Looking in a new direction So far we have looked at brain-training from the point of view that informs most discussions of it—a pathology-based approach to “treating disorders” and making us all more “normal” so we “fit in” better and produce more. I’ve suggested that this view grows out of the fact that “neurofeedback” is […]

The “normal” option As we have discussed previously, one of the most heavily-marketed products in brain-training in the 2010’s is z-score training. This so-called “scientific” and “brain-based” system proposes that by training any individual brain to shift dozens of micro-measures in the direction of a population average, it will become more effective—and especially that it […]

“Be careful what you wish for; you may get it.” Watch Out… If it makes sense to you that what you think, what you feel, how you experience yourself and the world around you all grows out of the habits developed in your brain, then you begin to recognize that changing those habits doesn’t just […]

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity. –William Butler Yeats, 1919 What’s Missing For most of the time I’ve been training brains, I’ve tried to figure out what differentiates happier, more satisfied people in any walk of life, at any age. For […]

“Mirrors should think longer before they reflect.” ― Jean Cocteau Mirrors in our Lives There’s an important relationship between a person’s center and his need for mirrors. The better we know ourselves, the less we worry about the reflections of others. Call it self-esteem. The less knowledge we have of ourselves, the more we become dependent […]

How We Know Others

Eastern philosophies have, for thousands of years, presented a view of the individual and the universe which has, over the past century begun to appear again in the vision of the newer ideas of physics—those which have post-dated the apple-falls-from-a-tree physics of Newton.

What does the mirror show

Feedback is a mirror in which your brain can see and practice changing itself.

Experience is a very powerful form of feedback, but it is inconsistent. Last night my wife laughed at my joke; this morning she got mad.

It’s hard to change a habit, but we know it can be done. Smoking 20 cigarettes a day used to just happen in my life; now it’s been a quarter century since I smoked one. I used to run and exercise every morning. It just happened. Today it’s an occasional urge, rarely acted upon.

But how do you change mental/emotional “pathology”?