Hypnosis Put quite simply, hypnosis is a deep state of relaxation. It has been described as 'half-awake, half-asleep'.  It's very similar to that 'miles away' feeling you probably find yourself in from time to time when you let your mind wander.   Everyone experiences the state may times during the day, including that time just before you fall asleep at night. Hypnosis itself, doesn't directly deal with issues such as smoking, weight loss, phobias, anxiety, stress, or health issues... it is simply a tool used by a skilled therapist to bring about beneficial change. The brain operates in four general states determined by the frequency of the electricity generated by the exchange of chemicals in the neural pathways. The four states include Full Conscious Awareness, the Hypnotic State, the Dream State, and the Sleep State. These four states correspond to electrical activity in the brain and are defined by frequency ranges on an EEG.  Full Conscious Awareness occurs when the majority of the electrical activity in the brain is in the beta range (14-35 Hz).  The Hypnotic State occurs when brain activity is in the alpha range (8-13 Hz).  The Dream State occurs when brain activity is in the theta range (4-7 Hz), and the Sleep State occurs when brain activity is in the delta range (.5-3 Hz). Full Conscious Awareness is where which we spend most of our waking hours.  In this state, our mind is attentive and uses logic to reason, evaluate, assess, judge, and make decisions.  Unfortunately, when making life changes, the conscious mind often gets in the way. In the Hypnotic State, the doorway between the conscious and the subconscious is opened, memories become easily accessible, and new information is stored.  In the Hypnotic State, you are not really "thinking" in the traditional sense.  You are "experiencing" without questioning, without critical judgment or analysis, like when you watch a movie, and the Hypnotherapist can make suggestions that are very likely to "stick" - precisely because your conscious mind is not getting in the way.  You are not "judging" or being "critical" of the suggestions. We pass through all four bands sequentially as the electrical activity decreases on our way to sleep and as it increases up on our way to total wakefulness.  Regardless of whether we are on our way to sleep or to wakefulness, when we pass through the upper theta/lower alpha range we go into hypnosis automatically.  There is no power on earth that can stop it from happening but likewise, there is no person or power on earth that can force you into it; you must want to go into hypnosis and follow the hypnotist's direction to the letter. The will located in the conscious way of functioning is always present, always working.  If for some reason you will yourself not to allow the suggestions to be accepted, they won't be.  The smoker who comes in to quit smoking but is not really committed to that goal, cannot be forced to do so. As to the issue of the subconscious' chief concern for the clients' health and welfare, the subconscious function of the mind begins to operate long before the conscious mind, in early childhood.  On the level of instinct, the strategies for self-preservation and survival are irrevocably etched in the subconscious. The conscious along with its critical faculty develops later in early childhood.  By this time, the subconscious had firmly embedded in it the instinct to survive---to keep the organism well and healthy. A less technical definition of hypnosis is:  a naturally occurring altered state of consciousness in which the critical faculty is bypassed (mind in the conscious mode) and acceptable selective thinking established. This simply means that the reasoning, evaluating, judging part of your mind (conscious) is bypassed.  While we wonder how this could possibly happen, we are subject to it all the time.  The advertising industry is dedicated to bypassing our critical judgment all the time in order to influence our buying behavior. We suspend our critical judgment other times when an authority figure makes some sort of comment;  doctors, clergy, professors, and many more fall into this category. Children suspend their critical judgment frequently in games of "let's pretend".  Actors do it in playing a part;  they have to suspend their critical faculty, and they ask the audience to suspend theirs to accept them as being someone else. With the critical faculty bypassed, specific thoughts/suggestions can be lodged in the subconscious where they can propel the client toward a desired goal or change behavior in a positive, permanent way.  Any such suggestions must be acceptable to the client, of course.  They would have no effect otherwise. This focus on a specific goal or behavior is done with laser-like precision and intensity in hypnosis.  It's a little like looking through a telescope from the wrong end.  You see just one tiny spec of the environment in focus though you may be aware of everything around it.

Hypnotherapy
Hypnotherapy is the name given to the processes that actually create the positive changes you desire.  Hypnotherapy occurs when the therapist uses hypnosis to accelerate these changes.

Suggestion therapy

When someone is in the state of hypnosis, their subconscious mind is more receptive to ideas and suggestions.  A skilled Hypnotherapist can utilize this, and with nothing more than the careful use of language, can speak 'directly' to the subconscious mind, to affect the desired change. While Suggestion therapy has many uses, and extremely effective, it does nothing to remove the root cause of a problem.

Hypnoanalysis (or analytical hypnotherapy)

This is where hypnotherapy (i.e. therapy using hypnosis), is combined with analysis.  This process allows the therapist to help treat a much wider range of issues. Hypnoanalysis allows the client to find the emotions and feelings from their past, (often forgotten), which is causing their problems in later life.  It is for this reason it is used to treat the more complex issues such as general anxiety, phobias, social anxiety, unexplained nervousness, health issues, etc. A combination of Analytical Hypnotherapy and Suggestion Therapy can be used to help with many physical and psychological issues from anxiety, nail biting, and smoking, to IBS, nerve rashes, and health issues.

HypnoBirthing®

HypnoBirthing, based upon the work of the late English obstetrician, Dr. Grantly Dick-Read (who published his book Childbirth Without Fear in 1944), teaches mother to understand and release the Fear-Tension-Pain Syndrome which so often is the cause of pain and discomfort during labor. When we are afraid, our body diverts blood and oxygen from non-essential defense organs to large muscle groups in our extremities. Our face drains of blood and we are said to be 'white with fear'. In a fearful situation, the body, unfortunately, considers the uterus to be a non-essential organ. Dr. Dick-Read states that the uterus of a frightened woman in labor is literally white! HypnoBirthing explores the myth that pain is a necessary accompaniment to a normal birthing. When a laboring woman's mind is free of fear, the muscles in her body - including her uterine muscles - relax, thus facilitating an easier, stress-free birthing. In many cases, first stage labor shortens, eliminating fatigue during labor and leaving mother fresh, awake and with energy for actual birthing. "We say HypnoBirthing sets you free from fear, not free from pain, although many women experience pain-free births," Mongan says:  "Eliminating fear allows the woman's body to work like it's supposed to."

Bio-Energy Healing

The bio-energy field of a human consists of subtle bodies with their energetic potentials, and which give strength and power to the biological field. Energetic potential depends on the conditions of physical and psychic health, and, perhaps, astrological factors. For example, experienced psychics can feel human energy fields with their hands without touching a body, and, sometimes, even see a glowing aura around individuals. Also they can sense thoughts, needs, and health issues irradiated from individuals. Many views and hypotheses about bio-energy exist nowadays, and some researchers call it psi-energy. Special experiments in the laboratories enabled researchers to discover waves of energy emitted by humans. With mental activities the waves changed with speed of thought: the thought was followed by energy. Electric charges in the human's head change on different levels of consciousness. The electric field of a human is the unity of positive (+) and negative (-) electric zones. In order to be healthy, the energetic balance must be maintained in the bio-energy system. Energetic balance and constant freely flowing of energy are important factors in your health and well-being. Bio-energy can be explained as bio-electromagnetic energy surrounding us. You may hear about terms of positive and negative energy in bio-energy healing. The term of bio-positive energy means pure healing energy coming from God. Positive energy flows freely in energy systems bringing vitality and health. Whereas definition of bio-negative energy is trapped, disharmonious, stale, or stagnant energy that blocking pathways and prevent vital energy from freely flowing in energy systems. Negative energy brings imbalances into energetic systems, and it is connected to illnesses and emotional trauma. There is an undiscovered ability of bio-energy flowing through your hands. Your hands may be "energetic", and you may make everyday use of it. You can develop an ability to feel bio-energy fields with your hands. You can also develop an ability to "regulate" and modulate energy fields around you or other people with your hands, thus influence your physical and subtle energetic bodies with healing energy relieving imbalances in energy fields and bringing health and energetic balance. Everyone possesses a more or less powerful bio-energy field which interacts with fields of others. Human energy fields of different people may interact with each other also bringing energetic imbalance or discomfort. Nevertheless, you may fix any imbalance energetically. You may also learn how to manage life situations with your bio-energy. The vital energy can be transferred from person to person. With developed bio-energetic ability, you will be able to perform bio-energy healing or energetic management, control any condition, event, or situation in your life energetically. If you choose to help yourself, your loved ones and your pets with the life-supporting energy in your hands, you will maintain an energetic balance in their energy fields which bring them health and vitality. The idea of human energy transfer for healing is not new. People performed healing by human energy for thousands of years. The knowledge of the energetic method of healing came from ancient India to Egypt, Greece, China, Israel and other countries. Jesus Christ used laying-on of hands as a method of healing. Some healers name the method "ethereal healing," and consider it healing of the ether body, which penetrates the physical body. And some healers consider it as pranic healing because a vital energy is Prana. Vital cosmic energy is called Prana in Sanskrit, and it acts in the transfer of human energy. Prana is breath of life. Healthy people have this energy in abundance. Freely flowing Prana in the human energy systems brings vitality and vivacity into organisms. However, ill people have deficits in this energy. They have gray constricted energy fields with blocked and stagnant energy. Such a condition of the energy fields affects people's health, bringing energetic imbalances and illnesses on the physical level. Old people have deficits of prana. We cannot see Prana, only its manifestations. This vital energy penetrates everywhere coming from Great Unknown. Prana submits to human consciousness, and it can be creative as well. Once you learn how to accumulate this energy, manipulate it, control, and transfer it, you will become an energy healer or bio-energy master. You will enjoy using creative Prana for all purposes in your life. Healing with bio-energy requires spending some bio-energy at act of healing. As open energetic system, you may receive our energy from the cosmos, not only with food or sleep. You will especially need to receive extra energy from cosmos, if you perform bio-energetic work. You may refill your bio-energy receiving it from cosmos, and accumulate it in an energetic reservoir - your bio-energy field. We think bio-energy of healer's hands to bring healing and benefits to the whole energy system - the physical body, the ether body and other human subtle energetic bodies. In the book "Health by Bio-Energy and Mind," you will learn unique techniques and exercises, which will allow you to possess the bio-energy healing method and special techniques in order to maintain health and widely use it in everyday life for all purposes. We would like to offer you valuable information about how to develop an ability of energetic healing and manage yourself, your relatives, pets, and your environment on the energetic level. We state that human health is a summary of physical, psychic (mental), emotional, spiritual and energetic conditions of person. And people have to live in balance and in energetic unity with all things around. We had developed and systemized classical forms of energy transfer and hands-on healing and, moreover, created our own bio-energy method which may be used as a method of energetic management and balancing in everyday life. Sensitive people with healthy energetic systems can feel biological fields of others. They "activate" hands energetically, bring their hands close to the body surface at a certain distance, examine the field, and feel all characteristics of a person's energetic field. They may experience heat, cold, some density, pressure, shock, tingling, or pulsation. To recognize an illness or an energetic imbalance of a healee, healers use their knowledge of all these sensational feelings, strong memory and their mastery of the art. And, by their bio-energy and mind, healers can normalize energetic imbalances or free stagnant energy from the healee's energy field. Thereafter, they can prevent an illness on the physical level, comfort ill persons, eliminate pain, accelerate the physical body's healing, heal an illness, improve a physical condition, and maintain a positive emotional and mental state of a healee. The most interesting fact is that everyone can perform healing by energy, not ju! st people with extrasensory perceptions (ESP). Healing by energy requires from healers the development of abilities to control their own energy consciously, calm the mind at will, breathe correctly, gather energy by breathing exercises, have a strong bio-energy field, high level of energy in energetic centers (chakras), have strong and capacious memory, visualize, feel and estimate work of own body, listen to the inner-self, estimate own feeling, and be practically healthy. People become energy healers when they change the consciousness, a world view, and mental and physical attitude of themselves. We possess incredible strength - our bio-energy. If we employ it consciously, it give us tremendous power, and ability to heal ourselves and others from physical, spiritual and mental problems. It is possible to learn how to control energy consciously and perform energy healing. With power of your own bio-energetic field, and energy in your hands, you can become a healer. Even if you use bio-energetic ability for yourself and your loved ones, you will see how your life will be happier, energetic, and fulfilling.

Kabbalistic Healing

The Kabbalistic healing is based on a new paradigm for healing. It integrates thirteenth-century Kabbalistic wisdom, the latest theories in quantum physics, twentieth-century psychological insight and teachings of none duality into a deeply transformative healing modality. This extraordinary approach to healing acknowledges and nurtures our relationship to the source of all healing power, which we call God-cleaving or awakening to the Real. Kabbalistic Healing (from Qabalah) is a Jewish mystical tradition. Generally, Kabbalistic healing is a form of therapeutic system of healing that relates to the human body to a universal or spiritual map. This unique Kabbalistic healing links God to the human mind, body and spirit.
Using "hand mudras," (hand signs) a patient can be observed for specific responses of the tested muscle. Kabbalistic healing is a portal for transferring energy to the body through hand mudras. Because hand mudras focus on the nervous system and on various energetic levels of awareness, they may cause the body or nervous system to resonate to that particular level.
Based on the "Tree of Life," Kabbalistic healing is also known as the "Sign Language of the Soul." [Ten energy centers of the Tree of Life depict openings in the human body; and in totality -- there are 32 pathways on the Tree of Life as well.] Through Kabbalistic healing, chakras are balanced in direct relation to the Tree of Life. Furthermore, Kabbalistic healing employs the 4-letter Name ascribed to God -- YHVH. Not only do these letters correlate with the Tree of Life, but interestingly enough, these letters are directly in unison with the 4 nucleotides of DNA and the four states of yang and yin as well. Overall, Kabbalistic healing is the usage of mudras to help individuals activate their universal patterns within the nervous system of the body; thus allowing healing energies to restore, balance and ultimately -- help in healing.

REIKI Healing 

Just what is Reiki and where did it come from? Reiki (ray`-kee) is a system of energy healing based on the theory that a universal healing energy or life force permeates and infuses the universe, and that this energy can be channeled into someone so that their own life force is enhanced (Barbara Loecher, Sara Altshul O’Donnell, and the Editors of Prevention Health Books, Women's Choices in Natural Healing [Emmaus, PA: Rodale Press, Inc., 1998], 268). Reiki began in the 19th century when Mikao Usui, a minister and teacher in Kyoto, Japan, searched for an understanding of how Biblical healing miracles worked. Usui read the Buddhist sutras (religious writings) in their original languages, and found material on healing and what seemed to him a way to activate its power. After a 21-day fast and retreat, “he welcomed the energy into himself,” the energy being what Usui thought was the healing power (J. Gordon Melton, New Age Encyclopedia [Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1990], 382). Usui also came up with five principles of ethical practice: being grateful for blessings, not being angry, not worrying, working honestly, and being kind to one’s neighbor and all living things (Ibid). Usui drew disciples of his teachings, and later Usui’s succession was passed on to Chijuro Hayashi (Ibid). In the 1930’s, a dying Japanese-American, Hawayo Takato, returned to Japan and encountered Reiki practitioners whom, it is claimed, were able to heal her. She became the first woman Reiki master and first American Reiki master, and it is she who initiated Reiki training in the United States by touring the country in the 1970’s (Ibid, 383). Barbara Weber Ray, in Atlanta, Georgia, became a teacher of the methods of initiating other Reiki masters in 1978; and Ray founded the American Reiki Association, later called The Radiance Technique Association International (Ibid). Reiki is also known as the Usui Shiko Ryoho System of Healing (Ibid, 382). Reiki theory holds that practitioners can channel the universal life force as a healing energy into the client’s body in order to “balance and enhance the flow of vital energy,” (Loecher, 268). The client/patient lies on a table as the Reiki practitioner gently touches him/her. The practitioner places their palms on major organs and glands, and on the areas where the chakras are located. [The chakras are part of Hindu belief that there are seven chakras, centers of psychic and spiritual energy, going from the base of the spine to the top of the head. Certain Hindu teachings claim that the kundalini, an energy force coiled snakelike in the base chakra, needs to rise to the topmost chakra as part of the spiritual enlightenment process.

AMMA Therapy

AMMA Therapy® is concerned with the balance and movement of life energy (Qi) in the human body. Whereas the acupuncturist will insert needles into these energy pathways to stimulate and move the energy and the herbalist will use appropriate herbal remedies to do the same, the Amma Therapist® relies primarily on the sensitivity and strength of the hands to manipulate and balance the life energy. Knowledgeable in related approaches, such as acupuncture, moxibustion (the application of heat to acupuncture points), skeletal manipulation, appropriate use of herbal medications, diet, and meditation, the Amma Therapist® is concerned with the flow and balance of energy in the pathways of Qi, commonly known as the channels, that form an energetic web throughout the body. The channels of Qi nourish and defend the body. As well, it is through these channels that harmful energies gain access to deeper regions of the body. The balanced and unobstructed flow of Qi through the channels is imperative for maintaining good health. AMMA Therapy® utilizes all the techniques of the major forms of therapeutic massage. Deep pressure and point manipulation as used in shiatsu massage are applied in the administration of an AMMA Therapy® treatment to attain the desired effects of energetic movement and release of muscular contraction. Foot reflex points are stimulated during the course of a treatment, a practice commonly known as foot reflexology. Stimulation of these points often has profound results on the deeper organs and tissues of the body. Deep fascia and connective tissue manipulation techniques similar to those used in Rolfing are part of the repertoire of the Advanced AMMA Therapist®, as are the muscle stretching and pushing techniques commonly employed in European or Swedish massage. The Master AMMA Therapist® is also well versed in the skeletal manipulations that form the basis of chiropractic. AMMA Therapy® is therefore not simply a specific technique, but is rather a comprehensive healing art with a specific purpose and philosophy and a sophisticated mode of practice. AMMA Therapy® addresses all problems from this multi-system, multidirectional point of view. The process of assessment uses both Western and Eastern knowledge and techniques, combining traditional Asian medical principles,(TCM), for assessing energy imbalances with a Western approach to organ dysfunction. A diagnosis is based on the Four Traditional Methods: looking, asking, touching, and smelling. This includes the assessment of every facet of the mind body complex, including observation of the tongue; the taking of various pulses; palpation; and evaluation of diet, complexion, bowel movements, posture, emotions, vitality, personal likes and dislikes, smells, tastes, and sounds. Every sign and symptom reflects the internal state of the body and can be used in assessment, providing information about the psychological state of the patient as well as the prognosis of the disease or imbalance. Specific areas of the body are seen as a microcosm of the whole, revealing much about the entire organism. Once a comprehensive assessment is made and energy imbalances and organ dysfunction's diagnosed, the Amma therapist's hands and fingers can appropriately treat the body to remove blockages, free the flow of energy, and bring healing energy to problem areas. In early civilizations, primitive people naturally sought to relieve pains by rubbing the body. The evolutionary position holds that AMMA developed from early experimentation with rubbing that involved pushing and pulling the muscles of the body. However, the extreme sophistication of AMMA makes such theories doubtful. This position is one that assumes evolution, while in the case of Amma and many other traditions of the far east, devolution seems much more likely. Amma as practiced in modern China and Japan seems to be a devolved version of the original art in which the basic massage techniques are used exclusively, while the subtlety and power of Amma as recorded in the ancient texts has been lost. Given the profundity of Classical Asian medicine, beginning with the mapping of the energy patterns thousands of years ago, it seems clear that our ancestors were more -sensitive to their subtle experiences than we are today; they were more aware of their bodies and could feel the flow of energy in their systems. While Traditional Asian physicians of an earlier time generally never saw the inside of the human body, they were able to precisely delineate acupuncture points and knew the specific effects of these points on the physiology of the body. During that time they created charts describing the location of the pathways and their points, much of which has been confirmed by modem scientific research. The ancient texts of the "inner" or "soft" styles of the martial arts also indicate an awareness, sensitivity, and subtlety that is rarely found in practitioners of these physical arts today. All arts-especially those that involve great attention to detail, extraordinary sensitivities, kinesthetic awareness, and control-are quite difficult to teach to others. The result is often a disintegration of the art, whereby the student takes on the lower or more superficial forms of the original practices.  

Acupressure

Acupressure is an ancient Chinese healing method that involves applying pressure to certain meridian points on the body to relieve pain. The human body has fourteen "meridians" that carry energy throughout the body. These meridians start at the fingertips, connect to the brain, and then connect to the organ associated with the specific meridian. Acupressure deals with all the aspects of a person as a whole: body, emotions, mind, and spirit as one, not as separate parts. It relaxes muscular tension and balances the vital life forces of the body. Acupressure is an ancient Chinese healing method that involves applying pressure to certain meridian points on the body to relieve pain. The human body has fourteen "meridians" that carry energy throughout the body. These meridians start at the fingertips, connect to the brain, and then connect to the organ associated with the specific meridian. Acupressure deals with all the aspects of a person as a whole: body, emotions, mind, and spirit as one, not as separate parts. It relaxes muscular tension and balances the vital life forces of the body.

Acupuncture

Acupuncture literally means 'needle piercing," the practice of inserting very fine needles into the skin to stimulate specific anatomic points in the body (called acupoints) for therapeutic purposes. Along with the usual method of puncturing the skin with the fine needles, the practitioners also use heat, pressure, friction, suction, or impulses of electromagnetic energy to stimulate the points. The acupoints are stimulated to balance the movement of energy (qi) in the body to restore health. Acupuncture involves stimulating. In the past 40 years acupuncture has become a well-known, reasonably available treatment in developed and developing countries. Acupuncture is used to regulate or correct the flow of qi to restore health. To really understand how acupuncture works, it is necessary to become familiar with the basics of Chinese philosophy. The philosophies of the Dao or Tao, yin and yang, the eight principles, the three treasures and the five elements are all fundamental to traditional Chinese acupuncture and its specific role in helping to maintain good health and a person's well-being.

The Philosophy of the Dao

Dao is often described as "the path" or "the way of life." Just as its counterpart in ancient India, Ayurveda, The laws of the Dao advocate moderation, living in harmony with nature and striving for balance. Ancient Chinese believed that moderation in all areas of life is essential to a long and fruitful life. We are "fueled" by three treasures: Qi or Chi (pronounced chee), Shen, and Jing. Chi is energy or vital substance, Shen is the spirit, and Jing is our essence. Qi is both the life force (or vital substance) and the organizing principle flowing through all things and establishing their interconnectedness. Chinese believe that every living thing (both human and non-human) has qi. In the body, qi is found in the heart and lungs in circulating blood and oxygen. Shen is the treasure that gives brightness to life and is responsible for consciousness and mental abilities. Sometimes it is compared to soul. Within the individual shen is manifested in personality, thought, sensory perception, and the awareness of self. Jing is responsible for growth, development and reproduction. Jing represents a person's potential for development. (comparable to western concept of genetic inheritance). Chinese believed that everyone is born with a finite amount of Jing. As we go through life, we lose or consume our Jing little by little. Once we lose Jing, it cannot be replaced. It is gone for ever. We lose Jing if we live a wrong or careless living. But Jing can be preserved if we live in moderation. Acupuncture can reduce the loss of Jing. According to the philosophy of Dao, the role of the acupuncturist is to restore your health and enable you to live a little closer to the Dao, thus preserving your Jing and living to a ripe old age. A number of factors can contribute to the depletion of Jing. Living a life of excess, drinking too much, excessive emotional reactions, working too hard, inappropriate sexual behavior, etc. all were believed to result in the depletion of Jing. Balance in all things was considered the key to good health and long life. In order to increase their understanding of the Dao, the Chinese developed two concepts that together form the basis of Chinese thought Yin Yang and more detailed system of the five elements.

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