VISUALISATION

There is a physical basis for the efficacy of
visualisation.

Visualised objects have been shown to
have the same physical effects as reality.

In one experiment, a mother imagined her child sitting on
her knee. Electrodes on her scalp, measuring her
brain activity, registered a reduction in response to
light entering her eyes from a window and pressure
on her thighs just as if there were indeed a solid
body on her lap.

Therefore positive visualisation can
have all the beneficial effects of actual experience.

In pleasurable imagination, the brain produces its
own opiates to give uplift and relaxation.

In the same way, apprehension of
unreal disasters can produce adrenalin, with all the
enervating, nerve-jangling after-effects of sustained
but unresolved alertness for a flight or fight response.

This response was once an aid to survival and can
still be of untold value in an emergency situation.

But in present-day society, we often have to repress
the urge to fight or flee, whilst the hormones we
have produced to help us do just that remain unused
in our bodies where they raise our blood pressure, damage
our immune system and limit our awareness of anything
except danger. They dul our senses, reduce our
appetites, restrict digestion and repress
rational thought.

We feel sick, angry, afraid, unable
to experience satisfaction or joy....and little wonder,
with a cocktail of chemicals flowing in our veins that
would poison the fittest olympic athlete.

Relaxation is
not a luxury. In our way of life, it is a basic survival
tool.....more