Re: Maximizing cognitive abilities and academic potential

[Guest guest]

One of my favorite quotes about NF is:   " All neurofeedback is peak performance training. " Certainly there are plenty of people who have clearly dysfunctional patterns of behavior or limitations in attention and/or control. Heck, with the psychiatric diagnostic manual (DSM IV) running to 886 pages--double the number in 1980 for DSM III), it's pretty hard to be mentally healthy these days if you go looking for a diagnosis.  One of the key psychiatrists who worked in the version III--which only had 494 pages!-- Spitzer later said he regretted his part in the process, because it " led to the medicalization of 20-30 percent of the population who may not have had any serious mental problems! "  Trying to stay out of that mill is a perfectly valid way to approach self-improvement.

So let's leave to the side for now the question of whether you have anything " wrong " with you or not.  Mental health diagnoses are essentially descriptions of symptoms.  What is Attention Deficit Disorder?  It means you have trouble paying attention.  Why?  What's the underlying issue?  Nobody knows.  So my preference is to skip the diagnoses and ask the client what they would like to change:  what would you like to be able to do faster, better or more easily?  Everybody has a few of those, even the sanest person I know (me).

Around 15 years ago, when I started adding " peak performance " to my work with ADHD and mood issues, etc., I thought it would be really cool to work with clients who really had no problems.  And since I was working hard on developing my assessment at that time, I gathered data from their brains, so I could see what really functional brains looked like.  Not surprisingly, when I looked at the EEG's I found many of the same patterns I was accustomed to training in people who DID have diagnoses.  I still remember the first guy who came to me--a CPA who was chief financial officer for a mid-sized corporation.  He had no problems whatsoever--was already a peak performer--and only wanted to be able to do more, do it faster and better.  When I saw his brain patterns, I asked him, " so you really don't experience any anxiety it all? "   " Anxiety!? " he answered.   " It's with me every minute of every day--has been since I was a little kid. "  But there was nothing " wrong " with him.  I agreed.  But we started working on the patterns that indicated anxiety, and he experienced pretty profound changes in his performance--and especially the responses of his wife and kids--before we ever started doing the " peak performance " protocols.

I strongly recommend that anyone working with EEG begin with an assessment of your current brain patterns and develop a training plan based on those:  Look at what you want to change before you start trying to change it.  An EEG package for as little as $1,400 will give you what you need to do most any kind of training--and to do an assessment.  You will be far from the first person on this list to take the step on your own and begin preparing to train you own brain.  It's where I started 21 years ago.  I'm a great believer that most of us learn skills and techniques most quickly and effectively by actually DOING the thing we want to learn.  In the courses I've been teaching since 2001, I've come to separate participants into two major groups:  there are those who go home and DO neurofeedback, a step at a time, stumble a little, make a few mistakes, but overcome the resistance of fear and begin practicing; and there are those who go home and start looking for the " best book " on neurofeedback or magazine articles, or a study group or ANYTHING that will help them avoid maybe making a mistake.  Most of the first group end up working with the process--some for many years--and make major changes in their own lives and those of others who work with them.  Not ONE of the second group (to my knowledge) has EVER gone on to do a single training session, though they can wirte essays on a dozen theories as to how it should be done.

Peak states in our field are often defined in the areas of synchrony training among specific sites and alpha theta training (generally after doing some other work first).  But lots of people have existing patterns in their EEG's that make it extremely difficult for them to do either of these kinds of training until other issues have been cleared.

You might also seriously consider HEG instead of EEG (take a look at brain-trainer.com to learn more about this stuff).  HEG works your executive center, it's super easy to learn and use, only requires an hour or so a week to achieve optimum results, and it uses the same software as EEG, so you can add EEG later, if you decide you want to,for less than $900, and you can spend your time actually training instead of learning the skills you need to learn to get going with EEG.

I guess this wasn't exactly what you asked, but I hope you find it helpful.

Pete-- Van Deusenpvdtlc@...

http://www.brain-trainer.comUSA 678 224 5895BR 47 3346 6235The Learning Curve, Inc.

On Wed, Feb 1, 2012 at 10:55 PM, magerx123 <matann@...> wrote:

 

Hey.

I'm 22 years old healthy male looking to start with neuro and bio feedback.

The purpose in which I look into it is to maximize my cognitive abilities and my academic potential(on top of the general curiosity I have in neuroscience, consciousness and the brain).

As opposed to my purposes with neuro and bio feedback, most of the learning material and literature(including researches) I could find is about fixing some sort of disorder.

The only real protocols I could find which related to my goals are EEG based meditation( Wise/Maxwell Cade work) and HRV(or heart rate coherence) training.

I'm totally new to the subject and I have no one the learn from so I pretty much have to self-learn from available material.

I know it's not optimal conditions, but I think i'm fairly intelligent person, i'm hard worker and I'm really motivate to learn. So with the guidance to the right direction I think I can make it work.

The thing I need most is some direction to literature(and possibly other learning material) which will help me learn protocols and techniques which are related to my goals. As I said - I couldn't find much so I hope to get some help from the experienced people here.

I'm talking about both about biofeedback(peripheral) and neurofeedback.

Another thing is direction to some general information about biofeedback and neurofeedback, and possibly related information about neuroscience/consciousness/the brain/etc. Iv'e done some research so I know the " industry standard " books, but it will be nice to hear experienced people opinion as well.

Thanks.

P.S

I currently have no biofeedback device. Hopefully very soon i'll buy 2/4 channel device with all the necessarily sensors and software(s). Maybe i'll add HEG device/sensor if it will fit into my budget.

I want to know in what direction I go before I buy hardware/software - so that I won't spend money with no justified reason(my budget is tight as it is).

[Guest guest]

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

You are right on in your separation of the two types of participants. Sadly I'm

on the side of the " know the material well before you DO anything " . I have this

issue on other fields as well.

Perhaps I should start doing more instead of over-think it, putting more

practice instead of learning.

Since EEG has big learning curve, I was thinking about starting with HEG instead

and later on add EEG. Though I do not know if I will get " enough " with HEG for

my goals(compared to EEG) – if you can comment on it, it will be great.

I know you are selling mainly nIR HEG so you probably think it is better, but do

you think pIR is inferior in the context of neurofeedback?

I know the difference between the two, and I know in terms of resolution the pIR

is not as good. But from what I've read – for feedback applications they are the

same.

The reason I'm asking is because if pIR is just as good, I can get " PhysioPilot "

GP8 hardware. It has pIR sensor, but can also be used with other peripheral

sensors – which will give me the ability to work with heart rate coherence as

well(it can also be used with EEG sensor, but only 1 channel which is probably

not good enough to make proper assessments and training). The price is about the

same as other HEG devices – so I think it will be a good buy and will give me a

lot to work with for few months(before I'll add proper EEG device).

I'm aware that I just said I need to spend more time on doing instead of

learning, but I would really appreciate if you could refer me to

literature(books, researches, etc) that will help me get started with HEG and

gain some knowledge about it.

I know it is pretty simple – get above baseline for " x " minutes, but I would

love to read about how to properly do it and to read more about it and its

applications. I'm a knowledge person, nothing I can do about it I guess :-)

Lastly, do you have any near future plans to create equivalent assessments and

designs for BioEra? For peripheral and HEG work, I really prefer some BioEra

designs I can get – but if it means I won't be able to use your EEG assessments

and designs in the future, it's probably better that I will stick with

BioExplorer(I don't want to waste money on buying both).

(On more thing – from your site, <900$ for HEG including hardware/software seems

unreasonably low. I would love if you could explain. You can do it on email if

you don't want to write prices here)

Thanks again,

Matan.

>

> One of my favorite quotes about NF is: " All neurofeedback is peak

> performance training. "

>

> Certainly there are plenty of people who have

> clearly dysfunctional patterns of behavior or limitations in attention

> and/or control. Heck, with the psychiatric diagnostic manual (DSM IV)

> running to 886 pages--double the number in 1980 for DSM III), it's pretty

> hard to be mentally healthy these days if you go looking for a diagnosis.

> One of the key psychiatrists who worked in the version III--which only had

> 494 pages!-- Spitzer later said he regretted his part in the process,

> because it " led to the medicalization of 20-30 percent of the population

> who may not have had any serious mental problems! " Trying to stay out of

> that mill is a perfectly valid way to approach self-improvement.

>

> So let's leave to the side for now the question of whether you have

> anything " wrong " with you or not. Mental health diagnoses are essentially

> descriptions of symptoms. What is Attention Deficit Disorder? It means

> you have trouble paying attention. Why? What's the underlying issue?

> Nobody knows. So my preference is to skip the diagnoses and ask the

> client what they would like to change: what would you like to be able to

> do faster, better or more easily? Everybody has a few of those, even the

> sanest person I know (me).

>

> Around 15 years ago, when I started adding " peak performance " to my work

> with ADHD and mood issues, etc., I thought it would be really cool to work

> with clients who really had no problems. And since I was working hard on

> developing my assessment at that time, I gathered data from their brains,

> so I could see what really functional brains looked like. Not

> surprisingly, when I looked at the EEG's I found many of the same patterns

> I was accustomed to training in people who DID have diagnoses. I still

> remember the first guy who came to me--a CPA who was chief financial

> officer for a mid-sized corporation. He had no problems whatsoever--was

> already a peak performer--and only wanted to be able to do more, do it

> faster and better. When I saw his brain patterns, I asked him, " so you

> really don't experience any anxiety it all? " " Anxiety!? " he answered.

> " It's with me every minute of every day--has been since I was a little

> kid. " But there was nothing " wrong " with him. I agreed. But we started

> working on the patterns that indicated anxiety, and he experienced pretty

> profound changes in his performance--and especially the responses of his

> wife and kids--before we ever started doing the " peak performance "

> protocols.

>

> I strongly recommend that anyone working with EEG begin with an assessment

> of your current brain patterns and develop a training plan based on those:

> Look at what you want to change before you start trying to change it. An

> EEG package for as little as $1,400 will give you what you need to do most

> any kind of training--and to do an assessment. You will be far from the

> first person on this list to take the step on your own and begin preparing

> to train you own brain. It's where I started 21 years ago. I'm a great

> believer that most of us learn skills and techniques most quickly and

> effectively by actually DOING the thing we want to learn. In the courses

> I've been teaching since 2001, I've come to separate participants into two

> major groups: there are those who go home and DO neurofeedback, a step at

> a time, stumble a little, make a few mistakes, but overcome the resistance

> of fear and begin practicing; and there are those who go home and start

> looking for the " best book " on neurofeedback or magazine articles, or a

> study group or ANYTHING that will help them avoid maybe making a mistake.

> Most of the first group end up working with the process--some for many

> years--and make major changes in their own lives and those of others who

> work with them. Not ONE of the second group (to my knowledge) has EVER

> gone on to do a single training session, though they can wirte essays on a

> dozen theories as to how it should be done.

>

> Peak states in our field are often defined in the areas of synchrony

> training among specific sites and alpha theta training (generally after

> doing some other work first). But lots of people have existing patterns in

> their EEG's that make it extremely difficult for them to do either of these

> kinds of training until other issues have been cleared.

>

> You might also seriously consider HEG instead of EEG (take a look at

> brain-trainer.com to learn more about this stuff). HEG works your

> executive center, it's super easy to learn and use, only requires an hour

> or so a week to achieve optimum results, and it uses the same software as

> EEG, so you can add EEG later, if you decide you want to,for less than

> $900, and you can spend your time actually training instead of learning the

> skills you need to learn to get going with EEG.

>

> I guess this wasn't exactly what you asked, but I hope you find it helpful.

>

> Pete

> --

> Van Deusen

> pvdtlc@...

> http://www.brain-trainer.com

> USA 678 224 5895

> BR 47 3346 6235

> The Learning Curve, Inc.