Theta brain waves indicate the meditative state of consciousness. Biofeedback and meditation is part four of my thirteen part of my commentary and synopsis of The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk.
1. INTRODUCTION: Childhood Trauma Causes Addiction
2. 12 Steps & 12 Traditions: Damaging Emotional Conflicts
3. Trauma Damages Left Brain Speech
4. BIOFEEDBACK: Meditative States of Consciousness
5. INTEROCEPTION: Traumatic Awareness
6. What Were You Thinking Right Before You Acted Out Your Childhood Trauma?
7. Communication is the Opposite of Trauma
8. ALEXITHYMIA: Inability to Feel Emotion
9. EMDR Reprocesses Body Awareness and Does Not Visit the Original Trauma in Detail
10. EMDR is for Patients So Traumatized That Full Recovery is Thought to Be Impossible.
11. Lock Down Your Childhood Trauma Instead of Acting it Out
12. Final Healing: The Patient’s Internal Landscape Manifests Critical Mass of Self
13. Eye Movement Desensitizing Reprocessing of Traumatic Memories
4. EEG charts measuring brain waves indicate when you are meditating
InTHE BODY KEEPS THE SCORE, Brain, Mind and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk, M.D. In Chapter 19, there is a section on using electro encephalograms (EEG) for meditation. Meditating helps heal trauma. A EEG machine can monitor brain waves to indicate which states of meditative consciousness you are in.
A test subject is quoted as saying that using an EEG machine to monitor your brain waves is like “meditation on steroids.” It got me all fired up to purchase my own home EEG monitor. So I began researching affordable hardware and software.
THETA is the meditative state of consciousness
I have been meditating since I was nineteen years-old and my meditation practice just keeps getting better and better through the years. Anything new that I can learn about meditation really turns me on. I wanted to be able to know exactly when I was in THETA and ALPHA states of consciousness. THETA brain waves indicate meditative & intuitive states of consciousness. The next higher frequency are ALPHA waves indicating visualization & creative states of consciousness.
Save your EEG money and just meditate
Yesterday afternoon I was ready to pull the trigger and purchase a $200 EEG head set on Amazon that included software to run on a mobile phone app. Then I read a review that stated: “Don’t waste your money, this does not do what a real EEG machine does, save your time and money and just meditate!”
Someday we will have home EEG machines just like we have home computers
The bottom line is that home EEG machines are just not here yet in the same way that home computers have arrived. You need to spend over $10,000 on head set hardware & hookups and the monthly software licensing is $200/per month.
JUST VISUALIZING THESE CHARTS HELPS ME TUNE MY BRAIN WAVES TO A MEDITATIVE STATE OF CONSCIOUSNESS
Just viewing these wonderful royalty free charts helps me to gauge what state of consciousness I am in. In six months I will be on Medi-Care instead of my bargain basement insurance plan. I wonder if Medicare will cover the cost of a few sessions of real EEG monitoring? Dr. van der Kolk’s book says that all you need are a few sessions hooked up to EEG monitoring to permanently lock in perfect meditation. Oh well, until then I will do like the Buddha said, just stay in a meditative state of consciousness!
