[Mb-civic] The Journey to Wild Divine

[Michael Butler]

AlterNet
The Journey to Wild Divine
By Patricia King, Common Ground
Posted on January 31, 2005, Printed on February 1, 2005
http://www.alternet.org/story/21114/

Warning: The Journey to Wild Divine is no shoot-'em up computer game for
twitchy-fingered adrenaline junkies.

To play the game, I clip three purple biofeedback devices onto my
fingertips. The devices will monitor perspiration and beat-to-beat changes
in my heart rate. Using my mouse, I can take a leisurely virtual tour of the
lush gardens and sacred mountain temples of Wild Divine's mystical Sun Realm
while being serenaded by soothing, chirping birds and flute music.

But the mouse is useless for conquering the game's real challenges. To feed
a white rabbit in the Temple of Compassion, to delicately balance one rock
on top of another or to light a fire in a cozy cottage, my biofeedback
sensors first have to conclude that I am relaxed. At the cold fireplace,
nothing happens as I follow the instructions to coordinate my breathing with
the slow opening and closing of a bellows.

I get impatient. I get nowhere. Finally, I give up trying to get anywhere
and just inhale and exhale very slowly. The fire appears. I feel a sense of
accomplishment and, yes, peace, even in the face of looming deadlines.

A Brave New World

Wild Divine and other user-friendly desktop technologies have revolutionized
the once monochromatic world of biofeedback, intersecting with ancient
mind-body techniques in new ways. Such technology can "accelerate the
learning curve" for these ancient techniques, says Adam Crane, author of
Mindfitness Training: Neurofeedback and the Process. When would-be
meditators, despite their best efforts, have not been able to approach the
mental states that are second nature for yogis, biofeedback can help: "You
can take them right to it if the teacher and the equipment are right," says
Crane.

One advantage of technologically aided mind-body exercises is that they
provide quantifiable data. "It's objective," says Deborah Rozman, CEO of
Quantum Intech, a technology licensing and manufacturing company, "you can't
fool yourself." Unlike pharmaceuticals, these cyber-zazen sessions help you
shift rather than mask negative emotions. "You can drug the emotions, but
that's like disarming the fire alarm without putting out the fire," says
Rozman. "You've got to give people tools to harness the power of their
physiology."

Wild Divine's creators, animator Corwin Bell and biomedical engineer Kurt
Smith, promise that "with patience and persistence," mastering the game's
challenges will help you "discover a deeper understanding that can be
applied to your life and your own personal journey." The game, which lists
at $159.95, is only the first in a planned trilogy by the ambitious Colorado
entrepreneurs, who met while rock climbing. The next installment, scheduled
for release next spring, will feature the electronic avatar of author and
teacher Deepak Chopra as a spiritual guide named Rama.

Another computerized biofeedback tool, Quantum Intech's Freeze-Framer, also
uses a finger sensor to monitor heart rate variability. Developed by Santa
Cruz-based Institute of HeartMath, the $295 (list price) Freeze-Framer
features a five-step training exercise to teach players how to shift into a
more relaxed state and three games that help you hone the technique. Those
who prefer their de-stressing exercises devoid of mystic imagery will prefer
these straightforward games to Wild Divine's elaborate Sun Realm. In the
Freeze-Framer games, you can "heart power" a hot air balloon over obstacles
or fill a pot with gold, but only when you shift into a relaxed state.

Freeze-Framer is being used in 200 schools to help students overcome test
anxiety. Carmel High School teacher Diana Govan taught HeartMath's
de-stressing technique before the computerized version was developed. She
prefers the high-tech version because it provides accurate quality control:
"It is so much more powerful to use the software because the students get
immediate feedback." Preliminary results in the schools are so promising
that the federal government has awarded HeartMath $1.7 million in grants to
study the technique's impact on students and teachers.

Science or Witchcraft?

New research also supports the rationale for another form of biofeedback
that monitors brain activity. State-of-the-art brain imaging has found that
the adult brain is "plastic" ­ i.e., capable of generating new cells and new
connections among those cells. The new science is no surprise for proponents
of brain biofeedback, which is commonly called neurofeedback. Its
researchers have claimed that altering the brain's electrical patterns
(categorized from slowest to fastest as delta, theta, alpha, beta, and gamma
waves) can help treat conditions as varied as attention deficit disorder
(ADD), depression, epilepsy, and migraine headaches.

There have been so many anecdotal reports of cures that San Jose
psychologist Colin Wright once put neurofeedback in the same category as
copper bracelets: "I thought it was witchcraft. It meets all of the criteria
for quackery. It claims to work for everything and also claims that it does
no harm." But Wright was won over by his success in using biofeedback to
treat his ADD patients. He has also become convinced that neurofeedback
produces minimal side effects: "The brain is pretty good at protecting
itself. It just isn't going to allow you to blunder into a bad
circumstance."

Jay Gunkelman, longtime neurofeedback entrepreneur and executive vice
president of Burbank-based Q-Metrx, says there is solid research to support
neurofeedback for the treatment of epilepsy and ADD, but there is not enough
quality research to back up its use for most other disorders. "People are
making claims well beyond the research," says Gunkelman, who believes that
patients should be informed when the treatments are experimental.

In a typical neurofeedback session, the patient sits in a comfortable chair
with electronic sensors attached to the scalp. The sensors, which read the
electrical activity of the brain, are hooked up to a computer. The computer
amplifies, analyzes and translates the electrical activity into displays
such as multicolored graphs, video games or sounds. It's the therapist's job
to program the games so that the desired brain waves are rewarded.

Therapists, for example, often determine that their ADD patients exhibit too
many slower brain waves (alpha/theta) in the frontal lobe of the brain and
not enough faster (beta) waves associated with concentration. Their
treatment includes programming the games to reward the production of beta
waves. These patients make progress with the computer game only when they
shift to a mental state conducive to concentration and homework.

While it may look to the observer as if the patient is just sitting in a
chair doing nothing, Cynthia Kerson of Marin Biofeedback explains: "It is a
very tangible experience. You let the computer talk to you. You just need to
be present." And Gunkelman observes that once the brain learns to master the
shift, it doesn't forget: "It's like riding a bicycle. You may wiggle a
little bit when you get back on after not riding for a while, but you still
know how. It is a skill that you have learned, as opposed to something
that's been done to you."

There is, however, no unanimity among practitioners about the best way to
teach the brain these new skills. Says Kentfield-based neurofeedback
practitioner Julian Isaacs: "It's a young field, and there are a whole bunch
of people doing different things and they're all claiming that they're
getting good results."

Isaacs suspects that one explanation for the fact that practitioners with
"wildly different" protocols are reporting good results is found in the
"exercise" theory of neurofeedback. That theory holds that any kind of
neurofeedback improves brain function and thus may alleviate a variety of
symptoms. "Maybe just learning how to control your brain waves is enough,"
says Isaacs. "It doesn't matter what [the] specific protocol is."

Many clinicians believe, however, that to be most effective, it is first
necessary to use electroencephalographs (EEGs) and the more detailed
quantitative electroencephalographs (qEEGs) to figure out which brain waves
are deficient or excessive in different areas of the brain. Dallas-based
naturopath and EEG-researcher Marvin Sams says such readings allow him to
determine where the brain is operating inefficiently. When Sams trains
patients to change their problematic brain waves, he finds that whatever
symptoms they are suffering from abate.

At Mirasol, a residential treatment program in Arizona, psychologist Peter
Smith is pioneering the use of neurofeedback for notoriously
difficult-to-treat eating disorders. Smith has found the targeted use of
EEGs and qEEGs to be essential. Unless you figure out what is going on in an
individual's brain before you start, he says, "it is like trying to put a
Band-Aid on without understanding the nature of the bleeding."

The Perfect Alpha Tan

For his part, James Hardt of the Mountain View-based Biocybernaut Institute,
zeroes in on alpha waves to treat a variety of symptoms. Hardt says that
after a week of learning how to suppress and increase alpha waves, many
participants can create brain wave patterns comparable to those of advanced
Zen meditators. Hardt claims that his clients can boost their creativity,
resolve psychological problems and lower their anxiety so much that, after
treatment, they look as if they have spent a week on a tropical island ­ a
phenomenon he has dubbed the "alpha tan."

Participants spend six to eight hours a day for seven days doing
neurofeedback and more hours processing their experiences with a therapist.
This boot camp approach is more effective than two-or-three-day-a-week
neurofeedback, according to Hardt. Hardt uses the analogy of a jet plane,
which will move down the runway when you move it 100 feet a day, but will
never fly.

Hardt's intensive program costs an eye-popping $14,000. Other therapists
charge anywhere from $50 to $100 for 30-to-45-minute sessions. They are
likely to recommend at least 20 sessions and often more. Because most
consumers pay for these neurofeedback sessions out of their own pockets,
proponents say that they should be wary. Dr. Daniel G. Amen, a Fairfield,
Calif., psychiatrist and author of Healing ADD, notes that while
neurofeedback can be effective for ADD, neither drugs nor neurofeedback are
panaceas.

New neurofeedback research that will aid consumers in separating the hype
from reality is underway. But there may be a limit to the public's
willingness to embrace even the most user-friendly new technology.
Biofeedback can be daunting for Americans who like instant results. "You
need persistence," says Wright. "It's boring, and it's hard work."

Wild Divine fans think the game has gone a long way toward alleviating
biofeedback boredom and making it easier to incorporate cyber-assisted
meditation into their daily lives. Ace gamer and writer Robin D. Owens, for
example, bookmarks her favorite Wild Divine spots. When her writing isn't
going well or she just needs to relax, Owens revisits the fireplace for some
deep breathing practices or patiently feeds the white rabbit. These game
sites are not only pleasant places to revisit but, with her purple fingertip
biofeedback sensors in place, "you can get immediate feedback, which is what
most Americans prefer."
© 2005 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/21114/