Self Hypnosis Lesson 13 -------------------------------------------------- TUNING OUT Goal: To eliminate physical pain, by experiencing the effect of an analgesic without actually taking the drug. Time: Depending on your familiarity with the drug whose affect you are trying to duplicate, this exercise will take from fifteen minutes to half an hour. Practice it frequently while you are not in pain so that the pathway will be well established when you need it. Preparation: A light state of trance will suffice to activate you, especially after the first few times. At the beginning, close your eyes while taking yourself into relaxation. Later, with practice, you will learn to relax profoundly with your eyes open, e.g., by looking fixedly at one point. At times you may need to engage in this exercise in the presence of other people, when you don't wish to attract attention to yourself. The Exercise: See yourself in your dentist's chair, feel his instrument gently probing your teeth; smell the scent of soap and antiseptic that permeates the room. Now the probe has found a tender spot and you wince, less in pain than in apprehension of worse to come. You watch tensely while he prepares to fill the cavity and inserts and attachment into the drill. Now he rests it against the tender spot, pushes the foot pedal; the drill begins to buzz and vibrate and you grip the arms of the chair. You feel the too-familiar crescendo of pain as the drill advances toward the nerve, and realize that you will need novocaine to endure what is to follow. The novocaine needle penetrates your gum. There is an instant of pain - then the contents of the syringe take over, already dulling sensation at the point of impact. Now you relax while the numbness spreads, along your lips and along your tongue. There is nothing more to worry about. The drilling starts again, and you know that it must be very close to the nerve now; but blissfully you feel nothing at all, except the almost disembodied touch of the instrument. You bask in this total absence of all sensation. In your mind you follow every step of the procedure, aware of everything the dentists does, but aware also that nothing can touch you, that all pain is kept at bay behind an impenetrable barrier. Then the job is finished, and you see yourself getting out of the chair, smiling with some difficulty because of your numb lips. Concentrate on this feeling for a few more moments. Then begin your wake up count, telling yourself that the numbness will begin to diminish now that the effect of the novocaine wears off, and will have vanished entirely by the time you open your eyes. You can vary this exercise by using different pain sites and different drugs. After a few practice sessions, test your mettle against your next real headache; reach for your mind instead of for the aspirin.