By Betty 3aneRyan

Biofeedback Training: the voluntntary control of

ARDLY a person in the Western world has not viewed, H with conflicting thoughts of doubt and amazement, newsphotos of yogis sitting on boards of nails, or walking through coals of fire, or “arising from the dead.” Considered holy men in their own country, these men are mysteriously able to exert voluntary control over bodily functions normally under involuntary control. Also, for at least 100 years, students of hypnotism have reported that suggestions made while sub- jects are in a deep trance are at times effective in producing blisters, removing warts, altering salivation, heart rate, and blood sugar levels.

Although such accounts offer evidence of the possibility of voluntary control over internal bodily functions, none provide a clue as to how this control is accomplished. A method by which such control could be taught and effectively utilized has been, for many years, a nebulous notion. Now, the dynamics of the relationship between mind and body are considered accessible to scientific investigation. The same technology that developed sensitive transducers, high-gain amplifiers, and sophisticated computer techniques is now being applied to

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mind over body and mind. research into the mind-body realm, heretofore the private do- main of philosophers and mystics. Through the use of these instruments it is possible to- both promote and detect changes in bodily functions that are particularly related to and in- dicative of changes in attention, consciousness, thought, and emotions.

We Americans are characteristically clock-watchers. Pres- sured to meet time requirements, a frantic pace has become our way of life. Unexpected, unplanned outcomes are reflected in the occurrence of certain dysfunctional and maladaptive behaviors apparently peculiar to our society. These behaviors have led to studies related to muscle tension and, finally, to the development of some techniques to achieve relaxation and reduce or alleviate tension. The natural childbirth movement in the 1950s and 1960s utilized these methods to acquire voluntary control over the “birthing” process and relieve fear- induced pain. The LaMaze method for assisting mothers in labor is a form of auto-suggestion or self-hypnotism which in- duces a hypnotic state through suggestions and instructions for attaining muscular relaxation and relieving the discomfort of

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anxiety. With an interest in Zen, Yogi, and Transcendental Meditation gaining momentum in this country, many Amer- icans are discovering the wellsprings of serenity in the Eastern philosophies.

DEFINITION AND PROPOSITION

Biofeedback is defined as providing a person with informa- tion about his own on-going physiological processes. The basic idea is that most people can learn to control their “uncon- scious” body processes through electronic feedback. (Stoyva et al., 1972) Feedback of physiological information generally consists of visual or auditory displays that show a person what is happening in certain normally unconscious functions of his body as he attempts to influence them by the use of mental, emotional, and somatic visualizations.

There are broad social, political, and economic implications having revolutionary significance inherent in a methodology for teaching and learning self-control. Down through the ages the ideal and goal of civilizations has been to structure an ordered society. Man, himself, has likewise attempted to gain personal control over his own behavior. Especially does he seek to regulate responses that are health-promoting or life- threatening. For example, the condition known as alcoholism results from emotional stress experienced by a person and apparently relieved only by drinking. If such a person could recognize the symptoms of stress and then regulate his own biological and emotional responses to the stress he perceives, in all likelihood he would no longer drink to excess, for it ap- pears that mental states can be either self-induced or changed at will. Recent investigation into the potentials of biofeedback training shows that blood flow, brain wave rhythms, muscle

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tension, heart beat, and other bodily processes usually thought of as involuntary may be voluntarily controlled. (Green et al., 1970)

METHODS AND APPLlCATlON

The techniques of biofeedback are being utilized in com- bination with certain relaxation and meditation techniques to teach chemically dependent patients to control stress through voluntary alteration of the mental state. This three-pronged approach has yielded satisfactory results, although hard data sufficient to substantiate the validity of the program are not yet gathered for statistical analysis.

To adequately describe this program, it will be necessary to briefly detail each of the components which constitute that biofeedback training program. First, a physiological principle states that any change in the body is accompanied by an ap- propriate change in the mind and, conversely, whenever a change occurs in the mind, the body makes an appropriate change. (Green et al., 1969) In other words, the mind and the body are two major but interrelated parts of a systematically integrated whole unit; what affects one affects the other. This principle is the key to understanding biofeedback.

Second, feedback, a term borrowed from engineering, serves as a control and monitoring mechanism by providing informa- tion, evaluating the information, noting deviations, taking necessary corrective actions, and finally recycling or reordering the entire operational process to achieve desired results. A thermostat, for example, forms a closed-loop or self-contained feedback system. The person who adjusts the thermostat can be said to represent free-will or voluntary control entering the system from an energy source outside the closed loop, which

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brings up a third and vital element for discussion, passive volition.

Desired results in biofeedback training are achieved largely by involvement of the patient through his acquiring immediate knowledge of results in gaining control over his own physio- logical processes. Intention and voluntary passivity added to immediate knowledge are the ingredients of passive volition. Voluntary passivity does not appear to be a difficult state of mind to choose, describe, or achieve. Intention, however viewed or achieved, does seem to be a state of mind rather in opposition to passivity, for intention implies goal-direction whereas passivity indicates a static condition. If passivity is read as a state of serene or calm objectivity then is linked with volition it takes on a dynamic quality which does not oppose the concept of intention.

Meditation, a fourth component of this particular biofeed- back training system, requires both the elements of passive volition and intention for desirable objectives to be realized. A variety of relaxation techniques are utilized to teach patients to focus their attention on a specific bodily function, to gain an awareness of the correlation between mind and body, and to experience conscious control. The patients are exposed to a continuous barrage of informational material designed to instill certain social and moral values related to responsibility and right and wrong in terms of a concept of brotherly love.

Information is gathered from assigned readings followed by group discussions, through daily lectures, films, and group psychotherapy sessions. Practice in relaxing, learning to verbalize about the “unmanly” subject of love, and taking on an attitude of goal-direction prepare the patient to enter and maintain a reverie-like state characteristic of meditation in which thought processes are suspended. Internal visual ex-

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periences inspire wonder and awe, while a sublime feeling of well-being overtakes and permeates all parts of the person. The results obtained indicate an observable attitudinal change regarding the patient’s self-image. Motivation toward an al- tered lifestyle is apparent. Patients express a firm intention to apply controls on behavior. Moreover, they evidence a belief in themselves as persons capable of achieving and applying control.

Instrumentation, the final component, provides feedback indispensable to the control of physical and mental functions. Patients observe changes in certain physiological processes as they simultaneously attempt to control those processes. In so doing they rapidly learn to regulate muscle tension, body tem- perature, and the rhythm of their brain waves.

The patient is wired for a training session with skin elec- trodes glued to both ears and the back of the head. He begins the self-control session by attempting to achieve a tranquil state of consciousness while he listens for a beep indicating alpha brain wave rhythm. While maintaining relaxation, the patient focuses his attention inward, away from the outside world with emphasis on experiencing a quiet but alert state of consciousness, such a state produces alpha waves on an EEG print-out.

The electrodes detect changes in brain wave rhythm and instantly relay this information back to the patient in the form of a beep ( 100 percent alpha rhythm for more than 10 seconds causes an audiometer to emit a high-pitched beep). Each beep gives the patient an indication (feedback) of his success in controlling his own mental processes.

A transistor attached to the middle finger of the right hand registers his body temperature on a meter. The patient assumes a relaxed physical and mental state, at the same time studiously

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visualizing a feeling of warmness. A taped recording repeats certain phrases which suggest feeling states and influence a change in physiology. Such phrases are useful in beginning practice for they encourage the patient to imagine, visualize, and feel a change taking place in the human system in any one of its parts as well as in the system as an entity. The aim is to experience in conscious awareness that a change is taking place, and then let it happen as a natural flow of events with no mental interference into the body’s tendency to cooperate. In this way the patient learns to control certain processes until he is very soon enabled to merely visualize or imagine a physio- logical change to effect immediate expected changes.

It should be noted that muscle tension and body temperature are functions of the peripheral nervous system while alpha wave production reflects activities of the central nervous sys- tem. Working at first for control of the peripheral nervous sys- tem gives the patient practice in mastering the passive volition necessary to consciously control the production of alpha waves. (Green et al., 1973)

CONCLUSION

Biofeedback training gives promise of accelerating auto- nomic abilities in the human organism. It provides new per- spectives on mind-body interaction, opens doors to greater comprehension, and has promised the eventual mastery over the internal states of man. As such, biofeedback is a tool for studying the relationship between biological and psychological processes. The unique value of feedback instrumentation is that it gives immediate indication of progress. Through ex- ternal feedback, internal cures are recognized, sorted, and those to be manipulated are selected. The philosophy of bio-

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feedback asserts the power of the mind and the doctrine of free-will. A spawn of the space age, biofeedback may be the herald of a new age of enlightenment in which man is enabled to maximize his potential for self-discovery and self-actualiza- tion.

REFERENCES

Green, E., A. Green, and E. Dale Walters, “Voluntary Control of Internal States: Physiological and Psychological,” reprinted from The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, Vol. 11, No.

Green, E., A. Green, and E. Dale Walters, “Self-Regulation of Internal States,” reprinted from Progress of Cybernetics: Proceedings of the international Congress of Cybernetics, London, 1969, (Ed. J .Rose).

Green, E., A. Green, and E. Dale Walters, “Alpha-Theta Biofeed- back Training,” a paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the A.R.E. Clinic, Phoenix, Arizona, January 13, 1973, p. 20.

Stoyva, J. et al. (Eds.), Biofeedback and SeZf-Control, 1971, A n Aldine Annual, Chicago: Aldine-Atherton, Inc., 1972, pp.

1 , 1970, pp. 1-26.

256-258.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Barber, T. X. et al.. (Eds.), Biofeedback and Self-Control, 1970, A n Aldine Annual, Chicago: Aldine-Atherton, Inc., 1971.

Green, E., A. Green, and E. Dale Walters, “Biofeedback Training for Anxiety Tension Reduction,” paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the National Council on Alcoholism, May 15, 1973, unpublished paper.

Green, E., A. Green, and E. Dale Walters, “Biofeedback for Mind- Body Self-Regulation : Healing and Creativity,” reprinted from Research Department, The Menninger Foundation, October 30, 197 1, p. 24.

Karlin, M. and L. M. Andrews, Biofeedback: Turning on the Powers of Your Mind, Philadelphia and New York: Lippin- cott, 1972.

Smart, Allan, “Conscious Control of Physical and Mental States,” reprinted from April-May, 1970 issue Menninger Perspective, Topeka: The Menninger Foundation.

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