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