The 'astronaut chair' is probably the Flogiston chair:
http://www.flogiston.com/
http://www.trudang.com/noframes/flogsim.html
Below is the best info I've seen on 'motion devices',
which are also used in 'Sensory Integration Therapy'.
Also see the book 'Smart Moves', by Linda Hannaford.
--Bill
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Mega Brain Power, by Michael Hutchison
(c) 1994, Hyperion, New York
Chapter Ten
MOTION AND THE BRAIN
The president of a Wall Street new- technology firm -- a man known
for his sizzling intelligence and creativity, and who had designed
some of the innovative IBM computers that helped NASA put the first
men on the moon -- accompanied me to a small office were he lay down
on a device that revolved him steadily round and round through an
electrostatic field. After fifteen minutes he called out to me.
"This is wonderful! My brain is tingling! I feel like light is
swirling through my brain." A few minutes later, as we rode down
Riverside Drive in his limousine, he seemed deeply relaxed, his
attention directed inward. Suddenly he pulled out a pencil and
scribbled wildly on a sheet of paper. After a few minutes he sighed
with satisfaction and turned to me. "I've just solved a problem
that I have struggled with for weeks. But just now the solution
came to me in a flash." Months later when I spoke with him again he
assured me his insight truly was an innovative solution -- one that
had transformed his company, sending it into a new and profitable
direction, with the development of an entirely new product.
EXERCISING THE BRAIN WITH MOTION
Another technique for supercharging the brain is physical movement,
particularly spinning. Research with laboratory animals kept
motionless and humans who have been immobilized has provided
dramatic evidence of the crucial importance of movement to human
development and mental-physical well-being. From the time of our
conception, movement is an essential nutrient: Without it, the
brain does not develop fully. As babies we are rocked; as kids we
roll down hills and spin until we're dizzy; as adults we scuba
dive, skydive, drive fast around turns, dance, and, when tired, sit
in rocking chairs. This movement is not only pleasurable, but it
stimulates our body and nervous system. Like light and sound,
motion is a nutrient for the brain and body, and if we consistently
fall short of meeting our minimum daily requirement, we become
susceptible to chronic health problems.
Unfortunately, today many people are suffering from motion
deprivation. They spend most of the day with heads held upright and
become couch potatoes in the evenings. Compared to healthy children
and our ancestors, who were free-roaming hunters and gatherers,
spending much of their time in vigorous motion, today's sedentary
workers are virtually motionless, and rarely move enough to satisfy
even the minimum daily requirement of motion.
One major effect of movement is that it stimulates the fluids of
the inner ear, known as the vestibular system. This stimulation
sends a flood of electrical impulses into our cerebellum and from
there into the rest of the brain, including the pleasure and
learning centers of the limbic system. This may explain the
beneficial effects motion has on learning and intelligence: Motion
directly stimulates learning.
MOTION SMARTNESS: BETTER GRADES THROUGH DANCING
Electroencephalograph (EEG) and other evidence has shown that the
use of spinning has a profound optimizing effect on the
neuro-efficiency quotient (NEQ), a measure of how rapidly
electrical signals are transmitted by the brain's neurons and pass
from one part of the brain to another -- a characteristic that has
been shown to correlate very closely with IQ. Recent research at
Berkeley, in fact, suggests that the NEQ is directly related to IQ.
Some users of motion systems have shown increases in NEQ that are
statistically equivalent to increases in IQ of an astonishing
thirty points or more.
This kind of evidence suggests that next time you have a test or
material that requires peak mental performance, you might want to
take a study break and spin around and around in your desk chair
for a few minutes every half hour or so. Or get up and dance. Or,
most effective of all, keep your brain in peak condition by
providing enough motion to far surpass your minimum daily
requirement.
Motion also affects the fluids that compose some 90 percent of our
body, including cerebrospinal fluid, blood, and lymph. In other
words, what vigorous or repetitive motion is doing is "massaging"
the body from the inside as the fluids move about and providing an
efficient form of neurological "exercise" for the nervous system.
Just as our separation from natural sounds and light has spurred
the development of technological ways of producing concentrated or
enhanced types of sound and light stimulation, so our sedentary
lifestyle has led to the development of a variety of "motion
systems" that keep the user moving constantly, providing vestibular
and motion stimulation -- and brain exercise -- in a concentrated
form.
MOVING PAST BRAIN DAMAGE
My own interest in motion systems emerges from numerous firsthand
experiences of their extraordinary potential. I have described
several in the introduction to this book, such as the depressed
young woman who had a life-transforming encounter with her mother
while on one of the systems. Others include the woman in one of my
workshops who had suffered chronic back pain for twenty years and
had it disappear after a session on a motion system.
When I was first doing research for the book that became Megabrain,
I met a couple whose son was paralyzed from the neck down from
carbon monoxide brain damage. On my recommendation they purchased a
motion system and put him on it twenty-four hours a day. Their son
was soon able to lift his head and move his arms. Recently I
received a letter from the mother, with a photo of her son, who has
gone through a remarkable recovery.
I have witnessed several other remarkable improvements from severe
brain damage using motion systems. I'll just describe one of them.
One system was installed in the hospital room of a young man who
had been in a coma for many months. As he was placed on the device,
his family was in the room. The change was so noticeable and rapid
that his grandmother broke into tears. In the coming weeks, the
young man was on the system for twelve hours a day or more. The
lung congestion he had been suffering from improved dramatically.
His muscle tone improved. Most interestingly, he now has his eyes
open during much of the day and is capable of focusing on or
watching people and movements and objects around him. As this is
written, he is still improving.
CONSUMERS' GUIDE TO MOTION SYSTEMS
A number of "motion systems" are now on the market, including
reclining chairs that revolve (at about 2 to 3 revolutions per
minute [rpms]), and beds that gently tilt, revolve, and rock. There
is evidence that these motion systems alter brain-wave activity
(greatly increasing the relaxing alpha and theta waves, and
enhancing hemispheric synchronization).
They are being used clinically for such purposes as treatment of
brain damage, learning disabilities, and drug addiction, and are
popular in brain-mind gyms around the world. Several new models at
relatively low prices now make it possible for individuals to
purchase such motion systems for home use.
The Integrated Motion System (IMS) is a moving bed that tilts
gently as it revolves through a 360-degree circular rocking motion.
(The bed moves through a pattern 8 degrees above and below the
horizontal in all four quadrants; when the head of the bed is 8
degrees below horizontal, the foot of the bed is 8 degrees above;
when the right shoulder is 8 degrees below horizontal, the left
foot is 8 degrees above, and so on. ) The motion is fluid and slow.
The bed revolves between one and six times per minute, though about
3 rpms seems to be the most effective rate. When you stretch out on
it, the effect is like lying on a raft that is gently rocking on
ocean waves.
Personally, I find the IMS extremely relaxing and conducive to deep
trancelike states. Most users also find that for many hours, even
days after a session on it, they feel energized and a sense of
enhanced physical awareness. Many people find that when used in
combination with a light/sound (LS) machine, cranial
electrostimulation device, or a beat-frequency tape, the IMS adds a
whole new kinesthetic dimension to the experience. The IMS is
available on a customized basis; cost is $5,500.
Created by Dr. Larry Schulz, who also designed the Integrated
Motion System, the Symmetron consists of a comfortable leather
contour chair coupled with a variable speed "orbital platform" that
revolves the chair through a "multiphase wave experience." The
chair moves through a six-inch horizontal orbit (seen from above
the chair remains facing in one direction while it traces a
six-inch-diameter circle) while it gently tilts between 0 and 5
degrees on the vertical plane.
The movement is small but the effect is huge -- most users are
plunged into states of profound relaxation within minutes. One
writer has called the effect "tidal weightlessness." Users who have
combined the Symmetron with a LS device have found that it
intensifies the effects dramatically. Says designer Schulz, "adding
the kinesthetic dimension to the LS makes it a whole new
experience." The Symmetron takes up less room than the IMS (it
requires no more space than. any reclining chair) and costs much
less. (Suggested retail is $3995.)
The name of the Sams Potentializer is an acronym for Sensory and
Mind Stimulation, but it's also the name of the designer, medical
professional Marvin W. Sams. Sams has many years of experience in
clinical and research EEG and is the inventor of a variety of EEG,
electrocardiograph, and other biomedical equipment.
Sams spent years monitoring the brain-wave activity of subjects
using the Graham Potentializer, using a variety of EEG equipment,
including the Ertl Brainwave Analyzer, that measures the
neuro-efficiency Quotient (NEQ). At the same time Sams was
monitoring the brain-wave pattern of advanced meditators, noting
such characteristics as hemispheric dominance and brain-wave
"coherence." He then designed his own device, using careful EEG
analysis to determine what produced the desired physiological state
-- that is, the same brain-wave patterns as evidenced by highly
experienced meditators.
What he came up with is a comfortable recliner chair that rotates
(spins) at an almost imperceptible 1 to 3 rpms. (Sams says he
tested units that rotated much more rapidly, but that the optimal
brain-wave effect seems to be in this rpm range.) He combines the
vestibular stimulation of spinning with what he calls "Silent Audio
Frequency Electronics," an inaudible tone that is projected across
the body as it rotates.
I have seen some of the EEG readings of subjects who have used the
Sams Potentializer, and it's clear that the chair can produce
rapid, dramatic, and long-lasting changes. Most subjects seem to
show increases in slow brain-wave activity (particularly in the
alpha range, associated with relaxation), enhanced NEQs and,
interestingly (in light of our investigation of brain-wave
synchrony in Chapter 2), a higher degree of brain-wave coherence.
(Says Sams, coherence is "a highly desired brain-wave state that is
seen only in highly experienced meditators.")
LS machines, binaural-beat tapes, and CES devices seem to gain in
effectiveness when used synergistically with the Potentializer.
I recommend each of these devices, and suspect they will be
especially valuable to chiropractors, physical therapists,
therapists, athletes and athletic trainers, physical fitness
centers, educators specializing in learning disorders, corporate
relaxation programs, drug and alcohol treatment centers, brain-mind
gyms, and those interested in using vestibular stimulation for the
treatment of brain damage.
SUGGESTED READING
For further information about motion and motion systems, see
chapter 14 of my Megabrain (New York: Ballantine, revised edition,
1991).
The Symmetron Chair (Integrative Motion Systems, Inc.)
The Integrated Motion System (Integrative Motion Systems, Inc.)
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Motion Device: Sams Potentializer
Marvin W. Sams, Ph.D.
13154 Coit Road, Suite 105
Dallas, TX 75240
214-907-9844
MindWave Home Page:
http://www.mindwave.com/
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