While the results of some research in the efficacy of acupuncture has appeared to demonstrate no significant difference between “real” acupuncture and “placebo” acupuncture (where the needle does not penetrate the skin), I applaud many in the medical community who feel that further study is needed to determine the effectiveness of this form of alternative medicine. It’s a good thing they aren’t following in the footsteps of Dr. Dean Edell. He has made up his mind that acupuncture is a sham. According to Dr. Edell, any perceived results are due purely to the placebo effect.

And Dr. Edell persists in his close-minded bias, despite being presented with recent evidence to the contrary.

Dr. Dean Edell is a well-known, voracious researcher on all the latest scientific medical studies. On his talk show he shares his findings, answers questions from callers (he has a very large following), and also provides commentary in his crusade against what he refers to as sham medicine. For the most part I respect his no-nonsense approach and critical thinking skills. He uncovers some of the flaws in many alternative remedies, particularly those promoted by the herbal and vitamin supplement industry. Yet in his resolve to not be duped into buying into “voodoo medicine”, he goes overboard in the other direction and turns a blind eye to any evidence that supports various alternative healing modalities.

His attitude is strikingly demonstrated in one of his recent radio talk shows where he took exception to a news headline that read “Acupuncture Shows Promise for Depression in Pregnancy”. The article was based on a recent study, but Dr. Edell lamented how reporters run with a headline without looking into the facts, and then referred to a quote from one of the researchers in the study where she states “I do not think we can say that our study proves that acupuncture is effective for depression during pregnancy.” See article.

So as far as Dr. Edell is concerned, there was nothing in the study that provided evidence contradicting his assertion that acupuncture results are nothing more than the placebo effect. Case closed.

I took a look at the study and other articles and found out just how far off base the good Doctor is.

The study was conducted by researchers at the Stanford School of Medicine. Conducted by a reputable institution, this was a blinded, randomized, and controlled trial that followed acceptable scientific methods. Yes, one of the researchers, Dr. Rachel Manber, apparently did make that statement about “proof” in an email to Reuters Health, but that says nothing to prove that acupuncture holds no more promise than a placebo. In fact, here are some other statements made by the researchers that Dr. Edell failed to note:

Dr. Rachel Manber, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences –

“This standardized acupuncture protocol could be a viable treatment option for depression during pregnancy.”

Deirdre Lyell M.D., Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology –

“I hope that people will respect the rigorous methodology used in this blinded, randomized, controlled trial and accept the result: Traditional acupuncture was associated with a significant improvement in depression.”

Acupuncture for depression during pregnancy: a randomized controlled trial. –

The short acupuncture protocol demonstrated symptom reduction and a response rate comparable to those observed in standard depression treatments of similar length and could be a viable treatment option for depression during pregnancy.

No, this recent study doesn’t prove the validity of acupuncture, but it adds to the growing body of evidence that does support it. Dr. Edell prides himself on being open to what modern research uncovers in the search for truth. Unfortunately, he falls victim to the same syndrome that he applies to others – namely, that people will stubbornly hold on to their beliefs in the face of opposing evidence.

It happened again! That irritating co-worker made a snide remark to you and then walked off. Or maybe your roommate left for the evening without cleaning up the mess he left after eating dinner – even though he promised to be more mindful of it. Or maybe you had an argument with your spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend. And so you stew over the offense and magnify the bad feelings by continually thinking of them over and over.

It doesn’t feel good. Nobody in their right mind ever wants to feel this way. And what makes it worse is that it affects how you deal with the other person, which further aggravates the situation and now you have a vicious circle. But believe it or not, it’s possible to change bad feelings into good feelings – and turn this into a fun spiritual practice! How?

Eckhart Tolle’s, in his books The Power of Now and The New Earth, describes techniques for dealing with negative feelings, primarily through accessing the “Now”, or present moment. It was while practicing these techniques that I discovered something quite remarkable – not only are they effective, but they also make it possible to transmute a negative emotional feeling into a positive physical one!

According to Mr. Tolle, every emotion is our body’s reaction to a thought. By continuing to dwell on a negative thought or memory, we perpetuate the bad emotion that accompanies it and the feeling never goes away. So instead of reliving the offense in your mind, take the opportunity to focus on the present moment. Take advantage of the situation for your benefit by using it to practice focusing on the inner stillness that is behind all thoughts and emotions.

It’s easier to begin practicing this with the little irritations and annoyances. You want to be able to stop letting the irritation continue to feed the negative emotion. It can be difficult because sometimes we seem to have a need to replay the experience over and over again. We can’t let go. That’s why it’s easier to start with small annoyances.

First, decide whether it’s a matter that needs to be addressed right then and there. You might decide that there is no point in taking any action, or it is really too late. If that’s the case, then it does no good to dwell on the offense. Instead, put all those thoughts aside as you focus on noticing the feeling within your body. This is the key. Most of the time the emotion is concentrated in a specific area of your body, such as your chest, stomach, or shoulders. Notice where the feeling is located. Notice what the feeling is like. Is it a tightness? A sharp pain? A racing feeling?

As you notice the feeling, take some slow, deep, breaths to relax. Don’t judge the feeling or try to fight it. Let it be. What is happening to the feeling as you observe it while taking slow, deep breaths? Almost immediately it should start to dissipate as you stop providing the emotional fuel.

This feeling has an energy to it. It’s real and the effect on your body is real. But then something remarkable happens. What I’ve noticed is that, devoid of the emotional baggage, devoid of the negative thoughts, the energy has a soothing vibrational quality to it that I actually find pleasurable. It’s almost like a soothing massage, and there have been times when it was similar to a post-meditative body buzz.

This has a couple of advantages. For one thing, it makes it easier to remain in that state until the energy completely dissipates and you’ve been able to allow the bad emotions to pass through you. Holding on to negative emotions stresses your body and contributes to aging. The other benefit is that it is a useful gauge as to how successful you are in focusing on the present. Being familiar with the present moment and what that feels like makes it easier to go there more and more often throughout your daily life.

And being present is crucial to being awake. It’s no surprise that good feelings are associated with the Now. Perhaps this just demonstrates the truthfulness of the teaching that it’s within the present moment where we find true bliss.

This age of high-tech has had the unfortunate effect of favoring and fostering the practice of diverted attention. Young people these days MySpace their friends while checking out what’s on YouTube while texting while keeping an eye on the television … and we see and even experience the same flurry in the workplace.

On the surface it might seem as if this results in honing multitasking skills, but recent studies have shown that this is not true multitasking. This type of activity has at least two drawbacks – it actually adds time to the tasks and it also creates additional stress.

Now scientists have learned another lesson on the value of focused attention – this time from Buddhist monks.

Multitasking is not the best approach

During a recent Science for monks training seminar, San Francisco Bay Area scientists used hands-on workshops to train Tibetan monks about scientific methods and experimentation. This is part of an ongoing effort inspired by His Holiness the Dalai Lama to train highly educated monks to also be leaders in science.

The scientists found the monks to be ideal students, primarily because they were “excellent single-taskers”, as one of the staff at the Exploratorium science museum in San Francisco put it. Even though the monks were not experienced with such hands-on learning, their skills in mindfulness enabled them to take to the activity with a focus that amazed the scientists. When faced with a novel situation, the monks were able to explore it without getting bored or without the need for a diversion, and in the process came up with some novel solutions to the engineering problems presented to them.

This is clearly evidence of the benefits of meditation and other spiritual exercises that involve focused attention. If you are able to focus for extended periods of time on a single task or problem then:

• You can come up with creative solutions.
• You gain a deeper and more complete understanding of the issue.

Self-improvement proponent Steve Pavlina believes that the best way to learn a new skill is to “condense your learning into a shorter period of time.” According to his experience, this is more effective than spreading out your study sporadically amongst other activities. While I don’t believe that following his approach 100% is practical for most people – it is incredibly unbalanced in my opinion – it does speak to the value of being able to stay focused on one task for an extended period of time. Or at least to try to spend as much time as possible on one task before switching to another. This flies in the face of the “multitasking” flurry that many of us find ourselves involved with in our daily lives. Is there much we can do about it?

Breaking the Habit

Most of what we do is a product of habit. Even if there is no need to switch our attention, if it has become a habit then we’ll find ourselves having to “take a break” from one task and spend a little time on another. Like any habit, though, it can be broken with a little effort. Every time we catch ourselves getting ready to switch attention unnecessarily, we can fight the urge and stick to the immediate task. Sounds like a lot of work, doesn’t it?

This is where meditation comes in. No, not while you’re working, but the benefit comes as a byproduct of a meditation practice. One way to think of meditation is as a way to exercise your attention muscle. As you focus on your breathing, or repeat a mantra, your mind naturally wanders but you repeatedly bring your attention back to your center. This cements a new habit that you can call upon to help you maintain your focus on specific activities outside of meditation.

Another byproduct of meditation that helps in this area is achieving the ability to live in the present moment. In that state you don’t worry about the future nor dwell on the past. Consequently you become more in touch with who you really are inside, without the trappings of ego, and so you become more secure with focusing on your current task without worrying about what’s around the corner. In fact, you learn to appreciate the beauty in the present and so have a reduced need to look to the future for fulfillment.

But all this comes with time. Some good books to read are Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
and A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose. Other practices, such as yoga in its various forms, also facilitate this state and are worth exploring.

So don’t feel that if you’re not an enlightened monk then there’s no point in even thinking about trying to practice focused attention. Even the slightest shift away from habitual diverted attention can be beneficial. Any amount of additional uninterrupted time spent on a task can help by reducing the amount of time wasted in shifting gears. Once again, ancient wisdom has a thing or two to teach post-modern society.

Read the article Bay Area scientists teach and learn from Tibetan monks in India.

See also my post on meditation.

Yogis and mystics spend years meditating and performing rituals and exercises in order to gain spiritual insights and achieve enlightenment. People have seen the effects of these practices, causing scientific researchers to try to explain spiritual phenomena through experiments and measurements. One interesting concept is the understanding of binaural beats and its effect on the human brain. Some even think that binaural beats can train the brain to automatically enter a state that’s identical to that achieved by experienced meditators. Is there anything to it?

What are Binaural Beats?

The phenomenon was actually discovered in 1839 and is basically a mechanism for getting the human brain to perceive frequencies below the typical threshold of 20 Hz. If two different tones of sufficiently low frequency (below 1 – 1.5 kHz) are presented to each ear and the difference between the tones are no more than 30 Hz, then the brain perceives the difference as a separate beat. In this way you can get the brain to perceive frequencies well below 20 Hz. So to get the brain to perceive, say, a 5 Hz tone, the two tones must be 5 Hz apart in frequency – for example, one 500 Hz tone presented to one ear and one 505 Hz tone presented to the other ear.

So what’s the point? Well, this has some interesting applications in the matter of brain entrainment.

Brain Entrainment, or Brainwave Synchronization

Brain entrainment is the process of changing the brain’s dominant frequency by exposing it to an external frequency. Over time the brain’s frequency will match that of the external stimulus, especially if there is not too much difference between the two.

This isn’t far fetched. The entrainment phenomenon occurs in all kinds of physical systems. Check out this video that shows the effect that metronomes have on each other:

So why would we want to do that with our brain? Well, consider some interesting brainwave frequencies and their implications:

Now brain activity doesn’t consist of only one frequency – there are always many frequencies being generated at any time. But during certain mental states there will be a predominant frequency, and this is what is meant by the list in the previous table.

So imagine being able to enter certain states, such as deep meditation, just by entraining your brain to produce that corresponding frequency as the predominant one. This is the idea behind listening to binaural beat recordings using stereo headphones.

Does it work?

Many such recordings are available online. Because a pure sine wave is not pleasant or relaxing for most people, the beats are generated within a background of white noise. You can download an example here:

Binaural Beat Sample

This recording was created using a freeware program, and gradually moves from theta waves to delta waves. When I listen to it, I immediately start to feel a tingly energy across my back and shoulders.

There are several companies that produce CDs of various binaural beat recordings. The advantage to these is that they are produced with more sophisticated sound equipment and many of the nuances are fine-tuned. For example, I’ve had the opportunity to try one of them, Immrama’s Insight CD. They’ve created a relaxing soundscape of falling rain within which they embedded the binaural beats. Instead of including only one beat, the Immrama Institute’s recordings incorporate a set of harmonically layered beats to more closely mimic the activity of the human brain.

The CD consists of three tracks, each designed to guide your brain into different levels. I haven’t listened to all three tracks for extended periods of time, but only focused on listening to the first track.

My experience with Immrama’s Insight CD

The falling rain is very soothing and I thought that it would be best to listen to it before I went to bed. Within a few minutes of putting on the headphones the sounds lulled me into a very relaxed state and it was easy to lay there for the 25 minutes or so it took for the track to complete, at which point it gradually – almost imperceptively – trails off into silence. By the time it finished I was definitely in an altered mental state, and as I took off the headphones and went to bed I was able to drift easily to sleep.

At the very least, listening to the Insight CD is a very effective way to achieve quick physical relaxation. I would even compare it to the level of relaxation achievable after having practiced meditation for some time. But is that all there is? One strange effect that it has on me leads me to conclude that there is more to it.

After several days of this routine I began to notice a reaction that I have not heard associated with listening to binaural beats. I started to experience symptoms of restless leg syndrome (RLS). This is something that I’ve felt in recent years which occasionally manifests itself in the evening, especially if I’m inactive such as when watching a movie or TV. For some reason, the extremely relaxed physical state that listening to the binaural beats induced also brought to the surface the sensations associated with RLS. The feeling is difficult to describe, but it feels like a build-up of energy in my legs that eventually needs to be released. I can either shake or twitch my leg to release it, or remain motionless and allow the feeling to naturally move my leg on its own – although that is also accompanied by a strange “sour” sensation which is difficult to describe any other way.

But the sensation became more pronounced after several days of listening to the CD – to the point of affecting my whole body. For that reason I had to stop listening to it in the evenings, but I intend to experiment with listening to the CD in the mornings, when I’m active physically. Hopefully, I can then focus on the mental effects of the binaural beats instead of the physical.

The Kundalini Mystery

Why would listening to the CD affect me in this way? Well, it might not be a coincidence that some believe that restless leg syndrome is often a misdiagnosis for kundalini syndrome. Without going into too long of an explanation, many Eastern spiritual traditions teach of a spiritual energy (kundalini) that is coiled at the base of everyone’s spine. Many exercises and practices are designed to awaken this energy so that it flows up the spine and eventually reach the top of the head, at which point there is often a mind-exploding experience that some say is the ultimate in spiritual awakening. (I’ll save my views of that for another post.)

There are many reports of people experiencing “spontaneous kundalini awakening”, or a spontaneous movement of this energy. For some reason, this is sometimes accompanied by such sensations as

• Energy rushes or immense electricity circulating the body
• Itching, vibrating, prickling, tingling, stinging or crawling sensations
• Intense heat or cold
• Involuntary bodily movements which occur more often during meditation, rest or sleep, and which may be misdiagnosed as epilepsy, restless legs syndrome (RLS), or periodic limb movement disorder (PLMD).

These and other symptoms can occur as the result of meditation, yoga, or other intense spiritual practices, and are manifestations of an accelerated release or burning up of karma. Could my RLS be related to Kundalini syndrome? And could listening to certain binaural beats be affecting me in the same way as other practices?

More than a relaxation method?

I’ve definitely experienced how brain entrainment using binaural beats can quickly induce relaxation. But are binaural beats, through brain entrainment, doing more than just inducing relaxed states? I have reason to believe that they do produce many of the same effects as meditation or yoga beyond just the physical relaxation. While I have yet to experience them, the Immrama Institute claims that other benefits include increased learning ability and creativity, reduced stress, and better personal insight. For myself, it may be simply a matter of listening to the CD earlier in the day in order to give these results a chance. If I notice anything, I’ll be sure to post another article.

• My Mindshift II has twelve different compositions for various effects.

It’s night time, and your young child is in bed, asleep. Suddenly you hear crying, or maybe even a scream. You rush to the room to see your child sitting up in bed crying as if she awoke from a frightening dream. You ask what’s wrong, but she doesn’t seem to be aware of your presence and continues crying despite your efforts to console her.

She is having a night terror.

They occur more frequently in children than adults. They are rarely understood, and more frightening to observers than to the ones actually having the experience. In fact, very few even remember the experience the following day. Most of the time the episode ends with the person falling back to sleep.

My experience with night terrors

I experienced this several times as a child (we called it “waking up crying”). What was it like? Well, the distress wasn’t from a nightmare or anything that you might typically expect to be frightening. What I remember were vague, abstract, feelings and situations that my mind wasn’t able to wrap itself around. Imagine a massive boulder balanced on the tip of a pin, or sweeping a large room with just a pin. For some reason these concepts caused me so much distress. But I can see how these night terrors are related to sleep walking because sometimes I would get up and walk around. One time I walked to my parent’s room and started talking to them; in that espisode my visions involved drinking something and I was listing everyone who drank a certain drink and then I pointed to my parents and said (rather accusingly) “and you drank some, too”.

As I got older, the night terror episodes just stopped. Later I learned that many children experience them – including my own son. Maybe it’s genetic. Fortunately, I was familiar with the phenomenon and wasn’t alarmed the first time my wife and I witnessed it. It can be very distressing to watch if you don’t understand it. From the outside, it is very similar to sleep walking, except the person appears upset – maybe crying or even screaming. His eyes are usually wide open, but he is not awake. He is going though is own ordeal in his own mind and is not fully conscious of where he is or who you are, or if you are even there. He might mumble things that don’t make any sense, and maybe move his arms as if to interact with an environment that only he can see.

So what can you do about night terrors?

This is what psychologists currently understand:

• Night terrors usually occur in the early part of the night, about 1 to 4 hours after going to sleep.
• It is a partial arousal from non-REM sleep, so the person is not in the middle of a dream, is not fully conscious, and yet somehow is acting as if he is awake.
• Most children outgrow night terrors as they get older.

When you encounter someone having a night terror, your first instinct might be to talk to him so that he’ll be comforted. But that doesn’t work. You should just hold him gently to make sure he doesn’t hurt himself, and then ride it out with him. And it’s best not to try to wake him up, as that only creates confusion. The episode usually doesn’t last too long and soon he falls back to sleep. Most of the time he won’t even remember what happened.

Most children eventually outgrow them, but there are a couple of things you might try in order to minimize the occurrence, especially if there seems to be a time when it’s happening frequently:

• Make sure the child is getting enough sleep. Children who are overtired are more likely to have night terrors.
• Try waking the child an hour or two after he’s gone to sleep. This is typically just before night terrors occur, so the idea is to interrupt the process before it happens.

Night Terrors and Consciousness

Conventional science would say that during these episodes the person experiences a confused and distorted perception of reality. But there are alternative conclusions. Recent experiments with the mind altering substance DMT provides hints that our brains might in fact be interacting with alternate “realities”.

When large doses of DMT were administered to test subjects, most reported common experiences such as being visited by other beings, and also felt strongly that the experiences reflected a reality that was not just in their heads.

DMT is a substance produced in our brains, but there appear to be mechanisms in place to prevent our brains from producing or releasing large quantities under most circumstances. While not yet proven, it’s hypothesized that the brain releases larger quantities of DMT at various stages in life – such as birth, death, and sleep. Could some release of DMT at a certain stage of non-REM sleep be responsible for night terrors? If so, then perhaps the experience involves an awakening to another reality.

Another clue is the similarity in behavior I’ve noticed between those experiencing sleep walking/night terrors and those under the influence of another mind-altering substance – salvia divinorum. Salvia divinorum has been compared to DMT in its effects, and recent studies have demonstrated how quickly the active ingredient, salvinorin A, is processed by the human brain – just like DMT. In both the salvia and the night terror experience, the person is unaware of his surroundings, and many on salvia are distressed to some extent. Having experienced both (many do not remember their night terror experience), I can say that the feelings are very similar. You find yourself involved in a story-like environment that is not this reality and your brain has a difficult time making sense of it.

And I can attest to the unmistakable feeling that this alternate world is real.

Note to any salvia “sitters”: treat the salvia user as you would someone experiencing a night terror – let him ride it out quietly, making sure he remains physically safe during the trip. Don’t try to interact or engage with him in any way, other than to be quietly reassuring if needed.

Science may one day discover the link between sleep processes and substance-induced altered states of consciousness, leading to a better understanding of our minds and our perception of reality.

Reference: DMT: The Spirit Molecule: A Doctor’s Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences