Meditation Study

LENS Neurofeedback and Meditation

Members of the Tam Dharma Friends in Mill Valley have been experimenting with LENS Neurofeedback as an aid to meditation, with these results:

Concentration
The immediate effect seems to be a deepening of contemplative states. Meditators find concentration more easily available. Reoccurring defensive thought patterns that formerly disturbed the quiet mind seem to be much less insistent—Karma has less pull.

Deepened concentration more easily leads to states of equanimity and rapture. Meditators report feeling relaxed, and more able to observe their thoughts as they come and go, without “jumping on the train”.

Comfortable Body Awareness
Several reported extending the effects of an initial LENS treatment for weeks while on retreat, long past the time the effects of their first treatment would usually fade. People who do not feel safe noticing their body sensations because of past trauma find a new safety. Participants reported increased body awareness, and a decrease in pain.

Happiness
Participants reported feeling “happy for no reason”. Perhaps the absence of worries about the past and future allow for natural joy to surface.

Meditation and LENS seem to support and strengthen each other, aiming at a similar state of balanced joy. Meditators at Tam Dharma Friends report that LENS gets them there more quickly and easily.

Volunteers are welcome to join the next phase of the study or contribute time or funding.

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“MEDITATION SHORTCUT” STUDY REOPENS

Proposed Research question:
Does the LENS neurofeedback “brain restart” increase happiness, concentration, and letting go of the past?  

Our formal study will not start for several months, and many potential participants have asked “how can I benefit now?’

We have re-opened the preliminary study, and negotiated a discount package for people who are willing to document their experiences and can self-fund LENS sessions.

After just a few moments of passive LENS neurofeedback, experienced meditators say they feel like they just sat a long retreat: centered and present in the moment, undistracted by habitual defensive thought patterns, comfortably aware of body sensations, and happy.  During meditation, they report easier concentration, increased body awareness, and longer Samadhi (deep relaxation).

Preliminary Study participants complete questionnaires both before and after receiving Low Energy Neurofeedback in Mill Valley, CA.   Many meditators notice changes they describe as miraculous within the first four sessions. And after a dozen or two sessions, the changes become enduring.  Other symptoms addressed include ADHD, migraines, anxiety, depression, low energy, sleep disturbances, addictions, stroke recovery, and memory.

Preliminary Study participants receive a package deal on the first 3 sessions for $225, half the regular price of $150 per session.

The study is led by meditation teachers Victoria Vogel, LMFT, and Grant Rudolph, LMFT, at Echo Rock Therapy Center in Mill Valley.

To book an appointment, go to “home” above or

Call Victoria to book a session at 415 302 4858

Or email  GrantRudolph@gmail.com   415 302 4848 if you want to help work on the study design, make a donation  or serve on the board of directors.  We need help finding the right questions to ask in the study.

 

Tam Dharma Friends

Building Community Meditating Together
Thursdays 7-9pm Free
Call for Location in Mill Valley

We invite anyone interested to join us for a 35-minute silent meditation in the Vipassana (Insight) style and an infectious taste of chanting. Then starting from a short dharma talk, we focus on interacting and building community. Our monthly topic seeds your thoughts, or you can just check in about what is real in your life.  We hope these lightly structured interactions start a conversation between people of different generations, backgrounds and preferences.

The goal is to create connections through speaking in truth and listening in kindness.

We hear people talk about their longing for soulful community, and we are helping create it. Beneath the pseudo-intimacy of the electronic world, below the hurrying of our daily lives, we all remember somewhere inside us a slower, more deeply felt way of connecting from a place of silence and beauty, a place where people with differences can hear each other.

Facilitated by Victoria Vogel, Grant Rudolph, and guest teachers.

415 302 4858 Victoria     GrantRudolph@gmail.com