Today’s Solutions: August 19, 2026

Eastern monks and Western yogis have spent centuries meditating to enable the creative right brain to serve as a healthy counterpoise to the usually dominant left-brain and to synchronize both halves on the path to a deeper awareness. And a growing body of research shows that this harmonious balance does indeed create greater vitality and happiness.

The meditative path is a long one for most people. But Dutch physician Roy Martina found it is possible to activate the right brain through hypnosis, linking it with higher consciousness and simultaneously neutralizing the left-brain. In that case, the most important thing isn’t the synchronicity between the halves of the brain, but the connection between the right half and one’s higher consciousness.

The connection with a higher consciousness overrides the ego-driven subconscious sabotage that keeps illness alive, Martina believes. This method adheres to Albert Einstein’s adage that a problem can only be solved on a different level from the one on which it arose. Healing takes place on a higher level than the physical level of illness. Martina says he has seen tumors disappear, kidney patients stop dialysis, cartilage grow back and prevent the need for a hip replacement operation and striking improvement in “impossible” diseases such as Parkinson’s and multiple sclerosis.

Is the opposite also true? Do we create our own illness? Are we responsible for our suffering? “You create your disease,” Martina says. “But no one does that intentionally. If a child doesn’t work through an emotional trauma, it may express itself as a liver malfunction 30 years later. … It’s not your fault. Most things happen on a subconscious level. And that’s why an aspirin or an operation doesn’t always help, and why symptoms keep recurring.”

And why working through the subconscious mind holds such potential for healing.

This is a description of an article that appeared in the March/April 2012 issue of The Intelligent Optimist. Members can read the full article here. Non-members can become a member here.

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