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Deep Healing Book Excerpts:
Excerpts from Deep Healing: The Essence of Mind-Body Medicine
 The following articles are excerpted directly from the text of Deep Healing, by Emmett E Miller MD. They may be printed out for your personal use, but not for sale or other commercial purposes without the written consent of Dr. Miller. For more information contact us.
What Is Mind/Body Medicine?
Deep Relaxation, The Master Skill
Levels of the Human System: Mind, Body, Emotion, Spirit
Selective Awareness, Key to Conscious Change
My Muse—Healing Begins with a Love for Life
What is Self-Esteem?
Psychoneuroimmunology
The Magic of Mental Imagery: Rewriting Your Own Life Script
Creating and Using Reference Memories
The Healing Image
Your Health, Whose Responsibility?
Self-talk—Employing the Power of Focused Affirmation
The Healer’s Choice—The Potential for Large-Scale Transformation
Healing, Homeostasis, and Balance
What is Mind-Body Medicine?
Mind-body medicine, (psychophysiological medicine), refers both to a general approach as well as a medical subspecialty. It is concerned with the interactions between mind (psyche) and body (soma) in health and disease. Its goal is to induce and maintain optimal health and performance.
The mind-body approach recognizes the tremendous ability of our thoughts, beliefs, emotions, and self-talk to create imbalance that can lead to disease. Conversely, it also recognizes that one’s experience of one’s body (strength/weakness, comfort/pain, and energy/fatigue) can have an enormous impact on the mind.
Psychophysiological medicine may be the oldest medical profession—beginning when the first cavewoman kissed her toddler’s finger to make the pain go away. Indeed, until the last few hundred years, the practice of medicine was part of the normal duties of priests and shamans. Without specific allopathic modalities such as antibiotics, surgery and immunization, the focus had to be on maximizing the host response—enhancing the body’s own ability to heal. Thus, the use of herbs, poultices, and manipulations was always generously accompanied by adjustments to the patient’s mental attitude. This generally involved spiritually evocative rituals and imagery portraying the miracle-taking place inside (inviting good spirits into the body to drive out the evil ones).
All this changed after Rene Descartes convinced the Western world that mind and body were completely separate (reductionism), giving rise to specialists in the body who understand little of mind/spirit intervention.
Many students of human healthcare feel that mainstream practices have gone far afield, assuming we can treat the body without treating the mind. The important question to ask about our treatment of illness is, "Is the power of the mind to influence health and healing being used wisely, is it being ignored, or is inadvertent damage being done through ignorance?"
Practitioners such as Franz Anton Mesmer and Sigmund Freud were among the earliest to re-introduce us to the importance of the mind-body connection. Its study has become progressively more scientific with the work of Han Selye (stress), Schultz (autogenics), Benson (relaxation response), and Milton Erickson (hypnosis). The influx of teachers and texts from the East during the 1960s provided an effective stimulus for the expansion of physiological and spiritual aspects of the field. In the last two decades, highly refined scientific techniques have outlined the neurochemical pathways through which mind and body effectively communicate and exert effects on each other.
The practice of the subspecialty of mind-body medicine generally involves using techniques that produce a receptive state of consciousness (biofeedback, hypnosis, or meditation), and then interacting with the patient/client so as to create health inducing mental constructs, images, scripts, or programs that can enhance the healing response.
Altered States for Healing
As one of those who re-introduced mind-body approaches into Western medicine in the 1960s, my particular fascination was with the ability of the mind to enter altered states of consciousness which facilitate cellular change. Learning to think according to a new paradigm of relaxed, here-and-now, Self-esteeming thoughts and beliefs requires quite a bit of training for most folks raised in our culture. When the compact audiocassette came on the market, replacing reel-to-reel recorders, I saw it as the ideal tool, as it could be used each day at home to train the mind.
My goal with the guided imagery/music/meditation audiocassette was to provide my patients and other health practitioners and their patient/clients with a self-contained, self-directed tool for expanding the mind-body connection into the self-healing dimension. In my practice with individual patients and clients, I usually create a personalized tape during each office or phone session. Additional learning is facilitated by the use of prerecorded tapes from the Catalog.
The Pathway of Mind-Body Change
How beautifully and elegantly designed is the mind-body complex! Thoughts, because they are electrical, may be produced and changed without moving a great deal of mass around; the changes are represented by shifts in electrons and electrical fields, which weigh almost nothing. This gives us enormous flexibility and selectivity of thought, and enables us to whip through complex reasoning tasks with lightning speed.
When a series of thoughts cluster to form a concept or image, the cerebral cortex secretes neuropeptides. These molecules are much larger than electrons; they have more mass and they don't vanish as quickly as electrostatic charges do. Electrical charges drain off by themselves; neuropeptides must actually be metabolized; that is, once they have served their purpose our bodies must break them down and excrete them.
Perhaps you can recall an experience like this one:
You've had a dream of your spouse, or a friend, doing something unkind to you. You awaken feeling angry. You may even grouch at that person, but soon you realize that the reason for your anger was a dream and not something that had actually happened in physical reality. In spite of this awareness, you notice it takes a little while before your feeling dissipates. Likewise, after seeing a movie with very graphic, violent images, you may find yourself drifting to that imagery again and again over the next few hours or days. Eventually that chemical pattern is metabolized and you stop thinking about those scenes unless something reminds you of the event.
An image serves the function of opening a door to the deeper, emotional levels of your nervous system. Holding a strong image in your mind signals the deeper structures of your brain to release the chemical signals and nervous responses that we perceive as emotion. This represents an even greater mass of matter and energy being released into the body.
Finally, this addition of the activating power of emotions to the particular image being held in your mind may lead to muscular activity, such as running to catch a bus, running the best race of your life, or writing an excellent essay. Now, an enormous mass is being moved—the mass of your entire body. Similarly, the functioning of the rest of the organs of your body, including the immune system and glandular system, may be changed. This is the essence of Guided Imagery.
So, here we have come a little closer to answering that philosophical question about how mind connects to the body. Further, this mechanism gives us an ideal way to alter the responses and relationships of the mind and body.
The Mind to Body Bridge
Here's a little summary of what we've discussed so far:
- Mind-body Medicine, at its best, addresses all aspects of a person: physical symptoms and disorders, emotional needs and imbalances, maladaptive behaviors and habit patterns (including addictions and relationship problems), cognitive difficulties (including low creativity, obsessive-compulsive behavior, hypercriticism, procrastination, and lack of purpose), and spiritual blocks and deficiencies.
- Imbalance or dysfunction in one area, or at one level of a system, can appear in the form of problems at other levels. Symptoms often appear in areas quite different from the area where the primary imbalance arose. (Having an emotionally abusive mother could eventuate in chronic headaches or an ulcer. Being sexually abused by a babysitter could give rise to learning difficulties or anorexia nervosa.)
- Symptoms and diseases don't have causes, they have etiologies. Many times the single factor, stress, may merely be the final straw that unbalances the system. The specific disease or symptom that appears is highly personal, and dependent upon many other factors (genetics, prior disease, and nutrition being examples).
- The nature of the events that generate the stress may be quite different for different individuals. For example, one person may be stressed out by the thought of getting up to give a speech while another person finds it invigorating and exciting.
- There are some associations between specific feelings or states of mind and corresponding physical symptoms. Examples are: anger and large bowel disease; skin rashes and embarrassment; chronic vaginitis or ED and sexual difficulties; and, anorexia nervosa and childhood sexual abuse. But these correlations are statistical, at best, and not absolute predictors. What's more, these correlations may be very culture-related, and subject to variables that are yet to be discovered.
- What does seem to be common to all of us is the general way the human psyche is organized, the manner in which imbalances develop, and the ways that stress can overload the brain-mind and give rise to imbalances.
There are ways we can approach our lives so as to avoid excess stress and subsequent imbalance, and ways we can examine and influence mind, body, emotion, spirit and behavior so as to relieve these imbalances and become more whole (deep healing).
Everyone is interested in themselves, and it turns out that a person who really understands the "programming" of the interface between the mind and body (actually between spirit and mind, mind and emotion, emotion and body) turns out to be quite an excellent programmer of themselves. It is many times harder to be a practitioner and understand the general form of the programming language of the human mind-body complex.
The approach I have taken, and I think it is the one that ultimately stands the best chance of working, is for people to become sufficiently educated to take the time to examine and treat themselves wisely. It would be very helpful if all practitioners referred people to some actual mind-body ways to deal with whatever issue brings them in for professional attention. They could do this by recommending a book or tape or CD, if they didn’t want to go so far to suggest that the person invest in an appointment with a mind-body specialist.
Deep Relaxation, The Master Skill
As our world speeds up, becoming increasingly complex and crowded, the number of people who believe the future will be better than the past steadily decreases. Most of us feel we are working harder for fewer rewards. The all-too-common result of this bleak vision of our lives is chronic stress, and the symptoms that are the result of that stress.
The purest antidote for stress is Deep Relaxation. Unfortunately, this concept is either foreign or poorly understood by most of us. When we feel the power to control our lives slipping away, we become less comfortable with change. We fear losing what little we have. This produces an inner tension and defensiveness, a holding-on that resists change, even positive change that promises healing. It is in this seemingly no-win situation that deep relaxation is so enormously beneficial.
Deep relaxation can be dramatically effective in relieving symptoms such as inflammation, anxiety, and muscle tension. It can be a lifesaver when dealing with stress and life crises. And, when relaxation is combined with positive imagery for guiding us through an upcoming event, it can vastly improve our ability to perform at optimal levels, even when taking on some of life's greatest challenges.
By relieving tension, deep relaxation improves circulation and speeds up healing. Used before surgery, people need less anesthesia, have less postoperative pain, leave the hospital sooner, and get back on their feet with minimal complications.
After about ten years of practicing this new kind of medicine, I began to comprehend that, whether the person was dealing with cigarette smoking, cancer, anxiety, or arthritis, there were profound similarities in what they needed to learn about themselves. Regardless of the symptoms that brought the person to me for help, the critical phase of deep healing involved similar shifts in beliefs about themselves and the world—a shift toward greater self-realization and self-esteem. There seemed to be a particular way of relating with my patients that heightened their own level of knowledge. The most profound healing occurred as they experienced these heightened levels.
A central feature of the relationship that develops between my patients and me is a sense of safety. I have heard people describe the feeling again and again. They call it a deep, pervasive safety that allows them to give themselves permission to relax, to let go, and to trust my guidance while in this relaxed and open state. This trust is particularly important since the effectiveness of the deep healing. techniques may involve reliving past experiences that were particularly traumatic. For example, in this relaxed state patients have been able to relive, and release themselves from, the terror of being beaten by neighborhood bullies, the shame and rage of being raped by an uncle, or the abiding grief and horror of being forcibly separated from their family in a concentration camp. Through relaxation, we can learn what needs to be learned at the intellectual and spiritual level, while not overtaxing our systems at the physical and emotional levels.
The ability to relax and inhibit certain emotional reactions through deep relaxation, along with the power to evoke certain other emotions and strengthen them, can enable us to make ever more conscious and rational choices. Mastering these internal skills enables us to feel our feelings, learn from them, and continuously modify them to produce health and wellness in our day-to-day lives. By continuing to do these things, we train our own internal expert systems. Gradually all the lower levels of system (muscle tension, glandular secretion, and emotional responses.) are restructured according to this wiser and healthier framework. From this point you will be able to make better decisions, taking feelings into account, with less need to make a conscious effort to do so.
In my medical practice, my task is to help people experience deep relaxation and healing, not to merely understand the principles. Similarly, to fully discover what this book has to offer, it is very important that you experience this material with your body, emotions, and spirit, as well as your intellect. I urge you to pause, in your reading, to avoid slipping into the illusion that an intellectual understanding is all that matters. Whenever you can, anchor what you are learning intellectually in your own personal experiences; look for memories of past events in your life that would support or illustrate what you are reading.
Deep relaxation is the core skill upon which this work is based, and the fundamental process upon which all future exercises in this work will be built.
Deep relaxation also lowers the resistance of your mind to new material, allowing new information in and literally reprogramming the nervous system. Needless to say, the effect of your positive affirmations, done regularly, can be profound. During deep relaxation, the mental state you enter is similar to that of a young child who is so receptive to the words it hears.
Excellent programs for learning deep relaxation include Healing Journey, Letting Go of Stress, I Am, and Relaxation and Inspiration (audio and video). For a more complete experience, the Stress Comprehensive Program is recommended.
Levels of The Human System: Mind, Body, Emotion and Spirit
Since the advent of the "Self-help Era," with its increased awareness of psychological issues, we have been frequently reminded that a human being is more than the body, that health involves mind, body, emotion, and spirit. There is, however, one important feature of this basic truth that is often overlooked. If we think of these four in the same way that we think of four ingredients in cooking—say, eggs, flour, milk and sugar—we make an error. Spirit, mind, emotions, and body represent different levels in the hierarchy of our system but they are woven together in a way that one cannot be separated from another.
By way of analogy, imagine that you are in an office at an Army base, sitting in the room with a five-star general, a lieutenant, a sergeant, and a new recruit. There are certain obvious similarities—all are male, all are wearing the same color uniform, and all are sitting in equivalent chairs. You might almost be tempted to overlook the small difference in the number of stripes on their sleeve or stars on their shoulders. If your goal were to influence the Army to attack, retreat, or buy your company's product, treating them all as equals would be very unwise.
Only the general could make a decision for the entire Army, and only the general could decide upon any large-scale movement of troops. In fact, even if you were so persuasive as to convince the lieutenant to have his men attack a target that was not approved by the general, you would succeed only in creating chaos and getting the lieutenant court-martialed and retired from service.
Your body, emotions, mind (intellect, cognition), and spirit stand in a similar hierarchical arrangement. Influencing one of the lower levels without permission and participation by higher levels can result in another kind of chaos and inactivation, which is just the opposite of healing.
It might be well to recall again the fundamental unity, or wholeness, of the individual—mind and body are, for instance, no more separable from one another than are the hen and her ability to produce eggs. Yet, for all practical purposes, just as we must distinguish between hen and egg, it may be helpful to look at these aspects of our wholeness separately but always with the understanding that they must be studied in context. We can finally understand them only with reference to the system as a whole.
Mind Over Matter
Certain qualities emerge as we go up the levels of any system. The higher (superordinate) levels are best designed to control lower (subordinate) ones, based on feedback from those levels. Actions within the higher levels involve small amounts of matter (nanograms of neurotransmitters) are small, subtle and may seem inconsequential. Yet, when the channels of communication are open and functioning smoothly, these subtle changes have a profound impact when carried out at lower levels.
The general's pencil draws a single line across a map. At this level, very little material is involved—just whatever graphite material from the pencil rubs off on the paper. But one week later three million tons of high explosives and two million soldiers invade that area marked on the map. Likewise, minute changes in your thinking can play themselves out in enormous physical changes. What comes to mind as I write this is the example of looking up at the sky and noticing that rain is on its way. From this mental image comes a series of actions: we rush outside and unclip a huge load of clothes from the clothesline, fold them neatly, then carry them into the house.
Selective Awareness—How It Influences Emotions and Bodily Functions
Had we looked up into the sky, noted dark, heavy clouds gathering overhead, and decided this meant only one thing—that we should run into the house and get an umbrella, we might have ended up with a line full of sopping wet clothes. But our awareness of the clothes on the line and what would happen to them if it rained, provided us with a model, or template, for a different course of action—to gather up the clothes so that they wouldn't get soaked.
Thinking is basically a linear process. Although there are millions of different thoughts that could possibly be brought to mind, in fact only one thought can be held at any given moment. Our awareness is selective; intentionally or unintentionally, our minds focus only on one thought at a time. It is this capacity to focus, literally selecting where we will place our attention or awareness, that determines the quality of the mental image upon which you will base your choice to take action. For example, you might look up in the sky, notice the dark clouds and suddenly become very fearful because the last time you saw clouds that dark you were a child and your house was hit by a tornado. So, fear is triggered in your mind, with memories of destruction all around you. For a moment, you are driven by fear, fear that began with the image of the cloud.
Your mental image, in turn, determines the quality of your emotional state. Wrapped up in memories of the tornado, we go into a state of panic, resulting in our running into the cellar for protection. But if we relax and inhibit that image for a moment, we recognize that we're not living in tornado country and the clouds we see are only rain clouds. That more appropriate image results in our hurriedly but efficiently grabbing the clothes off the line. The bottom line is that our ability to intentionally focus (that is, selective awareness) allowed us to take appropriate action in the latter case.
With any image we hold in our minds, we are going to have some chemical reactions take place in our body. We can literally feel the effects of chemicals and the hormones, secreted by subcortical centers and nerves, surging through our bodies when we hold a fearful image in our minds. And, when we hold a relaxed and peaceful image, we experience the effects of a very different set of hormones and body chemistry. In this way, our mental images create the framework for the behavior of the physical body. When the image is fearful our muscles and internal organs are prepared to run or fight. When the image is calming and peaceful, our muscles receive chemical signals to let go and rest. With each and every image, large or small, a multitude of internal behaviors is stimulated, even at the subcellular levels. In fact, it is often these subcellular changes that allow the medical lab to determine your level of health or disease.
Each of us chooses our thoughts according to specific patterns that we have learned during our lifetimes. Some of this learning has been conscious and intentional, such as the kind of knowledge we receive from reading a book or studying a certain subject over a period of years. Other learning is less conscious, such as the fears or sense of shame we learned from being raised in a highly dysfunctional family. Out of the sum total of our knowledge—conscious and unconscious—we develop algorithms, which is just a fancy way of saying formulas for solving problems that arise in our lives. These formulas for living will determine what we think, see, feel, believe and act. Here, in vivid detail, maintained by algorithms, is the journey from mind to matter.
As an example, the person who was raised in a family where one or both parents drank and became abusive when they were feeling pressured, may adopt that algorithm as a problem solving formula for their own lives. Or, of course, they may reject that algorithm and look for something that works better for them. (This is the focus of the Inner Child Healing program) Similarly, the person who was raised in a family situation where there was a concerted effort to seek appropriate causes and really make a sincere effort to effect solutions that were widely beneficial, will tend to adopt that algorithm in their life. There is no reason for this person to seek significant change.
The algorithm, behavioral pattern, set of rules, moral or ethical code that you use for selecting your thoughts is represented by what I refer to as your philosophical or spiritual system. It is spiritual because it is something you hold in your mind, something that has no immediate physical form but which, as we've begun to see, will always result in choices that result in both inner and outer actions. Within the model of health I've been presenting so far, spirit is seen as the highest level of your inner hierarchy.
Thought is lightning fast. As such, it may be best understood as electrical in nature. We can change a thought through a tiny shift of an electrical charge, moving a mass of electrons that can barely be measured by even our most sophisticated technology. Similarly, creating a mental image, and holding it in our minds, requires the movement of submicroscopic amounts of chemicals, called neurotransmitters, which, in spite of their nearly infinitesimal mass, are far more massive than electrons. As tiny as these chemicals and electrons are, these are the stuff from which our mental images are made. These are the glue which hold our algorithms intact within our consciousness.
We experience emotion when a current mental image (the rain cloud overhead) triggers the memories of past experiences (a tornado thirty years before), deeply held beliefs (that the world is a dangerous place), and philosophical systems (that it's every man for himself). Further, since emotion requires the movement of still larger quantities of chemicals than were required to create the mental image, it takes a little longer for us to become aware of them. And obviously the movement of a muscle, the production of an antibody, or a change in the growth rate of cells requires much more complex and massive physical-chemical changes, and thus may take longer than any of these, measured in seconds, minutes, days, or even weeks.
Clearly, the more control we have over the thoughts that flow through our minds the better we can guide the healing process: from image, to chemical or electrical activity, to an actual change in the muscular responses of, let's say, the blood vessels in your sinus tissue, to the production of a certain kind of cells in your immune system, designed to destroy a specific virus, to the creation of new cells to repair a cut finger. This is the focus of the Self-Healing Comprehensive Program.
All these factors are involved in the mind-body connection that we work with in deep healing. To understand them at this deep, submicroscopic level is to begin to grasp the power we each hold to change our lives for the better—or, as it were, in the opposite direction.
The Serenity Prayer and Personal Excellence are two good examples of programs that help empower the spirit in your healing. Writing Your Own Script and I Am focus on putting the wisdom of the spirit in charge of your behaviors and self image.
Selective Awareness, Key to Conscious Change
Through the conscious use of mental imagery, we have the ability to affect our level of relaxation, comfort, pain, enthusiasm—and the basic physiology of our bodies. But what kind of imagery will do this, and how can we create it?
As we have discussed, our short-term and long-term responses to our internal and external environments must ultimately be based on our self-image, our worldview, and our inner map. Our modern understanding of the brain tells us that it does its work through the secretion of neurotransmitters and hormones, chemical substances that act as messengers carrying information and inducing changes in other neurons and in other organs of the body. This leads to the rather startling realization that the brain is actually an endocrine gland, and what we call "reality" is dependent upon its secretions and electrical fields.
Because these chemicals and electrical fields are continually being changed by our thoughts, beliefs and images, it is scientifically accurate correct to say that each of us "creates our own reality." More specifically, our nervous system creates our reality, and if we know how to guide the functioning of the nervous system we can consciously and intentionally bring about desirable changes. The basic means by which this can be accomplished is through a very fundamental property of the human mind called Selective Awareness.
Experiencing Selective Awareness
Think of an apple. Now think of a polar bear, the Eiffel Tower, a pile of ashes, an ostrich egg, a space ship, a cigar, a mountain, the planet Saturn, a computer chip.
Not too difficult. Now, think of all of them at the same time!
Impossible. Even though you can, at will, think any one of more than a million thoughts at any given moment, it is difficult, or impossible to focus on more than one. This is what I call selective awareness. Of course, over a period of time, as short as a minute, not just one, but numerous thoughts may pass through your awareness, but they do so one at a time, in a sequence.
If you do nothing, your thoughts will meander on, willy-nilly, shifting from one track to another, distracted by irrelevant "clang" associations, environmental phenomena, memories, fears and so forth. This is the state some philosophers have called "drunken sleepwalking." Maladaptive behaviors of mind, emotions, and body (including many diseases) are the result of this unguided (or misguided) mode of thinking.
The good news is that, with a little practice, you can develop the ability to exert a great deal of influence over this string of thoughts. If you stay alert, each time the string of thoughts wanders off the course you want it to stay on, you can override the automatic pilot and refocus on whatever thought or pathway of thoughts you wish. This is sometimes called Mental Image Visualization, or Guided Imagery.
All your experiences are the direct result of your thoughts, including your mental images, and beliefs. What you experience in life, where you go, and what decisions you make must ultimately depend upon the nature of the thoughts that pass through your mind. Understanding the phenomenon of selective awareness leads us to a most significant realization:
Since you can consciously and intentionally choose what thought is in your mind at any moment, you have the potential to learn to consciously guide and control what you think, see, feel and do on an ongoing basis.
As simple as this fact is, it is extraordinarily powerful. This is because, through skillfully guiding your awareness, you can have an impact upon mental, physical, emotional, and behavioral processes that are not normally available to conscious modification. The key to doing this is the use of mental imagery.
Imagery and Physiological Change
Most of us have been taught that there are two very separate nervous systems: voluntary and involuntary. The voluntary system allows you to carry out intentional activities such as brushing your teeth, walking, running, or writing a letter to a friend. The involuntary system is responsible for activities such as the regulation of digestion, blood pressure, and body temperature.
Here's a little exercise to try:
Open and close your hand and notice how you do it. Lift your eyebrows and then relax them. Breathe in deeply, then let that breath go. These are all actions available to us through voluntary pathways.
Now try, in the same way, to tell your heart to speed up. Tell it to slow down. Tell your white blood cells to increase in number. Slow down your digestive processes. Tell your thyroid, your adrenals or your salivary glands to secrete.
You can't, of course, since there is no voluntary pathway of neurons available to carry the instructions to these sites, or to alter the activity of the muscles within your stomach or intestine, or to change the muscular tension in the walls of your blood vessels. You can't do it, because this, the so-called involuntary, or autonomic nervous system, does not respond to commands given in this manner.
But that's not the end of the story. It turns out that indeed there are ways you can voluntarily influence your involuntary nervous system. To test this out for yourself, let's see what we can do with an image. If possible, close your eyes and have someone read the following to you while you do as suggested. Or, you can record it on tape and visualize as you listen to it played back. This is an important experience to have.
Imagine a lemon. Imagine you are holding the lemon in your hand. Visualize it clearly in your mind. You can see its color, feel its bumpy surface, and see the stem. Imagine that you drop it on a wooden table and hear the sound it makes. Imagine you have a very sharp knife and are cutting the lemon in two. See the cut surfaces glistening and notice that you have even cut one of the seeds in half. Now visualize a sparkling clean glass and squeeze the juice from one of those halves into the glass. See it run down the side of the glass.
Now imagine that you are lifting the glass towards your face so you can smell the lemony flavor of the juice. Place the rim of the glass in your mouth and as you tilt the glass up, let the lemon juice flow down the side of the glass into your mouth. Taste the lemony taste. Taste the sourness of the juice as it flows over and around the sides of your tongue. Savor the tart flavor and notice the flow of saliva.
Through mental imagery you are able to have an influence on a normally involuntary process (salivation).
Complete the following imagery in the same way:
Imagine yourself standing on top of a narrow brick wall about two inches wide. Imagine that this brick wall is along the edge of the roof of a 20-story building. Lean forward a little bit and look down the side of the building. See the windowsills jutting out. See the sidewalk and the street fall below with the cars and people looking like little ants. It's a breezy day. Sometimes the wind blows from behind you and you have to pull yourself back a little bit to keep from tipping too far over the edge. Carefully, bend forward a little bit and look down at the sidewalk far below you.
Notice what you feel inside. Notice your heart. Can you feel it speed up. Notice the emotions, the fear. Perhaps you are able to feel your palms sweating. Can you feel the speed up in your heart rate? How about tension in your stomach muscles?
Most people who do this exercise will notice elevations of their heart rates, sweaty palms, and increased tension in their stomach muscles, or elsewhere in their bodies. Of course, if you are accustomed to heights, or it doesn't bother you to look down from a high elevation, this exercise may not have as much of an affect on you as on a person who is uncomfortable with heights. Similarly, it will have a greater affect on a person who is highly visual than it will on people who are not visualizers.
Although the factors we are influencing in these two visualization examples are rather elementary, the basic processes we are employing. Selective awareness and imagery can be used in a wide variety of ways to create positive change, in self-healing, in habits and behaviors, in dealing with stress, in self-esteem, and in creating peak performance.
Your unconscious mind and nervous system do not distinguish well between a cortical image (image within your brain) that is the result of actual stimuli in the present environment and an image that is the result of fantasy or intentional imagery through selective awareness.
You will soon see how this fact can enable us to directly influence physiological processes with imagery. This is why our physiology changes with an imagined lemon (we salivate), and our hearts speed up when we visualize something scary or exciting. This subtle, but powerful observation puts a valuable tool at our disposal. It provides us with a way to alter the associations that we have to various stimuli.
My Muse—Healing Begins with a Love for Life
Early in my medical career, I knew I was looking for something quite different than what most of my associates were seeking. Others saw prestige, creativity, service, or a good income as their reward for enduring the incredibly punishing, expensive, lonely, and often dehumanizing years of training we all had to endure. I knew I was being called by a different voice but it took me awhile to recognize this.
I remember the first time I peered into a microscope, some three decades ago, to watch the cavorting single-celled animals in a tiny drop of pond water. I was awestruck, to put it mildly! It wasn't with the dispassionate eye of a scientist that I beheld that wondrous phenomenon through the lens that day. Far from it! That day was the beginning of a long love affair with life—one that grew into a consuming passion, a passion that has never waned, not even for a moment, in all the winters that have passed since then.
Microscopic Muse
At that moment, early in my college career, I was lured away from my first love, pure mathematics. And it was this fascination with the life force, as expressed through every living cell that guided me through my medical studies. It is this same committed love that has gifted me with a deep appreciation and understanding of its expression in human health.
Perhaps it was this vital relationship with the tiniest of life's building blocks that inspired me to discover the infinite importance of every moment I spend with each human being that I treat. In a very real way, the spirit of life I discovered under the microscope that day became my muse. It allowed me to see not just the innate miracle of life but how precious is its expression in every person.
Through the inspiration of that moment I made the extraordinary discovery that every movement a patient makes, every word, every vocal inflection, offers clues that take us past the distractions of present symptoms, and closer not only to the essential source of each illness, but also to the source of the healing, powers that can bring wholeness and vibrant new health to each person.
Miracle of Healing
My microscopic muse always reminds me, gently but firmly, that my own health and wholeness are necessary if I am to successfully bring the miracle of healing to others. I bring all that I am to the healing relationship—my general health, my state of mind, and the beliefs and images I entertain concerning myself, my patient, and the nature of my role in this person's life. Always, there are questions to ask: What am I here for? What am I here to give? What am I here to receive? What is the real meaning of this relationship? Am I to be a purely objective observer? Should I be an active, caring participant? Should I feel my patient's pain or be numbed to it?
My microscopic muse constantly reminds me that everything I hold in my consciousness plays a valuable part in the healing relationship. This realization came like a bolt out of the blue—that the nature of my relationship with my patients is by far the most powerful aspect of healing, a rich reservoir of energy and guidance for the healing process! I came to see that the hand that gives the pill is more often a more potent healing force than the pill itself.
If it seems to you that I am putting an unusual amount of emphasis on the doctor-patient relationship, you are probably right. To my mind, the usual emphasis is not enough. Far too few physicians recognize and are committed to preserving the sacred nature of this relationship.
Whereas most of my medical school fellows dedicated themselves to the awesomely powerful external tools of medicine—drugs and surgery—my own sense of wonder was most nurtured by the deepening understanding of the healing powers we each have within us. Guided by my muse, by the science of medicine, by my mathematician's mind, and by whatever creative gifts I possess, I began to see how this emerging body of information could not only help millions to higher levels of health but could make the spark of life, of love, of joy, of beauty, burn ever more brightly. I had the delight of discovering that disease is not the only thing that is "catching;" healing, too, is infectious. As a person experiences deep healing in her life, her family members, her community, and her co-workers also begin to heal through the deeper, more honest, congruent, and authentic relationships they have with her.
Very early in my medical career I was lucky enough to be motivated by a dream, a vision that went far beyond self-interest, prestige, and financial gain. More and more, I was drawn to share my whole being in the service of people who sought me out. Hand in hand with my gifted teachers and trusting patients, my tiny muse continued to guide me toward a richer and fuller quality of relationship with my patients, a relationship that was mutually healing, a relationship of compassion, passionate integrity, and love.
Perhaps the reason for my seemingly extreme sensitivity to the importance of the doctor-patient relationship and the role of the healing power within each person, will become clearer as I share an experience I had early in my medical career. I believe this anecdote provides ample evidence for how dangerous it is for medicine to lose sight of the importance of the healing powers of the doctor-patient relationship and its impact on our own inborn healing capacities. You will see how my experiences, even as far back as medical school, provided compelling evidence that I would have to carve out a very different path than mainstream medicine offer me if I was going to honor my own truth and serve others to the best of my abilities. In time, it led to the concept of Deep Healing and the self-healing audio-visual programs I was to develop.
In the early 1990s a group of us from the teaching and helping professions formed the California Task Force on Self-Esteem and Personal and Social Responsibility. Our goal was to examine the possible role of self-concept in a variety of social ills. We were unaware of the hornets’ nest we would stir up.
The cover of Newsweek featured a disheveled dweeb admiring himself in a mirror, and the title of the cover story was "The Curse of Self-Esteem." Gary Trudeau devoted several weeks of his Doonesberry comic strip to lampooning the California Self-Esteem Task Force. Religious extremists opposed it en masse, and no less a deep thinking writer than Scott Peck hefted his pen against it.
Yet educators repeatedly identify self-esteem as a crucial predictor of a student's scholastic performance. In her book, Revolution From Within, Gloria Steinem placed a higher priority on winning her own self-esteem than she placed on her massive list of accomplishments in the social sphere. Criminals who have turned their lives around, drug addicts who have kicked their habit, and chronic disease sufferers who have healed themselves through the use of their mind and spirit all tell us that an increased sense of self-worth, and a fuller realization of their inner potential was crucial to their full recovery.
The battle over self-esteem still rages, with ardent supporters in both camps. What's going on here? Is self-esteem important, or is it not? And if it is important, is it good or bad?
Was it not Aristotle who said, "If you would discourse with me, first define your terms"? It is in this defining that I think most of the confusion about self-esteem has occurred.
Self-Esteem and Healing
By the early 1980s, it had become clear to me that regardless of the specific disease complex that my patients and clients consulted me about—whether primarily physical, emotional, behavioral, cognitive, or spiritual—there seemed to be a common factor that was central to determining the outcome. This key factor was the awakening of an inner healing power that lay dormant within.
I had long ago shifted my faith from technology to people. Usually my chief role was to help people get out of their own way. I began to refer to that which we were awakening as "self-esteem."
As we have discussed, just as the cells of our body can be considered as subordinate systems within our bodies, the society we live in is a kind of superordinate system. My appointment to the Self-Esteem Task Force, along with my illustrious colleagues, Jack Canfield and Virginia Satir, provided an extraordinary opportunity to explore the interface between the individual spirit and that of the larger cultural system. The theory we set out to test was this: If people have healthy self-esteem they tend to avoid drug addiction, welfare dependency, spousal and child abuse, teenage pregnancy, and criminal activity.
One of the more challenging tasks we encountered was the definition of the term self-esteem itself. We reviewed numerous sources, including scientific studies, public opinion, and the experience of individuals reported at public hearings. There seemed to be as many definitions as there were researchers in the field. One contribution we hoped to make was to find a standard that could serve for future studies. We found that all these definitions clustered around three basic themes:
"Ideal" models of self-esteem
Model #1—External Measure
The first model we looked at defined self-esteem in a comparative way. First, an "ideal" is chosen: a person (real or imagined) who is all and everything one should be. To the degree that one is living up to this model, he deserves to "feel good about himself" and "esteem" himself. This model is based upon comparing oneself to others.
This formulation did not describe the quality I had been seeking in my work, and failed to fit the goals of the Self-Esteem Task Force as well. One problem with it is that a person whose sense of well-being is dependent upon external criteria can be led into a very unhealthy situation. Theoretically, if we followed this model, we should experience self-esteem by virtue of having lived up to whatever role model we'd chosen—regardless of whether that model was a prostitute, a drug dealer, or a terrorist. Certainly, this was not my understanding of self-esteem since, in my practice over the years I had seen hundreds of people who'd achieved all the qualities of a favorite role model or hero yet who had a self-image that was very unhealthy and which gave them no joy or satisfaction.
The statement "I am good" is quite different from the statement, "I am better than..." My respect and confidence in myself must be completely independent of your skills, talents, looks, possessions, or powers or self esteem. Pride based upon how we measure up to others ("I'm smarter than Mary") is shaky, indeed, because it is based on our own perceptions, not of our own inner resources, talents, or other characteristics, but upon virtues displayed by other people. This formulation turns the winning of self-esteem into an activity that looks an awful lot like "keeping up with the Joneses."
Moreover, from time to time we all feel down, oppressed by the world, when we have fallen far short of the model we are striving for. If our self worth is dependent upon some outside standard of how well we are doing, that failure can rapidly produce a feeling of ø that can predispose us to disease and dysfunction. Healthy self-esteem should enable us to survive such challenges, and even thrive. Healthy self-esteem should be both protective and healing.
Model #2—The Self-Efficacy Model
The second formulation refers to an inner feeling of potency and empowerment. If I feel capable, if I experience a high level of self efficacy then I'm might be said to "esteem" myself.
We found a problem with this one too. After all, a drunken truck driver or a serial killer might feel a tremendous amount of self-efficacy. Self-esteem needs to be based on something deeper than the passions and emotions that flow through us every day.
Model #3—Self-Esteem and Self-Worth
The third definition of self-esteem is the one we finally chose as a good model to follow: Having a strong sense of self-worth, valuing oneself and having the confidence to translate this into responsible action.
Self-esteem is not simply the quality of awareness of yourself in relationship to the environment, but also refers to the ability, confidence and integrity to express your own truth. Habitual behaviors, emotional reactions, even physical health itself are all forms of your self-expression.
Cultural Resistance to Self-Esteem
I concluded that the resistance to the study of self-esteem comes from two main quarters. The first group was resisting a kind of "self-esteem" based on one of the rejected definitions. And I would agree with them that the notion of generously and uncritically rewarding children and adults without regard to the worth of their performance or their contribution to others deserves to be rejected.
The other main source of resistance comes from those who, consciously or unconsciously, fear that they will lose their own power if others learn to respect their true worth. Husbands who hold their abused wives virtual captives, white separatists who fear competition from disempowered blacks, self-aggrandizing corporate types and sweatshop owners—all these stand to lose something if people begin to hold themselves in high self-esteem. It is difficult to understand why anyone would fear what might happen if others enjoyed greater self-esteem, yet it seems to be a fear for a great many people in our culture. Clearly, increased self-esteem for everyone would mean better personal relations for everyone, building a sense of community where everyone would benefit.
The truth is that there are many whose self-image depends upon deluding and manipulating others. We know from history that such people will always resist ideas that awaken their prey from unconsciousness.
Awakening Self-Esteem in Children
Some well-meaning people are worried that "sugar-coating" responses to a child will lead to a "swelled head" and a "spoiled" child. Actually, there are certain periods in a child's life in which it is quite valuable and appropriate to give a child a wildly exaggerated reflection of his or herself. Mothers seem to know how to do this instinctively. For example, we have discussed how a parent's enthusiastic response to an infant's incoherent babbling can coax forth speech and language. Originally the babbling has no discernable meaning but because the parent acts as if there is a meaning, the child gradually begins to believe there is. Encouraged by his or her efforts to communicate, the infant persists and pretty soon their language is developing into more and more specific and accurate speech.
In a similar manner, when a child writes her first poem, there are two basic responses we might offer as parents or teachers. One is to treat this as a real work of art, to celebrate it, show it to people, and hang it in a special place on the bulletin board. Consider what would happen if we took the "critical, but honest" approach of pointing out that there are words that don't rhyme, that the grammar is not correct, that a few words are misspelled, and that no national publisher in their right minds would ever publish something like this.
The child with the first parents will gradually gain confidence in her ability to write poetry, will experience it as a positive activity. For the second, her first creative effort will have negative associations, since it gives the always-critical parents just one more way to put her down.
When children are given unconditional support for their early efforts to master their worlds, and they experience acceptance in their earliest years, they develop confidence in their ability to create, and they become more creative. As parents providing this kind of positive feedback and support, we have produced a virtuous circle. (the Inner Child Healing tape or CD provides guidance for parents and healing for those of us who lacked this kind of unconditional love and support)
Once this flow has been established, we can now begin to examine the creations with a more discerning eye, and help the child to greater success through continuous improvement. When this is achieved, the child welcomes this participation, since it increases his sense of joy and success. But never in this process is the child's self-worth brought into question. There's no concern with being a "bad boy," or feeling ashamed, or being compared with the little girl down the street who always gets A's.
The Origins of Low Self-Esteem
The most critical time for the development of healthy self-esteem is during the first few years of life. During those early years, our parents are our world. We uncritically accept the fantasies and beliefs that are acted out in our presence—especially their beliefs about who they think we are and what they think our purpose is for being here. It is on this basis that our first images of self, world, and relationship are formed.
Ideally, our caregivers are alert to our beauty and strengths and reflect them to us. In this way they provide a mirror in which we can see and begin to build upon, the truth of who we are. Often, however, we are denied such support. Sometimes parents must return to full-time work too quickly after their children are born. Sometimes parents separate and divorce. Sometimes there is severe dysfunction in the family or ambivalence about a new child. All this hampers the development of healthy self-esteem.
Next, as she matures, the child must cope with today's shattered world, where the support structure of the traditional family has vanished. Families are split apart, grandparents being sent off to nursing homes, aunts and uncles moving to other cities, siblings going off to schools or universities away from home.
Today's child must cope with today's "marketplace culture" as well, struggling with a society that values money and goods above people, in which people develop a shopping list approach to finding a mate, in which leaders are chosen through sound bites and commercials, in which the flow of energy is determined through economic rather than human considerations, where people are valued for what they have rather than what they are, where everything and everyone "has a price." Social and familial interaction has been replaced by the nightly gathering around the television set. And the purpose of TV? To deliver an audience to a sponsor!
In many ways, the aims of the advertising industry are exactly opposite our goals for developing self-respect and self-confidence. Advertising gains power (and earns its big bucks) through its ability to convince us, through expensive, mesmerizing, slick ads, to buy things that will never satisfy our real needs.
And what about our schools? Even if a child can relax in schools that are beginning to resemble armed camps, he has to deal with overcrowding and an approach that is best described as "The Vaccination Theory of Education"
"English is not history and history is not science and science is
not art and art is not music and art and music are minor subjects
and English history and science major subjects and a subject is
something you take and when you have taken it you have
had it and if you have had it you are immune and
need not take it again."
—Postman and Weingartner
How little there is in such an environment to keep us in touch with our inner beauty, intrinsic value and human potential! Is it a surprise to anyone that healthy self-esteem has even a slim chance of developing in this world?
If A Child
If a child lives with Criticism,
He learns to Condemn.
If a child lives with Hostility,
He learns to Fight.
If a child lives with Ridicule,
He learns to be Shy.
If a child lives with Shame,
He learns to feel Guilty.
If a child lives with Tolerance,
He learns to be Patient.
If a child lives with Encouragement,
He learns Confidence.
If a child lives with Praise,
He learns to Appreciate.
If a child lives with Fairness,
He learns Justice.
If a child lives with Security,
He learns to have Faith.
If a child lives with Approval,
He learns to Like Himself.
If a child lives with Acceptance and Friendship,
He learns to find Love in the World.
—Author Unknown
The truth of who you really are includes all your strengths. Your limitations, too, are an intrinsic part of you. Healthy self-esteem balances all these parts of you.
Little self and Big Self
To emphasize that we need to address the higher levels of the system I write Self with a capital letter to distinguish that we are talking about the deeper Self, not the superficial little self.
We all have a "self" and a "Self." The self is the shortsighted, greedy, egocentric part. This self thinks that more and bigger are always better. It is toward the little self that television commercials are so often directed. It is in the name of satisfying the little self that the drug addict steals. It's the little self that craves another drink or another cigarette.
With healthy Self-esteem, I am not simply valuing some part of me but something that is very central, essential, perhaps even sacred—my Self. You can take away my fancy car. You can take away my title. You can paralyze me so that I can no longer win a foot race. But if I have healthy Self-esteem, I have something you can never take from me. Victor Frankl is referring to this realm of being when he writes, "The last of the human freedoms is to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances."
Self-Esteem and Selfishness
In today's world, where our social inhibitions against greed, gluttony, pride and arrogance crumble daily, the concern that we do not find another way to condone selfishness is well-founded. The question of how healthy self-esteem affects interpersonal relationships and the society at large must be considered.
I believe that when we realize the true nature of the gift of the Self, we must simultaneously realize that every other human being also has a Self, whether or not they have learned to accept or express it. Just as my Self deserves respect from me, so your Self deserves the same respect and honor from you—and from me. If I cannot honor another's beauty, I cannot truly honor my own. When we fully understand the nature of our humanity, we cannot but become more loving and compassionate toward others.
The United States of America was the first nation ever founded on the basis of a principle that we are all created equal, with certain inalienable rights, and among these are the rights to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." To my way of thinking, this principle honors the Self that is within each human being. And, just as the word inalienable refers to our rights, I believe that each of us has the inalienable possibility of Self-acceptance, Self-respect, Self-confidence, and Self-esteem.
The Ultimate Goal of Deep Healing
Deep within each of us, at our essential core, is a divine "Knower," the Self that can heal, provide guidance for our life, and relieve inner conflict and distress. When we learn to nurture the true Self—not the superficial, greedy, egocentric, narcissistic self, but the deeper Self—we open the door to deep self-acceptance and self-healing, and the possibility of true spirituality.
As we have learned, our thoughts and images become biochemical and physical events in our bodies. When our thoughts, images, and behavior are congruent with this deeper sense of Self, we become more healthy and more vital through the resulting resonance and integrity.
This is the ultimate goal of deep healing: the attainment of integrity and congruence—within our inner thoughts and feelings, in relationship with others, and with the natural world. Self-esteem is the key that unlocks the inner resources that make possible such healings, and which inspire us to personal excellence.
To heal is to make whole, to clear the way for the deeper Self to integrate and attune all levels of the system, to nurture that Self, and to invite it to come forth and inspire our lives. The outcome is wholeness, joyful Self-expression, creativity, and rich rewarding relationships with others and the world.
The human spirit seeks meaning. Nothing outside you can have real meaning unless you have real meaning. The human being is the measure of all things. Without a sense of Self you search in vain for something that you hope will create in you the sense of wholeness and peace that, in truth, each of us must personally bring to life from within. Without healthy Self-esteem, you can only fail.
Be sensitive to signs of increased sense of Self-worth, the ability to be assertive, to take time to relax, to have pleasure, to set healthy boundaries. In addition, take the time to see how much more satisfying it is to live your life in this new, more conscious way. The experience of Self deepens, and Self-esteem grows. Now you are ready to begin again at step one, only this time you are more whole, more healed and you restart at a level that is deeper and more whole.
You may find the deeply relaxed state very useful in this step too. As you go into a deeply relaxed state, you will have a chance to experience all the emotions that have come up in relation to what you have done, and to finish processing any that need further work. In the relaxed state, you can look rationally and objectively at what has happened and give yourself wise counsel. Use relaxation to melt away unneeded feelings of guilt, anger, resentment, inflated pride or other reactions that are of no value to you.
The Personal Excellence program is the most complete experience of these concepts. In addition, I Am, I Can and Inner Child Healing are very effective ways to awaken your Self-esteem.
Psychoneuroimmunology:
Emotions and the Immune System
Reclaiming Your Inborn Healing Potential
A New Branch of Medical Science
A woman walked into a laboratory at the University of Arkansas claiming that she could control the reactivity of her immune system. A test was administered in which she was injected with antigens made from the bacteria that cause tuberculosis. Her body reacted to it in the normal manner; a large, swollen red lump appeared at the site of the injection.
The woman then placed herself in a deeply relaxed, meditative state. This time when they administered the tuberculosis antigens, she instructed her body not to respond. Much to the surprise of the investigators, there was no swelling or reddening of the infected area. The experiment was repeated several times, with the same results!
In the 1970s, a new branch of medical science appeared, launching the study of relationships between the mind (psyche), the nervous system (neuro), and the immune system (immuno). With a tongue-twister of a name, "psychoneuroimmunology," this new area of medical research gave scientific credibility to an observation that some physicians had been noting for centuries: that the immune system could indeed be profoundly affected by mental and emotional states such as self-image, beliefs, and expectations.
Much of this research has been extended by our newfound ability to detect and measure the activity of chemical messengers (called neurotransmitters). The nerves (neurons) within our bodies use these chemical messengers to communicate with each other and with various organs throughout our bodies.
While there have been many exciting medical breakthroughs in this area of research, progress has been slow. The tremendous cost of research, the complexity of the mind-body system, and strict ethical limitations on human experimentation have all contributed to this slowdown. Furthermore, it has not been easy getting financial backing for this research. We have to remember that most medical research in this country is financed by pharmaceutical companies, who are looking for new drugs they can produce and sell. Psychoneuroimmunology research is aimed at showing that the body is capable of producing its own healing substances. The bottom line is that stockholders of the companies that usually invest in medical research can't see how they can profit from such research and so will naturally put their developmental money into ventures where they can.
The upshot of this is that, in spite of great progress, we still do not have definitive, irrefutable, scientific evidence demonstrating conclusively that certain disease states can be affected by our thoughts and feelings. Until such studies are completed, the pure scientist must reserve opinion. Meanwhile, based on my clinical experience, I am convinced there are profoundly important connections between thoughts, feelings, and immune system activity.
While pure scientists and medical researchers must limit their efforts to those which attract the attention of stockholders in America's vast pharmaceutical industry, clinicians like myself may have a very different way of looking at what works or doesn't work out here in the trenches. For the clinician, who is constantly on the lookout for ways to get their patients well, and keep them that way, the questions are much more down to earth. For the clinician, the motto is more like, "If it works and does no harm, then make the very best of it that you can." Put another way, "If it walks like a duck and it talks like a duck, then treat it like a duck." In the end, if my patients get well, I'm going to assume it is a duck until I learn something different!
Warts and All
A hundred years ago, family physicians knew how to rid their young patients of their warts. On examining the child who showed up with this common viral infection of the skin, the doctor would pretend to be fascinated by the swollen, callused lump. He would then reach into his pocket and produce a shiny new quarter, which was a huge amount of money in those days. "I'll give you two bits for that wart," he would offer.
The child's interest in the quarter, combined with her faith in the doctor, somehow galvanized in the child's mind to produce a powerful reaction in her immune system. In a few days, the wart was gone and the happy youngster showed up at the doctor's office to collect her quarter. Though this was common practice up until fifty years ago, we still can't scientifically explain the result, or why it works.
Your immune system is responsible for the constant surveillance of your health. It is an amazingly complex system, able to detect the tiniest bits of foreign materials that might be a threat to your health, and in most cases isolate or destroy them immediately. In the case of an infectious agent, such as a virus, your immune system identifies specifically what kinds they are and then synthesizes substances to eliminate them or render them benign. As a result of stressors from either external or internal sources, however, your immune system can become overloaded and imbalanced, compromising its usual effectiveness. While the following explanation perhaps oversimplifies how and why the system malfunctions, it does provide us with a good picture of the process:
In many ways, the immune system is dependent on the central nervous system for its proper functioning. This is how your thoughts, feelings, and beliefs play a role in your immune functions. When you experience high levels of stress, for example, the immune system may be thrown out of balance.
When the immune system is out of balance, it does one of two things; it either underreacts or overreacts. If it fails to detect foreign invaders or doesn’t mount a strong enough defense against them, this is underreaction, and can lead to our getting repeated acute and chronic infections. This helps to explain why, when they are under severe stress, some people experience increased numbers of colds, yeast infections, flare-ups of herpes, some kinds of sinus infections, or other chronic conditions caused by microorganisms. Which organs become involved under these circumstances depends on a variety of factors, such as: genetics, nutrition, exposure to microorganisms, drugs, or chemicals, and prior injury or infection.
On the other hand, an overreaction of the immune system can lead to the development of allergic reactions. It is important to understand that an allergic reaction occurs when our immune systems react to substances that are not an actual threat to our health. For example, while grass pollen is not a threat for most healthy people, it can trigger the release of histamines in people who have an allergic reaction to it. Histamines are produced by the immune system as a way of walling off and isolating areas of the body that have been attacked by infectious microorganisms. In the case of an allergic reaction, the histamines produce the swelling in our nasal cavities, for example, that we experience as "stuffy nose."
When the immune system underreacts to internally generated factors, it fails to rid the body of abnormal cells and cellular waste. The body produces numerous abnormal cells everyday. Some of these are just the flotsam and jetsam of cells that have died of natural causes. Some are cells infected with viruses. Some are mutant cells that function ineffectively, or that could become cancer cells if allowed to multiply. The immune cells are ordinarily capable of identifying and destroying them. When the immune system fails to identify or destroy such abnormal cells, for instance, this underreaction to internal events may lead to the growth of unhealthy cells and cause serious disease. An overreaction of the immune system to the internal environment might produce what we call an "autoimmune" disease, such as rheumatoid arthritis, or lupus erythematosus. A chief characteristic of most autoimmune diseases is that antibodies are produced which attack normally healthy cells. It's a little like "friendly fire" in wartime, where we accidentally kill or wound our fellow warriors. Often our "friendly fire" antibodies aim their attacks against specific cells—the cells lining the joints, the cells of the kidneys, or those that make up the blood vessels. Again, there are usually a variety of factors that can determine which organs of the body are targets of this self-attack.
Healing the Immune System
Some intriguing questions still to be answered in the field of psychoneuroimmunology are:
- Can an individual's inability to process emotions have an impact on our immune system that ultimately results in disease?
- Learned helplessness seems to predispose us to many diseases. Since anger is in many ways an antidote to helplessness for some people, could the inability to express anger appropriately be at the root of many immune dysfunctions?
For instance, could the presence of self-anger trigger the immune system's "friendly fire" in a person who was genetically predisposed? Or could unexpressed anger toward others trigger an allergy, that is, cause our immune systems to somehow start identifying a healthy cell as an unhealthy one? Could the inability to develop even the subtlest awareness of anger—denying that harmful agents do exist in the world—leave our bodies open to invasion from the outside (infection), or from the inside (cancer)? My clinical experience, as well as research in the field of psychoneuroimmunolgy leads us to some very interesting possibilities.
The following Programs are designed to help you enlist your immune system in the service of your healing. (and they make excellent gifts).
ImmunoImagery
Self Healing Comprehensive Program
Healing Journey
The Magic of Mental Imagery: Rewriting Your Own Life Script
The Mother of All Decisions
The human nervous system, which includes the central nervous system, (the brain and spinal cord), and the peripheral nervous system, (the nerves that go out to our fingers, toes, muscles, and organs), must make an enormous number of decisions each day. Sometimes these are lower-level decisions, such as whether to tense certain leg muscles as to climb a flight of stairs, or to quickly withdraw our hand from a hot stove. Sometimes decisions must be made at a higher level of the system, such as whether or not to buy a new car, propose marriage, or take a job in another country.
Finally, however, all these decisions must be based upon three essential factors:
- Your Self Image: The image you hold of yourself; your strength, skill, physical health, personal values, attractiveness, talents, etc.
- Your Worldview: The image you hold of the world around you; whether it is day or night, whether you are in a safe or an unsafe location, whether you are with a friend or a foe.
- Your Inner Map: The map of relationship; where you stand in relationship to the external world; your picture of your environment; what response patterns are available to you; what interaction is taking place in the present.
You were not born with these inner models, maps, and mental structures in their completed form. They took shape through the many experiences of your life. Just as the character of the Grand Canyon is the result of interactions between the forces of nature and the underlying rock strata, the interactions between nature (genetics) and nurture (learnings from your family of origin and your environment), have given rise to these beliefs.
A petite woman in her fiftieth year and a seven-foot professional basketball player in his mid-twenties will have self-images that vastly differ, due to their different genetic heritages. The basketball player might think of himself as someone who enjoys parades, since he can always see over the heads of others. And certainly being in a crowd poses no great risk to his physical well-being since people will avoid pushing around such an imposing figure, and he would suffer little harm if they did. Meanwhile the petite woman might perceive crowds as dangerous to her physical well-being because she might be jostled about and injured. Moreover, if she's going to be able to enjoy the parade at all she'll have to be in the front row.
On the other hand, part of their self-image is determined by their upbringing; either may feel ashamed of his or her atypical height. For example, the petite young woman may have grown up around brothers and sisters of average height who made fun of her for being so small. At the other end of the scale, she might have been raised by a mother who thought there was nothing better in the world than having a petite figure. I can attest to the fact that being tall isn't always the asset one might imagine it to be. Because I had nearly reached my adult height of 6'4" in junior high school, I suffered greatly from the teasing of my classmates, who called me names such as—stretch, string-bean, and freak. Later, as a basketball player and high jumper, I was quite happy to tower over my peers. So the nurturing I received had both its upside and its downside, both of which I incorporated into my self-image.
Similarly, our worldview may differ because of our genetic endowment. As an obvious example, a colorblind person sees a very different world from the normally sighted person. Life experiences have a great impact on self-image. For example, a child who was abused by a drunken father may see all men as potentially dangerous, while a person raised by loving parents might grow up to be too trusting of everyone she or he meets.
The inner map by which we define our relationship to our environment may have both genetic and learned components. For example, an attractive woman may feel competent about gaining the attention of young men. The learned components can also help us develop a sense of personal competence. For example, I may feel competent to give a lecture, or ride a surfboard because of the training and experience I have developed in those areas.
In any given situation, our beliefs may or may not provide us with realistic and accurate appraisals of what is actually true. Clearly, choices based on unrealistic assumptions (e.g., it's safe to walk the city streets at night), may lead to unwanted consequences. Next, we will explore how mechanisms within us, some of them inborn, some learned, may trigger reactions to life challenges that ultimately produce imbalance and disease. We will also examine how these may be rebalanced and healed.
Freeing Yourself From the Tyranny of the Past
It is not always easy to write a new script for yourself. Behaviors you have become accustomed to over a long period of time begin to feel natural. Then it becomes hard to think of any other way of doing things, even to imagine any other way of doing things. You tend to get to a place of shrugging your shoulders and saying, "What can I do?" or "I guess that's just how I am."
Clasping Hands
Clasp your hands, interlacing the fingers of one with the other. Notice that you do this in a certain way, with either the right or left thumb on top.
Now separate your hands and clasp them so that the opposite thumb is on top. Notice that this way of lacing your fingers is the mirror image of the other. However, though it looks almost exactly the same, the feeling is very different. It turns out that whenever you clasp your hands on all the thousands of occasions you have done this in the past, you've probably always done it in the same way.
All that we are, nearly everything that we do, and generally our ability to enjoy life, is based upon our past experiences. That we have learned to eat, to dance, to write, to sing — all these were learned in what we call the past. Still, how often do we recognize that others or we are, in subtle or enormous ways, somehow stuck in the past?
Except for those rare occasions when we are confronted with actual physical threats, or when we have done something to cause real pain to another person, the paralyzing emotions of guilt, fear, and shame that we experience have their roots more in the past than in the present. Similarly, the ineffective, regrettable, or even hurtful behaviors we apply in our relationships, the poor personal habits, and a huge number of our physical diseases, also have their roots in past learnings that we haven't yet unlearned.
On the other hand, the past no longer exists. The truth of the matter is that it is totally gone and the only thing that remains of it are our memories—patterns of neurochemicals painted on the membranes of our cortical cells (cells in the brain). There's an old saying that is particularly applicable here: "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always gotten."
Just as we have become accustomed to clasping our hands in a certain way, our everyday behaviors have become so automatic they seem "natural" to us. Even if the way we're doing something is causing us pain, doing it any other way can seem unnatural. Most of us never consider clasping our hands a different way. And most of us never really consider the enormous number of options available to us in terms of choosing new behavior. Most of us have no idea how many things in our lives would be affected if we could only change our patterns of thinking.
Before any change can take place, however, we first have to be aware that it is possible to change. Next we must have the intelligence and the experience to recognize the wisdom of making changes. Third, we must discover tools that can help us accomplish our chosen changes. Finally, we must apply those tools and follow up.
I often tell my clients, "The past is history, the future a mystery. Right now is a gift. That's why it's called the present." There is only this moment, and in this moment, we can examine what of the past has been recorded in our brain cells. We can examine what our memory believes happened, what responses we tried, which ones worked and which ones failed. Most importantly, if we do this while in a relaxed state, we can see that there are more effective ways of dealing with such situations. Then we can write new scripts for ourselves, practice these new approaches to life through mental imagery, and finally project them forward into the future. Writing Your Own Script is an excellent program for learning how to do this, and it fits well with the instructions in Deep Healing. Other examples are Imagine Yourself Slim and Personal Excellence.
Using a Reference Memory
If I am about to go to an important interview whose outcome will affect me in a crucial way, I will have a tendency to feel frightened. My heart beats faster, my palms sweat, and I get butterflies in my stomach. It is understandable that one would feel this way, but this state of affairs is not very useful. I want to be at my best during the interview, but I seldom perform at my best in this state. I then think to myself:
This is merely a fight or flight reaction left over from caveman days. My nervous system believes that I am in physical danger and the chemicals in my body are preparing me for reflexive, attack and defense behavior. There is no need for this kind of response right now—in fact such as response would impair my ability to accomplish what I am here to accomplish. The truth is that my body is completely safe."
I then bring to mind an image of tranquility and I immerse myself in it. Within a few moments my body is much more relaxed. I look in my mental filing cabinet and ask what qualities would be most appropriate and comfortable in this situation. What emotional state would facilitate the most appropriate mental, physical, and emotional responses? Perhaps I will recall the following:
It is 1970 and I am walking down the corridor of the old hospital at Fort Ord, California. Walking next to me is the colonel from the Washington. He is impressed with my research.
Now he is shaking my hand and telling me how important he and the Surgeon General feel my work is, and how much they respect my thinking and creativity. The use of non-physicians to do some of the less technical work frees the doctors to do what they are uniquely qualified to do. This, he tells me, is a harbinger of the future. I feel acknowledged and appreciated. I realize that my work and my thoughts are important, even if nobody else seems to understand at the moment.
As I hold this image in mind, feeling the strength of his handshake, the chemical smell of the hospital corridor comes back to me. A surge of self-respect, integrity, wholeness, and gratitude flow through me. As the physical sensations and emotions shift in my body, this tells me I have altered my internal chemical and physiological state. It will take my body some time to metabolize these chemicals. While they are present, I continue to be in this different psychophysiological state.
I am now free to return my awareness to my physical surroundings and to picture myself walking into the upcoming interview. This time I walk in with the clear knowledge that I am worthwhile, competent, qualified, and completely deserving of what I am to gain from this meeting. The Ten Minute Stress Manager and Optimal Performance programs teach these skills.
These emotions, and their accompanying physiological state—one that includes the muscles, the creative centers, the ability to focus my energy—comprise an internal chemical and physiological context which tends to evoke the kinds of behavior that I would like during the interview. They enhance my ability to concentrate, to respond to questions, to speak intelligently, and "to put my best foot forward"– in other words, to bring forth Peak Performance.
In terms familiar to students of classical conditioning, this is providing many of the physiological elements of the original stimulus complex. The remaining elements (namely successful behavior in the interview) are supplied by the central nervous system. Mind-Body Medicine uses this phenomenon to its fullest extent in creating deep healing.
How to Create and Use Reference Memories
Our goal is to be able to pause, relax at will, and clear the mind and body of all noise, all "inner chatter." Next, we want to be able to choose the state of consciousness we wish to be in. We want to choose the state that will give rise to feelings and behaviors that are most consistent with the goals toward which we are presently working. Shifting to a different state of consciousness involves bringing into our minds a certain image that represents a positive and powerful emotional state. This image may involve one or more sensory channels; it may be visual, auditory, or kinesthetic (touch or movement), or a combination of these.
In our culture, we are usually taught that we are pretty much helpless when it comes to feelings. Consider, for example, the phrase "falling in love," with its connotations of being a passive member, or even a victim. The message is that we are not in command of our senses. While that may be an appealing notion for some, it has the effect of encouraging us to disavow any responsibility in the matter. When we combine the notion of helplessness before our feelings, with inadequate training in experiencing our emotions, the prospect of selecting one particular emotional quality and intentionally "turning it on" may seem like a large undertaking indeed. But that's exactly the challenge you're about to take on.
Back to Metaphors Again
Recall that emotions are simply internal behaviors at the deeper levels of our minds, in response to what we "think" is going on in the world. What those deeper levels think is going on is a function of the chemical state of the cortex. And, finally, these chemicals are the result of the images we are holding in our minds.
Because we have a way to select the image (Selective Awareness) we hold, we have in our possession the power to choose one that generates the kinds of inner chemistry that we wish. So, to feel a particular kind of emotion, be it calm and receptive, excited and enthusiastic, or powerful and assertive, we simply need to create a mental image that evokes such feelings and then hold it clearly in mind. Reference memories are invaluable tools for accomplishing this.
We have explored how the nature of our behaviors, including our thoughts, emotions, habits, relationships, and beliefs, depend to a large degree on our state of consciousness. We have discussed how our state of consciousness depends in great measure upon the quality of emotion with which it is associated at any given time. If we are holding an image of failure and victimization in our minds, chances are that this is the way we will experience ourselves and the world around us.
For ease of understanding, we have divided the emotions into five major groups: mad, sad, glad, scared, and disgusted. We've shown how these states of consciousness are associated with their emotions through learning. This learning may be intentional or unintentional, consciously chosen or unconsciously adopted. We have also talked about how various states of consciousness, such as deep relaxation, can be evoked, either unintentionally, by events in our environment, or intentionally through the conscious use of imagery. Next, we will explore how to develop emotional richness for maintaining high levels of health and wellness and for achieving personal excellence.
The Healing Image: Going Inside
Deep healing depends not just on deep relaxation but also on consciously holding within your mind images of ideal health for every part of our body. One way to do this is to imagine that you can go within your body. You may want to consult a physiology book that has clear pictures to help you with this.
Imagine traveling within your body, or having x-ray vision that allows you to see any areas of your body that you wish to heal.
Now envision the natural healing forces of your body in any way that they appear to you. For example, you might have images of anatomically correct immune cells, or you might get good results by imagining a posse on white horses charging in to surround and annihilate a viral or bacterial infection, or perhaps a cancer. Some people imagine dozens of super heroes swooping down to knock out offending cells or microorganisms. The important thing is to choose an image that works for you, that really strikes a chord with you.
Once you have your healing images in mind, and feel good about them, visualize your healing forces bringing about the transformation to health that is needed by your body at this time. The following imagery, excerpted from Healing Journey, is an excellent example of how your inner resources can be mobilized through imagery.
To use this imagery, first go into a deeply relaxed state, as you have done in previous exercises. Then visualize the healing process as follows. Note that in the following I call the image that symbolizes the healing force you have chosen, the "Inner Healer."
. . . Your Inner Healer may be white blood cells, an army of doctors and nurses, knights on white horses, a glowing mist of healing energy, or whatever other image works best for you.
See your inner healer in your mind's eye. Sense it in any way you can . . . and now imagine it at work removing whatever impediment to your health that you have imagined.
Watch the process you have imagined as if you were watching a movie or a television program . . . watch, hear, experience this healing . . . this cleansing process. And as you see it, know that your body is bringing about a physical healing in the area that needs this healing.
With each breath, your body is sending more healing energy to the area you are imagining. Discomfort drains from your body through your relaxed fingers and toes . . . and the color . . . the music . . . the healing chemicals produced by your body . . . flow from your chest and other areas with each breath . . . flowing smoothly, powerfully, gently, and lovingly, whenever they are needed . . . you feel the healing occurring right now.
Perhaps you can sense, deep within, a feeling of relief as you realize that the healing process is speeding up within your body . . . you watch the healing being completed . . . like a movie . . . like a flow blossoming from a bud to full bloom . . .
You see your inner healer finish this marvelous healing work . . . and you see the healthy image of this part of your body coming to light, vibrant, vitally healthy.
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