Hemi-Sync® Journal 2001-2 (Spring)

--- PAGE 1 (OCR) --- J HEMI-SYNC® Vol. XIX Spring 2001 A Research and Educational Publication of The Monroe Institute ENHANCED INTUITIVE PSYCHOTHERAPY IN THIS ISSUE ENHANCED INTUITIVE PSYCHOTHERAPY Dr. Gary Chaikin is ever vigilant for innovative therapeutic techniques. Thus, he quickly understood that incorporating a central principle from Dominique De Backer's ™ Synchrotherapy™ method could benefit his clients. ABSTRACT-Binaural-Beat-Induced Theta EEG Activity and Hypnotic Susceptibility....iv by Gary D. Chaikin, MD Dr. Gary D. Chaikin is a 1982 graduate of Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. He completed a psychiatric residency in the United States Air Force at Wilford Hall Medical Center, Texas, in 1986. Dr. Chaikin is currently employed at Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center, La Crosse, Wisconsin, as director of psychiatric education and medical director of adult outpatient services. He is an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, and supervises numerous psychotherapists. He attend- ed the GATEWAY VOYAGE in October 1999 and joined the Professional Division at that time. Dr. Chaikin has a special interest in the applications of an integral psychology and is assisting clients to handle difficulties in their lives and evolve their awareness through a biopsychosocial model. Recently he as begun to incorporate altered states of consciousness into that model. I have often wondered, “What would it be like if I could do psychotherapy by getting into my clients’ heads?” Like most therapists, I’ve had to settle for just their verbal and nonverbal communications. But is this enough when working with those who come to us with spiritual issues? I glimpsed an answer to those questions at The Monroe Institute’s Professional Seminar in March 2000, during Dominique A. De Backer's presentation on Synchrotherapy™. Mme De Backer took us inside the consulting room for a look at clinical cases in which she used Hemi-Sync to enter altered states with her clients. The depth, rate, and intensity of treatment were accelerated, and apparent spiritual breakthroughs occurred. For some time I’ve been developing a clinical model for working with clients at different levels of awareness. During this period I came upon the work of Ken Wilber, whose theo- ries concerning The Spectrum of Consciousness closely paral- leled my own clinical principles. [See sidebar.] The majority of my clients have come into treatment with issues at what I characterize as the moral level. Therapy is oriented toward growth and stabilization in awareness at what may be termed the ethical level. However, as treatment draws to an end, or sometimes even at the beginning, deeper spiritual concerns come to the forefront. Psychiatrists are usually not taught to work at the spiritual level. This compounds the client’s diffi- culty in accessing this deeply buried and unacknowledged core material. How are we to get at this level of awareness? © 2001 The Monroe Institute 62 Roberts Mountain Road, Faber, VA 22938 804/361-1252 --- PAGE 2 (OCR) --- HEMI-SYNC® JOURNAL The Spectrum of Consciousness This is Ken Wilber’s theory of the evolution of human awareness, based on the classic Perennial Philosophy. Its central premise is that consciousness evolves in a holoarchy, with higher/deeper levels tran- scending and including lower/superficial levels. Wilber defined these levels as progressing from Preconventional to Conventional, to Postconventional, and ultimately to Transconventional. My clinical model, also based on The Spectrum of Consciousness, is a holoarchy proceeding from Narcissistic to Moral, to Ethical, and to Spiritual. Reality is constructed through the lens of self in Narcissism, right and wrong in Morality, what is best in Ethics, and soul in Spirituality. Reading Joseph McMoneagle’s book Mind Trek con- tributed to the resolution of that question. McMoneagle claims it is possible to target politically important people and remote-view their thoughts, feelings, and attitudes. If his nat- ural ability and training enabled him to do so, why couldn't I develop a similar capacity? After all, my patients often accused me of “reading their minds”! McMoneagle states that the pres- ence of a protocol to eliminate front-loading differentiates remote viewing from psychic functioning. In contrast, sticcess- ful psychotherapy depends on front-loading the present thera- peutic context with everything that has preceded it in treat- ment. Therefore, what I was going to do could not be charac- terized.as therapeutic remote viewing. As empathy is to emo- tion and as understanding is to thought, so intuition is to spir- it. I was going to attempt enhanced intuitive psychotherapy. Ericksonian hypnosis taught me a principle that became very important at this juncture: in the course of hypnosis, the best trance inductions and guidance occur when both the ther- apist and the subject are in an altered state of consciousness (Gilligan). What better way to achieve that objective than by using Hemi-Sync and sharing the same Focus level? Each spiritual tradition has its unique technology. Shamans since antiquity have utilized drums, plants, and fetishes; modern healers have computers, compact discs, and Hemi-Sync. The candidates I selected to work with a combination of psychotherapy and Hemi-Sync were drawn from two groups: those who had reached and could maintain an ethical level of awareness as a result of our prior work, and those just begin- ning therapy who still responded primarily from a moral level of awareness. The equipment was set up in a quiet, comfort- able, distraction-free environment. A split outline from the sound equipment powered our open-air headphones, which allowed us to hear each other clearly. I controlled the volume and selected Hemi-Sync material to suit the treatment task. The first point to determine is whether the therapist or the Hemi-Sync recording will guide the work. When the ther- apist is directing, nonverbal material such as Transcendence or METAMUSIC Remembrance is employed. For Hemi-Sync- guided sessions, the GATEWAY EXPERIENCE and programs such as POSITIVE IMMUNITY, OPENING THE HEART, GOING HOME, or HUMAN-PLUS are used. Throughout the exercise the therapist maintains ever-hovering attention— open to the experience, actively listening, postponing assign- ment of meaning. The patient learns to achieve and sustain a Focus state, find a “kind and wise” spiritual guide, receive three messages from the Universe, or recapitulate a memory. The practitioner mentally files symbols and imagery encountered during the process for later interpretive use. As the end of the exercise approaches, the client is assured that he or she will remember and understand only what the conscious mind can handle. It is also suggested that feelings of relaxation will carry over into the rest of the day. When both the therapist and client are alert in C1 (every- day consciousness), the equipment is taken off, the room is illuminated, and the client is asked to talk about his or her experience. The therapist writes down any intuitive metaphors. Therapy then proceeds based on the psychothera- pist’s psychodynamic model of choice, e.g., Freudian, Jungian, or Transpersonal. With enhanced intuitive psychotherapy there is a significant addition: the therapist's metaphors are introduced into the process. The patient free-associates to those images or uses an instrument such as Arrien’s Preferential Shapes Test. The latter is a cross-culturally vali- dated test using archetypal symbols (spiral, circle, square, tri- angle, and cross) with universal meanings. The patient’s rank- ing of the shapes from one to five gives deep insight into the unconscious via the language of images rather than words: Tris’ important to avoid literalization during interpretation because both the client’s and the therapist’s productions in the Hemi- Sync ambience are from unconscious sources and obey the tules of dream psychology. I prefer to use Wilmer’s Jungian dream analysis, in which the client relates the experience twice and then free-associates to significant elements. Ultimate meaning rests with the subject, and the therapist stays alert for verbal or behavioral cues from the client that confirm the ana- lytical interpretation. A typical session runs approximately seventy minutes and includes an intake interview, thirty to forty-five minutes of Hemi-Sync, and a post-session discussion. Based on the ses- sion, further experiential “ homework” is assigned utilizing Hemi-Sync to extend awareness. The following case studies demonstrate the possibilities for enhancing the psychothera- peutic process. Case #1-S.R. This forty-year-old female had had spinal muscular atro- phy for more than fourteen years. She was now in a wheelchair and suffered from significant depression. Antidepressants had been prescribed, and the patient had been seen in psychother- apy every other week for approximately eleven months in order to work on transforming her awareness from the moral to the ethical level. She used the POSITIVE IMMUNITY PRO- GRAM at home for several months in hope of engaging her T-cells to repair nervous system damage. Failure to progress led her to abandon the program, and sessions using enhanced intuitive psychotherapy were initiated. In one session, --- PAGE 3 (OCR) --- Spring 2001 hypnotic induction was used to initiate an altered state of consciousness. Using the system as presented in the POSI- TIVE IMMUNITY PROGRAM, hypnotic induction pro- gressed from C1 through Focus 10 and 12, and finally attained Focus 15. Once in Focus 15, classic guided imagery of the meadow (Leuner) was introduced with the intention of con- tacting an inner guide. While both participants were experi- encing Focus 15, the therapist—remaining open to intuitions from the patient—visualized a coil or spiral and an arc. He had once interpreted the arc as a mountain in an experience with another patient. Upon returning to C1, the client was asked to free-associate to those elements. The spiral reminded her of the “spring on a door.” She then began to cry and spoke of a place in Heber Springs, Arkansas, that she had gone to as a seventeen-year-old. S.R. had been dating and could “do things that [I] can't do now,” such as a “climb to the top of Sugar Mountain” behind the town with a young man. The session was a breakthrough, for this patient had never been willing to discuss her life prior to her illness. Case #2- RJ. A thirty-year-old female physician assistant student, divorced, with one seven-year-old child, was being treated for depression. The patient was going to school out of state and dating a young man back home with the difficulties attendant on a long-distance relationship. In this meeting we had planned to work with the GATEWAY EXPERIENCE, Discovery, tape 3, but the therapist decided to use GOING HOME, Flying Free. At the point where the listener flies with Robert Monroe, the therapist got an image of the client flying hand-in-hand with a woman who was blond like herself. The therapist wondered if this was her sister and “heard” the response, “No, my sister does not have blond hair.” Back in C1, the therapist asked, “How was your experience?” She said, “Relaxing,” and described clouds and a rainbow. The client then recalled becoming “angry” at the instruction to “fly alone.” “I did not want to fly by myself!” The therapist inquired whether she had a sister. She said, “Yes, two years younger” and “She’s a redhead.” Immediately on being told of the therapist's image, the client responded: “That was my best friend, since first grade. She’s blond. I was flying with her [during the exer- cise], [because] I did not want to be alone. I share all my spir- itual experiences with her.” This led to a discussion of why she did not want to be alone. It was depressing to her, and she was