8-Coil Shakti – Part 3: Brain Reboot?

7 Jan. 08 – 12-1am (? – fell asleep)

Location of coils: Temporal Lobe
Duration: (?)
Signal type: Hippocampus signals 40Hz Alternating Modulated (fast alteration)
(volume increased to 86% output)

Overview:
This was my second session with the Shakti 8-coil device. Once AGAIN, I fell asleep. But unlike the last time I woke up feeling… above average mental clarity. I don’t recall any odd dreams but I felt very well rested almost like my brain had been rebooted.

Brain Reboot
If you’ve ever dealt with a Windows operating system (particularly PRE-XP), you’ll know that every now and then the system needs to be rebooted. That is completely shutting off the computer and turning it back on. If those legacy Windows system are not shut off every now and then you are in for a smorgusborg of delicious errors, hang time and lossed data for no damn “blue screen of death” reason. Well, that is was I felt like happen to me. I felt like my brain had been loaded with a bloated ineffecient Microsoft product that had been running without a reboot for about two months too long. I felt (perhaps unreasonably so) like my brain could calculate anything. Mentally, on that day was like the skinny guy that works out for two weeks into a New Years resolution, gets a pump and starts to puff his chest out in front of the babes!

I believe the Shakti had something to do with it, but not totally conviced yet. So I will mark this session as “Do Over”.

8-Coil Shakti – Part 2: Shakti Do Over

4 Jan. 08 – 12-1am (? – fell asleep)

Location of coils: Temporal Lobe
Duration: (?)
Signal type: Hippocampus signals 40Hz Alternating Modulated (fast alteration)
(volume increased to 86% output)

Overview:
I consider this a tainted session since it was conducted while I was completely exhausted. I was literally falling asleep as I was figuring the system out.

Initial Sensation:
I anticipated the initial sensation that I’ve read others experience after only a few seconds or minutes of Shakti activiatation:

“I did feel a sensation of expansion and peacefulness in my heart only seconds after I put the (hippocampal) signal on. … It felt like I was taking a contraction out of my brain. I am looking forward to taking out more of this contracted state…” — shakti technology testimonials

I was hesitant even to put the device over my head for fear of being catapulted into an experience that would topple my little world like a house of cards in the middle of Chicago. I was in my computer room feeling like Neo about to take the “Red Pill” with Todd Murphy (this devices inventor) as a real life Morpheus about to eject me out of the Matrix for good (I’ve got a pretty awesome imagination).

Alas, I had no such luck. I didn’t feel anything. I put the device on, configured it for Hippocampus signal over the temporal lobe and felt nothing for about 10 minutes while I laid in my pitch black room. The next thing I new it was morning. The alarm clock was blasting and the Shakti tentacles were tossed haphazardly to the side of the bed.

Conclusion:
I think I was just too tired. The instructions indicate that you should wait for 36 hours before staping in again. I don’t normally follow instructions, but in this case I’ve decided to play it safe. In the middle of the day, 5 Jan 08, I had strange ache in my right temporal lobe. Its strange because I don’t normally get such localized headaches on that side of my head. I may have been dehydrated. I decided to count this session as a do over.

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (entrainment 2.0?)

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation is the next step in the evolution of entrainment.  Instead of using sounds to influence brainwaves, it uses noninvasive electromagnetism. 

Sound entrainment has been used to coax brainwaves into a certain pattern. 

If a tuning fork designed to produce a frequency of 440 Hz is struck (causing it to oscillate) and then brought into the vicinity of another 440 Hz tuning fork, the second tuning fork will begin to oscillate. The first tuning fork is said to have entrained the second or caused it to resonate. The physics of entrainment apply to biosystems as well. Of interest here are the electromagnetic brain waves. — Science of Binaural Beats Brainwave Entrainment

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) is the application of variable magnetic fields to the brain — Open-rTMS 

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation is a VERY effective way to induce states of consciousness:

BBC article on Dr. Persinger’s TMS helmet 

How does Dr Persinger induce artificially religious experiences in his patients?

Dr Persinger has designed a helmet that produces a very weak rotating magnetic field of between ten nanotesla and one microtesla over the temporal lobes of the brain. This is placed on the subject’s head and they are placed in a quiet chamber while blindfolded. So that there is no risk of ‘suggestion’, the only information that the subjects are given is that they are going in for a relaxation experiment. Neither the subject nor the experimenter carrying out the test has any idea of the true purpose of the experiment. In addition to this, the experiment is also run with the field switched both off and on. This procedure Dr Persinger claims will induce an experience in over 80% of test subjects.

What sort of experiences do subjects report?

This is very dependent on the belief system of the individual subjects [ADDED Wilber-Combs Lattice]. Dr Persinger talks about his subjects feeling a ‘sensed presence’ – feeling that somebody was in the chamber with them. Subjects who are strongly religious are likely to interpret this presence as god. Whereas, atheists may also report a ‘sensed presence’ but attribute the phenomena to a trick of brain chemistry, perhaps comparable to when they have taken drugs in the past.

TMS is so effective that “Among more sensitive individuals, tests show that their skin will turn red if they believe a hot nickel has been placed on their hand. That’s a powerful psychosomatic effect of the brain on the body. Suppose we could make it more precise?” — This is Your Brain on God, Wired.  

TMS is currently in the hands of reductionists who believe that ALL mystical experiences can be summed up by electromagnetic disturbances.  Mass sightings up UFOs and other strange phenomenon are simply chemicals in our brains being influenced by electromagnetism.  

Perhaps inducing certain electromagnetic frequencies allows our biominds to access a perspective of reality we would not have otherwise been privy too without years of meditation.  Like devices that allow us to see infrared (frequencies that are beyond our normal domain of visible light), perhaps getting to certain states of consciousness allow us to “see” things we are normally oblivious too.    

Science and religion used to fully subscribe to a flat earth the was the center of a static universe.  We have found the complete opposite to be true.  Modern mainstream scientists now agree that we are likely the only sentient life and there are no subtle spiritual type energies and all spiritual experiences are completely the product of the human brain.  All of that seems just as ridiculous as a ”flatworld” theory.  A neo-atheistic reductionism is fine as belief systems and religions go, but what I don’t like is how science marginalizes anyone outside of their mainstream belief structure. 

I love science but its champions seem to have fallen prey to a dogma that is similar in close minded stagnancy to that of some religious denominations.       

TMS links:

BioMag – TMS reasearch

This is your Brain on God, Wired. 7-11-1999

God Helmet, Shakti

 

Integral Hacking: Developing Jedi Mind Tricks at DEFCON

“To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men that I may by all means save some.” 1 Corinthians 9:22

How does a 60 year old former Episcopal priest manage to captivate a packed audience of tech savvy red teens, ambitiously orange “20-something” hackers, amber security professionals, and green information freedom hacktivists while speaking about nothing technical at DEFCON, the world largest hacker convention?  Richard Thieme, author of Islands in the Click Stream, has been able to do this since DEFCON 4, 1996 (1). 

There is a body of knowledge growing like a fungus in the cracks of the burgeoning technological super fortress that is the information age.  Hacking is that fungi and the DEFCON hacker convention is the petri dish where this new organism is cultivated.  Like penicillin, this mold can be used for good.  This culture is growing tendrils beyond cyberspace and into the human mind.   Complex systems and technologies are synergizing toward an integral hacking solution now pushing humanity into new levels of communication by slipping passed the psychological firewalls to communicate on a deeper level with kick ass Jedi mind tricks.  Prepare for psychological nudity!

At DEFCON 14, Richard Thieme’s subject was “Beyond Social Engineering: Tools for Reinventing Yourself” in which he discussed how to “manage multiple modular identities” then link them into a seamless life by leveraging them with an intimate knowing of the true inner self (2).  The auditorium was crammed with wide-eyed technophiliacs at the edge of their seats.

Even though Thieme freely admits to not having any discernable technical hacking skills he is able to successfully “hack” (a.k.a socially engineer) his way into a very elitist, and young and mostly apathetic counter-culture.  He is an Integral Hacker.

The same skills used naturally by Mr. Thieme are used by integral leaders like Brett Thomas, co-founder of the Stagen Leadership Institute, to recognize a person’s worldview, determine what stage of development they are likely to identify with and then communicated with them on that level (4).  An integralist would call this “skillful means” but hackers call it a subtle form of social engineering.  Social engineering has a slightly negative connotation as it is usually associated with manipulation rather than enhanced communication. 

As a complete method of hacking people, integral hacking goes way beyond mere social engineering and into Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) techniques.  This subject was also discussed at DEFCON 14.  Brad Smith of Computer Institute of the Rockies discussed how law enforcement, FBI and other three letter agencies use NLP during interviews and interrogations (2).  Full spectrum people hacking would include all of the NLP “physiological lock picking” techniques to get full access the root of ego.

Past DEFCON speakers touching on the outer reaches of wetware and integral hacking have included Thieme’s, “Hacking a Trans-Planetary Net” which touched on the need for hacking to include “an artist’s imagination, an obsessive hunger for knowledge, and a deep understanding of cyborg humanity” (1).  Former hacker Susan Thunder spoke on “Social Engineering and Psychological Subversion of Trusted Systems” which was about infiltrating a company without physical or digital access (3).  People are the weakest part of any secure network.

Hackers are the gun slingers of the Wild, Wild Web, living in a world of 20 year old millionaires who have already change the world and actual evil genius’ who are drifting ghosts pilfering the pockets of the ignorant weak.  Whether their intentions are holistic or selfish all hackers view ignorance as the greatest sin.  The DEFCON prides itself on a borderline dangerous freedom that is fertile ground of both immeasurable brilliance and debauchery of the filthiest sort.  It’s the frothiest edge of technological mayhem and creativity.  It is on the fringes of every digital-civilizations’ decomposing structures that you will find a culture of complex integral hackers of hardware, software or wetware growing and sending out spores.   

 

 

References

 

1. DEFCON. (July 28, 1999). DEFCON 4 Archive. Retrieved November 18, 2006, from http://defcon.org

2. DEFCON. (August 6, 2006). DEFCON 14. Retrieved November 18 2006,
from http://defcon.org

3. DEFCON. (July 28, 1999). DEFCON 3 Archive. Retrieved November 18, 2006, from http://defcon.org

4. Integral Leadership Review. Biography of Brett Thomas. Retrieved November 18, 2006,

http://www.integralleadershipreview.com

Thieme Works. (2001). Keynotes, Workshops and Retreats. Retrieved November 18 2006,
from http://www.thiemeworks.com

10% of your Total Attention per hour: Some Results

First of all here is how I’ve been doing with this experiment:

I am able to dedicate 7 minutes of intense focus in every hour to meditation (I focus on stillness sometimes with a little creative visualizaiton other times).  At home, I have totally slacked off.  I have been able to use conscious action when I’m with my daughters or doing chores, but I really need to intensify this practice at home.

What have I discovered?

I have had a couple of interesting experiences.  I had a couple of meditation sessions in which I felt a very pleasurable warmth surging softly up my spine that followed an out of body feeling in which I felt like an insubstantial single point of what I can only describe as “total acceptance”.  I’ve also been getting more familiar with my inner space.  I am familiar with the pattern of thoughts that rise up inside of me.  I can feel myself triggered emotionally by certain events.  Overall, it has been pretty enlightening.

My level of concentrations has increased as it has become easier to calm my mind.  I will continue this experiment for another month or so.

Ego, Inc: Genpo Roshi’s Big Mind

A person is a jumble of many different emotions, repressed desires and fears. There is seemingly no order in this soup of conditioned responses and (worse) no release for those we hide from the outside world.

Genpo Roshi’s Big Mind technique gives each of these feelings, fears, and passions a first person voice. Why is this powerful? It is self therapy that allows some repressed emotional mechanisms within us to have a place without conflicting or resuracing as stress or (worse) cancer. The best way to understand how powerful this technique is is to allow some of those pent up emotions, such as Anger to speak freely in the first person. Repressing Anger (or any other emotion) is not health.

The real power is in giving each of these parts of you a title and a role. The Big Mind Technique works because it allows you to not only fully own them (instead of disassociating them or displacing them as someone else’s fault), but also organize them into efficient manageble states of shades of your self.

EGO, INC

Imagine that you are not just one personality, but hundreds of personalities. You are in fact a whole corporation full of personalities each with an important task necessary to help the company stay afloat. Lets call this company Ego Incorporated. The mission is to preserve the precious “self”.

On the staff of Ego, Inc there is a security team assigned to protecting the self from the rest of the world and from itself. Security also ensures the self does not hurt others. The security teams is composed of individuals like: the Protector, the Skeptic, the Controller and Fear. Security knows that Ego, Inc has been hurt before (even by those close to the company… especially, by those close to it) so it has built WALLs and ceiling around EVERYtHING. The precious self in the middle of Ego, Inc (the precious asset) is not fond of being lock behind a wall. It conspires from the inside with staff members like Desire and Love who want to risk everything Ego, Inc has built. The self doesn’t like being locked inside with depressing employees like Loneliness and Sadness.
Other members of the Ego, Inc staff include Anger, the Victim (who does some PR work for the company every now and then), and Doubt.

Some of the sometimes neglected members include: the Inocent Child (the heart of the self), and the Damaged Self.

After taking a real hit from the outside world the Ego Inc Security team starts making not only 100 foot walls but moats and hot oil on the sides of the walls. The self with no way for genuine interaction with even the closest people in her life is left with only Dispair to talk to.

The CEO of this company is balanced with rational thought and emotional drive decides to hold a board meeting and allow each of the employees to talk. The CEO also highers consultants on to that company, Big Mind & Big Heart. They are a team who have all the answers. Big Mind and Big Heart don’t answer to anyone they are completely self sufficient. Ego Inc is actually a wholly owned subsidiary of the company Big Mind & Big Heart, who are global, beyond successful and rich beyond imagination. They have allowed Ego, Inc to run on its own to gather information for the expansion of Big Mind & Big Heart. They suggest that the company use one of its most valuable assets which they have hidden away, the Damaged Self. The Damaged Self takes on all the pain and damage that each of the employees incur. It does so openly and with total incomprehinsible compassion. It is the sum total of what some would call an unsung hero. Since the Damaged Self takes on all the hurt and all the hits and disappointment, the security team can relax some of their controls. And the self can take Joy out for a spin.

Confessions of a Corporate Meditator: Toilet Kundalini? part deux

Today on the comode I decide to recreate the feeling of bodily erection I felt in the restroom last week.

It worked almost instantly with a single thought. I straightend my back, relaxed my body and mind and allowed the warmth. The key is “allowing”. The warmth is already there. The feeling seems to be a bit clouded by daily focus on other things.

I pumped the primer by imagining the feeling I had last time. It was like putting a flickering match flame into a pile kerosine soaked charcoal brickettes. The flame ignited this time much hotter and more diliberate. You know that grin you sometimes get from a really good blow job? That is the one that I could not wipe off my face. It was starting to overwhelm me so I stopped. I don’t like walking through the office building with a unhideable hard on. The pleasure doubled me over. Containing the joy was like trying to force light into a box. As I focused on pulling my pants up it died down. But as I walked back to my cubicle even the slightest thought triggered a telling grin and the beginings of a massive erection.

I’ll have let this play itself out when I get in a safe environment, at home, in a quiet room when the kids are asleep.

Amazing journey.

Confessions of a Corporate Meditator: Toilet Kundalini?

The toilet is where I do my best work. It is a refuge from the Dilbertesque cubicle enslavement of my corporate life. That beautiful stall housing a cool white comode.

I polish the remnants of other people’s business off the seat. Usually its just splash back from the industrial strength SUCK/FLUSH of the toilet, sometimes it is piss and brown stuff… not very appetizing but a tasty refuge never the less.

Somehow the vibrational runoff of a thousand million shits does not bother me. I just don’t think about it unless the smoke from a previous occupant forces me to.

Once I’m comfortable and have done my business, I take a few minutes to meditate. Usually, I clear my mind completely by focusing on my breathing or that defening white noise the brain makes (what is that called).

Last week while performing my 10% total attention experiment on my toilet escape, I had a warm vibrant red/orange energy moving up my spine. It felt so damn good. Like my first erection, only on my whole body. Then I had a sudden impression of “blessing correction”. You see, I normally try to give blessing to everyone I see at work in the form of “God, bless you.” But a question popped in my mind, “Who is this ‘god’ who is blessing? Is it a pagan, symbolic image in your head that you worship? Why bless by proxy? Bless directly from the heart. From the heart of the God within. That is the most honest and loving blessing you can give.”

I imediately wiped my ass and stopped the meditation. There were two reasons for the abrupt stop in meditation:

1) The warmth “bodily erection” (kundalini?) felt over poweringly good. It was as if I was masterbating (something I won’t do at work on a toilet. Just my personal preference not to do it). The feeling was OVERPOWERING and moving toward something that would most definitely go to an uncontrolable orgasm. Suddenly the sacntity of the bathroom was violiated by two men barging in and pissing all over the beautiful porcelain mouths on the wall.

2) I was intimidated by the thought and the power of me giving blessings. Isn’t that sacrilegious? I thought. But how can expressing the ultimate part of me in form of thoughts/wishes and intent be bad?  How is giving a blessing from my heart of hearts any less good than simply hoping they have a nice day?

Integral Naked: Integral Ken Wilber

Integral means complete, inclusive, and comprehensive.  My life has taken on an integral value.  For a few years now, I have been flirting with improving every aspect of myself: my body, my mind, my spirit.  I have always kept my eyes open for the best method of self improvement and enlightenment.  Lately, I’ve been improving all aspects of myself:  I weight train, I’m always reading and learning and I also meditate (“meditate on Gods word day and night” – is my latest experiment).  

For those who believe in total self improvement there is nothing quite as amazing (as far as systems go) as Integral Life Training.

I actually stumble across Integral Naked on Myspace.  I was surfing through my friends list.  One of my favorite pass times on the ‘Net is to look at my friends’ friends.  I don’t even recall which friends page I went to but this person had a man named Ken Wilber on their friends list.  I knew Ken was some kind of respected American philosopher but I wasn’t really familiar with his work (at least not directly).  

I have always been into hardcore spiritual individuals.  You know: rejected, rogue shaman types like Fred Allen Wolf, Carlos Castaneda and not particularly skeptical, bean counting, BORING scientist who don’t believe in ANYTHING they can’t put next to a ruler.  Don’t get me wrong, I love science but it has always come off as arrogant, one sided and elitist against anything it doesn’t see as worthy.  Sometimes scientist don’t even look into a phenomenon before they completely dismiss and marginalize it and anyone who even researches some subjects (i.e. ufos, out of body experience).  Most times I would rather read a mad man’s book before I buy anything from some of the most respect “scientists”.  I had stereotyped Ken Wilber as the latter.  Since he has been so respected and (from my perspective) accepted by the core scientists of this age I figured he was a cynical, elitist, skeptic like the rest.    

Boy was I wrong.  Ken Wilber is… fuck.. I don’t know…  Something completely different than I have ever read.  Ken Wilber is like some kind of super scientist, guru master, monk, genius.  Something the world rarely notices let alone respects.  Charles Tart/Sri Auribindo/J. Krisnamurti types are the only persons I know of that are even remotely scientifically/otherworldly bad ass enough to compare to Ken Wilber.  And I must say Ken has surpassed all of them (IMHO) by embellishing, capstoning and co-creating this integral approach to spirituality, religion and science. The more I read this mans work, or hear him speak the more I respect and love him.  He has opened my eyes to a method connecting the Bhagavad-gita to the bible to the Clare Grave’s Spiral Dynamics to Freud to Robert Monroe’s Journey’s Out of the Body to the Tibetan Book of the Dead.  It is all starting to make sense and come together as I understand Ken’s Integral Methodical Pluralism vision of spirituality.Ken Wilber is the only man that I have ever wanted to make sweet, sweet love too.  Does that make me gay?!  If so give me some rainbow stickers and some leather chaps because I’m comin out like Lance Bass.  Then I’ll be Ken Wilber’s Diva Bitch.

Written by elamb · Filed Under Integral Naked, life hacking, spiritual hacking 

10% of your Total Attention per hour (part 2): at home challenge

October 1, 2006

Over the weekend, as I’ve been home more, I feel it has been a greater challenge to keep my 7 minutes of meditation around friends and family.  I must admit I let my guard down more than once and lost quite a few hours while chit chating or doing chores.
When I’m with my kids, I performed actions consciously.  This was much easier to do while doing things such as washing dishes.

While taking my daughter to the park I had an experience of pure joy as I look over all the kids and for a few moments felt as if all their laughter, fun and exhilaration was one… it was as if I felt it directly as my consciousness seemed to encompass the entire park.  I also saw a little girl take her first steps.  That was actually more special to me than the first experience.

Written by elamb · Filed Under spiritual experiments, spiritual hacking 

Next Page »