Observations placeholder
Green, Drs Elmer and Alyce – Experiments - The benefits of using EEG, biofeedback and visualisation
Identifier
027335
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Beyond Biofeedback – Drs Elmer and Alyce Green
We had not anticipated, in our research, the relatively high frequency of subject reports indicating that integrative experiences leading to feelings of psychological well-being were associated with extended alpha-theta practice.
Training sessions during the first week or two left a few subjects feeling sluggish, fatigued, or nervous, but these effects were only temporary. One subject, for example, after a few weeks of practice reported having more energy, saying,
"I don't feel drained all the time. I am able to encounter things easier because it doesn't seem like I'm burning up the nervous energy I seemed to burn up before. I seem more relaxed in my everyday approach to life."
Another subject said,
"I have experienced generally, after sessions, a kind of speeding up. I feel good inside, physically things are in order, and I just feel sharper. I've noticed that the sharpness doesn't last, but with me it's a very precious experience. I have trouble feeling that way."
Another described it as
"I'm getting clearer and clearer." He described an experience he had: "It seems like last Saturday night something happened to me. Something clicked and I've felt different ever since, I'm calmer and I feel more inner peace. I just kind of slipped into a state of mind and I haven't left it much since-if you look at my notebook you'll see that this week things are picking up. I can get into myself much better."
Other subjects put it in other ways: "I feel good, good after a session, like whatever I have to do, I can do";
"I feel so put together";
"l feel so with it."
Improvement in difficult interpersonal relationships was spontaneously reported, two with fathers, one with a roommate, due, the subjects felt, to growing tolerance and understanding on their part of the other person's point of view. Two students reported girlfriends liked them better-found them more interesting and easier to talk to. Several reported being more at ease in the classroom with their peers and with their professors.
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Several subjects mentioned the feeling of greater involvement in whatever they were doing and also in their surroundings-for example, their increased awareness of nature: the varied colors, the wind, the trees, the sky.
Archetypal images (to use Jung's term) were the common experience of a number of our subjects: images of tunnels, the experience of going through a dark tunnel, or a tunnel lighted by sunlight at its end; images of stairs, and of climbing up or down; images of a cave or a pyramid. Images of a pair of eyes, or of a single eye, were reported by several subjects, as was the image of a wise old man in the form of a teacher, a professor, or a doctor. A book containing knowledge was another recurring image.
The source of the experience
Green, Dr Elmer and AlyceConcepts, symbols and science items
Concepts
Activities and commonsteps
Activities
Suppressions
BiofeedbackControlled breathing
Reducing threats
Relaxation
Sensory deprivation