BEYOND BIOFEEDBACK

Elmer and Alyce Green

(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.

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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.

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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).

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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.

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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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