Markdown lines 195–347 · Part 2 of 4
pain and post surgery and post procedural pain basically stopped the next day. Next day, we're
actually after the tapes were started. And she continued to use the tapes, went back to school
came back for
19:06
removal of the gallbladder. And she sent me a note after it was all over saying
19:11
that her, you know that she was very comfortable, had no discomfort. And thank you very
much. And actually, her mother invited me to give a talk at the synagogue to whoever wanted
to listen to about about these techniques. So I was pleased that I have to say that that doesn't
happen that often. But it was a it was a neat example for me about at times how how openings
can appear before one if the time center was right. There are two units within the hospital. that
have longer stays. And therefore, I have the opportunity of doing more sustained work and
opportunity basically to get feedback about how things have been working, one of these
Institute habilitation unit, physical rehabilitation. And that unit actually is headed by a physical
medicine specialist, who it turns out is relatively sympathetic to new therapies and two
complementary therapies and whatever term one wants to use. So he has, as a word
increased or been quite willing to call me in, and I'm going to be scheduled to more it's been
postponed a number of times to teach the physical therapy staff about and the nurses on the
unit about Hemi sync and, and uses of subtle energy therapy and how that can be combined. I
have one story from from that unit. There was a patient on actually what I'd seen in the ICU a
few months before a woman in her early 70s. And I basically saw her in the ICU right after a
suicide attempt. And what was interesting about her examination, from a clinical point of view
was, was not only how she'd been depressed and and had taken an overdose, but even when
she cleared for rose from the overdose there was a residual cluster of neurological deficits that
that were somewhat puzzling. It turned out out is because I got sort of the story afterwards.
She was transferred when she cleared enough to go to a psychiatric hospital and it turned out
that she'd been abusing, overusing abusing both anti anxiety medications, today's opinions
and pain medications and her her dementia like state and her slave neurological responses,
where it turned out secondary to this abuse. However, she also had a considerable pain
syndrome, part of which was from some spinal pathology and part of which was a puzzling
gastrointestinal complaint that had so far or had that point, alluded workup or at least
successful workup. And there is a question whether it was partly mostly psychological in origin
or not. She was very anxious. When I was called to the rehab unit she was somewhat
depressed still, though, that was actually somewhat improved since she had been put on
antidepressants. She was quite anxious and she had this job complaint and she was basically
driving the staff somewhat buggy. I did my pharmacologic thing and this has been an
interesting or troubling dilemma for me. I clearly still have a foot which would it is or not true in
the standard treatment arena and prescribe medications I wonder to myself what it would be
like not to do that or to do that less, but it is not something that I at least
24:28
so far, feel very comfortable in. In letting go off or even even in downgrading because at least I
experienced considerable pressure on as it were from the community from
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liability ability in this regard, at any rate, so I constantly go through this debate, and I said,
Okay, fine, we'll go with standard therapy. And then I said, okay, here here are two types surf
and guide to Serenity. If you want verbal guidance, you have it on the guide to Serenity. If you
want the sort of peace and calm of a nature tape, then you can use the surf. And basically got
her daughter, her adult daughter to bring in a Walkman, which is basically the standard way.
Alright, can administer or get patients to administer Hemi sync? Let me just sort of put in my
usual plug for for nature types. Both my outpatients and my consultation patients on an
inpatient basis often ask for nature tapes. And I can give them serve, or I can give them serve.
The Institute has a wonderful video called stream songs, which I love very much. But it's not
on, you know, unless they happen to have a stereo VCR handy. It doesn't come into handy. So
I'm putting in my plug for that. And by the way, the rain sounds on the lucid dreaming tape are
really wonderful. And it would be really useful if there were more tapes like that, that I could
dispense to my patients. And anyway, so I go through those and came back actually the next
day. And she said the tapes are wonderful. I feel really calm. She said I get nervous after they
stop. But she nevertheless, her physical therapist said that she's doing much better. And her
other complaints subsided. And I checked in again a few days later and she is ready for
discharge, or at least ready for discharge by insurance standards of the year 2000. Which is a
major problem. And she was not anxious. She was quite comfortable. She still interestingly
had her gi complaint or gastrointestinal complaint. And I relayed to her gastroenterologist that
when I felt that this was an interesting indication that that perhaps they should look further.
Because her anxiety really by that point it just other than she's coping well. And she still had
this discomfort, odd sensation that she got in her abdomen that they have not shifted. And I
thought that this was an interesting diagnostic tool. And then the age that that the Hemi sync
tape had tapes have given.
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And so that's that lady's story. Actually, when I was still at the VA, and trying to decide when to
when to jump ship. I had approached the relatively new medical director of the hospice unit at
St. Peter's
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about possible collaboration. Things move slowly at St. Peter's. And basically nothing
happened with that until I was on board on salary. And basically decided well I'm really
interested in hospice issues. I'm interested in planetology. I'm interested in working with that
population. Actually, it was when the institute came out with the going home series where at
least when I found out about it, which was towards the end of 95 are contacted the Institute
and dealt with thoroughly and with dark and that actually was was my point of take off at the
time I was interested in working with the hospice patients in the hospice program at the VA
wars heading the consulate service. But that interest crew I've been through I've been through
gateway and I've been through guidelines I have not yet gone to lifeline. But I've been through
the going home tapes many times and so I'm As it were converted into my own way with, with
this phenomena. And I really wanted to work with with hospice patients, and they provide a
population where while there are many doctors who delay transfer to hospice to last minute,
almost, there are more patients that can stay there and receive care for weeks, even months,
though, that's somewhat rare. And so this has been, for me a good avenue to both do work
and to get feedback to see how it is going over over a period of time. There are political
complications. And this is sort of one of the issues that I've wrestled with, in terms of private
practice versus institutional work. And I can't say that I'm in love with political issues. But
somehow for most of my life, except for, for the little bit of time, in, in private practice, I seem to
be drawn to institution, sir, and I'm sort of dealing with it. The hospice unit was was actually
founded, I think, about 20 years before by a gentleman who described himself as a former
psychiatrist, who got interested in hospice work in 10 ontology, and was a very charismatic and
magnetic figure. He left about five years ago. And I guess that there was something of a
counter reaction. There was a sense, I, I gather that some of the many of the attendings, the
personal physicians, were not so comfortable with. With, as it were the larger universe or with
this person's particular personality style, and there was something of other other counter
reaction, the successor is a very capable man, but one with considerably less sympathy with at
least some aspects of transpersonal issues. Basically, he said, he doesn't believe in near
death experiences, views, it is a physiological phenomenon, but also an interesting and
basically somebody was a pediatrician who had a tragedy, who who lost one of his children
after an extended illness, and clearly that changed his life and is a very compassionate and
very dedicated individual. And so here's this individual with some complex ambivalences about
the situation, but has been very willing to take advantage actually with my enthusiasm.
Because basically, I said, Here I am. And particularly after I've demonstrated usefulness, on
multiple occasions with pharmacology, suggestions, has become more willing to allow me to
be involved with the patients. Even here, the setup that I'm in is a bit complicated in that I need
to get permission, there has to be a formal consult from the personal physician, as opposed to
the director of the hospice, for me to become formally
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involved. It turns out, however, that the nursing coordinator would used to be called that they
have nurse and some of the nurses are
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either some of them are actually trained in therapeutic touch, and many are very sympathetic
to transpersonal issues. And in fact, there's a service the chaplain who is a Greek Orthodox
priest, who works for the hospice, so the environment is next, but there's a great deal of of of
acceptance within some aspects of it. The first case that I want to relate about this was an
individual or a woman in her later 70s. And I was called to see her. This is sort of not unusual.
In consultation, psychiatry, I was called to see her because her physician wasn't sure that she
was cooperating with with treatment. She had lost her husband about eight months before or
after an extended illness, and had a number of health problems, including development of first
breathing problems, she was diagnosed with a pleural effusion, and then a sudden increase in
the breathing problems and was suspected of having a pulmonary embolus with the suspicion
underneath that there may be some hidden cancer it's called an occult malignancy, not having
anything to do with how we might use the word a cult. And I was called in and basically, once I
talked to her, it was perfectly clear that, you know, she's, you know, she didn't want to go
through undue suffering, but she was perfectly happy to, to cooperate with a doctor. And if her
doctor had talked to her, he knows when this might have taken care of it, which is,
unfortunately, somewhat common. happening in concert psychiatry, and often that sort of the
kind of connection cleaning up that I do. But we talked a bit. And she told me that she was
anxious. And she was, she didn't really feel that she had a lot of energy to live. But she was
also afraid of dying, that she had some some sense that there was an afterlife, some
continuity, but not a great deal of faith, and was frightened. And I thought that there was also
some degree of biological depression in there. And here again, I kind of went through my, you
know, okay, which could have my standing on am I standing on both kind of thing. And decided
that I would offer a mild antidepressant and, and then keep talking to her. And I said, Maybe I
have some tapes. And they're specially designed, and they may help invite your brain
frequencies to move down into Nellore frequencies, which is often how I describe it. And she
said, that she would really like that kind of thing, that would be quite good. And I sort of sensed
an opportunity, I said, if you like those, there's actually this whole series of tapes put together