by David R. Hamilton, Ph.D.

Every thought and feeling changes something in the body. Ever been embarrassed? Did your face go red at the thought of people looking at you or knowing something private about you? Of course it did. Your thoughts are affecting your biology!

On the positive side, our thoughts can have far reaching health-giving consequences. For example, scientific studies have shown that thinking and feeling care or compassion for another person can bring coherence to the rhythms of the heart. One study even found an increase in key immune chemicals after 5 minutes of such loving thoughts.

Thoughts and emotions even bring about changes at the level of the DNA. Our genes continually switch on and off as the body goes about it’s basic house-keeping. However, our thinking influences the process.

Take a simple example. Say you fall and scrape your knee. As the body begins to repair itself, genes switch on to provide the materials needed for repair, like hormones, clotting factors, even new skin. But if you were focusing your attention on stuff that made you sad, or even believing that you would take ages to heal, then genes would switch on that would interfere with the healing process.

On the other hand, if you imagined that the wound was healed and believed that your thoughts would help, then genes would switch on and you would heal faster.

Additionally, strong emotions like fascination, wonder, awe, excitement, and enthusiasm, as well as spiritual states of consciousness, are so powerful that they even switch on genes that cause brain cells to grow in adults – something that, up until a few years ago, was believed to be impossible. The key is the interaction of emotions with DNA.

This all happens inside the body. Where it gets really interesting is when our thoughts affect things outside of the body.

Some scientists placed organisms in test tubes and found that people could influence them just by intending for them to change. For instance, people could either mentally speed up or slow down the mutation of E-coli on command.

Some university research has also shown that a thought about a person is registered in their body. While hooked up to devices measuring electrical resistance in the skin, scientists measured changes in people depending on the thoughts held about them by people in another room.

These things are able to occur because all life is interconnected at the quantum level. A thought not only affects your body, but it ripples throughout the invisible web that interconnects all of life. Each of us affects the whole.

Therefore it is possible for us to make a real positive difference in the word by changing our attitudes and behaviours towards each other. In a very real way an act of kindness in your own home or workplace will ripple throughout the interconnectedness of life and make a difference in the lives of people on the other side of the world. And ultimately, it’s not so much the act, but the space of love it came from that it most important. It’s the thought that counts.

So if you want to see a world you dream of then start with yourself. Each of us can make a real difference, regardless of our status in life. Everyone is important. And that means You!

A simple formula is to show love for self, love for others, and love for nature.

www.drdavidhamilton.com

by Dr. David Hamilton

I love to meditate and have made it a daily practice. Being quite scientifically minded I love to monitor how it benefits me. Among other methods I often use the Heartmath FreezeFramer (see http://www.heartmath.com ) so that I can see how my meditations affect the rhythms of my heart.

Doing this helps me to stay in a meditative state for the duration of my meditations (usually 30 – 45 minutes). Any loss of concentration usually shows up quickly on the screen of my laptop as my rhythms lose their coherence. By periodically glancing at the screen, I am reminded to keep my focus.

Meditation has been shown to have many positive effects on the body. It is believed that around 80% of all health problems are either negatively affected by stress, or that stress had a hand in their creation. Meditation is a well-known antidote to stress and so has a positive effect on many health complaints.

Since the widespread use of MRI scanners, scientists have been able to explore the effects of meditation on the growth of the brain. In one recent study (published in the journal, ‘Neurobiology of Ageing’), scientists Giuseppe Pagoni and Milos Cekic, from the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences at Emory University in Atlanta, looked at the grey matter volume of the brain to measure the effects of Zen meditation.

Cerebral grey matter volume usually decreases with age, so the study compared the grey matter volume of 13 people performing Zen meditations against that of 13 control people who weren’t meditators.

What they found was that grey matter volume decreased as expected in the control group but not so with the meditators. In other words, meditation had a ‘neuroprotective’ effect: It slowed down the rate of ageing.

Many studies have shown similar anti ageing effects. It has been found also, for instance, that meditation can slow down the decline in levels of the hormone DHEA, which also usually declines with age.

David Hamilton is one of the experts in the documentary Beyond Belief: www.beyondbeliefthemovie.com

Short video produced by David Hamilton.  You can see David in the film Beyond Belief:   www.beyondbeliefthemovie.com

by Dr. Darren Weissman

Your symptoms will tell you the truth . . .

Every symptom in your body or challenge in your life is like a mosaic:  When standing close to it, the picture is blurry and has no meaning; however, as you move back, you’re able to appreciate how all the colors and pieces merge together to form a beautiful work of art. Every thought, feeling, and belief you have is a piece of your own personal artwork. Each color in the mosaic has meaning, as does every symptom or uncomfortable feeling through which your body speaks. The language it uses to communicate with you is an opportunity for you to heal and create abundance in all areas of your life.

Whether you have emotional or physical symptoms, they are your body’s way of saying, “I’m not happy with how you are treating me.”

Author Louise L. Hay, who popularized the connection between mind/body and healing, wrote the following in an essay in Handbook for the Heart: Original Writings on Love. “Many people contact me for help with health issues, even very serious ones. All I do is teach them how to love themselves. They learn to look at what has gotten in the way of their love and health . . . I have people look into a mirror, just look into their own eyes, and say, ‘I love you.’”

Healing begins when you love yourself unconditionally. Symptoms are an expression of your denial of the need for self-love. The first step of healing is to completely embrace who you are right now. When you neglect self-love, it’s reflected in your relationship with others, your health, your work, and every other aspect of your life. The LifeLine healing process helps you see how, when, where, and why you’ve neglected your need for self-love. It allows you to appreciate the journey that you’ve already traveled on and prepares you for the road ahead.

I was in the middle of a treatment with a woman named Suzie. I noticed that she seemed distracted, and I asked her to get in touch with the conversation going on in her head. “Right now, I’m feeling bad that you’re running an hour behind and there are several people sitting in the waiting room,” she replied. I asked her to focus on her feelings about the people who were waiting to see me. As she did, Suzie began to recognize that she always put other people’s needs and concerns ahead of her own. She started to cry when she realized that she believed no one would love her unless she put them first.

To heal, you must accept where and who you are and love yourself unconditionally for being a perfect creation. Here are a couple of analogies:

1. You have to deposit money in a bank before you can withdraw it.

When flight attendants recite safety presentations before a plane takes off, what do they say about the oxygen mask? “Put on your own mask first before assisting others.”

2. Self-love isn’t self-indulgence, selfishness, or self-centeredness.

Self-love requires that you own who you are at this moment, without judgment. True happiness is discovered during the healing process; it’s a by-product of the journey, not the end result.

Healing is about balance. By using the frequency of Infinite Love & Gratitude, The LifeLine Technique balances the body so that it will be able to accept and harmonize the emotions that you’ve subconsciously denied. Once harmony is restored, the body’s natural ability to heal itself is unleashed. Balance, and therefore healing, begins with self-love.

Begin the action steps of essential acts of self-love:

Your thoughts create your reality.

If your reality is other than what you’d choose then you can be sure that you’re living a life of reaction and as a result your subconscious mind is helping you to awaken your destiny to a whole new you.

Go for it!

Remember when excitement and fear meet at a crossroads you know that you’re on the precipice of a life transformation.

Self-love is the only answer.

Dr. Darren Weissman is the developer of The LifeLine Technique, an advanced holistic system that discovers, releases, and interprets the root cause of physical symptoms and stress—emotions trapped within the subconscious mind. His mission is world peace through inner peace. Awakening to the Secret Code of Your Mind, Darren’s second book, is now available wherever books are sold. For more information about Darren’s work, visit www.infiniteloveandgratitude.com.

Darren Weissman is one of twenty four experts in the documentary Beyond Belief: www.beyondbeliefthemovie.com

By Judith Orloff MD

Adapted from Second Sight  (Three Rivers Press, 2010) PART TWO of TWO

….but then I had a heart-wrenching wake-up call that changed everything. It was an intuition that a patient, on antidepressants, was going to make a suicide attempt. Because she was doing so well–nothing supported my hunch–I dismissed it. Within a week she overdosed on the antidepressants I’d prescribed and ended up in a coma for nearly a month. (Had she not survived I would’ve been devastated.) The hardest part, though, was that I thought I’d harmed her by not utilizing a vital piece of intuitive information. This was intolerable for me. From then on, I knew, as a responsible physician, I had to integrate my intuitions into my work.

After this episode, my journey to bring intuition into my medical practice began. I didn’t know how I’d do it, but I put out a silent prayer to the universe to help me. Soon, I began meeting people, more angels, who showed me the way. Gradually I grew comfortable with my intuition, set out to write “Second Sight.” This took me seven years to complete because I had so much fear about coming out of the closet as an intuitive. I was afraid of what my physician-peers would think, that they’d mock me or blackball me from the profession. My mother warned, “They’ll think you’re weird. It’ll jeopardize your medical career.” Ah Mother: I loved her, but thank god I didn’t listen. Finding my voice as a psychiatrist and intuitive has been my path to freedom.

Sure, there’s a risk when you stretch yourself, but the rewards are enormous. Now, I’m blessed to travel around the country giving workshops on intuition to auditoriums full of extraordinary people–health care professionals and general audiences–who long to embrace their inner voice. I’m heartened to see that many physicians are eager to deal with patients in the new way I offer.  I gave an intuitive healing workshop at the American Psychiatric Association convention, a annual gathering of the most conservative psychiatrists in the world. I’m pleased to report the response was wonderful.

I’m sad to report that my mother didn’t live long enough to see this. In 1993 she died of a lymphoma. But, on her deathbed, she decided to tell me our “family secrets.” She told me, “I want to pass the power onto you.” I was astounded to learn that I came from a lineage of intuitive healers on her side of the family–my Jewish grandmother who did laying on of hands in a shed behind the pharmacy she and Grandpop ran in Philadelphia. East coast aunts and cousins I’d never met since I grew up in California. Also, my mother, herself, had a strong inner voice which told her how to treat patients for over forty years. She’d listened to this voice and secretly used her innate healing powers to keep her lymphoma in remission for many years. “Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked her. She said simply, “I wanted you to lead a normal, happy life, not to be thought of as weird like your grandmother was.” Oh Mother… I’ll always be grateful for what she shared, but, still… she’d waited so long. Even so, I believe in the wisdom of the paths we’ve been given. Mine has been to fight for what I believed in despite what my parents or anyone said. An invaluable but rugged lesson in empowerment.

These days, no matter what I’m going through, especially when my heart is torn in a million pieces my intuition has sustained me. I hope that my journey in my book “Second Sight” can help you. One thing I’m certain of: if you follow your intuitive voice, you can’t go wrong. Stay true to it. Intuition is about empowerment, not having to conform to someone else’s notion of who you should be. It’s about being true to yourself, and all the goodness that comes from that.

Judith Orloff, M.D is author of the new bestseller SECOND SIGHT, an inspiring and controversial memoir about coming to terms with her intuitive gifts, upon which this article is based. Her other books are Emotional Freedom, Guide to Intuitive Healing, and Positive Energy. She is assistant clinical professor of Psychiatry at UCLA and an international workshop leader. For more information about new updated edition of Second Sight and Dr. Orloff’s books and workshops visit:

http://www.drjudithorloff.com/second-sight-promotion/

Please visit Judith at www.drjudithorloff.com

Judith Orloff is one of twenty four experts featured in the documentary Beyond Belief: www.beyondbeliefthemovie.com

By Judith Orloff MD

Adapted from Second Sight  (Three Rivers Press, 2010) PART ONE of TWO:

I’m a psychiatrist and intuitive in Los Angeles. What I do isn’t my job. It’s my life’s passion. With patients and in workshops, I listen with my intellect and my intuition, a potent inner wisdom that goes beyond the literal. I experience it as a flash of insight, a gut feeling, a hunch, a dream. By blending intuition with orthodox medical knowledge I can offer my patients and workshop participants the best of both worlds. Now, listening to intuition is sacred to me, but learning to trust it has taken years. I’ve described the details in my memoir Second Sight which is meant to assure anyone whoever thought they were weird or crazy for having intuitive experiences, that they are not! This brief synopsis gives you a good sense of the book.

I grew up in Beverly Hills the only daughter of two-physician parents with twenty-five physicians in my family. From age nine, I had dreams and intuitions that would come true. I could predicts illness, earthquakes, even the suicide of one of my parent’s friends. This confused and alarmed me, as it did my parents who were entrenched in the hard-core rational world of science. At first they tried to write my intuitions off as coincidence. Finally, though, after I dreamed my mother’s mentor would loose a political election–which to my horror, came true–she took me aside and told me, “Never mention another dream or intuition in our house again!” I’ll never forget the look in my dear mother’s exasperated, frightened eyes, nothing I ever wanted to see again. So from that day on, I kept my intuitions to myself. I grew up ashamed of my abilities, sure there was something wrong with me.

Luckily, I’ve had many angels in human form who’ve pointed me to my true calling as physician. In the sixties I got heavily involved with drugs in an attempt to block my intuitions out—not something I’m recommending to you! Following a nearly fatal car accident at age sixteen when I tumbled over a treacherous 1500 foot cliff in Malibu Canyon, my parents forced me to see a psychiatrist. This man was the first person who ever “saw” me–not who he wanted me to be, but who I was. He taught me to begin to value the gift of intuition, and referred me to Dr. Thelma Moss, an intuition researcher at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute. She was to become my mentor and guide to developing my intuitive side.

While working in Thelma’s lab I had an amazingly specific dream which announced, “You’re going to become an MD, a psychiatrist, to help legitimize intuition in medicine.” When I awoke, I felt like someone was playing a practical joke on me. I’d never liked science, and I was bored around all my parent’s doctor-friends. I was a hippie living in an old converted brick Laundromat with my artist-boyfriend in Venice Beach, working in the May Company’s towel department. (I’ve had a great love of towels and sheets since!) The last thing I envisioned doing was medicine. But because I was beginning to trust my intuition, I enrolled in a junior college just to see how it would go. So one course became two, became fourteen years of medical training–USC medical school and a UCLA psychiatric internship and residency.

The irony was, that during my medical training I strayed far from the intuitive world again. Traditional psychiatry equates visions with psychosis. Working in the UCLA emergency room, I’d keep seeing psychotics who were wheeled in screaming, strapped to gurneys, accompanied by cops with billy clubs. These patients professed to hear God and to be able predict things. They also felt their food was poisoned, and that the FBI was on their tail. No one tried to sort through this mishmash of claims. Typically, patients were shot up with with Thorazine, hospitalized on lock-down inpatient units until their “symptoms” subsided. Seeing this so many times I doubted whether it was safe or appropriate to integrate my intuitions in medicine.

When I opened my Los Angeles psychiatric practice in 1983, I had every intention of it being traditional; I’d use medications, psychotherapy, but I didn’t intend for intuition to play a role. My practice was extremely successful. Since I was a workaholic and also loved helping people, I had twelve hour days, though very little personal life. But then I had a heart-wrenching wake-up call that changed everything. It was an intuition that a patient, on antidepressants, was going to make a suicide attempt. Because she was doing so well–nothing supported my hunch–I dismissed it. Within a week she overdosed on the antidepressants I’d prescribed and ended up in a coma for nearly a month. (Had she not survived I would’ve been devastated.) The hardest part, though, was that I thought I’d harmed her by not utilizing a vital piece of intuitive information. This was intolerable for me. From then on, I knew, as a responsible physician, I had to integrate my intuitions into my work.

CONTINUED IN PART TWO….

Judith Orloff, M.D is author of the new bestseller SECOND SIGHT, an inspiring and controversial memoir about coming to terms with her intuitive gifts, upon which this article is based. Her other books are Emotional Freedom, Guide to Intuitive Healing, and Positive Energy. She is assistant clinical professor of Psychiatry at UCLA and an international workshop leader. For more information about new updated edition of Second Sight and Dr. Orloff’s books and workshops visit www.drjudithorloff.com

Judith Orloff is one of twenty four experts featured in the documentary Beyond Belief: www.beyondbeliefthemovie.com

By David R. Hamilton, Ph.D.

There’s an amazing story of the power of the placebo effect that I love. It was recorded in 1957 and demonstrates just how powerful the human mind can be.

A patient had advanced cancer of the lymph nodes (lymphoma) and was told that he had no more than a few weeks to live. He couldn’t get radiotherapy or chemo because he was anemic but he had heard of a new experimental anti-cancer drug called krebiozen and begged his doctor to give him some. So the doctor gave him an injection of it.

Within a few days of the injection he was out of bed and walking about the ward at the hospital. Very quickly the tumors, which had been the size of oranges, had shrunk and were now golf ball sized. His rapid improvement continued and he was soon released from the hospital totally free of cancer.

But about 2 months later there was a story in the papers saying that krebiozen was no good. The man read it, believed it, even though krebiozen had worked for him, and within days his cancer had returned and he was back in hospital.

His doctor, realizing there were few options, then told him a lie because he believed that the patient’s recovery had more to do with his belief in krebiozen than in the drug itself. So he told him that the papers had got it wrong and that the drug really was a great drug. The doctor told him that the cancer probably came back because the batch of drug he got had gone off a wee bit while it was sitting in the hospital pharmacy. He told him that a new batch of double strength krebiozen was due at the hospital soon and he could get an injection of it.

Of course, there was no double strength stuff. The doctor made it up. A couple of days later, pretending that the double strength batch had just been delivered, the doctor gave the patient the injection. But it was an injection of pure water – a placebo. You know what? The cancer rapidly disappeared. The man was healthy and free of cancer once again. He believed it was double strength krebiozen and his belief cured him.

But, once again, about 2 months later the papers ran another story, this time giving krebiozen a death sentence. Apparently the trials had shown it to be useless. This proved to be the last straw for the patient because his tumors quickly reappeared, he was taken back into hospital, and he died 2 days later.

The power of belief!

So if ever someone tells you that something can’t be done, or that you can’t be healed, choose to listen to your inner wisdom that says you can. Faith can move mountains.

This article is Copyright © 2008 by David R. Hamilton Ph.D.

www.drdavidhamilton.com

David Hamilton is one of twenty four experts featured in the film Beyond Belief: www.beyondbeliefthemovie.com

Scott Sherman interviews filmmakers  Jim Holzknecht and Becky Hays about the innovative documentary Beyond Belief.

Scott Sherman has been a leader for over 30 years with the Association of Unity Churches International, and currently travels North America presenting ‘Sacred Meditation Healing Experiences’.

Scott continues to research the latest cutting edge discoveries.  His colleagues inlcude some of the most noted leaders in spiritual healing and energy medicine, and share their accumulated wisdom in his  program.

To listen click here to download mp3 file. File size 28mb

Due to an overwhelming response, Beyond Belief is now available in PAL Format for international shipping!  This innovative film features some of the leading experts in the fields of personal growth, health, psychology, mind/body/energy work, and transformation.

For info visit:  www.beyondbeliefthemovie.com