NeuroFeedback, NeurOptimal and Electroencephalography

[Divide by Zero]

I have done 10 sessions so far and haven't noticed a reduction in tinnitus yet. I've had tinnitus since before I started school though so I can't really pinpoint a cause like some can eg. exposure to noise or physical injury. Like you, mine is in both ears and very high pitched - if I remember correctly, my hearing aids mask tinnitus to 600Hz, but the lowest frequency in my tinnitus starts at about 6000Hz and ranges up to near 9000Hz. That's measured against the tinnitus frequency finders on youtube like this -

Thanks for the link.
Mine is up high, probably 14k or a bit more but unfortunately either my computer sound card can't produce it or my ears can't hear past 15? I tried headphones and the speakers.
It's similar to the high pitch that I could hear from tube TV's when I was growing up. I can hear some cheap switching power supplies hiss too. Most people didn't hear it and thought I was making it up, until a friend did a double-blind study: Volume muted on TV and I would walk into the room with eyes closed and be able to tell whether the TV was on or off by that high pitch.

My hearing tests come up great, so I have no clue what causes this. I read that it could be internal to the brain or the ear picking up bloodflow noise?

 

[Jones]

Thanks for the link.
Mine is up high, probably 14k or a bit more but unfortunately either my computer sound card can't produce it or my ears can't hear past 15? I tried headphones and the speakers.
It's similar to the high pitch that I could hear from tube TV's when I was growing up. I can hear some cheap switching power supplies hiss too. Most people didn't hear it and thought I was making it up, until a friend did a double-blind study: Volume muted on TV and I would walk into the room with eyes closed and be able to tell whether the TV was on or off by that high pitch.

My hearing tests come up great, so I have no clue what causes this. I read that it could be internal to the brain or the ear picking up bloodflow noise?

I can't hear much past 10,000 Hz any more - but I do remember being able to hear the sounds that you speak of when I was younger. As far as tinnitus goes, I'm wondering about brainstem involvement - all of the cranial nerves arise out of that area and that would also explain some other symptoms that I've been experiencing. I've done a bunch of tests since it started to get more intense a few years back and had some MRI scans sent to a specialist in Sydney who has reserved opinion until my next lot of follow up scans where he suggests that I get my spinal chord looked at for fluid filled cysts which would confirm a chiari malformation - an incidental finding after another incidental finding of a right parietal meningioma - non cancerous brain tumour, which may also explain other symptoms but not the tinnitus apparently.

One of the things that I learned about tinnitus throughout this whole investigation that I wish I had of known much earlier is to not pay attention to arbitrarily set safe working levels for noise and always carry hearing protection. Once you've got tinnitus, apparently your ears don't behave the same way as healthy ears and so you should protect from any noise that causes discomfort.

 

[Gwenllian]

So far I have done 15 sessions and after a two month break I have started NO again, because I really felt I needed more training and I couldn't wait for the next session! I have rented the professional system for a month and my youngest and I are now doing one session a day.
Thank you for all your input, it really helps organise my thoughts. For instance, I had not noticed that my hypervigilance was decreasing, until someone mentioned it here in the thread (I think). I did notice that I had been feeling more cheerful, less sensitive and reactive. For years I have felt burdened by my dark thoughts and although they still pop up and have even become more 'outspoken' I find it easier to accept them and just let them be, and therefore, accept myself. They disappear pretty quickly now after I validate their existence, which makes it easier for me to move on. I think I am still detoxing on an emotional level and can feel exhausted at times, but the physical symptoms (body aches and such) during and after sessions have gone and I feel more relaxed.

 

[Jefferson]

Last week I had my first NO session on Monday morning, and the second session on Tuesday evening. The NO practitioner sent me a questionnaire well in advance, which I completed and sent, and he called me up for an interview several days before the session to discuss the baseline assessment.

This is what I listed on the questionnaire as my “main reasons to attend the NeurOptimal sessions”:

• help correct thinking errors, change thinking, become more aware, and clear-minded
• optimize brain connections
• improve memory and improve sleep
• get more in touch with my emotions
• get rid of underlying fears
• dealing with ingrained impression management (e.g. flirting, being able to better recognize my instrumental use of language) -ingrained in my adaptive unconscious
• dealing with dopamine-route-circuitry pathway as part of discipline
• biologically of the big 5 personality traits, I am fairly high in the negative emotion dimension of Neuroticism, and it manifests itself more in volatility (irritation, short-lived worry), and I am looking to stabilize myself in the face of this biological volatility
• I want to have experience with the NO sessions personally, as I would like to use it with my children and potentially offer it to people or clients where I live

Experience after the first session:

During the first session I initially started having thoughts of something happening drastically bad to my children, but those thoughts dissipated quite quickly. I listened to calm music, and every once in awhile I would hear a static noise, or a kind of electronic “blip” as if the earphones had a poor connection or something, but this seemed to decrease over the session. The practitioner told me it was my “brain doing that”. I possibly zoned out a bit during the session, and the whole experience was relaxing. After it was done, I felt calm, relaxed, peaceful, and devoid of worry. The practitioner showed me an historical graph of my session, measuring “drift” and “divergence” over the time of the session. He said it was rare, that in the first few minutes session there was normal drift and the rest of the time the graph showed a straight line (I forgot to take a picture), with almost zero drift. The practitioner said this can not be evaluated as either positive or negative, as each person is different. When I left the building, I felt more aware and focused, and it was almost as if I could see more clearly, like with sharper vision. That night I went to bed early and fell asleep solidly for at least 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep. This is rare for me, I rarely sleep more than 5-6,5 hours straight. This could also be partially because I had a very short 4-5 hour sleep the night before.

Experience after the second session:

I listened to similar calming music during the second session. The graph the practitioner showed me after the 2nd session was very different, showing a large amount of “drift” (photo below). I've also included an image showing the right and left hemisphere, and some other image/plot that I do not yet understand. During this second s relaxed as well, but I started feeling a bit emotional and some tears were welling up. I also had some visions, and I tried to think, was I consciously conjuring up these imaginative visions or were they just ‘coming to me’, and I tend to think it was the latter. I had a vision of my children standing hand in hand on a sandy beach that I visit regularly, in a place where I have frequented with them. Their heads were bowed down, and I realized I was floating, and I could see a bright light coming from the sky, then I realized they were mourning my departure, and I felt no worries, just a peacefulness – this made my tears flow during the NO session, down my checks and neck, but I was not sobbing, it was more of a gentle emotional release. Then immediately the vision just changed, and my children were standing hand in hand again, and it was some kind of memorial to their father, as they were so old and grey, with wrinkled faces, one son with a long white beard. After the session I felt balanced, and for a lack of a better expression, I felt more “myself”, and grounded in a way, in control of myself and what I was doing – it was like my vision was clear, not just my eyesight, but my vision in terms of my aims. I had a sense of contentment and assurance that I am heading towards the right aims.

I am not sure if I can get to this same practitioner very often, as it is far away, but I would like to continue with NO at some point.

 

[dj]

… I go from task to task or relaxing time with no compulsion anymore that I "have" to do this or "have" to do that. I can't even call it motivation, but a gentle impulse from within. It's a different kind of drive that I can't quite put into words. It may be subjective, but I seem to accomplish much more with greater ease. What a relief!

Ditto on that, Bluefyre. And you put that nicely – I’ve been struggling with how to describe that to others when I’m explaining NO.

There’s one effect I haven’t seen posted here that I’ve experienced. I rented a system for a month and after about a week into the rental (averaging a bit over twice a day, I think) I had an unusual effect show up. I was driving home from work when a pickup pulled in front of me and was driving veeerrry slowly through town. The reflexive response started to bubble up into my mind, which was basically the thought/feeling of a rising mild irritation.

I could also “feel” a counter response start to come up – which was basically a refusal to be irritated (something I’d more or less actively programmed into myself as a healthier response to silly irritants).

Here’s where it started to get strange. I could also sense an opening or gap that had me stalled at the micro-instant before I actually committed to following either programmed response – like being in a wedge of frozen time/opportunity just before acting out. – What it led to was that I actively chose neither reflexive response. Just went on driving and not really being either judgmental (and irritated) or forgiving. –

I didn’t know quite what was going on while it happened, but I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening thinking it over. What I think happened, more or less, was that I was able to become aware of the point in time I was about to react in one of two programmed responses. With that small gift of time or awareness or whatever, I was able to make an awake, aware, fully conscious choice of what path to take, even to taking a new non-programmed path.

It really was a revelation to me – tho’ it may sound a bit non-eventful. I haven’t had anything like that repeat itself (that was 4 weeks ago or so) – but I feel like it’s stuck with me in some way. That I have a bit more actual free will or ability to choose something beyond my programming.

I think NO is responsible for that happening. That little slice of time I experienced felt much like the feeling after a NO session – calm, quiet in mind, restful and aware.

That being said, I strongly suspect that getting most benefit from NO sessions requires work from the person as well. I noticed that has been mentioned a few times in the forum and Laura made a particular point about how work on the part of the individual being important. – my main benefit from NO I’m aware of is the increased awareness of the muscular tension I carry in my body. Bringing my attention to that awareness, and working with it, I’ve been able to gradually release some of that tension. It takes a real effort to hold that awareness and attention to help relax the muscles – it’s truly work (or “work”).

As for the rest of my NO sessions, over the 29 days rental, I used somewhere between 50 and 70 sessions. Most days were double sessions, some days were 3 or 4 sessions. I even did a few double (back to back) sessions – I wasn’t aware that was not encouraged. The back to back sessions didn’t have any noticeable negative effect other than a sore backside from the sitting still. Neither did I feel like back to back sessions were significantly better than a single session.

Overall the effects have been remarkably good. I focused and worked on (between sessions) the muscular tension I carried around constantly with the result of a much increased awareness that I’ve been carrying so much tension. Surprising was how the different areas of tension were tightly linked in some ways – it was nearly impossible to relax one spot (ie neck and jaw) without also relaxing the other spots (pit of stomach in particular). And they were all “stacked” or progressive so that the only way to really relax them seems to be to become aware of and able to relax all of them – otherwise just one tense area will tend to pull the others back into tenseness.

However, I’m making progress on that and I think my posture has actually started improving, due more to awareness of tension than to ability to relax it for any length of time.

So thanks to all for bringing so much helpful information on this NeurOptimal to the forum. I’m seeing results, physical results, that exceed anything I’ve been able to accomplish in the last 50 years.

 

[anartist]

My kind of tinnitus is not from hearing loss but a very high pitch almost like a "hissss" that is very noticeable in silence in both ears. I figured EEG training might reduce it but doing NO for 2 months rental didn't change it at all.

Also, in the pdf study article which was linked a while ago, it didn't really show much of an improvement for tinnitus.

Anyone see a reduction?

I have not seen a reduction. Although my tinnitus is intermittent, sometimes noticeable, sometimes faint, sometimes non-existant.

 

[Jacques]

It's time now for the final summary.

Recap: France and I rented the machine for 1 month on March 13 ==> 19 days so far.

We decided to offer this type of treatment to our children and some friends. And one of our children asked if two of her friends could also benefit from this kind of treatment.

Number of people participating in the experience: 12

Like the last time, to protect the privacy of others, I am using the same random letters for this final report. Moreover, the things that were present on the first report are still there for the final report, so I will add just the new observations.

DN: 15 treatments. Significant improvement in her sleep quality. Calmer, more intuitive, better feeling as a therapist, frees herself from certain family programs and past lives. Very, very excited about the results in her present life. She has at least five other treatments planned.

DN: 23 treatments. She has less need to justify herself, feels less guilty, more detachment towards events, more recuperating sleep, more concentrated, better memory, trauma of writing with her left hand gone.

MD: 5 treatments. She was skeptical and thought of taking only five treatments. Finally she has decided to take 5 more treatments. She has seen a beginning of change but will share her impressions with us more at the end.

MD: 10 treatments. Less prompt, calmer, greater letting go, accepting the other's difference more easily, less control.

MN : 4 treatments. It worked a lot on the emotional level. Fluctuation in her daily energy level. She has also planned to take at least 5 other treatments upon her return from her cruise.

MN: 15 treatments. Greater let go, less anxiety, less emotional, calmer, sleep better and do not wake up at night, sleep more recuperating, less negative thoughts, less apprehension about the future, more intuitive.

GN: 3 treatments. No comment yet but decided to rent the machine with her boyfriend for a week. Serious car accident with PTSD.

GN: 3 treatments. Idem as last time.

JS: 5 treatments. No comments for the moment. She accompanies her daughter LL.

JS: 7 treatments. No longer feels responsible for the consequences of his father's illness (Alzheimer). She was finally able to ask for help and put measures in place to help her father and consequently her too. Better sleep, more energy. (See note below)

LL : 3 treatments. Child with great difficulty. She was born without a corpus callosum. Let us note that this child never wanted to draw and that since the first care, she draws what completely surprised her mother JS.

LL: 7 treatments. The comments of her teachers indicate that she communicates more, that her sentence structure has greatly improved, her discomfort has greatly decreased to such an extent that she has accepted to make a fashion show as a children's representative with great difficulty for the foundation "Enfants Soleil". Her concentration time for homework has increased from 3 minutes to over 30 minutes a day and doing them alone without her mother's supervision. (See note below)

JL: 15 treatments. She sleeps better, more energy and it worked at the emotional level in the awareness of his family behaviors. Daughter of France. She wants to take at least another 5 to 10 treatments.

JL: 20 treatments. Even more intuitive, more detached from his son and his ability to receive care and thus more easily accept his rhythm while living less guilt for his orphan illness. She also respects her own rhythm much more.

CH : 11 treatments. She sleeps much much better and she has not had a full night of sleep for over 50 years following an assault trauma. Calmer and she starts to respect her rhythm. She had a dream that allowed her to free herself from her trauma.

CH: 15 treatments. Less perfectionism.

KR : 7 treatments. Daughter of France. She is surprise to see that her concentration is better during his current hospital internship. She has at least three more treatments planned.

KR: 11 treatments. Decreased nervousness, greater self-confidence at work.

LM: 5 treatments. Child also with great difficulty. Grandson of France. Started using the toilet, so he doesn't use diapers anymore. He talks a lot and he is able to say clearly some words. Teachers at his special school have noticed these changes. He has had a couple of very good nights sleep and her mom is very encouraged by the results. He should still receive at least 3 to 5 treatments.

LM: 7 treatments. Had some physical reactions such as spasm and muscle contraction. The treatments were spaced so that her body could better integrate them. Less angry in his communication to make himself understood.

France: 19 treatments. As soon as she can, she will share her impressions and feelings with the group.

France: 35 treatments. As soon as she can, she will share her impressions and feelings with the group.

Gandalf : 23 treatments ( 4 in 2 weeks, one month break and 19 in 19 days). After trying a lot of things, a nervous tic following a car accident where I had been hit and propelled into the air when I was 8 years old finally disappeared. Another trauma of my childhood in terms of discomfort has also disappeared. It worked at the emotional level and that allowed me to fix some programs that consumed a lot of my energy. Much calmer and so much less nervous that when I was lying down and I put my hand on the belly of France she felt a great nervousness as if my hand was still restless. Now, when I put my hand on her belly, she feels a very calm sensation. Very very happy with the results and I plan to take at least 10 more treatments. Hoping that the results, the new paths are really there to stay.

Gandalf: 44 treatments. The results already mentioned are still there. Old symptoms/pains have resurfaced but are slowly fading. More intuitive, less active thoughts at bedtime or when waking up during the night, more relaxed and less anticipatory. Less competitive with myself on a sporting level. Socializes more easily with strangers. Quieter in front of the mountain of projects to do.


Note : JS at the end of our month of rental decided to rent the device for a month so that his family, including his father who suffers from Alzheimer's, could enjoy it. JL, LL, France and Gandalf continued treatment. His father showed more presence but as he has many traumas following Wars, he would need more sessions.

 

[Chu]

This is such good news, Gandalf! I'm very happy for you all. I hope that you continue, and LL in particular. This may be changing that child's life in so many ways! Perhaps the parents would now be more open to hearing about dietary changes and supplements that may help too, if they aren't already?

 

[Meg]

Those are some great results, Gandalf. I'm delighted for all of you.

 

[Thor]

Great news, Gandalf.

I've had the rented unit for almost a month now. I've noticed that when I get feedback at work on things that I need to rewrite, I would normally take it as a personal critique even though I know that is part of how it works. Despite the rational understanding, that it was not so, I would get tense in the stomach. Now, I sense the feeling of personal critique but much more softly and I don't get the tightness in the stomach. I feel more grounded and my meditations have improved.

I've also been giving sessions to my nephew who suffers from ADHD. He's only had about 7 so far but his mother reports that for the past week he's been much easier to be around and that the whole family is benefitting. I am also giving sessions to the mother.

I have watched part of last week's seminar from Montreal as I had a streaming ticket. One of the things that Val Brown mentioned is the network effect where NO sessions on one person in a family will have effects on the other members of the same family. Also if a group is doing sessions at the same time, there will be both synergy-effects and a kind of deepened bond between the group. I don't know if this is due to the energies becoming more in sync?

My ex-wife has also been getting sessions and she reports that she has been experiencing a lot of synchronicities since starting NO. Furthermore, she has been suffering from an autoimmune condition called alopecia, where you loose the hair and get bald spots on the scalp. She reports that since starting the sessions the hair has started to grow back. There was a presenter on the NO conference who also mentioned that she'd had a client who suffered from alopecia who regained her hair after using NO.

Based on the good results, I've bought a NO3 system, which I'm really excited about. I intend to start a small practice where I help some of the people who are hard spots where normal modalities don't seem to be of very much help but where NO can help. To begin with, people with ADHD, autism, veterans with PTSD, people suffering from long-term concussions. I'm looking forward to seeing where it leads.

Thanks to all for contributing to this thread. Had it not been for the Forum, I'd never become aware of NO.

 

[France]

Observation :
I'm more focused. Some family patterns give in (2 of my daughters and one grandson also do neuroptimal during the month), the inner urgency to respond to the needs of others is almost gone, vigilance in my words is more present and especially the fear of being judged knowing that I am different from others to decrease much.

Other ramifications are slowly forming like the assurance of being in the right place at the right time instead of thinking about everything, giving back to others their own responsibilities instead of taking them on my shoulders by nourishing them with knowledge to protect them, the role of mother emerges with confidence and acceptance of having done what is best for my family.

Instead of justifying myself to make myself understood, I no longer allow myself to be loved. Rather, I say what needs to be said to enlighten the situation without consciously animating the fear of losing or the pleasure of gaining recognition from the other.
There was a series of very relevant dreams. I've been writing my dreams for over 10 years. That's very revealing to me. There was the pattern of the savior who was very present through dreams of my childhood as well as the urgency to wake people asleep so that they leave in peace.

I am very happy to have given myself this time. This commitment with my spouse Gandalf to open our home to people who are also committed to better physical and emotional health, has allowed us to live beautiful shares!

(I know that because my wife has been invited by the person from whom we rented the machine last month for this 3 days of conference. She will probably write about that when she is back but so far she is very happy with what she is seeing/feeling there. He did say however that the Version 3 is better and more complete than the Version 2)

After the 35 treatments, I continued 9 other treatments because one of the group rented the Neuroptimal for one month.
As a result, there have been significant situations that have allowed me to understand and grasp another way of seeing these situations.
What is surprising is to see facets of me and the associated pattern but without the emotions. So much easier to change, less justification and waste of time.
This openness to change brings offers...
I was invited to participate in the 3-day Neuroptimal version 3 conference held in Montreal on May 21-22-23, 2018. I knew and spoke to Val Brown and Suzan, his wife,... people filled with love and knowledge.
Suzan Brown gave a lecture (a post was made) otherwise here is the conference live from the conference:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1858314937546408

I took two treatments at the conference because there were free sessions. Version three really has a plus over version two. That's a personal comment, but I wanted to mention it. My body had much more energy and my thinking was much clearer and without judgment or apprehension.
By going to the neuroptimal facebook site with the link above, you will find other conferences and research there.
In summary all that I could observe and feel of the team and Val Brown, his wife, their children and spouses, the psychologists and psychiatrists who follow the discoveries of Val and Suzan are passionate people for service to their fellow man and very competent. Each in their own field but collaborating for a service to others. I was pleasantly surprised to see the presence of Val and his wife's heart. They shared their vision and their work for over 30 years with simplicity.
I simply want to say thank you and I continue with ardour while listening to the calm in me.


Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator

 

[987baz]

I just had my first N.O. session today. I have version 3 for a month :)

I made some notes about what I was thinking and feeling before, during and after the session and I will continue to do so for the month. I plan on doing 1 session a day.

I had quite an urge for a cigarette straight after the session, anyone else have that?

The session seemed to go really quickly, I had to check that it had really been 33 minutes at the end of it, feeling pretty relaxed at the moment :)

 

[cope]

I started last month with the new version of N-O. Now i´m at the 6th time. The white room makes a great projection space and first i saw a green cloud moving with the music, last time a blue cloud was added, and they started mixing into beautifull turquoise (the colour of reforming). As a domestic crisis was happening, i could much easier keep positive and level.

 

[Laura]

I had quite an urge for a cigarette straight after the session, anyone else have that?

Heck, sometimes I smoke during the session!!! I read, think about stuff, drink tea...

 

[987baz]

Heck, sometimes I smoke during the session!!! I read, think about stuff, drink tea...

ok, cool, I'll give that a go next time too, have a smoke that is :)

I think I will also play my guitar on a session and see if that dose anything different!