The use of inner visions to help the healing process is hardly a new concept.  Tibetan Buddhists have been using images in this way since the 13th century, if not earlier.  The Buddhist approach typically involves meditating on the image of a deity in the act of healing a symptom.  Only recently, however, have Western physicians and healthcare providers used imagery.

Imagery is the basis of our thought processes.  It is simply a flow of thoughts that one can see, hear, feel, smell, or taste in one’s imagination.  Each person is the architect of his/her own destiny and each person has the creative power to make mental images. These images are an expansion of the thoughts, needs and desires of goals to be achieved.
As an inner representation of experience, as well as fantasy, imagery is a rich, symbolic, and highly personal language.  Specific languages are human inventions, whereas imagery is our innate way of processing information.

Guided imagery is the use of mental imagery to facilitate the healing process.  Impressing these concepts, needs and desires upon the subconscious mind, visualized images are created, as well as auditory and kinesthetic imagery.  We can have images of sound, of movement, touch, and other senses.  The two most important, however, are visual and auditory.  It is a fact that nearly everyone forms images and uses images as guides to their memories.
 

Why are visual images in the mind so important?  The most important factor concerning visual images is that they can influence the body.  A strongly formed image will lead to an emotional response or some other bodily response.  It does not matter whether the image concerns reality or something totally imaginary.  Both will create changes in the body that are consistent with the image.

Imagery has three main characteristics that lend it great value in medicine and healing:
-  It directly affects physiology
-  Through the mental processes of association and synthesis, it provides insight and perspective into health
-  It has an intimate relationship with emotions, which are often at the root of many common health conditions.

Studies in England and the United States have found that 50 to 75 percent of all problems presented to primary care clinics are emotional, social, or familial in origin, although they are being expressed by pain or illness.

Emotions are powerful events in the body.  They are physiologically distinct from one another and each affects human physiology in different ways.  Many physical ailments are direct manifestations of emotions that are locked within the unconscious.  Through imagery, these emotions can be accessed and consciously alter their effects on health.

With deep relaxation and imagery you can make positive changes in your life.  This will enable you to succeed in business, excel in sports, improve your memory, achieve goals, raise energy levels, relieve pain and improve your health.

“Imagery is the language of the emotions and the interface between mind and body.”
Martin L. Rossman, M.D.