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involving mind-to-mind healing connections, that has been effective in other cultures. We have much to learn about the role of consciousness in healing. |
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In the following pages, we describe several pioneering experiments that explore the role that one person's consciousness may have on another person's health. These studies demonstrate that focused mental attention can influence both the physical and mental processes of another person. Dr. William Braud, the director of research at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, California, has referred to this intentional mental activity as "direct mental interaction." One interesting aspect of Braud's research is that the magnitude of the psychic benefit to the person being affected or helped is related to the degree of his or her need or acceptance of help.
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This chapter includes evidence for the effectiveness of remote mental suggestion, and the idea that distant hypnosis may account for some cases of distant psychic healing. This is not to say that all psychic healing derives from hypnotic influences, however. |
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Early research in hypnosis led to healing of psychogenic ailments and a wide variety of illnesses; hypnosis has been used for anesthesia during surgeries and amputations. The contemporary data for hypnosis at a distance shows that one person's mental processes of attention, intention, and imagery have the potential to interact with another distant person's psychological and physiological functioning. |
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In the Book of Exodus, God told Moses, "I am the Lord that healeth thee." Jesus told the Apostles to "heal the sick . . . and say unto them, the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you," and the Koran states that the Islamic revelation given to Muhammed ''is a guidance and a healing for those who believe."5 Prayer for healing is a central tenet of Christianity, Judaism, islam, and even Zoroastrianism, a religion that has endured for over 2,500 years.6 Indeed, the concept of healing body and soul has formed the essence of religious beliefs of tribes and cultures the world over. It is the foundation of some of their core attitudes about powers in the universe. We might even conjecture that if it were not for the healers and shamans from |
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