Autogenic Therapy
While in Japan I underwent the series of Autogenic Therapy training sessions under the supervision of a psychiatrist at Kitazato University Hospital. Autogenic Therapy is in part, like the weight underside part of Ki Breathing Meditation with mind and body coordinated training. Autogenic therapy originated from research on sleep and hypnosis carried out from 1894-1903 by neuropathologist Oskar Vogt. Stimulated by Vogt’s work, J.H. Schultz, psychiatrist, and neurologist in Berlin, observed that his hypnotized subjects reported experiencing feelings of relaxation and heaviness in the extremities and entire body during the initial phases of hypnosis. Soon after this initial heaviness, subjects reported feelings of agreeable warmth.
Based on these observations, Schultz induced a hypnotic state in his patients by asking them to first think of heaviness in the limbs, then to imagine a feeling of warmth in the extremities. He asked them to think of warmth in the abdominal region and finally to imagine “My forehead is cool.” In its final version, autogenic training consists of six physiologically oriented steps – heaviness in the extremities, warmth in the extremities, regulation of cardiac activity, regulation of respiration, abdominal warmth and cooling of the forehead.
Autogenic Self-Therapy
Autogenic Therapy can be a self-therapy. You lie on your back or futon with legs slightly apart and heals not touching each other. For comfort, you might choose to have support under the knees like a blanket or soft pillow. Arms are relaxed and slightly bent at your sides with fingers spread and not touching the body. The main thing is to find a way to feel relaxed, so you may want to try out different pillows or whatever helps. Trunk, shoulders, and head should be in a natural symmetric position.
(Use mp3 for audio only.)
Passive Concentration
Autogenic Therapy calls for passive rather than aggressive concentration. Direct your mind to the focus area of the body and allow, but don’t try to force a feeling of heaviness or warmth. Instead of an active, goal-seeking effort, have a passive, casual attitude toward the result to be achieved, e.g., “My right arm is warm,” not “I want my right arm to be warm.” And keep the goal positive: “My legs and feet are warm,” and not “My legs and feet are not cold.”
Heavy and Warm
In their text “Autogenic Therapy,” Schultz and Luthe offer patterns of scripts body part by body part. But the goal is simply to feel a sense of heaviness and warmth throughout the body, so consider these scripts as an aid in getting to this goal. And as soon as heaviness or warmth occurs, you can move on to combinations of both arms, both legs, in the manner that the scripts move from individual body parts like the right arm or left leg to both arms and both legs and finally to the entire body.
As with Ki Breathing Meditation, when thoughts, feelings, and emotions interrupt, be a spectator, an observer, rather than trying to push or force thoughts out of mind.
Six Standard Groups of Autogenic Therapy Exercises
From a macro view, autogenic therapy consists of six standard groups of exercises: heaviness, warmth, cardiac regulation, breathing, abdominal warmth and cooling of the forehead. I’ll go through the basics here and I recorded mp3s you can use. You can progress from group to group at your own pace. Some people take days, some weeks and some people take months. The goal is to be able to get a feeling of heaviness and warmth throughout the body in an instant.
The basic general pattern of Autogenic Training:
I am completely calm (once)
My right arm is heavy (six times)
I am completely calm (once)
My right arm is warm (six times)
I am completely calm (once)
My heart beats calmly and regularly (six times)
I am completely calm (once)
My breathing is calm and regular… it breathes me (six times)
Autogenic Therapy Exercise 1
The first standard exercise is to introduce a sensation of heaviness. It begins with the arm of the dominant hand. As you advance through these exercises you may feel an agreeable warmth.
My right arm is heavy, for right-handed persons.
My left arm is heavy, for left-handed persons.
At this beginning stage, each basic script is repeated six times:
My right arm is heavy . . . My right arm is heavy . . . My right arm is heavy . . .
My right arm is heavy . . . My right arm is heavy . . . My right arm is heavy . . .
Pause for 20 to 30 seconds and feel the heaviness in your right arm as you breathe deeply and relax completely.
My left arm is heavy . . . My left arm is heavy . . . . My left arm is heavy . . .
My left arm is heavy . . . My left arm is heavy . . . My left arm is heavy . . .
I am completely at peace.
Pause for 20 to 30 seconds and feel the heaviness in your left arm.
My right leg is heavy . . . My right leg is heavy . . . My right leg is heavy . . .
My right leg is heavy . . . My right leg is heavy . . . My right leg is heavy . . .
Pause for 20 to 30 seconds and feel the heaviness in your right leg.
My left leg is heavy . . . My left leg is heavy . . . My left leg is heavy . . .
My left leg is heavy . . .My left leg is heavy . . . My left leg is heavy . . .
I am completely at peace.
Pause for 20 to 30 seconds and feel the heaviness in your left leg.
Both arms are heavy . . . Both arms are heavy . . . Both arms are heavy . . .
Both arms are heavy . . . Both arms are heavy . . . Both arms are heavy . . .
Relax and feel the heaviness in both arms.
Both legs are heavy . . . . Both legs are heavy . . . . Both legs are heavy . . . .
Both legs are heavy . . . Both legs are heavy . . . Both legs are heavy . . .
I am completely at peace.
Pause and feel the heaviness in both legs.
When you feel some heaviness and warmth, the session is varied:
My right leg is heavy . . . My left leg is heavy . . . Both legs are heavy . . . My
right arm is a little heavy . . . My left arm is a little heavy . . . Both arms are a
little heavy . . . The whole body is heavy.
Autogenic Therapy Exercise Two: Vary the Scripts
Begin exercise two by repeating the complete sequence of exercise one. Then introduce a sense of warmth. Start again with the arm of your dominant hand and go through the same sequence for warmth as with heaviness.
My right arm is warm . . . My right arm is warm . . . My right arm is warm . . .
My right arm is warm . . . My right arm is warm . . . My right arm is warm . . .
After you complete this entire sequence, vary the scripts. My arms and hands are
warm, for six times and My legs and feet are warm for six times and My arms and
legs are heavy . . . My right leg is warm . . . My left leg is warm . . . Both legs are
warm . . . and My arms and legs are heavy . . . Both legs are warm . . . My right
leg is warm . . . and My arms and legs are heavy . . . Both legs are warm . . .
My right arm is warm . . . .My left arm is warm . . . and My arms and legs
are very heavy . . . Both legs are warm . . . My right arm is warm . . .
My left arm is warm . . . Both arms are warm . . . and My arms and legs are
heavy . . . My arms and legs are warm . . . My body is heavy and warm . . .
Autogenic Therapy Exercise Three: Cardiac Regulation
The third exercises introduce cardiac regulation. For this cardiac exercise put your right hand over your heart. In order to hold your hand in this position comfortably, you may need a folded blanket or a pillow under your right elbow so that your right forearm rests in a horizontal position across your thorax. The sequence for the cardiac session is:
My arms and legs are heavy and warm . . . I am at peace . . . My arms and legs are heavy and warm . . . My arms and legs are heavy and warm . . . My arms and legs are
heavy and warm . . . Heartbeat calm and regular . . . Heartbeat calm and . . .
regular . . . Heartbeat calm and regular . . . Heartbeat calm and regular . . .
Heartbeat calm and regular . . . heartbeat calm and regular . . . heartbeat calm and
regular . . . heartbeat calm and regular . . . heartbeat calm and regular . . . and
My right arm is heavy . . . My arms and legs are heavy . . . My neck and
shoulders are heavy . . . My arms and legs are warm . . . Heartbeat calm and
regular . . .
Autogenic Therapy Exercise Four: Respiration
The fourth standard exercise is respiration, though breathing is naturally slowed down and deepened in the first three exercises. The script here might be Breathing calm and regular, or It breathes me, as suggested by Schultz. Vary the sequence of formula:
My right arm is heavy . . . My arms and legs are heavy . . . My neck and shoulders
are heavy . . . My arms and legs are warm . . . It breathes me . . . My right arm is
heavy . . . My arms and legs are heavy and warm . . . It breathes
me . . . Heartbeat calm and regular . . . and My left arm is heavy . . . My arms
and legs are heavy . . . My arms and legs are warm . . . Heartbeat calm and
regular . . . It breathes me . . . and “My arms and legs are heavy and warm . . . I
am at peace . . . Heatbeat calm and regular . . . Heartbeat calm and regular . . . It
breathes me . . . My solar plexus is warm . . . My solar plexus is warm . . . My solar
plexus is warm.
Autogenic Therapy Exercise Five: Abdominal Warmth
Fifth standard exercise is abdominal warmth. This exercise seeks to establish warmth in the depth of the upper abdominal cavity by focusing on the solar plexus. Authors report a calming effect on the central nervous system; muscular relaxation enhanced; and a sleep promoting effect has frequently been observed. This exercise seeks to induce warmth in the depth of the upper abdominal cavity by focusing on the solar plexus.
The sequence of standard formulas at this stage can be:
My arms and legs are heavy and warm . . . I am at peace . . . Heartbeat calm and
regular . . . Heartbeat calm and regular . . .It breathes me . . . My solar plexus
is warm . . . My solar plexus is warm . . . My solar plexus is warm . . . My solar
plexus is warm . . . and My right arm is heavy . . . My arms and legs are heavy and
warm . . . It breathes me . . . My solar plexus is warm .
Vary scripts to include arms, legs, body and breathing and cardiac.
Autogenic Therapy Exercise Six: Cooling Forhead
The sixth exercise is cooling forehead. Schultz says keeping the forehead cool in contrast to the body and limbs is effective in inducing sedation and drowsiness. The training formula is My forehead is cool and sample scripts are:
“My arms and legs are heavy and warm . . . . Heartbeat calm and regular . . . . It
breathes me . . . My solar plexus is warm . . . My forehead is cool.
Autogenic Therapy Meditative Exercises
The final exercises are called meditative exercises. Getting to this stage may take the average person four weeks to eight months of regular training in the complete standard series. It is suggested that you achieve and maintain a high degree of stability of the autogenic states from five to thirty minutes or longer before attempting these meditative exercises.
My arms and legs are heavy . . . I am at peace . . . Heartbeat calm and regular . . .
. . . It breathes me . . . My solar plexus is warm . . . My forehead is cool.
The first meditative exercise is colors. This involves the spontaneous “visual” experience of colors. Like the basic exercises, this is a passive exercise where you allow any color to appear on its own. It requires a thirty to forty minute period of passive concentration and the first colors may be dark shades of blue, gray or brown and hard to notice. It may take two to four weeks until finally, you visualize a particular color. You may first see lines, discs, ovals, circles and moving spots of variable coloring. Remain as passive as possible and experience the colors spontaneously, but you can suggest colors to yourself. Before each session, run through the first six sets of global scripts so that you are completely relaxed and comfortable.
The goal is to see the colors without concrete objects but in amorphous structures such as clouds. If certain colors are out of reach, however, green, for example, imagine you are lying in the grass and looking up at the green leaves.
The next meditative exercise is the visualization of concrete objects. Again, assume a passive focus on concrete objects in general and wait to see if an object appears spontaneously. Gradually, over a period of weeks, the objects will appear more readily, more clearly and no longer fade away. The progress of this training time is usually much slower, requiring more time, forty to sixty minutes. It is suggested that the next meditative exercise not be started before you see concrete objects clearly and readily.
The next meditative exercise is visualization of abstract concepts like “justice,” “freedom,” and “happiness.” Trainees report a wide range of responses including film-like images, fantasy images, written and spoken images and symbols. Practice this stage for two to six weeks before moving to the next meditative exercise.
The next meditative exercise is experiencing a state of overall feeling such as “happy,”
“positive,” “joyful.” The range here is wide open and some trainees focus on a special day or event such as meeting someone for the first time or the birth of a child.
For the next meditative exercise, visualize other people. It is suggested to start out with a neurtral person you do not have a relationship with in any way and then to visualize more and more close relationships. During the first few weeks or even months, images tend to be hazy or fade quickly. But gradually the images become clearer and you can hold them. In the final stages, the appearance assumes all the features of reality. And a wide range of explorations are possible during this exercise.
During the final meditative exercise you focus on questions such as “What do I want?” or “What am I doing wrong?” Anything you might think of would fit here and all kinds of responses are possible.
Self-help books that help:
Total Self-Renewal through Attention Therapies and Open Focus
The Open-Focus Brain: Harnessing the Power of Attention to Heal Mind and Body
