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The Journey to Wild Divine
By
Patricia King
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| Relax and soar. In Freeze-Framer,
players use "heart power" to lift their balloons over the
mountain peaks. Photo courtesy of HeartMath. |
Welcome
to the Brave New World of neurofeedback, where computer games and
desktop technology are intersecting with ancient mind-body
techniques.
Warning: The Journey to Wild Divine is no shoot-'em up computer game for
twitchy-fingered adrenaline junkies.
To play the game, I clip three purple biofeedback devices onto my fingertips.
The devices will monitor perspiration and beat-to-beat changes in my heart
rate. Using my mouse, I can take a leisurely virtual tour of the lush gardens
and sacred mountain temples of Wild Divine's mystical Sun Realm while being
serenaded by soothing, chirping birds and flute music.
But the mouse is useless for conquering the game's real challenges. To feed a
white rabbit in the Temple of Compassion, to delicately balance one rock on top
of another or to light a fire in a cozy cottage, my biofeedback sensors first
have to conclude that I am relaxed. At the cold fireplace, nothing happens as I
follow the instructions to coordinate my breathing with the slow opening and
closing of a bellows.
I get impatient. I get nowhere. Finally, I give up trying to get anywhere and
just inhale and exhale very slowly. The fire appears. I feel a sense of
accomplishment and, yes, peace, even in the face of looming deadlines.
A Brave New World
Wild Divine and other user-friendly desktop technologies have revolutionized
the once monochromatic world of biofeedback, intersecting with ancient
mind-body techniques in new ways. Such technology can "accelerate the learning
curve" for these ancient techniques, says Adam Crane, author of Mindfitness
Training: Neurofeedback and the Process. When would-be meditators, despite
their best efforts, have not been able to approach the mental states that are
second nature for yogis, biofeedback can help: "You can take them right to it
if the teacher and the equipment are right," says Crane.
One advantage of technologically aided mind-body exercises is that they provide
quantifiable data. "It's objective," says Deborah Rozman, CEO of Quantum Intech,
a technology licensing and manufacturing company, "you can't fool yourself."
Unlike pharmaceuticals, these cyber-zazen sessions help you shift rather than
mask negative emotions. "You can drug the emotions, but that's like disarming
the fire alarm without putting out the fire," says Rozman. "You've got to give
people tools to harness the power of their physiology."
Wild Divine's creators, animator Corwin Bell and biomedical engineer Kurt
Smith, promise that "with patience and persistence," mastering the game's
challenges will help you "discover a deeper understanding that can be applied
to your life and your own personal journey." The game, which lists at $159.95,
is only the first in a planned trilogy by the ambitious Colorado entrepreneurs,
who met while rock climbing. The next installment, scheduled for release next
spring, will feature the electronic avatar of author and teacher Deepak Chopra
as a spiritual guide named Rama.
Another computerized biofeedback tool, Quantum Intech's Freeze-Framer, also
uses a finger sensor to monitor heart rate variability. Developed by Santa
Cruz-based Institute of HeartMath, the $295 (list price) Freeze-Framer features
a five-step training exercise to teach players how to shift into a more relaxed
state and three games that help you hone the technique. Those who prefer their
de-stressing exercises devoid of mystic imagery will prefer these
straightforward games to Wild Divine's elaborate Sun Realm. In the
Freeze-Framer games, you can "heart power" a hot air balloon over obstacles or
fill a pot with gold, but only when you shift into a relaxed state.
Freeze-Framer is being used in 200 schools to help students overcome test
anxiety. Carmel High School teacher Diana Govan taught HeartMath's de-stressing
technique before the computerized version was developed. She prefers the
high-tech version because it provides accurate quality control: "It is so much
more powerful to use the software because the students get immediate feedback."
Preliminary results in the schools are so promising that the federal government
has awarded HeartMath $1.7 million in grants to study the technique's impact on
students and teachers.
Science or Witchcraft?
New research also supports the rationale for another form of biofeedback that
monitors brain activity. State-of-the-art brain imaging has found that the
adult brain is "plastic" – i.e., capable of generating new cells and new
connections among those cells. The new science is no surprise for proponents of
brain biofeedback, which is commonly called neurofeedback. Its researchers have
claimed that altering the brain's electrical patterns (categorized from slowest
to fastest as delta, theta, alpha, beta, and gamma waves) can help treat
conditions as varied as attention deficit disorder (ADD), depression, epilepsy,
and migraine headaches.
There have been so many anecdotal reports of cures that San Jose psychologist
Colin Wright once put neurofeedback in the same category as copper bracelets:
"I thought it was witchcraft. It meets all of the criteria for quackery. It
claims to work for everything and also claims that it does no harm." But Wright
was won over by his success in using biofeedback to treat his ADD patients. He
has also become convinced that neurofeedback produces minimal side effects:
"The brain is pretty good at protecting itself. It just isn't going to allow
you to blunder into a bad circumstance."
Jay Gunkelman, longtime neurofeedback entrepreneur and executive vice president
of Burbank-based Q-Metrx, says there is solid research to support neurofeedback
for the treatment of epilepsy and ADD, but there is not enough quality research
to back up its use for most other disorders. "People are making claims well
beyond the research," says Gunkelman, who believes that patients should be
informed when the treatments are experimental.
In a typical neurofeedback session, the patient sits in a comfortable chair
with electronic sensors attached to the scalp. The sensors, which read the
electrical activity of the brain, are hooked up to a computer. The computer
amplifies, analyzes and translates the electrical activity into displays such
as multicolored graphs, video games or sounds. It's the therapist's job to
program the games so that the desired brain waves are rewarded.
Therapists, for example, often determine that their ADD patients exhibit too
many slower brain waves (alpha/theta) in the frontal lobe of the brain and not
enough faster (beta) waves associated with concentration. Their treatment
includes programming the games to reward the production of beta waves. These
patients make progress with the computer game only when they shift to a mental
state conducive to concentration and homework.
While it may look to the observer as if the patient is just sitting in a chair
doing nothing, Cynthia Kerson of Marin Biofeedback explains: "It is a very
tangible experience. You let the computer talk to you. You just need to be
present." And Gunkelman observes that once the brain learns to master the
shift, it doesn't forget: "It's like riding a bicycle. You may wiggle a little
bit when you get back on after not riding for a while, but you still know how.
It is a skill that you have learned, as opposed to something that's been done
to you."
There is, however, no unanimity among practitioners about the best way to teach
the brain these new skills. Says Kentfield-based neurofeedback practitioner
Julian Isaacs: "It's a young field, and there are a whole bunch of people doing
different things and they're all claiming that they're getting good results."
Isaacs suspects that one explanation for the fact that practitioners with
"wildly different" protocols are reporting good results is found in the
"exercise" theory of neurofeedback. That theory holds that any kind of
neurofeedback improves brain function and thus may alleviate a variety of
symptoms. "Maybe just learning how to control your brain waves is enough," says
Isaacs. "It doesn't matter what [the] specific protocol is."
Many clinicians believe, however, that to be most effective, it is first
necessary to use electroencephalographs (EEGs) and the more detailed
quantitative electroencephalographs (qEEGs) to figure out which brain waves are
deficient or excessive in different areas of the brain. Dallas-based naturopath
and EEG-researcher Marvin Sams says such readings allow him to determine where
the brain is operating inefficiently. When Sams trains patients to change their
problematic brain waves, he finds that whatever symptoms they are suffering
from abate.
At Mirasol, a residential treatment program in Arizona, psychologist Peter
Smith is pioneering the use of neurofeedback for notoriously difficult-to-treat
eating disorders. Smith has found the targeted use of EEGs and qEEGs to be
essential. Unless you figure out what is going on in an individual's brain
before you start, he says, "it is like trying to put a Band-Aid on without
understanding the nature of the bleeding."
The Perfect Alpha Tan
For his part, James Hardt of the Mountain View-based Biocybernaut Institute,
zeroes in on alpha waves to treat a variety of symptoms. Hardt says that after
a week of learning how to suppress and increase alpha waves, many participants
can create brain wave patterns comparable to those of advanced Zen meditators.
Hardt claims that his clients can boost their creativity, resolve psychological
problems and lower their anxiety so much that, after treatment, they look as if
they have spent a week on a tropical island – a phenomenon he has dubbed the
"alpha tan."
Participants spend six to eight hours a day for seven days doing neurofeedback
and more hours processing their experiences with a therapist. This boot camp
approach is more effective than two-or-three-day-a-week neurofeedback,
according to Hardt. Hardt uses the analogy of a jet plane, which will move down
the runway when you move it 100 feet a day, but will never fly.
Hardt's intensive program costs an eye-popping $14,000. Other therapists charge
anywhere from $50 to $100 for 30-to-45-minute sessions. They are likely to
recommend at least 20 sessions and often more. Because most consumers pay for
these neurofeedback sessions out of their own pockets, proponents say that they
should be wary. Dr. Daniel G. Amen, a Fairfield, Calif., psychiatrist and
author of Healing ADD, notes that while neurofeedback can be effective for ADD,
neither drugs nor neurofeedback are panaceas.
New neurofeedback research that will aid consumers in separating the hype from
reality is underway. But there may be a limit to the public's willingness to
embrace even the most user-friendly new technology. Biofeedback can be daunting
for Americans who like instant results. "You need persistence," says Wright.
"It's boring, and it's hard work."
Wild Divine fans think the game has gone a long way toward alleviating
biofeedback boredom and making it easier to incorporate cyber-assisted
meditation into their daily lives. Ace gamer and writer Robin D. Owens, for
example, bookmarks her favorite Wild Divine spots. When her writing isn't going
well or she just needs to relax, Owens revisits the fireplace for some deep
breathing practices or patiently feeds the white rabbit. These game sites are
not only pleasant places to revisit but, with her purple fingertip biofeedback
sensors in place, "you can get immediate feedback, which is what most Americans
prefer."
Patricia King is a Bay Area writer and former San Francisco bureau chief for
Newsweek.
Originally Published in
Common Ground.
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