Well worth a try I'd say PM. I started out sceptical about the use of for example visualisation as a part of spiritual practice, but over time it's become clear that it's just a way to direct the creativity of mind. And as such it's very effective.....

PhantasyMan,

Interesting idea!  I just wanted to add a little about an interesting technology that can image "phantom limbs."  There's a guy in England named Harry Oldfield who has invented and developed something he calls Polycontrast Interference Photography (PIP).  It is a computer program that processes ordinary video camera images in near real-time to provide images of energy fields.  This is not one of those "carnival ride" aura cameras you see at psychic fairs, but the real deal.

One of the things Oldfield's PIP system can do is related to your post.  One rather stunning image was of a man whose left arm had been amputated between the shoulder and elbow.  The image from the PIP system clearly shows the man's nonphysical arm, hand and fingers below the point of amputation.  Any question about the existence of "phantom limbs" is eliminated by seeing these kind of images.

After witnessing Oldfield's system at a conference in Boulder, CO I became curious about how it worked.  Using an old Cannon digital camera combined with some image processing software I wrote I began experimenting with "phantom leaf" pictures.  

Using freshly picked leaves I first took a picture of the uncut leaf, then snipped out a section, and took another picture.  Then I ran the image of the leaf with a section missing through the image processing software I wrote.  What I was looking for was any indication of the "leaf aura" where the physical leaf was missing.  To my surprise some of these images actually show some leaf vein structures where the physical leaf is missing!  By comparing the before and after photos I can see that the vein structures of the missing leaf are in same locations as the actual physical leaf veins in the uncut leaf.

My rudimentary experiments appear to confirm validity of Oldfield's PIP system and that those old Kirlian photos of phantom leaves are imaging a real phenomenon.  

I have shared my experiments with Oldfield and out of respect for his intellectual property I have agreed not to share information about how I process the image data.

Bruce

Bets,

The house plants are safe, I used freashly picked leaves from a cottonwood tree.  Plant vitality, according to Mr. Oldfield, is critical so my experiments to date, using picked leaves, are less than ideal.  Oldfield claims that it is next to impossible to get these phantom images using anything other than organically grown plants. 

In future experiments I plan to grow bean plants and take the pictures with the leaves still attached to the plant.  Those experiments will have to wait a while though as we are in the process of moving to Puerto Rico.  We won't be settled in there for a couple of months yet.

Bruce

[Bruce]

Thanks for sharing about PIP technology.  I must say that I very curious about it.  I did some search on google and found some pictures about it.  I would like to try it by myself, unfortunately, the secret about how it really work is not told.  But anyway, I found some basics informations and I have ideas how it can be achieve.

Quote:


Even if you don't share the HowTo information, are you able to post those pictures you were talking about?

[Betson]

Quote:


  If it's our way to experience it, it should be ok   I think it's a nice way to "use" our interpretor to perceive and experience new things!

[Vicky]

The way the doctor is ok, but from my personal point of view, I don't think the pain is "in the brain".  I see the wonderful brain architecture as a bi-directional interface between the body and mind.  I think that if the brain condition is ok, the most part of the pain come from the mind itself. Maybe it's the same think for those who have unexplained chronic pain. 

  Quote:


I agree with you.  A long as the brain is ok and the intention is there, visualization he a powerful tool. 

By the way, if you remember the doctor name or if you have a keywork to find information about the experiment, I would take it    I heard about that few years ago, and I would like to find more about it! 


Love to all

Darth Here. I'm surprised Bruce fell so easily for PIP. See http://www.raygirvan.co.uk/apoth/2005_01_01_arc.html
for an explanation. I believe he charges $5,000+ for the
software. Another New Age "Snake Oil Salesman" with
"Miracle" scientific gadgets for sale to the gullible!!
Darth. May Both Sides Of The Force Be With You.

spooky2 wrote on Sep 8^th, 2007 at 8:46pm:



Well. Where's the photos to prove the above? Darth. May Both Sides Of the Force Be With You.

Darth:

  In the link you posted, it talks about false color: 

False colour (aka pseudocolour) is a standard image processing technique of applying a colour scale to 'mono' data (either monochrome photos, or data that's not in a visible range). As we don't distinguish grey-scales well, it can show up subtle contrast gradients and highlight useful data in, for instance, astronomical and satellite images

That's a nice concept, and it don't really explain PIP. 

Imagine, if I have a picture that I filter to keep only frequencies out of our vision range, or that I filter only to keep  lights interferences for a given frequency.   It would result as a image without too much visual information that would be hard to interpret.  Applying the  pseudocolour concept on it, would give us a visual content to help to interpret the image.