Helbredelse af sygdom gennem fantasi og visualisering - med CML som case

Sådan set er det underligt at jeg først nu - ca. et år efter jeg fik konstateret at jeg havde blodkræftsygdommen leukæmi - varianten hedder CML - at jeg er begyndt at researche på 'alternative behandlinger' af sygdommen. 

   

Det har nemlig sådan indirekte ligget i baghovedet - Hvad er der af alternativer og supplerende behandlinger? Skal man bare passivt acceptere hvad overlægen med sin medicinske fagkundskab kan tilbyde - eller er der ikke noget man selv kan gøre?

 
Siden jeg begyndte på bloggen marts 2010 - om: mig, kreativitet, forskning og virkelighed, så har tanken om at man med effekt kunne gå fra hjernen - tænkning og forestillinger -  til kroppen, ligget lige for. 

   Jeg har ofte skrevet om 'helende arkitektur', 'helende kunst', 'helende musik' - med afsæt i hvad jeg kunne finde af seriøs forskning om det i den internationale videnskabelige (og afledet: videnskabsjournalistiske) litteratur.

   Men faktisk tror jeg ikke at jeg har skrevet om 'helende fantasier', 'helende visualiseringer', 'helende billeder' - altså dette at hjerne gennem sine muligheder for at forstille sig ting og sager på den indre skærm (eller for det indre øre), kan påvirke en alvorlig sygdom som man har pådraget sig - som en del af det at blive gammel. 

   

Hvorfor, ved jeg ikke.
   Men nu  idag - stort se på årsdagen for at det danske sygehusvæsen begyndte at investere sygehus-indlæggelses- og behandlings-timer og rigtig mange penge til medicin i min særlige leukæmi-variant - så tager jeg mig sammen og går på jagt på nettet.

   Det handler dette indlæg om. Og de fleste citater er altså - desværre for læsere der ikke læser engelsk - netop på det sprog. Og jeg orker ikke at oversætte.

Spørgsmålet er simpelthen dette: 

   Er det muligt at bekæmpe, begrænse, nedkæmpe den kræftsygdom som jeg har fået konstateret for et år siden - CML - Chronic Myeloid Leukemia - med mentale 'ikke-medicinske visualiseringsteknikker', 'teknikker' som på engelsk omtales som 'visualization' - og som altså IKKE består af fysiske piller eller indsprøjtninger med mere eller mindre veldokumenterede og -kontrollerede effekter og med mere eller mindre alvorlige fysiske bivirkninger og 'sideeffekter'? 

   Men som nogen - på trods - siger og har erfaret: DET VIRKER!? Og som tror på at sind og krop hænger sammen!

   Godt spørgsmål, når man er mig.

Jeg går på jagt i internet-junglen - med Google som gevær:

WHAT IS VISUALIZATION?

Visualization (also called guided imagery or creative visualization) is the technique of focusing your imagination on behaviors or events you’d like to have occur in your life. Advocates suggest creating a detailed schema of what one desires and then visualizing it over and over again, using all of your senses. What do you see? What do you feel? What do you hear? What does it smell like?

   The practice is based on the idea that your body and mind are connected. By providing positive pictures, creative imagery and self-suggestion, visualization can change emotions that subsequently have a physical effect on the body, proponents say.

   Psychologist and author Gay Hendricks, Ph.D., believes that visualization is one of the most powerful tools for change. “Many people are propelled by events of the past, but visualization is an act of projecting the present into the future,” says Hendricks. “Visualization changes the dynamics of personal change by pulling the person toward a visualized healthier future.”

http://www.gaiam.com/discover/438/article/use-visualization-heal-physically-emotionally/

Professionelt taler terapi-orienterede konsulenter, mindfulness-healere og outsider-medicinere altså om 'guided visualization' eller 'guided imagery'. 

   Pointen er at man/du - for at få teknikken til at virke - skal gennemløbe bestemte mentale faser, mentalt fremtvinge bestemte billeder på den indre skærm - og tegne dem på papir - og besvare bestemte konkrete spørgsmål undervejs i forløbet.

   Og for at det kan ske i god ro og orden (='guided'), så skal du finde dig en personlig instruktør eller mentor som kan fører dig igennem - eller følge en CD- eller DVD-fortælling som en slags 'fjerninstruktør' - evt. ledsaget af mentalt afslappende musik - eller af en version af mindfulness-meditation:

What is Guided Visualization?

   Guided visualization, or guided imagery are the same thing. It can be very much like guided meditation or even hypnosis, when visualizing is included.

  In a healing visualization, you are led through a process for a particular purpose from beginning to end. It is commonly used for relaxation, coping with chemotherapy, general wellness, light healing or energy healing.

   Like hypnosis, a guided imagery healing session has three stages.     These stages are usually more obvious in hypnosis.

   The first stage might be as simple as saying "Close your eyes, take a few deep breaths and imagine..." Often this first step consists of a progressive relaxation technique or imagining a relaxing scene.

   The second stage makes up most of the audio. It often includes visualizing passive scenes for relaxation or images related to the theme. Verbal affirmations and visualization instructions may also be included.

   The last stage may be a refocusing on your body, giving gratitude or other ending to the practice. There may even be a counting up as in hypnosis.

   During a session, you relax and go with the flow. Soothing music and a relaxing pace make it easy for you to vividly and deliberately imagine what you want. A video may even have images you can watch. The more you relax, daydream, and engage your senses and emotion, the better. Your subconscious mind will believe it to be true, and will work to make it so.

http://www.holistic-mindbody-healing.com/guided-visualization.html

Når man prøver ved tankens og forestillingsevnens kraft at 'kurere' sin sygdom - eller at 'heale' den (to forskellige ord for at 'helberede' med forskellige konnotationer), så sammenfattes det på engelsk med betegnelsen "mind-body medicine techniques", som introduceres sådan: 

Mind-body medicine techniques have often relied upon visualization techniques, especially for cancer victims, (Naparstek 1995, Warren 1995, updated 2002, and Natural Health Journals). There are websites where people offer various testimonies to its use for cancer as well as descriptions of the types of visualizations they used (e.g. Healing Cancer Naturally). In the past, many doctors gave pictures of cancers or damaged tissue to the patients to use to help them visualize what is wrong with them, so that they could call upon their own brains to help heal them. One helpful such guide is On Beyond: Cancer Visualization Vehicle Safety.

Den dokumentar kommer så her i sin fulde længde (og ærligt talt: Jeg har ikke lige nu haft tid til at se den igennem i sin helhed):

Discover a mechanism of immune response which also affects the behavior of cancer cells, real-time rendering of scientific data, and engineering a safer driver environment on this episode of OnBeyond. Series: "On Beyond" [7/2002] [Science] [Show ID: 6152]

https://marthalhyde.wordpress.com/2011/04/23/visualization-techniques/

Så er der også nogle hjemmesider som simpelt hen samler på mentale 'billeder' (= 'visualizations') fra mennesker der har prøvet at 'visualize' deres krops kamp for helbredelse på den indre skærm som en del af behandlingen - og dermed bekæmpe deres kræftsygdom og på den måde 'heale' deres krop.

   Og som har brugt disse helbredende 'visualiseringer' af 'kræftsygdommens før og efter' med større eller mindre succes. 

   Her følger nogle eksempler på sådanne mentalt healende 'images':

Favorite Cancer-Healing Visualizations

by Leonard (leonardleonard1 at earthlink.net) 

"An army of white blood cells coming, attacking, and overcoming the cancer." (Simonton) 

"A white light entering the body, bringing in energy, coursing through the body, then leaving the body and taking with it the `bad stuff'--pain, tension, discomfort, or cancer cells. Or...white blood cells as ‘knights on white horses' riding through the body attacking and destroying cancer cells." (Altman & Sarg, 2000, p. 141) 

"Cancer as small, easily squashed creatures being lanced by white [blood cells] knights on horses. [Imagine] goodness and purity of the immune system." (Jeanne Achterberg) 

"Cancer as a very dark color slowly turning paler until it’s the same color as the surrounding body. Cancer being attacked by tiny bullets of energy. Weakened and dying cancer cells being flushed out through the liver and kidney by your white blood cells." 

"Visualizing the tissue normalizing, being embraced by all the normal cells around it and counselled lovingly to change, to lose the prickles and the hostility." 

"Take a sick limp cancer cell and gently carry it in my arms. I walk through the meadow where the wildflowers are blooming. Birds are chirping and Bambi is leaping along side at the edge of the forest clearing. We come to the edge of a cliff, where...I drop [it]." 

"Cancer cells as misfits who do not belong, always fighting for more power because they are aberrations and they don't know love and they are lonely. So any decision I make about treatment I must temper with love, love for them no matter what they try to do to me. I envision little angels stroking them, blowing on them sweet baby's breath to cool their fire." (Linda Lewandowski) 

The film "Question of Faith" (true story of cancer recovery) contains visualizations.

http://www.healingcancernaturally.com/cancer-healing-visualizations.html

Jeg har jævnligt, i helt andre faglige sammenhænge, stødt på - og skrevet om - forskningsmæssig dokumentation for at der er overraskende neurologiske forbindelser mellem hvad man som person tænker og forestiller sig, og hvordan resten af hjernen og kroppen rent fysiologisk reagerer på det. Og at det er de samme områder i hjernen som er aktive både når man udfører en handling, og når man tænker på eller forestiller sig at man gør det.

 
Her endnu et eksempel: Neuropeptiderne i kroppen bliver påvirket af det der foregår i hjernen - dens følelser og tanker:

Jeanne Achterberg, author of Imagery and Healing, believes that the image can alter cellular mechanisms and the intelligence of the cell.   Bruce Lipton (author of The Biology of Belief) and Candice Pert (author of Molecules of Emotion) have demonstrated that neuropeptides located on cell membranes throughout the body direct the DNA within our cells, and these neuropeptides are strongly influenced by our thoughts and feelings. We think in images which can shift the cellular machinery so that it performs unnatural functions, or conversely, a healing response. What we imagine in our minds has a direct correlation to how our body responds to life.

Jeanne Achterberg's work reinforces the fact that what we believe and imagine about our bodies has an incredible bearing on how we deal with an illness. Our minds create the most powerful drugs during the healing process. We can believe in our body's innate capacity to heal. We can familiarize ourselves with our immune system and visualize its components doing their jobs efficiently and perfectly. 

GUIDELINES FOR CREATING HEALING IMAGERY

   1) Portray the cancer cells as being few in number, small in size,weak in strength, and lacking vividness.

   2) Portray the white blood cells as being vivid, very active, strong and powerful, large and abundant, and overwhelming the cancer cells.   Believe more in the potency of your body's ability to heal than in the disease process, and understand that nothing is fixed — it is a process than can go either way.

   3) Portray the naturopathic and medical treatments with vividness and effectiveness.

   4) Choose strong, powerful, active imagery that is well integrated yet personal.

   5) Practice the imagery frequently, at least twice daily. Keep drawing, over and over, until it's as powerful as it can be for a healing response. Draw so that you believe it.

   6) Visualize that your body's healthy cells are easily able to repair any slight damage the treatment might cause; that the dead cancer cells are flushed from the body easily and completely; and that at the end of the imagery, you are healthy and cancer-free.

   7) See yourself accomplishing your goals and fulfilling your life's purpose — relate to your future rather than your past. Explore what your ideal future might be and shift your life in that direction so that your immune system responds with you. Draw one or several of your long term goals that you are moving towards achieving.

http://vitalitymagazine.com/article/healing-cancer-with-imagery-and-visualization/

Jeg er ikke mystiker. Jeg har ikke nogen forestilling om en særlig spirituel verden der ligger over eller under eller ved siden af den verden der omgiver mig, og som jeg sanser, erfarer, taler og lever i.

    Jeg tror altså ikke på der er en para-verden uden for vores ydre sansede og /eller indre mentale verden. Den vi lever i, klarer sig fint - eller ad Helvede til - helt uden den slags tankemæssige hjælpeforanstaltninger.

   Jeg tror ikke på Jesus, Helligånden - eller på Himmel og Helvede - og på hvad mine religiøse og troende medmennesker ellers fabler om. 

   Og at der skulle eksisterer et altdominerende, altseende, altskabende væsen som har ansvar for hele molevitten? Den/det/han/hun som nogen kalder Gud, Allah, Jahve - det er der ingen som helst seriøs dokumentation for. 

   Men en masse gode historier - myter, fabler anekdoter og deslige - det har vi alle fået med i vores mentale bagage via Biblen - både dens gamle og nyere fortællinger. 

   Og godt for dem og os.
   Og godt at næsten ingen herhjemme tager de bøger alvorligt, sådan som nogle nulevende mennesker i mange lande tager Koranen alvorligt. Og sådan som fx mange amerikanere tager Biblens ord for pålydende.

   

Så det koster sådan set ikke noget at prøve en eller flere varianter af de mentale visualiserings-teknikker som - måske, måske ikke - kan have helende og helbredende effekt på netop din (og min) version af kræften:

Whether you're convinced of the effects of visualization or not, Northrup says there's no harm in trying them, as long as you realize that like any other treatment, visualization might not work.

   There's no definitive guide to visualization, but Siegel, who's instructed his patients in imaging for many years, has a few suggestions.

   First, he says to draw a picture of four things: yourself, your health problem, your treatment and your body eliminating your problem. These pictures might tell you what sort of imagery would work best for you. 

   For example, when one of Siegel's patients drew her disease as 10 cancer cells next to one white blood cell, he suggested she visualize her body making more white blood cells.

   Second, he says to know yourself. One religious patient of his had been visualizing dogs attacking and eating up her cancer, which didn't work, so instead she pictured her tumor as a block of ice and God's light melting it away, which he says was more effective.

    Third, he suggests not visualizing anything violent, since most of us aren't violent by nature.

   "Children don't mind being violent, and they'll visualize blasting away cancer, and that's fine, but most adults don't like to kill, so that's not an image they're comfortable with," he says.

   He remembers one patient who was a Quaker and a pacifist, and quickly rejected any notion of "killing" or "beating" cancer. Instead, he pictured white blood cells carrying cancer cells away, and he beat his cancer.

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/03/03/ep.seidler.cancer.mind.body/

Det vrimler med case-historier på nettet med bloggere der fortæller om deres CML-sygdom og erfaringer med behandlingen af den  - som regel ret så negative. Og altid bekymrede.

   Men der er også mange case-historier om  erfaringer med visualiseringens helbredende effekter i forhold til andre sygdomme. 

  Her et typiske eksempel:

Because so many people have asked what I am doing to continue living with my cancer, I am going to write a weekly blog, sharing some of my “treatments.”  
    Since visualization has been part of my plan with most of my cancer diagnoses and recurrences (I quit counting at ten — three primary cancers and many recurrences), I will start with telling you about my current imagery.
    I saw a PET scan of the tumor in my lung, that measured about 1.5 cm. last November. On the PET scan it looks like a bright circle of light. In my imagery, I see that circle of light. When I exhale, it gets smaller around the perimeter. When I inhale, some of it gets sucked out of the middle, into a transforming machine that allows it to become part of the courage and strength I need to shine my light brighter. As I inhale and exhale, I allow this tumor to gradually be incorporated into my strength and courage. Matter transformed into energy. This way it can still be part of me without destroying us.

Går man på Youtube og søger på 'healing' og 'CML', så støder men på guruerne som har været frontløbere i den bevægelse som løber ved siden af den mainstream medicinske behandling.

   En af dem hedder Michal Learner, og han skelner - helt berettiget, synes jeg - mellem at 'kurere' en sygdom og at 'heale' det menneske som har den:

Distinction Between Curing and Healing - Michael Lerner, PhD

   Michael Lerner, PhD, will be a speaker at the FREE Cancer as a Turning Point, From Surviving to Thriving conference on June 5-6, 2010 in Charlottesville, VA. For more information on our conferences, please visit http://www.healingjourneys.org.

   This excerpt, talking about the difference between curing and healing, is from the 2006 conference held in San Francisco, CA. Even though there may not be a cure for cancer, healing is always possible.

   Michael Lerner is president and founder of Commonweal, a health and environmental research institute in Bolinas, California. He is co-founder with Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D. of the Commonweal Cancer Help Program, a week-long retreat for people with cancer featured by Bill Moyers in his award winning PBS series "Healing and the Mind."     Lerner is the author of Choices in Healing: Integrating the Best of Conventional and Complementary Approaches to Cancer, (MIT Press), widely considered a seminal book in the field. http://www.commonweal.org

Når min kræftsygdom hedder CML og altså er kronisk, så har jeg naturligvis ingen grund til at tro at den kan blive kureret 'for good'; men til gengæld har jeg et håb om at den kan gå mere eller mindre i hi hvis den bliver udsat for nogle af de helende mentale visualiseringsprocesser - i kombination med en af de målrettede CML-mediciner, som jeg nu har prøvet to af - og som jeg skal igang med den tredje slags af inden for en overskuelig fremtid. 

Her et andet video-eksempel på en case-historie om 'mental healing' - fra en kvinde der også er faglig ekspert: Danna Pycher. 

   Historien er fra Holland, et land med et sundhedsystem som ligner vores.

   Det handler her ikke om at bekæmpe kræft, men om at leve med en alvorlig kronisk smerte-tilstand, er hendes fundamentale pointe:

Surviving an accident was the easy part; coping with the chronic pain would prove more difficult. Danna Pycher shares her story about trauma and the transformative insight she gained that allowed her to harness the healing power of the subconscious mind.
   Danna Pycher is a certified Neuro-Linguistic Hypnotherapist specializing in chronic illness and trauma. She is also a motivational speaker and coach.
   Her first book 3rd Generation and Beyond is a beautiful, powerful book of life philosophies according to a third generation Holocaust descendant. "A must read for the young and old who are trying to find an identity or just need a reminder on how to appreciate the little things in life."
   She enjoyed many years in broadcasting as an on-camera host, reporter, and producer working in the fields of health reporting and corporate productions.
   Her curiosity about the nature of human beings is what guides her professional pursuits.
   This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

Sådan set er det spor så slut nu med det her indlæg. 

   

Har man som jeg i min høje alder - fået diagnosen CML - og hvis der - efter den første optimistiske eufori hos lægerne og mig selv - viser sig problemer for lægerne med at få den leukæmi-variant jeg har, under kontrol via diverse velkendte mediciner, indsprøjtninger og transfusioner; og hvis der ydermere er gået et år hvor ens krop nærmest har været en slags biomedicinske eksperimentarium ... 

    ... Ja, så går man/jeg selvfølgelig på jagt efter svar og faglige medicinske indspark fra de nyeste autoriteter og fra alternative kilder. 

   .

Og det her blev godt nok et langt indlæg! 

   Som jeg i øvrigt forestiller mig at jeg vil følge op på inden for den næste måned eller to.

P.S.

Det her er en slags meta-spørgsmål og dermed meta-svar - i forhold til alle de foregående citater som handler om at man ved at tænke og visualisere sig rask, faktisk kan blive rask - eller i hvert fald mindre syg:

   Hvis man skal kunne påvirke fx produktionen af hvide blodlegemer (som er løbet løbsk på grund af en kromosomfejl som det er tilfældet med CML), så skal det jo ske ved at hjernens via sine forestillinger om eller mentale billeder af kroppens og blodets sygdomstilstand sat over for kroppens og blodets raske-tilstand, kan påvirke produktionen af de kromosomhandicappede hvide blodlegemer.

   Så spørgsmålet er: Hvilke dele af hjernen kontrollerer produktionen af blodet - de forskellige slags røde og hvide blodlegemer - og -plader som jo ifølge bøgerne foregår i knoglemarven. 

   Og hvordan - ad hvilke neurologiske og hormonale baner - foregår den kontrol - eller mildere udtrykt - påvirkning?

   Svaret på de spørgsmål ligger inden for det som på engelske kaldes "neural top-down control of physiology".

   Wikipedia forklarer (og med al respekt: Jeg forstår næsten ikke en hujende skid):

Neural top–down control of physiology concerns the direct regulation by the brain of physiological functions (in addition to smooth muscle and glandular ones). Cellular functions include the immune system’s production of T-lymphocytes and antibodies, and nonimmune related homeostatic functions such as liver gluconeogenesis, sodium reabsorption, osmoregulation, and brown adipose tissue nonshivering thermogenesis. This regulation occurs through the sympathetic and parasympathetic system (the autonomic nervous system), and their direct innervation of body organs and tissues that starts in the brainstem. There is also a noninnervation hormonal control through the hypothalamus and pituitary (HPA). These lower brain areas are under control of cerebral cortex ones. Such cortical regulation differs between its left and right sides. Pavlovian conditioning shows that brain control over basic cell level physiological function can be learnt.

Cerebral cortex[edit] Sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems and the hypothalamus are regulated by the higher brain.[1][2][3][4] Through them, the higher cerebral cortex areas can control the immune system, and the body’s homeostatic and stress physiology. Areas doing this include the insular cortex,[5][6][7] the orbital, and the medial prefrontal cortices.[8][9] These cerebral areas also control smooth muscle and glandular physiological processes through the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system including blood circulation, urogenital, gastrointestinal[10] functions, pancreatic gut secretions,[11] respiration, coughing, vomiting, piloerection, pupil dilation, lacrimation and salivation.[12] 

Lateralization[edit] The sympathetic nervous system is predominantly controlled by the right side of the brain (focused upon the insular cortex), while the left side predominantely controls the parasympathetic nervous system.[4] The cerebral cortex in rodents shows lateral specialization in its regulation of immunity with immunosuppression being controlled by the right hemisphere, and immunopotention by the left one.[9][13] Humans show similar lateral specialized control of the immune system from the evidence of strokes,[14] surgery to control epilepsy,[15] and the application of TMS.[16] 

Brainstem[edit] The higher brain top down control of physiology is mediated by the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems in the brainstem,[1][2][3][4] and the hypothalamus.[1][17][18] The sympathetic nervous system arises in brainstem nuclei that project down into intermediolateral columns of thoracolumbar spinal cord neurons in spinal segments T1–L2. The parasympathetic nervous system in the motor nuclei of cranial nerves III, VII, IX, (control over the pupil and salivary glands) and X (vagus –many functions including immunity) and sacral spinal segments (gastrointestinal and urogenital systems).[12] Another control occurs through top down control by the medial areas of the prefrontal cortex.[1][17][18] upon the hypothalamus which has a nonnerve control of the body through hormonal secretions of the pituitary

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neural_top%E2%80%93down_control_of_physiology#Metabolism