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This series presents information based in part on theory and conjecture.

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The producer's purpose is to suggest some possible explanations but not necessarily

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the only ones to the mysteries we will examine.

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Wired to 14 channels of body function and experimental subject practices biofeedback.

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Using biofeedback, people reduce muscular tension, redirect blood flow and perform

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feats previously thought impossible.

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Might we someday create super athletes?

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Could biofeedback bring about a revolution in human health?

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The human body is nature's most remarkable invention.

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A self-maintaining system which treated properly can run flawlessly for decades.

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Some people have taught themselves to perform acts bordering on the miraculous,

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such as those who practice fire walking.

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These demonstrations challenge everyday assumptions about the mind and the body.

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But for centuries, devotees of esoteric disciplines have demonstrated surprising

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control of some body functions.

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With the development of biofeedback, science and medicine have begun exploring the mind-body

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connection in exciting new ways.

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Recently, people with chronic medical problems have been referred to a biofeedback therapist.

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How does this new healing method work?

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The case histories you're about to see may seem miraculous, but they're becoming a part

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of modern health care, the treatment of the mind-body system as a whole.

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At the Biofeedback Institute of San Francisco, therapist Suzanne Sampson works with Ted,

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who has high blood pressure.

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We're working with three sets of instruments, three different systems of the body, mainly

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EMG right now because Ted's only had four sessions and we want to just zero in on one

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particular skill at first and then dovetail the other skills in together with it.

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So the EMG is on his forehead here, picking up all the electrical activity, all the muscular

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contraction from there all the way down to through his neck down to his chest here.

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And so any kind of extra muscle tension will show up on this dial right here.

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Okay Ted, I want to try to have you keep this noise off.

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Now I'm going to make a new threshold for you.

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It might be a little bit harder and you have to make as calm as you can be and just keep

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that noise off.

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Remember when you hear the noise just to pay attention to where it's coming from in your

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face or your neck and attend to it and let it go.

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Don't try too hard though.

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Just step back and let it happen.

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Go as low as you can.

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Let everything be loose.

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Fine.

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That's quite a low level.

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Good.

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Now see here, back to the old mode rather quickly.

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So it's not that you're never going to be able to do that again, but you're going to

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be able to do it with kind of a layer of slowness, calmness, less physiological arousal so that

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you'll feel more paced, less intense.

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I've already noticed some changes just in the face muscles, how I clench my jaw and

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how that creates tension throughout my body.

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Just learning how to watch the machine learn to relax the jaw and the eyes and I think

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it will increase my well-being.

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What Biofeedback does is allow the person to find out that they're making profound changes

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in their system.

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Biofeedback experimenter Dr. George Fuller von Bozze explains how people learn to use

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the system.

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Some of it's just trial and error.

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Just by fooling around and practicing one thing and then another, the person finds,

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hey, this works or this doesn't seem to do anything.

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And by doing that, eventually the person finds ways in which they're able to control the

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instrument.

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Since the instrument doesn't control them, they're able to see effectively what they

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have done to produce a physiologic change in their bodies.

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Millions of Americans suffer from agonizing tension or migraine headaches.

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Americans have no alternative to taking drugs, prescription medicines that often have severe

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side effects.

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Jill has been suffering from almost constant tension headaches.

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I get to start out that painful but I got more and more painful a couple times.

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I fainted from it, you know, in class or something and I just, it was starting to interfere with

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everything.

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Okay, Jill, I'd like you to try the exercise we've worked on before where you tighten your

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forehead up as tight as you can up to the 10 on a scale of 0 to 10.

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And then I want you to experience the tension, hold it for a moment and then let it go.

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Good.

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Hold the tension.

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Feel the tension.

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Okay, now cut it in half.

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Now cut it in half again.

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And now let it go.

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Very good.

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Jill has been taking eight courses in school instead of the usual five, including physics

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and pre-calculus.

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She's holding down two jobs, one maintaining tanks at the Steinhard Aquarium where she swims

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with seven-four sharks.

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Jill is very competitive.

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She's an overachiever.

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Her headaches are her body's reaction to excessive stress and tension.

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This way of telling her to slow down.

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For Jill, the effects of biofeedback training have been dramatic.

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When I started out, I had these headaches were very painful.

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Ever since I've been coming here, I've brought them down from about eights and nines on a

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scale of one to ten, two like ones and twos.

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Jill's learning to change some of her behaviors so that they don't stimulate these nervous

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system changes that lead to her headache.

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People with migraine headaches can practice temperature biofeedback.

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Using metal imagery, they try to warm their hands, redirecting blood flow from head to

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fingers and relieving excessive stretching of blood vessels in their head.

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The ultimate goal of all biofeedback training is to get the person off the machine and into

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some form of relaxation, practice, or meditation.

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There are a number of inexpensive biofeedback devices people can carry with them to check

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that their relaxation practice really works.

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At the Biofeedback and Family Therapy Institute in Berkeley, California, Aura Krug works with

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asthmatic children.

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What Ben has been learning since he's been coming here for biofeedback is to control

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the wheezing and he does that by learning how to relax.

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Okay Ben, now I want you to plop like a raggedy endow.

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Good.

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Okay.

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I want you to wheeze.

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Good.

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Again.

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When Ben wheezes, the tone goes up and then when he plops like a raggedy endow, the tone

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goes down which shows that he's relaxing.

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Ben, we've got a new machine today.

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It's this temperature unit here and we're going to work a little bit with this today,

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okay?

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Okay, good.

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Okay, then I want you to imagine that you're at the beach and that you feel the warm sun.

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Researchers have found that children learn biofeedback response more quickly than adults.

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At the Drake Institute of Behavioral Medicine in Los Angeles, medical director Dr. David

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Velkoff works with Gloria.

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After the recent death of her husband, Gloria developed a peptic ulcer.

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Part of her biofeedback training is for relaxation.

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Okay, Gloria, I need you to swallow this.

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During the treatment, she will swallow a tiny radio transmitter to reveal the level of her

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stomach acidity.

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The transmitter passes quickly into Gloria's stomach.

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Its signals will be picked up by a sensitive radio receiver in the waist belt and read

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out by a meter registering antacid capability.

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Gloria, I want you to close your eyes now and I want you to think of some unpleasant thoughts,

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thoughts about events or people that upset you.

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Gloria's anxious thoughts cause an increase in her stomach acidity, which is reflected

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by a small drop on the pH meter.

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Watch closely.

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Now, I want you to think about pleasant thoughts and feelings that make you feel good.

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Since Gloria has undergone biofeedback treatment, her physical symptoms have significantly improved

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and she is able to experience her life more fully again.

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The Drake Institute is also doing research with pregnant women.

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By giving expectant mothers biofeedback training, Dr. Velkoff hopes to improve the health of

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their babies.

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We want our patients to learn how to optimally react to stress and not to let stress over-stimulate

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their systems because their child probably is learning right then from them how to react

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to the world.

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As part of this special research program, Dr. Velkoff takes blood samples at weekly intervals.

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He is trying to measure the mother's stress hormones.

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He will sample blood from the newborn babies to compare their hormones with those of a

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control group that did not receive biofeedback training.

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The unborn child's heartbeat will also be measured during labor to monitor fetal stress.

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If what we believe to be true turns out to be the case, then we're going to have to help

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mothers redirect their attention and energy into becoming much more aware of how they

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live their everyday experiences because how they're experiencing their life every day during

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pregnancy is going to have tremendous impact on the health and personality of their infant.

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Using biofeedback to reduce stress, we may affect the physical and mental well-being

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of future generations.

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What will life be like for tomorrow's children when people are no longer helpless victims

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of their own stress?

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Athletes are subject to extraordinary stress, both physical and psychological.

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At California State University in Hayward, counselor Betty Wenz helps them prepare for

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competition.

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Okay, Jan, I want you to come in, up into a valley of lakes, as you normally do.

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We'll give you some feedback in terms of how you drop that lake back down to a bent knee.

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Just come on up.

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Do the sound go up now?

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Good.

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Pull that tight because you want that nice and straight.

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Up.

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Further over.

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Good.

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Pull.

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Now, drop by keeping this down.

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Keep the sound down.

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Keep the sound down.

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Very nice.

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Very nice.

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Beautiful.

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Whoops, that's it.

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Keep that under control.

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Relax more.

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Relax.

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The top, relax the top.

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Should I use the bottom?

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Good.

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Much better.

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Since Jan started biofeedback training, she has risen to the ranks of national competition

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in synchronized swimming.

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Glenda has had problems with her form and with performance anxiety.

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Okay, we're going to have you come around so that after the hip punch, you're going to

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make the sound come up.

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You don't want the arm to come in until after the hip punch.

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Okay?

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Okay, let's give it a try.

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You can hear the sound.

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Let's try it one more time.

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Remember?

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Punch, then swing it around.

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That's the way to do it.

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That's it.

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This year, Glenda is competing at the championship level in California.

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Stephanie specializes in the 3,000 and 5,000 meter runs.

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I'd get into a race and my shoulders would start coming up and I have problems when I

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run.

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My arms crossed anyway like this.

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It looked really funny and my lungs tightened up.

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I couldn't breathe.

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So my times were terrible.

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Okay, see if you can bring that sound down by forcing the shoulders down a little bit

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good.

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What does it feel like?

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If I can breathe a lot better, it's a lot more relaxed.

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You know, when I realized where the tension was, I brought my shoulders down and this

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year, my times have come down two minutes in races.

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But the thing that's most valuable of all is that it's a new form of information.

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It's a very powerful form of information and it's the athlete's information.

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It's not ours or the coaches or anyone else's.

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It is the athletes and they are very much in control.

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Engineer Ned Weed suffered a stroke which severely hampered his mobility.

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Suzanne places biofeedback electrodes on Ned's calf muscle.

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She teaches him to relax his muscle when his heel touches the ground and to tense it

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when he pushes off.

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Okay, stop for a minute, Ned.

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What I would like to hear is an arm and an off.

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All right, I'll try to do it.

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I know how I get it.

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The way you get it is to put your weight through it as you step on it.

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I know.

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That brings the off.

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Yeah, I know.

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Then you get the arm as you lift your leg and swing it forward.

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I know exactly how it works.

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Let's try it again.

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Good.

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The biofeedback therapy has tremendously relieved me of the frustrations that I was confronted

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with all the time.

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I'm now able to get around quite ably.

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The muscles in my left leg have returned considerably.

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And I'm even beginning to use my left hand.

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And that is my next hope is that I can recover more and more of the use of that left hand.

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When I've done that, I will consider myself almost totally recovered.

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Nearly 2% of the population suffers from epilepsy,

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a mysterious disease in which uncontrolled nerve firings deep within the brain cause crippling seizures.

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In Santa Rosa, California, researcher Donna Andrews works with Debbie,

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who's had seizures since she was 6 years old.

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I become apart from everything around me.

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And it's like a tunnel that I'm in.

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And I'm just seeing straight ahead and nothing around me.

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And I pass out.

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So last year in the beginning of the year, I was getting seizures much more often.

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It was like one every other week.

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I was under a lot of stress.

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A lot of things were happening in my life at that time.

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Okay, Debbie, I'd like you to take a couple of deep breaths, hold them, and let them go very slowly.

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Debbie tries to reach a state of deep relaxation.

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She listens to tones derived from her brainwaves and tries to keep them on continuously.

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People with epilepsy seem to be prisoners of a certain type of brainwave functioning.

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My goal is to give them a state that they can go to and gather their thoughts.

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I've been on medication ever since I've been 6 years old.

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And I take these pills, which are downers.

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If I am supposedly down now and I feel good.

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I wonder how it must feel if I don't take them.

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Well, I've worked with a machine and I've learned to control my brainwaves.

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And ever since I've done that, I have no seizures.

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Epileptics who use biofeedback may eventually be able to control their seizures and reduce their medication.

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At the Langley Porter Institute of the University of California, San Francisco,

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scientists conduct research with brainwave biofeedback that goes far beyond its current clinical uses.

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They monitor multiple channels of brainwaves from various parts of the scalp

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to discover connections between brainwaves and the inner workings of the human mind.

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Dr. James Hart is assistant professor of medical psychology.

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My assistant is in the chamber doing alpha brainwave biofeedback.

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We have coming out on the polygraph 8 channels of brainwaves.

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We have one channel of muscle tension from the forehead, the EKG or heart function.

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And we have two channels of respiration.

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When he produces alpha activity, large bursts are seen on the polygraph, these large dark patches of ink.

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And in addition, the tones become louder so that he knows when he's making alpha.

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The experimental subject sits in almost total darkness in an acoustically isolated chamber.

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He tries to stay in a state of deep relaxation, maximizing the energy his brain puts out as waves of a type called alpha.

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The computer keeps a record of his alpha wave energy and turns off the tones every two minutes so he can see his scores.

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People who substantially increase their alpha brainwaves have experienced reduction in things like schizophrenia, paranoia and anxiety.

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There are also physical health benefits such as reduction of high blood pressure, which follow alpha feedback training.

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We would hope that people would be able, through the use of biofeedback, to attain some of the most profound states like Samadhi,

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as the yogis call it, or Saturi as it's referred to in Zen, which is a state of enlightenment out of which the greatest forms of creativity could emerge.

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Alpha feedback has been characterized as involving feelings of flying, floating, lightness and space.

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And in profound enhancement of alpha, you actually feel that you lift out of the chair.

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Dr. Hart also experiments with shared feedback in which he tries to synchronize his brainwaves with those of another experimental subject.

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Sharing feedback, sitting in the same chamber with someone else, hearing their tones and your tones blending, seeing their scores working together,

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attaining the same brainwave state brings about a profound enhancement of interpersonal rapport.

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In the future, there will be implantable computer systems so that you could have sensory experiences about things going on in your brain and body,

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which now you have no sensory apparatus for. When people can adopt the state of consciousness that they wish, at the moment they wish it, we will have an entirely new culture.

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Biofeedback is only beginning to be widely practiced. Ultimately, it could usher in a new era of human healthcare.

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The most exciting thing to me personally is that biofeedback will become the major aspect of the medicine of the future,

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a behavioral medicine in which people learn to become an active participant rather than a passive recipient of drugs and surgery.

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Coming up next on FBI The Untold Stories, the agency's behavioral science unit creates a profile of a brutal killer.

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Then histories, crimes and trials, tracks the crime and punishment of Chicago's notorious kidnappers and killers.

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Leopold and Loeb.

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The Untold Stories