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ANSSR Medical Theory

Comments & Questions

Carl Sagan: "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." 

Andrew Arneson: "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary learning capacity. If you lack adequate learning capacity, it doesn't matter how much evidence someone shows you. You will insist that there's no evidence."

     In his long career, Dr. John Sarno (1923-2017) proved that painful muscle spasms can relax without surgery, even in the presence of average spinal degeneration. Thus, when his patients with several herniated discs, cracked vertebrae, sciatica, spinal stenosis, and other grim diagnoses followed his mind/body protocol and relaxed, their pain stopped—in many cases permanently. In return for his monumental contributions to medicine, Dr. Sarno and his method were maligned by other doctors his entire career, despite his extremely high success rate with many thousands of patients.

     Conventional medical theory tells us that the stress and relaxation responses are both produced involuntarily by the autonomic nervous system (ANS). At the systemic level, conditions of stress and relaxation correspond exactly to one’s emotional state. At the tissue level, stress response means contraction of body tissues, e.g. narrowed blood vessels and tight muscles. In areas of pathology, a stronger stress response produces pain, as in muscle spasm or migraine headache. 

     Two questions remain: Exactly what conditions provoke a chronic stress response that produces chronic pain, and can that stress response be relaxed permanently for pain elimination? Andrew Arneson’s ANSSR therapy addresses several sources of chronic stress response, almost all of which can be eliminated by the autonomic nervous system’s innate healing responses.

New Science

Injury memory: Unknown to conventional medicine and pain management, injury memory is a chronic stress response that remains in and around the injury site following a traumatic injury. It can provoke chronic pain literally for decades. It was also identified by the osteopath Dr. Robert Fulford, who called it the “shock” of an injury and developed manipulation techniques that triggered a “release” for pain elimination. In 1997, Arneson discovered the pain discharge mechanism—an innate ANS healing response designed specifically to neutralize injury memory for permanent pain elimination.

Chronic neck exhaustion: Discovered by Arneson in the 1990s, neck exhaustion is an insidious pathology accounting for at least 80% of chronic neck pain cases worldwide. Conventional medicine identifies neck muscle tension as the cause of spinal degeneration, but remains unaware of the exhaustion that provokes the chronic stress response that precipitates degeneration. ANSSR therapy is the only method that decisively removes exhaustion from the neck (and other areas) for rapid, dramatic recovery.

Midsection instability: There are many causes of stress response in the midsection—injury, immobility, poor posture, psychological stress, caffeine, smoking, etc. Any of these can disrupt the normal coordination in the motor nerve system that moves and stabilizes the midsection. When such coordination is lost, midsection instability results and itself becomes a source of chronic stress response. Instability is a primary factor in the vast majority of chronic low back pain cases, including those arising from failed back surgery syndrome. This assertion is easily confirmed by the ANSSR midsection stability exercise, developed by Arneson in the 1990s, which restores coordination for instant pain relief and independence from pain management. With balanced muscle tone, spontaneous skeletal realignment, and restored stability, no cause remains for chronic low back pain in nearly every case. While the condition of midsection instability is not new to pain medicine, the ANSSR stability exercise is the most effective stabilization exercise available because it affords predictable comfort and ANS self-regulation.

Tissue stagnation: Arneson’s term “tissue stagnation” refers to the volume of overcharged, stagnant bioelectricity that collects in tissues afflicted with a chronic stress response. It is both a product of pathology and a producer of chronic degenerative pathologies, such as cancer, osteoarthritis, and muscle atrophy. It was discovered in the early 1900s by the famous Austrian scientist, Dr. Wilhelm Reich, who called it “deadly orgone” (DOR). While ignored by mainstream medicine, DOR has been studied intensively by Western physicians for the last century. In Arneson’s ANSSR practice, DOR was identified as a primary causative factor in knee and hip osteoarthritis, atrophy in RSD/CRPS, atrophy in neck exhaustion cases, advanced hepatitis C, anomalous skin rash, and more (see the case studies page). As demonstrated by ANSSR therapy, the ANS is specially equipped to discharge DOR from areas of pathology.

Blocked emotion: Dr. Sarno’s theory of back pain states that repressed emotions, especially anger, are responsible for almost every case of severe and/or chronic musculoskeletal pain. As explained above, Sarno’s theory is a bit too general. Nevertheless, it is significant, as repressed emotions are literally contained in the skeletal musculature via chronic stress response, which renders intolerable emotions inaccessible to conscious awareness. Wilhelm Reich proved this point when he developed medical orgone therapy—the most advanced psychotherapy method currently practiced—which systematically releases blocked emotions from the body, for permanent resolution of neuroses, chronic pain, and other pathologies. Early life trauma, which occurs before, during, and in the first few weeks following birth, is especially damaging because a severe stress response is embedded in the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord). Such trauma is readily discharged in ANSSR therapy for infants. Adults with emotional blockage that provokes physical pain may require Dr. Sarno’s self-care protocol, pain management, or body-oriented psychotherapy for permanent pain relief. Fortunately, such cases are uncommon. Even where blocked emotion is suspected, many of these clients can achieve independence from pain management with the aid of ANSSR neck and low back homework techniques.

Structural damage: In certain cases, structural damage may irritate the body, thereby provoking a painful stress response. For example, a broken coccyx (tailbone) that heals crookedly may impede normal movement and trigger pain, or a metal plate used to reconstruct a broken bone may interfere with ANS healing responses that would otherwise eliminate injury-related pain. Such cases may require surgery. Or, injury-related scar tissue that accumulates internally may restrict free muscular movement and trigger pain. Such cases are best treated by Frequency Specific Microcurrent (FSM), which can literally dissolve internal scar tissue without surgery (see the FSM video). However, in most chronic pain cases involving structural damage, clients reported that the structural damage became a nonissue following ANSSR therapy. ANSSR therapy is therefore a smart first stop in one’s search for chronic pain elimination.

ANS Healing Responses

     The typical pain management strategy—true for drugs, surgery, and hundreds of complementary methods including chiropractic, acupuncture, massage, etc—is to force or trick a symptom to diminish or temporarily cease. The symptom and method could be pain numbed by drugs, skeletal abnormality corrected by manipulation or surgery, muscle spasm softened by massage or myofascial release techniques, cartilage loss temporarily slowed or reversed by regenerative medicine, or constricted bioelectricity flows mobilized by various energy medicine methods, notably acupuncture. For all the above, the underlying goal is the same—to stimulate a relaxation response in the autonomic nervous system (ANS) that counteracts the localized, pain-inducing ANS stress response in the afflicted area. For example, a painful muscle spasm will provoke less pain if a softening of tension is manually induced. But then, recurring pain is triggered by one of the sources of chronic stress response listed above, thus feeding the pain management industry. (Additional sources of stress response and recurrent pain, not addressed by ANSSR therapy, include muscle weakness and disease processes requiring specialized medical treatment.)

     In contrast, ANSSR therapy uses none of the above methods, yet stimulates more relaxation than literally any other method, with a typical report of permanent pain elimination. It therefore belongs to a class of medicine separate from pain management.

     With pain management methods, the symptom is reduced first; some measure of relaxation ensues. The body automatically uses this limited nervous system support to heal as much as possible. When chronic pain returns, as expected in the pain management industry, the pain indicates that the healing process triggered was inadequate. The underlying cause was not removed.

     With ANSSR therapy—in which no procedure is used to induce a symptom reduction—every benefit is the result of an actual healing process. ANS self-regulation equals a true healing process, accessed predictably at a certain threshold of comfort and relaxation unknown to pain management methods. (See the ANSSR video series.) Whereas pain management methods typically induce symptom reduction first, hoping for a secondary relaxation response and healing, ANSSR therapy affords a profound relaxation response in the ANS first, which enables the musculoskeletal, immune, and central nervous systems to perform their own manipulations and symptom reduction—spontaneously and correctly.

     To illustrate, a muscle spasms due to an acute stress response. The muscle is an organ of the muscular (or musculoskeletal) system. The dual autonomic nervous system functions of stress and relaxation affect every muscle cell. At a certain depth of comfort, the muscle spasm relaxes predictably, without manual manipulation. This is a case of true relaxation—as opposed to a forced softening of tension, which does not necessarily lead to relaxation (a principle unknown to massage therapists). True relaxation may actually result in increased tension of that muscle, but without pain, as when the large muscle groups tense harmoniously to stop a migraine headache. In other words, ANSSR therapy benefits are guided strictly by body intelligence. The client need not worry about the practitioner’s ability to manipulate the spine correctly, to massage the correct muscles, etc.

     The standard pain management business model aims for repeat business owing to ongoing suffering. In contrast, the consistency and efficacy of ANSSR therapy affords the goal of short-term therapy backed by a guarantee of dramatic improvement for candidates. Those determined by KPI to be noncandidates are not charged for services.

     ANS healing responses are predictable because, like every other body system, the autonomic nervous system responds involuntarily to adequate support (proper procedures) in predictable patterns. The following is a list of primary and secondary responses to absolute comfort. Primary responses permit secondary responses to manifest automatically. More responses are still being discovered as Arneson’s ANSSR research progresses. Those responses marked with an asterisk (*) are Arneson’s discoveries.

Spontaneous muscle tension balancing* can produce intricate responses of more or less tension as needed, either momentary or lasting. Momentary increases and decreases of tension serve to move bones, and are often noticed by clients during treatments. Secondary responses include:

  1. Deep relaxation of muscle spasms,* without manipulation.

  2. Spontaneous skeletal realignment,* without manipulation.

  3. Cessation of migraine headache in progress,* and permanently with repetition.

  4. Midsection stabilization via the ANSSR stabilization technique.*

Pain discharge mechanism.* When the client is sufficiently rested and energized, a pain discharge often occurs in areas of pathology. It is a sudden, involuntary, unified contraction of afflicted tissues accompanied by a brief peak of tolerable pain, followed by a radical decrease in both discharge pain and chronic pain. Pain discharge promotes muscle tone balancing, therefore involuntary skeletal movement may be noticed during or after pain discharge. Lesser discharges may also be experienced, without pain, but pain discharge per se is a powerful healing response that signals dramatic improvement. Clients typically report pain elimination. Pain discharge could likely be triggered electronically with a properly engineered device. Secondary responses include: 

  1. Injury memory neutralization. Years after a traumatic injury heals, chronic pain is still provoked by a memory of physical trauma held—in the autonomic nervous system—in the injury site and surrounding areas. Pain discharge erases such injury memory, for instant and typically permanent pain elimination.

  2. Discharge of tissue stagnation.* Since tissue stagnation (DOR) has no mass, discharge and pain relief are instantaneous. Client reports thus far include long-term or permanent relief of osteoarthritis pain,* accelerated healing of hepatitis C,* and radical reversal of atrophy in third stage RSD/CRPS.*

  3. Discharge of early life trauma in infants,* an unseen epidemic. Emotional discharge, which neutralizes psychological trauma, is essentially the same mechanism as pain discharge.

Energizing rest. Systemic stress—due to chronic pain, illness, or conflict—drains one’s energy level, but also inhibits the natural recharge provided by normal sleep. Thus, relaxation during waking hours becomes a necessity for optimal healing capacity and sleep. The unparalleled comfort of ANSSR therapy affords a concentrated recharge otherwise unobtainable without orgone accumulation devices (visit orgonics.com). Secondary responses include:

  1. Improved sleep. Virtually all ANSSR therapy clients report improved sleep after their first visit. The combination of facilitated rest in ANSSR therapy and better sleep at home provides the energy level necessary for pain discharge and other healing responses that occur in subsequent ANSSR treatments.

  2. Neck rest,* essential for recovery from chronic neck exhaustion.*

  3. Support for other body systems, notably the immune system, and possibly tissue repair mechanisms. All healing requires an adequate energy level, which is often drained by disease processes and injuries. The energizing rest intrinsic to ANSSR therapy has been pivotal in the recovery of clients afflicted with illness and exhaustion. For example, an exhausted client with a full-body, idiopathic rash healed it after two ANSSR treatments (see the case studies page). While disease healing is not the primary focus at KPI, more secondary responses are likely to be discovered. Those seeking holistic support for illness are welcome to inquire.

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