Hypnosis helps the blind see!
Dr. Stephen Gurgevich, a hypnotherapist at the University of Arizona School of Medicine recently shared a story of an incredible use of medical hypnosis that I want to tell you about. Anyone who’s followed my work for a while knows that I have been privileged to discover and see first-hand how the mind can heal the body.
This should really come as no surprise as cutting edge medical practice doesn’t make the distinction between the body and the mind anymore. Instead, we talk about the bodymind because we know that changes in one’s emotional states affect changes in one’s body, and vice versa. Psychoneuroimmunology is one specialty where the relationship between psychological processes and emotional states are explored to bring relief to patients who are challenged by debilitating illness.
Adrenaline courses through your body, your heart beats and your might even shake a little. This is because your mind perceived something as a sudden threat and set a whole host of bodily functions into play to protect you. The reverse is true; physical discomfort can cause such emotional disruption that daily life can seem impossible. People who suffer from chronic pain can sometimes become deeply depressed also.
So to the case at hand: a 45-year-old man was referred to Dr. Gurgevich because he was struggling with a significant health challenge. The client had burned both eyes using liquid silver at work and was, for an intents and purpose, blind. As part of his course of medical intervention he had three separate cornea transplant operations. All subsequently failed as patient’s body rejected the new corneas and he remained blind. Any transplant operation is fraught with this possibility as the body’s self-defense system can reject any transplant as an invading marauder.
Dr. Gurgevich worked with the patient for six weeks and during that time, he developed such a rapport that he was able to utilize ideomotor responses to communicate with the patient’s subconscious mind. An ideomotor response is a technique where the therapist uses involuntary bodily responses to questions (like lifting the index finger) in order to talk with the subconscious mind. He developed a relationship with the client’s subconscious mind and then using trance dialogue they discovered that indeed, the body perceived the transplants as invaders and rejected them.
After several sessions, the subconscious mind communicated in the hypnotic state that it was ready to receive the new corneas. So after some pre-surgical preparatory sessions, the patient was given the hypnotic suggestion that the body’s immune system would not reject the invading transplants, but rather see them as a welcome visitor.
The result? 10 years’ post-surgery, the patient’s body has not rejected the transplants and the patient sees just fine. This seems incredible to someone not aware of the power of the mind, but in some ways it’s just a confirmation that powerful change can happen…even to seemingly intractable physical conditions.
You may not need to regain your sight, but I’m sure you have powerful change that you’d love to make. So whether it’s in my beautiful Beverly Hills office, or by Skype, let’s get busy creating the new you!
