by Tim Brunson DCH
Often when speaking to groups I refer to guided imagery as "consensual hallucinations." With 70% of the brain's neurons somehow serving the visual system, one cannot help but appreciate the enormous influence of vision on our mental and physical well-being. Therapists who use any form of guided imagery are taking advantage of these facts in their efforts to re-sculpt the inner workings of the mind and brain.
Despite the wonders of the human eye, 80% of our sight results from interpretation based on experience. During the critical learning period of zero to 28 months and thereafter until age 25 when the brain structurally matures, visual memories are encoded into hardwired brain maps. These filters create shortcuts and assumptions which make up a majority of what we "see." This is especially illustrated when ocular repair restores "vision" later in life, but cannot completely establish "sight." For instance, a person whose eyes have been repaired through the miracles of modern medicine, can detect a curb but cannot establish why it is important. This extends into reading facial expressions as well.
The filters created by our brain maps define how we think and affect our health. Magicians and other illusionists make their living by exploiting the inability for a person's filters to reconcile the reality of what is seen. The reason that visual illusion works is that our brain maps are not complete and they are in conflict with what our eyes see. There are gaps in our perception that must be filled in if we are to establish meaning of what our visual senses detect. While we may pick up patterns, our brain maps fill in the missing information with incomplete information. This gives illusionists the opportunity to trick our brains into making the wrong conclusions. Note that whatever the resulting meaning, the limbic system, which rules our bodies autonomic system, will cause a physiological change. And, since the limbic system is totally incapable of determining the difference between reality and fantasy, our bodies will take the resulting meaning as the truth.
So, how do hypnotherapists take advantage of this as they use "consensual hallucinations" as part of the transformational healing process? To understand this, you must appreciate the role of the right orbito-frontal cortex. This sector of the brain, which is right above the right eye, has a role inhibiting instinctual awareness as well as playing the key role in the assignment of meaning. This results in providing us with anticipation and imagination. (Note that the anticipatory role of the R-OFC is a triggering mechanism for such mental pathologies as obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, and procrastination.)
By getting the patient to imagine a particular state, the learning process of the brain kicks in. Dopamine and acetylcholine (ACH) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) are stimulated allowing the restructuring of neural connections to occur. (Okay. If you are not into brain lingo, what I just said is that imagery stimulates learning if there is sufficient meaning.) As dopamine is a major part of our reward system and ACH promotes tuning of new memory, the result is the development of new brain maps, with which to filter new visual stimulus.
A lot of change occurs by the development new filters with which to interpret new experience. Imagery does this provided that enough emotive-content meaning is developed. The resulting reward of the appropriate neurotransmitter and the limbic response, gives the patient a new pattern that is encoded both in the brain and within the cellular memory of our body. (What I will not address in this article is the positive affect of the changed perceptions on gene-expression and the production of neuro-stem cells.)
The "consensual hallucinations" provided by the hypnotherapist provide new filters to interpret experience and affect the relationship between the mind and the body. The ability to access the learning system through the use of well thought out imagery allows us to re-sculpt the hardwiring of a patient's brain provided that the meaning of the imagery is sufficient to excite our neurotransmitter reward system. This tool must not be overlooked when dealing with patients who are in need of changing their perceptions to affect the improvement of the health and happiness.
You can get more information and enroll by visiting: Courses.HypnosisResearchInstitute.org.
Posted: 07/29/2008
