Tapping subconscious soothes memories of war

VIRGINIA BEACH

Combat stress only begins to describe what Daniel Lester has experienced since his medevac boat hit a mine during the Vietnam War.

For years he hid the symptoms of psychological turmoil. Then he found relief in an unusual remedy: hypnosis.

"I've learned to love life again," said Lester, who now runs a hypnotherapy clinic in Richmond.

"There are men walking around from the Vietnam era, and they don't know - they don't believe - they have post-traumatic stress disorder," he said.

Hypnotists who work in this military-heavy region are hoping they can help veterans like Lester, particularly those who have recently returned from war.

On Sunday, about 15 people from the Virginia Veterans Hypnosis Project met at the Best Western Oceanfront, trying to raise the profile of hypnotherapy and convince military personnel and others that it really can help.

"The goal is to reach out to the veterans who cannot talk about their symptoms," said Andrew Leon, chairman of the project and a hypnotherapist in Charlottesville.

Without help, "in the long run, they will follow the experience of the Vietnam vets who suppressed it for years. By then, they had made wrecks of their lives."

It works like this: While a traditional therapist can take weeks or longer to peel back the layers of a person's conscious defense mechanisms, a hypnotist cuts straight to the subconscious.

That's where the brain stores its blow-by-blow record of experiences - including traumatic ones that can cause stress without the person's knowledge, Leon said.

Once the hypnotist has identified the trauma, he replaces the fear and anxiety underlying that memory with something positive.

For example, Virginia Beach hypnotist James Scott worked with a Marine who said he stabbed a man while fighting in Fallujah, Iraq.

The experience was terrible, and the Marine, who asked not to be identified, said the lingering stress was making him lash out at his family.

Scott hypnotized him. As the Marine relived the fight, Scott asked him to mentally replace the sounds of that day with something funny. The Marine picked the theme song to the "Tom and Jerry" cartoon, and now he can remember the incident without experiencing the trauma.

With that session and others, plus self-hypnotism, the Marine said his family life has improved dramatically. He's become less aggressive and slower to lose his temper.

"This should be available to everyone," he said Sunday.

Scott said anyone with average intelligence who wants to be hypnotized can be hypnotized, although a small percentage can more easily go into a trance. And especially for veterans, it can make a world of difference.

"It's magic, dude," he said. "It's the closest thing to magic I've seen."

Elisabeth Hulette, (757) 222-5216, elisabeth.hulette@pilotonline.com