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Ghost Busting:
The Mystery of Phantom Limb Pain
Apparently
at least 90% of amputees (millions worldwide) have experienced a
phantom limb.
This could mean either the loss of an arm or a leg, but it can also be
felt after the removal of an body organ such as the uterus, breasts,
genitals, and even teeth. In some cases the part moves, but in others
it is locked in place. There is often a tingling sensation that extends
through the amputated limb which 'reconstructs' it. These phantoms can
often be excruciatingly painful and terrifyingly vivid. They can also
last for years....
Phantom
limbs sometimes perform phantom movements. Some people may even wake up
in the night screaming that their non-existent leg is 'trying to leave
the bed on its own to walk around the room.' In others, the absent limb
becomes completely paralysed, often agonisingly so, for example,
feeling that it is embedded in an ice cube, permanently twisted in a
spiral, or pinned to their back.
From
an energy field perspective we know that the auric field provides the
building framework from which the physical body arises. If the limb,
organ or body part is removed then what happened to the field that
supported it? Does that just disappear immediately too, or does it
carry on existing? If it were to continue to be invisibly present,
despite the absence of the limb or body part, could this explain why
people still 'feel' that the limb is present, because energetically it
still is?
This
concept of energy fields being present when limbs are absent is nothing
new....salamanders have known about it for years. Do you remember from
school science lessons that if you chop the leg of a salamander off, it
will grow a new one? The energy fields are still present, providing
the
energetic fibres on which the new limb can grow.
There
is
some famous Kirlian photography research done on the 'phantom
leaf'
effect (what's in a name?!). A leaf was photographed using the Kirlian
method (see photo left) and an 'aura' is visible around the leaf. The
leaf
was then stripped of all its green foliage, leaving (no pun intended)
only the central vein present, and another photo taken. It can clearly
be seen
(photo below)that even though there is no green leaf left, the energy
field is most definitely
still present.
Although
scientists are still trying to identify the biological basis for this,
recent research is suggesting that phantom limbs are not the product of
misguided nerve signals coming from the amputee's stump. Rather they
are now believed to arise from activity in the neural networks in the
brain that build a mental image of the body. These networks allow the
person to create a body image of their body and attach sensations to
that image.
The
brain not only receives sensory signals from the various
parts of the body, but it is also thought to generate its own pattern
of neural activity which represents the body in its 'intact' state. The
brain's somatosensory cortex (in the picture, the darker green band
across the middle) contains a map of various
body regions. It receives sensory information (such a touch, cold,
heat) from the body via a sensory pathway which
crosses the thalamus (the lighter green pebble-shaped structure in the
middle).
Another neural pathway transmits information from the body to the
limbic system. The limbic system governs emotions such as those
associated with phantom limbs. After the loss of a body part, activity
in this neural system may result in the perception of a phantom limb.
Neuroscientist
husband and wife team, Vilyanaur & Diane Ramachandran, have used
the ability of the brain to reorganise it's body maps to develop a very
simple treatment for phantom limb pain. They
used a cardboard box, cut off the top and then inserted a vertical
mirror into it. Arm amputees (10 took part in this experiment) inserted
their intact arm in the front of the box so that the arm's reflection
in the mirror overlayed the perceived location of the phantom limb.
This created a visual illusion th at the phantom arm had been brought to
life again. When each patient moved his real arm, he could see that his
phantom limb was obeying his motor movement commands. Six of the
patients who used the mirror box said that they could feel as well see
their phantom arm moving, giving them the impression that both arms
could now be moved. Four of the patients used this new-found ability to
relax an open a phantom hand which until then had constantly felt
clenched into a fist. This provided relief from painful spasms. The
visual illusion apparently corrected the sensory tactile one.
Fascinating isn't it? There is a wonderful 18
minute talk on 'TED' (see
Freebies below for more information) by Vilayanur Ramachandran about
neuroscience, in which (after about 9 min 55 secs) he talks about this
experiment. Please do check it out, it is well worth it.
Apparently,
amputees who have a higher occurrence of phantom limb pain are those in
which there was much (unresolved) pain before the limb or organ was
removed. In this arena, the possibilities for the use of energy healing
are fairly obvious. If the pain - whether physical and/or emotional -
was not dealt with then it will remain in the energy field and will
literally make itself 'felt'. The 'dealing with it' could take the form
of Ramachandra's neat mirror box, but it could take the form of energy
healing. It is the release of the blockage from the field that is
important and not the HOW! True 'On the Border' stuff here :=)
References:
M.
Nicolelis. Living with Ghostly Limbs. Scientific American Mind, 2008,
volume 18, number 6, pages 52-59.
V.
S. Ramachandran & W. Hirstein. The Perception of Phantom Limbs.
Brain, 1998, volume 121, part 9, pages 1603-1630.
V.
S. Ramachandran & D. Rogers-Ramachandran.
It's All Done With Mirrors. Scientific American Mind, 2007, volume 18,
number 4, pages 16-18.
R.
Melzack. Phantom Limbs. Scientific American Reports, 2006, volume 16,
number 3, pages 53-59.
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