Hypnosis Zapped My Migraines

By Stephanie Peterson (stephclaims@verizon.net)

I don’t remember the exact date, not even the year, but it must have been more than eight years ago that I had my first migraine headache. And while I don’t remember the date, I will never forget the pain.

My speech was slurred and I thought at first that I had had a heart attack. My head felt as if it were about to explode but that some great pressure was holding it together. By the time I was able to get an appointment with my doctor the pain had gone--but inevitably returned--several times.

The pain-free interludes were barely long enough to permit me to more or less function and I lived in constant dread of the next attack. My doctor prescribed a pain medication (something that I hazily remember as “Maxsult”) with directions to take just before getting a headache.

And that was the rub. At first I figured I must be waiting too long to take the medicine. And then I figured I must be taking it too soon. But early or late, nothing worked.

My husband, a stone mason, was at the time building a stone wall for Ramelle and he mentioned to Ramelle the terrible pain I was suffering. Ramelle told him that he had frequently been able to help migraine suffers through hypnosis and that if I liked he would try.

When my husband told me I thought the notion totally ridiculous but I’m sure that anyone who has had that kind of headache will understand why I was willing to try anything. Even something that I felt was ridiculous.

I remember Ramelle talking to me, telling me to close my eyes and then telling me that when he counted to three I would wake up. He asked me how I felt. I told him that I felt just like I had felt before, that I had heard everything he said and that I had not been asleep. He said, “Sorry. I did the best I could.”

I remember telling my husband that I thought it was really silly and that I heard everything he said to me, that I really wasn't asleep, nothing changed. 

That was the last I thought about hypnosis until several months later when I saw Ramelle and he asked me about my headaches. And at that instant I realized for the first time that I had not had a headache since I walked out of Ramelle’s office!

My husband said that he was very much aware that my headaches had magically disappeared but that after what I had been though he was not about to even mention the word “headache”.

RESPONSE:

My recollection is slightly different. I remember Stephanie insisting that she had not been hypnotized but that is pretty much par for the course. I ran into her some months later, chatted briefly and then as we were parting she asked, "Mac, would you be willing to hypnotize my father to quit smoking?"

I said "Sure. But I'm a little surprised that you would ask..."

"Oh," she responded, "I should have told you. I haven't had a headache since I walked out of your office." Ramelle.