That the mind exerts a tremendous and profound influence on the body is now an established scientific fact. Our billions of brain cells (neurons) are in constant communication with one another through hundreds of neurotransmitters and their receptors. It is no longer possible to think of our mind as separate or distinct from our body.

Unfortunately, laments endocrinologist and former hospital administrator Dr. Deepak Chopra, in his first book “Quantum Healing,” the mind is not given any clinical significance by Western medical practitioners.

There is much research data showing that the mind can be trained to use imagery or visualization to heal the sick as a supplement to other medical interventions.

But one psychiatrist, Dr. Gerald Epstein of New York, has gone farther than any Western physician by boldly and confidently declaring that any physical ailment or disease can be cured by using mental imagery.

Dr. Epstein is assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York. He has had more than 30 years of training and practice in mental imagery, psychoanalysis and such related disciplines as hypnosis, dream work and meditation.

He is the author of the bestselling and pioneering book, “Healing Visualizations: Creating Health Through Imagery,” published by Bantam Books in 1989 and still in print.

Harris Dienstfrey, discussing Epstein’s unorthodox medical practice in his book, “Where the Mind Meets the Body,” said the prescriptions Epstein writes “are imagery exercises, and he writes them for all physical disorders,” not only for psychological or emotional ones.

Although he is not against prescribing standard medications or any medical procedures, continues Dienstfrey, “Epstein maintains that under most conditions, the mind is the central tool that human beings have to heal themselves.”

Self-healing

This reminds me of the saying, “All healing is self-healing.” And to a large extent, this is true. Any medication or drug will not work unless the patient somehow accepts or believes in its efficacy.

What makes a mental image so powerful and effective in influencing the body is the fact that whatever is imagined by our mind is accepted by our body without question.

For example, if I imagine that I am squeezing a slice of lemon into my mouth, I will salivate, even if I knew that there is no lemon around. It is my imagination that triggered the physical reaction.

Now, instead of a lemon, let’s suppose you keep imagining everyday you have a tumor or cancer. What do you think will eventually happen?

Dr. Epstein exploits this powerful nature of mental imagery to cure all sorts of physical ailments. He gives an image for the patient to work on, and tells him how many times to do the visualization exercise and for how many days. And he gets results.

This is where my method of self-healing through visualization, which I have been teaching and lecturing for over 25 years, differs from that of Dr. Epstein’s. I do not provide my students a specific image to work on. They have to create their own.

I also tell them not to question or analyze whatever image comes, no matter how unlikely or impossible or ridiculous the image is. And then I ask them, “What’s wrong with it? What in the image represents the sickness?”

After knowing this, I ask them to form another image that represents the solution to the problem. Again, this must come spontaneously from their subconscious mind. Only when no image comes on its own do I allow them to create an image of the sickness and its solution.

But like in Dr. Epstein’s method, before they begin their imagery exercise, I guide them into a meditative state which puts their brain in the alpha or theta wave. At these lower brain frequencies, they are in effect in an altered state of consciousness or very light trance.

The brain waves of both the left and right hemisphere (or neo-cortex) are synchronized, which enables them to access vast storehouses information in their subconscious mind spontaneously or intuitively.

Diseases which were successfully cured through such visualization technique include myoma, herniated disc, sinusitis, back pain, severe migraine, asthma, kidney stones, lupus, gastritis and skin problems.

E-mail [email protected]. Visit innermindlearning.com for the online seminar.