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Vol.7
No. 1 March 1986 ABSTRACT
However, all is not lost: awareness of the reality of truth still exists on a level of the mind or psyche. For the whole person, the potentiality for perfection and all-knowing exists – it may never manifest in the person’s lifetime because of various beliefs, illusions and delusions about life ranging from mere disinterestedness and closed-mindedness through neuroses and psychoses. All therapy, then, is geared to break through these outer layers in order that the person may see or contact this knowledge, i.e. To bring that which is obscured by the layers of defence or self-suggestion into the light. The basic concept of psychotherapy is, then, to lift that which is unconscious to the conscious, to deal with it, and then, that which was unconscious having been brought to the conscious and dealt with makes way for bringing that which is unconscious to the conscious – through layer after layer after layer or level upon level. Long and tedious work for those who are prepared to attempt it with no hope of being completed in a persons lifetime in some cases; or painful but relatively quick if a person is determined and there’s no other way to go, or a revelation that inspires change overnight – like Saul on the road to Damascus. All levels of a person if one considers the whole relate, so by the same token, the perfect form exists on the physical level. Kirlian photography (Hagen 1981) may picture an amputee with the limb still in tact i.e. it is gone but no gone – the hypothesis then in phantom limb pain could be not that the limb is not there, but that it is there. Physically of course it is not, it has been removed. But on some level it remains for a while, just as by the same token a broken off part of a living leaf remains. Now presuming there indeed exists on some level a perfect limb, it obviously can’t be re-installed in the flesh – or if it can such a thing is beyond our range of comprehension and would not be goal to aim for in healing. On the other hand, if the photography is correct, it then should follow that a damaged limb, or organ, or what have you also exists in its perfect form on that level. And damage can be repaired. It could be said then, that the real power in healing does not come from a false indoctrination of health – an illusion, but from the ability to actually contact that level and to normalise the problem – to see how it works and reverse it. What are we doing in treating a person with hypnosis? It seems a temporary illusion is created, for example: the illusion of being a confident speaker at a Rotary meeting may last long enough to show a person they can be a confident speaker at such a meeting, and so generalise – they can be a confident speaker at any gathering. That is, a learned habit is unlearned, or a dehypnotising takes place (Brice 1985) an old belief about the self is shown to be wrong i.e. “speaking at Rotary meetings would cause my mind to go totally blank and my knees to shake … and worse”. Simultaneously the life decision that “I would rather die than get up speak at a Rotary meeting”, becomes obsolete and change takes place. Using another example, the hypnotist may create the illusion that you, a smoker, are a non-smoker, it’s good to be non-smoker, you feel better, you are more healthy, you will be ill if you smoke … whatever … and this created illusion may last long enough to break a habit or belief, which is an acquired illusion that you must smoke if you are to exist as “I”. In affect an illusion is created to break an illusion and if the created illusion fits ‘observer’ truth it becomes a reality as opposed to illusion, but if other illusions pertaining to “I am not me unless I have cigarette in my hand/mouth, and therefore cannot exist without smoking” and in some cases. I”I would rather die than change”, are too solid and real to you, to admit the created one, the hypnotist’s created illusion collapses. Treatment is a “failure”. The above serves to illustrate that mind and body are inextricably interwoven … changes don’t occur in one area with out influencing the other, and with out change in one area, it may not be possible to make changes in the other, even though the latter is the primary concern. As I mentioned above, no therapist in his right mind would work with a client to re-instate an amputated limb … but there is a fallacy in the teaching of self-hypnosis or mind-expanding techniques today – that of “beating” a problem before “owing” it. Self-hypnosis becomes self-delusional – a kind of indoctrination of joy if you like … “everyone can rule the world – if you come and learn the right techniques from me” … This joyous positivism may be referred to as trance logic. A good example of trance logic is the negative hallucination produced in the hypnotized subject. In order not to see something, the hypnotised subject must see it to know it is not there. Subjective reports from subjects indicate they experience either the presence in the room of something ‘peculiar’ with a ‘not-to –be-inquired-into’ aspect, or the existence of a white space where the thing is. There is no incongruity in the situation from the subject, though it might seem quite peculiar to the viewer. Now if the subject hallucination denies the presence of a seated person, the subject will find some reason for avoiding the chair. The hallucinating person will not unintentionally sit in the invisible man’s lap. Trance logic is quite simply illogical. Things, which are manifestly illogical to an impartial observer, are seen as quite logical to a hypnotised person if that is what he must believe to maintain the integrity of his belief system. Therefore, if he believes that the person has left the room, even though that person is obviously present, he will accept whatever illogical notions he must accept to continue denying the person’s presence. (Shaw 1977) In a way then, the personality splits into two parts – (similar to the hidden observer idea as described by Hilgard (1977)) – the conscious part or aspect which is unable to see that the person is in the room, and the second ego, or unconscious that was quite aware of the person’s existence, but which has been forbidden by the hypnotist to inform the conscious part. One would expect that these two parts of the persons mind could “get together” at a later date and produce a dream-like memory of the experience, but by then the purpose of the exercise – whatever it might have been – would have been achieved. Trance logic is quite common – it is seen everywhere in the followers of certain religions and religious cults for instance where illusion becomes conviction. Only the followers of that cult will get to heaven and/or reach enlightenment, and all manner of illogical statements and beliefs will be used to support and maintain the belief. Indeed, all that seems to be good or beneficial, but is not of the particular cult, is considered by the believers as trickery and the work of the devil. (The leaders of these organisations are often somewhat worldlier and tend to do rather well by earthly standards). Almost anyone who holds a strong conviction about something will show signs of trance logic if he is confronted with evidence that belies his beliefs. There are many other examples, but one of the most tragic examples I have come across in my own practice was that of a client, a woman with cancer of the liver and extensive metastases requested hypnosis. She had opted out of chemotherapy with approval of the hospital because of the far advancement of her condition. Her husband accompanied her. Both were keen for her to have hypnosis to learn self-hypnosis to make her enjoy a special diet which was to cure her … This diet consists of liver juice, vegetable and fruit juices, nuts etc., no animal protein whatsoever, no animal fats because animals “eat indiscriminately and all sources of food must be pure and organically grown”. Another essential aspect of this magical treatment was a coffee enema twice daily. Her problem was that she could not retain the enemas – not surprisingly – nor could she stomach the juices, consequently she was surviving on a lettuce leaf and a slice of tomato at meal times and lost nearly 2 stone in weight in the last 2 weeks. Her husband, who obviously cared deeply for her, was barely concealing his anger with her for not sticking to the diet – accusing her of not trying to live. But the light of conviction was in their eyes: a dynamic and authoritative man had done his work well in so eloquently of the inevitability of “”complete cure” so long as his ‘organic diet’ is adhered to rigidly. His literature included many examples of such cures; and not only of cancer, but apparently every scourge known to man from leprosy to multiple sclerosis, from arthritis to old age. So here she was, pressure from this promise of cure, causing anxiety and pressure from her family, so anxious for life that they were wasting what time she had left. It took four weeks before they were prepared to face this for themselves. This had to be handled indirectly, because as we’ve seen, trance logic does not lend itself easily to direct assault. It was felt that knocking the perpetrator of their indoctrination would only serve to produce animosity. Therefore during this time became so weak she had to be carried up the stairs by her husband and it wasn’t until then that they really faced the facts. But at least she enjoyed what she ate during those four weeks - her diet was supplemented by some fish and cooked vegetables (previously a no-no because cooked vegetables “contained no nourishment” and fish was “filled with pollutants” according to their indoctrinator) after the obvious was pointed out, i.e. if the cancer didn’t get her, starvation would. In that time she and her husband were assisted to sort out a great deal in regard to how they felt about one another and themselves, and their quality of life. They consequently discovered that rather than waste time struggling to survive, both could give more to each other in the little time left than they had ever done in some 15 years of marriage. And who knows, with out the dreadful burden of guilt and “fault” and with her new found acceptance, she may well live a few days, weeks, or even months longer. “As you think, so you are”, we are told. Too true, and what are we if we are exhorted to think we are by these propounders of the good life is based on trance logic? To
summarise and to look at the above somewhat obliquely in psychological
terms, we might consider the individual development of human personality
through three levels: One problem of the human personality is that dissociation can occur, producing aspects of personality that are unrelated to each other. This can be distinguished from differentiation in which the separated parts remain related to each other. Anxiety and despair at level three are often confused with anxiety and despair at one level. In summary there is a danger of denying and repressing the environment, body and unconscious elements of the psyche. These splits are reflected both within the individual and within society (the collective level). During therapy, both the whole person and the dissociated level must be considered. In a way the problem must, at some stage, be “given back” to the person – who is asked what they want to do with it. In
healing or treating the self, then, it seems important to: The following case history illustrates these four steps in the use of self-hypnosis by a teenaged girl to accelerate healing of 3rd degree burns. This is not presented as a blueprint of how self-hypnosis should be used to heal but rather an account of the way one individual chose to use it with remarkable result. CASE
HISTORY Three days after admission, the hand and foot were grafted, the donor areas being the front and back of the left thigh. A course of antibiotics was prescribed as a prophylactic measure. Eight days later she was discharged from hospital – the bandages having been removed the day before. The grafts were sound and healing progressed rapidly. Twice daily for the next three to four weeks’ drafts were rolled, trimmed and tulle gras applied. Tulle gras and vitamin E oil was applied to the non-grafted areas. Eight weeks after sustaining the injury healing was complete. There was no tendon contraction or restriction of movement in either the hand or fingers or the foot and toes. Apart from one small area on the leg (non-grafted), which had to be scraped down, there is no build-up of scar tissue. (See fig. 1). Some
significant aspects of this case were: However, from the moment she was injured, she not only vehemently rejected any attempt made to hypnotize her but refused to use self-hypnosis to control or block the obviously excruciating pain. Instead, she demanded injections and consequently received I.M. Pethidine at three to six hourly intervals throughout the first few days. This experience seems to refute some claims that persons in shock are always easily hypnotisable (Furst (1969) and others). In addition, while hospitalised and for a week or so after discharge, she lost all appetite for food, and ate very little; weight loss was therefore considerable – over six kilos in three weeks. The following explanation for the above anomalies was given in her own words several weeks later. “I was, I think, very shocked after the accident. But my mind was very clear. I could see my foot and my hand and they were things – they didn’t belong to me. The pain was terrible. I couldn’t think past it. I couldn’t tell myself it wasn’t there because that would take up too much energy. The injections stopped the pain so I could think straight then I could look at that thing on the end of my leg and that other thing on the end of my arm and admit that they were mine and part of me … that was so hard to do, you wouldn’t believe; but I did it. Then I had to compare them to my right hand and foot so I could remember how they should look. I had to keep concentrating on the feeling of the blood pulsing and circulating, too, especially after the grafts were done, so that they would grow onto me just like the real skin that used to be there. Even eating wasn’t important to me – I needed all my energy for healing. In my mind I would see my fingers and toes and moving easily while I flexed and relaxed the muscles to stop them from getting stiff. It was better when the bandages were off and I could move them easily. I couldn’t let you hypnotise me because it would have interfered with what I knew I had to do it on my own.” CONCLUSION In this case, we see self-hypnosis perhaps as it should be – an attitude of mind, not a process; reality rather than delusion; a knowledge, not merely a belief. REFERENCES |
