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Beyond Biofeedback – Drs Elmer and Alyce Green

A year later Jack demonstrated this pain and bleeding control again at the veterans Administration hospital in Topeka at a meeting of physicians arranged by Dr. Stuart Twemlow. In order to make the demonstration clearly visible to the large audience, a closed circuit TV system was used. When Jack put his needles on the floor, rubbed his shoes on them, and said he was sterilizing his equipment, I noticed that the physicians observing in the video room became unusually silent. Jack pushed a needle through his arm, and for a minute we talked about the previous times we had done this in our lab at the Menninger Foundation, in which he had done it once with bleeding and a second time without bleeding.

During the discussion that followed Stuart Twemlow interrupted suddenly and said, "We need a control subject. I'll be it. Let me have one of those needles, Jack." I was much impressed by Stuart. After some delaying conversation and hesitation, he began to drive the needle through his forearm.

When it was about halfway through he said, "Ouch, it hurts," and stopped pushing it. Then Jack said quietly, "Close your eyes, Stuart, and think about the jonquils blooming at the front door of the building." Stuart closed his eyes, and Jack stood up, took hold of the needle, and pushed it the rest of the way through Stuart's arm. Then he said, "Okay, it's done." Stuart looked down and said, "Wow, look at that!" When Stuart pulled the needle out, the two puncture wounds bled for a short time. They subsequently healed without infection, but I noticed when I saw Stuart two days later that considerable subdermal bleeding had occurred, leaving a sizable black-and-blue area across his forearm.