Want to succeed at finals? Get a really good night's sleep the night before.

After a good night’s sleep, people remember information better when they know it will be useful in the future. The findings suggest that the brain evaluates memories during sleep and preferentially retains the information that is most likely to be needed again in the future.

Humans deal with huge amounts of information every day. Most is stored in memories, but the majority is quickly forgotten. How does the brain decide what to keep and what to forget? Apparently it has to do with a selection formula:

“Our results show that memory consolidation during sleep indeed involves a basic selection process that determines which of the many pieces of the day’s information is sent to long-term storage. Our findings also indicate that information relevant for future demands is selected foremost for storage.” (Jan Born, PhD, of the University of Lübeck in Germany)

The research team devised several very clever experiments to determine exactly how this selection works. Using fMRI and other electronic testing methods, they were also able to determine when such filtering occurred.

“The more slow [brain] wave activity the sleeping participants had, the better their memory was during the recall test 10 hours later,” Born said. The study authors suggest that the brain “tags” memories while awake and then consolidates them during sleep.

This would be akin to the day shift working on a report and telling the night shift to, “Put all the pages marked with red tags into the red filing cabinet, the green tagged pages in the green cabinet, and toss the untagged pages while you’re at it…”

My recommendation base on this study’s results:

If you want to succeed at your finals, get a really good night’s sleep the day before. Don’t cram – it’s a total waste of your time. Sleep, that’s the ticket.

If you want to make the most of your Rapid Eye Technology sessions, consider making a clear and compelling statement of intent before eyelid blinking begins – and, equally important, a compelling post-session test. The artificial REM state created by the RET blinking process may initiate the same memory information sorting mechanism addressed in the study – sorting out which session pieces would best support the new post-session you. In your intention setting, imagine DOING whatever it would be that would TEST your session results immediately after the session.

For example, if your intention was to stop smoking, you’d imaging yourself immediately after your stop smoking session, in a situation that would normally trigger smoking behavior, yet NOT smoking instead – then, at the end of the session, test – ACT THE PART of a non-smoker so your mind feels the testing (clean up with IRT as necessary).

The idea is to EXPECT a test afterward. For RET, this test could be administered immediately – at the end of the session. The mind, knowing it will be tested afterward, will filter memories to support successful passage of the test – just as it would do if you were a college student taking a final exam the next day. For the RET Technician, devising such a test might be as simple as asking the client, “How might we test you at the end of this session to make sure your intention is met…?” (or something along those lines).

I tended to do post-processing testing with my own clients in session. Example:

George was referred to me by a medical doctor because he had a persistent rash that resisted treatment. George’s doctor thought it might be psychosomatic – I laughed.

“George, how will we know that we’ve been successful with your sessions?” – this was the way I usually set intent with a client.
“The rash will go away and not come back,” he stated right away.
“Okay, then, let’s test this at the end of our session today,” I suggested.

He was delighted and we got to work doing RET. About a half hour later, we began our closing and wrap up. Just as we finished up, I asked him, “Are you ready to test now?” He nodded and we tested. Sure enough, his rash had disappeared. I heard from George’s doctor that George’s rash had not returned when he saw him again a year later. George was happy and I got more referrals. (BTW, the rash was the result of irrational fears that were super-simple to address using the Rapid Eye Technology IRT process).

A successful session formula might look like this:

1. Set intent with expectation of a test afterward (“What is your intention for this session and how can we test that you achieved your intention after the session?”)
2. Do the RET process and just before closing processes – (remember, RET simulates REM sleep [on steroids!] so anticipation of this testing should consolidate learning [imprinting reframes])
3. Test (using the client’s own test criteria)
4. Clean up as necessary (usually unnecessary)
5. Test again (usually unnecessary)
6. Repeat 4 and 5 until test passed (usually unnecessary)
7. Close the session using standard RET closing processes

Source: Kat Snodgrass, The Journal of Neuroscience, Society for Neuroscience. The research was supported by the German Research Foundation.

According to the newest figures from the 2007 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), an annual study in which tens of thousands of Americans are interviewed about their health- and illness-related experiences, developed by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), a part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 38 percent of adults in the United States aged 18 years and over and nearly 12 percent of U.S. children aged 17 years and under use some form of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM).

That’s a lot of therapy outside the mainstream of “traditional” American medicine. According to the survey, most of the care was for pain. The higher the level of education and socioeconomic level, the more likely the use of CAM. As CAM is rarely covered by US insurance carriers, more wealthy people are more likely to be able to afford such care.

No statistics for effectiveness were released, but it is obvious to me that the sheer numbers speak for themselves. US insurance carriers are missing a huge chunk of the overall patient care picture by not covering CAM. The US is so far behind most other first world countries in the medical care of its citizens it just screams out for reform. Nowhere else in the world are supposedly free people treated so poorly medically as we are in the US, generally speaking.

It comes as no surprise to those who are currently uninsured or under-insured, that fully one in four US citizens have none or inadequate access to medical treatment. Those fortunate enough to have the means to buy insurance, are usually treated to a policy that excludes effective CAM treatments. A few avant gard carriers do include a small number of CAM sessions when ordered by one of their participating physicians. And, although physician referrals restrict access somewhat, it is perhaps the most reasonable way to ensure adequate care.

In the end, however, I’d like to see a universal healthcare package similar to that which the French enjoy – where everyone has access and proven CAM therapies are included in the deal. Unfortunately, greed reigns more than sense in the US when it comes to health care and I doubt I’ll see universal health care in the US in my lifetime.

Another long-term study (by Yu Gao, Ph.D., and colleagues) has come to the conclusion that childhood fearlessness predisposes a child to later crime in adulthood – and that can be determined by testing children under the age of three. Although I disagree with the study’s methodology, I agree with the premise that prompted the 20 year study – that fearlessness in children often translates into criminal behavior in adulthood.

Why does this matter? Because many of the problems we experience in adulthood have their roots in early childhood – buried in the deepest parts of our brains and psyches – beyond the reach of conscious memory. That can present a real problem when you are looking to make substantial life changes – some of those change efforts may be blocked by subconscious conditioning over which you have no conscious recollection or control.

Although the Gao study noted a possible (maybe probable) connection between early childhood fearlessness and adult criminal behavior, it posits no recommendation as to a remedy.

I recommend hypnosis as a possible remedy. Many creatures, including humans, are susceptible to hypnosis – which bypasses the conscious psyche and addresses the underlying subconscious mind. From that perspective, childhood fearlessness might be targeted with possible specific change therapies directed to an outcome that disconnects that fearlessness from criminality. For example, childhood fearlessness might be creatively redirected toward useful endeavors such as entrepreneurship or law enforcement.

The report of the Gao study appears online in the November 16, 2009, American Journal of Psychiatry (AJP), the official journal of the American Psychiatric Association. Data collection was supported by the Medical Research Council (U.K.), Wellcome Trust (U.K.), and National Institute of Mental Health.

Researchers at New York University have demonstrated scientifically that a specific fearful memory can be rewritten in the brain without the use of drugs – purely behaviorally. Of course, alternative practitioners like hypnotherapists and Rapid Eye Technicians have seen this over and over and are sold on the fact that fearful memories can be rewritten (in NLP it’s called “Reframing”).

Basing their theories on mouse and rat subjects, the researchers, led by Elizabeth Phelps, Ph.D., and Joseph LeDoux, Ph.D., of NYU, grantees of the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), have demonstrated their training process on human subjects with positive results. The hope is to replace drug therapies with behavioral ones for anxiety and PTSD specifically – and perhaps others after some trials.

The research shows that there is a critical window of opportunity for change – within 6 hours of the recall of a traumatic memory. Once the “file” is open, specific behavioral techniques can be used to rewrite the memory back into the brain without the fear portion – with long-lasting results. The researchers also found that it was not necessary to recall specifics within a memory – just the emotional elements and the “gist” of the traumatic memory – in order to rewrite it. That’s the phenomenological findings of thousands of Rapid Eye Technicians, who basically tell their clients, “It’s not necessary to relive the events in order to release their energy and reframe [rewrite] those memories…”

Reactivating a memory opens what researchers call “reconsolidation window,” a time-limited period when it can be changed. “This adaptive update mechanism appears to have evolved to allow new information available at the time of retrieval to be incorporated into the brain’s original representation of the memory,” explained Phelps.

Rapid Eye Technicians and hypnotherapists trained in techniques to regress to cause, will feel validated by these findings. It also means that you can have confidence in the fact that working with a trained RET technician or hypnotherapist who calls forth traumatic memories will deal with them effectively – which should bring about substantial change. Good news!

For practitioners, it’s important that you do a REFRAME or rewrite of the traumatic memory – replacing the original data with something more currently useful to the client. Without a reframing of the memory, the old frame will most likely return. Just remember: 6 hours max – after which, the rewrite is very unlikely to occur.

The formula seems to be:

1. Open memory
2. Generally feel the memory emotionally
3. Release any attachment to the memory (discharge emotional energy)
4. Reframe the memory
5. Check back on the client after a week or so

“Using a more natural intervention that captures the adaptive purpose of reconsolidation allows a safe and easily implemented way to prevent the return of fear,” offer the researchers.

References:
Preventing the return of fear in humans using reconsolidation update mechanisms. Schiller D, Monfils MH, Raio CM, Johnson DC, LeDoux JE, Phelps EA. Nature. 2009 December 9.
Extinction-reconsolidation boundaries: key to persistent attenuation of fear memories.Monfils MH, Cowansage KK, Klann E, LeDoux JE. Science. 2009 May 15;324(5929):951-5. Epub 2009 Apr 2.PMID: 19342552

A significant relationship was found between boys’ and girls’ emotional intelligence and their SAT and GCSE English scores. Those with higher emotional intelligence scores fared significantly better than those with lower emotional intelligence scores.

What does that have to do with Rapid Eye Technology? Plenty!

Rapid Eye Technology, Emotional Freedom Technique, and Self-Hypnosis, are great for training teenagers how to manage their emotions – in other words, improving their emotional intelligence levels.

“Further detailed analysis of the results [of the studies] suggests that emotional intelligence may moderate the effects of IQ on academic achievement. Faced with failure, a student low on IQ but who is emotionally intelligent will be able to manage their emotions surrounding failure, reconcile poor performance and work to improve; a student low on IQ and low emotional intelligence may find failure more difficult to deal with, which undermines their academic motivation.”

Those students with better emotional management strategies in place are more likely to do better academically than their peers with fewer such inner resources.

In a study published by Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, researchers discovered that feedback given earlier in learning sessions tend to bring about better grades over the long haul and improve students’ performance overall.

I’ve found this same phenomenon in hypnotherapy and Rapid Eye Technology sessions. When clients discovered early on that the process I was using was working, they tended to get better results overall – achieving therapeutic goals quicker and with far less effort. When clients believed it would take several sessions to show improvement, they tended to go slower and often struggled to make progress. Conversely, when clients felt immediate results (positive feedback) they tended to feel more successful and confident with the processes we used.

In hypnotherapy we call it a “convincer” – that is, a sort of “test” in which the subject feels that what they are doing they are doing successfully (“you’ll notice now that you cannot open your eyes no matter how hard you try…”). The end result of a successful convincer is deeper somnambulism and more effective hypnotherapy. In effect, the subject invokes the placebo effect and makes the therapy work better overall.

I’ve believed all along (and is borne out by years of experience) that clients who believe their therapy is working are more likely to succeed with the therapy. I’ve also experienced the phenomenon that clients who believe early on that the therapy is working will make the most dramatic strides toward their therapeutic goals.

My goal in the first session was to do like fire fighters do with large blazes – knock down the “big stuff” – and then mop up afterward. That way, the client quickly builds belief in the process through early success – and then sticks with it to “clean up”. In the process, the client gets to enjoy rapid change in the direction of their choice – while belief in the therapeutic process gives them added value and power later during the “clean up” phase.

If you are a therapist, even in a socialized environment where you get paid the same regardless of client outcome, I recommend rapidly building client belief in whatever system you’re using. The overall length of therapy can be years – yet if the client/patient believes the system works for them, they will feel successful throughout their time of treatment/therapy.

If you’re a client/patient, wouldn’t you want your therapy to work for you? Of course you would! That’s why you sought therapy in the first place. And wouldn’t you want that therapy to work FASTER rather than SLOWER? Yes! And in most of my cases as a therapist, clients preferred the “knock down then clean up” method better than the “you’ll see results after 12 sessions” approach.

Rapid Eye Technicians, especially, if they follow the outline taught by the Rapid Eye Institute will generally see rapid results. However, since Rapid Eye Technology is not designed to be a “knock down clean up afterward” kind of model, you may have to invoke some convincers early on to accomplish the early positive feedback model. NO CHANGE in practice of the RET process is necessary to achieve this – just a slight change to how you address the client during their first session. Here’s how I did it when I was in practice:

• Within seconds of the wand moving and the eyes blinking, I’d give feedback – “Very good. I can see by your rapidly pulsing pupils that this is definitely working for you…” or “Good! You’re reacting to the process even more rapidly than I expected…” or “Excellent! I can feel the difference in your energy already…” etc. VERY positive feedback VERY early on.
• Make ALL observations invoke the placebo effect by attributing physical changes to successful therapy – “See? Your face is smoothing out… this (RET) is working VERY well for you…” etc.
• Invoke a convincer. This works best AFTER the client has released something heavy – “Now, just TRY to bring back that feeling of fear you just told me about before we started doing RET on it…” When they can’t recall the feeling, their convinced the process works – and will work even better now that they are convinced.
• Make the first session the BEST session. Of course they will have even better sessions later because clients tend to get better at RET the more they use it – but in this case I’m talking about PERCEPTION rather than reality. At the close of their first session you could say something like, “Now that you’ve knocked down the major emotional load of all this, I look forward to cleaning up the little pockets of ‘stuff’ that we didn’t quite get to today…” (giving the PERCEPTION that you took the majority of the load off in that first session – and sending them home even more hopeful and excited about their next few sessions with you)

If you are a client/patient, I recommend that you let yourself BELIEVE that you’ve knocked down the major emotional load in your first session. Reward yourself for your success early on by focusing on and noticing how WELL the therapy is working for you.

Knock the blaze down in the first session and mop up afterward – easy and effective.

Study Source: Barbara Isanski, Association for Psychological Science

“Imagine yourself passing the exam or scoring a goal and it will happen.” You may think it’s a bunch of newage bunk, yet in a new study in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, psychologists Christopher Davoli and Richard Abrams from Washington University conclude that the imagination may be more effective than we think in helping us reach our goals.

Through a series of ingenious experiments, the authors showed that simply imagining a posture may have effects that are similar to actually assuming the pose. Previous research has shown that we spend more time looking at items close to our hands (items close to us are usually more important than those further away), but this is the first study suggesting that merely imagining something close to our hands will cause us to pay more attention to it.

The researchers conclude that their findings indicate that our “peripersonal space” (the space around our body) can be extended into a space where an imagined posture would take us. They note there may be advantages to having this ability, such as determining if an action is realistic (e.g., “Can I reach the top shelf?”) and helping us to avoid collisions.

The authors conclude that the present study confirms “an idea that has long been espoused by motivational speakers, sports psychologists, and John Lennon alike: The imagination has the extraordinary capacity to shape reality.”

Article “Reaching Out With the Imagination” by Barbara Isanski, Association for Psychological Science

If you’re going to imprison 1% of your population, wouldn’t it be easier and cheaper to offer real help to those who are imprisoned, rather than letting them languish or using them as slave labor? It seems to me that most prisoners are there because of drug usage. Drug dealers are in there, too, but I wonder if most of those are busy running their criminal enterprises from the relative safety of prison.

It seems to me that prison might be a great place to offer inmates, particularly those who are suffering from mental illnesses, opportunities to utilize the latest alternative and mainstream mental health resources. I wonder what might happen if inmates were offered such “radical” treatments and change processes as hypnotherapy and Rapid Eye Technology along with classes on managing stress.

It seems to me better that we just don’t fill our prisons with poor or mentally ill people. We seriously need reforms in our laws that unnecessarily imprison so many of our citizens. That’s a political discussion I’ll leave for another forum.

We in the US really do need to do something about this issue. Letting go of our irrational fears based on violent TV series (ala Dexter and CSI Miami) and movies might be a first step.

Am I morphing into some kind of monster?

It’s a little-known or at least little-appreciated fact that a rather large percentage of my biomass is not human. Let me repeat that just for emphasis -

I am NOT ALL HUMAN!

About 99% of the outer covering of my body is NOT human. Rather, it is a “coating” of bacteria – mostly feeding on my dead skin – while some feed on my living skin cells. That’s just my skin! Within my gut are many more species of bacteria. Some help and some hinder my digestion process.

The point is – my body is not just “mine”. It is home to a large number of single-celled plant and animal life – as much as 90% of my biomass!* Each of those microscopic creatures has its own “mind” – with its own volition, decision making processes, and behaviors – maybe thoughts, too.

My question then becomes: who am I really?

My initial response is, “Well, I am me – body, mind, thoughts, etc.”

Realistically, though, I can’t be just “me” individualized from the influence and behaviors of the myriad of biological life contained on and in my body – most of which does not contain human DNA!! I, therefore, am mostly NOT HUMAN!!!

How about my thoughts, then? Are my thoughts “human” thoughts?

I doubt it! Consider this: when you consume a drug, your mind can change (LSD, for example, can do a number on your thinking). When you are sick with a bacterial infection, you don’t think the same way as when you are not “infected”. Sometimes I’ll catch myself “not in my right mind” or wonder, “What the hell was I thinking?”

We are definitely at the mercy of the bacteria, viruses, and other living inhabitants of our bodies – ALL of which contribute to our consciousness. Non-human cells outnumber human cells by a long shot. I’d have to admit that my thoughts are mostly not my own!

Egad! Am I morphing into some kind of horror picture monster?

No! It’s just that “I” am not who I think I am. “I” am a conglomeration – a “we” of many minds.

If some people are more sensitive to this condition than are others, perhaps it would explain why some people have “multiple personalities” and why ALL of us exhibit different behaviors at times – when our environment encourages expression of one set of “minds” more than others – the “active” personality (“hive mind”) will emerge to deal with the current environment. We call this “putting on a face” – and we all are capable of doing it.

AND SO WHAT? Is there anything I can do to “tame this multitude of minds”? “How can I focus my thoughts when my thoughts are not my own?!!” I think it’s possible to gain least SOME control.

First in the process of gaining control over the cacophony of minds might be appreciation – acceptance of the fact that our minds are really a conglomeration of minds – a “hive” mind, if you will. Knowing this helps us understand what to do about it.

Some ideas to get us started might include:

1. Do nothing. Just accept the fact and go on with your life as you have – yet wiser and more appreciative of your body as a system of connected biology – perhaps feeling a bit more humble about what it means to be human.
2. Make a change. Choose a goal or direction you want to achieve or take and then ENROLL “everybody” into whatever it is you want to do.
3. Accelerate your personal development by enlisting the assistance of your bacterial load – “speak” to your single-celled biological companions as if they were real people – DNA-wise most are VERY similar and some have even more “advanced” DNA than we do! You can do this in your mind by “calling” to them – “Hey, you guys! Whassup?” Then “listen” with your emotions and sensations (they’re bacteria, remember – they don’t have vocal cords – but they listen very well and behave in ways your “mind” understands – it’s just that you must STOP TALKING long enough to hear what they have to say!!). Speak to them as you would a trusted friend. Sure, some are deadly, but they’re just “making a living” in your system – they are invested in you – so treat them nice! You might be surprised at what “you” can do when everybody is on board!

I’m considering speaking inside my head in the first person plural “we” instead of my past practice of “I”. It helps me remember and keep in mind that “I” am a system of “me’s” – not individualized but connected – some by collagen (those I call “human”) and others by common interest (like those feeding on my body chemistry).

I won’t go into how we are SO connected with our environment that we cannot distinguish “it” from “us”… perhaps in another post…

—–

* “In each of you are one quadrillion cells, 90 percent of which are not human cells.” Paul Hawken, University of Portland, Oregon.

"To my surprise, it seemed to work for many of them."

In another post, I recommended utilizing the placebo effect to improve the likelihood of successful outcomes. An interesting study from the Harvard Medical School corroborates my contention. Further, they suggest that the placebo effect, far from being benign, is very effective therapy or treatment in and of itself.

“[Our] findings suggest that rather than mere positive thinking, there may be significant benefit to the very performance of medical ritual. I’m excited about studying this further. Placebo may work even if patients know it is a placebo. Not only did we make it absolutely clear that these pills had no active ingredient and were made from inert substances, but we actually had ‘placebo’ printed on the bottle. We told the patients that they didn’t have to even believe in the placebo effect. Just take the pills.” – Associate professor of medicine Ted Kaptchuk

Senior study author Anthony Lembo, HMS associate professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and an expert on Irritable Bowel Syndrome (the subject diagnosis of the study) stated,

“I didn’t think it would work. I felt awkward asking patients to literally take a placebo. But to my surprise, it seemed to work for many of them.”

How do you like them apples?

Next time you feel inclined to downplay or make fun of a placebo – or attribute most of a therapy’s value to the placebo effect – remember that the placebo effect is effective!

Study source: “Placebos without Deception: A Randomized Controlled Trial in Irritable Bowel Syndrome” – Ted J. Kaptchuk, Elizabeth Friedlander, John M. Kelley, M. Norma Sanchez, Efi Kokkotou, Joyce P. Singer, Magda Kowalczykowski, Franklin G. Miller, Irving Kirsch, Anthony J. Lembo. PLoS ONE 5(12): e15591. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0015591