--University Of Phoenix of Erickson As Healer--
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Milton Erickson was the last great psychiatric hypnotist. In an unbroken line from Mesmer to Freud, he taught the primary significance of trance states: those states in which learning and openness to change are most likely to occur. Daydreams, meditations, prayers, being "in-the zone," or hypnotic inductions are all states in which we see things from beyond our ordinary consciousness. It is in trance states that population intuitively understand the meaning of dreams, symbols and archetypes.
Erickson As Healer
Erickson was a well-known psychiatrist by the 1960s. He was the founding editor of the American community of Clinical Hypnosis; he hypnotized Aldous Huxley in the 50's and collaborated with him. Margaret Mead, the remarkable cultural anthropologist, studied with him for more than 40 years. But I never heard a word about him when I was in medical school at the north medical center in Syracuse, or in my residency at Yale in New Haven, Connecticut. Psychiatry was beginning to move toward neuro-chemical explanations for the gamut of the human experience. Hypnosis and trance states were relegated to romantic myths of an archaic age.
I discovered Erickson only after joining the Indian condition aid in the mid-1960's. I spent twenty years in Indian country, most of them as Chief of Psychiatry at the Phoenix Indian medical Center. Working with Native American medicine men, I saw things for which my training had not ready me. Customary healers could cure patients in varying states of psychological disintegration, in ways I'd never been taught in medical school.
Using ceremonies, myths and sacred objects, I saw Shaman cure the disabled and the psychotic. The hypnotic fires of all-night meetings, with drumbeat and prayer songs, the weaving of ritual, myth and symbols into ceremonies of awesome medical power - I didn't understand a word of the spoken language, but I could feel its impact. The symbolic world clearly opened up channels to the unconscious mind. Their dramatic power changed population faster than I could with drugs and psychotherapy.
This process was difficult to clarify in the Customary language of psychiatry (projection, incorporation, identification). It was only when I met Erickson that I began to understand and finally learn to speak this nontraditional language. I discovered Erickson straight through the writings of Jay Haley. When I learned he lived in Phoenix, I sought him out. Here was a psychiatrist who understood my experiences with clarity and translated what I was looking into a profound awakening that had large practical application in my work.
Erickson revealed to me these guiding ideas of healing:
1. A healer will see beyond a patient's pathology, illuminate and mobilize his strengths, and help him move beyond his limitations;
2. Find ways to open up a channel into the unconscious mind and get patients to see their reality differently. Using stories, symbols, shared myths, and prescribing rituals, ceremonies, even ordeals, healers get population to look at the well-known in new ways.
3. Uniquely craft a medical caress for each individual in which both the outpatient and the healer are totally involved in the experience. There is no dispassionate, distant, unavailable transferential object to work straight through one's neurosis.
Erickson was proud of the factor that he had Indian blood. He sponsored a scholarship at Phoenix College for Native American students who keep the practices and language of their tribal traditions. He was the keeper of a Navajo medicine bundle (ji' ish) which contained the medicine man's most sacred medical totems. In all my years in Indian country, I had never seen the contents of an entire one. I asked Erickson if he had ever looked inside it, and he said with a twinkle, "You get to see everything, when it's time."
A healer is more than a good doctor. A good physician can make the pathology and prescription the acceptable treatment; a great physician can make the diagnosis, treat the outpatient and also add a preventative component that teaches the outpatient how to avoid exposure to trauma and pathogens. A healer can do all of that and, in addition, make a personal connection with the outpatient in such a way that touches them at a soul level.
How did Erickson get initiated into the shamanic journey? He got polio at age 18 and suddenly found himself paralyzed. Unable to move, it gave him time to search for population and learn to understand and speak the language of nonverbal communication. It was the beginning of his appreciation of the principle of utilization. It didn't matter what happened to you, only that you learned something from it, which was its own reward. Playing the hand you'd been dealt meant that what was once a curse could come to be a blessing. Erickson never stopped learning. At 57 he was stricken with post-polio syndrome and learned to face the world with slurred speech and weakened muscles.
All healers have the capacity to see things from beyond an ordinary perspective. When healers look at patients, they see not only their pathology (Western medicine's forte), but also look inside and recognize their strengths. They use anyone symbols and language the outpatient speaks, in order to mobilize those strengths and move them beyond their limitations. all in the natural universe has possible for symbolic value, because symbols derive meaning only when you contribute them with their power.
A friend of mine watched a Navajo Roadman (a spiritual leader in the Native American Church) take out a fluid-filled vial and sprinkle some drops onto a patient. Later, my friend asked the healer, what the stuff was that he sprinkled on the man. The Roadman said it was very remarkable medicine and then dropped the subject. The next morning, while my friend was taking a drink from a water bottle, the Roadman took it from him and poured a few drops from the bottle into a teaspoon. Keeping the bottle in one hand, and the teaspoon in the other, the Road Man looked at the bottle and said, "If you drink this when you are thirsty its water." Then, turning to the teaspoon he said, "When you need it for medical its medicine." Symbols only have meaning when what you bring to them supplies then with power.
Erickson knew that if you look again at all you know, you might see it from another perspective. If you can move beyond your ordinary consciousness, and dangle your preconceptions, you can originate new endings to old stories.
All healers find ways to drill into the unconscious without direct interpretation. They know that known mechanisms of defense can keep patients from understanding the most insightful interpretation. Healers originate a symbolic language that speaks uniquely to each outpatient and illuminates the undefended areas of the mind. Using stories, rituals, ceremonies, even ordeals, healers make a connection with a patient's soul that opens up channels of healing.
Early in his career, Milton worked at Worcester State Hospital in Rhode Island. One of the patients was a inoffensive catatonic schizophrenic who was called "Jesus Christ #1." Having ground privileges, Jc #1 wandered the campus draped in a white bed-sheet prayer shawl blessing all and everyone. One day, when Milton was out walking, he came upon Jc #1 who said to him, "Blessings on you my son." Milton thanked him, and then told him he was also seeking a blessing for the other doctors at the hospital. They needed to take a break from their strenuous work and exercise. They needed to replenish themselves so they could take care of patients. Unfortunately, the tennis courts were not in good shape. He told Jc #1 that he understood he had the power to bless things and make them beautiful. These tennis courts were God's creation and he could save them and the doctors. Jc #1 said he was here to serve mankind and if Milton could get him the right tools, he could do the job. Jc #1 became the court-keeper, gardener and carpenter; he kept the grounds beautifully and was greeted by the entire hospital community with respect and appreciation. If you can speak the patient's language, you can tell the story in a way that helps them mobilize their strengths.
All healers originate sacred space for their work. This does not mean a religious tabernacle, but a place that is separate from ordinary space. A setting that invites population to come in and open themselves up in a way that encourages a soulful connection. Milton's waiting room and office were filled with magical symbols - a dried stingray was twisted into a crucifix and hung from the ceiling. On a bookshelf was a pelvic bone that looked like a skull with flashing lights for eyes, and all came with a story. This was a sacred space that encouraged the journey into the unexplored mind.
All healers originate a partnership with their patients. They understand that it is both of them together who make the medical work happen, and that there are lots of other helpers (people, flowers, animals, fire, and drumbeat). all in the natural world provides the symbols that can intensify one's medical power. Milton didn't mind if some saw him as odd; he conception it was a blessing that helped him see the world from a unique perspective.
Healers do not detach themselves from the therapeutic experience, they are right there with the patient. They are not detached, unresponsive, trasferential objects; they are totally involved in the event.
A friend of Erickson's asked him to visit his aunt if he ever spoke in her city. The aunt had come to be increasingly depressed and now was reclusive. She no longer went to church or spoke to anyone. When Erickson was in her city, he visited her in her home and asked if she would guide him around. Slowly, she led him from room to room. In one of them, he noticed three well cared for African violets. Each was a separate color and next to them was an empty pot in which she was clearly going to propagate another plant. This lady was a talented horticulturist, and Erickson told her he knew these were delicate plants and beyond doubt destroyed by the slightest neglect. He said he wanted to prescription something for her, but before he did so, he wanted her word that she would fill it. She agreed to do it.
He told her that there were 13 separate hues of African violets and that she was to go to a specific florist who needed a talented African violet lady to help save them. Then he told her to purchase pots and transplant leaves to grow more. When she had an sufficient contribute he wanted her to put one in a gift pot and send one to every baby born to a member of her church. Then, to every member of her church who was hospitalized. She kept her promise and moved beyond her despair.
To totally partake in the medical event does not all the time involve preparation for the event; it just requires spontaneity and a willingness to take creative leaps of faith.
Erickson was a healer. He in case,granted me with a buildings that helped me move beyond my boundaries and own my own power. He encouraged me, as he did all his students, to tell the story our own way, and not mimic his; to be authentic and use anyone works into our medical repertoire.
On one of our last times together, I gave him a Hopi Sun Kachina and told him it reminded me of his work on on me. He in case,granted the light that helped me shift my need for certainty and enjoy the free-flight into the unconscious, where the magic of our work is realized.
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