Charging the brainstem to alleviate different neurological syndromes

[wegge]

Here´s an article about a device called PoNS:

http://www.heliusmedical.com/divisions/neurohabilitation/pons-device
(yes the army jumped on the wagon)

This device is charging the brainstem through stimulation of the tongue and thus is able to help people with a plethora of different neurological symptoms.

I found out about this device from this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Brains-Way-Healing-Discoveries-Neuroplasticity/dp/067002550X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1429914109&sr=8-1&keywords=norman+doidge

there are lots of stories from people who used this device and other neuroplastic modalities and they are all nothing short of amazing.

[lucidity]

Hey Wegge,

This looks genuinely interesting... Thank you for posting this.

Could i ask you a favour ?
Would you be so kind as to summarise the topic for us, please?
How does it work ?
What kinds of things is it good for ?
What's the theory behind how it works or why it works ?
Does it work for normal, healthy individuals as well as those who are not normal/healthy ?
What kind of results have been witnessed so far ?
What kind of results could an average member of Avalon expect ?

Thanks for your help... have a nice weekend :-)

be happy

lucidity

[Flash]

This is an apparatus sold by Helius, that stimulate the central nervous system through the tongue electrical stimulation going to the brain stem. And nevers/neurons grow in the required place, if injured or deficient.

I would very much like to know who owns Helius and who is behind it, the reason being that scarring of the brain stem is one of the techniques used by MK Ultra to enhance abilities of subjects that will become their patsy.

There is positive applications of these techniques like everything else, and I truly believed it could help many. I also believe it could enhance everyone intelligence and abilities (as done with MK Ultra)

The problem arise when it is wrongly applied for wrong motives.

However, it tells us how much much more advance these technologies are in reality. Scarring of the brain stem was happening in the sixties maybe the seventees.

So I bet that now, no scars are apparent or needed to train MK Ultra spies/super soldiers/presidential prostitutes, etc.

Very interesting indeed

[lucidity]

Hello siblings,

here's some videos from youtube on pons:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy6m8T8hBIE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QqSxFqBnMA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtAUlO6vqBo

The essential idea goes like this:
1) That there are are lots of nerve connections from your tongue
to the brain-stem area of your brain (the part of your brain behind your tongue).
2) Stimulation of your brain-stem enhances neural plasticity (increases learning potential)

That's the top and bottom of it.

I'm left wondering:
Why does it enhance learning ?
Is it simply enhancing your arousal level ?
Would i get the same effect from a strong coffee, or a tablet of amphetamine ? Or a brisk walk ?
Why use a pons device?
... why not stick a multi-speed electric toothbrush on your tongue ?

My scepticism receded a little when I heard that the US Army are using it to treat brain trauma patients

But is this really true ?

So i went in search of evidence of this... and found it:
http://defensetech.org/2013/02/15/tongue-to-brain-sensory-device-a-potential-tbi-treatment/
http://www.army.mil/article/96521/

In the articles they claim that the device was in trials during Feb. 2013.
Where are the data from those trials ?
So they tested it... but did it work ?

In my considered opinion.. this is worth a closer look.

But consider the implications:
If it's really just down to stimulation of the tongue,
then perhaps chewing gum chewers are smarter than non-gum chewers.

Putting this big electronic tongue stimulator gizmo in your mouth
doesn't seem very user friendly to me.
Why not devise a tiny vibrator .. something about the size of a coffee bean...
and pop that in your mouth .. and keep it there all day.... maybe jump an IQ point by the end of the week.
Or... if it comes to that... find a pencil-thin sexual vibrator (unused, preferably) and pop that in your mouth.

One issue here is that the PoNS device is using an electrical stimulation rather than vibrational stimulation.
However, why should that matter ? By the time the stimulation reaches the brain it will be a regular
nerve impulse not the electricity generated by the machine.
There might however, be an issue with the frequency of nerve impulses reaching the brain.
So... imagining a variable speed vibrator... with a switch controlling the vibration frequency from
1 to 5 (of some arbitrary units) .. it might be that setting 1 works not so well, setting 2 works
better, setting 3 is perfect, setting 4 is not so good and setting 5 is counter productive.

If the US Army, or other institutions, begin using this device (or it's variants) beyond
the trial stage... then that would be highly suggestive of it's efficacy.

be happy

lucidity :-)

[Agape]

The essential idea goes like this:
1) That there are are lots of nerve connections from your tongue
to the brain-stem area of your brain (the part of your brain behind your tongue).
2) Stimulation of your brain-stem enhances neural plasticity (increases learning potential)

That's the top and bottom of it.

I'm left wondering:
Why does it enhance learning ?
Is it simply enhancing your arousal level ?
Would i get the same effect from a strong coffee, or a tablet of amphetamine ? Or a brisk walk ?
Why use a pons device?
... why not stick a multi-speed electric toothbrush on your tongue ?

My scepticism receded a little when I heard that the US Army are using it to treat brain trauma patients

But is this really true ?




I suppose this sort of 'neural stimulation' works similarly as when you tickle babies feet and they laugh :bigsmile:

In fact , you can't bring up healthy baby without touches .. nor shouldn't you unless you want to cause the baby serious developmental disorder .

It's been shown many times what's the impact of love and affection on forming happy personality, any time in life .. moreso in early childhood .

It's human touches that are responsible for developing the most essential grips and instincts and motor responses that we can go with for the rest of our life .
It's been also shown how children brought up by animals or in environment devoid of human response were delayed both in their motor and intellectual/emotional development .

What a surprise that we remain dependant on whole array of neural stimuli through out our life ,
people keep craving for them in fact : whether it's sounds ( music , speech , signals ) , touches ( contact ) or visual sceneries , what about tastes and chemical components of food ( coffee ) as you suggested ,
it all providing 'excitation display' , learning curve , rollercoaster ride , depending on how strong you are built ,

what your motivations are ..and how fast you're spending your reserves .

In general I'd say : do I believe in neural stimulation : yes completely but it is like what they called in old scriptures 'walking the silver thread' ( or any other thread ) .
It's your life-line .

If you overstimulate yourself or cause yourself injury , the pain resulting from this is worse than many other kinds of pain and it lasts long .
This is one reason why there was such a strong warranty and warning on certain 'meditation practices' that perhaps promised 'fast way to enlightenment' or 'special powers' but when you come to contact with the 'power' ,

the scenery changes for you dramatically .. and you're in danger of causing yourself injuries .

I'd say : the same may be true for many modern psycho- and neuro- stimulation devices that include various 'mind enhancing software' , and virtual reality of games - for example - where many players become trapped and addicted to the stimulation and suffer all kinds of consequences.


:flower:

[Flash]

Agape: If you overstimulate yourself or cause yourself injury , the pain resulting from this is worse than many other kinds of pain and it lasts long

You are right, I read it and heard it again and again for those who were trying to have the Kundalini rise through specific exercises. You may become so imbalanced that you are in fact crazy.

Also, it is through injury, controlled injury, that MK ULtra and some agencies enhance the faculties of their personnel. When they miss (too much or the wrong way) it seems that the children they used died or got brain damage, therefore were abnormal for the rest of their life. I always Wonder how many Turrets syndrome or how many autistic children were the result of such overstimulation of the brain (not that much probably, but yet a sufficient number, mostly since the entrainment is now without a trace it seems). Most probably that EMF are used for this as well, on larger populations, coupled with advertising, television or web videos, school curriculum, computer usage and video spying, astral control (in dream time for example), name it.

It is such a shame that these technologies could be misused of create havoc as well, because when well used, they can create miracles for people in need, and most probably slightly enhance the general population intelligence without the negative impact.

I just wish we had similar device to enhance emotional intelligence of the average person as well. Because brain intelligence without emotional intelligence does lead to psychopaths taking over and controlling societies.


Lucidity: But consider the implications:
If it's really just down to stimulation of the tongue,
then perhaps chewing gum chewers are smarter than non-gum chewers.


Bingo! It is known that chewing gum will help your brain concentrate better (getting smarter, not sure). It may have to do with the process of thinking alone, or with the salivation provoking more electrical impulse on the tongue and therefore connecting to the brain, I do not know.

What I know is that in special schools where children are Learning disabled BUT OF REGULAR INTELLIGENCE (not mentally disabled), they tell them to chew gum when in need to concentrate of in exams.

What I know also, is that if you put your index on your tumb and rub them together, it helps to concentrate as well (i often rub major and index fingers on the tumb), the thoughts get clearer.


Lucidity: There might however, be an issue with the frequency of nerve impulses reaching the brain.

I would think that electrical impulse needed to allow repair of brain nerves and neurons must be quite strong and steady, also it may have to have specific electrical modulations depending on the damage and the areas targetted. Vibrational Tools would not be precise enough I bet. However, a good idea for general enhancement.

[Flash]

Hey Wegge,

This looks genuinely interesting... Thank you for posting this.

Could i ask you a favour ?
Would you be so kind as to summarise the topic for us, please?
How does it work ?
What kinds of things is it good for ?
What's the theory behind how it works or why it works ?
Does it work for normal, healthy individuals as well as those who are not normal/healthy ?
What kind of results have been witnessed so far ?
What kind of results could an average member of Avalon expect ?

Thanks for your help... have a nice weekend :-)

be happy

lucidity

Those are very interesting questions. There is already a lot of research on using electrical stimulation for repairing nerve damages and brain damage.
Some nerves on the tongue are in direct contact with the brain stem nerves, therefore a more direct approach and having to use needles and submit the patient to pain if his nerve are still sensitive.

Studies are undergoing at the University of Montréal on using electrical impulse to induce a specific sleep wavelenght that are helpful for integrating Learnings (what has been learned during the day). It is tested on older people actually, to reduce their loss in Learning abilities or increase it, since a reduction in these sleep patterns has been noticed in old people.

It is certainly good for nerves shattered in accidents, ACVs (strokes) repair of brain functions/neurons, motor skills improvements (for sport) building muscle by stimulating the nerves beneath them, etc.

Does it work for healthy individual? I do not know, I presume that enhancements are slowlier if healthy.But hey, although I have an interest in these, I am not an expert.

[lucidity]

The essential idea goes like this:
1) That there are are lots of nerve connections from your tongue
to the brain-stem area of your brain (the part of your brain behind your tongue).
2) Stimulation of your brain-stem enhances neural plasticity (increases learning potential)

That's the top and bottom of it.

I'm left wondering:
Why does it enhance learning ?
Is it simply enhancing your arousal level ?
Would i get the same effect from a strong coffee, or a tablet of amphetamine ? Or a brisk walk ?
Why use a pons device?
... why not stick a multi-speed electric toothbrush on your tongue ?

My scepticism receded a little when I heard that the US Army are using it to treat brain trauma patients

But is this really true ?




I suppose this sort of 'neural stimulation' works similarly as when you tickle babies feet and they laugh :bigsmile:

In fact , you can't bring up healthy baby without touches .. nor shouldn't you unless you want to cause the baby serious developmental disorder .

It's been shown many times what's the impact of love and affection on forming happy personality, any time in life .. moreso in early childhood .

It's human touches that are responsible for developing the most essential grips and instincts and motor responses that we can go with for the rest of our life .
It's been also shown how children brought up by animals or in environment devoid of human response were delayed both in their motor and intellectual/emotional development .

What a surprise that we remain dependant on whole array of neural stimuli through out our life ,
people keep craving for them in fact : whether it's sounds ( music , speech , signals ) , touches ( contact ) or visual sceneries , what about tastes and chemical components of food ( coffee ) as you suggested ,
it all providing 'excitation display' , learning curve , rollercoaster ride , depending on how strong you are built ,

what your motivations are ..and how fast you're spending your reserves .

In general I'd say : do I believe in neural stimulation : yes completely but it is like what they called in old scriptures 'walking the silver thread' ( or any other thread ) .
It's your life-line .

If you overstimulate yourself or cause yourself injury , the pain resulting from this is worse than many other kinds of pain and it lasts long .
This is one reason why there was such a strong warranty and warning on certain 'meditation practices' that perhaps promised 'fast way to enlightenment' or 'special powers' but when you come to contact with the 'power' ,

the scenery changes for you dramatically .. and you're in danger of causing yourself injuries .

I'd say : the same may be true for many modern psycho- and neuro- stimulation devices that include various 'mind enhancing software' , and virtual reality of games - for example - where many players become trapped and addicted to the stimulation and suffer all kinds of consequences.

:flower:

some good points there Agape. :-)

[lucidity]

Hello Siblings,

another thought... i wonder ...
How might this stuff work with meditation ?

So far no one has shown that it improves intellectual functioning (correct me if i'm wrong on this)
So far, as far as i know, it's been used to help people regain non-intellectual cognitive
functioning ... balance, walking, running, posture.

So i wonder, could meditation be facilitated with PoNS ?
Hit that kundalini sweet spot in 6 months.. not 16 years ?
Get to transcendental feelings of bliss / serenity in some fraction of the time.
Develop psycho-kinetic powers 'a la' John Chang (The Magus of Java)
etc.. etc..

so... Where can i buy one? :-)

be happy

lucidity :-)

[wegge]

The phases outlined in the book for neuroplasticity are four: Neuromodulation (descriminating sympathicus/parasympathicus action) Neurorelaxation, Neurostimulation, Differentiation (like getting aware of doing small movements with your eye muscles for example)

so it´s not about just blind stimulation till it´s making ding dong in your head you have to try to get these phases into a kind of active balance I guess.

So maybe the thread title was a bit misleading.

[wegge]

ah and one hypothesis they propose in the book is the thing is powering up the interferons which can either increase or decrease neuronal and synaptic activity and kind of leads the brain back to homeostasis

[lucidity]

ah and one hypothesis they propose in the book is the thing is powering up the interferons which can either increase or decrease neuronal and synaptic activity and kind of leads the brain back to homeostasis

Wie geht's Wegge ?

I've ordered the book you mentioned above... looks interesting.

I guess you don't mean 'interferons'... perhaps you mean 'neurons' ?
When i look up interferon i get this on wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interferon

Vielle Grüße

sei glücklich

lucidity :-)

[wegge]

hallo! yes sure it´s not interferons thanks :)
interneurons

liebe grüße

[lucidity]

Hello Siblings,

Here is an alternative explanation for the effect of the PoNS device that does
not (necessarily) involve boosting the generic learning potential of users.

It goes like this...

The Cerebellum is an ancient area of brain, at the very back of the head where the neck
connects to the head. See this wikipedia page to get an idea of what it is and where it is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebellum

In the words of the wikipedia page:


Cerebellar damage produces disorders in fine movement, equilibrium, posture, and motor learning.


The nerves from the tongue connect directly into the brain stem in an area that's referred to
as the 'pons'. I'll bet it's no co-incidence that the device is also called PoNS. This area
connects directly into the cerebellum. And stimulation of this area activates the cerebellum
(as well as other areas of the brain).

And what's been reported so far with MS suffers is consistent with increased learning of
cerebellum type functionality. So this could be the simplest and most direct explanation
of what's going on.... think Occam's Razor.

But wait... there's more...

There are mysterious abilities associated with the Cerebellum that aren't currently well
understood. For example, it turns out, if you examine the brains of Autistic people
and compare them with the brains of regular people... the most striking and obvious
difference is that Autistic people have smaller or underdeveloped cerebellums.
Why would this be so ? We don't know.

But the fact that this is so... . suggests... that someone should start a research project
using the device with Autistic subjects. One theory of Autism suggests that they lack
a 'theory of mind' .... for other people in their social world. In other words, they don't
conjure up theories of others' intentions and don't empathise with others' emotions
the way regular folks do (or rather.... the way regular folks should).

If you provided Autistic subjects with sufficient exposure to this device...
would they gain a 'theory of mind' ?
This _assumes_ that you can accelerate the development of the cerebellum with this device.
i.e. your cerebellum on steroids.

There's also this additional intriguing hypothesis...
what happens if you put a normal person on this device ...
Will it boost their perception of others' intentions and emotions,
i.e... will their emotional IQ be boosted ?

All very, very interesting stuff.

Where can i get one ?

be happy

lucidity :-)

[Flash]

Hello Siblings,

Here is an alternative explanation for the effect of the PoNS device that does
not (necessarily) involve boosting the generic learning potential of users.

It goes like this...

The Cerebellum is an ancient area of brain, at the very back of the head where the neck
connects to the head. See this wikipedia page to get an idea of what it is and where it is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebellum

In the words of the wikipedia page:


Cerebellar damage produces disorders in fine movement, equilibrium, posture, and motor learning.


The nerves from the tongue connect directly into the brain stem in an area that's referred to
as the 'pons'. I'll bet it's no co-incidence that the device is also called PoNS. This area
connects directly into the cerebellum. And stimulation of this area activates the cerebellum
(as well as other areas of the brain).

And what's been reported so far with MS suffers is consistent with increased learning of
cerebellum type functionality. So this could be the simplest and most direct explanation
of what's going on.... think Occam's Razor.

But wait... there's more...

There are mysterious abilities associated with the Cerebellum that aren't currently well
understood. For example, it turns out, if you examine the brains of Autistic people
and compare them with the brains of regular people... the most striking and obvious
difference is that Autistic people have smaller or underdeveloped cerebellums.
Why would this be so ? We don't know.

But the fact that this is so... . suggests... that someone should start a research project
using the device with Autistic subjects. One theory of Autism suggests that they lack
a 'theory of mind' .... for other people in their social world. In other words, they don't
conjure up theories of others' intentions and don't empathise with others' emotions
the way regular folks do (or rather.... the way regular folks should).

If you provided Autistic subjects with sufficient exposure to this device...
would they gain a 'theory of mind' ?
This _assumes_ that you can accelerate the development of the cerebellum with this device.
i.e. your cerebellum on steroids.

There's also this additional intriguing hypothesis...
what happens if you put a normal person on this device ...
Will it boost their perception of others' intentions and emotions,
i.e... will their emotional IQ be boosted ?

All very, very interesting stuff.

Where can i get one ?

be happy

lucidity :-)

Wow, i love your post

To add to it:

Some autistic children also lack mirror neurons, which are the neurons we use for imitations and social skills. So there might be a combined effect here.

Also, MK Ultra specialists mention scarring of the cerebellum in the old ways of training super soldiers or ultra spies or Monarch slaves (women usually, serving as spies and high level prostitutes).

This would mean that in one side, you can have someone split its personnality with cerebellum scarring and other techniques and in the other side, you could enhance many physiological functions such as incredible memory, muscle coordination enhancement, etc etc. So my bet is that YES you can enhance normal people abilities with it.

I also understand why in the new cabal trainees, there would be no obvious scars of the cerebellum. Instead of being scarred though a needed, it would be through electro magnetic ways now, so no traces.

The hidden research projects have been on for a very long time. It is old technologies getting into the public eyes.

[lucidity]

Hello Siblings,

here's some recent pilot data results for PoNS.

http://postimg.org/image/bwr67zzwb/

http://postimg.org/image/bwr67zzwb/

Whereas some of the initial videos on PoNS were suggesting miraculous
results in a few days, or a few weeks, this data is showing a different
(and presumably more representative) story.

The pilot involved 20 subjects.
One group of 10 subjects did the training with the device,
Another group of 10 subjects did the training with a 'decoy'
device that didn't do anything.
Clearly the differences in the results between the two groups is
(assuming the groups are essentially equivalent) the effect
of the PoNS device.

As the graph shows, it took 10 weeks for a statistically significant
result to show up between the two groups (that what the asterix means).
it took 14 weeks (3 months) before a 'highly' significant result appears.
(This is indicated by the double asterixes)
But that looks as if that's aided by a slight deterioration in the performance
of the control condition... MS.. is a progressive condition... patients get worse over time.

Why the difference in the story told by the videos telling us about miraculous cures
in a few days/weeks ... versus... the pilot study data saying progress in 3 months ?
Who benefits ? It wouldn't surprise me to learn that there is a medical equipment company
or a pharmaceutical company sponsoring this research... and that they've also sponsored the
production of the videos. Which would make the videos simply marketing lies.

Whilst reading this i kept thinking. But this is ridiculous !!
We KNOW that MS is sent into remission by the paleodiet.
Anyone seeking confirmation of this is recommended to search google and youtube
for 'Terry Wahls MS' and 'Lorence Cordain MS' and 'Paleodiet and MS'

Why isn't every MS suffer automatically ordered onto the paleodiet by their doctors ?

for the full article see here:
http://www.jneuroengrehab.com/content/11/1/79

be happy

lucidity :-)

[wegge]

In the book he describes that you can have immediate effects after a few days/session but you need to continually keep working with the device. After 1.5-2 years of continual practice for some conditions it´s possible to stop the training and still have the effect with you long term.

[Flash]

In the book he describes that you can have immediate effects after a few days/session but you need to continually keep working with the device. After 1.5-2 years of continual practice for some conditions it´s possible to stop the training and still have the effect with you long term.

Changing ingrained neuronal pathways or creating new ones does take that much time, the brain has to build the paths and get the material (new neurons). Then practice makes it, reinforcing the weak new neuronal pathways. So yes, 2 years is probably right. Without technologies, it may never happen or take 10 years you see.

[lucidity]

Hello Siblings,

for some reason, my mind keeps coming back to this thread...

I wonder if this could be used to increase childrens learning speed of ... say.. table tennis, or juggling... or playing the piano.
fine motor coordination type learning.
I wonder if you could learn to write with your left hand in half the time... (assuming you are right handed)

where can i buy one of these wonderful gadgets ?

be happy

lucidity