More On BioFeedback
My Continuing Journey plus Book and Product Reviews
In the aftermath of my BioCybernaut experience, I became a great deal more interested in neurofeedback. I thought it would be pretty straightforward to just get a home EEG unit, which you can, and train on alpha amplitude and coherence like they do at Biocybernaut. And you can do this at home, although in some cases it might be more like driving a regular car as opposed to a souped-up hot rod. A decent 2 channel EEG and software (see below) will only put you out maybe $1200 all in, and with a comfortable chair, maybe a pair of good earphones and an eye mask, you've got your own little Biocybernaut isolation setup. But I personally wouldn't think about it before seeing a competent practitioner and doing quite a bit of reading.As I began to read up (A Symphony in the Brain is a good start), things became somewhat more complicated. The mainstream (if there is such a thing) of practitioners tends to be wary of uptraining slow waves (delta, theta, and if too much alpha is present even alpha), generally training to inhibit these waves. For example, people with ADD tend to have a lot of slow wave activity, and they will often be trained to produce beta while inhibiting delta and theta. Anxiety types can benefit from alpha training, but mainly in conjunction with training to inhibit beta. Some work to "normalize" brainwave amplitudes using comparisons against brain mapping databases (such as QEEG) as a guide. The QEEG is to the brain somewhat like the CBC (a standard set of blood tests known as the Complete Blood Count) is to the body. But this is controversial. Many approaches, (notably Val Brown (Zengar) and the Othmers) dismiss the need for a brain map.
It would seem that alpha training, or alpha-theta training, should ideally be done only after you have resolved any problems, although admittedly alpha training is probably the safest thing you can do.
As far as home training goes, most practitioners are going to want to train you at their office. If they decide you are a good candidate for home training they are probably going to want to set you up with a "remote" unit that is preset and prepaid for a certain number of uses so that they can control the training.
For people wanting to get into EEG, here are some sources for practitioners (the BCIA seems to be the main source of credentials):
Other:
The Braintrainer group is run by Peter Van Deusen, who caters to home trainers via www.brain-trainer.com.
If no one is in your area, be aware that many clinicians could accommodate you in an intensive fashion over the period of a week or two. One example would be Marty Wuttke.
As far as research specifically on meditation, I've put together a page of Studies on Meditation and the Brain.
As far as my own results - probably the most notable thing is that I have achieved about a 95% success in curing my chronic (and I mean chronic) insomnia. Specifically, I went from taking medication every night, to maybe once a week. The results in this area were unmistakable, and began within about 4 sessions of hitting on the right setup (but it took some time to get there). FWIW, the setup that helped me was the Beta/SMR protocol used by Bill Scott as the first part of the treatment detailed in the Cri-Help study. It was tailored specifically to my QEEG and thus ended up being more of a Beta/Alpha protocol.
Review of Books, Devices, etc.
Book - Doing Neurofeedback
I wanted to give a thumbs up to Richard Soutar's book, Doing Neurofeedback. It's somewhat informal, not very long, and it's just loose-bound, but it has a lot of very practical information in it that, frankly, I haven't seen anywhere else. If you're just getting started, I think this would be worth seeking out for $30. A more mainstream, textbook-like book that is worth a look is John Demos' book, Getting Started with Neurofeedback.The Pendant EEG
The Pendant EEG is one wicked little device. This is a $600, 2 channel eeg unit, about the size of your thumb. It operates on a rechargeable 9V battery, hangs off a neckband, and communicates wirelessly to your computer so you are free and mobile (um, bathroom breaks, anyone?). Great electrical connections even without using NuPrep, as opposed to some older amplifier designs.BioExplorer EEG Software
I think I will also have to say that BioExplorer software is fairly wicked in its own right. The cool thing about this $400 software is its great range of power and flexibility combined with very easy to use, visually oriented programming. You just drag and drop modules visually and connect 'em up. For someone programming oriented, like me, you will notice the lack of ability to define variables and copy things that are used repeatedly, but the tradeoff is that it's pretty damn easy to use for anyone. If you aren't technically inclined enough to deal with this, you damn well shouldn't be putting electrodes on your head. Recommended, but be advised that BioExplorer has no support except via the Yahoo group. Probably worth mentioning that Brainmaster is kind of the industry workhorse for hardware and software, FDA approved, but not as many options. But that could be a good thing for some people.The pROSHI
The pROSHI is a device somewhat shrouded in mystery by its inventor, Chuck Davis. Vague descriptions and allusions ranging from the "mind of a Zen monk" to chaos theory are employed in the pitch for the pROSHI device. Coming from the ideas of Tom Budzinski's Brain Brightener, it is apparently no more than a controller for a set of eye goggle lights (LED glasses) that flash in a complex random fashion at frequencies that cover the range of brainwave frequencies up to about 40hz or so. This continually changing entrainment is purported to have the effect of quieting the brain, i.e. lowering the amplitude of brainwaves across the spectrum, as it draws the brains attention to and fro, and creating a relaxation response.Although some similar quieting may take place in meditation, this overall inhibition of brainwave frequencies (sometimes called "squashing") differs significantly from the mind of a Zen monk in that alpha waves, and sometimes theta, are greatly increased, not decreased, in Zen practitioners.
I had access to a pROSHI for about 6 months. For me, while the pROSHI did have a subjective relaxing effect, paradoxically, the measurable effect on the brainwaves was the opposite, one of stimulation - increasing the amplitude of brainwaves. This occurred at a low setting, about the level on the pROSHI where the lights first reach a full "on" character, at about the third "dot" on the dial. The following image shows a 5 minute EEG session recording my brain (P4) on the pROSHI at this setting. You can see the amplitudes of roughly theta, alpha, and beta steadily increasing, rather than decreasing. For me, with an excess of theta and beta, this was not a good thing.
From this setting on the pROSHI, it is only a matter of a couple of millimeters lower on the dial before the unit is completely off and the lights are not flashing. I was able to find a tiny window in this area where I would sometimes get a very small, perhaps a 1% squashing effect on average, however, I cannot call the results significant despite a fairly large sample of runs, because of the extremely large standard deviation of results. For my brain, the lack of accurate adjustment in the narrow effective range (for me) made the product useless.
Besides the photic stimulation, the pROSHI also has the option for a low level magnetic stimulus. I was not sensitive to the magstims as I was to the lights, however, the effect was close to nothing at every level up to the maximum. The one clear effect it did have was to significantly lower the amplitudes of the few frequencies in which I was actually already severely deficient according to QEEG, so again, this was not a good thing for me.
Many people claim to get great results with the pROSHI. I am perhaps an outlier, sensitive to the light stimulation in a way that many are not, and present my data as such. However, given the hucksterish hyperbole, superlatives, and pseudoscience with which Chuck promotes his product, I feel stories such as mine are necessary to give some balance. Chuck believes his product is 100% effective at solving virtually any brain problem. Does that sound realistic?
UPDATE: the pRoshi cracked? - more on the pRoshi
The Freeze Framer
Kind of a weird name, but the Freeze Framer is is a software product that comes with a finger or earclip attachment to measure your heartrate. It calculates the variability of your heartrate, and provides you with feedback on your heartrate variability (HRV). Low heartrate variability is apparently associated with many health benefits, and people with good cardiovascular fitness tend to have low HRV.The product helps you to teach your heartrate to change smoothly rather than erratically, and they claim this is associated with many benefits. This product did work for me. I learned to decrease my HRV, also called increasing coherence. I progressed from the starting level, up through the next level and finally plateaued, although there was one more higher level.
They have a technique for increasing coherence where you focus on the area of your heart, slow your breathing and imagine breathing "through" your heart, and then bring to mind positive, heart-type feelings to mind. The visualization aspects of this technique did not work for me, but slowing the breathing definitely did, and that is the main thing I learned from the program. In using the program, I found it more effective to watch the real-time charting of the heartrate, as the audio feedback and scoring had a 20 to 30 second lag time.
Resperate
I'm going to have to say that the Resperate had more profound effects on me than anything I've tried besides neurofeedback (okay, don't get excited - this still may not be saying much!). I have used this many times in my neurofeedback practitioner's office. A belt goes around your belly to measure your diaphragmatic breathing. You just breathe naturally, the device measures your breath rate and then begins to pace you to slowly decrease your breath rate, with audio feedback. The first time I used it, I began at around 10 breaths per minute and got down to 3.5 breaths per minute, and became extremely relaxed, in a good meditative space. Better for breathing than the freeze-framer, plus heartrate coherence was sky-high, and my average alpha levels went up 30%.However, it is not magic. The key is that it focuses you on diaphragmatic or belly breathing, and it might be thought of as a guided meditation that requires you to maintain attention on the breath. And it changes your breath rate very slowly. You can do this yourself, though perhaps not as effectively. Take a deep but comfortable breath into your deepest belly, expanding the belly. For me, best results were to do this inhalation as a relatively quick relaxation off the exhale, taking no more than about 3 seconds. I believe Austin (in Zen and the Brain) reported inhalation to be about 1/4 of the total breath time in Zen masters. Then breath out slowly, but as relaxed as possible. For me there is a little, but not much, tension in breathing out slowly. It is similar in some ways to what is going on when you are singing, or perhaps saying a chant. I think it is wise to follow the advice of a Zen master who said the breathing should be "soft" at all times. You can also pause the breathing after the exhalation for a moment, even until there is a very slight discomfort sometimes, then start again. Count your inhalation plus exhalation and pause time and slowly increase them.
Note that I got up to about 15 seconds for the exhalation plus pause time, but according to research you get all the benefits at around 10 seconds per breath, or 6 breaths per minute, and that's more or less what I shoot for now, rather than straining to go as long as possible. The great thing is that this type of breathing can be practiced virtually anytime during your day.
Shakti
The Shakti device is based on the work of Michael Persinger, who has researched the effects of electromagnetism on consciousness. Shakti mimics the so called God Helmet that Persinger used to produce various spiritual experiences in test subjects. The Shakti magstims put out some very weak and very specific electromagnetic signals (about 10 milligauss, or about 50 times less than the electromagnetic field of the earth at mid-latitudes).I didn't experience anything noteworthy from Shakti.
Persinger talks a lot about "sensed presence," and while I didn't experience that with Shakti, it is something I have experienced. Like many others, I occasionally find myself kind of halfway waking up - being conscious but not quite fully awake. In this state, I am aware that I have been asleep (and I suppose I am still asleep), I am aware that I am not quite awake, and I am unable to move (aka Sleep Paralysis). Mind awake, body asleep, I suppose.
Frequently in this state I find that I have a strong sensation, a lucid dream you might call it, that there is a person or stranger in the room, or just outside, etc., which gives me a strong urge to fully wake up, as it feels extremely vulnerable being in this situation and unable to move. I can certainly understand how many people could imagine they are being abducted by aliens or whatever in this state. For me, since I was a child, I was aware that this state was in fact a dream state of sorts, and I have enough experience and cognition in this state to "debunk" it. I often have to argue very hard with myself, but I basically just tell myself that it is a dream, it isn't real, and there is no real danger - I just need to relax and wake up.