{"id":72720,"date":"2017-09-18T07:22:42","date_gmt":"2017-09-18T14:22:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2017\/09\/i-tried-direct-neurofeedback-and-the-results-surprised-me"},"modified":"2017-09-18T07:22:42","modified_gmt":"2017-09-18T14:22:42","slug":"i-tried-direct-neurofeedback-and-the-results-surprised-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2017\/09\/i-tried-direct-neurofeedback-and-the-results-surprised-me","title":{"rendered":"I Tried Direct Neurofeedback and the Results Surprised Me"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"padding-right: 20px\"><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/i-tried-direct-neurofeedback-and-the-results-surprised-me.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>My new story for my #transhumanism column at Psychology Today on Direct Neurofeedback:<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>Transhumanism\u2014the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theamericanconservative.com\/articles\/the-growing-world-of-libertarian-transhumanism\/\">movement<\/a> of using science and technology to improve the human being\u2014covers many different fields of research. There are exoskeleton suits to help the disabled; there are stem cell treatments to cure disease; there are robots and AI to perform human chores. The field is wide open and booming as humanity uses more and more tech in its world.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not that often I get to participate directly in these radical technologies, but I did so recently when Grant Rudolph, Clinical Director at <a href=\"http:\/\/echorocktherapy.com\/\">Echo Rock Neurotherapy<\/a> in Mill Valley, California invited me to try his Direct Neurofeedback techniques. Via his computer and EEG wire hookups, Mr. Rudolph echoed my brainwave information back into my head at an imperceptible level. I did two sessions of Direct Neurofeedback.<\/p>\n<p>At first, I was skeptical that I\u2019d even feel anything since the EEG information can\u2019t be detected by the skin as a sensation, but within five minutes of having the wires stuck onto my forehead, I began feeling different. I can compare it to a light dose of a recreational drug: I felt happy, content, and worry-free. I also felt more introspective than normal. The feedback only took a few seconds, and after about 15 minutes, I seemed to notice the world\u2019s colors were sharper and my hearing was more acute. The heightened awareness and calming effect lasted about 24 hours and then most of it gradually wore off. Some of the clarity must still be working, because getting things done sometimes still seems easier. I\u2019m told that continued sessions would make this state of clarity my new norm.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display:none;\" alt=\"Zoltan Istvan\" height=\"251\" src=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/i-tried-direct-neurofeedback-and-the-results-surprised-me2.jpg\" title=\"Zoltan Istvan\" width=\"320\" \/><\/p>\n<p><!-- Link: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.psychologytoday.com\/blog\/the-transhumanist-philosopher\/201709\/i-tried-direct-neurofeedback-and-the-results-surprised-me\">https:\/\/www.psychologytoday.com\/blog\/the-transhumanist-philo...rprised-me<\/a> --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My new story for my #transhumanism column at Psychology Today on Direct Neurofeedback: Transhumanism\u2014the movement of using science and technology to improve the human being\u2014covers many different fields of research. There are exoskeleton suits to help the disabled; there are stem cell treatments to cure disease; there are robots and AI to perform human chores. [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":267,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1499,6,1501],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-cyborgs","category-robotics-ai","category-transhumanism-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/267"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72720\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}