HYPNOSIS AND ANESTHESIA
Hypnosis has been used as an adjunct to surgical procedures for at least two hundred years. Its greatest use in its early years was for surgical anesthesia; it was developed before the discovery of ether. It is still widely used for this purpose as an addition to or substitute for chemical anesthesia in many surgical procedures because it is completely non-toxic and shows excellent results for good trance subjects. The greatest limit to its use in today’s surgery is the lack of education by hospital personnel in its use, and their resulting failure to recommend its use for patients. There are also too few hypnotherapists with specific training and experience in this field. This article is one among many being published today that is helping to bridge the gap in the knowledge of health care professionals and patients of this important subject.
Few patients are aware of the broad range of benefits that hypnosis can provide for surgical patients:
So how does a hypnotherapist help surgical patients accomplish these goals? First, the hypnotist needs to familiarize the patient with the hypnotic state, and induce trance several times, so the client can readily enter this altered state. While some people are better trance subjects than others, with practice almost anyone can learn to experience the blissful state of relaxation that is hypnosis. Most important is the degree of trust and rapport that exists between hypnotist and client and the hypnotist's patience in helping the client reach a hypnotic state. If you are a surgical patient contemplating using a hypnotherapist, you should trust your FEELINGS about this person as well as asking about their training and experience. The best hypnotherapists are not necessarily physicians or nurses, most of whom have little training in this field.
The next step is to use specific suggestions to help the client achieve this state in three arenas. First, they need to learn to access this state while lying in bed at night, when they will practice going through the surgical procedure. (“Now, every time you are lying in bed at night, you go deep into this state…”) Second, they will be trained to enter this state while entering the operating room, and to remain in this state throughout the procedure. (“Now, when you lie on the gurney, and you feel its vibrations under your body, you automatically go deep…”) And thirdly, we prepare the client to access this state while lying in the recovery room and/or their own bedroom to activate the recovery suggestions. Alchemical Hypnotherapists train clients to use all of these processes every day in the quietness of their own beds. A custom made recording for the client can be very helpful here, as is the generic Alchemy Journey called, “The Inner Healer”. Most clients are excited about being able to take personal responsibility for maximizing the results of their surgery, so are eager to do this easy and relaxing homework.
The next important step is to help the client clear up the mental and emotional causes of the condition (in the subconscious mind) that requires surgery. This will do a great deal to prevent a re-occurrence of the condition, as well as speed recovery. This can sometimes be done in one session, however a chronic disease like cancer may require a number of sessions to clear. Regardless of the time involved, it is always worth it to prevent the heartbreak of symptoms returning.
The next step is to obtain the most exact knowledge possible of the procedure to be followed in surgery. This data helps the client’s body to rehearse all of the steps of the operation in trance. This mental rehearsal includes the tissues of the body surrendering easily to the incision, closing blood vessels in the area of the incisions and directing the nervous system to eliminate pain signals during the procedure thus reducing the need for chemical anesthesia. The body and subconscious mind are also told to relax and trust the skill of their physician. A minimum of two sessions devoted to this mental rehearsal are recommended. During this rehearsal the patient is trained to use the color healing and spiritual surgery methods outlined in the Somatic Healing Program.
An excellent technique is to lead the client in hypnosis to their “inner healer”, an inner helper/guide specifically called upon to assist the hands of the surgeon in performing the operation, as well as assisting in pre-surgical processes like cutting off blood supply to a tumor and such post-surgical tasks as eliminating scar tissue, preventing infection with a healing salve and other tasks. One client whose body was rejecting her newly acquired kidney in spite of massive immunosuppressive drug therapy, found her inner healer spreading a soothing balm on the surface of her new kidney that signaled to her immune system, “This part is mine!” The result: her body stopped its rejection response, and she could stop taking the immunosuppressive drugs. She still has that kidney ten years later. This use of the inner healer is a unique feature of the Alchemical approach to surgery. This inner guide may be introduced as a “metaphor for the body’s own wisdom” to the skeptical client.
The final step is to assist the client in post-surgical recovery. A detailed knowledge of how recovery is to progress is essential. After having the patient picture themselves in the recovery room and their own bedroom post surgery, their body is given specific directions. These include suggestions that the nerves, knowing that healing is proceeding beautifully, cut off all pain signals except those that are essential for the client’s recovery. For example it can be suggested that if the client moves too suddenly in bed, disturbing the wound, a shooting pain will be felt at once. Otherwise the patient will experience remarkably little pain in the critical days after surgery. A reduction in pain medication also reduces the chances of mental impairment and physical dependency that are common with large doses of pain killing drugs. It can also be suggested that when the blood vessels in the area are restored they bring in a plentiful supply of blood-borne nutrients to the area to speed healing. Various images can be used to help the client’s body heal more quickly depending on the client’s needs, including the surgical opening being sewed together for a seamstress who is a tailor or seamstress, or the garden of your post-operative stomach growing beautiful new green shoots for a gardener. Training the client to call upon the inner healer every night in bed to continue the healing process in a painless and easy way can also be helpful. For example, the inner healer can scrub the area of a cancer surgery every night to eliminate the loose cancers cells which might otherwise cause a return of tumors to that area or elsewhere in the body. In general, technical terms such as “metastasizing” should be avoided in favor of simple expressions like “scrub clean.” This is because the subconscious mind responds best to simple easily understood images.
A final cautionary note for all patients of surgery: under hypnotic anesthesia the patient is in a highly suggestible hypnotic state. Surgical staff should all be aware or this and make sure their conversations over your body during surgery are of a positive outcome. If possible, having your hypnotist present for the operation to use suggestions during the actual operation is a plus. If not, staff should be monitored for the words spoken to keep them positive. Many patients find it useful to play their hypnotic recording during surgery over headphones. This performs the task of further embedding positive imagery while eliminating the voices of the surgical team.
Few patients are aware of the broad range of benefits that hypnosis can provide for surgical patients:
- Enhanced surgical anesthesia means much less toxic anesthetics in the client’s body, thus reduced mortality (complications of anesthesia are a major source of surgical mortality) and quicker recovery
- Reduced preoperative anxiety
- Reduced blood flow to the area of the operation during the surgical procedure means less blood loss and quicker recovery
- Reduced postoperative pain
- Speeding up the post surgical healing process, including tissue and bone healing
- Reducing the chance of infection and other post-surgical complications
So how does a hypnotherapist help surgical patients accomplish these goals? First, the hypnotist needs to familiarize the patient with the hypnotic state, and induce trance several times, so the client can readily enter this altered state. While some people are better trance subjects than others, with practice almost anyone can learn to experience the blissful state of relaxation that is hypnosis. Most important is the degree of trust and rapport that exists between hypnotist and client and the hypnotist's patience in helping the client reach a hypnotic state. If you are a surgical patient contemplating using a hypnotherapist, you should trust your FEELINGS about this person as well as asking about their training and experience. The best hypnotherapists are not necessarily physicians or nurses, most of whom have little training in this field.
The next step is to use specific suggestions to help the client achieve this state in three arenas. First, they need to learn to access this state while lying in bed at night, when they will practice going through the surgical procedure. (“Now, every time you are lying in bed at night, you go deep into this state…”) Second, they will be trained to enter this state while entering the operating room, and to remain in this state throughout the procedure. (“Now, when you lie on the gurney, and you feel its vibrations under your body, you automatically go deep…”) And thirdly, we prepare the client to access this state while lying in the recovery room and/or their own bedroom to activate the recovery suggestions. Alchemical Hypnotherapists train clients to use all of these processes every day in the quietness of their own beds. A custom made recording for the client can be very helpful here, as is the generic Alchemy Journey called, “The Inner Healer”. Most clients are excited about being able to take personal responsibility for maximizing the results of their surgery, so are eager to do this easy and relaxing homework.
The next important step is to help the client clear up the mental and emotional causes of the condition (in the subconscious mind) that requires surgery. This will do a great deal to prevent a re-occurrence of the condition, as well as speed recovery. This can sometimes be done in one session, however a chronic disease like cancer may require a number of sessions to clear. Regardless of the time involved, it is always worth it to prevent the heartbreak of symptoms returning.
The next step is to obtain the most exact knowledge possible of the procedure to be followed in surgery. This data helps the client’s body to rehearse all of the steps of the operation in trance. This mental rehearsal includes the tissues of the body surrendering easily to the incision, closing blood vessels in the area of the incisions and directing the nervous system to eliminate pain signals during the procedure thus reducing the need for chemical anesthesia. The body and subconscious mind are also told to relax and trust the skill of their physician. A minimum of two sessions devoted to this mental rehearsal are recommended. During this rehearsal the patient is trained to use the color healing and spiritual surgery methods outlined in the Somatic Healing Program.
An excellent technique is to lead the client in hypnosis to their “inner healer”, an inner helper/guide specifically called upon to assist the hands of the surgeon in performing the operation, as well as assisting in pre-surgical processes like cutting off blood supply to a tumor and such post-surgical tasks as eliminating scar tissue, preventing infection with a healing salve and other tasks. One client whose body was rejecting her newly acquired kidney in spite of massive immunosuppressive drug therapy, found her inner healer spreading a soothing balm on the surface of her new kidney that signaled to her immune system, “This part is mine!” The result: her body stopped its rejection response, and she could stop taking the immunosuppressive drugs. She still has that kidney ten years later. This use of the inner healer is a unique feature of the Alchemical approach to surgery. This inner guide may be introduced as a “metaphor for the body’s own wisdom” to the skeptical client.
The final step is to assist the client in post-surgical recovery. A detailed knowledge of how recovery is to progress is essential. After having the patient picture themselves in the recovery room and their own bedroom post surgery, their body is given specific directions. These include suggestions that the nerves, knowing that healing is proceeding beautifully, cut off all pain signals except those that are essential for the client’s recovery. For example it can be suggested that if the client moves too suddenly in bed, disturbing the wound, a shooting pain will be felt at once. Otherwise the patient will experience remarkably little pain in the critical days after surgery. A reduction in pain medication also reduces the chances of mental impairment and physical dependency that are common with large doses of pain killing drugs. It can also be suggested that when the blood vessels in the area are restored they bring in a plentiful supply of blood-borne nutrients to the area to speed healing. Various images can be used to help the client’s body heal more quickly depending on the client’s needs, including the surgical opening being sewed together for a seamstress who is a tailor or seamstress, or the garden of your post-operative stomach growing beautiful new green shoots for a gardener. Training the client to call upon the inner healer every night in bed to continue the healing process in a painless and easy way can also be helpful. For example, the inner healer can scrub the area of a cancer surgery every night to eliminate the loose cancers cells which might otherwise cause a return of tumors to that area or elsewhere in the body. In general, technical terms such as “metastasizing” should be avoided in favor of simple expressions like “scrub clean.” This is because the subconscious mind responds best to simple easily understood images.
A final cautionary note for all patients of surgery: under hypnotic anesthesia the patient is in a highly suggestible hypnotic state. Surgical staff should all be aware or this and make sure their conversations over your body during surgery are of a positive outcome. If possible, having your hypnotist present for the operation to use suggestions during the actual operation is a plus. If not, staff should be monitored for the words spoken to keep them positive. Many patients find it useful to play their hypnotic recording during surgery over headphones. This performs the task of further embedding positive imagery while eliminating the voices of the surgical team.
