Excerpt of an article written by By Muriel Prince Warren, DSW
Dr. David Barlow of Boston University's Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders, claims that we can actually talk to the amygdala and reduce stress in our minds and bodies. As a hypnotherapist, I know that the unconscious mind is best addressed by hypnotic language in a trance state.
I was further encouraged by numerous scientific studies in recent years showing that the hypnotized mind can exert a real and powerful effect on the body. Hypnosis is increasingly being used today to help women give birth without drugs, for muting dental pain, treating phobias and severe anxieties, helping people lose weight, stop smoking, or even improve their performance in athletics or academic tests (Wall Street Journal, Waldholz, 2003). The stage was set for my first trial.
Three Cases:
My first example involves a patient who feared an upcoming operation and the possibility of his blindness or death. He explained that he was a professional golfer, and had been diagnosed with osteoscarcoma. His physician had just found a tumor the size of a golf ball behind his left eye. He had been warned that he had a slim chance of retaining his eyesight and having the tumor removed. Furthermore, there was a real possibility that he would not make it through the operation.
We had five consecutive sessions during the week before his operation. The patient told me that he was a multimillionaire at age 40. All he wanted was to play golf, and his wife would not let him. He was deeply depressed and without a "causa sui" (a reason for living) (Becker, 1983, p. 119), and often dreamed of dying. Dr. Norman Shealy, a Harvard-Trained neurosurgeon and researcher, and many others have concluded that the immune system becomes compromised by depression, stress, anger, and guilt, leading to many diseases including cancer.
In each hypnosis session, I relaxed the patient's amygdala, shutting down the fear and enhancing the outcome. I did not explain to the patient that I was talking to his amygdala, but under hypnosis in a trance state, the amygdala shuts down the stress hormones, giving he patient an opportunity to rebuild his immune system. I am not a golfer. But I suggested that when the surgeon drilled into his skull, he would hit a hole in one and the tumor would pop out. On the day of the operation, the patient showed no fear of the procedure. When the surgeon made the initial incision just behind the eye, the tumor simply rolled out of his head without further intervention. The patient arrived at my office the following day with his eyesight intact and nothing but a band aid covering the incision. The tumor was sent to Johns Hopkins and the Mayo Clinic for analysis. To this day, the surgeon and his colleagues don't understand what happened. They think they made an error in diagnosis. The tumor was just not as serious as they originally thought. This patient has decided to become a golf coach, thereby reducing his depression and finding a, "causa sui." His immune system was now functioning well. About six months later, he began having difficulty with his prostrate. Because of their constant fighting, his wife turned to smoking pot which made her amorous. His amygdala was activated by her sexual demands and the fear that he would not be able to perform.
The prostate is a male sexual gland that surrounds the neck of the bladder and the beginning of the urethra. The gland secretes a thin opalescent fluid that forms part of the semen.
An activated amygdala doesn't wait around for instructions from the conscious mind," explains Claudia Haub (Newsweek, Feb. 24, 2004, p. 46). Once it perceives a threat it can trigger a body wide emergency response within milliseconds. Jolted by impulses in the amygdala, the nearby hypothalamus produces a hormone called Corticotrophin Releasing Factor, or CRF, which signals the pituitary and adrenal glands to flood the bloodstream with epinephrine, adrenaline, nor epinephrine and cortisol. These stress hormones then shut down nonemergency services such as digestion and immunity, and direct the body's resources to fighting or fleeing. The heart responds, the lungs pump, and the muscles get an energizing blast of glucose. The stress hormones also act on the brain , creating a heightened awareness and supercharging the circuitry involved in memory formation.
In autoimmune diseases, the immune system is confused and attacks the body. Hypnotherapy can help stimulate healthy immune system functioning where only foreign invaders or mutant cells are attacked. A general understanding of how autoimmune diseases operate is helpful to patient and therapist alike. Sometimes pictures of the disease process and immune system help to facilitate the internal changes necessary for healing or remission.
This patient underwent tests which indicated a PSA of 2.4 ug/L. We began hypnosis focused on his prostrate. In a quiet, relaxed state, I asked him to locate the pipe that controlled his prostate gland, reminding him that the back of his mind knew better than I just how to put it in working order. His PSA level has now been reduced to 1.66 ug/L. (The normal range is 0.0 to 4.0.)
Perhaps even more dramatic is the case of a 75-year-old man with kidney failure who was facing the prospect of dialysis. This patient had been through three heart attacks and showed an allergic reaction to the contrast or dye used in angioplasty. His kidney function, as measured by the level of creatinine in his blood, had declined to about 20-25% of normal. Using the same technique of inducing trance and reducing all stress hormones, I asked the patient to visualize himself in a healing garden, and using all of his senses, imagine through the powers of his own pure subconscious mind — which knows better than I do — sending healing energy to the parts of his body that need it most. In a sense I was using his own intuition to empower him. After three sessions of hypnosis focusing on improvement of his kidneys, blood tests showed his creatinine level was reduced from 3.0 to 2.0, equivalent to approximately 50% of normal and a 100% improvement. Although his kidneys are not perfect, dialysis is no longer necessary. We are now working on his carotid artery which shows a partial blockage.
Serious medical malfunctions are not the only areas susceptible to the power of hypnosis. This case involved a 16 year-old girl who was failing math with a 53 average despite attempts to tutor her. After three months of hypnosis once a week, her average climbed steadily to an amazing 85. Through hypnosis, I was able to shut down the stress hormones that can impair memory and taught her how to anchor those feelings of calmness. Eventually, she was able to perform her own self-hypnosis prior to scheduled tests at school. I helped her to realize that her brain was like a computer, only better. In fact, it was the prototype for all manmade computers. We went over the fact that in the first five years, she learned more than at any other time in her life. She learned a language, to tell one person from another, to distinguish different objects, to begin mastery of her ABC's, how to color, brush her teeth, and many other things. All of this was data she was able to program into her brain before she was five years old. Now that she was 16, those tasks slipped in to her subconscious mind. Just like breathing or sending oxygen to her blood cells, she didn't have to think with her conscious mind about how to do it.
The same principle holds true for math, science, and anatomy. Only now, it is much easier. Data we store in our computer brain can be retrieved just the way we retrieve the method for tying our shoelaces. First, the patient is given a simple way to anchor the feeling of calmness, perhaps by simply placing his pointer finger and thumb together, putting her into a state of self-hypnosis so the stress hormones do not interfere with her memory bank. Then she is told to tackle the easiest questions first, giving the patient a feeling of success. Success breeds success. Reducing stress hormones and strengthening the ego combined with desensitization helps patients with school and test-taking.
I can't claim that every case is an absolute success, but I can say that more and more and with the perseverance of my patients, I have been getting better and better results. Dr. David Barlow of Boston University's Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders, claims that we can actually talk to the amygdala and reduce stress in our minds and bodies. As a hypnotherapist, I know that the unconscious mind is best addressed by hypnotic language in a trance state.
I was further encouraged by numerous scientific studies in recent years showing that the hypnotized mind can exert a real and powerful effect on the body. Hypnosis is increasingly being used today to help women give birth without drugs, for muting dental pain, treating phobias and severe anxieties, helping people lose weight, stop smoking, or even improve their performance in athletics or academic tests (Wall Street Journal, Waldholz, 2003). The stage was set for my first trial.
Powerful stuff no? you see, they are finally admitting to the power the mind has over the body. But none of this is new to a competent professional hypnotist. We have known it all along.