The EEG-Guided Meditation
The EEG-guided meditation is individually adjusted meditation based on your electroencephalogram (EEG) profile (measurement of brain electrical activity).
As scientific studies have been shown, various meditative states reached due to practice of a particular meditation technique (those that involve focus on an object and those that are objectless) are associated with different EEG spatio-temporal and oscillatory signatures and such signatures are directly related to baseline neuropshychological profiles of practitioners. Therefore, if one knows in advance his/hers individual EEG profile, he or she could choose the meditation/yoga technique which would be most suitable.
In this context individual EEG profile provides information on strength and weaknesses of individual’s brain functioning and cognitive skills, and by doing so it guides individuals, coaching staff and trainers to select individualised training protocols which permit people unlock the full potential of their brains and minds.
The EEG-guided meditation program includes two BrainMind Audit™ recordings. The first profile helps to select a beneficial training protocol and the second one measures objectively the changes the practice generates on various aspects of brain performance.
The method and the results gained thus far were introduced in international conference Towards a science of consciousness in Helsinki 2015. The slides can be seen here. The scientific basis is more accurately given in the article "EEG-Guided meditation: A Personalized Approach" that is published in the ”Journal of Physiology - Paris.
EEG-guided meditation is more effective than mindfulness
In the first decade of XXI century the abruptly increased rates of neuropsychiatric, psychosomatic and somatic disorders among the human population of industrially developed countries emerged as a result of the delay in psychophysiological adaptation to the rapidly growing technological and industrial progress. Chronic stress had been linked to the development and progression of this broad spectrum of disorders. Meditation may offer considerable promise as a safe, effective and relatively inexpensive intervention for reducing chronic stress and stress-related disorders, in addition improving cognition, mood, sleep, and general well-being.
However, despite the documented therapeutic potential of meditation, the possibility of adverse effects warrants a discussion on the suitability of any particular meditation practice for all participants. A ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach may be ill advised in meditation/yoga training: each individual has different cognitive demands and different starting points. This highlights the need for a personalized approach to meditation practice.
One way to do this could be achieved by applying an objective screening procedure that highlights the weak and strong cognitive skills of brain function, and thus provide a reliable guide for selecting the personalized meditation training protocol. qEEG offers such a possibility because it allows identification of the individual’s psychophysiological type which can be used to design a meditation training program that maximizes the efficacy and minimizes risk of potential negative effects. In this context, the synthesis of neurophysiology and neuropsychology has opened a new horizon for meditation/yoga, when the concrete meditation/yoga technique can be selected for a given individual based on the objective qEEG screening information obtained from the same individual.
