GUIDED IMAGERY IN HEALING

 

A major cause of both wellness and sickness,

the image is the world’s oldest and greatest healing resource.

The brew of the imagination affects the body intimately on both seemingly mundane and profound levels.  As the image has a pronounced effect on the body, it plays a key role in the less dramatic aspects of living, and yields power over life and death as well.

CONVENIENCE

Course materials are accessible twenty-four hours a day, and seven days a week, so you can study and learn whenever and wherever you choose. You can read and review lessens, discussions, articles, and additional commentary at anytime and as often as you would like to. You also have the convenience of studying in the comfort of your own home, or taking your HAI studies with you while traveling, working, or visiting your favorite internet café. 

Aromatherapy:  Ancient

Wisdom for Modern Times

Although the contemporary practice of modern aromatherapy originated only within the last hundred years, the use of aromatic plant substances for healing purposes can be traced back to all the major ancient civilizations of the world.  Ancient writings describe the use of aromatic herbs, spices, resins, fats, oils, vinegars, wines, beers, and more for rituals, embalming, healing, and beatification.  It is believed that aromatic plants have actually been used by humankind since the dawn of human history. . . . MORE!

Human beings, vegetables, or

cosmic dust—we all dance

to a mysterious tune,

intoned in the distance

by an invisible piper.

~Albert Einstein

Follow the links below to learn more about

Guided Imagery in Healing:

Imagery in Healing Course

Spiritual Counselor (SC) Program

Guided Imagery in Healing

By Theda Renee Floyd, PhD, RN, HHP

Imagery is the thought process that invokes and uses the senses of vision, hearing, taste, smell, touch, balance, position, and movement.  It is the communication mechanism between perception, emotion, and bodily change.  A major cause of both wellness and sickness, the image is the world’s oldest and greatest healing resource. 

The brew of the imagination affects the body intimately on both seemingly mundane and profound levels.  As the image has a pronounced effect on the body, it plays a key role in the less dramatic aspects of living, and yields power over life and death as well.  Consider the following: 

v     The mental rehearsal of a sales presentation or a marathon race evokes muscular changes, produces brain wave changes, activates sweat glands, and increases blood pressure.

v     In a primitive society, the witch doctor shakes the bones and utters a curse.  The victim’s heart flutters, their temperature drops, and death quickly comes.  The victim dies, not from fright, but from hopelessness, from the vivid working of the imagination.

v     A terminally ill cancer patient journeys to the shrine at Lourdes, France.  A woman with severe rheumatoid arthritis travels to Mexico to obtain therapy that is unproven according to U.S. authorities and therefore illegal in this country.  In both of these cases, positive changes of the medical conditions in question were documented in association with interventions that might be classified as medically worthless.

v     Patients all over the world are administered placebos of various kinds, and often show decreases in pain, nausea, anxiety, and even tumor cells.  It is not just their attitude that undergoes change; their biochemistry also undergoes a transformation.  Far from being the beguiling of innocents and malingerers, placebos and the power of suggestion tend to work best in people who need and want to get well. 

The common feature of these events—mental rehearsals, voodoo curses, visits to religious or medical shrines, and responses to placebos—is that they all serve to alter the perceptions or images that the individuals hold regarding their state of health; and, in so doing, the images cause profound physiological change (Achterberg 3-4). 

New research in guided imagery has validated the initial expectations concerning how imagery affects physiology and health.  Guided imagery is now known as the magic bullet in body, mind, and spirit medicine, and is used in almost every mind/body intervention.  For the body, the latest research indicates that guided imagery reduces the side effects of chemotherapy and radiation in cancer patients, decreases anxiety and pain in surgical patients, reduces medication use in post heart and colon surgery patients, and shortens hospital stay.  Guided imagery has also been shown to decrease headache pain in tension headache patients, reduce blood glucose levels in diabetics, reduce allergy symptoms, and enhance sleep.  For the mind, numerous studies indicate that guided imagery enhances self-confidence and self-esteem, and heightens a person’s total quality of life.  For the spirit, randomized studies demonstrate that guided imagery serves as a catalyst for spiritual experiences and growth. 

If there was a medication that could do even a small portion of this body, mind, and spirit healing, it would be hailed as the largest medical breakthrough of the century (Samuals x-xi).  A renewal of focus on the imagination as an ancient and potent aspect of healing marks this time as having initiated the most dramatic advances in medicine the world has yet seen.  The forces responsible for bringing about these changes represent a grand confluence of theology, psychology, medicine, and anthropology, and are embodied in the eminence of both the scientist and the shaman (Achterberg 4).  

Works Cited

Achterberg, Jeanne.  Imagery in Healing.  Boston:  Shambhala Publications, Inc., 1985. 

Samuels, Michael.  Healing with the Mind’s Eye.  Hoboken:  John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2003.