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Biofeedback is the measuring of vital bodily functions that are normally unconscious, such as breathing, brain-wave rhythms, heart rate and blood pressure, through information provided by electronic devices. This information is then used to help control these processes. Biofeedback is a relatively new field, emerging only during the 1960s. Since that time biofeedback has been used in parapsychology for psi testing.

Originally biofeedback was applied to brain waves. Brain waves were first discovered in 1924 by Hans Berger, but it wasn’t until the 1950s that it was thought possible to control them at will - in 1958, researcher Joe Kamilya was able to help college students control their alpha brain waves. By the early 1970s the attention of researchers turned to how biofeedback could help one achieve altered states of consciousness, such as those achieved in meditation, and how in meditation bodily processes could be changed. Other experiments concentrated on training subjects to alter involuntary processes, such as blood pressure.

To monitor physiological processes, biofeedback electrodes, which look like stickers with wires attached to them, are placed on the client’s skin. The client is then instructed to use relaxation, meditation or visualization to bring about the desired response, whether it is muscle relaxation, a lowered heart rate or lower skin temperature. The biofeedback device reports progress by a change in the speed of beeps or flashes, or pitch or quality of the tone. The results of biofeedback are measured in the following ways:

Skin temperature.

Electrical conductivity of the skin, called the glavanic skin response.

Muscle tension, with an electromyograph (EMG).

Heart rate, with an electrocardiograph (ECG).

Brain-wave activity, with an electroencephalograph (EEG).

Biofeedback demonstrates the connection between mind and body by teaching subjects to use thoughts and relaxation to control bodily process, and as a result it is typically used as an alternative medicine technique to treat health problems ranging from stress-related disorders to raised blood pressure, chronic pain, addiction and asthma. Biofeedback can also teach people how to increase their alpha brain waves. The alpha state is not necessary for psychic experience, but studies have shown it is conducive to it, since subjects who can slip easily into alpha states tend to score high in psi testing.