January 2021 - Western Pa Hypnosis LLC

Hypnosis vs Medicine (2)

hypnosis vs medicine

In this “Hypnosis vs Medicine” post I want to talk about the philosophical differences between the practice of hypnosis, and modern Western medicine. Are they totally at odds with each other, or is there potentially some common ground between them? Let’s have a look.

Mainstream Western medicine views diseases and their causes as being purely physical. This is why they attempt to treat them with physical tools like pills, chemicals and surgery. The question is, where did they get the idea that everything has a physical basis? This mindset goes back hundreds of years. Prior to the mid-1600’s, the Catholic church in western Europe played a significant role in virtually all aspects of society. It dictated what people were to believe and do. To the church, the human body was considered sacred – just like the non-physical “soul”. This belief made it nearly impossible for doctors and researchers to learn anything new about how the body works.

People studying medicine wanted to dissect cadavers to learn more about human anatomy, but they had to do it secretly because the church considered the human body to be sacred. If a doctor got caught tinkering with a body, the penalty for doing so was death!

A NEW VIEWPOINT IS BORN

Then, in 1637 French-born philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, Rene Descartes came up with the insight of “Cogito – ergo sum”, which means “I think, therefore I am”. Or to paraphrase, “The fact that I have thoughts, proves that I exist. These thoughts are not physical, yet they, and therefore I… exist”. In essence, this awareness separated the mental/spiritual from the physical. With this insight, a new view of reality was born. Thoughts and consciousness are real, they exist… but they’re not physical. After much debate, the church finally conceded to this new way of seeing things. They ultimately concluded that the body was not sacred, and therefore could be studied.

hypnosis vs medicine: the big split

This agreement led to a split between religion & science. Ultimately, a working agreement evolved between the church & science wherein the church would focus on all things spiritual, and science would focus on all things physical. The notion that all things are physical was also supported by the work of Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727). This mindset is still the dominant operating philosophy behind modern Western medicine. They maintain that a physical problem has a physical cause, and must therefore be treated with a physical solution. Their pendulum of “body vs mind” has swung totally to the physical side. This belief was reaffirmed as recently as 1985. That year, the New England Journal of Medicine said: “It’s time to acknowledge that our belief in disease as a direct reflection of mental state is largely folklore.”

From a hypnotherapy perspective, nothing could be further from the truth. The Greek philosopher Plato (300 B.C.) said; “If you want to heal your body, you must first heal your mind.” This is in total agreement with Mind-Body Medicine and Hypnotherapy today. The non-physical “mind” is not the brain or the body, but it exists in every cell in the brain and body. It is aware of, and in constant communication with every cell in the body. It knows our thoughts, feelings, perceptions and beliefs. Fact is, it actually knows us better than we know ourselves, and is constantly striving to help us achieve mental, physical & spiritual balance.

mind-body medicine

This new Mind-Body Medicine has been named “Epigenetics”, which literally means “over genetics”. It’s even more fundamental than our genes. Epigenitics is slowly gaining ground with mainstream Western medicine, but it still has a long way to go. Wealthy and politically-connected drug companies are fighting to force their old, outdated claims on society… and for good reason. If people realize that they can heal their bodies by using their minds the right way, many popular drugs will become obsolete!

The most influential field of research that is doing more to bring Epigenetics into the mainstream, is Quantum Physics. Quantum Physics is forcing the established medical world to open their minds to a new paradigm. That which has been believed to be physical for centuries, is in fact turning out to be non-physical. In quantum physics, everything is energy. I repeat: Everything is made of energy. Albert Einstein said, “Everything is energy and that’s all there is to it. This is not philosophy, this is physics.” So it turns out that the non-physical, also known as the “spiritual”, and the “physical”, are made of the same stuff… energy. This is as “holistic” as it gets!

hypnosis and epigenetics

So, what does hypnosis have to do with any of this? Actually, quite a lot! Hypnosis is recommended in Epigenetics to influence bodily functions through altering how we think, what we believe, and changing our perspectives. Thoughts, beliefs and perspectives are real things, and they affect our “physical” bodies. It is energy affecting energy. For example, if you think about a bad memory, it can make you feel bad physically. If you believe that you are the “sickly type”, you will develop ways to be sick. If your perspective on life is that it isn’t “fair” and nothing ever goes your way, you’ll feel angry and depressed. Sooner or later, this negative thinking will be reflected in your physiology in the form of dis-ease. Thoughts have consequences!

Notice how each of the examples above leads to a feeling. Feelings affect our entire biology from head to toe… every cell! The thing is, they’re so subtle that we rarely notice them. Your whole body responds to every feeling, good or bad. Behind every feeling, is a thought, belief, and/or perspective. Hypnosis is great for bringing them to our conscious awareness so we can shift them in a positive way. A shift in thoughts, beliefs, and perspectives can change a person’s life. Let me give you some real-life examples of how this works. I’ll present an example from each of my specialties, beginning with Anxiety.

Hypnosis vs Medicine for Anxiety, Chronic Pain, and Trauma/PTSD

Anxiety is defined as “A state of apprehension, uncertainty, and fear resulting from the anticipation of a realistic or fantasized threatening event or situation, often impairing physical and psychological functioning”. As you can see, anxiety is mainly about the future; it’s a fear of something that may or may not happen. One of the best descriptions I’ve run across for anxiety is; “Anxiety is caused by thinking we can control the universe.”

This is so true! It is possibly the most important thing I help my anxiety clients to realize. In the big picture of life, there are many things that we have no control over. The best we can do, is to do our best to prepare for what might happen, and be flexible enough to accept and deal with what actually does happen. We can do our best to prepare for the future, but it will be what it will be, regardless of our best efforts to control it.

chronic pain

Now moving on to Chronic Pain. Chronic pain is any pain that lasts more than 3-6 months after all physical healing has taken place. Just because there’s no apparent physical explanation for the pain, doesn’t mean it’s “all in your head”. The pain is real. This is one area where the use of hypnosis really shines. Chronic pain is very responsive to changes in beliefs and perspectives. In addition, simple, easy-to-use tools like guided imagery and self-hypnosis can do an amazing job of reducing or even eliminating chronic pain all together. In fact, virtually all “chronic” conditions can be effectively treated with hypnotherapy.

trauma/ptsd

Finally, we’ll look at Trauma/PTSD. A trauma is any physical or emotional experience that overwhelms our ability to process it in a healthy fashion. When treating this issue, I focus heavily on the client’s thoughts, beliefs and perspectives. As mentioned earlier, thoughts, beliefs and perspectives generate feelings. PTSD sufferers spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about the trauma that caused their problem. Their memories always include the vivid images, sounds, and feelings of the event. It’s like they’re stuck in a loop of an old movie that just keeps playing over and over again. And the worst part is, they experience the feelings that the old movie generates. This is what causes the stress.

With the use of hypnosis and a few other methods, we can quite easily make changes to that old movie that will disconnect the bad feelings from the memory. You still remember it, but no longer experience the stress it used to cause. Once this is accomplished, we work on altering the beliefs and perceptions of the experience. In other words, you learn how to look at the experience from a different point of view… a higher perspective. This will alter the feelings about it even more. The methods I use do NOT require you to re-experience the event over and over again like some therapies. They are much gentler and more efficient.

from hypnosis vs medicine – to hypnosis + Medicine

In closing, I am absolutely certain that we will one day find hypnosis services available in all mainstream medical facilities. It’s the natural evolution of science and healthcare. At this point in time, hypnosis is roughly in the same category that chiropractic care was before the 1960’s. Few people took it seriously, and the medical system wouldn’t even acknowledge it as a viable healthcare method.

Also included in that category were Osteopathic Physicians or D.O.’s. They tend to lean more in the direction of treating people from a more natural angle, instead of relying exclusively on drugs. Today, both Chiropractic and Osteopathy are accepted by mainstream medicine. I don’t expect to live long enough to see hypnotherapy as a fully-accepted, legitimate part of the medical system, but I am helping to lay the groundwork to make it happen – one person at a time. More and more people are seeking “natural” solutions to their problems every day.

Ultimately, the ideal scenario will be a healthy mix of both mainstream medicine and other scientifically proven methods like hypnotherapy. Instead of hypnosis vs medicine, it will be hypnosis + medicine. We need both. There are without question times when medicine is absolutely the best option. It is most applicable to treating acute conditions requiring surgery, and fighting infections. At other times – especially with chronic physical and emotional conditions – hypnotherapy is by far the best, most effective form of treatment.

*To learn more about Epigenitics, I highly recommend a book entitled: “The Biology of Belief” by Dr. Bruce Lipton. Dr. Lipton has been a brilliant pioneer in bringing Epigenetics to the forefront of modern science and medicine.

Or you can watch his fascinating 2½ hour lecture on this subject on Youtube Here.

Call for a Free Consultation 724-691-3928

understanding chronic pain

Understanding chronic pain is vital to the healing process. Chronic pain is any pain that lasts 3-6 months or longer after all physical healing has taken place. In the U.S. there are over 3 million new cases reported every year. There are many variations of this type of pain. Sometimes it’s leftover pain from a surgical procedure or an accidental injury. It’s also common with autoimmune diseases such as arthritis, fibromyalgia, MS and others. Making the distinction between the causes will determine what methods need to be used to treat it.

Common chronic pain treatment methods include medications, surgery, electrical stimulation and acupuncture. Results may vary from person to person. The use of hypnosis to treat chronic pain has been scientifically proven to be very effective. As with the other methods, that effectiveness may vary from person to person. The real upside is that you can learn to use hypnotic methods on yourself, so they’re available anytime you need them.

Because there are two potential sources of chronic pain, treatment will involve one of two different methods. As mentioned above, there is residual pain from an accidental injury, and pain from chronic diseases. Let’s take a look at the differences as well as the different methods used to treat them. We’ll start with accidental injuries.

Accidents Happen

Accidental injuries are far more common than chronic disease issues. When we get injured, the pain is immediate. That pain is our body’s way of telling us that something is wrong and needs attention immediately. It’s a messaging system that usually does a good job. But sometimes the part of the brain that sends the pain signals seems to get stuck in the “on” position. It keeps sending the pain signals long after healing has taken place. For some reason, it hasn’t gotten the message that the injured area has healed.

The solution to this type of pain is two-fold. First, we must get the message center in the brain to realize that the healing process is complete, and that it is now okay to turn off the pain signals. Sometimes this is all that’s needed, and the pain will subside. If it doesn’t, then we need to move on to the alternate part of the process.

In the alternate part of the hypnotic process, we try to determine why the message center is unwilling to turn off the pain signals. Generally, it’s because it doesn’t feel safe to do so. In such cases, we help it come up with a few new ways to prevent a repeat of the type of accident or situation that caused the injuries in the first place. Once it finds a few new and effective options to keep you safe, it will gladly comply and turn off the pain signals. It exchanges the pain for information.

understanding Chronic Pain

Now we’ll look at addressing the pain caused by a chronic disease. As mentioned, this type of pain is common with autoimmune diseases like fibromyalgia, arthritis, IBS and others. Although we can reduce this type of pain by treating it directly, the best course of action is to address the autoimmune disorder itself.

There is one thing common to all types of autoimmune disorders; the immune system is attacking the body itself, instead of protecting it. Why this happens is not yet known. But for some reason the immune system apparently gets confused about what to attack and what not to attack. When functioning properly (which it does most of the time), it only attacks things like bacteria, viruses, and any other potentially threatening, foreign invaders. I’m convinced there’s a good reason why our immune system sometimes does this, however science has yet to figure it out. Here’s a great video on the subject.

In the meantime, with the use of hypnosis and guided imagery, we can effectively communicate with the immune system and teach it to stop attacking healthy tissue. I know that this may sound like quite a stretch to some readers, but it is in fact, very doable. I’ve completed two extensive training programs on this very subject. My one teacher actually healed herself of multiple autoimmune problems. Once she figured it out to do it, she went on to help over 2000 people who were suffering with AI diseases as well. (Watch her video here). Another one of my teachers did a study on treating people who were suffering from Multiple Sclerosis. Her success rate was quite impressive.

Relaxation Relieves Pain

One of the very best ways to respond to all pain is to relax. This may sound hard to do when something hurts, but learning how to relax can actually break the pain cycle. The cycle of pain works like this:

You feel pain > your natural response is to tighten up > muscle tension reduces blood circulation > reduced circulation leads to muscle inflammation > muscle inflammation leads to reduced movement > and reduced movement leads you right back to feeling the pain. It is a vicious cycle.

It doesn’t really matter which part of the cycle you break first. Odds are you already know that applying heat to the afflicted area can bring some relief. It does so by increasing the blood circulation. Increased circulation then results in reduced inflammation, better movement and reduced pain. Hypnosis and guided imagery can accomplish the same thing, and much more.

I often use a progressive relaxation method to guide clients into the hypnotic state. This method takes them to a level of relaxation unlike anything they’ve ever experienced. It is incredible! Many clients have told me that they wish they could have stayed in it longer because they felt so good. And this is just the induction part! It’s the part that gets them ready to work on their chronic pain problem. Where we go from there is different for each client. It’s at this point that I usually switch over to using guided imagery. The imagery will be specific to whatever type of pain or condition they’re dealing with.

Speak the right language!

I use Guided Imagery because imagery is the language of the subconscious mind. When you show your subconscious mind exactly what you want by way of imagery, it understands! It will then go and begin to make the necessary changes to fulfill your wishes! The more you feed your unconscious mind the images of what you want, the more it will comply and work towards providing it. This procedure is 100% safe no matter what type of pain you’re working on. It is also highly effective and does wonders when it comes to breaking the pain cycle.

I could talk for hours on this subject, but I think you get the picture by now. The methods I use are not something I force on you. You are an active participant in learning how to tap into your own internal healing abilities. Another one of my teachers used to say “Anything the mind has caused – the mind can cure”. There’s a lot of truth in that statement. The body is made to self-repair. It knows exactly how to fix anything from a simple cut on your finger, to the most complex autoimmune disorder. You just need to learn how to speak its language. My job is to teach you how to do exactly that.

I sincerely hope this post has given you some insight to understanding chronic pain, and provided you with some valuable information about treating it. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. In the meantime, I wish you well.