The Field: Present & Future

by Julian Isaacs, Ph.D.

One of the many positive features of Megabrain Report is that it 
encourages us to think globally about psychotechnology as a growing
scientific field and technology.  Here, I want to ascend from the 
specific to the general, to consider our field from the longer 
perspective and from the point of view of its development as a 
scientific discipline.  I shall do a bit of crystal gazing too, to try 
to predict its future development.  What place will psych-tech have in 
our culture by the year 2020 ?


From the Steam Engine to Magical Technology to Paradigm Shift?

First, is psychotechnology itself a sufficiently unified field of 
endeavor to survive as a "natural kind", an area of study which 
could be consolidated sufficiently to generate future university 
departments bearing its name?  I strongly believe it could.  I think 
the advent of psychotechnology bears the seeds of an important 
paradigm shift, an important development of the way we as humans view 
ourselves, which would unify the field and give it a broadly based 
theoretical foundation and a coherent approach to applications.  I 
develop this theme below.

The answer to the question whether psychotechnology will actually 
survive and grow as a separate scientific discipline is not so clear.  
There are so many competing claims to psychotechnology's areas of 
study from other scientific disciplines.  While we as psych-tech 
enthusiasts can see our field somehow as having a separate integral 
existence as part of applied psychology or applied neuroscience, the 
existing specialisms - biofeedback, psychotherapy, humanistic and 
transpersonal psychology, parapsychology, medicine, anthropology, 
social science, education, etc. each stand poised to claim that part 
of psychotechnology which overlaps their territory.  They are already 
organised to engulf the areas of psych-tech which are "respectable" 
enough for them to find desirable.  Yet there is much about current 
psych-tech that repels such a take-over, like the often exaggerated or 
as yet ill-founded claims of manufacturers, the absence of a solid 
foundation of research demonstrating effectiveness of much of present 
psych-tech in its applications, and its high-tech "kookie" image.  
There remains also a prejudice, bordering on religious fervor, notably 
in the biofeedback community, against any form of state-altering 
technology founded on simply driving the state of the person rather 
than providing feedback so that classical learning can occur.  

What we have now is essentially a "magical technology" which shows 
great promise, but in which the technology and applications are far 
outstripping the fundamental research that would ordinarily lead to 
the development of the technology.  It's a magical technology because 
we don't yet really know how it works, even though it seems to work 
and lots of us use it.  In the history of human development, like 
nuclear power, often it's science first, then technological 
applications.  But this pattern is not universal.  As with the 
invention of the steam engine and many other useful technologies 
having high value, the marketplace has spurred psych-tech into rapid 
advance, ahead of the kind of solid slow research that is needed to 
lend full scientific credibility.  

This has a few advantages.  It's exciting, the field is open to anyone 
to make useful discoveries, creativity has not been stifled by 
institutionalisation or, for example, the deification and inflation 
characteristic of medicine in America.  But there are many dangers.  
We might pursue chimeras, fool ourselves, or just creat a deviant, 
marginal subculture devoted to kookie machines and far-out 
experiences, eventually to get our knuckles rapped by the FDA and all 
our toys taken away from us by the big boys who know how to run their 
respectable mega-corporations.  


The Bass-Ackwards Growth Paradigm

Psychotechnology is both a science and technology: science insofar as 
we are exploring the properties of the interface between 
consciousness, performance and state induction techniques, including 
machine technology--and we need to understand this area as deeply as 
possible; technology insofar as the aim is always to extend human 
experience and abilities, to push the envelope of performance, to 
develop useful applications which add to the sum of human capability--
and we need processes and machines to help us do this.  As such it 
seems likely that if there really are applications that do 
substantially improve the human lot, then the technology will survive.  
But will it birth a separate scientific discipline of 
psychotechnology?  Here we could look at the usual ways that new 
scientific disciplines develop. Typically, research in the area of the 
future specialisation develops in separate institutions and then an 
informal community of investigators grows.  Eventually, founding 
conferences are convened, a name is generated for the field and 
academic journals are created, textbooks are written, students 
recruited and university departments opened to institutionalise the 
study of the field.  Eventually applications are developed and a new 
technology is born.  

Given this model, where are we?  Bass-ackwards development 
characterises our field.  We have the technology before the 
development of a community of communicating scientists investigating 
the foundations on which the technology is based.  Not only this, but 
most of the founding techniques have already been developed by 
existing clinical specialities or have been practised for millennia by 
mystics and magicians.  For example, biofeedback pioneered the 
investigation of various types of machine-assisted deep relaxation 
techniques and the induction of altered states by brainwave 
manipulation.  Clinical psychology has utilised and developed hypnotic 
trance techniques for more than a century.  The use of imagery was 
initiated by mystics, healing and magical practitioners, long before 
psycho-tech developed.  Subtle-energy based consciousness modulation 
devices, if one includes them as part of psych-tech, are probably 
almost as old as our history as a species (when did magic get 
invented?).  So none of this is really new, is it ?

However, as I hope to elaborate in a separate writing at much greater 
length, we may be on the verge of a paradigm shift which will enable 
us to see the world (in this area) as never before, to see old 
behavior with new eyes, with new understanding.  The core of such a 
paradigm shift is the realization that humankind has used state 
altering social rituals and behaviors since stone-age times, and still 
does so, ubiqitously, in all societies.  All of this is psych-tech 
even if no visible technology is used, because it all involves need 
satisfaction by alteration of consciousness.  But the big secret is 
that this feature of human life is usually invisible to the 
participants, because the social forms are so taken for granted, as is 
ingestion of state altering substances, that none of us realize how 
much of our lives is bound up into the modulation of our conscious 
state until we view this behavior from the vantage-point afforded by 
consideration of psychotechnology.  Anthropology and social psychology 
have studied such rituals and social forms for decades, but without 
the necessary awareness of the state-altering properties of such 
forms, so that their linkage with drug use and more overt state 
manipulation technologies has not been appreciated.

What's new about psychotechnology as a field is that it encourages us 
to think about the commonalities between all state-altering 
procedures, substances and devices, allowing us to class them all 
together under the common rubric of "state alteration in service to 
needs".  This is the paradigm shift and it leads to an increased 
understanding of ourselves as the species which expends so much energy 
modulating its conscious state in service to its ever changing 
activities.

This is the paradigm shift which could unify our vision of 
psychotechnology and lead to the field's emergence as a new cognitive 
entity.  It is the generality of the concept of psychotechnology which 
is of crucial significance here.  This concept no longer limits 
consciousness technology to one application or even to one field of 
application, which the specialities have done so far, but embraces the 
global view, the view of consciousness and behavior (and hence also 
performance) as complex interpenetrating interactive systems amenable 
to controlled forms of influence from many sources, including high-
tech sources, applied to any human need which could be met by such 
resources.  This is the paradigm shift required in our thinking, to 
see the universality and generality of this orientation.  But before 
such a shift can be comprehended societally, it has to be framed so as 
to make this view acceptable and coherent.  Michael Hutchison's 
"Megabrain" was a seminal work in many ways, and communicated the 
overall vision, but this needs following up with a more academic and 
scholarly corpus of literature to establish the argument I am framing 
here.


Psych Tech Applications and the Hierarchy of Needs

In considering the future of psychotechnology, clearly its progress 
will to a great extent depend upon whether it can satisfy real needs. 
Given the generality of the new viewpoint I am outlining here, one 
perforce has to think more globally about its potential applications.
Applications can be usefully organized by considering what needs they 
serve.  A useful frame here is the hierarchy of needs identified by 
Maslow.  As I have stated above, we find already existing state-
altering rituals, processes, substances and techniques satisfying 
important individual and social needs by the score, disguised because 
of their very familiarity and embeddedness within the social fabric of 
our lives and by the obvious feature that as yet, high tech devices 
have not been incorporated into their forms.  But the needs are there 
and many of them may be addressable using the new technologies if we 
could only creatively envision these applications.


Survival. Taking the lowest level need first - survival - business 
and other skills needed in the highly competitive world of the 90's 
can benefit from the superior performance seemingly promised by 
psychotechnology.  It offers improved creativity, productivity and 
decision-making.  Most crucially for our increasingly information-
based culture, it may significantly enhance learning, memory and 
intuition.

But the most fundamental survival application of psych-tech, which 
also right now sells the majority of products today, is driven by 
our need for relief from the huge stresses imposed by our lifestyle.  
It has become clear that the major direct and indirect source of 
illness and mortality in the so-called developed world is stress, 
in the US usually caused by the work situation.  As evidenced by a 
recent positively toned review in Forbes Magazine's "FYI" supplement, 
psych-tech relaxation is really needed in the corporate world, and the 
perception is that it has something to offer.  So if psych-tech can 
really deliver the goods in reducing stress and relieving our bodies 
and minds of the tensions of our age, consistently, reliably, and over 
the long term, it will have made a massive positive contribution to 
our individual and collective wellbeing.  As such it will be here to 
stay, as long as we maintain our present lifestyle (or are allowed by 
shrinking resources to indulge in such a lifestyle).

Medical uses of psych-tech for pain control, immune system enhancement 
and accelerated healing are already in development and we can expect 
to see it in wide deployment at some time in the future.  The use of 
light and sound devices for control of chronic pain is already in 
process (see my review of recent light and sound research elsewhere in 
this issue of Megabrain Report), and the increasing use of relaxation 
and imagery techniques for psychoneuroimmunological control of bodily 
processes will surely offer further psych-tech applications in 
medicine.  


Sexuality. Next to survival, reproduction is the most fundamental 
requirement for any species.  The application of psychotechnology 
has been used for sexual purposes, probably since humans evolved.  
Taking a good American stereotype - what is the champagne dinner 
followed by soft music and low lighting but an induction technique 
aimed at producing specific states of body/mind and behavior?  
Similarly for the Playboy channel and its grittier cousins in video 
pornography.  Heightening sexual responsiveness and sensation are 
clearly legitimate psychotechnological applications.  The recent 
article about psychotechnology in the magazine Future Sex clearly 
heralds this development.


Sociability. Consciousness altering substances and procedures have 
always been used for human leisure-time socialisation (dancing, 
singing, drinking etc).  "Acid house" parties and "Raves" in England 
and San Francisco already incorporate psych-tech devices and the 
development of large scale technologies for inducing altered states in 
dance-party contexts is likely to proceed much further.  

Social rituals, even if not religious in intent, are always intended 
to produce specific psychological effects in their participants in 
that they induce specific emotions and states of mind (as an 
Englishman it was interesting for me to observe the local natives in 
California getting teary-eyed during the Clinton presidential 
inauguration activities).  The improvement of empathy and release of 
interpersonal inhibitions would also be legitimate and possible 
applications of psych-tech.  


Self-expression. The arts have always had a major psychotechnological 
component in that they are intended to evoke emotion, produce 
absorption and trance, facilitate empathic identification and 
catharsis, communicate directly to the unconscious.  Artists can be 
expected to exploit the new resources made available to them by the 
development of psych-tech.  For example, after the recent one day 
conference sponsored by Synetics Systems in Seattle there was a light 
and sound performance created for a theatre full of spectators.  In 
retrospect these beginnings will probably seem primitive to our 2020 
historians.

In sports, psychotechnology has a bright future.  The world of sports, 
which covertly celebrates the physical skills needed for survival in 
our original, primal, pre-technological world and now provides arenas 
for self expression, demands ever high levels of achievement and so 
is ripe for invasion by psych-tech assists.  A recent article by 
Michael Hutchison in Muscle & Fitness magazine points the way for 
this application.


Self-actualization. It is clear that psychotechnology has many 
applications in psychotherapy (as I detail in my review of Drs Brucato 
and Abascal's recent writings in this issue), in rehabilitation of 
perception, cognition and skills, and has very promising applications 
in correcting attention deficit disorder (ADD) and hyperactivity. Some 
30% of the US school population is estimated to suffer from some 
degree of ADD.  Biofeedback has a very successful track record with 
ADD, but light and sound may provide a cheaper alternative.  The 
educational applications of psych-tech have barely been tapped as yet 
and the increasing requirements for retraining of the work force and 
improvement of the American school system should provide a huge field 
for psych-tech enhanced accelerated learning applications.

Perhaps the second most common use of psychotechnology today is in 
pursuit of individual self-improvement.  A huge video and audio 
cassette tape industry thrives on this application and 
psychotechnology in the form of audiotapes, light and sound, 
brainwave biofeedback, ganzfeld devices and CES devices is certain 
to develop much further to fulfill this need.  


Transcendence. Overlapping its use for psychological improvement, 
the applications of psych-tech for induction of spiritual, 
transcendant and transpersonal experiences and for meditation have 
been developed and used by many individuals but have not yet 
generated a commonly accessible know-how in print.  This is an area 
in which we can expect the literature and practice to develop quite 
strongly in future.  The ability to have profound experiences without 
paying the price--in time for traditional practices, and in risk and 
possible legal and bodily damage using psychedelics--makes psych-tech 
approaches to the induction of transcendent experiences a very 
attractive option.  Undoubtedly, sophisticated EEG biofeedback will be 
the technique of choice for this area, a potential which remains vast 
and almost untapped.  The intelligent application of psychology and 
technology to the spiritual life should greatly benefit us all, since 
the learning of some of the skills necessary for spiritual growth may 
be amenable to acelleration, even if not all growth can be so 
enhanced.


Psychotechnology in 2020: Light and Sound

Having looked at some of the fields of application, now let us 
envision the development of psychotechnology from 1993 to 2020.  
Taking light and sound first, the fast pace of hardware development 
will probably continue.  We can expect more powerful and feature-
packed light and sound machines to be developed.  So far, none has the 
combination of every desirable feature (low price, programmability, 
manual control, program downloading, multicolor diffused-light goggles 
etc).  Probably devices approximating this specification will be 
developed within the next few years.  Downloadable programs (programs 
you can input into the light and sound device from cassette tape - or 
later - the mini CD) will probably sweep the market because they 
represent the first and essential step in combining the light and 
sound "hardware" (i.e the machine) with purpose-designed "software" 
(suggestion tapes, imagery and other exercises, to be used while on 
the machine). So far, only the Mastermind DLS from Synetics has 
download capability and it remains to be seen whether its "Polysync" 
tape download system is glitch-free and reliable.  The old tape 
downloading systems for computers were notoriously unreliable and 
slow.  Undoubtedly, feedback will be incorporated into light and sound 
devices.  Obvious candidates are EEG feedback and EMG feedback (muscle 
tension). 

But one feature of light and sound devices which may become increasingly 
problematic is their capacity to induce epileptic seizures.  Although 
the percentage of the population at risk is very low, as increasing 
numbers of people are exposed to light and sound stimulation, 
inevitably, more individuals will suffer seizures.  This has already 
led to law suits against The Sharper Image, and, I believe, to law 
suits by Shaper Image against IQ International, which is now out of 
business.  The problem is that although most susceptible individuals 
can be identified by a screening interview, not all can.   This might 
lead to regulation of light and sound devices, which would be a 
serious blow to the field.  As far as I know, Sharper Image did not 
screen people trying out the IQ 9110, and careful screening will 
reduce the risk, but it cannot eliminate it.  We may see manufacturers 
move to using green LED goggles because they are less likely to induce 
seizures than red LEDs.


A New/Old Modality: Breathing Our Way to the Millenium

A new form of relaxation/meditation feedback device will become 
available shortly which may well become a major force in the 
psychotechnological market.  I hope the reader will not object if I 
detail some of my personal work in this field.  I am currently 
developing and experimenting with a little known (in the US) modality 
employing feedback of the breath.  The user puts on a breath sensor 
consisting of an elasticated belt around the belly.  One wears 
headphones and goggles, just as with light and sound devices.  When 
the user expands or contracts the diaphragm and belly by breathing in 
or out, a sound like breathing is put through the headphones and the 
goggles light up.  Breath feedback devices have been used clinically 
in Europe for a number of years.  There is quite a lot of European 
research indicating that feedback of breathing rapidly produces theta 
dominant brainwave states - ideal for rescripting, absorbing positive 
suggestions etc.  Breath feedback seems to be very potent in 
activating some very ancient neurological pathways leading to states 
of great calm and centering.  Clearly it's no accident that so many 
meditational techniques focus on the breath.  Giving breath feedback 
seems to provide the benefits of meditation in an easily accessible 
form, so I expect breath feedback devices to figure in the future of 
psych-tech to a large extent.  Meditators who find light and sound too 
"busy" may enjoy breath feedback because it's much calmer.  These 
devices have the great advantage of not producing epileptic seizures 
in seizure-prone individuals, so are inherently safer than light and 
sound.  The breath feedback device is usable on its own, with light 
and sound, with a cassette program or with many other modalities.  As 
to availability of breath feedback devices, so far there is an 
expensive US-made professional device available (around $6000), a 
French device which is not yet available in the US, and my own device 
the Thetamate, which will be available in a couple of months for a 
price in the region of $500.  I expect breath feedback devices to be 
increasingly used as a substitute for or complement to, light and 
sound devices, and breath feedback will surely be combined with 
various other modalities in the future.  


Twilight Training Without EEG Technology ?

In principle it is also possible to produce a true twilight trainer 
using a breath feedback device.  Twilight trainers switch on two 
separate cassette recorders, one containing relaxation material when 
the person is producing alpha waves, and one containing positive 
suggestions for use when the person is in the theta dominant brainwave 
state.  They can also somewhat awaken the user if they fall too deeply 
asleep.  The idea is to expose the user to positive suggestions only 
when they are in the theta state - minimising resistance to accepting 
the suggestions.  Until now this switching has had to be done by 
monitoring the user's brainwaves, but there is another non-EEG 
monitoring technique to detect the alpha/theta switch in the user 
which is much less expensive to instrument because it does not use 
exotic EEG technology.  Dr. Thomas Budzynski developed the original 
twilight trainer, which now costs about $3,500 and results have been 
very exciting, suggesting that deep-set negative beliefs and attitudes 
can be changed using twilight training.  An interesting twilight 
training dissertation study was performed by clinical psychologist 
Rita Sullivan, now head of an Oregon substance abuse clinic, which 
produced very promising results with long term alchoholics.  I am 
planning to investigate the possibility of developing a breath-based 
twilight trainer which would be substantially cheaper than the 
existing twilight trainer and if successful will report my findings to 
Megabrain Report.  Remember, you read it first in Megabrain Report !


Biofeedback from the Body

One of the most promising areas of psychotechnology, in terms of its 
application to mass markets, lies in the development of inexpensive, 
easy to use biofeedback devices.  Tools for Exploration has, with my 
encouragement, pioneered the sale of such devices to the public.  With 
simple devices and adequate accompanying documentation, the lay person 
can easily learn to use modalities which have been proven very effective 
in teaching deep relaxation.  For example, Tools now sells the 
"Antense", a beautifully crafted forehead muscle tension monitor which 
for under $100 provides quality muscle relaxation training in a very 
easy to use package.  An audio tone tells you how relaxed your 
forehead is.  The forehead muscles mirror the state of most of the 
body.  So far, its manufacturer has not woken up to the extension of 
their market which adding an input for cassette tape player would 
produce - the combination of relaxation tape with muscle tension 
feedback is extremely potent.  Similarly, Tools now sells skin 
resistance and temperature feedback devices.  By 2020 we can expect to 
see complex integrated biofeedback systems being used as optional add-
ons to most psychotechnological devices.


Songs from the Brain:  EEG Feedback

But of course the most exciting area is brainwave (EEG) feedback.  
Here, the technology for full scientific analysis will remain too 
expensive for the average consumer.  But the preliminary results from 
today's brain-mapping EEG analyses of transcendent states are already 
fascinating, and full of promise.  Probably, the research will reveal 
common patterns between individuals undergoing transcendent 
experiences, and then training inductions and more modest (and less 
expensive) EEG feedback systems will be developed to coach users into 
achieving these states.  Probably Mind-Spas will start to invest in 
these systems, so that expensive complex technology will become 
available for use in these centers.  Sophisticated software will be 
needed to sift through the EEG records to identify features which 
really relate to the experiences, rather than incidental features.  A 
cartography of transcendent experiences will have to be mapped out in 
order to understand the complex relationships between EEG data and 
experiences.  This will be fascinating work and we may need to use 
much of the accumulated knowledge of the various spiritual traditions 
to get handles on these regions.  A present day problem here is that 
there is so little funding available for this type of research.


The Synergy of Things to Come

I have for a long time thought that integrated packages should be 
marketed, combining hardware with educational and instructional 
materials and suitable induction components, including tapes etc.  
This integration is already starting to happen.  The DLS is the first 
really substantial move in this direction.  So is the creation of 
Raymer Ditson Sommer's tape series on accelerated learning for light 
and sound machines.  Like many of us active in the field now, I hope 
to be creating some integrated packages myself, and Michael 
Hutchison's next book, Mega Brain Power, will deal in detail with the 
applications of psych- tech and the software and inductions areas of 
psychotechnology--the book will provide a wide variety of "programs" 
for using psychotech devices to attain specific goals (see Michael's 
articles "Beyond Entertainment: How to Use Mind Machines for Peak 
Performance" in issue #4 of Megabrain Report, and "Riding the Big 
Wave" elsewhere in this issue).  The integration of hardware, 
information, instructional courses and inductions is clearly a 
necessary next step in the development of these technologies.

An important future trend will be the synergistic use of multiple 
induction devices, which will develop further, probably involving 
motion machines, vibration beds, acoustic field generators, sound 
and light, and flotation tanks (see Walter Jessen's exploration of 
floating, and Terry Patten's review of acoustic field generators, 
both in this issue).  These composite devices will also probably 
be configured with biofeedback loops to allow control of their 
output by some physiological function(s) of the user.  Looking into 
the farther future, the ultimate devices may utilise virtual 
reality systems of high definition to provide truly flexible 
experiential content and although this is just about technically 
possible now, cost will be a deciding factor in its application.


There Go (Here Come) Mind Spas: Finding The Other 90 Percent. 

A loss of many of the US mind spas occurred in the past three years or 
so.  The problem was that people tended only to visit once to test 
equipment that they then bought more cheaply elsewhere, never to 
return.  Or else people visited out of curiosity to have a "trip".  
Curiosity satisfied, they too tended not to return.  However, there is 
now an upsurge in new mind spas and it is to be hoped that this next 
generation will be more successful.  Mind spas are not so new now, so 
they may find bigger markets.  They will only be successful if they 
can develop educational or other programs that provide benefits on a 
long term continuing basis to clients and most of the new 
enterprenuers seem to realize this.  Look for a national chain of new 
mind spas titled "The Other Ninety Percent", aimed at liberating the 
abilities of the other 90% of the brain.  I consulted for this company 
for several years and they are likely to provide the first big US
national chain.  By 2020 we can expect to see several national mind 
spa chains, boasting sophisticated computer controlled systems.


The Psych-Tech Haiku: Japanese Competition

In Japan psychotechnology has already made more inroads in some ways 
than in the US (not surprising, given the stress levels).  There are 
now national chains of mind spas in Japan and the future has been 
taken from California to Tokyo.  Some of their mind spas include EEG 
monitoring and feedback.  Psych-tech is big in Japan and when the 
Japanese electronic manufacturers see a large enough world market they 
will probably launch a flood of cheap devices.  Already, at Tools For 
Exploration we are starting to see Japanese products sent to us for 
inclusion in the catalog.  


Electric mind and body.

CES (cranial electrostimulation) seems to be slowly gaining acceptance 
within the professional clinical psychological community, with widely 
scattered groups finding exciting applications in the treatment of 
ADD, dyslexia and closed head injuries.  In my work I encounter many 
psychologists venturing into the use of CES and most excitingly, 
preliminary trials of CES for CFDS (chronic fatigue syndrome) have 
shown great promise, with one manufactuer poised to perform some major 
research in this area.  The CFDS epidemic is much more widespread than 
AIDS--a little known fact--and seriously affects the health, 
productivity and wellbeing of millions of Americans.  It has a clear 
cerebral component and the hope is that CES may ameliorate this 
component of the disease.  


One problem with the publicity about CES I encounter almost on a 
daily basis, is that some early writings on CES have been 
interpreted to suggest that it would unconditionally increase 
intelligence and perhaps provide instant access to meditative 
states.  At Tools For Exploration we have had a steady stream of calls 
from people inquiring about CES because either they want to increase 
their IQ or to use it every day for meditation.  The original reports 
did not make it sufficiently clear that the IQ improvements seen in 
CES research occurred to individuals who were either of lower than 
normal IQ, or else had imbalances between verbal and non verbal IQ, 
the CES treatment leading to equalisation of IQ or tending to restore 
IQ to normal levels.  There is no clear evidence that CES increases IQ 
in normal individuals.  CES is also unsuitable for intensive usage 
over the long term, both because of habituation and because of the as 
yet unknown risks created by consistent long term usage.  To my 
knowledge, there are no extant studies showing that CES facilitates 
meditation either.  However, to bring some perspective to the risk 
question, many of us spend all our working days in strong AC magnetic 
fields generated by computers which are clearly hazardous, yet accept 
these many thousands of hours of exposure without a second thought.  A 
few hours spent on CES might not be so dangerous by comparison.


New Sound Breakthroughs.

Moving on to sound, it seems likely that the use of ever more 
sophisticated sound mixes on audio cassette tapes and CDs will 
certainly allow more powerful inductions to be created. Michael 
Hutchison, who created the programs and devised his "harmonic 
superimposition of binaural beats" technique for the old "MegaBrain 
Sync" tape series has now created a new six tape/CD series that builds 
on recent EEG brainmapping research into peak states, and combines a 
variety of new audio brain stimulation with Tomatis-based sound 
shaping techniques in a way that may well represent a significant 
advance in the art.  Tools For Exploration also recently produced a 
series of four "Neuroacoustic" tapes using a powerfully synergistic 
set of techniques including binaural beats, primordial sounds, 3D 
holographic sounds and specific window frequencies.  We combined the 
release of the new tapes with a research project where users could 
send us their feedback in the form of completed questionnaires which 
we purpose designed for the project.  We are fascinated to see what 
the response will be and our findings will be reported in Megabrain 
Review.


Founding Psychotechnology as a Social Enterprise

The future for psychotechnology looks bright.  Our culture is becoming 
increasingly aware of the importance of the quality of our conscious 
experience.  Imagery and relaxation techniques are spreading into many 
sectors of our society.  The growth of mind spas will acellerate this 
process and by 2020 we can expect to see a society in which the Age of 
Consciousness has dawned.  As long as no catastrophic economic or 
ecological collapse occurs, we face an increasingly interesting future 
where access to abilities and skills and transcendent states of 
consciousness becomes increasingly available.

Meanwhile, in the here and now, as an experimental psychologist, my 
continual beef is that in this industry far too few resources are 
being devoted to research, so that questions which are potentially 
easy to answer by research - like the old perennial "red lights vs 
white lights" (vs all sorts of other colors) becomes debated like a
medieval scholastic argument, rather than simply being put to the 
test.  Similarly with "does simultaneous CES and light and sound 
provide better entrainment than light and sound alone?" and "which CES 
frequencies and waveforms are better for certain conditions than 
others?" All these questions are readily answerable, given some 
incisive research.  

Another major missing piece for potential users of psychotechnology is 
that we do not at present understand the factors which lead one 
individual to obtain a very worthwhile and rewarding experience with a 
certain psych-tech device, while the same device, tape, or process 
fails to please another individual.  We need to research the 
relationships between personality factors and the outcomes of using 
specific technologies and processes.  At the very least it might cut 
out some of the guesswork in our attempts to advise potential users 
regarding their choice of device, tape, or process.  At best it would 
greatly deepen our understanding of the dynamics of psych-tech usage.  

Finally, one effective way to progress the field as a whole would 
be to found a professional association with a professional journal 
and a lay newsletter and start a research institute for 
psychotechnology.  Such a research institute would be free to 
pursue both fundamental research and applied research as well as 
serving as a creative center for exchanging information about 
psychotechnology and could also develop products for licensing to 
manufacturers.  It would also be able to double-blind test the many 
subtle energy products which have good user reports but which are 
currently unsupported by controlled investigation.  Michael 
Hutchison tried to start such a center in 1988-89, with the 
Neurotechnologies Research Institute, but it never established 
sufficient funding to function as a research center.  Sooner or later 
such an institute will be founded.  Can we hope that the readers of 
Megabrain Report would be prepared to help in such enterprises?  Time 
will tell.

Julian Isaacs can be reached in Compuserve, where his ID number is 
72237,1131.