M.I.A.S. BULLETIN
A COMMUNICATION FROM THE MONROE INSTITUTE OF APPLIED SCIENCES
The following is a portion of a
report from one Institute research as-
sociate, Psychiatrist Stuart Twemlow:
"In our studies of the effect of
the Monroe Tape system on brain waves,
we have found that the tapes encourage
the focusing of brain energy(it can be
measured as with a light bulb, inwatts)
into a narrower and narrower "frequency
band". This focusing of energy is not
unlike the yoga concept of one pointed-
ness, which we may translate in Western
term as single-mindedness. As Focus 10
counts down, there is a gradual increase
in brain-wave size, which is a measure
of brain energy or power.
"Although the significance of this
is not clear, it could be speculated that
the tape system encourages the recruit-
ment of neurons in the brain to focus their
attention on a single task, whether that
be to reduce tension on the nuscles, to
improve sleeping, or control pain".
"I'll describe three situations where
we have applied the Monroe tapes with un-
usually striking results. The types of
patients with whom the tapes have
been tried, generally speaking,have been
chronic that is, have had their problem
for long periods of time".
"As we were able to deal with
this, she began to feel in control of
her life and her need to keep the pain
decreased. After discharge from the hos-
pital, this patient has continued to be
almost unrecognizable physically. She
looks a great deal younger than she did
before, she has her pain under control
and does not need any physical support
for it. Most strikingly, other parts
of her life from which she had been
very withdrawn, have now become a
source of gratification to her".
"The next case concerns a middle-
aged man with a very long history of
psychosomatic problem affecting prac-
tically every organ in his body. A
psychological investigation found many
of these symptom related to some sev@
ere surgical trauma which occured when
he was a young child. In this case we
combined the tape exercises, especially
the Focus 10 exercise with the sorts of
stimuli in his enviroment that would
make him very anxious,that is, the sti-
muli that reminded-him of the surgical
trauma as a child. Over a period of
weeks we exposed him both to the Focus
10 deeply relaxed state and to the sti-
muli that would make him very anxious
and upset. Gradually he became desen-
sitized to the stimuli and was able to
feel a lot more in control of his life".
"...Dying man utilized the tape
"One such case was a middle-aged lady system. He also had severe pain which
who had severe pain resulting from problem had been impossible to control with
in the healing of an old fracture. In massive doses of narcotic. Over a per-
combining the tapes with a structured hos- iod of weeks, he also acheived control.
Pital milieu, we determined that as she Since he died, we've had a conuunication
began to relax the parts of her body which from his wife. She stated that he
had not been relaxed, were those pains played the tapes until he died and the
connected with psychological problem for last week of his life, was completely
which the pain was serving the function pain free and at peace".
of "secondary gains". That is, the pain "Our feeling was that both the
appeared to help her cope with some of the experience with acheiving control of
psychological stresses in her everyday life the part of his body that was painful
in a sense was kept going because it serv@ and preparing himself for death of his
ed this adaptive function
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and panicky. The control and preparation
made him, therefore, more able to make
peace with the family- so important in
dying people. In fact, as we have noticec
with a number of people who are dying,he
was able to give support to those around
him who will suffer the loss. Coming to
term with the loss of his own physical
body enabled him to intergrate the re-
maining fears he had in this direction.
"Use of the tapes in a clinical set-
ting has pointed out that their effect
on reduction of stress and tense muscles
is startling. As a matter of fact, it
apperars that not only muscles under vol-
untary control but also those under in-
voluntary control (smooth muscles, such
as the muscles of the bladder) may be re-
laxed with the Focus 10 exercise".
"Patients who are chronic feel very
much out of control of the various symp-
ton-Ls they have. As with a number Of the
newer therapeutic techniques, giving them
a sense of control has a "snowball" ef-
fect on the control of other symptom
and aspects of their interpersonal re-
lationships. As they begin to aceive in
other areas resulting from this "snowball"
effect, each small success has a reinfor-
cing effect".
"It seems that Focus 10 is the basic
state which is essential to master before
being able to proceed. Some of our Pat-
ients have learned to induce the Focus
10 state to relax their bodies while they
are actively engaged in work, and certain-
ly to relax their bodies in between
some highly stressful day-to-day working
situations. Some patients are now able
to program their sleep, so that they wake
at certain times. A number of them with
insomnia have found thexaselves sleeping
very restfully".
can be created by this. For example,
one patient noted that he has had periods
of very high energy in which he finds that
he is creative, but which represent a
change in his ordinary level of function-
ing to which other people take some time
to adjust. He has noticed, for example,
that he needs fewer hours of sleep at
night and this is ready to start the
day's work a great deal earlier than most
other people ".
"A number of patients who have reg-
ularly practiced with the tapes have
found that they've become much more reflec-
tive less physically active, and more
satisfied with quieter sorts of hobbies and
day@to-day activities. Becoming mre in-
wardly turned is a characteristic of
people who learn to utilize sources of
gratification within their own heads
rather than having to constantly turn
to the outside world for gratification".
"One patient had noticed that a very
few minutes of sleep in Focus 10 seemed
equivelent to him, in terms of restful-
ness,to many hours of sleep with his nor-
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