Hypnosis, Hypnotherapy, and the Human Biocomputer
(ARTICLE FOR “ABOUT DR. MILLER”
As a young medical student in the 1960s, I came to find aspects of the study of medicine rather perplexing. While I enjoyed learning about the human mind and body, I was simultaneously surprised and disturbed at the lack of attention given to patients’ emotions during their medical treatments. I was also shocked at the inattention to human beings’ innate ability to heal themselves, something I had observed over and over: physical symptoms faded away when people overcame their fear, grief, or anger.
I began to see the similarities between the functioning of the human brain and that of the digital computers I had learned to program when earning my first degree in Mathematics, back in 1962. Just like a computer, humans can learn algorithms–sets of rules for attempting to solve problems–that lead them to engage in faulty and destructive behavior patterns. This is especially true, in the case of humans, of patterns formed in response to traumatic events.
When a computer’s algorithms are not returning the results we want, we rewrite the algorithms so that the computer does what we need it to do. So why shouldn’t we also be able to focus the power of our minds to transform negative patterns and unlock our true potential for healing and growth? Seems logical enough, but how to overcome the barrier between the subconscious “monkey mind” and the higher levels of the mindin the prefrontal cortex. In seeking the answer to that question, I came to discover and develop of what I call Mind-Tools.
In 1970, soon after I entered the private practice of medicine, I met two physicians, Clarence Van Horne and Peter Mutke, who had been using clinical hypnosis to achieve what to me seemed remarkable feats of mind-body communication. By guiding their patients to think in specific ways, they were able to relieve headaches, perform surgery without anesthesia, and even control bleeding during surgery. They directed me to the American Medical Association Council on Mental Health report on their study of the use of hypnosis in medical care. In a JAMA article on the same study, they recommended that medical students receive 144 hours of hypnosis training because of its effectiveness in relieving pain, anxiety, headaches, and various skin ailments; and helping with weight loss and smoking cessation.
I was blown away. The study had been performed in 1961, two years before I entered medical school, yet in all of my training no one had even mentioned hypnosis or hypnotherapy, much less providing 144 hours of instruction! I had to learn more. As luck would have it, Dr. Mutke, who was one of the West Coast’s best-known hypnotherapists, was practicing in Carmel, California, very near Fort Ord, where I had been stationed as a captain in the Army Medical Corps. I reached out to him, and soon I was working in his practice, learning his remarkable techniques and practicing them with patients. In my work with Dr. Mutke, I began to realize there was a way to use hypnosis to actually treat the source of illness, not just the symptoms. This was the breakthrough moment–I had found my Mind-Tools!
By giving patients mental exercises, I could decondition their negative emotional reactions, heal existing illnesses, and even create new positive responses to triggers that previously caused panic, confusion, or anger.
As fate would have it, this was just around the time when audiocassettes were coming on the market. With this new technology, I could design unique hypnotic inductions and mental imagery for each patient and give them a cassette recording to listen to two or three times a day. Whereas reprogramming a computer is as simple as rewriting the computer code, for humans the new message(s) must be received many times. The cassettes made it easy for people to practice often and effortlessly. Repeatedly being exposed to the desired mental image in the deeply relaxed state made the change happen even more quickly and more permanently.
Through these new pocket-sized cassettes I was now able to spread the word of this incredible mind-body tool to forward-thinking professionals around the country. The recordings focused on relieving patient stress and the illnesses it promotes, changing behavior patterns, and awakening wisdom and spiritual awareness.
Through my own practice, I developed Selective Awareness Exploration, a powerful age-regression technique for tracing the source of people’s physical, mental, emotional, and habit disorders. Then, after listening to guided imagery to provide a more appropriate response to the usual triggers, they merely needed to listen to the recording daily. In a while, sometimes only a few days, the negative emotions and harmful behavioral patterns they were leading to would be deconditioned and overwritten The results were nothing short of stunning!
In 1972, I published my first book, Selective Awareness, The New Science of Mind-Body Medicine, {Link to Selective awareness book in catalog} sharing the details of this revolutionary process and the Mind-Tools I had discovered. Soon I published the world’s first series of audiocassettes featuring deep relaxation and guided imagery for self-healing, peak performance, and personal transformation. In the decades since then, I have spoken and taught at numerous colleges and medical schools, and have continued to treat individuals and families in my private practice, testing many different approaches and techniques. As I discovered ways to effectively treat ever more illnesses of mind, body, emotion, spirit, and behavior, I created audio and video tools that could present the new material to people worldwide.
In 1997 I wrote Deep Healing – The Essence of Mind-Body Medicine {Link to Essence book in catalog}, incorporating many of the ideas and techniques I had learned in my 30 years of studying and practicing with these extraordinary mind tools. I have since learned and developed even more ways to integrate my original theories with those of neuroplasticity, cognitive behavior therapy, and psychoneuroimmunology. The many tools I have developed incorporate all of these in a form that allows listeners to practice Self-Healing, or use them in conjunction with other approaches to health care.
Are you ready to unlock the power of your mind? Then it’s time to experience how effective these Mind-Tools can be for you.
{Insert sample to listen to
and additional readings.
See the entire catalog of Mind-Tools. LINK