Publications
APS Bulletin • Volume 11, Number 2, March/April 2001
Resource Reviews
John D. Loeser, MD, Department Editor
Instant Healing
Reviewed by Joseph Barber, PhD
Serge Kahili King, Renaissance Books, Los Angeles, 2000, 216 pages, $21.95 (hardcover), ISBN 1580631592
This is a book about magical thinking and how to do it well. The author does not distinguish such magical thinking from empirically supportable psychological interventions as hypnosis. To save you time in determining whether this book may be of interest to you, I present the following representative excerpts:
The next time you stub your toe or smash your finger in a door, how would you like to be able to heal it yourself in less than five minutes with no pain and no bruises? What if you could heal a burn in the same way, or get rid of a cold in under an hour? (p. 21)
“Genetic memory is stored in the cells. Popular thinking supposes that memory resides in the brain, but I suggest that memory of personal experience is stored in the cells of the entire body, not in the brain alone” (p. 38).
“Did I just say that the process of learning to walk is the same as the process of learning to be sick? And did I just say that sickness is a learned behavior? Yup” (p. 42).
“Many people have tried to determine what the essential characteristic of the mind is, and so have I. I believe that the essential characteristic of the mind is imagination” (p. 49).
“What people call ‘mental illness’ is also the mind’s attempt to solve a problem” (p. 52).
A rapidism is a type of affirmation that consists of repeating a short word or phrase over and over again very rapidly until a change occurs. The first time I used this was on a chair lift at a ski resort when my hands were freezing. I imagined a fire in a fireplace and said to myself, “My hands are warm-my hands are warm-my hands are warm,” for about five minutes and my hands got toasty warm. Since then I’ve used it for a lot of minor ailments as well as emotional states and mental qualities, and it works very well. In workshops I have people silently repeat “I’m feeling good” for about one minute and they are always amazed at the results. I don’t know how well it would work on major illnesses, but in theory it should help, and it certainly won’t hurt. (p. 75)
The author provides an intervention for a host of maladies, among them:
“Allergy: The Admiration Effect—with your full conscious attention, admire or compliment, aloud or silently, someone or something in your life or in you immediate environment. Do this as frequently and abundantly as possible until you get relief” (p. 196).
“Backache: Water Power: drink a glass of water. Repeat if that helps” (p. 197).
“Broken Bone: Quasi-Repetition: when feasible, immediately repeat the action or movement that caused the injury, making sure to stop the action or movement just before the point of contact” (p. 198). (The author recommends the same treatment for a burn.)
My favorite treatment, though, is for stomachache:
Apply Wavepad: lay a foot-square sheet of cling-type plastic wrap on top of a foot-square sheet of aluminum foil, scrunch it up into a ball, flatten the ball, and hold it lightly against the affected area until you get relief. (p. 209)
If these excerpts interest you, then you may really enjoy this book.
Joseph Barber is clinical professor in the department of rehabilitation medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle.