Neurofeedback 

 Around ten years ago, about the same time I tried Ayahuasca, I received my first QEEG brain map.  Neurofeedback was rare then and it is still fairly rare now. When I was shown my brain map, I was immediately very impressed with the technology.  I was told that I have a brain pattern that relates to “PTSD, Anxiety, and Insomnia”.  I was then told that to alleviate symptoms I just had to train my brain.  I was a Marine, considered myself tough and talk therapy was nothing that I really considered because of my mindset. I was also into natural health and did want to go through any of the usual routes of psychiatric drugs or talk therapy.  QEEG brain mapping and neurofeedback seemed totally different.  It was a breath of fresh air, I just had to train my brain into a healthy more regulated state. It seemed like science fiction; we can use technology to train the brain?  The brain map also took the stigma away from PTSD symptoms, it was not “me”, I simply had a brain pattern that could be trained into a healthier state.  The idea was very empowering.

When I started doing the brain training, I started noticing relief from my anxiety and PTSD like symptoms. My thoughts were becoming clearer, and I would not get stuck in mental loops like I used too.  I seemed sharper as well and more connected to the world around me.  My physiology felt healthier, it did not feel like my nervous system was on fire like it used to.  I had tried so many things, I think almost everything, but it seemed like neurofeedback was helping me in ways like nothing else could.

 

After experiencing healing from neurofeedback, I started buying every book I could find on the subject.  I read everything that existed on the topic.  After reading about neurofeedback, I started to realize that there were many spiritual implications to neurofeedback.  I started to understand that what meditators and yogis have been doing for thousands of years could be done with this technology.  I began to become inspired, not only could neurofeedback be used to heal a vast array of symptoms but it could be used to achieve spiritual states and help human being to reach their peak potential.  Afterall, what are human beings truly capable of?  I think that question is a long way from being answered but it was becoming apparent to me that neurofeedback could be a powerful tool in the search for understanding the nature of consciousness itself.

 

After buying small devices and reading about the topic for several years, I went to the international conference for neurofeedback, ISNR.  The conference was in Denver, not far from where I was in Omaha Nebraska.  When I showed up, I was just a man with an idea in place full of very highly credentialed experts.  There I met my mentor, Dr Richard Soutar.  When I told him my idea of wanting to combine QEEG brain mapping and neurofeedback with plant medicines, he told me,  “I have been waiting to me someone like you, I want to train you.”  This serendipitous encounter would change the course of my life.  Sure enough, I began working with Dr Soutar in the fall of 2019.  It turned out that Dr Soutar was not only one of the top people in the field but was also a student of Zen and had deep knowledge of shamanism.  We did a lot of shamanic work, especially dream work, for the first two years.  He explained how shamanism and brain waves are related, and I learned a great deal and still learn so much today.

After working with Dr S and meeting him with every week for two years during the worldwide lockdowns I finally arrived back in Peru right when it was opening back up. After spending some more time in the jungle doing some deep Ayahuasca dieta work, I came back to the Sacred Valley and started working with locals with neurofeedback.  I was able to work with people firsthand and saw how powerful neurofeedback could be with people’s healing journey. 

From the very beginning I wanted to incorporate this technology into the retreat setting.  It was such a powerful combination.  Both plant medicines and neurofeedback increase neuroplasticity.  When combined with each other, we leverage each’s power to help the brain adapt.  As one person said when I explained the idea “Oh, one plus one does not equal two, it equals five”.  He had a very insightful way of understanding the concept.

 

  When trauma is taken in by the human nervous system, it makes are brain more ridged.  It becomes hard to adapt to changes and we can see this in the neural structures.  This rigidity in brain structure affects how we interact with the world and how we achieve our goals. Both neurofeedback and plant medicines help “open” the brain and therefor the mind.  It allows us to think of more novel solutions.  Most people think that their conscious mind is “who they are” but it is just one small piece.  The subconscious is much larger, and all actual problems are solved with the subconscious not the conscious mind.   This is why dream work can be so powerful, because it is the “golden path to the unconscious. Instead of dreams, we use neurofeedback and plant medicines.  Both bring people in touch with their subconscious. 

 

The subconscious in reality is the realm of the soul.  Carl Jung talked about this later in his life.  He said that he used the term subconscious throughout his entire life and in his writings because he was speaking to a scientifically minded Western audience.  The truth of the matter was that what he really was implying was that the subconscious is in fact the human soul, and both are one in the same.

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  For me, plant medicines are about the individuation process, linking the conscious mind to the subconscious.  This is where true psychological health exists. The truth is that the individuation process is not only about psychological wholeness but about gaining new levels of spiritual understanding.  These are not separate paths but a continuum on the same road.    

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As we further understand the mind, we further understand the soul.  The physical world and the spiritual world are not separate but instead flow into each other.  This brings us to those peak states of inspiration and connection.  Where do they come from?

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If you look at the great artists of the world or have read about what the great inventors of the world say about how they come up with their ideas, it can give us insight into their mental state.  They often talk about their ideas and inspiration coming from “somewhere else” or in modern language, it was “downloaded”.  In a way, it did come from somewhere else.  It did not come from their conscious mind, it came from their subconscious mind, their soul.  They will often talk about how their ideas come to them during a “twilight state” or a dream state.  These states are where the subconscious mind and the conscious mind meet.  These are also the realms of the soul and even magic.  When people experience plant medicine, this is the realm that they experience, the realm of the soul, the place of dreams.  This is also the realm we access when using certain types of neurofeedback.  We can train people how to enter these states through brain training.  These states don’t have to be one off experiences only with plant medicines but can be in fact be returned to at will with the proper training.

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 The field of neuroscience or what I like to call “spiritual neuroscience” is giving us great insight into these states.  To attain these states takes building of the neural structures and the proper physiology.  This is what Yogis have been doing for thousands of years.  This is what makes neurofeedback so groundbreaking.  To say it crudely, it can be a “short cut”.  It gives us the ability to show the brain exactly where it needs to go.  Then it offers a concrete way of training the brain and the ability to see the progress through modern computer technology.  From my perspective, there is nothing else like it.   

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We are at this beautiful phase of history when the wisdom of the ancients is meeting modern technology.  Instead of technology separating human beings from their true selves, technology is allowing us to return to who we truly are.  It is our birthright as ensouled beings to access higher states of consciousness and we strive to bring everything to bare, to support and guide in that process.

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Most neurofeedback clinics work with many types of issues, especially things like head trauma, focus, anxiety and depression.  For us, this is just the starting point.  When we regulate the nervous system and begin to heal, this allows us to open everyone to their peak potential.  What is the peak potential of each human being?  I don’t think we have any idea, but it seems to me that we are just scratching the surface.  I truly believe that reality is much closer to our dreams of childhood than the soulless reality that mass culture has told us.  The future is bright, the 21st century will be the century of consciousness.  When the culture finally begins to take notice, and it is inevitable it will, humanity will have a whole new understanding of itself.  Then the question will be, where will our dreams take us next.