By: Neal Fowler
Alternative healing is a phrase commonly used to represent “non-conventional” approaches to health, however it has become well established science that there is a mind body connection to healing. The mind body connection is a real process, and therefore alternative healing is a real process. The activity of every single nerve in our body and brain is modulated by genetic messenger molecules, and remembering that the body has the innate ability to heal itself, using non-medical alternatives to healing can provide amazing results.
The mind-body connection suggests the concept of state dependent learning, memory and behaviour, that when we learn something new our body will be in a particular emotional state, will behave in a certain way, and that this will be committed to long term memory. This is a simple explanation of a very complex concept!
It provides some of the explanation why we always FEEL the same when we REMEMBER something important and BEHAVE the same in response to it LEARNING to carry on doing, remembering and feeling the same thing again.
Psychologists and neuroscientists are harnessing the power of the unconscious mind to use its resources to help the body heal itself. You will be familiar with the ‘placebo effect’ or ‘placebo response’ in many drug trials: some people are given the drug whilst others have a placebo. Even those taking the placebo have some improvement in symptoms compared to a control group. This shouldn’t make sense, after all they didn’t receive the drug, but the unconscious mind had enough information to believe it was having the drug and mobilized the body’s systems to compliment this. We don’t know how all this is working but we do know many ways to achieve the outcome of the mind/body helping us to make changes and get well.
Many strategies, notably in the trance phenomenon area, are now being used to complement traditional medicine. These use the underlying principles of the state dependent learning, memory and behaviour, and that the unconscious mind is a source of infinite resources. In the field of cancer care, through to allergies and pain management, all are yielding significant positive results for alternative healing.
