Tale of Self Discovery Part 6

Comparison of the Biocybernaut Process and Meditation

Part 6 - continued from part 5
[Published in Megabrain Reports, May, 1994, edited for the web]
James V. Hardt, Ph.D.
The Biocybernaut Institute

Brain wave feedback training has been shown to be effective on its own in a variety of application areas. There are also a number of studies, which have been conducted with meditators, that show health and other benefits. Any such benefits of meditation which stand up to careful scientific scrutiny can probably be explained by and reproduced with the Biocybernaut Process because of the close similarity of the Biocybernaut Process and meditation.

The Biocybernaut Process and meditation both encourage the intervention of our higher cortical activities in controlling the autonomic response. Both are founded on the understanding of how changes in the body are brought about and both realize that the mind and body are intimately interconnected. Practitioners trained in each of these processes experience significant reductions in the physiological parameters of stress and increased psychological maturity.

Both processes create a sense in the practitioners that peace, tranquility, and calmness come from within. Both processes lead to another complete level of consciousness, in which awareness is systematically expanded or increased under one's direct control. At a process level both are, or ideally should be, a continuous stream of awareness, which is one-pointed, in that the mind does not wander or shift around to different topics.

However, it is in the subject and the method of the one-pointedness of the concentration that there are major differences between meditation and the Biocybernaut Process. In meditation, that which is the subject of attention and concentration is not reliably related to one's mind state or to one's consciousness.

Some meditation methods instruct by directing the student's attention to a mantra,- a word or phrase which is repeated endlessly. Alternatively, attention may be directed to the breath, to the sensory impressions, or there is an effort to attend to one's thoughts without judgment or emotion, without connotation or emotionalizing. All of these methods can be useful, but they are difficult for most people, and they are usually very slow processes, requiring long periods of constant mental attention, and offer very little internal feedback about how well one is doing. This is lack of internal feedback in meditation is especially problematical in the important early stages of learning.

Feedback is the key! In the Biocybernaut Process, the trainee concentrates on his or her actual brain waves. These brain waves underlie all types of awareness, both those which are conveyed by thoughts, and those processes of awareness which do not proceed through the use of thoughts. With brain wave feedback the trainee learns not only how to calm the mind, but equally or more importantly, the trainee also learns how to control those brain waves which underlie all mind states. With this deep control comes the ability to regulate one's response to sensory stimulation and stimulation by words and concepts, so that the brain wave trainee can defuse a stressor or a stressful situation from the outset, immediately and flowingly. One of the differences between the two processes is that in meditation one attempts, without the aid of any feedback, to witness one's thought patterns, whereas in the Biocybernaut Process one is aided by feedback of the exact brain waves that underlie and enable the thought processes.

Both meditation and brain wave feedback can be usefully compared using a Signal Detection Analogy. In any signal detection application, the challenge is one of distinguishing the signal from the surrounding noise. Experts speak of the signal-to-noise ratio. If the signal is weak and there is a lot of noise, the signal is very hard to detect. This is the case in meditation, where the signal is a subtle mind state (a weak signal), and there is lots of noise. The noise in meditation can be acoustic noise like telephones ringing, jets flying overhead, cars, buses, and trucks rumbling by, people talking, even birds singing, and wind in the trees. But noise can also be the chatter of one's internal dialog, the urgings of one's desires or the reactions to one's aversions, or sensory distractions like itching of the skin, aching of a muscle, or joint, or tooth, or the churning of one's stomach. All these distractions, taken together, are the "noise " which makes it difficult to pay uninterrupted attention to one's mind state (or one's breathing, or mantra).

To assist in the process of meditation, instructions are usually given to reduce this noise. Meditation instructions typically include (especially for beginners) retreating to a quiet place, turning down the lights, turning off the radio or television, and sitting very still. There are also instructions in meditation of how to pay attention to one's thoughts and feelings, to try and still these sources of "noise ". But the instructions are often vague and difficult to follow, even if one understands them.

The mind is extraordinarily elusive, especially when one tries to pin it down. Try not thinking of, say a hippopotamus, for one minute. Even though you may not have thought of one for months, the moment you try not to think of hippos, they stampede or do ballets through your mind with insuppressible vigor. This is a problem when trying to still the mind in meditation. Thoughts erupt like volcanoes and flow in unstoppable torrents of words, concepts, and ideas.

However, in brain wave feedback the same subtle signal is electronically detected as the electrical brain activity underlying the calm mind state. This subtle signal is then electronically amplified, or boosted, 100,000 to 1,000,000 times and then used to control the loudness of feedback tones. In the Biocybernaut Process an effort is also made to reduce the noise by conducting this training in light controlled and sound proof rooms, so that the signal-to-noise ratio is enhanced from both ends. Both the signal is boosted and the noise is reduced.

Every time the mind enters a calm state, even for a fraction of a second, the technology detects this shift and instantly turns on a tone. Thus the person is notified of his or her success in that moment (immediacy of feedback). With such feedback, there is a rapid increase in the probability of the mind entering, and staying longer in, the desired state. Since trainees get feedback on how well they are doing, they rapidly become better at entering the desired mind state, by learning how to control the underlying brain wave state out of which their experience [the mind state] arises.

Unfortunately, in meditation, there is very little feedback. And at the beginning of meditation there is virtually NO FEEDBACK. Only when meditation is done very well are there shifts in one's subjective experience. These shifts are often subtle and are not noticed until one has sustained the desired mind state for a long time. This is difficult or impossible for most beginners.

As any teacher knows, students need the most guidance at the beginning of their learning. In meditation, one's guidance (or subjective feedback) occurs mostly at the end of the process, after one has become quite skilled at the process. This is one of the reasons why meditation has such a high drop out rate and why the learning process can take many decades.

In brain wave feedback, there is immediate and abundant feedback right at the beginning of the process. The Biocybernaut Process includes extensive interviews and reviews of results on a daily basis to make sure that trainees know exactly how well they are doing and that they fully understand the usefulness of each of the many different types of feedback.

Most meditation fails to acknowledge or to assist people with overcoming the mental and emotional blockages which prevent the mind from entering into deep states of calmness. It is hoped that meditation itself will do the necessary mental housecleaning. And [with 20, 30, or 40 years of regular daily practice] meditation will sometimes do this. But many of the people in greatest need of the benefits will not persist long enough to gain these benefits, especially without much feedback on their progress. Even many normal, well-adjusted, busy people will not persist in such a slow process, with such a long delayed payoff.

The mental obstacles which stand between each of us and a transcendent consciousness include our attitudes, attachments, aversions, self conceptions, and our thought processes which have been trained from childhood on to be compulsively active. These obstacles are hard to overcome by repeating a mantra, or attending to one's breathing, or even trying to pay attention to one's ever shifting thoughts.

The Biocybernaut Process includes computerized mood scales and depth interviews, on a daily basis, to bring the trainee into a clear awareness those inner obstacles of anger, fear, guilt, sadness, and all the attachments and aversions and posturing of one's ego. This information is then combined with the brain wave feedback process to focus the trainee's efforts in exactly those areas which are in the greatest need of conscious attention. The feedback signals are provided on those brain activities which are most intimately related to the thought processes and the attachments which must be worked on if one is to move toward discovery of a larger conscious awareness.

Compulsive thinking, like choppy waves upon a lake, prevents one's awareness from penetrating into the depths [of one's mind and of the lake]. Thinking, at least at the level of ego-based conceptual thought, is an antagonist of one's Alpha brain activity. This natural antagonism enables brain wave feedback to provide an accurate assessment [feedback] of one's increasing mental calmness and control, as one's Alpha waves increase in prevalence and strength.

In learning to still the mind, the feedback presentation of Alpha activity [in both analog and digital feedback] provides an unambiguous record of, and spur to, one's progress. In the brain wave feedback situation, the mind is thrown back in on itself by having its strongest sensory input [the feedback tones] being controlled by the brain activity itself. All sensory distractions, unrelated to the brain's own activity, have been so reduced or eliminated that the only thing for the mind to attend to is itself, as indexed by the brain waves.

Thus the mind is thrown back in upon itself and becomes its own object, thereby blurring the line between subject and object of consciousness [ie. merging], and dissolving the dualistic mind state which puts people "at the effect of " events of change (stressors). By thus freeing the mind, there are no longer over-reactions (sympathetic responses) and under-reactions (para-sympathetic responses) of the central nervous system, and the person then enjoys the benefits of an uninterrupted natural state of health and well being (homeostasis). All of the benefits available to Biocybernaut Process trainees in each of the many application areas come about through this improvement of mind function and the functioning of the central nervous system.

Through brain wave feedback, the mind is forced into awareness of its subtle techniques for avoiding the calmness of the one-pointedness-of-mind. But there is no requirement or compulsion to change, because the trainee can chose either to ignore or to develop the insights thereby obtained. If the trainee chooses to ignore, then the Alpha scores stop increasing and he or she may give the excuse of being bored [boredom is one of the Five Hindrances: drowsiness, distractibility, doubt, boredom, and laziness]. If the trainee chooses development and growth, then the Alpha continues to increase and the dualistic state wanes as the trainee learns the calmness and the one-pointedness of mind which leads toward liberation.

Liberation can mean freedom from the automatic stress response. It can also mean liberation from addiction, and liberation from chronic pain, and liberation from eating disorders, and liberation from high blood pressure, and liberation from stress and anxiety, liberation from psychoses and neuroses, liberation from learning disabilities, and liberation from age-related limitations on cognitive and physical functions. All of these benefits, in each of the many different application areas of the Biocybernaut Process, are really byproducts of learned improvements in central nervous system functioning. All of the benefits shown by scientifically accepted meditation studies are also likely to be available through the Biocybernaut Process, however they are likely to be available faster and easier and for a much greater range of people, who would never try or persist long enough at meditation.

Self discovery continues - Part 7