Awesome new article on Salon about the power of the mind

I have a cool app called Pocket which sends me an email once a week with interesting articles. This one is 100% right up our alley: The Burn Surgeon: How Anger Can Impede Healing

The article profiles Dr. Dabney Ewin, a New Orleans surgeon (now retired) at the Tulane University School of Medicine, specializing in burns - and achieving remarkable success using hypnosis and/or what sounds like guided meditations. I highly recommend reading the whole article (it's not as long a it seems - the article about Dr. Ewin is followed by a profile of John Templeton, the famous investor and founder of The Campaign for Forgiveness Research).

People, I'm telling you - if you are having a hard time believing that the work we do here can't possibly have any relevance to real physiological conditions, including serious injury, you have to read this.

Here are a few highlights from the article (which seems to be excerpted from Megan Feldman Bettencourt's book "Triumph of the Heart: Forgiveness in an Unforgiving World"):

...(Dr. Ewin) noticed that people coming into the ER with burns were often very angry, and not without reason... He concluded that their anger may have been interfering with their ability to heal by preventing them from relaxing and focusing on getting better...

..."Their attitude affected the healing of their burns, and this was particularly true of skin grafts. With someone who’s real angry, we’d put three or four skin grafts on, but his body would reject them.” Whenever a patient seemed angry, Ewin would help them forgive themselves or the person who hurt them, either through a simple conversation or through hypnosis.

...Once he started trying hypnosis on his burn patients, he noticed a difference immediately. If he could reach them within half an hour of the injury, the hypnotic suggestions of “coolness and calm” seemed to halt the continued burning response of the skin that usually occurs for twelve to twenty-four hours, leading to speedier recoveries...

...“I’d say, ‘You can still pursue damages through an attorney. You’re entitled to be angry, but for now I’m asking you to abandon your entitlement and let it go, to direct your energy toward healing, and turn this over to God or nature or whoever you worship. It’s not up to you to get revenge on yourself or someone else. When you know at a feeling level that you’re letting it go, raise your hand.’ Then I’d shut up, they’d raise their hand, and I’d know that skin graft was gonna take.”...


​

 

Ironically, I recently wrote that I think that the concept of forgiveness is misunderstood and often misused. I believe that understanding is more important than just blanket forgiveness. I still think we do not have to forgive the unforgivable behavior of others. However, we can forgive the fact that they are human and imperfect.

I also believe that self forgiveness is the most important thing to accomplish.