[Music]
thank you
[Music]
all right
foreign
[Music]
stress anxiety depression
disconnectedness pretty much all of us
I'm sure keep your hand raised keep your
hand raised if you've used mindfulness
or meditation
um or if you believe it can be useful
for those days okay keep your hands up
if you've used technology to catalyze
that to enhance that
and one final question still a couple
hands up if you've done that in a
scientific manner
oh I like that
okay thank you um we're gonna get
started just wanted to pull the audience
to give you kind of an overview of how
we're going to approach this talk
so this is going to make you track this
session right you're going to get most
rather than supporting lecture with more
than being trackable and I'm going to
tell these three objectives again and
again right the first one was
we all strive for happiness every little
freaking thing we do is for happiness
love joy peace right
but we don't realize that our brain was
not designed for that
our brain was designed for me for two
things
sex and survival right so that's the
first topic we're going to talk about
the second topic is how many of you
remember the first time you rode your
bike without training wheels raise your
hands
how old are you sir
six do you still go over it today
right and that is what we call an
Awakening
and I promise most of you are going to
be awakened today not talking about
Nirvana not about Enlightenment talking
about Awakening
and then the third one is we need your
freaking help
because you saw right when we talked
about scientific have you studied your
meditation practice scientifically
including myself
and I've been a practitioner for two
years for 20 years so that's the
structure and I'm going to come back to
that again
oh I'm by the way my name is uh sudesh
Taran most people call me Dr k a big
story of how all this started out I
hated my meditation teacher I hated my
yoga teacher
High School I was 16 years old in India
I was mandatory right
and everybody in my class was turning
into a human pretzel I could not and I
cannot sell today
but one fine day the teacher taught us
shavasana as you know what savasana
means it's the dead body horse
any freaking idiot can do it
so I did it
and what he did was he walked us through
a rather gruesome situation he said
imagine you're in a beautiful Valley
imagine you are by a Riverside and
there's a funeral fire because in India
we don't bury bodies right we burn them
so your body's in that little part
you're being born your physical Essence
is gone and all is left is the spiritual
Essence right and as I'm telling you
this my body is filled with goosebumps
because I was there
I was lying in the floor Pretty Dirty
floor and India we didn't have yoga mats
that time nobody figured it out till
some American figured it out
and I was in a state of Awakening
and like any true blooded teenager
I promptly forgot about that experience
till I started working on my PhD if any
of you have done your phds or any phds
here got to be one or two phds it's a
freaking nightmare
because you don't know when you're going
to finish your PhD and so I went back to
meditation
right so
that's what my journey is about and
hopefully I share some of the key tips
that we have a lot of misconceptions
about meditation including thinking it's
all about Nirvana it's all about uh it's
all about joy and things like that
so my name is Darren Lawless I'm a
security guy like probably a lot of you
guys are I've been doing it for 20 years
or so
um and
I fancy myself a hacker I'm probably
a different sort of hacker than maybe a
lot of you I'm not I'm not I'm not
digging into code I'm not breaking uh
I'm not breaking code I'm not rewriting
code so much but I'm surely in that
space and in the last 10 years or so
I've discovered uh the world of
biohacking so uh and you know what that
is we can we can get into that if you
don't know if you know it's all the
things that might and it's pretty broad
right it's everything from
uh hacking your nutrition to uh leaving
breathing and uh you know Tech actually
like injecting Tech into your body and
so so the breath is is big and so that's
part of why I dig it and I you know I've
poked into those spaces and I've learned
a little bit and at the same time
um I've also kind of uh started
exploring mindfulness States and trying
to you know feel better try to be less
stressed uh and I've had some success
right so I have some anecdotal uh
evidence for myself that says this
there's something happening here and and
it seems viable and useful and so that's
that's my angle on this on this
discussion and I'm going to let you into
this so some of you are probably
thinking okay Dr King you're a Believer
you you are drinking the Kool-Aid you
think that meditation and mindfulness is
uh is the answer to to life the universe
and everything after 42. after 42. and
Darren a Seeker open to this
um I'm going to introduce you to another
archetype here myself kind of the
skeptic
um
scientifically oriented and some of you
may identify with either the believer
the Seeker the skeptic maybe all three
I want you to think about where you're
aligned during this talk because there's
going to be something for everyone
during this so join us through this
journey as a skeptic I just want to tell
you just a little bit about myself and
my background here and what uh what this
means for this talk
so I am a um I'm a security analyst um
been doing this for about 20 years which
makes me a little bit of a dinosaur but
we won't we won't acknowledge that
um and before I became a security
analyst or working in security and
hacking I actually study neurology and I
worked as a neurobiofeedback technician
and researcher
and that means that I know I'm familiar
with biofeedback okay yeah you're our
scientist aren't you
um so bio feedback essentially is
monitoring your biological State and
altering something that you do in
response to that so we would take um
patients that had closed head injuries
trauma um physical brain trauma or ADHD
and train them to
change their brain patterns so they
could achieve certain goals
now meditation I'm sure has a lot of
anecdotal evidence that it can be useful
ADHD severely
it's like tortured me have my mind just
like be quiet no I can't do that but I
think what we want to do is analyze
what meditation means how we can use
technology with that and what it means
to the believer the seeker and the
skeptic
with that
okay it's Dr Paster I just want to make
a point I feel a little bit like a
strange nerdy hip-hop group up here
weaving in and out with two microphones
and so forgive us if we break into crap
so this section is going to be
interactive because I want you
to think about I'm obsessed with the
human brain right any guesses how many
pounds does a human brain
shout out to answer seven pounds
2.5 pounds 2.5 pounds okay less than two
percent of body weight from most people
here right
how much energy does it consume 100
energy how much of that energy goes
there shout out an answer fifty percent
ten percent
25 it's 25 to 30 percent
less than two percent of your body
weight right and if you're like me you
probably eat four pounds of fruits and
vegetables drink five pounds of water
and then here's the magic number 30
pounds of air we breathe 30 pounds of
air of which about 16 to 20 percent is
oxygen guess what
25 goes to your brain
so this is the key thing right this
thing between our heads and what's
fascinating about this is there are
three sections to it and everybody put
your thumbs together put your thumb here
put put your hands together like this
right
this thumbs here is the limbic system
this is the emotional part of us right I
had a boss I hate it right I would drive
and we we both worked we went all over
the world so there were good times when
he was not there in the office I was not
down to office and I drive into the
parking lot and I would see his blue
Toyota and I'd get angry all over how
many of you done that
right
this is the key thing we forget to
understand right we think we are racial
creatures with feelings that's
it's the opposite the emotional
creatures
and we have thinking as part of that how
many of you listen to Alicia Miller
yesterday
talked about videos changing people and
she was all about facts changing People
facts never change people okay
what changes people is we make a
decision emotionally right we see this
boy or girl we like and then we find
reasons to like him or her more
and we wonder why we are so screwed up
in our relationship
right how many of you have seen a friend
going around with a girl who you know
that's going to crash and burn in hell
raise your hand
so this is the key point I wanted to
understand if you understand this mother
nature gave us four gifts okay I call
them gifts within quotes
the first one is distractibility Jen
thinks she's got a unique ADHD brain
guess what I'm willing to bet all of us
are distracted all the time raise your
hand how many of you are distracted all
the time right we all distracted all the
time why did Mother Nature do that it
was gift to us right 100 000 years ago
our brain was a bottom of the food chain
right a tiger walked by says saw deer
there saw a human being there let me go
out for the human being because the deer
is going to run really fast
hundred thousand years of short time for
the brain to change so you're always
looking for trouble how many of you are
looking for trouble all the time raise
your hand all of those are looking for
trouble right
second give Mother Nature gave us is
loneliness
I don't care how happily you're married
how you know you your best boyfriend
girlfriend you're lonely right mother
needs to have figured that out for a
reason that's 100 000 years ago I told
you right sixty thousand years ago
there's a cognitive I'm giving you these
numbers just like you know these are
approximate numbers we don't know for
sure we seem to have evidence
anthropological evidence sixty thousand
years ago we made this transition in
social behavior
right what is the fun thing is
one-on-one our nearest cousin if I fight
a chimpanzee the chimpanzee didn't hands
down
but we are about 50 people here 50
people are these 50 chimpanzees we win
all the time
why because we communicate with each
other and say let's put that fat guy in
the front let him die
right so this comes the ability to
communicate right so mother nature gave
us a negative self-taught and the
negative self-talk is based on the
future and it's from the past
and you're always thinking about that
why because they had you had an ancestor
who said oh my God we're gonna all die
if you don't store for food
and that that gentleman's ancestor
probably said nah we'll figure it out
you know when the time comes we'll
figure out food right and his ancestors
died
does that make sense so mother nature
rewarded negative thinking here's the
problem
I haven't found an off switch for my
negative dog anybody found a house
switch for a negative button
and people do that right people do that
the last gift she gave us was meaning or
progress I call her see because I think
Mother Nature like my mother and my
mother always gave me gifts you know
and this was one of the gift is so all
these four things right they come back
upon us
distraction negative self-talk
loneliness meaning
and here's the thing about meaning you
want love joy and peace in your life
Find meaning and meaning is a made-up
story whatever you believe but it has to
be there because if you don't find a
meaning or purpose in your life your
brain will say let's watch all the
remaining Netflix movies I'm not watched
how many have been there
so why am I talking about this with
meditation our brain was not designed
for happiness I hope you can see that
right the second thing is we're going to
have stress till we die
so Dr K this is bad news what's the good
news
the good news is the next slide
it's the next uh okay the brain can be
trained for loud joy peace
now this sounds too hippie for you to
touchy feely for you
there's science scientific
neuroscientific evidence for the four
characteristics
connection optimism resilience and I
call it energy what you call it purpose
very easy
and where is meditation come meditation
is nothing but exercising your brain for
all those four there are literally
hundreds of meditation techniques and
we're gonna try some of this raise your
hand if you're willing to try
excellent am I missing some points okay
uh no not at all but I would say that if
you're one of the
folks that are skeptical but you happen
to be an athlete or a musician I would
even argue some some coders fall into
this place and hackers even and you know
that state where everything is what
you're doing at that moment
athletes call it flow those kind of
things if you have if you have that
skepticism but you've experienced those
kind of things I think what you've
really experienced is is something very
similar if not exactly the same as those
meditative states that we're talking
about so excellent so let's get three
water Goods post one who's a skeptic who
says hey this is all crap join us can
you please join us here sir who's a
Believer who stung the Kool-Aid already
come on what's your name
come on
okay we're gonna hook you up to some
complex social security device it's not
really sophisticated it's a temperature
measurement yeah I think that's actually
an interesting point right these are
just simple devices I think you've got
smart watches if you've got fitbits
you know we're talking about simple
biofeedback here
um
say hi
hi
my name is my name is Caitlin
um
let me say hello my name is hello
everybody my name is
have you all raise your right hand said
that you have not met Dr K before the
site will come
and no money was exchanged
so I want you to join join with us okay
10 21 okay so everybody sit comfortably
and if you don't mind
I want you to sit with your back
straight you know put your hands there
so you can feel the curl up there right
90 of good meditation is posture
and I learned that after 18 years of
meditation practice right so you guys
are lucky you guys are how many you've
been doing this the first time you're
doing meditation raise your hand
oh good lucky for you you're getting it
the right way good show okay
I want you to have
push your shoulders just a little bit
and then bring it to that right spot
shoulders are a big deal lower your
shoulders you know move it up and down
adjust the shoulder Stills comfortable
keep your palms open
you guys fall in here and I like that
they kept their feet flat on the ground
as much as possible that's a good thing
back not resting just straight as much
as possible
you can keep your eyes closed
or if you're like Jen and you don't like
to close your eyes lower your eyes and
look somewhere in the bottom like you
know don't take you just keep that there
okay
I want raise your hands if you can
visualize your breath coming in and out
Rodney and the Sun and everybody raise
your hand if you can visualize your
breathing so I know that
awesome keep an eye on where you're
starting by the way yeah
okay how many of you can feel your
breath
okay how many of you can feel your
breath kissing your lips upper lip
in and out
awesome now these are your Styles some
of you raise your hand multiple times
you're you're amazingly aware creatures
you can look down at other people who
can get really nonsense of the time
so first one is awareness that means
you're aware of the space around the
room
you can visualize the people around you
though your eyes are closed
you can feel the songs
awesome
raise your hands how many of you feel
some kind of relaxation somewhere raise
your hands
wow
it's a big group here so allow that
relaxation to grow
how do you think you can feel a sense of
joy
how you define joy as love or anything
like that or peace or whatever reasons
wow
these people have not been paid by me I
promise you that
and there's a part of your mind that's
chatting and saying what the hell is he
doing what are we going to do next allow
that part
don't have to force anything there
got the zero to ten I will actually feel
oh really eight
okay
so someone need
now why don't you just focus on the
breath
then I want you to go deeper in the
relaxation mode
and here's the key thing about
meditation meditation is not about
relaxation
it's not about getting into an orgasmic
state right it's about being aware of
your thoughts being aware of your
Sensations
you know put your put your power in your
heart
put upon your heart
and think of somebody you love
unconditionally
it could be your spouse boyfriend
girlfriend child grandparents anybody
it could be your pet dog
no cats because Dr K is Presidents
against cats
have a smile on your face and bless that
person
may you be happy and peaceful
may you be free from fear and suffering
may you live with loud and compassion
make you fully awakened and be free
may I be happy and peaceful
may I be free from fear and suffering
may Allah allow in compassion
we are fully awakened and be free
how many of you feel Joy as you do this
raise offense raise the other hand
awesome
now bless all the people in this room
acknowledge everybody suffers in this
room
send it out
maybe be happy and peaceful
maybe be free from Fear suffering
maybe a little bit loud and
compassionate
maybe fully awakened and be free
okay open your eyes stretch your hands
up
that's what I walk you through the very
traditional meditation it's called meta
meditation right you relax and then you
think good of other people and there's a
part of the brain that relaxes you right
so let's start first with uh Shannon
how's the experience it's good so what
do you like about it
um
like
does allow me to
let go a lot of just thinking about
everything how many of you think that
she's the only person who has trap in
her head
all of us do right we have a lot of
stuff in our head
and meditation is a powerful state of
letting go so that's awesome we're over
here it was also good
um I like the fact that it felt like my
mind went quieter than normal for a
while
that's the goal the goal is not to
switch it off right there are people who
can claim who claim that they can switch
off their thinking even having that
small pause right just being aware of
that makes a difference what about you
Rodney house
uh pretty relaxing yeah okay and what do
you do with your thoughts did you did
the thoughts come a lot of thoughts that
you were really trying to analyze every
um no I just kind of blanked out it was
kind of like I had a clean slate in my
mind and how did that make you feel uh
actually I forgot about all the bills or
anything
okay chronic Apostle these people thank
you
all right
thank you
what's the name of the devices by the
way okay look there's nothing but uh
thermometers
two thermometers and a pulse ox
right and and did you guys notice any
changes in your in your in your time she
went all the way to 31.0 yeah so so she
had a change she didn't have a change
and his post drop was about uh 15 beats
per uh
and here's the thing about biofeedback
devices right the focus for them is not
to say your team Nirvana it's just a
symptom of sewing you're doing your
practice correct that's not the end goal
the end goal is not relaxing and I'll
talk more about Enlightenment and
Awakening later on
so thanks MC Dr k
um move on so who
does anyone know what I'm sitting in
here
yeah there you go sensory deprivation
chamber so I just want to share a quick
story about the century deprivation
chamber so in this
uh you know I I want to call it a quest
it's more of just sort of investigating
interesting ideas and and things like
that in a biohacking space and also
being fairly interested in in some of
the stuff like what we just did here
um I decided to go try a sensory
deprivation chamber for those who you
who don't know it's a uh it's a big
box that's like a massive coffin
yeah exactly
it has like 800 pounds of uh Epsom salts
in it so the buoyancy is maxed out the
water is heated to a precise temperature
it's entirely blacked out and it's
entirely uh quiet
um and I will say if this sounds
interesting but you have claustrophobia
I would when I would say so
I'm not going to try to talk you into it
but I will say the concept that you're
in a thing
goes away very quickly because of all of
that lack of under of knowing what's
going on
um and
by the way so when I did this from a
scientific perspective I actually took a
cognitive test out in the parking lot
then I went in and did the uh sensory
deprivation and then I came out and
retook uh the same tests obviously
different questions and there was a
there was a significant increase in my
in my uh scores
very anecdotal but I thought it was an
interesting thing to do yeah
right yeah exactly so why do I bring
this up uh this is a
p-tech effectively or a methodology that
gets us to similar if not the same sorts
of States
um in fact there are stories of uh like
expert meditators uh uh I don't know
what you're calling but the folks that
have reached those enlightened States
and those those
more removed kind of Concepts that have
that they put into these tanks and um
their experiences have been off the
charts it's one of those things they
like I want one of these and I put it in
my house like it's it's a uh so clearly
that is uh halfway legitimate thing
right so what are some of the other
things uh breathing techniques so we did
some breathing here but there's all
sorts of different kinds of breathing
techniques there's some that are much
much more active of each one of the
techniques off the off of the top
there's hyperventilation and
hypoventilation Cycles I mean there's
there's uh uh what's the I forget what
it's called there's a there's a
breathing technique that's very active
that takes you to a hallucinogen state
so breathing is a big thing cold and
heat exposure you know sitting yourself
in a nice bath sitting yourself in a
sauna those are also the the types of
things that people use to get into
certain mind States
um nutrition nootropics
Pharmaceuticals psychedelics right those
are other things and these all at least
in some big way fall into the idea of
tech right things that were were using
that aren't meditation to try to achieve
the same sort of thing
sound and light and then we just did
some biofeedback right so biofeedback's
another one and another piece of
biofeedback that we you didn't see is
you know like the uh brain waves uh
yes thank you the brainwave the
brainwave uh monitoring and and those
are used and she and she can tell you
right those are used in many ways not
not the least of which is is trying to
find certain States
okay now I want to move on has anyone
here
heard of tdcs
tdcs nice so
the reason I bring this up and I'm going
to tell you what it is here in a second
so we just talked about biofeedback
which is sort of a monitoring of your
body's uh condition but what if you
could actively
influence
parts of your body and in this case
we're talking about the brain but you
could do that right
so let's talk about cdcs tdcs stands for
transcranial direct current stimulation
and it's an it's a really interesting
concept because it's got an interesting
history it is actually being used
clinically
um and uh for all kinds of things a lot
of people that have uh challenges and
they're they're trying to like relearn
how to do things uh I think they've
they're doing ADHD actually and uh DARPA
has used tdcs to
um uh they tried to use tdcs to to
enhance their snipers effectiveness
and if you're interested in that that's
really interesting because it looks like
it was significantly enhanced their
sniper's ability to do what snipers do
um but the other thing about tdcs is
it's relatively low Tech
low barrier entry
low risk and will expound on that
greatly here in a minute uh low risk and
and I mean you can build a tdcs device
or you can find one for low cost and in
fact I believe there are commercial
like not clinical but commercial ones
that you can buy so it's already kind of
finding its way into the commercial
space I bring that up because
uh tdcs is one of those things that had
a biohacker person
um I've gotten into I've got uh Jen's
gotten into and uh
so we've done some tdcs uh investigation
we've done we've done a couple of talks
where we talked more deeply about tdcs
and uh how to use it and giving people
you know where what it is and all that
kind of stuff and in one of those
uh talks we met Dr k
and I'm going to let Dr K actually take
over and and tell tell a story about
about that
it's 2019 right 2019 like bethcon was
then Defcon and I've been teaching
meditation
for you know 15 years at that point
I like his phone right most of you about
70 percent of you right got that
experience right away but you felt that
but the problem is if you don't practice
it regularly that skill dies right
but with some of my students it's like
riding a bicycle
once they get that experience they're
able to recreate it and that's the word
I use Awakening right Enlightenment I'm
not going there that's that's too
highball stuff for me
Awakening is different
we all can experience our waiting how
many of you were in a rotten
relationship and One Fine Day the bulk
went on
right
that's that's Awakening
what is it when you were struggling with
a tough problem and that happened right
and meditation is nothing bad starting
to observe your thoughts thoughts
thoughts to the point you realize ah
it's not me
it's my head it's my mind it's my
thoughts and I'm not my freaking
thoughts okay and it's a practice it is
a practice and so I did this right so I
did this for all this so I went to
Defcon the typical cyber security guy
looking at cyber security stuff and I
saw bioback hiking Village and I
literally thought biohacking blade I had
to do something with drugs and stuff
like that right
and I saw these this tdcs and I had
never heard of tvcs before that time I
went and it was the end of the workshop
but I met Jan and Jen was kind enough to
give me a tip and she's going to talk
about that kid
and I you know what happens after a
Defcon right you have all these good
intentions and nothing gets done and
then a month later I saw that kid and I
put it together and then I tested it up
I just blew my mind literally
I wasn't that stage the moment I felt
the circuit in I was that state that
takes me 15-20 minutes to get there
I said okay this must be you know just
the great food my wife cooked for me
because that's right eating is an
orgasmic experience I don't know about
you guys but for me
and so I did it again boom it came there
right and then I started looking at
literature and there are prescriptions
available for pdcs devices for anxiety
so then I called them up and we were
planning to come two years ago and do
the stock and so you are looking at two
years worth of stuff
and now I'm going to rain on everyone's
parade with the skeptic point of view no
um but reasonably so let me just talk
about tdcs a little bit
um so essentially as you heard if
using a nine volt battery to enhance the
way that your neurons fighter it's not
going to fire things that aren't firing
it's just going to enhance that or
depress that if that's your goal now
let's start with just a little bit of
History this is a torpedo fish one day
hundreds of years ago a guy accidentally
stepped on it and said well my goat is
gone I feel better
um you would think that that would be
you know something that just happens but
no people kept in they would take the
torpedo fish which has an electrical
charge
put it against their forehead to get rid
of headaches
Aristotle Plato played around with the
torpedo fish then we have a whole bunch
of History where people were playing
with electricity and ways they probably
shouldn't have
electrifying frogs dead frogs electric
dead people with currents with fish like
this with electric eels we're weird
human beings are really weird but this
is how we advance science right with
technology and the advanced and we
create batteries now so what happens is
this technology starts incorporating
into
real medicine so we take this anecdotal
information stepping on a torpedo fish
cures your gout or makes you feel better
can we validate that can we look at that
and see if that's really working what is
happening so I want to talk about how
it's used now in the medical community
and I want to also point out that the
medical community the clinical
experimentation studies are driven by
people who have their own incentives the
pharmaceutical companies the um the
grant funding of they want to make money
essentially
so I want to point out the role of
hackers and citizen science because this
is something I'm very passionate about
we are not pharmaceutical companies we
don't care about the same things
we care about how it's going to help us
specifically
so Dr K believes that TCS can help with
Enlightenment and meditation
all right great let's take the anecdotal
evidence go back to Middle School where
we learned about the scientific method
and apply it and see what we can find
out turn it into something that we can
can examine and really look into this is
really important because the hacker
mentality is critical here we are such
Brilliant Minds in this room where we
can think of different things to to test
that the medical community is not going
to tell us so I'm battling now just to
be clear just to be clear that's a lot
of words to say Dr K you're full of crap
I didn't want to say it but no
so yeah let's examine that I'm not going
to go over the scientific method but I
I'm a doctoral candidate right now I
can't just say I think it works because
it worked for me I have to prove exactly
why it works and we do that by trying to
prove that it doesn't work
so before we go into the meat of this I
want to talk about some safety yeah I
think because we might be a little bit
out of order but that's fine but you
know safety is important it's always an
afterthought but let's just talk about
it real quick
it's an angle battery is not going to
kill you
unless you're a dumbass don't be a
dumbass you will win a Darwin Award such
as a a Navy Navy sailor when to take a
multimeter plugged it into his body I
don't know if you know this or not but
um internal resistance we are meat sacks
of liquid salts and that's conductive if
you're using a 9 volt battery outside of
your body it's not going to kill you
inside your body it's going to kill you
so if you're using a tdcs device
don't inject it into your body don't
don't put probes into your body this is
external only
don't be a dummy some side effects It's
relatively safe you might want to you
know ask your doctor before doing it if
you have epilepsy or um you know
that but don't be a dumber essentially
when I'm from using Okay so
we have this concept with tdcs that it
might be able to enhance cognitive
performance in
and
we had this Theory so what we did
scientific method citizen scientists
tried to disprove this can we show that
it doesn't enhance cognitive performance
so we did a study and what you're
looking at here is our evidence that
maybe it it is applicable to enhancing
cognitive performance and we have
statistically significantly shown that
it did in our study this is a small
study but it pushes science forward it
uses technology it uses our own research
so others can repeat it others can try
to repudiate it now putting this all
together
Dr Kate believes tdcs can enhance my
best
so let's talk about that we're taking a
scientific approach
to
telling him he's wrong exactly exactly
so I did want to jump back really quick
to a point you made about uh like the
current state of clinical use of this
technology
um it's it's I think it's fairly well
established it's uh legitimacy I think
there's it's not why you use there are
definitely some uh some docs that are uh
really fans of it and there are people
that that poo poo it and just under
that's understandable right but but back
to
when would you expect to see a clinical
use of this to enhance meditation well
it's never going to come from the big
clinics because they're trying number
one they're trying to solve real problem
like real problems uh number two there's
no money in making making you feel
better uh through meditation and so you
might at some point in the game you
might start seeing commercial
applications you might see uh consumer
versions of it out there that make these
claims
um but do they have any sort of signs to
back it up not at this point at least
and that's what we're that's what we're
uh interested in doing so we've crafted
a study
it's uh uh you know we're with the
intent to approach uh scientific as much
scientific rigor as we can apply to it
and and noting the
um elements where it's not entirely uh
as as perfect as it could be because
we're not we're not scientists we're not
in a clinic or you know um so this is a
self-administered uh uh like
questionnaire program it's a
self-administered program self uh uh the
data is compiled by by the folks that
are that are doing the study
um and then at the end of it obviously
we'll bring it all together and see what
and see what we find out
um and that's pretty much all there is
to it I guess what I would say is part
of the reason we're talking about it is
we're looking for folks that are
interested in doing that
um there's a guy right here so there we
go yeah um and and what I'll say about
the device so um there's multiple ways
in which you can make uh find get we
have some I'm not trying to be a
Salesman necessarily but we have
somebody who would sell you
um we can also there's uh we've got a
website that uh talks about how to build
one there's other resources of people
that have built them
um uh and I think that's mostly how I
need to do is say
achieving homes through homes that's a
pretty cool study yeah
and by the way
you listen there's no hypothesis yet
here but I think I mean I think you
understand what the hypothesis is like
I think is wrong yeah that's a pretty
much what that I promise it's going to
be and then see if we can prove that uh
to the contrary so
um we'd like to get people that are
interested in doing it we're going to do
it ourselves uh as as subjects um but
the more folks obviously we can get
involved the bigger the the data set uh
the more interesting interesting the
results obviously
um and
how how do you get involved it's really
going to come down to uh reaching out to
us we uh there's QR codes and links for
the websites
um and yeah please take a picture of
this if you want to contact us Hey
Thomas it's not Melvin yeah if you go to
that website and send me an email I'll
send you a bunch of meditations that's
my promises
um no just I want to emphasize because
we're gonna we're gonna take some
questions but there's still a section
left after questions so I want to
emphasize you in this room have the
chance to advance the scoring
scientifically as Citizens as hackers as
citizen scientists so I'm excited to
have this community be a part of that
yeah so we're going to open up for
questions for a little bit but also
stick around because as prep for the
next talk uh we're going to do one more
of Dr K's uh this is the energizing
exercises to try you know get yourself
prepared for the rest of the day so
anyone have any questions questions yes
sir what was the sample size
so the sample size was two people but
the the time was
several weeks there were enough data
points to be able to show it
statistically significant but it wasn't
n equals to study which is something
that is interesting enough to have
others repeat it in a larger space it's
not definitive
I would not go and tell somebody that we
we proved something solidly this is just
a way to say this is interesting maybe
we should do not work
any other questions
did that answer your question yeah okay
great
okay
just real quick I know we we had the
three archetypes the believer the secret
is skeptic as you go through this next
short phase here before the rest of the
conference
um try to be open to all three of those
and analyze it from contractors when I
said a skeptic mindset
there we go
okay so here I'm gonna play the other
side right meditation always is about
chilling out and relaxing and come out
of a stressful day I got
a confession to make
from I
tend to have panic attacks and anxiety
attacks right
I'm scared of heights
and what did I do I lost one I was in
Florida I went to a lighthouse
200 steps right I walked to the first
hundred steps
and I have an anxiety attack
right brain does only two things and
it's on a pairing attack
fight or free
meditation offers us the Third
I stood for a few minutes and I'm going
to teach you the same breathing exercise
and this isn't that page if you go to my
blog it'll be there it's called
okay
it's called beating test anxiety it's
beating anxiety
okay here's the magic thing that people
don't tell us there's a difference
between emotions and feelings okay go
back put this together put your fist
together again
this is your brain put it together help
me you Mommy here because it's gonna
help you later
this comes is our Olympic system
emotions come here when you are anxiety
it's real your body injects all kinds of
chemicals in your body and you feel that
for me when I was with that 200 100 step
my heart was beating I could feel that
heartbeat and my body was telling me run
back you sucker you're gonna die when
you reach the top right and all I did
was and this is the magic right
for two minutes
that's all you can use your watch two
minutes I Stood Still
and I washed my dreams
okay and there's a particular style of
breathing that's being made Popular by
Navy Seals there are two kinds one is
called the Box breathing and one is
called the 4-6 breathing so I want you
all to put your palms in your belly
and just follow that cycle inhale
exhale
[Music]
I'm going to do this just for one minute
and the goal is not to feel relaxed the
goal is to be aware of your body
[Music]
pretty easy to follow right anybody have
trouble following those instructions
okay so that's one minute how many of
you feel relaxed already raise your
hands
okay about 25 percent of you right I
want all of you to stand up now
okay how many of you deal with anxiety
and depression some sort raise your
hands
almost all of us right Michelle bounce
you deal with that so go ahead
so next time you do this right and
you're in the middle of the meeting with
your boss you're having an anxiety
attack say hey I gotta do this Dr Keith
taught me this is that deal okay put
your put your inhalation finger okay
inhale
long exhale through blow like you're
blowing your candle
inhale fast inhale
exhale
now remember the blowing through the
mouth along is very important part okay
that's what triggers that relaxation
okay one more time inhale
inhale
exhale long exhale
inhale
exhale
so this is the key right the nice thing
about this is you can learn it fairly
quickly and you don't have to be perfect
the only thing you have to remember is
to inhale through your nose fairly
rapidly
and exhale glowing like a candle but
slow and long
that's the easiest one you can do can
you find him can you put this app in
your phone absolutely now how do I use
this right I get test anxiety right and
I'm doing my cssp or all that right so
when I practice my quiz every 20
questions I do a two minute break
and if you have done
CISD or any other exam
if you keep a good face you can reach
those 150 questions and whatever your
time is it
Here's the Clincher for you I'm not
promising all of you I got my CRS be
done in 100 questions
right and I think 25 percent loss I was
calmer than other people thanks to panic
right so this is the key thing so what
we're going to do is just five breaths
each they're going to do cycles of five
breaths you got two minutes to go okay
we'll get this done in two minutes how's
that okay so inhale exhale sit
comfortably
feedback of and we're gonna get done in
two minutes
so first breath cycle focus on your body
if there's any sense of anxiety Breathe
It Up
hold
inhale
hold and you don't have to be perfect
with this this is called a box spring
this is what the name seems use it
okay the next five Cycles just focus on
your breath
five Cycles just focus on your breath
have thoughts coming just let them go
if you want to do this in your with your
eyes closed you can just use it four
times yeah you can use
the eyes
now the last five Cycles I want you to
pick out the word that you want
confidence
compassion whatever you want
to pick that
and literally inhale those stripes
yeah
and this is all you're doing with this
exercise is that whatever that anxiety
attacks that's emotion right
you give it two minutes to dissipate
and then you put in you examine your
feet
and that's Darren please come by and say
hello to us
[Applause]
come on
here
[Music]
thank you