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Article 33
April 14, 1989

How to Get the Most Out of Viewing

There are certain actions -- and certain precautions -- you should take to prepare yourself for this work and to ensure that all your personal resources are to hand. While you are engaged in viewing, you should:

• Get plenty of sleep. A sleepy or tired person should not be trying to do viewing.

• Be well-fed. You should make sure you have something to eat before coming in for a session, and you should strive to eat a balanced diet, not just "junk food". When a person is hungry or malnourished, his awareness level and state of emotional balance are compromised. It seems to be helpful for a viewer to take ample quantities of vitamins, particularly Vitamins E, C, A, D, B1, and B-Complex. It is also recommended that a person take a calcium and magnesium supplement.

• Avoid mind-affecting drugs. This would include medically prescribed drugs, such as tranquilizers, sleeping medications, and pain-killers, as well as street drugs of any kind. It does not include most antibiotics, and decongestants. It may include certain antihistamines that have a sedative effect. Alcohol should be avoided within 24 hours of receiving a session. Drugs tend to lower a person's awareness, and since the process of viewing depends entirely on the viewer's level of awareness, drugs are counter-productive. On occasion, a person may need to take some kind of mind-affecting medication or pain-killers for medical reasons. In such cases, a person could possibly still do viewing, and the viewer could work with his doctor to taper off on the medications as his condition improves. But in any case, you must let your facilitator know when you are taking such medications.

• Wear comfortable clothing. Tight clothes or shoes can be a distraction and can affect GSR meter readings.

• Do not talk about the content of your sessions. Friends, relatives, and colleagues may, understandably, be curious about what goes on in your viewing sessions. It has been found, however, that the contents of your sessions are best kept to yourself. One of the things that makes viewing sessions safe is that they are sharply compartmented off from the rest of life. The facilitator has, as part of his code, a principle that session material will never be divulged to anyone except to the Technical Director overseeing the viewing, and never used for any purpose except to help you and to improve the skill of the facilitator. If you allow yourself to be persuaded to talk about your sessions, this safety factor may be compromised. Well-meaning friends and relatives tend to offer evaluations, interpretations, or invalidations of the session material they hear about, which may serve to make it seem unsafe to bring up certain topics in a session. Also, outside input about material that has come up in a viewing session can get in the way of your reaching your own decisions about what you are viewing in your sessions. Further, if two viewers compare notes on their sessions, the result of such discussions can be a sense of disappointment or inferiority on the part of one or both of the viewers. So it is not a good idea to talk about the content of your viewing sessions.

• Let your facilitator know before the fact, if possible, if you are planning to receive any medical, dental, or chiropractic treatment. The Technical Director may want to revise the plan for your sessions to coordinate with such treatment. It is also possible that a physical complaint may be psychosomatic or stress-related, and that a viewing remedy may be helpful.

• Let your facilitator know if any other major changes have occurred in your life. If you have changed your job, gotten engaged, become ill, or suffered some severe loss, the facilitator and the Technical Director will want to know so that the viewing plan can be modified accordingly.

• Plan to receive frequent sessions, if possible. Viewing acquires its own momentum, and you will get results much faster and more efficiently when your viewing is done intensively. If your sessions are scheduled only weekly or less often, you will find yourself spending a great deal of time handling the "slings and arrows" that life throws at you between sessions. In other words, you can find yourself playing "catch up" most of the time. When sessions are given intensively, life doesn't have time to catch up with you between sessions, and by the time something negative occurs in life, you are in a much better condition to cope with it, having handled the fundamental case issues that have interfered, in the past, with your ability to manage your life.

• Select a facilitator with whom you feel comfortable. Facilitators are trained to provide a safe space in which viewing can occur. Occasionally, however, you may be assigned a facilitator with whom you simply don't feel comfortable. Under these circumstances, either the issues that are causing the discomfort need to be resolved, or you need a different facilitator. If you have been working well with a facilitator for some period of time and then get abruptly uncomfortable, chances are that the discomfort will be easily resolvable in the process of viewing. The important thing to remember, as a viewer, is to communicate any feelings of discomfort you may have about a facilitator, either to the facilitator or to another staff member. Facilitators understand the importance of personal compatibility and a safe space and appreciate open communication on the subject when the space seems not to be safe.

• If, for any reason, you must cancel a session or arrive late for one, please give notice well in advance. In this way, your facilitator can arrange to work with someone else at that time. There may be a fee for missed appointments, where you have not given at least 24 hours' notice. Please give notice as far in advance as possible, however.

• Plan to arrive ten or fifteen minutes early for your appointment. This gives you a chance to unwind and relax before your session. It is also possible that the facilitator may have gotten out of his last session early and can therefore take you in early.

• After your session, make sure that you know when your next session is going to be. Schedule it if it is not already scheduled.

• Please be patient if your facilitator is tied up with another viewer. Viewing sessions do not have a fixed length. Although the facilitator will try to find a good stopping point in order to be on time for his next appointment, he also has an obligation to his viewer to get him through whatever he may be involved in. He will do the same for you, if need be.

• You may communicate with the Technical Director. To get a message to the Technical Director, you need only talk to your facilitator or another staff member. They will arrange for you to have an immediate, brief interview so that the data can be recorded. These data will go directly to the Technical Director. You should definitely use this communication channel to let the Technical Director know of any upset that may exist after a session, if you are ill, or if something untoward occurs in your life that the Technical Director ought to know about. You can also use it to report any significant insights or breakthroughs that may occur between sessions. The Technical Director may also use such an interview to communicate to you. Direct communications about your case from and to the Technical Director are not advisable, because it is very important for the Technical Director to maintain an objective viewpoint. It is also important to keep such communications in writing so that a record of all viewing actions can be maintained to aid case planning and to provide data for any case corrective actions that may need to be taken.

Frank A. Gerbode, M.D.
Director, IRM