Have you ever caught a kid in a lie? “Hey, do you know who broke this?” And as you watch,
their eyes will shoot up to the left, and the right, aaaannndddd…here comes the story.
“No, I don’t know what happened. Actually, I think it was my brother’s fault. Yeah, he did it. Or the dog did it.”
Why do we do this? When we access memories from the past, our eyes go up to the left to “grab them” from our visual memory. When we’re creating a future (or telling a lie), our eyes go up to the right, to our imagination.
Interesting, but …. So what?
Try this experiment: think of a situation that currently annoys you, or frustrates you. Choose a memory that’s not traumatic - just annoying or frustrating. Give that emotion an intensity rating from 0-4. (0= no frustration, 4= intensely frustrating).
Now, while thinking about that situation, raise your eyes to about 30 degrees above the horizon, as if you’re looking up at someone about 4 inches taller than you.
Hold your arm in front of you, and look at the tip of your index finger as you sweep your arm from left to right, back and forth about 10 times. Follow with ONLY your eyes, not your head.
Close your eyes for a moment.
Now rate the intensity of the frustrating situation from 0 to 4 again. How far down has it gone?
Congratulations! You’ve just experienced the power of MEMI.
MEMI stands for Multichannel Eye Movement Integration, and it’s the work of Mike Deninger from the Arizona Trauma Center.
We use these eye movements to disrupt the way our brains process and store bad memories, phobias, anxiety and trauma, even complex trauma like PTSD.
From Deninger’s research: “Guiding a person’s eyes in directions that are not habitual while they think about a traumatic experience will change the memory’s structure in beneficial ways.”
In other words, if you change the structure of a memory, your brain can’t find the same pathway to the traumatic memory, and it then stores the memory with less or a different emotion.
Deninger continues: “Traumatic memories will be desensitized when a client's eyes are directed to move non-habitual ways while they think about a traumatic memory.”
Do you know anyone who has traumatic memories?
- *Someone with social anxiety, who finds it even harder to leave the house since the pandemic
- *Someone who can’t get to sleep because darkness is scary and unsafe
- *Someone who is paralyzed with indecision
- *Someone who panics every time they see (X) (i.e. a man with a dark beard, a big dog, a knife-like object)
- Someone who struggles with addiction
- *Someone who’s witnessed something frightening or distressing
- *Someone who can’t erase a memory of an accident and keeps seeing it on “replay”
- *Someone who struggles with intrusive thoughts or fears
- *Someone who can’t “get past” the past
MEMI uses a series of different eye movement patterns to clear away more intense memories, phobias, anxiety, pain, substance abuse, trauma and PTSD. Unlike “talk therapy,” MEMI can be done completely “content free” - in other words, you don’t have to talk about the triggering situation.
How does this relate to chiropractic? The eyes are an instant gateway to the nervous system, sending signals of safety or danger. Changing the input (eye movements) immediately changes the signals to the calming, “rest and digest / tend and befriend” nervous system.
Dr. Angela is certified in MEMI - To see if MEMI would help you or someone you know who’s struggling, please reach out and we’ll discuss it. MEMI sessions are typically 60-90 minutes long and create profound changes in even one visit.
Angela Hall
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