HypnoTalkHypnotherapy for “Incurable Diseases”
Part of this column has been taken from the book “Getting Well Again,” written by O. Carl Simonton, M.D. and Stephanie Matthews-Simonton 1978 (paraphrased.)
At the time of this writing, Carl is the medical director of the cancer counseling and research Center in Dallas, Texas. He is a radiation oncologist, a physician specializing in the treatment of cancer. Stephanie is director of counseling and is trained in Psychology.
Physician (body) Heal Thyself!
You are your own physician when you allow your body to heal itself.
Everyone participates in his or her health or illness at all times. Most of us assume that healing is something done to us, that if we have a medical problem our responsibility is simply to get a physician who will then heal us. That’s true to a degree, but is only part of the story.
We all participate in our own health through our beliefs, our feelings, and our attitudes towards life, as well as in more direct ways such as through exercise and diet. In addition, our response to medical treatment is influenced by our beliefs about the effectiveness of the treatment and by the confidence we have in the medical team.
Understanding how much you can participate in your health or illness is a significant 1st step for everyone in getting well.
Most patients who come to the Cancer Research Center from all over the country, have received a “medically incurable” diagnosis from the doctors. According to national Cancer statistics, they have an average life expectancy of one year.
When these people believe that only medical treatment can help them – but their physicians have said that medicine is no longer of much avail and they probably have only a few months to live – they feel doomed, trapped, helpless, and usually fulfill the doctors expectations.
But if the patients mobilize their own resources and actively participate in their recovery, they may well exceed their life expectancy and significantly alter the quality of life.
Alternative Cancer Therapy
Here’s a miracle story of a 61-year-old man who came to the research center with throat cancer that carried a grave prognosis. He was very weak, his weight had dropped from 130 pounds to 98 pounds, he could barely swallow his own saliva, and was having difficulty breathing.
There was a less than 5 percent chance that he would survive one year. Indeed the doctors had seriously debated whether to treat him at all, since it was distinctly possible that therapy would only make him more miserable without significantly diminishing his cancer.
Carl begin treating the patient by explaining how the patient himself could influence the course of his own disease. Carl then outlined a program of relaxation and mental imagery based on the research he had been accumulating.
The man was to set aside three, 5 – 15 minute periods during the day – in the morning on arising, at noon after lunch, and at night before going to bed. During these periods he was first to compose himself by sitting quietly and concentrating on the muscles of his body, starting with his head and going all the way to his feet, telling each muscle group to relax.
Then, in this more relaxed state, he was to picture himself in a pleasant, quiet place sitting under a tree, by a creek, or any way that suited his fancy, so long as it was pleasurable. Then he was to imagine his cancer vividly in whatever form it seemed to take.
Next, Carl asked him to picture his treatment, radiation therapy, as consisting of millions of tiny bullets of energy that would hit all the cells, both normal and cancerous, in their path.
Because the cancer cells were weaker and more confused than normal cells, they would not be able to repair the damage, Carl suggested, and so the normal cells would remain healthy while the cancer cells would die.
Carl then asked the patient to form a mental picture of the last and most important step – his body’s white blood cells coming in, swarming over the cancer cells, picking up and carrying of the dead and dying ones, flushing them out of his body through his liver and kidneys.
In his mind’s eye he was to visualize his cancer decreasing in size and his health returning to normal. After he completed each such exercise, he was to go about whatever he had to do the rest of the day.
Cancer Free in Two Months
What happened was beyond any of Carl’s previous experience in treating cancer patients with purely physical intervention. The radiation therapy worked exceptionally well, and the man showed almost no negative reaction to the radiation on his skin or in the mucous membranes in his mouth and throat. Halfway through treatment he was able to eat again.
He gained strength and weight. The cancer progressively disappeared.
Treating this patient in this way was very exciting, but it was also somewhat frightening. The possibilities for methods of healing that seemed to be opening up before us went beyond anything that Carl’s formal medical education had prepared him for.
The patient continued to progress until finally, two months later, he showed no signs of cancer. His condition has remained healthy for more than six years.
Hypnosis and Healing
Hypnotherapy is all about reprogramming the subconscious mind to change limiting or negative beliefs and therefore encourage healing. In hypnotherapy sessions, therapists incorporate suggestion therapy as well as guided imagery like the imagery Dr. Carl uses above, to reprogram the subconscious and heal the body.
The subconscious mind does not know fact from fantasy and therefore with vivid imagery, the subconscious begins to believe it and the body follows suit.
Editor’s note: Kelly Mcloughlin currently practices in Los Alamos, New Mexico, where she sees clients on a regular basis and teaches hypnotherapy self-empowerment workshops. In addition to her work to help people quit smoking and lose weight, she will take on any problem where she knows or believes hypnosis can help. Mcloughlin has experience in problems such as anxiety, fears and phobias, overcoming bad habits, children and hypnosis, pain control, accelerated healing, overcoming grief and much more. She believes that in order to heal the body a person needs to heal the mind first. She regards hypnotherapy as complementary to western/allopathic medicine. Visit KellyMcloughlin.com or call 505-695-0365.
