From: peterson_at_d...
Date: 2001-04-17 16:55:26
--- In buildcheapeeg_at_yahoogroups.com, "Rob Sacks" <editor_at_realization.org> wrote:
> Hi Jim,
>
> The reason I got interested in neurofeedback
> (about eight months ago) was to experiment with
> it as a meditation aid. (I've been meditating for
> about 30 years.) That's why I bought the BrainMaster,
> and that's why I started writing my program immediately
> after -- in the beginning it was for my own use, not
> for business. The first thing I tried was boosting
> alpha (because I had read Jim Hardt's famous
> article about his experience when he was a student).
> I was able to make this happen very soon after
> I started, and the subjective effects were extremely
> obvious -- a sort of trancey wooziness -- but they
> weren't anything I associate with mindfulness
> and I quickly lost interest.
It would take a lot of neurofeedback to match the results of 30 years
of meditation.
> I don't believe, however,
> that I ever got to the point of theta/alpha crossover,
> so maybe I should experiment some more. If somebody
> or something could convince me that these gadgets can
> be used to assist in the kind of medition that can lead
> to liberation, I would become interested again.
>
Alpha is usually stronger than theta, especially in a wakeful, eyes-
closed state. Therefore, to get to crossover, all you probably
really need to do is train theta.
> > I guess my problem is that I just don't want to
> > recommend it to anyone without giving them some
> > kind of warning about potential problems and
> > then have them experience something bad.
>
> Based on my own experience I think this is wise.
> My experience is based on binaural entrainment
> rather than neurofeedback, but I imagine it's
> relevant. I spent about a week last fall at a
> retreat at the Synchronicity Foundation where
> the participants were bombarded for hours a day
> with extreme low-frequency entrainment recordings.
> On the last day, I suddenly was overwhelmed with
> the most extraordinarily negative feelings about
> myself -- certainties that I was a miserable piece
> of shit -- feelings like the darkest moments of
> adolescence. Luckily I was able to resist being
> affected by these feelings to some extent because
> I knew they had been caused by the entrainment,
> and they only lasted a day or two, but my God --
> this stuff could be dangerous.
>
I think your entrainment experience is exactly to the point
here. Most of us have at least a few dark corners of unprocessed
psychological garbage, and low-freq EEG is the way to bring them up.
Often the feeling is "the tip of the iceberg:" one's psychological
defenses will only allow the feeling into consciousness rather than
the whole memory that generated it, and to which it remains attached
at an unconscious level. If this happened to a patient of mine, I
would possibly do EMDR starting from the feeling, and might be able
to pop the whole thing into consciousness so we could process it
through. Whether I would take such a direct route would depend on
whether I thought the person was generally stable. Often, when
something comes up like this it is because you are ready to move
through it and let it go.
In any case, I recall one time when a patient did start playing
around with entrainment tapes (without telling me he was doing so)
and surfaced a whole mess of bad stuff about his early relationship
with his father. He had a really awful weekend, but we were able to
clear it up quite well and quite quickly during his next therapy
session.
As a rule of thumb, I generally tell people not to do theta
entrainment "on an empty mind." They should have some purpose in
mind, such as an intention to install an affirmation or to find a
creative solution to a specific problem. They don't have to try to
stay focused on the goal--I guarantee you can't stay focused on
anything in theta--but setting the original purpose tends to organize
the experience and keep your unconscious away from psychologically
unsafe areas.
Thanks for your report of your experiences.
Jim
>
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