01 Visualize - Articles, 04 Imagine - Articles

Finally, Affordable Brainwave Biofeedback

by Gary Goodwin

neuroskypostIn the 1970s and 80s there were alpha brainwave trainers at decent prices, but they were rough around the edges and only worked with one brain wave frequency. In more recent years, ADHD stimulated some development of hardware for concentration improvement and arousal control.  With a prescription and about $1,500, Brainmaster made much more powerful and flexible devices available.

Now, for less than $200, broad-spectrum equipment is available that plugs into your PC (not available for Mac, yet).

To get there, you have to buy two things.

The Hardware: Neurosky

About two years ago Neurosky was introduced to the market. It was an attractive, light-weight, and practical headset that plugged into a PC.  It provided some interesting feedback through showing a large spectrum of brainwaves on screen. Two protocols were built into the software: “attention” and “meditation.”   Color bars and waving lines also appear on screen but, the fine print says, they are for illustrative purposes and have been altered a bit to show better on the monitor.

Developers have come forward and produced some interesting games and, at last, software that pulls useful brainwave info from the application. About a year ago, the Mind Reflector people came forward with what I had been waiting for. But, before I say more about that, here’s more on the Neurosky headset.

Asif measuring his Brain Waves with Neurosky Mindwave Headset

http://www.neurosky.com/Products/MindWave.aspx

NOTE: If you want to with Mind Reflector, don’t get the headset that works with mobile phones.  Get the USB version of their headset.

The Software: Mind Reflector

This is what brings the Neurosky headset alive for those who want to do brainwave work.

MindReflector C-1 Neurofeedback Training by MindReflector Technologies, LLC

MindReflector Neurofeedback Training provides true low-cost EEG Biofeedback training with dry-sensor technology utilizing the NeuroSky MindWave headset.

These Mind Reflector guys are clearly serious.  They took their software and protocols to their peers in the neurofeedback field. They put everything out to be poked at and examined.  To handle some of the critics, they compared the results of their software tied to Neurosky to clinical-level equipment, the Brainmaster. They found that the two devices returned very much the same results even though there was a $1,100 price difference between the setups.

Why Use it for Imagination Work?

First, the Neurosky/Mind Reflector setup can be used to learn how to relax well to do deeply into imaginal work.  That is always an important step.

Secondly, the Mind Reflector guys included an Alpha/Theta training protocol which is tremendously valuable.  I will write more about alpha/theta work but let me say here that this brainwave combination has been shown to take people to a deep place where important work can be done. This can include: memory recall, working with beliefs, creative breakthroughs and more.

This equipment and software gets my 5-stars.

04 Imagine - Articles

Inside or Outside? Where to Put Your Focus

by Gary Goodwin

doorway_distractionsWe need an inside/outside strategy in our back pocket, ready to employ whenever our stress level is too high, or potentially headed that way.

An inside strategy would involve turning inward to a large, small or moderate degree, and then doing something there.  It could be doing visualization of a calming place, person, object, pet, song, etc. It could involve watching our breathing, or doing a body scan to see how we are feeling emotionally and bodily (and both). Frequently, this is the strategy we use when something is concerning “out there”. Sometimes a meeting is not going well, or we are in the dentist’s chair, or we need to withdraw from the bustle around us.

There are times, however, going inside is not the best strategy.  For instance, if we are trapped in repetitive negative thoughts such as worry and anger, going inside where those thoughts/feelings are flying about, and introducing a counter to that can be too challenging.  Going outside, can be the direction to go.

Going outside can distance ourselves from our mental/heart chatter. Simple attention to our surroundings can help.  Listening to the soundscape, for instance, pulls us from our troubles within. Look deeply at colors, differences in sizes of objects, light and shadow; feeling the wind, the movement of your feet; anything can keep us outside of your inner rumblings. Activity, especially activity with some challenge to it, will engage a great deal of our brain and reduce at least some of the energy going to our inner landscape. Of course, there are the well developed practices: mindfulness, Tai Chi, and Open Focus.

Next Steps: Aim to master a set of inner and outer target methods; experiment with them a great deal to make them your own; do a quick practice session every day. Use as needed. If one direction doesn’t help, switch directions.

01 Visualize - Articles, 04 Imagine - Articles

Three Hats: Guided, Guider, the Observer of the Whole Thing

by Gary Goodwin

wearing many hatsWe naturally split ourselves whenever we practice some guided practice such as guided imagery or self-suggestion (aka self-hypnosis). We give part of our attention to the guider, some attention what we are experiencing, and there is a quiet observer that takes on the task of watching the process. Three hats at the same time are on top of our heads and we thought we were in deep relaxation.

Erika Fromm, in her research on self-suggestion, called this multi-hat process ego division, where our self-awareness gets allocated to three concerns. She even threw in a fourth, the doubter. Ah yes, there is the doubter. Our inner critic that has serious questions about the process, whether important things can be experienced, and whether we are the right person for the job. One more hat, please. Fromm did find that, at least in hypnosis, some people could do somethings better when guided than when they guided themselves. But she also found that some experiences were better in self-guided processes than when there was guider.

Find Out for Yourself – Guided or Self-Guided, Which Works Best for You?

First, get some guided imagery recording that you like and are very comfortable with (you don’t need the doubter rambling on about the guider, his/her voice, word choice, etc.) and work with it four or five times.  Note what happens, what works and what doesn’t.

Next, use the same script, as best as you can recall or and/or take notes to self-guide. Use that approach four or five times.

Compare:  How do the processes differ in terms of: getting deeper; getting more vivid imagery; getting involved in the action; effectiveness post guided imagery session.

From this work you can really sharpen your practice by knowing how you wear many hats and still get quality experiences and focusing on the most effective process for your interests/needs.

++++++++++++

Self-Hypnosis: The Chicago Paradigm – Erika Fromm and Stephen Kahn

01 Visualize - Articles, 04 Imagine - Articles

Following and Flowing with En-Trancing Found Sounds

by Gary Goodwin

Most people have some sound, natural or man-made, that they know can grab their minds and en-trance it. Gentle rainfall, a fan, crickets chirping, a train passing, a rocking chair.

The common features of these en-trancing found sounds is a fairly steady rhythm that is seduces our mind and emotions into following it. Just following. No need to be critical of anything. How can you be critical of ocean waves, hmm of a hair dryer, or a car moving down the highway on a long trip? First we follow the sound and then we allow ourselves to let the sound lead us as we turn off our evaluative minds. Our larger world drops away as the sound covers over other competing sounds that might distract us or at least keep us vigilant, listening for trouble.

Making the transition between being very active and being very internalized and deep can be hard but here is a method to make that journey. Use a favorite found sound is an easy, direct, usually highly effective way to ease into deeper imaginal states and work.

Sounds to Try – Entrancing Found Sounds:

Nature Sounds:

Water – rainfall (on many different types of surfaces)
Water – waterfall
Water – stream
Water – waves
Birds
Night sounds
Jungle sounds
Swamp sounds
Wind
Frogs
Crickets
Owls
Fire – bonfire, fireplace
Heart beat

Human-made:

Electric fan
Wooden sailboat
Water sprinkler
Typewriter
Grandfather clock
Car
Train
Hair dryer
White noise
Brown noise
Pink noise
Vacuum cleaner
Jumbled human voices (i.e. cafe sounds)
Metronome
Ticking clock
Bathroom shower
Airplane
Windchimes
Motorboat on waves
Clothes dryer
Passing traffic on a city street

How to Find Them

Some of these are easy to find or setup such as floor fan, wind chimes, or ticking clock. If we can set them all we need to do then is position ourselves to hear them. Another way is use recordings via phone apps, desk computers, or mp3 files

See these sources for computer based found sounds:

simplynoise.com
purewhitenoise.com
soundsleeping.com – Compose your own mix of sounds or listen to single sound from an extensive recordings library
whitenoiseplayer.com
rainymood.com

Search your phone’s app store for: white sound; relaxation; and stress apps

Look through audio recordings at any large bookstore (online and bricks and mortar) or speciality seller of relaxation tunes.

04 Imagine - Articles

Default Brain Mode – when the brain really heats up

by Gary Goodwin

Evidence shows our brain never rests. When we go into an inward focus, the amount of energy certain sections of our brain uses, increases beyond what was required to focus externally.

Health Psychologist Kelly McGonigal, thinks that this is probably not a totally positive event. She believes that our brain becomes much more active with inner chatter and distractions. The default state automatically goes to these four main mental activities:

1) Inner commentary – creating an opinion on the present moment and looking for what is wrong and what can be improved in a type of alternate reality;

2) Time traveling – thinking about the past or the future, imagined scenarios, inner fantasy;

3) Self-referential processing – Creating a sense of self – who you are, “I am the person who ____, I like this and I don’t like that, other people should treat me a certain way because of who I am.” It defines your identity or ego. This solid rigid sense of self distances you from others and the present moment;

4) Social cognition – Thinking about others, what they think about you, what you think about them, looking at yourself in relationship to others, comparing yourself to others.

McGonigal is a teacher of yoga and a proponent of quiet minds. Indeed, the brain’s default status may make meditation difficult. However, those who are curious about the content of our minds and who are drawn to observing the imagination, this is confirmation that the production of the imagination must be vitally important to the human since so much energy is dedicated to it.

More examination, both using imaging equipment and noting personal experiences, will give us with a clearer view of this state of mind and what part our imagination plays in this activity.

A Brief Introduction to the Default Mode Network

If you like this video you should VOTE FOR IT on the Society for Neuroscience Website! http://www.sfn.org/baw/PeoplesChoice.aspx Thanks!Hans Berger, inventor…

01 Visualize - Articles, 04 Imagine - Articles

A Three Pipe Imagination

by Gary Goodwin

The toughest mysteries for the great fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes, required three pipe sessions.  This didn’t mean that three pipes were employed. No, only one pipe was held by Holmes, but it did have to be filled three times with his favorite brand of tobacco. Puffing away allowed Holmes to drift into his thoughts.

It would be easy to assume that Holmes was using analytical reasoning of the sort we would use for scientific experiments or math or accounting. He has been so often portrayed that way. But if he limited himself to the analytical state of mind only, he never would have invoked brilliant insights. He had to puff his way into his imagination where he could see in his mind’s eye all manner of possibilities.

Pipe #1 – Ease into the dreamy interior and take the first look
Packing the pipe’s bowl carefully, Holmes’ unconscious would know that he would soon be entering the imaginal world. With years of practice, his unconscious would then down regulate his nervous system which in turn would quiet his body. The rest would be up to his conscious mind: letting go of  the exterior and investing his attention upon his inner landscape. Holmes would need to slow down his typical busy day-mind to move into a twilight state, that slowly builds towards favoring a dreamy landscape. He could increase his immersion of this landscape by bring up something familiar such as the location of the crime under investigation. Using the power of visualization, he could take what is served up by his memory as fact, as being the actual facts and figures of that location. Exploring each detail, he would find himself switching from awareness of the outer world into the inner world of his crime scene visualization.

Pipe #2 – Poke and Prod Visualizations
Imagination is the perfect blank stage upon which to lay out actions, props, players, and plots.  All can be combined, recombined, and combined again. Freeze the action if you want to, eliminate a prop while adding something new to the inner stage. Slow the action down, speed up the action. Zoom in on something or step way back and see the big picture. Add characters, subtract characters. Test how one part of the visualization might be related to another (i.e. the victim’s scuffed shoe and the butler’s knife). Here lies the freedom to do countless “thought experiments” in the laboratory of the imagination.

Pipe #3 – Step Out of the Way and Let the Unconscious Show What It Knows
Fill another bowl and then slowly run through one of the combinations that appeared promising during Pipe #2. This time, “Don’t think”, Holmes would tell himself. No, thinking is not what is needed here. Instead, the focus should be upon the body for the body will speak if only we have the imaginal ears to hear. Some great inner knowing will speak with a tension in the body, or a gut feel, or a change of breathing, or an unexpected movement. Watching and following the body’s lead we ask questions of it and listen for its answers that can come in: more body tension/movement/changes, words, phrases, sounds, intuitive knowing, or images.

……”ah, Watson, I’ve got it. It is so clear now.  Come, we must be going. A game is a foot.”