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Dr. Slominsky told me that as a result of this incident he came to two conclusions a. Patients always report some form of inner reality that is meaningful to them. b. If we do not dismiss it as a pathological and illogical state of mind, we can enter this reality with them, and affect it through intention alone towards resolution and wholeness.
The field of traditional psychotherapy came to accept the basic premise that what happens to schizophrenic patients is not normal or real. As a result there has always been a major emphasis on trying to help patients give a full account of their inner reality in words, pictures or symbols, admit they were delusional and regain full grasp of normal reality.
New therapies are needed that will offer a broader perspective and allow for a blend of psychology, spirituality, subtle energy therapies and science. As the idea of thinking about the world from a viewpoint of quantum mechanics becomes more mainstream scientist are increasingly proving validity for the experiments such as Dr. Slonimsky’s.
His experiment describes a real life application of the phenomenon called quantum entanglement towards creating a change in the inner reality of a schizophrenic sufferer. It is a property of a system in a quantum state, that two or more objects within the system, in our case two individuals – a doctor and a client are linked and affecting a shared inner reality (a movable ball of light) through the quantum non-local connection.
To enter this exploration with the schizophrenic clients, to navigate with them the non-ordinary realities we need a wider understanding. In my book “Energetic Boundaries – The New Paradigm for Effortless Healing,” I propose that we need a better understanding of a biofield surrounding our body as a physical reality and not a metaphor. In fact Bruce Lipton (2005) writes that “all organisms, including humans, communicate and read their environment by evaluating energy fields.”
The challenge as always, is to understand the implications of how science translates into real-life human experiences. Following is an inspirational account of how intentional quantum entanglement was used in the energy therapy treatment of schizophrenia. This approach involves authentically accepting the patient’s story and symptoms as a valid reflection of an inner crisis, and respectfully using their story as a direction from which healing can proceed towards spiritual integration and symptom resolution.
The Challenges of Re-framing and Resolution
Mary was an immigrant in her early thirties, who was receiving disability compensation following a diagnosis of paranoid delusion and schizophrenia. She explained to me that as she was leaving Russia, the KGB burned something into her brain to keep track of her and that now she had a persistent sensation of burning. Her family assured me that she had never had any political involvement or encounters with the KGB. They said however, that her paranoid delusions set in following a bout with meningitis not too long before their emigration. Meningitis is an inflammation of the membranes that cover the brain. It appeared she recovered from the illness medically but somehow not psychologically.
I asked her where that spot was in her head. I was convinced that this was all in her mind, but was curious if I could detect the source of her discomfort in a way that would explain her experience. She gave me a detailed description of the location of the discomfort and the physical sensations she experienced. I energetically “scanned” that region of her brain, and to my surprise I found what felt like an unhealed brain lesion. Such lesions in the brain can result from head traumas, strokes, tumors, or infectious diseases like meningitis. It was conceivable that the source of the burning sensation in her head was not imagined, but an organic problem as a side-effect of meningitis.
Fortuitously, I have worked with accident related brain injuries in the past and successfully treated the effects of brain lesions using energy healing techniques.
Except, now I was faced with a dilemma. Did I have an obligation to be 100% honest and rational with my client and explain that her burning symptoms were caused by a brain lesion probably resulting from her meningitis, and unrelated to the KGB? My answer was No. My assessment was that telling Mary “the whole truth” would invalidate her experience and shatter her trust in me.
The policy that I follow is to be in integrity. I cannot lie, but also I am not required to tell the whole truth indiscriminately. Dr. Scott Peck, in The Road Less Traveled, says, “First, never speak falsehood.” And in withholding truth, Peck says, the primary factor should always be the person’s “capacity to utilize the truth for his or her own spiritual growth.” As parents we often withhold information from our children, if a child doesn’t have the capacity to use this information in a productive way.
My experience in general is that telling patients with schizophrenia that their experiences and reality are not true is counterproductive.
So I simply told her that I had found the burning spot. I explained to her that she was in luck, because I had successfully treated problems like this before. I asked her to concentrate on the burning sensation while I performed energy therapy and to let me know when and if her sensations changed.
As soon as I felt that the burning sensation in her head resolved, she also reported that she could not feel it any longer. “It is all gone!“ she declared. “I am fine now. This was awesome, thank you so much!”
I was genuinely surprised and thrilled at the same time. Was it possible that’s all it took to treat this disorder? Could it be so simple?
I checked with her carefully. “Are we all done? No more concerns?” She thought for a moment, and then said emphatically “No, it’s not at all done”. “I may be OK, but THEY ARE STILL DOING IT TO OTHERS. I AM HEALED, BUT THEY KEEP HURTING PEOPLE. I CANNOT BE OK.”
I sighed deeply. Of course, it could not be that easy. In her delusional state she additionally assigned to herself not only the role of victim, but also of liberator. Frankly, I wondered if I had made her condition worse.
Once again I remembered what Samuil had taught me - “Enter the client’s reality as completely and sincerely as you can.” I reminded myself that he was successful in moving a ball of light from one room to another and changing the patient’s perception. What could I plausibly do to those imaginary KGB agents that would change Mary’s perception? I had to make her story real inside of me. For a moment, it felt as impossible as jumping off a cliff. She was watching me intently. Any insincerity on my part now would discredit me in her eyes and make me lose my connection to her.
“Ok”, I said slowly and convincingly. “I appreciate your concern for others, your desire to stop the wrongdoing, the goodness of your heart. We do need to protect these people from the KGB. You understand, we cannot physically stop the KGB from here. However, there is a way in which I can energetically disable their power. I have done that before. We can take away their power to burn this tracking device into people’s brains. They will still think that they are in charge of the process, and it is working, but it will not. What they do will have no effect from now on.”
I also had another idea to actually elicit her help in this process as a way to constructively engage her concern.
“You can join me in this”, I told her. “You can use the intensity of your desire to stop the KGB from hurting others to fuel the energetic block I’ve set for them. You have very strong energy. We can do it together, as a team to make sure it really works. Tell me when you know that we have succeeded.”
And so I did it - suspending all disbelief, I created in my mind a detailed picture of us placing an imaginary block on KGB agents burning things in people’s brains. It was as if the two of us were in a movie, where we had control over the script. I conjured the scene with as much honesty and authenticity as I could muster. I was in uncharted territory and wondered if it really was going to work. Finally she decided we were done.
This time I felt truly elated. This strategy worked brilliantly. My mentor, Samuil, was right in his theory. She was healed just like that!
“Are we done now?” I inquired, positively confident. She went into deep thought once again. She shook her head, “no, we are not done yet”. “What is it now?” I asked, puzzled.
She responded “they stopped what they are doing to new people, but WHAT ABOUT ALL THE PEOPLE TO WHOM, LIKE ME, THEY’VE ALREADY DONE THIS TO? What about all those people that are still suffering?”
I could feel her mind clutch to a new obsession. A sense of despair and resignation wrapped around me as the thought crossed my mind that this will never end. She will just keep coming up with reason after reason to maintain her delusions. That is the nature of schizophrenia. In the end, this condition may be just as incurable as it is generally thought to be.
Then a question crossed my mind. Is her process of inquiry necessarily a sign of a mental illness or a matter of interpretation? What if she were a research scientist or an engineer, simply working through all the possible ramifications of a problem? Yes, the subject is a delusional story, but her way of thinking about the story was totally logical. Maybe, rather then viewing her through the lens of mental illness, I could instead regard her as being intelligent and paradoxically rational.
“This is all really very clever of you”, I responded. “I have so much respect and admiration for how logical your mind is. You really are taking care of all the aspects of the KGB’s actions. And your heart is so big and caring. Yes, let us figure out how to help all these people.”
From my perspective, this next challenge was really easy to both address and stay in integrity. There is a practice in energy therapies that when a healing takes place, you broadcast the vibrational frequencies of the healing so that anyone with the similar problem gets that healing. I often end sessions on that note. My clients find that gives a larger meaning and purpose to their suffering and a sense of greater connection to the source of healing and to people as a whole.
I explained the concept to her and she was enthusiastic to do it with me. “Let us visualize it together”, I said. We did.
Once again I asked patiently whether there were any remaining problems. I was expecting and fully prepared for more objections.
She thought again, in her mind, reviewing all the aspects of the problem, and then with a sigh of a relief said: “We are done. That will be all.”
“Are you sure”, I prodded?
“I am”, she said. “I feel at peace and very satisfied that we have helped all those people heal. It is painful for me to watch how others suffer. I have suffered so long. I always go to church and pray for everyone being nice to each other. “
And that was it. The last page of the story was closed in her mind. Her inner reality was respectfully acknowledged and re-framed. She came out triumphant and empowered. And with the burning sensation gone, there was no reason any longer to revisit that situation. We never discussed whether or not her original story was a delusion.
In the right hands, therapy and healing are poetry and art, a magical journey for both the therapist and the patient. Still in the end, the path of exploration and re-framing is as much science as an art.
In a universe where the ultimate truth of Newton’s theories have been augmented by quantum fields, it should not be surprising that our energy field interactions are shaped and regulated by consciousness on all levels of a person's being and according to rules and principles of science. Working with schizophrenic patients presents a challenge. Adding energy field interactions to the equation offers us what we have been hoping for - a way to engage our creativity to take them from where they are to a point of resolution and healing.
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thank youi,
Om
I am actually writing in hopes to work with you in some way. I was an energy healer in the Sat Nam Rasayan school for many years, before I became ill. I was kicked out of that school due to my illness, but I still wish to practice and apply the kinds of things you refer to in your article to healing for the mentally ill and for everyone.
In my own experience with schizophrenia, I've personally found that it is triggered by my need not to be in reality, first and foremost. There may also be other triggers but this seems to be the biggestone. I looked forward to my delusional episodes because they eased my sense of being alone. I am still dealing with this lonliness although I am surrounded by friends and a good husband. I'm reaching out to you to see if we can collaborate to do some healing work together, even long distance, around the issues you have presented.
Thanks again for your article