COPING WITH CANCER OR OTHER LIFE-THREATENING DISEASES
By Edward F. Pio

Programming the immune system through sensory imagery is a very exciting process. Best of all, it works! This 2 CD 3-week Mini-Course begins in the fourth week of The Self-Hypnosis Course™. Skills learned in the first three weeks of the The Self-Hypnosis Course™ are important to the success of this Mini-Course. Regaining control of your body and life is most important in creating a strong will-to-live.

BALANCING STRESS DAILY

One of the most important skills that you have learned in The Self-Hypnosis Course™ is balancing your stress on a daily basis by doing a minimum of 30 minutes of self-hypnosis; two 30-minute exercises would be even better. Remember that a 30-minute session, when you are in alpha and theta for most of the session, gives you the equivalent rest of 8 hours of quality sleep. And it’s rest that allows the mind and body to heal.
The average person between the ages of 20 and 80 needs a minimum of 8 hours of quality sleep every 24 hours to balance the physical and mental stress generated in the other 16 hours. Unfortunately only a small part of the mental stress generated in the same 24-hour period is balanced in sleep. There is no question that doing the self-hypnosis process on a daily basis will not only balance stress generated in the previous 16 to 20 hours but also each time, a small amount of stored stress will be balanced.
All of the physical and mental stress that isn’t balanced in a 24-hour period is stored in the cells in your body and affects their operation. In the first lecture of The Self-Hypnosis Course™ there is an example of a reservoir or lake with a spillway at one end representing stored stress in your body. When the reservoir or lake is full and fluid is running over the spillway, your immune system and every system in your body is affected.

RESERVOIR IMAGE

In this scenario, if there’s an inch of fluid flowing over the spillway, the immune system may be detuned enough to allow a small infection to take hold in your body, such as a cold of flu. If there is continuous flow over the spillway for many years, arthritis, hypertension - high blood pressure- and other immune system diseases will develop. With many years of fluid flowing at various levels over the spillway, if then there is a tidal wave over the spillway for a three to six month period, cancer and other life-threatening diseases can develop. A tidal wave can be caused by the death of a close relative, loss of a long-held job, divorce, being diagnosed with cancer or any personal event that leads one into great grief and depression for a long period of time.
If the reservoir is below the spillway level and a tidal wave comes, the result will be a short-lived overflow and quickly returning to normal. This is certainly one very good reason for keeping the reservoir at a low level all the time.

VISUALIZATION BY ONCOLOGIST

In the early 70’s an oncologist, Carl Simington M.D., practicing at a large hospital in Texas, was quoted in a national magazine saying that visualization could help stimulate a person’s immune system. He received a lot of coverage about his unusual ideas so when he came to my area for a special physician seminar, I was invited by a physician friend to go to the seminar. When I heard him describe what was happening to his patients using visualization, I knew that what I was teaching would make the visualization even more effective. The relaxation that he was teaching would take a person into a light alpha brain wave state. With self-hypnosis and lower alpha and theta, I knew that any visualization or imagery would be more effective.

MIRACLES

So I began accepting cancer patients, teaching them self-hypnosis and then visualization or sensory imagery. As I learned more about sensory imagery and taught the process, I witnessed many wonderful miracles with my clients.
It’s important to note that success cannot be credited to one particular process. It’s the combination of substantial rest gained by doing the self-hypnosis sessions several times daily, quality sensory imaging, goal setting and probably the most important, building a very strong will to live.

LIVE OR DIE?

On my first visit to a client with a life-threatening disease, I always ask, within the first few minutes, do you want to live or want to die? Almost 100% will answer, I want to live. Then I ask why? Most don’t know why. They never gave any thought to why. They only know that they don’t want to die.
Of course all human beings have a built-in fear of death. We all hate or fear change in our lives and death is the ultimate change. Having a strong faith and spiritual belief system is about the only way for a person to decrease the fear of death. Fear is a stress producer of the worst kind. Not only does it fire your fight or flight response, even worse, it acts as a paralyzing drug on the whole flow of life. The fear of pain and the fear of not being able to take care of yourself add to the fear of death when one is dealing with a life threatening disease.

LIFE IN A CUL-DE-SAC

Also with the many doctors and lab appointments, the flow of life is in a cul-de-sac, an endless circle of medical treatment, side effects, more treatments and more side effects. The person’s normal life flow before the diagnosis and treatments is gone.
When I arrive on the scene, I start talking to my client about getting back to the business of living. This means setting goals, getting out of bed –if physically possible – and leading as normal of daily life as possible. Sometimes this means going back to work, sometimes it means starting a new job or project. A major problem to overcome is the overprotective spouse, relatives or medical personnel who are advising staying in bed.
When first diagnosed, it’s not uncommon for the patient to actually enjoy the attention and concern, particularly if the person has been very busy in his or her life. To have such loving and caring support would be appreciated by everyone at any stage of life. But it does very little to increase the will to live or to stimulate the immune system.

BUILDING A WILL TO LIVE

If my clients will do two thirty-minute self-hypnosis session each day, there is no reason to be in bed, from a rest and healing standpoint, more than the normal 6 or 7 hours of sleep each night. This means that my client must have something more important to do than reading or watching TV.

FIRST

This Mini-Course program is concerned with three areas of your life. The first is rest and stress balancing through doing self-hypnosis sessions one or more times a day, which allows the body systems to return to normal and the body and mind to heal.

SECOND

The second is goal setting to create a powerful will to live, putting you in the flow of life and out of the medical cul-de-sac. I can convince you of the necessity of goals and teach you how to set them in your goal setting mechanism but only you can figure out what it is that you want in your life. Ask yourself one question; what will make me happy or joyous? And then spend time looking for the answer. Only you can come up with the answer. Keeping notes or a journal during your search will be helpful. If you have a supportive spouse or very close friend, bounce your ideas off them. Generally it is not a good idea to share your goal’s search with close relatives or friends because of probable negative feedback.

THIRD

The third part of this program is imagery for programming your brain, imagery for setting your goals and imagery for stimulating your immune system. You have already learned about the imagery for setting goals in The Self-Hypnosis Course™. The imagery for stimulating your immune system as well as other systems in your body is a little more complicated but doable by everyone with a little effort and practice.