Stop The Pain By Looking In A Mirror

By James Donahue

Nov. 2, 2005

An interesting story appeared in NewScientist.com this week. It appears that researchers have discovered that patients suffering from chronic pain in their limbs can sometimes achieve relief by looking in a mirror and mentally ordering the body to fix the problem.

Scientists say the technique tricks the brain into correcting its image of the body, even though you are looking at a reverse image of yourself as you gaze into the mirror.

The technique was developed by Candy McCabe at the University of Bath, in the UK. McCabe noted that chronic pain often occurs in people who fracture their wrists, for example. She said they suffer unexplained persistent pain in their hand, arm or shoulder once the supportive plaster cast is removed. She said the pain sometimes can be severe enough that patients beg for their arm to be amputated.

In the study, eight patients suffering from chronic pain sat in front of long mirrors. The mirrors were placed so that each patient could only see the healthy half of their body. There also was a trick mirror that reflected the same half of the body, but it appeared to the patient to be the painful half. Thus the painful arm was hidden from view and it appeared to the patients as if they had two healthy arms.

The patients were told to concentrate hard on the image and believe that what they saw was a true depiction of themselves.

“Three were cured instantly,” McCabe said. She said the others took longer. But, she said, once the mirror was removed, the pain returned.

It took continued mirror therapy to bring permanent results, at least for six of the eight test patients. She said the two exceptions had conditions complicated by other problems.

As I read this story I remembered a similar technique taught by the late Robert Monroe at the Monroe Institute. Monroe taught people to go into a higher state of consciousness with the help of sound frequencies. While in that state the program taught them how to leave their body, remote view objects in other places, and do other interesting things including repair the body.

His body repair was similar to the mirror technique. Instead of mirrors, however, Monroe had his subjects leave the body, or at least envision their body while looking down at it from overhead. Then he had the subject do a self-analysis of the body, with healthy parts displayed in blue and the unhealthy portions showing red.

Once the problem areas were identified, the subject then centered mental energy on the problem area, imagining a cure.

For many of his students the technique appeared to be effective.

Apparently it all involves the power of the mind. If we believe we can heal ourselves, we can.