Bio-feedback: Thoughts on Tools for the Work
How Tools Temper Imagination and Delusions: Newsletter and stuff, 27 Jan 2024
I was informed recently that I snore. So, to test what I felt strongly at the time to be a baseless and false assertion, I downloaded a snoring app to track how bad it really was. Unfortunately, she was right. It's never been easy for me to admit that a woman is right about something. I believe this is because they so rarely are, it just feels strange to me. Anycase, incontrovertible evidence of her being correct was staring me right in the face. So, I set out to understand what was causing these outbursts.
One thing I knew from the outset was that drinking vast quantities of alcohol, which every now and then I like to do, affected my ability to breathe at night. This much was clear, as evidenced by the experience of waking up with a mouth feeling like a ferret had made a nest in it. Like my nose has been used as a steam ship's smoke stack. These kinds of outcomes were clearly indicative that my snore pipes had been flapping around like the hands of a coked-up stimming autist, at the behest of a manageable external factor.
I could infer from this then that there may be other things I was doing while awake were impacting my ability to facilitate sufficient and optimal gaseous exchange whilst unconscious.
I resisted seeking advice online. Particularly after coming across a thread outlining the dark theory that these kinds of problems may potentially result from an infestation of the dreaded, semi-mythical mattress-jew. A mysterious lineage of miniature bearded homunculus-like creatures, spawned from mandrake root, electrified New York rainwater and the semen of black magicians. Adorning themselves in shtreimels for unknown reasons. They are often seen smoking a pipe and according to eyewitness rw accounts possess a foul temper indeed, shunning most forms of light. Preferring the darker places if the world, feeding on the subversion of sleep habits. At least according to this esoteric personage, they may well be responsible for many apneas worldwide that can’t be explained by any physiological mechanism currently known to man. This was all a bit much for me, I just never liked blaming random groups for all my problems. I find it distasteful.
With this in mind, I set out to collect my snore data with my new bio-feedback app tool and devise various pre-bed and postural rituals thereupon.
I was to find things like alcohol or eating late are commonly accepted by snoring scientists as likely to induce more snoring than usual. The app allows you to log such things to hone in on what you're doing during the day that impacts the nightly outcome.
Now online, as you'd expect, there's a variety of one simple tricks and tools (so many tools) as a cure for snoring. You can get expensive and uncomfortable-looking snoring aids; I'm told by someone who knows someone in the racket that it's big business. And mostly doesn't work if the low star ratings on product pages are anything to go by. Many reviews say it "works for a while", presumably before the lousy habit that leads to the problem adjusts to the intervention.
And no doubt, this monkey-infested ball of soil we call Earth being what it is, every retarded subgroup under Sol also have their own esoteric takes on snoring cures. Ray Peat bros and a 400 different chemical pre-bed Haidutmaxxing stack, combined with 6 pounds of special red-light imbibed Mexican sleeping sugar, shots of deeply relaxing expresso lined on a pounded aspirin bedside table (yes, they actually believe coffee prior to bed is a good idea for sleep) to try and stop it. Truth be told I don't even have the stomach anymore to check on the severe mental illness regarding snoring, or anything else for that matter, on the Ray Peat forum.
Resisting descending into the all too common woeful frame of a relentless compulsive seeker of the abstruse…a munted thread hunter…a desperate mouth-breathing knuckle-dragging online simpleton…I instead started out recording myself nightly and to take my own data points. Particularly noting nights when I didn't do any psychophysical or other practice or interventions like taping my mouth.
While overall the results indicated that I'm not the worst (there was no trace of Apnea or protracted mouth breathing periods, for example) there were definitely unpleasant slogs where I sounded like a sleeping Blunderdore in the tale of Jack Spriggins.
I also noted specific movements during these intense snoring periods. I could basically hear how my body was moving from the sounds recorded.
So, after collecting this initial baseline data, I began to test out various singular mods to my traditional pre-snooze habits. Taping my mouth again. 2 pillows or 1 pillow...What the results were with or without breath work. What times of the day created what effects, what kinds of psychophysical work created what results…how eating food at various times impacted sleep…coffee and stimulants..testing this against days where I did none of the above...Stress states induced by my soul sucking wage cukery. Trying all kinds of variations, eventually, a truth began to emerge. The results bared their backsides for all to see.
I narrowed it down to a few factors using this app. Here it is:
I realised I couldn't eat too late. Anything after 7pm induces a T777 level Snorlax outcome.
I realised 1 pillow rather than 2 makes a difference. How? No idea. I'll have to film myself sometime. It's probably me clawing at the additional pillow despairingly, as a means of unconsciously coping with my crushing day-to-day loneliness.
Caffeine too late (after mid-morning) increases snoring. Wowee. Who would have thought? Peat bros down bad.
Special exercises focused on the shoulders and throat in a specific sequence (one I designed based on my history) were a game changer. Some people recommend strengthening exercises, but relaxation exercises worked for me. This tells me it's a matter of structure, not strength. This is why if you just "take advice whilst bent over a barrel and desperate" you can do the wrong thing completely. All that matters is your data. No matter how sexy someone's PFP is, how many steroids they take to maintain a digital image, how exotic, obscurantist and extraordinary it seems, test it and refuse to take it as gospel troof. Only trust your own data. That goes for some prick no one’s ever heard of like me also. You’re the standard.
Taping mouth only worked for me when I had everything else down good, making almost no difference to snoring on its Pat Malone. (I don't deny there are other benefits).
Specific breathwork before bed and a unique auto-suggestion mp3 I made for myself are essential. It's something to do with the rhythm, but I've not looked at it deeply yet.
Going to bed anytime after 2300 hrs - the results are typically cooked.
Based on the experiments I'd run, I put together the perfect day for my hopefully perfect night (last night). Here is the result:
More or less no snoring. Although there are green bits in the graph signifying nose noise, listening to the track, the tiny spikes represent primarily a combination of the air conditioner noise in my room with faint breathing sounds occasionally. Otherwise, silence. 1 on a the scale, as the app measures it.
Here is a prior result not out of line with most other nights, with no particular focus on any one pre-snooze conscious habit:
So once again, I found myself able to punch some Z’s without bad mojo snoring. The sweet embrace of victory was mine at long last.
This is definitely a less exotic and a relatively pedestrian example of bio-feedback compared to some of the insane tools out there. However, within 2 or so weeks, I was able to develop a physiological practice that reduced my snoring more or less to zero.
Would this routine work for you in the exact way? Probably not. And this, my dear friends, is why bio-feedback is crucial for bio-individualists. We are individualists, not one simple trick movement consoomers, afterall.
Biofeedback offered me a way to consciously change things. My brain is being re-wired through my conscious volition to permanently change an unconscious physiological state. In a state where other, more primitive brains maintain “my” homeostasis, and the higher centres (“me”) cannot change them easily. Do you see?
This is an excellent example because other forms of bio-feedback can get complex and esoteric, but we can all relate to sleeping.
What's even better about this example is that, like more obscure forms of bio-feedback, you're making the truly unconscious conscious. Then you use the conscious to change the unconscious. And there is no better example of this than sleeping, arguably the most unconscious you'll ever be. Adjusting things while awake to affect unconscious reflexes is an excellent example of the general principle highlighted in this article.
On the other hand, people go online and buy tools of various kinds of which there are many - but as Kevin says, trying to change posture using a back brace as his example, which he considers to be "outsourcing" the change and thus not changing neuro-muscular patterns, is not how this all works.
A "snoring brace" would not have fixed the underlying processual, dynamic issue. Accurate conscious attention must always be involved. It needs to be an adjustment, consciously directed, to make the change. And bio-feedback tools are critical for this process. Otherwise, how do you adjust? I guess you could make your miso-soup stay up all night and take notes, but I’d bet my bottom dollar she’d prefer you die young from apnea induced massive heart failure than have to do that for you.
By just using a snoring app, or in the posture work, a camera (yes, this is a bio-feedback device), you can, over time, consciously direct the change to systems down deep - yes, you heard it, depth. The now naughty word of depth. You can't conceive depth, or you might not own the libs, right.
This is the power of bio-feedback in the modern age. Physiological practitioners need to start taking it more seriously. While ignoring the admittedly despicable optimisation culture that typically comes along with it. We must always remember that we're not broken machines when using biofeedback.
The snoring was offering me an insight in to me as an organic process. This precipitate phenomenon, snoring, indicated that several dynamic processes underneath were out of alignment, erupting in a mildly pathological physical outcome.
Since I'm not a machine, using a "spare part" like an anti-snoring device would not fix the underlying processual problem. Yet, this static vision is how our civilisation fundamentally views biology and existence. Those are the solutions we get.
Treating the underlying processes as just that, by taking data and adjusting the body dynamically using bio-feedback, made me realise that the contributing factors were quite complex. There wasn't "one simple trick" for this. There is real time interplay to be grokked.
Instead, real-time experimentation revealed that my snoring involved muscles, specific neuro-muscular tension, habits, chemicals I imbibed, postures, circadian rhythms...Mental states…Numbers of pillows!
And only me could help me.
Biofeedback tools, therefore, offer us real power to understand organic, underlying processual interplay in our bodies.
But do the implications of biofeedback stop there?
Tools and Tradishuns
We live in an age where we're afforded tools scarcely imaginable to our forebears. Many are saddened by this, referring to technology with broad and meaningless terms of judgment, like "modernity" or "materialism", colouring and an entire strain of potentially useful and empowering tools with a limiting broad brush.
Many of these people have no issue using a computer to talk shit, so what's the problem with this kind of thing? I’ve never understood. Even papyrus documenting the words of God is a form of tech in some sense. Simian time-binding tech.
In the same way, we can consider the role of a master. In my opinion, much of what a master did in various sacred schools in the past (and continue to do) was to offer a third-party adjustment to the new student's physiology sans proprioception. According to whatever the lineage had figured out and refined. It wasn't just limited to this, there are also subtle manipulations of psychology that the master would thrust upon the typically desperate student.
For example, Zen dokusan (also koan, which I'm not so familiar with) follows a very specific methodology, and within it is a sophisticated way of shifting subtle perception and consciousness. This is very similar to a body adjustment.
Think about the adjustment of posture with a keisaku. The average person may see this as some species of irrational parochial religious violence, but in truth, it's a tool to adjust posture and attention at once. They are in some way two sides of the same thing. But the student cannot see himself, so it's required that someone who knows and who is also "out there" can do it for him and point out that the way he feels may not represent the way he really is in space and time.
This is applicable then to all kinds of esoteric practices. And as far as I'm concerned, this is changing. Or at least, it can change. Or maybe, integrate.
The Guru was essential in a world without tools, cameras, recording devices for sounds, heart rate tech, and EEG devices to name but a few. The quality of a guru, therefore, greatly mattered. The quality of the lineage and the knowledge and refinements it generated were also determined by the number and quality of the gurus, or realised students or whatever you want to call these kinds of people. You know what I mean.
Think about the potential wasted time and damage done if you managed to find a dunderheaded nutjob of a master. Or a rag-tag gathering of window-lickers who made some kind of mutually reinforcing special needs school which you initially mistook for a solution. Which is still perhaps more common than ever before on platforms like X, or in left wing circles, for example.
You could easily waste an entire lifetime experiencing the outcome of some cretins mental illness or overly active imagination. Because you have no metrics and a tendency towards magical thinking as a seeker - well, you're done for.
You’ve been bent over a barrel by a flailing turnip-headed kook, and in your desperation to know the truth you failed to see it. How many times has someone said this to themselves after decades of fruitless shenanigans.
At best you’d hope to realise you’d been well and truly shafted early on in the piece, at worst an epiphany strikes right as father time forces you to place one foot in a grave.
You may have even ended up the winner of 40 years of pent-up sexual frustration and a whole lot of resentment as your ultimate reward. You might even mistake it for enlightenment.
And according to my admittedly more-cynical-than-most surveys of the historical record, this absolutely occurred all the time.
So, it's no surprise that the quality of the lineage was critical in ancient times. And there was a desire to synthesise and produce models to try and capture whatever the rare standalone genius came up with.
It was a way of ensuring the knowledge wasn't ruined by a generation or 2 of pea-brained ignoramuses.
Nonetheless, as we have often been shown numerous times, this model was not foolproof. There are several reasons for this:
Humans are naturally prone to prefer escapism to actual work and transcendence because they're unwilling to do what it takes (think nice "spiritual" platitudes and think/visualise positive as modern examples). Humans are lazy, easily distracted and stingy creatures - for evolutionary reasons - they will do anything to maintain homeostasis, no matter how bad that internal state is, because they’re avoiding anxiety with it. The temporary relief of a new exotic way of talking shit to the other chimps is always preferable to hard physiological work, and the anxiety that comes with it. So it's easier to pay Solbrah or whoever else for their 500th course about whatever's popular right now, satisfying their primitive seeking urges and settling down the unpleasant brain chemicals for 20 minutes, temporarily alleviating internal pain. This is easier and more immediate than finding something monotonous and complex that works with hard work, and sticking to it for 5 years without rest. Have 20 bucks for a hit of digital pain alleviation. Hey - we've all been there. There’s a failsafe online business model for you by the way. That’s all it is. Nothing more. Cheques in the mail.
In a lineage, all it takes is one lunatic with personality problems to get in, and suddenly the tradishun gets squirly. Then it's not practice that proliferates - but mental illness. Social media hosts all varieties of such people in our modern age. Who are basically themselves inheritors of the delightfully devilish outcomes of mixing of non compos mentis, psychic desperation and low IQ. This is often compounded generationally by them adding their own not-insignificant contributions to the exponentially worsening roaring tempest of doltishness on offer.
Only some humans are capable of genuine work. Sooner or later, the lineage or group gets polluted by lazy individuals with other more sneaky, self-serving aims: wanting to be seen as brilliant or a wise teacher, as an all too common example. Such people do this because they are not ok with themselves, so they seek others to validate them. And what better forum than spirituality, a detestable place where no real results are demanded, where “belief” (i.e. a personal contention that lacks any evidence) is a key part and even a virtue, and no one can easily question your motives. It's an ubiquitous feature of these kinds of circles and frankly an incredibly pedestrian coping mechanism that most people with crappy childhoods share. Trust me. I know people who have done 2-week yoga courses in Bali and have returned home and gone balls to the wall to be seen as the "wise teacher" archetype or, even worse, as a "Yogini". I never understood this. Personally, I can't imagine anything worse than being a teacher and dealing with the peon lemming masses at any scale. In any capacity. This tendency has reached its zenith on social media, notably X, where even reading a book is considered sufficient for someone to delude themselves into thinking they have actual knowledge and can act as an authority on this or that subject. This shabby insectoid tendency has always been an issue for esoteric schools; many stories highlight this danger.
Humans have a language ability that is a real scuppering for almost anyone trying to self-overcome. It’s so powerful that some people even tricked themselves into thinking they have free will. Even when the soap opera-like truth is right there in front of them. As we all know, engaging in this work is tricky because it's so easy to deceive ourselves about what we're up to. I say this as someone who has deceived himself in unintentionally hilarious ways on multiple occasions. A few times for years at a time. Attempting to overcome the shortfalls of passing on ancient practices by turning things into a system or model structured by symbol use has neurophysiological consequences; suddenly, what is a "right-brained practice" becomes severely "left-brained" autistic dogma. Think of the worst of Theravada as an example of this tendency toward systematisation. Systems can quickly become fundamentalist and become the very barriers they seek to overcome. But systems and human symbol use can have nothing major to do with true transcendence, which exists well beyond the apparent cultural primacy we attribute to noises that hairless monkeys make to describe things.
This is why only a realised guru could offer you such an instruction that worked, in the old days. This is true, for example, in the Dzogchen tradition. I practice with someone here, however, they only received partial instruction because the Guru passed away.
In Tibetan Buddhism, this is a problem; lineage is vital to them. It's crucial because, on some level, they recognised the truth in what we're conceiving of here. A the same time, I have to be honest and think to myself a heretical thought: is it really necessary now? Did it just get in the way in some way?
Whatever the case may be, what you find in Dzogchen now is a bunch of Westerners, broken lineages, incomplete teachings, liberals who have made everything stupid and gauche, and who knows what other absurdities Californian "spiritual type" Americans with valley girl accents have brought to the table.
Here in Australia, we didn’t even get the chance to ruin it.
Biofeedback: Greater Context
Now, I'm sure there's more to it. I'm not reducing the role of a master and suggesting it can be replaced purely by bio-feedback tools. Still, the world lacks master now, there is no doubt about it.
What it does do is outsource much of the uncertainty associated with pledging your entire life to someone who could be a total crank. This goes for spiritual traditions and physiological practices. Or even a more pertinent perhaps is a run of the mill system or product that could be, at best, a bit of old blarney and, at worst, a destructive bank account draining, life-diminishing cluster fuck of a pantsing.
Monitoring tools allow us to be the master in some sense, or to put such a persons methods to the test. We can see ourselves, what’s really happening, through them. Tools are afterall really just an extension of our nervous system and sense organs, seeing things we can’t normally see with our limited humanoid organages.
We can measure how a particular posture or breathing impacts our physical systems. Tracking changes over time and daily offers you incontrovertible proof of effectiveness.
Some may say: “Weww, Hawa, you’re so mean, akshuwwy, toows can’t measuwe ewewyfing” and you'd be right, they can't. But they can show you that something is happening. Or what is actually happening.
For example, my EEG can't tell me the true extent or nature of my meditation, but it can show me through brain wave analysis how profound my meditations are according to electrical impulse output, and I can even infer which general parts of my brain are being recruited.
There are also differences in brain wave bursts over time. It can show me the effects afterward sessions, during, and over time. This gives me some insight into whether or not I'm entirely imagining things or making real progress. I can even compare this with data from non-meditative states and mind states induced from other practices. I can build up a total picture of what works for me, over time. A map of the invisible depth of what me is.
The same is the case for breathwork. Having measured what I've measured, I can see there's no point in hyperventilating for 3 hours straight 7 times a week. I can see that relatively simple trainings pay out massive dividends. Hyperventilation, so popular today in and of itself without context other than that of muh feelz, if done too much can impact health and psychological metrics unfavourably. I’ve seen it for myself.
Therefore, despite this or that Guru telling me otherwise, I know that all this hyper-v stuff is likely mystical flapdoodle, and that guy needs to be committed. But in measuring other practices that use hyper-v for a purpose, in this case I might see that it’s a powerful tool in some other context.
Data and bio-feedback are dogma-dummy destroying tools.
These are just a few examples of how bio-feedback tools can save you from a lifetime of desperately & furiously masturbating to various esoteric or exotic-sounding "systems". To assist you in not chasing your tail.
Over time, we can see which posture or practice works. If a practice yields results no different from sitting in an office doing a spreadsheet with a hangover….How do I know this you may ask?
As I have discovered, many practices are a complete waste of time. See X for replete examples of this. It's more or less often the case that it's just some lunatic with verbal diarrhoea that's trying to rustle up a few dirhams on the side. That wouldn't be me, of course...no. I'm ahhh....yeah.
I also know also from these tools that reading and imagining online renders one psycho-physically at least, no different to the so-called "normal person" watching a football game with his friends. This is quite a common delusion, that you can feel better on the basis of words or beliefs.
These people's brains, despite the exotic in-group vocabulary, are the same. It’s even worse when it’s not attached to action. So, in reality, tangible change has yet to occur. So, you're more or less wasting your time if a system cannot yield any indication of results. Biofeedback tools can easily demonstrate this.
So why not use tools to put these self-proclaimed Gurus to the test?
I have, and this is where my work comes from. I've tested it out and I know if it works. The true essence of such things goes beyond measurement; it's not to downplay that - but you should always ask yourself if your time is being well spent and you're really getting what you're telling yourself you're getting. Biofeedback helps immensely with this.
Meditation is really a yoga. It isn’t seen this way but it is. So in fact, there are 4-5 easily trackable metrics than can offer you feedback on effectiveness.
In the rearview mirror is a flaming 400-car pile-up of systems I wholly discarded because they didn’t do anything but spark my already overly active imagination. I tested them faithfully and objectively, and nothing happened of any significance. Given the time I put in, they yielded no results that made my life better. And ultimately, for what purpose would we bother doing anything if not for this.
Sure - the window dressing on many of these systems may have been sexy and obscure, something I've always liked, but results is results innit.
(This is one advantage of having crippling autism and some degree of benevolent psychopathy. You don't care about what others think, their coping strategies or attachments to their little movements, or their feelings about their support groups. This is a superpower for a human being because you can't get to the truth without crushing worldviews, particularly your own dearly held delusions).
Then why not test your thing?
If, for example, your magical sensuous self-love rituals done to scented candle light…or star charts are not making you a gorillionaire. Maybe the crapto war room seems to lose you your precious Mickey D wages faster than a fat kid scoffing a snickers. And you find you're the same reactive, miserable prick that you always were even after the 20-minute high of finding out you have a grand fire trine in your moon chart…or you’re and old soul, that’s really why you’re poor and nobody likes you…and for arguments sake, lets say you crunch the numbers and find you have a statistically insignificant success rate with you dick fiddling ritual or telescam crypto war room strategies…then the question is a simple one - why not just drop it?
Why not find something that allows you to no longer run away?
This has gone beyond mere biofeedback, granted - but as a type of objective metric-taking tool, one aimed at results cutting away tosh becomes a whole lot easier.
Armed with a Camera
We can see ourselves with a camera, which, as Kevin will tell you, is absolutely critical to breaking down the subjective maps or physiology that we have in our minds. In a genuine sense, seeing yourself is entirely different to how you see or feel yourself internally.
So, you can use your camera rather than have to find a Zen monk with a stick. Most Zen monks in the West don’t even focus on posture anymore. Even good breathing, very little is discussed in any detail.
You get the picture!
Biofeedback then is a great boon when the veracity of lineages is being tested and often destroyed worldwide, and esoteric take cope chimeras and 30 day money back guarantees are so widespread that it's comical on a cosmic scale.
And there are all sorts of tools you can get with enough money. Even if you only have a few shekels to your name, there are still some decent tools. Even keeping a practice diary with a stock standard pencil is a form of bio-feedback tech when used correctly.
As an aside, we here at Chateau Bio-Individual have the ultimate aim of purchasing an MRI machine one day, so we can see what works and what doesn't on even deeper levels. Kevin assures me he has high-level oligarch sponsors to support us in this endeavour, but so far it’s not happened.
Still, if anyone has the cash now, please let us know. We'll set up an island compound away from the loathsome, feral scumbots that infest the world and run psychophysical experiments.
Until next time!
Yes! A lot of these practices are past versions of psychology and physiology.
The issue is that many people still have this assumption of a humanistic version of a higher power, like a boss or designer.
The truth is that the higher power is nature itself, which is life at all forms. It's not a pre compiled rule set as the left brain would think. It's a huge dynamic system that is complex.
The idea of the ghost in the machine is where a machine becomes so complicated that it has a personality of its own. In nature, we are the ghosts of the machine 😂