This hypothesis seems to be supported by the findings of Edward Evarts in his well known studies of Rapid Eye Movement done in the 1960s. J. Allan Hobson, Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and Director of the Laboratory of Neurophysiology, Massachusetts Mental Health Center, paraphrased Evarts saying, "the function of sleep may not be so much to rest the brain as to reorganize its information." And on the subject of REM sleep (or the alpha state), "while the brain-mind is freed of the task of monitoring and remembering new information in sleep, it can review and reorganize its own already acquired data." (The Dreaming Brain. N. Y.: Basic Books, Inc., 1988)

Observations of this phenomenon conclude that REM occurs every time the client achieves the alpha state, or Stage I of the normal sleep cycle. In this alpha state, the body is completely relaxed and the eyes are shut. Clients who would doze off into deep sleep during processing would cease REM for a time, then reestablish it later as they would return to the alpha state. Studies done by Evarts confirm that REM is native to the alpha state.

Eye Lid Blinking
Eye lid blinking cleanses and moistens the eye. It also stimulates the optic nerve with abrupt changes of light intensity. These physiological processes seem somewhat obvious. The psychological processes, however, are not so apparent. It is known, for instance, that when an object approaches the face at high velocity and is suddenly checked short of impact, the eye lids will blink as part of a response called "flinching".

In this case the blinking is a physiological response to a perceived danger to the organism. However, it is the psychological perception of peril that actually creates the physiological reaction. This, therefore, is quite clearly a psychological response mechanism. Consequently, we may postulate that blinking plays a psychological as well as a physiological role in our human experience.

Several theories have been posited to attempt to account for the psychological aspects of eye lid blinking. One hypothesis is suggested by the experience of Otto Loewi, who claimed he would solve intellectual problems in dreams. Perhaps when the eye lid is closed, information is processed inward. During the eye lid open cycle of blinking, a discharge is allowed outward. When the two parts of the blinking process are put together in rapid succession, an outward discharge followed by an inward ordering takes place. This process is then repeated with the next blink.

Another theory that seems plausible asserts that during alpha stasis, when the eye lid is opened, the mind discharges outward that which it is focusing upon. During the closed lid phase of blinking, the mind views a mirror that intensifies the emotional focus. Thus, the process cycles through mirroring (intensifying), followed by discharging (eye lids open), mirroring (closed), discharging (opened), mirroring, discharging, etc.

Regardless of the theory, the psychological benefit of eye lid blinking during therapy is dramatic and demonstrable. When blinking is coupled with right/left brain accessing, the effect is extraordinary.

During the late 1950s and early 1960s, visual subliminal suggestions were presented on the big screen in order to boost concession sales. These subliminal suggestions were rapid, merely a flash on the screen. The suggestion was so quick that consciously the moviegoer was completely unaware and yet concession sales skyrocketed.

Employing a similar technique, the rapid eye technician can "suggest" to the mind where to access the information necessary for focus and discharge, through the practice of rapid eye lid blinking. By application of an eyecatching device, such as a wand with a ball affixed to its end, the technician can "flash" a direction to the mind through rapid lateral motion of the wand, while the client blinks repeatedly. The eye does not actually follow the wand with swift lateral eye movement; however, the brain does access in the suggested direction, right or left.

In the alpha or REM state, the excitatory reticular neurons in the brain stem switch on, causing neuronal communication at the cellular level throughout the body. Energy confined at the cellular level by emotional or physical trauma is thus accessed, allowing discharge through eye lid blinking.

Psysiology of Rapid Eye Technology
Within our bodies are billions of nerve cells. Each nerve cell looks much like a hand with a thin nucleus and from ten to hundreds, sometimes thousands, of fingerlike projections called dendrites. It is through these dendrites that the messages of the body are passed from place to place. Since every cell in the body is connected through this system of dendrites and neurons, what happens to one cell is instantly communicated to all the others.

In the process of communicating sensory information to the cortex from the senses and other cells, the neurons pass the information along from neuron to neuron through the dendrites. Nerve cells exist in a fluid environment such that dendrites "float", having the ability to move and change position relative to one another. Neurons can also grow new dendrites and eliminate unused ones. These abilities create neural pathways that some claim represents learned response to stimuli.

For example, a set of nerve endings in the nose may pick up the combination of molecules in the ambient air that passes a message along the neural pathways that is interpreted as "rose". That message is passed from neuron to neuron throughout the entire body system. One pathway will lead to the cortex where computations and decisions are made about the input from the nose. Those computations are transmitted to the rest of the body through the complex of neurons, instructing the cells of the body what to do about the perception, "rose".

This example may be somewhat simplistic; however, for purposes of this discussion the point may be illustrated adequately to explain the main idea. Basically, each input from our senses is fed directly to the cortex and indirectly to all other cells in the body system. It is as though the body keeps no secrets from any cell. All are made aware nearly instantaneously. This can be demonstated by taking EEG readings at various points on the body. When a neural reading is taken in one place, a similar neural reading will be observed elsewhere in the body as well.

For purposes of this discussion, the flow of information is from the senses to the cortex to the body. In truth, the information is flowing in all directions at once.

When a set of dendrites fails to join in a manner conducive to clear flow of information from neuron to neuron, we get what we call a neural distortion. Neural distortions occur when the dendrites of one neuron fail to communicate correctly with their neighbors. Neural distortions are received during trauma. The synaptic connections produced in response to trauma are always distorted, causing incorrect messages to address the cortex for computation.

In the earlier example, a rose was sensed by the olfactory. That message was passed along to the cortex for computation and instruction to the body. If, in that pathway to the cortex, a neural distortion were present, the message reaching the brain may not be "rose" at all. What may reach the cortex is "danger" or "death" or "anger". None of which is in the original message. In other words, the original message has been changed by a neural distortion. Consider the following process:

1. Mary is born at home where her mother keeps roses in the bedroom where she births her baby. As the baby is born, mother and the mid-wife become fearful for the baby because she is born with the cord wrapped around her neck. Mary survives, yet associates deathly fear to the smell of roses. Her brain grows a physical connection, a neural pathway, on a fight or flight, subconscious level that provides her with an instant reaction of fear with the smell of roses.

2. As Mary grows up, every time she smells roses she becomes fearful, anxious, perhaps even angry. Oddly enough, her mother continues to fill the house with her own favorite flower - the rose.

3. Mary grows up feeling fearful nearly all the time. The house is filled with the subtle smell of roses. Her father grows them right outside her bedroom window. When she goes out on her first date, her date presents her with a corsage of, naturally, roses. With each smell, the connection grows larger, stronger. By the time she graduates high school, Mary identifies herself with her fear, "I am a scared little girl".

4. She marries a man who loves to grow - roses.

5. By the time she turns 30 Mary is so frightened of everything that she feels like a total wreck, experiencing panic attacks, frequent bouts of depression, and relationship problems with her family.

6. She seeks professional help and attends group therapy where they talk often about the fears, depression and anger they all feel (feeding their neuroses). Since she has no conscious awareness of the connection between the smell and the emotion, it continues even stronger.

7. She wants to feel courageous, strong, in charge of her life. So she tries subliminal tapes, hypnosis, cognitive therapy. Yet, every time she works toward those feelings, she interupts them with a "but", a doubt because these feelings fail to align with her identity - "I am a scared little girl".

8. She continues to build her natural connection, her identity. She still wants desperately to feel strong, courageous and in charge; it's just that she can't get away from her self-identity, her learned helplessness.

9. In her desperation Mary discovers a RET technician.

10. The RET technician is trained to assist Mary in releasing her fear by working on the connection between the fear (conscious) and its source (subconscious).

11. With the fear released from its source, the new feelings of strength, courage, and power are more easily achieved because now the new path of behavior is on equal footing with the past process. Because the old identity with fear has been released, it must be built from scratch just like any new way of thinking would have to be done. Therefore, the new way of thinking has an equal opportunity with the old way of thinking to become a part of a new identity.

This same process could cause trouble elsewhere as well. For example, a person may be suffering from a pain in his shoulder. If the neural pathways in the brainshoulder connection include a neural distortion, the cortex may get the message that, "I feel burdened", when the message given at the shoulder may very well be, "I need some food here. Send nutrients". In fact, the neural distortion may be so complete that the cortex doesn't know how to respond, so it simply shuts off the affected area.

The effect on DNA structure is as yet unknown. However, considering that the DNA is the "intelligence" of the cells, it is not unreasonable to assume that distortions in neural pathways would engender recordings of some sort in the DNA of each cell. A very basic study of DNA will uncover some astounding facts about our "cell memory".

For example, there are nearly three billion base pairs between the "double helix" in each DNA structure. These base pairs make the DNA look like a very long ladder in a slow spiral. It is the enormous number of possible sequences in these base pairs that is the secret of the vast information-carrying ability of the genetic code.

Each DNA carries its own "memory" in the structure and composition of its base pairs and length. There are many DNA structures in each chromosome and many (23 pairs in the ordinary cell) chromosomes in each cell. This makes for an abundance of DNA memory or "cell memory".

In the process of reproduction, the female cell (egg) and the male cell (sperm) each have 23 chromosomes, exactly half the number in the normal cell. In each of these chromosomes is DNA from the parent. In this way the cell memory of the parents is handed down to the children from generation to generation. It has been our experience that this "cell memory" effect is very real in our clients.

Rapid Eye Technology
The RET approaches the neural distortion at the cellular level. Every nerve cell in the body is affected by the process. The eyes are the easiest nerve outlet to be observed, since any neural activity in the body can be seen in the eyes. The optic nerve is situated near the limpic system in the primal brain at the top of the brain stem. This is known as the seat of our emotions. The auditory senses are tied directly to the brain stem at the base of the limpic system. These two senses in particular are worthy of note, since they are used in the process of RET.

When the client blinks his eyes rapidly, he turns on the entire nervous system feeding light/dark through the eyes. It is similar to feeding 0's and 1's into a computer to test its memory circuits. A rapid lateral wand movement 10-14" distant from the eyes suggests to the brain which cortex half to activate. The rapid speech given the client by the technician activates the particular neural distortion being sought. The phrases "blink it out" and "let it go" keep the cortex aware of what it needs to do, once a neural distortion becomes sufficiently activated to become conscious. When a neural distortion becomes conscious, the cortex immediately discovers it and changes it to a released condition.

A reframe instills in all the changed neurons a set of synaptic connections corresponding to the new desired response. So, instead of "angry", the client now has a learned response of "peaceful". The dendrites, existing in a fluid medium, have actually changed their position relative to the neighboring dendrites. In other words, a new learned response has been installed. The change is so severe as to appear in the eyes as a change in eye condition.