In Curanderismo, the Mexican Traditional healing practice, we are told of a peculiar illness that disrupts our emotional and mental well-being. It is called "Susto". Susto is characterized by intense, prolonged, and highly uncontrollable bursts of fear, anger and anxiety. Susto also drains the psychic energy and dilutes the sense of life's meaning. Curanderos sustain that even the composition of our body changes, a fact that is now being demonstrated by experimental science. Modern scientific researchers found that Veterans who suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, after they had viewed a war movie, showed a pain sensitivity reduction as much as if they had received an injection of eight milligrams of morphine. Individuals suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder pour a high number of natural pain-killers into their system at so little provocation that eventually they become addicted to their own internal narcotics. We can say with Curanderos that they are trapped in a circle of "poisoning themselves." In this case, the healing can only take place if there is a breaking of the poisoning circle. We have to keep in mind that the person afflicted by Susto is not living in the ordinary world. They are in the abyss, in a place of hopelessness. Dante in his book "The Divine Comedy" has a sign at the entrance of hell that read "Abandon hope all of those who enter here." And hope is what those who suffer from Susto leave behind. Hell is also characterized by absolute loneliness, a process by which one feels alienated from the world. That is why the circle of poison can begin to crack when another person enters it. The Curandero. This is someone willing to go to hell in order to reach another human being. The Curandero is willing to loan his center of direction and well-being to the other individual who has lost his center, and who is afflicted with ill-being. At times, the Curandero himself also sees the world that the other person is contemplating. And while this vision may be stressful and turbulent, the experience of having another person there with him, in that horrible place, has a healing effect in the person affected by Susto. Hell is for one person. With two, hell begins to give way. Just by entering hell the Curandero begins to change it. Susto can also consist of one's inability to process a particular experience. One that is unbearable. Curanderos say that the head cracks in order to protect the heart from breaking. And yet, the heart is the only place where the suffering can exit the person. In this case the Curandero assist the other person in seeing the truth, in facing the unbearable. It is in this stage that the pain descends from the head to the heart; the head comes together, the heart breaks. The Curandero knows that pain with no outlet causes ongoing suffering, the predicament of Susto. He also knows that healing begins by finding an outlet for pain. The Curandero knows this because his heart is also broken. He is a wounded healer. He also knows that the heart can come together. It comes together as we discover other human beings, as we build a community caring for one and other. "Corazon cura corazon" (heart heals heart) is a saying among curanderos, and they should know for they do not hesitate to help others find their heart and process the experiences that life has set before them. Curanderos have a deeper message for all of us. They say, "A broken heart has more room for love."