Disclaimer: I have tested a number of different devices and resources and I only recommend what I have proven to work well in my experience. When a tool or resource that I love to recommend offers an affiliate program, I enroll and put their links on my site. When someone makes a purchase through links on my site, I receive a small commission. Businesses who have an affiliate program in place, offer a small commission given to those who help to promote what they offer and they consider this an advertising cost.
Biofeedback
I have been experimenting with Biofeedback, specifically Neurofeedback and Heart Coherence/ HRV . Both areas have made a huge impact on my mediation and energetic practices, especially when I am creating new meditations or processes.
For a long time I was all about the subjective experiences that happen during these different practices. After I started working with Biofeedback and the clear and objective feedback that it provides I realized that this is the other side of the coin/ half of the brain from the purely subjective. We can see external reality clearly with only one eye open, but when we look with both eyes, we can then see depth. This is how I understand the importance of valuing and balancing the both the subjective and objective aspects of meditation and energetic practices. Most importantly, the results I have experienced verifies this.
Coherence and Heart Rate Variability
Most people aren’t familiar with Heart Rate Variability and how important it is. Most people believe that the heartbeat is steady like a metronome from beat to beat and only speeding or slowing based on activity. The truth is that there is variation in heart rate from beat to beat and this is known as Heart Rate Variability or HRV. People with a high HRV score show high resilience and a low score is one of the key early indicators of mental, emotional or physical challenges before they manifest physically.
The Institute of Heartmath has come up with amazing tools to allow people to see their HRV as well as tools to teach people to raise their HRV score. There is a smartphone app that uses a sensor which is plenty for most people and for researchers and health professionals, they offer a dedicated desktop version.
Inner Balance Mobile App
I love that this app makes it simple to get into a coherent state by showing a breath pacer to help get into physical coherence and a numerical score is shown to help deepen that coherence. You can recall a memory that evokes emotions like love or gratitude and see the score increase.
I have the bluetooth model where an ear sensor clips on my ear and a small transmitter clips on my shirt and sends signals to the app wirelessly. I can be doing dishes or writing email and have the sound tell me if I am in a high, medium or low state of coherence so I can practice staying coherent while doing other things. I also enjoy sitting and focusing on the app and seeing how high I can make my HRV score go by feeling strong positive emotions.
Click the image below to learn more about Inner Balance
Neurofeedback
I have tried a number of Neurofeedback devices and the one that I am most impressed with is put out by Muse. It’s amazing to me that they put out a medical grade EEG device that is affordable, user friendly and comfortable to wear!
Muse Meditation Headband
The headband put out by Muse is perfect for either the beginner or advanced practitioners. Once you purchase the device, the free app has different modules that focus on various techniques. The key is that the soundscape that you choose uses sound to reflect your mental state. If you choose ocean, then the ocean will get windy and then stormy if your mind becomes agitated. You can also choose rainforest or other soundscapes.
If you would like to dig a little deeper, there is another app for Muse called Muse Monitor that shows brain activity in Gama, Beta, Alpha, Theta and Delta. This app is easy to use and you can isolate different brain waves by type and also show activity in the whole brain or isolate front or back or left or right.
Click here to learn more about Muse and receive a 15% discount if you choose Muse
tECS Devices and Brain Stimulation
Electrical brain stimulation may seem like a strange idea at first, but there is some remarkable science behind it with many published studies and some great organizations that share . With tES devices, a very low level of electrical current flows through electrodes that are placed on the head. The level of current is in milliamps so it’s not “shocking the brain” but rather providing an environment of increased excitability. What I love about this technology is the ability to refer to different montages, which are different electrode placements that have specific effects. This is very different from a big EEG cap! I just use a regular headband to keep them in place. Whatever part of the brain you would like to help stimulate, place the + electrode on that area and wherever
What I love about tACS (Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation) and tDCS (Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation) is that I can choose to a montage for the specific effect that I’m looking for. One for creativity might have the + electrode on the right brain to stimulate it and the – electrode on the left brain which has the effect of reducing excitability. Some montages are only seeking to excite a part of the brain and not reduce another part. In those cases, the – may be placed on the opposite shoulder.
I have a tDCS unit made by The Brain Driver which is great to apply a steady current to just increase excitability of different areas. I can just place for a montage where I would like those effects, set the current and
What I use every day is my tES device which is from Focus which does tDCS, tACS, tPCS, tRNS and tRCS waveforms. When I’m writing first thing in the morning, I am able to set it to 40hz which is in the gamma brainwave range which is related to leaps of insight.
Click Here to Learn More About Focus V3
tDCS
One area which I have had some amazing experiences with lately is tDCS or “Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation”.
I have had a number of effects ranging from increased creativity, greater mental quiet as well as some interesting effects from electrode placements where I can add extra energy to the pineal gland as well as the pituitary. In addition to this, I just have been feeling greater clarity and just brighter in general. In doing The Creation Process that I teach in the four day ATIH workshop, I have experienced an increase in the energies and sensations that go along with that meditation.
Below is a link to a page of montages that cover a range of applications from increased insight, accelerated learning, better sleep, pain reduction and more. Each montage gives the effect, placement and a link to a study that tested it along with their findings.
Here’s the page:
https://thebraindriver.com/pages/tdcs-placement-montage-maps-studies
To recreate each montage, it’s easy to do an image search for “EEG Montages” to see where the reference points listed are on the head.
The device that I use is the Brain Driver 2.1. Not only is the cost of the device very low, the operating cost is almost nothing as it’s a low level of current from a 9 volt battery and use rechargeable batteries.
To check out The Brain Driver 2.1 and get a 5% discount click the image below and use the coupon code “paulreimers”.
There are many great videos on YouTube that explore tDCS that range from Ted Talks to short clips. Here’s one from UC Davis which is one of several extended talks that they did as part of their summit on tDCS.
Recommended Reading
For those who are drawn to the Awakening the Illuminated Heart Workshop, I recommend checking out the books written by my teacher, Drunvalo Melchizedek, especially Living in the Heart which is the focus of this workshop.
For more books by Drunvalo, just visit Drunvalo’s Amazon Page
Here are some other books that I highly recommend and and a little bit about each one:
Books on Consciousness and Meditation
This book Awakening the Mind is essential to anyone who meditates or who is interested in expanding their consciousness. This book shows ways to help quiet the mind easily while meditating, explains the different brain wave patterns of Beta, Alpha, Theta and Delta as well as meditations to amplify any of them as well as bringing them into balance and harmony. I have drawn on the information in this book to help understand and coach people in my workshops through different states of consciousness to help them get to where they need to go. One key point is that Alpha brain waves act as a bridge between Theta which is where a lot of powerful shifts and healing occurs and Beta which is our normal waking consciousness. Without enough Theta, the shifts may be shallow and without enough Alpha, the knowing of these shifts won’t reach our normal waking consciousness to Beta. This building of a bridge between these states make the experience of meditating as well as dream work much easier and the results more rapid and powerful.
Another thing that is great about this book is that there are a number of meditations written in this book that incorporate both guided imagery (provided) and translation imagery (generated in the moment from within the one meditating). Now that most people have smart phones, you can read through the short meditations and record them with your phone and then drop into the exercises using your own recorded voice as a guide.
Integral Life Practice
I love Ken Wilber and Integral Life Practice as “Spiritual Cross Training” is essential reading! The idea behind this book is simple: balanced development of our core capacities has a ripple effect throughout our life. Not only does this approach create more balanced development, but it has been found that individuals will progress more quickly in each area when in combination with the right mix of practices than they would be done in isolation. When people would say to Ken Wilber that they wanted to just meditate because they didn’t have time to do a number of practices Ken would reply “We don’t have enough time not to. This is the quick route. Simply trying to take one developmental line and and push it into God is very ineffective.”
In this approach, there are four essential modules of Mind, Body, Spirit and Shadow. We choose one or more practices for each of these core modules to do one or more times per week to expand these core capacities. In addition, we then can decide which areas we would like to expand in as well. This book is a great guide to the full range of this practices, many of which can be done in one or two minutes, but whose effect over time can be powerful.
Books on Imagery
In The Encyclopedia of Mental Imagery, Dr. Gerald Epstein provides over 2,000 short imagery exercises grouped by theme. For those of you who would like to jump into imagery work, this is an essential book.
The first time I ever did this type of imagery work was with Claudette Melchizedek in a 3 day workshop I attended with her in Sedona. I had been meditating for decades at that point and thought it always required about 15 – 30 minutes to have a powerful meditation. What Claudette shared were short and powerful imagery meditations that lasted about a minute or less! Dr. Epstein’s teacher was Claudette’s teacher’s teacher so this book is part of this same lineage and it is very powerful and shows that some of the most powerful shifts are about generating imagery and shifting understanding and occur outside of time.
In Kabbalah and the Power of Dreaming Catherine Shainberg who was Claudette Melchizedek’s teacher shares powerful imagery exercises as well as processes like Reversing as well as the difference between primary emotions and secondary emotions which are more of a reaction or a “bouncing” from an authentic emotion to secondary ones. Just knowing how this happens can have a great impact on how we think and bring more light to our responses.
The Einstein Factor is one of the best books on how to make internal imagery more clear. When I first heard about the book, I wasn’t very interested because it seemed like a generic book on intelligence and ways to “Boost Your IQ”. When I looked further I was surprised by what I found. In this book, Win Wenger shows a number of ways to open up our sensing of our internal world, especially through imagery. In my workshops, one challenge that some people have is sensing internal imagery in a way that is clear and consistent. I have learned so much from Win’s approach and have some of his techniques to coach students to give them more clarity in seeing imagery internally. What’s especially beautiful is that he has ways to help people “trick” their brains into seeing internal imagery for people who may be more kinesthetic and feeling based rather than having strong internal imagery already accessible. In addition to this, he shows ways to help access higher intelligence and creativity in processes using imagery combined with intuition.
Books on Dowsing and Kinesiology
My first recommendation is the work of David Hawkins. He was a true pioneer in consciousness and human potential. His scale of human consciousness and writings on how it can be used are so powerful. If you are new to his work, it’s always best to start with Power vs. Force as this shares the scale, how to muscle test and ways this can be applied to multiple areas of life, from spirituality to education and business.
My personal favorite is probably Transcending the Levels of Consciousness that give guidance for personal evolution up the scale of consciousness.
These next two books, the Divining Mind and The Divining Heart are basically a full dowsing course in a slim two volumes. In the Divining Mind, T. Edward Ross and Richard Wright give the fundamentals of dowsing as well as an overview of the stages of dowsing. In the Divining Heart, Richard Wright and his wife Patricia go deeper into the higher stages of dowsing that start to incorporate spiritual unfolding and planetary stewardship.