The Secret You . . .

Falling spiral (copyright 2009 Cary Charles - all rights reserved)

Decide now to tap your finger. Do it. I bet the gap between deciding and doing is less than one second . . . almost instantaneous.

So you will understand why I gasped on seeing a mathematician on this week’s BBC Horizon show titled ‘The Secret You‘ perform a similar act. He held a button in each hand and alternated, pressing each according to spontaneous decisions whilst lying in an fMRI scanner . . . as soon as the decision was made, the button was pressed.

Impressively, the scans predicted each decision, but that wasn’t enough to make me gasp. Oh no.

I gasped because the decision was revealed by brain activity 6 seconds before the button was pressed! Now think about that . . . think about the gap you experience between deciding to tap a finger and actually doing it. It is very probably less than a second.

Whilst the decision was consciously known and decided less than a second before the button was ‘instantly’ pressed, the outcome was predictable on the scans some 5 seconds before . . . a period in which the presenter was completely unconscious that the decision had been made. And more impressively, that unconscious processing made the decision that the presenter assumed was made consciously. So when you make every decision in your life, are you actually the final bit of the conveyor belt of consciousness, with the unconscious you having sorted it all out earlier on? It seems so.

For years it has been suggested that our minds are approximately 10% conscious and 90% unconscious. Indeed, in hypnotherapy, we speak directly to that unconscious mind and gain some quite amazing results. I know from experience how that feels and that it works, and now scientific data is really starting to pile up. It is such an exciting time as the stigma has all but gone from research into consciousness.

Taking the overall duration of associated brain activity (6 seconds) as 100%, the results mean that 83% or more of the presenter’s consciousness was unconscious. And I am being charitable there. For almost everyone, the duration is less than a second from thought to action.

As an artist, writer and intuitive therapist this explains so much. Archives are brimming with accounts of famous songs, stories, poems, paintings, inventions and more suddenly ‘arriving’ in minds. Mozart is said to have dreamed some of his music in its complete form, for instance. More personally, I have awoken on several occasions having seen the next painting, fully formed . . . indeed, when that happens, the image does not leave until I have actually manifested it on canvas. Understanding so much of the formative process occurs in the unconscious mind makes such sense . . . and also raises the question of where exactly is the boundary of the individual’s consciousness.

Sometimes things come to us, purely inspired, hitherto completely unknown. We haven’t been exposed to that information in our lives, yet still the unconscious has taken hold and is busy working with it. Could this in some way account for talent . . . how one person automatically has a propensity toward any certain skill? Jung proposed the Collective Unconscious, a kind of genetic memory passed from generation to generation, but here we are nudging towards what I like to call the ‘Connected Unconscious’ – that remarkable ability that we have in special moments to leap with brilliance beyond our life experiences. These are the delicious aha moments . . .

I’m reminded of a classic account of the morphogenic field, perfectly demonstrated when monkeys were being observed in their natural habitat on an otherwise uninhabited island. A monkey imitated a scientist who had washed a sweet potato in the sea. Soon after, others imitated. So far so good, but what really makes you think is that at virtually the same time, several monkeys on a similar nearby island, completely out of sight, took sweet potatoes into the sea and performed the exact same act for the first time.

So next time you hear about a premonition, take time to wonder what the unconscious mind was doing there. Next time you think you decided something, or you become part of some ‘crowd mentality’, just remember that your unconscious mind decided it well before you realised the conclusion and called it your own. If ever there was a reason to start working with your unconscious mind, this is it! It really isn’t practical or pragmatic to think otherwise.

No wonder so many addicts fail to give up their addictions by conscious decision alone!

If you missed the show, it will be available on the BBC i-player site for about a week – of course, your unconscious might already have watched it

Recent Website Enhancements

Chenara Butterfly Illustration (All Rights Reserved - CaryCharles.com)

Well it has taken a good while to sort out, but the therapeutic half of my website now benefits from some of my artistic skill!

Take a look if you are interested in hypnotherapy or insight sessions such as Inner Child or Higher Self. Or have a peek if you want to enjoy some nice imagery . . .

Much of my work hinges on a sense that consciousness is hot-wired to evolve, and this ‘Chenara Butterfly’ artwork beautifully captures that . . .

Enjoy!

Dewdrop - an original painting by Cary Charles - visit www.carycharles.com to see more.

Around 1985-7, I often felt compelled to write into the early hours of morning. ‘Penko’s Journey’ arrived as a series of vivid impressions and the central character’s consciousness evolved on exposure to the waters of enchanted Lake Chenara. The name ’Chenara’ just arrived and was used for sessions and a healing centre I co-directed.

I was often asked about its meaning. I only knew that my intuition insisted that it embodied what my work was about — personal transformation, moving consciousness beyond limited perceptions etc. It was pure intuition — it ‘felt right’.

For over two decades, the name ‘Chenara’ mystified me. Then, on 09/09/09, I was compelled to Google ’Chenara’. I found some people of various races were named Chenara. Other links related to archaeology—something I have never studied.

Chenara appeared alongside the ancient and probably Canaanite word Chinnereth—a harp shaped musical instrument; the lyre. Chinnereth appears to have shortened in translation to Greek or Latin to Chenara. It was a fortified city which indeed stood very near to a harp shaped body of water referred to both as a lake and a sea.

My Chenara could have been a person, an animal, a mountain etc. Instead, it was an enchanted lake which triggered personal growth.

Imagine my amazement when I learned that the name Nazara also appeared to be a shortening in similar texts—its other form probably being Nazareth. I can honestly say I have never identified myself as a Christian. I focus upon the connection between self and the creative universe, rather than any doctrine which may be distorted for personal or political purposes.

Chenara or Chinnereth was also known as the Lake of Gennesaret and the Sea of Tiberius . . . and the Sea of Galilee. So the place where a religious figure is written to have ‘walked upon water’, fed masses with seven loaves and risen after death to appear to disciples shares the name of the profound consciousness evolving work I was doing, and I didn’t even know it. As I would have avoided such a connotation to prevent any perceived religious bias in my work, this really amazes me. I had never come across this obscure name before, and for me the ‘coincidence’ conveys that we are all connected to something fundamental and creative—not just Jung’s collective unconscious, but also a connected unconscious. Proof positive of how creative and all-knowing the unconscious is.

I just wonder if a meaning will surface for the name I gave to the mountain in the story . . . But interestingly, Galilee also had a mountain . . .  Maybe Penko’s Journey is meant to be published after all.

A spoonbender spins a very outdated hypnosis myth . . .

If you want the truth, you might do better than to ask a stage magician and supposed psychic spoon bender.

I was shocked when a certain well-known celebrity psychic performer recently claimed on a recent news interview that he had hypnotized Michael Jackson and asked him if he had ever touched children inappropriately. The performer stated that Jackson’s response was an adamant ‘no’, and implied that as this response came in hypnosis it was the ultimate truth.

Sadly, this is not the case . . . It has more to do with a performer probably ‘bigging up’ his stage act and mythology than being a real depiction of what actually happens in hypnosis.

There are two points to consider here:

First, people tend to do most things better in the hypnotic state, and that can include lying. People can lie in hypnosis, and this is why hypnotic statements are not admissable in courts as definitive evidence.

Second, stage performers have a lot to gain by making the public believe they have more power than they actually do. They are selling illusion, but it becomes a bit distasteful when someone spins the illusion regarding child abuse, possibly to get more media attention.

There is a huge line of distinction between the mythologies and often unethical activities of the stage hypnotist playing to the audience, and the hypnotherapist focused upon the welfare and healing of his client. The latter is a partnership and empowering to the client. In other words, it is ethically responsible and the person not only comes out of the hypnosis well, they come out of it all the better for having had the experience, realising that all the myths were hokum, publicity to get more sensationalised backsides on seats in theatres.

It would be refreshing if the stage performer would, with his ordinary consciousness or psychic powers of perception, perceive that such comments can be damaging to an increasingly validated and therapeutic profession, and that people will trust him less if he veers so far from the truth.

Michael Jackson . . . hypnotherapy would have been a better option than drugs.

The Daily Telegraph reported recently that Michael Jackson’s drug of choice was Propofol, an anaesthetic agent normally only used in surgery. As they put it, it “shuts down the brain and induces more of a light coma than a nap . . . what Jackson must have craved more than anything was instantaneous oblivion . . .”

Given that I now have some training in hypnosis, I find myself thinking how sad it is that he didn’t have experiences with hypnosis in order to shut out all the critical chatter in his mind and just drift in a more creative and happy space. Perhaps he could have worked through some emotional issues too. Sometimes the illusion is that oblivion is what is needed, when actually it is about accessing the greater part of self, reorienting one’s conscious position so that it addresses the full 100% of our being. Hypnosis can deliver this magnificently, and furthermore, with post-hypnotic suggestion the benefits could flow into daily life.

It is a great shame that the mythology that fuels the acts of stage hypnotists tends to be foremost in the minds of the public. It distracts away from the fact that hypnosis can quickly, easily and safely stimulate a creative partnership which brings you closer to who you really are and your ultimate potential.

There can be no doubt that creative genius was there in Michael, before the drugs took over. Imagine what he could have contributed with greater focus. Imagine the wonderful things his unconscious was striving to create.

Wake Up: The Myths, History, Religion and Science of Hypnosis

Hypnosis . . . images of dodgy stage hypnotists and horror movies come to mind, probably, igniting emotions. Writers, stage performers and movie makers have long used hypnosis as the vehicle that can bring the ‘magical’ or frightening to a victim, and while this fiction can be great fun, it also causes misunderstandings and irrational fears of abilities that, in reality, are expressions of the fact that the brain is a superbly complex instrument which can still outdo any computer.

In many ways, the brain is the window to both inner and outer worlds . . . and hypnosis is a tool which concentrates the focus. We can direct attention with remarkable results. Of course, when we do so and achieve something that falls outside our ‘concept’ of what we can personally do, it seems like magic or a miracle. Bizarre, when you consider how we happily use the rest of our organs.  If we look ahead, then look left, we hardly think about it – it’s normal, but the concept of changing the focus of the brain still alarms or amazes. It is a shame, because these magnificent brains are here for a reason; to help us! This is the REALITY of hypnosis. So I would encourage you to put the myths to bed and wake up to your potentials, and your innate ability to reach them.

We live in very exciting times: Whilst elements of hypnosis date back to ancient times, our technological inability to fully understand the brain has meant that it has been hard to say with absolutely certainty how it works. Not only that, the fact that a highly alert hypnotised person can appear to be deeply asleep has caused many myths to arise. But why have these myths continued?

Before the first truly anaesthetic agents were discovered, a British Surgeon working in an Indian prison performed hundreds of pain-free amputations. He was so excited that he proposed to teach hypnosis to other medics so that many more patients could be free of pain . . . but he was told that God had created pain for a reason, and patients were meant to feel it. Oddly enough, pain alleviation via chemical pathways was more easily understandable and could not be taken to challenge any religious position . . . so it was immediately embraced. In other words, medicine embraced the risks of side-effects and prolonged recoveries due to exposure to chemical toxins way more enthusiastically, because it didn’t challenge the religious positions of the day, and furthermore, it was slightly easier to identify the mechanisms of action. Hypnosis (the brain) was more mysterious, less easy to be authoritative about, so interest was suppressed. Maybe it was fakery, they would say, or dangerous . . .

All the time though, the reality was that it all came back to the complexities of who, what and why we are. The amazing feats and after-effects of hypnosis are simply expressions of our innate and delicious complexities. Put more simply, hypnosis is about us working with consciousness, with the brain, in a way that truly acknowledges and utilises the wonders of who and what we are.

You could say it is time to ‘wake up’ . . . but as any hypnotherapist or brain scan will tell you; we were never really asleep

And how will mainstream medicine handle increasing evidence detailing the unique value of hypnosis? Well, that will truly be a matter not of mind over matter, but fact over fear.

Bring on the revolution! Everyone, especially patients, stand to benefit.

You might want to find out more!

CaryCharles.com . . . Reloaded!

carycharles.com Version 4

Well it has been a long time in development, but finally the fourth incarnation of CaryCharles.com is up and running. The feel is fresher with a virginal white background, larger images in the galleries, more attractive merchandise links and a whole new mind, body & spirit section.

The new section is particularly interesting as here I will share information about my writing and experiences in healthcare, both alternative and orthodox, never forgetting the overall theme of all my creative endeavours . . . consciousness.

Keep an eye on the site from now on . . . it will be added to more regularly and already some of the text in the mind, body & spirit section is drawn from the forthcoming book  . . .

On Patrick Swayze – the man, the media, healthcare and the subconscious mind

Florida’s Kiss FM radio station yesterday reported that ‘Dirty Dancing’ actor Patrick Swayze had died. Quite a definitive statement, but the actor’s agent released a statement stating that in reality he was still alive, although he still diagnosed with Stage IV pancreatic cancer. Whether he is alive or dead is one thing, but there is more.

How can such an upsetting statement enter the public domain, spreading around blogs and news publishers within minutes, all clamouring to get the biggest story like vultures picking at bones. The sensationalism probably sells and we need to be conscious of what we are creating and contributing to when we do the ‘buying’.

I am researching at present, and came upon Narrative Medicine: The Use of History and Story in the Healing Process. Written by a physician named Lewis Mehl-Madrona, it highlights the role that narrative and story play in healing and health.

Far fetched? Not really. The non-compliant patient who doesn’t take his medications is actually the patient who probably doesn’t believe the story given by the doctor about his medication or illness. Every illness has a story of likely progression. Every patient has a story about Doctors and his or her health. Every physician has a story about the patients he has seen in the past and this defines his expected story outcome for each new patient in the future, which in truth affects both treatment and communication. Any of these stories may be accurate or inaccurate, but because the doctor is an authority figure, his messages have a greater chance of getting through to your subconscious.

‘Evidence based’ is the phrase loaded with power in healthcare now. It sounds reassuring, doesn’t it, but exactly how reliable is ‘evidence-based’ when analysis of studies tends to eliminate the unusual to present an average. For instance, Mehl-Medrona writes of a study in which patients with cancer were given the mean average of  about 3 and a half years survival. On probing deeper, NO patients had died at that period, and at least one had survived 42 years. What did the researchers do? They eliminated the longer results because they fell too far away from the mean average. This is common practice . . . those results which do not fit neatly and fall close to the mean are elminated, treated as irrelevant. Yet they are not. Such extremes may host many secrets that could pave the way to new breakthroughs. Surely we should be looking to such ‘outliers’ at the extremes of the bell curves of probability and exploring their stories. It used to be that there was acknowledged worth with the case study, but this is less and less the case in academia.

And who is average, exactly? The thrust is to run with the general herd, the average which may or may not describe where you yourself would fall on that probability curve. It could be absolutely accurate, but it could also be way out. Science really has little ability to plot exactly where you personally reside.

Doctors try to avoid giving an expected lifespan now, but it tends to be more about fear of legal proceedings (e.g. a patient spends all his money then lives beyond his sell-by date and sues his doctor etc.) than actually reflecting understanding of the role consciousness plays in healing, more specifically the fact that the subconscious tends to take statements that reach it literally, and respond accordingly.

So if Patrick Swayze heard that Kiss FM were claiming he had died . . . how would that play out in his healing process? Would it assist it? Would it boost his immune system and improve the time is sharing with his family? If not, who takes responsibility for doing such damage?

New sunset Postcard – Melbourne Australia, February 2009

Melbourne Sunset Postcard by Cary Charles

Just released: A postcard featuring an image of a truly delicious sunset I captured during my recent trip to Australia. The range of colours is just astounding and it really was a day to remember.

To get a close-up or order the postcard for yourself or others, simply point your browser towards

http://www.zazzle.co.uk/melbourne_sunset_postcard-239060656150593594 (UK site)

http://www.zazzle.com/melbourne_sunset_postcard-239060656150593594 (American site)

Greeting cards will also be released in the near future. Enjoy!

‘Stillness at Noosa’ poster / print now available to order!

'Stillness at Noosa' print / Poster - Available to purchase now!

Finally, a classic shot from 2004 has received the treatment it deserves . . .

The newly released ‘Stillness at Noosa’ has been digitally enhanced for increased tonal and colour range using HDR processing. A wonderfully serenity caught my attention as I walked along the beach on a summer evening at Noosa during March 2004. I was awestruck by the glass-like stillness of the sea. Hardly a ripple was to be seen while intense sunlight gleamed through the atmosphere with incredible purity. It remains one of my favourite and most calming shots.

If you would like to get a closer look, or to purchase either the print or poster, go to one of the links below:

UK Site: http://www.zazzle.co.uk/stillness_at_noosa_poster-228215944383591326

American site: http://www.zazzle.com/stillness_at_noosa_poster-228215944383591326