

How to Use the Photo Center in Your Mind to Free Yourself of Negative Memories By: Patrick K. Porter, PhD
A few years ago, my wife, Cynthia, lost her beloved sister, Christa, to lung cancer. Christa had battled the disease for over two years and Cynthia was at her side throughout the ordeal. During that time, Cynthia discovered a dark side to memories that she’d never experienced before; a side that’s ugly and painful and, to her, felt nearly impossible to forget. Cynthia described the experience like this: “After Christa died, my brain seemed to idle on the most awful moments of her battle. Images raged through my mind—Christa coughing uncontrollably, vomiting, or dropping to the floor like a rag doll, lumps of brown hair left on her pillow, bruised veins, a bulging tumor on her neck, her precious arm purple and bloated from a botched transfusion. I could no more stop these memories than I could stop a raging hurricane.” Cynthia needed to work through her grief in her own way, so I did my best to be supportive and let her be. One day, after a particularly intense bout of tears, she came to me and took my hand. “This isn’t working for me,” she said. “I want to remember Christa’s beautiful face, her gentle nature, and the fun we had together, not the horrible months that took her away from me.” “You can do that,” I said. “All it takes is for you to take control of the memories and store them the way you want instead of letting negative images run rampant in your mind.” “I’m ready for that!” she replied. I took Cynthia through the process I use in many of my visualizations to help people free their minds of the past memories that hold them back. I helped her store the awful negative images of her sister’s illness behind her, in black and white, with no sound or emotion. I then had her focus on the good times she’d had with her sister and remember them in color, with all the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes present. I had her place these good emotions into her future. Here is how Cynthia described it: “Once all the dark memories were behind me, I could open the floodgates to the happy memories of my life with Christa. Taking our sons trick-or-treating and then tucking them into Ninja Turtle sleeping bags. Hiking in the desert, chatting about nothing. Holding newborn kittens and laughing at the silly names we’d given them. Giggling ‘til our sides ached. Sitting side by side in the backyard watching an Arizona sunset. A warmth and peacefulness filled me for the first time in months.” How did Cynthia make such a dramatic transformation so quickly? By using the photo center of her mind, which works because our brains are hardwired with the ability to store everything we experience, but the filters through which we do it is up to us. Someone who is happy-go-lucky, for example, stores positive memories in color. They remember them with sound. They can even get into those experiences and relive them. This is called association.