Mastering Your Mindset: Health, Healing, and Disease 002

Coach Chuck

4 years ago

by Charles Barnard

Image of happy girl looking into gift box and wondering

Over the past couple of decades or so, we have learned much more about the mind-body connection. The new understandings are helping change how we treat and respond to disease and how we go about preventing disease. Twenty-eight years ago when I became certified as a Master Practitioner in Time Line TherapyÒ I saw the potential for its use. My trainer, Dr. Tad James who is the originator of these techniques, has used these techniques as a therapist and to assist in people in their struggle with disease. I have used them primarily to assist in learning and athletic performance. Many of the concepts were new at the time.

What follows is not without controversy even after nearly three decades of use by therapists around the world. This article may change your beliefs about your mind and your body. This change in our belief systems is necessary if we are truly going to master our growth mindset around health and healing.

The Mind and Quantum Biology

Deepak Chopra’s writings found their way into the mainstream health movement back in the 1990s. He has written several books on health and spirituality. Chopra was one of the new breed of healthcare practitioners who began reframing how we understood the mind and the body. Chopra had the credentials that were needed to allow this shift of beliefs to take root.

At the time of his early writings he was an endocrinologist, and the former chief of staff of the New England Memorial Hospital in Stoneham, Massachusetts. He claims the title of a quantum biologist, which means he applies the theories of quantum physics to biology. He states that the body is a quantum mechanical device, and that it is subject to the laws of quantum physics and not Newtonian physics. Quantum physics is the study of matter and energy at the most fundamental level – the level of atoms, electrons, photons and quarks.

Chopra wrote in Quantum Healing, about how often the body renews itself at the cellular level. Chopra estimated that in roughly one year approximately 98% of our cells are new. According to these estimates, you have a brand new stomach lining every 4 days, new skin every 30 days, a new liver in 6 weeks, even the skeleton is replaced every three months. Given this, we need to ask important questions. Why do injured or diseased cells regenerate themselves as injured or diseased? Could it be that the answer lies in perhaps a more important notion of quantum biology which is consciousness is not localized to any one place? Could it be that the core information in these cells has changed or maybe the communication network between or within cells is being interfered with?

The discovery of neuropeptides indicates that what we commonly thought of as consciousness does not just reside in the brain. The idea is that consciousness resides in the mind and the mind permeates the entire biological system. With neuropeptides, we know that every time you have a thought or a feeling, a desire, an instinct, or a drive, each of these affects our nervous system by means of specific messenger molecules – neuropeptides. Science once believed the nervous and immune systems were two separate systems. Recently, it has been determined that these two systems are linked through a strong bidirectional connection.[1]

When the scientists began looking at t-cells and other cells in the immune system that protect us from cancer and infection, they found neuropeptide receptors. Knowing this led Chopra to state, “The immune system is constantly eavesdropping on our internal dialog.” According to the NLP communication model, our immune system will respond to the internal representations we make in our mind which are influenced by deletions, distortions, and generalizations. Our immune system will react to what we think but what we think is not reality.

Since the unconscious mind controls the systems of the body, it is also the connection between the conscious mind and the immune system. One of the major presuppositions of Time Line Therapy®, NLP, and Hypnosis is the unconscious mind can communicate with any part of the body at any time. It appears that these neuropeptides are one of the biological mechanisms used in this communication.

The conscious mind is the primary domain of rational thinking while the unconscious mind is the domain of ideas, dreams, and communication between systems. There are two other minds found in humans: intuitive thinking, and emotional thinking. The rational mind is the “thinking” mind or the “brain” mind. Intuitive thinking may not be centered in the brain at all. Metaphorically we often use “gut instincts” to describe this type of thinking and science indeed has discovered the “second brain” in our gastrointestinal system. Personally, I believe this level of thinking is directly connected to communication that is spiritual in nature and based on spiritual concepts and truths. There is one other metaphorical level of thinking and unconsciousness and that is the heart. Our heart can ache because of emotions and emotions are primarily in the realm of the unconscious and spiritual. The unconscious mind then controls the body in part by listening to your rational mind, emotional mind (heart), and intuitive mind (gut instincts).

Every internal representation you have, your emotions, your attitude, is monitored by your immune system. Your immune system reacts to the messages you unconsciously send it! Ruminating has very high correlation to depression. Our thinking influences how our body systems perform. It should not be hard to see how cancer and other diseases can be triggered by emotional events.

Knowing this we should be very interested in understanding how negative emotions may get trapped in the body and why releasing all of a person’s negative emotions using Time Line Therapy® techniques can be so profound on so many different levels.

Significant Emotional Experiences and Disease

Another major theory of the Time Line Therapy® training I went through with Dr. Tad James, the creator of the techniques, is that many psychological and physical “dis-eases” are directly connected to a negative significant emotional experience (SEE) which would be stored in the persons memory and physically somewhere in the body. If the experience is negative and the intensity strong enough, the SEE could be the source of some emotional, psychological, or even physical disease occurring in the body.

The term SEE originates from the work of sociologist Dr. Morris Massey, in his book The People Puzzle. Dr. James describes it this way. “First event means the very first time that an experience happens, or the root cause of a first event occurring (this is also called root cause). Significant emotional experience is any major, fully associated, highly charged emotional event wherever it occurs. Emotional chain is the process that the unconscious mind uses to connect experiences of a similar nature.” (The term used in Time Line Therapy and The Basis of Personality [1988, Tad James, M.S., Ph.D.] is gestalt which means a collection of memories around a certain subject.)

Adding to this idea, the work of Dr. Paul Goodwin, a neural physicist at Alaska Pacific University, indicates that these trapped negative emotions that have not been released may create what amounts to a block of the flow of information within or between our biological systems. It may act as a “computer virus” to our biological communication systems. To add to that, there is biblical (and other spiritual) evidence that there is a purpose to storing of these SEEs. In the book of Job chapter 14:17 it is written, “My transgression is sealed up in a bag…” If you read the commentaries the general idea they present is that the passage “express[es] the carefulness with which God treasures up a man’s sins lest any of them should be lost, in order to visit the full tale of them upon him.” [Emphasis mine.]

I have a slightly different perspective. While the SEE may well be a “sin” and the guilt that comes with it, it may not have anything to do with our “sin” but simply has to do with storing this emotion in the moment because you are not ready to understand the lesson that needs to be learned. If we had the fellowship with God that he desires us to have with him, we would then commune with him when we are confronted with that memory in the future (“visit the full tale of them upon him”) and we would learn from it and let it go. We would turn it over to him. We would release it from our mind and body. In our broken relationship, we don’t know how to “turn it over to God” and we often hold onto the emotion and create a whole gestalt of these emotions.

Releasing the emotions from our memory, opening the “bag” and dealing with the lessons, theoretically opens of the neural pathways and allows proper communication and functioning of the body’s systems. Time-Line Therapy® techniques provides a psychological process for doing that. From a spiritual and theological standpoint the danger of this is the possibility of removing God from the process and focusing solely on the idea that it is a psychological process, which would maintain the broken relationship with him. If the reason all of this was created in the first place was so we humans would learn to commune with and recognize God’s sovereignty in all matters, we would be missing out on the ultimate source of all healing power and living a truly joyful life.

If you recall a specific bad memory and you can still feel the emotion in your body, get a physical response no matter how mild, [Warning: Do not try this with memories which contain trauma or phobia.] then you still have the emotion stored. If you simply know you had the emotion, but do not feel the emotion, you have dealt with it and let it go. The trapped negative emotion that you can feel – no matter how mildly – is the basis for the creation of disease in the body.

When I coach people in our Peak Performance Program, whether it is an athlete or a student, or professional, getting rid of stored negative emotions is essential. Besides your health, ridding you mind of these stored negative emotions, along with limiting decisions and beliefs, is essential for performing consistently at your best. For example, imagine a salesperson, who wants to make more money and achieve more recognition. The salesperson is well trained, knows how to sell, and has the motivation to succeed. Now, imagine that every time this person goes to close the sale, fear comes up. That salesperson is not going to perform at their best and get their best closing percentage.

Imagine a student who feels frustration at the first sign of a challenge. He or she will not perform up to his or her full capability with that frustration regularly popping up.

Imagine an athlete who worries about letting people down. They will perform better without that emotion of worry.

Some people have claimed the negative emotion is what motivates them, but in my experience it is not the negative emotion that is motivating them. In fact, they have reframed that negative emotion of fear, or worry and turned it into a new emotion such as determination. It is no longer the original emotion.

Likely but not necessarily, the creation of a disease entails more trapped negative emotions or more intense negative emotions than the previous examples. The mind-body process is the same–the unconscious mind puts into its “bag” memories with unresolved negative emotions. The health and well-being of the conscious mind in that moment necessitates this. The emotions that are put in the “bag” become stored physically in the body and aren’t released.

The Controversial Ryke Geerd Hamer

A highly controversial German medical doctor Ryke Geerd Hamer believed there were five medical laws which he applied in treating cancer patients. Hamer was imprisoned after refusing to stop practicing medicine after having his license revoked because of his use of these controversial ideas. At least two of Hamer’s laws, however, “the psychosomatic ‘iron law of cancer’ (Hamer’s first ‘law’) and the principle of pathogenesis being reversed into salutogenesis (Hamer’s second ‘law’), are well established principles of holistic medicine today.”[2] The first law essentially lays the claim that all cancer forms arise from a significant emotion experience.[3]

Hamer’s second law, “Every Disease has a Pathogenetic and Salutogenetic Phase,” simply says that the process of getting a disease (pathogenesis) needs to be reversed by “focusing on factors that support human health and well-being, rather than on factors that cause disease.” In other words, salutogenetic phase is a healing phase that is concerned with the relationship between health, stress, and coping.

Hamer’s third law, “Cancer Development Follows a Simple System of Symbolic Transformation from Psyche to Brain and the Organs of the Body” has interesting, if not yet well established ideas. The idea that cancer begins in the mind or psyche, moves to the brain, and then the organs of the body is not the controversial part. The idea that there is a “simple system of symbolic transformation” is not scientifically well established though there is anecdotal evidence [Healing Cancer with NLP and Time Line Therapy^TM Techniques Copyright © 1996, 2002, Tad James, M.S., Ph.D.]

Hamer’s fourth and fifth laws, “Bacteria and Virus are Controlled by the Body and Help the Body in the Process of Healing” and “All Diseases are Rational and for the Benefit of the Patients” are the least supported in literature.

If we assume the first two laws of Hamer as valid and even the third law’s idea that cancer begins in the psyche, manifests itself in the brain, and then the body as valid, we can theorize that the releasing of negative emotions as well as limiting beliefs and decisions from the mind and body would improve physical health while also having the potential to improve the mental and emotional health of the person.

According to Hammer the SEE that triggers the onset of the cancer usually occurs on the average [emphasis mine] of one to three years prior to the onset of the first symptoms of cancer. The theory is that when the SEE occurs it begins in the mind and then the emotions that are created from the representations we have made in our mind become trapped in a certain spot in the brain, and the way Hammer described it, a “short circuit” happens. Hamer has even related the spot in the brain, with the tumor location in the body, with the type of trauma which caused it.

According to Hammer, when a major SEE like this occurs, there is a physical manifestation of this in the brain which causes the brain to begin sending wrong information to a certain part of the body, and then a cancer growth starts in that area. The nature of the SEE determines the area of the brain, and the type of cancer. The SEE also impacts the rate of growth of the cancer. Once the SEE is released, there is an immediate edema, or swelling caused by excess fluid trapped in your body’s tissues, that occurs where the negative emotions were “bagged”. The edema can be seen on a CT-Scan.

Apparently, once the edema occurs, the cancer growth stops, and healing begins. A skilled MD can see the edema on the CT-Scan, and know about the area of the brain and, therefore, the type of cancer. It is typical for us to forget about our conflicts and SEE’s (we store them in the “bag”), so we do not tend to pay attention to that aspect of the healing process. A CT-Scan would show these areas as “old stroke” areas.

Based on what we have learned about molecular and quantum biology as well as psychology it becomes even more clear that your mindset regarding maintaining health, and healing disease is vital. If you are about to embark on typical cancer treatment plan wouldn’t it behoove you to optimize the body’s ability to communicate internally between systems? I think so.

Hamer’s theories would explain why some people who have certain lifestyles that are highly correlated to cancer don’t get cancer. These people may lack the trauma that “causes” the cancer. It is also important to understand that according to this research it is not an old trauma but it is a more recent trauma that triggers the onset of cancer. Having said that, from the theories of TLT we need to understand that the first event begins a chain of events of which the final SEE that triggers the cancer is connected to. It is the more recent SEE that will create a lesion in the brain, but it may require the previous chain of emotions to get its power from. Hamer has observed in his research that even an imagined SEE is sufficient to bring back a relapse of the cancer symptoms. Tad James’s experience is that the recurrence of the cancer can be prevented if the first event is also released, and cleared.

It is important to note that, according to Hamer, an apparently small or inconsequential SEE can be enough to start or restart cancer symptoms. The SEE can be as “innocent” as the loss of a pet, a financial stressor such as stock market losses, being laid off or fired, or even listening to work place gossip or griping. From TLT, we would argue that for any of these events to trigger the onset of cancer would depend on your own personal history, and whether there is a chain or gestalt of emotions present for the SEE to connect to.

As far as lifestyle choices and carcinogens are concerned, these choices and carcinogens we bring into our bodies do play a role in the communication of the immune system, but according to the previous research it isn’t until the SEE occurs in the brain that all the ingredients are in play for cancer to develop.

Personally, I believe that many lifestyle choices are actually habits that are created to deal with negative emotions and over time the body has stored up more “bags” than the system can handle and a SEE occurs which triggers the onset of cancer. The idea a SEE is needed to trigger the growth of cancer would validate why someone with a typically healthy lifestyle may still develop cancer or conversely, why a person with a typically unhealthy lifestyle does not develop cancer.

The metastasizing of cancer can also be explain with this notion of a SEE triggering cancer. Hamer says that the metastasizing of the cancer is actually a result of a new SEE. When a patient learns they have Cancer a patient may become terrified creating a new SEE. In this example the fear causes lymph cancer, and the fear of death will start lung cancer (two of the major places to where cancer is “known” to metastasize).

Imagine a person who as a SEE associated with a relationship issue and the resolution of that may trigger a SEE associated with being a failure or loneliness or any number of other SEEs which could trigger another location for cancer.

In another scenario, a patient undergoes surgery, and feels a lack of self-worth. If it is the reproductive system that is operated on, the patient may feel like less of a man or woman, and may say – another SEE, another cancer. The process is not the spreading of cancer, it is the spreading of SEE’s.

Application of these principles in Creating a Mindset of Healing.

There are two main stages in the process of cancer:

Stage one can be referred to as the “Dis-ease Phase.” In this phase, a SEE has occurred and the client has not adequately dealt with the SEE or is even aware that the unconscious mind made a SEE. The primary emotion became trapped in an area of the brain, the brain began to send wrong signals to the area of the body, and cancer growth began to occur in a corresponding area of the body. There are physical symptoms such as the patient feeling uncomfortable, tense, sometimes sleepless, often with cold hands and feet associated with this phase. Dr. James says this, “This indicates activity of the sympathetic nervous system. (The sympathetic nervous system is the system that we use in thinking, planning, action, etc.) A healthy person can switch from the sympathetic to the parasympathetic nervous system at will. During the Dis-ease Phase the client is in the sympathetic system only.”

The second phase is the healing phase. During this phase negative emotions are released, conflict is resolved, an edema occurs, and the tumor stops growing. In this phase, the client immediately switches to the parasympathetic system. A typical result is that the client will feel more relaxed, tired, and will need more sleep and want to eat more.

“My experience with clients leads me to say that you can tell which phase a client is in. “Marlene” had several bouts with cancer before she came to me. (In fact the Medical Doctor who referred her to me said that he had little hope for her.) The first session, Marlene could barely walk into the room. Marlene looked gray; she could not hold her head upright for more than a minute or two; and she spoke so softly that I had to strain to hear her.

“The first assault of this dis-ease was in August 1984 with breast cancer. The first tip-off was a lump in the right breast in 1983. Between 1984 and 1990, she had cancer in the mid-back, hip, right shoulder, back, pelvic area, left shoulder, neck, and liver. She had surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy in the process of treating all these cancers. Of course, by the time I met her she was very weak, and as I mentioned, she looked gray.

“In taking her history, I found that she was suffering or had suffered all her life from a number of negative emotions including depression, sadness, fear, guilt, anger, hate, anxiety, hurt feeling, pain, low self-esteem, and jealousy. So I asked her what had happened one to three years prior to the lump in 1983. She gasped and said that in 1980, she and her husband had first met, and had gotten together. In 1981, in spite of a number of fears and misgivings, and even though he was extremely aggressive, she had married the man. He had then systematically cut her off from all her friends and family.

“During the first intervention, we released all of her negative emotions including depression, sadness, fear, guilt, anger, hate, anxiety, hurt feeling, pain, low self- esteem, and jealousy. In addition, we cleared her decision to have the lump in the right breast, and any subsequent choices for less than perfect health.

“During the intervention her hands became hot. She felt tired, sleepy, and extremely hungry. That night she had the best night’s sleep she had in five years. During the therapy, she shifted over from the Dis-ease Phase to the Healing Phase. The next day she came in alert, smiling, and all trace of the gray had disappeared.”

Healing can be uncomfortable. We all have experienced that with itchy scabs or other minor irritations from a healing wound. Healing cancerous cells may magnify that discomfort. The longer the cancer has been growing the greater the chance the client will not be totally comfortable during the Healing Phase.

During the Healing Phase, the client needs to be comfortable. The Healing Phase ideally should have a minimum of stress on the client. While healing, get away from it all, take a nap each time you yawn, exercise daily, and eat and drink moderately. Above all, no responsibilities except healing. This becomes increasing difficult with the traditional medical route, but the principle is the same. A minimum mental and emotional stress is needed because the body will be under stress from the traditional treatment.

In my ideal world, the use of TLT would be done prior to the beginning of whatever medical treatment the doctor and patient have decided on, but it can be done at any time.

Tad James says that “we have had results that now prove the theories we have been using in the processes of healing various symptoms that produce the illusion of dis-ease.”

How are my wife, Donna, and I going to handle this as part of developing a mindset of healing?

Action step 1: Donna and I will be doing a detailed history to determine what events may have triggered the cancer. With that information we will do a clearing of any unresolved negative emotions we have discovered as well as limiting decisions and beliefs. Once we know where the cancer originated we can look at the emotions we discovered and compare it to Dr. Hamer’s chart to see how they align. That should begin the healing phase.

Action Step 2: Regular daily prayer, individually and corporately (family). A particular emphasis on being “in the spirit” during this time of worship and prayer – not just reciting words. In my research, this state seems to be deeply connected to our breathing – slow , relaxed, yet controlled.

Action step 3: Begin whatever the doctor recommended plan of action is.

Action step 4: Begin building step by step lifestyle habits for healthy living with an emphasis on stress management habits.

[1] Ganea, Doina. “Neuropeptides: active participants in regulation of immune responses in the CNS and periphery.” Brain, behavior, and immunity vol. 22,1 (2008): 33-4. doi:10.1016/j.bbi.2007.06.014

[2] Ventegodt, S., Andersen, N.J., and Merrick, J. (2005) Rationality and irrationality in Ryke Geerd Hamer’s System for holistic treatment of metastatic cancer. TheScientificWorldJOURNAL 5, 93–102.

[3] Hamer, R.G. (2001) Kreft – Gåten som ikke fines. Amici di Kirk Verlagsgesellschaft für medizinische Schr., Ediciones de la Nueva Medicina S.L., E-Fuengirola, Spain. [Norwegian], page 12.

Mastering Your Mindset: Health, Healing, and Disease 002

The Mind and Quantum Biology

The unconscious mind is the primary domain of rational thinking, intuitive thinking, and emotional thinking. The rational mind is the “thinking” mind or the “brain” mind. Intuitive thinking may not be centered in the brain at all. Metaphorically we often use “gut instincts” to describe this type of thinking and science indeed has discovered the “second brain” in our gastrointestinal system. Personally, I believe this level of thinking is directly connected to communication that is spiritual in nature and based on spiritual concepts and truths. There is one other metaphorical level of thinking and unconsciousness and that is the heart. Our heart can ache because of emotions and emotions are primarily in the realm of the unconscious and spiritual. The unconscious mind then controls the body in part by listening to your rational mind, emotional mind (heart), and intuitive mind (gut instincts).

Significant Emotional Experiences and Disease

Adding to this idea, the work of Dr. Paul Goodwin, a neural physicist at Alaska Pacific University, indicates that these trapped negative emotions that have not been released may create what amounts to a block of the flow of information within or between our biological systems. It may be act as a “computer virus” to our biological communication systems. To add to that, there is biblical (and other spiritual) evidence that there is a purpose to storing of these SEEs. In the book of Job chapter 14:17 it is written, My transgression is sealed up in a bag…” If you read the commentaries the general idea they present is that the passage “express[es] the carefulness with which God treasures up a man’s sins lest any of them should be lost, in order to visit the full tale of them upon him.” [Emphasis mine.]

When I coach people in our Peak Performance Program, whether it is an athlete or a student, or professional, getting rid of stored negative emotions is essential. Besides your health, these stored negative emotions, along with limiting decisions and beliefs, is essential for performing consistently at your best. For example, imagine a salesperson, who wants to make more money and achieve more recognition. The salesperson is well trained, knows how to sell, and has the motivation to succeed. Now, imagine that every time this person goes to close the sale, fear comes up. That salesperson is not going to perform at their best and get their best closing percentage.

Imagine a student who feels frustration at the first sign of a challenge. He or she will not perform up to his or her full capability with that frustration regularly popping up.

Imagine an athlete who worries about letting people down. They will perform better without that emotion of worry.

The Controversial Ryke Geerd Hamer

Hamer’s second law, “Every Disease has a Pathogenetic and Salutogenetic Phase,” simply says

That the process of getting a disease (pathogenesis) needs to be reversed by “focusing on factors that support human health and well-being, rather than on factors that cause disease.” In other words, salutogenetic phase is a healing phase that is concerned with the relationship between health, stress, and coping.

If we assume the first two laws of Hamer as valid and even the third law’s idea that cancer begins in the psyche, manifests itself in the brain, and then the body as valid, we can theorize that the releasing of negative emotions as well as limiting beliefs and decisions from the mind and body would clear up physical health while also having the potential to improve the mental and emotional health of the person.

Application of these principles in Creating a Mindset of Healing.

How are my wife, Donna, and I going to handle this as part of developing a mindset of healing?

There are two main stages in the process of cancer:

In my ideal world, the use of TLT would be done prior to the beginning of whatever medical treatment the doctor and patient have decided on, but it can be done at any time.

Tad James says that “we have had results that now prove the theories we have been using in the processes of healing various symptoms that produce the illusion of dis-ease.”

Action step 1:

Donna and I will be doing a detailed history to determine what events may have triggered the cancer. With that information we will do a clearing of any unresolved negative emotions we have discovered as well as limiting decisions and beliefs. Once we know where the cancer originated we can look at the emotions we discovered and compare it to Dr. Hamer’s chart to see how they align. That should begin the healing phase.

Action step 2: Begin whatever the doctor recommended plan of action is.

Action step 3: Begin building step by step lifestyle habits for healthy living with an emphasis for Donna on stress management habits.

[3] Hamer, R.G. (2001) Kreft – Gåten som ikke fines. Amici di Kirk Verlagsgesellschaft für medizinische Schr., Ediciones de la Nueva Medicina S.L., E-Fuengirola, Spain. [Norwegian], page 12.