Greetings!

This blog will be quite different than what has been offered in previous presentations.

Following is a collection of naughty irreverence, quotes, reflective meanderings, bon mots, cheeky impudence, mischievious playfulness and speculative anarchy.

• One of the intellectual contortions in science – in order to preserve certain theories is that the universe sprang from nothing into something in a billion billionth of a second.
• Psychedelic experiences and dreams are chemical cousins.
• Memories are not stored in the wet ware of the brain but in the interpenetrating fields in and around the body (it was Einstein who stated that “everything is in the field”).
• Also from Einstein… “Light is the shadow of God”.
• Are all the magical gadgets that allow us to text, tweet, react, blurt getting in the way of our humanity?  Does technology in some instances distort or blunt relationships?
• Is dark matter that cannot be seen and composes 90 percent of the universe the unconscious of the universe – a dark realm that conditions and forms the galaxies and their interactions
• Does God really care about your personal theology?
• We need spiritual telescopes to look into the subconscious – so we can regain our wisdom and out of our historical amnesia.
• You are the interior decorator of your own psyche.  How narrow or expansive are your mental shorelines?
• When you catch yourself negative self-talking, constructively ask yourself – why am I doing so?
• Are some children being raised in a culture of entitlement, self-indulgence and celebrity rather than a genuine sense of responsibility, discipline and judgment?
• This life is too short to be preoccupied with pain from the past.
• Some people have a knack for turning gold into lead.
• Our society focuses on the exaggerated dangers of drugs yet offers dangerous drugs which are the fourth highest source of death in the United States as a method of therapy.
• Why do skeptics never question their own dogmas?
• What happens when we die and miss our respective shuttle busses to our corresponding Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Zoroaster etc. heavens?
• Definition of insanity – stockpiling thousands of nuclear weapons to preserve peace.
• For some people, dogma is being utilized to masquerade as faith.
• The unknown is more feared by science than it ever way by religion.
• Reason alone leads to a true/false kind of world as if the deepest philosophical questions could be answered by some kind of multiple choice test.
• Animal research – a biological immorality using the ends to justify the means.
• Tribes used to do group dreaming.  The dreamers would go out of body, in various directions to determine the best direction to migrate for food, shelter, etc.  Our morning TV is a “manufactured dream” to serve a similar purpose.
• According to Darwin and Freud – “a man is flawed” – survival is the prime goal.  But survival without meaning.
• Never tell anyone what to do except face up to the full abilities of their consciousness.
• Men who are brought up to be ashamed of the ‘feminine’ sides of their nature cannot be expected to respect women.  Women who are taught to be ashamed of the ‘masculine’ sides of their nature cannot be expected to respect men.
• We limit our intellect by giving it only ‘facts’ to go on.  Yet the “power” is in the deeper, inner, grander intuitive reality of our minds.
• If you examine your own life carefully, the challenges you have set for yourself will become apparent.
• Oh to regain the spiritual, physical and playful elasticity of youth.
• Men/women live by those values that science ignores – love, honesty, desire, passion, intuition, compassion.
• You can never experience a thought – only a thought about a thought.
• We are threatening the survival of our own planet in order to increase life’s conveniences.
• Are some visitors from outer space dream travelers from other dimensions of realty – just as we intrude into other realities in our dreams?
• There are many corridors of consciousness and psychological activity.  Modern psychology does not yet have a concept of the self or ego to begin to explain mystical transcendent, paranormal and other such realities.
• Many people focus on their fears rather than their goals.  Much like the archer who focuses on what can go wrong rather than the target and “pulls” to the left – reinforcing his fear.
• After all the hundreds and hundreds of healings and healing modalities I have witnessed in the Philippines, Mexico, West Africa, Brazil and India my most important learning is – everything heals someone, nothing heals everyone, nothing heals forever.
• While visualization, affirmations or belief statements are important for creating an optimal future or achieving goals – the emotional intensity that you pump into the words or pictures of your goal are by far more powerful and effective.
• Be careful of the “gods” and beliefs you choose – for you will reinforce each other.
• Science should be reprimanded when it tries to pretend that our experience is limited only to other events that science can explain.
• Your symptoms (or problem) are your friend – symptoms are a signal from your body/subconscious that a creative change is needed in your life.
• People with self-esteem issues or emotional underachievers require great amounts of praise and attention from others since he or she will get very little from themselves.
• Note posted under the windshield of a car – “Learn to park you stuppid bitch”.
• Forgiveness is the fragrance left by the violet on the heel that crushed it. – Mark Twain
• Pain, fear and strugglr are not the only elements of growth – why not joy, love and elegance (the least amount of effort with the maximum amount of reward).
• When you judge others – you are not defining the other person – you are defining yourself.  Judgment freezes you in the past.  Judgments are a ‘punishment’ that diminish you.
• To forgive is to set a ‘prisoner’ free and discover the prisoner was you. – Lewis Smedes
• Bigamy is having one wife or husband too many.  Monogamy is the same. – Oscar Wilde
• Millions long for immortality who don’t know what to do on a Sunday afternoon.
• Natural guilt – no penance is necessary, I am sorry – I won’t do that again.  Unnatural guilt – created by the medieval church authorities to control and to punish.
• Disease is a rupture in one’s harmony.  Healing – finding a way to reweave the rupture.
• Our cosmic laws are just a local ordinance.
• Wouldn’t it be nice to have a mind like a Swiss Army knife?
• On some occasions, it helps to hide behind a fig leaf of embarrassment.
• Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
• The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience. – Emily Dickenson
• If you can’t forgive a person, it is like letting them live in your head rent free. – from Alcoholics Anonymous
• If you don’t believe you create your reality – you will create a reality to prove you don’t create your reality ie victimhood. – Seth
• Whack the next guy with the same respect you’d like to be whacked with, you know? – Tony Soprano, Episode Twelve

To be continued…

Enjoy!

In our previous blog, comparisons were made between the “old” biology – Darwinism, with its emphasis upon the DNA code inside our cells and where evolution is the result of the population evolving over centuries.

Epigenesis on the other hand can be created by an individual influencing their own genetic printout as the result of one’s consciousness, diet, toxins, social rituals, predators, sexual cues – all of which can effect gene expression.

Epigenetic changes can happen in a matter of minutes or hours.  These genetic changes can then be passed on to one’s offspring without influencing the “fixed” DNA code of the general population within the nucleus of every cell.

The good news is that an unwanted epigenetic change triggered by environmental conditions may be reversed when environmental conditions change again.

Diet and epigenetics appear to be closely linked.  The most well known example is that of the Agouti mice: they are yellow, fat and are prone to diabetes and cancer.  If Agouti females are fed with a cocktail of vitamin B12, folic acid and cholin, directly prior to and during pregnancy, they give birth to mainly brown, slim and healthy offspring.  The offspring will also have offspring similar to themselves – brown, slim and healthy and these epigenetic changes will carry on for at least, if not more than, three generations.

I have been utilizing and teaching various visualization techniques in workshops and to clients for years.  My publisher, Nightingale Contact asked me to produce a program they titled The Power of Visualization and it has been on their best seller list continuously since the program came out.

However, at the time, I didn’t realize what specifically at a cellular level caused visualization to be such a powerful and effective process until I recently read a colleague’s (and friend) report on one of his clients “Mary” who was diagnosed with stage IV uterine cancer.  Against her doctor’s advice, she rejected medical treatment stating to my friend “If I or my body created this condition, then I can un-create it”. 

She quit work, spent hours in the bath visualizing tiny stars circulating in her body.  Whenever the sharp edge of a star touched a cancer cell – it punctured the cell, deflating it lke a balloon and then imagined the water washing away the dying cancer cells.

In addition, she readjusted her nutritional intake, began to exercise and continued with her baths and the stars.  Equally important, after reviewing the research literature on cancer and emotions, she decided to release her anger from the past, forgave both herself and others and was very careful about being caught up in negativity and blame.

Mary experienced a complete remission, many years later she is stronger and healthier than ever before.  Despite excellent health, she still playfully utilizes the stars whenever she has a bath.

The question that must be going on through your mind as it did mine – did Mary’s visualization and health care practices change her epigenetic profile with a cascade of different genes favorable to cancer remission?  Since belief, intentionality and consciousness are primarily responsible for gene expression, what other explanation might there be?

Of interest to most of us, is it possible to raise our intelligence and/or intellectual performance?  Stanford University psychologist Dr. Carol Dweck noticed that students had varying beliefs about the nature of intelligence, and how it had an effect on their performance.  Some students believed that intelligence is a fixed measure, like the number of inches in your height.  Others believed that intelligence can grow and develop or blossom, like a plant.  Then she compared the math scores of the two groups over the following two years.  She established that students who believed that intelligence can grow had increasing math scores.  The math scores of those who believed that intelligence is fixed – decreased.

Dr. Dweck then wondered – if students were given a ‘growth’ mindset, how to perceive intelligence as growing or expanding with experience, would this benefit their grades?  She took one hundred seventh graders who were all performing poorly in math and divided them randomly into two groups.  The first group received instruction in good study skills.  The second group was told our brains grow and form new and denser neural connections when confronted with novelty and challenge.  At the end of the semester, those students who had received the mini-course in brain development had significantly better grades than the other group.

Dr. Dweck reported – “When they worked hard in school, they actually visualized how their brains were growing”.  What we imagine, we can create.

Thus, filling one’s mind with positive images of intellectual growth can produce not only an epigenetic environment to enhance mental performance but the same “setup” can also change and enhance our health and physical performance.

Harvard psychologist Dr. Judith Rodin, in a 2007 study, recruited 84 maids who cleaned rooms in hotels.  She wanted to examine the differences between physical exertion and physical exertion plus belief.

The 84 maids were divided into two groups.  One group heard a brief presentation explaining that their work has many benefits and qualifies as good exercise.  The control group got no information i.e. business as usual.  Over the next thirty days, the changes in the bodies of the women who heard the exercise lecture were significant.  The exercise informed women perceived themselves to be getting markedly more exercise than they had indicated before the presentation.  They also lost an average of 2 pounds, lowered their blood pressure by almost 10% and displayed drops in body-fat percentage, body mass index and waist to hip ratio.

These significant physiological (and epigenetic) changes occurred in just thirty days.  What would happen if we were more proactive in changing the background music of our on-going inner dialogue – or self-talk as we perform our daily routines?  Filling our minds with positive images of well-being can produce an epigenetic environment can produce an epigenetic environment that reinforces the healing process.

And perhaps of related interest about genes, a water flea that is a largely transparent crustacean that is half an inch in length – with only one eye in the centre of its head – has 30,907 genes – about 5000 more than humans have.

So much for hubris and cerebral chauvinism!

Enjoy!

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Charles Darwin’s monumental work – The Origin of Species in 1859, with its emphasis upon natural selection – which preserves minor advantageous genetic mutations, the struggle for survival where the inferior members of the same species would gradually die out, thereby leading to the theory of survival of the fittest.  Darwin’s theory essentially is that we live in a claw and dagger universe.  In addition, whether you are a bird, fish, banana or human being, we have all descended from a common ancestor – which 4.5 billion years ago was a microscopic unicellular portion of the primordial ooze or sludge.  However, there are missing links in Darwin’s theory that cannot account for the irreducible complexity of, say – our eyes or heart.

However, there is a new kid on the block.  The new biology, epigenesis, states that inheritable changes in gene function can occur without a change in the DNA sequence inside the nucleus of a cell.  It describes how changes in our biology occur due what is experienced outside the cell – our environment.

Cell biologist Dr. Bruce Lipton has pointed out that our basic genetic programming such as our racial features, body morphology, eye color, handedness and predisposition for certain illnesses are all programmed or laid out in our first eight weeks in utero.  After the eight weeks of our biological determinism, what happens outside the cell, environmental influences determine our genetic activity and what genes will be expressed.  This is a radical reversal of the older view of genetic determinism where we are a “prisoner” of our DNA.

In the new biology, consciousness and intention play a primary role as to which genes will be expressed whether under favorable or unfavorable conditions.

In other words, what you are thinking, feeling and believing is changing the genetic expression and chemical make-up of your body on a moment-to-moment basis.  Many ordinary states and aspects of everyday life such as waking, dreaming, work, play, stress, positive or negative emotions and especially motherhood are also associated with uniquely individual patterns of gene expression.

Neurogenesis, which involves increasing the number and density of brain cells, for example neurons and glial cells, by experiencing novelty or unusualness, looking at situations or challenges from a fresh perspective, stimulating our minds by exploring different corridors of consciousness and physical exercise all modulate the expression of genes that can actually change the physical structure of the brain.

For example, when histology was done on Einstein’s brain, it revealed that he had 72% more glial cells than the average person.  Visual artists have a greater density of neurons in the visual cortex at the back of the brain, while someone who spends most of the day typing on a computer has a more dense area in the motor cortex.  Thus, neurogenesis cannot occur without the expression of a panel of genes specific to the area of the brain that is being stimulated or activated.

A research example of epigenetic change influenced by the environment was conducted by a University of California anatomist, Dr. Marion Diamond.  She selected a species of white rats that had been specifically bred to be of above average intelligence.  They were randomly separated into two groups.  Group A was raised in cages that had activity wheels, lots of toys which were replaced with new toys every four days (read novelty) and lots of attention from the graduate students who were caretakers of the cages.

Group B were raised in environmentally barren cages – nothing but food pellets and water (read – boring!).  They got little or no attention from the grad students overseeing the project.

The pups or offspring of Group A were then raised in regular cages without any notable environmental stimulation or toys.  However, the rat pups turned out to be smarter than their parents and their offspring even smarter.  The increase in intelligence (for solving tricky mazes) went on for at least three generations.

The offspring of the group B rats were less intelligent than their parents and their offspring even less intelligent for solving the same maze as Group A.  Again, the “dumbing down” went on for at least three generations.

Remember, all the rats were from the same gene pool or species.  The important consideration here is that genetic cascades are turned on or off by our experiences and our perception of our environment.

I have used this example before but it is very relevant to the concept of epigenesis.  Approximately five percent of the population is born with an oncogene (a gene for the potential of developing cancer).  Let us say that both Robert and George have the oncogene.  Robert was raised in a loving, supportive, encouraging and sympathetic environment.  His view of the world is love and growth.

George, however, was raised in a very physically and emotionally abusive environment with lots of negativity and degrading put-downs.  His view or perception of the world is fear.

According to Dr. Lipton, genes cannot turn themselves on or off.  It is only one’s perception and/or experience of the environment that will cause a gene to express itself.  Thus, in this case, George’s fear and anger would quite likely cause his oncogene to be turned on while Robert’s feeling of safety and love will most likely keep his oncogene from being expressed.

There are several kinds of genes.  Immediate early genes act very quickly – can respond in seconds.  Early activated genes reach peak expression in about one hour.  Intermediate genes take about two hours to be released and late genes peak in about eight hours but their effects could last for hours or years.

Even in romance!  It must be love because when female fruit flies hear male courtship songs, they turn on immune system genes apparently getting ready for potential infections.

And African butterflies, when the weather is cool (dry season), will release an epigenetic signal to cause their wings to turn brown, so they can blend with the dried up plants.  During wet weather, another series of genes is expressed and their wings take on a color so they can blend with the bright foliage.

However, very few if any processes are turned on by a single gene.  Many genes are implicated in different conditions in different ways.  For example, in patients with heart disease, 600 genes are expressed.  In addition, of the 600 genes, different genes are involved in different time periods, minute by minute, day by day.

In view of the above, one might think that we have been barking up the wrong biological tree.  This does not negate Darwinism or the idea that one of the primary functions of genes was the transmission of information across generations.

Epigenetics repositions and redefines the importance of consciousness, attitudes and beliefs in the here and now.  “Happy” genes are in everybody’s body and brain as are “unhappy” ones.  In other words, it is not too late to give yourself a psychospiritual and epigenetic makeover by placing new, healing and empowering genetic markers on your chess board of life.

This topic will be continued in our next blog.

References

Church, Dawson (2009).  The Genie In Your Genes. Santa Rosa, CA, Energy Psychology Press.

 Rossi, Ernest (2002). The Psychobiology of Gene Expression.  New York, W.W. Norton & Co.

Greetings!

 Increasingly, many physicians and psychologists are working more and more with chronic illnesses such as fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, autoimmune disorders, arthritis and so forth.  Hypnosis is a powerful technique for mediating mind/body problems.  However, the following study suggests that “waking hypnosis” can have a powerful impact on dehypnotizing ourselves from our “belief trances”.

Some years ago, in an intriguing study on mental and physical aging, Harvard psychologist Dr. Ellen Langer selected a group of 75 to 80 year old men.  As volunteers, they took several sets of measurements to establish a baseline of biological markers recommended by geriatricians.  The measurements included handgrip, triceps skinfold, finger length, height, gait and posture.  Additional tests included physical strength, hearing, visual thresholds and a batter of psychological tests.

The men were then taken to a ten acre country retreat where the setting was designed to look and feel like it was twenty years earlier.  The music, magazines, TV programs and other cultural reminders created an atmosphere that was twenty years younger.  The premise of the experiment was that seeing oneself as young or old influences the aging process.

The men in the experimental group were instructed to literally act like the people they were twenty years ago – to think, write and talk in the vernacular and present tense, as if living in that time period.  They all wore photo ID’s taken twenty years earlier.  They were instructed to discuss the sports heroes, actors and political issues of that time and to get into the spirit and role play for one week – and function as if they were twenty years younger.

The control group of men were instructed to simply focus on that past era without absorbing themselves in the old mindset.  More importantly, the experimental group were given more responsibility and greater demands were placed on them such as taking care of their own luggage, organizing all the activities for the week, follow complex instructions about their daily routine – all of which were a big change from being coddled and being taken care of to which they had been accustomed at home.

The results of the role-playing were stunning.  Seven days later, both groups of men looked about four years younger.  However, the men in the experimental group experienced greater joint flexibility, an increase in finger length, greater manual-dexterity, a greater increase in sitting height and greater increases in tricep skinfold or chest breadth, than the control group.

These were remarkable physical changes for just seven days in this novel environment.  The most significant changes however, occurred in the intelligence test, specifically an improvement in the sub-tests measuring short-term memory, concentration, perpetual-motor, coordination and learning speed.  The elegance and simplicity of this astonishing experiment reinforced the hypothesis that a person’s body and mind could be turned back to a more youthful state.  In other words, so-called irreversible signs of aging could be reversed using psychological strategies.  It also underscored the power of beliefs and attitude that can either contribute to or invert the aging process.

This study stimulated me to wonder how hypnotic techniques might contribute to a similar outcome.  I turned to some of the concepts of quantum physics for the answer.

Everything in our universe at a sub-atomic and molecular level vibrates at a particular frequency.  Dense materials with a heavier atomic structure such as metal vibrate at a much slower frequency than lighter materials such as flowers and flower essences.  This is particularly true of all cells, organs and systems of the body which have their own individual signature frequency.  Like fingerprints and snowflakes, each molecule is unique with its own specific vibration but when combined with other molecules and cell assemblies, the integrated frequencies become a resonance.  Like an orchestra, an individual instrument produces notes within a certain frequency band but when combined with a range of all the instruments this produces an “umbrella resonance” subsuming the individual vibrations.  Thus, the cell assemblies of a stomach, heart or pancreas each have their individual resonant signature or “song” that is released though either infrasonic sound or vibrations of photos (light).

One could use the metaphor of the body as a symphony orchestra with the mind/brain as the symphony conductor.  Thus, if the mind/brain perceives stress, a negative resonance would be transmuted into the body and one or more of the different sections of the orchestra e.g (woodwinds – lungs, percussion – heart) would lose the signature of harmony with the rest of the orchestra and quite likely plant the seed for disease.  Physicist Mae-Won Ho states that each thought generated or held in the mind has a signature wave or frequency or a cycle of energy; each frequency of thought affects the light and infrasonic waves of the body – harmonically or not, and therefore each thought affects the immune system, the neurotransmitters, hormones, molecules and cells of the body immediately.  Thus, the body consciousness is interconnected and entangled with the “brain consciousness” and each wavelength frequency of thought can create health and harmony, or disease.

What happens to the original harmonic signature or resonance of health once one “loses” or “forgets” the song of harmony and health?  Again, according to relativity theory, energy cannot be created or destroyed but transmuted into a different wave form.

This suggests that the original “song” or resonance of optimal health is still within the organism but has been transformed or “pushed aside” by the “symphony conductor’s” mental vibrations, or stress, fear, anger or any other negative resonant emotion.

This concept was first alluded to by Milton Erickson when he described hypnosis as a process for helping us re-discover what we already know but perhaps don’t know, or have forgotten we know it.

The techniques I developed for helping people re-discover the original harmonics of health is to go to a safe place (magical garden) and picture themselves standing there when they possessed the most optimal energies of health, wellness and enthusiasm for life and the future.  Let us assume for heuristic purposes that it was at age twenty-eight (to be established by the client).

At this point, a fairly deep hypnotic trance is induced, the person is taken to a safe place with his/her “younger self” standing on a “power spot” in the magical garden.  The hypnotic wording and suggestions at this point would be…. “As you walk around…and look at the younger you….recalling and absorbing the feelings of health…energy…flexibility…agility and vitality…that you experienced…are still stored…within your energy…and consciousness fields…once you feel comfortable…with those memories…mentally step into the body of the younger you…and fuse and blend…with the younger you…allowing the younger you…to become the teacher…for the older you…as you become one with the energies of the younger you…allow the younger you…to entrain the energetic resonances and memories of the older you…to entrain the optimal vibrations of health…for your immune system…lymphatic system…circulatory…and cerebrospinal systems…nervous…skeletal…muscular…and all organs…and endocrine glands…(I keep repeating the suggestions in a hypnotic, gentle, encouraging fashion)…once the health and healing resonances of health…and wellness of the younger, you will experience a shift…a release…sigh…or twitch”.  This can take from one to several minutes.

The suggestions continue…”I would now like…the most trusted part of your subconscious…to select one of the four or five dream cycles you have every night…and to make that a healing dream…to heal whatever needs to  be healed..from the past or present…so that you can rediscover your state of grace…your optimal health state…as close to the younger you as possible”.

To close the session, the following suggestions are offered… “and when your conscious and subconscious minds…agree to work co-operatively…through different rest cycles of the day (ultradian cycles)…and…certain dreams…at night…to maintain the optimal vibrations…and resonance of health…will those eyes open…as if they have a mind..of their own”.

As is my custom with each hypnosis client, I then have the person practice the entrainment technique of stepping into the body of the “younger you” on their own by doing self-hypnosis without my being in the room.

For the clients who are faithfully compliant in practicing this process for ten minutes a day, I have been getting very encouraging responses, and in two cases, very extraordinary positive health gains.

For those of you working with chronic health problems, I hope this technique will add to the strategies you are currently employing.

References

 Friedman, Norman. (1990). Bridging Science and Spirit. Living Lakes Books, St. Louis, Missouri

Ho, Mae-Won. (1977). www.i-sis-org/lcm/shtml

Langer, Ellen (1989). Mindfulness. Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. Inc., New York.

Rossi, Ernest (1996). The Symptom Path To Enlightenment. Palisades Gateway Publishing, Pacific Palisades, California.

            While King Charles II was traveling in his carriage along with an entourage of escorts and followers, the carriage broke down.  As the King was alighting from the carriage, the hem of his garment accidentally touched a man with a horrible skin condition.  Within two days, the skin condition was totally healed.  Word got around and eventually back to King Charles that the King possessed the healing touch.

            Many sick people petitioned the King to “touch” them and be obliged, healing approximately four thousand people a year!  However, the King tired of this outlandish eccentricity and appointed, by decree, a royal stroker who had an official letter from the King bestowing the royal touch on to the stroker.

            Several “strokers” were appointed over time and they would go down long lines of sick people with a variety of illnesses, touching them one by one and stretching the brain and beliefs into the epiphanies of divine healing.

            One stroker, a man by the name of Valentine was particularly effective.  Because so many of the “patients” smelled, were covered with sores and other vulgar deformities, he chose to touch them with a feather.  The results were the same.  He would treat or “stroke” hundreds of people a day by simply and literally running down long lines of very ill, sickly, afflicted men and women and simply stroking them with a feather and spreading the contagious magic of healing.

            England’s King Edward the Confessor also touched hundreds of subjects who also reported remissions and healing of a wide range of physical maladies and illnesses.

            Touching is an essential part of human nurturing from birth onward and results in the brain releasing a cascade of neurotransmitters, as well as triggering the release of a number of genes.

            As indicated in a previous blog on placebos, the placebo effect has been recognized for centuries.  Michael deMontaigne, a French philosopher, stated in 1572 that “there are men on whom the mere sight of a medicine is operative”.  And again, one of the remarkable things about many medications is that their effects are only slightly better than those obtained from a placebo.  Some drugs and surgical procedures have results that are no better than placebos.

            With respect to the latter, orthopedic surgeon Bruce Mosely published a remarkable study in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2002.  His study has shaken surgical treatment to its core.  He selected world war II veterans, men in their 70’s who had major knee problems, pain and had great difficulty in walking without assistance.

            He divided the men into three groups.  Group one, following the incision just had the knee rinsed with no further treatment.  Group two had the complete, normal surgical procedure – opening, rinsing, trimming and suturing.  Group three was about to make medical history.  They experienced a sham surgery where the procedure was started as if it were the real surgery and three small cuts were made in the knee.  Dr. Mosely then went through the same motions as if he were doing the real knee operation.  He had a video tape of an actual surgery running in the operating room so he could simulate each stage of the surgical procedure.  As he was going through the sham surgery, he could have for the appropriate instruments and make typical comments and sounds that he would usually make for the full forty minutes.  The three small surgical cuts were then sutured and nothing therapeutically had been done to the knee.  The results were astonishing!  All three groups improved and showed great mobility and freedom from pain.  None of the groups did better than the placebo group.

            One of the subjects could barely walk, was limping in pain with every step and following the sham surgery had no stiffness, tiredness and he no longer dragged his leg.  As a matter of fact, he asked for the same operation on his other knee.  The patients were followed for six years and the sham surgery subjects sustained their “improvement” without further medical treatment.

            Thus patients who received the “pretend” surgery did as well as those that received debridement or lavage.   Some who were barely able to walk before the surgery were now able to run.  In some cases, those who received the placebo surgery, at certain points in their recovery process, their reported results were better than those who had actually received arthroscopic surgery.

            The question that must be running through your minds about the effectiveness of placebos, as it has through my mind many times is – why? – how do they work? – what are the underlying biochemical mechanisms?  No one knows.  Lots of theories – explanatory fictions – but no one knows for certain.

            Psychologist Dr. Amir Raz suggests that perhaps some form of suggestive or implicit hypnosis may be involved.  Perhaps, but having practiced hypnosis for many years, there is no concensus or agreement amongst clinicians as to what hypnosis is or why it works.  So we have one explanatory fiction being utilized to help define and understand another explanatory fiction.

            My favorite definition of hypnosis is that it is the “induction of conviction”.  However, that does not explain why some people who are highly hypnotizables (good hypnotic subjects) may not necessarily respond that well to hypnotic suggestions.  On the other hand, some low hypnotizables may turn out to be excellent and very responsive hypnotic subjects.

            Perhaps bewilderment is the beginning of expanding into a wider perception and understanding.  Perhaps the older growth forests of the mind contain new watersheds of thought.  The challenge of course is aside from psychedelics, how can we develop and explore new, more enlightening corridors of consciousness that will create an energetic tango – stretching the brain well beyond its usual limits.  What do you think?

In my last blog, I discussed the role that the placebo response has played in influencing SSRI research outcome.

What is placebo?  Put simply, the placebo effect is the biological impact of believing in a medical treatment.  Incidentally, the history of the word placebo is revealing.  It is the first word of a chant in medieval funeral rites – “placebo domino” – “I shall please the Lord” and professional mourners were paid to sing placebos.  Their chanting was believed to be of value and to ease the grief of the family.

One of the most important and fundamental core beliefs in cell biology is that many of our physical and psychological qualities are “controlled” by our genes.  The Human Genome Project is creating a great deal of research and excitement among scientists world-wide and new genes that they consider determine our health and behavior are being discovered almost monthly.  Implicit in these discoveries is that biology is destiny.  But is it?

Several years ago, a 15 year old English boy with a severe case of “warts” was referred to Dr. Andrew Mason, a physician who utilized hypnosis as the treatment of choice for this condition.  A surgeon had been consulted but couldn’t help as the warts were too extensive all over the boy’s body.  The young man had scaly, thickened deformed skin and the infection and smell were so bad that he couldn’t attend school.

Fortunately, the boy was an excellent hypnotic subject and Dr. Mason suggested the thick, disfigured, hardened and infected skin disappear one limb at a time and be replaced by healthy, pink normal skin.  The diseased skin began to fall away within days and for the first time in his life, the boy had normal appearing skin.

However, at the case conference, Dr. Mason was stunned to discover that the pathologist who did the biopsy said that Dr. Mason’s diagnosis was wrong.  This was not a case of warts but a severe case of congenital ichthyosis or Brocq’s Disease.  It is a DNA mediated congenital disease that is considered incurable and victims of this disease have a relatively short life-span.  The so-called alligator men of circus side-shows have Brocq’s Disease and they must be very careful as the slightest sharp movement will cause the skin to crack and bleed and be very susceptible to infection.  The boy remained symptom free for at least five years at which point Dr. Mason lost contact with him.

 Dr. Mason published this case in the British Medical Journal which prompted so many calls from around the world that the Journal opened a special switchboard to handle the volume of inquiries.

Other clinicians reported similar results and their published cases reported success rates ranging from 50% – 90%.

How can hypnosis have such a profound effect in a disease that is genetically determined?  This is indeed extraordinary because Brocq’s disease is a hereditary, genetic condition that involves much more than controlling autonomic processes such as blood flow and immune system function.  In means tapping into our DNA master plan – our genetic programming itself which suggests our minds and beliefs can over-ride even our genetic make-up in certain cases.  In many scientific circles, this poses a rather sticky biological inconvenience.

Relevant to my last blog on SSRI’s or anti-depressant medication, in an eight week study at UCLA, patients were selected who had a long standing history of depression.  They were randomized into two groups – placebo control and the experimental group receiving a new SSRI.  Brain scans were done before and after treatment.  The pre-treatment or baseline brain scans revealed what would be expected in depression – a dampening or reduction of electrical activity in the left pre-frontal cortex which mediates or reflects high spirits or positive feelings and a much more electrical activity in the right pre-frontal cortex which reflects a more depressive, sad or sorrowful state.

At the completion of the study, both the placebo controls and the experimental group receiving the active pharmaceutical – the anti-depressant showed significant changes in the electrical language of the brain waves between left and right pre-frontal cortices.

In other words, the placebo control subjects were able to subconsciously ignite and activate other neurological pathways in the brain with just belief and expectation.

However, there are two sides to the coin of belief and expectation.  A Tennessee oncologist reported a single case study where a patient had been diagnoses with esophageal cancer.  It is almost always fatal and the patient died.  However, the autopsy showed no esophageal cancer but he did have two nodes on his liver – but they were not large enough to cause death.  The doctor sadly admitted that the patient’s belief that he had cancer was more deadly than the cancer itself.

Thus, belief can be both a healer and a slayer – or the so-called nocebo effect.  Dr. Edgar Mitchell, former astronaut, the sixth man to walk on the moon and the founder of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, in his book The Way of the Explorer, described a bitter-sweet experience of the placebo/nocebo effect.  Dr. Mitchell;s mother was nearly blind with a deteriorating visual condition.  Norbu Chen a noted Tibetan healer and shaman was being tested at the Institute.  Dr. Mitchell asked Mr. Chen to utilize his Shamanistic remote healing abilities on his mother.  The following morning, she was miraculously able to read without her glasses.  Dr. Mitchell was astonished and his mother’s vision continued to improve over the next several days.

His mother, curious of course, then inquired about the healer and learned that Norbu Chen was not of the same faith as her Christmas religious fundamentalism.  She then perceived her restored sight as something diabolic or perhaps the work of the devil.  Within a few hours of her discovery, she was almost blind again.  This was a dramatic example of how both belief and disbelief are powerful factors, especially in health and illness that can create either a placebo or nocebo response.

In a recent review of studies of the placebo effect published in the Journal of The American Medical Association the conclusion was that believing that something works – may indeed make it work.  In other words, intentionality, hope and expectancy are critical to igniting the inner pharmacy that we all possess.  However, contrary to myth, there does not appear to be a so-called “placebo personality”.  Placebos can work on anybody – wise person and fool alike – not merely suggestible people.  Under the right circumstances – namely – if the person believes that someone is trying to help them and thus expect relief – especially if that someone is an optimistic physician in a clinical setting.  But also contrary to myth, the relief of pain or illness by the placebo effect does not mean the problem was make-believe or fabricated.

Placebos range in effectiveness from 31% to as high as 72% in studies involving pain management.  There are at least two studies where placebos were 100% effective as the experimental pharmaceutical.  Several studies have informed the subjects they were being given a placebo and astonishingly, 63% of them responded as if they were given the experimental or real drug.  In another study, 15 patients were involved in trials where neither an active drug nor psychotherapy were offered.  Instead, they were given a bottle of pills and the researchers told them frankly – “these are sugar pills which contain no active ingredients or medicine”.  The patients took the pills three times a day for one week.  They were given a symptom check list before and after the one week trial and 14 of the 15 subjects had significantly reduced symptoms.

 In follow up interviews, half the group said they got better because they took the placebo while the other half claimed they improved because the placebo stimulated them to draw upon their own innate abilities to heal.

 In other studies, subjects taking placebos were so convinced that the pills contained real medication that they reported experiencing a number of side effects and several subjects reported withdrawal symptoms from the placebos.

An amusing aspect of placebos is that when placebos – or real drugs for that matter are in the form of colored capsules – blue, green and purple seem to work especially well as sedatives and sleeping pills – whereas orange, red and yellow seem to work best as stimulants or energy boosters.  One patient was totally convinced that his two colored capsules would not work unless he swallowed them green end first.  Needless to say, he got what he believed.

            In my next blog, I will discuss a fascinating phenomena – “The King’s Touch and the Placebo Response”.

            I just finished reading The Emperor’s New Drugs: Exploding the Antidepressant Myth by psychologist Dr. Irving Kirsch.

            Like his colleagues, Kirsch spent years referring patients to psychiatrists to have their depression treated with drugs.  Because of mixed feedback from his patients on the efficacy of SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors), eventually however he decided to investigate for himself just how effective the drugs really were. 

            With fifteen years of investigation on the effectiveness of SSRIs, Kirsch established with solid research and methodology that what everyone “knew” about anti-depressants is wrong – despite what the medical community considered the cornerstone of psychiatric treatment.

            According to drug companies more than 80 percent of depressed patients can be treated successfully by anti-depressants (SSRIs).  Obviously, many people believe the drug companies message as SSRIs are one of the most widely prescribed prescription drugs in the world with global sales that make it a $19 – billion dollar a year industry.  The underlying assumption is that depression is a “disease of the brain” that can be cured by medication.

            Clinical depression is a serious debilitating condition where people with severe depression can feel unbearably sad and anxious – sometimes to the point of considering suicide.  They may also be racked with feelings of guilt and worthlessness.  Many suffer from insomnia; others sleep too much and find it difficult to get out of bed in the morning.  Some have difficulty concentrating and many lose all interest in activities that brought them pleasure in the past.  Worst of all, they feel hopeless of ever recovering from this terrible state.  I am certain that all of us at some time or other have experienced depression to varying degrees.

            Up until several years ago, drug companies submitted to the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) only the research on drug effectiveness that they chose for approval.  Not anymore.  All studies – whether they exhibited a positive outcome for the drug in question or the so-called “file drawer studies” (research that did not support the positive outcome of the drug) and was tucked away in a file drawer hoping no one would look at the negative outcome).

            Using the Freedom of Information Act, Kirsch obtained all the studies – positive and “file drawer” by all the pharmaceutical companies in the United States.  He was astonished to discover that 40% of all the clinical trials conducted were withheld from publication because they failed to show a significant benefit from taking the actual drug.  Incidentally, it takes only two successful clinical trials for FDA approval of a drug before the research can be submitted to the various medical journals for publication.

            Having access to all the studies, Kirsch employed meta-analysis – a sophisticated statistical procedure that lumps together a large number of studies that are heterogeneous in subject selection, treatments employed and statistical methods used.  He was then able to rank order the effectiveness of SSRIs from one – no effectiveness, to sixty – 100% effective.   I hope you are sitting down.  The effectiveness rating came out at three!  Which means  relatively no effectiveness, or just barely more effective than placebos.  In other words, yes – SSRIs do work but not significantly more so than placebos.  To quote Kirsch –“In fact, most of the clinical trials submitted by the drug companies failed to show any significant benefit of their drugs at all.” 

            More important theaverage difference in improvement between improvement in the drug groups and improvement in the placebo groups was only 1.8 points on the Hamilton Scale for Depression.  The Hamilton is a 51- point scale, so a difference of less than two points is very small indeed.  For example, one can get a six-point reduction in Hamilton scores merely by sleeping better, even if there is no change in the person’s depressive symptoms.

            Over the next three to five years, Kirsch replicated his original work conducting two more major studies utilizing meta-analysis comparing the SSRI’s to placebos.   The results were almost identical to his first study – practically no difference between SSRI’s and placebos in treating depression.  He then hired two consultants considered to be the leading experts on meta-analysis to review his statistics.  Kirsch’s findings held up.

            SSRIs do work much better with severely depressed persons, than with mild to moderate depression.  In reviewing the data, Kirsch established that all but one of the studies had been conducted with persons who scored in the severely depressed range.  Again, the drug effect was small even for the severely depressed.

            Following the publication of Kirsch’s research, many of his colleagues who had similar reservations about SSRIs came forth with some of their findings which they labeled as “dirty little secrets”

            Pharmaceutical companies have used a number of devices to make their products look better than they actually are.  They have:

• Withheld negative studies from publication
• Published positive studies multiple times
• Published data that was different from what they submitted to the FDA
• Published only some of the results from multi-site studies

Researchers refer to the above as “cherry picking” and in fairness to the drug companies this type of selective reporting goes on in other areas of medical and psychological research.   Perhaps it should be referred to as “salami slicing” or for want of a better word – baloney J

            An important consideration for all research involving altering the brain’s chemistry is that no two people in the world have the same biochemical profile or brain chemistry, no two people have the same or identical “brain wiring”, no two people have the same bank of experiences, and no two people have the same hierarchy of beliefs (which influence the placebo response).

            I do not want to bore you with more research but in a nutshell, depression can equally be affected by drugs that increase seretonin, by drugs that decrease seretonin and drugs that do not affect if at all.  Perhaps then, perhaps we should be looking at depression as something other than the “chemical imbalance theory”.

            What are some of the other choices for treating depression?  Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) has two components – a behavioral and a cognitive component.  By teaching clients how to monitor their self-talk,  ie. drugging their minds with good or bad hypnosis (cognitive) and behaviorally planning activities that provide a sense of pleasure, a sense of mastery and accomplishment!  Research has shown that formerly depressed patients are more likely to relapse after treatment with anti-depressants than they are after psychotherapy.  Some studies have shown that both SSRI’S and psychotherapy combined produce the most ideal outcome.

            St. John’s Wort, a yellow flowering plant, is an herbal remedy widely used in Germany for depression.  A study form the University of Munich reviewed 29 clinical trial of St. John’s Wort – involving more than 5,000 depressed patients and concluded that it was more effective than placebos and just as effective as standard anti-depressants in treating depression.

            Inositol is an amino acid and in a double blind randomized study, outperformed Prozac in dealing with depression.  It can be obtained at any good health food store.  Incidentally, I take one teaspoon of Inositol every morning with water or juice and I notice a significant improvement in my mental energy and clarity.

            In my practice, I have utilized EFT with many of my clients experiencing mild to medium depression – with generally good results.  One of the reasons EFT works is that by tapping or rubbing certain acupoints, it triggers the brain to release beta endorphins – which are the endogenous morphine molecules produced by the brain that are 27 times more powerful than synthetic morphine.  What else releases beta endorphins?  Exercise (which many doctors recommend to depressed patients), laughter, good music  ie. classical music, sex (also known as mother nature’s tranquilizer J) and smoking cigarettes.

            The intention of this blog has not been to put down SSRIs – because they do work – but to provide research data so that we can be more discerning in our choice of treatment modalities.

            If you are on an SSRI – and it is working- with no side effects – then continue with your treatment regimen.

            Perhaps of related interest and good news, Psychologist Ernest Rossi in his book The Psychobiology of Gene Expression reported that three different classes of antidepressant drugs as well as electroconvulsive (ECT) Therapy all lead to the generation of significantly more dividing cells in the hippocampus (the major memory relay station of the brain).  This suggests that increased neurogenesis, or ‘increasing the proliferation and growth of brain cells is at least one mechanism for reversing psychological depression by antidepressant medication as well as ECT.  There is no data for prolonged use of SSRI’s and neurogenesis.

            One final thought – while SSRI’s have helped millions of people overcome their depression, I wonder, if in some cases, tranquilizers sometimes cut us off from intuitive breakthroughs by preventing us from coming to grips with the true “darkness of the soul” that can precede such experiences as depressive episodes – by allowing us to accept temporary, objective and artificial solutions.

In my next blog – I will discuss the other side of the coin – placebos.

“Brahms is the best anti-depressant”

                                                Peter Sproston, 2008

* Sweden – also reported a 40% rate of “file drawer” failures

Reference

Kirsch, Irving. (2010). The Emperor’s New Drugs. Exploding the Antidepressant Myth.  Basic Books, New York. 

Greetings everyone – I am back!

 My apologies for such a long break since my last blog.  For the past 10 months I have been very busy writing the script for a book length manuscript (212 pages) titled “EFT: The New Technology for Immediate Healing and Vitality” for my publisher Nightingale Conant that has produced all of my audio seminars on CD.  In addition to writing every weekend, I was sustaining a full time private practice.

 Prior to every production, Nightingale Conant conducts a massive marketing survey on what its subscribers would like for their next audio program.  Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) received one of the highest ratings of any of their previous fifty plus audio seminars.

 A bit of history: Twenty-two years ago, psychologist Dr. Roger Callahan combined a series of processes from Asian medicine and acupuncture, applied kinesiology and chiropractic techniques which he labeled Thought Field Therapy (TFT).  Each of the twelve meridians in our body have a diagnostic acupoint and a therapeutic treatment acupoint.  By utilizing applied kinesiology or muscle testing on the various diagnostic acupoints, he was asking the body/subconscious which acupressure/acupuncture points should be used for different diagnoses and treatment.

After lengthy testing and re-testing, he came up with a series of algorithms or codes for each psychological issue such as phobias, trauma, panic attacks, anxiety and so forth.  TFT turned out to be highly successful.  I became one of Roger’s earliest trainees and took three basic and advanced TFT trainings with him.  I will always be grateful to Roger as TFT (which now comes under the rubric of Energy Psychology) revolutionized my practice.

 Some years later, one of Roger’s first students, Gary Craig, who was a Stanford University Engineering graduate decided that the diagnostic and treatment algorithms were too complicated for some clients so he suggested to forego muscle testing for diagnosing and simply treat all 12 treatment points in succession – which he labeled EFT.  Trust an engineer to simply things, which nonetheless turned out to be a highly successful insight.

 I utilized TFT for the first 4000 or so clients I treated and EFT for the next 6000 plus clients.  Both TFT and EFT work but I have found EFT much easier to teach and clients are much more likely to do the EFT “homework” than the TFT algorithms.  Incidentally, there are now over 80,000 EFT practitioners in 57 countries.  Almost every traumatized Iraq or Afghanistan Veteran in the Veteran’s Administration Hospitals in the United States is taught EFT so they can continue to treat themselves as an adjunct to the other therapeutic modalities they are receiving.

 EFT works with the energetic anatomy of the body.  There are twelve meridians or corridors of energy that channel Qi – the universal life force to twelve organs, twelve sets of muscle groups and other areas of the body.  Each meridian also has an emotion that it mediates such as anxiety for the stomach meridian, fear for kidney, rage for the gall bladder meridian and so on.  In addition, there is a biofield – a cocoon of electromagnetic energy that surrounds every living system ranging in size from a spermatozoa up through all animals, humans, including trees and vegetation.

 As an aside, I spent many years researching cross-cultural healing practices in Brazil, India, Africa, Mexico and the Philippines.  Time after time, the healers I interviewed said much the same thing, “This (as they touched my body) is not the real body…it is just the dense body”.  They would go on to explain that the “real body” is the energy body or a succession of interpenetrating energy bodies – each encasing the others within it like Russian dolls.

 According to the various healers, illness begins in one of the energy bodies, depending on whether the issue is spiritual, cognitive, mental, emotional or other – and then ratchets down to the physical body where it finally captures our attention.

 In addition to the interpenetrating subtle bodies, our body also has a protective sheath or cloak of electrical resistance which is referred to as ohms.  The average body is encased in a cocoon of 300,000 to 400,000 Ohms.  There are over 360 acupuncture points on the body.  However, the electrical resistance at an acupuncture point drops to 12,000 to 14,000 Ohms.  The reason for this is that there is less impedance or obstruction.  A 95% drop in electrical resistance allows the acupuncture needle, tapping or rubbing a point to allow the energy into the meridian and release or open up a meridian so the Qi or healing energy will travel in an unimpeded way.

 While any “new” therapeutic modality is met with skepticism and even hostility by the prevailing and more entrenched schools of psychotherapy, an increasing body of research from all over the world is building to support the efficacy of EFT.

 Dr. Paul Swingle, Mari Swingle and myself published the only study so far using a Quantitative Electroencephalograph or QEEG – sometimes known as a brain map.  There were 12 volunteers who suffered significant PTSD following motor vehicle accidents.  Psychological tests measuring anxiety, depression and avoidance of driving/riding in a motor vehicle were also administered before and after being treated with EFT.

 The QEEG or brain map results at the end of the six week treatment showed significant changes including a balancing of the electrical activity in the frontal lobes of the brain, an increase in Theta, a calming brainwave activity in the back of the brain and a calming effect or body quietude in the motor cortex of the brain.  Positive and significant changes were also reflected in the psychological tests.

 In a more recent study, Dr. Swingle used EFT to reduce the intensity and frequency of seizure disorders in children diagnoses along the autism spectrum of epilepsy.

 One of the most convincing studies was conducted by five physicians at Harvard University utilizing functional magnetic resonance imaging.  Acupuncture needles were applied to several points on the hand which created a significant decrease in the electrical activity in the amygdala – which has to do with fear and emotional arousal and is located at the base of the hippocampus – which is our memory relay system in the limbic mid-brain.

 For those of you who are interested in research on EFT, I will provide a website under references at the end of this blog.

 Acupuncture was first developed in China approximately 4000 years ago.  But was it?  The world of Chinese medicine was stunned in 1991 when the well preserved and mummified body of a man was found in a melting glacier in the Otz Valley along the border between Austria and Italy.  They named the man Otzi and it turned out he was a shepherd with well preserved clothing, tools and weapons.  His body was unusually well preserved and forensic scientists could tell what he had for dinner before he was frozen in time.  He carried medicinal herbs, a tinder box for starting fires and in his leather pouch was an awl, a pointed instrument like a screw-driver but with a small, sharp pointed tip.

 What was most startling, the investigators found a series of non-ornamental tattoos on his body in the form of simple stripes or crosses, suggesting a relationship between the tattoos and acupuncture points.  Their findings were published in the medical journal, The Lancet in 1999 and updated in Discover Magazine in 2000.

 X-rays of Otzi’s body revealed evidence of arthritis in the hip joints, knees, ankles and lumbar spine.  Nine of the ice-man’s tattoos are located on the urinary bladder meridian, a meridian commonly associated with treating back pain.

 Forensic analysis revealed that Otzi’s intestines were filled with whipworm eggs, which can cause severe abdominal pain.  Five other tattoos were located along the gall bladder, spleen and liver meridians, points in Chinese medicine traditionally used to treat stomach disorders.

 The researchers noted that the tattoos could be viewed as a medical report from the Stone Age, tattooing or marking the meridians to be stimulated by the awl – serving as an acupuncture needle.

 The significance of the Tyrolean Ice Man’s discovery is that the possibility of acupuncture having originated in the European continent 2000 years before its discovery and development by the Chinese.

 Anthropologists have recorded non-ornamental tattoos in similar body locations on mummies found in Siberia and South America.  It is suggested that many Shamanistic cultures world-wide probably practiced some form of acupuncture but it was the Chinese who formalized it, researched it and saved it into modern times.

 Who would have thought that the origins of EFT could be traced back to a Stone Age shepherd!  And our cosmic metronome ticks on!

 In closing, if I may be permitted an unsolicited “commercial”, I have created and produced a 55 minute DVD on the utilization of EFT.  This includes three demonstrations and an easy to follow graphic with the sequences and locating of the treatment acupoints clearly delineated.

 I recorded EFT, the 7 hour audio seminar on EFT in Chicago in March and it was released by Nightingale Conant in June, 2011.  I am happy to say this program is now available on my website, you can order it HERE  now!

References

1        Gallo, Fred. 2000.  Energy Diagnostic and Treatment Methods.  New York:  W.W. Norton.

2        Mallory, Barbara.  2007.  EFT Exercises for Kids.  Las Cruces, N.M.  Ravensong Readings.

3        Swingle, Paul, Pulos, Lee and Swingle, Mari.  2004.  Neurophysiological Indicators of EFT Treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress.  Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine, Volume 15. No 1, pp 75 – 86.

4        Pulos, Lee.  EFT: The New Technology for Immediate Healing and Vitality.  Nightingale Conant, Niles, Illinois, 2011.

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