6 Practices for Deep Subtle Healing (Part 1/3)
In a previous article we explored cultivating the subtle body, feeling outward beyond our local field, and increasing our capacity to listen inward with a quiet state of no mind. From this state, we can tune into intelligence beyond the beta-brain intelligence.
This week we are going to expand on subtle body practices to explore ways to use alpha, delta and theta brainwave states, together with the imagination, for permanent personal resolution and deep healing.
Did you know that the brain does not know the difference between imagination and reality?
Years ago I read study about pilots using virtual reality programs. The pilots had difficulty correctly flying actual planes for up to 20 minutes after using a VR training program. Apparently the brain had processed the VR program as "real", so the pilots had to reacclimate to actual "real" flight performance before being able to fly reliably. The study cautioned against pilots flying immediately after any VR training program.
Here's another example of a psychological study indicating that our brains interpret imagination as equal to, or even better than, reality. In psychological studies from 1989 (Ansbach) and 2014 (Biasiotto) with basketball players, the players were divided into 3 groups - a control group (who did nothing), a free-throw group (who were instructed to practice free-throws out on the court for 30 minutes), and a group of players who were instructed to simply imagine perfect free-throw practice for 30 minutes. At the end of the 30 minutes all three groups were tested on the actual basketball court. The group that imagined practicing perfect free throws performed over 20% better than both other groups.
This tells us that there is a great power to the imagination that can influence our actual reality.
With clients, I leverage this knowledge with these 6 shadow work / healing work practices:
Filling the cup
Rescripting
Sitting in the fire
So what, then what?
Post-orgasmic self-suggestion
Sacred theater
Using these practices, by using the wisdom and mystery of the subtle body, you can do powerful self-healing, even with life-long traumas, in as little as 90 minutes, with or without an experienced practitioner helping you (depending on your own skill)
This week I'll share 2 of the 6 practices with you. In the following 2 articles I'll offer the remaining practices.
6 Practices for Deep SubtleHealing - Part 1
Rescripting
Rescripting is using the imagination to recreate a "past experience". For example, I often work with clients who had not gotten the support they needed as infants/children. Without a formative felt experience, adults with unsupportive childhoods might not as easily sense and choose supportive relationships as adults.
To help a client repair the hurt of the inner child, we first do 5 minutes of circulated breath work to help the client relax and reach a non-beta-brain state. With the mind quiet, we then imagine the scene of the client as the infant, receiving abundant care, love and support. I support the client to amplify the felt sense of the experience by recounting to me as much vivid detail as possible about this (imagined) experience. What are the adult caregivers doing? What are they saying? How does it feel to be loved and supported this way? What senses are you feeling (in this imagined place)?
By amplifying the felt sense experience, the client often smiles, sighs, and cries in relief. I interpret this as successful releasework. By using the imagination, we in effect generate new physical brain synapses, new electrical patterns in the brain, giving the client an actual "experience" of childhood care, love and support. Then we bring the client's imagination back into the present moment.
After these sessions, I ask the clients how they feel now having had this experience. One of my clients who completed this process said, "Actually, now that I am feeling it, I can see all sorts of places in my life where I actually am receiving lots of loving support." This indicates a shift in the client's mental, emotional and subtle body filters.
The next time I met with this client, I received excited reports of how easily the client was now asking for and receiving abundant support.
By applying Rescripting, we created a new "reality" at the subtle body level that actually modified The Matrix of the client's "real" life.
Filling the cup
In previous articles we have learned how to uncover the core values that are hungry in us. By using the imagination, we can actually succeed in feeding the hunger. I call this "filling the cup". It's just like Rescripting, but rather than imagining a past experience, instead you imagine the experience you WOULD like in your life, present or future.
For example, say you are aching for romantic companionship and touch. Just like with rescripting, first open your connection to the subtle body by slowing the brain from beta-frequency to alpha, theta or delta frequency. You can do this with a circulated breath practice, or with a subtle body state expansion practice (we did this in a previous article), or you can use a binaural beat app to get you to that state.
Once you are in the quiet, no-mind state, connect to the core value you are yearning to experience. For example,e if you're yearning for romantic companionship and touch, imagine an experience of romantic companionship and touch as vividly as you can. What does your partner look like, feel like, sound like, smell like? What are they doing, saying, emoting? What body sensations are you feeling as they do what they are doing? What thoughts, feelings, sensations or sounds are you experiencing. Stay as vividly in the experience as you can, for at least 3 minutes, but as much as 20 minutes.
When you finish, return your mind and body back to your beta-brain state.
Having done the practice, notice how your body feels differently. While this may not provide actual physical stimulation, a little bit of "filling the cup" like this can take off the edge of a deep, painful yearning. With less angst, we are more resilient to create doable requests that can help meet the need. Maybe you will ask for or hire for a massage. Maybe you will ask someone you like for a kiss. In any case, the little bit of nourishment your subtle body receives will help take off the edge in the short term.
Furthermore, many shamanic and mystical practitioners find value in this practice. It's a kind of "rain dance". When Native American's do a rain dance, they are vividly imagining the experience of the rain, as if it is happening right now. They conjure the felt sense of the rain on their faces. They feel the ground wet beneath them. They smell the fresh, humid rain in the air. After vividly rain dancing for 20 minutes, they have reported getting actual rain.
If you spend 20 minutes vividly imagining the exact felt sense you want to experience, what might happen in the subtle field, the vibrational universe around you? What might change in the The Matrix?
Just as physicists report electrons being everywhere simultaneously, and only locating in a singular place when the scientist observes it, is it possible for us to influence the subtle body of Nature around us by getting stronger at our own Higher Self and subtle body practices? Play with the experiment and see what happens when you put your energy in vivid cherishing, enjoying, and love for the rain you want to come.
Ancients in Hindu and other Eastern practices claim our 'reality' is just an illusion, The Dreamer's dream, a thought in the mind of The Creator. Physicists have only been able to assess reality to the level of vibrations which cohere into moving bodies we call "subatomic particles", which aren't actually solid particles, but communities of movement.
While we don't actually know the full nature of "reality", is it possible that there are many ways our imagination can support shifts in our lives?
In the next article, we'll explore two more of the 6 Practices I've successfully used for 20 years with myself and others for Subtle Deep Healing.
(To be continued next week....)
