Caffeine, alcohol, garlic and onions off the menu. They affect your brainwaves apparently. No mobile phones or watches allowed during the training period. The Biocybernaut Institute experience takes you out of time because, according to Ram Dass, if you want to live high you have to live outside of time.
Studies have shown that Biocybernaut's brainwave neurofeedback training results in significant reductions in depression, fatigue, tension, anger, anxiety and hostility. Stanford Research Institute scientists who did the Alpha One Training reported an average of 50% increase in creativity. Another study measured the brain waves of beginners, intermediate, and advanced Zen meditators. The brain waves of Biocybernaut's trainees were compared to the brain waves of Zen meditators at each level of experience. Brain wave patterns found only in Zen meditators with 21-40 years of meditation experience were found in participants after their 7 days of alpha brain wave training. If that wasn’t enough, evidence shows a +11.7 point increase in IQ stable 12 months out.
Neurofeedback operates on the principle that you can become aware of when your brain is in which state — or band of activity — and then consciously shift from one to another. The Alpha One training gives alpha feedback on the left and right Occipitals, as well as the left and right Centrals. It also gives feedback on the coherence between left and right hemispheres.
Every experience we have as a human being is because we have an underlying pattern of brainwaves. The training shifts you from processing from your conscious processor at 20,000 bits per second to using your unconscious processor, which processes information at 4 billion bits per second. Essentially, the training equips you to make choices from an expanded state of consciousness.
No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it - Albert Einstein
The training was intense; 12-hours a day for seven consecutive days with periods in soundproof and lightproof rooms attached to EEG electrodes. My brainwave signals were amplified and then filtered to the pure alpha, delta, theta, and Schumann (the Earth's background base frequency or ‘heartbeat’). This real time immediate feedback on alpha encourages the production of more alpha waves by immediately giving tones as feedback, which alerts themto alpha activity. When the alpha waves get bigger in amplitude, the tones become louder. The feedback, coupled with the intention to make more alpha waves, encourages the brain to make more of the brain waves that just triggered the feedback and allows brain waves to organize, grow and synchronize across your head.
Increases in alpha activity are correlated with increases in intuition, inner directedness, self-actualizing values, spontaneity, self-regard, and self-acceptance. In brief, alpha puts you into an enhanced state of awareness. In the Anishinaabe tradition, achieving good life requires spiritual awareness. To live holistically, we must balance our body, mind, feelings, and spirit.
The notion is not that human beings are at the centre of the universe but that our lives are nested in complex relationships. Our words, actions, and even our thoughts have wide-reaching, timeless impacts that cannot be discerned by our physical senses. Conversely, our lives are impacted by forces and events in the larger world, whose origins and intentions are beyond our knowledge or understanding. To navigate successfully in such a complex environment requires more than physical, emotional, and intellectual competence - Anishinaabe teaching
All of us are on a quest to step into our Highest Selves and control our egos. The ego stops us from playing big. It suppresses alpha and emphasizes self rather than Oneness. Across the week, I experienced clear instances of the ego struggling to maintain its control and seeking to undermine and suppress efforts for me to awaken into a higher consciousness.
Our Trainer Alice Miller explained, "We all wear different lampshades. The problem is when you become attached to your version of the lampshade, you lose touch with your light, your true light." The ego diminishes our energy and stops us from showing the world who we really are. So how do we silence our egos? By replacing self-importance with self-understanding in order to gain self-realization. Just let go.
Alice shared with us how Dr. Jane Goodall tells of pumpkin farmers in Africa who had a problem with monkeys destroying their crops. The farmers decided to put a hole in the top of the pumpkin just big enough for their hand to go through. The monkeys could just get their hand inside, but when they clenched their fists to grab the food they became 'trapped'. The farmers would then capture the monkeys. It didn't occur to them to just let go of the seeds to get away. It’s really that simple, all we need to do is let go because, like the monkeys, the truth is we’re not trapped.
By day 7, you come to realize that you are not the person you thought you were on day 1. I had been leading a happy life before the training, but that happiness sat on top of something. That’s now shifted. I move forward with a deep sense of happiness and joy, and more patience and understanding of myself and others. The training has allowed me to step into my power and the vibration of connection. My mind is quiet, and the quiet mind is liberation.
But, as they say at Biocybernaut, the price of liberty is constant vigilance of the ego, and the final words of the training continue to resonate with me - “Be vigilant, be vigilant, be vigilant.”