Adventures in The Unconscious Mind

Adventures in the Unconscious Mind

By Phil Bate PhD


In 1949, I had a real problem with a dental phobia.  Four dentists had turned me down as a patient.  I had two abscessed teeth and a mouthful of other cavities.  My dental phobia was so bad that it had forced me to go to a hospital several years earlier in order to have three abscessed teeth removed while I was unconscious. 

I went to a dental convention where I found the recommended dentist who did hypnosis.  He couldn’t work on my teeth, but he said he thought he could help me.  So, at the lunch break, I went to his room with several other dentists, and he hypnotized me with a “standard” induction technique.  Then, he taught me a psychological trick of relaxation.  If I raised my left hand whenever I felt my right hand becoming a fist, indicating tension, the dentist would stop, and I would relax my right hand, and lower my left hand.)  I didn’t believe it would work, but I made an appointment with the last dentist who had turned me down and had recommended hypnosis.

For the first few minutes, I kept raising my left hand, and he stopped immediately.  After that, I didn’t need to raise my left hand much at all, and he worked fast.

He pulled the two bad teeth, and drilled and filled a dozen more in one single hour and half session.  I had Novocain for the bad ones, and didn’t need it for the others.  Both the dentist and I were amazed at this, and he asked if I were really twins

To me, a 22-year-old engineering student, this was a genuine “miracle”, and I started to learn all I could about this miracle cure.  I read everything I could find, from the 1700’s literature about Mesmer, Coue, etc, up to Erickson, Barber, etc.

I became an electronic engineer, and pursued this as my major career, but my avocation continued to be hypnosis, and by extension, psychology.  (Much of behavior psychology is similar to hypnosis).   I used it professionally, taught it in a major university to doctors, and continued to learn about it.  I performed some “shows”, and considered a career as a stage hypnotist, but was more interested in using it for helping people, as it had helped me. 

In 1979, I left electronic engineering, and turned to psychology.  I went back and obtained a Doctorate in Psychology based on my education, life experience, and my doctoral dissertation.  I became a successful Behaviorist Psychologist for a few years in private practice in Florida.  I gradually converted to an orthomolecular practice when I found that these types of therapies worked better than any “talk therapy”, although talk therapy is sometimes useful as well.      
Hypnotic Relaxation

During this many years of study, and later career as a psychologist, I realized that what that original dentist who hypnotized me had actually done.  With hypnosis, he had simply given me a “new” conscious tool of relaxation.  Using this simple tool, I could actually change something in my unconscious called a “phobia”.  It wasn’t really a miracle, though I had thought so at the time.  Adding this knowledge to my knowledge of Pavlovian “conditioning responses”, I came up with what I called the Bate Relaxation Technique. 

This is very simple, yet it can be very powerful – much more powerful than most realize because of its simplicity.  It starts with a general hypnotic induction technique of relaxing the body muscles, starting with the toes and going up to the scalp and face.  Then, in a state of muscle relaxation, ask the subject to visualize a very beautiful relaxing scene he/she is in.  Describe the scene.  Ask them to concentrate on how beautiful and very relaxing it is.

Then, ask the subject to memorize the feelings of relaxation and concentration they are feeling at that time.  Have them put these feelings into their memory like a photograph.  Then, give them a post-hypnotic suggestion that they can now recall those feeling any time they simply count to three.  End the session, and have the subject stand up, take a deep breath and simply count to three. 

It’s simply amazing how the shoulders often slump 2-3 inches or some other muscles that the subject usually tenses from stress relax.  I describe the “strange” feeling as sort of a “blah” feeling.  (As subjects stand up from the session, their “normal” pattern of muscle stress takes effect, and the “instant” relaxation is definitely experienced.)

I then tell the subject that they now have the pattern, but it up to them to use it often, several times a day, even if not needed, for the next week or so.  This will set this pattern into their unconscious as a “conditioned response”.  (Remember Pavlov’s dog?)  Now, they have the same tool I got from the original dentist, but it is much more enhanced and valuable.  It instantly relieves stress of any kind.
  
Driving a car a long distance is very stressful.  My wife and I recently drove over 20 hours straight thru, with me driving about 14 of those hours.  At 78 years old, that’s not “usual”.  The secret – we both simply count to three every so often and are able to relax behind the wheel.  Muscle tension is very tiring, and few are able to relax this muscle tension behind the wheel.

This relaxation technique is very useful in many ways in helping to solve psychological problems of phobias, compulsions, and even some serious physical problems.  I was able to solve dozens of Asthma problems in all persons between 7 and 15 years old, and was often successful with older persons as well.  (Kids in this age range are very suggestible; some adults are too cynical.)

The system is simple, but effective.  First, teach the relaxation.  Then, have the patient emulate a really bad asthma attack.  “Come on, get really bad, your throat is closing more and more.”  It’s getting worse and worse.”   When the patient really starts to become in distress, say, “Now, count to three”.  As he gets to three, he relaxes, and say, “Now, it’s gone, and you are in control”. 

Many years ago, I did this routine on the 14-year-old son of lifelong friends.  When I was visiting them a few years ago, I walked into the store of the son, and he recognized me immediately.  I was surprised as it had been over 20 years since he had seen me.  He said, “Do you think I could ever forget the man who cured my Asthma?” 

It was another great day for my ego.

There’s nothing magical or even mysterious about it.  All you are doing is teaching a new “trick” to the unconscious mind.  This “trick” of instant relaxation is learned as a conditioned response by repetition and use.  It becomes a tool for the conscious mind to use in all types of situations to reduce stress.  As everybody knows, stress ages us, diminishes the immune system, and helps to kill us. 

The various forms of yoga and other meditation techniques are similar, yet different.  They relieve stress of course, but are of little use in immediate stressful situations.  This relaxation is immediate.

This also can be used for self-hypnosis, positive statements and visualizations.

I also used it for patients that wanted to stop smoking as a “substitute” for that instant craving that comes to an addicted smoker. 

One idea makes a lot of people “afraid” of hypnosis.  The idea that another person has “control” over them, and can make them do literally anything.  Every experiment ever conducted has shown that this is simply not true.  Hypnosis cannot force a person to do anything that is against his/her moral code.  The unconscious mind is very protective, and is what we are working with either with hypnosis or subliminal training. 

There is some possibility of “indirect” misuse of hypnosis.  I once witnessed a hypnotist demonstrating this.  He had a very attractive woman who was very hypnotizable (instantly into somnambulism by snapping his fingers).  He hypnotized her, and told her to take off her clothes.  She awoke instantly and was embarrassed, but couldn’t say why. 


He then hypnotized her again, and this time, told her that she was at home in her bathroom with the door closed, and she was going to take a bath.  She calmly started to take off her clothes.  He stopped her before she got too far, but she was obviously going to completely strip. 

It was interesting how he stopped her.  He told her that someone had come into her home, and was near the bathroom door.  She said, “Don’t come in.  I’m not dressed”. 

He then had her get dressed, and woke her.  She had no memory of the incident.

 When I was a young man, I had a girlfriend who I had sex with once or twice.   And she had been hypnotized several times as well.  One night I wanted sex, but she didn’t.  I used the cue that hypnotized her, but to no avail.  She refused, even hypnotized.  So, the idea that someone can make you do something you do not want to do is false.  I can testify to that personally.  Our unconscious mind is very protective of us in all ways, even though some ways may be wrong. 

Of course, if you work with either hypnosis or subliminal training, or virtually any type of serious psychology you have to be aware of the unconscious mind, as that entity is always what you are trying to influence. 

Hypnotic Age Regression

This is a very useful tool for a psychologist, or, for that matter, any doctor of any stripe.  Under even “light” hypnosis, it can be used to “pull” details from the life of the patient that he/she has forgotten consciously.  (The unconscious memory has everything in it.) 

There are several “tricks of the trade” involved.  After my Relaxation Technique, I used a “deepening” technique that went something like this,  “Now, I want you to imagine and visualize yourself going down an escalator as I count to ten.  One, imagine yourself stepping on and feeling the steps form under your feet.  Two, as you move down, relax even more.  Three, as you go down further, concentrate more and more.  Four, and as you relax more, you can concentrate more.  Five, this positive circle of concentration and relaxation continues as you move down.”

Continue with similar repetitions thru nine, and then, “Ten, step off the escalator into a room.  This room is yours alone.  It is only in your mind, and no one else can ever get into it.  You can make it anything you want.  In this room, you can do anything or visualize anything that will help you to be a better person.  In this room you can remember anything you want.”

Next, I would start the questioning.  For example, a man came to me to try to find a lost valuable diamond engagement ring.  He and his fiancée had broken up, and she had returned the ring to him.  He remembered taking the ring, but when he got home, he couldn’t find it at all.   I did the above technique, then started.

I said. “I want to you to go back in time to the moment when she handed you the ring.  Where were you and she at that time?”

He replied, “We were in her living room.”

“Alright, see yourself taking the ring.  What did you do with it?”

He said, “I’m putting it into my small watch pocket of my jeans.”

“OK, now you are leaving her.  What happened next?”

“I’m getting into my car, and driving home”

“Good, what happens next?”

“I’m going into my bedroom, and changing clothes.”

“Why?”

“I have to go to a baseball presentation dinner.”

“OK, what did you do with your jeans?”

“Omigod, I put them in the washer!”

That was the story.  He went home and found the ring stuck in the washer.  (The usual story of such is that it gets caught in the “U” drain under a sink.)  This illustrates the value of “age regression” as a memory aid.

Of course, it’s also useful to uncover the beginnings of phobias and compulsions.  A woman came to me with a cat phobia and asthma.  I did the usual as above, and with a couple of other useful techniques found the problem.  One “trick” is to say, “OK, now you are going back in time.  It is your 15th birthday.  You are awake in that morning.  Do you have asthma?”

She replied, “yes.”  (She had earlier said on intake questioning that her asthma had started very early.  I start well past that so as to get the patient used to going back.)

“Ok, now you are ten years old, just waking up on your birthday.  Do you have asthma now?”  Same answer.
“OK, you are now five years old, on your birthday.  Do you have asthma now?”  Same answer

 I worked back thru 4 and 3 and 2, 1, and started back in months.  I got to the ninth month, and she didn’t have asthma.  Still she had no memory of anything that was related.  So, I went to her tenth month, and went backwards, day to day with the same question.  I got to the day when she did have asthma.  Now I asked her, “What happened to you during the last day that caused you to have asthma?  I am going to count to three, and when I get to three, you will remember everything.  One, you’re starting to remember.  Two, memory is coming back.  Three, you now remember everything.”

She then related, “I was lying on my back in a crib, and the cat jumped into the crib, and lay across my mouth.  I couldn’t breathe, or call out, and I was scared.  I don’t know what happened, but I think I hit the cat, and she went off me.”

It was two birds with one stone.  Cat phobia, and asthma caused at that point.  Asthma is often a “protective” device used to keep oxygen in the body.  Most can easily breath in but have real problems breathing out.  This was her case. 

Then, we get to the really interesting part.  Age regression to past lives.  As an agnostic, I don’t really know if the many stories I have heard from many persons are true, or something from the universal mind or what?

Probably the single most impressive story is from the man who came to me with two lifelong phobias that he had had since earliest memory.  He was deathly afraid of fire and water.  He thought that these phobias might be from past lives, and asked me to try to find out. 

He was easily hypnotizable, and with little urging went back thru birth to the previous life.  He had been a circus clown, and been burned to death in a circus fire.  It was then simple to go back to a previous life to that.  It seems that he had stolen a horse, and was caught.  The vigilantes didn’t have a tree, so they hanged him from a bridge.  The rope broke, and he drowned.  Of course, it took much more time to go thru, and some suggestions from me.  He was cured according to a phone call a week later.

I’ve had several such interesting cases.  Another was fascinating to me.  Under hypnosis, a man kept saying, “All I can see is a bird”.  I kept after him about this bird for 10 or more minutes, but he couldn’t see much more than this bird.  Finally, he said, “It’s a black bird, and it’s on my shield”. 

I pressed him harder about his shield, and did he have a sword and a horse.  He suddenly screamed, “There’s blood all around me, and all over me and my horse.  I’m killing people all around with my sword, and they’re trying to kill me!  ” 

I questioned him closely, and the date was 1066 at the battle of Hastings as the Normans conquered England.

Is the story true?  I cannot say with any certainty, but it was impressive.

When I gave seminars and talks on hypnosis, I usually finished with doing my Relaxation Technique, and my deepening.  Then, I would say, “In your room, sitting comfortably, I want you to let your mind go out of your body.  Let it go out into space, and as you see earth behind you as that familiar blue and white marble, see space as almost velvety, with stars and planets being very clear and steady.  It’s really beautiful out here in space.  Now, you are coming to a white cloud that is getting bigger and bigger, and you are now entering it.  On the other side, there is another blue marble world.  As you approach, it looks like Earth, but as you get really close, you see no huge cities, but beautiful parks and lovely buildings that seem to be a part of the landscape.  As you come to it, and walk about, you notice that the people are all friendly, and the animals are all friendly, and the gardens and parks all around are simply the loveliest you have ever seen.  You are filled with the same sort of happiness that it seems everybody there has.  You are at peace with yourself and that place.”

“Now, it’s time to leave, and we are going back into space again.  Ahead of us is that same white cloud, and this time, as we enter it, we make a left turn, and we are now going back in time.  The year is 1700 on Earth, and as we come back to Earth in that time, we are going to each go into a body in that time and place.        I want you to look at your feet, and your clothes, and your surroundings, and have a sense of who you are in that body.  Now, it’s time to return.  We are leaving this time and place, and going back thru that white cloud, and back to that blue marble of earth, and back to that comfortable seat, and into your own body again.  As I count to three backwards, you are gong to awaken, not drowsy or sleepy or affected by my voice at all, and you will remember everything you experienced.”

Then, I count, “Three, two, one, awake fully awake.  Now, how many persons really experienced that beautiful planet?” 

About a third or more really did visualize it clearly.  (A few were somewhat angry with me for not leaving them longer!)  Then I asked, “Now, how many persons experienced themselves in 1700?”  Surprisingly, about one third had very good and clear visualizations.  One woman was indignant “I had bare feet, and scratched legs, and I was a serving woman”.  She had a very high opinion of herself in this life obviously.  Needless to say, these stories were very interesting, and varied.  One woman impressed me with, “I was in a dark place waiting to be born.”

Of course, such stories do not prove anything.  They could be products of imagination, or simply scraps of something from the unconscious or universal mind.  However, or whatever they are, taken in bulk from honest persons with no known vested interest, they do prove something beyond our conscious knowledge.  
 
Out of Body Experiences

I have personal knowledge of out-of-body experiences.  In 1951, I was the Radio Officer on a ship.  We had just cleared into Rio de Janeiro, and my radio transmitter was shut down.  I listened to my ship radio traffic list, but couldn’t receive it.  I had one message.  I suddenly knew that it was for me, not the ship. 

At that time, my wife was expecting our second child, and since she was Rh Negative, and had had a few miscarriages, the doctor and hospital was ready with full blood transfusion if needed.  It was a worrisome situation. 

 It was early evening, but I went into my room, lay on my bunk, and visualized the hospital room with my wife in a hospital bed.  I kept asking, “Are you all right?”  Is the baby all right”  “What sex is the baby?”

I kept getting answers, “I’m fine.  The baby is a boy.  He’s fine too.”  After a half hour or so of this, I was reassured, and I would have bet anyone that I had a new son, and he was OK.  It was “imaginary”, and yet, it was also real.  It was a funny feeling.  I wrote my wife a letter and posted it.  A day or so later, we were on our way to Natal, our next port of call.  There, I got a letter from her.

It seems that at the exact time, I was lying in my bunk asking her questions, she was in her hospital bed, and my brother was sitting with her.  He called for the nurse, as he thought she was delirious.  She kept saying, over and over “I’m OK Phil.  It’s a boy.  He’s OK Phil”. 

Somehow, my mind was in that room asking questions.  Perhaps because of the emotion involved?  I don’t know.

Later, while I was experimenting with ESP, a friend and I would play a simple game.  The “subject” would close his eyes, while the “object” would look around the room, and pick out an object.  Then, the subject would look slowly around the room and try to find the object.  I found that the best thing I could do was to look slowly around the room, and ask myself, “Is it in this area?”  I would get a fairly definite, “No”, for most areas, and sort of non-No feeling for the right area. 

As he and I practiced this for an afternoon and evening. We got better and better at eliminating areas, and within one to four “guesses”, we usually could name the object.  Were we really improving our ESP, or were we improving subliminal signals from the other?  Who can say?

However, one time, I had just closed my eyes, and I visualized his eyes sweeping over the room, and then looking directly at the left hand pedal of the piano.  He said, “Ready.”

I immediately said, “The left hand pedal on the piano.”  He was amazed, and was even more so when I explained that I hadn’t cheated, but had somehow “seen” with his eyes as he looked around and settled on that object.

Was it an “out of body” experience?  I believe so!

Another time, I was with a nurse on a date (between marriages), and I told her of the above experience, and she didn’t believe me, so I closed my eyes, and tried to visualize her bedroom, which I had never been in.  I started guessing, and as I continued, (both right and wrong), I got much better at it.  I even “saw” in my mind that there were six books on her desk, and I drew the outlines of the tops of them along with “guesses” as to the colors of each book.  I could almost make out the titles, but try as hard as I could, they wouldn’t come clear. 

The next day, she called me and now, she was impressed.  I had gotten the description of her bed and room pretty well, but what had amazed her was that the profile of her books on her desk was exact, except that one book was blue instead of black.  After a time of “guessing”, my mind had actually been in her room, or so it would seem.  Was I seeing it thru her eyes (ESP), or was it another out-of-body experience?  I can’t know, of course, but it has to be one or the other! 

I have hypnotized many more in my psychology practice, and have seen several more out-body experiences.  One woman, suddenly screamed, and came out of hypnosis.  She said, “That was very frightening.  I suddenly came out of my body, and floated up to the ceiling.  I was up there looking down at you and my body sitting in the recliner.  I was suddenly terrified that I might not be able to get back into my body!”

Several others had a similar experience, but without the terror.

What does all this mean?  Still the agnostic, I have to reply, “I do not really know the answer.  I only know that there is much more to our existence than we realize or know.”
What is the Unconscious?

There are thousands of theories about what the unconscious mind is and can do.  Some believe that it is the “soul” of the person, and is unique to we humans.  It separates us from the “lower” animals on this planet.  Others believe further that it makes us unique in the universe, but in my opinion (IMO), that is our ego belief.

The plain and simple truth is that no one knows, and few even suspect the awesome power of the unconscious.  We do know that it can “cure” a person, or “kill” that same person in different circumstances.  We know that it may be affected by hypnosis, and/or subliminal repetition.  We also know that traumatic life events can cause future problems, even seemingly unrelated problems, including allergies!   Why and how is just a part of what we don’t know. 

We also know that as the mind thinks, it emits signals generated by different neurons in the brain moving around as we think and act.  Different frequencies are involved in certain areas, and most of these are in the audible range.  This movement has been called “A Symphony in the Brain” and there’s even a book with that title, about this “brain orchestra”.   

The composite of all these constantly changing brain wave “notes” is always present, although this “orchestra” of different notes and waves of notes composes the full spectrum of what we call “audible sound”.  These notes that make up these waves are so very weak that it takes expensive equipment to amplify such brain waves enough so that we can use them in EEG Biofeedback (AKA Neurofeedback).  Only in fairly recent years have we been able to actually “listen” to these waves. 

As a sidelight to these brain waves, we also know that they only begin in human babies around the 24th to 26th week of pregnancy.  Up to that time, there are no brain waves present.  This is the general argument against 3rd trimester abortion.  This theory has the soul entering that infant body making it a “human being” at that point, and up to then, it is simply an animal body, and not a human life.  

Scientists have labeled this entity as the “unconscious” or “subconscious”, but this part of the mind is neither of these things.  We have labeled this part of the mind according to our ego and for our convenience.   It would be better named “superconscious”, as this part of our mind is the real “control” of what we are; what we do (and not do); how we react to various stimuli of living, etc.  Our ego makes us think our conscious mind is in control of our actions, but that’s simply not true.  Our conscious mind is constantly controlled by our unconscious.

There are many theories about this “soul” part of the unconscious.  The one I like is from Jung.  It theorizes a “universal” mind, perhaps the mind of all of earth, or even of earth itself.  All these minds are one conglomerated entity in effect, composed of all the (unconscious) minds that exist now or have ever existed.  Perhaps this “universal mind” is another name for God, or Nature, or whatever – a force that is mostly unknowable by we humans.  (I wonder why this is?)

The evidence of supernatural “powers”, and “abilities” of some “gifted persons” is simply overwhelming.  What is called miracle(s) may be only another different manifestation of this universal mind.  Thomas Sugrue, the author of the well-written biography of Edgar Cayce, named his book, “There is a River”. There is no question that Cayce was able to “tap into” this river of unconscious knowledge, even though he didn’t understand how he did it, how it worked, and most of the knowledge he received while in “trance”.  But, in over 20,000 writings of medical diagnosis, he was never proven wrong.  That’s impressive.

There have been many prophets over time that accurately foretold the future besides Cayce.  Nostradamos and many others, biblical and secular have done what may be called miracles by lesser folk.  (Hypnosis was a “miracle” to me.  An automobile or airplane or TV would be a miracle to primitive persons.)   
 
A lot of hardheaded scientific folk tend to scoff at all such “anecdotal” evidence, and refuse to even look as anything that they cannot verify by sight, feel, hearing, or by effect on something else.

But, even with the hardheads, evidence is piling up that’s hard to ignore.  In the field of EEG biofeedback (AKA neurofeedback), we now know that by changing the amplitudes of certain brain waves, large changes in several aspects of some person’s lives and personalities are also changed.  A huge amount of research over the past 35 years has shown clearly that this simple therapy can solve many of the “brain problems” such as the ADD-Autism continuum, depression in all forms, insomnia, epilepsy, addictions and even schizophrenia.  More on this later.


The Autonomic Nervous System

If we accept the concept of a “universal mind”, then we have to look at two parts of this mind:

A computer part (called the Autonomous Nervous System or ANS).  This system controls the “housekeeping” functions automatically.
The “universal mind” (soul?) part that is in some type of communication with that universe (whatever or wherever it may be). 

(Could Freud have been on the right track?  Are there three parts to the mind, with limited or poor communication between them?) 

If we look at the computer (ANS) part, we find that the analogy is pretty good.  If a computer virus gets in, it can screw up normal programs.  If a bad “ideation” gets into the human computer mind part, it can also screw up normal programs.  If we get garbage in as data, then we get garbage out as behavior.

Most people think that computers are smart, but the plain fact is that all computers are very dumb.  They only do exactly what we tell them to do, and if we program then wrong, we get wrong answers.  (We could wish that they would always do what we want instead of what we actually do, but that would undoubtedly be even more frustrating.)  

There has to be a definite separation between the computer (ANS) part of the unconscious mind and the Universal mind.  And we have to add to both of these “entities” the factor of INDIVIDUALITY.   This is a concept that many MD’s do not really understand.  They are trained to get height and weight, and prescribe according to “volume” of the patient.  This “gross” measure, which does not take into account individuality, is often wrong.

Let’s consider the programming of the computer (ANS) first.  There is a genetic component, which varies the basic program accordingly.  Then, there is a “learned” component, which provides several other variables.  All this “data” combined determines your health in dozens of ways.  How much of a particular nutrient you, as an individual require, how a deficiency of any kind will affect you as an individual.   What your immune responses will be.  How it is, and how it will be, what diseases you are liable to get, etc. 

The Orthomolecular Theory of Sickness has 3 conditions necessary for sickness or poor health. 
NUTRITIONALLY DEFICIENT OR TOXIC.  (Our modern diet leaves all of us somewhat nutritionally deficient, and many persons are toxic due to environmental pollution).
STRESS.  (In our world, who doesn't have stress. The caveman only had a few real emotional stresses. We face saber-toothed tigers every day.)
PREDISPOSITION.  (What is your family history, and what has your unconscious mind (ANS) learned as you've gone thru life?)
This theory made sense to me the first time I heard of it. If the body chemistry (nutrition) isn't correct, the immune system can't work right. If there is stress present, then the body needs even more good nutrition to handle it. (A downward spiral in effect - stress causing more deficiency, and more deficiency causing more symptoms/illness causing even more stress.)
The particular illness that may affect you from this stress is determined by the predisposition.  One person gets chronic headaches, another gets heart problems, and another gets cancer.  Life is a big crap game with loaded dice.
So, to become an orthomolecular clinician, I found that I had to learn about nutrition down to the chemical and biological level.  I also had to become an “expert” in allergy, and sensitivity, as this is a huge factor in stress.  I found myself in the early 80’s reading from 3-6 books a week, with another 3-6 on order from libraries around the country.  There are still no schools or universities devoted to this new science, and what nutrition is taught is often poor to wrong.
 “Nutritionists” and “dieticians” are still being taught that the basic four food groups are “good” nutrition in many schools.  (A meal at McDonalds can be “good” by this measure!)  MD’s get at most one hour on nutrition (with very little time on vitamins and minerals and other supplements) compared to thousands of hours on pharmacology (drug use).  Few psychologists know (or care) anything about allergy/sensitivity, thus cannot deal effectively with any of the more serious brain problems of ADD/ADHD, Autism, insomnia, epilepsy, depression and schizophrenia.   
Both MD’s and PhD’s are “educationally handicapped”.  At least half of what they learned in school is at least partially false, but they are “programmed” to follow it because of their education.  Oh well, it was the same in the Middle Ages, and even recently (in history), any doctor who didn’t bleed his patients was called a quack.   Looking at the history of medicine, you’ll find that; virtually all-major advances in medical science were done by a doctor who was called a quack by his contemporaries.  I’m proud to have been called a quack.  I’m in excellent company!
An alternate theory to the above is that the ANS is simply the “computer part” of the universal mind that handles the “housekeeping” for the body.  This theory is supported by the interactions between these two entities.  Both affect each other’s functioning it would seem.   Bad ideation in the universal mind certainly may create havoc in the immune system and the body. 


Extra Sensory Perception

In the 1930’s Dr Joseph Banks Rhine, a psychologist at Duke University set up a set of experiments designed to prove that “mental telepathy” didn’t exist.  To his surprise (and horror), he found that not only did mental telepathy exist, but so did clairvoyance, and all the other “impossible” psychic phenomena.  He named these as a group - Extra Sensory Perception (ESP).  He also invented the Rhine cards for ESP testing. 

In 1973, I did a lot of experiments with Rhine cards, and I found that hypnosis definitely could improve ESP ability in some persons.  I was shocked to read that Rhine had done several experiments that clearly showed hypnosis did NOT increase ESP ability.  How can this disparity be?

In 1974, I had a lovely dinner with Joe and his wife Louise, and spent the night as a guest.  After dinner and well into the night, Joe and I argued.  Neither of us could credit the other’s data, yet we both credited each other’s beliefs, so to speak.  We argued many other subjects, and I know that I learned from him, and hope that he learned from me as well. 

In 1979, I wrote my doctoral dissertation.  My thesis was on hypnotic phenomena of course.  During the research, I was somewhat surprised to find such disparity in actual experimentation results.  Experimenter A did experiment A, and got results A.  Experimenter B did experiment A, but got results B.  This happened over and over in the literature and history of hypnosis.  How can this be?  After documenting so many of such differences, I finally realized – In hypnosis, the experimenter is always part of the experiment. 

I postulated two conditions (both of which are pretty well accepted as fact):

Most hypnotized persons are “desperately eager” to please the hypnotist, a father figure of sorts.  This is why a good subject will do stupid, even abnormal things when asked.
The unconscious communication between the experimenter and the subject allows the subject to (at least sometimes) “know” what outcome is “desired” by the experimenter. 

Both Joe and I were working with good hypnotic subjects, and these were also above average in ESP ability.  I am very sorry that Joe died before I realized this truth.  He’d have gotten it, and enjoyed it.  We were both right!  Of course he got his data as negative and I got mine as positive.

Think about “double blind” testing of drugs that is used by drug manufacturers.  Is it really “blind”.  Cold logic says it is, but the above postulates (and actuality) say it isn’t.  At least one-third of all manufactured drugs on the market don’t what they were designed for chemically, although they may be effective as placebo. 


The “logical” scientific mind believes that if the doctor and the patient both are unaware (consciously) which is the drug, and which is the placebo, then the so-called “double blind” test is valid.  They ignore the above and simply take the data as being correct.  That data is definitely “compromised”.  I’ve seen a lot of that since then, by biased doctors getting biased data and publishing it as “truth”.  (Negative nutritional studies about vitamins C and E are prime examples of “biased” experiments – using “wrong” dosages is also a common example of ignorance and bias.)

As an interesting aside, when Joe first published his statistical results of his ESP experiments, his mathematics were questions and condemned by a large group of psychologists at a major convention.  Months later, at a convention for mathematicians, it was resolved that:

They didn’t believe the results either!
The psychologists were wrong about his statistical usage.  That was absolutely correct mathematically!

That’s scientific thinking?  No, but it’s typical of too many ignorant scientists who let their beliefs overcome facts.


Religions

If we could only tap into this part of the unconscious, and use it as a few have done, what would be the effect?  Remember that there are good and evil minds in that ocean of unconscious.  Does religion (of any stripe or kind) help?  I found a long time ago that every religion known to man breaks down to the “Do unto others” simple rule. And it’s THE rule that makes society possible.  It really has nothing to do with religion!  How many of us follow even this simple dictum at ALL times? 

It’s when religion gets organized by man, and becomes political, as indeed it must, given the nature of man, that it begins to corrupt at the top, just as politics does.  Organized religion has killed more persons (in the name of God) than cancer.   A slogan often used to get young impressionable persons to fight a war is what I call “the GMAC plan” – for God, Mother, and Country.  Wars are fought for economic conditions, and other selfish reasons, but one thing I am sure of, they are never fought for God.    

Jung also said something to this effect, “If a man has no religion, he will invent one.”   Look at history.  There are dozens of different “Christian” religions (and other religions as well).  Because one person didn’t like a particular tenet of the religion he was born into, he invents a “better” one (at least to him).  If he is charismatic enough, it takes hold, and spreads.  Which is right -the original or the modified version?  Or, are both wrong, and another religion right?  Or, horrible thought, Could it be that all are wrong, or perverted?   

At around 10 years of age, my father said to me, “The Bible says that God created Man in his image”.  “But, isn’t it more logical that man created Him in man’s image?”

When you study all the religions, even superficially, you find similarities, and myths and miracles designed to “impress” the followers.  The Christian myth of the “Virgin birth” is not unique.  Most of the North American Indian tribes also have a similar myth.  The legend of Hiawatha is that story.   The fact that Mary had been married to Joseph for some time is conveniently ignored, as it is in other similar myths. 

Religions are supposed to teach morality, but in reality, it all too often teaches that “anyone who does not believe as we do” is a “bad” person.  Bigotry is the end of much religious teaching.  “Christians”, particularly the “born again” type are actually taught that only “believers in Christ”, can go to heaven (the ocean of the universal mind?).  Thus, conveniently ignoring the fact that less than 1/3 of the world believes that Christ was the son of GOD.  Whether or not the person is a moral person, and a ”good” person, is immaterial.  This is blind bigotry IMO. 

Then, we have the atheists.  They are pretty stupid (again IMO).  To say that there is no God, or higher power, when we do not, and cannot, KNOW is dumb.  I have been an agnostic for most of my life.  I profess that I do not know, but I do have certain beliefs that seem logical to me.  I do not know what God looks like, but as my father said, it’s pretty egotistical to think that all-powerful entity looks like puny man.  The universal unconscious is more logical to me, but I’m not entirely convinced of that either.  Since I cannot offer proof of such, I have to say, “I do not know”.  Lots of ignorant persons think that an agnostic is the same as an atheist.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  The word “Agnostic” means “unknowing”.  The Gnostics of the bible were “knowers of truth”. 

Very few of the persons who go to any Christian church are true followers of Christ, from the few bits of history we know about him.  If much of what we know is true, he was a very tolerant person.  Would he be happy keeping 2/3’s of the world population out of heaven?  Does that make sense to you? 

Only the most devoted (rabid) of Christians believe in all the myths and rules of even the particular church they belong to.  As a result, the “rabid” types ascend in the church hierarchy.  The so-called “Christian Moral Majority” is a prime example of this.  (And, it’s definitely a “minority”).  Another example is the fanatics in the Muslim world who want to kill those who believe differently than they do.  Still another horrible example is those “Christian” idiots who oppose abortion by killing doctors and women who have them!   Killing in the belief of “Pro-Life is an insane absurdity.

This abortion issue has been made divisive by the term “Pro-Life” which implies that someone who is “Pro-Choice” is then IN FAVOR of abortion (i.e. Against Life)  This is another “spin” on words.  I am in the Pro-Choice majority, but like almost all others in that group, I am definitely against abortion.   I am also against the alternative.  Making it illegal simply denied to the poor this option, and “wire-hanger” deaths were also a result.  Going back to those days is not a good option IMO.

The mistake often made by “religious” people with good intentions is thinking that we can legislate morality.  We have failed on every try to do so.  Prohibition made for more drinking and more alcoholics than previous.  It also created the Mafia and more crime than before.     

The War on Drugs was not only lost, but it created more drug addicts and more drugs than ever before. Prohibiting something only makes it attractive to some, including especially, teenagers who “have” to rebel to become individuals.  The cigarette makers know this well, and targeted their advertising both overt and subliminal towards this group.  Even today this teenage group is smoking to rebel.  (Who says teenagers are smart in their rebellion?)

 For most of my adult life I’ve advocated making drugs legal, and taxing them, so that the government gets the profit instead of the criminals.  Look at the benefits.  Half of the felons in prison are there for drug related crimes.  No more overcrowded prisons, plus tax income.  Let’s do it! 

My favorite bumper sticker reads, “Dear God, please protect me from your followers”.     

Placebo Medicine

Another amazing “trick” of the unconscious is placebo effect.  This is where a sugar (or other harmless) pill is given a patient.  If the patient believes in the doctor, the sugar pill works as well as an actual drug.  Of course, hypnosis also can work to remove pain, and to aid healing.  If the unconscious mind believes, the patient gets well.  If the unconscious mind believes that they are dying, they probably are.  This is the almost frightening power of the unconscious.

In Orlando in the 1980’s, there was one surgeon at one hospital whose record with patients was “different” from all other surgeons.  His surgery patients took less painkillers; were ready to leave the hospital a day or so before other doctors patients; and were much less problem to nurses.  What was his secret?  (And, more importantly, why didn’t all other MD’s know and use it?)

After surgery, while the patient was in recovery, and still “dopey”, he went in to that room, sat down, held the patients hand, and said, “Don’t worry, it was a very simple operation, no problems at all, and you’re doing very well now.  It was so easy that you’ll need very little pain-killer, and you’ll be out of here in no time.” 

The patient believes, and it becomes so.  This speech was the same, even though the actual surgery may have been the most difficult of his career.   But, his little five-minute speech did as much good for recovery as his surgery. 

Any doctor whose patient gets cured gets an ego boost and believes that he cured the patient, making him godlike.  The truth is that no doctor EVER cures anybody.  If he’s good, makes the right decisions, he does HELP the patient to self-cure.  The cure is done by the unconscious mind; the doctor only assists this “internal doctor”.   As a doctor (PhD), I was helpful to many patients, and undoubtedly my help saved a few lives.  I always tried to remind myself that the major credit belonged to the patient.  I only assisted.  (Too many doctors already think they’re godlike.)

Few MD’s realize that no patient is completely “out of it” by anesthetic.  The conscious mind may be, but the unconscious mind never is.  At a hypnosis seminar, many years ago, the speaker expressed this fact to the audience.  At the murmurs of disbelief from some MD’s, he asked for any volunteer in the audience who had had surgery.  One MD came forward.  He was hypnotized, and he was taken back in memory to that surgery.  He then was asked to repeat all conversations or words spoken during his operation.   He then did so, and the words were pretty typical of that type of operation.  The MD’s in the audience were stunned, as was he on awakening.

This leads us to the need for care in the operating room.  A casual comment about the patient could have life threatening consequences.  Let’s look at a few sample negative comments that might even kill a patient.

“I don’t think this guy will make it.”

“This woman is too fat to live”

“His heart is pretty bad”

“Her liver is shot”

Bill Cosby had a comedy routine where a doctor was operating on a patient.  During the simple operation, the doctor said things like, “hemostat,. …frabulator….dismogle …OOPS!”.  Of course, this scared the hell out of the patient, who said “What’d you say?  You said OOPS!  I know what OOPS means.  Am I gonna die?”

Such negative comments might actually kill a patient.  It’s individual of course, but the effects of such negative comments can do as much harm to a patient as the good of those positive comments of the surgeon above.  We tend to forget the power of the unconscious, and doctors shouldn’t.  Every word spoken in an operating room should be positive. 

Positive Thinking and Visualization

There’s an old psychological saying, “If you think you can’t, you’re right!”

Every top professional athlete knows the value of positive thinking.  And, he also knows the effect of negative thinking.  If a golfer thinks, “I’ve got to watch out for that bunker on the right”, he may very well slice his ball.  The professional golfer just looks at the direction he wants the ball to go, ignoring the hazards, and visualizes that flight.  That’s the way to do it.   In sports lingo, that’s called “getting your mind out of the way”.  Of course, this refers to the conscious mind.  Your unconscious mind knows all the muscle movements needed for each task from the hours (years?) of practice.  Stop thinking, and let the unconscious take over. That’s the key to athletic success.  

Everyone who has studied hypnosis knows that only positive self-statements and positive visualizations are effective.  Such negative phrases as:  “I won’t eat as much”, puts the idea of eating into the mind.  Substitute the phrase, “I feel full”, as a positive thought.  That, at least has a chance to do what you want to do.

To lose weight, I counseled patients to do two things:

Go on a Caveman Diet or a Rotary Diet for a week, and weigh their selves every morning as they get out of bed before doing anything else.  If they had lost weight from the day before, those foods eaten the previous day were “safe” for them.  If they had gained, they ate something they were allergic or sensitive to.  If they stayed the same, ignore the results.  The rest is simply detective work to find a “safe diet for that individual.  (If you learn nothing else from this, please learn that every human is different, and responses to anything are INDIVIDUAL, especially with anything mental.)
Learn my Relaxation Technique, and use it for self-hypnosis.  Give yourself positive statements, and visualize yourself as thin.  Visualize yourself in a mirror with the body you want, and admire that vision.  See how clothes look, and see that you feel so much better.   

Both techniques work for many people.  The major cause of obesity is allergy and/or sensitivity.   I once had a 600+ pound 24 year-old man as a patient.  He actually had to measure himself on a truck scale.  He had to turn sideways to get into my front door, and I really feared his sitting down in the recliner in my office. 

Allergy testing revealed that he was very sensitive to corn products.  His favorite meal or snack was corn chips and a coke.  Both are heavy with corn products.  I made up a Rotation Diet, eliminating all corn products, and rotating major foods as well.  He promised to stick to it.

He returned a week later, and reported that the first day on the diet, he had lost 50 pounds, and his depression had gone as well.  He had lost over 100 pounds for the whole week, and felt better than he had for years.  He didn’t return for the 3rd session, and I later heard that he had been unable to stay away from his corn chips and coke addiction, and had gone back to his previous weight.  I had helped him to save his life, and he had chosen to throw it away!  That has always haunted me.  What could I have done differently?  Failure is never easy to bear!    

Note that both of the above weight loss techniques involve the unconscious mind.  Allergy/sensitivity is determined by the unconscious, which mobilizes the immune system to fight this “imaginary” enemy.  Hypnosis can sometimes solve an allergy by simple command that is “believed” by the patient.  Years ago, I was a definite unbeliever when I was told that a friend had been “cured” by chiropractic.  Now, I realize that if the patient believed that chiropractic manipulation could cure her allergy, then, it could.  It wasn’t the chiropractic as much as the belief.   I have to think that perhaps if I had used hypnosis on that obese boy, the outcome might have been different. 

There’s another side to that story.  I used the term “addiction”, and many people think that addiction only occurs to drugs.  Not so.  My wife is very allergic to corn as well, and many years ago, after we met and married, she cut out corn products from her diet.  She went thru “withdrawal” that was as bad as a heroin or cocaine withdrawal.  Foods can be addictive if there is an allergy present.

Some believe that alcoholism and even drug addiction are connected to allergy.  Many alcoholics are addicted to one of the “foods” used to make the alcohol.  These drinkers invariably drink one “favorite” type that contains this allergen food.  It is often wheat or corn, as those are the major ingredients of virtually all liquors in the US.  My first allergic schizophrenic could drink only Japanese beer (made from rice) or Russian vodka (made from potato) without becoming schizophrenic.  That was the “clue” that led to his successful solution.   Everything else had wheat in it, and he was very allergic to wheat. 


An “Impossible” Story

Here’s a true story that is unbelievable to many people.  In reading about hypnosis, I came across an article where a professional hypnotist had claimed that he had been able to increase a woman’s breast size using hypnosis.  I dismissed that claim until in 1978; I read an article by Dr Ted X. Barber in the Journal of Clinical Hypnosis about hypnotic phenomena.  This article discussed many different hypnotic phenomena, including several experiments at several different colleges that had all done a similar experiment.  As I recall (at this much later date), each college used 8-12 women, all of whom were somewhat flat chested, and all wanted larger breasts.

All were carefully measured, above and below the actual breasts, and across them at the nipples.  Once a week for 12 weeks, they were hypnotized as a group, and told to visualize things like, “See yourself in a mirror naked with larger breasts.  Admire your larger breasts.  See how good they look, and how good you feel with them.  Now, see yourself dressed in a very becoming dress, and how well it looks on you with your new breasts.  It increases your self-confidence as well. “ 

These comments were repeated several times.  As I recall, the average for all of the various experiments was that 80% actually increased their breast size, and the average increase was 2.1 inches.

Let’s take another deeper look at this.  The average success rate for losing weight by hypnosis is considered to be less than 65%.  In other less reported breast size experiments, DECREASING breast size in women with overly large breasts, the success rate was negligible. 

In addition, this suggestion is specific – add body cells to a certain part of the body only!  We have no knowledge if actual mammary cells were added, or only fat cells, but still!!! 

I’ve won two bets from other psychologists that this story was published in a reputable scientific journal.  I made a hypnosis tape specifically for “breast enlargement”, and heard for a few of the women who purchased it that it did indeed work for them.  Unfortunately, few people report either success or failure.

Why doesn’t hypnosis work better on the “lesser task” of losing weight, or losing breast weight?  The explanation is difficult, but in my experience the social “advantage” to women of large breasts inhibits the unconscious from losing this “advantage”.   Some women are “punishing” their selves (or their husbands) by being fat.  (Sort of “love me for me, not for my body”).  Motives of the unconscious mind are often murky and difficult for our conscious minds to understand.  The computer analogy of “garbage in – garbage out” applies here.

Harmful Unconscious Ideas

The unconscious mind can be a force for good or bad.  It apparently doesn’t discriminate – again like a computer.  If a virus gets in, it can distort many other programs in different ways.

Let’s examine a very illustrative case.  A woman brought in her 8 year old boy for hypnosis for bedwetting.  I did the usual direct suggestion, and told her to keep him off all milk products for at least a week. 

Two days later, she and her son were back.  No success.  This time, I did age regression hypnosis.  He went back (with a little urging) to when he was 4.  He was in bed almost asleep when he heard someone trying to get in his window.  He was so scared that he wet himself, and cried out.  The burglar (real or imagined) left.  The unconscious “logic” to this boy – urination protects from intruders in night.  It wasn’t difficult to remove this logic (computer virus), and his mother said that he hadn’t wet again a few months later.

The great master of hypnotic therapy, Milton Erickson, once had an almost comic situation that he solved in a unique way.  It seems that a recently married couple came to him because each was a bedwetter.  On their honeymoon, the bed was wet each morning, and each thought the other was very thoughtful in not mentioning it.  After a few days, they each confessed and came to Erickson.

He made them agree to do exactly what he said, and then told them to kneel on the bed when they were ready for sleep and each had to urinate, and then sleep in it.  They came back several days later, and they had kept their word.  He then told them, “Since you did as I told you, tonight you can go to bed normally without the urination, and come back tomorrow”.  The next day, they said the bed was dry in the morning, so he “allowed” them another dry night.  Then another, and then he declared them “cured”.

These two stories illustrate the immense power of the unconscious for both good and bad.  One of the major jobs of the unconscious mind is to “protect” the physical body (home of the unconscious mind) from harm.  If a threat is perceived whether real or imaginary, it goes into action, even if the action may be harmful to itself. 
EEG Biofeedback
 
The ElectroEncephaloGraph (EEG) was called a "quack machine" when it was first introduced. Today, most MD offices have one, as it's very useful in finding epilepsy, brain tumors, and in determining brain death. However, few MD's use it for biofeedback training, and even fewer are knowledgeable about this usage.
There are several different audio frequency signals of very small voltages (measured in millionths of a volt) emanating from the brain. These have been divided into discrete “bands” according to our knowledge of association of each with certain activities.  Each band is somewhat different from the other, depending on the state of mind of the subject. Because of individuality, these bands overlap to some extent, and the definitions of them vary somewhat. Greek letters are usually used to name these bands.
These are as follows:
Delta waves (0-3 Hz) are characterized by deep dreamless unmoving sleep.  Also persons in coma exhibit this type of brain waves.
Theta waves (4-7 Hz) are sometimes used to train subjects towards hypnotic and meditation trances. It has also been used for healing purposes. Some research shows that inhibiting Theta also helps ADD/ADHD training.
Alpha waves (8-12 Hz) are produced when in a very relaxed state of mind. It is probably most recognized as that state reached while watching TV, or meditation. For many years, this area was a focus of meditation and hypnotic training.
Beta waves (12-38 Hz) means that the brain is active. It is actually thinking consciously. There are a few very important subdivisions of Beta. Low Beta, (usually considered as 12-16 Hz) is characterized by good steady thinking. This band is now often called SMR (Sensi-Motor Response). The specific frequency band of 12-14 Hz is the focus of ADD/ADHD training, since low amplitude of waves in this region is a symptom of ADD/ADHD (and many other brain disorders that are helped or eliminated by biofeedback training in this range). It has been found in a few studies that biofeedback training above this range (higher beta) can sometimes increase symptoms of ADD/ADHD. While studies are somewhat controversial, the system in general use inhibits these high Beta frequencies anyway.
There are other “high” wave frequencies that are also being investigated, but those are no interest for us at this time.
Barry Sterman, a VA psychologist demonstrated that EEG biofeedback in the range of 12-14 Hz protected cats from dying in convulsions (similar to anaphylactic shock from allergy overload) when exposed to hydrazine (a jet fuel) in the late 1960s. Cats not so trained, died quickly. He was on contract to the US Navy at the time, looking for ways to increase “concentration” for jet pilots and astronauts.  He did publish this finding, along with other research on use of this training for ADD/ADHD.  Later NASA studies showed that training down the Theta brain wave increased “attention”, or “concentration” ability.
Dr D. A. Quirk then used this same general brain wave training to train some 2500+ felons in an Ontario prison. The results of this training reduced recidivism from 70+% to 15%.  He also used this same technique for ADD/ADHD with good success. 

Dr George Von Hilsheimer collaborated with Quirk, and at this writing is the oldest and most successful user of EEG biofeedback in the world.  He taught me much of the basics, starting at a joint seminar he and I conducted in Tblisi, (Soviet) Georgia in 2000.

The success of these and now thousands of others (professionals and laypersons alike) in solving various brain problems using this simple technique has blossomed into a distinct profession.  When I found out how very simple this “training” is, and how successful, I came out of active retirement to start a leasing company for home use EEG BF units.  This was successful as it lowered the cost to about 10% of the overall cost of going to a clinician.  Because of the cost, Ritalin and the other dangerous drugs were effectively the only choice of mid and low-income families.

What the EEG BF practitioners don’t want you to know is how really simple EEG BF is when used to correct “brain problems” such as ADHD, depression, insomnia, epilepsy, and even schizophrenia, etc.  The basic idea is simply to try to raise one of the brain waves, called SMR (12-14 Hz), and lower another called Theta (4-7 Hz). 

That’s all there is, although these learned men of science choose to hide this simplicity with complicated ceremony and long words.  T’was ever thus, going back to the primitive shaman or witch doctor; up to the priests and other leaders; and today, in the modern world, doctors.  (Power corrupts…)  

By the way, the success rate of doing this training at home seems to be at least equally successful when compared to clinical training.  (Mom is often a better doctor!)
 
Subliminal Training

The definition of subliminal is “below the threshold”.  The Russians are supposed to have done most of the research, and to have used it on many people.  I’m sure that our government has also done a lot of secret research on it as well.  The movie “The Manchurian Candidate” is based on this type of “brainwashing”.

“Brainwashing” has come to be a bad word because of this, but like any tool, it can be used for both constructive and destructive purposes.  A hammer can be used to drive nails, or it can be used to kill.  (Note that I didn’t use a gun in that analogy – a gun has one real purpose – to kill.  It’s not a “tool”, but a killing machine.) 

All religions use forms of brainwashing” (and some hypnotic tricks), to “imprint” their beliefs onto their followers.   (In 1949, I watched Oral Roberts “practicing” some eight persons in “behaving cured” on his cue.  At that time, I thought he was hypocritical and deserved a place in hell for this trickery.  Later, I realized that because of this trickery, he had been able to “cure” several others who were
“Believers”.  Did the “cures” last?  Was it bad or good - you decide?  He became rich by this trickery.) 

Advertisers use repetitive ads to try to influence our buying habits, and this is “brainwashing” as well.  Our parents did their share of “brainwashing” in order to bring us up as “good”, according to their definition or skill, or beliefs.   Politicians use, or try to use it to get us to vote for them. 

In my former practice, I often used Subliminal Training successfully.  Along with hypnosis, it is an excellent tool to revise some “bad” ideation in the unconscious mind of a patient.  I became semi-famous in the area for my success with those persons who had a “flasher” compulsion, and judges sent patients to me because of this success. 

 I took a history of the patient, and then “tailored” a 3-minute repeating audiotape for that patient.  I believe that this “tailoring” to the patient was the difference between my subliminal audiotapes, and those sold a “general” “cures”.  They are way too general in nature to be as influential as mine, which also included the use of the patient’s name at each repetition.  

The basic mechanics of subliminal training is that you have an “overlay”, which is some soothing sound or even music, and underneath this, you put positive suggestions for improvement.  This speech is not really heard by the conscious mind, but is heard very clearly by the unconscious mind.   This was, essentially, a sort of behavior modification di

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