Psychology Articles

A fascinating lecture took place recently in the psychology department of a University in Dundee Scotland. It was designed to provide a window for school pupils who were considering a career in psychology and it was delivered by several distinguished lecturers. What the students didn’t expect, however, was that they would be receiving a lecture on the value of lying. The professors detailed why lying was an inevitable, indeed necessary, part of the human social fabric. They provided further validation of the fact by citing recent research that tentatively suggests that large brained primates – like chimps – use deception too.

A core aspect of many schools of psychotherapy is helping people understand the inevitability of human flaws such as this. Indeed, what the academic psychologists are finding is that not only is such behaviour inevitable, it is desirable too – in an evolutionary sense and for the good of the species as a whole.

Genuine awareness comes from true acceptance and contemplating the realities of moral issues such as this is a very good gateway into such awareness. The reality is that our imperfections themselves are what makes us perfect. You cannot have perfection without imperfection. Yes, this is a paradox, but it is no less true or powerful a reality for that. There are things about us that we may not like that, nevertheless, serve a purpose too. In isolation we may not appreciate them – nor should we – but they have value in the wider context.

Acceptance is the key. Acceptance is the ultimate destination of the journey of self awareness. All therapy – face to face or Internet therapy – is, one way or another, designed to help you get there. At the same time, however, it is also important to find a way to embrace the need for change. This might sound like another contradiction, but, in fact, it follows: If you really accept every aspect of yourself such as the occasional foray into dishonesty, then you will, at the same time, feel a compulsion to change. After all, no one wants to be dishonest. To truly be at one with acceptance, you must also be change. So, again, we reach a paradox. And the corollary is also true; you cannot embody change, without simultaneously, embodying acceptance. To really change, you must first accept all parts of you, otherwise you will be unable to change – all effort to do so will serve only as a temporary escape, often exacerbating the original status quo that you wanted to change in the first place.

So there you have it; the paradoxical goals of psychotherapy. These are the circles all of us are trying to square – I see it in myself, as well as the clients I have seen in offline and Internet therapy too; we must embrace our imperfections without ceasing to seek perfection, we must embody acceptance, without failing to strive for change. These are not destinations you will ever fully arrive at. It is the journey of life, and the psychology lecture in a Scottish University was a good starting point.

Dr Russell Razzaque earned his medical degree from the University of London, he is a member of the UK Royal College of Psychiatrists and is a Consultant Psychiatrist practicing in the British National Health Service. In 2009, after several years of development, he launched an online stillness based self help program – Sileotherapy – a unique combination of meditation techniques and Internet therapy:

http://www.meditation-therapy.net

In addressing the history of counseling we want to divide the subject into two sections, secular and Christian.

Secular. The history of counseling had its origins, first in religion, later in philosophy, and later still in medicine. Religion and philosophy asked many of the same questions: “Where did I come from? Where am I going? Why am I here?” Medicine on the other hand tends to ask the question “Are you covered by insurance?” From time to time, the members of a community would suffer from the vicissitudes of life. At such times, they would seek help from their priest, wise man, or witch doctor. Often all three were offices were found in one person. Generally the problems they faced were of two kinds; grief over the loss of a loved one, or guilt related to the problem of wrong behavior, sometimes called sin.

There were other problems of course, ranging from love sickness, to anxiety, to madness. Such extraordinary problems called for extraordinary solutions. Love sickness had its potions, and anxiety its elixirs and counsel, while madmen were often considered to be touched by the gods, and if not honored they were at worse driven from their community. Hannibal, Alexander, and Caesar with their bouts of epilepsy are examples of the former, whereas King David (I Samuel 21:10-15) and the maniac of Gadara (Luke 8:26-39) are examples of the later.

Such was the order of things for millennia. However, as populations grew and religions changed, madness began to be looked upon with less tolerance. In time, “mad houses” came into existence to deal with the impatience and fear of society with such people.

It was about this time that psychiatry and psychology began to make their presence known. Both had their origins in 19th century Europe. However, of the two, psychology was far more a product of science than was psychiatry. However, both were founded in the secular humanism of a Europe turned cold to the gospel of Christ and thereby far outside the pale of orthodox Christianity.

Christian. Christian counseling has been a part of the work of ministry from the origin of the Church. “Every since apostolic times, counseling has occurred in the Church as a natural function of corporate spiritual life.” Paul made it clear that he considered the family of God competent to counsel one another when the need arose. He said, “I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to instruct (counsel) one another” (Romans 15:14 NIV).

Like the helping mission of the pagans around them, Christianity also addressed the problems of grief and sin, although with considerably different counsel on how to deal with these problems.

The Reformation, and later the Puritan movement in England and American saw a significant return by Christianity to the authority of the bible as the only source of “life and godliness.” What characterized the Puritans in particular was a practical application of the Word to the problems of life. In this sense, Christian counseling began to take on new significance. Several works stand out as exceptional representatives of this flow of valuable counsel to the Church. They are, Richard Baxter’s A Christian Directory, Thomas Brooks’s Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices, Jonathan Edwards’s A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections, and Ichabod Spencer’s A Pastor’s Sketches. Much of these writings are what we might call “case study” in style.

Nevertheless, in time, the message of the church grew dim, and the void created by a Church with few answers, was address by creative minds with humanistic convictions. Foremost among this crowd was Sigmund Freud a physician from Vienna, Austria. Operating not simply from unchristian, but actually anti-Christian premises, Freud postulated a humanity without sin, helpless victims of their parents’ failures. For a world struggling to free itself from a theological bondage of Reformed theology which made mankind totally responsible for their moral failures, the blame shifting of the new psychologists and psychiatrists did not prove to be resistible. Europe and America in the 19th and 20th centuries begin to flock to the answers of the questions of the dilemmas of life posited by these men.

In time, Christian ministers began to be aware that they were no longer looked to for answers on problems of living, as they once were. Indeed, the unspoken consensus was that Christianity did not have answers for these new problems. Not only did the humanists believe this; Christians themselves came to hold the same position. The liberals in the Church addressed these serious problems of living by Christians, either by “deferring and referring” to “those properly trained to deal with ‘real’ problems,” (psychologists or psychiatrist) or by obtaining the psychological training that would equip them to this task. The conservatives saw the problem as a lack of commitment, bible study, prayer, and faithful attendance of all the church services. In other words, they denied its existence.

In the ’60’s a new breed of evangelical, represented by Bruce Narramore, presented an alternative to the capitulation of liberalism on the one hand, and the denial of fundamentalism on the other. Their answer was the “Christianization” of psychiatry and psychology. Their rallying cry was “all truth is God’s truth.” With this banner held high, they boldly attacked the gates of neurosis, snatching brands from the mass of the depressed. Orthodox Christians flocked to read the new books harmonizing orthodox Christianity and the humanism of psychology and psychiatry.

This solution captured the imagination of the Church; it continues to do so to this day. However, in the early 70’s a new approach was pioneered by a professor of practical theology at Westminster Theological Seminary, Dr. Jay E. Adams. In response to the responsibilities given him to teach counseling to the students at Westminster, he developed a counseling method, which he dubbed nouthetic counseling. Essentially, he asserted that in scripture the Christian has everything he needs for “life and Godliness.” The problem with the Church, he stated, was that it had not made the scripture useful by means of proper exegesis, and functionally relevant with useful applications to the problems of life.

His writings started a quiet, slow growing, revolution in many conservative/orthodox churches. It is this return to the bible that has brought Christianity full circle in its application of scripture to the practical and difficult problems of life.

http://www.living-hope-press.com/Christian-Counseling.html

http://www.living-hope-press.com/

If your public service involves interviewing surviving victims of or eyewitnesses to violent events, you will want to learn more about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and the Witness Memory Retrieval Technique and how each can impact your investigation.

Research proves there are two distinct human processes that prevent investigators and police personnel from conducting the most effective investigation when working with surviving victims of and eyewitnesses to violent crimes. Those processes have been identified as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Memory Retrieval (Recall).

What is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and how does it impact the Witness Memory Retrieval process?

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a reaction to a violent event that evokes intense fear, terror and helplessness. Many surviving victims of violent crimes…rape, robbery, murder, kidnapping, terrorism, sexual abuse and physical assault, for example, are unable to recognize the signs of emotional stress they are experiencing. Traumatic events trigger feelings in victims from which they cannot easily recover, largely because they have not been helped to recognize and subsequently deal with their emotional and behavioral changes. These feelings impede an investigators’ ability to retrieve additional significant information paramount to solving a case.

As a police officer or investigator you are often the first contact victims have following a traumatic encounter. The importance of police interaction with victims cannot be underestimated. In many instances, victims suffer what is known as second injury in their interactions with police, judges, attorneys, physicians and other public authority figures. The term “second injury” refers specifically to a psychological injury, rather than a physical injury. The event will leave the victim in a vulnerable state of mind, causing them to perceive situations in a distorted and overly negative light.

Although it is natural to establish common perceptions about the kinds of behavior people exhibit, know that things are not always as they appear. The outcome of effective police-victim interviewing can have a positive dual impact, aiding you in retrieving pertinent and factual data relevant to your case, while protecting the immediate and potential future emotional well-being of the victim.

While you certainly are not expected to be an expert diagnostician or mental health professional, you are in an ideal position to help. Acquiring even basic information on PTSD combined with practical experience and cognitive interviewing skills can be a major benefit for eliciting more precise and vital investigative information.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder manifests itself in phases beginning with the initial impact or shock the victim suffers and ultimately resulting in a healthy recovery. Dr. Calvin J. Frederick, retired Chief of Psychological Services at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in West Los Angeles, California has spent a career researching PTSD and has developed a Table that lists the phases a victim moves through and the physiological and psychological symptoms a victim is likely to display following a violent event.

In addition to becoming more aware of the signs of PTSD, there are initial intervention responses available to you. According to Dr. Martin Symonds, retired New York City Police Department psychiatrist, the first moments of police contact with a victim/witness are the most critical moments.

It is essential that the victim be provided with a feeling of trust and support and a lessening of any external threat following the trauma of a violent crime. Police officers, especially non-uniformed officers, should immediately identify themselves as such to the victim/witness. It would be helpful to include basic opening conversation such as “I’m sorry this happened to you” “It wasn’t your fault” and/or “I’m glad you’re alright.” This combined with preliminary intervention techniques will reinforce the victims’ trust that they are dealing with law enforcement officers who are sensitive to and aware of the trauma being suffered.

Lastly, the method in which a victim/witness is interviewed for police report taking is not only crucial to his/her emotional healing but also to the type and amount of investigative information you are able to retrieve.

The most widely used ’standard’ method of interviewing is a series of questions beginning with a description of the suspect(s) – sex, age, race, height, weight, color of hair and eyes and the victim’s account of the event.

The second method of interviewing is hypnosis, generally performed by a specially trained forensic hypnotist. With the victim in a state of altered consciousness, the forensic hypnotist asks questions and solicits answers. This method is the least used because of the negative legal ramifications it poses within the judicial system.

The third method is the cognitive Witness Memory Retrieval Technique (WMRT), researched and developed by Dr. R. Edward Geiselman of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). WMRT is a collection of memory-jogging techniques designed to provide investigators with an organized series of focused memory retrieval ‘cues’ and steps that help victims/witnesses retrieve and elaborate on information stored in the memory.

The theoretical support of the research and development are based on two generally accepted principles of memory:

* A memory is comprised of several elements. The more elements a memory retrieval ‘cue’ has in common with the recall of an event, the more effective the ‘cue’ is in retrieving information.
* A memory has several access routes, so information that is not accessible with one retrieval ‘cue’ may be accessed with a different one.

The purpose of the Witness Memory Retrieval Technique, when used in conjunction with the standard interview method, maximizes the quantity and quality of information retrieved while minimizing the effects of misleading or inaccurate information.

Skillful incident-specific treatment is an absolute prerequisite for effective police-victim relations and problem resolution. Determining the most reliable and effective tools available is a concern for most law enforcement investigators. Any valid interviewing instrument should be designed to deduce the pertinent facts, identifications and recollection of the event that best assist you in the apprehension and conviction of the criminal suspect(s). Essential bits of information can make the difference between the time you spend on solid leads and the time you spend following up on weak ones.

As you well know violent events happen in a matter of seconds and yet it’s amazing what the memory can store. To test your own Memory Recall for FREE and for further information on the Witness Memory Retrieval Technique training video and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder go to http://www.GiveYourselfTheInvestigativeEdge.com.

Advanced methods of obtaining more accurate and detailed information becomes critical when it is time for a witness to make a suspect identification during a lineup or ’six-pack’ photospread or when called to testify in court. The cognitive interview method can enhance an eyewitness’s ability to recall events and provide solid investigative information. Test your own memory recall for FREE at: http://www.GiveYourselfTheInvestigativeEdge.com.

Your dreams must be translated according to the scientific method of dream interpretation discovered by Carl Jung and simplified by me, who continued his research, so that you may verify by yourself that this translation is accurate and you are really able to understand the wise messages of the unconscious mind with it. You’ll see that these messages contain details about your past and about your thoughts and feelings that only you know.

You’ll see that you start having a communication with the unconscious mind as soon as you learn how to translate your dreams, because the unconscious mind will answer all your questions in your own dreams, besides showing you many very interesting things about your behavior and your life.

The unconscious mind will show you the content existent in the wild side of your conscience, and teach you how to tame it and transform it into a positive part of your human conscience.

This means that your wild instincts will acquire a wise aspect that will help you judge the external reality much better, and understand more about your internal world.

The scientific translation is the result of long research and many comparisons. You are lucky because today you have the brief result of such complicated study, in a very clear form.

First of all, you’ll see that by following the scientific method, you’ll learn many things about the functionalism of your brain and psyche. This is real knowledge that helps you become more intelligent and become a psychologist yourself, which means that you are also able to understand much better the reactions of other people. You start analyzing their behavior, the same way you analyze yours, and discovering who all the people around you really are.

The scientific translation is very objective, and shows you directly the meaning of the most important dream symbols, besides showing you how to discover by yourself the meaning of all the parts of each dream. You verify that the translations are correct, because they give you real information that you are able to see in practice, reflected in your own behavior and in your own life.

Your dreams will show you all your mistakes and all the points of reality that you don’t observe. They work like medicine, helping you become stronger and self-confident with all the vision you have, besides transforming your personality, as all the components of your character are studied and comprehended.

Everyone discovers many proofs that confirm to them that the scientific translation of their dreams is accurate, as time passes and they verify that the unconscious’ warnings save them from trouble and help them prepare the future they desire.

Don’t waste your time with methods of dream interpretation that don’t show you anything practical, because they are mere suppositions of the dream interpreters, who give you explanations based on their personal opinion.

The scientific method of dream interpretation respects the integrity of the unconscious messages, translating for you the real meaning of your dreams. You learn how to translate images and scenes into words and sentences that make sense to your human conscience, besides understanding very well that these messages have to be hidden from the anti-conscience, the wild side of your conscience, which is your worst enemy, since it lives trying to destroy your humanity and control your behavior.

There are no hidden points for you when you learn the dream language well, since the unconscious mind shows you the entire truth about everything, without misleading you like human beings do, because they are selfish and they want to take advantage of you.

The unconscious mind is your loyal protector: you can be always sure that it cares about your health and your happiness, above anything else.

Christina Sponias continued Carl Jung’s research into the human psyche, discovering the cure for all mental illnesses, and simplifying the scientific method of dream interpretation that teaches you how to exactly translate the meaning of your dreams, so that you can find health, wisdom and happiness.
Learn more at: http://www.scientificdreaminterpretation.com
Click Here to download a Free Sample of the eBook Dream Interpretation as a Science (86 pages!).

I bet we all have taken those personality tests in school or for a prospective employer that is supposed to help us, and them, to better understand our natural tendencies and strengths. It can be valuable and fun information to have but kind of dry and impractical. What do you really take away from those tests that you can apply and use to improve your quality of life? A lot of the time I learn and judge those parts of myself as things I wish I could change. I often look at the qualities of the other types and yearn to be more like them and that’s not very supportive. Usually, I can identify with the overall group which the test assesses most reflects my personality type, but knowing that doesn’t really help me figure out much about going through life or accepting myself for the way I am.

Recently I discovered a way of profiling my personality so unlike any other I’ve ever known that I had to create this article to spread the word…it’s that life-changing!

I read this book It’s Just My Nature! by Carol Tuttle and I discovered such profound revelations about why I am the way I am and how embracing and living my true nature is one of the greatest gifts I could give myself.

I am a seeker of personal development and what interests me is how to better myself and how to improve my relationships with others. Psychology and human behavior fascinates me and I think everyone should have the benefit of feeling validated in who they truly are and also have the insight of learning the strengths and weaknesses inherent in their nature.

The system is called Energy Profiling.

It breaks personality profiles down into four distinct “Types” and uniquely relates them to actual elements and movements in nature.

Type 1: Nitrogen, Upward, Light with a gift for Ideas, essence of Lightness

Type 2: Oxygen, Fluid, Flowing with a gift for Details, essence of Connectedness

Type 3: Hydrogen, Active, Reactive with a gift for Action, essence of Sureness

Type 4: Carbon, Constant, Still with a gift for Perfecting, essence of Stillness

Each of us leads with one of these Types as a dominant quality and tends towards another as a close secondary quality. But each of the 4 Types are in us all and this system perfectly illustrates and describes them in such amazing detail that you will not believe how well you will be able to understand and recognize yourself.

You rarely see a personality test go into such detail as describing these tendencies.

Behavior Tendencies:

* Relationships, Social, Timeliness
* Work, Money, Physical Activity

Body Language:

* Walking, Sitting/Standing, Voice/Language
* Doodling, Personal Space, Interior Design

Physical Features:

* Skin and Skin Texture
* Face Shape, Cheeks, Nose, Eyebrows, Eyes, Hands

Interactions and Expressions:

* Learn how your energy Type affects others
* Learn how to create a successful relationship with each Type…the Dos and Don’ts
* Learn each Type’s natural gifts and talents, how they process information, their leadership tendencies
* Learn what common expressions each Type often hears from others that conflicts with their natural movements
* Discover common challenges that can occur when you express your leading Type too dominantly

In the short time that I have become aware of this information, I have found that I am now just naturally noticing and identifying these traits in the people around me and am using the knowledge to improve the quality of my relationships.

The real gift is that you will learn to embrace and appreciate even those personality traits that you have judged to be faults, weaknesses, conflicts or annoyances.

This is simply some of most enlightening, supportive and useful information that I could recommend for anyone’s personal development.

Can you grasp how helpful having the knowledge of your Energy Profile can be as a spouse, a parent, an employer or employee? I actually have the ability now to quickly study a person’s face and body language to get a pretty clear picture of their Type and anticipate their natural behaviors.

Make the choice to open up to this new awareness so you can embrace, understand and live your true nature too.

Visit my personal development website It’s a practical guide to learning the Universal and Spiritual Laws that will empower your personal development growth. It emphasizes the science of Energy, the Law Of Attraction, Emotional Freedom Techniques and the pursuit of expanded conscious awareness.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy or CBT is a psychotherapeutic approach used by therapists to help to promote positive change in people by addressing their thought patterns, feelings and behavioural issues. Difficulties with irrational thinking, dysfunctional thoughts and faulty learning are identified and then treated using CBT. Therapy can be conducted with individuals, groups or families and the goals of CBT are to restructure one’s thoughts, perceptions and responses which facilitate changes in behaviours.

The earliest form of CBT was developed by an American Psychologist, Albert Ellis (1913-2007) in 1955, naming his approach Rational Emotive Behavioural Therapy (REBT). Ellis (right) is looked on as ‘the grandfather of cognitive behavioural therapies’ Ellis credits Alfred Korzybski (who developed the theory of general semantics, which in turn influenced NLP) and his book ‘Science and Sanity’ for starting him on the path of founding REBT.

In the 1960s an American Psychiatrist, Aaron T Beck, (below) developed another CBT approach called ‘cognitive therapy’ which was originally developed for depression but rapidly became a favourite model to study because of the positive results it achieved. CBT therapists believe that clinical depression is typically associated with negatively biased thinking and irrational thoughts. CBT is now used to provide treatment in all psychiatric disorders and also increases medication compliance, resulting in a better outcome in mental illness. A major aid in CBT is the ABC technique of irrational beliefs, the three steps are:

A is the Activating event, the event that leads to a negative thought.

B is the Beliefs, the client’s belief around the event.

C is the Consequence, the dysfunctional behaviour that ensued from the thoughts and feelings originating from the event. An example would be: Susan is upset because she got a low mark in her math’s test, the Activating event A is that she failed her test, the Belief, B is that she must have good grades or she is worthless, the Consequence C is that Susan feels depressed. In the above example, the therapist would help Susan identify her irrational beliefs and challenge the negative thoughts based on the evidence from her experience and then reframe it, meaning, to re-interpretate it in a more realistic light. Another very useful aid in CBT is to help a client identify with the ten distorted thinking patterns:

1 All or nothing thinking – seeing things in black or white, if your performance falls short of perfect, you see yourself as a total failure.

2 Overgeneralization – seeing a single negative event as a never ending pattern of defeat.

3 Mental Filter – you pick out a single negative defeat and dwell on it so as your vision of reality becomes darkened.

4 Disqualifying the positive – you dismiss positive experiences by insisting that they ‘don’t count’ maintaining a negative belief.

5 Jumping to conclusions – you make a negative interpretation even though there are no definite facts that convincingly support your conclusion, this includes ‘mind reading’ and ‘fortune telling’ or ‘assuming.

6 Magnification (Catastrophising) minimization – exaggerating things or minimizing things, this is also called the ‘binocular trick’.

7 Emotional reasoning – assuming that your negative emotions reflect the way things really are, ‘I feel it, therefore, it must be true’.

8 Should statements – ’shoulds’, ‘musts’ and ‘oughts’ are offenders.

9 Labeling and mislabeling – instead of describing your error, you attach a negative label to it, ie ‘Im a loser’.

10 Personalisation – you see yourself as the cause of some negative external event which in fact you were not responsible for.

These are just some of the techniques used in CBT, others are, relaxation tecniques, communication skills training, assertiveness training, social skills training and giving the client homework assignments.

In a nutshell, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy aims to help a client to become aware of thought distortions which are causing psychological distress and of behavioural patterns which are reinforcing it, and to correct them.

Thomas Inglis Smith is a qualified counsellor, hypnotherapist, NLP practitioner and life coach specialising in addictions. He also produces audio hypnosis recordings. For a free ‘recession busting’ hypnosis download please visit http://www.selfhypnosisdownloads.co.uk

Fear is by far the most misunderstood emotion. In our conventional wisdom it is regarded far less as an emotion, and far more as a sure sign of danger that justifies instant escape, dissolving our awareness of the fear by discharging its energy in action, one form of dissociation. Another is to regard a feeling as a fact that is equivalent to reality. Such a fiction, that feelings by themselves can identify and represent reality, is regarded as borderline in mental functioning. And yet we do it every day with fear. We use the emotion of fear as motive and justification for emotional, and even physical violence.

What we seldom do with fear is to treat it entirely as an emotion, even for a while, to let its energy pass through us, in effect talking to ourselves. Feelings spontaneously emerge to grab our attention, focusing it in a particular direction, with a specific perspective that contains its own peculiar attitude. Such as a sudden feeling of sadness when it’s cloudy and cold, evoking a sense of being unprotected, exposed to hazardous elements, being trapped there – perhaps as a child in some way that produced great helplessness and fear.

Emotions simultaneously carry both small and very large experiential elements. This is nature’s way of offering small upsets that we can manage which are symbolically connected to very large hurts or traumas, almost always having occurred in childhood, brought to our attention via the feeling and its attitudes – just in case we need to remember them in order to survive or to grow psychically. In this way feelings can discover things; facts can’t.

In exploring one’s feelings, what’s most interesting to note is how a specific emotion, and its perspective fit into the whole of who we are. Viewed this way the emotion has brought us a message that probably offers some new information about ourselves, and how we relate to the spontaneous experience that triggered the feeling and its attitude. In other words, it offers us something to learn about ourselves.

Viewed as an emotion, rather than a call to action, fear is most probably the learning emotion. It tries to be, doing what’s necessary to accomplish that role – except that we frequently insist upon using it in an entirely different way, most heinously to justify violence.

This expose of how we use fear doesn’t mean that nobody treats it differently. There are lots of people who have come to realize the enormous power-potential of learning more about them selves by exploring their emotional experience. Yet in that process of discovery, fear is the hardest emotion to feel without dissolving into impulsive panicky action to try and discharge it, to get rid of it. As many wise people have said, what we fear most is fear itself – perhaps more than anything else. It’s very difficult to study something we’re afraid of.

My additional works can be seen at this website: http://donfenn.com

During witch-hunting, virtually all people, including majority of alleged witches themselves, believed that witches were indeed guilty in bad weather, food spoilage, misfortune, natural disasters, and other effects and phenomena. It was presence and gradualism of torture that was one of the factors that made most witches convinced in being possessed by evil spirits. Hence, witch-hunters could get more confidence, when witnessing how “witches” exposed their “real nature” and admitted being possessed. This uniform belief was one of the key factors in longevity of mass witch-hunting that spread for about 3 centuries with large numbers of witches being burned or killed (up to about 100,000 victims according to many sources). In such conditions, there were very few, if any, cases, when a witch-hunter could get insight (“Aha!” experience) and realize absurdity of their own behaviour.

During Nazi’s Holocaust, some Jews could believe in their own inferiority. However, most of them were still not convinced, even after spending months or years in concentrations camps, that they were inferior in relation to the Arian race. Hence, behaviour of Holocaust victims was characterised by resistance and preservation of their original beliefs. Similarly, other nations did not buy the idea about one super race on Earth. Uncooperative behaviour of Holocaust victims and other nations undermined the spirit of Nazis so that it existence was limited by about 13 years. Resistance of Jews, disapproval of Nazism by other nations, and public trials (like Nuremberg process) made many Nazis grasp their heads in the astonishment and shock in relation to their past actions.

Under conditions of severe torture, as it was the case with most witches, victims are able to recreate and falsify their testimonies so that to fit the ideas and suggestions imposed by the persecutors. This was also the case with thousands of Soviet civilians persecuted by the Soviet regime, especially in the 1930s-1950s. Stalin’s pupils were looking for organizations and names of other “enemies of people”. Their suspects, under conditions of extreme suffering, could often provide names of numerous “accomplices” who were also, as they believed, cooperated and directed from and by the enemy (western capitalism). This effect (falsification of memories) made leaders and organizers of Gulag Labour camps convinced that there were indeed numerous enemies, groups, and plots against the Soviet state. Hence, it is normal that modern Siberian FSB-KGB agents, who have developed under control of past mass Gulag murderers and who were never debriefed and explained the silly foundations of this hunt, are still under the influence of this decades-old mass paranoia. Inability of modern Russian leaders to have a clear view on silliness and primitivism of Stalinism further promotes existence of groups of Siberian agents who continue to murder civilians due to the fear of the insight (the “Aha” experience seems for them too frightful).

The simplest experiment on obedience to authority and gullibility of ordinary people, in making them murder accomplices, was conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram in the 1960s. The experiment was reproduced with the same basic result in many countries. In these studies, in spite of extreme resistance of the learners (victims), who yelled, screamed, and demanded to stop their torture during the later part, well over 50% of subjects (“teachers”) continued punishment until to the presumably lethal end. Obviously, in such conditions of extreme uncooperativeness of their victims, Milgram’s subjects experienced increasing and severe emotional shock during last stages of the experiment and most of them could not become confident murder accomplices.

In all these situations, authorities managed to fool ordinary people using various excuses (“social well being”, “harmonious one nation Aryan world”, “universal communism”, and “science and learning”) into killing of totally innocent people. The ability of these subjects-perpetrators to get the basic insight (“Aha, I was fooled!”) into their manipulated roles (of being fooled) depended on reactions and “opinions” of their victims. Hence, perpetrators’ ability to have the insight ranged from nearly zero in case of witch-hunting and Stalin’s repressions and up to almost 100% in case of the Milgram study.

Artour Rakhimov, PhD – Moscow State University, currently a citizen of Canada, also writes about psychology, history, politics, sociology, and other humanitarian topics, while his main interest is his website http://www.NormalBreathing.com and prevention and treatment of chronic diseases. Normal Breathing: the Key to Vital Health.

Recently, a Christian colleague made it clear to me that he found the use of hypnosis at the very least questionable and at the very worst “dark.” He asked me to refrain from using it in my psychotherapy work with my contract patients in the agency he founded. For lack of time, I assured him that I would honor his wishes, but quickly pointed out to him that the use of hypnosis (whether it was formal trance or Verbal First Aid, which is the use of words to facilitate healing in acute situations, such as accidents or shock) was no different than the use of a knife. In the hands of a good surgeon, it could be a life-saver. In the hands of a madman, it would be dark indeed.

Afterwards, it became clear to me that his understanding of hypnosis and mine were quite different. And any good debate must begin with a clarification of terms. Too many reasonable discussions deteriorate into pointless argument because no one fully defines himself.

What do we mean then by trance and hypnosis? More specifically, what do Christians who fear hypnosis mean by it and what do ethical clinicians mean by it? For our purposes today, we will leave the madmen out of it.

The Christian Definitions or Concerns:

1. “Mesmerism”

It is very important to address this because what Christians fear about hypnosis is something rather fearful: deliberation manipulation, external mind control, or spell-casting that leaves a person open to spiritual corruption. They form their impressions of the technique from what they have read in popular media (including the early reports on “Mesmerism,” which was presented as a demonic seduction of young women by irresistible and wretched old men), watched on TV, or seen in lounge acts where hypnosis is reduced to having some poor sot play air guitar or bite happily into an onion.

It is not hard to see what makes them uneasy. And, what is worse is that there are people in the world who use hypnotic trance unethically. They may not be madmen, but they should not be calling themselves healers or professionals by any means.

In fact, the worst of these “trance inducers” have nothing to do with lounge acts or private practices. There are at least two times a day when most people are in the deepest, most vulnerable and suggestible trances they are ever in: When they are driving in their cars and when they are at home watching television. And the messages they receive in those states-usually corporate advertising-are what they are unconsciously absorbing.

2. Spiritual Bankruptcy

In Christianity’s beginnings, as in early Judaism, sickness (or insanity) was seen as a function of sin or possession. And the ONLY thing that could cure sin was God and our faith in Him. Anything that interfered with that relationship and dependence on God was prohibited. In those days, that interference usually took the shape of idolatry and pagan religions.

When seen as “mesmerism” or as a loss of control to an unknown entity (e.g., the intentions or spirituality of the hypnotherapist), hypnosis leaves the individual vulnerable to literally who-knows-what-malevolent suggestion, criminal manipulation, and demons.

As Father Russell Radoicich, an Orthodox priest from Butte, Montana, wrote, “Christianity has always called people to live in full awareness, in reality, with nothing having mastery over us except God.” When hypnosis is defined as making one person subject to another (spiritually or mentally), is it any wonder that it is seen as questionable if not downright dangerous?

Hypnosis seen this way-as a quick fix with little depth-can also be considered a crutch or a deterrent to spiritual growth, which is why Father Russell reminds us that “the spiritual work must be done or there is no true rehabilitation. People may lose weight or stop smoking, but the deeper matter has not been addressed.”

Hypnosis, when used as a proper tool in a healing manner, can actually help to facilitate what Fr. Russell is referring to as “the spiritual work” or “the deeper matter.” Again, it is in the hands of the practitioner and the patient as to where the work goes. And in this regard the choice of clinician is important.

3. The Loosening of Moral Inhibition

One of Christianity’s great fears about hypnosis is that it induces a moral laxity and makes the prohibited permissible in the patient’s mind. And, again, when hypnosis is seen this way its prohibition is understandable.

The truth, however, is that clinical hypnosis cannot make anyone do anything that would undermine their moral or ethical resolve.

In an article interview on Hypnosisnetwork, Paul Durbin, a United Methodist minister with a long history of clinical and pastoral service, recalls a famous story about Milton Erickson, M.D., one of the great hypnotherapists and psychiatrists of the last century.

One day Dr. Erickson went to his secretary and told her he was tired and wanted to rest. If anyone called, he told her, she was to say that he was out of the office. She agreed to do this for him. Some time later he put her in a hypnotic trance. He then made the same request-to tell people he was out of the office when he was in fact taking a break. While still in a formally induced trance, she refused him. “Why?” he wanted to know.

“Because,” she said, “it would be a lie.”

Ironically, in hypnosis she had a stronger moral resolve than in her normal waking state.

Hypnosis is not “brainwashing,” as Durbin points out. Brainwashing can be accomplished at any time, with or without formal trance simply by the constant repetition of suggestion. In our culture we call this advertising and media bombardment.

Let us now take a look at how responsible clinicians see hypnosis and how it can be helpful and safe for Christians to utilize it in their own healing process–whether that’s from a back injury, a surgical procedure, or a painful divorce.

The Clinical Definitions:

1. Trance As An Ordinary State of Consciousness

Perhaps the most important definition from the clinical point of view is that hypnosis only utilizes a state of consciousness that is already natural and normal. Trance is not something that is artificially induced in a person. It is not something the hypnotherapist “does” to the patient. It is simply a state of awareness in which we are more focused on an internal process (breathing, thoughts, heartbeat) and most importantly it is something all of us move in and out of all day.

Trance is normal rather than exceptional. What a good clinician will do is utilize that ordinary ability to shift awareness so that pain can be relieved, psychological blockages removed (e.g., fixations on traumatic events), and healing can be facilitated in a variety of ways.

This normal shift of awareness is even more common and spontaneous when we are frightened, hurt, or ill, which is why Verbal First Aid works so well to help stop bleeding, reduce an inflammatory response, and lower blood pressure. We can see it even more dramatically when it is used with children who enter fairly easily and frequently into “trance.”

2. Hypnosis is a Tool. Healing is Spiritual.

Healing is not dependent on one technique. A good healer or responsible clinician has more than one tool in her tool kit. Hypnosis may be one of them, but it is almost never the only one.

Hypnosis, when seen this way, as just another tool, becomes less threatening. Most clinicians acknowledge that the deepest healing is often spiritual in nature and that they are facilitators, not magicians.

Pope Pius addressed the concerns of Catholics regarding hypnosis in childbirth and stated that when used by a health care professional who was properly trained, treatment was permitted.

He also cautioned us that:

· Hypnosis was a serious issue and that it should not be toyed with;

· Practitioners should be guided by the same moral principles (Judeo-Christian ones) in their use of hypnosis as with anything else;

· The rules of good medicine must apply as much to hypnosis as to any other technique.

The truth is that no one other than God knows how healing actually occurs. We can suture one piece of skin to another, but how it knits together remains an ineffable mystery.

How Verbal First Aid Works in Alliance with Faith and the Faithful

If the definitions of trance as clinicians use it are accurate (and I believe they are) and the dangers are real as Christians see them (and I believe they certainly can be), how can the healing use of imagery work together with the faithful so that as Jesus said in John 10:10, “I am come that they may have life and have it more abundantly.”

In the beginning was the word.

That words are powerful is a familiar concept to those who read the Bible. According to many biblical scholars, the first sin was not pride, was not disobedience, was not sex. It was gossip-the misuse of words. And it is a most serious act with terribly dire consequences. The serpent whispers to Eve: “You shall not surely die.” He lied. He misled her and all of humanity, for with those words he surely brought us death.

And the only sin for which the Lord will not find us guiltless is using His name in vain.

Words have a prominent position in the Bible from the third sentence: And GOD SAID LET THERE BE LIGHT. He did not create with His “hands” or “eyes”. The “word” is used throughout to mean the “truth.” He spoke-”By the word of the Lord were the heavens made (Ps. 33).” To speak is to WILL into existence. What we say and how we say it is a co-creative act. What we say hangs somewhere between heaven and earth.

Words matter. The mystics have always known this. Only now is science catching up.

Why? Because they create images in the mind of the person to whom we are speaking. Those images and the thoughts that flow with them generate cascades of chemistry that dictate not only how we feel emotionally, but how fast or slow our hearts beat, how high our blood pressure goes, how profoundly we feel the pain of an injury, even the way our livers function.

We all use words all the time. And they have the power to help or to harm. This is already happening–on the streets, in our classrooms, on our cell phones, in our cars. What we say–and what we hear–changes the way we live and heal at the most fundamental levels. Isn’t it our obligation to make what we say as healing as possible? That’s what Verbal First Aid does–gives us the tools to be healing with our words.

Hypnosis is no different than a sermon, a lecture, a television show or a good book. It is the use of words to move us. When used in the right way with a proper intention, those words can help us heal.

Judith Acosta, LISW, is a licensed psychotherapist, crisis counselor and classical homeopath in private practice in New Mexico. She is the co-author of The Worst Is Over: What To Say When Every Moment Counts, hailed as the “bible of crisis communications.” She lectures around the country on Verbal First Aid, trauma, stress, and animal-assisted therapy. She may be reached at her website: http://www.wordsaremedicine.com/verbal-first-aid.

According to dictionary.com, psychology is:

1. The science of the mind or of mental states and processes.

2. The science of human and animal behavior.

3. The sum or characteristics of the mental states and processes of a person or class of persons, or of the mental states and processes involved in a field of activity: the psychology of a soldier; the psychology of politics.

4. Mental ploys or strategy: He used psychology on his parents to get a larger allowance.

I would say that:

Psychology is a scientific study about the human and the animal behavior, about the mental state of each one or of an entire group, and about the various processes of the human mind when the human being is involved in a field or activity.

Now, I’m going to explain to you the psychology of the wise unconscious mind that produces your dreams so that you may understand why you should completely trust it:

1. You see in dream scenes your own behavior reflected in other people so that you may pay attention to your mistakes, having the vision of a second person. In other words, you observe your own behavior as if you were someone else. This way you have another vision of yourself: you see how the world looks at you.

2. The unconscious mind shows you all the dangers of the reality where you are, which you haven’t paid attention to, or you didn’t even know existed.

3. The unconscious mind lets you look for solutions alone, giving you many clues in your own dreams, and helping you during your research, so that your own intelligence may be developed and you learn how to solve all problems alone, without the help of the unconscious mind. In other words: your teacher helps you develop your human conscience so that you may be totally independent.

4. Your vision of yourself and of the world where you are becomes huge. You start paying attention to many details of the reality that you live in, and you know who you really are.

5. The unconscious mind shows you how to transform your personality, so that you may become always more and more intelligent and at the same time, more sensible. This is when your religiosity will be developed too, and a link will be formed between the scientific knowledge you’ll have, and the religious notions you’ll acquire. This is when you’ll feel responsible for the entire world and all the people that live suffering in it, and you’ll work with the unconscious mind in order to help others, the same way that the unconscious mind is helping you.

You’ll stop being a selfish coward, indifferent to the misery and the terrorism of the world, and become a sensitive human being who cares about everyone’s pain, giving them solutions and support.

6. You’ll become a genius and an artist, a scientist and a poet at the same time, because wisdom is a very complex truth, and cannot be divided in separated topics.

Now, if you examine the psychology of most psychologists today, you’ll verify that:

1. They ignore more than they know.

2. They don’t help you become more intelligent and independent. On the contrary: you become dependent on their tactical psychotherapy for years and years.

The wise unconscious mind that produces your dreams is an excellent doctor that surpasses all human doctors, no matter how many diplomas they may have.

Today’s science is atheistic, and it denies analyzing phenomena that it is not able to explain, as if these phenomena would disappear and stop existing only because our scientists want to deny their importance, which they cannot explain if they are severe and keep being scientists all the way, without ever admitting the intrusion of any other material that won’t be strictly related to a scientific study.

However, a true analysis of human behavior should include philosophical, religious and artistic examinations, without considering them subjective like our scientists do today, because more important than a totally scientific conclusion is a wise conclusion, which will include many aspects of the human life that our cold scientists don’t examine, and this is why they cannot see many obvious truths that the wise unconscious mind will show you in your own dreams.

You only have to learn the symbolic dream language made with images instead of words, in order to understand all the wise messages you receive in your own dreams, providing you free psychotherapy everyday.

This is safe psychotherapy, because it comes from a doctor that regulates the functionalism of your organism: it is not based on the theories and suppositions of an ignorant human mind. You are not in danger of losing your mental health when you completely trust the unconscious mind, while you never know what could happen to you if you would completely trust a human doctor.

Christina Sponias continued Carl Jung’s research into the human psyche, discovering the cure for all mental illnesses, and simplifying the scientific method of dream interpretation that teaches you how to exactly translate the meaning of your dreams, so that you can find health, wisdom and happiness.

Click Here to download a Free Sample of the eBook Dream Interpretation as a Science (86 pages!).