Questioning the Subconscious Mind

In October of 1993 my son was ten years old and struggling in school. Being concerned as to the cause of his problems we asked several other parents for advice. One friend recommended a new family counselor who had just become a certified stress management consultant. I had no idea what stress management was or if it could help with the problem.

The visit started out normally enough with some simple conversation between the counselor and our son. Being a typical ten year old, Mike did not have much to say but answered the questions cheerfully enough, usually with just a yes or no but mostly, "I don't know". Then the counselor turned to us and suggested that we try a new technique to find out what was really going on in Mike's subconscious mind.

Questioning the subconscious

"Mike, stand up here for a minute, will you please?" He did. "Now hold out your arm straight out in front of you like this," and demonstrated with the arm. Mike thought this was fun and had no problem following directions. "Now I want you to hold your arm straight and strong as I ask you some questions and try to pull down on your arm. I want you to keep your arm straight."

"Say, 'my name is Mike'." As Mike complied the counselor tried to push down on Mike's arm with a small amount of downward pressure. Mike held his arm strong and it did not go down. "Now say, 'I am wearing shoes'." Mike gave us a quizzical look but repeated the statement. Once again the counselor tried to push the arm down but it remained strong and did not move.

Muscle Response Testing

"Now say, 'I am doing well in school'." A big smile came across Mike's face and he shook his head from side to side as he repeated the statement. This time his arm was easily pushed down by the family counselor even though Mike tried to hold it strong. "Hey, wait a minute!" Mike exclaimed, "Try that again." He felt that his strength was being challenged.

So they went through the process again with a similar question. "I turn in my homework on time." Same results only this time Mike was paying close attention. So was I. The counselor explained, "You see, the body has an electrical energy field that momentarily loses a little bit of strength when an untruth is repeated. It's kind of like a built-in lie detector."

The family counselor then began to ask a series of questions that Mike would repeat while his arm strength was checked. Once I got over the initial shock of seeing Muscle Response Testing in action I began to focus on the questioning technique that was being employed. I thought it most unusual that the counselor was asking Mike about dates and places.

The root of the problem

Soon we got down to the root of the problem. When Mike was in Montessori school at a very young age (four or five) he had a teacher who was very set in her ways as to the way things were and the way she wanted her pupils to do things. Through Muscle Response Testing the family counselor determined that Mike took offense at her 'dogmatic' ways.

Now Mike had never heard that word before but that's the word on which he tested positive. This was after the time frame of the initial occurrence had been established through Muscle Response Testing. We now knew what the cause of the problem was within less than five minutes of testing and were able to deal with it appropriately (more on that later).

Can this really work?

I confess I was blown away. I had never seen anything like this before and could not believe what I was witnessing. Is it really possible to question the subconscious mind through Muscle Response Testing and get accurate answers? The counselor explained that everything we have ever experienced is stored in there somewhere. MRT just helps us access it and bring it out.

What do you think? Have you ever heard of the idea of questioning the subconscious mind? If you have experienced it, tell me about the first time you saw MRT in action.

A tribute to Donna McDermott

If you have visited a certified stress management consultant you may have read a little booklet with a blue cover and two white doves. The booklet describes the unique stress management technique that is the main subject of this blog. It was written by Donna L McDermott back in 1992 when she was running the Family Stress Management clinic in Phoenix Arizona.

I never met Donna but it was her booklet that got me over the initial skepticism that I felt the first time I was exposed to this technique. I don't know what your reaction was the first time you saw it practiced but I probably dropped my jaw in disbelief. I sat through the first session and then promptly asked for some documented evidence that what I had witnessed was for real. I was handed Donna's booklet.

A legacy left behind

Sadly, Donna passed away of cancer three years ago (in 2004) but she left an online legacy in an extensive interview posted on the IPTQ.com website. You can also read more of her story on the Chi-Lel website. Scroll down past the top two stories. I am amazed at her energy that she describes in another Chi-Lel story here. I don't know what Chi-Lel or gongs are but they appear to be some sort of demanding physical exercise that increases energy. Donna also contributed a wonderful story, "From the Heart of a Joyous Child" to the Choose Life website.

Donna was one of the first to be trained and become a Certified Stress Management Consultant. I am confident that she helped hundreds if not thousands of individuals find relief from the stress of life over the years that she practiced. If you knew Donna or were helped by her, please feel free to add some comments to this post so that others may honor her memory as well.

A lesson in what Stress Management is not

Bob Forston runs the Forston Institute for Success through Stress Management. He is the past president of the National Association of Certified Stress Management Consultants. You can read all about his other credentials on his 'About us' page. Although he has a PhD in Psychology, he makes it clear that "He is not a licensed physician, psychiatrist, psychologist, psychotherapist, or social worker." I guess that's because Stress Management is not recognized by the medical community as a valid profession.

It becomes even clearer upon reading this wording from his disclaimer, "The services in this website and any other media are not intended to replace the services of licensed physicians, neurologists, psychoanalysts, clinical psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, psychometrics, social workers, psychotherapists, chiropractors or other similar professionals. The Forston Institute does not provide medical or mental illness evaluations, diagnoses or prescriptions.

Continuing to quote from the disclaimer, "The coordination of verbal and nonverbal energy responses along with a protocol of stress and congruency questions are not the practice of medicine, psychiatry, psychology or chiropractic. Memory events are considered ‘Emotional Reality’ because these events may or may not correspond with actual or historic reality. Therefore no claim is made as to what may have happened in the past and what one must or should do in the future.”

False memories are an issue

Wow! One can learn a lot from this well-written disclaimer. To me it is evidence that Western Medicine (read the AMA) does not like what people like Bob do when practicing stress management. I wonder why that is? I especially like the wording about 'memory events'. I imagine this has to do with false memories that may come up when questioning the subconscious mind about past events. It would be awful if someone thought they had a repressed memory of sexual abuse that didn't really happen to them at all.

Is it possible that the memories discovered and revealed may not belong to the person that currently possesses or expresses them? I'm not suggesting past lives as I don't believe in reincarnation but I am suggesting that those memories could belong to someone else who put them in the subconscious of the person in whom they are discovered. Food for thought.

Energy Healing and Balancing through Kinesiology

Russ Stewart is a CSMC or Certified Stress Management Consultant practicing in Grants Pass Oregon. To quote from his page: "Since 1993 I have been practicing a combination of Energy Healing and Balancing, Kinesiology Techniques, Time-line Healing and Relationship Building." I know about Energy Healing and Balancing as well as Kinesiology Techniques but am a little unclear on what is Time-line Healing.

Time-Line Healing

Update: Russ emailed me this description of Time-line Healing: "About time line healing. I thought of using the term so that people would say what is that? In your blog you went on in other ways and described it very well. In questioning one's intelligence through muscle response testing we find stress, unresolved matters negatively affecting a persons life. The stress is having a present affect but from my experience the emotionally charged stress is usually connected to past events.

Russ continues, "In questioning the intelligence we often times notice a pattern of poor choices made by a client while under the inability to deal with the stress in their lives. The client's intelligence prioritizes their stress and clients recall events with time periods. We meet these mile markers as opportunities and teach forgiveness to relieve and manage the stress. The object is to help our clients take responsibility for their own happiness and wellness, and make forgiveness a way of life."

How it works

On the 'How it works' page he describes the stress evaluation process. He says, "In performing the stress evaluation, a series of yes/no questions are asked. The process is much like detective work. After a careful review of your situation and concerns, we will assist you in determining which kind of stresses you are experiencing, when the stresses occurred, who else is involved in the stress and what you need to do to relieve each stress."

Continuing to quote from his website, "If you haven't experienced the reaction of the muscle response testing to a correct answer and then to an incorrect answer, it would be hard for you to understand what I'm talking about. What it looks like is; you are lying in a comfortable reclined position with one of your arms raised above your head, elbow locked and fingers loose. I ask you a question requiring a yes or no response from you after which I push on your arm while you give a little resistance.

The subconscious knows

When a person answers a question contrary to what their intelligence or subconscious knows to be true, it affects the energy field which in turn reduces muscle strength causing the arm to weaken. The response is very obvious to the client and me. This appears to be the same principle upon which the polygraph machine registers physiological responses. The intelligence knows truth and it recognizes untruth, even when we do not consciously know the answer!

Clients are often surprised to discover the nature of the stress affecting them. What we think and what we feel can be exactly opposite. What we THINK and what our intelligence THINKS can be very different. What we THINK we feel and what we ACTUALLY feel are often very different." Russ has accurately described the same technique I have used for years to discover and eliminate hidden stress, including muscle response testing.

More on the questioning technique used to discover hidden stress in a future post.

Basic assumptions of ECC

In a previous post I briefly introduced Dr Brad May who developed a groundbreaking therapeutic technique to relieve emotional trauma and stress. I am convinced that the work of Dr. Brad May is legitimate, and produces measurable results. It appears to provide a quantum leap in the field of psychiatric therapy and healing.

I have studied Dr. May's work in great detail and highly recommend his method and technique as being of great value to society. I have learned and practiced his clearing technique on myself, family and friends to great benefit. Although I cannot fully explain how it works, I have been amazed with the results. Things that had bothered me for years simply disappeared in just a few moments.

I encourage anyone who is seeking to discover the roots of emotional distress and alleviate them to find a counselor who is trained in this unique technique and judge the results for themselves. It does little good for critics to jump to conclusions without experiencing the process to obtain a better understanding. Here are some some introductory notes from his seminar notebook published in 1998. I will not quote extensively from his book as it is copyrighted material.

Basic assumptions about muscle testing:

1. There is a deeper part of you.
2. It knows the truth
3. We can access it through muscle testing.
4. The answers we get will be accurate.

Basic assumptions about the clearing technique:

1. Emotional trauma is stored along the spinal column.
2. Such trauma can be gently and easily released.
3. People will feel lighter and freer as a result.
(Emotional issues will be healed or significantly alleviated.

The workbook has step-by-step instructions on what to ask to get to the top priority item, clear it and check for emotional support activity needed. It also contains many pages of resource material and explanations of various pre-clearing activities as well as details of the clearing technique itself. In addition, it contains a page enclosed in plastic that can be used as a guideline in conducting sessions.

Dr May has done the world a great service by documenting and publishing his discovery and clearing techniques and making them available on the internet. You can find all kinds of quacks and nutcases on the internet but Dr May's work is legitimate. His techniques can be self-taught and learned through the workbook and videos, which demonstrate clearly how to make it work.

What is Emotional Complex Clearing?

Simply put, ECC is the process of discovering and eliminating acquired or created trauma or stress stored somewhere in the human system. That system consists of the mind, body, spirit, intelligence, emotions, feelings, behaviors, or any other identifiable area that may store the negative energy. I am a self-taught practitioner of this technique which is documented and taught by Dr Brad May of Serenity Systems.

I first found Dr. May back in 1998 while doing an Internet search on kinesiology. I was intrigued by what I learned on his site about ‘Emotional Complex Clearing’. It seemed so similar to what I had learned from other practitioners of stress management a few years earlier. His technique seems to provide the same results of stress relief. I ordered his book, Muscle Testing Miracles and gave it a preliminary review.

Like many others, Dr. May also uses muscle testing to discover the roots of emotional distress. His clearing technique involves holding the forehead with one hand and gently stroking the spine with the index and middle finger on each side of the spinal cord. The premise is that emotional trauma is stored along the spinal column. He quotes Candace Pert, Molecules of Emotion, 1997, as a source of possible evidence for this. However, I believe he innovated the technique on his own and found support for it later.

I took his book with me on a vacation that year, read it thoroughly, and decided to get his video course. I’m glad I did. It was well worth the price. I highly recommend his video course on E.C.C. While the technique of clearing the past emotional traumas is different from what others have taught, his taped sessions clearly demonstrate that the results are indeed the same. The videos and accompanying workbook are both professional and easy to understand.

Dr. May demonstrates that he is comfortable with using muscle testing and competent in getting answers through this process. He works through a variety of traumas in the same manner a detective works through a case until the answer to the problem at hand is clearly revealed. He then effectively demonstrates the clearing technique with the evident emotional release. Dr. Brad May is a professional and his book, videos and accompanying workbook are first rate.

More to come in the next post on some basic assumptions of Dr May's technique.

Using muscle testing to access the subconscious

This essay is about Muscle Response Testing. Click on this link for a good introduction to accessing the subconscious mind.

Many practitioners of muscle response testing are chiropractors who learned how to use MRT from Dr Ted Morter. Bio Energetic Synchronization Technique or BEST is the technique he developed. It is used to identify and then remove interference caused by stored emotional patterns. The procedure allows the individual to consciously focus on certain feelings that have been stored in the brain as memory engrams. Through this procedure the sub-conscious portions of the brain can be accessed.

Once the specific emotion, recurring thought, stress or feeling has been identified, it can be 're-programmed' or eliminated. When the individual has eliminated the negative past stress, true healing can and will occur. The physical procedure is administered in the face-up position, utilizing the Arm Strength Check. However, many practitioners have evolved beyond the methods taught by Ted Morter and utilize a sitting or standing muscle response test. In fact, the preferable method for most individuals and practitioners seems to be the finger test.

Is this a legitimate health technique?

This is not something I'm making up. It has been around for at least twenty years of which I am aware. What this is describing is a way to identify and release stored emotional trauma using muscle response testing. For many people, it is the only way they have been able to find to truly heal themselves, because as we know, most doctors really don't heal. They just diagnose, prescribe medications or in cases where warranted, perform adjustments or surgical repairs. From personal experience I am convinced that there is more to true healing than the physical.

As I described in my last post, many practitioners have moved beyond and added to the techniques of whoever first taught them how to use muscle response testing to ask the body what it really needs to heal itself. A chiropractor's focus would be on the health of the skeletal frame of the body while a psychiatrist would focus on using MRT to find past emotional stress and trauma.

Disclaimer

I am not trained as either a chiropractor or a psychiatrist yet I use MRT any time I come across a situation in my life where I need to know what caused me to think, feel or act the way I did in a stressful situation. I have taught myself how to access my subconscious memory to discover and eliminate what is bugging me.

Can Muscle Response Testing really be used to access the subconscious mind? Read my story to learn why I believe it can.

Can intelligent people accept Muscle Testing?

So far I've introduced several holistic beliefs and practices that are not accepted by mainstream medicine. The first is probably the most common: chiropractic care. Second is the purported existence of human body energy fields which skeptics claim can not be scientifically proven (they may be right). Third is the reality and influence of negative entities or disembodied spirits upon us. This presupposes a belief in the existence of life after death and a believe that we have a spirit within our bodies, which really is the core of our essence.

Fourth is the concept of negative energy stored as memories somewhere in our bodies influencing our behavior and well-being today. I've alluded to the fifth and probably the most difficult one for some people to accept and that is muscle testing or more accurately muscle response testing. It is also known as kinesiology or applied kinesiology. This practice is probably the least known and yet the most ridiculed by the mainstream medical community, or at least by the self-appointed watchdogs of that community.

Muscle Response Testing

What is Muscle Response Testing? MRT is similar to the use of a polygraph machine or a lie detector. The concept is the same. You ask the individual a question and have them verbally respond. The tester then measures the ability of a muscle to remain strong while being subjected to an effort to move it against the will of the person being questioned. The individual can also be asked to make a statement as if it were true and then the muscle is tested for strength. It is usually practiced on one of the arms in which the individual being questioned can be either lying down, sitting or standing.

Muscle testing can also be practiced on the fingers of the individual as they make a circle with their thumb and any one of the other fingers on the hand. The tester attempts to pull the fingers apart after asking the question or having the individual make a statement. I think the practice was first attributed to Dr. George Goodheart, a chiropractor back in the 1960's. He may have been the first to discover that he could use the muscles to gather information from the body.

Your Body Doesn't Lie

The book which I have used the most to understand MRT and which is considered one of the fundamental books for any Holistic Medicine library is "Your Body Doesn't Lie," written by Dr. John Diamond, M.D. and published in 1979. He describes his use of MRT as 'Behavioral Kinesiology'. The book includes photos of muscle response testing being demonstrated. However, I have found that the best source to learn how to practice muscle response testing is from Dr. Brad May.

Dr May wrote 'Muscle Testing Miracles' in 1998 while practicing psychiatry and teaching in San Diego. He produced a video series in 1999 which demonstrates MRT in action both on the arm and using the fingers. He also teaches how you can use MRT on yourself and in fact, may be the only one who has documented this in a video format. I highly recommend his course. It was developed over many years as a counselor in several clinics in the San Diego area. His marketing company and website is called Serenity Systems and he calls his technique ECC - Emotional Complex Clearing. I have spoken with Dr May about his techniques and have used his training material extensively.

What do you think? Can otherwise intelligent people really believe in muscle testing?

What do feelings have to do with health?

Another great book that introduces some amazing concepts in holistic healing and especially in finding hidden emotional trauma or stress is "Feelings Buried Alive Never Die," by Karol Kuhn Truman. It was published in 1991 and had sold over 100,000 copies in less than ten years of low-key marketing. It is now sold by many more distributors and resellers including most of the major outlets. She also wrote a follow-up book entitled 'Healing Feelings...From Your Heart" in 2000.

Her first book is unique in that it builds upon the idea that feelings and even thoughts have energy and are stored in our bodies at the cellular level. Feelings, especially traumatic or stressful ones are associated with memories and those feelings are stored right along with those memories for later access. That's why when we remember an event or experience a similar event, we often experience the same feelings associated with the original. Unfortunately, we cannot always remember events and wonder why we feel a certain way when we are in a similar situation.

That is the premise of the book. It's not rocket science and yet it is profound. You see, it explains why we sometimes act the way we do or feel the way we do when we encounter just about anything that brings up those original stressful feelings from the first event. The author proposes that until those original negative feelings are resolved then we will continue to experience discomfort and a general feeling of unease that nags at us and demands our attention.

Sometimes those unresolved memories are just below our conscious thought level but many times they pop up into our minds in quiet moments wanting our attention and asking for resolution. We want to be at peace and want to feel that all is well, but until these feelings are resolved our energies cannot be fully given to the things we are trying to do with our lives. I don't think this is a foreign concept and most people in life have experienced it and are familiar with the idea. We may try to push them away but eventually we must face them and decide what we are going to do with them. But what if we can't remember the original problem?

That's where Karol Truman's book really shines. She offers what she calls "The Script," a tool to discover and resolve these hidden feelings that have been buried alive and won't die. The script is based on the idea that our intelligence or sub-conscious remembers and knows everything that concerns us as individuals. We do not have to be hypnotized to access it. The information is there and the script brings it out. She teaches that you do not need to know when or where the original event came from because your sub-conscious or intelligence already knows.

The purpose of the script is to change the negative energy vibrations associated with the original event into positive energy. The author claims that by using the script many thousands of people have been helped to be free from therapy and have made exceptional emotional growth and development. She also states that the script has assisted people in removing the beliefs that blocked them and kept them from attaining their goals.

I won't reveal the script here. You will need to buy her book to discover that for yourself. I will tell you that I have used her script for many years and I know from personal experience that it works. After introducing and explaining the script and how to use it she does her readers a great service by providing a detailed list of feelings that can be used as a checklist for discovery. In addition, she has compiled and provided another list, evolved through many years as a counselor, of probable feelings that cause illness.

Again, we're talking holistic healing here. That's the purpose of what this blog is all about. This list is probably not something that a medical doctor would endorse or approve. Nevertheless, I have discovered though self-application that her list is almost always accurate. I have used it many times on myself, my family and some close friends to discover the real and hidden source of stress and emotional pain in our lives. Once discovered, the script was used to resolve and clear them up.

Two final notes on what this great book has done for me: First it introduced me to the concept of muscle response testing as a tool to use for identifying the feelings. I will not get into that here as I anticipate there will be many future blog entries about that. There are many thousands of people who use this tool and know of its effectiveness. There are also many vocal opponents to its use who will tell you that you are crazy if you believe it works (see Quackwatch). Second the book provided the key to making the script work.

I'm not sure why Karol was so low key about the real reason the script works and why she did not elaborate on it as much as I think she should have. The key is forgiveness. It is through forgiveness that the negative feelings are released and resolved. It is through forgiveness that the bad memory associations are broken and the memories no longer hold the terror or fear that they once held. It is through forgiveness that we are able to go forward in our lives without being held back by bad feelings. Yes, forgiveness, especially for oneself is the real key to happiness in this life.

Addictions and disembodied spirits

Read this post first. When we left George Ritchie he was watching in astonishment as the cocoon of light that surrounded one of the mortals he saw in his journey crack and open up as he passed out drunk. The protective shield peeled away from his head and his shoulders.

Continuing with the narrative on page 60-61 of the book, Return From Tomorrow, we read: "Instantly, quicker than I'd ever seen anyone move, one of the insubstantial beings who had been standing near him at the bar was on top of him. He had been hovering like a thirsty shadow at the sailor's side, greedily following every swallow the young man made. Now he seemed to spring at him like a beast of prey." What in the world is he describing?

"In the next instant, to my utter mystification, the springing figure had vanished. It all happened even before the two men had dragged their unconscious load from under the feet of those at the bar. One minute I'd distinctly seen two individuals. By the time they propped the sailor against the wall, there was only one. Twice more, as I stared, stupefied, the identical scene was repeated. A man passed out, a crack swiftly opened in the aureole round him, one of the non-solid people vanished as he hurled himself at that opening, almost as if he had scrambled inside the other man." Was this man somehow being momentarily possessed by a disembodied spirit?

"Was that covering of light some kind of shield, then? Was it a protection against...against disembodied beings like myself? Presumably these substance-less creatures had once had solid bodies, as I myself had had. Suppose that when they had been in these bodies they had developed a dependence on alcohol that went beyond the physical. That became mental. Spiritual, even. Then when they lost that body, except when they could briefly take possession of another one, they would be cut off for all eternity from the one thing they could never stop craving." Or at least not until they were healed sometime in the future.

In my opinion, what George Ritchie is describing is the act of being possessed, if only for a limited period of time, by another spirit being. There can be no other explanation. What do you think is the significance of what he witnessed? It's a fantastic claim, there can be no doubt about that. How do you suppose this momentary possession would have affected the man?

And who is to say how long that possession would have lasted? Could the other being have continued with him for a period of time that extended into days, weeks, months or even years? Have not alcoholics described their condition as being tormented by devils and demons? Could this not be an explanation for addiction and a feeling of being out of control, if only for a time?

Some who read this dismiss it immediately as utter nonsense. They may say such things as, "There is no such thing as a disembodied spirit being, let alone being possessed by such. George Ritchie made the whole thing up. He simply has a very fertile imagination." Maybe. Maybe not. Has anyone ever interviewed George Ritchie and asked some hard questions?

Dr. Raymond Moody, author of Life After Life has interviewed George Ritchie and asked many of those questions. He has interviewed hundreds of people who claimed to have died and then were brought back to life. He called Dr Ritchie's account, "one of the three or four most fantastic and well-documented dying experiences known to me." He said Dr. Ritchie's story was 'startling' and yet remarkably similar to what hundreds and hundreds of others have described.

So what do you think? Is is really possible that what George Ritchie saw and described can really happen? Can a disembodied spirit enter into the body of a mortal even if just for a little while? And if they can, what kind of an effect do they have on that mortal? Is it possible that there may be an influence left behind when they leave? Do some never leave?

Quackwatch and human body energy fields

Before I continue my commentary on some of the amazing things in Dr Ritchie's book, I must point out that the idea of energy fields in the human body is strongly disputed by some medical doctors, and one in particular who has been very vocal or verbose about the subject. If you have not heard of the website Quackwatch by now you should take the time to investigate it for yourself. Dr. Stephen Barrett has done the world a great service by exposing many misleading or ineffective health-related products and services as frauds, myths, fallacies and misconduct.

Unfortunately, Dr. Barrett is very closed minded when it comes to anything not a part of traditional Western medicine. He relies mostly on negative research to criticize alternative medicine, rejecting most positive case studies as unreliable. He insists that most alternative therapies simply should be disregarded without further research. "A lot of things don't need to be tested [because] they simply don't make any sense." They may not make sense to him, but they obviously do to somebody who came up with the idea.

If you search Quackwatch today you can find dozens of references to 'energy fields' in various articles. Unfortunately, they are all negative. He is especially critical of Therapeutic Touch, a method in which the hands are used to "direct human energies to help or heal someone who is ill." Practitioners of TT (and there are many thousands) claim that the patient's "energy field" can be detected and intentionally manipulated by the therapist. They theorize that healing results from a transfer of "excess energy" from healer to patient.

Being a religious man, I must make reference to the Biblical practice of the laying on of hands to heal the sick, but I also believe that the practice is limited to those who are authorized of God. Are some people gifted to be able to sense the energy fields in the body? I believe so, but that's just my opinion. That's why I am pursuing holistic healing in this blog. I simply don't want to limit my opportunities to be healed by what some medical doctor has said is the *only* way to be healed.

Does the human body have energy fields?

One of my favorite books on the subject of Near-Death Experiences (NDEs) is 'Return from Tomorrow' by George Ritchie. I first read it in 1993 after being introduced to it by a friend. It was written and published in 1978. Dr Ritchie is a retired psychiatrist who had a remarkable experience when he was a 20-year-old private during WWII in 1943. He died while in an army hospital.

Nine minutes later he returned to life. What happened during those nine minutes is the subject of the book. I have known people who have died and been resuscitated. None of them have claimed any memories of what happened to them during their near-death experiences. Dr. Ritchie's NDE is not unique but it is one of the most profound, complete and telling experiences ever related and documented.

Did George Ritchie really die? I don't know but I loved his book. Now admittedly he had help crafting it. Elizabeth Sherrill is a best-selling Christian author who wrote the Hiding Place which is the story of Corrie Ten Boom and the Cross and the Switchblade. The story is compellingly told and is an easy one-evening read at 124 pages. I was fascinated from the beginning and could not put it down.

I have reread it several times and refer to it often to refresh my memory of some of the sections that contain unique insights into things that he saw on his journey that I have found nowhere else in literature. Some have dismissed the book as fiction, and others as fantasy but I am compelled to believe Dr Ritchie's story although some of his interpretations of the events that happened to him may be open to question.

I'll just share one point from the book that introduces a theme of future discussion for this blog. On page 59 of the paperback edition Dr Ritchie is relating some of the early scenes of his journey while out of his body. He is observing some differences in the beings that he is seeing before him: "Gradually I began to notice something else.

"All of the living people we were watching were surrounded by a faint luminous glow, almost like an electrical field over the surface of their bodies. This luminosity moved as they moved, like a second skin made out of pale, scarcely visible light." In the next scene of his journey he finds himself inside a dingy bar and grill near a naval base observing men standing at a bar drinking and relates what he sees.

"Then I noticed a striking thing. A number of the men standing at the bar seemed unable to lift their drinks to their lips. Over and over I watched them clutch at their shot glasses, hands passing through the solid tumblers, through the heavy wooden counter top, through the very arms and bodies of the drinkers around them. And these men, every one of them, lacked the aureole of light that surrounded the others." He concluded that the cocoon of light that he saw must be a property of physical bodies only. Then he relates something very interesting.

"I watched one young sailor rise unsteadily from the stool, take two or three steps, and sag heavily to the floor. Two of his buddies stooped down and started dragging him away from the crush [of drinkers at the bar]. But that is not what I was looking at. I was staring in amazement as the bright cocoon around the unconscious sailor simply opened up.

"It parted at the very crown of his head and began peeling away from his head, his shoulders." What is this cocoon that Dr Ritchie is describing? Do you conclude as I do that it is some sort of protection or shield that is given to all mortals? Perhaps it is some sort of electrical energy that many have claimed to have discovered and documented over the years - the energy fields of the body.

What do you think - does the human body have energy fields and if so, can it be scientifically proven? If you can, James Randi will give you a million dollars. I doubt that anybody will ever be able to prove that the human body has energy fields. I also doubt that anybody will ever be able to prove that there is a spirit within the human body. Not being able to prove something scientifically may stop others from believeing it but I choose to believe. Of course, I'm very careful about what I choose to believe.

See this next essay for a continuation of this discussion.

Let the journey begin

I've been on a journey of discovery into holistic healing for many years. As I define it, holistic healing is the process of healing all areas of our being: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. Like many others, I appreciate Western Medicine, especially in emergency care situations. But I have seen its limits and drawbacks both in my life and in the lives of those around me whom I love. I was first introduced to alternative healing methods shortly after I married. It all started when I experienced a painful back injury while in Chicago on a business trip.

I picked up my suitcase, slung it over my shoulder and ran to catch a train to downtown. The suitcase has heavy and swung around to the opposite side of my body as I ran throwing me off balance. Suddenly, I felt a terrible wrenching pain in my back. It was so sharp that for a few seconds I couldn't breathe. The agonizing pain and discomfort lasted for several days and would not go away. I saw a doctor immediately upon returning from the business trip. He said there was nothing he could do and sent me home with the suggestion of alternating between cold and warm compresses and taking over-the-counter pain relief medication like aspirin or Tylenol.

Seeing my extreme discomfort, my wife suggested that I go see her chiropractor. I had never been to a chiropractor before but was ready to try anything at this point. Although skeptical at first, the relief was immediate and this chiropractor did not require me to return for endless treatment. I was so grateful that over the next several days I mentioned how I had been helped by a chiropractor to many people who knew about the problem I had experienced on my business trip. I was surprised at the reaction of some. They proceeded to tell me that I had done a bad thing and that there was no way that chiropractic care could do me any good.

I could not believe their reaction, especially from some in my immediate family. "Wait a minute," I thought, "I was feeling better and hoped that you would be happy for me. And please don't try to tell me how I feel. I know that I feel relief and you can't tell me otherwise." I later realized that the problem was that this person had never experienced chiropractic care for herself and therefore was basing her opinion of it on what she had heard or read from others. I came to discover that this response is typical from some people anytime I tried to tell them about some new method of healing I had discovered as the years went by.

In this blog I hope to share some things I have discovered over the years about healing, especially in the area of hidden emotional trauma. I hope that what I have to share will be helpful to some. I am confident that some of the things I will share are unique, things that I have discovered to be effective and powerful but have told very few people, for the very reason mentioned in the previous paragraph. I expect disbelief, criticism and even attacks to surface once I get into some of those methods and practices as I describe them in detail. Or not. Maybe nobody will ever discover or read my blog or maybe they will find it boring and uninteresting. We shall see. Thanks for stopping by.