Mental Imagery, does it really work?

I have been doing little research today. There were experiments where people by purely suggesting, believing and imaginating managed to achieve their goals, to improve their physical strength or even partially alter their appearance.

DR. GUANG YUE - CLEVELAND CLINIC FOUNDATION - 2003 - OFFICIALLY PROVED YOU CAN BUILD BIGGER MUSCLES JUST BY THINKING ABOUT USING THEM IN A STUDY PRESENTED TO SOCIETY OF NEUROSCIENCE: 30 Adults spent 15 minutes a day visualizing exercising the little finger. All increased the strength of the pinkie by 35% and buffed up the muscle around the elbow 13%. In a second study, 10 adults aged 20-35 imagined flexing one of their biceps has hard as possible in training sessions five times a week. Electrical impulses at the motor neurons of their arm muscles were monitored to make certain they were not unintentionally tensing. After a few weeks biceps showed 13.5% increase in strength and maintained that gain for three weeks after training stopped.

This is also quite interesting

I had a client whose brain stem she and I 'accidentally' changed. I say accidentally because we thought I was giving her suggestions that after her operation at John Hopkins Medical Center to correct her brain stem (which was pressing on her spinal chord) her brain would be perfect. With this thought in mind, for several weeks I would suggest as part of her induction into hypnosis that her brain stem was perfect. (Our thinking also being a perfect thought form of a brain stem would help her surgeon do the operation perfectly.)

When she got to John Hopkins in Maryland she had a pre-operation X-Ray taken. Guess what? You guessed it. Her brain stem was perfect. As the surgeon surveyed the old X-Rays (sent to him by UCLA which referred her) and the new ones, he kept shaking his head muttering, "This just can't be right, these things don't change on their own."

True. Suggestion (which triggers mental imagery) did it. I'm convinced if she and I had thought we were trying to change the brain stem ourselves it would not have happened - our conscious disbelief would have interfered. We accidentally got around that by placing our faith in the thought 'Of course her brain stem would be perfect', she was going to John Hopkins to take care of it.

And physical apperanance:

This same woman asked me to ask Master of Spirit (Higher Spirit) if plastic surgery for her nose would interfere with all the great healing work we'd done. (we healed her nerves and muscles too). Master of Spirit said: "Isn't this the young woman who changed her brain stem and fingers by her own mental efforts?" When I replied yes, Master of Spirit said, "Suggest she do the same with her nose." When I imparted this to her she got to work - on her own. I forgot about it until one day while she was in hypnosis I thought I saw a shadow nose superimposed over her real nose. I rubbed my eyes and it disappeared. As she left she said goodbye to Dr. Hugh who said to me after she left: "What's with the second nose on her face?" He'd seen it too. I watched her nose like a hawk after that and watched it change week by week. When she had a new nose I asked what she'd done. Here is what she said: "I put up a picture on my bathroom mirror of the nose I wanted. I would stand there 10-15 minutes a day, talking to my nose. I would shine a flash light on the nose I wanted and then I would shine it on my own nose and say things like 'See here? There's a bump here. I don't want a bump here, I want it to look that that right there.' Then I'd shine the light on the nose I wanted again. Then I 'd shine the light on my own nose and imagine the bump going down and disappearing. I did this until the bump was gone - it took a few weeks. Then I'd work on another part - like the tip. Mine was too wide and flat. I wanted it more sculptured and pointy." I asked her how she'd ever found the patience to continue before the first sign it was working. She said she'd started with the bump and had had a mental image one day of an angel kissing the bump on her nose. 'That's when I knew it was going to work', she said. This woman also grew and slenderized her fingers with suggestion and mental imagery. I dearly wish we had a picture of the first day she came - frumpy, over-weight, walking with a cane - and the last day she came to say goodbye (she moved away after she finished her healing work, including healing the sexual abuse that created so many of her health issues). She truly did not look like the same person at all. She was the picture of confidence, standing proud and slim (she lost 50 pounds over the course of her healing) in stiletto heels, with a new nose and longer fingers on her well manicured hands. She was ready to start life over and she looked and felt terrific. Could she have done it all with mental imagery alone? No, she tried. She was one who needed to get rid of the self hate, shame and rage she held inside for the mental imagery to work. But...mental imagery was definitely a big part of what she accomplished. It DOES work. Note: When using Mental Imagery or any other modality for healing, heed what Light writes in Book II: �Cancers, as well as other illness and disease, can be healed without an understanding of what caused them. However, if the cause or causes remain a part of what one thinks, does, or feels the healing is incomplete and conditions remain ripe for future illness and disease."

source:
www.odysseyofthesoul.org...
www.brianmac.co.uk...

How to perform mental imagery:

Where do I start? To be effective, like any skill, imagery needs to be developed and practiced regularly. There are four elements to mental imagery - Relaxation, Realism, Regularity and Reinforcement (the 4Rs) Relaxation Having a relaxed mind and body so you can become involved in the imagery exercises, feel your body moving and experience any emotions generated. It may help to use a relaxation technique prior to imagery training. Realism Create imagery so realistic you believe you are actually executing the skill. In order to obtain the most realistic imagery possible, you must incorporate clarity, vividness, emotion, control and a positive outcome into your imagery: * Clarity - Make the images as vivid as possible, include colour * Vividness - Incorporate as many of your senses as possible into your imagery so the scene is as clear and realistic as real life itself * Emotion - Try to include emotional feelings in your images. Refresh your memory constantly by emphasising specific sensory awareness (e.g. smells, the wind) during training * Control - Break down the image into small components and visualise those components. (Sprinting - consider the action of the arms, legs, trunk, head, feet, hands, breathing etc.) * Positive outcome - This is essential, "you only achieve what you believe" Regularity Spending between 3 and 5 minutes on imagery seems to be most effective. It should be included in training and time outside of training should be spent on imagery. (10-15 minutes a day) Reinforcement The writing of imagery scripts will help you plan the content and timing of your imagery training.

reply to post by Farnhold


Many people believe in "manifest reality" in that nothing is here until you consciously bring it to mind and that what you envision you will create. It is a little too esoteric for me to swallow entirely but certainly something to consider when just by thinking of someone you can cause them to phone.

If you subscribe to Bohm's and Pribram's physics model (holomovement), then this would be par for the course. It's not so much that we create things by thinking of them, it's more like every scenario exists and you can "observe" an altered reality into "existence". It's the same effect that communal prayer has on crime rates in a community. Even Carl Jung insisted we all share the same subconsciousness which plays into the same physics model.

It's becoming more science and less speculation every day. In fact, if things like this didn't happen, it would be even harder to prove many of the post-Newtonion theories out there.

Welllllllllllllllllll, like i have been trying to say.........


Reality is a construct of the mind. So MENTAL imagery is a form of conscious manifestation. Its like rewiring your brain circuits for a different experience.

I do not believe in instant manifest reality. That is a New Age view and some people into Silva Mind Control also believe it. It is a philosophically primitive simplification of a much more complex view of metaphysics and the occult.
It is conceivable though that it is so in the large scheme of things if you take a reincarnational view.
That is a philosophical question with little material proof though.

However, we certainly can influence our own bodies with mental imagery, hypnosis, and even by our beliefs! As long as the unconscious is in harmony with such imagery etc. it may work well.
The great Yogi Selva Raja Yesudian (more famous in Europe than in the US) spent some time every day in front of the mirror imagining his muscles' development while he was ill and could not move much except do some relaxing yoga asanas. (This was in the 1930's and 40's). His muscles have developed to an awesome degree - I saw the BW photos before and during and after in a book. I also knew some of his disciples for longer times and it would be unthinkable that he would have made this up or secretly exercised as a bodybuilder. He was an honest yogi.

Milton H. Erickson, one of the giants of modern hypnotherapy spent an hour each morning with pain control meditation as he had a debilitating muscle and joint disease from attacks of polio. He lived reasonably healthily up to his 79'th year and taught many people. His world view was basically scientific, with a little psychology thrown in and lots of his own experience healing himself and bettering the lives of others. There are countless records of his activities.

reply to post by Kokatsi


Yeah you make a good point. Anything out of sync with the unconscious mind will be like sending a wrecking ball to your house. This is why i stay away from it.

But in all sense of things, we are the unconscious mind.

reply to post by onequestion

Very true.
The main difference of an Ericksonian approach as contrasted by the imaging techniques the OP cites is that words can also have a strong effect on our subconscious mind, not only images.
Perhaps we constantly influence ourselves by what we say, by the films and books we enjoy, by the music we listen to.
One reason I spend time on ATS is - apart from getting some basic news - is to find some inspiring thought, images and techniques that have worked for some people somewhere.

Hi guys, I have found a thread on different website where people tried to alter their appearance by commanding their cells to do it. Lots of different people discussing best techniques and their progress. So far I am on 10th page out of 70. I am not sleeping tonight,lol . But I think this really is the secret to everything. Unconscious mind is what controls our lives. It is programmed to think negatively and that there are many limites to our lives, but the truth is, that there are no limits. Anything is possible, literally.

Here you go guys:

www.powerfulintentions.org...

Very motivationval.

reply to post by Kokatsi


The reason i don't use mental imagery anymore is this...

If i don't whole heartedly believe in what it is i am imagining, or i am not fully 100 percent commited to it, then it has the opposite affect.

Well that and there is the whole aspect of symbology we don't understand. I mean seriously, you don't understand the complex geometry behind the images.