What Scientists are Saying

“There’s a revolution going on. The present era in neuro-science is comparable to the time when Louis Pasteur first found out that germs cause disease.”
~~Candice Pert, Neuroscientist

Brain training has truly come to the forefront in the past twenty or so years. Literally thousands of experimental and clinical studies have reported the effectiveness of this approach to mental training.

About Brainwave Training “Computer-assisted (brainwave training) strategies improve neuropsychological processes – including attention, memory, and executive thinking skills. Both randomized controlled studies and case reports have documented the success of these interventions.”
~~U.S. National Institute of Health

Dr. Elmer Green, prominent biofeedback pioneer, reports: increased learning ability, creativity, mental clarity, intelligence, and intuition… and positive changes in mental and emotional health. “With the creation of new neural pathways, more choices are available. Herein lies the theoretical explanation for the amazing personality changes researchers have reported in subjects using technology to change brainwave patterns.”

In Beyond Biofeedback, the Greens husband-wife research and writing team discuss many remarkable effects of the theta brain wave state. They report that those producing theta waves become highly creative and experience “integrative experiences leading to feelings of psychological well-being.”

In the July 1988 issue of Portable Computing magazine, Dr. Siegfried Othmer, brainwave pioneer, says: “Why shouldn’t the brain be able to adapt to new information about itself? It’s called learning. That’s what our brain does well. And, once the brain ‘learns’ how to regulate itself … it tends to retain that ability just as it does any other new skill.”

According to neuroscientist Dr Robert Capel: “There is a remarkable generalized effect when brainwave patterns are slowed into the alpha, theta and delta ranges. Slowing of brain wave patterns increases electrical fluctuations in the brain. This changes the neural structure and pushes the brain to reorganize itself at higher, more complex levels of functioning. This reorganization process corresponds to the 1977 Nobel prize winning work of scientist Ilya Prigogine.”

Improved Peak Performance
In Megabrain Power, science writer Michael Hutchison reports that scientists “have found that peak states are clearly linked to very specific patterns of brain activity. These include dramatic changes in brainwave activity, hemispheric symmetry, and rapid alterations in the levels of various neurochemicals. By using precise combinations of pulsating sound waves, they can actually produce those same ‘peak state’ brain patterns in ordinary people.”

After 10 years as a pro golfer, Ed Galvan discovered EEG Biofeedback. He says: “After the very first session I was able to focus better than at any time in my life. Whatever physical ability I had didn’t change. What changed was my ability to focus, to devote 100 percent of my attention to the task at hand … to sustain my emotions at an even keel for 18 holes.” (From a KABC-TV (Los Angeles) June 9, 1998 segment on Optimal Performance and Neurofeedback.)

Increased Creativity
According to Michael Hutchinson, author of Megabrain Power, “research clearly indicates that theta waves increase creativity, super learning, integrative experiences, and memory.”

Anthony Roberts, author of Music Today, recounts that “when late opera star Maria Callas described her state of mind while performing, she described her brain’s two hemispheres as complementing each other, as if one was in a state of trance while the other remained alert. Her vision remarkably touched on a future discovery that is being used as a performance enhancing tool today.”

Dr. Mark Hatfield measured EEG activity in expert marksmen. He found that just before an expert shooter pulls the trigger, the left side of the brain shows a big burst of alpha waves. Similar results have been found in expert golfers as they putt, archers releasing an arrow, and basketball players shooting a free-throw. Some experts feel biofeedback-trained alpha bursts is the key to refined athletic focus.

Delayed and Reversed Aging
Researcher Robert Cosgrove, Jr., Ph.D., M.D., a biomedical engineer, notes that technologies altering brainwave patterns have great potential for promoting optimal cerebral performance … (and) long-term use may delay aging and deterioration of the brain traditionally associated with aging.”

Michael Herculese, an aerospace engineer, designed a device that introduced a delta stimulus of 1.05 and measured a significant increase in human growth hormone. Many subjects reported rapidly healing wounds, improved complexions, increased T-Cell counts and increased hair growth. One subject, with male pattern baldness, found that not only was new hair growing back, it was the color of his youth.

Dr. Jim Hardt, founder of Biocybernaut, conducted a major study of women 60-81 years of age. His subjects practiced restoring youthful brainwave patterns using neuro-feedback techniques for one week. There were remarkable reversals of many of the aspects of aging, and improvements in motivation, energy, and happiness. Many of the subjects went back to college, getting degrees, even advanced degrees. Others entered into new relationships, and some even started new businesses.

Deepened Mental Focus
NASA has been using EEG biofeedback for years to increase its pilots’ ability to concentrate.

Researchers Drs E. Green and K.S. Ozawkie report that, “theta feedback can be used for becoming aware of subconscious and superconscious aspects of mind in the same way that vipassana, a form of Buddhist meditation, is used. Vipassana is a meditation method in which the ‘witness’, or ‘observer’ aspect of mind develops. When mindfulness is achieved, the ‘I’ of a person is capable of watching what is happening in body, emotions, and mind without reacting. Experimentally, theta feedback and vipassana lead to states of ‘mindfulness’ that are so much alike that theta training might, without exaggeration, be called ‘instrumental vipassana’.”

Increased Relaxation
Dr. Margaret Patterson has shown that certain frequencies in the brain dramatically speed up production of a variety of neurotransmitters. A 10 Hz (alpha) signal boosts the production and turnover rate of serotonin, a chemical messenger that increases relaxation and eases pain, and catecholamines, vital for memory and learning, respond at around 4 Hz (theta)

Physical Vitality
Vincent Giampapa, M.D. of Longevity Institute International and vice president of the American Society of Anti-Aging Medicine, reveals that placing a listener in the alpha, theta, and delta brain wave patterns dramatically affect production of three important hormones related to both increased longevity and physical well-being: Cortisol, DHEA, and melatonin. Cortisol is the major age-accelerating hormone within the brain. It also interferes with learning and memory and is, in general, bad news for your health and your well-being.DHEA levels are a key determinant of physiological age and resistance to disease. When DHEA levels are low, you’re more susceptible to aging and disease; when they’re high, the body is at its peak — vibrant, healthy, and able to combat disease effectively.

Improved Mental Capability
A study by Dr Siegfried Othmer, international leader in the field of neurofeedback and brainwave training, led him to conclude that brainwave training has exceptional effects on intelligence. On average, individuals experienced a 23% increase in IQ. Individuals that began brainwave training with IQ levels that were less than 100 have been shown to enjoy IQ gains of 33 points on averagee, in addition to significant improvements in reading comprehension, memory related tasks and logic handling abilities. A year later, a follow up with those involved in the study found major improvements in self concept, creativity and concentration.

A study by Thomas Budzynski, Ph.D found that college students who used brainwave training technology drastically out performed those that did not in both academic tasks and by GPA.

An M.D. associated with Dr. Siegfried Othmer used brainwave training to treat a boy with an IQ of 70 who was labeled as mildly retarded. A year later this boy was retested and the improvements were startling; he scored 60% higher with an IQ of 112. This specific case is consistent with a myriad of similar cases that have been documented with children with sub 90 IQ scores. Dr. Siegfried Othmer says that “brainwave training clearly facilitates the organization of mental functioning.”

Speech-Language pathologist Dr. Suzanne Evans Morris says, “Theta brainwaves are associated with greater access to internal and external knowledge and intuition in problem solving (it also) encourages hemispheric synchronization, and reduces mind chatter.”

A 2003 study at Imperial College in London supports the notion that brainwave training improves cognition. Neuroscientists Tobias Egner and John H. Gruzelier recruited test subjects at the Royal College of Music, London’s elite school for promising young musicians. Some of the subjects learned, via feedback on a computer screen, how to control the slow waves in the alpha and theta ranges. After neurofeedback, the musicians’ abilities had grown enormously, according to expert evaluators. Read more here!