What I saw was clear and distinct as though I was looking out the window at an actual scene. The colors were as clear as broad daylight. What’s more, the scene changed in a logical order; that is, it proceeded like I was watching a movie. My client, too, saw a moving imagery that was spontaneous. I suspect that the frequency triggered spontaneous imagery related to deeper issues that were metaphorically represented.

Since then, I’ve experimented with the Galaxy on a number of clients and several have reported spontaneous imagery at frequencies of 12.3 to 12.8 hz. More imagery was reported at 12.7 hz unison (both lights flashing in unison) than at other frequencies in that range. In one instance, a person reported imagery that evoked strong emotion that we could work with using RET. Most other clients merely received insight or, in some cases, “gee whiz” information. As a hypnotherapist versed in metaphor, I could use their “gee whiz” imagery to draw useful information for the client’s sessions.

Not everyone who tries this process sees visions. Of the 25 clients with whom I’ve done this, 14 saw visions, 2 saw “something interesting”, and the rest saw lights flashing or unrecognizable patterns.

Have you ever tried a mind machine? You know, those cool hand-held computers that present you with flashing lights and brain wave tones? Basically, you put on headsets and special glasses that have LEDs in them, close your eyes, hit the start button and WOW! Yeah – those are the mind machines I’m talking about.

I own several models – Voyager Mind’s Eye (used to be Voyager XL), Voyager Galaxy, Proteus, and Sirius (Used to be Orion). My favorite is the Voyager Mind’s Eye. Here is my personal evaluation of each:

Voyager Mind’s Eye -
Cat’s Meow - has the most spectacular displays because it can go from, for example, 3 hz to 20 hz instantly – other machines ramp the frequency incrementally or smoothly over a few seconds. Fairly easy to operate it comes with a great user’s manual that gives lots of info about mind machines. 50 built-in programs.

Cat’s Pee-u - Most expensive unit. No visual display. Aging technology. Unit is programmable from a PC but software is DOS only.

Voyager Galaxy -
Moon shot - Simple and utilitarian, very easy to operate. 30 built-in programs. Has manual mode. Visual display window includes program number and frequency and mode. Good starter set.

Mooned shot – Manual mode only adjusts upward rather than up and downward – you can ramp from 2-30 hz but not from 30 back down to 2 hz. Not programmable.

Proteus -
Star Wars – Best techie machine because it has so many options. Can be connected to a Thoughtstream biofeedback machine to operate the A/V display with thought – very cool and interesting. Includes 50 built-in programs plus software to create your own programs (199 will fit in the machine in addition to the 50 built-in). Two-color liteframes (blue/red). Also includes a visual display for frequency, mode, and program.

Star Warts - No A/C option – AA batteries last for months, however. Transitions between frequencies and modes are so subtle and soft that this machine does not present explosive visual effects. Software is tedious and requires a bit of a learning curve – available in Windows format only (no Mac or Linux). Not a good starter set because of its complexity.

Sirius -
Big Easy – Fairly simple and easy to use. GREAT manual mode – best of any I’ve seen. Inexpensive. Includes 23 programs – one of which is a random program that will play as long as the machine is on and has power – fun. Visual display window is identical to the Voyager Galaxy’s. Good starter at a low price.

Katrina – soft transitions preclude explosive visual effects. Not programmable.

My favorite is the Voyager Mind’s Eye. It really is the Cadillac of mind machines. The technology is a bit aging, but it really puts on a show.

All the above machines will do programs with music (known as polysync or audiostrobe technology) in which the machine is programmed to go with special music. Most of these musical programs are just amazingly beautiful and the lightshow that accompanies them is spectacular in my experience. I love them.

I’ve developed a comparison chart for anyone who might be interested at www.1derworks.com.

“When subjects posed expressions of fear, they had a subjectively larger visual field, faster eye movements during target localization and an increase in nasal volume and air velocity during inspiration,” observed researcher Dr Joshua M Susskind and colleagues from the Department of Psychology, University of Toronto in Canada. The opposite pattern was found for disgust. The study was supported by a Canada Research Chairs program and a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council grant and published in the peer-reviewed science journal Nature Neuroscience.

Using computer-generated graphics, the researchers trained a group of undergraduate students to model a set of facial expressions and then tested their vision and the airflow through their nose. During the training, the participants were presented with facial examples from one of eight different individuals, four men and four women, displaying six different emotional expressions. They used pictures of faces showing anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise. After the participants rated these faces to identify which type of expression was shown, they were then asked to perform the face themselves. For fear, they were asked to furrow the brow by contracting the muscles, widen the eyes and flare the nostrils. For neutral expressions, they were asked to relax their muscles.

In separate experiments, with up to 20 participants each time, the researchers checked their ability to perform various tasks and took some measurements. They checked the visual fields by assessing how well the participants could see objects at the periphery of their vision, and by tracking participants’ eye movements. The researchers also used a respiratory device with a mask attached to a computer to measure how well the participants could breathe through the nose and to record the volume of air inhaled each minute. They also used MRI scans to take images of the nasal passages and this allowed them to estimate the volume of air within the nose by counting the number of pixels contained in the image of the passages on the screen.

They repeated the same tests when the participants were asked to show disgust. This face type was closest to the opposite of fear, with narrowed eyes, raised lips and a narrow nose.

The researchers suggest that fear may enhance perception, whereas disgust tends to dampen it. These results provide support for the Darwinian theory that facial expressions are not tools for social communication, but may have originated as a means of changing our interaction with the sights and smells of the physical world.

I suggest that perhaps fear (as an emotion) may have developed as an evolutionary adaptation that tends to enhance life force by energizing the immune and perceptual systems whereas disgust, which is more of a judgment than an emotion and is therefore more a mental exercise than an emotional one, tends to decrease life force by dampening the immune and perceptual systems.

The logical conclusion to me – in evolutionary adaptation, true negative emotions may actually be good for you while negative judgment appears to be the opposite. How can you tell the difference? Surprisingly, it’s fairly easy to distinguish emotion from judgment – by the time it takes to develop. True emotions tend to be spontaneous whereas judgments tend to take more time to manifest in their expression. For example, the symptoms of fear (perspiration, change in breathing pattern, facial expressions, increased heart rate, muscular movement, etc.) come almost instantly to a person faced with the object of a phobia. On the other hand, a person faced with something they find disgusting, feces for example, might wince up at the sight or smell of it, but not instantly as they would if they were truly afraid of it instead.

Can you experience true emotion without judgment? We humans tie our mental so tightly with our emotional and physical aspects that it makes me wonder. Yet the startle response suggests to me that it is possible to experience emotion without judgment. And whenever I let go my judgment about something or someone, I tend to also release the emotions, too. And many times, I’ve confused emotion with judgment – such that in releasing one, I release the other – because in my mind I’ve made them one and the same.

What do you think?

From Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B – abstract (my clarifying additions):

People see with feeling (something I’ve been saying for 20 years). We ‘gaze’, ‘behold’, ‘stare’, ‘gape’ and ‘glare’. In this paper, we develop the hypothesis that the brain’s ability to see in the present incorporates a representation of the affective (emotional) impact of those visual sensations in the past (meaning you don’t actually “see” – you FEEL + SEE). This representation makes up part of the brain’s prediction of what the visual sensations stand for (meaning = emotion+visual stimulus) in the present, including how to act on them in the near future (based on how we feel about what we see, we act accordingly). The affective prediction (emotional interpretation) hypothesis implies that responses signalling an object’s salience, relevance or value do not occur as a separate step after the object is identified (seeing = FEELING + SENSUAL INPUT). Instead, affective (emotional) responses support vision from the very moment that visual stimulation begins.

You see AND feel – never see alone. Your visual signals pass through and interact with the emotional parts of your brain – so OF COURSE you’d attach feeling to visual stimulus. I’ve said it for many years and every Rapid Eye Technician knows it from experience. Nice to see that someone is considering doing some solid science about our hypothesis and experience.

A light and sound mind machine can be WAY fun! And therapeutic as well.

For many years we’ve known about the benefits of getting a good night’s sleep – from better mental health to weight management. Now we know certain types of sleep can stave off high blood pressure in older men. That’s right, we older guys need a goodly amount of Slow Wave Sleep (SWS) every night. It’s as important as diet and regular exercise.

Susan Redline, M.D. and Professor Peter C. Farrell of Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA, said:

“Our study shows for the first time that poor quality sleep, reflected by reduced slow wave sleep, puts individuals at significantly increased risk of developing high blood pressure, and that this effect appears to be independent of the influence of breathing pauses during sleep.”

Slow wave sleep is stage 3 and 4 of non-rapid eye movement sleep and is characterized by brain wave frequencies of less than 4 Hz. It is one of the deeper stages of sleep. According to Redline:

“People should recognize that sleep, diet and physical activity are critical to health, including heart health and optimal blood pressure control. Although the elderly often have poor sleep, our study shows that such a finding is not benign. Poor sleep may be a powerful predictor for adverse health outcomes. Initiatives to improve sleep may provide novel approaches for reducing hypertension burden.”

As far back as the 1960s scientists have used mind machines to affect brain waves. They can be particularly useful in inducing SWS in a controlled (time challenged) environment (i.e., nap). Many mind machines focus extra time on SWS frequencies. Training your brain to slow to these frequencies using light-and-sound mind machines could be one of the “initiatives to improve sleep” spoken about by Dr. Redline. Besides being entertaining, mind machines could be useful in helping aging men avoid high blood pressure resulting from lack of slow wave sleep.

Many clients using mind machines have told me how well they’ve slept after using one. I hope studies will be conducted to determine their usefulness in affecting SWS in aging men. I for one will continue to use my mind machines and continue to enjoy deep sleep every night.

Source:
“Decreased Slow Wave Sleep Increases Risk of Developing Hypertension in Elderly Men” Maple M. Fung, Katherine Peters, Susan Redline, Michael G. Ziegler, Sonia Ancoli-Israel, Elizabeth Barrett-Connor, Katie L. Stone
HYPERTENSIONAHA.111.174409 Published online before print August 29, 2011, doi: 10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.111.174409

With practice, you’ve perfected your cause and effect relationships to such an extent that they have become automatic – so much so that you simply accept them as truth without question. Further, you tend to apply the “rules” of those relationships to later similar events. For example, the rule that “men cannot be trusted” because (cause-effect) one molested me as a child – taints all future encounters – setting up romantic interludes for failure before they even start. And there’s the first rub – your faulty cause-effect relationships have become so automatic you no longer question them – in fact, you may indeed be completely unaware of many of them.

As physicists have discovered, there is no way to know ALL the possible outcomes of any given action. Probability dictates that a specific outcome may be far more likely than another. Still, there is no way to absolutely know for sure that a specific outcome (effect) will occur due to a specific action (cause). Conversely, it is impossible to determine with absolute surety a cause from an effect – there are just too many variables involved. That is why science deals in probabilities rather than certainties – cause and effect is simply impossible to connect with absolute surety. And there’s the second rub – you cannot with surety determine cause from effect or effect from cause.

And then there is the third rub – the fact that we as humans love to be right. In short, we are willing to ascribe any cause to any effect if we feel it makes us right, proper, or justified. We can even convince ourselves that these cause-effect relationships are true no matter how absurd or unrealistic they may be. We’re even willing, in most cases, to defend our cause-effect relationships against an onslaught of contradicting evidence. Justification gives us permission to lie, cheat, steal, make war, and worse in the name of being right. God is still God (metaphorically) no matter how strong the evidence against the concept. Rightness is more important that truth.

Turning Cause and Effect on Its Head

The keyword here is the word “because” – in English the word “because” joins together our cause-effect relationships. Something is so BECAUSE something else is so. Someone did something BECAUSE something else happened. Something will happen BECAUSE something else happened. Because, because, because… In this series of exercises, you will be challenging your most treasured and sacred cause-effect relationships so they become exposed to your conscious awareness and no longer as automatic.

Exercise 1 – Real Effect, Unrelated Cause

Every time you hear yourself say or think the word “because” – in your mind create a nonsense joiner. A joiner is the ending to a sentence – the part that comes after the word, “because.” For example, if I were to normally say, “I’m going out tonight because I deserve it.” Instead I might say something like, “I’m going out tonight because that door is open.” – completely separating cause from effect. With practice this fun and often comical game can become a real powerful therapy all by itself.

Exercise 2 – Specific Real Negative Effect, Unrelated Absurd Cause

Every time you notice that you are doing something that does not support your goals tell yourself in your mind, “I’m [doing this real action] because [absurd description of something impossible].” For example, “I’m eating this cake because gorillas are purple.” In this exercise your job is to make the joiner absolutely as absurd and impossible as you can. Get ridiculous with this exercise – only use it when you have done something you know you should not have done.

Exercise 3 – Specific Real Positive Effect, Unrelated Real Material Cause

Every time you notice that you have done something that supports your goals – like exercising – tell yourself in your mind, “I did that because I have [some item in your world].” For example, if you are seeking to drop some pounds and you just came in after exercising, you might say to yourself, “I just exercised because there is a window in my kitchen.” In this exercise your job is to create a joiner that is true yet not related at all to the behavior (what does a kitchen window have to do with you exercising, for example). Remember – do this exercise ONLY for those times when you notice that you are doing what will support your new body image.

To reinforce and energize this series of exercises you can document your experiences in a journal. The overall goal of these exercises is to get you to pay attention to your cause-effect relationships – to respond to them – and in the end, challenge them. Don’t let them just “be” – check your “evidence” against adult reason. Just because someone hurt you when you were a child does not necessarily mean they or someone else is going to hurt you now.

What More Can You Do?

Objectify your evidence – Pretend you are an alien, unfamiliar with our culture. How would such an alien look at your evidence? Forgive - Acknowledge that you goofed when you made your “because” truth. It happens all the time in humans. So, you were human! So what?! Move on!

Become a skeptic – You can do it. Challenge your becauses each time you hear or recognize them. Here’s some ideas:

• Ask yourself, “Is this really true?” – “Do I really know this is true?” – “Can I know this is really true?”
• Ask yourself, “Who would I be without this truth?”
• Ask yourself, “What OTHER reasons could there be?” – “If this were not true, what ELSE could be true instead?”
• Ask yourself, “Where could I have gotten THAT idea?” – “Who taught me to believe that?” (and when?)

Identify which – Note whether you are attempting to make yourself right, justified, or proper (to fit in with your peers). It’s okay to be right – and we tend to feel better when we feel our actions are justified – it’s when being right or justified means everthing that we can have a problem. And how wars erupt.

Take charge – Your cause-effect relationships are yours, so own them. Only the owner of a belief can change it. When you notice a cause-effect relationship getting in your way, own it! Then manipulate it using the exercises above – and rewrite it to suit your present situation and environment.

The Work of Byron Katie – Perhaps the best and simplest way I know to challenge your cause-effect relationships and do something postive about them. I highly recommend her material – especially the The Work Worksheet. Google “The Work” or click here for more information on The Work of Byron Katie.

Rapid Eye Technology – The RET Skills for Life course can help you turn your cause-effect relationships around. Check out RET here. Click here to check out their free Skills for Life course.

A study published in Neuron, helps us understand the value of delta and beta brain waves in a new way. Basically, the study showed that beta brain waves denote attention and attentiveness while the much slower delta brain waves tell us when to pay attention. It makes sense that we don’t pay attention to everything all the time – we’d be overwhelmed. Some mechanism within us figures out the patterns of attention we need to employ in order to better utilize our attentive powers. Timing is everything…

Through a series of experiments utilizing a brain-computer interface, the study authors discovered that beta and delta brain waves were always present to some degree during wakefulness. The frequency and intensity of the delta wave helped the authors predict when attention would be paid while the frequency and intensity of the beta wave helped them predict how attentive the subject would be at any given time. Fundamentally, this demonstrates that our brains are always bathed in delta AND beta waves during times of outward attention such as when noticing something important or just paying attention to something. The study did not investigate sleep states.

“All these things converge on this idea that low-frequency oscillations reflect the brain’s plans; they are really critical,” study author Schroeder said.

“The slow [delta] rhythm is kind of like the rhythm section [in a band], and you anticipate notes at particular moments in time based on that slower rhythm,” author Hatsopoulos explained.

“There are lots of stimuli in the world that have rhythm,” said Jacob Reimer, post-doctoral researcher at Baylor College of Medicine and another author of the study. “If you’re waiting for a signal that is informative, you could pay attention constantly for a long period of time. But if that thing you’re waiting for has some rhythmicity to it, maybe a more efficient method is to only pay attention ‘on the beat.’”

So what happens at those times when you feel you just can’t seem to pay adequate attention? Like during a lecture you really want to remember, or while listening to a conversation you really want to understand – but just can’t seem to get yourself “into it”? Perhaps your delta brain waves are off just a tiny bit. Other than implanting a delta frequency generator into your brain, could there be an easier, less intrusive method of nudging your brain into gear when you want it to?

I wonder if practicing with external delta frequencies might help attention and timely alertness. A metronome can very easily be set up for delta frequencies – and it makes sense to me that setting a metronome to your particular delta frequency for attentiveness might be effective. It would certainly be simple and inexpensive to try.

Many say that the classical music of the Baroque era, especially that of Handel helps foster attentiveness. Particularly proponents of superlearning touted the value of Baroque music for learning, which requires good attentiveness skills. Perhaps they were on to something that is just now being demonstrated scientifically.

Personally, I’ve gained quite a bit of value from a light and sound mind machine that exercises delta frequency brain waves by presenting them as a display on my eyelids. I can tell which frequency works best for my particular delta attentiveness frequency by noticing how attentive I feel to the display I’m seeing. The more attentive I feel, the closer that particular display frequency is to my particular delta attentiveness frequency. By practicing that frequency more often, I think I strengthen the attentiveness frequencies in my brain – with the result that I am better able to attend to those things to which I want to be especially attentive.

If you’ve never tried a light and sound mind machine, I refer you to www.1derworks.com where you will find a selection of those I have used and recommend.

Study source:
“Fast and Slow Oscillations in Human Primary Motor Cortex Predict Oncoming Behaviorally Relevant Cues,” February 25, 2010 Neuron. Other authors on the paper include Richard Penn of Rush University Medical Center and Catherine L. Ojakangas of the University of Chicago.

Years ago I discovered that I could use a Light & Sound mind machine while my client described their issue symptoms. At frequencies of 8.5 – 10 hz alternating, I found that clients tended to more quickly solve their own problems. One woman I worked with said she felt she could do anything in that state of mind.

For RET Technicians, try using a mind machine while doing RET Life Skills Coaching.

What seemed to work for me was to slowly adjust the mind machine’s frequency up, little by little, until the client showed a distinct relaxing of the facial muscles. Then I’d leave the frequency there for a while before inviting the client to discuss their issue with me. My job was to help them elicit further aspects of their issue or problem. “What ELSE…” “…And then…” etc. Mostly I focused on behavior, belief, and physical sensation, rather than on emotion.

For example, one client, who favors the auditory modality, found it beneficial to just talk with the lights flashing – I just let her ramble on until she said she was “done.” She could do her “bitching” and complaining while the lights did their magic. For her, using the alternating lights at 4-5 hz would relax her and help her through her own “talk therapy.” We had to do some experimenting to find the best frequency for her; yet, I feel delighted that she loves the lights and I don’t have to do as much RET wand work. Her overall life attitude has changed dramatically since using the machine in this manner.

You can even use this method for self-resolution. Just place the mind machine on yourself and start it. Then simply start talking about what bugs you – do it out loud so you get it out of your head. I recommend selecting a relaxation program on the mind machine, but just about any program will work – including the “random” programs some machines offer.

You can use the manual mode in machines that offer this option (like the Voyager Galaxy, Proteus, or Sirius mind machine) – simply adjust the frequency up or down until you feel particularly relaxed or the flashing lights feel like they are drawing energy away from you. For most people there will be a distinct feeling that the light pattern is drawing energy out and away from them.

Connecting her to this special device allows her to create music – really.

Researchers at the University of Plymouth (UK) have developed a device that allows a woman to create music from within her brain-locked-in body. You see, she can’t move – the result of a stroke – but her mind is completely there. She’s “locked in” – she can see, hear, feel, etc., just as you and I can – but she can’t move a muscle (except an eyelash).

Connecting her to this special device allows her to create music – really – using only her mind. No one knows how she represents this insider her mind – maybe she imagines herself playing instruments or writing a score – we’ll maybe never know. But she is able to communicate that she feels a sense of personal control for a change – something she’s not felt for some time.

I so very much applaud the work Eduardo Miranda and his companions are doing in this area of research and technology. I can’t imaging the horror it must be to be locked inside your body with nearly no means of communication to the “outside”. The level of terror and frustration must be beyond my comprehension. Still, thousands of folks around the world cope every day with this and other debilitating mind/body afflictions.

I want to send Mr. Miranda et al a check today! This is research worth pursuing, I think. May they find adequate funding. I’m sure they’ll find plenty of test subjects.

Source: “Brain-Computer Music Interfacing (BCMI): From Basic Research to the Real World of Special Needs Music and Medicine .” Eduardo R. Miranda, Wendy L. Magee, John J. Wilson, Joel Eaton, and Ramaswamy Palaniappan. Published in Music and Medicine, article first published on March 7, 2011 as doi:10.1177/1943862111399290.