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Using Predictive Brain Activity Mapping:
Training to
Control, Shift, and Expand Awareness
James V. Hardt, Ph.D.
Biocybernaut Institute
Neurofeedback Techniques for Changing Mood, Personality, and Performance
A 1995 AAPB Panel: "Non-Medical Applications of
Biofeedback", Robert A. Kall, MEd., Chair
The existence of Predictive Brain Mapping was first
partially disclosed by Dr. Hardt in May, 1994 at the Society for the
Study of Neuronal Regulation. He provided further details in Porto Caras,
Greece in October, 1994, at the 7th International Congress of Psychophysiology,
in a symposium also shared with Dr. Stanley Krippner, where the
mathematical foundations of this work were identified with the deepest quest of
Psychophysiology: which is to know the mathematics of how the mind and brain
are connected.
Dr. Hardt has patents pending on methods for making
Predictive Brain Maps, and for using them in feedback training to
shift, control, and expand awareness, to find solutions, and to help
achieve mastery in virtually every chosen endeavor. Details of the technology
and methods can not be disclosed now due to his patent and legal
considerations. However, some of the results can be freely discussed.
The techniques and system empower, facilitate, and
enable Education and Training methods with vast applications, such as
control of mind states, mind content, and developing skills of both mind and
body. The keys are 1) Providing information when the brain is most
receptive and 2) Knowing the brain's archetypal patterns on which to
provide such information. Integrated whole patterns are easier to learn than
isolated portions of patterns. Understanding and knowingness is easier and
faster when all features of a whole brain pattern are trained
simultaneously. Thus knowing the basic Archetypes of brain patterns is
paramount.
Obvious applications abound in both medical and
non-medical areas. In the practice of meditation, those rare
individuals who are gifted in perceiving the subtleties of naturally occurring
changes within themselves get feedback from their own perceptions of their
internal processes and, as a result, they develop rapidly. Predictive Brain
Mapping and Training makes the inner subtleties glaringly obvious to everyone,
even to people who are usually oblivious to their own internal processes.
Consequently, with the use of Predictive Brain Mapping and Training, rapid
development in the skills of meditation is common, rather than rare. The
revealed and quantified subtleties of this training process include
information on both the deviations from one's preferred Brain Pattern
Archetype, and one's moment-by-moment progress toward a known goal.
Dr. Hardt and others, including Kasamatsu and Hirai,
have related the level of development in Zen meditation to specific patterns of
brain activity. Kasamatsu and Hirai studied both Soto and Rinzai sect
Zen meditators and found that the brain activity patterns of those
considered most highly advanced are seen only in some of the Zen meditators who
have practiced Zazen in daily meditation for 21-40 years. Knowing that
suitable technology can speed things up, it is still remarkable that these
advanced Zen brain patterns can be achieved by non-meditators in just 7
consecutive days using this new Brain Activity feedback technology. It is
also remarkable to note the number of Westerners who desire these results, but
consider the required 7 consecutive days of training, 10 hours per day, to be
too much effort. As a consequence, research is currently under way to further
accelerate the process of training these Brain Archetypes, which were first
identified and imaged by the Predictive Brain Activity Mapping and Training
Process.
Some other applications have included:
[1] Overcoming addictions, to drugs, food, and behaviors
In 1978 Dr. Hardt built the world's first
multi-channel and multi-user micro computerized EEG feedback system, and
with this system he began immediately to observe remission of addictive
behavior in people who were multiple drug abusers. Working at the Langley
Porter Psychiatric Institute of the University of California at San Francisco,
he successfully treated multiple drug abusers, including users with
combinations of cocaine, alcohol, tranquilizers, marijuana, psychedelics, and
tobacco. Also effectively treated with this multiple channel EEG feedback
were food addictions and behavioral addictions including addictive sexual
behaviors.
[2] Personality therapy, including unifying multiple personalities
The first report of EEG feedback training changing
personality was made by Dr. Hardt at the 1978 meeting of this society in
Albuquerque, New Mexico. This society was then called "The Biofeedback
Society of America", and the focus was moving to EMG, Thermal, and
Electro-Dermal feedback, because most people were having difficulty in training
EEG control due to poorly designed equipment and lack of knowledge of the
protocols required for success in EEG feedback. Also in 1978 Hardt and
Kamiya published a paper in Science showing that the amount of
personality change was a function of the amount of change in the EEG. At
that time, many otherwise knowledgeable people scoffed at the idea of a causal
link between EEG and personality. Such skepticism was common before research
with multiple personality disorder had shown profound changes in the EEG at the
moment of the multiple switching from one personality to another.
We now know that this loop is complete: Spontaneous
Personality Change is accompanied (or preceded) by significant EEG changes,
and learned EEG changes result in Personality Change. What Dr. Hardt
has now shown with his Predictive Brain Activity Maps, is that for each
dimension of personality change there are complex Archetypal Patterns of Brain
Activity changes involving the whole head and occurring across a broad
frequency spectrum. Some of these Personality Changing Brain Archetype
Patterns were shown for the first time in February at Bob
Kall's Key West Conference, EEG '95. To know these Archetypal Brain Activity
Patterns is to possess the keys to unlock and to change life-long personality
patterns.
[3] Reversing many of the effects of aging in geriatric trainees
At Langley Porter, Dr. Hardt was the Principal
Investigator for a large Federal Grant entitled: Anxiety and Aging:
Intervention with EEG Alpha Feedback. Working with women in the age
range of 60-81, he was able to assist these women to reverse many of the
adverse age-related changes in their EEGs, and in their moods and
personalities, and in their general levels of well-being.
Atherosclerosis can begin at remarkably early ages,
and once it begins, there is a slowing of the alpha frequency of about 0.8 Hz
per decade. Once the alpha is gone, i.e. has slowed out of existence, people
tend to die very soon. One hospital admission study routinely made an EEG
recording from everyone admitted for any reason. Half of those admitted
with no alpha in their EEG record were dead within 6 months.
One of Dr. Hardt's former colleagues, Dr. Charles
Yeager, set up the EEG labs in all of the California state hospitals during
the 1950s, and made annual visits to each hospital to record EEGs from the
patients. Dr. Yeager obtained healthy and normal EEGs from some patients over
100 years old. Dr. Yeager learned that if an aged patient had abundant or
even just normal alpha in their EEG record, that they would still be alive and
well when he visited again next year. However, if a patient's annual
recording showed the loss of alpha activity in the year since the prior
recording, Dr. Yeager would say a special "Good Bye" to that patient because he
knew the person would probably die before his next annual visit.
The mechanisms involved in loss of alpha include
reduction of blood flow to the brain. It has been shown that clamping one
of the carotid arteries in monkeys results in loss of alpha in that one
hemisphere, where alpha is replaced by the senile EEG pattern of mixed theta
and beta. Except for the Circle of Willis, there is very little
interhemispheric circulation, so this is a good test. When the monkey's
carotid artery was unclamped, and blood flow resumed, the alpha activity
returned to normal. What is happening here? You all know that thermal
feedback works by teaching people how to dilate their peripheral blood vessels,
and, correspondingly, there may be a component of learning EEG alpha
feedback which involves learning cerebral vasodilation. Indeed, many alpha
trainees speak of the physical sensation of something opening in their heads
just before their alpha surges to new higher levels.
When alpha begins to diminish in an older person, this may
signal reduction in blood flow to the brain. Indeed, blood flow varies as the
inverse third power of the diameter of the blood vessel. So a 50% reduction
in blood vessel size results in blood flow being reduced to 1/8th of
normal. Reduction of blood flow impairs the function of all the brain's
hormonal and biochemical regulation. Digestion can go awry, nutrition can
suffer, and general health can enter a steep and rapid decline, resulting in
death.
In many cases, intervention with suitable EEG feedback
training can restore brain blood flow, and beneficially alter mood and
personality, increasing optimism, motivation, and a general state of happiness,
thereby extending life and improving the quality of life. Dr. Hardt's
geriatric trainees had 20 EEG feedback sessions in 4 weeks. The amount and
the nature of their improvements were linked to how much their brain waves
changed, as well as to the pattern of changes across the 8 different head sites
which were recorded. Follow ups at 6 months and 12 months showed that
trainees held onto their gains, and also showed further improvements in
personality and mood, suggesting they had learned a new Brain skill which they
continued to apply to their continuing advantage. This work also confirms
that many age-related declines are reversible, and there is great plasticity
even in the brains of 80 year old people. All they need is accurate feedback
on their Brain Activity and they can profoundly change and extend their lives.
[4] Creativity Increases: Seen in top scientists having
insight breakthroughs on long term projects
We now know from work by Colin Martindale that:
"When creative people go to work on an imaginative task, their
alpha jumps ..."
At the Los Angeles meeting of this Society in 1993,
Dr. Hardt presented a paper entitled "Creativity Increases in Scientists
Through Alpha EEG Feedback Training", in which he showed a highly
significant 50% average increase in creativity in a group of Stanford
Research Institute scientists who were trained for one week in his
introductory 4-channel alpha protocol. The control group had no significant
changes in their creativity. Very clearly Martindale had it right when he
said:
"Creativity is a matter of having the right brain waves."
[5] U.S. Army Special Forces (Green Berets) in peak performance
training
Dr. Hardt has also provided a special form of his
EEG feedback training to several 12 man teams
of U.S. Army Green Berets being trained for classified missions
requiring the highest possible mental and physical fitness, and their seamless
integration to both achieve mission objectives and to survive and remain
functional under the most extreme and challenging conditions. During this
training, three of these elite soldiers (12% of those trained) discovered they
had unresolved doubts, fears, and reservations about their mission.
Once these three soldiers realized they did not have sufficient inner alignment
with their mission to remain in the Army, they could then move on to apply
their high motivation and skills in suitable ways in civilian life. Their
commanders were relieved and grateful to have a training technique to weed
out those who might falter under field conditions, and the 88% who remained
were clearer in their purpose, and far more highly skilled in self
regulation and peak performance on demand.
[6] World class athletes uniting mind and body in peak performance
Dr. Hardt has trained world class athletes in both team
and individual sports. Others also are showing that EEG activity is related
to peak performance. For example Dr. Mark Hatfield has measured EEG
activity in expert marksmen. He found that just before an expert shooter
pulls the trigger, the left side of the brain shows a big burst of alpha
waves. Similar results have been found in expert golfers as they
putt, archers releasing an arrow, and basketball players shooting
a free-throw. Some experts might be born with this alpha surging ability, but
if not inborn it can be trained in several different ways. One way is the old
fashioned way of long, hard practice. The new way is to train the desired
brain activity directly with EEG feedback.
Dr. Dan Landers did an EEG measurement study of
novice archers undergoing a 15 week training course in archery. He did
not give any EEG feedback. He just recorded EEGs over time, while the students
got traditional instruction in archery. He found that as the archers' skills
improved (if they improved), there was a change in the brain wave patterns they
displayed during shooting. Toward the end of the training, the archers had
improved their scores more than 60%, and they had begun to show the same burst
of alpha waves right before a shot which researchers find in the elite archers.
When Landers took the next logical step of providing EEG feedback training, he
found that training the proper pattern was very important. EEG feedback on
one pattern could help archers shoot significantly better, but training on a
different pattern caused them to shoot far worse. Once again we see that
the key is knowing the Brain's Archetypal Patterns.
[7] Development of higher mind functions, including merging: becoming
aware of the vastness of the self (Oneness)
One of Dr. Hardt's primary interests is in the
development of higher mind functions. With his new Predictive Brain Activity
Mapping and Training method, if he can record just one or a few people who
manifest an unusual mind skill or ability, he can then undertake to train this
same pattern, and these same skills, in ordinary people. To this end, he
has systematically studied professional psychics in his laboratory while they
were accessing their special information sources, or doing healing, and he has
moved his laboratory to India several times to record EEG and other
physiological data on advanced Yogis gifted with Siddhis (or special
powers), who were capable of exceptional feats. And he has studied Zen
meditators and gifted research scientists. The unifying theme of
all this diverse work is to learn the Brain Archetypes, the essential brain
patterns of changes which accompany the awareness shifts, indeed which
enable a person to shift from an ordinary mind state into minds states which
are extra-ordinary, from a cultural point of view.
Knowing how to read the Archetypal Whole Head Brain
Activity Patterns enables us to know when the mind is most receptive to new
information, and shows us what type of information to provide. Providing
suitable feedback information on the integrated Archetypal Patterns from the
Whole Head, when the brain is most receptive, helps people to rapidly achieve
mastery in any chosen activity or any field. The training is an adventure
in awareness and self-discovery. The process is fun.
Brain pattern feedback quiets the mind. In this
stillness, the deep purpose can become directly known. The training process
includes a purification of the emotions and clarification of the
intent, through depth work with computerized assessment of emotions.
Rapid development follows when the emotions are purified, the intent is
clear, and the awareness can be shifted and controlled.
Previously it has been difficult to read the brain patterns
of the mind, because of their complexity, and because of ego importance
(mind chatter making obscuring noise). Remove the mind chatter and it
is easier to read and understand the patterns. A key to this understanding is
reading the patterns of CHANGES in brain activity, rather than the
static background brain activity. CHANGES are the code to read.
In the field of materials science it is useful to
understand the stress patterns and possible failure modes of physical
structures like airplane wings and the beams in a building. We have all seen
the brightly colored images of these stress analysis studies, through
which we can peer into the interiors of solid objects and know where they are
likely to break if they are stressed too far. We can thus predict the breaking
point of a structural beam or an airplane wing.
A similar foreknowledge and the ability to predict future
mind gifts or mental breaking points is inherent in the information contained
in the Predictive Brain Activity Maps. Analysis of the Fine Structure of the
Brain Activity Maps can reveal the probabilities and the timing of future
behavior patterns and future mind states. From the hyperdimensional topology
of the Brain Activity Maps, the probabilities and the timing of future events
of dysfunction or events of growth and development can be assessed, assuming
there is no intervention, such as discovering the latent potentials with Brain
Activity Training. The present and future strengths and weaknesses of the
trainee can now be revealed by Predictive Brain Mapping, thus enabling wise and
timely intervention to avert dysfunctional patterns in their earliest state
of development, and to allow, instead, the growth of the trainee's chosen
patterns of health, and well being, and mind giftedness.
The process is knowing, rather than speculating,
about your own mind and your own awareness.
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