How To Tell At What Brainwave One Is Without An EEG.

[Nicholas D]

There is a way to tell roughly at what level you are by the colour you see in your mind of the LED lights when using a light & sound machine. It is mentioned by Dr M.G Hocking in his book ?Exploring the Subconscious Using New Technology? on page 59, that Maxwell Cade discovered that if you see the colours red to green then you are mainly in Beta. White to yellow you are mainly in Alpha. Blue to mauve to deep purple you are then mainly in Theta.

And if you start hearing Deep Purple then you certainly have gone very deep; unless that is, someone has put on your old record collection.

The need to know at what level one is, is surely a business opportunity for someone to make an affordable EEG neurofeedback device for meditators, that doesn?t need a computer attached to it. Bill Lee of AlphaLab Inc in Salt Lake City used to make them, but alas no more.
The one I bought back in the early 1990s has three electrodes consisting of crocodile clips to which you attach tens gel pads, which are put one behind each ear and the third on your forehead. The device is a bit temperamental but works well enough most of the time, and has helped me to actually meditate properly.

[Marisa]

There is a way to tell roughly at what level you are by the colour you see in your mind of the LED lights when using a light & sound machine. It is mentioned by Dr M.G Hocking in his book ‘Exploring the Subconscious Using New Technology’ on page 59, that Maxwell Cade discovered that if you see the colours red to green then you are mainly in Beta. White to yellow you are mainly in Alpha. Blue to mauve to deep purple you are then mainly in Theta.

Very interesting! I did not know that. Thanks for posting it.

The only thing that I wonder about concerning this is that the book was published in 1993, which means the technology he was using was not all that new. I also wonder what color of LEDs he was using when doing the experiment and how much that matters - if at all?

Looking into this a bit further, we do know that certain colors stimulate the brain more than others. So, for example, the colors red, orange and yellow stimulate the brain and the colors, green and blue tend to relax the brain.

The difficulty I have in accepting the correlation between the colors suggested by Hocking as an indication as to what brainwaves are dominant is that some of the colors he suggests are contrary to what other studies show in how the brain is affected. Also, as I brought up before, the person may be seeing "red" because the program segment has red as the brighter color. The goal of that segment would be to stimulate the brain (invoke beta) but whether the brain is actually dominant in Beta at that moment may or may not be so.

Perhaps a better way of telling what state you are in is not by color but how you feel. Each group of frequencies are associated with different states of mind. Beta is associated with alertness (sometimes anxiety) and focused concentration. Alpha is associated with a more relaxed focus, heightened creativity, a feeling of satisfaction and well being. Theta is associated with trance, day dreaming, increased imagination and loss of focus or concentration. Delta is associated with sleep and loss of consciousness.

Essentially you can correlate your state of being with your level of consciousness. You could also correlate your state of being with the amount of inner dialog that is going on. Beta is an active thinking state and inner dialog can race from one subject to another. It a more intense state. Alpha is a quiet observational state and self talk will be more relaxed and creative. Theta is an inner reflection and information digesting state (unconscious) - inner dialog is fleeting and focus shifts from one thing to another (there is a lack of focus) - it's kind of a drifting state. Delta - no self talk that you are aware of. Delta is a loss of consciousness. Note: Consciousness is what you are aware of. All the things that you are not consciously aware of are associate with an unconscious state of being.

[Nicholas D]

Marisa, I’m not qualified to answer any of your questions with authority. All I can do is point you in the direction to those who are. In this case it will be C. Maxwell Cade, the co developer of the ‘Mind Mirror’ and co author of that seminal book ‘The Awakened Mind’.
It was Maxwell Cade who discovered the correlation between the colours seen in the mind and the person’s predominant brainwave level they were in while meditating using a light & sound machine.

[Marisa]

I think it's relevant to know what year the "discovery" occurred in. Since the 90's there has been a whole lot more discovered about the brain and how it works - in come cases, older information is no longer relevant or is relevant, but in a different way. Also the machines were different back then in that LED technology has been evolving, which means different leds are used now than were used before and this could affect the light the brain sees. Brightness of the lights can be significant and so can the color of the lights or combinations of colors. Not to mention, until a few years ago, AVS machines could not produce the gamma frequencies.

In addition, I think it's important to keep in mind, about these things, is that many times the experience is subjective. What one person discovers may not be true for another. While that's okay, the only way I can think of to make this discovery a fact instead of personal experience is by finding another study or a number of independent reports which support the findings. It's a bit tricky to find congruent information because lots of what we see on the Internet is copied from another source and when tracked down to the original source, sometimes you find that the study has been misinterpreted.

The book may be a bit more reliable in that the author, hopefully, cites his references and his information is congruent with updated information we now have about vision, brain waves etc.

Keep in mind, this is just a discussion about a subject you brought up. These are only my musings on the subject and while I've been around AVS for a bunch of years, I'm by no means an "expert".

Thanks for the opportunity to discuss and think about this subject. Much enjoyed!

M.

[Nicholas D]

The late Maxwell Cade was a Psychologist, and a Zen master. He did all his research thoroughly and came about any of his findings after doing lots of tests on many people, and case studies. I would imagine therefore that he found that the colours seen at certain frequencies were the same with all his test subjects. Cade was a respected researcher in his day, and probably still is. I find his name crops up regularly with this sort of topic.

I’ve got an old pair of Shaman red LED goggles from the 1990s, and an up to date new pair of Proteus white LED glasses. Both pairs are far too bright for me at maximum brightness; I always have them turned down.

You mention there are reports about colour correlation between brain states that conflict with Cade’s findings. Could you tell me where I can read these reports for I’m quite interested.

[Marisa]

You mention there are reports about colour correlation between brain states that conflict with Cade’s findings. Could you tell me where I can read these reports for I’m quite interested.

We may be talking about two slightly different things here. It appears that Cade was talking about the perceived color and I am talking about the actual color and the effect. Anyway, the contradiction was with the colors green and yellow.

Here is a link to a research paper written by Mindplace's Robert Austin. In this paper he cites various research on EEG and color: http://www.mindplacesupport.com/Down...idealcolor.pdf

Below are a list of sites, papers etc. that support the argument the color green is relaxing and the color yellow is stimulating (contrary to what Cade says).

Here is a link to a site that explains what happens in the brain with color: http://library.thinkquest.org/27066/...olorpsych.html
As you can see here, yellow and red are stimulating colors while green and blue cause relaxation.

There is a bit of a cross-over between color psychology and colors used with AVS and stimulating or relaxing the brain. http://psychology.about.com/od/sensa...colorpsych.htm . I guess the question here is how much of a difference it makes on the brain to be exposed to color via LED or be surrounded by the color (as in a colored room).

http://www.excellence.dgs.ca.gov/Max...nce/S4_4-2.htm - Talks about studies on color and human response.

An earlier post on the subject. http://www.mindplacesupport.com/foru...=4459#post4459

M.

[Marisa]

Note: I just want to be clear that my "argument" is not against what Cade says about seeing particular colors in certain mind states and the colors he saw may very well be valid given the tools he was using. One of the questions is whether the studies he conducted or participated in have been replicated since with the same results. Another argument is whether the colors seen/perceived actually correlate to Beta, Alpha etc. and whether his findings should be used as a guide for speculative EEG. Some of the color results he mentioned are supported by other sources of research and as I mentioned above, the contradiction comes with the assignment of Yellow to Alpha and Green to Beta. I'm arguing that it should be reversed - Green = Alpha and Yellow = Beta.

M.

M.

[Nicholas D]

Thank you for all the links Marisa. I’m off to the shops to buy some coloured light bulbs.

I’m determined to find some info on the matter now, since you have questioned it; if only for myself. I have found a snipped of information about it in a report which also talks about Maxwell Cade and who he was. It is on a site that sells biofeedback equipment though, so sort of rivals to MindPlace. Can I post the link?