Testimonials
TESTIMONIALS
I experienced a severe and life-changing work injury in 2011 that resulted in me losing my job, having to undergo major surgery, ongoing physical therapy, and dealing with chronic severe pain. I became more isolated and began to feel as if I were losing purpose and fulfillment in life.
I happened to read an article in the Weekly at the end of 2014 that featured Edward Francis Pio and his work with Yoga Nidra and Theta Brain Wave Training to help people who were suffering, from among other things, chronic pain. I found it interesting but put it aside and didn’t think much more about it.
Several months later, I began thinking about that article and how it may be something that could help me. I looked up the International Mind Body Institute Website and began reading about Edward, the techniques he teaches, and the testimonials from former students. I decided to sign up for the introductory class and subsequently took the course.
Indeed, I learned techniques that have helped me to better manage my pain and I am confident that I will be able to eliminate it completely in time. It has also helped me to sleep without prescription medication for the first time in 15 years. Additionally, I have greatly reduced the amount of pain medication I was on. Perhaps, most importantly, through the goal-setting and programming I learned, I am now able to envision a life again. I know I will be able to live a purposeful, fulfilling life that includes a career I love and that my life as I knew it, is not over.
Edward is a kind, compassionate, wise teacher who accepts you wherever you are and is willing to help you get where you want to go. He is generous with his gifts and knowledge and has been a tremendous guide.
Wendy Inouye
I worked at a convalescent hospital on the night shift for many years. I had three strokes and had to retire. After several years of trying to sleep at night I gave up the idea of ever sleeping at night. I was tired all the time, ached with arthritis pain all over my body and was having trouble with balance when walking. I saw an ad in a local paper about an upgrade-your-life workshop and attended. During the Yoga Nidra/Theta Brain Wave session, I experienced my first rest, physically and mentally, in years. After the session my overall body pain was reduced fifty percent. So I signed up for the Training. By the time that I completed the course, I was sleeping regularly from 11:00 pm till 7:00 am, most of the time was out of pain and my balance was restored.
Elena Madena
....and by the third week of the Training, my blood pressure was back to normal and I did not have to take any drugs to do it.
Eva Reiter, RN
I have an autoimmune disease that was completely debilitating until I took the Training and started practicing Yoga Nidra every day. Now most of the time I can function like a normal human being and look forward to attracting joy and happiness in my life.
Arthur Palacio
I began taking the Theta Brainwave Technique class just a few months after my husband of nearly 40 years, suddenly and unexpectedly passed away. Even though this was one of the most challenging times of my life, I was able to move through the grieving process with much greater comfort and ease due to the wonderful techniques I learned in this class.
Edward Pio is a phenomenal teacher and a rare gem! He shares a wealth of knowledge and personal experience in each session. Ed is an expert tour guide, taking you on a personal journey to your own well-beingness.
Enrolling in this class is by far one of the best things i have ever done for myself. I have found this to be an extremely valuable practice that I am able to stay with and look forward to on a daily basis. Just 30 minutes a day has transformed my life. I now enjoy 8 hrs. of quality sleep each night. I am setting and reaching goals faster and easier than I ever have before.
I was recently able to overcome my fear of public speaking and was afforded the opportunity to step on stage in front of over a thousand people and give a presentation (and I actually enjoyed it!) Ed has taught me techniques that allow me to instantly sink into a state of deep relaxation no matter what I am faced with. My body is now free to heal itself as it was designed to do!
I am so thrilled and deeply grateful to have this new set of tools to support me on my journey to optimal health and well-being! Ed is an inspiration, he really walks it like he talks it, and I want to be just like him when I grow up! Thank you for sharing your incredible talents and gifts with the world, Ed!
Denise Scofield
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For many years I have been interested in Yoga Nidra. When I met Ed and had my first Yoga Nidra sessions with him, I knew that he had a style I had never experienced before. I immediately wanted to study with him in his training. And I had no idea till I took the course how much more would be revealed to me. With many years of insomnia, I now have skills that assist me to get to sleep and rest well. The most empowering part of Ed’s training is the way he leads the student towards understanding the steps necessary to create your own Yoga Nidra/Theta Brain Wave sessions. I now feel I have an incredible tool to use in my life. The Yoga Nidra sessions I am creating are offering me ways to increase my health, my mental attention and a very important way to work more deeply and effectively with my own personal intentions, goals and life vision.
Ed is an expert teacher. He has created a training that builds in a natural step by step process towards a very empowering personal process. A key to the training is the commitment of the student and the personal practice that happens daily to integrate the training. I suggest people be ready for this training. Make the time to spend daily practicing and you will have a life transforming process available to use in creative ways that assist your personal growth and transformation.
Thankyou Ed for the gift you are offering others. And thank you for the gifts your work brings to my work and my personal life.
Judith Roth, Director of the Sky Temple Yoga Center in Yelapa Mexico
I graduated in veterinary medicine from a university in another country. After I moved to California, I had to take the state examination, which I failed my first two times. I took the Training and studied using a memory and retention program. I passed the examination on my third try.
Nadia Coleman, DVM
I am applying the Yoga Nidra and meditation techniques in my daily life. What I learned in your courses has been indispensable to changing the frequency of my thoughts (especially when I become anxious), my outlook in life, and generating favorable outcomes as a result of my thoughts.
Michelle Cho
In the early 1970’s I took Edward Francis Pio’s Self Hypnosis course. I have been able to use successfully several of the techniques that I was taught.
My first success was using the “Stop Bleeding” command. I was working in the yard when I injured my left leg, causing a large gash and bleeding.. I layed down and proceeded with the self hypnosis procedure, as I was taught, to stop bleeding and was successful .
My second success happened after playing Volleyball with some friends for several hours. My right wrist was swollen, bruised and very sore. That evening before I went to bed I programmed my mind to see my wrist without the bruising, soreness, and swelling. I went to sleep believing it would happen. When I awoke, I had been successful.
The third success just happened two years ago. On March 15th 2011, I experienced a Thalamus Bleed.. While I was being evaluated in the emergency after a CT scan, the attending Physician advised me of the findings. The findings were that the location of the bleed was inoperable.
My daughter remembers me saying “I need some time to meditate”.
Believing I could help my situation , I proceeded with my self hypnosis, programming with the intention to stop and reduce the bleed. I believed that I could reduce some, if not all, of the damage. Today I have full function of my body.
Bernice Richardson
Registered Nurse
Focus is important in my work as a therapist. I found myself unable to focus and each day it was getting worse. I found the Training very helpful in removing brain fog and getting me back on track.
Wayne Hasse
Hi Everyone! I have been promising many of you that I would let you know when the next introductory class came up for the Theta Brain Wave Technique class I just completed. I am attaching the flyer and hope some of you are able to go! I’m not one to suggest classes or books, etc. to others unless I have had a very good experience. I don’t like pushing things on people, especially my friends!! I will tell you how the Theta Brain Wave Technique has helped me thus far.
I have told everyone repeatedly how horrible I am at sitting still long enough to meditate. Much to Grandpa Ole’s frustration. How many times has he told me “Breathe, Dammit!” This course taught me how fun it was to really engage the right brain and imagine things in great detail. I found I was able to learn to deeply relax and work that right side for even up to 45 minutes! I also learned techniques to help me reach a Theta state in just a few minutes, anytime, anywhere! So what’s the big deal?
Have I noticed a difference in my life? Yes! I caught a cold/flu part way through my course and decided to use the intent to heal and see my sinuses as clear and healthy. It worked like a charm (although I should have done the whole body..duh!). I have had felt more peaceful in many ways and have been attracting a great deal of business and feel very productive. Little goals which felt overwhelming before seem to be easily attained. I can SEE it and DO it. My SLEEP has improved 100%! I feel like I rest deeper. Dreams are very vivid.
I am looking forward to practicing what I learned in my Theta Brain Wave course and incorporating it in my routine because so much more is possible. I am excited to hear about your experiences if you try it. Ed Pio is a fantastic teacher and must hold the secret to everlasting youth, so I hope you get a chance to meet him!
Karla Kogan, Paralegal and Medium
Monterey, California
copyright 1967 Edward Francis Pio
Feature News article November 2014 written by Journalist Tom Leyde and printed on the front page of the Monterey Herald newspaper, a daily newspaper in Monterey, California
The Science of Hypnosis & Meditation
Edward Francis Pio isn’t your ordinary 82-year-old. He’s a visionary, a seeker, a vibrant spirit and a teacher. For 50 years, Pio has been teaching people how to use their minds to relax, sleep, heal, control pain, even stop bleeding.
As executive director of the International Mind Body Institute, Pio teaches classes in the techniques over the internet and at his office in Monterey. Over the years, he has taught some 42,000 people through live, internet and home-study courses. He has lectured on cruise ships and internationally in Russia, China, Canada, and Mexico.
His classes began in the 1960's as self-hypnosis instruction and evolved to something deeper and even more effective. How is it done? By focusing the mind, Pio said. Your body, he explains, has two computers, better known as the right and left hemispheres of the brain. Learning to control them can result in less stress, deeper sleep, less dependence on prescription drugs, lower blood pressure, pain control and overall wellness, Pio said.
Unlike meditation techniques with the goal of an out-of-body experience, Yoga Nidra Meditation, which originated in India, focuses on the body. As Pio explains it, the technique turns the left hemisphere down and the right hemisphere up at the same time. This produces a theta mind state not unlike REM sleep. That’s the sleep state that produces the deepest rest. “This whole process is very, very grounding from day one,” he said. “If you can learn to do this during the day, it’s the same as getting eight hours of sleep.”
While in the theta mind state, Pio gives instructions to focus on various parts of the body and imagine and feel each part. He then gives specific instructions to the student to deal with problems such as arthritis, chronic pain, migraine headaches, high blood pressure, sleep disorders and many other problems.
The suggestions aren’t limited to problems. The images he asks a person to envision in the meditative theta state might also include better performance at work, at sports, at music or any other endeavor in which a person is interested.
Pio describes Yoga Nidra Meditation as an active rather than a passive practice. Among the testimonials in Pio’s brochure, is one from Beth Polson, who writes: “I was having migraines four or five times a month, some so painful that I had to go to the ER for pain medication. On the fifth week of the training, I was given the sensory imaging procedure for stopping the migraines in the early symptom stages. After several applications of the procedure, I have been migraine free for over a year.”
Other testimonials explain how the technique has helped people improve their mental focus, deal with autoimmune disease, pain, high blood pressure, weight loss and quitting smoking.
The biggest change from his work, Pio said, is the creation of a relaxation technique that overcomes a person’s fight or flight response. It doesn’t negate fight or flight, he said, but rather allows a person’s mind to stop triggering the fight or flight response. According to Pio, the theta state is necessary for healing. In his technique, he said, “the focus is always inside the body. My teaching is grounded in the body.” “We are all built-in to be self-healers,” he said. We just need a procedure like the one he teaches to jumpstart the process.
He emphasizes that in the technique he teaches “there is no loss of control. The power is in you.” Like learning anything else, Theta Brain Wave Technique and Yoga Nidra Meditation require training and practice. Pio’s course is twelve weeks long. A student attends a class each week and practices the technique at home between classes with CDs or MP3s. By the fifth week, the student is doing the technique on their own by meditating at least once a day for 30 minutes. Like anything else, you have to keep at it and make it a daily ritual or discipline.
Does it work?
Pio’s students say it does.
You can check it out yourself by clicking on the WELCOME page for information on his courses.