Customer Reviews

Psychosomatic Wellness: Guided Meditations, Affirmations and Music to Heal Your Bodymind

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I personally write visualizations and am a published author. This CD has had the most profound effect on both me and my husband of anything we have ever used. We have been under considerable stress and he has had trouble sleeping for years no matter what remedy we tried. Two nights with this CD and he has slept every night since starting it. I had asthma as a child - had a bout of it again for the last couple years and was on Advair and Albuterol. Since using Psychosomatic Wellness I am off the Advair and use the Albuterol sparingly. Spread the word to everyone you know about the healing, life-changing power of this combination of words and music.

I should have known when the title felt ill-advised (pun) and clunky.
This CD doesn't flow, either. Pert, whose book "Molecules of Emotion" I've read and admired, does not have the best voice for this sort of meditative exercise. But here's the main thing: the CD advertises "a music to heal your bodymind," but I found the music evoked in me a feeling of loneliness and even creepiness. Some of it was harmonically dissonant which brought up feelings of irritation and edginess. I have to wonder how healing a sound is when the body is shrinking from it. Okay, this could just be my problem, but I have no trouble reacting nicely to other pieces of music that are deemed restful, healing or joy producing, like Mozart, Bach or Josh Grobin.

I also thought the programming of the CD was badly done, wasting much time. There should be no Intro. That should have been written in an accompanying booklet. The Affirmations section was too long and repetitive for me and too many of them didn't apply to my life. The last song, Honor Who You Are, was musically forgettable and the singer's presentation of it was uneven, sometimes raw and loud, sometimes too low.

I would not recommend this CD but I would also add for anyone else that your response might not be what mine was. Musical tastes are, after all, highly individual. For what it's worth, a friend of mine who listened to it liked it very much and especially enjoyed the last song because, as he said, "It sounded like a fresh young teen's sweet and naive rendition earnestly done. Very charming." Yeah, that's what I want in a mature, introspective, influencing, meditative CD. Having said that, I feel like Simon Cowell. So I will fall back on the very words he uses: That's my honest opinion.

As a practicing physician, I began using healing mediation to help my patients in the late 1970s. I created individual tapes for each patient, my scripts were based on a blend of breathing techniques, progressive muscular relaxation, auto-genic training, guided imagery, and self-hypnosis. These tapes proved to be powerful tools for helping my patients heal both emotional and physical injuries.

In 2007, when I was personally challenged with a serious illness, I reached for them to help me heal myself. Since then I make it my practice to use healing meditation frequently. While I have memorized many scripts, I am constantly searching for new healing meditations.

It has been my delight to have discovered Candace Pert's Psychosomatic Wellness. Working with musicians, singers, and guided by body and mind scientists, she has created two powerfully healing meditations. I keep them on my iPod so I can listen whenever I have a free moment. There are 5 "songs" on the album.

The first "song" is the Introduction, you only need to listen to it once.

The second one is the healing meditation. It is called Adaptation of Niels Bohr Meditation... . I try to listen to this at least once a day. It is 25 minutes.

The third one is also very good. It uses a series of powerful affirmations to program the subconscious with positive and healthy beliefs. It is called Affirmations inspired by Belleruth Naperstek... . I listen to it whenever I have time. It is 16 minutes.

The fourth "song" is a Musical Reprise. Very pleasant. It provides the perfect back ground for imagining your cells working to repair and heal your body. It is 7 minutes.

The fifth and last "song" is a song. It is called Honor Who You Are. Very wise and very pleasant. It lasts 3.4 minutes.

I can't recommend any healing meditation that I like better than this one. I have always known that meditating was good for me, but with practicing Medicine 40 hours a week, and publishing three websites, I always had a bit of difficulty finding the time. Now, I actually look forward to listening to these. I awoke this morning at 5:30AM with the need to start my day the right way. I listened to all four "songs" this morning, They were wonderful.

I am currently recommending this CD to all my patients. Take a listen, I promise that it will be good for you.

I was a bit curious about other reviews I read on this item before I purchased it, but I trusted the credentials of Candace Pert and I must say I find this to be quite a good presentation. I've listened to it nightly since I received it and am not only sleeping more soundly, but feeling really good about life, health and wellness in general. Whether it can all be attributed to this CD or not may be debatable, but I feel there is something to it that is undeniable in my experience, so I would recommend it highly to anyone seeking more of a scientific perspective on sound therapy and healing. Very good.

I was not clear when I purchased this CD that it was a meditative tape. It would have been great to be able to hear a random snippet from each segment.

At first, I was taken back by the recording with Candace Perth's voice for this, closed-eye, meditative CD because it was a challenge for me to focus on what she was saying. Her voice was soft, but the delivery of it at times was too slow and did not flow in a manner that relaxed me. But as I continued to listen and adjusted to her rhythm of reading and her voice I felt great.

I got this CD based on the author's involvement with the film, "What The Bleep Do We Know." The film was fantastic and the interviews with Dr. Pert showed her to be a very interesting and intelligent woman, with a lot of fascinating ideas and information to impart.

I have a somewhat limited range of experience with this type of guided meditation. I own about four other CD's of this type and subscribe to two weekly podcasts for the same thing. In my opinion, this CD is fairly good, but there are some parts that I find a little annoying. It is broken up into four parts. One part is an intro, the second is some guided visualization, the third are a series of affirmations and the fourth part is music. Dr. Pert does the narration herself and I think she would have been better off to hire someone with a stronger voice so the whole thing would be more understandable and relaxing. The mix is kind of iffy and at times the music overpowers Dr. Pert's weak voice. I find myself straining to understand her. Also the percussion in the fourth section gets a little frantic for my taste. The affirmations are good however, and the visualization is relaxing when it can be understood.

I switch between this CD, Psychosomatic Wellness, and Dr. Gurgevich's Healing Mind, Healing Body CD. I use them everyday. With the Psychosomatic Wellness CD, I find the affirmations very helpful. I use some of these throughout the day when I need/want to stop my busy thoughts or feel more at peace. One affirmation, "I am blessed and calm and safe in the flow of spirit" reminds to calm my body/mind and be grateful for life itself. The CD is powerful and empowering. Anyone who is in physical or emotional pain will find trancework/guided meditation to be a miracle.

Pert's CD provides a set of techniques designed to increase our existing well-being, and perhaps bring some healing for those with illnesses and other disabling conditions. It is unique, powerful, and a pleasure to use.

As a person with chronic illness/pain, I am always looking for ways to improve my quality of life, even if I haven't (nor has science) found the magic pill/treatment that cures me. (My user name reflects part of my illness that makes me so sensitive to minor bumps I am like "the princess and the pea" of the children's story.)

As a person, forget the chronic yaddayadda, I am always searching for new and improved methods of improving my life and being a "better" person. To be someone who doesn't emit toxic fumes or become angry over trivial common life events and adds to harmony and good feeling with my social group, people I must deal with to conduct business (cashiers/lines at the cashier), my non-human friends such as pets and wild critters, and the earth in general.

I appreciate the way Pert turns the word "psychosomatic" upside down. Instead of the same ol' same ol' "psychosomatic illness" label that is very offensive to people with invisible disabilities/pain ("gee you don't look sick"), she uses the word to remind us that we can create wellness for ourselves - as well as improving the health some people already have (but may not enjoy because they have it and don't know any different, lucky folks).

The CD begins with a short intro by Pert describing the purpose of the CD, the science behind the techniques, and very simple instructions for how to use the CD to get the most benefits. How lovely to hear her say it works whether I am awake or asleep and may be most powerful used while falling asleep. How wonderful to hear the instruction "allow your mind to wander" - whew, stopping the wandering mind is something I have practiced via meditation for decades with very limited success (still trying tho).

Then the "meat" of the CD begins with tracks 2-5. Her guided visualizations are easy to follow and enjoyable (track 2); the affirmations are worthy and not too sappy (track 3); the music designed to help our body's cells regain their healthy level of energy is pleasant to listen to, and also occurs during tracks 2 &3, and I'm often near-sleep in that hypnogagic state by time the music only track comes on. Track 5 is a short song with words that bothered me at first, but now I like it very much (when I'm awake to hear it).

Since buying this CD about 3 weeks ago, I've listened to it every night since, but one (the power was out and my CD player doesn't use batteries). Because pain and my illnesses often keep my awake - sometimes all night and day for a few days in a row - it's nice to go to bed and not just lie there hoping to fall asleep. I listen to the CD, do the visualizations, put my belief in the affirmations, let my bodymind rest on the music and - whoops - I'm asleep without worrying if I will fall asleep. Plus, I have resolved nightmares that repeated for 5-7 years. There may be more benefits, on a cellular or body system (endocrine/immune for example)level that I haven't been able to discern (yet).

As a scientist, I have followed Pert's research at the National Institute of Health and been impressed with the importance of her findings. I like that she uses those findings to help design this CD's programs and thus makes it acceptable to people who might find talk of chakras or other metaphysical concepts too woo-woo for them to tolerate. I like that she doesn't find those woo-woo concepts worthless but uses them without ramming them in your face.

I'm not sure if I would have found this CD were I not debilitated with illness and pain, I may not have been looking in her direction. I hope I would have found it even if I had my former life and was active with friends, art, and joyous in my work. In both situations, the CD would enhance my life.

As Pert says in her introduction "You don't need to be ill to benefit from the healing messages and guidance of this CD." Even those who just seek a way to rest and feel restored will benefit from the processes Pert guides the listener through. It undoubtedly helps to approach it with an open mind - if one is going to use something to improve their health or their quality of life, or just to relax - it always works better to come into the process fully and not be holding back to make judgements. Just do it. Ahhh.

I have never been able to relax enough to meditate, but this tape gives specific themes to think about to help one get in a relaxed mode that may lead to meditation. Dr. Pert's music creations are especially intriguing, the way they have been connected to the colors of the rainbow, each color having its own tone. I especially recommend this CD for people who have stressful jobs and need help when they get home in order to calm down so they can be productive for the rest of the day.

This CD can be combined with light therapy to provide effortless relief from the symptoms as light deprivation (seasonal affective disorder) in the manner described in the following book:

The Light of Day: A Mindbody approach to Overcoming Seasonal Affective Disorder.

I have the CD with the older art work from the original release and it opens with a discussion of psychosomatic wellness on the first track. Track 2 contains the 25 minute meditation that I refer to above. The remaining tracks stand on their own merit as one contains a series of affirmations, another a song produced by her son.