Category Archives: Chuck’s Blog

Welcome to Chuck’s Place! This is where Chuck Ketchel, LCSW-R, expresses his thoughts, insights, and experiences! Currently, Chuck posts an essay once a week, currently on Tuesdays, along the lines of inner work, psychotherapy, Jungian thought and analysis, shamanism, alchemy, politics, or any theme that makes itself known to him as the most important topic of the week. Many of the shamanic and psychological terms used in Chuck’s essays are defined in Tools & Definitions on our Psychotherapy page.

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: The Love Language Of Autosuggestion

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The healing love language…
-Artwork © 2026 Jan Ketchel

The subconscious mind is the immortal soul. The subconscious mind is the innermost soulmate of the conscious mind. The subconscious mind is the mother of creation, which includes total control over the state of the physical body.

As our world rapidly erases its once trusted foundations, the way is, of necessity, opening to new possibilities. At the cosmic level the world soul, or Anima Mundi, is pouring forth new ideas for healing and structuring life as the Age of Aquarius continues to rise. The use of autosuggestion in healing is one of her precious gifts.

New York State is set to cut health insurance for nearly half a million residents in July due to cuts in federal support. This is a trend impacting the entire country. Efforts will be made to salvage services, however, major loses are on the near horizon. Health care needs new options.

Every human being has a subconscious mind. The subconscious mind has the capacity to heal anything, at least until proven otherwise. Autosuggestion, the language of love from the conscious mind to the subconscious mind, has the potential to heal the body and mind.

This kind of healing fits under the category of subtle mental energy healing, as its modus operandi is simply an intent expressed through the power of words. Submitting a suggestion to the subconscious mind engages its ability to break a current fixation upon an idea of illness, as manifested in the physical body, then shift to a different energetic idea, such as health and vitality, which may then manifest as a healing at the dense energy level of the physical body.

An obvious example of this mental healing power is the placebo effect, where the subconscious mind’s belief in a suggestion alone causes the physical change of healing. Allopathic medical intervention at the dense level of the physical body is well established and should be explored, however, one can feel additionally empowered to appeal to the subtle energy healing power of the subconscious mind.

How harmful can it really be to intentionally talk to one’s subconscious mind about healing? Interestingly, the greatest obstacle for the conscious mind in talking to its subconscious mind is its own negative judgment of itself for doing such an irrational thing, and, hence, its refusal to try the method.

Fortunately, it’s not belief by the conscious mind that’s required to activate a healing action, it’s belief by the subconscious mind. The subconscious mind accepts with blind faith and no dissension any premise that reaches it from the conscious mind. The only necessary requirement is to actually reach the subconscious mind with the healing suggestion.

The method to reach the subconscious mind is autosuggestion, even if you consciously don’t believe the suggestion! This is best accomplished when the conscious mind is drowsy, as it’s less likely to cause interference. However, even this is not a necessary requirement.

Incessant, rote, repetition of a suggestion is the recommended approach. A simple pain in the body can be met with the verbal or thought suggestion: “The pain in my _____ is healing, the pain in my _____ is healed.” Repeating this rapidly, over and over, creates a powerful defense against engaging the conscious mind’s doubts while also building a powerful energetic charge to attract the attention of the subconscious mind.

I myself have repeated a suggestion nonstop for over an hour’s length of time. This is not a standard, there are no standards. The guidance is to persist, relentlessly, until the results are achieved.

This can be an on and off process over days, or even beyond. Follow what feels right, but be guided by the advice often delivered in the I Ching: Perseverance furthers.

The subconscious mind is extremely telepathically sensitive to the subconscious thoughts of other people, particularly if those thoughts are focused on one’s self. Thus, if someone knows you are practicing autosuggestion and inwardly believes it to be foolish, that thought may act as a negative suggestion to your own subconscious mind, weakening your personal healing autosuggestion.

The guidance here is to treat one’s use of autosuggestion as an alchemical process. Seal the container of your mind from the interfering thoughts of others by not sharing your inner practice of autosuggestion.

This self containment even extends to sharing one’s successes in mental healing, as the unexpressed doubts or jealousies of others can still have an undermining influence upon your own subconscious mind. Internalized doubt can potentially reverse a healing if it becomes a negative autosuggestion.

As the conscious mind achieves positive outcomes for its autosuggestion practice, it will lose its doubts and accrue great confidence in its innate ability to heal in consort with its subconscious mind.

The greatest influence upon the subconscious mind is the conscious mind, its true soulmate. The irony of their relationship is the contrast between the subconscious mind’s vast divine powers of perception and manifestation and the conscious mind’s seemingly meager ability to reason and intend.

Yet, without the reasoning and sound intent of the conscious mind, the subconscious mind would be subject to all kinds of outside suggestions that could potentially enslave it and abuse its powers.  Such could be argued is the state of the world today.

The conscious mind is indeed charged with focusing its intent on health and the greater good for all. This is the love language that brings the conscious and unconscious minds into greatest union.

Persistently filling the mind with positive suggestions not only brings the whole self into harmony but telepathically contributes to the greater positive suggestion bank shaping our world.

That’s what love’s got to do with it,
Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: Children Of The Mind

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Thoughts have power…
-Artwork © 2026 Jan Ketchel

The conscious mind is the father. Thoughts that the mind entertains are like sperm cells. The subconscious mind is the mother whose eggs become fertilized by these thoughts in the form of the suggestions she is attracted to, and, hence, opens to conceive.

This resulting pregnancy in the subconscious mind is the creative process of transforming thought into material reality. As matter is gathered and ordered according to the thought blueprint, an idea is born into a physical life. Thus a child of the mind is born.

This might involve the arrangement of events or encounters in the flow of everyday life that fulfill the requirements to materialize one’s intent. Here, you see the law of attraction operating upon physical reality to create, in the flesh, the original thought, belief, suggestion or intention of the conscious mind. This is a step-by-step process, often with many building blocks assembling over time.

Children of the mind can assume many forms. The child of a gratitude practice is the inner experience of a lightness of being and joy of being. As we express gratitude from the conscious mind, the subconscious mind receives this compassionate intent and instructs the body to release deeply calming hormones that bathe the body and mind in utter tranquility.

Should the conscious mind harbor negative thoughts, the subconscious mind will dutifully produce children of distress, as the physical body will be taxed with having to house the energy of negativity. This might result in an inner hormonally produced bad mood, low level depression, or a state of anxiety.

Sometimes people experience a pervasive state of anxiety seemingly not attached to thought. Often this is connected to trauma, where life was frozen in the thought of the constant need for defense, unable to resolve in the delivery of processing its experience.

This frozen state of vigilance becomes a forestalled birthing process, housed in the body, that awaits the conscious mind, in the form of a midwife, to be present to its experience and help deliver it to resolved new life.

Often, outside thoughts enter the conscious mind seeking to influence our beliefs and behaviors. These might result in illegitimate pregnancies, especially if we attach to these thoughts without soulful vetting.

Cautionary guidance here is to remain in a passive mode when excited by a passion-induced thought. This passive state is actually a receptive state where one allows oneself greater access to the broader picture, which might expose the one-sidedness of the outside influence.

Additionally, when we are in the receptive state, we are opened to the greater wisdom of our interconnected reality. Synchronicities come that punctuate and affirm thoughts that present.

In this process, ego, or conscious self, receives the guidance of higher wisdom, which points the way to appropriate action for the greater good of self. With this clarity, passivity gives way to activity, as vetted suggestion is presented to the subconscious mind.

All people are parents and children of their own minds. Claim ownership of these creative possibilities and lead life into greater fulfillment for self and all.

With conscious intention and subconscious joy,
Chuck

Chuck's Blog

Chuck’s Place: Positive Saturation

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Generate Positive Feelings…
-Artwork © 2026 Jan Ketchel

Upon her arrival at Auschwitz at 16 years of age, the late Edie Eger was forced to immediately dance for the notorious Josef Mengele, known as, the Angel of Death. She chose, as she writes about in her best seller, The Choice, to imagine herself waltzing on stage at the Budapest Opera House, in the arms of a boy she loved.

For her stunning performance Mengele let her live and gave her a loaf of bread. Like her future mentor and colleague, Victor Frankl (author of Man’s Search for Meaning), Edie chose to exercise the power of the imagination to manifest staying alive.

What we imagine, is the blueprint the subconscious mind uses to create the physical outcome of our lives. To not pay attention to what we imagine is to allow our lives to unfold without clear intention. To choose what to imagine is to assume conscious responsibility for the content of our imagination and hence, the direction and outcome of our lives.

When it comes to the state of our health, the quality of our thoughts, as played out in our imagination, is fundamental. We are daily flooded with messages of vulnerability to outside invasive bacteria and viruses. As well, we are saturated with influencers touting potential remedies and preventive measures.

The imagination is solicited to play out these scripts that irritate and activate the central nervous system (CNS) to manufacture neurotransmitters, as well as the endocrine system to produce hormones, to prepare our body and mind for simply a thought of invasion of no true substance.

The subconscious mind responds to the imagination the same way it responds to actual reality. What we imagine is reality to the subconscious mind, which in turn innervates the brain to respond accordingly.

Rather than fixate upon the alarming messages seeking to generate a false reality in the mind and body, we are free to choose to focus our attention upon thoughts that calm the imagination and, consequently, the CNS.

These thoughts generate the production of feel good hormones such as serotonin, dopamine and oxytocin. These promote deep states of relaxation, calm and peace. If, in fact, a genuine threat were to present itself, our resilience, accrued from such calm practice, provides confidence to meet the challenge, rather than being overwhelmed by a crisis.

The practice I suggest to achieve such calm is quite simple. The internal dialogue within the mind never sleeps, but you can override it by taking charge of the words you say to yourself. Saturate yourself with positive words. Simply say them all the time, with intention.

If negative thought intruders momentarily steal your attention, simply shift to the positive words as soon as you notice the disruption. Don’t waste a second more thinking the negative thought.

Here are some positive word suggestions: peace, love, freedom, happiness, joy, comfort, relaxed, beauty, calm, pleasure, warmth, refreshed, happy, treasure, rested… Truthfully, the list is endless.

Choose a word. Perhaps say it many times at a chosen rhythm. Make up poems, jingles, or songs to play with the words. Saturate your inner experience with the words and positive feeling states they generate.

Also, when you say one of these words, they often bring up associations to similar words or experiences to be lived and enjoyed in the imagination. Go there.

One of the practices I enjoy is Vim Hof’s retentive breath work. I utilize the word method, choosing the word that feels right in the moment. I have been able to vastly achieve calm states during lengthy breath retention through this approach. These calm states are retained long after the practice has ended.

Positive saturation promotes deep states of calm to be readily available at the mere stating of a word. Positive saturation does not eliminate real challenges that must be met, but it removes the bulk of negative states manufactured in error.

Positively saturate yourself to your heart, mind and breath’s content,
Chuck

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Chuck’s Place: Completing The Past With Love

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Put Triggers Safely to Rest…
-Artwork © 2026 Jan Ketchel

Triggers are spontaneous eruptions of emotional terror that can seize the heart, take the breath away, or throw one into a rage. Logically, we seek to avoid such encounters. In fact, loved ones and friends often know to avoid certain topics with us rather than trigger such explosions.

What are actual triggers? Simply put, triggers are current experiences that resemble prior experiences in life that were never fully put to rest. Triggers can also be schemas, in the form of powerfully negative beliefs about the self, which overshadow our comfort with current life and self.

Triggers thus represent unfinished business, current reminders of past experiences and the emotional outbursts generated by those reminders.

Triggers are inevitable encounters that will, ultimately, be fully mastered. Life reviews in Near Death Experiences frequently send a soul back into life in their body, with the charge to fully resolve a trigger in their current life.

Buddhists believe that triggers are the seeds of reincarnation that must be completed in an otherworldly bardo adventure upon leaving this world and before beginning the next life, or that they are an actual reincarnation in a human life, which must be dealt with before life can progress.

Carlos Castaneda’s loving advice to us all is to take all the time we need, but, to hurry up! The evolving journey is magnificent; let’s free our energy to fully go forward into it!

Triggers are composed of life experiences we have already had but have been unable to mentally and emotionally digest and, ultimately, fully metabolize. Full metabolism is nothing short of love for everything we have ever experienced or believed. Fortunately, we have the innate capacity to achieve this radical acceptance of all of our lives.

At some level, most triggers exist in states of isolation from the greater personality and typically generate sadness. This sadness is separate from the actual sadness of a traumatic experience or core schema. This sadness results from the imposed isolation of the trigger as being too much or too powerful for the rest of the personality to bear.

When the ego is ready to go and be with a trigger, suddenly that trigger is no longer alone. The weight it has borne in isolation is in some degree lifted, as the ego—in whatever state of fear and trembling— proves, simply by its presence, that it can be with the contents and intensity of the trigger.

This act alone introduces a primary love, love for the unwanted and undesirable. Some sadness can be released at this rudimentary level of acceptance. With this act alone the past begins to be completed.

Regardless of the nature of a trauma or schema the truth is that it has been stuck in a suspended animation of no time. All experiences naturally find their home in our personal storybook of life. However, given the suspended state of triggers, they have never been allowed to be calmly put to rest in that loving storybook.

Once the ego, on its hero’s journey, is perseveringly present to a trigger, other resources within the greater soul are able to offer their resources. The subconscious generally provides dreams and synchronicities that offer a needed memory trail that support the full recapitulation of triggers.

The High Self might also point one to helpers, or clinical modalities, to support this natural processing of life experiences.

Processing such triggers or experiences changes the past because the past was never previously fully known or fully completed. Ego’s engagement with the trigger brings its own broader view and inclusion of elements not available to an earlier state of self.

Acceptance of everything leads one to fully loving every aspect of one’s lives lived, which renders all former triggers to become colorful and  neutral pages in one’s personal storybook.

And that storybook could easily be shared with all—no legacy of shame or limitation attached.

And then, the unfettered journey resumes,
Chuck

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Chuck’s Place: The Truth About Relaxation

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Relaxed Reflection…
-Artwork © 2026 Jan Ketchel

The truth about relaxation is that there cannot be relaxation if we are not in the truth.

If we tell a white lie, even if exquisitely justified, we will experience an excitement to the nerves that innervate our eye muscles, which will in turn throw our eyes slightly out of focus.

In fact, if we mistakenly misstate our age, with no intent to deceive, our eyes will be thrown out of focus. If we then state, or even just think our true age, our eyes will be restored to normal immediately.

The subconscious mind is responsible for this glitch. It knows the truth and cannot help but register a reaction, however subtle, to untruth. This is not from the place of morality or judgment; it’s simply the subconscious mind’s unswerving loyalty to the truth.

The subconscious mind is wired to do the right thing. This is how it keeps our physical body alive. Nonetheless, it is a true servant to the suggestions it receives from the conscious mind. It exercises its creative power to manifest anything we want, even if what we want serves not the true needs of the self. It will fully manifest a life of error, if that is what we choose to explore.

However, every thought and every action have an effect, which is often called karma. If our thoughts and actions misalign with the truth, the body will register a reaction that indeed, keeps the score.

Our thoughts and actions are constantly straining our central nervous system, often resulting in various states of dis-ease. Often this can manifest as physical symptoms that are erroneously thought to be physical problems, when in fact they are actually but feedback mechanisms from the body that reflect the disordered effects of our current state of mind.

Relaxation requires a quiet mind, where thoughts do not impose themselves upon the body.

The eye, like all senses, is a passive sense. Light waves impress themselves upon the retina, reflecting what is in the world outside of the eye. It does not see from the inside but is only impressed upon, like a small reflecting pool. Seeing is a completely receptive, inert state.

If we squint and try to see, we completely contort the eye and interfere with its receptive ability. To see best, the eye must be left alone, completely relaxed, to receive its impressions. To trust the eye, is to completely relax one’s grip upon it.

Taste is another sense that requires complete passivity to deliver a true flavor. If the mind decides to think and talk when we eat, we hardly taste our food at all. We cannot make ourselves taste.

The sensory capacity of our taste buds passively receives impressions from the food. It requires of our mind to relax its thinking, and passively be present and attentive to these sensations, to know the fullness of the flavors of what we eat.

Even touch is a passive sense. Although a massage therapist might be quite active in giving a massage, they must really be quite passive in order to receive the true state of a client’s musculature, which allows them to truly connect and know how best to touch.

Relaxation requires trust in the body, and trust in the subconscious mind.

If we passively let go of trying to control the non-activity of our senses, they will operate most efficiently.

If we center our attention on our eating, refusing thinking and talking, we will have a pleasurable and fulfilling culinary experience. This includes not listening to podcasts when we eat!

When we touch another, if we take our mind off our thoughts, we can, in the experience of sympathy, register the truth of that other person’s state of being, and instinctively deliver the right touch. And yes, when we actively touch, we are taking action, but it is action informed by the truth passively received.

When we act in alignment with truth, we are, and deliver, calm.

A path to relaxation is to intend that the conscious mind stay in alignment with truth. That truth is best known through passive presence that follows the guidance it receives from its senses and the natural wisdom of the subconscious mind.

Beyond the senses is the wisdom that all guidance arrives when we are calmly, passively available to receive it. If the mind is actively fretting about what decision is right, it is too distracted to take in the myriads of signs from spirit, often arriving through the subconscious mind, that point to the right path, the path of true knowledge.

Ego, for all its valiant efforts to anxiously do the right thing, is at its most mature when it waits, gets calm, and truly listens and receives the truth, from which naturally flow its true marching orders.

Get calm and really listen, effortlessly,
Chuck