Tag Archives: self-hypnosis

Chuck’s Place: My Self Important Medicine Journey

My body is healing, my body is healed…
-Artwork © 2024 Jan Ketchel

In a conversation, I joked that I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen a doctor. I knew immediately that the die had been cast. Send out a message like that and you’ve invited a stream of subliminal thought forms, with contrary suggestions, to compete with your own intent. What inside me was being so careless, or so determined?

Days later, I noticed a tickle and niggling cough throughout the day. By the end of the day a dizziness set in, an intense vibratory disorientation, coupled with a chill that had me wear a wool vest and wrap up in a blanket, despite the 80 + degree temperature of the day.

I consented to a thermometer, which revealed a heightened temperature. Suggestions of covid, flu or, at the very least, the onset of a course of a lengthy cold emerged. It was clear to me that these were all genuine possibilities.

A chain of associations began to present themselves to support and prepare for a healing process of several days. Although this would be a quite legitimate course of care, I seized upon this unusual opportunity to test my soul’s ability, via autosuggestion, to alter the natural course of my recovery. And so, I’ve decided to share how I practice what I preach!

My stated intent was to completely resolve these symptoms so that I would be present, in optimal physical health, with maximal clinical and intuitive acuity, for a full day of meetings starting at 7 am the following morning.

I instructed my subconscious: “My body is healing, my body is healed.”

I repeated it incessantly, coupling it with an eight count breathing pattern, saying the first part of the phrase with a four-count in breath and the latter part with a four-count out breath. By 7 pm I was so tired and disoriented that I collapsed into bed.

A restlessness slowly crept in and I knew there would be no rest if I remained in the bedroom. I relocated myself to the living room, which was quite warm, yet I shook with chills and knew that air conditioning was not an option. I considered an ibuprofen. I flipped a coin and got tails: No, to ibuprofen. If I was to be sincere in my commitment to a clean experiment, my only intervention could be: “My body is healing, my body is healed.”

I began to experience a throbbing headache that came and went, seemingly for hours. I did allow myself to utilize a well-anchored healing suggestion: “My headache is healing, my headache is healed.” Though effective immediately, the duration of relief was no more than a couple of minutes before its vicious return. I finally decided to recite only my eight count breathing and body healing suggestion.

I attempted to lie down but was continuously bombarded with a smorgasbord of pain sensations and dizziness. I could not find my calm center. I felt myself on the acute edge of annihilation. My only momentary glimpse of a potential grounding was noticing the autonomous playing of the synchronous rhythm that had been established by my incessant eight count breath.

For the next four hours I caved to the relief of restless shifting: laying one way on the couch, then the opposite; changing pillows, throwing pillows, no pillows; collapsing onto the floor, turning over, feet up on the coffee table, the contents of which became strewn about the room. I’d sit momentarily in different positions, in different chairs; nothing offered a moment’s peace.

A sensation of nausea flirted in the background. It invited the suggestion of immediate relief through facilitated release. I refused. “If that is to happen, let it happen on its own,” I insisted. Despair and futility dragged me into the underworld of self-pity and fraudulence. I began actually to wonder if I needed the rescue squad to bring me to the ER. Thoughts of physical death seemed a genuine possibility.

Eventually, I was so despondent that I sat and silently cried out to my High Self and teachers for help! No one came. I sank to the rock bottom depression of, “Why have you forsaken me?” I was sitting curled up in a chair when I noticed that I might have dozed off for a moment.  An inkling of constancy of presence appeared. “Might I be able to sleep?” I pondered.

It was 1:30 am. I knew that in order to be able to practice in the morning I’d have to be 100% healed by 3:15 am. This seemed utterly impossible. I hadn’t slept at all, my symptoms were all still fully present, but I had had a calm moment. I closed my eyes. I awoke at 2:30, no change. I told my subconscious, which never fails at a wakeup request, to wake me at 3:15. I drifted off immediately.

I next awoke to Jan checking on me at 3:30 am. Wow, my subconscious had not responded to my 3:15 am suggestion! I let it go. The room was a mess, but I wasn’t! No temperature. No headache. No dizziness. No nausea. No vibratory shakiness. Full calm breaths. Utter clarity. Well rested.

We went for a walk, did some reading. My thinking and intuition were clear as a bell. I showered, had some breakfast and started my day at 7 am, finishing at 5 pm, without a glitch. Subsequent days were equally symptom free.

My medicine journey, initiated by the active substance of my self-important comment, showed me how far the soul could potentially go to accelerate the action of the innate healing archetypes latent in the physical body.

I arrived at the experience of total transformation, as my subconscious led me rapidly through the stages of healing at light speed to meet my stated deadline intent. Mine was but one dark night of the soul.

The physical body is its own entity, separate and distinct from its companion soul. Often, when the soul has decided it’s time to leave this life, the physical body resists, clinging to life for extended periods of time. The soul cannot fully break the cord and be free until the body acquiesces to its own physical death.

The soul body entered and attached to the physical body before birth. Both bodies agreed to a relationship for a human lifespan for reasons which benefit each individually. For the body, the conservative evolutionary archetypes that rule it are introduced to new possibilities through the soul’s suggestions. For the soul, the depth of its experience gained through a drama lived in a physical body deeply enhances its knowing of all that is.

The body has a powerful set of rules that independently govern the course of physical life. The body is prepared to live the stages of life, grow old and die. The soul, through its subconscious mind, assumes full control of the human body, though it generally acquiesces to run the body’s evolutionarily established healing programs.

However, the soul, which operates under different rules than the physical body, can think and suggest outside the instinctive box. Thus, the soul knows that beyond heredity and the rules that govern physical life, a suggestion such as I made, to heal from an infection, within hours as opposed to days, is possible.

Of course, the soul cannot change the fact that, ultimately, the physical body will die. Some shamans, called death defiers, have been able to delay death for generations, but ultimately have had to eventually surrender their physical counterparts to death.

Nonetheless, the soul can contribute greatly to the health and healing of the physical body, particularly through the use of autosuggestion. At times it can indeed achieve miracle cures.  Modern medicine has yet to discover this healing potential, as it remains almost exclusively focused on the material workings of the physical body.

The most important variable to approaching the subconscious mind with healing suggestions is to have faith that anything is possible, to swiftly release any doubt and stay focused on the intent. This guarantees nothing, but without it, suggestions lack the potency of conviction needed to attract the subconscious mind’s attention.

No attachment to outcome. No shirking of the responsibility to also explore the best that mainstream medicine has to offer. Assume full responsibility for life. Explore your full potential. See what happens!

My body is healed,
Chuck

Soulbyte for Wednesday June 9, 2021

Watch what you say to yourself. Words are as powerful as thoughts, sending you off into catacombs of old ideas about the self, setting you up for depression, cycles of bad behavior and negativity. Suggest to yourself instead that you are beautiful today, smart, quick and light-footed, and that nothing will be an obstacle. Tell yourself that you are in the good hands of your caring guides, who love you, and that all is well. Give yourself powerful positive suggestions in words of wonder, and see that happens as you create your perfect day!

Sending you love,
The Soul Sisters, Jan & Jeanne

Chuck’s Place: Impressing the Subconscious

Each new dawn is an opportunity to intend change…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

The subconscious mind is command central for the human mind. Nonetheless, though it sets in motion the bulk of everything we think, feel and do, it itself does not think. The subconscious mind simply obeys suggestions. The intensity or accrued stress of the suggestion determines the likelihood of it being activated.

The subconscious is the programmed mind. All animals respond almost totally to circumstances with preprogrammed instinctive behaviors. Humans have the innovation of consciousness, which allows for the possibility of choice of response to any given encounter, over simply the automatic, unreflected action of the subconscious mind.

Nonetheless, the subconscious remains formidably dominant in human behavior. A person might choose to confront a situation that their subconscious mind’s program determines should be avoided. This program can be overridden by the conscious will, however, the subconscious might concurrently generate pervasive anxiety to freeze the intended behavioral action of the conscious will.

However, the proficiency of the evolutionary programs of the subconscious that have led to individual survival, and survival of the species for eons, tend to reassert themselves pretty easily over orders directed to the subconscious from the conscious mind. Anyone who has attempted to establish a new habit is well acquainted with the tendency of older, more established habits, to defeat conscious efforts to change.

The subconscious is comprised of evolutionary habits, as well as habits rooted in one’s outer socialization. The rules and expectations of significant others, in the impressionable years of childhood, are often internalized as powerful programs for behaviors that eventually operate unconsciously through the subconscious mind. These internalized programs are incessantly reinforced by the internal dialogue, which automatically judges self and other with predetermined prejudice.

The key to establishing a new habit in the subconscious mind is suggestion. When a hypnotist puts a subject into trance, they are essentially turning off the subject’s conscious mind. Next, a suggestion is made to the subject that goes directly to the subconscious mind and is then behaviorally enacted upon, as suggested.

Not everyone can be put into trance by a hypnotist, but everyone is put into trance by the many powerful programs that run daily, through suggestions operating at a subconscious level. Thus, if one has an internal dialogue that repeats the suggestion, “I am unworthy of love”, the entranced outcome will be a mood and behavior that reflects unworthiness and lack of lovability. These programs are often so powerful that even constant feedback to the contrary, from a loving partner for instance, cannot change this embedded suggestion.

Though a hypnotist might temporarily suggest a new program, creating change in a subject, the locus of control remains in the hands of another person, the hypnotist. This is why self-hypnosis is the preferred vehicle of change.

Saturation of suggestion during waking life definitely implants a suggestion to the subconscious. Thus for instance, if I want to remember my dreams, or become conscious while out-of-body during sleep, I might state this intention incessantly throughout the day.

Regardless of outcome on any given night, if I persevere with stating my intention, every day, that suggestion will reach subconscious action at some point. Every time we state an intent, we accrue energy toward a powerful suggestion becoming operational.

Unfortunately, we don’t know for certain how much energy must be accrued before it tips the scales to action. The guidance here: perseverance furthers.  As well, just as the hypnotist silences the conscious mind prior to implanting a suggestion, it is best to relax the body and mind prior to stating one’s suggestion.

Be of calm body and mind, state your suggestion many times a day, many days of the month. With the calm abandon of detachment, yet with the knowing certainty that the subconscious will be impressed, await the manifestation of your dream.

Suggesting,

Chuck

Chuck’s Place: The Path to Heart

Wherever your path to heart may lead…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Often, what is experienced as traumatic in the moment becomes the seed of great growth and liberation when viewed from a deeper perspective at a future time.

Maya, a central concept in Hindu cosmology, is considered illusion at the level of everyday life, as events in the moment veil the fuller picture beyond the container of space and time. Yet, at the fully transparent level of the highest spiritual plane, Maya radiates as ultimate truth. The key to accessing ultimate truth is to revisit experience from the fullest and deepest perspective.

Thus, everything that challenges us, no matter how terrifying or painful, ultimately has the potential to lead us into deeper truth as we trod upon our path to heart. However, to benefit from this gift we must allow ourselves to review what we have already lived, by viewing it with a ruthlessly open and conscious mind and heart.

In viewing from a different perspective, we can release the emotions that have protectively shielded us and view the deeper truth that lies beyond our limiting beliefs. With this, the protective chaff falls away, as we now have direct access to the seed of our fuller knowing and future possibility.

One great antagonist in 2020 is Covid-19. At the level of everyday human life, its impact upon the world has been devastating. As a world, we hope to neutralize its impact upon us, even as I write. Many lives have been lost at the physical level, and many livelihoods and life plans have been radically changed through the lethal invasion of this virus.

Beyond personal impact, however, is the interruption it is causing to the energetic flow of the planet. Travel is severely limited. Gatherings of humanity, even the smallest of nuclear families, are suspended in physical space and consigned to connection only at the vibrational level of virtual reality.

The next higher vibrational dimension of humanity, the soul level, operates via thought and feeling, in its energy body, independent of the physical body. Though the virtual reality experience during the pandemic has largely been dependent upon human technology, it has also challenged the physical human being to find mental and emotional connection in non-physical contact. This has been a tremendous crash course on spiritual contact beyond the human body.

Of course, we all crave physical contact, as we also exist in human form. However, we are being ushered, via virtual reality, into another dimension of our human potential. When this potential is more inwardly developed, via the discovery and practice of innate psychic powers—such as intuition, conscious dreaming, and telepathy—the door is opened to unlimited possibility for travel and connection beyond physical reality.

Within the physical dimension, the quality of connection is spiritually enhanced to include greater movement to the heart, in a deeper experience of abstract love; that is, love beyond strictly physical attachment. The legacy of Covid-19 has launched us forever into a greater world of energetic possibility to satisfy our deeper mental, emotional, and spiritual needs.

Donald Trump has certainly presented as both central protagonist or antagonist, depending upon your perspective, in 2020. In fact, as I write this blog, it remains unclear what is actually going to happen at the completion of his current term.

Regardless of one’s perspective, Donald Trump has championed the fact that reality is truly relative. He has shown us that it is consensus of agreement that actually generates a reality. What we believe is true is more powerful than objective reality.

This is most powerfully demonstrated via the placebo effect in scientific medical trials. Many a person has actually been cured of a disease because they wholeheartedly believed they were being administered the curing agent, even if it was actually a placebo sugar pill. Though medicine may dismiss the change as mere placebo, cure is cure! The power of belief can concretely transfigure physical reality.

The power of the subconscious to change our mental and physical conditions is the essence of hypnosis. What we tell ourselves, often via forgotten or unknown subconscious programs, is what we manifest.

Donald Trump, as master hypnotist, has demonstrated the power of repetitive speech to determine one’s belief system. The use of affirmations, mantra, prayer, and suggestion to shift belief and behavior is extremely powerful. The collective massing of such efforts, when attuned to the common good, can spiritually advance the planet.

Donald Trump has also embodied the ego at its me-first zenith, which is a reflection of the collective planetary ego of our time. Every individual human must face that the dominance of the ego within their own personality is their greatest resistance to desired spiritual growth.

On a planetary level, it is the collective human ego that puts the wants and desires of itself above the true needs of the whole planet, presenting the greatest blockade to needed planetary change. Donald Trump has impeccably embodied this attitude of resistance, reflecting humanity’s struggle with its own massive ego entrenchment.

For the planet to arrive at the heart center, the needed perspective for planetary survival, the ego must acquiesce to the needs of the greater planetary whole. It is inevitable that we will get there, but we don’t know how far planetary disruption will go before we arrive at the heart center consensus.

To arrive at the position of unconditional love for all that is, is where we are headed. Begin to practice it now in full unconditional love for self. To love every aspect of self, from lowest to highest, will end the need for projection of one’s personal evil upon other.

To love other as self is indeed the path to heart. May we all take giant steps upon it this coming year.

Love to all,

Chuck

Chuck’s Place: Finding Equanimity

Finding equanimity in nature…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

The ability to remain consistently calm, in this time of incessant turbulence and rapid unpredictable bipolar shifts, is a cherished resource. Equanimity greets every moment with equal attention, appreciation, clarity and calm.

Buddhist practice embraces equanimity as the ultimate attitude needed for successful transition from human to infinite life. The ability to be present, to not sow a seed of reincarnation—by distraction or attachment—in the dying process, frees the energy body to evolve in its definitive journey beyond human life.

The Shamans of Ancient Mexico also valued the relationship of equanimity and death. They reasoned that any moment in life could be one’s final moment, hence one should be fully present, alive, and equally appreciative of every moment in life, regardless of personal preferences.

The Shaman’s perspective is the ultimate Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all moments are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

The Shamans cultivate equanimity as a program for living, the Buddhists as the key in dying. Both cultivate an attitude of deep calm in approaching life’s greatest encounter—its final moment.

How can we cultivate equanimity?

The Shamans contribute an attitude shift. Each day they remind themselves, ” My name is ________, a being who is going to die.” Far from being a morbid ‘Good Morning, World,’ this use of death as an advisor heightens one’s awareness to be fully present and engaged in every moment of the day, regardless of the activity.

How often do we lament a Monday morning, or the end of a joyous encounter? Even worse, how often do we dread an encounter or work task, and pray for it to quickly end. The intent of equanimity is to be equally calm and present to each equal moment, regardless of its intensity.

The Buddhists contribute the practice of meditation to still the mind, a great perpetrator of non-equanimity known as worry. Yoga, with its Hindu roots, uses self-regulation of the body to achieve equanimity. The practice of pranayama breathing exercises greatly enhances voluntary control of the autonomic nervous system’s mobilizing defenses, in the face of real or imagined stress, a valuable tool to achieve equanimity.

Autogenic training and self-hypnosis are tools to deepen the conscious relationship between mind and body. When we give the body a specific instruction when in a deeply relaxed state, the subconscious begins to listen and override its genetic, archetypal, or habitual programs.

Thus, we can instruct every part of our body to remain deeply calm while we remain fully awake and present to all conditions. Jan and I recently discovered the gift of Dr. Eleanor Eggers, a 97-year-old  semiretired psychologist, who developed a simple website giving away the secrets of her life’s work. This is her contribution to the greater good.

Her website offers the autogenic phrases that Elmer and Alyce Green developed at the Menninger Foundation, for deep relaxation, as well as other resources from her long and fruitful career. We happily pass on her website link: Dr. Eleanor Eggers.

Though, at present, we may experience limitation in exacting needed changes to our chaotic world, we are all free, as Victor Frankl would say, to assume the attitude we will embody in our encounters with that world. Equanimity ranks highest in our approach to life, in and beyond this world.

May all beings find equanimity.

Peace,

Chuck