Re: bioexplorer design

[Guest guest]

Lia,

If you are on the BioExplorer list I post the question there. Rich

Glade has done a great deal of work with meditation and NFB and would

be your best resource. '

On Feb 11, 2005, at 12:35 PM, Lia wrote:

>

>

> Has anyone used BioExplorer to design a protocol

> for deepening meditation? If so, what sites did

> you train? I have been reading contradictory

> research about symmetry and asymmetry in

> meditative patterns and am curious if anyone

> in this groups has experimented practically.

>

> Thank you.

>

> Lia

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Lia,

Rich Glade, who is on this list, has done some work in this area. Hopefully he

and others will post in response to your question, but here are some thoughts of

mine.

The first thing that must be specified to answer your question is, exactly what

does a deeper meditation state look like in the brain? Probably the work of

son in conjunction with the Dalai Lama is the most interesting and

informative in this area, though it builds on work with monks and Zen meditators

going back to the days of Joe Kamiya, on of the pioneers of brain training, and

some work done by Jim Hardt as well.

Several findings of interest that seem to be common:

Kamiya and Hardt found that experienced meditators (25-year Roshis for example)

were capable of producing highly synchronous alpha states pretty much over the

whole head. The more experienced ones were able to then slow that rhythmic

activity down into the theta--and some into the delta ranges. son's first

study noted that there were huge amounts of alpha shown at P4 among other sites.

This is interesting because, among other things, P4 is a site involved in the

spatial distinction between " me " and the " universe " . High levels of alpha

produced there essentially shut down that site, leading the sense of that

difference to dissolve such that the meditator experienced a oneness with the

universe.

A second finding that was prominent in son's earlier studies was a

reduction in all activity and shift to faster speeds in the prefrontal cortex

which related to a " single-pointed focus " as well. In his more recent studies,

doing 256-channel readings on short bursts of meditation activity in selected of

the Dalai Lama's monks meditation on compassion, son found exremely high

levels of 40-Hz Gamma activity, well out of the " normal " range. Gamma, of

course, is generally considered to be the " binding " frequency of the brain, so

high coherence levels there could relate to a brain that was very highly linked.

It is also a harmonic of alpha. In short, if a brain is producing extremely

high levels of alpha, especially coherent alpha, one would expect to find a

spike not only at 10 Hz, the usual dominant frequency of alpha, but also at 20

(smaller) and a second harmonic at 40 Hz. So it is possible the two findings

are linked in that way, though son's focus on the highly coherent gamma was

in the left prefrontal cortex, around Fp1.

The really intriguing part of this whole story comes out in an area I've been

(trying to) study for the past year with little success, because it's so

secretive: DC, or slow cortical potential training (SCP). Jay Gunkelman did a

fascinating, closely reasoned presentation on DC at Winter Brain this year

which, while it didn't focus on meditation, was very suggestive.

What we see in the EEG is AC brain activity (alternating current like we get

from a wall outlet). We look at activity 1 Hz and above. Several European

researchers have over the past years been working with and studying the DC

(direct current like we get from a battery) element of EEG, which is seen in

much slower signals (below 0.1 Hz and some lasting more than a second.) Jay's

quoted several researchers going back decades in some cases who presented DC as

the " on/off switch for consciousness " . The Europeans have shown that (1) it's

not easy to read because of potential artifact problems; ( clients tend to be

able to learn to control it quite quickly--to set the brain's " matrix " to

positive or negative states (these are electrical, not judgemental terms); ©

shifting the matrix had remarkable results with problems as diverse as seizure

disorders, attention and learning problems and sensory integration.

How this links with what I've said so far is this:

Jay showed how researchers in SCP reported that Gamma activity actually occurs

AFTER a change in consciousness such that it appears more likely to be a result,

or at least a correlate, of the change rather than a causative factore. In

fact, he described the bursts of Gamma as being " nested " in the slow waves of DC

activity. The clear suggestion was that training SCP was the most basic of our

potential interventions (and one which, by the way, would never have shown up on

son's, Kamiya's or Hardt's Q's, because they can't measure it).

So whether or not this is just a frustrating glimpse of something we can't touch

depends on the availability of DC hardware and software. Currently there is a

machine used in most of the studies which runs about $50 grand (that was before

the dollar took its nosedive vs the Euro and the rest of the world's

currencies). There is another machine, I believe a DeyMed, which is reputed to

be able to train DC, though that hasn't yet been demonstrated, and the $50k

machine guys say it can't. That is " only " $16k. But there is another amp, the

PET EEG, which I'll be reviewing shortly on the Brain-Trainer site (we'll

announce it here), which we'll sell for around $1500, and which will be able to

do (again hopefully) DC training with...BioExplorer (though a newer version that

none of us have yet. As DC becomes, as I predict it will in the next few years,

a more important part of what we know and do in brain training, I suspect its

value in working with meditation states among other things will become central.

For now, though, there are protocols to increase alpha coherence, others to

increase beta percent and reduce overall activation at Fp1 and some to increase

prefrontal Gamma coherence in BioExplorer (I have all of those in my set of

protocols due to come out shortly when I finish the documentation (and Larry

finishes adding features to the program). I've been playing with one that

focuses on increasing alpha amplitude at P4 in one channel and decreasing

overall amplitude as beta percent rises at Fp1 in the second channel at the same

time, though I haven't tested it much.

Perhaps Jon Cowan, the developer of the Peak Achievement protocols, who has

worked with this posterior alpha/anterior focus state for several years and has

specific sytems for training it in BE, will also comment.

Pete

>

> From: " Lia " <lia@...>

> Date: 2005/02/11 Fri PM 01:35:37 EST

>

> Subject: bioexplorer design

>

> Has anyone used BioExplorer to design a protocol

for deepening meditation? If so, what sites did

you train? I have been reading contradictory

research about symmetry and asymmetry in

meditative patterns and am curious if anyone

in this groups has experimented practically.

Thank you.

Lia

Van Deusen

http://www.brain-trainer.com

16246 SW 92nd Ave, Miami, FL 33157

305/251-0337 or (cellular) 305/321-1595

[Guest guest]

Hi Lia,

Pete's reply in this thread has much information and reflects the

evolving exploration of the neurological correlates generated in

'meditative states' by 'experienced' long term meditators. You might

find following up on son's work with a google search quite

informative and Jim Hardt has a web site with information about his

research and his current training programs. Dr. Les Fehmi has taught

'Open Focus' as a 'meditative' type practice of attention training

which can be easily combined (his cd's are available with guided

practices through his web site) with Alpha Synchrony Training

protocols in BioEx (working with as many as 5 active sites depending

on the equipment available).

FWIW the approach I take begins with the 'client' or 'meditator' and a

thorough exploration of both the existing attentional habits and

skills and the person's concerns, interests and intentions. In some

cases the person wishes to deepen or extend some existing meditation

practice or has come up against some obstacle or limitation in an

existing meditation practice. In other cases the person simply wants

support for discovering and stabilizing a quiet yet alert state of

mind.

Following the above exploration I complete a TLC Assessment and

compare the activation patterns with the person's intentions and

concerns just as I would with a person seeking any other outcome and

work out a series of possible protocols and things unfold from there.

In some case I complete a second TLC in which the task at each pair of

sites is to return to the 'meditative practice with which there is

concern. This gives me a second TLC specific to what the person wishes

to improve and when compared with the persons subjective description

of their difficulties often indicates possible sites and protocols for

training.

What may be different from other types of training is that I am often

working with both guided sessions (in which I am giving verbal

instructions for attentional shifts during the session or the person

is following a recorded guided practice) as well as attention tasking.

I provide attentional homework between NFK sessions and a review of

that homework precedes the next session.

I use BioEx with the ROSHI II+ and Pendant EEG as well as pIRHEG,

nIRHEG for attention training. I also use Les Fehmi's synchrony

trainers (which allow a 2 channel device to do 5 channel synchrony

work) and 'Open Focus cd's. I use the pROSHI as support with

particularly unstable or chaotic minds and in conjunction with one of

the above devices and BioEx which allows both feedback and tracking of

response. I also use Jon Cowan's Peak Achievement system for BioEx

which is very helpful in training both Alertness and Focus---I find

that the combination of 'Open Focus' synchrony training and the Peak

Achievement Alert/Focus training complimentary and that both go much

better if the 'quiet alert' mind which ROSHI can train is established

first. has developed some wonderful avi's specifically

useful for attention training and for working with Les Fehmi's 'Seeing

in Open Focus' cd. is developing some advanced BioEx designs

which are very effective at reducing overall amplitude while

dissolving fixations and instabilities and in their experimental form

have been very useful for a variety of my attention training clients.

I am attaching a sheet describing 4 specific styles of practice in a

traditional attention training sequence which indicates a few of the

possibilities.

I have responded in a general way since your question was simply about

meditation protocols---the simple answer in my experience can only be

found by fitting intention and concerns and current activation

patterns with equipment and other resources available as we do with

any client.

Best,

Rich

On Fri, 11 Feb 2005 18:35:37 -0000, Lia <lia@...> wrote:

>

>

> Has anyone used BioExplorer to design a protocol

> for deepening meditation? If so, what sites did

> you train? I have been reading contradictory

> research about symmetry and asymmetry in

> meditative patterns and am curious if anyone

> in this groups has experimented practically.

>

> Thank you.

>

> Lia

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Hi,

I wanted to respond to Pete and Rich's excellent posts, though I'm not an

expert on meditation. There are a number of different forms of meditation

which makes Lia's question a confusing one. Rich's answer certainly

enriches our understanding of this.

Our work is with frontal (not posterior) protocols which enhance single

pointed Focus and allow the training of an optimal zone of Alertness, either

separately or together. Most meditation training works to enhance single

pointed focus, but the goals with respect to alertness can be diverse. I

hope Rich will say more about how he sets these goals on the Peak

Achievement Trainer for individual clients during the phases of their

training. I think that ultimately we will find that there are strong

relationships between one of these measures and the DC shifts that Jay

speaks of. We are just beginning to work with the PET system, now that its

Bluetooth woes have been resolved by a new approach, and we hope that this

will help us to understand this far better once the new version of

BioExplorer with improved filtering is out.

The gamma issue is a most intriguing one. There are varying definitions of

gamma. In son's most recent paper on the Dali Lama's meditators, he

defines gamma as 25-70 Hz., which starts lower than the 30 Hz. I have seen

cited most frequently before. The event binding rhythm that was originally

found by magnetoencephalopgraphic work runs from about 38-42 Hz. I'm not

sure why son chose to publish on his findings with respect to 25-42

Hz., but what he reported was an increase in this range during meditation

and an increase in interhemispheric coherence in this range. I think that

this is a separate phenomenon from Focus and Alertness, described by Sheer

as active attention. Possibly intent plays a large role here. One of my

users says its like cramming for a test. Our results using the Neureka!

protocol, which partially corrects the event binding rhythm for EMG

influences, were rather startling enhancements in some IVA measures in four

sessions. I hope to extend this work using the PET's improved frequency

response at the high and low end.

Perhaps those who have been working with this range can contribute to this

discussion by telling us what kind of instructions help their clients to

enhance their 40 Hz. output.

Jon

Re: bioexplorer design

Hi Lia,

Pete's reply in this thread has much information and reflects the evolving

exploration of the neurological correlates generated in 'meditative states'

by 'experienced' long term meditators. You might find following up on

son's work with a google search quite informative and Jim Hardt has a

web site with information about his research and his current training

programs. Dr. Les Fehmi has taught 'Open Focus' as a 'meditative' type

practice of attention training which can be easily combined (his cd's are

available with guided practices through his web site) with Alpha Synchrony

Training protocols in BioEx (working with as many as 5 active sites

depending on the equipment available).

FWIW the approach I take begins with the 'client' or 'meditator' and a

thorough exploration of both the existing attentional habits and skills and

the person's concerns, interests and intentions. In some cases the person

wishes to deepen or extend some existing meditation practice or has come up

against some obstacle or limitation in an existing meditation practice. In

other cases the person simply wants support for discovering and stabilizing

a quiet yet alert state of mind.

Following the above exploration I complete a TLC Assessment and compare the

activation patterns with the person's intentions and concerns just as I

would with a person seeking any other outcome and work out a series of

possible protocols and things unfold from there. In some case I complete a

second TLC in which the task at each pair of sites is to return to the

'meditative practice with which there is concern. This gives me a second TLC

specific to what the person wishes to improve and when compared with the

persons subjective description of their difficulties often indicates

possible sites and protocols for training.

What may be different from other types of training is that I am often

working with both guided sessions (in which I am giving verbal instructions

for attentional shifts during the session or the person is following a

recorded guided practice) as well as attention tasking. I provide

attentional homework between NFK sessions and a review of that homework

precedes the next session.

I use BioEx with the ROSHI II+ and Pendant EEG as well as pIRHEG, nIRHEG for

attention training. I also use Les Fehmi's synchrony trainers (which allow a

2 channel device to do 5 channel synchrony

work) and 'Open Focus cd's. I use the pROSHI as support with particularly

unstable or chaotic minds and in conjunction with one of the above devices

and BioEx which allows both feedback and tracking of response. I also use

Jon Cowan's Peak Achievement system for BioEx which is very helpful in

training both Alertness and Focus---I find that the combination of 'Open

Focus' synchrony training and the Peak Achievement Alert/Focus training

complimentary and that both go much better if the 'quiet alert' mind which

ROSHI can train is established first. has developed some

wonderful avi's specifically useful for attention training and for working

with Les Fehmi's 'Seeing in Open Focus' cd. is developing some

advanced BioEx designs which are very effective at reducing overall

amplitude while dissolving fixations and instabilities and in their

experimental form have been very useful for a variety of my attention

training clients.

I am attaching a sheet describing 4 specific styles of practice in a

traditional attention training sequence which indicates a few of the

possibilities.

I have responded in a general way since your question was simply about

meditation protocols---the simple answer in my experience can only be found

by fitting intention and concerns and current activation patterns with

equipment and other resources available as we do with any client.

Best,

Rich

On Fri, 11 Feb 2005 18:35:37 -0000, Lia <lia@...> wrote:

>

>

> Has anyone used BioExplorer to design a protocol

> for deepening meditation? If so, what sites did

> you train? I have been reading contradictory

> research about symmetry and asymmetry in

> meditative patterns and am curious if anyone

> in this groups has experimented practically.

>

> Thank you.

>

> Lia

>

>

>

>