FMBR Editorial: Jan, 2008
Using Electromagnetism & Biofeedback to Teach a Science of Consciousness
Jean Millay, PhD
One of the most important purposes of education is to put all children in complete possession of their abilities and talents. To date, those abilities and talents have been defined without reference to the autonomic nervous system. However, when biological feedback (biofeedback) is introduced into the school curriculum, it brings children an understanding and control of their nervous systems before they become habituated to unhealthy stress reactions commonly experienced today in so many educational environments.
Decades of research on biofeedback
There have been decades of research on the therapeutic uses of biofeedback (also called neurofeedback). This “Medical Model” has worked successfully to alleviate many health problems, especially for those patients ensnared in old habits of stress. However, now it is time to introduce the “Self-discovery Model” to children before similar unhealthy stress reactions become habits for them as well. Consider the economic savings in healthcare if adults had learned as children to manage stress early in life, avoiding many health problems. Thus, the evolution of healthcare in the 21st Century should follow our best research, which has created the technology of energy medicine and the tools for learning self-regulation of the autonomic nervous system.
Medical model alternative
Most of us grew up to accept the social idea that “the doctor knows best.” We have learned to depend on doctors, even those who spend very little time talking to us. After only one very brief look at our chart, many automatically prescribe expensive (and often dangerous) pills. Today, we all suffer from this expensive and inefficient healthcare system because of its emphasis on an old outdated allopathic model. This system has broken down for the average family. We just can’t afford the taxpayers cost of Medicare, the personal cost of insurance, or the HMOs that dictate what a doctor can or must do. On top of that, there is the corruptive influence that the rich pharmaceutical companies exert to “buy” political benefits from Congress along with their additional influence on the hiring of FDA administrators from their own ranks for their own profit.
As an alternative, I propose that we introduce free and voluntary biofeedback into public-school science classes beginning with ten-year-olds. In a short time, these students and their parents could begin the shift of emphasis from allopathic medicine to energy medicine, saving millions of dollars in healthcare. In that way, we could bypass the corruption now firmly entrenched in the present system.
For example, only children with extreme cases of attention deficit disorder (ADD) or attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) actually need the kind of dangerous drugs currently being prescribed for them (and often over-prescribed). But for the rest, medicines that might be needed for a short time can be greatly reduced by teaching them to extend their ability to focus attention. Focus of attention is a key to intelligence and when learned early enough, neurofeedback can be instrumental in increasing the intelligence of students everywhere. Students can even find healthy ways to enhance their sports performance, eliminating the competitive attraction of unhealthy and illegal drugs.
Teaching we're all connected
Additionally, when children are taught that their own personal electromagnetic energies are directly related to those of the sun and the earth, they also find that we are all connected. All ten-year-olds can understand the basics and are thrilled to discover they are connected energetically to everything. This is good science, especially as we struggle with how to use energy more efficiently. Thus, learning about electromagnetism is fundamental for all of us in the 21st Century and not just for those college-bound students who may take a class in physics.
In conclusion, the “Self-discovery Model” of biofeedback demonstrates the way our bodies react directly to our own thoughts, and to other people. This information provides the power to change our reactions voluntarily as needed. With this self-control, we can also discover the innate power of our own multidimensional consciousness, which can produce a quantum leap in intellectual efficiency and emotional equilibrium. (from "Seeds of the 60's" by Tim Leary )
Jean Millay, Ph.D., introduced biofeedback at Santa Rosa Community College in 1974. She used two Aquarius Electronic brainwave analyzers and a phase comparator designed and manufactured by Tim Scully, Ph.D. Together, they built the first Stereo Brainwave Biofeedback Light Sculpture to watch EEG signals, simultaneously, from both sides of the head. In 1980, she had an opportunity to try out all her biofeedback instruments in a fifth grade class. The results were excellent. Millay has collected and published many of these papers over the years. Millay has since developed an EM chart showing the relationship between the frequencies of the sun, earth and life. The chart is a meter long, with different colors for different types of frequencies so anyone can understand it. This is available on CD as part of a 60-page booklet of lesson plans for teachers.