Remembering past failures can set you up for present failure.

So, you’re looking forward to that final exam. Trouble is, you didn’t do so well on the mid-term – and now you’re worried sick you’ll fail the final. To avoid a repeat performance, you ready yourself by studying all night, losing precious sleep time in the process. Then, the final exam, and true to your expectation, you fail and have to take the term all over again!

If researchers are correct, your perception of this term’s math tests will be overly negative because you expect to retake the course (and the tests).

According to a study on perception, researchers discovered what seems intuitive to me – that if you have a negative experience and expect to repeat it, you’ll perceive the past and future events even more negatively than had you been done with the experience the first time (in other words, not expecting it to repeat it in the future).

That negative perception can strengthen you against future negative experiences or set you up for far worse due to the power of expectation. In general, what you expect tends to come to pass. So, expecting a future event to be very negative tends to set it up to meet your expectations. Having endured a negative experience with the expectation of more of the same seems to me a perfect setup for an even more negative outcome.

This could explain why fears of future events can be more intense even in the face of overwhelming evidence in support of a positive experience in the future. Our natural proclivity is to exaggerate current negative perceptions when referencing the future; and to exaggerate negative perceptions of past events when considering similar events in the present.

It seems to me the solution to perceptions of intense fear or pain is to deal with your current and past as one – holistically. Then investigate ways to reconsider the intensity of negative perceptions in light of this thinking error – that the negative aspects of an experience are the same regardless of whether or not the event will occur again. Just knowing that the intensity of your negative perceptions may be exaggerated can set you up with a new expectation – and maybe a whole lot less stress.

Next term, take the math class again. This time, pretend it is the first time you’ve taken it – but that you are a whole lot smarter. Notice how many things you seem to just “remember” – and how easy the tests are. “I know this stuff” feels better than “Oh, no! Not this again!”

I’m just sayin’…

Study reference:

“The Pain Was Greater If It Will Happen Again: The Effect of Anticipated Continuation on Retrospective Discomfort,” Jeff Galak, PhD, Carnegie Mellon University, and Tom Meyvis, PhD, New York University; Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, Vol. 140, No. 1.

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.

University College London researchers have discovered that the brain lays out a grid of cells that represent a map of spacial orientations and locations in space. That in itself may not be any big news to most readers – “so what?” This grid has been known to exist in mice since 2005.

Well, the cool thing is that this 3D grid within the hippocampal formation and associated brain areas, now discovered to exist in humans as well, forms triangles in hexagonal formations – sort of like a honeycomb. Study co-author Dr Caswell Barry said: “It is as if grid cells provide a cognitive map of space. In fact, these cells are very much like the longitude and latitude lines we’re all familiar with on normal maps, but instead of using square grid lines it seems the brain uses triangles.”

In an interesting coincidence, the Rapid Eye Technology (RET) eye directing device (called a wand) is moved in a hexagonal 3D pattern just in front of the face – a pattern that due to its spacial character may be very familiar to the aforementioned part of the brain. Further, the signals flowing through the brain from eyes to visual cortex stop off for an emotional load at the hypothalamus which is attached to the memory-gating hippocampus – the seat of this honeycomb-like spacial mapping grid.

Research team leader, Professor Neil Burgess, commented, “…grid cells may help us to find our way to the right memory as well as finding our way through our environment. These brain areas are also amongst the first to be affected by Alzheimer’s disease which may explain why getting lost is one of the most common early symptoms of this disease.”

I’ve been asked often over the years why Rapid Eye Technology seems to work so well for so many people. This study by UCL seems to add something to that discussion. I also wonder if RET might be used in early stage Alzheimer’s disease along with pharmaceutical therapies to halt the disease progress or maybe even heal it altogether. Now THAT would be awesome indeed!

Source: ‘Evidence for grid cells in a human memory network’ – Christian F. Doeller, Caswell Barry & Neil Burgess, University College London.

Abstract: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/nature08704.html

Cellular biologist, Dr. Bruce Lipton, shares his understanding of biology and beliefs. I picked out several salient points:

• Environment (energy fields) controls biology
• Conscious mind is tiny and weak compared to subconscious mind
• Setting intent without engaging the subconscious mind DOES NOT WORK
• Your subconscious programming runs your life
• Your fate in life is not determined by your DNA
• Genes are not the limiting factor in your life – your mind is.

Although this video presentation is about EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique), it could just as easily apply to Rapid Eye Technology.

In this article, I want to delve a little deeper into the mysteries of eye patching – and show you a simple, yet powerful technique you can use on yourself and others to jump start change – assisting you and them in achieving therapeutic goals quicker and with a whole lot less effort. RET is already nearly effortless for the client – the following technique will put the RET into overdrive right off the bat. You can do this process on yourself, too – although I recommend doing it with someone else.

“Pirate Therapy”

1. Choose a therapeutic goal – what life will be like when you have what you want and are being the way you want to be – or you have solved your problems – maybe what you will be like when you are completely healed and whole.

2. Sitting or standing, facing straight in front of you, get a sense of where the image of you in your “clear” state would be – maybe it’s off a little to the right or left – just get a sense of where in front of you that image feels “right.” Point to it while remaining in a squared body stance looking straight ahead of you. If the image insists on being directly in front of you, choose to put it to one side or the other – it doesn’t matter which side, so long as you move the image to one side – then point to it while remaining body squared to the front. Call this image your compelling image – the way you WANT to be.

3. Imagine putting the image of you in your current condition to the other side off center as far as you did with the other image. Call this your resource image – the way you are NOW.

4. Keeping your head and body squared to the front – looking straight ahead – move your eyes to the resource image and look directly in that direction while holding the head still facing directly forward. Your eyes should now be off center in the direction of your resource image.

5. Cover one eye with your hand or place an eye patch over one eye – either eye. Continue looking in the direction of your resource image while keeping both eyes open with one covered. NOTICE AND ACKNOWLEDGE ANY AND ALL SENSATIONS IN YOUR BODY – maybe by stating it out loud, “I can feel some tenseness in my shoulders” for example.

6. Cover the other eye and repeat the previous step.

7. Now direct the eyes in the directions of the compelling image – the image of what and who you want to become. Remember to keep the head and body squared to the front – move only the eyes.

8. Cover one eye with your hand or place an eye patch over one eye – either eye. Continue looking in the direction of your compelling image while keeping both eyes open with one covered. AGAIN, NOTICE AND ACKNOWLEDGE ANY AND ALL SENSATIONS IN YOUR BODY.

9. Cover the other eye and repeat the previous step.

10. Cast your eyes back and forth several times between the two images.

11. Now imagine merging the two images right in the middle – directly in front of you. Just wait until this feels complete. This is the merged image – in which compelling and resource become THE SAME IMAGE.

12. Cover one eye with your hand or place an eye patch over one eye – either eye. Continue looking in the direction of your merged image while keeping both eyes open with one covered. NOTICE AND ACKNOWLEDGE ANY AND ALL SENSATIONS IN YOUR BODY.

13. Cover the other eye and repeat the previous step.

For many people, this little exercise opens internal resources that will now be available during sessions. Even if you are doing this for yourself, the resources suddenly available may be enough to solve presenting issues right in the moment. I’ve seen this work wonders for writer’s block, computer programming block, relationship communication block, problem solving, etc. Even as a way to break up session blocks, it can work wonders.

You don’t need to be a neurosurgeon or brain specialist to take charge of your brain. Just as you don’t have to understand how a computer works to make it work for you, you can obtain substantial benefit from your brain without having to understand how it works. You just need the right “software” a program you can run. And just as with your computer’s software, which program you run and what you input into the program can make quite a difference in the output you get.

For example, if I wish to print this page of text, I would first fire up my computer and select my word processor to input the text using my keyboard. Then I’d save the resulting text you are reading right now in a file – it’s always a good idea to back up your work. I’d then hit my “print” key or select print from the menu of my program and send the resulting bits and bytes to my connected printer.

Using the right hardware and software, I got a result that matched my desire – to print out a copy of my ideas.

I did not have to know how my computer did what I asked it to do. All I had to do was become familiar enough with the software to operate it. I didn’t have to know how my monitor or printer works in order to get my page printed. I just hit the “print” key.

Today, I’m offering you a simple little “utility” program for your brain that utilizes both hemispheres. This little program or exercise is based on Rapid Eye Technology (RET). The end result of this exercise is information gathering – to help you make more useful choices.

1. Look slightly to the left of center and slightly above horizontal and ask yourself, “What do I want?” (maybe there is some goal or problem troubling you) Keep your answer simple – “I want to improve my grade in math class by one grade…” – remember to keep things realistic…
2. Look slightly to the right and slightly below horizontal and ask yourself, “How do I feel about what I want?” Notice what your body says by way of sensations – just note them, we’ll use these later.
3. Look to the left and slightly below horizontal and ask yourself, “Why do I want this?” Again, note how your body feels.
4. Look slightly to the right and slightly above horizontal and ask yourself, “When have I felt like this (wanting whatever it is you want) before?” While looking in this area consider as many times as will pop into your mind of times you remember feeling like you do now as you consider your desired outcome.
5. Blink hard three times – use your whole face to blink closed HARD – open – close HARD- open – closed HARD – open.
6. Sigh deeply three times.
7. Let your mind go by simply closing your eyes and letting the ideas flow.
8. Move your body – in whatever motion feels “right” to you. The movement energizes your brain and gets your chemicals in alignment with your desire.
9. Most important – take action! Now that you have some ideas, do something constructive toward achieving what you want.

If you are interested in Rapid Eye Technology (RET), visit the Rapid Eye Institute’s home page at www.rapideyetechnology.com.

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.

Change your perception of the past and you can take charge of your future.

“Our findings provide compelling support for the idea that memory and future thought are highly interrelated and help explain why future thought may be impossible without memories.” (Karl Szpunar, lead author of a study on the relationship between memory and future thought and a psychology doctoral student in Arts & Sciences at Washington University.)

Suicidally depressed people “don’t remember particularly what happened last month and they can’t really tell you much of anything about what they envision happening next week.” (Szpunar)

We tend to live out our future thoughts in the present – something like self-fulfilling prophecies. Much of that is due to our self-image or sense of identity. Traumatic events – particularly those that occur repeatedly – tend to taint our self-image. Memory loss as part of trauma or other issues can leave us with no future – a situation in which suicide seems plausibly logical.

So it seems to me we have a double-whammy – two major parts of us working against us. When we want to achieve something important to us, we are faced with interference from our tainted memories and future thoughts. I think that just plain sucks!

What can you do about it? How can you lift the onus off your back?

Well, I hope it’s fairly obvious.

Have or make better memories!

“How can I change things that happened to me?” you might ask…

And I’d answer that you are remembering your INTERPRETATION of what happened to you – rather than what actually happened to you. Memories are based on PERCEPTION rather than reality.

Perception is made up of many elements of mind and body. For traumatic events, your body gets involved in memory in a special way – it remembers how it felt and behaved during the traumatic event and uses that “memory” to build future thought, including motivation and belief in success – as well as automatic behavior.

Perception is malleable – changeable. You can literally mold memory by changing your interpretation of your perceptions.

That’s why I recommend sessions of Rapid Eye Technology. RET activates central brain areas responsible for memory and can release the negative energies associated with traumatic memories. You can literally change your memories – and thus your future thought – and your future.

Change your perception of the past and you can take charge of your future.

Sleeping after learning improves recall of learned material.

A simple method for improving memory, especially for newly acquired information like education, is to simply nap soon after the learning experience (perhaps as part of the learning experience) or to rehearse the learning shortly before retiring to bed at night. That’s what Notre Dame psychologist Jessica Payne and colleagues discovered.

“Sleeping directly after learning something new is beneficial for memory. It would be a good thing to rehearse any information you need to remember just prior to going to bed. In some sense, you may be ‘telling’ the sleeping brain what to consolidate.” (Jessica Payne)

University of Notre Dame. “Sleeping After Processing New Info Most Effective, New Study Shows.” Medical News Today. MediLexicon, Intl., 27 Mar. 2012. Web.

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