Did you know that you can change your brain wave patterns or lower your blood pressure at will? And that you can strengthen your immune system with your mind, alter your body temperature, or instantly release tension in any part of your body? It's true, and it's easy, with biofeedback.

The vital regulatory functions of your body are part of the autonomic nervous system. Forty years ago, medical experts believed that these systemic operations were strictly automatic. Thirty years ago they were studying east Indian yogi's to find out how they were controlling them. Twenty years ago the science of biofeedback validated voluntary control of the autonomic nervous system as a new medical option; and today millions of people use it to improve personal health and performance in a wide variety of medical and educational settings.

Biofeedback training uses sensitive electronic instruments to track subtle bodily changes and amplify them audibly (with a tone) or visually (on a meter or screen), enabling the subject to sense metabolic activities that are normally below the threshold of conscious awareness. These include heart rate, blood pressure, skin temperature, brain wave activity, fine muscle tone, breath rate, glandular secretions, and blood composition. Today, state-of-the-art technology enables us to detect and "feed back" virtually any of the thousands of organic changes happening constantly within us, rendering them subject to intentional influence. Even the firing of single muscle or nerve cells can be monitored and affected.

A typical example of biofeedback technology is the Galvanic Skin Resistance (GSR) monitor. It consists of a "black box" that supplies and measures current, and two electrodes, which are placed on the fingers. The tone emitted by the instrument rises or falls depending on the dilating of the minute sweat glands that blanket the surface of your skin and regulate your body temperature. When you get nervous or relax, your skin moisture changes, imperceptibly, but enough to amplify and convert to a variable tone. The GSR device is similar to a lie detector, except it is used to teach you control over your reactions.

In understanding biofeedback, it is important to realize that these sophisticated electronic devices do nothing but reflect our own organic sensitivity. The subtle metabolic changes we monitor with instruments are always taking place in response to our outer and inner environments. Every time you perceive new information, feel an emotion, change your environment, your body reacts with appropriate neuro-chemical changes. The man-made feedback hardware merely makes this fine level of auto-regulation more apparent to the waking senses, and hence, more accessible to voluntary control.

The impact of biofeedback in the health sciences has been revolutionary, firmly establishing the importance of mental processes (concentration, volition, visualization, etc.) as significant variables in stress management, pain control, disease prevention and healing. Disorders responsive to biofeedback include asthma, hypertension, bruxism, ulcers, colitis, menstrual pain, paralysis, migraine, anxiety, phobias, insomnia, hyperactivity, muscle spasm, and many more ailments. In a remarkable and unexpected development at Duke University, psychologist Richard Surwit, Ph.D. discovered that he can teach diabetics to use biofeedback to help them control their blood sugar.

A main objective of biofeedback training is the elimination of the external amplifier (the instrument) after self-regulation is functionally internalized. In other words, we can learn how to relax and balance our systems continuously, in “real time,” for relaxation, optimal health and performance. No other single modality so clearly illustrates the potentials of autonomous, self-induced healing and systemic auto-regulation. As pioneer researcher Barbara Brown puts it, "The patient is no longer the object of the treatment, he is the treatment!"

" In many ways, biofeedback is the quintessential confirmation of the buddhist tenet of the primacy of Mind. It verifies the mind/body connection, and reveals the physiological benefits of meditation, which is the very heart of Buddhist practice. Through such instrumentation, more people than ever can aquire the motivation and skills to develop mindfulness and self-control, which is now proven to be of physical as well as spiritual value. This is good news in a stressful world. "

Lonny Lonny Brown, Ph.D. is the author of "Self-Actuated Healing - The Alternative to Doctors & Drugs is Within You" (Naturegraph Publ. http://members.aol.com/naturgraph/homepage.htm), and a regular contributor to America Online's Alternative Medicine Forum. He teaches Mind/Body Healing, Stress Management, Yoga and Meditation at hospitals, schools, and businesses throughout the New England region. Dr. Brown offers holistic health counseling by email, phone, and in person in the Monadnock region of New Hampshire. His website also features essays, tapes, books, and links to a variety of integrative health sources. www.holistic.com/lonny lonny@holistic.com