An altered state is any resulting from an act of will, be it a mental practice, a physical stress or stimulation, or the ingestion of substances, that causes the brain to operate in a mode other than that which it would “choose” of its own accord.

Altered states can be used to accentuate any value system. They are also the places to find inspiration, novel connections and recollections that make new ideas possible.

Delta is associated with sleep-related processes – deep integration of recent experience. Meditative delta maintains a constant level of consciousness to direct the integration. Gamma seen during delta meditation is effectively only the minimum flicker of real time consciousness required to ensure that the place of meditation is not on fire, that it is just the gardener burning leaves. There’s no need to add it, but doing so does no harm.

Add low alpha/high theta to a sleep-style delta session and you’ll have the basic formula for lucid dreaming. You can run two parallel tracks or use bursts of theta in the delta track, or any combination that allows the two to be perceived separately. Delta needs to dominate in time and emphasis.

Lucid dreaming contains experiences corresponding to descriptions of out of body experiences, remote viewing and communication with entities. Irrespective of interpretation, delta/theta is the gateway. Likelihood of success is affected dramatically by sleep, nutrition, other practices, beliefs and so on. AVS/entrainment is supportive – it will not cause the thing to happen without you co-operating. This includes the understanding that you truly desire the thing to happen, and don’t just want to prove it doesn’t.

Once an altered state has been experienced, by whatever means, it becomes easier for the functional equivalent to be created in the non-altered states. An altered state is a perspective. If it doesn’t ultimately reconcile with the perspectives of the individual’s other states, then we have all the pre-requisites for mental illness.

AVS/entrainment uses techniques with names like “dissociative” and “hypnotic”, terms used to describe mental disorder and a doorway to the sleep-world. Working with altered states is an exercise in inducing various experiences that, if not under will, would be symptomatic of mental illness. Herein lies the integrative potential of psychoactive techniques in the treatment of mood, personality and dissociative disorders. Psychoactive substances and practices have been used for “healing” in most tribal cultures.

Once it is realised that some alternate realities are induced fabrications, it becomes easy to accept that all are, and to then be selective in which you choose to place value.

Theta/gamma with random beta is a good place to start for religious experiences and deep insights. It works best if recently exposed to inspiring information. A podcast on a relevant subject can be a good intro to a session.

Other altered states can be achieved by manipulating serotonin with 10Hz alpha, and stimulating anxiety/excitement sensations with beta.

Any session that attempts a complex interaction between states is improved by an unobtrusive but constant 40Hz gamma or random 30-50Hz gamma, or a delta track on a gamma pitch.

The most important thing to consider in designing altered states sessions is that some type of continuous consciousness has to be maintained in order for the content of the altered state to be recalled. Getting into a deep theta or delta state isn’t difficult. Most do it every night. The trick is to let all the autonomic functions free-fall into deep sleep while leaving sparks of consciousness intact in all the vital places to see what happens, and very frequently, influence the sequences of perceptions.

Whatever state you seek, the session is only part of the setting. Whatever symbols you identify with, they can be correctly used to support the objective of the session. Candle colours, incense, fabrics and furnishings, tools and rituals, mantra/prayer, posture, and so on. A Roman Catholic or Anglican Mass is an excellent example of the effectiveness of identifying mental states with full sets of sensual inputs, ritualised actions and recitation/repetition – the same techniques can be used to reinforce any perspective/belief.

Altered states techniques become more powerful as more people report them effective. It is very hard to write a session that is compellingly effective unless you know you are using techniques that have a better than average reputation. AVS/entrainment is absolutely excellent as a supporting technology for altered states exploration – right from the fundamental emulation of primitive drumbeats. Contemplate what the delta, theta and alpha states mean to you – design an altered states session to encourage the dominant activity you believe will be most useful at the times during the session that would correspond to your typical rate of progression through a complex thought.

Don’t expect the technology to prove itself to you. Let go of preconceptions and prejudices and engage or disengage with the session as appropriate to the design, and focus your thoughts on your conception of the desired outcome. Then be surprised. Engaging with a session is appropriate for interactive lucid dreaming or OOBE, disengaging for viewing applications. Engagement refers to degree of conscious awareness of the sound or structure of the session. Degree of engagement provides a real time control over beta activity – every time you engage in critique of the session, you use beta-rate processes.

Unless you’re using biofeedback or EEG to optimise a particular rhythm, the beat within a range isn’t all that important – more important is that the chosen beat has meaning, literal or symbolic, to you.

Audiostrobe, any visual stimulus that induces hallucination-like imagery, provides a model for non-real perception. The visuals provide an excellent opportunity to witness how the projection of the outside world on our retina gets turned into our recollection of what we saw. Being able to distinguish non-real from real perceptions is a useful indicator of mental well-being.

If you want to create a particular inner experience, then be prepared to use everything at your disposal to engage every aspect of your thought with related sensations, recollections and associations.

It is very easy to apply more meaning than can be justified to an altered-state experience. As all the states, altered and otherwise, align on a common perspective the individual begins to experience the unity implicit in most “higher” understandings.

Quality of this information… mostly optimistic extrapolation of absolutely reliable techniques and verifiable history supported by personal experience.

Cheers,
Craig

Here’s the abstract: http://cercor.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/19/8/1896

What makes us become aware? A popular hypothesis is that if cortical neurons fire in synchrony at a certain frequency band (gamma), we become aware of what they are representing.

…we also observed increases in gamma band ERS within the amygdala, visual, prefrontal, parietal, and posterior cingulate cortices to emotional relative to neutral stimuli, irrespective of their availability to conscious access. This suggests that increased gamma band ERS is related to, but not sufficient for, consciousness.

The results: children who believed that intelligence was malleable and could be improved were much more likely to perform well in school. Children who believed intelligence was something set in stone – a genetic gift from birth that never changes – did not perform as well.

To test this, Dweck separated one hundred 7th grade students into 2 equal groups. All students had suffering math scores. One group was taught good studying habits, the other was taught about the plasticity of the brain, and how the brain can change; new neural connections can be formed and intelligence can actually be increased.

At the end of the semester, the children who had the crash course in neuroscience ended up performing better than those who were taught study skills! This is because their beliefs about intelligence had changed.

Here’s some excerpts from an article on this:

“Some students start thinking of their intelligence as something fixed, as carved in stone,” Dweck says. “They worry about, ‘Do I have enough? Don’t I have enough?’”

Dweck calls this a “fixed mindset” of intelligence.

“Other children think intelligence is something you can develop your whole life,” she says. “You can learn. You can stretch. You can keep mastering new things.”

She calls this a “growth mindset” of intelligence.  

“When they studied, they thought about those neurons forming new connections,” Dweck says. “When they worked hard in school, they actually visualized how their brain was growing.”

“We saw among those with the growth mindset steadily increasing math grades over the two years,” she says. But that wasn’t the case for those with the so-called “fixed mindset.” They showed a decrease in their math grades.

“If you think about a child who’s coping with an especially challenging task, I don’t think there’s anything better in the world than that child hearing from a parent or from a teacher the words, ‘You’ll get there.’ And that, I think, is the spirit of what this is about.”

In the articles on our website, we’ve been talking for years about how beliefs can work for or against your cognitive performance. Many people who approach us with cognitive issues want to focus only on the neurological or physiological aspect of that. Often, after a few months of work, it becomes apparent that a psychological approach is needed – the physiology is right for peak performance, but the belief system keeps the brain stuck in first gear. Negative beliefs about one’s intelligence can often be very hard to counteract. This study is useful in that it shows that merely learning more about the brain can help give your brain the boost it needs to make real progress.

NPR has a nice broadcast of this new research online: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7406521

One of the most telling examples of this can be found in a fascinating condition known as “blindsight“.

As a result of certain types of brain lesions, people can lose conscious awareness of their vision. That is, they become blind. But, only consciously blind. Their eyes work and their brain still receives visual input. It is only their conscious awareness that has become disconnected from the visual input.

In people who suffer from blindsight, the subconscious can still see perfectly fine. This can be demonstrated by placing an object in front of them and asking them to make a guess about it on instinct. Is it a triangle or a square? Is it red or green? Although they cannot “see” the object, their guesses will be remarkably accurate. Much more so than random guesses from those who truly are blind. Now, if you simply asked them where the object is, they would not be able to tell you. Only if you force them to hazard a wild guess will their answers become accurate!

In many cases, your instinct is also much faster than your conscious awareness. Daniel Smilek, a neuroscience professor at the University of Waterloo, studied the speed that people were able to find a specific object among a bunch of similar objects. Kind of a like a visual search for a needle in a haystack. He found that relaxing and going on gut instinct is much more efficient than consciously searching for the target. Here is a quote from the abstract:

In Experiment 1 participants were instructed to search while either actively directing their attention to the target or by passively allowing the target to just “pop” into their minds. Results showed that passive instructions led to more efficient search on a hard task but not on an easy task.

These findings suggest that the efficiency of some difficult searches can be improved by instructing participants to relax and adopt a passive cognitive strategy

His study is entitled “Relax! Cognitive strategy influences visual search”. Cognitive Daily has an online recreation of this here (and I personally experienced very similar results on this).

Another shining example of subconscious perception is our ability to “pick up” on the mental states of other people. Maureen O’Sullivan, a psychology professor at the University of San Francisco, has spent many years studying people who have the uncanny ability to detect lies. Despite what Hollywood would have us believe, lies are often extremely hard to detect. Many people make more eye contact and fidget LESS while lying. Yet, there are a talented few among us who are incredibly accurate at distinguishing truth from a fib. Much like the blindsight phenomenon, O’Sullivan says that human lie detectors are usually completely unaware of how they do it. Due to extensive social experience, and perhaps some built-in talent, their subconscious is able to interpret a huge range of nonverbal cues to reach an accurate conclusion.

A few years ago, I met someone with a similarly impressive ability to read nonverbal signals, and spent several months working with her. Looking back, it really was an interesting encounter. But at the time it was quite nerve wracking. Similar, I imagine, to hanging around this guy:

(yes, that’s the mind-reading cop from Heroes) 

Of course, there is a time and a place for gut instinct. Certain decisions should be carefully considered and weighed. Financial decisions. Career choices. Stock picks. Buying a house. The name of your first born.

The best advice we can derive from research on intuition and the subconscious is this:

Relax! And always make a mental note of your instinct and first guess. Use that as a guide for a conscious decision.

Patients volunteered to study lists of words which they were then asked to recall at a later time.  When asked to recall the studied words, participants recalled some number of correct items and also made a small number of errors, recalling words that had not appeared on the target list.  

While patients performed the memory game, scientists observed electrical activity in their brains to determine whether specific brain waves were associated with successfully storing and retrieving memories. Researchers found that a fast brain wave, known as the gamma rhythm, increased when participants studied a word that they would later recall. The same gamma waves, whose voltage rises and fall between 50 and 100 times per second, also increased in the half-second prior to participants correctly recalling an item.  

These analyses revealed that the same pattern of gamma band oscillatory activity in the hippocampus, prefrontal cortex and left temporal lobe that predicts successful memory formation also re-emerged at retrieval, distinguishing correct from incorrect responses, said Per B. Sederberg, lead author and former Penn neuroscientist now performing post-doctoral research at Princeton University.  The timing of these oscillatory effects suggests that self-cued memory retrieval initiates in the hippocampus and then spreads to the cortex.  Thus, retrieval of true as compared with false memories induces a distinct pattern of gamma oscillations, possibly reflecting recollection of contextual information associated with past experience.

Full article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071023163853.htm 

These kinds of advancements in our understanding of memory will be incredibly useful in diagnosing and alleviating neurological problems from epilepsy to schizophrenia.

Here is the full paper: http://memory.psych.upenn.edu/publications/files/SedeEtal07b.pdf

For more on recent work on gamma waves, check out this lecture by Robert Knight: http://www.mindupdate.com/?p=63 

Thanks to Tyler on the forums for finding this.

In a 2004 study at Yale, students were asked to compete in an investment game while sitting alone in a room with one of two objects: either a backpack or a briefcase. Comparing the results, students in the room with a briefcase were significantly more greedy and aggressive than those sharing it with a backpack.

A recent article in the New York Times shed light on some of this new research, and offered up some theories as to why such ordinary objects can hold such sway on our subconscious:

… New studies reveal a subconscious brain that is far more active, purposeful and independent than previously known. Goals, whether to eat, mate or devour an iced latte, are like neural software programs that can only be run one at a time, and the unconscious is perfectly capable of running the program it chooses.

…The mere presence of the briefcase, noticed but not consciously registered, generated business-related associations and expectations, the authors argue, leading the brain to run the most appropriate goal program: compete.

In another study outlined in the NYT article, a lab assistent with his hands full asked participants to hold a cup a coffee on the way to the laboratory. It was a set up. Half of the participants held iced coffee and the other half held coffee that was piping hot. Later at the lab, they were asked to read a story and make judgements  about a fictional character’s personality.  The participants that had held the cold beverage for the lab assistent turned out to be more likely to rate the fictional character’s personality as cold, less social and selfish, and it was the opposite for participants who had held the hot cup! That was all it took to influence the judgement of a stranger.

In a Dutch experiment in 2005, participants were exposed to the smell of a citrus cleaning fluid while filling out a questionnaire. Later, as a supposed reward for their time, they were given a crumbly biscuit which they ate and cleaned up while still under observation. Participants exposed to the citrus smell cleaned 3 times as many crumbs from the table as those who had not.

External stimuli can also affect cognitive performance:

In 2007, a 2 year extensive study was concluded  at the University of Minnesota, examining how ceiling height affected individual performance. Higher ceilings, it was found, stimulated more “out of the box”, creative thought patterns, while lower ceilings encouraged attention and focus.

In a study conducted at Dartmouth College, it was found that showing the name of a lover or a passionate hobby increased cognitive performance results on subsequent tasks.

A briefcase, a cup of coffee, the height of the ceiling - these are not hypnotic, or technologically advanced. These are stimuli we are exposed to every day. Yet, they can have a tremendous impact on our subconscious and our behavior.

In these videos he talks on a range of topics, from the subconscious to individuality to life and death. Interesting stuff, from a great thinker.

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Talking about a variety of topics: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ei-m-kpPtyQ

Talking about life and death: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eenmBDU_k3o

One of the most fascinating aspects of the subconscious is the way it covertly changes our behavior. A single event can change your mood from bad to good, or make you more social or antisocial. There was a much talked about article in the November edition of Science called “The Psychological Consequences Of Money”, which discussed how the mere mentioning of ”money” causes dramatic changes in social behavior.  Subjects in the study who were reminded of money (subtly – no subject knew what the test was about), became more socially isolated – more dependent on themselves, less willing to help others or ask for help. They even put more physical distance between themselves and other subjects.

If a single offhanded mention of money is able to so drastically change our behavior, think of all the other emotion-provoking topics we are exposed to on a daily basis:

Love - Family - Religion

War - Hate - Power

Attractiveness – Body weight – Race

..the list goes on and on – each one having its own unique impact on our subconscious, and therefore our behavior.

This reminded me of a Scientific America Frontier show, where subjects were bargaining (monopoly-style) electronically, while an MRI tracked their brain patterns. The interesting twist was that half the time the subjects thought they were bartering with another subject, and the other half with a computer. One would hope that, given the exact same deal, it wouldn’t matter how it was presented to you, or by whom – but the data says differently. For example, if a subject perceived a fellow human as giving them a raw deal, they became emotionally charged, but bargaining with a computer for the same deal was easily accepted.

I saw the show a while ago, but I believe this was it: http://www.pbs.org/saf/1507/

Another intriguing concept is the way the subconscious expresses itself. A series of recent articles in Scientific American Mind discussed how the subconscious has its own modes of communication, and that these modes perhaps even dwarf verbal or written language in a number of ways.

Neuroscientist Spencer Kelly of Colgate University analyzed the brainwaves of subjects while they watched a video of people talking and using various physical gestures. His study suggests that the mind responds to the gestures in much the same way it responds to words. In fact nonverbal, and largely subconscious, communication may even be more significant from a neurological standpoint. Gestures often precede verbal communication because it is easier for the brain to process a thought as a gesture, while verbal communication has to go through another series of filters to construct a grammatically correct sentence. And gestures are more base – primates and animals communicate nonverbally, and actually have an enormous range of motions to choose from (just watch “The Dog Whisperer” Cesar Milan for an example of that) – so it is no surprise that there is a deep, very efficient part of our brain devoted to decoding nonverbal communication.

All of this is in line with various NLP concepts, one of which is:

“You cannot not communicate”

..even if you decide not to verbally express what you are feeling, the information is always available in some other form. The subconscious nearly always finds a way to rear its head.

Lie detectors analyzing variations in voice, gestures, facial movements and eye position and dilation are becoming disturbingly accurate. Over 10,000 combinations of facial gestures have been identified. Psychology professor Paul Ekman discovered what he called “Microexpressions”, which last for only a 5th of a second, and seem to express what we are truly thinking or feeling – the expression our subconscious imprints on our face before our conscious mind has a chance to adjust.

There is a wearable device under development at MIT, that is able to analyze nonverbal gestures. It is intended to help people who have severe problems in social situations (such as those with Autism). It is called the “Emotional Social Intelligence Prosthesis”, or by its more appropriate abbreviation: ESP.

Quantum physics aside, we “emit” our subconscious, just by standing around and being human. It is not surprising that people often report self-fulfilling prophecies, or visualizations that come true exactly as imagined, when so much of our behavior is based on what our subconscious wants. The trick is to make sure your subconscious is in line with what you actually want out of life.

What we are up to here at Transparent:

The holiday season is keeping us busy, which is interesting since, as my father noted, “Why would anyone want to give a self-improvement program out as a gift. Wouldn’t that kind of be an insult?” Gee, thanks dad But despite this many people seem to be doing just that. I just had a call from a long time customer who is buying it for his son as a christmas present to help him with his college studies.

Our research director Dr. Huang (Tina) is working on a number of studies and projects, that I hope to ellaborate a bit on either in my next post or at the beginning of the year.

The new project is coming along. Programming is like anything else in life – it’s the little things that get you. Most of the major functionality is done, now I’m just going through and fixing this and that, this bug and that bug, this piece of the application I was too lazy to program a month ago, etc. I will release a teaser as soon as I can (I have been getting a lot of requests), I just want to put some final touches on it and make it presentable.

I would say happy holidays to you all, but I expect I will be making another post or 2 before the end of the year. Still, if I don’t see you by then, have a great holiday and new year!

Adam

A few weeks ago, I listened to a speech and question/answer segment given by Candace Pert, as I was making the 3 hour trek to visit with relatives. Pert is best known to scientists as a discoverer of the opiate receptor, and known to everyone else as the author of the book “Molecules of Emotion” and a contributor in the controversial movie “What the Bleep?!”. She presented a radical idea based on evidence that many neurochemicals are not exclusive to the brain, and that neuropeptides and their receptors can be found all over the body. Conversely, body chemicals like insulin can also be found in the brain (interestingly, in the emotional centers). She calls neuropeptides “information gatherers” and suggests that communication is not one sided, but is a constant flow, back and forth between the body and the mind – using many chemicals most people think are exclusive to the brain. Based on this, Pert presents the fascinating idea that the body IS the subconscious mind, or at least a significant part of it – challenging the idea that the mind is the one and only seat of thought.

Here is a small excerpt from the speech, appropriately entitled “Your body is your subconscious mind”:

Candace Pert Excerpt

I imagine many in the neuroscience community would be skeptical of some of the more radical ideas expressed in the speech. There are lots of intriguing ideas floating around right now, and at this point I approach them more as “brain candy” than facts. I have always enjoyed discussing science fiction concepts such as the idea of transporting the brain to a new body. Could you become immortal simply by downloading the data in your brain to a computer? It is interesting to wonder how much of a person would change in a new body, or by abandoning the body altogether.

What we’ve been up to lately:

A new brainwave entrainment clinic is opening up near Santa Cruz today, and I’m happy to say they have chosen to use our software. I had a great chat with the owner and clinician, after a few weeks of phone tag, and I’m wishing them great success. If anyone in the Santa Cruz/Soquel area is interested I can probably find out where it is.

We’re still plugging away on the new project I mentioned in the last post. Nothing interesting to report. Let me just say that there is a reason we’re the only ones in the industry to implement Undo and Copy/Paste functionality.

I’m looking forward to testing some new equipment we received from AVStim, and we may have a new product in the accessories area soon if our tests prove successful. Over the last 6 months we’ve also been testing cordless headphones, but unfortunately we have yet to find a set that is adequate for use with entrainment or hypnosis – for music it is great, but for entrainment, not so much. There are too many cut outs, bursts of static, random reductions in volume, and other problems that can easily jolt you out of an otherwise relaxing session. Hopefully we will find one that works well and be able to offer it (or at least recommend it) on our site. I know the feeling of emerging from a session in a spider’s web of headphone cords – kind of ruins the euphoria.

By the way, I talked a bit about MRI in the last entry, here’s an interesting article featuring footage of the first MRI and the latest advances: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5371748.stm

Till next time, all the best!

Adam

As always, the political process is fascinating to me, and I’m enjoying watching it all unfold. Ohio just implemented touch screen voting, so I’m looking froward to using that for the first time, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed hoping the technology behind it is well made. The techie in me wants to see elections move into the modern age. But with the modern age comes modern paranoias. I remember when we first started the company an individual in a discussion group warned others not to use our software because the government embeds “microchips” in all white noise to control the populace. Another customer contacted us a year ago, convinced that she heard “buy this software” subliminally while playing our sessions. It turned out she wasn’t even using our software at all, having confused us with another company – but even so I would be willing to bet it was just an auditory illusion.

More than a few people hear words and other auditory illusions in some of the background sound files we have used over the years, to the point where sometimes I have to manually edit the sound file and take out the “human-sounding” portions. When a sound file is used repeatedly the mind can start to identify patterns where none exist, and I sometimes wonder if what people hear in these sound files is a kind of representation of the subconscious mind, sort of like the famous inkblot test.

Well on to what we’ve been up to here at Transparent:

Mind Stereo has been a great success. I didn’t know what to expect in releasing it – nothing like it has really been done before. While making it I often sat back and wondered to myself if I was being arrogant in assuming people would want yet another media player on their computer, even one as unique as this. But, just the other day a few customers indicated they are actually using it as their default, so I’m real proud of that.

There has been some discussion lately of moving to other platforms, like OSX, PocketPC, Linux, etc. I want everyone to know that we hear you, and I’m really hoping to look more into this next year. I just heard that our software has some troubles on Windows Vista, so I’m going to be working on making that work before Vista is officially released to the public. So much to do!

Meanwhile, we’re all hard at work here on a big new project. This one has me really excited. I’m hoping to start beta testing on it in a month or 2, but the more we develop and the more we research, the more ideas pop up! We’ll often be in the middle of a project and then add a dozen new features that, while exciting, add a lot of time to the whole process.

I’m hoping to release more details about our new developments soon, maybe even along with some pre-release screenshots.

Wishing everyone all the best. To those readers in the U.S., happy voting on tuesday!

Adam