Exceptional Psychology

Not the lesson I expected OR lessons in: ‘I will’ vs ‘will I?’

2010-08-07T03:57:00.000-07:00

Some months back I posted how I was going to see if these neurofeedback exercises aided my picking up difficult material. I was hoping for, ‘cool, this is much easier now’, but alas, material I find difficult, is still difficult. I began with a fair amount of determination, and quickly became somewhat disillusioned that my ability to ‘will’ my way through such material had not exactly improved.

There was a lesson in all this however. The lesson learned is that an approach of ‘will I?’ has advantages over a more determined approach (‘I will’). As an example think of training to run, vs training for a golf tournament. In running determination may give you that last mile, whereas in golf determination will probably simply throw off your game. For golf, you want to be relaxed, taking things as they come, and feeling your way through. A good game of golf could be thought of as an artful process, rather than a sheer technical exercise (cannot control all the variables, so a certain intuitive process is involved).

Neurofeedback is an artful process as well. The control you have is indirect, its not a matter of ‘willing’ yourself into a state. Its more of intuitive memory of what a state felt like, and then finding your way back. It takes a certain patience, and willingness to have sessions that are not necessarily great, in exchange for steady progress, or at times unsteady progress.

My lesson learned is that for the material I struggle with, its better to seek & celebrate small gains rather than assume I can chart a course from the outset. This is also true of neurofeedback.

So my learning of difficult material (the language Clojure) is coming along, but as an artful process. There are two contributions that neurofeedback has for this, the first is simply being in a good space which makes it easier to concentrate. The second, potentially more dubious claim, is that for problems that I get stuck on, leaving them in the background and yet maintaining awareness of them, seems to have a reasonable success rate.

If I get brave (doubtful) I may try some of the focus enhancing drugs that seem so popular at the Ivy League universities. I suspect they would be better for this arena. For now I will use the more gentle approach

Paradigm Shifts

2010-04-18T05:35:00.000-07:00

A question of interest is how useful is this training for learning. This is of immediate interest as I find myself in a position where I need/wish to make a major paradigm shift. I am a software engineer, and have been quite pleased with my language of choice: Smalltalk. Recently I discovered Clojure, which is a functional language, and is Lisp based. Now, to move from Smalltalk to a Functional language is a major paradigm shift, and one that is not easily accomplished.

So I have been struggling with this, and feeling very much like a beginner who is starting all over. There is a certain amount of pride involved here, I feel like if what I have been practicing in the neuro-feedback is of value, that I should be better prepared for the challenge than not.

Even so, when facing something difficult, there is this problem with attention, when dealing with something that is hard and unfamiliar, the mind readily comes up with excuses for turning aside.

This brings to mind the neuro training, and what will hopefully be a parallel in my new learning task. One of the definitions of attention is that is the faculty of bringing back a wandering attention, over & over again, that this is the root of judgement, good character, and will. In doing neuro-feedback, you are dealing with this issue, the mind wanders, you remember, you bring yourself back.

The difference between attention & immersion is huge. In immersion, you are fully involved, creating new understandings, following creations to their rightful ends. In 'Zen and the Brain' he talks about 'Artful Processes', that these take patience, practice, & skill. Neuro-feedback has felt exactly like an 'Artful Process', and it has had as its reward that it now feels more like immersion than attention.

Right now I could care less about creativity, all I want is to feel effective in picking up this new skill. I am definitely at the attention stage. Will I be able to use what I hope was learning to be effective in making the transition? I have a such a long way to go. The mind rebels at the new patterns. The stake is planted...

Summary of proposed EEG talk for Infotec 2010 | SpeakerText

2010-04-06T03:42:00.000-07:00

Summary of proposed EEG talk for Infotec 2010 | SpeakerText

This is a youTube talk that I put up as a proposal for the Infotec conference, off the beaten track for the conference, but interesting in that I used the SpeakerText translation service which was definitely cool.

In the moment..

2010-04-02T06:59:00.000-07:00

I have been on a long posting hiatus. I wanted the test of time to see if I would stick with the neuro-feedback, if I would continue to find it valuable, or if it was a passing fad. I now have more opinions based on experience that I hope will be useful.

This morning I watched a TED talk that dealt with being in the moment. This is a short talk (7 minutes) by Patsy Rodenburg that discusses being in the present, and the insights it has given her. This is of particular interest as this is effectively the Open Focus technique that I have found to be my favorite for practicing the neuro-feedback...

So it comes down to how we are experiencing the present, how we form our current state of mind.

I am slowly becoming able to identify the feel of certain neural states. More importantly I am slowly becoming able to switch states without the EEG. It is not a skill like reading where you can simply do it. It takes time and practice, and cannot always be called on. It is always a reach to change, but the reach becomes easier with practice. Just like any skill, you can be 'on your game', or 'off your game'.

The idea that we form our state of mind intentionally, and can change its current makeup by the brainwaves we are choosing to produce is an interesting evolutionary direction. The Neuro-feedback training is a faster way to experience what Patsy Rodenburg was discussing in her TED talk. Who would not want to be more connected? And I am not talking Linked-In or Facebook!

Refinements, then & now

2009-10-10T06:31:00.000-07:00

I started this blog with my EEG manifesto that indicated brain waves would reflect the inner state, and that by manipulating the one, you could create the other. I now believe that this is an over simplistic view.

My current approach is one of exploration, so being in the convenient position of not needing to defend any one position, its very useful to sample the current theories & practices that are out there.

Most recently I have been trying some exercises as put forward by Les Fehmi, PhD, author of 'The OpenFocus Brain', who was one of the first to build and experiment with an EEG machine. Its interesting to contrast Fehmi's approach to this, vs say Austin (author of Zen & the Brain). Austin, as a neurologist, goes into incredible detail as to what is going on in the brain in various states, and the 'Zen' take on some of this. Fehmi's approach reminds me of one my favorite Lisp (programming language) books called 'The Little Lisper'. In 'The Little Lisper' there is no theory, but instead a set of exercises that you work through, each only a page or so in length. As you go through the book, you realize that you are getting Lisp at a working level, a level that will let you take the practiced concepts and apply them to other languages, other situations. This is how Fehmi's book strikes me. It comes with a CD that goes through a set of exercises whose intent is to create brain synchronicity by opening the sensory field, each about 15 seconds in length. Doing both exercise sections on the CD takes about an hour, but at the end of that time you are in this really interesting state, that she refers to as 'open focus'. The idea behind open focus is that you be able to switch attentional states from diffuse & immersed, to narrow & objective. As an example (how could I mention the Little Lisper without giving an example?) take a golfer coming up to tee off. He/she starts in focus (narrow, objective, thinking) by considering the wind, the lay of the land, what club to use. As he/she is ready for the swing they switch into the nonfocus, the diffuse & immersed state where they are using the body intelligence, the subconscious to make the shot. The open awareness lets you be more in the moment, more relaxed, better able to pull off the performance without thinking what you are doing which might destroy the moment.

So Fehmi's approach is more of a bottom up, vs a top down as given by Austin. I think both approaches are good, but I think for interests sake, that if I only had an hour or so to decide if this was worth my time, I would want the experience versus the knowledge. One is probably a much more effective driver of the other.

But here is the kicker, I get the state change that I want from Fehmi's approach, but I am not seeing anything that would indicate anything particularly interesting in the brain waves. Now this was monitoring with the Neurosky, which is only a single channel, so if there was brain synchronization going on that would be interesting I would have missed that. The question of synchronization has me thinking I am going to convert my OpenSource EEG over to a 4 channel unit which is probably the minimum to check for synchronization. I wish the Emotiv people would allow access to the straight brain wave data, as theirs is at least a 6 channel.

Another blow to my thinking that brain waves are a sufficient measurement is that if I am training for Alpha, then I can get a state change by just significantly impacting the amplitude of the Alpha waves. But how I feel when I get the state change is dependent on how I get there.

A final blow to my thinking is that I have noticed large differences in my end state depending on how I use my attention to arrive there. For example, for awhile I was using 'compassion' meditations to get the Alpha, and those felt very spiritual. Going after large amplitude in the Gamma region had a very different feeling end state.

I am keeping my 'manifesto' for now. But I think of it differently. I now see that there are many optimal end states, and the goal is to explore ways of getting there, and ways of staying i.e. persisting them after the end of the session.

So using the EEG is helpful at the moment, and lets you know when you are getting interesting changes moment to moment so you know when you are getting it right. But as to where you end up, that is dependent on your starting state, and the type of attention you are using to modify your brain/state.

EEG made simple

2009-09-09T05:09:00.000-07:00

What interests me is this problem of establishing reliable knowledge about the universe and how easy it is to get the wrong answer. That's what I'm writing about. --Gary Taubes

When I started using the EEG I first looked for books that had information that would be useful for using the device. From Amazon I ordered:
Getting Started With Neurofeedback -John Demos
The High-Performance Mind -Anna Wise
Train Your Mind, Change your Brain -Sharon Begley
Zen and the Brain -James H. Austin, M.D.

But I am not sure they were necessary. For those wanting the 10 minute overview of what they should aim for, I would have to recommend the following paper: EEG full protocol by Valdeane W. Brown, Ph.D., who has some 20 years experience. For my own practice I have been mostly using Browns paper. This paper was originally in the public documents section of one the yahoo EEG groups, but was unformatted, so I formatted & republished it as the above web link. As a quick start, suppress Delta (2-5hz), increase Theta(6-8hz) & high Alpha (14hz), that will keep you amused for weeks.

Another interesting paper by an unknown author discusses EEG 40 Hz Rhythm.

I will discuss the other books more in a later post, but I will mention one thing I found interesting in 'The High-Performance Mind'. This was definitely the least 'scientific' of the books, and a good part of it deals with visualization exercises and how to tell when you are doing it right without having an EEG. But what I did find interesting was the measurement of yoga masters brains were producing high amplitude waves throughout the range, which was considered to be an 'awakened mind'. If you are using the Neurosky this is easy to train for as you simply try to create as large a complete circle as possible in the Brainwave Visualizer.

If I were wealthy I think I would send a bunch of Neurosky units to places where they train for meditation. That brings back the quote that starts this blog about how easy it is to get the wrong answer. If you have feedback, then it is easy to avoid going down false paths.

Key

2009-08-30T05:22:00.000-07:00

Forgive the title 'Key', but I think it is appropriate. I like the concept of enlightenment, not in the all encompassing sense of suddenly being a totally new person, but rather as in a 'key' idea where now you understand what is behind the view at the surface, or in other words the rules that generate the surface effects. Therefore my definition of enlightenment is one of those 'aha' experiences that adds to your understanding.

I put out a previous post on how I was missing the 'theta' waves & my intention of working on these. Now what is interesting about this is that I have been working on generating the brain waves I want for some months, but because of the view I was using I was totally unaware of what I was missing, or how it might affect my sessions. So without feedback there was no indication of what I was missing. Having been reading 'The High Performance Mind' (book report coming) and now with an excellent graphical view that the Neurosky software gives of the brain waves, I realized my mistake and brought attention to the missing component. I plan on posting an accelerated view of a session in the not too different future, but for now I will give a verbal description. I spent more time not having the theta component than having it, but at times the theta component would pop in anywhere from roughly 25 to 90%. I think this is the best meditation I have had to date. The aha experience was in realizing that it was not enough to only hit the desired brainwave frequencys, but also that the experience is greatly affected by the expectation. In the past I hesitated to give too much significance to what was used as the center of the session (new ideas, compassion, relaxation) thinking that what was important was the brainwaves. But this just is not so, I noticed that if I did a compassion meditation that I typically felt quite a bit happier, and dare I say it(?), spiritual, which hardly defines how I think of myself, being an atheist and all.

So this time with the theta component coming on not incrementally but generally in large jumps that would then decay there was this feeling of slipping into another universe. I tell yah, if you want to do games for this I would do setups where the travels & discoveries in the game were part of your state, it could have been really fun, and much more life like in that things are not always in your control.

I think this is a perfect example of my earlier post on placebos & brain systems. If you get the brain expectations set in just the right directions it is as if it is on autopilot and taking you there without any effort on your part. What a great system! I think this will get easier as I become more expert at remembering a feeling, which can regenerate the desired brain state.

This brings up some ideas on types of intelligences which I will discuss in a future post

Neurosky - EEG for the masses!

2009-08-28T05:45:00.000-07:00

The allure of dry sensor technology & a wireless EEG headset had me ordering a Neurosky unit. I was concerned about quality because I wondered how good a unit that costs under $200, whose target audience was gamers would be. The least expensive EEG competitor (assembled) is well over a thousand, and does not use wireless nor the dry sensor technology. This is my review of the unit after having used it for a week. Note that my only other experience is with the Open Source EEG unit, which works quite well, but has to be built, and whose component costs are in excess of $200.

On a visual inspection the unit looks like a set of high quality headphones with an extra arm attached, that might be mistaken for a microphone. The arm contains the sensor that rests against the top of the forehead. It is far lighter that I expected which is a good thing. The headset is adjustable & very comfortable to wear. On the left ear foam there are 3 sensors that are meant to contact the ear, which gives the effective ground. A bluetooth dongle is included. So mechanically, & appearance-wise I was very pleased. Not sure how susceptible this may be to electostatic discharges (I suspect the worse considering the micro-currents being measured), but so far so good...

Neurosky includes 'brain visualizer' software with the unit that is done using a polar coordinate type of display. I was a little offput by this initially and thought about writing an interface for BrainBay, which is an open source application for viewing EEG. Normally I prefer to train in just two bands at a time. But I made an interesting discovery that has me prefering Neuroskys display, and this relates to a fairly serious mistake I made in my training with BrainBay. For several months I trained to reduce delta, and increase the high alpha. In suppressing delta I believe I was also unknowingly suppressing theta, which is the bandwidth directly below alpha. According to some writers, a healthy theta component with the alpha component gives the most effective meditations, and helps in being able to utilize the subconscious to solve problems. The picture at the head of this blog is a capture of the Neurosky BrainVisualizer view showing an unfortunate 'notch' in my theta waves, along with the desired notch in the delta. In posts to come we will see how long it takes me to get rid of this 'notch'.

Using the unit is simplicity itself, and I find myself prefering it over my OpenSource EEG. When you put the unit on & start the software there is a 'signal strength bands' that show whether or not the unit is capturing. Now if I have been outside and am the least bit sweaty, this works great. Normally I have to moisten the areas the 'dry sensors' touch to get a good signal. No doubt this varies from individual to individual. After using it I always clean & dry the sensor areas.

The BrainVisualizer has an interesting delayed time component that allows you to see the change in the polar display over the last few seconds. The old traces fade out, and the new ones show full intensity. This is a really nice touch that gives a quick idea of your trend. There is also a color change that it rotates through that has no purpose other than eye candy (at least as far as I know). This display works very well not only for giving your attention to just a few bands, but the overall picture of brain waves being generated.

There are also meters on the side for 'attention' & 'meditation'. When pegged at 100% they commence doing an interesting flash sequence. I noticed I can get a flashing 'meditation' without any theta component, so I guess the developers did not feel that theta was a necessary component. I wish Neurosky would publish on what they were thinking.

So whats missing? I would like to be able to record and then do averaging on the session. Neurosky provides developer tools for free, so it may be possible to do this addition. I have not tested for calibration but may attempt that in a later post. As a single channel EEG, you will not be able to look for brain synchronicity, other than that it has few limitations & great convenience.

As an EEG unit for under $200, this should make people very happy. I am certainly pleased & plan on purchasing some additional ones as gifts.

Placebos tie to brain systems

2009-08-25T05:04:00.000-07:00

Wired magazine had a fascinating article on the placebo response. For a new drug to be introduced it has to work significantly better than the placebo. The problem is that the area big pharmacy was hoping most to clean up on turns out to be the one that is also most susceptible to the placebo effect. They were finding that the placebos were often more effective than their drugs they were testing.
To quote:

The blockbuster success of mood drugs in the '80s and '90s emboldened Big Pharma to promote remedies for a growing panoply of disorders that are intimately related to higher brain function. By attempting to dominate the central nervous system, Big Pharma gambled its future on treating ailments that have turned out to be particularly susceptible to the placebo effect.

The reason for this is that the brains expectations orchestrate responses both in the brain and body. One of our best attributes as humans is our ability to predict, this ties into our creation of abstract models & virtualization that we can do as no other animal can. Expectations based on our surroundings can change our internal response to an illness.
From the article again:

In other words, one way that placebo aids recovery is by hacking the mind's ability to predict the future. We are constantly parsing the reactions of those around us—such as the tone a doctor uses to deliver a diagnosis—to generate more-accurate estimations of our fate. One of the most powerful placebogenic triggers is watching someone else experience the benefits of an alleged drug. Researchers call these social aspects of medicine the therapeutic ritual.

So I think there is another way to look at the placebo response, and that is as a system that we have some control over, and that by setting up some of the necessary triggers we can get the effect we want. For example, I have said in a previous post that I do not have an 'on-off' type of control over the brain waves that I would like to be able to switch back and forth between. But what I have found is that if my mind falls naturally into a state that I want, that the EEG training I have done allows me to prolong & potentially enhance it. This means that I have additional control, because the recognition of the state serves as a trigger, and the memory/experience from the training allows me to 'grab on' and go with it.

So this type of control is a good beginning & now I just need to get better control of the triggers. I think it all ties back to expectations & attention. There is some interesting science coming out of the placebo research that could be quite useful.

Potter

2009-08-03T04:06:00.000-07:00

I find movies are a good place to practice switching state. This weekend I watch the latest Harry Potter movie. Its easy to see why these have such appeal. It reminds me of an argument heard for why we have not been visited by aliens. It goes like this: 'there are many intelligent races out there, but they get sidetracked from galactic exploration because the virtual worlds they can create are so much more interesting than the real worlds'. We could probably generalize that intelligence seeks learning, stimulation, & social activities.

You may be asking what this has to do with Harry Potter. Well, if you are a part of a very advanced society, then creating full immersive virtual realities could be a fun way to pass the time. For the brainwaves I like the idea of selecting state, because it relates back to how I perceive my environment, my emotional state, and even how well I am thinking. I think this is why the main target audience for the inexpensive EEG's are for the gamers. But I think they have it wrong, they are thinking of using this to 'move by thought', or to 'show emotions on your avatar just by thinking them (or contorting your face)'. What is more interesting is the state that we are in when we are doing an activity, such as gaming (which alas, has yet to appeal to me).

If you have ever read Zelazny 'Princes of Amber' he has this fascinating method whereby the princes move between the alternate realities. They will be in some form of transportation, and will slowly begin to imagine changes in their landscape. As these visualizations become actualized they move from the 'real world' to alternate realities. As they travel along the landscape begins to change dramatically (always slowly) to finally be the place they are trying to arrive at.

Because switching mental states does not seem to be an 'on-off' type of switch, the Zelazny 'meanderings of the mind' has a certain appeal. The Potter movie was perfect for this type of exercise because you find yourself transfering to a different reality at a leisurely pace. I cannot quantize how deeply I hit the alpha state, certainly not as good as when just using the EEG, but, the end goal is to be able to have fun with it, and I believe it worked for that.

After all, we are all after deeper experiences.

2009-07-26T07:35:00.000-07:00

Assessment

What is interesting about this blog is that it is an easy introduction to Neuro-feedback where you can get a quick idea if this might be worthwhile exploring. As this blog progresses I plan on switching over from commentary to an explanatory phase on how to do this yourself. At the outset of this blog I had put up a 'manifesto':
EEG Manifesto

1: Life is about creativity, happiness, and being in the zone.
2: There are mental states that enhance #1.
3: It is possible to train for these states --i.e. select your own brain waves.

So now I think its time to do an assessment based on my own experiences. I have not achieved what I set out to do yet. I think the 'EEG Manifesto' is self evident for the first & second items. For the third item, a full success would be being able to switch states without the use of an EEG. My efforts so far allow me to switch states when hooked up to an EEG, but it is not under volitional control without the use of feedback (i.e. an EEG). It is also a fairly slow process, where it can take ten or twenty minutes to make the switch, and sometimes fail. All is not lost however. I have noticed that if I happen to fall into a particularly good state, I can recognize it, and preserve it longer than I would have been able to without the training.

One of the great questions in psychology is whether we are capable of evaluating ourselves, and by caveat, changes to ourselves. I do not have the answer to this, but I do believe we can perform 'soft-science' on ourselves. Soft science says that we cannot perform measurements outside a context, but that within a context we can do comparative evaluations. This would allow us to use comparative metrics, where the absolute scale is unknown, as we cannot know what the absolute maxima or minima may be, but we can measure changes compared to the last state. The other question is what metrics do we use, and to this there is a rather simple answer, and that is: 'use metrics that matter'. What are the metrics that matter? Those are the ones we have decided it is important to either limit, or to enhance. What we to choose to measure is an evolutionary process, as experience & experimentation will enable us to make better choices. All of this is to simply say, track what you do, and then compare what you are currently doing to what you have done before, and decide whether the current efforts outcomes are better or worse. It is a process that can give continuous improvement, or recognize when we are moving in the wrong direction.

So I am not claiming to do 'hard science' with absolute numbers that can be verified by others. The hard numbers would be the EEG brain wave measurements for frequency & duration. But these are only reflection of what is most important, and that is how do I feel when I am in these states, how does it increase my happiness, my being in the zone. And even more importantly how often can I get back to this state without the EEG, and when in the desired state, how long can I preserve it. This is why I think that the 'soft science' part of this is more interesting than the 'hard science' of measuring the brain waves. The hard science is great because it has given us the machines that allow us to do the training for the metrics that matter, which fall under soft science.

Back to assessment. Although my EEG machine is currently non-functional, I find I am in the state that I wish to be in more often than before. So in this sense, I am 'happier'. I do not have the volitional control for changing states that I would like to have, and it is obvious that it will take more than the few months I have worked with the EEG so far to achieve volitional control. I am pleased enough with the outcome of my current training that I want to continue training, and that is perhaps the most telling metric. The main risk is that with the change being slow, comparative techniques become more difficult, since if the change is slow enough, the belief will be that the current state was the control state all along.

The Neurosky people have sent me an email indicating their units have finished certification, and that they will be sending them out soon. If the Neurosky works well, this will give an EEG that is generally affordable to the public at less than two hundred. I will do a review as soon as I recieve the unit.

Cheap EEGs

2009-05-31T05:06:00.000-07:00

I had held off in putting up this blog until I decided I would have something interesting to say (which is why all the dates are messed up). But now that I am thinking this may have a wider audience, its time to list out where to get the EEG machines reasonably.

Open Source Modular EEG $200-$300, 2+ channel, but has to be assembled. --this is the one I am currently using, and building some as well. If you build your own, I have designed an easy to use EEG headset that can be put together very cheaply, and works through thick hair.

Brain Master Technologies $1200+ 2-4 channel. My understanding is that if you tell him you have interest in the open source eeg community he will give a discount. Every now & then these show up on eBay, go for around $700.

NeuroSky $199 single channel. If this works, this is totally exciting. I have one on order, & will compare to the Open Source EEG & then post the results. If it is a viable alternative, then its definitely the way to go for experimenters that do not have deep pockets, or lots of time to build their own. Interesting also in that they have created their own ASIC (the 'think gear' image above), if the intent is to market this to medical manufacturers then it could be the real thing.

Emotiv $299 , looks totally space age, but they have intentionally disabled the ability to get to the EEG functions! What were they thinking? Not sure if it could be hacked. Not yet out late May 2009. If anyone hacks this, please contact me as it appears this would have roughly 6 channels. I have one of these on order as well, but not sure if I will follow through on the order, as I wonder how much they have done to hide the encoding, or possibly placed filters that would limit its usefulness.

Mattel MindFlex Game
Control a foam ball by mental activity. For kids, $79, not sure what they are measuring, but connects as an EEG would to head & earlobes.

Star Wars, The Force Trainer
Level of the ball in the tube that you 'levitate through focus' (and a little help from some fans) with 15 different levels of difficulty. $139. Again not sure what they are measuring , but interesting in that they have separated it into 15 different levels. Alpha? Gamma? If anyone hooks themselves up to this with an EEG at same time, perhaps they could email me with some actual data

Comment if you know of other inexpensive EEGs

Gamma!

2009-05-31T04:59:00.000-07:00

======May 17 Brains, where have they gone
So you may be wondering what happened with the brain blog. The simple answer is that I took apart my EEG machine one time too many, and seemed to have destroyed it! The unfortunate thing is that the way it was constructed its not easy to just replace a board, as instead of using molex connectors between the boards, there is a bunch of wires soldered from board to board, which is ok while everything is working, and annoying as hell when it comes time to fix it.

The ones I am building use molex connectors, but my construction is unfortunately remarkably slow as everytime I find something I am unhappy with I order different parts, I am probably being too anal, but I am sure Monk would be proud of me.

But the good news is there is one report I have not sent out yet, and it is a doozer (not sure that word is in the dictionary, so take it as somewhere between dozing, and Wow(!)).

I wanted to find out if these machines would work for Gamma, so while training in the high alpha, and suppression of 2-5, I also monitored Gamma. Well of course, the Gamma was totally fascinating because this is what they looked at on the Buddhist monks that have been meditating for 20years. The monks had this very large gamma wave signature, which the neurologists interpret as increased consciousness. Since I don't know if I have 20 years, my approach is the 'better living through technology', and there are reports out there that say you can use EEG's to duplicate 20 years of meditating in 6-12 months.

So without further ado, here are some screenshots of gamma. The last one 'brain15lows.jpg' is interesting because this is an example of what I started with in one session, so you can see how much you can change your brain by simply using an EEG & attention. Notice I did not say focus, because focus is a narrowing, and you are actually trying to do the opposite. I am not sure that I can describe it, but I would have to say that there are times when you would want high alpha, and other times when high gamma would be good for whatever you are trying to do. Either is very interesting to be experiencing first hand. If I lived about 2000 years ago, maybe I would also take up some mushrooms & become a soothsayer since they were still buying into that back then. Now the best I can hope for is to put out an EEG manifesto & tell people why I think it is a good idea.

I am hoping I have finally found all the ways I do not want to build the EEGs, and will soon have some working ones ready to go. But this will be the last report until I manage to fix the current one, or build the new ones.

minute by minute

2009-05-31T04:52:00.000-07:00

===============April 14

Thought it might be of interest to send out an EEG session where you could see the gradual change minute by minute, rather than just towards the end which is what I have been sending out.

Start of session (above)

at 2 minutes, some calming in the lower wave
at 3 minutes, notice lower wave starting to settle
at 10 minutes, getting more high alpha (top line) activity, with negative impact to 2-5 on bottom
at 22 minutes, pretty much same as 10 minute activity
at 25 minutes, slightly more high level alpha

Now that was pretty much the end of the session, with some negative impact from having to operate the mouse to capture images. But I thought I would also include a snapshot of a session that was rather remarkable, and unfortunately very rare. I was not capturing gamma, so will never know for sure if maybe this is the gamma-symmetry they were talking about, but the state change was quite remarkable, and somehow effortless (although to date I have been unable to duplicate it). It was definitely a feeling of intense awareness & oneness. I would have to say that if I can teach myself to flip over to this state voluntarily it would be worth years of training.

Of course it figures that during this time I was on-call & was paged, and had to work on some production problems in the servers. Even so, the feeling although diminished, did not completely leave & I happened to capture what it looked like when I got done with the work issues, which is shown below. I think the end goal would be to maintain these states while working. I find it remarkable that I have made as much headway as I have, especially considering I only do 30 minute sessions. I sometimes find the sessions taxing, as if the brain is an overused muscle, or as if it has not adopted to its new state, that the new state is not me, but rather a different version, a different projection. I seem to have gotten past the occasional problem with dizziness & needing to breathe more deeply, but this may be that my recent sessions have not been particularly good in the high alpha.

a test...

2009-05-31T04:47:00.000-07:00

=====March 21 a test (imgs above & left)
From what I can tell I am somewhat retarded in my progress. The neurologists typically only spend a few weeks at the level that I am working on before moving on, whereas for now I seem to be quite happy to continue at the current suppressing of 2-5, and increasing 12-15.

Today I decided on a test. I need to finish off a paper for a local conference presentation on software hox genes, and need to come up with good examples/explanations. The ones in my software do not work well for the presentation as they require too much background, and would bore everyone to tears. So in this 'eeger session' I decided to switch back and forth between doing the standard put my mind in a state to produce the waves that I wanted, and occasionally to flip over thinking about the examples/explanations.

So first off, if you look at top left image this is waves from the previous day and not mucking around with thinking other thoughts. This way you can tell the affects of trying to do useful work.
The next two are a couple that I grabbed during the session. There is a bit of a problem with cherry-picking these, as I have to grab something, and tend to grab when they look pretty reasonable, so these are done when I am fairly pleased with the state, and may not be representative of the entire session (especially the first 10 minutes or so). So I really should be picking 2, one being a minimum, & the other my 'cherry pick' to give a true representation. Will do that next time.

Anyway, I think you can see the previous days image was definitely a 'better' wave, so there was some cost to the session.

On the idea front, I picked up 5 fairly decent ideas/ways to explain. Definitely along the lines of 'nibbling away at the big problem'. So nothing astounding, but definitely was in the mood to work with it, and was happy with the result. It was the type of idea session where you feel like you have improved your understanding.

without going into detail the ideas were:

issue is that hox would work best in a quantum computer, where everything is working at once, digital computers are a poor substitute.
repressors for hox genes need repressor switches for detecting changes in environment that would switch them off
in digital world, a poor but necessary substitute is the idea of a membrane that determines what segment of the network is visible, and what hox genes are being acted on
chemical soups are totally ideal, as in this case we have many hox in many states (law of large numbers, with enzymes acting like single core CPUs)
important to point out that there are no order dependencies in how animation engines do their jobs, as it will all fall out in the end. Obviously using hox genes in digital world not optimized for speed.

Results
It comes down to how you measure, this is a philosophical area where measurements can only be done comparatively without hard numbers, but I am happy.

Annoyance

2009-05-31T04:39:00.000-07:00

==========March 21 -Annoyance (first img above, end, second is start)

EEG report

This morning was a rather interesting experiment in that I was annoyed when I started my EEG session & wanted to see if I could get out the mood that I was currently in, as it was hardly conducive to my plans for the rest of the day. I was also definitely not in a mood to do any 'compassion' types of meditations.

Actually, for now I want nothing to do with compassion meditations anyway. I basically am doing this to try to become more effective in those areas that interest me.

I came across a very interesting paper on how to do exceptional research ( have a summary of this paper if anyone wants it). One of the tips was that you need to work in the system, as if you fight the system, your energies will be expended in changing the system, which you may accomplish, but alot of valuable time will be lost. I was trying to take some of this advice to heart. For example, at yesterdays IT meeting I had taken an opportunity to talk with the VP about doing a paper for him explaining how complexity theory could overcome some of the issues that had caused a project to be canceled (alert! alert! --more selfish scheming for how to get to do this project in the fashion I want to do it in, rather than the ahem, less than brilliant fashion we normally would do it in.) Therefore under the guise of, ahem, 'applying the latest complexity theory acadamians are using for risk management of large projects', I was attempting to satisfy my own selfish desires . Anyway, he was interested, and afterwards at the end of the 'large meeting' he asked for questions. Now normally I would have some choice question such as: 'almost all organizations have moved away from command & control structures as they exhibit poor characteristics for efficiency and innovation, do we have any such plans?'. This time I found myself actually behaving myself, which actually prompted the VP to ask somewhat surprised if I did not have any questions. So all this was simply to say, maybe this is an example of me getting incrementally smarter, or perhaps wiser would be a better term. It could also be an example of the VP knowing exactly how to manipulate me...

So in general, compassion meditations are out, as I seem to be able to get the state change I want without getting all soupy about it. But then again, I am always open to experimentation, as if I found I could get the gamma symmetry using the 'c' meditation, I would find it perfectly acceptable.

Back to the effectiveness of the eeg session. It took me about 20 minutes before I was beginning to get into what I will call the 'different state'. From the jpegs, you can see where I started (annoyed), and finished (not really thinking about it, so if I am not focusing on it, I will call it good).

one step back...

2009-05-31T04:38:00.000-07:00

=======March 16 One Step back

Another EEG report

My focusing on trying to increase the size of the waves in the 12-15hz seems to have put me back to the start of my training in reducing the 2-5 waves. Interesting, as I think I also felt better with the lower 2-5, so that seems to be significant. I wanted the elevated 12-15 to see how it affected creativity.

Interesting article in Scientific American, heres a quote from it:

Our research and that of other scientists suggests that the vagus nerve may be a physiological system that supports caretaking and altruism. We have found that activation of the vagus nerve is associated with feelings of compassion and the ethical intuition that humans from different social groups (even adversarial ones) share a common humanity. People who have high vagus nerve activation in a resting state, we have found, are prone to feeling emotions that promote altruism—compassion, gratitude, love, happiness. Arizona State University psychologist Nancy Eisenberg has found that children with elevated vagal tone (high baseline vagus nerve activity) are more cooperative and likely to give. This area of study is the beginning of a fascinating new argument about altruism—that a branch of our nervous system evolved to support such behavior.

And a new science of happiness is finding that these emotions can be readily cultivated in familiar ways, bringing out the good in others and in oneself. Here are some recent empirical examples:

Meditating on a compassionate approach to others shifts resting brain activation to the left hemisphere, a region associated with happiness, and boosts immune functions.

Talking about areas of gratitude, in classrooms, at the dinner table or in the diary, boosts happiness and social well-being and health.

Experiences of reverence in nature or around morally inspiring others improves people’s sense of connection to others and sense of purpose.

Laughing and playing in the face of trauma gives the person perspective upon life’s inevitable difficulties, and improves resilience and adjustment.

Devoting resources to others, rather than indulging a materialist desire, brings about lasting well being.

Anyhoo, I am fascinated by this as I found the 'compassion' meditation was very affective for achieving the elevated 12-15, and reduced 2-5. My goals when I started this were multiple, (reduce stress, increase happiness, focus better, and perhaps achieve some 'aha' experiences. I was not originally considering areas that are part spiritual, but feel that I must accept what I find.

lasting effects

2009-05-31T04:35:00.000-07:00

============March 13 (associated images appear above)

Another EEG practice report...

I was trying some experiments to see how large an amplitude I could get the 12-15 hz without worrying about what happened to the 2-5 hz. Then I wanted to try switching to lowering the 2-5 hz all in the same session. Note that I do not seem to have the control to both raise the one & lower the other, at least not yet. Anyway the ability to control brain frequencies is definitely there in all of us, with corresponding changes in focus, attitude, and perception of stress. Currently I notice lasting effects from anywhere from none upto maybe the majority of the day. The none was actually the day of doing the 2 jpegs I am sending. If I am tired from night job activities (we had issues at 11:40, then 2:30 in morning, then in to work at 7) then I will not be right regardless. So somewhat limited in what it can make a difference in. However, used to be I could not even vaguely change waves when I was tired, so that I was able to modify them while tired in this case was interesting

Okay, now for some books that look interesting. The first one (if you were here you would hear some choking sounds in that this definitely not the type of book I would normally recommend, but worth reading the comments on it) I think has a basis from the effects I have seen when trying the 'compassion' meditation. Definitely improves mood, and there must be a physiological / genetic basis for it. Could well be some of the underpinnings of religion & society in general. So, if anyone wants to try this or the other books mentioned here, let me know & I will send a copy.

The second one is by a neuroscientist, and discusses best practices for keeping a healthy brain, including diet.

increasing amplitude

2009-05-31T04:32:00.000-07:00

===March 8
This morning trained for increasing size of wave in the 12-15, without worrying about what was happening in the 2-5 range. As promised, much smaller jpeg. I am surprised that I am seeing noticeable affects in the short time I have been using this. I feel like I am thinking better, and have better concentration...

EEG beginnings

2009-05-31T04:15:00.000-07:00

====March 6, 2009
So, I have decided to start my brain blog, of which you dear readers are the unfortunate receivers of this perhaps unwelcome wisdom. I mean a blog would be far more polite, as that way you would have a choice of whether to see it or not.

The point of this blog is to record my experiences, so you might have an idea of what it would be like to spend 20-60 minutes each day with the EEG machine.

I think I am roughly 2 weeks into my training now. I am attaching some jpegs so you can see the change in brain wave patterns that I have affected during training. (brainWave0 is an example of starting, brainWave is when I thought I was doing pretty well, and brainWave2 I have only managed once)

The goal was to make the top wave as large as possible, and the bottom wave as small as possible. The effects of changing your brain waves intentionally seems to last for a good part of the day. On the day that I achieved the almost flat line on the bottom it was almost scary. The good part was that I seemed to have much better focus. The strangeness was that it felt like when you put on a new pair of glasses that you have not adjusted to yet & you think it will be ok, but it feels off. The scary part was that every now and then I had to do deep breathing as it almost felt like I was going into a state where I might pass out. So my guess here is that I was probably using more oxygen than usual and needed to change my breathing habits some. But it was cool, as I seemed to zip through a couple of tough problems the contractors at work were having.

Now note that this is not a linear progress, today could not create the nice large waves in the 12-15 range (top graph). But I tell you, it does make you feel different. One of the differences I notice is that although I am 'in' the world, things do not affect me as much at the personal level. Also, I tend to think less in the 'me' form.

So this training is what was recommended for the newbies to this, later will work on Alpha waves, and possible gamma assuming my EEG unit will pick them up.

what it is

2009-05-28T04:00:00.000-07:00

This is a series of posts that describe my experiments with Neurofeedback. Note that I do not claim to be a professional in this area, I would describe myself as a hobbyist (my profession is software development). My goal is to be able to choose the best of state of mind, be it for creativity, getting in the zone, or just relaxation.

Mostly I will be describing my experiments, what works, setbacks, and other items of interest. I will also provide links for the books/websites that I have found useful, & will post reviews of equipment that I am using. (currently using the Open Source EEG).

eeger (EEG) Manifesto

2009-05-28T03:57:00.000-07:00

EEG Manifesto

1. Life is about creativity, happiness, and being in the zone
2. There are mental states that enhance #1
3. It is possible to train for these states --i.e. select your own brain waves