 |
|
The Biocybernaut Process Compared to Meditation
James V. Hardt, Ph.D.
Biocybernaut Institute
Brain wave feedback training has been shown to be
efficacious 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
benefits. Any such benefits of meditation which stand up to careful scientific
scrutiny can be explained by and reproduced with the Biocybernaut
Process TM because of the isomorphism of the Biocybernaut
Process TM and meditation.
The Biocybernaut Process TM and meditation
both allow for 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, tranquillity, and calmness come from within. As a result, both
processes have the potential to eliminate one of the greatest causes of stress,
which is loneliness (Ref. discussion of the "Isolation Factor", Appendix C,
Heart Disease, p. 2).
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 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 TM. 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. All of these methods can
be useful, but they are difficult for most people, and they are usually very
slow processes, with little internal feedback about how well one is doing.
Feedback is the key! In the Biocybernaut
Process TM, 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 TM
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 problem 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, toilets flushing, 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 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 unsuppressible vigor. This is a
problem when trying to still the mind in meditation. Thoughts erupt like
volcanoes and flow in unstoppable torrents of words 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 TM an effort is also made to
reduce the noise by conducting this training in dark 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. With this 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 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 TM 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 do this. But many of the most
seriously disturbed people 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 TM includes
computerized mood scales and depth interviews, on a daily basis, to bring into
the trainee's 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 of 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 to the depths of one's mind. 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 TM 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 devious techniques for avoiding the calmness of the
one-pointedness-of-mind. But there is no coercion 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 for our purposes here means freedom from the
automatic stress response. This in turn means 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 TM, are really byproducts of
learned improvements in central nervous system functioning. All of the
benefits shown by scientifically accepted meditation studies are also available
through the Biocybernaut Process TM, however they are available
faster and easier.
The larger transpersonal benefits and the growth and
development of consciousness will immeasurably enrich both the individual and
society at large. The evolution of our species has become the evolution of our
consciousness, as individuals and as cooperative groups of individuals ranging
in size from the family to the nation states and the global community of
humanity. The technology of brain wave feedback has the potential to become
the nervous system of a Global Brain, in which each of us are akin to the
neurons of our own brains. We are on an evolutionary journey, a quest for
higher orders of functionality and a greater degree of oneness with other
beings, and with our planetary ecosystem, and with the whole of the manifested
and unmanifested universe. Brain wave feedback technology accelerates our
journey and empowers our quest to understand and exemplify this Oneness.
|
|
|
|
|
