Hemi-Sync® Journal 1995-4 (Fall)

--- PAGE 1 (OCR) --- HEMI-SYNC® ourna Vol Fall 1995 A Research and Educational Publication of The Monroe Institute 1995 PROFESSIONAL SEMINAR OVERVIEW July 22-29, 1995, fifty professional members, guests, and staff members participated in the Thirteenth Annual Professional Seminar—an event pivotal to the future of the Professional Division and The Monroe Institute. At Saturday's opening ceremonies, TMI President Laurie Monroe Chasick dedicated the week's activities to the memory of her father, Robert A. Monroe. That evening she pre- sented a Creative Agreement which all participants and staff had an opportunity to sign. The week was characterized by an easy flow and camaraderie which bodes well for the future of The Monroe Institute and its associates. IN THIS ISSUE 1995 PROFESSIONAL SEMINAR OVERVIEW... HEMI-SYNC AS A THERAPEUTIC ADJUNCT FOR TREATING DISSOCIATIVE IDENTITY DISORDER Susan B. Lindsey explores Hemi-S: to shorten and ease the therapeutic process of clients in treatment for dissociative identity disorder. DEVELOPING STRESS HARDINESS BY INDUCED STRESS INOCULATION Hemi-Sync-mediated relaxation is the heart of Arthur D. Haggerty’s consistently successful regi- men for coping with the rigors of daily living. The chosen theme of this year’s seminar was “Co-Creating the Reality 1995.” Thus challenged, the group proceeded to craft an inspiring and productive synthesis of theme and agreement, From the initial celebration of Robert Monroe's vision and our memories of him, we moved on to an array of presentations demonstrating the applications of that vision. Featured topics included Hemi-Sync as a catalyst for divergent (creative) thinking, the foundations and continuing evolution of the POSITIVE IMMUNITY PROGRAM, designing and marketing Hemi-Sync workshops, research defining “mind awake/body asleep” as a state of consciousness distinct from sleep, Hemi-Sync usefulness for developing stress hardiness, qigong techniques for health and longevity, Hemi-Sync as a tool for enhanc- ing and refining remote viewing skills, peak and other experiences during the GATEWAY VOYAGE, a chance to sample a successful Hemi-Sync workshop, Hemi-Sync as a therapeutic resource for disso- ciative identity disorder, and an array of success stories gleaned from seven years of Hemi-Sync use in family therapy. Open Forum sessions spotlighted Hemi-Sync as a resource in games of chance and entrepreneurial ventures and to enhance mem- ory and recalll, A group formed to complete development of a research Guide for professionals, the basics of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) were presented, and we received an update on TM's expanding claim in cyberspace. A shamanic journey was inserted into “free” time by popular acclamation, as was in-depth exploration of qigong methods. As in past years, a number of individ- uals used PREP sessions to travel down personal co-creative paths. The sense of community was strengthened by Thursday's tape day intensive and expressed itself in an evening of exuberant song and dance with The Naturals. At 10:30 pm, the musical celebrants broke off an hour-long creative jam session to help load the last of the sound equipment into the van ‘The week was characterized by an easy flow and camaraderie which bodes well for the future of The Monroe Institute and its associates, On Friday morning, President Chasick, staff members, and the Board of Advisors met to outline plans and lay the groundwork that will make the creative ideas shared here @ a reality. © 1995 The Monroe Institute Route 1, Box 175, Faber, VA 22938-9749 804/361-1252 --- PAGE 2 (OCR) --- HEMI-SYNC® JOURNAL HEMI-SYNC AS A THERAPEUTIC ADJUNCT FOR TREATING DISSOCIATIVE IDENTITY DISORDER by Susan B. Lindsey, MDiv Susan B, Lindsey, MDiv, of Herndon, Virginia, is a pas- toral counselor in practice since 1978. She has been a pro- fessional member of The Monroe Institute since February 1995. Susan has studied at Wesley Theological Seminary and PC & CC's Institute of Pastoral Psychotherapy. She has extensive experience in neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), hypnosis, and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) and specializes in working with disso- ciative disorders. In this paper based on her presentation at the 1995 Professional Seminar, Reverend Lindsey defines dissociative identity disorder (DID) and describes her thera- peutic treatment style. She then discusses some outcomes of adding Hemi-Sync audioguidance tools to this repertoire and the potentials for—and drawbacks to—Hemi-Sync intervention with DID clients. I work primarily with clients who have suffered severe, ongoing childhood abuse. Most of them are diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder (formerly multiple personality disorder). They are marvelous, intelligent, gifted, and cre- ative people. They have also lived with unimaginable trau- ma. Part of their enormous creativity is the ability to disso- ciate in order to survive overwhelming circumstances. The definition from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-IV, source of the latest official criteria used to diagnose DID, is: The presence of two or more distinct . . . personali- ty states (each with its own relatively enduring pattern of perceiving, relating to, and thinking about the envi- ronment and self). At least two of these . . . personality states recur- rently take control of the person’s behavior. The inability to recall important personal informa- tion that is too extensive to be explained by ordinary forgetfulness. ... not due to the direct physiological effects of a sub- stance .. . or a general medical condition. The creation of this condition requires extreme and ongoing trauma in early childhood (usually before age eight). Over 85 percent of DID cases include ongoing sexual abuse. Some DID clients have experienced systematic sadis- tic abuse (ritual abuse) including intentional creation of personalities through torture and manipulation or program- ming of those personalities so they believe and behave exactly as the perpetrators wish. A Simple Multiple System Therapy usually encompasses three stages: (1) life stabi- lization (providing a safe external environment, switching between personalities by choice, functional coping mecha- nisms, and addressing substance abuse, eating disorders, or any other disorder that would interfere with the therapeutic outcome); (2) recovering and metabolizing memories (including altering dysfunctional beliefs and ways of relating to the world) with either integration of personalities or co- consciousness and highly functional cooperation between them; and (3) post-memory recovery work (establishing nor- The Real Picture of the Client malized living through aids such as bodywork, nutrition, and recreation). While these three stages of therapy are not totally sepa- rate, most of the work that I do with clients is in the middle stage of therapy—the recovery and metabolizing of traumat- ic memory. The process involves establishing a trusting therapeutic relationship with all the personalities and pro- viding an environment in which they can recall and rework their traumatic pasts. This enhances their functioning and satisfaction in the present. Toward that end, I utilize an eclectic approach with standard therapeutic listening and intervention techniques, some neuro-linguistic program- ii --- PAGE 3 (OCR) --- Fall 1995 ming patterns, eye movement desensitization and reprocess- ing, flower essences, imagery, and hypnosis (used solely for improving coping mechanisms). Severe trauma survivors show “permanent” brain changes due to the abuse. They often live in a state of con- stant physiological and emotional arousal. Some changes are biochemical, while others—those which specifically sparked my interest in Hemi-Sync technology—are a reduc- tion in alpha and theta brain-wave activity. I hoped that an outside source which would passively generate more of these brain-wave states would be beneficial. I also hoped my clients could utilize some of the HUMAN PLUS functions as a coping resource. Audio speakers on either side of the sofa where most clients sit deliver various METAMUSIC ARTIST selec- tions in the background during private and group counsel- ing sessions. Thus far, the most dramatic results have been observed with the METAMUSIC ARTIST SERIES. Here are descriptions of two cases and the benefits both clients have received from Hemi-Sync. Client 1 is a poly- fragmented ritual abuse survivor who has been in counsel- ing with me for almost two and one-half years, She was diag- nosed as MPD three years ago by another therapist and had received twelve years of counseling prior to correct diagno- sis. During our time together, she had met many first-layer personalities (ritual abuse survivors usually have multiple layers of alternate personalities), remembered and worked through memories pertaining to the primary non-cult per- petrator, discovered that the ritual abuse existed, and was be-ginning to process some ritual abuse memories. I esti- mated that integration of the first-layer alternate personali- ties would take place slowly over at least another year and Client 1 before Hemi-Syne that knowledge of individual second-layer alter personalities was approximately six months in the future. The first order of Hemi-Sync tapes arrived on March 8, 1995, and I began playing them immediately, taking time only to give appropriate explanations and secure releases, Client 1 was coming to individual sessions twice a week and to group counseling once a week. During the first session with Hemi-Sync, I met two personalities from the second layer, Within five weeks, Client 1’s entire first layer was ready to integrate! Utilizing a variation of a portion of the NLP Core Transformation Process, Client 1—over three individual sessions—reparented a total of sixty upper-layer personalities from conception to their internal perceived ages, and all sixty integrated. EMDR was used to solidify the integration, which has held completely. Other second-layer personalities are now introducing themselves. Client 1’s independent assessment is that her therapy has been short- ened by a year. Client 2 is a ritual abuse survivor who has been with me for several years. I have talked with a few personalities over that time, but her system is so anxious (and programmed so thoroughly to hide) that even she has not had clarity about the different personalities. As with Client 1, METAMUSIC ARTIST selections have simply played in the background during her counseling sessions. Over the course of three months, Client 2 has made a number of significant changes more quickly than anticipated. Internal switching from personality to personality has slowed so that she is able to complete many more thoughts rather than interrupting her- self in mid-sentence. She stays on a single topic much longer and allows feedback from others to sink in more readily. Complete memories are replacing scattered frag- ments, and she is getting clearer on a significant number of her personalities. She has asked for flower essences and an EMDR session—both of which she was too frightened to try previously—evidence of calmer mental processes. Client 2's therapeutic process has also undoubtedly been shortened, though I have no sense of how much. Each DID client who has experienced the Hemi-Sync sound seems to respond uniquely. The tapes the preceding clients listened to were not specified, in part because I did not attribute the outcomes they experienced to the specific tapes. Client 1 originally heard Cloudscapes, and it became the tape which accessed the lower-level personalities. This access was so deep that it was necessary to play a different tape during the group she attended. Once she integrated, Cloudscapes ceased to have any particular potency; she said we would have to find another tape for the next layer. After