Meditation and Technology with Robert Alexander

source: New Thinking Allowed    2016年7月9日
Robert Alexander, PhD, is a Sonification Specialist with the Solar Heliospheric Research Group at the University of Michigan, where he is currently a director and chief innovation officer. As a NASA JPFP fellow, he works with scientists at Goddard Space Flight Center to uncover new features in the solar wind through auditory analysis. Using this novel approach, his collaborative team produced the most sensitive diagnostic of the electron temperature in the solar wind source region. For this research, Alexander received an Outstanding Achievement award from the International Community on Auditory Display, and his work has received support from organizations such as Yahoo!, the Rackham Graduate School, and NASA. He has constructed software interfaces for sonifying data from a wide range of sources including the human genome, real-time EEG data streams, weather patterns, celestial orbits, and binary-star systems. As a multimedia artist, musician, and composer, Alexander has performed at venues such as the Metropolitan Museum and the Detroit Institute of Arts, as well international stages in Europe and South America.
Here he describes his work inducing meditative states utilizing an approach that combines sound and music with biofeedback measurements. In particular, he focuses on the breathing rates of his participants. As a scientist and a composer, he has learned how to associate different sounds, and combinations of sounds, with different states of consciousness.
New Thinking Allowed host, Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD, is author of The Roots of Consciousness, Psi Development Systems, and The PK Man. Between 1986 and 2002 he hosted and co-produced the original Thinking Allowed public television series. He is the recipient of the only doctoral diploma in "parapsychology" ever awarded by an accredited university (University of California, Berkeley, 1980). His master's degree is in criminology. He has served as vice-president of the Association for Humanistic Psychology, and is the recipient of its Pathfinder Award for outstanding contributions to the field of human consciousness. He is also past-president of the non-profit Intuition Network, an organization dedicated to creating a world in which all people are encouraged to cultivate and apply their inner, intuitive abilities.
(Recorded on May 2, 2016)