Video Feedback
Self Realization Through Yogatronics
The following article is from THE DIAMOND BODY: A Modern Alchemical View of the Philosopher's Stone, V. Conclusions: The Quintessence, Part B: by Richard Alan Miller and Iona Miller (aka Philo Stone), ©1983.
by Richard Alan Miller & Iona Miller (aka Philo Stone), © 1983Abstract: A video feedback system is proposed, using a standard home computer and other immediately available hardware. Current research in the fields of brain chemistry and the brain's response to color, sound, and geometry is reviewed. A specific geometrical formula is developed, and physical analogs to current Jungian constructs known as archetypes are postulated. A series of electronic meditations are developed to create brain-body loops for interaction and self-realization, similar to those described in eastern Yoga.
IntroductionBiological feedback (bios-life, feedback-return to the source) experimentation has been found to be particularly well-suited to the Western mind. The concept of time is much more important, everyone is in a hurry. Consequently, the western mind looks for "short-cuts", using technology. Research and experience has shown it to be a rapid and promising means toward such goals as self-awareness, health, and self-exploration.
Recent technological advances such as biofeedback instruments, have enabled man to realize the potentials of his inner power. These include mental concentration for problem solving, appetite control, preventive medicine, training to control heart-rate, blood pressure, and skin-temperature, anxiety, and others. Every day there are new examples, where this concept of technology enters our life. The state of this art has become very sophisticated.
The purpose of this paper is to show that, with currently existing technologies now standard in most homes, a technological transcendence is available, similar to ancient Eastern experiences of Kundalini. Health and expanded mental capability would be by-products. The television can now be used to change habits, personality, weight and other characteristics while broadening our self-realization.
The application of biofeedback research to the everyday lives of people has many implications. These can range from mass brain washing to expanded consciousness for all mankind. By integrating several fields of study, advanced technology now provides new tools for achieving altered states of consciousness.
Populations can be re-programmed and individuals can become self-enlightened. An electronic meditation, using the most recently available information, is developed to create brain-body loops for interaction and control. The individual learns about the process of his own internal dialogue and can come to both sense, and later manipulate the loop of consciousness. Most of the hardware already exists in more and more homes.
Biofeedback Research:The technique of biofeedback is based on the fundamental process of instrument learning. A situation gives rise to several variable behaviors. One response is in some way rewarded or reinforced. Learning occurs as this response occurs successively more and more quickly and reliably. Essential to this learning process is the receiving of information in a feedback loop, similarly to servo systems. This can be done via visual and auditory stimuli, stating when we have made the correct response or moved closer to our goal.
This is made possible by using electronic feedback loops (such as those provided by an Electroencephalophone or EEP) and a psychological technique called operant conditioning. We learn to guide our behavior by receiving feedback on the results and then making appropriate adjustments. This is the place where the voluntary and involuntary behavior differ. While we can receive feedback in our writing (for example), we do not have such access to those from the visceral activities. If provided with this absent (bio) feedback via electronic means, it has been shown conclusively that man can learn to exert a "voluntary" control over inner bodily functions.
Recent research into control of heart beat, blood pressure, body temperature, brainwave production, and pain seems to indicate that a conscious control is possible. In discussing biofeedback research and results, one runs into a problem of semantics. It is the idea of learning to "control" ones brainwaves. It must be emphasized that in using these techniques, a person is not learning to directlycontrol the neuronal electrical activity of action potentials and synaptic events (in the cerebral cortex). One learns to control the subjective or mental event, associated with the presence of alpha or theta waves.
Changes in brainwave patterns, or blood pressure, body temperature and deep muscle tension are "physiological correlates of psychological processes that the subject learns to control. Some of the more outstanding developments in biofeedback research include the following examples:
1. Relaxation: Any degree of rapid, self-induced relaxation can be obtained by a number of biofeedback techniques. These include using one's muscle activity to operate the signals of an Electromyograph (EMG), even to the point of each individual muscle cell becoming relaxed.
2. Mental concentration for problem solving: The brain wave patterns which accompany effective and efficient mental activity are well-known. They are now used via Electroencephalograph (EEG).
3. Appetite control: When the compulsion to eat exists, the psychology and brain waves reflect this "drive state". The individual can train himself to recognize such a state by means of signals of his psychological activity which are displayed to him. He can then train himself to distinguish and continue to reproduce a non-compulsive state.
4. Preventive medicine: The physiologic activity of each troublesome system can be used to "feedback" information about its own functioning. These include heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, skin temperature, gastric activity, intestinal motility, muscles and so on.
5. Training to control heart rate: By using feedback techniques there are two major areas, (1) a wide variety of cardiac irregularities, particularly tachycardia, bracycardia, extra systoles and auricular flutter, and (2) psychological anxiety and fear reactions.
6. Training to control blood pressure: Can be life-saving when the patient has the ability to maintain his blood pressure low enough to prevent developing both the symptoms of high blood pressure (headaches, dizziness) as well as preventing the more serious results in high blood pressure.
7. Training to control skin temperature in specific areas: An easy physiologic activity which individuals can learn to bring under control. Many disease processes involve constriction of the blood vessels in the hand (or foot or other areas). With feedback training, this vasoconstriction can be markedly reduced, with the consequence of relief from pain and coldness.
8. Anxiety: Numerous studies now indicate that a restful, relaxed but interested subjective state is associated with alpha activity. Clinical emphasis is on assisting the subject to produce lower frequencies with higher amplitudes.
9. Education: Simple feedback systems are now used in conjunction with computer assisted teaching machines. It is well-known that the attention span of children is short. An accurate indicator of the length of each span of attention would be extremely useful in maximizing the use of teaching machines.
10. Drug use: A patient can increase the effectiveness of his drug treatment. Since feedback techniques are applicable to all body systems, the (decrease intestinal contractions, lower blood pressure, change skin temperature, etc.) as well as alleviate associated problems (muscle tension, anxiety, irregular heart beats, respiratory distress, etc.). The patient can reduce undesirable side effects of the drugs he needs to take.
11. Lie Detector: Some newer modifications with Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) have been used to determine stress potentials. The surface of the body does contain information about internal state functions, it is just a question of isolating variables.
Combined with video imagery received from a television screen, feedback becomes a means for human beings to experience a focused centeredness, not unlike trance states produced by Tibetan monks and other adepts.
Video Feedback:Video feedback is a continuously progressing feed-forward loop of light traveling through a video recording and projection system. It usually interfaces a television camera and a television screen or monitor. Through the manipulation of the television camera, it is possible to create, manipulate and define video images.
Biofeedback involves the externalization of internal states and processes. This permits easier manipulation of the process. Video feedback involves the interlocking of internal and external loops. In effect, there are electronic mandalas with great powers for focusing concentration, stimulating artistic appreciation and altering conscious perception.
Electronics creates video mantras through mantratronics, yogatronics and video light loops. Video systems detect patterns of energy at the camera, and then processes these patterns and projects them onto a screen. Video feedback loops the screen back to the camera. Patterns arise which can grow brighter (positive feedback), fainter or remain constant (negative feedback).
The next stage is to add the human brain and other autonomic functions into the light loop. As the brain might act as the "camera," the signal sent to the processor could also be altered, in such a form as to "more efficiently move the brain into a previously determined state of awareness."
Today, video feedback has been only used to permit eye-hand manipulation of the described interlocked loops. This then helps the individual to understand and manipulate his own inner loops (eye-hand) more easily. But what if we were to monitor brain waves? The signal could be "processed" and a computer could then direct an "altered" signal to the screen monitor. This "altered" pattern would be calculated to be "most efficient" feedback in assisting the brain achieve the "desired state".
We are not talking about those auditory and visual cues one uses to single out motor units and control their isolated construction. There are specific patterns, colors and sounds which, in themselves, move the individual toward those pre-determined states. With this in mind, the system for feedback would include:
a. Brain/body monitors/amplifier system. These signals the go to a
b. Gating system, which sets threshold and level sense with timing parameters. The brain/body information is now ready to go to
c. Pattern recognition (associative, memory, array). The signals then go to a
d. Probabilistic synthesis control system. This has the ability to be pre-programmed for specific signal forms to the
e. Video/audio feedback devices. These deliver the "altered" stimuli to complete the loop. The new evoked responses are registered, and the process begins anew.
The key is the Probabilistic synthesis control system. It is here that the feedback loop system can be altered for specific goals or direction of meditation. For example, in Florida several grade school systems use a brain-video feedback system. The children watch their lessons on TV. When their attention begins to wander, their individual brain patterns drop in frequency. At a certain (predetermined) frequency, the lesson is stopped (by a computer) and a new stimulus is given to the child (usually an action scene, i.e. Western). This "snaps" the consciousness of the child back to "attentive" and the lesson is resumed.This simple form of video feedback in Education has improved reading and math skills 40-80% above norms. Imagine what advanced research in computer-graphics might yield.
Pattern Recognition:A primary function of the brain is in the recognition of patterns. This is the ability to perceive general inter-relationships between different parts of an input signal. These signals are usually visual, acoustical or tactile. It can also do this for ideas and concepts.
The perception of such unexpected relationships lies at the very heart of humor and creativity. The difficult part of pattern recognition is to see past the local variations, into the pattern lying beneath. This is not a signal-to-noise ratio problem because the patterns beneath are not necessarily the same.
Recognition does not seem to be simply a matter of recall from a vast memory, because we can distinguish patterns (like speech) without ever having heard them previously. Techniques like filtering, adaptation, correlation, recollection, etc. are used today. The understanding of recognition is largely a matter of understanding how to deploy these various activities.
Equally important with pattern recognition is pattern synthesis. These are the techniques of generating the complex electric nerve signals which give rise to speech and coordinated muscle movement. The ability to speak or write reveals a genuine creative ability. In some sense, pattern synthesis is the converse of pattern recognition. The synthesis process must play an important role in the use of context in recognition.
Memory and it's function completes the primary functions of the brain. There are three basic types of memory:
1. Short-term is responsible for the events of the last few seconds. It is very accurate. It involves the storage of the signal long enough to bring context to bear on the recognition process.
2. Long-term is used to recall knowledge we have acquired, events experienced and ideas from previous thoughts. It is associative in character and stores can not be addressed except by association. This means that some quality of the signal processing mechanism makes some signals more suitable for memorizing than others.
3. Similarity function store contains the signal processing algorithms. These are the acquired habits of thought. Once stored, they are very difficult to erase but very easy to ignore.
It is in the short-term and long-term memories that we remember "facts" and explicit techniques, while it is in the function-store that we either learn or know how to think. Other functions of the brain would include signal processing, learning and adaptation. I will discuss these in a later section.At the heart of the problem of pattern recognition is the concept of similarity. Since no two patterns are identical, the act of pattern recognition is the act of perceiving a degree of similarity between an observed pattern and that in memory. This enables us to then classify the new one. It is therefore critical to apprehend different kinds of similarity, and a very important part of pattern recognition involves selecting the appropriate similarity function.
Pattern recognition nearly always involves some form iterative process before a firm decision is made. It is either necessary to solve simultaneous equations, or to form a hypothesis of what the pattern must be (usually with highly inadequate data). If the latter, then it must be tested, until it becomes more or less recognizable.
The importance of context in the process of pattern recognition is clear. The kind of similarity to look for in correlating two signals depends on context. A pattern is really nothing more than a feature in the context of other features. This decoding of signals by the use of contextual information is a vital part of all aspects of pattern recognition.
A Model for Pattern Recognition:The repeated pattern of iterative feedback loops reflects a further repeated pattern and demonstrates how signals are processed by the brain. As modeled, a pattern is nothing more than the inter-relationships of the sub-patterns comprising it, and these sub-patterns are the inter-relationships of various features. Conversely, features are only recognizable in terms of their contexts (the patterns they comprise), and patterns are only recognizable in terms of their environment.
It is therefore expected that all aspects of pattern recognition are performed in the same system. The model proposed has three main iterative loops of which the signal analyzer, the similarity function and the addressing of the associative stores are optimum. Patterns in general differ not so much by some quantative measure as by some qualitative dissimilarity, or quality of the pattern.
Figure 1 shows a complete block diagram for pattern recognition with a small home-type computer:
(insert figure)
Figure 1: Block diagram for pattern recognition feedback loops.
This type of system was first proposed by Hill (1) in 1969 for a speech recognition machine:
1. The analyzer contains transducers and circuits which transform the signal into sequences of features.2. The associative store should contain templates of feature sequences as well as templates of deep structure and class. The function is to bring contextual information to bear upon the recognition process. Correlation eliminates or reduces errors, and plays a major role in synthesis.
3. The comparator is where the input feature sequences are organized into a form in which they can search the associative store for similar storage.
4. The similarity function store contains the algorithms specifying the various types of similarity and classes of patterns it can handle. If you wish the machine to learn, it is into this store that the new algorithms would be written, representing new points of view.
5. The generalizer is a higher level pattern recognizer in that it identifies similarities between classes. Via the store selector it directs the search through the associative store to those parts of it which are most likely to contain the patterns sought.
Every computer whose operation and structure is completely known will consist of two independent systems, the hardware and the software. The hardware contains the memory, input, and output devices, and perform the actual work. The software provides the instructions for what to compute, which alone determines the meaning of the computation.For example, one could monitor the state of every computing element at all times and, in the case of a binary language, portray this by a table of zeros and ones as a function of time. However, without the knowledge of the software, such a tabulation provides no clue to the meaning of what is being computed. The software alone determines the intelligence content of the computer output.
The SoftwareNew research has demonstrated the capability of showing clear relationships between specific brain output patterns of a given artist and specific types of expressive, artistic activity. In addition, it has recently become possible to isolate aspects of the brain's evoked response to sensory stimuli, physical and imagined.
Clynes (2) has shown that characteristic and highly repeatable response shapes or waveforms can be recorded from motor activity during the overt expression of a specific emotion or idea or during physical articulation of rhythmic pulses in music from a particular composer. He is a medical doctor working at the Research Center in Rockman State Hospital in Orangeburg, New York.
Recent and current research is showing that the brain's evoked response to a sensory stimulus can be broken down and analyzed in such a way as to relate specific peaks in the evoked response waveform to specific aspects of either the stimulus itself or the processing behavior of the participant. The evoked response is primarily dependent on two factors:
1. The physical parameters of the stimulus, or
2. The significance or meaning of the stimulus that is dependent on subjective experience.
E. Roy John (3), a pioneer in the understanding of the brain states:"When an experienced organism receives a novel and meaningless stimulus and generalization occurs, this new afferent input in a familiar context activates the representational system in such a way as to cause release of a common mode of activity like that stored during the learning experience."
and "Analogous data from experiments with human beings indicate that phase-locked potentials are released at the time that absent stimuli are expected to occur. Furthermore, the wave shapes released when particular visual stimuli are imagined resemble the wave shapes of potentials evoked by actual presentation of the imagined stimuli."
Clynes took a number of volunteers and shaved their heads, placing a series of electrodes in rosette patterns on various regions of the head. These included the temporal, frontal lobe section and occipital regions of the brain. In this way, not only were brain frequencies monitored, but directional shifts in these frequencies could also be determined by the geometry of the electrode configuration on the skull.
The original purpose of Clynes' work was to find how precision and order exist in brain processes; to discover what is inherently programmed in man and how he might make use of that inherent program. These individuals were given a number of images (form) and colors to concentrate on while their brain was monitored by computers. Recording from opposite pairs of electrodes simultaneously, he obtained views of the electrical activity from different angles: mathematically, a spatial differentiation of the electrode vector. What he was mapping was consciousness (literal).
He literally mapped fields in the human brain. A computer was able to identify and reproduce those geometrical figures which that human was concentrating on, either as a geometric form, or color some object. The individual did not even have to look at the pattern, but simply concentrate "in his mind's eye". A standing wave means that the wave is not changed, but is holding itself steady in one certain geometrical thought.
A number of very important observations were made:
1. Certain qualities and relationshipswere of greater importance to the computer than such quantitative factors such as intensity. This meant that the brain's system of identification is based on differences, rather than intensity of the signal.
2. Thin lines were found to produce characteristic evoked potentials, irrespective of size. The form itself is transduced into another form in the brain "space-time" which can be measured. There is a one-to-one correspondence between visual forms of the stimulus, the response forms in the brain, and the perception.
This is, perhaps, the first physical description of the field of an archetype. It is a geometrical structuring and has uniqueness.
3. The process of inhibition is as important for transducing the external world as is excitation. Concentration on specific lines of geometry does not constitute the changing stimulus, but their steady presence systematically and radically alters the response to another changing stimulus.
4. Changes in intensity of a single color produce very simple response shape. Light and darkness (as opposites) show no evidence of being different values of the same variable. Rather, they seem to be the result of stimulating and also of inhibiting different receptors. Thus, the evoked potentials to light and darkness in no way may be said to be positive and negative, respectively. White, for example, appears in this view as the result of mutual inhibition of color.
5. These experiments clearly imply an inherent form of organization and not a random learning of nerve nets. It is possible to mentally recognize and perceive the stimulus within the first portion of the evoked potential. Responses (in the brain) which occur later than 0.3 seconds are seen as systematic processes, or tuned circuits to those responses to specific in-coming stimuli. This is a form of resonance in the brain. They act like keys to "unlock" specific parts of our brain, often being observed below psychological threshold levels (subliminal).
Geometry and ArchetypesIt is now evident that every stimulus for corresponds to a particular space-time" shape in the brain (in terms of electrical activity). A computer can even identify these shapes, much like "looking into someone's mind and seeing their pictures". These "space-time" shapes are evidence of relationships between the external world and its representation in the brain.
I have chosen to call these spatio-temporal representations "keys". These "keys" seem to operate on "locks" in our brain in a manner similar to "minting" of DNA production and replication. An archetype may then be seen as a specific geometrical system of standing waves occurring in the brain as a "space-time" shape or "key".
In living organisms, opposites receive their structuring of symmetry from particular combinations of spatial and temporal aspects. Like the reins on a horse, each of the opposites of the physiological pair has its own place. While they do balance motion, in themselves they do not cancel each other. This geometric aspect makes them capable of being opposites. The activity of each arm determines the quantity of the turn; the spatial identity of the rein determines the quality. There is no monotonic (or linear) transition from one to the other, passing through some form of "zero".
Information is embodied in a field, rather than just being a field. The geometrical images are basically an abstract quantity of information; a field relationship between one point and another in the universe. Unlike most engineering channels of communication, biological channels are dynamically asymmetric. Information on change is transmitted across space asymmetrically with respect to the direction of the change of the variable.
This means that if a biological system is to be informed symmetrically about dynamic changes, it requires two channels. The basic reason for this dynamic asymmetry is that biological channels for control use the concentration of molecules to transmit information at some point along the channel. This must involve an asymmetry since the creation and transportation of molecules is generally accomplished by different means from their breakdown and removal.
Concentration can be made a function of information as long as the change requires an increase in concentration. Decreasing concentration generally cannot be accomplished as fast through the same channel. The level of hormones which have issued into the bloodstream cannot be decreased through the action of the same gland. A decrease in concentration is produced by metabolic processes or through the increase in level of a counteracting hormone or chemical. In either case, the decrease in concentration is produced through quite different channels from the one producing an increase in concentration.
The significance of this asymmetry of uni-directional rate sensitivity in the "space-time" patterns in the brain is that if it were not for this principle, interaction and cancellation of opposites would prevent the formation of unique "space-time" patterns for each perception. In this case, memory could become impossible (as defined).
An event is registered as a pattern in space as well as a pattern in time. With the sense of touch, for example, removal does not cancel the sensation, even when the touch was short and momentary. A distinction can be thus made between quality and quantity. Quality is given by the channel location, quantity by the firing pattern in the channel.
In living organisms, opposites receive their structure of symmetry from a particular combination of spatial and temporal aspects. It is the geometric properties which makes them capable of being opposites. This "rein control" implies distinction between quality and quantity. With each rein, messages are similar and not opposite in character. The activity of each "rein" determines the quantity, the spatial identity of the "rein" determines the quality.
Any view of the universe is an interplay between information and energy. By information, it is meant as those processes which provide recognition and identification of separate existences. By energy, it is meant those transformation and displacement of the contents of space. This interplay between information and energy involves identity, quality and recognition.
The Vector Equilibrium MatrixThe use of geometry and geometrical forms as video tools offers intriguing possibilities. They allow experiential interaction with archetypes or god-forms. They also grant access to those specific altered states where one experiences the eternal aspect of sacred time: A consciousness of immortality.
A geometrical image is developed in the book THE DIAMOND BODY: A Modern Alchemical View of the Philosopher's Stone (4). This image comes from the field of solid state physics, corresponding to both the Jewish mystical traditions and current concepts in imaginal psychology. A mathematical model is generated to assist the development of anima consciousness via a visualization exercise, called The Diamond Body Exercise, (DBE).
A series of biological resonances occur between specific internal-state functions and the "outside". These resonance relationships are discussed and specific models are given to aid visualization and resonance. This practice of meditation develops a common ground, uniting psyche with matter. Through the stabilization and equilibrium fostered in the individual during meditation sessions, the individual is brought into increased harmony with the environment. More important, a "repair function" is now available, one able to reverse those entropic functions related to libido.
The DBE is a breakthrough in meditation techniques. Steeped in mystery, the Merkabah Chariot of Sephir-Yetzirah, Ezekiel's vision and "the Cube of Space" are all the same thing. It is a regeneration meditation for immortality. And, it is now available to the common household....
It is the contention of this book that the most fundamental (pre)geometric form is the Vector Equilibrium Matrix (VEM). The vector equilibrium construct, first proposed by Buckminster Fuller (5), describes the most economical lines of movement within the atomic nucleus. This geometry form leads directly to the Diamond Body of Cube of Space.
To place oneself inside this structure, or to project this matrix form outward as a visualization, creates and generates a resonance within the "space-time" shapes of the brain. The Vector Equilibrium Matrix is a geometrical mandala resonating with the psychological analog for the Philosopher's Stone!
The Vector Equilibrium Matrix is a visual tool which connects macroscopic structures to quantum modes. It graphically depicts the sphere, whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere. It can be used as an access tool for realizing multiple quantum ordering.
To begin to understand this form of order, a new tool for perception is needed. The new concepts of order involve the discrimination of the relative differences in "space-time" (and similarities). Attention should now be given to similar differences and different similarities (6). Such a format in mathematics is called a ratio, or matrix field. "The universe is a cosmic computer on the pre-geometric level of information in which space and time appear as secondary statistical constructs." (7)
The Vector Equilibrium Matrix is such a matrix field; although seen as a geometry at any stage, it is pre-geometric in that it describes the change from one stage to the next. It is a quantized state of information.
A video projection of this Diamond Body structure is now possible, with rotation of axis and "rising on the planes" (from spherical coordinates). The resulting geometries create specific "space-time" patterns in the brain. The resulting patterns allow "access" to those specific archetypes (associated with specific "space-time" patterns). They are known as "Star Gates" or "planetary gates" in mystical literature.
Real-Time Color GraphicsMost problems in complex structure and function require visualization. And, as the size of the structure increases (like "rising on the planes"), a third dimension is needed to give visualization perspective (context).
Real-time color graphics systems have unique advantages for display of information. Studies of the structures and interactions of large biological molecules require both coordinate data and three-dimensional visualization. Software has been developed that now allows real-time display of color line and surface displays (8). Now that we have hardware and software for selective display of complex objects in color and stereo with real-time rotation, depth cueing, and interaction, a program is now underway to insert the Vector Equilibrium Matrix into this program for use in a video feedback system.
This real-time color graphics system would respond to logic circuitry in the similarity function store. The feedback from the video section would get up an iteration loop, going from the "space-time" patterns in the brain to the television. A rotation or depth cueing ("rising on the planes") would create a similar (and very specific) corresponding change in the "space-time" pattern.
Most important, this could be done as a pre-programmed response, directing our brain to specifically desired "experiences" or archetypal encounters.
Considerations In DesignA general purpose bio-medical preamplifier should form the front end of any comprehensive system. Accurate frequency discriminations (2-20 Hz) and the feedback system should be capable of responding to peaks or zero crossing of in-band signal oscillations. It must be able to change in signal amplitude.
This means that a good variable threshold detector and envelope follower should be included in the over-all system. The input section should be capable of either AC or DC coupling, depending on specific applications and providing a choice of fixed gain of about 10(3) or variable gain of about 10(5). Other measures such as time spent producing the desired signal are useful but more expensive. They are also less likely to be needed.
The major sources of error are those due to biological sources, electrodes, amplifier, interaction between the amplifier and sources, filtering techniques, and detection circuitry. For example, as EEG signals are among the smallest recordable through gross methods, they are the most plagued by "leakage" from muscle potentials (EKG signals).
Thus, it is necessary to use differential amplifying techniques in order to obtain accurate results, subtracting background signals, commonly a problem between closely placed electrodes. Other factors presenting problems are the high impedance of biological sources, typical 100K ohms or higher on the skin. The body is also a rather good radio/TV antenna, picking us unpredictable DC noise.
Complete designs for comprehensive biological monitoring/feedback units are described by Rosenboom (9). He and a number of other artists built these units to drive electronic synthesizers and color organs in the early 1970's. They were essentially creating "alpha-concerts". A number of shows were performed and the specific logic and hardware is outlined. There is even a design for an Evoked Response Peak Detector design by R. Koehler in this volume.
SummaryThe purpose of this paper is to show that, with existing technologies in hardware/software, it is now possible to use the home computer/television as a very powerful tool, where health and expanded mental capabilities are only by-products.
A new dimension learning and self-realization is available for the home. Biofeedback research has advanced the fields of medicine and health. It is now possible to control and direct specific autonomic functions previously either not available or semi- control over a ten year yoga program. Video feedback systems are now successfully used in learning/education programs.
New models on pattern recognition and the nature of information nets allow for simple models which could be used with home computers (large memory).
The research of Clynes and Hill shows a clear relationship between specific brain output patterns and specific geometry. A first state for describing the physical analogs to unique archetypes is developed. Specific geometrical images will invoke specific brain responses.
A formula emerges. The Vector Equilibrium Matrix is a visual tool which connects (or describes) the change from one state to another. It is the method in which a specific "space-time" pattern changes into another with uniqueness. This matrix has already been set into a grid of values and qualities, based on Jewish mystical traditions and current concepts in imaginal psychology.
A mathematical model is generated to assist the development of anima consciousness via a visualization exercise called The Diamond Body Exercise. A video projection of this Diamond Body structure is now possible, in the home. The resulting effects lead to the possibility of pre-programmed response, directing our brain to specifically desired "experiences" or archetypal encounters.
Previous designs for biofeedback systems using audio and visual are described. The immediate applications of this in the home are staggering. Populations can be re-programmed and individuals can become self-enlightened. Electronic meditation creates brain-body loops for interaction and control. This state of control is a form of technological transcendence. On the mundane level, this proposed system could be used to loose weight, stop smoking and change other deep habits.
ConclusionsThere is obviously a very immediate need for research. The implications of this range from mass brain washing to expanded consciousness for all of mankind. Approximately 95% of the households in the United States have at least one television set. Home computers will be similar with another ten.
The design problems for this type of system are minimal. Hardware now exists in a variety of markets and is competitive. The installation is also simple, plugging RF inputs to the antenna leads of any TV system. All bio-monitoring equipment is similarly fashioned to the body, with some form of isolation (optical). They probably will be available within five years through such game systems as Odyssey or Atari.
The next advance will be a brain switch, via neuro-electronic correlates. Already there is known to be another "sensory motor" in-put in the microwave region (0.3-3.0 GHz) (10). A feature called Contingent Negative Variation (CNV) has been isolated as a facet of the EEG through computer Fourier analysis and somehow corresponds to will. The two are related somehow but not known.
CNV relates to the cessation of neutral scanning when an object or event is recognized. An individual could learn to trigger the appearance of the CNV even without the presence of any object. It is conceivable that this "switch" could trigger an implanted brain-terminal to some central computer. Data transmission might be via direct brain communication in this microwave region.
The other side of this technological advance is that unscrupulous advertiser who might attempt to sell his products via subliminal geometrical/color patterns in his advertisements. Since most of us do not have conscious awareness of this new sense, it obviously is submerged into the unconsciousness. If this is true, and it does in fact appear so, then one country could conceivably broadcast specific microwave patterns toward their neighbor to somehow affect the social or group consciousness.
It appears as if, with all other "breakthroughs", it is a double-edged blade. The future could contain such changes with this type of system, that the "school" concept is changed, and classes are in the home. While only 10% of the cerebral cortex is used now, a major jump in use and access will occur with the advent of this concept in learning. It is quite conceivable that the future will also allow for new concepts in our relationship to "time" and "space". Uniting psyche with matter has always been associated with immortality:
"To practice the ecology of the soul is to recycle ones consciousness"
Viduru Telemahandi
The Church of Self Amplification
FOOTNOTES: (1) Hill, D.R. (1969). An ESOTerIC approach to some problems in automatic speech recognition. Int. J. Man-Machine Studies, 1, 101.
(2) Clynes, M. and Milsum, J. (ed.) Biomedical Engineering Systems, Chapter 7: "Toward A View of Man", McGraw-Hill Books, N.Y., 1970.
(3) John, E.R., "Switchboard Verses Statistical Theories of Learning and Memory", Science, Vol. 177, No. 4052, 1972.
(4) Stone, Philo: THE DIAMOND BODY: A Modern Alchemical View of the Philosopher's Stone, ITI. Ltd., NY (1983).
(5) Fuller, Buckminster: SYNERGETICS 2, Macmillan Pub., NY (1979).
(6) Bohm, David: Wholeness and the Implicate Order, London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1980.
(7) Professor David Finkelstein at Yeshiva University in a lecture.
(8) Langridge, R., et al: "Real-Time Color Graphics in Studies of Molecular Interactions", Science, Vol. 211, No. 13, Feb. 1981, pp 661-666.
(9) Rosenboom, David (ed): Biofeedback and the Arts: Results of Early Experiments, A.R.C. Publications, Vancouver, Canada, 1976.
(10) Frey, Allen N.: "Human Perception of Illumination with Pulsed Ultrahigh Frequency Electromagnetic Energy", Science, Vol.181, July 1973, p556-8.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Bohm, David: Wholeness and the Implicate Order, London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1980.
Clynes, M. and Milsum, J. (Ed.): Biomedical Engineering Systems, Chapter 7: "Toward A View of Man", McGraw-Hill Books, NY, 1970.
Frey, Allen H.: "Human Perception of Illumination with Pulsed Ultrahigh-Frequency Electromagnetic Energy", Science, Vol.181, July 1973.
Fuller, Buckminster: Synergetics 2, Macmillan Pub., NY, 1979.
Hill, D.R.: Int. J. Man-Machine Studies, #1, "An ESOTerIC approach to some problems in automatic speech recognition", ;101, 1969.
John, E. Roy: :Switchboard Verses Statistical Theories of Learning and Memory", Science, Vol. 177, #4052, 1972.
Langridge, R. et al: "Real-Time Color Graphics in Studies of Molecular Interactions", Science, Vol. 211, #13, Feb. 1981.
Rosenboom, David (Ed.): Biofeedback and the Arts: Results of Early Experiments, A.R.C. Publications, Vancouver, Canada, 1976.
Stone, Philo: The Diamond Body: A Modern Alchemical View of the Philosopher's Stone, ITI, Ltd, NY (to be published).
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