Alfred A. Barrios

Alfred A. Barrios (B.S. Caltech,'59; Ph.D. in Psychology UCLA, '69) His Ph.D. dissertation on understanding hypnosis was nominated for the National Creative Talent Award. He is a pioneer in the area of mind-body medicine, writing his first paper, "Hypnosis as a possible means of curing cancer", in 1960 for which he received the Cancer Federation award in 1996. That same year he was also nominated for the prestigious Norman Cousins Award in Mind-Body Medicine. His book, The Stress Test, reached #2 on the Times best-seller list and he is the inventor of the Stress Control Biofeedback Card which accompanies the Stress Test. His biggest accomplishment is the development of a program, Self-Programmed Control (SPC), for giving people the ability to make lasting positive changes in their lives. The program is presented in detail in his book Towards Greater Freedom and Happiness The positive results of SPC's application in education, medicine, industry and drug rehabilitation are also presented therein. For example, its initial application in schools reduced the dropout rate amongst minority students from 56% to 16% (one of the first students to benefit is now the Mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa); and led to student substance abuse curtailment success rates averaging 80%+.