The Dr. Emmett Miller Story

I want to introduce you to my father, Dr. Emmett Miller. Long before medical school, Dr. Miller was called to his healing path. As a boy, he grew up in the inner city of New York. In the 1940s and '50s, he saw firsthand the destructive power of violence. Then, at age 12, he learned about the Nazi Holocaust and the destructive power of the atomic bomb. A life mission began to form: to dedicate his life efforts to help transform the system that's responsible for so much personal and collective human suffering. He studied science and mathematics to learn how to transform systems. Then he attended medical school at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City to better understand how the human body and mind function in health and disease and how they can be healed. In his family medical practice, he researched the essence of the healing process at both the individual and the collective level. He then opened one of the first integrative medical practices. Dr. Miller realized that to release the power of the mind to heal, a paradigm shift is needed, a basic change in how we think about ourselves and our world. So in the early '70s, he introduced the world to an entirely new approach to medicine— holistic or integrative medicine. The key to this approach was bringing the concept of stress as a major factor in disease and healing to the medical field and to our culture.

You've got it all, and now you're trying to do it all. But maybe you're juggling career and family, caring for an aging parent, and trying to make ends meet financially. No wonder you're feeling so stressed out. Joining us today, Dr. Emmett Miller. Dr. Miller is a physician, a psychophysiologist, and author of the book Creating Your Own Good Health. Self-imager. I'd like to ask Dr. Miller something. Is stress self-defined? If I look at life, Dr. Miller, as a challenge and as an adventure, and you look at the same set of characteristics as a crisis, for example, would we have different responses to what is occurring even if it's the same thing?

You bet. The, uh, one of the most significant factors in when we examine people who are experiencing large numbers of demands in their lives are how they view it. In other words, In other words, your attitude is what's important. Stress is not something that happens to you. Stress is what you do with what happens to you. And if you see the world as an obstacle course, if you see stumbling blocks instead of stepping stones, then the stress that you experience is more damaging to you. Those people who felt challenged by their daily commitments, those who felt committed to the outcome, and those who felt that they made a difference they had some control over their own lives. These people experienced much less damage than those who, who saw obstacles each day.

Dr. Miller's next job was to let the world know of this wonderful power of the mind to heal the body and the emotions, and to reveal a powerful tool for reprogramming the mind and rewiring the brain. For the first time, the powerful techniques he had developed meditation, mindfulness, and creative visualization were made available worldwide through his widely acclaimed invention, the Guided Imagery Audio Cassette. These programs, which he called software for the mind, provided self-applied mind tools that showed us how to harness the energy of stress to heal ourselves and to perform at our peak.

All right, we have a lot of excitement, a lot of energy in the studio right now, and we've asked Dr. Emmett Miller to join us. He is a stress management expert and puts out tapes like this, Letting Go of Stress, Easing into Sleep, which is a big factor in everybody's life. And it's nice to have you here on the show. It's good to be here. You're a psychologist? I'm a physician. Physician? Yes, I mean a regular physician.

Yes, my specialty is psychophysiological medicine.

That's what we need around here. The interrelationship between the mind and the body and health and disease.

To fully heal and transform your life, regular practice is essential. His tapes made it easy and effective for the very first time. They featured his soothing and inspiring voice along with nature sounds and beautiful music, which studies show can markedly benefit healing and recovery. They were quickly found useful for all mental, emotional, and behavioral issues and were effective for all ages.

I love visual imagery. I do it in the morning and before I go to bed at night, and I like to visualize going to Lake Tahoe and going and working with my cells there at the lake. I go inside and I talk to my cells and ask them to do things to make me feel better, make me healthier.

That's great, that's great.

And who taught you how to do that?

Dr. Miller. He was great and he helped me find ways that I could work in my life to my cells.

When I first heard of Dr. Miller's recordings and I got one and then I noticed not only was his voice like magical and relaxing and hypnotic in itself, but he mixed in beautiful music and then nature sounds and the artistry of it. It wasn't just like— I've heard tapes or recordings where people just lay down some words, but he's a true artist. And his artistry comes through in his voice and in the engineering and the concepts, putting it all together, the beautiful packaging. Emmett is an artist. And now, some 30 years later, to hear that he's still got the best voice out there. And I've heard a lot of imitations, but nothing comes close to Emmett's voice. It's magical, and everyone I turn on to it agrees. He's got a voice to relax for.

And again, it's kind of like investing in life.

In 1977, along with Maggie Creighton and Dr. William Buchholz, he founded the Cancer Support and Education Center, the first to offer self-help and healing tools to cancer patients and train health professionals in these techniques. Soon, millions were waking up to the power we have to prevent disease and to heal ourselves. Throughout the '70s and '80s, Dr. Miller taught his groundbreaking approaches in major universities and medical schools.

Some of Emmett's early pupils in Hawaii came from a workshop he conducted at the University of Hawaii School of Nursing. Dean Helen Burnside explains the reason behind the affiliation.

And it's my firm belief that Emmett is on the forefront of what it is that will occur in the future.

Recently there has been a new movement rising to the forefront of medicine: wellness. Here in Hawaii, wellness made its public debut in late March at the statewide wellness celebration held at Leeward Community College. One of the keynote speakers at this conference was Dr. Emmett Miller.

We start off early in life with a fantasy about something, about how things might be, what we might like. And many of us develop in our minds the ideas that we would like to bring good to other people, to bring health to other people, to alleviate suffering, to allow people to feel more comfortable and at home in their bodies. And we go to medical school and we learn how to give medication, how to combat symptoms, and how to do surgery. And we practice this for years, and as we practice it, we gradually begin to notice that there's something more, that there's something that's kind of elusive.

Another of Dr. Miller's innovations was his integration of wisdom teachings from many of the world's cultures, thereby creating even greater wholeness in his work.

Much of Emmett's success and individuality stem from his melding of the East and West in the field of medicine. May Lee Low, faculty member of the School of Nursing, elaborates.

Uh, he's the first doctor, MD, in this country that I knew of to integrate the Chinese healing philosophy with the Western medicine.

It's this Chinese philosophy of healing from within and the power of the individual that are basic to Emmett's approach. And because the individual is the center, the doctor can play a different role than normal in this selective awareness form of wellness.

The most important was, I think I would have to reiterate what— some of what I just said. Was that, "Yeah, Emmett, this is where it's at." Helping people realize the power is in the mind, and we do, we can control our thoughts, and controlling our thoughts, we control our feelings, and therefore we can control our lives. Life can be beautiful if we decide it's gonna be beautiful, but to utilize that power, we need lots of training. Well, I think the only thing I'd like to add is I'm awfully glad Emmett's here because he's on our team, Those of us who believe in wellness and believe that the power of the mind needs to be utilized so that our human potential can be utilized, I say welcome, Emmett. We need you.

More than 80% of all our illnesses and dysfunctions result from our unresolved inner conflicts, the conflicts between different parts of our minds and different parts of our nervous system. We fail to resolve them because of our inability to simply relax, focus, and transform our thinking and our lives. Our minds are much more powerful than most of us realize, although we are kept from knowing this by a social and cultural system that is designed to control our thoughts, our emotions, and our behaviors. This system, through propaganda and the mass media, creates anxiety in us, neural networks that are then used to manipulate us and block our access to our truth and our power. The result is that not only are we not free, individually and as a group, but we are blocked from healing ourselves and transforming the system. The resulting emotional friction within us creates stress, illness, and dysfunction. But just as a computer can be reprogrammed, we can rescript our minds and rewire our brains. We can break the cycle of violence and denial and overcome our prejudices and limitations by eliminating distractions and then skillfully using our imagination and our emotional power, we can begin to heal ourselves deeply and to transform our world. This is my message.

In his therapeutic work with patients in deep states of trance, Dr. Miller began to realize that the fundamental source of our individual illness and dysfunctions as well as our collective angst as a society, is a kind of PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder, a breakdown in wholeness as a result of what he calls spiritual abuse.

Each person has been highly programmed by a very, very sick culture and media. And so all of us have deep wounds in the psyche because we haven't been given what we need. The human being is born seeking love. That's what makes us grow, the way light causes a young plant to grow. If you cover that plant so the sun can't get to it, the leaves wither and they're pale. When the human being doesn't receive love, doesn't have the sense of being surrounded by a loving, supportive family who can look in the eyes even of that infant and say, "You are absolutely beautiful," or as Kunta Kinte's father said when he took him outside the hut and held him up toward the night sky and said, "Behold, Kunta Kinte, the universe." The only thing more powerful than yourself. Well, what if we grew up in a world that taught us that? Our spirits would be nurtured. And when you listen to those people who speak, who make chills go up and down your spine, when you listen to those people who inspire you and those people who have, like the lotus, grown up out of the mud to become absolutely beautiful human beings, you hear a spirit speaking. You hear a spirit that believes in itself. But for most of us, we don't get that. It's what I call spiritual abuse. As a result, we don't understand at a deep level how important it is to take care of our bodies, our minds, our emotions, and our relationships.

One of the great turning points in my life came as a result of my my experience of studying and teaching with Richard Price, the co-founder of Esalen Institute in California. Dick saw the manuscript of my first book and realized the potential of my theory of human illness and healing and the mind tools that I introduced— guided imagery, meditation, and mindfulness. He opened the doors of Esalen to me and took me on as a kind of a protégé, helping me integrate the approaches of Eastern philosophies and Gestalt psychology. And it was at Esalen that I came to study with Virginia Satir, Alan Watts, Gregory Bateson, Moshe Feldenkrais, Al Chung Ling Huang, Stan Grof, Ida Rolf, and Ola Tunji, to name a few. Later, I went on to co-lead groups in healing and spirituality with Baba Ram Dass, who, honoring my lineage, gave me my spiritual name, Baba Black Sheep. Currently, I'm working with a fascinating movement called Warriors for Healing. Along with Baba Ram, I work with men and women who have post-traumatic stress, especially but not only veterans of United States wars. Instead of the usually merely symptomatic treatment, ours is a holistic approach to trauma and PTSD. The difference is that we use a variety of powerful mind, body, emotion, and spiritual approaches with the explicit goal of correcting the deeper imbalance that is the true source of all the symptoms and dysfunctions that we see after trauma. First, we use such tools as deep relaxation, meditation, and hatha yoga positions that favor the restoration of inner balance and the deep potentiation of traumatic stress networks. Then Through the use of selective awareness, guided imagery, and mindfulness, we guide the growth of new neural networks. This rewiring of the brain and nervous system is called neuroneogenesis and synaptogenesis. Our goal is nothing less than to upgrade the operating systems of our minds to heal our bodies emotions, and behaviors.

Dr. Miller views the PTSD experienced by combat veterans as an extreme example of the kind of spiritual abuse we all experience.

In the case of our veterans, as well as in the case of others who've experienced severe trauma, our attention is attracted right away to their severe symptoms. When there has not been such severe trauma, the reaction is less severe, and we may see only milder varieties of these same symptoms, or sometimes other symptoms. When we examine the brains of these folks using modern tools such as functional MRI and PET scans, we discover that there is inflammation and damage to the neurons in three separate areas, the very three areas of the brain where we process the basic elements of our every thought. One of these areas we depend upon for self-awareness, knowing who we really are. The second enables us to form balanced perceptions of the world. And the third area enables us to make wise and balanced choices in our lives. When these areas are impaired, our self-concept suffers. We don't feel safe. We under- or overreact to our environment, and it's difficult to create rich, loving relationships. The symptoms of these imbalances may now appear in the body, the mind, and/or in the emotions. Although the more spiritually evolved may point out that actually inside and outside are not really separate, since in our culture our brains have been trained to think about the world as though there really is a difference. Our goal must be to maintain a balance between them. This is a form of homeostasis. The same areas of the brain are affected in those of us with less dramatic imbalances and less severe and less crippling symptoms. Symptoms. Sometimes these folks may be able to continue to look and perform quite well by suppressing these inner conflicts or by dependency on such things as alcohol, cigarettes, food, or anger. But symptoms ultimately appear when the suppression breaks down, and then we see worry, anxiety, resentment, anger, envy, depression, and so forth. The good news is that all of us, including those who have severe combat-based PTSD, can reprogram our minds to think differently, to upgrade our mental operating system, and actually rewire our brains. Each of the tools, techniques, and perspectives that we teach addresses the function of each of these three parts of the brain and mind, rewiring them with deeper wisdom, inspiration, peace, and love.

Dr. Miller continues his work creating audio and video self-healing programs that benefit millions daily, as well as the crucial work in helping to transform our healthcare system.

Our current healthcare system is failing because the very paradigm which underlies its formation is the incorrect paradigm for the world in which we live. That fully 80 to 90% of our diseases, if not more, are the results of our lifestyles, of the way we handle stress, uh, and the way we treat other people. If we were to address those issues, 80 to 90% or more of our illnesses would disappear. Instead, our current healthcare system merely treats the symptoms of the imbalances that are there. A proper paradigm would treat the source, not the symptom, and we would approach people differently. Because that's what my practice has been for 35 years, is really going to the heart of what's there. It's amazing how many diseases never get to happen. It seems like medicine as it's practiced nowadays is like pulling drowning people out of the water. And what I've decided to do is to go upstream and close the fence off so people aren't falling in the water. Far more far more efficient, makes a lot less money for a lot fewer people.

Although in life we may be called to heal ourselves or others as a result of disease or dysfunction at the physical level, the ultimate source of our transformation is a fundamental change in our beliefs.

Changing your belief structures changes the structure of your nervous system. It rewires your brain, and the internal congruence that replaces the inner conflict then leads to healing, health, and peak performance.

Somebody said to Mrs. Gandhi, "How is it that your husband can speak so eloquently without using notes?" never contradict himself and never lose his place. And so she's, "Well, you know, for you and me, we think one thing, we say another, and we do a third. But for Gandhiji, they're all the same." That internal congruence is the essence of healing. It's the essence of getting done what you came here to do. To do. So at some point in our lives, we begin to realize that there's this other level, and you may call it spiritual, you may call it philosophical, and you may wake up to that when you're 5 years old, or you may be 89. But at the moment that you begin to wake up at the importance of that, you begin to be involved in spirituality. The story that you believe about your world has an enormous effect on what you will see in the future coming from that world. Your expectations are born out. So it's the story that you tell yourself yourself. The religions— religions are like carriers, they're vehicles. And those vehicles are carrying something incredibly beautiful. It's the secret about how to let go of one level and jump up to the next level. And the only way that that secret can be passed on is through stories and other experiences.

Dr. Miller's life goal has been to create and make these powerful, life-changing mind tools available to as many people as possible throughout the world at the lowest possible cost.

And the next day after the surgery was completed, the 3 surgeons came in separately to check on me, and each one, I swear they had listened to the tape And each, each one said to me, "I can't believe how your body cooperated. I can't believe how little blood you lost." Dr.

Miller's integrity in launching this approach 30-some years ago and sticking with it and developing it, the beauty of this work of Dr. Miller's is that it can be used side by side with medicine and enhance the treatment of all kinds of diseases by empowering people to take charge of their own health.

What I wanted to add is from now on, if I have patients, you know, coming to me, or clients coming to me, I would really refer to Dr. Miller, but not other doctors first, and, you know, get a different types of therapy therapy instead of using the traditional way of cure.

To learn how to heal yourself, rewrite your life script, and transform your world, visit his free multimedia website at drmiller.com. That's drmiller.com. Or you can visit his online store at shopdrmiller.com to purchase one of his hundreds of focused programs that he has produced specifically to meet your individual needs.

These audio and video programs guide people through the steps to manage stress and harness its energy for deep healing and peak performance, and to help us all discover the power, inspiration, wisdom, and love that is deep within us and all around us. And if you're in a place where you can do so right now, take a deep breath in, and as you let it out, imagine that there really is such a place deep within you. And that as you take another deep breath in and let it out, you can allow yourself to come completely into this moment. To be aware of your breathing. And with each breath out, imagine you're letting out the past. And with each breath in, imagine you're guiding yourself to become more and more aware of a deep power within you— the power to heal, the power to guide you to the success that really matters to you. Allow yourself to be at a quiet place inside, and whenever any unnecessary thoughts come along, imagine those unnecessary thoughts are like words on a blackboard in your mind's eye. With your next breath out, imagine you're erasing that blackboard. Imagine there really is that place of power within you, and that you can right now give yourself permission to be in contact with that place— a place of love, a place of wisdom, a place of healing. And that if you want to, you can make a commitment to yourself to express this essence presence of your being in all things that you do. Thank you so much for spending this time with me, and if you'd like to learn more about these tools, these techniques, and these perspectives, please visit us. We've collected a huge amount of material for you there at drmiller.com.