Neurofeedback for spiritual growth
Here’s an opportunity for you to echo and mime and dance your way onto the latest modern tech furor. A veritable wave of enthusiasm awaits you. Why struggle with traditional methods to open up your consciousness to higher levels? They require years and years of solid effort to get even marginal gains and don’t promise you any rosy ending for all your investments. Neurofeedback (NFB) and other modern technologies, in contrast, can help get you to more rarified levels of awareness in record time and safely, to boot.
These days, NFB has reached celebrity status and become quite a trendy topic, much like many other alternative health practices (hatha yoga, breathwork, meditation, proper diet). This means you can even tune-up your noggin at home! Who would of guessed? The guru even offers home visit nowadays. What a world. Anyway, remote neurofeedback gives you one way to get started with a remarkable way to change old and useless habits and behaviors. A number of legitimate programs exist so surf around and check the reviews before you take the plunge.
The main advantages of remote NFB? Convenience and economy. Train when you want and where you want ... and, for a price you won’t have to flinch at. The main drawback for this approach? The accuracy of diagnosis and treatment pales in comparison to what can be accomplished in a clinic with its much more sophisticated and expensive equipment. So, a rule of thumb: remote NFB works fine to get started and can be enough of an aid for many people. You certainly can improve how you think and feel with this simper approach.
However, for deeper seated problems, both neurological and behavioral, you will be light years ahead by visiting a reputable clinic. These days you can find fast-food brain gyms and clinics which offer you a smorgasbord of ready-made options. This is NOT the way to go. Find a brain center run and operated by licensed mental health professionals. They have the best knowledge and experience to help you.
At present, neurofeedback has not quite achieved mainstream acceptance so most insurance will not pay for your visits although check around as some firms will and likewise a number of governmental agencies provide and support such operations. Beyond the finances, what this means is that most of the research and treatment in the field still addresses fixing conventional problems: serious problems such as mental disorders, trauma and behavioral dysfunction.
Hence, NFB for peak performance trundles up a steep slope of public resistance simply because most folks have more than enough on their plates to cope with each day. Living life in elite style as one of the social media superstars or captains of commerce does not yet quite compute with your ordinary yokel. She or he may dream of such a fine lifestyle but will hardly make the enormous efforts needed to get ahead and reach such a stellar height. If it’s not a lottery ticket or other quick fix then it’s out of the question for most folks.
Bottom line? NFB for spiritual development—although a coming attraction certain to arrive in the days ahead—has not yet quite arrived. So, have a care: a brain center can adjust and calibrate your brain for health but how it does so—the norm that it takes as healthy—centers around a database of readings gathered from the general population and not from a bunch of advanced meditators. For issues related to general health, vitality and optimism this is fine. Yet, for issues outside the box, such as higher dimensions and how to get there, it is the wrong approach.
Therefore, in Neidan Yoga, NFB serves to help a spiritual practitioner develop better cognitive and emotional balance but the bulk of effort still adheres to techniques very much beyond ordinary efforts or even conception. In advanced yoga, one builds a midline energy circuit that courses up through the brain to space above. Current NFB researchers and practitioners simply don’t have enough data about these esoteric practices to offer more than some complementary support.
The onus of deep-seated esoteric change still rests with you. Until AGI shows up and turns out to be a boon rather than a curse, this is likely to remain the case. Needless to say, but let’s say it anyway: if AGI turns out to be the bad gal/guy then all bets are off and good luck to you with getting a ticket on the next starship to Mars.
In summary: neurofeedback and body biofeedback (BFB), another type of feedback that works well, are awesome ways to get some traction on developing good concentration and meditation skills. But they won’t get to the heart of more advanced practices so these technology tools serve more as supports for your mental and emotional health rather than as cynosures for higher awareness.
