Call in Book Discussion: Tuesday, May 20th

This Tuesday (May 20th) the call-in discussion group will be discussing “Eric's Journey – Chapter 6” and “Walt's Journey – Chapter 6 ” in God Does Not Want You to Be in Pain by forum members Eric "Herbie" Watson and Walt Oleksy. The recorded discussion will start at 9:00pm Eastern Time. Phone lines will open about half an hour early for folks to talk beforehand, off the recording. Connection details are as follows (for more detailed instructions, visit www.tmswiki.org/ppd/connect ):

• If you're connecting by phone, dial 1 201-479-4595 and when prompted enter the pin code 18311499 followed by the pound symbol.

• If you're connecting via your computer (Fuze Meeting), go to http://fuze.me/18311499 and follow the instructions from there.

For more information about the discussion group, and to listen to all past recorded discussions, visit www.tmswiki.org/ppd/Call-In_Peer_Discussion_Group.

Eric Watson and Walter Oleksy, God Does Not Want You To Be In Pain: Proven Techniques and Faith Can Heal You (2014)

This week featuring:

Eric’s Journey: Chapter Six – Law of Attraction, Affirmations, Time-Line Therapy, pp. 143-153.

Walt’s Journey: Chapter Six – Journaling 4: “The Whale That Got Away,” pp. 154-157.

Summaries:

Eric’s Journey: Chapter Six – Law of Attraction, Affirmations, Time-Line Therapy, pp. 143-153.

In chapter 6, Eric introduces and gives practical examples of three TMS healing strategies: the Law of Attraction, Affirmations, and Time-Line Therapy.

Law of Attraction

For many people suffering with TMS, one of the most important steps toward becoming pain free is known as the Law of Attraction, which is a metaphysical law that states “you can attract anything that you think about consistently”. Underlying the Law of Attraction is the belief that “like attracts like”. By concentrating on positive or negative thoughts, we can get either positive or negative results about things we are asking for or desire. The assumption is the “people and their thoughts are both made from pure energy, and that like energy attracts like energy”. For example, if you expect a bill inside an envelop, sure enough there’ll be a bill waiting inside. But if you think there’s a check inside, you are more likely to find a check or some good news therein.

Law of Attraction Wiki Entry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_attraction

Four Practical Steps to working with the Law of Attraction

Eric describes four steps for working with the Law of Attraction:

1. Ask, believe, and achieve.
2. Have any goal for getting healing or free of anxiety
3. Picture yourself being healthy and calm. Visualize your goal in the present moment. Feel it externally and internally.
4. Feel as if you have already achieved your goal.

In TMS healing, the Law of Attraction operates when we imagine ourselves being healed before achieving just that. As Eric puts it, the Law of Attraction “is a belief, just like affirmations, but here we’re acting out as if our desired outcome was already there”. Because he visualized “these people healed even before I ever prayed over them”, Eric has had he believes, as of April 2013, over 200 confirmed cases of healing from cancer to colds to diabetes. This is how he applies the Law of Attraction to his healing ministry.

If you hold a thought of any of the best emotions – peace, love, joy, happiness, gentleness, kindness, self-control, patience and faith – for longer than five minutes you will eliminate any negative emotion you may be carrying internally. But the Law of Attraction is not new, Eric feels it goes back to the Bible where Jesus says, “Ask and ye shall receive”. However, it is necessary to be persistent and practice the Law of Attraction if you want to achieve what you desire or pray for.

Use These Affirmations

Eric thinks the affirmation “I forgive and let go” is among the strongest tools he uses both during tapping and meditation. This is because he feels he’s forgiving himself for being mad at himself for being tense about any situation. To counteract this, he advises using the affirmation “I’m calm, relaxed, patient, and confident” every hour of every day until the calming effect of those words settles in. It’s important to use these tools all day long mentally, not just to heal from pain but likewise during very stressful, intense situations. If you’re not already doing so, you should go back to the first chapter and slowly and conscientiously apply each of the healing tools described in this book. If for example you can’t walk, or walking causes you pain, try imagine yourself walking without pain, then going out for a walk.

Time-Line Therapy

According to Eric, Time-Line Therapy is a kind of reprogramming process that releases the effect of negative experiences while helping people let go of past bad influences. This helps the patient live in present, not in the past or future, while reducing his or her fears, managing tendencies to anger, and releasing negative emotions based on memories stored as repressed emotions. This can reduce and eliminate anxiety, chronic illness, depression, fears, phobias, grief, melancholy and trauma. It is also helpful with cases of PTSD in soldiers returning from combat duty.

Although Time-Line Therapy seems as old the hills, dating back to the “stream of time” consciousness that Aristotle wrote about in 350 BC, what we now call Time-Line Therapy was created in 1985 by Tad James, Ph.D., who wrote a book of that title with fellow Neuro-Linguistic Programmer Wyatt Woodsmall published in 1988. Eric thinks Time-Line Therapy could be a powerful aid in TMS healing even though reading Dr Sarno or Steve Ozanich can do the same thing.

James and Wyatt’s book on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Time-Line-Therapy-Basis-Personality/dp/0916990214

Video:



Visualization

This therapeutic technique involves imagining yourself out of a stressful of traumatic situation into a new state of calm, peace and healing. The objective is to use an internal visualization to change your physiology and in turn change your internal state. Eric gives directions here for doing this by visualizing a great memory:

• First, build your confidence
• Get into a calm, relaxed state
• Think of a great memory and then close your eyes and visualize it

This memory can be a real situation that happened in your life or completely composed from your imagination. For example, think of the time you won a football game in the last five minutes of the 4th quarter. You have to go over the steps at least five times. It should be performed 7 or 8 times for 7 to 8 days before starting to construct a time-line, which is, Eric explains, “like a road in your imagination that you’re standing on with one direction being the past and the other direction being the future. As you stand completely joined in your most powerful built up state you, you will be in the present.”

Anxiety and Panic Attacks

Acute anxiety can cause panic attacks that can come on suddenly or develop over months or years. To alleviate such panic attacks, Eric advises using the relaxation and other techniques contained in his and Walter’s book. In addition, he also says that to recover from panic attacks and agoraphobia (i.e. fear of going out of the house), you should read Claire Weekes’ book, Simple, Effective Treatment of Agoraphobia as well as her bestselling Self-Help for Your Nerves.

Walt’s Journey: Chapter Six – Journaling 4: “The Whale That Got Away,” pp. 154-157.

Walter says that every writer, himself included, dreams of the big one, the giant best seller that will make him rich and famous. The one that got away from Walter was entitled Lincoln’s Unknown Private Life: An Oral History by His Housekeeper Mariah Vance: 1850-1860, edited by Lloyd Ostendorf and Walter Oleksy (1995).

Amazon entry for Walt’s book-

http://www.amazon.com/Lincolns-Unknown-Private-Life-Housekeeper/dp/0803893752
But he says everyone has something like that lurking in the depths of the mind – a big promotion, getting taken in a financial deal, or the betrayal of a friendship. Nevertheless, today Walter has forgiven the Lincoln academics who were protecting their scholarly turf and he believes that has done a lot to relieve his back pain. This is another example of the power of forgiveness of others and compassion for yourself that so often helps relieve TMS pain.

Example of the negative critical response to Walter's book in the Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association:

http://quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jala/26...wn-private-life-edited?rgn=main;view=fulltext

He thinks it all fits in with something that Deepak Chopra said about things that happen to us and people who enter our lives at just the right time:

“Whatever relationships you have attracted in your life at this moment are precisely the ones you need in your life at this moment. There is a hidden meaning behind all events, and this hidden meaning is serving your own evolution.”

So it was for Walter with Lincoln. In the long run it was worth the effort getting Mariah Vance’s memoirs into print. Repressed anger from such disappointments about a rotten trick life’s played on you may be causing your TMS pain, but that’s no excuse to stop dreaming. “It may take the Lord a while, and your dream may not come true in exactly the time frame or way you hoped it would”, but Walt thinks you should “keep dreaming” anyway. Of course, it’s always a good idea to avoid bucking the Academic establishment!

Sounds to me (BruceMC) as though the problems with the manuscript have to do with Ada Sutton’s elaborations and fabrications that don’t match up with the historical evidence:

“Based on internal evidence in the handwritten manuscript, and on directional clues found in the clippings and articles she saved (134 in two small boxes, made available by Mr. Chuck Hand, a Paris, Illinois, Americana dealer), it is evident that Sutton took one button, Mariah Vance, and sewed a whole historical shirt factory on it. That is, the central thrust of her research was more to discover materials to incorporate in her manuscript than to look for information to confirm or explain whatever legible notes remained of any Vance reminiscences.”

- Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association

But of course I don't have access to the original hand-written manuscript. That would be the point to start separating Vance's wheat from Sutton's chaff I suppose if you're addicted to historical detective stories.

 

Bruce, please check your Kindle of the book and see if the changes I made show up.
I corrected the contents so the chapters match the text.

 

BruceMC this is so cool. You have done a great - great summary again my friend. Awesome, Yes I went back on my timeline and fixed a lot of messed up stuff in my past. I remember just jotting down the how tos for a lady here and she had some great success over some past situations. This will most defiantly be an awesome show. I am so ready for the show tomorrow night.
Bless You buddy

 

Yes, I sure notice that I've gotten into all kinds of scrapes - especially when I was younger and not so self-aware - by acting out behavior patterns I'd imitated from my late father early in life, probably way back when during early brain development outside the womb before I was 6 years old. Would be nice to construct a Time-Line Therapy model to go back and revise those old largely unconscious knee-jerk reactions I learned by imitating dad back when I didn't know any better. That early childhood development stuff really has a way of coming back and biting you on the behind, doesn't it, Eric?

 

Yes it does, we can fix that. Bruce this guy above is great. The late Fritz Pearls is the father if Gestalt therapy that he mentions in the video - I love that cause he and about five other giants in the psychology world were mirrored or modeled step by step in how they did what at the time seemed like only they could pull off. Or it was like magic to everyone that went to them. Like Virginia Satir, Milton Erickson and several other greats from around the world. When done right as explained by the young man above and in mine and Walt's book you can change any limiting behaviour in less than thirty minutes. I get prepared before the shows using this method. Nervousness is for our energy, not to fear. I use what works best at the given time and in order so all your decisions and emotions or mannerisms are built to your advantage. Like some will want a change in one area of their life but it's up to what you really want in life too. Like if the knee jerking has ever served you any purpose then you can keep it while you change the nervous trigger but if there is no longer a setting for this then we can change it. Sometimes time for a change is always in the now.

 

I'm so happy I was able to join the discussion Tuesday! We will hopefully have the recording soon - running into some technical difficulties.

In the meantime, you can watch the full, unedited video of the discussion by going to the following link:
https://www.fuzemeeting.com/replay_meeting/48fb7aa8/6269139

The "official" recording is coming soon...

 

Thanks for that becca; I can't really stay up that late on a work night (1 am here) so it's great to be able to listen again.

 

Hi, Sussex. Glad to have you listen to the call-in anytime.

 

Bruce, Forest, Herbie, Walt and Bec thank you for another fantastic discussion on Walt and Herbie's book. I wished I'd seen the "Starship enterprise" moment, but I only had audio. Forest, "we have 80 billion neurons", no Forest YOU have 80 billion!! Bruce you made me laugh when you said "Aha I get to correct Forest" over the quote.

Walt my heart went out to you hearing about the Lincoln book, as it did when I read this chapter several weeks ago. I marvelled at your humility saying "Accept the unfairness", as it made me reflect on a few painful episodes in my life that weren't fair either. Your capacity for forgiveness knows no limits. What a wonderful role model you are.

Herbie, what can I say, except WOW! You blew me away when Forest was referring to the effort involved in doing the timeline and visualisation work, and you said that it's not "deep work", and explained beautifully how easy it can be once you try.

For me the thought of having to work through a TMS episode was more of a challenge than the actual work, when I sat down and took the time to focus on de-cluttering my mind. It's like taking that first dive into a cold lake: the thoughts of being freezing will consume your mind and you forget how refreshed you'll feel after, but once you swim that first minute, your body goes "ahhh" and it feels great!

I was surprised how easy it was to do visualisations during my recent TMS recovery. The more I did it the better I got at floating away with them, and feeling the benefits. Great work guys, and wonderful to hear your lovely voices again

 

Hi, Colly. Remembering and talking about the Lincoln book gave me emotional stress but that went away
afterward. I figure if you don't forgive those who are mean or unfair to you, they win. By forgiving them,
you win by proving you are a better person.

Herbie always has lots of good TMS healing techniques in his chapters. He's amazing.