In America, as far as I know, if one is bitten by a venomous snake they must wait on treatment until they can be transported to a hospital and then they may encounter further delays if the hospital does not have the proper antivenom. This is not necessary. Virtually all venomous bites are treated in minutes with high voltage, low current, electrical stimulation, think a 'stun-gun' - A stun gun will not injure a human but it will denature the venom. All venoms are complex proteins which can be denatured via high voltage. I have been reading about the use of old bell telephone ringers used to treat snake bites in Latin America for years but they are always ridiculed by the American Medical Association. I'll let you guess why. You do not need to use a stun gun. My daughters cat was bitten by a copperhead and was in serious trouble so I took my "Tens Unit" to her and instructed her to place the two electrodes across the bite. After she hooked it up when she turned the unit on, she said her cat started purring. When she took her cat back to the vet a day or so later, the vet was amazed, declaring she had never seen such a remarkable recovery from a snake bite. A Tens unit supplies a varying high voltage, low current to the electrodes which one places on their body. It is a theraputic device to relieve sore muscles. They can be purchased for as low as 20 dollars. My oldest daughter keeps one with her when she takes her boys hiking in the woods around Virginia. THE DOCTOR'S WORLD
THE DOCTOR'S WORLD; NEW SHOCK THERAPY FOR SNAKEBITES By Lawrence K. Altman, MD Aug. 5, 1986 Credit...The New York Times Archives See the article in its original context from August 5, 1986, Section C, Page 3Buy Reprints This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. A CHAT in a London laboratory between an American missionary physician who practices in the Amazon and two tropical disease experts has led to a new electric shock therapy that saves the lives of snakebite victims but that defies scientific explanation. The treatment is delivered through modifications of what are popularly known as stun guns. It comes in the form of four or five high-voltage, low-current electric shocks. Each is painful and lasts one to two seconds. The shocks are given about five to ten seconds apart and are applied as close as possible to the site of the bites of snakes and such venomous insects as scorpions and ants. In 34 cases where there was evidence of venomous bites that had penetrated the skin of limbs, the current was applied within about a half hour. None of the usual serious medical complications developed and none of the patients died, the researchers said in a report on what could become a revolutionary treatment. Also, the pain of the poisonous bites disappeared within 15 minutes, according to the report in the July 26 issue of The Lancet, a leading medical journal published in London. The missionary physician and the tropical disease experts reported on treatment of the 34 patients in Ecuador. The patients did not receive the usual antivenom therapy for snakebites, one of the authors of the report said in an interview. Venoms can produce damage very quickly. Seven bite victims who refused the electric shock therapy suffered complications such as swelling, bleeding, shock and kidney failure. Two needed life-saving amputations. Although the biting snake could not be identified in all 41 cases, the authors believed that most bites were by small pit vipers similar to the water moccasin and copperhead of North America. Bites by such snakes tend to cause destruction of tissue in the area surrounding the bite, leading to the loss of a finger or part of limb. Larger snakes in the Amazon area can be even more dangerous, but more research is needed to determine if the jolts of electricity will work against venoms that damage the central nervous system. Most astonishing to the authors was that the jolts of electricity were successful even after serious symptoms had already developed. Two additional patients suffered intense pain and swollen limbs from viper bites. Although they were not treated with electric shocks until two hours after the bites, they were relieved of pain within 30 minutes. Their symptoms did not progress, and both recovered with no serious lasting damage. ''We don't understand that and it is very hard to come up with a good scientific hypothesis to account for the change,'' said one of the authors, Dr. Jeffrey F. Williams, an expert in tropical diseases at Michigan State University in East Lansing. Although other physicians said they would consider the treatment experimental until confirmatory reports were published, doctors in three other countries have used it successfully, according to the Lancet report. The technique's greatest potential is in snake-infested areas with limited health care facilities. In eastern Amazon jungles of Ecuador, according to an earlier report, 4 percent of deaths are caused by snakebites, and half the men of the Waoroni tribe suffered more than one snake bite. Because the shock treatment can be applied with electricity generated by such simple devices as outboard motors and power lawn mowers, reports of the therapy have brought inquiries from American military officials and oil company executives who see the potential of including stun guns in first-aid kits for troops and workers in snake-infested jungles and tropical rain forests. Beyond the natural role of electricity in governing the rhythm of the heart and nervous system activity, doctors have been harnessing electricity to play an increasing role in the practice of medicine. They have long used electrocardiograms and brain wave tests called electroencephalograms and other tests to diagnose ailments. In treatment, doctors have little difficulty understanding why jolts of electricity can be effective in resuscitation efforts and in converting abnormal heart rhythms to normal ones. Yet doctors have no explanation for the relief that electroshock therapy can bring many depressed and mentally disturbed patients. More recently, doctors have used lithotripter machines to provide jolts of electricity to break up kidney stones, avoiding major surgery. Orthopedic surgeons apply electric currents to help some broken bones heal. Electric shock therapy for snakebites had its origins in part in the London discussion between the three authors of the report. Dr. Williams recalled how surprised he and Dr. Charles D. MacKenzie of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine were when, during a chat in Dr. MacKenzie's laboratory two years ago, the subject somehow turned to venoms and Dr. Ronald H. Guderian, the missionary physician in Ecuador, described his experiments with the electric shock therapy for snakebites. Dr. Williams said Dr. Guderian described the notion, widespread in Ecuador, that electricity was a therapy for snakebites. He said snakebite victims try to get to an engine in order to run a wire carrying electricity from its coil into the area of the bite. This folklore also led him to overcome his skepticism about a newspaper report of an Illinois farmer who applied high voltage, low amperage, direct current shocks to the site of bee stings to prevent the severe reactions he usually experienced. Though enormous potential exists for clinicians to make valuable contributions to medicine, particularly those who practice in remote geographic areas, most have great difficulty in doing so because they have neither time nor the training to write up their cases in a scientific manner. In this case, all three doctors knew that injections of antivenoms would prevent death or injury in snakebite cases when the biting snakes could be identified and when the antivenoms were available. ''The problem is that people living in a jungle often get bitten four hours canoe ride from anywhere there might be an antivenom,'' Dr. Williams said. He said he and Dr. MacKenzie encouraged ''Ron to pull together his patient records and to collect evidence that was good enough to build a story around.'' Dr. Guderian did just that. Then Dr. Williams and Dr. MacKenzie paid him a visit in Ecuador at the Hospital Vozandes in Quito and at a clinic in Zapallo Grande in the northwestern Ecuador. When Dr. Williams saw the treatment firsthand, he said he realized ''it was a first-aid measure that worked better than anything else.'' The biggest mystery is why electric shock therapy works against snakebites. At first, the group thought it might be because the jolts produced severe muscular spasm that restricted blood flow, preventing the spread of the venom in the body. But favorable results among people who had already suffered severe systemic symptoms, including shock, strongly argue against that theory, Dr. Williams said. Also, he said that the amperage is too low to give a cauterizing effect. Dr. Williams said he had reviewed the entire scientific literature on the chemical makeup of venoms and found they were very complex, some consisting of up to 10 toxic substances. ''It is not a simple toxic effect, and it is hard to understand how something like electricity can have an effect on such a wide range of processes,'' Dr. Williams said. ''It just doesn't make sense right now.'' Now the research must move to laboratories, he said, ''because it is hard to justify too much experimentation on victims in the jungle, particularly when the therapy hurts.'' Dr. Williams said he had milked snakes in Ecuador and carried the venoms back with him for further research. In the next step, he said he and other researchers at Michigan State University plan to find an animal suitable for use in study of the electroshock therapy and venoms. They hope to determine the correct dose of electricity, to learn why the jolts work and to find out what current does when it passes through the body. ''I want a reasonable scientific explanation,'' Dr. Williams said. Correction: Sept. 4, 1986 Thursday, Late City Final Edition A version of this article appears in print on Aug. 5, 1986, Section C, Page 3 of the National edition with the headline: THE DOCTOR'S WORLD; NEW SHOCK THERAPY FOR SNAKEBITES. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
1 Comment
I began hypnotizing people in 1964 when I was still in high school. After high school my hypnosis sessions slowed considerably, however I continued to read a great deal about hypnosis on a regular basis. I was, and continue to be, on a mission to discover the reason we are all gathered together (seemingly) on this round ball we call earth.
When reading, I constantly endeavor to “connect the dots,” attempting to detect what I call “The golden thread” which connects truth to truth to truth in the written world. I have traced a good many threads in my life and one of the most interesting threads has to do with hypnosis and the purpose of our earthly lives. Edgar Cayce. Of the many fascinating ideas I have read that came from Edgar, one of the most intriguing is: “The most heinous crime you can possibly imagine is closer to God than you would ever know.” Upon reading this sentence I was bewildered. After turning it this way and that for quite a while (years) I began to feel more comfortable with it, deciding that it was somehow related to Jesus’ admonition that we should “Judge not, lest we be judged.” We will revisit this statement later. Bob Monroe, Bob, the founder of “The Monroe Institute” and “Hemi Sync,” wrote in his book “Far Journeys” about his adventures in an altered state of consciousness achieved through his “out of body” exercises. The more Bob explored, the more adept he became at traveling to new and interesting places and as a result, the more guidance he received from the beings he encountered. Bob eventually came into contact with a group of entities which he called “inspecs”, short for “Intelligent Species”. They took Bob on many adventures and eventually began to teach through re-creations of events from earlier in Bob’s life. Bob would re-live the event as if it were as real as when it happened. During this playback the inspecs would monitor Bob's emotional reaction. If Bob experienced an emotion or took an action that the inspecs determined to be not the highest course, there would be a “click” and the entire scene would be replayed from the beginning. The Inspecs would patiently replay as many times as necessary until Bob learned the lesson from the experience and subsequently made the correct decision. As an example, one such event was the time a big mean dog came into Bob’s yard and killed his little dog, Steamboat. CLICK! (The beginning of the session) A huge white dog, three times the size of our beloved Steamboat - what a name for such a nice little dog - has him by the neck, the massive jaws firmly shaking Steamboat back and forth in quick jerks, Steamboat’s body already swinging limply. (No No!) I can’t let it happen? Is it Steamboat? It is! He’s dead, Steamboat is dead? I’ll kill that big son of a bitch, he’ll never… CLICK! RESET. A huge white dog, three times the size of steamboat has him by the neck in massive jaws that are swinging Steamboat from side to side, Steamboat hanging limply. (Steamboat is dead! Dead! What a tragedy! I’ll miss him. I’ll miss him. Let go, big dog, so I can take what’s left and… CLICK! RESET. A big white dog much larger than Steamboat has him by the neck and is swinging Steamboat back and forth, Steamboat hanging relaxed, eyes closed. (Well, little fellow, if that is the way it is, thanks for staying around as long as you did. We had fun together. You gave me a lot of rote that will always be part of me…) Still in the jaws of the big white dog, Steamboat raises his head slightly, opens one eye, winks at me and grins. CLICK! What appears to be an evil act turns out to be not as bad as we might have thought. However, this “new understanding” was not available to Bob until he processed the event sufficiently to be able to view it without fearful emotion. Dr. Irene Hickman After graduating from medical school, in order to affect the healing Irene dreamed of as a youth, she would frequently use hypnosis in order to regress an individual to the past life incident which was the causative factor for the dis-ease. Of this method she said: “Rare is the person who does not at some period of their life suffer from an allergy - a reaction to some substance usually harmless to others.” People who have a special sensitivity to a food or other substance, or to an animal are usually advised to avoid the allergen if they can or are given a long series of desensitization shots. I have not found - even after lengthy search - any reference in the medical literature that mentions an attempt to find the reasons that those persons who manifest allergic reactions react as they do. I used the same approach to the allergies of my patients that I used for other kinds of illness. I would help them into a state of hypnosis and then ask them to tell me why they were reacting in this manner. Answers were usually promptly given, the initial causative event was lived through until the emotion was expended and then the allergy would be relieved.” Irene took the approach that the patient’s higher self always knew the appropriate action to be taken and always used it as a resource for treatment. The cause of disease frequently was found to be a traumatic event from an earlier life or earlier multiple lifetimes. After discovering the source, Irene would direct the patient to re-live the event until the angst had dissipated completely. At this point the event could be re-lived without the slightest trauma. Having reached this “fearless” state the illness or allergy would cease to exist. Irene described this method as “expending the emotion,” while many hypnotherapists describe it as desensitization. Both descriptions are adequate for describing the apparent events, however, I believe both descriptions miss the actual mechanics of what is transpiring. Irene had a female patient who was terribly allergic to cats. So – she hypnotized this patient and asked where the cause originated. The young woman found herself in a rural setting a considerable time in the past. She was only around two or three years old. On her family’s farm, cats were kept in order to control the rodent population, they were not pets. This young lady, one day, made her way to the hay loft where the cats cage was kept. She saw a cute litter of new kittens inside. Fascinated she let herself in and played with the kittens. This was so much fun, she went back the following day. This time, the mother cat returned and rushed to the defense of her kittens, clawing and biting the young woman to death. The first time the patient related this event she was understandably mortified but with each repetition the angst diminished until, the final time, as the cat was ripping her physical body she commented “What a beautiful cat!” When she awoke, the allergy was gone. The Course in Miracles I began studying “The Course” in the 1980s. I found it to be rather complex and not terribly easy to digest. I would lay it aside for a spell then resume the study several times over the years until it finally began to make sense. Some of what I believe I have learned includes:
Freud was onto something when he developed his “Repetition Compulsion” theory, although I do not believe he explained fully what was taking place. It did, however facilitate improvement for many patients. If an event transpires at some point in an individual’s sojourns that causes significant trauma and that trauma is not resolved by exorcising the fear, then the soul's desire for a resolution will cause inappropriate behavior to surface again and again. The repeated surfacing is intended to lead a health practitioner to discover and then assist the individuals to resolve the original trauma. Sadly, this does not often happen in our world. It could and I believe it will be commonplace in the not too distant future, through trans-personal hypnotherapy. Fred Fisk The next dot came to me as a radio program on American University Radio, WAMU 88.5FM out of Washington DC. A fellow by the name of Fred Fisk had a nightly talk show during which he would create a program about anything he considered interesting. In the mid seventies I was traveling from Rockville, MD to Raleigh, NC as part of my work. I tuned the radio to WAMU finding Fred just starting his evening program. His show that evening was made up of a panel of seven psychiatrists who had several things in common that I found absolutely fascinating. They were:
The acts perpetrated by the Nazis during the holocaust were not what most people believed them to be. It appeared that they were possibly more helpful than harmful to the soul of the individuals. One can not come to this conclusion without simultaneously realizing that the Nazis were not evil beings but volunteers who came to assist people in the completion of some cycles. Now, this is just a personal view BUT Since I believe that the Nazis would not receive a “get out of jail free” pass for the acts they committed during this time, I conclude that they were brave souls indeed because they were signing up for not only “committing the acts” but were also signing up for the “karmic payback” that would logically follow! With the victims of the holocaust the remedial treatment is exactly that used by Irene Hickman. Repeated reenactment of the heinous deeds which elicited the terror until such time as terror is replaced by kind and gentle thoughts as the Nazis are committing noxious deeds. Courageous Souls In Robert Schwartz's book, “Courageous Souls” this scenario is described over and over again. The book opens with this Prologue: “On February 25th 1969, Christina, a twenty year old administrative assistant in the department of political sciences at Pomona College in Claremont, California, went to the department’s basement mailbox to pick up her employer’s mail. As she touched a package in the mailbox a bomb detonated, hurling her across the room. Dust and soot filled the air; six foot splinters of wood shot like arrows into the concrete wall behind her. Flames from the explosion scorched Christina’s face, leaving her temporarily blind. The blast severed two fingers from her right hand and ruptured both eardrums. Christina planned this experience before she was born. And, she knows why. Conclusion Where is all this going? Are we all here to experience grief and tragedy over and over until we pass from the earth? Or are we being presented opportunities to learn unconditional love, which is another way of saying that we can eliminate fear from our soul pattern if we seize the moment. Clearly, to me, the latter is the case. If, as The Course in Miracles states, our ego creates fear to keep us separated from our Lord then we should ask “How does our ego accomplish this task?” I believe the Ego can only create illusions. Our illusions certainly appear to be real to us as we bleed and die as a result. Who's to say that bleeding and death are actually real. Albert Einstein stated that the entire universe was an illusion. He went on to state that it was, however, a VERY persistent illusion. To make things more difficult for us the ego has had lifetime upon lifetime to cultivate our fear and hone it to a razors edge. Where are we to turn having been conditioned so? The Course in Miracles tells us that we can “step out of our illusions” when we are ready. However, this is not possible as long as the ego has us consumed with scenarios which arouse our fear. Where is the escape hatch? This is where the magic of hypnosis comes in! Hypnotherapists can facilitate the elimination of fear for each individual encountered. They have the capacity to visit as many lifetimes as required in order to exorcise the entirety of fear from their being. Hypnotists have in their toolbox, the gift of the plasticity of time! They are indeed time travelers who can traverse millennia in pursuit of the purity of love for each of their clients. By visiting traumatic events and re-playing them over and over until individuals are “desensitized” we begin the process of allowing love to blossom, unimpeded by fear. Once an individual has been freed from the lifetimes of “programmed fear” by the ego, the soul transforms into its true state, fulfilling its true destiny. To love unconditionally! Each person freed from fear, becomes a beacon unto others until the entire globe becomes a beacon unto the vast universe! |
Categories
All
AuthorAfter high school I spent three years in the army, one of which was in Viet Nam. I found it to be a beautiful place with beautiful people and met my first Buddhist Monks there. I used to visit them frequently. This does not minimize the service of many others who had a MUCH harder time than I, too many of them losing their lives. Archives |
HoursM-S: 7am - 9pm
|
Telephone540-903-9972
|