|
Much of the controversy in the field of mind/body healing can be attributed to the
way terms are defined. Mind and consciousness are fundamentally non-scientific words
and yet mind/body scientists and practitioners still must employ them to describe
their results and their work. Any definition will carry an element of the subjective
posture of the one giving the definition. The definitions of these words express
theoretical constructs that guide research and clinical practice.
Mind, Consciousness and the Brain
Because it is clear that our individual and collective being has a sense of direction
and organization, that the healthy human develops to maturity and learns predictable
social patterns of behavior across the lifespan, my definition of Mind is: the "organ"
of that organization, integration and direction across the lifespan, together with
the "quality" that makes such awareness, development, organization and coordination
possible. Mind is aggregate Consciousness. Awareness, or consciousness, is the capacity
to perceive activity and respond to it. Every one of our fifty trillion cells has
consciousness, as do the atoms and subatomic particles of which they are composed.
Consciousness expresses itself in energy but is less measurable. The brain is not
the mind. The brain receives and transmits mind energies, and so does the heart.
Neither is the source of Mind: Mind is a non-local quality shared by all of life.
Conscious Mind and Subconscious Mind
The conscious mind directs our self-conscious intentional behavior, yet most of
the functions of Mind are far too complex and subtle for the conscious mind to comprehend
or direct. Among its subtler tasks Mind originates, organizes, coordinates and directs
the activities of growth and development, wound healing, central nervous system
activity, memory, and gene expression. The aspect of Mind that can accomplish these
latter skills is the subconscious mind. It accomplishes them by virtue of its own
nature, automatically, by means of native and acquired habit patterns. Though these
subtle activities are demonstrably both directed and ordered, they can neither be
directed nor ordered by conscious intention. The conscious mind can influence these
activities-intentionally (via guided imagery or hypnosis) or unintentionally (via
patterns of negative thinking)-but it cannot assume responsibility for them. Conscious
and subconscious mind are a unified and coordinated whole. "Sub"-conscious simply
refers to aspects of consciousness that are "below" self-conscious focused awareness
of them, even while they remain "in" our personal consciousness (or we in them!).
Placebo Effect and Healing
Bruce Lipton (2008, p. 108) (1) writes: "…Some historians make a strong case that
the history of medicine is largely the history of the placebo effect." While acknowledging
that most research attributes around thirty percent of all medical results to the
placebo effect, Dr. Lipton thinks that the placebo effect (i.e. belief in self-healing)
is far more effective than even that. He cites a 2002 University of Connecticut
study in which "Eighty Percent of the effect of antidepressants, as measured in
clinical trials, could be attributed to the placebo effect." (Lipton op. cit., p.
110) (2). Dr. Lipton also writes that the effect of negative beliefs (what he calls
the "nocebo" effect) is just as effective: "When the mind changes, it absolutely
affects your biology" (Lipton op. cit., p. 111) (3).
The power of thoughts and beliefs cannot seriously be doubted, but are there limits?
Tim Brunson, Ph.D. writes: "If approximately 30% of interventions work only due
to expectancy, then why doesn't the ‘art of the placebo' take a preeminent role
in the healing professions?... if the medical profession uses the 30% placebo threshold
to establish the efficacy of pharmacotherapy as a meaningful alternative, how does
this account for the frequent publication of scientific research in which hypnotherapy
produces symptom reduction or accelerates healing in over 80% of the patients in
treatment groups?" (Brunson, 2009) (4). Eighty percent isn't very far away from
a hundred percent if you consider that all healing modalities are at least as much
art as science, and maybe they are all art.
Hypnosis, the Placebo Effect and Self-Healing
Hypnosis is the intentional activation of the placebo effect. It is the art of getting
the client to heal himself: it is self-healing. How does it work? Regardless of
the explanation given by the practitioner, apparently the neurological action of
hypnosis is the inhibition of the activity of the brain's left prefrontal cortex
and the consequent activation of the right prefrontal cortex (Brunson, 2009) (5).
Inhibition of the left prefrontal cortex distracts the conservative "critical faculty"
of mind that usually guards against novel/threatening input and it activates the
imagination. In imagination anything is possible, which suggests that anything you
can imagine is possible-including a hundred percent healing results-if you believe
it is. After all, every cell in your body contains your complete genetic blueprint
and gene expression springs from the internal environment produced by your thoughts
and beliefs.
Subconscious Mind, Healing and Habits
So then how is all this healing carried out? If the history of medicine/healing
is the history of learning to employ the placebo effect, then our healing experiences
follow along the lines of our beliefs about what can heal us-and even about whether
or not we can be healed. People who are expected to die don't and people who aren't
expected to die do, all because of what they thought their doctor expected them
to do (Siegel, 2001) (6). The pivotal understanding in mind/body healing is that
you must actually believe enough in the possibility of healing to tell yourself
so with conviction. You must either bypass your conservative "critical faculty"
by tripping up the left prefrontal cortex or find another way to allay your fears
of change such that your right prefrontal cortex will paint the necessary healing
picture. Your mind will communicate the imagined outcome and then your body will
manifest it in conformance with your thinking. And how is all this carried out?
By the subconscious mind.
In the first place, none of this healing activity could be carried out at all were
it not for the mind. The conscious mind construes and projects the creative healing
images, feelings, sensations and so on and then the subconscious mind, by force
of habit, performs the neurobiocellular "miracle" of physical healing. It is Mind
that construes both the sickness and the health. Most of the illness thinking goes
on at the subconscious level, where it is often symbolic or metaphorical. Few people
intentionally become ill. The idea is to get your mind pointed in the right direction,
toward good habits of mind.
It is the subconscious mind that carries along all of our habits of mind, including
those that contain beliefs about our health (see about Force of Habit in the IHRI
newsletter, 2009) (7) [Journal Article one and two]. These are the habits
that the left prefrontal cortex holds onto so tightly that it has to be out knocked
off its feet before it will get out of the way long enough for something creative
to happen. The subconscious mind can be educated to the value of new habits once
fear is removed from the picture. As to carrying out all of the cell biology involved
in healing even a simple wound (let alone arthritic conditions), only the subconscious
mind is capable of directing that kind of activity.
References:
(1) Bruce H. Lipton, Ph.D. (2008). The Biology of Belief. New York: Hay House.
108.
(2) Lipton, op. cit. page 110.
(3) Lipton, op. cit. page 111.
(4) Tim Brunson, Ph.D. (2009). Healing Beyond the Placebo Effect. In the International
Hypnosis Research Institute newsletter, 10-26-09.
(5) Tim Brunson, Ph.D. (2009). The Implications of Inhibition on the Practice
of Hypnotherapy. In the International Hypnosis Research Institute newsletter, 9-7-09.
(6) Bernie Siegel, M.D. (2001). Peace, Love and Healing. New York: HarperCollins.
(7) David Kohlhagen, LPC, NBCCH (2009) Hypnosis and Force of Habit. In the International
Hypnosis Research Institute newsletter, 8-3-09: http://www.hypnosisresearchInstitute.org/index.cfm/2009/8/3/Hypnosis-and-Force-of-Habit#more
. and David Kohlhagen, LPC, NBCCH (2009) Defining Terms: The Theory of Force of
Habit. In the International Hypnosis Research Institute newsletter, 8-31-09: http://www.hypnosisresearchInstitute.org/index.cfm/2009/8/26/Defining-Terms-The-Theory-of-Force-of-Habit#more
.
Published by 11-23-09 the International Hypnosis Research Institute
 | THINK RESPONSIBLY! |
|