Mind myth 6: Synchronizing and boosting the brain

This is the sixth post in the series on mind myths especially applicable to education and training. It relates to products that claim to manipulate and synchronize brain wave activity. Again the late Barry Beyenstein (in Della Sala, 1999, p. 61) perfectly described the pedlars who produce and market these types of products:

"New Age hucksters are repackaging shopworn folk psychology with cheap mysticism and giving it a gloss of scientific respectability by claiming unearned affiliation to neuroscience."

Beyerstein described how quack practitioners initially used EEG biofeedback as a shortcut to altered mind states that meditation was purported to produce. In a classic correlation equals causation confusion, they assumed that alpha brain waves associated with meditation produced a special state of consciousness meditators were assumed to have achieved. The alpha-wave hacks ignored some inconvenient facts, such as that animals who presumably are incapable of higher planes of consciousness also readily produce alpha waves, that most people produce alpha waves by merely closing their eyes and that ADHD children readily produce alpha waves. When research eventually showed that the generation of alpha waves held no benefit, the hacks moved their attention to theta waves. That was also soon shown to have no benefit. Predictably, that did not stop the brain wave enhancement industry.

"Tuning" the brain gave way to synchronizing the brain. Beyerstein pointed out that these were modernized versions of ancient sensory bombardment rituals. One of these was the so-called "hemi-sync" technology of the Monroe Institute, which also found its way into South Africa. They claim that their auditory tapes (now CD's) produce binaural beats which synchronize the two hemispheres of the brain. Binaural beats are subjective phenomena that had been known to science for decades, but no scientist has found any practical use for them. That had to wait for Monroe, however, without any evidence. As indicated before on this blog, the brain does not need to be synchronized and there's no evidence that such attempts would have any beneficial result. Beyerstein pointed out that the most synchronous states of the brain occurred during sleep and coma, not exactly periods of peak performance.

See more on the Monroe Institute in Wikipedia. In this case, however, the Wikipedia entry reads more like an advertisement than a serious encyclopaedic entry. I found it interesting to note that the institute's trainers engage in "astral projection and disembodied spirits" and that the founder, David Monroe, may still control the institute from the "other side" (he's somewhat dead).

There are various products currently on the South African market that claim to enhance learning through somehow directly influencing or synchronizing the brain. One that is widely and aggressively marketed is Beta Study Methods, also known as the Betakit Study System. They claim to do this through so-called modulated offset harmonic frequencies, which seems exactly the same thing as binaural beats; no acknowledgement to the Monroe Institute is to be found on their website, however. The only evidence that is advanced by Betakit Study System that their products work as claimed and are in any way effective, are from testimonials by satisfied customers. As has been pointed out on this blog before, anecdotal evidence is of little value. They would also obviously not place testimonials from unsatisfied customers. Interestingly, Beta Study Methods takes pains to emphasize that their techniques are not New Age based and that the music they use on some of their tapes is not New Age music (whatever that is), which they claim is harmful.

More on issues discussed in this post can be found in:

Beyerstein, B.L. 1999. Pseudoscience and the brain: Tuners and tonics for aspiring superhumans. In S. Della Sala (Ed.), Mind myths: Exploring popular assumptions about the mind and brain. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Druckman, D. & Swets, J.A. 1988. Enhancing Human Performance: Issues, Theories, and Techniques. (Online)

Previous posts in the series on mind myths were:

The 10% myth

The left brain right brain myth

Energy and the brain myth

The downshifts and blockages myth

The brain profiling myth

The power of realistic thinking

Barbara Ehrenreich, recently wrote an Op-Ed piece in the New York Times, The power of negative thinking. She pointed out the mess the combination of greed and positive thinking landed us in. She linked Oprah Winfrey, megachurch pastors and the New Age self-help industry through their mindless wishfull thinking delusions. According to Ehrenreich:

"It’s a message (positive thinking) companies relentlessly reinforced — treating their white-collar employees to manic motivational speakers and revival-like motivational events, while sending the top guys off to exotic locales to get pumped by the likes of Tony Robbins and other success gurus. Those who failed to get with the program would be subjected to personal “coaching” or shown the door."

The issues she riles against are common in South Africa as well. Mindless positive thinking abound in megachurches and businesses from small to large. Mainstream Christian churches seem to be losing ground to charismatic megachurches with the "positive" message that God wants the congregants to have it all, especially the pastors. In many cases the line between church and business has becoming thin and permeable, some business get-togethers resemble church revival meetings. A friend dragged me to a meeting of the consultants of a multi-level marketing organisation some time ago. Speaker after speaker stood up trying to outdo each other with essentially the same message: "Last year I made x amount of money; Praise the Lord!". This sickening, somewhat blasphemous, message eventually got to me and I found something urgent to do elsewhere.

One would have to see whether mindless positive thinking survives the current worldwide financial crisis and the ENRONs and Worldcoms before it. We are hearing calls from some churches for a return to soberness and a Calvinistic work ethic. Corporates may also be returning to more realistic, even negative attitudes - at least till fear subsides and greed takes over again.