by TR 29 Replies latest jw friends
Orbison,
What is REM? I only know it as "rapid eye movement" during dream sleep. I'm trying to imagine how that would be used as therapy.
PTSD (Post traumatic stress disorder) I have heard of. From what I've heard, it's very common among former JWs.
Ginny
TR,
I can barely bring myself to respond to you after your blasphemous (and misinformed) trash on rap a few threads back. But I guess I can forgive.
Actually I've always read that hypnosis is a condensed concentration rather than a sleep. An example is when you watch a movie and get so interested and involved that you forget you are in a movie theater and that there's people around you. That's why hypnotists often want their subjects to focus on an object until they forget their surroundings and they become suggestible.
just my 3 cents.
lol after i go thru REM i have to learn how to post once instead of three times
Well, I used to use a variety of "mind machines" for brainwave entrainment and the like, even have one that sends electrical current through.. But the thing is I think ultimately if you want any kind of real behavioral modification it has to occur on a conscious level. Just become enlightened, that'll take care of everything. ;-)
Hi Ginny,
Orbison may be refering to EMDR and is considered very questionable treatment if not outright quackery by some.
EMDR=Eye Movement Desensitation and Reprocessing
A pt recalls a trauma and rates their feelings while visually tracking the therapists finger.
It was a big ]pop-therapy' du jour for a bit.
When it was closely looked into ,it was found in controlled research visual tracking is unnecessary and irrelevant to obtain theraputic benefits. It's so called benefits were based on uncontrolled case reports and poorly designed control experiments.
What they found that did work was recalling the trauma with a supportive therapist and not the eye movement.
Shapiros claims about the eye movement and trauma clash clash with what science knows about EM.
A lot of these bogus treatments come and go,one needs to sift carefully and research. Shapiro has made lots of money from this one.
regards,Tina
Well the breathing and relaxation techniques used in natural childbirth could be considered a form of self-hynosis. It's all geared to enable a woman to overcome her body's natural tendency to tense at the onset of pain. You use memorized techniques to control breathing and even thinking, so you can relax the muscles not actively involved in birth contractions. Since learning the childbirthing techniques, I find them amazingly useful during moments of high stress.
At certain points in my breakdown/recovery, especially when I was nursing my molester father after his stroke, the relaxation and visualization I learned in childbirth prep classes, as well as the visualization taught me by a therapist (which, eerily, were the same as techniques explained to me by a practicing warlock who used them for protection during 'astral spirit work')were all that kept me from running screaming and weeping from the situation. Putting a protective blue glass bubble around my mind kept molester Dad from popping thru my emotional defenses when I washed or otherwise touched Dad the patient. Visualizing my safe place kept me from freeking when I started free-floating back to the bad scary past.
Self-hynosis is self-empowerment. Controlling your gut reactions with carefully planned responses is one of the best uses of mnemonic techniques IMO. Nothing demonic about it. The WT warns against it for the same reason they warn against any independent thought; if you can learn to control your emotional baggage, you aren't a scared biddable sheep anymore, and no longer easily led. Taking control of your own thought trains will always lead to scheduling conflicts with those who want to keep you exclusively on their track.
I was simply a participant in this study that was trying to determine the degree to which a population can be hypnotised. These psychology students explained that people do not forget being hypnotised or what they did while they are in it. They said that the trance like state that we see demonstrated on tv is really overplayed. Its really simply a form of intense focus through relaxation. They really did get me relaxed to the point that I was sorta slumped over in my chair. It was similar to the early stages of sleep. At this point in ones conciousness you are sometime more able to retrieve information that maybe be surpressed or forgotten while totally awake, and focusing on other things. They would try things like talking alot about two colored dots and then have you look to the front of the room where a poster was hanging with 3 colored dots. Then after the session they asked how many dots we saw(or remembered seeing). They had us really focus on a day we had in the 2nd grade and while our eyes were closed we picked up a pen and wrote our names and the date on a pc of paper. Some of the participants handwriting looked like a 2nd grader. I was most impressed with the relaxation part of it.
Openminded,
Reading your comment about hypnosis being "similar to the early stages of sleep" reminded me of a writing practice suggested in The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. She suggests writing three pages each morning as soon as you wake up. Simply follow the thoughts in your head and write them down as quickly as you can. The idea behind "morning pages" is that your internal censor is not yet fully awake and interesting insights may emerge.
Natalie Goldberg suggests a similar technique of "following first thoughts" in her book Writing Down the Bones, although she doesn't specify a time for writing.
It's such a simple idea, but I've found it enlightening. It reminds me of therapy sessions in a way. With one therapist, I'd be talking all around a painful subject. She'd calmly listen and then would gently say, "The truth is . . ." I'd pause for a moment and then would complete the sentence. The "truth" was often something painful I wished to avoid, or something that I felt was somehow taboo to speak aloud. I find myself coming back to this technique again and again in journal writing.
Later, in cognitive therapy, I was taught again to listen to my own thoughts. I hadn't realized the crazy things I say to myself in my head until I began paying attention, writing them down, and talking back to them.
Perhaps I'm straying a bit from the topic of self-hypnosis, but I somehow feel these ideas are all related. What we say repeatedly to ourselves is usually what we believe. The most dangerous lies are the lies we tell ourselves.
Ginny
I often think about dropping everthing Im doing and just walking away to a remote wilderness. No one is around and I feel free. Oh yea and Im naked and I have really really big feet. I must be disturbed.
I am a registered Psychotherapist/Hypnotherapist and teach paople to use self hypnosis. I don't always use the term hypnosis but lt relaxation. I have pasted a few paragraphs from my notes. I hope they are of help.
LEARNING TO RELAX
Most people never relax properly. They are either awake or asleep which can be difficult for them to achieve easily or for any length of time. Learning to relax both mind and body while remaining aware and awake is of enormous benefit in combating the stress and anxiety that can lead to depression and illness. Achieving such a state of mind is the KEY to contacting and working with your EMOTIONAL MIND.
Keep a notepad by your bed to note any dreams you may have. This habit encourages communication between the various parts of your mind.
The state of mind you will learn to achieve will be used to carry out the exercises given in the weeks ahead. Firstly though it is important to master and practice the relaxation techniques I am about to explain.
Please spend as long as you need practising until you are comfortable with the routine. You may find one particular way suits you better than another. Use the one that you get on with the best. How long you spend in a relaxed state each time depends on you and what you are trying to achieve. As a guide, between 25 to 50 minutes is all you should attempt at any one time. You will need to find a room where you will not be disturbed with a comfortable chair or a bed. The drawback of a bed is that there is a temptation to fall asleep when lying down.
Make sure your phone will not ring and make yourself comfortable. It is best to remove your shoes, as the feet tend to enlarge as we relax and can cause discomfort. Sit with your legs uncrossed to avoid numbness and your hands where they feel most comfortable. You may benefit from some very gentle background instrumental music playing just loud enough to be heard. This is entirely optional and not necessary. Always have a pen or pencil and notebook beside you.
Read the following right through before attempting any of the methods shown. Begin by looking ahead with your eyes open, then: -
TAKE A DEEP BREATH
HOLD FOR A FEW SECONDS
THEN SLOWLY LET AIR OUT
REPEAT AT LEAST THREE TIMES
AS YOU BEGIN TO RELAX
LET YOUR EYES CLOSE
With a little practice you will be able to take half a minute to expel all the air from your lungs. When you breathe correctly your stomach will gently rise and fall. Filling your chest with air is the wrong way to breathe and can cause tension. As you relax you will find that after a while you automatically start to breathe through your nose .(breathing affects the state of mind)
You may find that you feel your eyelids flutter or experience a tingling sensation in some part of your body or even feel a muscle twitch. These are all signs that you are relaxing. You may however relax and feel none of these things.
Once relaxed with your eyes closed do absolutely nothing.
You may be surprised how difficult it is to do absolutely nothing. All day long your mind is working - checking - planning - reacting - occupying itself -
JUST ALLOW YOUR MIND TO BE STILL AND LET GO!
It can help to look slightly higher with your eyes behind your eyelids than you would normally, focusing on the centre of your head. There is within you a natural state of calmness and peace. All that is required to access this state is that your thinking mind simply stops thinking.
Thinking takes energy - trying to resist thinking takes even more - so just do nothing. As you look into that stillness you may find that thoughts try to drift into your mind. Let them. Allow them to float in and out, but do not focus on them or pursue them. JUST BE AT REST. Thoughts may turn to colours and patterns may appear. Again just watch with indifference.
Try this exercise a few times. Tell yourself that you will remain awake - but your active mind can rest. You may be surprised how quickly time passes. So before you start, look at a clock and decide how long you are going to relax for. With practice your eyes will open automatically at the right time.
DISTURBING THOUGHTS
Sometimes disturbing memories that you have tried to ignore may drift into your thoughts. Treat these in the same way but do not avoid them. It can take courage to face emotion that is stored inside you but if it comes into your thoughts and feelings there is a reason for it. If you find the thoughts disturb your relaxation too much simply imagine yourself with a smile on your face and end the session. Then write down those thoughts and feelings. Write down the main feeling you experienced that troubled you. Later on you will learn how to use such feelings to understand yourself and your problem.
NATURAL RELAXATION
You will find that relaxing in this way is a very pleasant and refreshing experience, which leaves you feeling calm for many hours afterwards. This is because the mind starts to produce 'alpha' waves when you relax in this way. These calming waves affect every cell in your body in a beneficial way causing a chemical change to take place.
To relax in this way is the most natural and beneficial exercise you can do to restore or maintain the natural balance between your mind and body. In this state of mind, your emotions and feelings have the opportunity to communicate themselves to your thinking mind. Much of the anxiety, frustration and worry that people endure can be resolved using the simple methods outlined. Never underestimate the power you have within yourself to overcome problems.
The secret of unlocking this power lies in the active communication between the various parts of your mind and body - achieved through conscious relaxation.
