Allan Gardiner Home / VxM-Visual-experience-Methods Updated 2026-09-25
There's a danger of missing out on something useful
just by assuming that it is not possible"
- Tom Zlosnik, Theoretical Physicist
The Gardiner Visual-experience Methods (VxM™)
"The task is not so much to see what no one has yet seen; but to think what nobody has yet thought, about that which everybody sees." – Erwin Schrödinger
This page shows Methods that do not require a device to provide an environment for the body to recognize failure-to-update flows of information that may be late, corrupt, or missing.
It appears to me that the body has accepted a "new normal" maladaptive status quo such that the body has stopped seeking pathways back to a baseline state. The Methods aim to help the body restart seeking pathways.
The Idea, in Plain Terms
I am an engineer and former commercial jet pilot. Over 25 years I have developed these Methods, with feasibility studies and clinics having more than 400 participants.
Sometimes pain outlasts the injury. A surgical scar heals, but the area stays numb or painful. A limb is gone, but it still hurts. The person has done everything asked of them, yet something in the body has not caught up with reality.
The Gardiner Visual-experience Methods (VxM™) work from a simple idea: the body keeps an internal map of itself, built from touch, sight, and movement. After an injury, surgery, or trauma, part of that map can get stuck. Rather than talking through what happened or managing the symptom, VxM™ gives the body new visual and tactile information so it can notice the outdated map, correct it, and resume healing on its own.
No belief in the method is required for it to work, and no story needs to be retold. The person only needs to watch, feel, notice, and touch where the notice.
Watch It Happen: Four Examples
Ordered from the simplest to demonstrate to the most involved, so a first-time reader can see the core idea before the more complex cases.
Debbie: Phantom pain after a double mastectomy
"Debbie" lived with unrelenting phantom pain for two years after a double mastectomy, before a class on phantom pain finally gave her condition a name. Seeing her reconstructed chest in a mirror, tattooed nipples included, triggered pain she described as horrible, and the entire reconstructed area was numb to ordinary touch. Debbie took part in a multi-year feasibility study in Sacramento under William Conard, M.D.
In session with William Conard M.D., and using her mirror-neuron system rather than any device, her phantom pain resolved in 42 seconds. The full 8.5-minute recording with Allan Gardiner is uncut and shows her reactions in real time, including a flinch when she observed me touching my nipple, evidence that her sensorimotor map was actively updating.
This is the clearest short introduction to the core idea: watching a mismatch between what the eyes see and what the body expects is sometimes all it takes.
Figure 1. Debbie was elated to have learned that her pain was called phantom pain. This 42-second recording shows "Debbie" and my interactions taken to restore her quality of life upon the removal of her "phantoms." Immediately before this recording, Debbie had flinched when I reached into my pocket for a pen (referred to in the recording as the "experiment".) I was delighted by the ease with which my new Visual-experience Methods could work. She returned to the study for relief from other ordinary sites of pain. (Permission by William Conard, M.D. and Debbie at the time of recording for public education purposes.)
Debbie came to the feasibility study several times while in Dr. Conard's year-long program to report that her life was much improved without the phantom pain. She asked to watch me scratch chest to relief an itch, as in the video, because she still had no sensation in her reconstructed skin and could benefit from an other-versus-self observation.
We discussed how sharing these videos might educate people having phantom pain in reconstructed skin could ask family members to watch and mimic my actions. It took me a decade to develop VxM, but Debbie remains the first to show that outcomes can arrive in less than one-minute.
Figure 2. This 8.5-minute uncut recording shows the session, in 2014, that Dr. Conard and I discussed as confirmation that my new methods could help his and other patients. I started the video expecting to document how to decide where to put the light for phantom pain. Only a few practitioners have expressed interest in the one-minute method.
Lois: Hand mapping error and 75 years of scar-related PTSD
Lois took part in a multi-year feasibility study in Sacramento under William Conard, M.D. meeting with Allan Gardiner nearly weekly. She was unusually body-aware and could describe her sensations with precision, which made her especially useful for comparing methods side by side.
In one session, Variable-Wavelength Therapy (VWT) produced a mild increase in pain sensation in her thumb while light was aimed at her little finger while we were recording the session. Without interrupting the camera, Visual-experience Methods (VxM™) showed the same mapping errors. Lois noticed feeling as if her own hand was being touched simply by watching Gardiner touch his hand, even though the locations did not match. She had a whole-body flinch the moment her noticed sensation seemed to overlap with the location she was observing. The flinch marked the resumption of sensorimotor map updating.
Lois had carried PTSD pain and flashbacks for 75 years, triggered every time she touched a scar on her right knee from a tricycle accident at age three. Her flashbacks included her "mean older brother." The VxM interactions needed to be repeated. Only later in the session, when photographing the scar, did we learn that there were two scars separated by about a millimeter. Testing twice at that scar resolved the flashback response.
Her case is the best illustration of the method's steps in sequence: self-versus-other, then self-versus-self.
Figure 3. Lois had just noticed a misaligned sensation in her hand while addressing her over-use pain using VWT, as we had done many times. We had previously released misaligned sensations in her foot. (A) We started the experiment similar to the errors she felt using the light. (B) We traced a path toward the middle until her maps aligned, marked by a whole-body flinch. (C) We retested the sensations, which she reported were weaker but now aligned.
Figure 4. Lois reacted at the moment when her "felt" touch location appeared to overlap what she observed. Then her ability to "feel" the evoked touch aligned with where she observed a touch or felt nothing. The peculiar problem didn't come back. (6:49)
Lois had remarked that the Variable-Wavelength Therapy never seemed to rid her right knee of pain like for her left knee. One session, she arrived wearing a knee brace with a hole in it. She mentioned that the hole kept her knee from hurting when it touched a scar. She demonstrated touching the scar with her finger that made her wince. The video shows what we did next to release her PTSD flashbacks at the scar. Her interview shows how releasing one problem can improve a variety of issues that impair the quality of life.
Figure 5. Lois had two scars separated by about 1mm on her right knee. The VxM testing was repeated to extinguish her PTSD pain and flashbacks at both scars.
Figure 6. The real-time recording (7:02) includes some of Lois's narratives (@ 4:20). The video shows enough of the methods for the viewer to learn how the methods work. This recording is uncut. You'll have to watch to see why the experiment needed to be repeated. Lois was instrumental in helping me develop VxM with her sensitivity to her body image.
Lois provided other cases of misaligned body images. Each time, her response was a complete release of pain or discomfort. Her overuse pain continued to return but could easily be released using VWT.
Luis: Phantom limb pain after amputation
Allan Gardiner met Luis at the Healing Hut during the 2025 DoD Warrior Games in Colorado Springs. Luis was living with phantom pain following the amputation of his left leg, and with aphasia that made it hard for him to put his thoughts into words.
Using VxM™, his pain rating fell from 9 to 4 within the session, with complete resolution reported the following day. The uncut 14-minute recording shows the response happening independent of any cognitive understanding of why the method works, which matters for a reader wondering whether a family member needs to “believe” in it first. They do not.
Figure 7. Luis was able to follow my instructions without knowing the details. I have had many years working with people having disabilities, which allowed me to be comfortable with the veterans and people having limited communication. Luis's facial expressions of discomfort or neutral helped guide our working together.
Figure 8. Luis had phantom pain where his left leg had been amputated. This uncut recording by a staff member shows Luis's and my interactions that reduced his pain from 9 to 4. A day later, he reported that the pain was gone. (14:13)
James: Post-surgical numbness and pain
James injured his back helping lift rocks into a barrel at the rice mill where he worked as a foreman. Repeat surgeries left him with persistent pain and a numb area between his scars. In a pain-management program, he received Variable-Wavelength Therapy in his first session and Visual-experience Methods in his second.
His surgically-induced numbness came back online. James later returned to describe what that meant in practice: living without pain, and becoming, once again, the father his children had missed for six years.
His case shows why the Methods are often combined, and that the goal is not a lower number on a pain scale but a return to ordinary life.
Figure 9. Video of James's second session, in which he received VxM and one exposure to VWT (not shown). James and I discuss his resumed sensations. The feasibility studies were about documenting the steps taken to achieve a return-to-normal-functioning outcome. The real-time recordings now serve a new purpose: showing how the outcomes were achieved and can be reproduced. (8:31)
How a Session Works
Every case above followed the same underlying structure. A session is typically 45 minutes and can be adapted by a facilitator, clinician, or trained family member.
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Baseline mapping. Note the pain rating, trace the location, and describe the sensation before beginning.
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Establish a visual reference. The facilitator touches themselves at locations suggested by the participant that might be related to their pain. The participant touches where they notice an unexpected sensation. The presence of a noticed sensation suggests that an error has been located.
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Detect incongruence. Ask whether the observed touch pressure matches the felt sensation, and whether adjusting pressure or position makes them feel more similar.
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Gradual testing cycle. The participant adjusts their sensation to match the facilitator's observed touch, force, and direction, repeating until the mismatch resolves.
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Self-versus self-testing. The participant touches unaffected tissue near an affected area, then moves slowly across it, letting the nervous system resume ordinary map updating.
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Reinforce the update. Repeat the movement without evoking pain, re-rate intensity, and confirm the improved baseline. The exercise is finished when not more mismatched sensation are noticed.
A startle, flinch, or gasp partway through is common and is usually a sign that the map is updating, not a sign of harm.
You Can Try This at Home
A friend or family member can often help using the same idea shown in the examples above, and it tends to become intuitive with practice.
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It works best when the person can perceive a touch sensation simply by watching someone else touch themselves; not everyone responds the first time, and that is normal.
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The person does not need to understand how or why it works for it to work.
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Once a location's normal functioning is restored, it tends to stay that way, so a given spot usually only needs to resolve once.
Go slowly and stop if the person becomes distressed. A flinch, gasp, deep breath, or report of surprise appear to mark the event when the map corrections release the errors. Once released, the phenomenon cannot be repeated at the same locations during the session.
Consider the characteristics of the pain are downstream from failure-to-update sensorimotor maps. VxM only provides an environment for the body to recognize errors in the flow of information (map updating).
When to Use, and When Not To
VxM™ may be worth trying when pain persists despite tissue healing, is localized to a scar, a reconstructed area, or a missing limb, fluctuates with visual attention, or shows protective guarding without a clear structural cause.
VxM™ provides an environment for the body to recognize impairments to the flow of information like a dam on a river that affects everything below it. The signs and symptoms are downstream of the impairment such that attempts to treat those signs and symptoms do not address the upstream impairments. This downstream/upstream arrangement is biological but made more complicated because there is no medical terminology for the abrupt resumption of healing or the event when an experience becomes an ordinary memory.
DO NOT USE AS A STAND-ALONE METHOD WHEN:
• Active infection is present
• Malignancy is suspected
• A progressive neurological deficit is present
• Severe dissociation or psychiatric instability is present
Trauma cases require consent at every stage. Warn the person in advance that a strong startle response is possible and is a normal, beneficial marker that the map is updating. Watching the videos together and making a specific plan may be useful when getting started.
The Theory Behind It: Expanded Sensorimotor Mapping
For years, Gardiner framed the mechanism as a “self-versus other” problem, separate from a purely internal mapping error. Continued case experience and reinvestigation of real-time recordings suggested that model was incomplete.
His current conceptual framework is that these errors arise within an expanded sensorimotor mapping system: visuospatial systems provide a basis for concepts such as theory of mind and the sensations generated by watching impact sports and pornography.
Normally, we do not notice our internal sensations generated by watching someone else move or touching themselves. It is the “noticing with matching” observed sensations that is both the confirmation and the release of a failure-to-update static state.
VxM may amplify cross-person visual incongruence, as in Lois's and Debbie's sessions, capable of updating a stuck map.
Figure 10.Infographic showing the expansion of the homeostatic maps that include another person. The Visual-experience Methods (VxM™) invoke simultaneous stimulation via vision that homeostatic processes compare with external touch sensations. The result is a resumption of normal updating of the maps, which, hopefully, relieves the pain.
Note: Errors in the self-versus-self sensorimotor mapping system appear as post-surgical pain that can be released by the person intently watching themselves touch a normal area, slowly sweeping across the affected area, and finishing the sweep at an unaffected area.
I am hoping that families will learn from this page and report back to me how their family member responded. Use the contact form on the home page.
This page is for educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not a substitute for diagnosis or treatment by a qualified healthcare provider.
For Clinicians and Program Directors
If any of this is relevant to your caseload, the offer is simple and low-commitment: a 30-minute video conversation to review case materials relevant to what you see in your clinic, and to talk through whether a small pilot might make sense there. No cost, no obligation.
Contact Allan Gardiner to set up a time.
This page is for educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not a substitute for diagnosis or treatment by a qualified healthcare provider.