Neurofeedback
Alpha-Theta Training
Suggested Uses for Alpha-Theta Training
- Family changes: divorce, death of loved ones, birth, marriage
- Preparation for death
- Psychological integration
- Unresolved emotional issues
- Deepening religious experience
- Deepening meditation and prayer
- Transcendent experience
- Choice points in life
- Non-responders to other treatments, especially psychotherapy
Definitions
- consciousness
“the quality or state of being aware, especially of something within oneself. The state of being characterized by sensation, emotion, volition, and thought”
- spiritual
“of the spirit or the soul; not corporeal; religious, sacred"
- mystical
“spiritually significant or symbolic; pertaining to belief in direct or intuitive attainment of communion with God or of spiritual truths”
*Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary
- consciousness
That annoying state between naps
Common Experiences During A/T Training
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Typical Transformational Experiences
- A radically changed view of some aspect of self or of life
- An insight into interconnectedness with all other beings and things
- An upsurge of boundless, unconditional love that spreads throughout the body
- A pleasurable stream of grace or blessings or illumination from above
- A direct perception of the empty, insubstantial, or impermanent nature of everything
- A current of energy up the spine through the energy centers that leaves the person feeling more expanded or in touch with spirit
- An experience of subtle inner sounds, colors, or shapes that have spiritual significance
- An experience of the body dissolving into light or expanding its boundaries and dissolving into space
- A shift in identity from being the body-mind to being the space or awareness in which the body-mind exists
- A deep and certain knowing, beyond the mind, of a sacred presence that exists both within and beyond space and time
- Visions of angels and other spiritual beings
- A direct awareness of the presence of the divine
- The inner experience of being loved by, or even one with God
Four Characteristics of Mystical Experiences
- Ineffability: They can’t be adequately expressed in words but must be experienced directly
- Insight: They generally involve discovery of deep, important truths that initially can’t be understood by the rational mind
- Impermanence: They last for a limited period of time but may recur, and their meanings may continue to reveal themselves, even though the experiences themselves have faded from memory
- Passivity: You can prepare for spiritual experiences, but once they occur, you receive them passively. They unfold in your awareness with a power of their own.
~The Varieties of Religious Experience,
William James
Impediments to Successful Deep State Training
- Insufficient client preparation
- Dietary considerations: meals – quantity and timing
- Prescription drugs, over-the-counter drugs, nicotine, caffeine
- Fatigue
- Fear of contact with higher power
- Fear of disloyalty to one’s religion or deity
- Fear of “the dark place”
- Attachment to euphoria, rapture, ego release
- Acting out temporary distress via food, sex, drugs, frenetic activity, excess exercise, focus of physical pain, etc. Remember that chaos or disorganization often precedes reorganization. This can produce temporary discomfort.
- Insufficient time for consolidation/integration after training period Meditators: using customary meditation technique
- Using a familiar prayer during the training
- Focusing on imagery
- Arousal problems from unfinished SMR/beta training
