BEYOND BIOFEEDBACK
(Biofeedback Society of America - Autogenic
Training - Menninger Foundation)
Through
biofeedback training, what we learn to control are certain existential states, not
simply temperature, blood flow or muscle tension, per se. It is the central nervous system that is
trained, rather than blood vessels or muscles.
External
feedback (meter or tone) of temperature change activates the conscious visual
cortex, and gradually one hears or learns to correlate what one sees with
SUBTLE INTERNAL SENSATIONS that were previously unconscious. These sensations may not be describable in
words, but when they come to consciousness it becomes possible to control
them. When these sensations are
controlled at will, then in some automatic way the body changes to
correspond with the consciously programmed sensation. (The person visualizes and feels the desired
change that will influence the meter and allows the body to carry out the instruction. The feeling seems to become a cue for the
instruction).
Normally, if the
heart slows excessively, the sympathetic autonomic (automatic) system
control circuit acts to speed it up. If excitement speeds it up too much, the parasympathetic
system acts to slow it down. Blood flow
to peripheral body parts is controlled by the sympathetic system. Blood flow is increased by decreasing
sympathetic firing, via the hypothalamus; - essentially, to increase body-part
temperature is learning to decrease activation in the sympathetic nervous
system, in effect reversing the stress of life effects. If the tension level in the sympathetic
nervous system does not drop when the crisis has passed, i.e. when the need for
activation is over, but instead remains high, then psychosomatic disorders may
ensue.
Everything that
one learns is learned with feedback of some kind, as observed by Norbert Weiner
– “Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society”.
Passive volition
- If a person tries to force his hands to get warm with active
willpower, the hands will get colder.
Rather one should tell one's body what to do, usually with visualizing
the desired state, then detach from the situation - step aside and allow the
body to do it. (Same process as in
entering sleep - passive, not active volition). The cortex plants the idea in the subcortex and then allows
nature to take its course without interference. This "detachment" is
a basic feature of yoga.
All of the body
is in the mind, but not all of the mind is in the body.
Aside from
psychokinesis, mind over body, (inside the skin) is a special case of
mind over nature.
Faith (belief)
in the biofeedback process is not necessary, nor is it required to force our
will (analogy is in learning to drive a car - we turn steering wheel to left
and car responds; or in learning to ride a bicycle).
The right and
left hemispheres of the human brain, though not the animal brain, have
different but complementary functions.
CNS - Central
Nervous System: includes the brain's cortex and sub-cortex.
PNS - Peripheral
Nervous System: includes the craniospinal section, for operation of the
normally voluntary striate muscular apparatus, and the autonomic
section, with its sympathetic and
parasympathetic divisions which keep us alive without our having to concentrate
on it; the autonomic system regulates blood flow through constriction and
dilation of smooth muscles in blood vessel walls throughout the body.
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
MAJOR AREAS OF AUTONOMIC BEHAVIOUR WHEREIN BIOFEEDBACK CAN APPLY:
a)
Heart Behaviour: People who are given meaningful information (the why's of
processes) can significantly reduce normal heart-rate variability. E.g. patients with PVC (premature
ventricular contraction) using lights and feedback can train themselves to
speed up or slow down their hearts, or even become sufficiently internally
aware of effects to modulate them, as in resting. Progression exercises -
temperature control then progressing to pulse exercises.
b)
Blood Pressure: 125/75 = systolic
(measured as the heart contracts) over diastolic (measured between
contractions). If arteries lose elasticity, then each heart
pulse generates more pressure during each heart beat than if tubing were more
elastic; or similarly if tubing gets clogged.
Automatic sensors throughout the body call for more blood, therefore the
heart pumps more forcefully and pressure goes up. Psychosomatic high blood pressure is induced through excessive
vasoconstriction due to improper response to life stress. The
pressure is said to be labile - goes up and down rapidly in response to
mood. This form of high blood pressure
is responsive to drugs that smooth muscle tension – but unfortunately
throughout the muscles of the whole body system.
Systolic reading
generally reflects stress - diastolic
reflects physiological state.
Progression exercises:
temperature control ® relaxation of the system ® lowering of blood pressure
c)
Migraines: same as above.
d)
Homeostasis - not only within one's
self, but homeostasis within a family unit.
A family is like a body –
"A
readjustment must be often be made in an entire family prior to recovery. Homeostasis (change-resisting
balance) in a family often makes it difficult to accept the former patient as a
well member. The patient who recovers without the permission (albeit
unconscious) of the family, or without changes taking place in the personality
structures and inter-relationship of family members, often cannot remain well.
The family seems to act like a large-scale organic entity that can develop an
"immune reaction", not accepting the family member who has changed
and whose personality has changed in the process of recovery, and may reject or
isolate that changed person. Under such
pressures the patient may revert to the former condition/sickness."
Negative homeostasis in a family is where the family succumbs to the "usually fatal" label, adjust to the inevitability, and at the unconscious level, resists the change that recovery represents. Recovery can thus be reversed through the expectations of those around us.
e)
Asthma: blocking of air by constriction of the
bronchial airway is easily triggered by emotional stress.
Exercises: Autogenic visualization of heaviness in the body and warmth in arms and hands, plus concentration on breathing.
NB - Exercises have
to be made a "way of life" or the new control processes will be
"unlearned" by the body.
f)
Neuromuscular Disorders: rehabilitation after
accidents
g)
Tension Headache: sustained contraction of
the muscles of scalp and neck, especially the forehead muscle, the frontalis.
Exercises: EMG biofeedback training (electro-mylograph measures
muscle tension).
h)
Anxiety Tension States: use of EMG.
i)Epilepsy: EEG feedback on
brain rhythms.
j)
Cerebral Palsy; EMG to establish internal
awareness of out-of-control muscle groups, and the associated control circuits.
(Unused muscles tend to atrophy, waste away - and the consciousness in them
disappears).
k)
Gastrointestinal Disorders: stomach disorders/ulcers;
spastic colon – all amenable to biofeedback control.
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
BRAIN WAVE
RESEARCH - (use of brain frequency toned meters)
1. Beta - 13 - 26+
Hertz - active attention on outer world - thinking concretely. REM sleep.
2. Alpha - 8 - 13
Hz - when resting eyes, or if attention is focused internally or in
daydreaming, (glazed eyes when in conversation/memory search). Schizophrenics produce very little alpha,
indicative of a restless inner world.
3. Theta - 4 - 8 Hz
- near unconscious/dreamlike state/hypnogogic images; subliminally conscious
state. Reverie. The .creative
mode. Deep relaxation. State desired
via meditation. Detached
"witness" state. To attain Theta, it is necessary to - (a) quiet the
body (b) have tranquil emotions (c) quiet the mind (thoughts).
4. Delta - 0.5 - 4
Hz – in deepest sleep or otherwise unconscious. This is the state wherein
repair functions are thought to mainly occur.
BODY
CONSCIOUSNESS
Our senses are
transducers: e.g. the eye converts electromagnetic energy of certain wave
lengths into nerve impulses, which in turn form an intricate code in the
occipital sector of the brain. It is
not the eye that sees, it is the "perceiver" in the brain, commonly
called the SENSORIUM; it is not the ear that hears, it is the sensorium; or the
finger that feels, etc. Getting
"control of the body" means getting control of the central nervous
system (CNS); the PNS (peripheral, etc.) is only a transducer and motor zone
(both voluntary and involuntary) which interacts with the world outside our
skin, and the CNS interacts with the PNS; HATHA YOGA is an example of body
consciousness/control, wherein one makes contact/learns to control the body
internally.
- Visualization:
travelling-through-the-body points.
- Through temperature training, patients have learned to release chronic spasms in the vascular system; associated with that release of vascular tension was a release of emotional tension, for instance difficult memories.
- Normally the sub-cortical sections ignore direct cortical
commands (hypnosis is an exception - the cortex 'steps aside' while the
hypnotist talks directly with the sub-cortex). (Example of Edgar Cayce asking
Sugree for suggestive command for his body to throw off injected adrenalin -
and the adrenalin 'pools' at skin level.)
- Visualization is the quickest way of programming the body, since it involves a global instruction rather than neurological one. This is referred to as a “command visualization”. In cancer studies of remission cases, the only consistent thread is that prior to the remission, there was a "change of attitude" which perhaps drove the remission/healing event. (Carl Simonton).
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
FIELD
INDEPENDENCE
The goal of biofeedback
control training is to become FIELD INDEPENDENT, wherein we do not succumb to
unwanted external or internal expectancies.
Field dependent people have
self-identity problems when stressed. They become doubtful that they know who
they are. They may panic inside and
react with feelings of helplessness and inadequate control. Problems such as neurosis, alcoholism and
obesity may develop. Field
independent persons, on the other hand, when threatened or stressed defend
themselves by taking refuge in isolation, or strong argument, or intellectual
rationalization. Rather than feeling helpless, they are even inclined to
develop delusions of power and grandeur.
It is not life that kills us, but our reaction to life; therefore self-regulation of internal states is beneficial. The three fields in which we have to develop CNS independence/control are:
1. inputs from the
outside world via the five senses;
2. inputs via the
proprioceptive senses from the inside-the-skin world of muscles, joints and
tendons;
3. inputs from the
enteroceptive senses from the inside world of viscera and other tissues.
FIELD OF MIND
THEORY (Beyond conventional biofeedback)
In 'Tales of
Power', Don Juan tells Castenada that "the double (the luminous being) has
inconceivable power", and it is this double "who dreams the
self". This could imply that the
energy body (the energy chakras and their interconnections) comprise the true
body, which the physical is a reflection of, or it can imply that it is not the
personal that creates the transpersonal but the other way around: the
transpersonal creates the personal.
Because of lack of consciousness (with its consequence, mistaken
identity) we usually cannot answer the question "Who am I?" and we
fritter away our energy, according to Don Juan, through indulging. In this view, correct (moral) behaviour
is a straightforward matter of the conversion and conservation of energy
according to a Karmic balance sheet, rather than a matter of dogmatic
moralizing.
As to religion,
what with our current concepts and understanding of fields, energies and
substances, perhaps morals and ethics are not constructs of an anthropomorphic
God, as much as they are the laws of substance and energy in a universal field
of mind - a trans-cosmic or transpersonal field of mind.
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
MIND TRAINING,
HYPNOSIS AND DEVELOPMENT OF PSYCHIC POWERS
From an article
pointing out the hazards of "mind-development" courses.
1.
Through hypnosis and mind-training people can become aware of normally unconscious
processes.
2.
This awareness is sometimes accompanied by volitional or otherwise
spontaneous ESP phenomena.
3.
Commercial courses are using hypnosis as the major method.
4.
Commercial mind-training instructors deny use of hypnosis, and by
denying or ignoring the risks associated with hypnotic programming are often
inducing in some persons a form of paranoid neurosis or psychosis, often
related to obsession or possession.
5.
Hypnotic programming for ESP is similar to methods used for development
of trance mediumship, especially the "possession by spirits" of
low-grade mediumship.
6.
Better reaching of awareness of normally unconscious processes can occur
under teaching of a guide or counsellor, without hypnotic programming, and
allowing each person to develop at their own pace.
7.
Qualification of teachers is important. Not necessarily best is a
"sales" type, e.g. realtor/car/etc., who has taken the course himself
and "sells" others through hypnotic induction.
Systems Interactivity Flow Chart
Simplified operational diagram of
"self-regulation" of psycho-physiological events and processes. Sensory perception of OUTS events, stressful or
otherwise (upper left box), leads to a physiological response along Arrows I to
4. If the physiological response is "picked up" and fed back (Arrow
5) to a person who attempts to control the "behavior" of the feedback
device, then Arrows 6 and 7 come into being, resulting in a "new"
limbic response. This response in turn makes a change in "signals"
transmitted along Arrows 3 and 4, modifying the original physiological
response. A cybernetic loop is thus completed, and the dynamic equilibrium
(homeostasis) of the system can be brought under voluntary control.
Biofeedback practice, acting in the opposite way to drugs, increases a person’s
sensitivity to INS events, and Arrow 8 develops, followed by the development
of Arrows 9 and 10. External feedback is eventually unnecessary, because
direct perception of INS events becomes adequate for maintaining self-regulation
skills. Physiological self-control through classical yoga develops along the
route of Arrows 7-3-4-9-10-7, but for control of specific physiological and
psychosomatic problems biofeedback training seems more efficient.
Keith and Marnie
Elliott’s “REMEDY” Site
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