Bio-feedback therapy

Recently discovered the concept of what is called biofeedback.

Still understanding more and more about it although, i feel i get the basis;

Put simply you learn to control certain autonomic functions, consciously, based on viewing your vital signs on a screen or in some way. The important part is that you need to be able to measure in some way the specific function that you are attempting to control.

Turns out it's not just something cool you can learn to do or some weird trick that only monks can do, but an actual form of physical therapy/pain management or pain relief.....................more on this



You can also learn to alter brainwave patterns through similar methods. There is also an individual form of biofeedback specifically for the brain


home biofeedback devices


thoughts.........

I've been using this since I was about 16 years old (I'm almost 50 now) to control migraine pain and now later in life just "Oh s**t I'm getting old and been injured a lot doing stupid s**t!" pain lol. It is awesome if you can learn to do it. The units are pretty cheap now too, my parents bought one back in the 70's and I know it was expensive, but it helped both me and my mom who also has migraines.

Probably the only reason I'm not a drug addict today is bio-feedback and self hypnosis (used together is the best for me). Figure I was diagnosed with migraine at 10 (back then they just threw codeine or morphine at you for the pain if they didn't laugh at you), have had them since around 4 or 5, learned bio feedback around 15 or 16. I went from taking pain pills 2-3 times a day to now I pretty much live on 2-3 a week or less, usually only on the days I work.

Anyway if you suffer from chronic pain or anxiety or a plethora of other chronic ailments, this can help a LOT in managing it. Keep looking into it and see if your doctor or someone has one you can borrow to see if you can get your mind around it. It's really easy but also hard if you can't concentrate well.

Good luck!!

Lil

reply to post by victhebutcher


I used to have an EEG at home, nice little Grass 10 channel unit, very sensitive and you could make them channels dance with a bit a training. Moore I think it was had a training center in PA, that was supposed to be an interesting place but I never went there to check it out. They were more into brain entrainment which is the next step up from biofeedback. You can make yourself a little multi-frequency generator using Intersil's ICL8038 Precision Frequency Generator that can provide both aural and visual stimulation using speakers and LED's. I made an 8 channel unit, worked well and I thought about marketing it but couldn't get the size down (it's in rack mount case), this was back in the early/mid 90's but I still have it. The reason that I made the unit was to experiment with lucid dreaming. I did find that if I set it up wrong (during my experimenting phase), I could force myself into sleep paralysis which wasn't very pleasant. But when I had the settings right and forced alpha subtly on top of delta and then theta it produced serious lucid and controllable dreaming. I used blacked out sunglasses for the LED's and a pair of low pressure earphones for the audio.

Another thing that is kind of interesting is sleep learning. You hook up a tape deck or some audio source, with the information you want to remember spoken clearly and calmly, and put it on a timer set to start about an hour after you expect to fall asleep. While your doing your "brainwashing," rinse and repeat as required.

Biofeedback I think is more like finding out what the buttons and switches do. Entrainment is like state-change programming in your organic computer. I played with entrainment for about year, on and off, until more important projects came up.

Cheers - Dave

reply to post by Lilroanie


I hope to learn more about it. Question: on a scale of 1 to 10 how effective is it when you employ biofeedback for yourself?

reply to post by bobs_uruncle


That machine sounds awesome to me. I wanna save up for something interesting.

victhebutcher
reply to post by bobs_uruncle

 

That machine sounds awesome to me. I wanna save up for something interesting.

You can buy brain entrainment units on ebay and other places. They are usually only two channels but they still cover a fair amount of ground. Getting real lucid dreaming and control requires about 6 channels minimum and a lot of experimenting. There are common landmarks for everyone but as individuals with our own wiring and subtle changes in structure, as far as a "map" goes, we are each different cities, none of us are exactly the same.

Cheers - Dave

reply to post by bobs_uruncle


Any advice for a beginner?

1-10 huh? hrmm well for me I'd have to say a 10 or I'd be a drug addict at this point after the decades of pain management I didn't get. Docs just toss the codeine, morphine and later Vicodin etc at you and try to tell you it's not real pain. Thank god they know better now and real treatments are available for migraine.

I highly recommend it, it has a lot of uses from pain management to just teaching yourself to be calm and think clearly, and a ton of stuff in between that can actually be fun, like the poster above mentioned lucid dreaming etc.

Lil

reply to post by victhebutcher


Similar to plain, old, ancient forms of deep meditation, BF is a basic fix for much of what ails the human body (and it is related). It remains hidden but not trying to hide, but it doesn't need to. The establishment of the medical/health industry in the West really, really doesn't want us to go there. Two reasons for that, first it goes against the historical background of the advancement of medical science and as such, is suspect, and second, it provides an alternative to where people put their money.

BF is easily proven to any scientifically minded medical/health professional IF they want the truth. Unfortunately, the oft repeated myth for why BF is not done on an revolutionary scale is that the sudden growth and subsequent deflation of the alpha myth in the 1970s made many people wary. I wonder, how many people in those fields are even aware of the alpha craze four decades ago and of the stacks of positive scientific evidence produced since?

Remember when not too long ago it was said and staunchly believed that you were born with a given number of brain cells and you had better use that allotment wisely because there would be no more popping in between your ears? (That was the view back in the "alpha craze" days.) Similar old myths exist still today. While everybody admits today that every thing that happens within our bodies happens because of transmissions in the brain (or not), little thought (pun) is given to how critical that is to total body functioning from thoughts themselves to problems such as IBS.

Most medical/health professionals are trained and licensed in one particular field. A typical MD or a psychologist is maybe inclined to think BF is interesting and may actually work, but they are not going to chuck years of schooling, training, and the conventions of their trade to latch onto the BF wagon. The step is too great for most of them to make or to ask of their patients and clients.

The only recourse for the interested citizen is to venture out on your own. Read, the books, join the internet list, seek out converted professionals, and maybe buy your own equipment. I've been involved with building, buying and using such gizmos since the early 1970s with brainwave entrainment devices, inexpensive EEG devices, a ROSHI unit and other devices for improving mental and physical functioning. they can and do work. As anecdotal evidence, I can testify that my brain isn't mush yet at 75 years old.

Yet, I can tell you, 99 people out of 100 will not want to hear a word about any device that they can fasten to the scalp that will improve their functioning. So my advice is to not be concerned about those 99. Make your own decision after a through investigation of the entire field. Happy theta!

reply to post by Aliensun


Sounds promising. Will look further into this. For sure I know that people are skeptical of some of the most obviously beneficial things

victhebutcher
reply to post by bobs_uruncle

 

Any advice for a beginner?

I'd do a bit of biofeedback first. Learn to control your breathing properly and then your heart rate. Find a calm place in your mind and record the feedback, replicate the signal over and over then start making subtle changes until you can control the feedback signal. Then you could start with some brain entrainment, I did lucid dreaming first just to get a handle on dream reality control, eg. know you are dreaming and take control within a dream. I ended falling once in a dream, it was beautiful, the ground rushing up and the wind rushing past, I didn't want the feeling of flight to end right away, so in my dream I sprouted wings, problem solved. Under normal conditions 20 years ago, I would have just fallen and then woken up.

If you get good at biofeedback control and entraining your brain to do what you want, dig deeper. Try to examine your subconscious (there seems to be a firewall there), if you can get into that, you can reprogram yourself for a lot of different things, change confidence levels, fears and phobias, learning abilities, possibly even gain control over the way your body reacts to biological/viral intrusion and other health issues.

The mind is a huge place, just ask any Buddhist monk ;-)

Cheers - Dave