Guided Imagery

“It is the responsibility of scientists never to suppress knowledge, no matter how awkward that knowledge is, no matter how it may bother those in power. We are not smart enough to decide which pieces of knowledge are permissible and which are not. – Carl Sagan”

hillside in California

The human immune system is a marvel of creation , especially in its inherent capability to recognize antigen on a cancer cell and send a host of warrior cells out to kill the cancer cell. Please click the image below for a video of a macrophage at work:

“The MACROPHAGES, the giant eaters, literally chew up the cancer cell and hold up its antigen as a signal to other immune cells to continue the attack”

Macrophage
Macrophage

The NEUTROPHILS can adhere to the sticky walls of the blood cells and change shape to allow themselves to move through tissue to attack the cancer cells.

“like a storm of fighter planes, piercing the cell like a bayonet in the hands of a master warrior”

Please click the image below for information on Neutrophils:

Neutrophil
The Neutrophil

“The NK (natural killer) cells inject the cancer cell with deadly “perforin” in a chemical warfare attack that can kill any cancer cell immediately”

The T-cells can multiply to relentlessly press the battle after being targeted by the T-helper cells. Please click the image below for information on NK Cells:

NK Cells
NK Cell

“Lack of complete knowledge of the wonders of the human digestive system is a poor reason to refuse to enjoy eating a good meal”

The combat intelligence center for orchestrating this attack is the pear shaped thymus gland that is in the region of the breastbone. The action will be pressed until the battle is over and you have won.

Though it may be argued that our understanding of the workings of these cells is not perfect, it should be noted that a lack of complete understanding is not necessary to press these functions into battle against cancer.


Why Guided Imagery?

“The conscious left operates at about 25 cycles/second while the much calmer right brain operates at 9 cycles/second”

This does, of course, require a specific and unusual method for instructing these cells to wake up, recognize the antigen on the intruder and go into action. This is where the imagery comes into play. It is impossible for the conscious left brain to directly talk to the subconscious right brain. They operate at different electrical frequencies. Think of this as attempting to transmit radio signals with the transmitter and receiver at different frequencies, or as more commonly said, out of tune. The role of relaxation in imagery is to slow the left frequency down to approach the lower frequency of the right brain. Furthermore, since it is impossible to totally relax while doing some conscious activity such as holding a book and reading, it becomes necessary to listen to a gentle message from some third party who may be thought of as a “guide” for the exercise. A good analogy is to consider the jungle Safari which has an EXPLORER who is the person in charge and a GUIDE (the voice on the CD) who merely keeps the flow of information going to make the journey possible. It is the guide who gives directions but it is the EXPLORER (in this case the patient) who makes the DISCOVERIES and benefits from the expedition. This is what the term Guided Imagery refers to. Guided Imagery is a term used to describe a method for conveying orders from the conscious left brain to the subconscious right brain. In everyday life, images are routinely transmitted from all the sensory functions such as sight, smell, touch, and hearing. Signals coming from any one of these are capable of generating imagery responses. For example, the sight of a familiar scene might stir up emotions as would familiar tastes or odors. They occur involuntary and are difficult to avoid as they have been wired into your memory.

Consciously Directing the Subconscious

“We have been successful in embedding an Alpha Wave into both the voice and music tracks at the subliminal level”

A bit different is the desire to consciously send an order to the subconscious. This we can do by going to a relaxed state, or even sleep, and listening while a mentor’s voice provides a continuous stream of suggestions each pre-designed and recorded to evoke a particular response. It is far more effective in cancer fighting if the one doing the guiding has experienced firsthand what it is like to be under the cancer death sentence and has used Guided Imagery to bring about a remission. This gives an unspoken credibility to the effort in the mind of the patient. In short, the objective is to have the subconscious mind awake the sleeping good guys of the human immune system and send them into the battle to kill the intruding cancer cells. They are certainly capable of doing this and the result shows up as a remission. Until recently, there was a severe problem with maintaining a fully relaxed state in the face of interruptions such as random thoughts, phone calls, doorbells, outside noises and other distractions. What is now available from this webpage is an exciting new technological development in the manufacture of CD’s for guided imagery. We have been successful in embedding an Alpha Wave into both the voice and music tracks at the subliminal level. This results in a sound transmission that is perfectly tuned to resonate with the electrical frequency of the right brain. This has never been done before and early results from evaluators have been very exciting. The book “THREE MONTHS TO LIFE” gives the “why” guided imagery works and the CD represents the “how” of this patient friendly, non-invasive, self scheduled and administered and cost free treatment modality. Several success stories that attest to its effectiveness are given in the section on “Inspirational Stories”. Both the book and CD may be ordered from the “Order Page”.

Rewiring to Accentuate the Positive

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“This technique has been used with success by patients all over the world”

I am of the firm belief that 100% of all cancer patients practice guided imagery. It’s just that they work from the dark side. The instant that horrible diagnosis is given, one is flooded by sad and sometimes terrifying memories of how some loved one or friend lost the battle with the disease. Unfortunately there is no filter on the subconscious mind to keep out all the bad suggestions. These suggestions can be received as orders to proceed with this death and the outcome is immediately skewed to the negative. Thus one of the prime directives of a guided imagery program is to rip out all the old wirings of fear and rewire with new wires, so to speak, that look at life. not death. This technique has been used with success by patients all over the world. They, like me, view it as an integral part of their own healing program. Guided Imagery is patient friendly, non-invasive, is best scheduled by the patients in the privacy of their home and, perhaps best of all, nobody will ever send you a bill for it.

Different Paths, Same Goals
Since I began to pursue an active interest in sharing details of how I overcame the “three more months” death sentence to win my battle with mets from a huge kidney cancer I have conversed with countless patients all over the world. I soon began to notice that most of the inquirers were interested in knowing the exact details of my actions so that they could do likewise. This despite my assertions from the very beginning that my experience was merely one way and not ‘The” way to win. I do not believe that there have ever been two cancer cases exactly alike.

Throw in the vast differences in human personalities and responses into the mix and you are left with the conclusion that in each case the path to healing is likely to be a bit different from patient to patient.

How Does it Work?

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It is by no means unusual for me to hear from a patient who is just beginning to use the Guided Imagery exercises to the extent that he/she can’t make the lights or the images work just as I describe. Neither is it unusual to hear another complain that after going to church for four Sundays in a row and reciting prayers every night, the cancer is still there. As I struggled to understand these sincere comments from desperate people, I sought to know more about the human emotions that were at play. I remember that, back in the time of my own case, there was not very much published about the specific use of mind/body medicine in general and guided imagery in particular. The books that were available were very good and written by some authors with impressive credentials. Still they all seemed to lack the specificity needed for my case in particular. Perhaps this was for the best as they did not lead me into a preconcieved mindset of how it “must surely” work. The more I deal with this, the more that I become convinced that far too many people enter into the field with a preconcieved notion of how it will work for them and, when that exact scenario doesn’t play out, they become discouraged, many to the point of giving up. The prescription I would give for this is study, study and more study. Dr. Herb Benson says that the most important three words for meditation are repetition, repetition and repetition. With increasing knowledge, there will be an expansion of the scope of awareness to the point where preconcieved notions are lost in the joys of expectations. To me, the healing journey became an exciting, day to day adventure. Although it took the patient effort of several weeks, I got to the point where I could draw the ball of light from outer space, cause it to extend into a cylindrical form, visualize it twirling around a few times and then totally surround my body with a healing glow. I can still vividly recall how, months after my second killer surgery, I recall the wonderful day that I woke up and realized that for the first time in about four months, nothing was hurting! Now I had done nothing to specifically prepare for this specific event on this specific day, but upon reflection, I realized that I had managed to put myself into the position to receive it.

A Unique Tool
I have remastered into a new CD titled “MAARS Program, Guided Imagery for Cancer Patients”, an improved version of the very imagery program that I used to beat a three month death sentence after treatments for metastatic kidney cancer had failed. This has been used with success by patients with many types of cancer the world over. There is a new feature in this CD in that it has been encoded with an alpha wave frequency to help you to relax more deeply. Research shows that when the brain is in a relaxed and receptive state, it emits alpha wave frequencies as seen via EEG. This state plays an active role in communication and coordination within the brain and is associated with a higher level of learning. Additional health benefits have been shown in subjects who regularly practice techniques which cause the brain to enter the alpha state such as meditation and Bio-Feedback. My CD is designed to help you to enter the alpha state more quickly and deeply.

The Key to Relaxation

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The key to getting your right brain to accept suggestions to put your immune system to work to fight cancer is relaxation, pure and simple. Upon receiving the dreaded cancer diagnosis, cancer patients immediately experience high levels of stress. The first exercise on the CD will help you to relax so that the mind/body connection can be established. This new technique has been shown to make that happen more quickly and thoroughly. Once in the relaxed state, the CD takes you through an exercise designed to awaken your immune system and put it to work on cancer cells. Again, alpha wave frequencies encoded in the program are there to make the experience occur at a deep level. Patients who used this new program report that they become relaxed much more easily and that they experience a heightened sense of relaxation afterward.

 To Order please visit the order page

Counting on Cures
Recently, I had my attention called to a passage of scripture that grabbed my attention like a grapling hook. The story is related in the fifth chapter of the book of Second Kings. It tells of how a commander of the Syrian army by the name of Naaman was healed of his leprosy in spite of the fact that he almost let preconcieved notions prevent it. A benevolent and courageous little maid, whose name we do not know, dared to suggest to her captors that the prophet Elisha in Samaria could cause his leprosy to be healed. Naaman was told of this and he, in turn , told the King who heartily endorsed the project and even sent money and letters of recommendation to the king of Israel. Thus everything was as politically correct as could be in the anticipation of a healing. The king of Israel, on the other hand, and suspicious of some alterior motive, rent his clothes in anger and only calmed down when Elisha persuaded him to let him come so that he might show him that there was, indeed, a prophet in Israel. Naaman then proceeded to Elisha’s door where another near disaster occurred. Elisha did not even come out of the house, but rather sent his servant out to tell Naaman that if he would just go wash seven times in the Jordan River, he would be healed. Naaman was furious at what he percieved to be a slight and left in a rage saying “I THOUGHT (emphasis mine) that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God and strike his hand over the place and cleanse the leper”. Somewhere along the way, protocol had replaced hope in Naaman’s mind. He asked indignantly why, since the rivers of his home town were much cleaner, that he just could not go wash in them. It seems to me that the “I THOUGHT” is the precursor to Namman’s almost losing out on the sure cure he was counting on.

It was a very good thing for him that he had servants with the courage to argue the point that, “If he had asked you to do some great thing, you would have done it. What do you have to lose, other than your leprosy, by simply doing what the man you came so many miles to see as told you to do?”. Reason then took hold , Naaman did as he was told and the leprosy was history. It seems to be a characteristic of the human race to presume to know the mind of God and, as a result, assign Him a role to play in a script of their own writing.

Approaching with an Open Mind
How I wish that patients wishing to learn about guided imagery for cancer would approach it with the open mindedness of those unamed servants. I wish for them the excitement that I felt with each day of discovery as I pursued the remission with focused determination but with an attitude that never ceased to inquire and to marvel at what I discovered in my own spiritual life and in the writings of others. One of the advantages of starting out totally ignorant of a subject is that you can only learn and knowledge is a powerful weapon in the cancer wars. I wish that people could fully realize, even when things are at their darkest, that the song of a bird or the bloom of a rose is a heaven sent joy that one must not let go by unappreciated.

Different birds will sing and different flowers will bloom for each patient, but they all are markers along the healing journey. I once wrote that it is alright to ask for the miracle, it is alright to expect it and it is wonderful when you get it! When it finally does occur, as it has to thousands, it will be a unique and treasured experience wherein the pain of the cancer will be lost in the joy of overcoming.

And so, I say to you, as Naaman servant’s said to him, dare to seek this miracle with an open mind and using all the competent means at hand. What do you have to lose other than the cancer?

SYMBOLS THAT INSPIRE

The inherent power of symbols that inspire us to effect healing should not be overlooked. There are many and diverse such symbols. The pictures of a glowing fire in the fireplace and a pretty Christmas Tree evoke strong imagery responses of a highly personal nature. Your favorite team winning in the closing seconds of the game, friends gathered for a reunion, getting that good job, graduation from college with that diploma finally in hand or so many other experiences as many and diverse as there are individuals to experience them that all have the power to evoke a strong emotional tide. It is therefore logical to pursue those things that cause healing emotions to flow freely.

Jerry's blanket

Cancer is a family affair and the healing blanket is but one creative way that my family participated in my healing program. Wife, kids, spouses and grandkids all “laid on the hands” with patterns of their hands. The symbolism here is terrific, going back to the scriptural laying on of hands for healing. In the days when my cancer was at its worst, I could feel the healing power in these loving hands that wrapped around me.”



Those of you who have listened to my CD are familiar with a “snug little cottage” that is safe from the ravages of disease. This was inspired by a copy of the Thomas Kincaid painting “A New Day Dawning” that hangs above our fireplace. It is amazing how these uplifting symbols are all around us waiting to be woven into to a consistent program of healing symbolism. Look for them. Put them to work!!