BRAIN RYHTHMS OF
CONSCIOUSNESS IN ACTION
Lora Lonsberry, Ph.D.
Through brainwave training, as fear and reactivity quiet, self and other emerge. Empathy, cause and effect thinking, and remorse emerge. As fear quiets further, the illusion of a separate self dissolves. “Otherness” disappears. “Oneness” appears. Openheartedness reigns. Down-stream mental illness and health problems have everything to do with up-stream bio-electrical patterns of propulsion: timing faults that lead to disorders of arousal. It’s an exciting frontier.
Neurofeedback is a strategy that enables people to alter their brain waves and exercise the brain’s own regulatory mechanisms. Also referred to as EEG Biofeedback, it is used for many conditions and disabilities in which the brain is not functioning as well as it might. Research has demonstrated that various EEG (brainwave) frequencies are related to specific qualities of arousal, attention, mood and consciousness. Particular patterns of these frequencies determine the difference between peak performance and malfunction, between A’s and failure, and sometimes between joy and despair. Neurofeedback is a safe, painless and noninvasive training method for teaching the brain how to better regulate itself. When its information is “fed-back” to the brain visually and by sounds, the brain can optimize its own activation level and its focus, attention, and mood.
Neurofeedback is used toward optimal brain functioning, both by persons interested in enhancing performance and by persons seeking treatment for problem conditions and injury. These include Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, severe conduct problems, special learning disabilities, issues such as sleep problems, teeth grinding, chronic pain, headache and stomach pain. It helps mood disorders, reactive attachment disorder, anxiety, depression, substance abuse, weight control, seizures, and secondary stroke symptoms. Kids with attachment disorder have disorganized/ aroused brains. Neurofeedback therapy calms the brain so attachment therapy and re-parenting are more successful.
In virtually every area of our lives, we are able to improve our performance when we get clear and immediate feedback about how we are doing. This is one of the key reasons why athletic performance has shown such dramatic improvements recently – sophisticated technology has enabled the athlete to gain a much greater degree of information about all aspects of physical performance, and this allows for sharpening of skills.
The same sort of technological sophistication now enables us to directly alter the functioning of our brain to improve performance. Neuroscience has shown repeatedly that the brain is capable of enormous change or plasticity, the brain is amazingly adaptable. Advanced EEG biofeedback technology provides instantaneous (real time) information to the brain about how it is functioning along with continuous hints or cues about how to make adjustments toward improved functioning. Repeated studies have shown that our brains are able to use this information to re-regulate their function.
Though the technology is quite complex, the training activity is simple, painless, and non-invasive. Sensors are placed on the scalp and EEG activity is transmitted to a computer. Auditory and visual feedback is provided instantly, so that you see and hear representations of your brain in action. The goal is to reduce or limit certain types of brainwaves and increase others. As your brain reorganizes itself based on this instantaneous information, it develops increased resilience and flexibility. Optimal mental health achieved through neurotherapy includes the regulation of arousal, lack of reactivity, lack of fearfulness, openheartedness, and a relaxed and attentive state.