Allergies and Immune System Disorders: Part 2

The first article of this four part series describes the vast array of immune system diseases which are a growing pandemic in our society today. It also outlines three potential causes for this pandemic within our civilization. Within these next articles each cause will be explored in depth, and strategies of treatment using modern hypnotherapy techniques will be described. This article will describe the way our bodies often over-react to chemicals in our environment and in our food, and how hypnosis can be used to change these reactions.

There can be little doubt that our bodies are assaulted every day with a wide variety of chemicals that have not existed at all for the last million years of our evolution as a species. Chemical pesticides, fertilizers, genetically engineered DNA, antibiotics and hormones fed to industrially raised animals are present in nearly all the foods we eat. In addition, processed foods contain such toxic additives as refined sugar, artificial flavors, colors, and preservatives.

Try as we may to eat organic it is very difficult to protect ourselves completely against these additives. Even the way we process and store food introduces toxic chemicals and alters the vitamins and proteins in food. Frying in hot oils and the use of transfatty acids in processed foods like margarine are just a couple of examples of this. Likewise, the air we breathe and the water we drink are contaminated with innumerable chemical agents. Quite apart from human activity, the natural world is filled with molds, mildews, bacteria, and other substances which have toxic properties. I certainly recommend that we do our best to eliminate these elements from our lives. But often our body's reaction to these chemicals is far out of proportion to the real dangers they represent. When this happens doctors would say that we are "allergic" to these substances. These allergic reactions may incapacitate us with far greater efficiency than these chemicals on their own could ever do in the tiny doses to which we are exposed.

An obvious example is the bee sting. While a bee sting's venom is a serious toxin, fatal to anyone in large enough doses, most of us experience a sting as a brief, if painful, nuisance. But to some individuals, this sting is a death sentence without radical medical intervention. The immune system goes into full Battle mode against this perceived threat, which can cause death by asphyxiation in a few minutes in a response called "anaphylactic shock". To a much lesser extent our immune system can cause ugly symptoms in response to such mild toxins as the smell of gasoline, dust, molds, animal dander, and the proteins in such foods as corn and wheat. I myself once reacted very strongly to all of the above mentioned toxins in a debilitating condition called "environmental sensitivity", a condition which led to frequent bouts of chronic fatigue, as well as sinus congestion, headaches and asthma.

So how do hypnotic techniques help us combat these conditions? First, we must understand that the source of these reactions is within the subconscious mind. It is NOT the chemicals themselves that are doing this to us. It is the immune system's response that is the problem. After all (I used to grumble to myself) many people can live in moldy houses or smell gasoline without being affected in any way. Once this is accepted we can see that hypnosis, the primary strategy for accessing subconscious programming, MUST be a part of any long term solution to this condition. The alternative is symptom suppression with drugs. We must convince the client's subconscious mind in hypnosis that this particular toxin is simply not a threat to the body in the tiny doses that the body is experiencing. We do this by building positive associations in subconscious memory to the smell or taste of these substances, because it is the taste and smell of these things, even subconsciously perceived, which triggers these reactions.

Let me illustrate this with an example. A client was experiencing an unexpectedly severe asthmatic reaction to the smell of a new carpet in his home, a carpet which was out gassing industrial solvents including formaldehyde. In a hypnotic state I had him access the peculiar smell with his hypnotically enhanced imagination, a process referred to as "olfactory hallucination". This process must be accompanied by reassurances that the client's body will not react to this smell in any way. Otherwise, this hallucination has been known to trigger an allergic response in the hypnotized subject. We failed to find any negative memory associated with this smell. Apparently the body just, understandably, found it toxic. I then spoke to his subconscious mind. I told it that this smell was quite safe, that from now on this smell would always remind him of the beauty and pleasure of his beautiful new home, of which he was quite proud, and the new loving wife who shared that home with him. I built up these joyous feelings while he continued at my instruction to breathe in the smell of new carpets, which is now, I suggested, the smell of happiness and romance and a safe home. In one session, his allergic reaction was gone.

Another client who loved cats found herself allergic to them, with strong sinus congestion, burning and sneezing. We discovered in trance that her subconscious mind associated the cat odor, a smell which she was consciously unaware of, with traumatic events from her childhood, connected to a critical mother, in a house with cats. First, we used olfactory hallucination to follow this scent back to what it was "...your nose remembers about this smell that you have forgotten." After rescuing her inner child from these memories of abuse, she found a new home in her imagination with a very safe and loving and affectionate new mother - who had cats, of course. I then encouraged her to breathe in this wonderful smell of cats in the context of this safety and love.

"Now breathe into every part of your body this wonderful smell of love. Notice how good it feels." Then I anchored this new response to the client's daily experience of cats in this way: "Now, every time your subconscious mind smells the wonderful aroma of cats, your body remembers this wonderful new mother, and how much love and safety she offers." After one session she found herself able to eliminate these allergic responses simply by remembering to call in this vision of her inner mother every time she felt her symptoms begin.

Usually one session with a responsive subject is enough to deal effectively with one specific allergen, especially if the client is willing to practice feeling these new feelings and recalling these new memories on their own. (Alas, patients with mental disorders or organic brain disease make poor subjects for this type of work.) Multiple sessions are of course required for a large number of allergies. For food allergies we can follow the taste, hypnotically induced and magnified into a "gustatory hallucination" into the time when this taste brought with it something unpleasant. While the conscious mind has no recollection of these "triggering events", the subconscious mind can recall them readily in a good subject. This process often requires the transformation of memories through the rescue and nurturing of the inner child in order to find resolution.