Historical Roots of GIM
GIM took root at a time when the tremendous push to explore outer space spawned an investigation to explore inner space as well. Man had just walked on the moon. People were restless for change, especially our youth. The late 60's were the time of the Kent State riots, desegregation, and the Beatles. Old forms were breaking up, and new ways of social responsibility and ethics were being sought. The push for change was prominent everywhere, even in the scientific world of research related to the "inner space" of the mind.
Two well known facilities, the Menninger Foundation in Kansas and the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center at Spring Grove State Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland received grants from the U.S. government to explore consciousness and the realms of the mind. Several renowned pioneers in consciousness research gathered at these two research centers, among them the renowned theologian and psychologist, Walter Pahnke from Harvard and psychiatrist Dr. Stanislav Grof, a researcher in psychedelics who today is known for his many books the Grof Breathwork process.
Helen L. Bonny, Ph.D., MT-BC, a music therapist, was invited to join the research team and bring her special knowledge of music's potential for altering consciousness and healing. She felt that music was the perfect vehicle for exploration of the psyche because it could carry someone through the heights and depths of an experience. Eventually she developed a powerful yet safe therapeutic method for healing called Guided Imagery and Music (GIM). Known today as The Bonny Method, GIM honors the ancient method of awakening ones inner vision and reconnecting with what C.G. Jung referred to as the Self.
Scientific Research and Case Studies
Dr. Kenneth James of the University of Chicago observed that the brain responds to music quite differently than it does to the spoken word. With music the brain's right hemisphere is activated by stronger impressions. Such feeling laden images can be processed by the brain almost simultaneously. The time-space barrier of the logical left brain is circumvented. This allows millions of bits of information to be processed in seconds when the brain is stimulated by music. Since human beings have an enormous capacity to store information, the retrieval of significant impressions and images becomes an effective way of bridging the unconscious with the conscious mind.
Dr. Robert McDonald, a GIM practitioner from Minneapolis, studied the effects of GIM on the body/mind. He studied 30 adults with essential hypertension who were not taking medication. A third of these subjects received GIM once a week for six weeks. A third received verbal therapy once a week for six weeks and a third received no intervention. Blood pressure in the GIM group steadily declined. At the six month follow up, the GIM group continued to show the lowest blood pressure of the three groups studied.
In her doctoral thesis, Dr. Cathy McKinney compared the effects of Music and Imaging with simple music listening, and studied their affect on accessing emotions and effecting body states. It was found that listening to music while imaging has a more intense effect on the body/mind. An entrainment or synchronization occurred between the music, feelings, images, breath, and pulse rate. This entrainment has a powerful effect on the body/mind.
Dr. McKinney studied the effects of 6 biweekly GIM sessions with 28 adults with a latent Epstein Barr virus and 28 healthy adults. The groups did not differ in pretest mood state. Through studying blood samples from pre and post sessions she found that the post test mood state was significantly and positively altered in terms of anxiety, depression, and confusion. Also the Epstein Barr group showed significant improvement in fatigue on follow up. Her results indicated that a short series of GIM sessions (at least 6) can positively affect mood.
In addition to scientific research, GIM therapy has been applied to a wide range of special populations. Clinical topics by GIM therapists published in the Journal of the AMI, Vol. 1-9 (Association for Music and Imagery) includes such diverse areas as trauma and abuse (Pickett, 1995), collective grief from the World War II Holocaust (Merritt and Schulberg, 1995), post traumatic stress disorder with Vietnam veterans (Blake,1994), addictions and recovery (Stokes, 1992; Borling,1992), and adapting GIM for a non-verbal man with autism (Clarkson,1994). The efficacy of GIM in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis by Jacobi and Eisenberg (2002) is discussed in the AMI Journal Vol. 8. GIM therapy with several AIDS clients is reported by Bruscia (1992) in Music and Miracles , Ed. Doc Campbell. Clarkson (1996) and Wrangsjo and Korlin (1995) discuss the effectiveness of GIM from a psychiatric and psychoanalytic perspective.
Guided Imagery and Music: The Bonny Method and Beyond , eds. K.E. Bruscia and D.E. Grocke ( Barcelona Publishers, 2002) is an excellent resource with many fascinating articles, among them a neuropsychological theory of traumatic imagery by Dag Korlin, M.D. from Sweden .
A DVD format is available from the AMI Conference presentations, including GIM and Mind Body Connections: A Healing Arts Approach by Stokes-Stearns, Ph.D.
To order the AMI Journal and Media resources contact AMI at ami@nas.com for more information.