Optimal thought and optimal fitness through reason, logic, science, passion, and wisdom.
Integrate Knowledge to Live More Effectively and Happily
Integrate Knowledge to Live More Effectively and Happily

Integrate Knowledge to Live More Effectively and Happily

Rapid eye movement can be used to heal PTSD and other psychological traumas — since mind and body are united; they each affect each other. Traumas always have physiological consequences: long-term changes in heart rate, blood pressure, hormone levels, immune system function, brain function, even brain structure.
 
In “What is EMDR?” the EMDR Institute writes: 

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a psychotherapy treatment that was originally designed to alleviate the distress associated with traumatic memories (Shapiro, 1989a, 1989b). Shapiro’s (2001) Adaptive Information Processing model posits that EMDR therapy facilitates the accessing and processing of traumatic memories and other adverse life experience to bring these to an adaptive resolution. After successful treatment with EMDR therapy, affective distress is relieved, negative beliefs are reformulated, and physiological arousal is reduced.

More than 30 positive controlled outcome studies have been done on EMDR therapy. Some of the studies show that 84%-90% of single-trauma victims no longer have post-traumatic stress disorder after only three 90-minute sessions. Another study, funded by the HMO Kaiser Permanente, found that 100% of the single-trauma victims and 77% of multiple trauma victims no longer were diagnosed with PTSD after only six 50-minute sessions. In another study, 77% of combat veterans were free of PTSD in 12 sessions. There has been so much research on EMDR therapy that it is now recognized as an effective form of treatment for trauma and other disturbing experiences by organizations such as the American Psychiatric Association, the World Health Organization and the Department of Defense.

We do REM in sleep, so maybe the REM triggers brain processes that help us, on a neurologic level, connect information, deal with traumas, and heal.

The broader issue to consider is the cognitive integration of knowledge (an aspect of epistemology): connecting REM in sleep to what happens in the brain to everyday life. And more.

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