A female advertising executive follows the advice of a willowy young woman named Laura, whom she meets in her mind’s eye. She puts full-spectrum lighting in her home and office and is greatly relieved of severe allergies.

An imaginary figure named Ricardo counsels a young psychiatrist, “You are a healer, but before you can heal others you must learn to heal yourself.” Ricardo shows him a way to conduct therapy without the recurrent neck pain that has plagued him for months.

Spooky? Not really. Having a talk with an imaginary wise figure–an inner advisor–may sound strange, yet this is one of the most powerful techniques I know for helping you understand the relationships between your thoughts, your feelings, your actions, and your health.

We have much more information inside us than we commonly use. An inner advisor is a symbolic representation of that inner wisdom and experience. Your inner advisor should be thought of as a friendly guide to these valuable unconscious stores–an inner ally who can help you understand yourself more deeply.

Have you ever struggled with a problem and ultimately come to terms with it by listening to that “still, small voice within”? Do you pay attention to your gut feelings when you make important decisions? Or perhaps you have dreams that enlighten or guide you. Flashes of insight? Good hunches?

All of the above are ways you may be guided by something deep inside–a part of you usually hidden from conscious awareness. Imagining this guidance as a figure you can communicate with helps to make it more accessible.

Your inner advisor may offer advice in areas as diverse as nutrition, posture, exercise, environment, attitudes, emotions, and faith. Your advisor can serve as a liaison figure to that part of your mind that thinks in images and symbols; as an ambassador between the silent and verbal brains, the unconscious and conscious minds.

Let’s look closely at the three people. Frank, a twenty-eight-year-old ex-naval officer in Vietnam suffered with recurrent chronic asthma. This grew worse when he started a job as a rural delivery man and had to pass hay fields and horses every day. Standard asthma medications only partially relieved his distress, and he didn’t want to take steroid medications if there was any alternative. Testing confirmed strong allergies to both hay and horse dander. He didn’t want to give up his job, which he both liked and needed, and was referred to me for help. With some skepticism, he agreed to explore his illness through imagery. As he relaxed and looked inside for an inner advisor, he saw an image of a stern older man working on a machine, who called himself “The Helper.” The man reminded Frank of his grandfather, who had raised him on his farm.

In imagery, Frank saw himself as a small boy being punished by having to sweep out the horse barn, a job he hated. He saw himself beginning to wheeze while doing it and his grandfather telling him he didn’t have to finish the job. Later, in his imagination, The Helper told him that now he was a grown man, and he could choose which jobs he was willing to do. He could refuse a job he didn’t want without needing to get sick to get out of it. Hearing this, Frank felt relieved and his breathing improved. He was able to continue his route without asthma and has not had a recurrence in ten years.

The young woman executive, Justine, had allergies to many foods and chemicals. She, too, was reluctant to work with imagery, but finally became desperate enough to try. Laura, her advisor, when asked about her allergies, held out her hand and revealed a prism in her open palm. A single beam of white light entered the top of the prism and was refracted into a rainbow spectrum of light that radiated toward Justine. She asked Laura to explain what this meant and she answered, “You have light compression.” She would say no more. Puzzled, I encouraged Justine to keep the image in mind throughout the week and meet with Laura again to see if she would clarify the message.

Some three days later, while looking through some old books, Justine came across a book a friend had given her months before: Health and Light by John Ott. Ott, the inventor of time-lapse photography, was also a pioneer in the field of photo-biology, the effects of light on living organisms. In his book, he marshals evidence to support the view that full-spectrum sunlight is a nutrient needed for healthy human function. He believes that spending long days and nights in artificial lighting is a significant cause of illness in some people.

In a flash, Justine understood what Laura had been telling her. She went into her relaxed state and summoned Laura, who confirmed her discovery. With Laura’s guidance, she devised a plan to correct the situation. She replaced all the light bulbs at home and in her office with full-spectrum bulbs, agreed to go outside in the sun for at least thirty minutes a day, and asked her boss for a desk near a window. Within two weeks, she reported herself almost completely free of allergies, and remained that way for eighteen months without further treatment.

The psychiatrist, Art, had recently completed his training and was working intensely in private practice. He began to experience severe pains in his neck, chest, and shoulders, especially when he was with his patients. As Art talked with his advisor, Ricardo, an image of himself in a suit of heavy armor appeared. The armor rested on his shoulders and chest. Ricardo told him the armor was there to protect him from his feelings, but it stood in the way of his being an effective therapist. He said the armor was made of “thinking and planning,” and Art would need to discard it if he was to be of real help to his patients.

Inner Guidance: A Common Belief

Talking with an inner advisor is not a new idea. Most of the major philosophical, religious, and psycho logical traditions of mankind speak of inner guidance in one form or another. Many primitive cultures used rituals which included music, chanting, fasting, dancing, sacrifice, and psychoactive plants in order to invoke a vision that could inform and guide them at important times. Native American braves would go into the wilderness unarmed, without food and water, build a sweat lodge, and pray for contact with a guiding spirit. From such a visionary experience they would draw their names, their power, and their direction in life. The medicine man of the tribe might make a similar quest in search of healing for an ailing tribe member.

Catholic children are taught in catechism that they have a holy guardian angel who protects them and who can be called on in time of need. Many other religions teach a similar idea.

Children, whatever their religious or cultural background, often have imaginary playmates who talk with them, play with them, protect and support them in their imaginary play.

A surprising number of people tell me they “talk” to spouses or other loved ones who have died. In their talks they receive advice and comfort, as people do when they “talk” with their inner advisors.

All these experiences point to a common human notion–there is guidance available to us when we appeal to it, and when we are receptive to it. Meeting with an inner advisor is a way of making this intuitive guidance more available to you. Intuition is defined as the “power of knowing without recourse to reason” and is perceived by inner seeing, inner listening, and inner feeling. It may well be a specialized function of the right hemisphere. Through the right brain’s ability to perceive subtle cues regarding feelings and connections, we are guided by what we call instincts, gut feelings, and hunches. By becoming quiet and attentive to our inner thoughts, we can use the talents of this neglected part of our minds most effectively.

It’s not necessary to have any particular belief about the inner advisor in order to use it, but it’s helpful for the technique to make sense to you one way or another. Whatever you believe that the advisor isle spirit, a guardian angel, a messenger from God, a hallucination, a communication from your right brain to your left, or a symbolic representation of inner wisdom–is all right. The fact is, no one knows what it is with any certainty. We can each decide for ourselves. It can be reasonably explained psychologically, neurologically, theologically, metaphysically, or cybernetically, and none of these explanations is necessarily exclusive of any other. I’m satisfied that, for many people, the inner advisor is an effective way for them to learn more about their illnesses or issues, and the inner resources that can best help them move those situations toward healthy resolutions.

How Can an Inner Advisor Help Me?

First and foremost, an inner advisor can help you understand more about the nature of your illness, the part you play in it, and the part you might play in your own recovery.

Second, an inner advisor acts as a source of support and comfort; there is often a sense of peacefulness, of inner calm and compassion that stems from meetings with an advisor. In itself, this is often a real step toward healing, especially if you have been feeling depressed or panicky about your situation.

Claire, a therapist going through a very stressful divorce, supporting two children, and maintaining a busy professional life, had begun bleeding heavily between her periods. Medications had not controlled the bleeding, and she was set against having a hysterectomy. She broke down in tears as she met her inner advisor, overcome with the compassion she felt from this inner figure. The compassionate feeling allowed her to acknowledge how difficult her situation was and how well she was doing with it. Rather than engendering self-pity, this acknowledgment helped her struggle with and eventually come through her crisis with success, integrity, and an intact uterus, which stopped bleeding abnormally.

Third, working with an advisor can result in the direct relief of symptoms and recovery from illness. This usually comes as a result of realizing the function of a symptom and making changes so your body/mind no longer needs to create the symptom.

You may find it reassuring to know that while you do want to know what your advisor has to say, you don’t have to do whatever it recommends. Whatever comes from your talk with your advisor, you will consider it carefully in the “clear light of day,” and take a good look at what it might mean to act on that advice. You will evaluate the risks and benefits of following its advice and make your own decision about whether or not to follow it. The choices, and the responsibility, remain yours. Don’t abandon your responsibility to your inner advisor, but consider what it has to tell you.

Testing the advisor is something you might want to do if it suggests a course of action that involves some risk for you. Let’s say that your advisor tells you that you have to change your occupation in order to feel better. While this might be something you’d do if you knew it was really going to improve your health, you might be reluctant to make such a big change without some reassurance. Tell your advisor that you’re considering the advice it’s given you, and that it’s difficult for you to imagine following it. Discuss your fears or concerns thoroughly, and let your advisor help you understand them more deeply and perhaps help you think of a way to change that takes your concerns into account. If, after you’ve explored the advice in depth, you still see significant risk, ask your advisor to give you a demonstration of its ability to help you get better.

I mentioned earlier that Dr. Irving Oyle first introduced me to the inner advisor technique. The first patient I remember him working with was a thirty-five-year-old jet-set entertainer named Eric who came to see Dr. OLE with an unusual ankle problem. Once a month over the previous nine months, his left ankle had become swollen and very painful for four days. He had consulted three orthopedic surgeons, all of whom confirmed the swelling and inflammation in his ankle, but none of whom could make a diagnosis. X-rays of the ankle and laboratory tests on the ankle joint fluid showed no abnormality. Anti-inflammatory medications and injections provided no relief.

Eric was a very successful but driven entertainer who worked constantly, commonly flying halfway around the world on tours and frequently jetting back and forth from coast to coast. He more than loved his work, he was addicted to it–he had little else in his life. He was always working or planning new work, never took vacations, and had no outside interests or relationships. His tension level was palpable at a distance. He was enormously angry with his ankle because it rendered him unable to work four days a month.

Eric’s inner advisor came in the form of a cartoon-like devil prodding him in the ankle with a pitch-fork. It said there was more to life than work, and Eric had to begin experiencing his emotional side. To do that, he would have to start making room in his life for reflection, and his ankle was helping him do that. Eric was surprised at this message but felt it was “bullshit” and didn’t see how it could be connected to his physical problem.

With Dr. Oyle’s guidance, Eric struck a deal with his little devil, and agreed to take four days a month off to devote to rest, relaxation, and enjoyment. His inner advisor told him he would not have ankle pain again as long as he kept his bargain. For three months, Eric stuck to his agreement and had no pain or swelling. Feeling he was recovered, he skipped his days off the next month and the problem recurred with all its previous severity.

If you make a bargain with your advisor, make sure you keep it. Remember, you are dealing with a part of yourself here; you can’t disrespect it without cost. Consider this a real relationship, and treat it with respect. Would you make an important business agreement and casually break it, or stand up a good friend for dinner? Why treat yourself with any less respect?

Robert, a fifty-two-year-old Jewish man with chronic abdominal pain and indigestion, had been diagnosed as having pancreatitis. His doctors had little to over him but had urged him to follow a low-fat diet, which he had trouble doing. He found an inner advisor who called himself “Moishe.” Robert said he looked like a cross between his brother, Morris, and the biblical figure Moses. Moishe, like the doctors, told Robert that he would feel better and give his pancreas a chance to recover if he followed a strict low-fat diet. Robert followed Moishe’s advice for several weeks and felt better than he had in years. He then went on a trip, visiting his family, and forgot about his diet. Soon after a meal at a Chinese restaurant he had a severe episode of abdominal pain and vomiting. He tried to get back in touch with his advisor but had no success.

When he next came to visit me, I guided him through a relaxation process and politely asked Moishe to come and talk with Robert again. Moishe appeared in his imagery, but stood with his head turned away and wouldn’t say anything. Robert asked him why he was silent, and he replied, “I don’t have time to waste if you’re not going to be sincere about this, I am not going to talk to you.” Robert apologized and committed himself again to working toward better health more conscientiously.

Today, two years later, Robert feels working with his inner advisor has been one of the most helpful things he has ever learned. Not only has Moishe helped Robert with his digestive problems, but he was also of great comfort during a very difficult six-month period in which Robert lost the two people closest to him. During that time, Moishe told Robert that he was only an intermediary figure who represented his connection with God. Robert said to me, “Why deal with a middle man?” and now, in his meditations, he feels a sense of inner connection to God. Sometimes he asks questions and receives answers; other times he just enjoys a deep sense of peacefulness.

If you make and keep your inner agreements, it’s quite reasonable to ask for and receive some tangible evidence that what you are doing will pay off. If your advisor does have the ability to guide you toward healing, it should have the ability to let you know you are on the right path.

There may be times when your advisor may not be willing or able to give you immediate relief as a sign. If that’s the case, ask it what needs to happen first before you can get some relief. This will often start you on the road that eventually leads to the relief you seek. Remember, testing is not the same as doubting. It’s a request for evidence of fair value, and you must give fair value in return.

Should My Inner Advisor Appear in Any Particular Form?

Inner advisors often come as the classic “wise old man” or “wise old woman,” but they come in many other forms as well. Sometimes they come in the form of a person you know, a friend or relative who has fulfilled this function for you in real life. These people may be living or dead, and it may be an emotional experience for you to encounter them in your inner world. Some people feel strange communicating with the figure of a deceased relative and wonder if this is really the spirit of the person they’re talking with. If that’s your belief, and you’re comfortable with it, it can be a wonderful reconnection. Otherwise, it is enough to welcome it as a figure in your own mind that is wise and kind, and that has appeared in response to your request for help.

Advisors may also be animals or birds, plants, trees, even natural forces like the wind or the ocean. Sometimes people will encounter religious figures like Jesus, Moses, or Buddha, while others will find an angel, fairy, or leprechaun. Yoda from Star Wars often appeared as an advisor during the time the movie was playing, as did Obi Wan Kenobi. People sometimes encounter the advisor as a light or a translucent, ethereal spirit, and it’s not uncommon to simply experience a sense of something calming, strong, and wise, without any visual image. Others communicate with an inner voice without any visual or feeling image.

Dr. David Bresler, head of the Bresler Medical Center in Santa Monica, California, frequently uses the inner advisor technique with people in chronic pain. His approach is somewhat different than mine, though the results seem quite similar. He guides people to relax in an imaginary quiet place, then asks them to get an image for a friendly creature that can act as their advisor. Many of his patients will get animal advisors such as Bambi the deer, or Chuckle the chipmunk. Dr. Bresler and I have compared notes at length and agree that people seem to be able to receive the same kind of information from the animal figures as from any other inner Images of wisdom.

I explained this alternative once to a psychologist who had consulted me but was reluctant to get an inner advisor. As I described the cute little animal advisors many people created, he laughed and said he could see an image of a lion, looking at him and licking his chops. “Screw all those chipmunks,” said the lion. “I’m here and I’m important.” From this he understood that this inner part of himself was powerful and needed to be approached with respect.

Don’t have expectations of any kind; they can stand in the way of your benefiting from the experience. If you are expecting a transcendent experience and a frog jumps into view, you might not recognize it as a potential inner advisor. The opposite may be equally true. Once, when Dr. Bresler and I were teaching a workshop for health professionals, we led the group through the guided imagery experience of meeting with an inner advisor. Afterward, one woman looked enormously frustrated. She was upset because all she ever experienced when she looked for an advisor was a “beautiful bright light that fills my whole body.” We asked her how it felt to imagine herself filled with this light, and she said it was wonderful–it felt healing and energizing. But she was disappointed. She had been expecting a chipmunk!

The best way to work with this and any other imagery experience is just to let the figures be whatever they are. Welcome the advisor that comes and get to know it as it is. One advisor is no better than another, and there is no best way for them to communicate. People have learned profound lessons from gremlins named “Jack” and rabbits named “Thumper,” as well as from more classical wisdom figures. Some advisors talk, others communicate their messages through their expressions or actions or by changing their forms completely. Sometimes people just “get the message” with-out really knowing how. A psychologist at one of our workshops wrote, “I don’t see an advisor, and I don’t hear anything, but I do know what is being communicated. ” This is the essence of the inner dialogue, whether with an advisor or with other techniques you’ll learn later.

It may take time to get to know your inner friend, to understand how it communicates, where it comes from, what it represents, and how best to make use of it. It’s like a real relationship; treat it with respect, and you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how useful it can be.

How Do I Meet My Inner Advisor?

Meeting your inner advisor is simple. The first step is to let yourself relax and go to your special inner place. When you’re comfortable, quiet, and relaxed there, allow an image to appear for your inner advisor. Accept whatever image comes–whether it is familiar or not. Take some time to observe it carefully, and invite it to become comfortable with you, just as if it were real. After all, it is a real imaginary figure! Ask your advisor its name, and let it have a voice to answer you. You may hear the name in your mind or you may just understand its name let yourself “play along” and accept whatever name comes to mind. It’s important not to edit or second-guess the imagery at this stage. Take some time to become comfortable in the presence of your inner advisor, and as you grow more familiar with it, notice if it seems to be wise and kind. Notice how you feel in its presence. If it feels comfortable to you, ask your advisor if it would be willing to help you, and let it respond. If it is willing, tell it about your problem or illness and ask if it can tell you what you need to know or do to get better. Let it answer you and stay open and receptive to the answers that come.

Use the following script the same way you have used the previous ones. This exploration will take twenty-five to thirty minutes of uninterrupted time.

Script: Meeting Your Inner Advisor

Begin to relax by taking a comfortable position, loosening any restricting clothing, and making arrangements for thirty minutes of unrestricted time . . . take a few deep breaths and begin to let go of tension as you release each breath . . . allow yourself a few minutes to relax more deeply, allowing your body to let go and your mind to become quiet and still….

Imagine yourself descending the ten stairs that take you deeper to your quiet inner place . . . 10 . . . 9 . . . deeper and more relaxed . . . 8 . . . 7 . . . easily and naturally . . . 6 . . . 5 . . . deeper and more comfortably relaxed . . . 4 . . . your mind quiet and still, but alert . . . 3 . . . 2 . . . deeper and more comfortably at ease … and 1….

As you relax more deeply, imagine yourself in that special place of beauty and serenity you found as you did the previous imagery exercises . . . take a few minutes to experience the peacefulness and tranquillity you find in this place….

When you are ready, invite your inner advisor to join you in this special place . . . just allow an image to form that represents your inner advisor, a wise, kind figure who knows you well . . . let it appear in any way that comes and accept it as it is for now . . . it may come in many forms–a wise old man or woman, a friendly animal or bird, a ball of light, a friend or relative, a religious figure. You may not have a visual image at all, but a sense of peacefulness and kindness instead….

Accept your advisor as it appears, as long as it seems wise, kind, and compassionate . . . you will be able to sense its caring for you and its wisdom . . . invite it to be comfortable there with you, and ask it its name . . . accept what comes . . . when you are ready, tell it about your problem . . . ask any questions you have concerning this situation . . . take all the time you need to do this….

Now listen carefully to your advisor’s response . . . as you would to a wise and respected teacher . . . you may imagine your advisor talking with you or you may simply have a direct sense of its message in some other way . . . allow it to communicate with you in whatever way seems natural…. If you are uncertain about the meaning of its advice or if there are other questions you want to ask, continue the conversation until you feel you have learned all you can at this time . . . ask questions, be open to the responses that come back, and consider them carefully….

As you consider what your advisor has told you, imagine what your life would be like if you took the advice you have received and put it into action . . . do you see any problems or obstacles standing in the way of doing this? . . . If so, what are they, and how might you deal with them in a healthy, constructive way? . . . If you need some help here, ask your advisor, who is still there with you…. When it seems right, thank your advisor for meeting with you, and ask it to tell you the easiest, surest method for getting back in touch with it . . . realize that you can call another meeting with your advisor whenever you feel the need….

Say goodbye for now in whatever way seems appropriate, and allow yourself to come back to waking consciousness by walking up the stairs and counting upwards from one to ten, as you have before. When you reach ten, come wide-awake, refreshed and alert, and remembering what was significant or important to you about this meeting….

Evaluating Your Experience

When you open your eyes, take some time to write down or record whatever happened in your experience. If you met an inner advisor, describe it in detail. Did you have a visual image or a sense of its presence, or did answers come to your questions without any particular image forming?

What did you ask your advisor, and what was your advisor’s response? Do you understand its response? Are there other questions you would like to ask next time you have this dialogue that would help clarify its advice for you?

Did you learn anything useful from this experience? Is there any action you will take as a result of this inner conversation, or is there something else that needs to happen first?

Did you become aware of any obstacles to following your advisor’s advice? If so, were you able to imagine constructive ways to deal with them?

Are there specific people who would be affected if you followed your advisor’s recommendations? If so, how could you best address their concerns?

If you didn’t meet an inner advisor, if your advisor was critical or hostile, or if you met more than one advisor, read the section of the next chapter that addresses your experience before taking the next step.

Discrimination and Inner Guidance

Evaluating the advice you receive is a critical aspect of working with an inner advisor. The advisor is one of many aspects of your unconscious mind, and it is possible for you to receive information from other inner sources. Weighing the potential benefits and risks of what’s been suggested allows you to analyze what you’ve learned and discriminate between potentially useful and potentially risky actions.

Sometimes, however, the choices that offer the most benefits also involve the most risk. In medicine we use the concept of a risk/benefit ratio to help us decide among different treatments for an illness. The ideal treatment is, of course, completely safe and always effective, but unfortunately it has yet to be discovered. So we look for the ones that have the best ratio of safety to effectiveness, whether they be medicines, surgery, acupuncture, or psychotherapy. If a treatment is very safe and very effective, we use it more easily than one that is more dangerous and less effective. Or even more easily than one which is more dangerous yet more effective. This balance is a critical factor in evaluating treatment choices, one that you can apply in making your own choices.

Did your advisor suggest something that seems safe and offers potential benefit? Although you can’t always tell in advance whether what’s being suggested will be effective, you can usually evaluate its safety, and if it’s safe, you can easily try it out to see if it works. For instance, your advisor might suggest that you relax more, or perhaps visualize something healing while you’re relaxing. Here you are only risking fifteen to forty-five minutes a day for a few weeks to judge whether or not there is some positive effect.

There may be times, however, when the advisor suggests you do something more risky–like confronting someone or making a significant life change. You then need to weigh the potential benefit carefully before taking action. Assess your true beliefs about what is important to you, and make your choice from the most honest assessment you can make. You might also explore additional options through imagery and have further discussions with your inner advisor about the best and safest way to do what needs doing.

One of the most common fears people have is expressing themselves honestly to other people. We fear loss of love or respect, and we can easily ignore our own needs because of this fear. If the needs are important enough, they may find a means of expression in illness or symptoms.

Mary, twenty-four years old, had developed a sinus infection and was afraid that it would spread and get worse. She had had several similar infections earlier and always became extremely ill with them. Her treatment was complicated by her allergic reactions to every antibiotic usually prescribed for sinus infections. When encouraged to use imagery to explore the illness, she went to her quiet place and called on her inner advisor–a strong, loving older woman named Rose, who reminded her of the grandmother who raised her.

Mary asked about her illness and quickly became aware of the tension she’d been feeling between her and her husband during the previous two weeks. They were living under considerable financial pressure, and he had been working hard to organize a new business. He was tense, uncharacteristically edgy, and critical of her. He’d recently begun to have a couple of drinks after work, and this seemed to change his personality from an easygoing, loving one to a critical and angry one. Mary was frightened to talk to him about it for fear of making him even angrier. She valued her marriage highly and was afraid to do anything that might strain it. She realized all this in a flash. She had bottled up her own anger and fear, and Rose told her that was why she was sick. Mary asked Rose what to do, and Rose advised her to talk with her husband, quietly and lovingly, letting him know about her concerns when he wasn’t tense and irritable.

After the imagery session, Mary was greatly relieved, both emotionally and physically. Subsequently, she had a good talk with her husband during a quiet evening and found him supportive and responsive. They were able to share their concerns and hopes again, and her recovery was complete within two days.

Mary’s inner advisor helped her become aware of the feelings she was holding inside, the fear that kept them locked up, and a practical, loving way to express them and get the response she desired. By paying attention to her symptoms in this unusual way, she was able not only to recover from an illness, but to solve an even more serious problem in her life.

Her chart revealed that she had been diagnosed with a precancerous condition of the uterine cervix more than two years earlier, and the gynecologists she had seen wanted to take biopsies and remove the affected areas. Edna had turned this recommendation down four times, and each successive note put in her chart by her gynecologic consultants sounded more and more frustrated and concerned. There was mention of possible psychopathology and “irrational beliefs about healing.”

When I asked Edna why she was unnecessarily risking her life, she smiled broadly and told me that “Jesus will heal me, and I don’t need surgery.” She said she prayed and talked to Jesus every day, and he promised he would heal her if she put her trust in him.

I asked her how she communicated with Jesus, and she told me, “I see him when I pray, and he talks to me just like we’re talking now.” I again explained the medical concerns that I and the other doctors shared about her. Then I told her I had no doubt that Jesus could heal her if he wanted to but that I wondered how long it would take. She was a bit surprised when I asked her if she would be willing to get in touch with him and ask him if he’d agree to heal her in the next six weeks.

She closed her eyes, and after a few minutes smiled and nodded her head. “Yes, he says he can and will heal me in six weeks.” She agreed to have another pelvic exam and Pap smear at the end of six weeks and also agreed to have a cone biopsy performed if the Pap smear was still abnormal. “But it won’t be,” she said. “I know that now.” And she left, smiling more widely than ever. I was glad to have obtained a commitment form her to have a biopsy if her prayer proved ineffective.

Six weeks later she returned. Her cervix looked normal on examination. Three days later her Pap smear report came back — perfectly normal. Edna’s story certainly does not mean that you can forego Pap smears or that you must believe in Jesus. It does, however, point to the potent healing effects of faith and belief.

The Power of Positive Expectant Faith

Like most physicians, I have many times witnessed the placebo effect on many occasions. It wasn’t uncommon at the county hospital where I trained to give water injections to overly dramatic patients complaining of pain, while telling them it was a powerful pain medication.

Often a shot of placebo solution relieved pain as effectively as if it had been morphine. At the time, we thought that this kind of response to placebos could tell us if the pain was “real” or not. As we’ll see, the issue is not that simple.

I noticed with interest how many people began to feel better the instant they took the first dose of a medication known to take hours, days, or even weeks to begin working pharmacologically — not to mention how many times people began to feel better as soon as I wrote their prescriptions! No one knows exactly how these effects come about, but they are everyday occurrences in medicine.

It has been determined that the placebo effect is responsible for over half the action of some of our most powerful and trusted drugs and much of the action of any therapy — alternative or conventional, medical, surgical, or psychological.

Belief can not only draw positive reactions from neutral substances, it can even cause people to react in opposition to the pharmacologic effects of a medication.

A physician reported giving syrup of ipecac to two patients with severe nausea and vomiting. Ipecac is a very powerful emetic (it induces vomiting) and is usually given to people who have swallowed poison in an effort to clear their stomachs. In this case, the patients were told that the ipecac was a very strong medicine that would soothe their stomachs and stop their vomiting — and it did.

The power of expectation and faith affects even surgical outcomes. In the 1950s there was a good deal of enthusiasm in the medical community about an operation that was quite successful in relieving chest pain (angina pectoris) and improving heart function in men with blockage in their coronary arteries. The operation involved making an incision next to the breastbone and tying off a relatively superficial artery, which theoretically shunted more blood to the arteries supplying the heart.

Most of the patients who underwent this procedure improved dramatically, experiencing both relief of pain and an improvement in heart function. Then a controlled study was done on the operation. A matched group of men with similar angina were brought to the operating room, they were anesthetized, and a surgical incision was made. Half of these men, however, were sewn up again without having anything else done. After surgery, they experienced the same dramatic relief of anginal pain and enjoyed the same improvement in heart muscle functioning as the men who underwent the real operation.

To call an effect “placebo” does not mean that the patient’s response stems from the patient’s belief in the therapy rather than from the therapy itself. What is important about the placebo response is that it demonstrates beyond a doubt that thoughts can trigger the body’s self-healing abilities.

Somehow, under certain conditions, our intentions, desires, and beliefs in recovery are translated into physical healing. What are the conditions that allow this to happen? If we can be “tricked” into healing, why couldn’t we learn to heal “on purpose”?

From “Guided Imagery for Self-Healing“, Martin L. Rossman, MD

She saw herself on skis at the top of a very steep mountain. A lifelong skier, she immediately understood that she was about to push off on a run that would demand all her skill and determination. She also saw that while the effort would challenge her to the extreme, it was clearly possible for her to make it all the way through if she gave it her full attention and focus. She got the sense that when she did make it all the way down, she would be living life on a much deeper and more effective level than she ever had before.

This image was useful to her throughout many twists and turns of her journey with cancer, reminding her to stay focused on where she wanted to go and not let herself get lost in her fears. Patricia did “make it”, and she counts guided imagery as one of the tools that enabled her to do so.

When, like Patricia, you are diagnosed with cancer, you can find yourself over-whelmed with emotions at a time when you most need to keep your wits about you. While you are alive, you have hope, and you have options. You have will, imagination, and powerful natural healing abilities within you that you can stimulate by the way you use your mind.

What Is Guided Imagery?
Guided Imagery like the kind Patricia used trains your mind to listen to your body’s wisdom. “Imagery” is simply a flow of thoughts you can see, hear, feel, smell or taste. It is the expression of dreams and daydreams; memories and reminiscence; plans, projections and possibilities. It is the language of the arts, the emotions, and most important, of the deeper self.

“Guided imagery” is a process of being lead or “guided” to tune in to your own natural imagery, and to “listen” to the messages and meanings that imagery may reveal about what you need to heal. Guided imagery techniques range from simple visualization and direct imagery-based suggestion, to metaphor, dialogue and story-telling.

Why Use Guided Imagery to Fight Cancer?
The shock, disorientation and anxiety that often come with a serious cancer diagnosis can overwhelm one’s sense of confidence and make it hard for you to feel effective or powerful in a time when you may most need inner strength. Imagery can help you reconnect with your own resources and begin to use them effectively on your own behalf. Guided imagery CDs are easy to use, inexpensive, and have rapid psychological benefits.

Research at the Carnegie-Mellon Institute in Pittsburgh has shown this method to be extremely effective in helping people shift from one mood state to another. Learning to shift from helplessness to hopefulness at will is an empowering experience for anyone, especially for anyone feeling overwhelmed with the fear of cancer.

The benefits of imagery are tangible and physical – studies prove that patients who use guided imagery can experience an increase the numbers and aggressiveness of natural killer cells when practiced over time, a reduction in complications from surgery, relief from pain, and can experience a lessening of the adverse effects of chemotherapy.

How Guided Imagery Helps
When diagnosed with cancer, you may not only face an on-going threat to life and well-being, you often also face conflicting recommendations on the part of the best experts in the field and the resulting uncertainty as to the best course of treatment. One use of guided imagery is to help you make good decisions about your treatment. For instance, by using guided imagery to help you imagine a wise and caring figure, called an “inner advisor” or “inner wisdom” that has your best interests at heart, you can make the best possible decisions in a time of stress.

Helene spoke with her inner advisor through imagery after being diagnosed with breast cancer. Because of the type of cancer she had, she had received a number of different treatment recommendations from top level oncologists and surgeons. These ranged from two different types of surgery, choices of approaches to breast reconstruction, radiation and the possibility of adjunctive chemotherapy. She used guided imagery to decide from a “deep level” what treatment course would be best for her.

Using the Fighting Cancer From Within CD and Book Set, Helene was directed to fully relax and imagine herself in a beautiful safe place and to have a conversation with an image of a wise and loving “Inner Advisor.” An angel-like figure came to her mind, large, ethereal yet substantial, and winged.

Helene felt a sense of love and wisdom from the advisor and invited it to be comfortable with her. She discussed all the information she had gathered with the advisor and asked it to help guide her to choose the best treatment for her. The advisor seemed to respond in a way that made Helene feel that surgery followed by radiation was the best treatment for her – that it had the best evidence behind it and her own intuition confirmed that it was the course she wanted to choose.

The advisor affirmed that choice and Helene felt surer than she had to that point about her treatment plan. At the end of their dialogue, she thanked the advisor for coming. In response, it enfolded her in its large golden wings and surrounding her with a profound sense of warmth and love. She was very moved.

Helene was clearly relieved to have reached what felt like a good decision for her. But more important to Helene, she found out she was not alone. Even though she was a woman deeply connected to family and friends, she discovered another kind of connection – a profound sense of being part of something that ultimately went beyond life as she knew it.

Guided Imagery can access a kind of wisdom and compassion that can not only help you make good treatment decisions but may also link you to a sense of being feel loved and connected to life, the mystery, and to your spirituality in a very personal and tangible way. This sense of support can help you through adversity and fear.

Guided imagery evokes personally meaningful and relevant imagery that are necessary in holistic cancer care. They range from relaxation and anxiety reduction images to those that stimulate healing responses in the body, to those that mobilize personal strengths and resources in the service of healing.

Since imagery is a natural way that the human nervous system codes, stores, processes and accesses information, its uses for someone with cancer are not limited to simple relaxation or immune system stimulation, but also include methods for decision-making, accessing and building emotional strength and experiencing events in ways that are most functional for supporting the healing resources of the individual.

About the author: With over 35 years of experience in guided imagery for health, Dr. Martin Rossman is a nationally-recognized leader and innovator in the field of imagery for self-healing. The author of two classic books on guided imagery, he founded The Healing Mind in order to make high level instruction in guided imagery for self-healing affordable and accessible. The Healing Mind’s unique self-guided program Fighting Cancer From Within Book and CD Set, and 30 other guided imagery programs, along with research, commentary, and links can be found at www.thehealingmind.org.

I often went to bed telling my body what to do. I would visualize the chemotherapy and how it was killing the cancer cells; I visualized my organs and lymph system working perfectly. I visualized myself old, at about eighty-years, tucking in my great-grandkids to bed. There was a plan to live in place and I was actively discussing with my body, that my mother’s experience was not going to be my own. I never knew why exactly she died and I lived, but I do know that, now, seven, nearly eight years in full remission and continuing to raise my nine year old daughter, I am thankful for my mind being able to communicate effectively with my body. I believe it is why I am alive today.”” – J.W., Board Certified Clinical Hospice Chaplain, 37, Escondido, CA

If you have been diagnosed with cancer, and you want to have the best chance to survive it, then guided imagery is for you. The way you use your mind can make a huge difference in what happens to you; the evidence points to effects that range from improving your emotional well-being to reducing adverse effects of treatments, to surviving, even thriving, through the experience.

When you are diagnosed with cancer, you can find yourself over-whelmed with emotions at a time when you most need to keep your wits about you. I aim to teach you to reconnect with your own inner strengths and resources so you can make the best use of them when you most need them.

Cancer is many diseases, and the first thing most newly diagnosed people need to know is that having cancer does not mean they will die from it. More than 50 percent of cancers diagnosed today are curable through conventional medicine alone – as many cancer patients get well as succumb to their illnesses. While you are alive you have hope, and you have options. You have will, imagination, and powerful natural healing abilities within you that you can stimulate by the use of your mind.

There are many ways to cope with or fight cancer. The major tools guided imagery supports are your attention, your intention, your will, and, most important, your imagination. Guided Imagery can help you learn ways of thinking that can tip the balance of health and illness in the direction of healing.

Cancer Care 101: Treating the Illness, Treating the Person

In cancer care there are two complementary goals of treatment. One, the usual medical goal, is to kill cancer cells and tumors, or reduce their numbers and their ability to grow, reproduce, and spread (metastasize). The other, perhaps best called the healing goal, is to support the well-being and resistance of the patient. Here I use resistance to stand for all the mechanisms, known and unknown, that protect us from the development and dissemination of cancer.

Conventional medical care for cancer has for many years concentrated on destroying tumors without paying much attention to supporting the patient as a whole person, with innate healing capacities. Until recently, most people put themselves in the hands of an oncologist (cancer specialist) and did what they were told. While you almost certainly need a good oncologist to prescribe and monitor your medical treatment, there is often much more to surviving cancer. A well nourished person with cancer, with tools and support to help them maintain their emotional balance, is likely to have a much easier time with cancer and its treatments than a person who is poorly nourished, poorly supported, and stuck in terror and emotional turmoil.

Supporting your innate healing abilities will help you make the best use of any treatment you choose, and, alternatively, neglecting them is likely to make it more difficult for any treatment to work.

Supporting your health and eliminating your disease are two complementary approaches to healing that support and strengthen each other. In my experience, neither one works as well as both together.

Supporting your health makes it easier to tolerate treatments that can sometimes be difficult, and that in turn increases the likelihood that the treatments will work as desired. Methods of supporting your health and enhancing resistance to cancer generally fall into three categories: (1) nutritional support, ranging from improvement of diet to sophisticated individualized programs of nutritional supplementation with vitamins, minerals, herbs, essential fatty acids, and natural biological response modifiers; (2) mind-body approaches, ranging from support groups to counseling, to meditation, stress reduction, and guided imagery practices, and body-mind practices such as yoga, chi gung, tai chi, Jin Shin Jyutsu; and (3) systematic approaches with time-honored healing systems, such as traditional Chinese medicine or Ayurvedic medicine.

While the methods differ, their goal is the same — supporting and stimulating the vitality and function of the innate healing systems of the body, mind, and spirit. This idea is an ancient one, but many modern studies show that mind-body approaches, including guided imagery, are all effective in reducing anxiety and depression, reducing adverse effects from conventional treatments, and very likely in improving treatment results.

Guided imagery has become quickly and widely accepted as a useful adjunct in the treatment of people with cancer due largely to its ease of use, low cost, and rapid psychological benefits. It has been shown to increase both the numbers and aggressiveness of natural killer cells when practiced over time, has been shown to reduce complications from surgery, relieve pain, and reduce adverse effects of chemotherapy. Imagery is a psychological and medical intervention likely to increase your odds of recovery.

My Fighting Cancer from Within Book & CD Set teaches you how to use guided imagery for this purpose. The book explains how to use the guided imagery techniques, why they work, and how other people have used them successfully. On the CDs I will lead you through the specific guided imagery exercises, and then the book addresses the most frequent questions that people have when they begin to work with imagery for self-healing.

Together the set is a self-paced course in learning to use your mind to support your health and healing when dealing with cancer. For more information, or to order and try it out yourself, go to http://www.thehealingmind.org

“My problem was severe pain in both forearms for over 3 years. Nothing helped, including physical therapy, splints, and opiate medications. I used a guided imagery CD, and the image that came for the pain was steel rods in my arms. The CD asked me what qualities the rods had and I noticed they were rigid, cold, hard, and unyielding. It made me think of my grandfather who I had cared for in his last years, who was just like that. The pain had started during that time.

With my imagination, I asked him why he was like that, something I was never able to do in life. In my mind he answered that he was brought up to be like that, but that he loved me very much and appreciated all the help and love I gave him. I imagined that we hugged and could feel warmth from him. I cried so much I thought my heart would break. The next morning when I woke up I had about a third of the pain I’d been having. I went to a grief counselor and had about six sessions, and continued to “talk” to my grandfather in my imagery. I now have no pain and am on no pain medications.” – Dorothy W., 48, Madison, WI.

Imagery is a flow of thoughts you can see, hear, feel, smell or taste. It is the expression of dreams and daydreams; memories and reminiscence; plans, projections and possibilities. It is the language of the arts, the emotions, and most important, of the deeper self. Everyone uses imagery.

When we worry, we’re using imagery unconsciously, and often to our own detriment. Imagining possible disasters, we react with physical and psychological distress all the time we are worrying. The excessive physical toll of habitual worry, with its accompanying “fight or flight” response, may lead to symptoms such as headaches, neck or back pain, or ulcers; to self-damaging behaviors like cigarette smoking, eating disorders, alcoholism, or drug abuse; or even leave us vulnerable to serious illnesses such as heart disease, hypertension, and cancer.

The good news is that learning to use our imaginations consciously can be of great help in preventing or treating these symptoms and conditions. Using guided imagery, we can have positive effects on our heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, digestive function, sexual function and even our immune response.

“When I worry, I have trouble getting my mind off of it, even if it’s something I can’t do anything about. “Stopping” my mind is hard, but shifting my attention to imagining myself being in a beautiful, peaceful place is pretty easy, and after I do that for a few minutes, I feel much calmer and more myself. I can think more clearly again.” – Robert H., software engineer, 47, Burlingame, CA

“Guided imagery” describes a range of techniques from simple visualization and direct imagery-based suggestion, through metaphor and story-telling. Guided imagery can be used to help you learn relaxation, to relieve symptoms, to stimulate healing responses, and to help you tolerate medical procedures and treatments more easily. Using an interactive approach, guided imagery includes inner dialogues with our own imagination in order to discover the meaning of symptoms or illness, alleviate distress, and promote overall wellness.

Guided imagery processes include both active and receptive imagery. Active imagery communicates your conscious intentions, or requests, to your unconscious mind. It consists of imagining your desired goal as if it is already achieved while in a relaxed passive state of mind. Receptive imagery helps you to become aware of unconscious patterns, needs, and potential for change. Together, active and receptive imagery can help you create the healing imagery most appropriate and effective for you.

“When I was a twenty-seven year old junior executive I began having serious anxiety attacks at work. My doctor gave me a guided imagery CD, which helped me to relax and asked me to invite an image of my anxiety. To my surprise I saw a frenetic honeybee flying about in an agitated state. The bee was scattered and hectic, flying everywhere.

Then the CD directed me to invite an image of healing, and what came to my mind was a beautiful rose. I imagined holding the rose out to the bee, which came over and began drinking the nectar. As the bee took in this nourishment, it seemed to become more relaxed and content, as did I. I found I could remember and use this simple visual image to calm and center myself anytime I started to feel anxious and scattered.” – Matt, 34, San Carlos, CA

Imagery works through a two-way communication between the silent unconscious mind and the verbal conscious mind. It illuminates patterns that affect your health and guides you to focus energy that can change those patterns.

Using imagery, symptoms can be used to discover important needs that are not being met. Parts of ourselves that have been forgotten, unloved or neglected can come into view and be reclaimed. Emotions expressing themselves as physical symptoms can be understood, felt, and resolved, and the symptoms resolve as well.

Imagery is one of the most powerful, yet least utilized healing resources available in medicine. Other than nature, or God, the human imagination is the most powerful force on earth. It can shape our environment, and our inner environment, more powerfully than anything else we know, if we learn how to use it.

A great deal of medical research over the last 40 years shows that imagery has a powerful influence on health, healing and well-being. It can help with a very wide range of illnesses and is compatible with any system of medicine or healing.

Guided imagery is easy to learn, effective, safe, affordable and accessible. Programs and lessons are available in CD, MP3 and other formats. They can be used alone, in the comfort of your own home, anytime they are needed.

About the author: With over 35 years of experience in guided imagery for health, Dr. Martin Rossman is a nationally-recognized leader and innovator in the field of imagery for self-healing. The author of two classic books on guided imagery, he founded The Healing Mind in order to make high level instruction in guided imagery for self-healing affordable and accessible. The Healing Mind’s unique self-guided CD programs Anxiety Relief, Stress Relief, Guided Imagery for Self Healing (Book and CD Set), and 30 other guided imagery programs, along with research, commentary, and links can be found at www.thehealingmind.org

Everybody worries sometimes, but some people worry all the time. Worrying is a natural human mental function that allows us to examine problems like we might a tangled ball of yarn. We turn it over and over, looking at it from all angles until we can find a thread that loosens some knots and frees the yarn. With too many people, however, worry becomes a bad mental habit, a preoccupation, and a way of wasting mental energy that could be more much more productive.

Worry can become a form of defense against difficult feelings, and an almost magical way of feeling that we can fend off undesired events. There’s a story about an old woman who would circle her house three times every day, carrying a bundle of twigs and muttering to herself. One day a new neighbor asked her what she was doing, and she replied “I’m keeping my house safe from tigers.” The neighbor said “But we’re in Indiana. There aren’t any tigers in Indiana,” to which the crone replied “See!”

Worry is a natural function of the human mind, but it can turn from a tool into a tyrant. Worrying can become a bad habit, even an addiction, because most of the things we worry about never come true. By not coming true, we are rewarded in the neurological sense of the word, we feel good, we fee; safe, we feel like we are exerting some control over the situation, so we begin to worry about other things we’d like to be able to control. It can become a full-time occupation.

The trouble with worry is that it is mentally and physically taxing, creating unnecessary stress that is exhausting for the worrier, and for the people around her (I say “her” because while worry is certainly not exclusively a female trait, the majority of people who worry themselves sick are female.) habitual worriers often develop significant illness from insomnia to anxiety disorders, irritable bowel syndrome, headaches, back pain and fibromyalgia. Worriers aren’t happy, often get depressed and are more likely than the non-worrried to smoke, drink and get addicted to prescription drugs.

Worry is a function of the imagination and is probably the most common form of mental imagery. Without imagination, there would be no worries. Imagination is the mental function that more than any other separates us from other animals. With imagination we have been given the gift of planning, and of envisioning the possible future. Through imagination, humans have been given the gift of being mobile in time – we can remember that past, and learn from it, and we can envision many possible futures and have the opportunity to choose the one that is likely to work best for us. But this gift comes with a price – we can imagine so many possible futures that we can get paralyzed by them, and if our minds get hypnotized and stuck on fears, we can become immobilized by that function which can give us the greatest mobility. We need to learn to use our imaginations better, and in a way that supports our well-being, not our worries.

The good news is that learning to use our imaginations consciously can be of great help in lessening the grip of habitual worry. Through imagery many people can impact their psychological states, their heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, digestive function, sexual function and even their immune response.

Worry is a bad habit, a distorted use of imagination, and can be overcome by learning to use the imagination more effectively and skillfully. Through guided imagery you may not stop worrying, but you can learn how to worry better. Guided Imagery will help you eliminate unproductive worrying and focus on the issues that can benefit from worrying. It will teach you skills that will help you use your imagination more effectively so that you don’t have to worry all the time, and so that the worrying you do will really help you resolve the problems you have. If you use Guided Imagery, you can go from being a worry wart to a worry warrior.

To see for yourself how you can use your imagination to relax and reduce stress immediately, go to www.thehealingmind.org and download our free 12-minute “Stress Buster” audio. To learn even more about using your imagination to resolve problems instead of creating them, check out our CDs on Stress Relief, Anxiety Relief, or our unique Guided Imagery for Self-Healing program.

This healing therapy became more widely used after hundreds of sound scientific studies found it works to improve our health. The technique I’m talking about is guided imagery — the art of mentally concentrating on positive images to accelerate healing. If you’re not using it as part of your own health program, perhaps you should. It costs almost nothing and it works.

Guided imagery uses your thoughts to affect your body and emotions. It’s an excellent adjunct to either traditional or complementary medicine.

I first learned about guided imagery in the 1970s. I had helped co-found one of the first holistic health centers in the country. I heard that Carl Simonton, MD and his wife, Stephanie Matthews-Simonton, a psychologist, were successfully using visualization with terminal cancer patients. I read their books, listened to their tapes, and spoke with Dr. Simonton personally.

Then I began using guided imagery with some of my patients. I noticed that it reduced their headache and muscle pains.

Beyond anecdotes
Now there are literally scores of sound scientific studies that support the effectiveness of guided imagery. In one, a group of patients scheduled for colon surgery were either given standard care or listened to a guided imagery tape three days before their surgery and six days afterward. Those who heard the tapes had significantly less anxiety before their operations and much less pain afterward.

In another, over 100 patients with chronic tension headaches listened to a guided imagery tape every day for a month. They had less pain and more vitality than patients who didn’t use this technique.

But guided imagery does much more than reduce pain. It speeds up healing. Patients who used guided imagery before having their gallbladders removed had less inflammation in their incisions than those who had traditional care. They also had less anxiety and lower cortisol levels. From my past articles, you know how serious high cortisol levels are, especially for women (you can re-read these articles on my website). Chronically high cortisol can impair your immune system and memory.

Nearly four-dozen studies conducted between 1966 and 1988 found that guided imagery improved stress, anxiety, and depression. It also reduced pain, blood pressure, and chemotherapy side effects.

How to use guided imagery
Guided imagery uses all your senses: taste, smell, touch, hearing, and feeling. For instance, if you want to lower your blood pressure or reduce anxiety and you’re visualizing lying on a beach on a deserted island, don’t just stop when you “see” a picture of the beach in your mind. Feel the warmth of the sun, the texture of the sand as it runs through your fingers. Smell the sea breeze and imagine you can lick the salt off of your mouth.

Make the scene as real and complete as if you were there. This intense focusing will result in the physiological changes that lower anxiety.

If you have a headache, you can visualize your pain as being a stone. Hold it in your hand. Is it warm, cool, or cold? Is it smooth or textured? Feel its weight. After you’ve held it for a while, feeling, seeing, and touching it so it seems completely real, throw it away as far as you can. Notice that your pain level has lessened.

It’s helpful to use guided imagery media designed by knowledgeable health care professionals. You can buy CDs, download online,, or make your own. I like the latter. It allows you to tailor a session to your specific needs. Martin Rossman, MD, one of the pioneers of guided imagery, has sample scripts you can use in his excellent book, Guided Imagery for Self-Healing (H.J. Kramer, 2000). He also has CDs and other related tools available through his website: http://www.thehealingmind.org.

Guided imagery is powerful
The images that work for one person may work against another. For instance, the Simontons have tapes for cancer patients that focus on visualizing a strong immune system fighting and killing cancer cells.

A friend of mine who had cancer, writer Anais Nin, was using these tapes. One day, she said to me, “Nan, I can’t do this any more. I don’t want to give any emphasis to cancer. I don’t want to visualize cancer cells at all.” I helped Anais create a visualization where she imagined her body healthy, instead. This shift from a negative to a positive image made all the difference to her.

Originally, guided imagery was used as a solution for patients with chronic pain. It’s now gone far beyond pain control and is being taught to nurses, psychotherapists, and other health care providers. It’s part of Blue Shield of California’s Lifepath program for stress reduction. Insurance companies and hospitals are using it because it’s cost-effective.

At Stanford University, guided imagery saved $400 in medical costs to arthritis patients for an investment of $54 in guided imagery sessions. This is a therapy whose time has come. For more information, read Dr. Rossman’s book, or contact the Academy for Guided Imagery (www.academyforguidedimagery.com).

To get the maximum benefit from any trip, minimize stress with these suggestions:

1. Allow plenty of time to reach your destination or catch your flight. Having a few minutes to spare is better than rushing and being anxious.
   
2. Plan and pack. Then don’t worry about what you may have forgotten. Unless your destination is in a remote area, you can purchase almost anything you forget.
   
3. Don’t be worried about things beyond your control like late departures or lost luggage. It’s wasted energy, Department of Transportation statistics show that at least 3/4 of all flights arrive within 15 minutes of their scheduled time and you have a 99% chance of your luggage arriving with you.
   
4. Be sure to get plenty of sleep. Exhaustion can increase your feelings of stress.
   
5. Try to eat normal meals. Resist the temptation to skip a meal or over-indulge.
   
6. Don’t schedule too much in one day. Postpone some activities for another day. Don’t sightsee and walk so much that you are too tired to enjoy the next day. Pass up events that cause stress.
   
7. Do what you enjoy. If you would rather picnic than go fishing at 5:00 AM, do it.
   
8. Maintain your normal physical fitness activities. Exercise is a great stress reliever.
   
9. Practice one or more of the following relaxation techniques:
   

• Deep Natural Breathing–Inhale through the nose and hold for the count of 3. Slowly release your breath through pursed lips. Concentrate on the sound of your own breathing. Repeat 3-5 times for relaxation.
  

  
  

• Mental Imagery–Gently close your eyes and use all your powers of imagination to create a soothing, restful image. Pick a place such as a deserted beach, a quiet meadow, a mountain stream or a park. Concentrate on all the sensory aspects. Imagine yourself feeling very relaxed and calm in this environment.
  

  
  

• Tighten and Relax–Using only hands and arms, squeeze them tight for the count of 5. (Do not squeeze or tighten any other body parts.) Then release the tension and slowly rest hands in your lap and concentrate on the relaxation of muscles fibers unwinding. Repeat 3-5 times. Then inhale and exhale deeply and slowly.
  

  
  

• Eye Relaxer–Gently close your eyes and cup your palms over them. Do not press the eyelids. Take several deep, relaxing breaths and release any tension. Focus in on the blackness. Slowly open your eyes when you feel rested.
  

  
  

• Auto-Suggestion–Gently close your eyes and imagine that you sense warmth penetrating from your shoulders down into your hands. Imagine the warmth of a heating pad or warm bath water. Repeat to yourself “my arms feel warm” several times. Do deep breathing along with this.
  

  
  Then create the gentle sensation of heaviness. Imagine small weights on top of your hands and arms. Concentrate on the heaviness while deep breathing. Repeat the procedure for your face, neck, shoulders, back and legs.
  

  
  

• Thought Stopping–When a negative or stressful thought occurs, close your eyes and count to three. Then imagine yelling the word “STOP”,” a stop sign, a flashing red light or the bold letters S T O P. Pinch yourself or pull an earlobe at the same time. If the thought reoccurs, repeat the procedure.
  

In this article, I will expand on the idea of a symptom as feedback, describe the most common meanings and functions of symptoms, discuss some concerns and precautions about using imagery to explore your symptoms, and give you a script that will lead you through an imaginary dialogue with your symptoms.

While symptoms are usually unpleasant, they are not the “enemy.” In fact, they serve as a natural warning system that, seen in the right perspective, can help keep you in the best possible health. Symptoms are like warning lights or gauges in your car. When the oil light goes on in your car, would you take it to the closest gas station and ask the mechanic to rip out the light? Or tape over it so you can go about your business? Then why go to the doctor looking only for relief of symptoms? You may miss a warning that can prevent a future catastrophe.

Careful histories of people who come down with serious illnesses almost always reveal earlier warning signs that were ignored or treated superficially. Doctors commonly see patients who have treated their stomach pain for years with medications–palliating, tolerating, or ignoring the signal that something is out of balance until something more serious, like a heart attack, brings the message home.

Unfortunately, we are not usually taught that our bodies are intelligent and can communicate with us. We are disconnected from our body language, as we are from our emotions. We have somehow given away our birthright in the area of health and healing. We have come to assume that, yes, a symptom is a message–but all it says is “Go see your doctor”!

What would it be like if you were able to under-stand your symptoms and use the self-healing intelligence of your body, your feelings, and your spirit? Why not ask yourself what you need and be receptive to the answers that come from deep within? Is it so strange, after all, to think that the intelligence that created your body in the first place would be able to let you know what it needed in order to be healthy? Whatever created your body–whether you call it God, nature, life, genes, or DNA–was smart enough to make your head. If it can make your head, why not a headache? And if it can make a headache, why not a thought that can tell you what the headache means?

The Common Meanings and Functions of Illness

Illnesses may simultaneously express a person’s distress and represent an attempt to relieve that distress. It is often useful to consider any benefits an illness may bring as a means of understanding its possible function.

In Getting Well Again, a. P. Tarcher, Los Angeles, 1978), the Simonton group describes the five most common benefits their cancer patients listed when they were asked to identify positive things about having cancer. These are: (1) Having permission to get out of dealing with troublesome situations or problems; (2) receiving attention, care, and nurturing from others; (3) having the opportunity to regroup psychologically to deal with a problem or find a new perspective; (4) finding incentive for personal growth or for modifying undesirable habits; (5) not having to meet the high expectations of themselves or others.

Whether these factors play a role in the formation of cancer is unknown, but they are certainly important in the development of many other common illnesses. Further, even if they are not causative, benefits derived secondarily from illness may interfere with your motivation to recover. Identifying the possible advantages of having your symptoms or illness lets you begin developing healthier ways to accomplish the same objectives.

At worst, if you recognize any benefits that come with being ill, you can make the best use of them.

Other potential benefits of illness have been identified by many clinical observers. Gerald Edelstein, M.D., is a psychiatrist and hypnotherapist in the San Francisco Bay area. In his book Trauma, Trance, and Transformation, he reviews and paraphrases the work of another well-known psychotherapist, Leslie LeCron, who suggested that there were seven common unconscious reasons for the development of symptoms. These are the symptom may be a symbolic physical expression of feelings you are otherwise unable to express. This can be called “organ language”–a broken heart, a pain in the neck, not being able to stomach something, getting cold feet, feeling weak in the knees, putting something behind you, and so on.

The symptom may be the result of an unconscious acceptance of an idea or image implanted earlier in life. Thus, the message “you’re a bad girl, and no one worthwhile could ever love you” repeated often or under particularly emotional circumstances could result in poor self-image, depression, self-destructive behavior, and difficulty in relationships later in life. In a real sense, we are all hypnotized as children. We look to our parents, and later to teachers and peers, to define our sense of self. The images we form of ourselves in these early years often form the unconscious basis for patterns of feelings, behavior, and physiology later in life.

The symptom may result from traumatic past experiences that have been highly emotional and then generalized. Edelstein feels that such experiences are often at the base of phobias. Someone badly frightened by a dog, for example, may expect all encounters with dogs to be similarly bad. While these symptoms tend to be behavioral or psychological, they may also manifest physically, as in the case of the asthmatic delivery man discussed in Chapter Seven.

The symptom provides benefits or solves a problem, as the Simonton list indicates. If so, the focus needs to be on ways to enjoy the benefits without having to be sick. A symptom may be the result of an unconscious identification with an important, beloved person in your life. The “anniversary illness” is a well-known phenomenon in medicine. People may fall sick on or near the anniversary date of someone’s death.

Frequently, the symptom is similar to the symptoms the deceased person experienced. The identification may also be with people still living, or with historical or fictional roles. One patient of mine with cancer was shocked to find through her imagery that, as a child, she had always imagined herself as an actress playing roles where the heroine dies a tragic, dramatic death. She was struck by the similarity to feelings she was experiencing about her current illness and its effects on the people around her, and began imagining herself instead as a heroine who overcame and survived adversity.

A symptom is often a manifestation of an inner conflict. There may be an unmet need or desire that is forbidden by family, friends, society, or one’s own inner judgments. The symptom may prevent you from carrying out a forbidden action, or may allow you to fulfill the desire symbolically. Sometimes it does both at once.

A priest I once saw as a patient had an extremely painful, immobile right shoulder. It prevented him from using his right arm and had not responded to extensive conventional treatment. He said it was so painful that he wasn’t able to carry out his responsibilities as a priest and had asked his superior for a sabbatical leave. In an imagery session he saw himself angry, righteous, and carrying a placard in his upraised right arm. The anger and placard spoke directly to grievances he had with the church bureaucracy, but hadn’t been able to express effectively. As he began to share these feelings, he saw how his painful shoulder simultaneously allowed him to stop doing work he didn’t believe in and express his pain and anger to his organization.

He also saw, however, that the message was disguised, unclear, and less effective than it would be if he were to articulate it openly. He realized the need for him to come to terms with the issues involved. Over the weeks that followed, he was able to clarify his own values and bring his grievances to the proper authorities. His physical healing paralleled his psychological and emotional healing in an almost linear manner.

Symptoms may be a result of an unconscious need for self-punishment. This often results from the “childhood hypnosis” mentioned in the second dynamic above, where you have unconsciously accepted a message that you are bad and need to be punished. It may also be an unconscious attempt to atone for a traumatic event for which you feel responsible, or an attempt to prevent something from happening again. Children often feel they are to blame for their parents’ unhappiness, illnesses, alcoholism, or divorces. They may carry this unconscious sense of guilt until it is unearthed and worked through. Disguised and under the surface, it may manifest in many ways in their lives–as physical pain’ illness, failed relationships, or underachieving.

There may be more than one reason at work in the formation of a particular symptom. When you explore your own imagery, any of the above dynamics may become apparent, or there may be other needs or functions represented by your symptoms. For now, notice whether any memories, images, or strong emotions were triggered by any of the dynamics mentioned above. They may be helpful clues as you continue to explore the personal meaning of your symptoms.

The Saving Grace of Illness–A Personal Experience

The first time I was aware of the possible benefits of an illness was when I was at the University of Michigan Medical School. I had just started my three-month rotation on pediatrics, and had been assigned to the university hospital ward where the sickest children were treated. As we made rounds with the chief resident, he told us each child’s history, both medical and personal. I felt increasingly depressed as I heard the stories of these small children with serious illnesses. I had at that time very little awareness of my own emotions.

I was learning to be a doctor, and in the 1960s medical students and doctors I knew didn’t talk about their feelings in the face of illness. Then, a remarkable thing happened. As we sat around the conference table after rounds, the chief resident put his head in his hands and began to cry. His crying turned into deep sobbing, and through his tears he was saying, “I can’t take it anymore . . . I can’t stand to see one more kid die….” The attending staff physician told us to go home for the day as he moved to comfort the chief The next day, the chief resident quit. The day after, I developed severe nausea, a fever, and extreme weakness.

I underwent the kind of medical work-up that is only possible in a university medical center. My liver was enlarged, and my liver enzymes were abnormal, but everything else was normal. I had some type of hepatitis (the cause never was identified) and was not allowed to return to the wards until my lab tests were normal. I was very ill for a few days, then moderately ill for a few days, and felt fairly well after that, though I tired easily. My liver function tests remained elevated, however, for two and a half months. I had my first normal lab panel the weekend my pediatrics rotation ended.

While I never thought at the time that I got sick because of my pediatrics experience, I was aware that, after the first few days when I was really sick, I was grateful not to have to go back to the wards. If I consider this illness in light of the functions I have reviewed, I can see that it relieved me from a responsibility I didn’t want to have, and it gave me time to think a great deal about whether or not I wanted to continue in medicine. To some extent I imagine I identified with the chief resident, whose feelings and honesty I admired. Looking back, I have no doubt that this illness served an important function for me.

It is often easier to see the benefits of illness in retrospect. It may be useful to you to review previous experiences you’ve had with illness before exploring what is happening now. Dennis Jaffe, Ph.D., a noted health psychologist and author of Healing From Within, offers a helpful way to do this. Dr. Jade recommends you take a large sheet of paper and draw a timeline across the bottom, with marks for five-year periods. Above this line, mark important health events in your life serious illnesses, recurrent health problems, and accidents. Above that, note the important events and changes in your life during those periods. Notice if there seems to be any correlation between stressful events, or clusters of change, and your health.

Be open, receptive, and nonjudgmental as you consider illness from this perspective. Few people would ever choose illness consciously for any of the reasons I’ve presented in this chapter. Your purpose is to discover what your unconscious response may have been to a difficult situation, so that you can more consciously play a role in your recovery. When you discover the purpose of your symptom, you have a chance to develop ways to fulfill that purpose that may not require you to be ill at all.

Using Imagery to Explore Your Symptoms

While you may have found the previous considerations useful, they are essentially “left-brain” methods of analyzing the meaning of your illness. A simpler, more direct way to understand your symptom is to relax, focus your attention on it, allow an image to come to mind that can represent the symptom (as you did in Chapter Five), and then have an imaginary conversation with it. Ask it why it’s there, what it wants from you, what it needs from you, and what it’s trying to do for you. A script will follow later that will guide you through this process in detail.

As you begin to work with imagery this way, several points need to be addressed. One of these is the difference between a diagnosis and the personal meaning of your illnesI have already discussed the necessity of making sure you have a dear understanding of your medical condition and the options you have for treatment. While no one should be forced to have medical treatment, I believe you deserve the best possible assessment of what conventional medicine has to offer. Once you understand your condition on that level, however, you need to explore the personal meaning of your symptoms. To do this, you must temporarily put aside the diagnosis you have been given.

Most people, doctors included, don’t realize that a diagnosis is not a “real” thing. A diagnosis is the way we Massey a certain pattern of findings in a given system of medicine. Patients with the same symptoms and signs of illness will have different diagnoses depending on when and where they live and the systems of medicine practiced there.

For instance, a patient with vertigo and ringing in the ears may be diagnosed as having “Meniere’s syndrome” by a Western physician. A practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine, however, might diagnose the same patient as having “Yang Fire of the Liver Rising.” In another culture, a shaman might diagnose that an evil spirit has entered the sufferer’s head. To most of us, the Western doctor’s diagnosis sounds the most authoritative and scientific, until we look closely at what it means. Meniere’s syndrome is defined as “A syndrome believed to be caused by some derangement of the inner ear, characterized by hearing loss, tinnitus, and vertigo, which may be severe and chronic.” In other words, by diagnosing your problem as Meniere’s syndrome, your doctor is telling you that you have ringing in the ears and dizziness. The diagnosis is simply a label.

In this instance, as in many others, our medical system of classification fails to meet the two most important criteria of a diagnosis, as seen from the standpoint of the patient. It neither clarifies the nature of the problem, nor does it lead to an effective remedy. This is why it is important to realize that a diagnosis is a name, not a sentence to a particular outcome.

People have widely varying reactions to most illnesses and to most treatments. While there is an “aver-age” or “typical” course, there are almost invariably exceptions which are important to know about. You should learn about the typical course of your illness, but also ask your doctor about exceptional patients he or she has known. Do some people do better than others? What seems to make the difference? If you have a serious illness, has anyone ever recovered from it? What’s the best possible course of the illness? Will your doctor be willing to support your efforts to recover, or does he or she think they are “unrealistic”?

Hope is very important to healing, and there is a difference between hope and false expectations. A patient of mine with breast cancer told her radiation oncologist that she had great faith in him and felt that he was going to help her overcome her cancer. He told her that he would do his best but didn’t want her to get her hopes up. Shocked, she told him, “Doctor, I’m doing everything I can to get my hopes up! Without hope, what do I have?” As Dr. Bernard Siegel, a cancer surgeon at Yale, says, “In the absence of certainty, there is nothing wrong with hope.”

The point is, diagnosis is important so you can assess your medical treatment options. When you use imagery to explore your symptoms, however, focus on your symptoms as you experience them and temporarily set aside what you have been told about your illness. If you have back and leg pain, and it has been diagnosed as coming from a herniated disc, use the pain, not the disc, as the focus of your investigation. If you have an illness without symptoms, then focus on the involved area of your body.

Anxiety and Resistance

A second concern about using imagery to explore your symptoms is the fear you may have of encountering something traumatic. While this is possible, it seems to be quite rare in the self-care setting. Several thousand people have used my self-care imagery tapes over the past five years without reporting a single such problem. Emmet Miller, M.D., a physician in Menlo Park, California, has produced an excellent series of relaxation, self-hypnosis, and guided imagery tapes. With tens of thousands of his tapes sold over more than ten years, he has yet to hear of such a problem.

Psychological defenses against remembering traumatic events are generally quite effective, and the most sophisticated therapeutic attempts to work through them are often frustrated. If a really traumatic insight were to burst through Tom using these methods, I would assume that it was just below the surface and would have soon become apparent. Nevertheless, by using imagery this way, you are inviting your unconscious to tell you what’s going on inside, and it may well do just that. You need to cultivate an attitude that allows you to look at what comes back and explore its meaning without judgment or fear.

If you feel anxious as you consider the kind of self-exploration I am suggesting, pay attention to your fear. How strong is it? Is it mild anxiety or a feeling of excitement that comes when you venture into a new area? Or do you become really tense, have trouble breathing, get headaches, and experience worrisome levels of fear? If you experience a lot of anxiety, you are probably better off exploring this area with qualified professional help.

One common reason for anxiety at this point is the fear that your symptom may ask you to give up the thing that is closest to your heart, or hardest to let go of Sometimes it will, but often it won’t. If this is your concern, remember two things. First, you do not have to do what you imagine your symptom wants you to do. Instead, you will weigh the benefits against the risks and look for the safest, easiest way to use what you have learned from your illness to symptom. You always have the choice of doing nothing and maintaining your position as it is. Second, while healing sometimes requires difficult changes, it doesn’t always. You may be surprised to find that what is called for has little or nothing to do with what you feared. Your symptom’s need may be easier to satisfy than you ever imagined, and may bring you benefits beyond your expectations.

Anne, a thirty-five-year-old writer, had experienced eight months of recurrent respiratory and intestinal infections and was frustrated with the repeated rounds of doctors’ visits and antibiotics that brought her short-term relief but no improvement in her general health. As we discussed her life, she revealed that she was unhappy about certain aspects of her marriage though she didn’t want to leave it. She was terrified that her illness signaled a need to break away from her husband.

We began to work with imagery, and after several sessions I asked her to allow an image to form that represented something she could do to help herself regain her good health. An image of a large beautiful oak tree appeared. It was strong, old, stable, and calming. As she sat beneath this tree, she felt calm and protected. Then she experienced an urge to climb the tree. As she reached the top, she found she could comfortably sit in its branches and enjoy a “vast over-view” of her world. She felt it indicated that she needed to use her inner strength and wisdom to get a better perspective on what was important to her in life.

Over the next few weeks, as she looked at various aspects of her life from this high perch, she realized that her love for her mate was still strong, but needed to be nourished. She saw how she had become buried in worries about money and her writing, which had been sporadic and unproductive. She took steps to renew the warmth in her relationship and found her husband quite happy to have her attention again.

Anne was also surprised and pleased to find herself inspired with creative ideas for writing as she relaxed in her “crow’s nest.” Two months after beginning to work with imagery she told me that she not only was fully recovered, but was writing productively and felt better than she had in years. She was amazed and pleased to see that out of her attention to her illness had come not only physical healing, but the restoration of both her relationship and her creativity.

If, like Anne, you have more than a little anxiety as you consider exploring your symptoms, it may be best to explore those feelings before moving on. I believe in respecting fear, in treating it as we treat a symptom–not as an enemy, but as a signal that something needs to be considered before taking another step. If this feels right to you, please skip to Chapter Eleven now. It will help you clarify your fears and take a look at how best to deal with them as you explore.

Imagery Is Not Just Wishful Thinking

Another common concern about imagery is that it may just be indulging in wishful thinking. By imagining your fondest dream coming true, by seeing your hopes manifest in imagery, you may risk being unrealistic and being led down a primrose path. This, of course, is certainly possible. Your hopes and fears both exist in your imagination along with your “realistic” images of life. If you know that, you are unlikely to be led astray. As always, discrimination is needed. If your imagery of how to go about healing seems “too good to be true,” you may need to test it, as you may have tested the information you received from your inner advisor.

Though I have described testing of imagery information before, it is an important enough process to merit a second discussion. To test a vision that seems far-fetched or unrealistic, ask yourself the following questions: What is required of me to have this vision come true? How will I know if it’s coming true? Is there any way to track my progress objectively? If I follow the lead of this imagery, what am I risking? Are there safeguards I can establish that can protect me or minimize my risk as I test it? Is the risk acceptable, considering the potential gain? Can I bear the loss if it doesn’t work?

There are times, of course, when it’s just not possible to proceed with absolute safety. Life is a risky business, and there are no guarantees in any kind of medicine or healing. The most sensible approach is not to take unnecessary risks, minimize those you do take, and look carefully at the relative potential for benefits.

As you begin to work with the imagery process that follows, you may become aware of negative feelings toward your symptom or illness. These are perfectly natural. They hurt you, frighten you, limit you, and interfere with your life. As you encounter an image that represents your symptoms, you may notice similar feelings arising. Expressing your feelings to the image, then letting it respond, may be the beginning of better understanding, as you will see when you practice the exercise in this chapter.

How to Listen to Your Symptoms

I am indebted to Dr. Naomi Remen for developing the larger part of the script included in this chapter. Dr. Remen originally recorded this script as part of our self-care tape series. In her introduction to this tape, she explains, “If you have a chronic illness, you already have a relationship with it. That relationship is often not the best it could be and may be characterized by mistrust, hostility, and fear. Dialoging with the symptom or with an image that represents it opens up lines of communication that may have been closed, and may lead to an improvement in the relationship. This improvement is often experienced as a decrease in pain, anxiety, or depression, and in some cases, as improvement in the illness itself.”

Expressing your feelings in imagery can be the beginning of a dialogue, and it is possible to express anger, fear, or sadness, yet allow communication to continue. Take the attitude of a good negotiator or arbitrator. Find out what the “opposing” party wants, what it needs, what it will take, and what it has to offer if its needs are met. This is the essence of the inner dialogue process, and an attitude free of judgment will facilitate this conversation. In diplomatic circles it is said “There is no good and bad, only opposing views of the good.” A diplomatic attitude in your imagery exploration may lead to inner peace, where before there was only conflict. Your goal is relief of the symptom or healing of the illness, but your approach will be negotiation rather than warfare.

As you work with the following imagery process, allow yourself to relax and accept what comes to mind. Let the images you encounter speak for themselves, and consider what comes to you carefully. Give yourself room to explore by maintaining a nonjudgmental, curious attitude. Approach this as an investigation, a consideration of your problem in a broader perspective.

When you are through with the process that follows, you will, as always, reflect on, weigh, and analyze whether what you learned is relevant or important to act on.By now, you know to take a comfortable position, make sure you will not be interrupted for about thirty minutes, and either have a friend read the following script, make a recording of it, or work with our pre-recorded tape.

SCRIPT: Listening to Your Symptoms

Begin as always by taking a comfortable position, loosening any tight clothing, . . . have some writing paper and a pen or pencil close at hand….

Take a couple of deep, slow breaths, and let the out breath be a real “letting go” kind of breath . . . imagine that any unnecessary tension or discomfort begins to flow out of your body with each exhalation . . . then let your breathing take its own natural rate and rhythm, allowing yourself to sink a little deeper and become more comfortable with each gentle breath….

Invite your feet to release and relax any tension that may be there . . . notice them beginning to let go . . . invite your calves and shins to release as well . . . your thighs and hamstrings . . . your pelvis, genitals, and hips . . . feel your whole lower body releasing and relaxing as it has so many times before . . . just allowing your body to head for a deeper, more comfortably relaxed and focused state . . . and as your body relaxes, your mind can become quiet and still as well . . . easily and naturally … without effort…Allow your low back and buttocks to join in the releasing and relaxing . . . allowing these large muscles to become loose and soft and take a well deserved break . . . allow your abdomen to relax as well . . . the muscles of your abdomen, flanks, and midback relaxing more deeply . . . the organs in your abdomen as well . . . your chest muscles . . . your shoulder blades and in between your shoulder blades . . . letting go . . . easily . . . naturally . . . the organs in your chest . . . your shoulders letting go . . . your neck muscles . . . your arms . . . forearms . . . wrists . . . hands . . . fingers . . . and thumbs . . . releasing and relaxing . . . comfortably and easily . . . releasing your scalp . . . forehead . . . face . . . and jaws . . . the little muscles around your eyes….

And to relax more deeply . . . to become quiet in mind and body . . . imagine yourself in that special, quiet inner place you’ve visited before . . . a special inner place of peacefulness . . . serenity . . . and security for you . . . take a few moments to look around and notice what you see there . . . and what you hear in this special place . . . and any odor or aroma . . . and especially the feelings of peacefulness and safety that you feel here . . . and find the spot in which you are most comfortable . . . and become centered and quiet in that spot….

When you are ready, direct your attention to the symptom or problem that has been bothering you . . . your symptom may be a pain, weakness, or dysfunction in some part of your body or a mood or emotions that are uncomfortable for you . . . as you focus on the sensations involved, allow an image to appear that represents this symptom . . . simply allow the image to appear spontaneously, and welcome whatever image comes–it may or may not make immediate sense to you … just accept whatever comes for now….

Take some time just to observe whatever image appears as carefully as you can . . . if you would like it to be clearer, imagine you have a set of controls like you do for your TV set, and you can dial the image brighter or more vivid . . . notice details about the image . . . what is its shape? . . . color? . . . texture? . . . density? . . . How big is it? . . . How big is it in relation to you? . . . Just observe it carefully without trying to change it in any way . . . How close or far away does it seem? . . . What is it doing? . . .

Just give it your undivided attention . . . as you do this, notice any feelings that come up, and allow them to be there . . . look deeper . . . are there any other feelings present as you observe this image? . . . When you are sure of your feelings, tell the image how you feel about it–speak directly and honestly to it (you may choose to talk out loud or express yourself silently)….

Then, in your imagination, give the image a voice, and allow it to answer you . . . listen carefully to what it says . . .

Ask the image what it wants from you, and listen to its answer . . . ask it why it wants that–what does it really need? . . . And let it respond . . . ask it also what it has to offer you, if you should meet its needs … again allow the image to respond….

Observe the image carefully again . . . is there anything about it you hadn’t noticed before? . . . Does it look the same or is it different in any way? . . .

Now, in your imagination, allow yourself to become the image . . . what is it like to be the image? . . . Notice how you feel . . . notice what thoughts you have as the image . . . what would your life be like if you were this image? . . . Just sense what it’s like to be this image….

Through the eyes of the image, look back at yourself. . . what do you see? . . . Take a few minutes to really look at yourself from this new perspective . . . as the image, how do you feel about this person you are looking at . . . what do you think of this person? . . . What do you need from this person? . . . Speaking as the image, ask yourself for what you need….

Now slowly become yourself again . . . the image has just told you what it needs from you . . . what, if anything, keeps you from meeting that need? . . . What issues or concerns seem to get in the way? . . . What might you do to change the situation and take a step toward meeting the image’s needs? . . .

Allow an image to appear for your inner advisor, a wise, kind figure who knows you well . . . when you feel ready, ask your advisor about your symptom and its needs, and any thoughts, feelings, or circumstances that may make it hard for you to meet these needs . . . ask your advisor any questions you might have, and listen carefully to your advisor’s responses . . . feel free to ask your advisor for help if you need it….

Now, mentally review the conversation you have had with your symptom and your advisor from the beginning . . . if it feels right for you, choose one way that you can begin to meet your symptom’s needs– some small but tangible way you can fill some part of its unmet needs . . . if you can’t think of any way at all, ask your advisor for a suggestion….

When you have thought of a way to begin meeting its needs, recall again the image that represents your symptom . . . ask it if it would be willing and able to give you tangible relief of symptoms if you take the steps you have thought of . . . if so, let the exchange begin . . . if not, ask it to tell you what you could do in exchange for perceptible relief. . . continue to dialogue until you have made a bargain or need to take a break from negotiating….

Consider the image once more . . . is there anything you have learned from it or about it? . . . Is there anything that you appreciate about it? . . . If there is, take the time to express your appreciation to it . . . express anything else that seems important . . . and slowly come back to your waking state and take some time to write about your experience….

Evaluating Your Experience

Take some time to write or draw anything significant to you in the experience. Describe your image of the symptom in detail. How does this image seem to relate to your experience of your symptoms or illness?How did you feel about the image initially? Did your feelings change in any way as you continued to dialogue with this image? How do you feel about it now?

What did the image seem to want from you? What did it say it needed? What did it say it had to offer you in return for meeting its needs?

How was it to become the image? Did you learn anything else about the image from this part of the imagery? As the image, what did you ask yourself for?

As yourself, what was your reaction to the image’s request? Are there obstacles or barriers you became aware of to meeting its needs? If you chose to, how might you deal with them constructively? What would be a first step toward meeting your symptom’s needs?

Did the image agree to give you tangible relief of symptoms if you took that step? Is there something else it wanted instead? Are you willing to make a bargain with it, or have you reached an impasse in negotiations? If so, you may want to take some time to think about what you could offer in exchange for relief Consult with your advisor before returning to the dialogue with your symptoms.

You may not always be able to come to an agreement with your symptoms immediately. As with any negotiation, a good deal of exchange and consideration may need to take place before a bargain is struck. Make sure any agreement is mutually acceptable–one-sided pacts do not work. If you do make a bargain with your symptoms, keep your agreement and watch carefully for improvement.

The Next Steps

You may notice that as you write about this experience, you become aware of connections and information you didn’t notice during the imagery. You may even notice yourself becoming aware of related information over several days following your inner dialogue. You may find information in dreams, in flashes of intuition, in books you are reading, from people you talk with, and TV shows you watch. Once you have asked the unconscious for advice, it responds in many ways. You may also find that repeating this process in a few days will allow you to penetrate even more deeply into the relationship between you and your symptom.

Once you’ve developed some insight into the meaning of your symptoms, an important question is often “What are you going to do about it?” Insight can stimulate change, but it may take continued awareness and action over time to make the change a part of your daily life. Psychoanalysis is often criticized for producing patients who understand everything they do, but do the same things they did when they entered therapy. It’s not just the knowing, but the doing that counts. As Will Rogers once said, “You may be on the right track, but you’ll get run over if you don’t move.”

While in some situations the imagery itself will have the effects you desire, in many others it will only point you in the direction you need to go. The process of grounding your insight, of using it to make tangible change in your life, is the key to converting the imaginary to the real. Paradoxically, imagery can help even in this down-to-earth step of self-healing. You will learn how in the next chapter.

• The Common Meanings and Functions of Illness
• The Saving Grace of Illness–A Personal Experience
• Using Imagery to Explore Your Symptoms
• Anxiety and Resistance
• Imagery Is Not Just Wishful Thinking
• How to Listen to Your Symptoms
• Script: Listening to Your Symptoms
• Evaluating Your Experience
• The Next Steps

Physical and psychological stress can also contribute to prolonged postoperative recovery and a suppressed immune system.

To help retain a sense of control, patients can learn a range of positive skills including imagery, relaxation, self-talk, and positive outcome expectations.

Guided imagery is a technique that draws on the power of thought to influence psychological and physiological states. The patient listens to an audio tape to create mental images that bring about a state of focused concentration. This state, in turn, allows relaxation and produces a sense of physical and emotional well-being. Patients can use this technique to control their reactions to anxiety, depression, and stressful situations.

Guided imagery may also help patients strengthen their immune system and enhance their own healing.

A recent study at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation investigated the effect of guided imagery on 130 patients undergoing colorectal surgery. A control group received standard surgical care. Another group listened to a guided imagery tape to help them become calm and focused.

The guided imagery tape included soft, soothing music, and a story that brought patients to a “special place” in their mind – a place that was safe, secure, protected, supported, and relaxed. The imagery story encouraged patients to confront and work through any feelings of fear, anxiety, and negativity.

Patients were instructed to listen to the tape without interruption twice per day, once in the morning and once in evening, for three days before the operation and for six days after. During surgery and in the recovery room they listened to a tape with only the music.

Those who listened to guided imagery tapes fared much better–both before and after surgery. Before surgery, anxiety increased in the control group but decreased in the guided imagery group. After surgery, pain and anxiety levels were significantly lower for the imagery patients. They needed only about half the amount of narcotic pain medications as the control group and their bowel function also returned much more quickly.

The number of patients experiencing postoperative complications such as nausea, vomiting, or disrupted bowel function did not differ significantly in the two groups. Nor were there enough participants to detect a statistically significant difference in length of hospital stay.

But virtually all of the guided imagery patients reported that they appreciated using the tapes and attributed benefits including improved quality of sleep, speeded recovery, and reduced anxiety and pain after surgery. Most believed that all patients having major abdominal surgery should have the opportunity to use the guided imagery tapes.

How do the guided imagery tapes improve the surgical experience? The answer is not clear at this point. Using the tapes may increase patients’ sense of control and active participation, which in turn may reduce anxiety and change physiology. Music has been shown to influence mood and, perhaps, immune function. The tapes also provide a temporary escape, blocking out annoying noises, and distracting the patients from pain and anxious thoughts.

Guided imagery can help you relax, clear your mind, and engage physiologically and psychologically supportive images. Of course, you don’t have to be facing surgery to enjoy these benefits. Imagery tapes can be used for general relaxation and stress reduction as well as management of a variety of diseases.

For More Information:


Academy for Guided Imagery, P.O. Box 2070, Mill Valley, CA 94942: Relaxation and imagery tapes, books, and courses.

Davis, Martha; Eshelman, Elizabeth; and McKay, Matthew: The Relaxation & Stress Reduction Workbook. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications, 1995.

Fanning, Patrick: Visualization for Change. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications, 1988.

“Health Journeys” by Belleruth Naparstek, Image Paths, Inc., Box 5714, Cleveland, OH 44101-0714 (1-800-800-8661): Relaxation and imagery tapes and books.

Lusk, Julie T.: 30 Scripts for Relaxation Imagery and Inner Healing. Volumes 1 and 2. Duluth, MN: Whole Person Associates, 1992-1993.

Naparstek, Belleruth: Staying Well with Guided Imagery. New York: Warner Books, 1994.

New Harbinger Publications, 5674 Shattuck Avenue, Oakland, CA 94609 (1-800-748-6273): Relaxation and imagery tapes and books.

Rossman, Martin: Healing Yourself: A Step-by-Step Program for Better Health Through Imagery. New York: Pocket Books, 1987.

Tusek DL, et al: Guided Imagery: A Significant Advance in the Care of Patients Undergoing Elective Colorectal Surgery. Diseases of the Colon and Rectum 1997;40:172-178.

Whole Person Associates, Inc., 210 West Michigan, Duluth, MN 55802-1908 (218-727-0500): Relaxation and imagery tapes and books.

Excerpted with permission from the Quarterly Newsletter, Mind/Body Health Newsletter. For subscription information call 1-(800)-222-4745 or visit the Institute for the Study of Human Knowledge website.