Thanatotherapy means “death treatment” in Greek. The Russian psychotherapist Vladimir Baskakov first proposed this technique in the 1980s. According to Baskakov, the cause of many physical and mental ailments of a person lies in the “loss of contact with death”, oblivion of the natural processes of dying. What does it mean? In the past, death was a natural companion of man. It was found everywhere and was considered something ordinary. People’s life expectancy was low. The poor died of hunger, hard work and epidemics, and the nobility died in the war. People were not afraid to die, but they carefully prepared for death during their lifetime. Nowadays, death is a relatively rare phenomenon. A person who has loved life, who has learned to live a long time and preserve youth and energy for decades, has forgotten how to die; therefore, death seems to be an exceptional tragedy, the end of everything. The fear of death has given rise to other related fears:

• fear of getting sick,
• losing your job,
• leaving your loved ones for a while (after all, one of them may die, and then meeting them will no longer be possible!),
• fear of loneliness.

A person lives as if he will never die, but he is afraid of anything that looks even a little like the end is approaching. Thanatotherapy offers to restore mental harmony to a person. With the help of special methods of working with the body, patients achieve a state of complete relaxation, similar to the process of dying. Experiencing such an “imitation of death”, a person gets rid of fear – first of all, from the fear of dying, and with it from other types of fear. In many patients, after undergoing thanatotherapy, consciousness changes significantly, they begin to look at their lives and the world around them in a different way.

How many times in our lives do we experience death? Alone? Someone will say more, meaning clinical death or being under anesthesia during surgery. In fact, people experience conditions that are analogous to death literally every day.

• For example, relaxation. Achieving complete peace after a hard day’s work is similar to what a person experiences in the first minutes of death. In many relaxation techniques, the ideal state of the patient is compared to a dead body.
• Sleep is another “little death”; the comparison of these two concepts is firmly embedded in the culture of many peoples of the world. During sleep, the soul “leaves” the body, and in the morning “returns” to it. Sleep can be thought of as a special kind of thanatotherapy, since in this state special structures of the brain and the body as a whole are activated, which has a healing effect.
• Death can be considered an orgasm; the end of any important business, meeting, event; growing up of a person, the transition from childhood to adolescence, adolescence, maturity, etc.; a change in a person’s social status.

In ancient times, many of these phenomena were surrounded by a religious and mystical cult, their formation was marked by special rituals, which included the experience of death. Such ideas still exist among many peoples – African, Asian, and Native American.

Thanatotherapy is used in the treatment of many diseases, both mental and physical. Among them are such as various types of addictions – drug, alcohol, gambling; chronic insomnia; nervous and mental disorders; decreased immunity; disorders of the musculoskeletal system, etc.

Like other methods of psychotherapy, “death treatment” has its own contraindications.

• It should not be used if a disease is acute or has reached a critical stage. For example, at elevated temperatures in the case of physical illnesses, with severe neuropsychiatric disorders.
• Thanatotherapy sessions should not be conducted with patients suffering from alcohol dependence of the third stage, when personality degradation is pronounced and its decomposition occurs.
• People who are intoxicated should not be involved in them either, as the results may be unpredictable.

During thanatotherapy sessions, patients lie down on the floor in the star pose (also known as the “Vitruvian man”). Semi-darkness is installed in the office, relaxing music is turned on. With special movements and massage, the therapist ensures that the patient relaxes as much as possible and falls into a special state resembling death. The instructor’s actions include, in particular, stretching muscles, bending limbs, rotating the patient’s body in a circle and other manipulations that are carried out very carefully and slowly. From the outside, it may seem that the instructor himself will soon fall asleep – his movements are so unhurried; however, he is conscious and in control of the process. During a thanatotherapy session, a person’s body becomes heavy, his eyes open wide, his lower jaw drops, his limbs grow cold – in general, all the signs of clinical death. He himself ceases to feel his body, feels as if his soul is separating from him and flying into the air.

During thanatotherapy sessions in patients:

• Muscle pains disappear as the “blocks” and “clamps” are removed.
• Blood pressure normalizes, as well as the work of the heart; this relieves headaches, dizziness, and fatigue.
• All tissues and organs are better oxygenated, as breathing normalizes during the sessions.
• In particular, the brain receives more oxygen, which has a beneficial effect on mood and mental abilities.

During thanatotherapy sessions, the patient feels many of the things that are characteristic of these “little deaths.” The body’s natural relaxation mechanisms, which have a healing function, are consciously used to solve various problems. By the way, people suffering from the diseases listed above often have problems with sleep, daily rest, and sex life; it happens that diseases are caused precisely by neglect of natural relaxation (the habit of not sleeping at night, working without interruption, etc.). And during thanatotherapy sessions, the body learns to relax anew, restorescontact with death”, and the internal processes in it return to normal. Neglect of relaxation often reveals itself during sessions. During the first sessions, it is difficult for patients to enter a state of complete relaxation and get rid of unnecessary thoughts. It often takes several sessions to learn how to do this. Author: Sergey Semenov Source: 4BRAIN Photo: yogajournal.ru