Hemi-Sync® Journal 2006-1&2 (Winter/Spring)

patients’ response to hypnosis.3 Psychologists Daniel Brown and Erika Fromm4 and psychiatrists Herbert and David Spiegel5 con- tributed to the use of hypnosis in behavioral medicine. Radiation oncologist Carl Simonton and his wife, Stephanie, developed treatments that were not labeled hypnosis but involved relaxation combined with imagery to address the immune-system aspects of cancer.6 A Yale surgeon, Bernard (Bernie) Siegel, MD, developed supplementary treatment approaches to cancer that involved by Jonathan H. Holt, MD relaxation and imagery, as well as music and group support.7 Dr. Siegel founded Exceptional Cancer Patients (ECAP), an organi- zation that sponsored support groups to help cancer patients cope Jonathan H. Holt, MD, graduated from Yale University in 1980 and with the disease. The above work became associated with the received Yale’s Lidz Prize in psychiatry. Dr. Holt also did his residency at Yale and notion that cancer patients were responsible for their illness. It’s completed a fellowship in consultation-liaison psychiatry (medical psychiatry) at my understanding that this idea does not represent the beliefs of Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York. He is presently associate professor of the aforementioned practitioners. For complex reasons, however, psychiatry at State University of New York at Buffalo and codirector of consulta- some cancer patients tended to fall into this belief. tion-liaison psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, SUNY at Dr. David Spiegel formulated a study with the intent to Buffalo. Jon is a third-level Reiki practitioner and a practitioner of therapeutic demonstrate that psychosocial methods could improve the quali- touch and other subtle energy methods. He also utilizes eye movement desensitiza- ty of life of cancer patients but would not affect longevity. His tion reprocessing (EMDR), thought field therapy (TFT), and EEG and peripher- intervention consisted of group therapy with an existential focus al biofeedback. Dr. Holt contributed the article “Hemi-Sync in My Psychiatric and added a weekly session of group hypnosis to promote comfort Practice” to the summer 2000 issue of the HEMI-SYNC JOURNAL. He has and pain relief. His subjects were breast cancer patients. The con- been a member of TMI’s Professional Division since 1996. trol group had a similar diagnosis and received similar treatment Much of my professional life has been spent in consulting without the hypnosis component. To his surprise, the intervention upon and treating people with medical illnesses, with a focus on group not only experienced significant improvement in quality of their psychological and psychiatric problems and reactions. life but experienced significant comparative prolonged survival Within this larger group, my particular interest has been patients time. Dr. Spiegel published the study in Lancet in 1989.8 Since ii Winter/Spring 2006 that time six published studies have replicated the longevity find- the St. Peter’s Hospital Internal Review Board. ings, but five did not. None of the replication studies included The process of enlisting willing patients was more complicat- group hypnosis. In addition, I would cite the study by Marilyn ed than expected. Neither Dr. Recore nor I could be present in the Schlitz, PhD, and Richard Wiseman, PhD, published in the oncology clinic on a regular basis. Explanatory brochures were pro- Journal of Parapsychology for September 1997. It demonstrated vided, but recruitment was slow. At this time, due to a change in that the beliefs of the experimenter in charge of the experiment administration of the hospital, I left employment at St. Peter’s could affect the results, even when all other parameters were kept Hospital and took a position at SUNY at Buffalo. Dr. Recore and the same.9 While this study involved parapsychology, the same I remained in touch and she continued to oversee the project process may be working in other kinds of phenomena and exper- through June 2004. Twelve patients returned fatigue question- iments. naires. One patient died before being enrolled in the study. One Closer to home, I would point out the work of The Monroe patient dropped out for unspecified reasons. One patient did not Institute’s Professional Division members and other researchers. submit data despite follow-up. Four patients reported by phone Quite a number of the Hemi-Sync exercises have proved useful to that Energy Walk was helpful for fatigue and pain but did not fill patients with cancer. The SURGICAL SUPPORT series, exercis- out the questionnaire. As you can see from the table, eleven out es to manage pain and encourage relaxation, the POSITIVE of twelve patients found the tape useful for fatigue and eleven IMMUNITY series, (originally designed for AIDS patients), and out of twelve found the tape useful for relieving pain. Eleven the GOING HOME series immediately come to mind. Brian patients listened to the tape once a day. One patient listened to the Dailey, MD, an attending physician in emergency room medicine tape only after radiation treatments (see graph on page iv). at Rochester General Hospital, uses Hemi-Sync tapes, energy The St. Peter’s Hospital study illustrates the difficulty in exe- work, and crystals when treating cancer patients. Dr. Dailey col- cuting clinical research without monetary support or staff. It also laborated with Monroe Products and The Monroe Institute on illustrates some of the difficulties psychiatrists have in doing clin- the creation of Chemotherapy Companion and Radiation ical research in unstable and uncertain economic environments. Companion, which were later combined in the CANCER SUP- Since joining the psychiatry faculty at SUNY at Buffalo, I’ve been PORT series. At the Seventeenth Professional Seminar, I dis- working for four years to get projects going at Roswell Park cussed my use of Hemi-Sync tapes with various medical patients, Cancer Institute. I’m scheduled to begin work this spring and including cancer patients and terminally ill patients in the hospice have conferred with the chief psychologist to follow up on the program.10 Hemi-Sync is very useful to overworked consultation Albany pilot study. Whatever cosmic synchronicities were psychiatrists who haven’t got the time needed to do many hypno- involved, in the same period that we launched the above project, sis sessions or meditation training sessions. Providing Hemi-Sync I became involved in a complex case that illustrated many of the exercises as “homework” fills the gap. issues of psycho-oncology and the usefulness of Hemi-Sync When I gave that presentation, I was working at St. Peter’s tapes. The case study was published in Psychiatric Services11 and is Hospital in Albany, New York. I decided to start a research pro- excerpted below. ject employing Hemi-Sync with cancer patients. The radiation oncologists were organized into one department and were recep- Introduction tive to cooperating with the psychiatry department. Furthermore, Patients at the end of their lives are a special challenge for the under the medical director, Richard Boehler, the hospital had psychiatrist, but treatment can encompass all of psychiatric work hired Alicia Recore, PhD, as program director for complementary in a very concentrated form. Neuropsychiatry is featured, with its therapies. Dr. Recore collaborated with me and with radiation focus on organic mental status, and affective (emotional) work has oncologists Duncan Savage, MD, Ralph Kiehl, MD, and Todd an important place. Yet many times there is also a call for “exis- Doyle, MD. Monroe Products had just introduced Chemotherapy tential” work, not only for psychotherapy of various schools, but Companion. Unfortunately, after consulting with the radiation for psychospiritual therapy—for the transcendent. oncologists, we found that the symptom profile of radiation oncology patients was not well matched by the tape. There is rel- Diagnosis of Terminal Illness atively little pain and nausea in this population but much fatigue. Mr. X was eighty years old when he came to psychiatric treat- There were plans for making a second tape for radiation oncolo- ment and died before turning eighty-one. He had been vital and gy, but it was not yet ready. Dr. Recore and I consulted with active and was, in fact, still downhill skiing when his final illness Darlene Miller and Shirley Bliley, and Energy Walk was selected manifested. He developed a persistent cough and ascites and was as an appropriate alternative. This tape, narrated by Darlene, fea- diagnosed with lung cancer. He consented to chemotherapy. tures guided imagery, with different natural elements—sand and Shortly into treatment, however, he developed spinal metastases earth, seawater, grass, wind and trees—and the suggestion to and began to exhibit signs of spinal cord compression. He was absorb the energy of these elements. Energy Walk is a good exam- hospitalized for surgical evaluation and relief at an upstate New ple of indirect suggestion; the listener is free to interpret the sym- York hospital. During this hospitalization, the patient learned that bols in individual and beneficial ways. A his symptoms were not correctable. He would be crippled for the protocol was prepared involving daily tape use and a follow-up rest of his life, which was estimated at six to nine months. questionnaire. This protocol was submitted to and approved by