his army of white knights. Shortly, his white blood count stabilized.
A while later, he reported that his white knights were having difficulty meeting their daily quota of little critters. They had to shake the bushes to scare up the creatures. An ultrasound examination the following week showed that the patient no longer had any evidence of a tumor.
Cancer is often a complex illness and a psychological tool like hypnosis can be used to increase the patient's acceptance of his or her situation. It is frequently helpful as an adjunct to more standard approaches of treatment and to help a patient relax. I am not suggesting that someone only use hypnosis as a sole treatment for any cancer or related disease but as an adjunct therapy.
How does imagery aid the body in the fight against disease? It appears that we become susceptible to diseases when our normal balance becomes disturbed. This balance is called "homeostasis". Homeostatic imbalance can arise from many influences and this disrupts the body's chemistry.
One of these influences is stress. Research has shown that excessively stressed rats secreted large amounts of corticosterone, a powerful hormone from the adrenal gland.
Normally, such hormones prevent inflammation in the body. That is wonderful if there is an infection or injury. But too much of this hormone for too long will reduce the effectiveness of the body's immune system.
Another change brought on by stress is a reduction in T-lymphocytes – white blood cells that help produce antibodies and trigger a defense against tumors. When these immune factors are lowered, bacteria and viruses gain an opportunity to multiply and create illness.
It has become clear through continued current research around the world that the mind affects and directs these immune processes through complex neuro-chemical processes. The newer field of Psychobiology and Epigenetics explains many of the theories about this phenomenon. This is an exciting new field of research called psychoneuroimmunology.
I believe that the better you can visualize your body and its problem areas, the better your unconscious mind can coordinate your internal defense forces. Your unconscious can wave the baton and, chemically, orchestrate the components of your immune system to function in harmony and with gusto.
There are two different ways of using imagery to work toward a goal. One method is to visualize the process or actions of achieving the success you seek.
The second type of imagery for change creates mental pictures of the goal or result as if it has already occurred. Both process imagery and result imagery are useful in reaching your goals.
There are some goals – like that of the patient with pancreatic cancer – that are better approached through process imagery. The process was the patient imagining his immune system seeking and destroying the cancer cells.
Or, if you are trying to stop a throbbing, vascular headache, for example, you might imagine your hands and feet getting warm. Creating a warm sensation in the hands and feet may be accomplished by drawing more blood to those areas and away from the throbbing vessels in the head.
Your suggestions and process imagery could involve all your senses. You might visualize yourself with gloves on, sitting in front of a fireplace. You could imagine hearing the crackling of the wood, smell the pine burning. You could mentally feel the heat from the fire and "see" the glow of the hot coals. It has been found that many headaches respond to this treatment. This is an indirect method of using imagery as part of a process to achieve a goal – headache relief.
"Result imagery" would have you picture yourself doing, appearing, or reacting in the way you wish as if your goal has already been accomplished. If you are working on more self-confidence, you might imagine yourself having boldly asked for a deserved raise in pay. Or, perhaps imagine yourself having confidently given a speech, hear the applause, and imagine the positive outcomes of your presentation, such as being elected to the post you were seeking or getting a raise in pay from your employer.
Studies have shown that visualizing an activity produced small but measurable reactions in the muscles involved in the imagined activity. When you conduct a mental rehearsal of something, you are implanting a learned memory of a successful action. You are also informing your unconscious mind what you expect it to achieve.
Suppose your goal is to drop weight. You could imagine yourself as being thin, visualize yourself fitting into a dress or suit you have seen that is the size you wish to become. Mentally picture yourself reflected in a mirror or in a window, trim and lean as you wish to be. This is result imagery. It is only one of several strategies for weight reduction. You use imagery to lead you to the result you seek.
Within the same trance session, I use process imagery - seeing yourself eating smaller portions of food, feeling full and leaving food on your plate, closing the refrigerator door between meals with empty hands. These are process images and reinforce the positive processes you need to go through to reach your result. Process imagery is used to implant post hypnotic suggestions for how you will act after your hypnosis trance.
We will continue next month! Also, please join me the first Monday of every month at 8 PM Eastern time for An Hour at The Therapy Center live stream radio show only on Star Nations Radio Network where you can participate in a live Hypnotherapy session.
Until next time, love and light
Patti
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