Performer Bio: 4 Question Interview with Comedy Stage-Hypnotist Giovanni Thodé

Oranjestad, Aruba. August 14th - 2013. 5:30pm. Sitting at Ruba Reggea, sipping on some Bailey's while savoring Djarum Black clove cigarettes, we begin the Interview: 

~"So as I understand, at the time you were successfully studying to make a Career becoming a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer. 
And you dropped it all to take a risk studying Clinical Hypnotherapy while taking a salary dive becoming a Tour Guide for 8 and a half years?
What did it for you? What Inspired you to take such a bold career move, and pursue such a different and controversial study?"~
 
My Grandfather had Cancer in 2000. I wanted to help contribute to his healing. I wanted to have more nights sitting at the table with him playing Chess. I wanted him to see me achieve my Life's Goals.
I wanted more years to enjoy the privilege & the gift of the experience of his participation in my Life.

I sold all my MSCE study books to recoup a bit more than half my total investment and after stressing my head out for months on making a decision, I closed my eyes...and without looking back, invested it all in two different Hypnosis Schools of high calibre.  Committing to be the best of the best of the few and the proud, in the Art, for my Generation, on my Island...in a future. But for right then and there, in that moment in space and time,the objective needed to be about assisting the accelerated healing of the biggest role model I knew and Loved.

It did not go quite the way I planned, and he passed on. Sometimes when I feel like crying, I run stories where I victimise myself into temporarily believing I could have done something sooner to prevent it from happening. but there are only so many times you can use that memory to invoke tears. You don't easily escape the feeling, of having been left a hole behind that never healed. 
I used the pain of the loss to inspire me forward to become a more passionate student of the Art, often and frequently giving away my entire months salary, divided amongst bookshops around the World, in pursuit of rare and elusive knowledge in one or other aspect of the Art.
 
~" How did being a Tour Guide help you be a better Hypnotist? Or did Hypnosis help you be a better Tour Guide?How did Tour Guiding contribute to your Experience and studies? "~

Counting two bus or semi-submarine loads of people per day, you were talking about anywhere between 88 to 108 people a day, whose attention span you've got to get, hold and direct for an Intense 4 to 9 hours a day.
You learn to talk the Universal language in a way wherein people of diverse cultures are transported into a state of magic, fascination and  wonder, and left touched, moved and inspired to want to come back, and leave you good tips on the way out.
Being exposed to a crowd every day intensely accelerates your learning through experience. The experience alone was priceless practice that allowed me to perfect the delivery of suggestions through the mouths of impassioned characters I would create and develop, such as the "drama student working as a tour guide to develop a stand up comedy skit"  being a favorite role.

My tour scripts eventually became four and a half hour stand up comedy routines I had so ingrained in me through practice, that I could go on 'automatic pilot' whenever I did not feel like being 'fully present' to a crowd, and still deliver an amazing performance.
By being fully present living in the moment, and consciously participating in the ongoing creation of one or several effects simultaneously, weaved within, above and below my Tour Script  , I was able to consistently make 5 to 7 times my salary in tips.
Though I was making a minimum wage monthly, my tax free tips made sure I consistently had a good monthly income. 
I would review my performance and script at the end of each day, gauge feedback, rewrite, perform and record and rehearse over night, and come back the next day and test again and again, until I had been able to maximize reach and favorable feedback measured along many points, including, number of guests on the bus/semi-sub,nationalities present, ship name, demographics, languages, weather conditions of the day, etc,etc,etc,etc...including tips.

Weaving a successfully tested stand-up comedy script with the Island Tour script assured me a consistent good income as a Tour Guide. Laughter is such a powerful way to disarm spectators and lower their guards, as it's impossible to dislike anyone who genuinely makes you laugh consistently a few times. So I made my Island Tours into four and a half hour Comedy skits, with voice overs, character impersonations, voice effects in different ascents,and other misdirections,suggestions and showmanship. All which were customized and innovated upon daily to suit the unique group of cultures to which I was exposed. 
The environment offered me the unique venue to safely practice and perfect purpose driven language. Developing effective language patterns customized and designed to illicit very specific responses from the target audience and spectators. 

When I was given the books "Secrets of Contact Mindreading", "7 Deceptions",and "Psychological Subtleties" as gifts by a friend and magic bookshoppe dealer out of Texas,  I was set on Fire. Here were people achieving unprecedented results in their effects, magic and illusions by artfully weaving different arts together. Amazing ideas started to come to me in regards to how I myself could use this knowledge and these insights into my own performances. 
On the Island bus Tours I immediately started adding small Mentalism, and Mindreading set pieces such as mentioned and described in the books. Doing and practicing small, simple routines to perfection by rehearsing every day, and incrementally go building up experience and repertoire.

~"What successes did you Experience?"~

In the Atlantis Semi-Submarine where I was also it's narrator (where the spectators are five and a half feet below the waterline in the belly of a boat lined with windows staring out into the ocean), where I had a soundtrack to support my narration, I had many wonderful opportunities to practice and perfect Clinical Hypnotherapy type delivery of suggestion with the aim of helping guests that were secretly afraid of water or closed spaces their entire lives.  And after an hour long Marine Tour  found themselves walking away cured of a phobia that in the past robbed them of many great experiences, while leaving me with a wide smile and a $80 tip shoved into my hand.
Those little successes encouraged and inspired me to take Clinical Hypnosis to the streets after work, where I spent another several years helping crackheads and homeless experience varying degrees of success. 
I in turn got great experience practicing and honing the delivery of long progressive inductions, until I realized there was a faster way to do it.

On the Bus Tours I got a different environment to practice on and adapt to. It was a four and a half to five hour tour, with 3 to 4 stops during the Tour where people would get off the bus, walk around and get distracted then get back on the bus to head on over to the next stop,until we got back to the Cruise ship. On these tours I became conscious of the need to do re-inductions after everyone was back on the bus after each stop.
When I achieved a soon and sudden result while delivering a "Twisted Palm" I was left blown away and inspired some more. 
The person started to see the lines on their palms moving much sooner than I expected, and it left me with the revelation that indeed more could be done with less words.

It encouraged me to be more fearless in the experimentation of artificially producing trance phenomena. So I slowly started weaving suggestions for hallucinations on my tours on days where Nature did not cooperate with my script. 
So on those days where in places along our Tour, normally a dozen or so goats(or lizards) could be found and we arrive with a great tour group at that spot and behold...just one or two goats staring at us, totally contradicting and ridiculing the "Herds of Goats/Packs of Lizards" I mentioned we would be seeing 3 minutes earlier, i would then start to launch the relevant key words out, and play with time and silence ....and within a few minutes a few guests on the bus would start to see a few more goats appear that were not there before. Confidence is truly key, next comes showmanship.
It was soon after i was able to consistently deliver and achieve successful group hallucinations for Iguanas, birds, dogs, cats, centipedes and other creatures, plants, colors and things along the Tour route.
I was on a roll. I was hungry and curious to push the boundaries a bit more every day.

The first time I experimented with " for Andruzzi" was with a shore excursion manager for the "Ocean Village" cruise ship, who also happened to be a Nurse.
She let go a sudden shriek and puzzled look when she could not locate my pulse anymore, and after the Tour she had a great Tour Review faxed to the office, and later asked me if I ever thought of performing on the ship, though flattered but which due lack of repertoire at the time, I politely declined. 
These little successes kept boosting my confidence, and the increased confidence allowed my performances to appear more natural, effortless and spontaneous, further increasing effect.

Tour guiding filled all those learning & experience gaps in ways I was so fully satisfied that when it was time to move on I had a hard time letting go. You can only stay in school so long. There reaches the time you've got to take what you know and make the best of it, in the form you Intend it to Be. You beat Life into shape, instead of having life beat the enthusiasm and curiosity out of you. 

I took a career break from Tour Guiding to enter the Retail industry, where I got to practice using  hypnotic language within entirely new  Contexts and directions. But that;s another story.

~"Why Comedy Stage- Hypnosis? What do you want to Do with it, and Where do you want to take it?"~

I intend on contributing fun and laughter as tools towards removing fears and eliminating misconceptions about Hypnosis in my Community.!
No matter the form, that's basically it, in a nutshell.
Effectively de-mysteyfing the Art of Hypnosis  through exposure and awareness.

Presenting and performing squeaky clean family oriented shows filled with fun and laughter, aimed at provoking astonishment and thought, fascination and wonder. inspiration and respect towards the Art.

I intend on being the best of the best of the few and the proud in the Art like this hemisphere has never previously seen before. Pushing the limits of what is possible with its artful use in ways never imagined before. Producing results beyond what was once possible, and then in turn taking that to another level.

Seeing the invisible and doing the Impossible...
 



Requesting quotes for Private Performances or performance itinerary, Please Email: Giovanni.Thode1@gmail.com




 


 
 



    

Aruba's first Stage-Hypnosis&Mentalism Show in 11years.

Hypnotist Turns water Into Wine For Dry July.
Show Premiere Venue Sold out!

Comedy Hypnotist Giovanni Thodé lets people Experience water as their favorite alcoholic drink during Dry July!

Oranjestad, Aruba. April 22, 2013.
During July, many people are attempting to go without Alcohol for a Good cause.
Taking united action to be a part of the new National awareness campaign initiative effort towards lowering drink-and-drive deaths called:"Dry July."

To make things easier, Aruba's first Stage-Hypnotists in over 11years(Anyone still remembers Heroudini and Rostelli shows at all still?), Giovanni Thodé is offering to help anyone who attends his first show of July by hypnotizing them to get the same satisfaction and enjoyment out of a glass of water.
All the fun without the hangover, expense and health issues!  

After the show with just a few simple hypnotic & Imagination exercises, Giovanni will guide those wanting to take him up on the offer. He may even celebrate with a couple of water shots himself!

What about if you could turn around the dread of suffering all those annoying relatives you spend your year avoiding?
Imagine feeling good about being told you look a lot heavier this year!
 
With a technique anyone can learn in minutes and use all year long, Giovanni has also offered to teach you readers, listeners, viewers and anyone attending his shows,  how to embrace those crazy family conversations in a way whereby each word makes you feel happier and happier!

Challenging traditional hypnosis show's, Giovanni guarantees his shows are a memorable night for all the right reasons, highlighting the talents and creativity of the volunteers for big laughs rather than embarrassing them. 
  
No Two shows are ever the same!

Further Info at his website,blogs and Facebook Page.
 
To book an interview, or for further information, please email: giovanni.thode1@gmail.com or visit his Facebook Page.

High resolution photos are available on request.
Giovanni is also available for in-studio interviews and is happy to do an on-air demonstration.

    

Transforming Limiting Beliefs. One Thought at a Time.

~"All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,..."~

-William Shakespeare 

 
~" And I gave my heart  to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly,...
I sought in my Heart to give myself unto wine, yet acquainting my heart with wisdom, and to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was that good for the sons of men, which they should do under heaven all the days of their Life."~
-Proverbs of King Solomon

~"Forasmuch as an excellent spirit, and knowledge, and understanding, interpreting of dreams, and showing of hard sentences(riddles & rhymes,entrenched maxims,dark proverbs), and dissolving of doubts, were found in the same Daniel, whom King(Nebuchadnezzar) named Belteshazzar(master of magicians), now let Daniel be called, and he will reveal and uncover the Interpretation."~
-Book of Daniel 


~"There are questions you need to ask your Self. Fundamental questions that are not normally addressed in our Society or the current Educational Systems we are exposed to. There are exceptions.
The answers to those questions define your very Being and purpose in Life.  
Who are you? What is your Purpose for being here, in this life, in this shape, form and body? 
What is the form in which you need to express your Life's purpose?
At the deepest parts of you...will you Choose to believe in Freewill or Pre-destination?
 You will live whatsoever you Believe..., consciously or unconsciously."~
- Giovanni Thode
Contemporary Aruban Philospopher

~"For in much Wisdom is much grief, and he that increases in knowledge increases sorrow."~
-Proverbs of King Solomon

Becoming aware of the unconscious assembly of your Belief Systems

~"Concentration...is defined as the 'act or process of concentration...mental application', concentration enables us to observe the details of an idea."~
-Websters Dictionary

It is imperative that everything you say to your Self and the manner in which you say it...should be consciously designed to focus on increasing your own level of concentration.

I want to talk to you about Beliefs.
What we believe is not necessarily real.

Can we have a bit of honest and open conversations about what your Beliefs are in terms of Spirituality?
We all get stuck in our belief systems, however sensible we think they are.

To me...the New Age community and Traditional Religious establishments are particularly guilty of not testing or challenging what they claim.
It's all about questioning.
But there are beliefs we are not encouraged to question and these are often the beliefs upon which we are asked to make important Life's decisions.
These are the areas we should test and look for misinformation, because often we are making Life decisions(consciously, mostly unconsciously) based upon information we are getting from seeming authority figures representing different religious belief systems.

What does something like Psychic healing, or Crystal healing, healing through pharmaceutical chemical medicine, Reiki, Homeopathic/Natural Medicine, or Divine healing mean to you?
If you don't think it's just a question of you sort of buy into it and believe in it, and it sort of works because you are expecting it to?
Do you think it is genuinely MORE than that? How do you sort of grasp that?

Let those questions bounce around in there for awhile and come back to the answer to the question:
What Do YOU think about it...
 Yes, to you personally!
Our own opinions rarely swim close to the top, so become aware of the answers you are giving your Self.
Are the opinions, judgements and beliefs your very own? Beliefs you chose and decided for yourself? Or are they someone else s voices, opinions, judgements and beliefs being echoed and reflected through you?

Whether we believe in Alien abduction, psychic energy, crystal energy, talking to the Dead or Christianity, we are rightly or wrongly buying into a very powerful set of belief systems.
As intelligent human beings we should be prepared to question our beliefs, and the people who encourage us to make Life decisions based on information they give us.

Your world will behave in a way that confirms your beliefs about it!

Beliefs structure your experience of the world. Therefore the powerful need to take conscious direct control over what beliefs are bouncing around in your inner world, in your thoughts and Imaginations.

~"As a man thinketh, so he becomes"~
-Proverbs of King Solomon

You literally become and act in your daily Life what you habitually think about.
Your character becomes the complete sum of all your thoughts.
Sadly, for most of us this process happens very unconsciously, we have been programmed by exterior influences and behave as if we consciously chose and agreed with those beliefs. 
We just never stopped to question why we believe what we believe.

Consciously examining your Hidden Beliefs and Victim Acts.

You are already responsible for your Life, totally. Right Now.
The only question is, will you acknowledge it?

You are responsible for your Life no matter what you say about it. 
Becoming aware of what your mind invents to avoid responsibility tends to be a very uncomfortable process.

By the way, let us be clear on some facts, the words "Love", along with "Responsibility" are the least understood among all words in the Language, therefore, what you probably THINK those words mean ...they really Do Not mean. 

Redefine what things mean to you.

"Responsibility" is the willingness to be the author of all your experiences, even the ones you do not like.

 ~"We act not according to what things really are but according to what we Expect them to be, Believe them to be, and Imagine them to be."~
-Dr.Deepak Chopra 

While you are still stuck running stories and rackets in your head, that others are to blame for your life not working or turning out, in one way or the other, in one area or the other... then you have surrendered all power over your own Life to someone else. Someone else has control over your life, not You. 
You unconsciously put together a Victim act by blaming others, in one form or the other(most do so by complaining). This is at the true core of poor self-esteem. 
Develop an awareness of what Is your Victim story. 

Remember, it took years to put together a Victim story, it won't clear up instantly. 
It starts with the willingness to consider the possibility that it can clear up. 
As you examine the unconscious process by which you put together your beliefs, it is important to not direct any anger towards yourself. Becoming aware of how we have consciously or unconsciously lied to ourselves releases a lot of anger. 
Be patient with your Self.


Decide what to Focus on. What things Mean to You.

~"It is the Questions that drive us."~
-Morpheus. The Matrix

What are the areas in your Life in which you would like to experience a Transformation?

Who would you be if you Knew you could not Fail?

Who would you be if you knew no Limits?

Who would you be if everything was possible and nothing was impossible?

The clearer and more defined the questions you ask...the clearer and more defined shall be the Answers the Universe will return to you.

The most powerful life-altering decisions and agreements you could ever make...are the decisions and agreements you make with your Self.

Control the moment by moment manifestation of your reality and world, and the moment by moment operation of your Mind by consciously choosing...

A) Your Decisions about what to focus on.
B)  Your decisions about what things mean to you.
C) Your Decisions about what to do to create the desired outcome.

Or from,

A) Know where you want to Go!
B) Know where you are! 
C) Know how you're going to get there!

Or said another way,

A) Raise your standards
B) Change your Limiting Beliefs
C) Change your strategy

Consciously take time out to dwell and concentrate on these questions...
Observe what Answers emerge from deep within you...

Become aware of your inner dialogue. The narration of your Inner Voices. The stories you tell your self. What you say and the manner in how you say it to your Self.

Examine and Observe what comes up...
For some, this process may be a bit disturbing as they are forced to confront barriers they have created for themselves. Barriers that prevent them from experiencing and expressing their true inner beauty and Life's Purpose.

Choosing to Live a Purpose Driven Life!

~"Confusion is that wonderful state of mind before Clarity."~

As you start to become aware of your inner dialogue and voice-over narrations after some time meditating upon these questions...

You will start to become aware of your own resignations and cynicism. Your self-created barriers.
You become aware of how our lives are filled with contradictory desires every second of every day, and we experience only some of the contradictions as problems only some of the time.
Every now and then we in effect choose to experience a contradiction as a problem.

Consciously stop and examine the nature and origin of these inner contradictions, opinions, judgments, and beliefs that surface in you...

Allow yourself to become fully aware of how attached you are to your standards, ideals, opinions, beliefs and judgements. Notice what you are attached to and the degree to which you are attached.
When these attachments become apparent and known...we can begin to see the unconscious  process by which they were assembled and the degree to which they govern our daily lives, how they affect what we see and don't see, what we consider and what we fail to notice, what we are able to do and what seems beyond our reach.

Become aware of stories and thought-narrations your mind makes up that cause you to doubt, fear and disbelieve.
Become aware of your self made paradigms of failure and fear. 
Become aware of the all-pervasive filters that profoundly color(or obscure) our relationships with people, circumstances and even ourselves.
 
As you become aware of what is behind your beliefs, choices and actions... you gain an ongoing access to the power to choose Who you are and Who you can Be.
You are now left, perhaps for the first time... with a choice in what you Believe.

~"It is what you do that defines you."~
-The Dark Knight

Will you choose...right now...to take responsibility for your choices, and the thoughts you habitually entertain moment by moment and how your Life turns out in the end?

Who will you Choose to Be(come)?

Your actions are defined by who and what you Think You are! 

~"Let every man be fully persuaded and convinced in his own mind."~
-St.Paul

~"Your capabilities and skills are constant, and how much of them you use depends upon the Identity you have for yourself."~
-Dr.Joseph O Connor 

Choose to take a stand for values that will transform the world around you, the experience of the world as you know it.

Choose to relate your personal growth to the growth and evolution of your family, community, organization, Country and Planet.

 Choose to make it your objective to empower and enable people to generate and fulfill new possibilities.
Learn the art of consistently creating and providing Metaphors and Paradigms that produce extraordinary results in the lives of those around you!

Choose to Be the power of transformation that keeps people alive, real and present in a space of constant wonder, fascination and magic.

Take a stand to share yourself as a Miracle and you will experience a miraculous Life!

Every day choose to be the living manifestation of the experience of Love, Power, Fearlessness and Passion.

Be a Miracle. Be a Living Miracle.

Be free from constraints of your past. You are not your story, you are not your stuff. You are not your Past. History should not define the Present. You are responsible for the Mind that created the stuff, you are however not your stuff. 

You are a Miracle itself. You are a Love-Feast. You are a Miracle worker. You are a Warrior of the Light. You are a Channel for Higher Good.  You are the living incarnation of the most noble Ideals and Ideas.

You are a the carrier of Divine Language.
A Living Spark of God...able to create your moment by moment reality with your Imagination, and the power of your Words spoken forth...

Give Miracles to others and thereby experience a miraculous Life.

Be the Agent of Transformation that causes breakthroughs beyond predictable logic.

Do what it takes to make your Life work moment by moment, day by day!

 

LifeStyle Design. Belonging to Your 'Self'. And Doing it with Style.

~"...Whatever You Do...DO IT with Style..."~
-Freddy Mercury


~"...The Whole world is a Stage, and we all...Actors...each having His role to Play..."~
-Shakespeare


~"If a Man has not found something worth Dying for...He is not Fit to Live."~
-Dr.Martin Luther King

~"If anyone wanted to Imagine a Genius of Culture...what would he look like?"~
-F.N.

He would Cunningly employ Suggestion, misdirection,psychology and showmanship to Artfully manipulate falsehood, force, the most ruthless self-interests as his instruments so skillfully...he would mistakenly be called an 'Evil Demonic Being'...
But His Objetcives...which here and there glimmer through...would be Acts Great and Good...
He would be like a Centaur...Half-Beast...Half-Man...with Angels wings attached to his back and a Blinding Halo above Her...His Head...

Among men who possess a particular gift for friendship Two types Predominate...

One Type...is in a state of Continual Ascent...and for each phase of his development finds a friend precisely appropriate to it...
The succession of friends she acquires in this way are seldom at agreement with one with one another, and sometimes in dissonance and discord, which is in line with the fact that the later phases of her development neutralize or Intrude upon the earlier stages...
Parties tend to feel rather "strange"...
Such a person may be called a "Ladder".

The Other Type...is represented by him...One with fluidity, driven by deeper Passions,fully possessed by Her Muses,sold & committed...

Thus is S(h)e possessed to Be an Attraction to a differing range of Characters,Personalities and Talents...
So that S(h)e gains a Whole 'Circle' of Friends...
They...however..establish friendly relations between one another, going beyond their personal differences, on account of being Her Friend.

You can call Her...that Type...a Circle...

In Her..."... this solidarity between such different natures and dispositions must have in some way Pre-Figured".

We can Only Recognize in others what we can recognize in Our 'Self'.

These Two Leading Spirits Act Out in One of Only Two Ways...

And Consider...

Either they select those who are suited to their Designs with Great care and subtlety...and then leave them relatively great freedoms of movement, Because they Know...that the NATURE of these select people will take them where they themselves want them to Be...

Or...

You Select at Random...taking what Ever happens to be available and at hand...
You shape out of this Clay something that will serve your purpose...
Your Knowledge of People and Human Nature is Less...and Your Dislike for people Greater than the former Type, and you Need more easily subjugated instruments...

The Machine You Construct...though, often can and do work better than does the machine from the former's workshop...

You've got to Be passionate to Observe and Steer away from Everything that confuses and deceives your Certainty and Confidence in Your Own Path...

You Artfully Give to each His Own Conviction for the Sake of their Own Truth in Their Own Path.

~"Give and it shall be Given."~

You... "Become all things to All Men."- St.Paul

Relate able to the Masses...You Be..Come...

You Possess All the Qualities of the Masses, thus the All more Popular You Are...

But Bound By No Man's Opinion Of You...

You have been Liberated from Tradition...in all It's Forms...

You have Become all they Said You Could Never Be...

Be In Action In the World As the Manifestation of Your Values...

Share Yourself as a Miracle...

And Experience a Miraculous Life...

Reverse Engineer...

Challenge the Beliefs of All that Thought they Knew You.

The Difference Between 'Suggestion' and Hypnosis.

What is the Difference between 'Suggestion' and Hypnosis?

Where does 'Suggestion' end and Hypnosis begin, or are they quite different?

Suggestion is an Integral part of every single piece of Day to Day communication...

If a Nobel prize winner dressed in a sober suit announced an amazing new technical breakthrough at a scientific conference, you would be more inclined to believe it than if you were told by a scruffy dressed stranger in a pub.
Your mind would be twisted further, If you were to later discover, that the same scruffy dressed pleasant chap you were drinking and talking with in the pub turned out to be a Nobel Prize Winner.
The Medium....is part of the Message.

In all communication...the tone of voice of the speaker, the things he said, and the manner in which he said them, the movement of his hands, his dress, your knowledge of his background(or lack of it)... all suggest information to you over and above the content of his message.
Sometimes the subconscious or subliminal impressions or suggestions reinforce your understanding or memory of the content upon which your 'conscious' attention is focused.
At other times subliminal or peripheral suggestions contradict the message....

Patricia Durovy of the American Society for Training and Development estimates that "90% of all communication is subconscious."
According to the Institute of Noetic Sciences, that could be an underestimate. I've read Anthony Robbins,Wayne Dyer and Deepak Chopra also echo that statistic.

Although suggestion works very powerfully indeed at the subconscious level, the conscious mind generally continues to act as a Censor.
It will normally reject suggestions that do not accord with our moral values, or with logic, or that threaten our sense of Identity,confidence and security.

The Key Difference between Suggestion and Hypnotism... is that Suggestion Can and Does bring the power of the subconscious to bear, but without relinquishing the censor role of the conscious mind. It can also effectively bring about and cause permanent changes in ability,behavior and sense of Identity.

Under Hypnotism you are Partially...relinquishing control of both your conscious and unconscious mind to someone else. Having many similar brain-wave patterns as those of sleep, and both involve reduced conscious control. That itself being the result of focusing on a Temporary State.
A Constriction of attention to a specific subject,topic or Idea...
Though, it can of course have excellent long-term therapeutic results, as in the Artful & effective Use of Hypno-Analysis.

Suggestion is much more effective in Creating,Re-creating and maintaining long-term measurable results.
An Oklahoma Anesthetist, Mrs. Jean Mabry, regularly waits until her patients are under anesthesia and whispers encouraging and positive instructions to them. Consultant Surgeons working with her report markedly improved recovery rates.

Imagination and Suggestion
Although it is easy to use the words imagination and suggestion interchangeably, there are important distinctions between them.
Imagination...can be described as "the ability to visualize to produce a mental impression of sights,sounds,smells,tastes, and memories of Touch".
You can use Imagination to create strong visual links between two ideas you are trying to remember...
Consciously Used in this way it is a Key to memory and Accelerated Learning.

However,imagination is also needed to create a Suggestion,and suggestion can bring about a permanent and far-reaching change in your sense of Identity,Behaviour,Capabilities and perception of our Environment.
Artfull,purpose-driven suggestion could be used to improve learning effectiveness and increase the speed of learning, as some Institutes have been able to Produce:
-A Japanese had learned English in 10 Days.
-Students at the university of Iowa had learned a Year of Spanish in 3 Months.
-Complete beginners had learned 900 words of French in 1 Day.

Genius...More Made than Born?
In 1800, a German Doctor decided to give his son,Karl Witte, a really rich educational environment.
Karl entered the University of Leipzig at 9 and gained his Ph.D at 14 years of age.
Lord Kelvin's Mother made the same decision. He became one of the 19Century's most successful Physicists.

In 1952, American Aaron Stern determined to give his daughter the best educational environment he could devise.
Classical Music was a continuous background, he talked to her in adult terms and showed her reading cards with numbers and animals on them.
Edith Stern...could talk in simple sentences as age 1, and had read an entire volume of the Encyclopedia Britannica by the age of 5.
She was reading 6 books a day by age 6. At 12 she enrolled in College and was teaching Higher Mathematics at Michigan State University at 15 years Old. She scored 200 on a scale where 155 is Genius.

In England, Ruth Lawrence, who passed her O level maths at 9 and A level at 10(normally 18), was accepted at Oxford University at 12 years of age.
She also was educated in an Intellectually rich environment by her parents.
Much in the same ways my Grandparents offered my Brothers and I.

Identifying Genius Indicators...Nature or Nurture?
The way in which the Brain actually develops enables us to, once and for all, dispose of the question of whether intelligence is a function of heredity(nature/dna) or Environment (Nurture).

The Answer is: Both are equally powerful influencing factors in Genius Production.

The Number of brain cells is a factor, but what is far more significant is the WAY those brain cells are stimulated to make rich connections and associations. Which is primarily an Environmental Factor.
While physical development of the brain is largely complete by age 5, there are further well-established intervals of intellectual developments at ages 6 to 8, 10 to 12, and 14 to 16.

Perhaps if our educational systems & stimuli were so developed and timed to coincide with these Natural periods of development?
It is Scientifically correct and proven to say that almost every normal child is born a potential Genius.
Even if innate intelligence is merely average, a rich intellectual environment during the period of the 2nd Brain Growth Spurt, with plenty of opportunities to learn, can ensure the development of a greater proportion of the Brain potential than would normally be expected
The Clinical &scientific Evidence for this in Humans is now overwhelming.

The Brain, as a Tool, allows us to unconsciously process somewhere around 2,000,000 pieces of information through our Senses, per SECOND, yet we can be aware of only 3,5 7... and the best of us... 9 things at any one present moment, in the here and Now.
The Brain further 'Refines' this raw information we obtained into our perceptions. 'Refine' is Key, as the Brain acts as a reducing valve.
Realize...that this makes our awareness highly selective...
As individuals we each construct a version of reality from within this narrow, subjective band of information.
Our Model of reality will also be Unique as to the meaning we give Our experiences.

While it is certainly an oversimplification to relate intelligence to brain capacity, it is, however interesting to present to you 3 Modern Statistical Facts:
1) The Average IQ is 100
2) The Genius Level is 160
3) The Average Human probably used closer to only 4 Percent of his Potential Brain Power.

Wrap Your Mind around that....

Expectation vs Conditioning in the Placebo Effect

In My Book How Your Mind Can Heal Your Body I detailed Recent Studies on how the placebo effect has been broken down, and Identified to two specific levels:
1) The level that affects the level of pain or the movements of muscles, and
2) Immune, hormone, and respiratory function.

When a person receives a placebo, believing it to be a real drug, they generally expect that symptoms will change. This is called EXPECTATION and is strongest for level 1 changes; that is, for pain relief or changes in muscle movement (e.g. Parkinsons). Relief often comes on a single administration of a placebo. But for level 2 changes (immune, hormone, or respiratory changes), the effect of this type of placebo is less effective. Patients need to be CONDITIONED over time to believe that something will happen.

For instance, in one experiment volunteers were repeatedly given a drink containing an immunosuppressant known as a cyclosporin A, which would weaken their immune systems. And it did. Over time, by having the drink over and over again, the volunteers were conditioned to believe that the drink would suppress their immune systems. So they were then given the same drink but containing no cyclosporin A. Again, their immune systems weakened and this was because they had built up a belief that the drink would have this effect.

And of course, conditioning also gives relief at level 1 too. Some recent research has shown that placebo analgesia is ‘finely tuned’ by previous experience. So in other words, if you expect a medicine to work or not work, it’s effectiveness will be strongly influenced by whether you expect it to work or not.

For instance, in a recent experiment, volunteers received pain stimulation and then a placebo. But they thought the placebo was an analgesic drug that would reduce the pain. So, over time the researchers gradually reduced the intensity of the pain stimulation so that the patients believed that it was the drug that was reducing the pain. This way they were conditioned to believe that the placebo was a powerful drug.

The experiment found that volunteers who had been so conditioned would receive pain relief within minutes after painful stimulation when they took a placebo and the effect would last for 4-7 days.

From my research over the years I have concluded that the placebo effect mostly boils down to a person’s level of belief. Conditioning simply strengthens belief. Level 1 and 2 (these were my assignments, by the way......researchers simply refer to them as surface or less conscious processes....I thought level 1 and 2 were easier to make sense of) symptoms are simply used as a black and white type method of showing the different effect of expectation vs conditioning. But there are always exceptions to the rules. People are different. Some are more suggestible than others. Some generate much stronger or weaker beliefs. Here’s a real-life example of the power of belief:

A friend of mine had bad hay fever. I suggested they get some locally produced honey because by taking a spoonful a day they should become sensitised to the local pollen. Anyway, it worked and after about 5 days the hay fever symptoms were gone completely. But then about 3 weeks later an expert on TV gave a caller some advice that local honey takes about 3 months before it starts working. Guess what happened? My friend’s hay fever returned.

Recognising the psychological effects, I told him that the expert wasn’t involved in science. It’s not their specialty. It was probably just an off the cuff remark. I also suggested that my friend might have even received one of last year’s batch of local honey, since he did buy it right at the start of the summer. The shop might have been using up last year’s stock so it might contain a different spectrum of pollen. He said he would go get some fresh stuff. Guess what? He did and the hay fever disappeared again.



This article is Copyright © 2008 by David R. Hamilton Ph.D.
It has been left Unedited for this Blog.

Can You Erase Pain With Your Mind?

Almost every month, as I read through the latest scientific journals, I discover some new evidence confirming the power of mind over matter. Usually we think of mind over matter as using the mind to make ourselves better, but the mind can also create disease, symptoms and pain.

Research published 6 weeks ago by Oxford University scientists showed that when people who have arm pain imagined themselves moving their arm, they experienced pain, even though they didn't actually move their arms. And tests revealed that there was increased swelling in their arms......just by a thought.

The study involved 37 people with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS). When they imagined moving their arms, pain went up and swelling increased by 8%, even though they didn't actually move. It was all in the mind.

People still use the phrase, 'All in the mind' as if the mind is separate from the body. But now we have cast iron scientific evidence showing that the mind and body are so connected that every thought affects the body. You cannot think about anything without causing some chemical changes in your brain and body. The structure of your brain has just changed at the microscopic level as you read this sentence.

The people in the CRPS study created swelling in their arms just by imagining themselves moving their arms. We do this all the time. We create pain and symptoms of illnesses through our thinking. But one of the fascinating conclusions emerging from mind-body science is that we can use our minds in a beneficial way to help ourselves heal.

For instance, research of this type has recently been pioneered in stroke rehabilitation. In one study, stroke patients who are taught 'mental imagery', which is visualising themselves moving the impaired parts of their body for 30 minutes a day, improved much more than patients who didn't visualise.

What you imagine really matters!


This article is Copyright © 2008 by David R. Hamilton Ph.D.
It has been left Unedited for this Blog.

Mind Over Stroke

There’s emerging strong evidence that the mind can speed up rehabilitation and recovery after a stroke.

A 2009 study of 35 acute poststroke patients showed this. The patients were split into two groups, one that used daily visualization of themselves moving impaired limbs as well as physiotherapy and the other group who received only standard physiotherapy.

Eighteen of the patients were in the visualization group and the 17 were in the physiotherapy group. The visualization group did mental imagery exercises every day for 3 weeks.

At the end the groups were compared in their ability to carry out tasks with the same tasks before the study began. Those in the visualization group performed much better. They showed substantial improvement in 4 out of 5 tasks whereas the physiotherapy group only made substantial improvements in 1 task.

Previous studies in the use of visualization for stroke rehabilitation (See my book, ‘How Your Mind Can Heal Your Body’) have found the same thing. It works because the brain doesn’t distinguish between real movement or imagined movement. When a person imagines moving a muscle, the same area of the brain is stimulated as if they really did move the muscle.

This sends signals out of the brain, down the spinal column to the actual muscle and stimulates the muscle. The more mental work that’s done, the stronger the muscle becomes.

Here’s a link to the scientific paper if you want to read for yourself: http://stroke.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/STROKEAHA.108.540997v1



This article is Copyright © 2010 by David R. Hamilton Ph.D.
It has been left Unedited for this Blog.
It's the Thought That Counts: Why Mind Over Matter Really Works

The Placebo Effect is Getting Stronger

From 2002 to 2006, the number of drugs that were axed after Phase-II clinical trials (volunteer trials) increased by 20% because the drugs couldn’t beat the placebos they were compared against.

More recently, in 2008, a new gene therapy for Parkinson’s disease failed against the placebo. Similarly, in March 2009, Eli Lilly withdrew a new drug for schizophrenia because the placebo effect was double that expected. Also in March 2009, Osiris Therapeutics’ new drug for Crohn’s disease was also withdrawn due to a high placebo effect.

What is going on?

There are a few forces that have generated the increase. The first is powerful advertising. Advertising plays on the mind; the very vehicle of the placebo effect.

The Pharmaceutical Industry have hugely increased their advertising expenditure in the past 20 years. Many years ago, drug advertising was little more than a few posters on the walls of surgery waiting rooms. Now, big pharma have created powerful ads that are so effective that patients taking drugs in the west really expect something to happen when they take them.

Now the act of taking any drug in the west brings with it powerful memories as well as even more powerful unconscious associations generated by the advertising that ensure that taking a drug has an effect. But the downside, not for the patients but for the industry, is that the same applies when they take a placebo. Expectancy is a key element of the placebo effect. The same memories and associations are activated that ensure that taking a placebo heals too. Ironically for the drugs industry, as advertising gets better so too does the placebo effect.

The second reason is that there is a growing flux of drug testing now taking place in developing nations. In these trials, poor people who are often deprived of medical care are suddenly able to get the drugs they need. Many are desperate, and have high hopes for the drugs they receive as well as high-level belief in them. Their perception of rich nations is people enjoying state of the art drugs and healthcare into their very old ages.

But hope and belief are also key elements of the placebo effect. Thus, placebos in poor countries often do better than they would do in other countries. And since the global placebo statistics are made up from trials everywhere in the world, the statistics from the poorer nations lift the overall placebo rate up a few points. Thus, as more and more trials are carried out in poor countries, the higher the placebo effect will get.

You could say, with the fancy advertising and trials in developing countries, that the pharmaceutical industry has, ironically, been responsible for elevating the placebo effect. With similar irony, it was my own personal experience as a scientist in the pharmaceutical industry that propelled me into studying the power of the mind over the body.

Another reason for the increase is due to an increase in the use of drugs to treat ‘psychological disorders’. In the past 20 years, there has been an increase in the number of conditions being diagnosed as ‘psychological disorders’. Pharmaceutical companies have ploughed increasing millions of dollars into their research and development.

But many of these psychological disorders involve areas of the brain that are also involved with our beliefs, expectations, hopes, thoughts of rewards, and how we understand and relate to each other. And these are the same areas that are active during a placebo response. Thus the placebo effect is unexpectedly high for conditions like depression.

For example, a 2008 study of Prozac (fluoxetine), Effexor (venlafaxine), Serzone (nefazodone), and Seroxat (paroxetine) covering 35 clinical trials that involved 5,133 patients found that the placebo effect accounted for 81% of the effect of these drugs.

Thus, as more people are diagnosed with psychological disorders and the number of drugs used to treat them increase, the ratio of drugs for psychological disorders compared with all other drugs increases. And since they have a high placebo effect, the overall placebo effect also increases.

It’s a similar story with cardiovascular diseases. As cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the west, in large part due to western dietary and lifestyle habits, drugs to treat it dominate the drug market. But drugs for cardiovascular diseases also have a high placebo effect, which many believe is due to the strong brain-heart link. So as our diets and lifestyles worsen and our hearts pay the price, the drugs used to treat us ensure that the placebo effect is kept high.

Doctors/physicians have a hand in the increase too. Many are now much more aware that the placebo effect is not just a nuisance, or all in the mind, as was once thought, but that it is a real pharmacological phenomenon that produces physiological change in the brain and body. Thus, many doctors treat patients with more empathy and assurance than before. Empathy and assurance also activate the placebo effect. As doctors show more care and confidence, patients get better faster, even when they are taking inert medication.

Consider, for instance, the results of a British Medical Journal paper that reported on 200 patients who had either been given a positive or a negative consultation by their doctor.
For approximately the same medical conditions, the doctors told the patients what was wrong with them and that they would get better in a few days. Accordingly, 64% of them did get better over the next 2 weeks. But for the other half, the doctors told the patients that they weren’t sure what was wrong with them but to come back if they haven’t got better. Only 39% of this group got better…..64% versus 39% and the only difference was in how the doctor acted. For the first group, there was more empathy and confidence.

There is a last unexpected factor that also increases the placebo effect. It’s difficult to quantify the degree of influence it has, but it’s sure to be exerting an increasing force. It’s us! Or at least, it’s our increasing knowledge of the placebo effect and our growing faith in our own capacity to affect our bodies.

In the past few years, research into the placebo effect has delivered a powerful new message. It is that our thoughts, beliefs, our hopes and our expectations impact our brains and our bodies. MRI studies now show beyond doubt that this is true. Recent brain research shows release of dopamine in the brain when Parkinson’s patients are given placebos, for instance. Other studies show release of the brain’s own version of morphine when people are given placebos instead of painkillers. And MRI scans of patients given placebos instead of Prozac show activation in the same areas of the brain.

One of the leaders in the field of placebo research, Fabrizio Benedetti, a neuroscience professor at the University of Turin School of Medicine and member of the Placebo Study Group centered at Harvard, recently wrote:

“The placebo effect has evolved from being thought of as a nuisance in clinical pharmacological research to a biological phenomenon worthy of scientific investigation in its own right.”
This kind of research is filtering into the public domain through the mainstream press, which raises everyone’s belief in the power of the mind. Popular general-public-focused books that discuss the mind-body connection, like ‘How Your Mind Can Heal Your Body’, ‘It’s the Thought that Counts’, ‘The Biology of Belief’, and ‘Molecules of Emotion’, also add to this.
So as our collective awareness that the mind affects the body increases, it’s sure to elevate the placebo effect even more.

The good news in all this is that we are beginning to recognize that we are not exactly powerless. Our own attitudes and beliefs, our hopes and our expectations, all play a part in our own healing.
A general, healthy way of being, then, is to cultivate a more positive attitude towards all that life throws our way. It might just help us live longer, healthier lives, and when we do get sick it might just help us recover faster.

How Your Mind Can Heal Your Body

This article is Copyright © 2010 by David R. Hamilton Ph.D.
It has been left Unedited for this Blog.

Our Beliefs Make Chemistry

I spoke at a Mind-Body-Spirit Fair in Derby recently on How Your Mind Can Heal Your Body...

Wandering around some of the stalls before my talks got me thinking. Some people have asked me if I thought most of the therapies on offer at these fairs are rubbish, just all in the mind. I sometimes reply, ‘What would it matter if they were?’

People go to fairs like these and they feel good when they get treatments, when they talk with stall holders, and when they hear talks.

It wouldn’t matter if the benefits of the therapies on offer were just placebo (For the record, they’re not). If they work for people, then great.

There’s going to come a time in Medicine where it is widely accepted that the mind plays a really important role in, well, just about everything. If a patient believes that something will be good for them, then should it not be encouraged providing it can’t do any harm?
I remember someone even say to me once that visualizing ourselves getting better from an illness is rubbish, that’s its just all in the mind. Of course it is. Is that not the point?
If you believe that a therapy is good for you then it will be. Take a fictitious therapy called ‘X’, for example.

If you have learned that ‘X’ creates a feeling of relaxation and that this will reduce your stress, which will also have a positive impact upon many illnesses, then you will probably receive a lot of benefit from it. Yes, some of the benefit would be placebo – your belief in the therapy. But who cares whether it is or not? That’s just academic.

The bottom line is that the person receiving the therapy is benefiting.

If, on the other hand, a person had been told by someone that there are no real benefits, that’s it’s all in the mind, then they might not have the therapy and so miss out on the benefits, just because a study might have shown that it was no better than placebo. But by receiving the therapy, they are getting benefits, even if much of it is created by the mind.
That’s the thing with the mind. Our beliefs make chemistry! And quite often, that chemistry benefits us.

The mind creates chemical changes in the brain and around the body. Hormone levels change, cells change, and genes express themselves, producing proteins all around the brain and body. In a 2005 paper, Eric Kandel, 2000 Nobel Prizewinner in Medicine, even wrote, ‘There’s no longer any doubt that psychotherapy can result in detectable changes in the brain.’ A new way of thinking about something activates different brain regions from before, encouraging blood flow in a new direction, leading to actual structural changes in the brain, often in the region of the prefrontal cortex.

Getting therapy ‘X’, whatever it is, allows the person’s mind to create healing change in the body, regardless of whether the therapy was any good in and of itself. It really shouldn’t matter if ‘X’ was no better than placebo. Placebo heals in and of itself. That was one of my greatest learnings when I worked as a scientist with one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies.

Time and again, I learned about clinical trials (for drugs that are currently on the market) that showed a large number of people improve because they believed they were getting a medicine when, in reality, they were getting a small white tablet made of chalk or sugar – a fake drug. Belief makes chemistry!

I think many criticisms are purely academic. The evidence in mind-body science is compelling. We also now know that thinking causes structural changes in the brain, for instance. We’ve reached a point where we can no longer say, ‘it’s all in the mind’, because our own thinking is not inert. You can’t have a thought or hold a belief without affecting your brain and body.
So if a person believes that a particular therapy can help them on their healing journey then, providing it can’t actually do any harm, it should be encouraged.

I would always recommend, however, that you talk to your doctor/physician about your intentions. Many physicians are open to the use of alternatives and it can be good to have your physician on board, in support of what you’re doing. It can make you feel better about what you’re doing.
If they are not, then it is your right to seek a second opinion, or a third.

This article is Copyright © 2009 by David R. Hamilton Ph.D.
It has been left entirely Unedited for this Blog

Think Yourself Well - Scientific Evidence for the Power of Visualisation

A 2008 study at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak demonstrated the power of visualisation for the treatment of interstitial cystitis. Fifteen women visualised for 25 minutes, twice a day, for a total of 8 weeks, where they pictured healing the bladder, relaxing the pelvic-floor muscles and quietening the nerves involved. Fifteen women in a control group rested during these times so that the scientists could compare visualisation vs. non-visualisation.

After the 8 weeks, the women who visualised had significantly reduced symptoms and pain than those who didn't.

A 2008 study published in the Journal for the Society of Integrative Oncology demonstrated that visualisation reduced the risk of reoccurrence of breast cancer. The study involved 34 women who participated in an 8-week imagery program. It found that the women who visualised had reduced stress and improved quality of life. It also found that cortisol rhythm, which is an indicator of the probability of the reoccurrence of cancer, was improved and thus the likelihood of cancer returning was reduced.

Visualisation even affects wound healing, which was shown in a 2007 study at Southeastern Louisiana University School of Nursing, involving 24 patients undergoing surgery to remove their gallbladders. The study found that, not only did visualisation reduce levels of anxiety and stress hormone levels but those who used it had much lower levels of surgical wound erythema, which is redness around a wound that's usually associated with infection or inflammation. In effect, visualisation speeds up the healing of our wounds.

These 3 studies, and many more, can also be found in my new book, 'How Your Mind Can Heal Your Body', which is published by Hay House UK on 27 th November 2008.

It's the Thought That Counts: Why Mind Over Matter Really Works

This article is Copyright © 2008 by David R. Hamilton Ph.D.
It has been left entirely unedited for this Blog.

The Science of Mind Over Matter

Imagine that scientists discovered a new drug that could cure or improve the symptoms of most known diseases. Just one pill! Wouldn't it make headline news all around the world, and become the greatest selling drug of all time?

Such a thing already exists. Let me introduce to you - The Placebo!

" The placebo effect has evolved from being thought of as a nuisance in clinical pharmacological research to a biological phenomenon worthy of scientific investigation in its own right. "

These are the words of Professor Fabrizio Benedetti, a neuroscience professor at the University of Turin School of Medicine, a world authority on the placebo effect, and member of the 'Placebo Study Group' of the Mind/Brain/Behaviour initiative at Harvard University.

A placebo is a dummy drug that is made to look just like a real drug. It is used in medical trials so that the drug can be tested against a control. Being a control, it is not supposed to heal but it does, because patients believe that it's a real drug. Their mind heals them.

For years the cures were dismissed as 'just placebo' but new evidence has conclusively proven that there is no such thing as 'just' placebo. When you think you are receiving a medicine, you change the structure of your brain on a microscopic level and chemicals are released in several different areas.

For instance, a recent study into Parkinson's disease saw patients given an antiparkinson's drug (apomorphine). MRI brain scans then showed dopamine released in an area of the brain known as the striatum. When patients were given a placebo instead, there was also release of dopamine in the striatum. The brain didn't seem to know the difference between actually getting apomorphine and just believing that the drug was apomorphine.

Much of the effect of many modern drugs is due to the placebo effect. Of course, drugs work in their own right. When I was a scientist in the pharmaceutical industry I worked with them. They work in test tubes. But a test tube doesn't have a mind. When you give a drug to an actual person, their thoughts about the drug become important. If they think the drug will work, it is likely to. If they think that it won't, then it won't work as well.

This is often influenced by what a doctor tells them. Studies have shown that if a doctor is enthusiastic about a treatment then it works much better than if they have their doubts.

In a 1954 study, for instance, patients with bleeding ulcers were given water injections but told either that the injections would cure them, or that they were being given experimental injections of undetermined effectiveness. Of the patients who were told that the injections would cure them, 70% showed excellent improvement, but of the group who were told that it was an experimental injection, only 25% improved.

In another study, some patients were given a positive consultation (for minor ailments) along the lines of, "you will be better soon," and some were given a negative consultation, along the lines of, "I'm not sure what's wrong with you." After 2 weeks, 64% of those who received a positive consultation were better but only 39% of those who received the negative one were better.

So some of the effects of drugs are caused by our belief in the doctor or our belief in the drug. Recent analysis of the bestselling antidepressants on the market revealed that the placebo effect accounts for 81% of their effectiveness.

It was a meta-analysis (summary of a number of scientific studies) of Fluoxetine (Prozac), Venlafaxine (Effexor), Nefazodone (Serzone), and Paroxetine (Seroxat), covering 35 clinical trials involving 5,133 patients.

But as I've pointed out, this doesn't mean that the drugs don't work. It really just means that, for depression, the placebo effect is very high. With heart medicines, there is also a very high placebo effect. A number of heart medicines have a placebo effect around 60-70%. The drugs work, but so do our thoughts about the drugs. So great power to heal lies within us, we just need to believe it.

And it's not just thoughts around whether we are receiving a medicine or not that affect us. Every thought, regardless what it is a thought of, causes changes in the brain and releases chemicals throughout it.

This is how paralysed people are able to walk down a virtual reality street or move a cursor on a computer screen by thought alone, as recent news reports have described. These things are possible because a thought to move, say, a foot causes electrical activity in the 'foot' part of the brain. Implants measure the electrical activity (as brain waves) coming from the foot part of the brain and send a signal to a computer. The computer then makes a virtual character take a step.

In a similar way, paralysed people can make a cursor go left or right, up or down, on a computer screen and point to certain letter so that they can type e-mails with their thoughts. Sounds like science fiction, but it is science fact and it all relies on the simple fact that thoughts change the brain. In other words, that the mind affects the body.

These recent advances, as the forefront of science, are sure to lay to rest, once and for all, any scepticism that exists around whether mind affects body.

How Your Mind Can Heal Your Body

This article is Copyright © 2008 by David R. Hamilton Ph.D.
It has been left Unedited for this Blog.