There was a time I asked Tom Venuto to back up an article he published regarding the psychology of fat loss. I forget the article now, as it was a while ago. I remember it being a good article though and someone on another forum said she'd be interested in investigating further so I emailed him...
Here were some points directly from his email for anyone interested:
1. Things and results dont attract themselves to you or
materialize out of thin air, just because you think about
and visualize them and a body doesnt change
just because you see yourself in your minds
eye with a fit body... thinking otherwise would be called
delusion or schizophrenia, I believe !!!
2. But thoughts and mental images ARE the causes that set in motion
the action/behavior that produce the effects...
the effects are the better body or improved physical performance
and action and behavior change takes place very subtly on the subconcsious level
3. "non believers" can start by looking up :
Dr. Richard restak, MD, psychiatrist, neuroscientist
who is one of many brain scientists who has used
high tech brain scan equipment to trace the location and
the exact function of visualization and mental pictures
right to the specific parts of the brain that create the premotor
programs that carry out behavior on an unsoncsious level
4. they can look up William Gehring and Adrian Willoughby who
published a study in the journal SCIENCE – which proved that unconscious
mental processing leads to Impulsive decisions being made without consulting your conscious
mind. This means that people make decisions and take action many times every day without thinking about it
and they take these actions in alignment with the with the self image and other mental programs running
on the subconscous level
5. Dr. John Bargh of Yale and Dr. Tanya Chartrand Of Duke University who are psychologists who specialize in non-conscious or automatic influences on behavior and motivation. Based on their research, they say that about 95% of our behavior IS unconsciously chosen.
6. they can look up the research on brain plasticity and formation of new neuron connections and dendrite protuberances, which have shown us that the self help maxim that it takes 21 days to develop a habit is true because
brain scan equipment can actually see the new neuron connections being formed and neural pathways being strengthened after approx 3 weeks of repetition. so this is scientific proof of repetition
7. they can look up the fact that emotion strengthens neuron connections and subconscious programming. Brain researchers like Dr. Pierce Howard have written about the strong neurological and biological basis behind emotions and have actually traced emotions to specific parts of the brain (limbic system) of affirmations and visualizing daily until new habit is formed.
8. they could look up dr. daniel amen who has pioneered work in SPECT scan imagery in psychiatry.. another MD who will tell you that "thoughts are things"
9. they could look up dr bruce lipton on the biology of belief and in fact
anyone who does any real research on placebo will be flabbergasted at the implications of how the mind controls the body.
10 last but not least, when it comes to mental imagery, they should look up the work of some of the top sports psychologists like jeffrey hodges from australia, Charles garfield PhD (peak performance), dennis waitley, Phd,
Dr. judd biasiotto, Phd., , terry orlick, Phd, robert Nideffer, PhD, Steven Ungerleider, PhD. and Mihaly Csikzenthimahalyi... and Jim Lohr,PhD, ...see what they all say about visualization andmental imagery, which falls into the same category as self image (mental images)... if this is psycho babble, then i guess all the pro and olympic athletes that hire these guys are just nuts, huh???
