Introduction | The Left/Right Brain Split | True or False?
Healing the Split | Applications in Sports Therapy
FAQ | Bilateral Instructions

True or False?
The Bilateral Meter Tells All

by Peter Shepherd

Introduction

We live in a left-brain oriented culture, i.e. reading, writing and arithmetic dominate our educational system and the accepted logic is sequential reasoning - these are all left-brain attributes. However, by improving access to right-brain mental faculties we open the door to improved creative thought, where lateral thinking and intuition as well as improve powers of visualization combine with conventional rationality. It is also the portal to psychic ability and spiritual awareness. However, it is not just the educational influence that causes the reduced access to right-brain modes of thought. It is a kind of schizophrenia caused by the stress of continually suppressing memories of traumatic times and of wrong-doings, and by an unwillingness to face and accept current reality with equanimity.

Have you ever spotted yourself believing your own lie? Was this lie at one time a justification or excuse for a something you did wrong? We tend to gather opinions that support our lies and justifications and this is a primary method by which cultural conditioning is empowered. The significance of the left-right brain split is profoundly important in understanding and monitoring both the therapeutic and personal development processes.

The Bilateral Ability Meter is now available. This unique device is able to instantly differentiate the comparative arousal of left and right cortical hemispheres. What is the significance of this?

 

The Left/Right Brain Split

As the brain is used, as neurons fire up, this arousal can be measured by various biofeedback measuring devices, such as the GSR Meter. With research, it is found that certain types of thought occur predominantly on the left side of the brain (i.e. especially in the left cortical hemisphere) and other types occur predominantly on the right side.

Left-brain thought processes are analytical, verbal, logical, sequential - the left brain is good at intelligent thought, argument, making hypotheses, but also at making things up, telling lies. It is therefore responsible for the mind's defense mechanisms of rationalization, justification, blame. This particularly occurs when feelings and real experiences cannot be confronted (faced up to) - in this case they are uncomfortable, painful, they threaten our survival, the rightness of our identity.

Because feelings, emotions, perceptions and real experiences are the province of the right brain, this defense causes a repression of the right-brain mode of experience, unfortunately also cutting off the valuable aspects of right-brain awareness such as intuitive thought and being in touch with feelings and the current objective reality, in short being grounded. At the extreme this leads to the delusory schizophrenic personality disorder and to the psychopath who is totally cut off from feelings. But this split also affects most people to a lesser degree.

Right brain thought processes are holistic and relational, non-verbal and based on perceptions, feelings and actual memories. If thinking realistically and objectively about painful experiences or wrong-doings cannot be confronted, but the reality cannot be avoided or explained away, this may result in a retreat to the right-brain mode of experience, where there are strong feelings but no logic to direct them. This is how we feel when overcome by fear, sadness or remorse. In extreme this can lead to the manic-depressive personality.

Clearly we need both modes of functioning; they complement each other. Therapy and development is largely the business of re-integrating thoughts and feelings, to take advantage of both our analytical and intuitive faculties, fully in touch with objective reality.

Problems are created whenever we are unable or unwilling to accept our reality. If, no matter what we do, we feel we cannot change, alter or modify our reality - what has happened or is happening or that we predict will happen - then we can fall into the left-brain mode of justifying, blaming, hoping, wishing, denying, rationalizing, ignoring or intellectualizing. These are are just a few of the ways thought attempts to change, alter or modify reality. Alternatively we can fall into the right-brain mode of dramatizing an emotional response. Both of these responses avoid confronting and accepting the reality that is.

In this situation we need to change our perception or view of reality, to become more aware, to understand. And the only way we can do that is to observe - to look again and fully experience the reality without acting upon it like trying to escape it, change it or attack it. With this new perception we can then observe how our reality affects us and how we respond to it. The new understanding causes a change in how we approach and respond to life. In turn, this change causes our reality to change.

The fragmented mind constantly contradicts itself. Part of me might say say,"I didn't work hard on the project because it was a waste of time anyway" - this is what I'm being now and I believe this is accurate and that I'm fully aware. Upon exploaration, other parts show their face. I'm really upset at the criticism I received. Yet another part of me knows that I didn't do my best, that I was lazy. Another really wants to achieve great things and knows I'm capable of it. Another reminds me of my past failures. Eventually, through observation, greatly facilitated by the Bilateral Meter, I cut through the distortions and pain and saw that thought had indeed been oblivious of its own illusions.

Aware consciousness sees everything in terms of facts and unknowns or possibilities and probabilities. It acknowledges that everything is constantly changing. Similarly, acknowledging the unknown is an acceptance that all may not be as it appears to be. These acknowledgments instruct the mind to pay attention to consciousness so we can effectively deal with our reality.

We are going to experience upsets and stress as long as we treat judgments, opinions and beliefs as facts rather than as possiblities, and as long as we allow emotional responses to prevent us from being ourselves in the present and looking anew. Understanding, as a result of objective observation of personal experience, causes us to experience fewer problems because we are paying more attention to here-and-now consciousness - we are in touch with the true self. The true self is loving, empathetic and willing to communicate. And communication is the solvent of all problems.

 

True Or False?

The GSR principle of biofeedback monitoring has been used effectively for over 90 years, so what is the purpose of a new type of meter and what advantages does it have for the therapist or individual student? Although the conventional GSR meter detects emotional charge in a general sense, the Bilateral Meter opens up a further dimension by differentiating between the heavy emotion of a situation, and the significances surrounding it.

The monitoring of the selective arousal of the two hemispheres of the brain is the major application of the Bilateral Meter. With this added dimension psycho-therapeutic issues may be resolved more quickly, and the client who has been helped by these methods (and given the feedback of the left/right needle responses) has an added awareness of the workings of his mind and in consequence enhanced ability when working on his own on self-administered techniques such as Meta-Programming, to sort out the wheat from the chaff.

The introduction of the GSR meter was a tremendous advance over previous psycho-analytical techniques, because it enabled the analyst to discriminate accessible, emotionally charged items from inaccessible or uncharged items in the client's case, saving endless hours of dealing with the wrong items and the consequence bypassed charge (ignored or suppressed emotional pain which results in upset and premature departure). Yet the GSR meter has some limitations; for example, when it is used by the American police for lie detection, it all too frequently fails to discriminate between the guilty person (who will tend to respond on the meter but who may be psychopathic and have detached emotional responses) and a suspect who has only fantasized the bad action or who has other bad actions which the questioning provokes (and which also may cause a response on the meter). Two quite different types of internal conflict are involved, but both types of conflict respond similarly. Likewise, the GSR meter when used in therapy, frequently fails to discriminate between insight and rationalizations, because it fails to discriminate between emotional charge and the surrounding significance.

The Bilateral Meter is an advance of a similar order of magnitude to the conventional GSR meter. It enables the therapist to discriminate between the real and the imagined, between the relevant and the irrelevant, between truth and untruth. Why is this so?

The brain is a sophisticated transduction device through which the Higher Self is able to relate its mental subtle energies to the coarser energies of the nervous system of its bodily identity. In this way, mental processes manifest as changes of arousal in particular parts of the brain, which leads to bodily action or behavior. The left hemisphere of the brain cortex usually controls selective attention, language, rational analysis, temporal and other sequential functions; meanwhile, the right hemisphere is responsible for felt, intuitional, relational, pictorial, spatial and other awareness processes - it creates a non-verbal, holistic synthesis of information without regard to particular details.

In short, the left brain deals with significance and attempts to reason, and the right-brain deals with the perception, kinesthetic sensation and pictured memory of reality and emotion. Thus the left-brain interprets, which can lead to falsity and rationalization, whereas the right-brain duplicates reality as it is.

A normal GSR meter measures overall brain arousal, whether of the left or right hemisphere, through the means of skin-resistance changes. The Bilateral Meter further facilitates spiritual, cognitive, emotional and behavioral growth, through the means of monitoring changes of skin resistance on the left and right side of the body corresponding to differential changes of arousal in the right and left cortial hemispheres (the cognitive centers). When a question is asked, both left and right hemispheres come into operation and may produce very different responses.

If the thought processes produce data that conflict with actual reality, then a Bilateral Meter will respond towards the left or the right (on the meter dial), depending on the type of conflict and the nature of defenses reactively put up by the mind, consciously or subconsciously.

The left-brain mode of thought is one of sifting sequentially through files of associated data and then the right brain obtains an overview. The emotional force contained within the right-brain way of representation may prevent inspection of deeply held beliefs, hidden aspects of the personality, or repressed traumatic experience; in which case the right brain will have reduced arousal. In addition the left-brain may fictionalise to cover up missing data (including that which is unconfrontable in the right-brain) or make rationalizations, based on false information or influences which have been installed through genetic or cultural imprinting; in which case the Bilateral Meter will respond to the left.

In contrast, if thinking analytically about painful experiences or wrong-doings cannot be confronted, this may result in a retreat to the right-brain mode of experience, where there are strong feelings but no logic to direct them. This is how we feel when overcome by fear, sadness or remorse, and when we are cathartically re-experiencing a past moment of pain or loss.

 

Healing the split

As a result of the two essentially disparate ways of handling reality, right-brain awareness becomes split off from consciousness. True release and resolution occur only when this split is healed.

Using the conventional meter, charged mental content will cause a response, but while this is helpful in quickly spotting items to handle, this does not indicate the nature of distortion that the mind is executing. By examining the Bilateral Meter response to a charged item or idea in terms of left and right hemispherical arousal, it becomes possible to know whether the client is distorting or obscuring a truth. Using this guidance the therapist can then direct the client by using appropriate questions. This will assist the client to look further, either sideways (left-brain) or deeper (right brain) and realize the whole truth that is known, as it is objectively perceived. This will then be the honest and real viewpoint, rather than a rationalized viewpoint that further suppresses the unacceptable truth.

The Bilateral Meter acts as a truth-detector because the right hemisphere cannot tell a lie about empirical reality or a deeply held belief. When a lie is told, or when mis-remembering occurs, the needle will go to the left. In contrast, when a subject contacts his real feelings on the matter, the needle will go to the right - indicating the areas of heavy emotion and effort that are so easily bypassed in previous methods of analysis. Finally, when reality is perceived at an objective level, the needle will 'float' in a detached manner, denoting freed communication or synchronization between the hemispheres.

The Bilateral Meter will not usually float however, when the subject tells a personalized truth rather than objective truth, because in telling his truth, either he is expressing a viewpoint which is on the right track but obscures part of the objective truth, or he is expressing a viewpoint grounded in faith. In both of these cases, the needle goes to the right, because the client is being as truthful as he can, but there is more to it; the 'truth' may be emotionally based, but it has not been understood, accepted and integrated with the left-brain view. In short, the meter is reading to the right because there is a conflict in the right hemisphere between relative (subjective) truth and objective truth.

It could be summarized that the Bilateral Meter will read to the left when the client is knowingly or unknowingly giving false or irrelevant data; and it will read to the right when the client is knowingly or unknowingly being economical with the truth - either he is not telling all the truth, or there are occlusions and barriers that hinder him from fully facing up to and consciously perceiving the objective truth. Part of the client though, does know the whole truth. Eventually, through guidance from the Bilateral Meter, this knowingness of the unified self can come to light through the intuitive faculty of the right hemisphere.

Case is accessible for resolution if it falls within the current awareness, responsibility and confront of the individual. This will vary for different areas of the case and the aim of therapy is to raise these factors in the areas being addressed. If the GSR meter is responding on a topic, then it is emotionally charged and accessible - with guidance the person will be able to expand his viewpoint and increase awareness, responsibility and confront of the reality of the situation or experiences being addressed. The Bilateral Meter can be used for additional guidance in this process:

When the meter responds to the left, this means there is an alteration of the reality occuring in the mental processes of the subject. This may be a defense of rightness, a manipulation, a lie, a rationalization to avoid facing the reality. The subject must be guided to look in a different direction, to think laterally, away from fixed ideas - this will cause the activation of right brain processes, i.e. contact with more objective perception and feelings. A simple stimulation in that direction would be: "But...?"

When the meter responds to the right, this means there is a suppression of the emotional force connected with the reality, an effort to make nothing of it. The subject must be guided to look deeper, to confront and fully experience the feelings. A simple stimulation in that direction would be: "And...?" This may involve re-living traumatic experiences, and similar connected experiences if necessary, until the reality can be fully accepted. Or it may involve getting in touch with the feelings that underlie held beliefs, or decisions made at times of stress. Then these ideas can be looked at in a clear light, which is possible with the newly established left-right brain communication.

 

Applications in Sports Therapy

As the sportsperson visualises the actions involved in their sport, on the Bilateral meter there will be readings to the right (corresponding to arousal of the right brain) when emotionally charged images appear. This can be discussed and if necessary, the source of the uncomfortable emotional energy in past upsets and painful incidents can be handled, so that re-visualising causes no response on the meter. This can also be applied to visualising past and future sports events.

In talking about the sport and the person's involvement in it, if certain considerations cause a response to the left (left brain arousal) this means a defense of some sort is in play - the person may be rationalising, blaming or justifying - and this means responsibility is not being taken in the area and thinking is not clear and rational. Again, these issues can be handled so that there is no longer the left response on the Bilateral Meter.

At school, even organized games become a serious matter involving school prestige and personal status, and the sheer fun element is remorselessly squeezed out. The involving and exciting nature of sport is misunderstood even at the level of professional sports coaching. Relaxation techniques are used as a panacea to nervousness (e.g. subliminal affirmations under light trance, autogenics and meditation with biofeedback). This does have some value as a resource, to be able to switch off and save mental energy when appropriate, but this emphasis further serves to discourage a person in the withdrawn state from experiencing high arousal and confronting the resulting anxiety and the causes of it, and from learning to be able to reverse anxiety into an involved, free-flowing consciousness. The use of such techniques in stress management and personal enhancement has the same limitations.

However high arousal is the essence of full involvement, where skills are practiced without inhibitory second-thoughts and nervousness. People participate in sports as an opportunity to experience pleasurable high arousal safely, and they spectate for the same reason. Attention should be on helping the individual to enter and maintain high involvement; this requires helping him or her to overcome reactive, neurotic response-patterns which embody irrational thinking (including false assumptions, over-generalizing, exaggerating, negativity, others expectations) and to handle underlying fear and trauma. Alongside this, the individual needs to be taught how to retain his involvement whilst simultaneously accessing an objective awareness - this demands proper integration of the left and right hemispheres.

These principles would apply to any creative and skilful activity. The need for high arousal in performance is recognized in other ways, e.g. the coach will give the team a pep-talk and try to 'psyche' them up. In acting it is realized that stage fright can enhance performance. But these states are both prior to actual involvement; there is the hope and expectation that a reversal will occur to translate that tension into full involvement as soon as the play gets going. However there is the remaining fear that a reversal back to a withdrawn or nervous state may occur at any time and an inhibitory detachment resulting in 'stage death'.

Participants in high risk sports such as motor racing and rock climbing experience exhilaration when facing and overcoming danger (providing they are taking risks within their experience and competence, they are able to retain the involved state). The process of transferring anxiety and fear into pleasurable excitement composes the very essence of participation.

Most people will be able to identify an activity which they attempted initially with a degree of fear, only to find that as they mastered the skills involved, a pleasurable sensation ensued. For some it might have been their first jump off the 3 metre board into the swimming pool, their first attempt at public speaking, or driving a car for the first time. For others it might have been the first attempt down a stretch of white water in a canoe, a parachute jump, abseiling down a cliff face or surfing large waves. There was a reversal from interpreting high arousal as anxiety to interpreting it as excitement.

A good deal of interest has centered on the achievement of altered states of consciousness in sport. High arousal can be felt to be a 'peak experience' of flowing involvement, where time loses all semblance of meaning. The individual experiences total happiness, accompanied by a loss of the fears, inhibitions, weaknesses and insecurities that often plague most of us. These are moments of great maturity and fulfillment, in which there is a sense of unity, inner strength and wholeness of being. The person experiences a total fascination and awe of the matter at hand, as though he were 'absorbed' in the experience. This is the same process as experienced by mystics, artists and any person who is able to live life to the full in this way. This is an integrated, whole-brain state, without any inter-hemispheric inhibition.

But a reversal of this state may occur, brought about by an unanticipated or previously unexperienced threat, a near miss whilst driving, falling off the board or whatever. Or the circumstances may re-stimulate an earlier bad experience and pull the person from involvement back into anxiety. Such reversals between anxiety and excitement - between withdrawal and involvement - may be short lived or permanent. Loss of form in sport is inevitably the result of such motivational reversal, where the player becomes unable to sustain participatory arousal, and his attempts at high-arousal become nervous anxiety (right brain emotional charge). Awareness, responsibility and confront reduce, accompanied by left-brain thought processes (lying, blaming, justifying, criticizing, pretending, etc).These issues may be addressed in one-to-one therapy and this process is much enhanced by the use of Bilateral biofeedback monitoring.

Learning to use a Bilateral Meter for counselling purposes, provides a tool that revolutionizes the effectiveness of psycho-therapeutic procedures, laying bare the primal, root experiences and decisions of the client. The conventional GSR meter will help to open-up a case and get it started; the Bilateral Meter will get to the bones of the case and help to resolve it quickly.

 

FAQ about the Bilateral Meter

Q: I would be interested in knowing how you researched this and the background of the Bilateral meter.

A: The original research on bilateral phenomena was sparked by 'The Bicameral Mind' by Jaynes and 'The Psychology of Consciousness' by Ornstein, following initial information from surgical operations in which mentally ill patients had the left and right hemispheres separated and the resulting behavior changes observed. The person I worked for, Gregory Mitchell, ran Mental Development Ltd (in partnership with Keith Wakelam of Psychotechnics) and applied this information, along with methods of stimulation and entrainment by audio means of the left/right brain developed by Monroe and Lefebure, to development techniques, in order to increase communication between the hemispheres. Further work by Fehmi found out about the value of synchronisation of left/right brain-waves.

In order to get feedback on what was going on, Gregory initially used bilateral EEG equipment, following the work done at Charing Cross Hospital on schizophrenic patients to use bilateral phenomena to determine diagnosis, in which it was found that extreme left imbalance corresponds to florid (delusional) schizophenia and extreme right imbalance corresponds to bipolar (manic-depressive) schizophrenia. Then he realized that the GSR effect was a valid way to measure the relative response of the hemispheres to stimulation, by putting a meter on each hand, giving two needle movements - you could see that if the left hand produced a fall larger than the right hand, then the difference in response is the amount that the right brain is aroused above the left brain; and vice versa. By making a meter with a double Wheatstone Bridge, he (with the aid of Mr Wakelam's electronics) was able to reproduce this same information with one needle, the 'differential' reading between left and right hand reads. So this is primarily Greg Mitchell's inventive concept. In the following years, he (and I too) used the meter with many clients in therapeutic and developmental roles, and found it to be a valuable aid and that the principles are valid.

An interesting aside is that when one uses the normal GSR meter in self-administered mode, holding the double-electrode in the left hand, this is picking up right brain arousal. Because right brain relates to real experience and feelings, this is fortuitous. You can say, "right reads - on the right track"! But if the person is in a very left brain dominant state, the solo electrode in the left hand won't pick up on the left-brain mental responses and a lot of case can be missed. The reads then are probably restimulated fears resulting from the items looked at, but the actual data may be false and this not realized.

Note: Indicator Technique is an advanced tool offered on the Meta-Programming coursewhich helps greatly to determine the truth underlying charged beliefs, considerations, etc, and this ties in very closely with what is done with the Bilateral, and is the main reason why one can do without the Bilateral in advanced self-administered development.

Q: I gave myself a brief session today using your Indicator Tech. What a marvellous tool! I can see how it takes apart the various ideas, considerations, lies, and defenses that the person erects between themselves and truth. My question is, doesn't this basically eliminate the need for a device such as the Bilateral meter?

A: The Bilateral is best applied by a practitioner to help with diagnosis and therapeutic procedures. When these are done well, the client will be relatively objective to his thoughts and feelings and not be suppressing too much heavy emotional material so that he can access real experiences, beliefs and feelings and look at this material rationally. This is good left-right brain communication.

Bilateral techniques achieve the same end result as Indicator Technique but the procedure is under the direction of the practitioner and does not require the client to question his data - particularly at first it is best to use the Bilateral for right reads only, to get to accessible case that is reality-based and not based on the client's defenses of intellectualisation, misguided rationalization and blaming, etc. Later, when the client has more self-esteem, left reads can be pointed out, and then you are asking the client to question his data and rationality, but on the basis of his own mind as reflected by the meter, not on the basis of the therapist's evaluation or invalidation.

Indicator Technique is an advanced technique, used in Meta-Programming. It is best applied as a self-administered procedure and requires a stable case with good L-R communication, so there is a relatively 'quiet' mind. Then the Indicator technique can get to the intuitive knowingness of truth that underlies the mental alterations and negations. With a client who has made good progress in self-development, such as with the New Life Course, there are not the same defenses that prevent an open-minded re-evaluation of all that has previously been identified with, so Indicator Technique can be used to finally take apart the beingness that the actual Being has substituted for himself as a mega safe solution or summation of all other safe solutions and survival computations.

Q: You say 'the right brain cannot lie' - does this mean that anything that reads to the right is true?

A: The Bilateral reads to the right based on the subject's reality, including deeply held beliefs. It is primary a device to help guide the client towards suppressed charge that is based on genuinely held perceptions, though these may still be misguided; right reads need to be cleared of charge by clearing the suppressed material. Right reads do not equate to truth, they mean you're on the right track.

Q: I'm rather curious whether you've had any practitioners go nuts trying to watch two meters at the same time while holding a session together. Is there a compelling reason to have two separate meters instead of combining both in one box with two dials?

A: When using both meters together, they go side by side, so it's almost like one big meter. The GSR is used on it's own (with double-electrodes) for self-administered work and the Bilateral can also be used on its own, though because both hands hold double-electrodes, continuous notes cannot be written.

Q: Different people want the two types of meters for different purposes, as well as some who appreciate the value of using them together. Would people typically use a Bilateral meter without a regular one?

A: The recommended method is to use both together but some have bought a Bilateral meter on it's own because they are particularly interested in the left/right brain phenomena and diagnosis of psychological state based on left/right brain arousal. See the attached Bilateral Instructions for more on this. The Bilateral supplements the GSR information with another dimension of feedback and certainly doesn't replace the GSR.

Q: I have read your materials on bilateral analysis several times. While I can see how left brain reads could indicate alteration or falsification, I also wonder if they might simply indicate analytical reactions, depending on the process. For example, what might the pattern be with problem solving, and so forth. It occurs to me that a left read would show in such circumstances the excitement of that hemisphere without a true/false judgment.

A: Yes, that's true. Same as with the normal GSR, a read indicates mental activity but only an instant read (i.e. reactive, before the subject has a chance to think about it consciously) indicates a charged response. There's an exercise in the Bilateral training course to demonstrate such reads when doing left and right brain-type mental activities. They tend to be 'soft' and short though sometimes are long if the mental activity is demanding for the person, or tiny if the activity is easy.

When doing a procedure that is more a continuous process, you are looking for changes in the overall balance and also for 'sharp' reads, which look like they are driven by charge, to which you would respond, "What was that thought (L)/feeling (R)?"

Q: I started out with a notion of left read = bad, right read = good, based on a notion of left equaling falsification and right equaling at least a marginal level of duplication or truth. This was producing very frustrating experiences with lots of left reads, until I recognized that I was trying to TEACH myself. So, I decided to hang the definitions and simply operate from the principle that left equals energy in the rational/serial/reasoning side, and right equaling stimulation of the global/experiential/intuitive side. Once I did that, for one thing, it started to calm my meter behavior down, lowering the balance and freeing up the needle, which had been starting to pack up a bit. Then, I noticed an interesting occurance. As I observed the meters and just thought about how they operate together, I would make an observation with a hypothesis - if intense, it would bang to the left. If unclear or unresolved, the bilateral would read to the left and hang out. But if I thought - yes, that could very well be the way this is, it would bang to the left and both meters would float. Do you see, at this stage, it's not a belief per se; it's a hypothesis about process or possibility - yet it's interesting and exciting, so both meters float. It isn't necessarily a picture of reality, because it's process/serial based, so no swing to the right. I don't recall seeing a discussion in your materials about a situation where you get an intense left read and then dual floats. But I was looking at them while theorizing these materials. I believe that if there is an emotional investment in being right, an unwillingness to know something, or some such issue, the bilateral won't float even if the GSR does. I think it may be important to interpret left reads in the context of the result you are attempting to produce and the process run. What do you think?

A: I agree entirely. A new postulate is a left brain construct and may well be high energy but not reactive. A float on both meters is an honest and genuine clarity.

An interesting double reactive response occurs with withheld communication where a picture of the true occurrence emerges instantly (R-the missed withhold) followed by an immediate cover up (L-defense).

So the context of bilateral reads is all-important. Your statement, "left equals energy in the rational/serial/reasoning side, and right equaling stimulation of the global/experiential/intuitive side" is an excellent description of reads on the bilateral that are cognitive, not reactive, and they can be big when postulates are involved, especially with a powerful being (as with 'upper level meter reads' on the GSR). For this reason, the course materials - which are pretty good now but I'm sure can be improved - are essential for meaningful use of the bilateral.

Q: An aspect of the BM that is perplexing me: On quite a few occasions with more than one subject, the BM seems to do little more than act as a mirror image of the GSR. If the GSR falls, it goes left. If the GSR does a slow rise, the BM goes slowly to the right. If the GSR floats so does the BM, but in opposites. Then suddenly, the BM goes into a different pattern. It takes on a life of it's own, along the lines of the materials in your manual. I have found these to be the times when the most valuable insights can occur.

A: Yes, that sounds familiar. But the Bilateral is correctly telling you that the falls on the GSR are only intellectual answers and rises on the GSR represent suppressed right-brain material that is not accessible (otherwise the rise would be a fall) and the real case is not yet contacted. (Though not mirroring the GSR, an altenative is a rise on the GSR with a left read on the Bilateral, which would mean a defense has kicked in, some kind of rationalization to justify backing off from looking at the issue, which is further from confronting the charge than in the case where BM goes to the right.)

Then suddenly you get a breakthrough. For example with a repeated question, this might occur right up to the point when the real item is found, when you get a long fall on the GSR accompanied by either a strong left read (which when cleared becomes a right read) or straight away a strong right read, probably followed by a few more to the right as the item is clarified (the truth fully confronted), and ending with floats on both meters with mid-way balance points at the end point of the procedure.

Q: If I'm running an upset, I may get regular reads on a GSR, with a satisfactory float as the situation is clarifed. But, no particular pattern on the BM other than the mirror. It seems wrong to dispute the client's understanding due to the activity of the BM, so I don't do it. I just run a regular session off of the GSR. Are you familiar with this? Can you explain it?

A: As you say, it may be inappropriate to dispute the client's understanding when running a light procedure that has the function of a release, not getting at the real case towards erasure. With a more advanced case, or in circumstances where the procedure is only meaningful if it gets to the core truth of the matter, you can dispute - or rather, you can point out the Bilateral reads, the person's own biofeedback, as one never disputes intellectually nor invalidates the client's data. This is why the use of Indicator Tech is really an advanced procedure, because the person must be willing to question the rightness of his mental content (with which he has identified) and look afresh in the present.

One can dispute left-reading defensive answers with something like, "OK, now look in a different direction and give me another answer" until you get a right read, and respond to right reads with, "Is there more to this?" to get the real charge off. If there aren't left or right reads then the question isn't charged and you just get a light answer.

Q: It seems to me that you could actually run the session solely off of the BM without a GSR, except for those relatively rare instances when the BM reads and the GSR wouldn't. After all, if you get a mirror of the GSR, then you know what it would be doing, and if you don't, then the BM would provide the senior information anyway.

A: That's true, but the situation where the GSR reads and the BM doesn't (because it's just lower-brain unconscious arousal) is an important case, as this corresponds with deeply imprinted material that the client can't access without more unburdening and which might really stick him in it, if taken up immediately.

Q: As I see it, a left read is the person processing within a known and knowable system of structures and beliefs. To me, it's not even that a left read is a lie, unless deliberate. It's just that they are only engaging their pre-ordained belief system, and will likely only produce a result consistent within that system. The person can become happy and perhaps successful within this system, but they will bump into incongruities and will certainly not realize their full spiritual potential.

A: Yes, and that structure is the Ego, the person's front to the world. The belief system is a network of survival solutions, made or adopted because they seemed a safe way out of problems at the time, but now these solutions are uninspected and used automaticly - even though they may be self-defeating and inappropriate in today's circumstances. These ideas define the person's identity, so they are held onto fixedly. It is a network of defenses and is maintained by further rationalization, justification, denial of responsibility, making others wrong, etc. But deep down the person knows they're lying to themselves, and this conflict results in the suppression of right-brain feelings and intuition, which have to be reality-based, as the right brain can only think in that way.

The left read is not usually a deliberate lie or fabrication, but it is an alteration due to the person's defenses against truth, and so it is actually a lie, fabrication or safe solution. But it's ways of thinking that the person has identified with, they're part of his make-up, so he can't see it as an alteration. With appropriate stimulation, these computations are activated; this is cognitive reactivity, as opposed to the more familiar emotional reactivity which comes about because of negation or suppression of painful or threatening real experiences. Such experiences result in decisions, which add to the belief system. Except in the case of direct restimulation of past trauma, you need to handle the cognitive distortions and defenses before the underlying emotional material is accessible.

Q: I'm researching left/right brain theory. Very interesting. Apparently, there can be significant deviations in individuals regarding their brain patterns. Robert Ornstein says that left-handed people tend to have the language and verbal portions shared between the two hemispheres.

A: That's a bit misleading. Though language can be handled by the right brain, normally it is primitive and emotional language, such as the expletives used when angry. If the left hemisphere is removed or malfunctioning, the right can acquire the left's functions, to the extent that is possible outside the normal formative period of brain development.

Q: What about thoughts that don't actually belong to the person, which are misowned or imprinted telepathically and the like. A friend likes to discuss experiments where he assess a list on one person, then brings a second person into the room and assess the same list on them, but tells them they are to serve only as a channel for the first person's case. He says that often, they get the exact same reads! I presume this would read only on the GSR and not on the BM.

A: Not necessarily. If one identifies with misowned content then this is imprinted and would read to the right as an accepted reality, or on the GSR and not the BM if it is completely unconscious. Most of what reads as Imprinted in Indicator Tech is misowned, and so the indication of it as Imprinted differentiates the self from it and breaks the identification, so it can be re-evaluated rationally.

Q: A rise on the GSR generally means incoming mass, protest, or avoidance/disconnection. Depending on what I am running, I might choose to take it up or not. What is most interesting, though, is how perfectly the BM mirrors the GSR in these circumstances, down to the tiniest twitch. In a sense, I have a feeling that the person is running at a certain depth level, and that they are neither in conscious avoidance nor connected up with "primal" level emotional charge. That is why the occasional variances are so interesting, because they are a change in characteristic. I have also seen situations where the meters are on completely different tracks, which is fascinating. But I find the mirror phenomenon to be quite common thus far.

A: Yes, it is, and as you say, the change in characteristic away from that is very significant and a valuable pointer to case change actually occurring, and a procedure starting to bite, whether it's immediate or after hours of goings on that actually hasn't bitten. That's why the amount of Balance change on the GSR is not really a guide to case change. If you don't get the right item (that goes to the right), or if the procedure is not taken further in connection with that right item, it's meaningless in that respect. A person could play darts and if it's a good contest get lots of Balance change (changes of arousal on the GSR) - but no case change! A person can do various so-called advanced procedures and if the evaluations about the procedure are interesting and accepted, get lots of Balance change but no case change, because no 'right' items are actually involved in the procedure.

Q: I just made a very interesting discovery with a subject using the BM. The subject had a 100% mirroring effect on every comment, statement, origination, or thought using the GSR/BM. BUT, as the session progressed, the GSR balance point shiftede: at session end, the GSR balance was lower and the BM was closer to center. At session beginning, the GSR balance was relatively high and the BM was well in the left hemisphere. So, somehow, this person was adjusting their reality base without necessarily being consciously aware of the process, nor was it obvious to me.

A: That's a very healthy adjustment, typical of a well done session with genuine case change. There was charge in restimulation (the high GSR balance), the reality of it was accessed (all the GSR falls and corresponding BM right reads) and the charge erased. I guess there were gradual movements in those directions rather than obvious long reads.

Q: This subject doesn't easily get marked L/R deviations on the usual questions: math tables, etc., although I had a steady R reaction when I got him to sing for me!

A: Math tables may be effortless for him whereas singing to you was both a new thing and an emotional experience for him.

Q: I should aim to shift the general balance more towards center on the BM with low balance point on the GSR. Agreed?

A: Yes. Ideally, the balance on the BM is central but also flexible with the ability to access deep into L or R at will. So a very good session end-point is recovered central balance and a moderately low GSR balance point (showing involvement and interest but not overwhelm).

Q: A female subject gets marked L/R deviations, and went intensely into a right brain trauma in our first session. However, in the second session, she displayed the mirroring phenomenon for much of the session, with R stabs that, when pursued, led to emotional discharges. I haven't had many people to work with on this, but so far, each subject has a sort of BM thumbprint.

A: Their unique case, which you're able to see clearly.

Q: Technical question/observation: I've noticed that some items become analytically "reclassified" after evaluating them. That is, they read as a conditional "true" (GSR- fall, BM-R), but after that is acknowledged and the charge explored, they start reading left. They may still be charged, but the client originates more understanding of the real nature of the item, gaining some distance. Still, they can yield a new item on the "more to this?" question, which may itself read as "true".

A: That can be cognitive reads: thoughts, new ideas and imaginings, and also the left-brain starts playing its reactive tricks (further justification, rationalization, blame, and restimulation of remaining fixed ideas).

There's more understanding because there's some reality-based charge come off. After some thoughts-about, which may or may not lead off the right track, the client may - particularly with prompting - go back to the new reality base and dig deeper.

Interesting how the mind works, isn't it? As with doing lots of Indicator Tech, experience with the Bilateral results in more self-awareness out of session, when you spot your own mind doing the same sort of things.

 

 

Instructions for use of the Bilateral Ability Meter

The Bilateral Meter is set up alongside the GSR Meter, with the GSR on the left and Bilateral on the right.

To connect both meters together, you use the double set of electrodes. Connect the white lead that comes from the central section of both left and right electrodes and joins together, to the GSR jack input. This gives you an electrode from each hand to measure the GSR response.

The other two leads that come separately from each electrode, go to the Bilateral meter inputs - the white lead (from the right hand) to the bottom input; the black lead (from the left hand) to the top input.

To set up the meter for use, ask the subject to hold both electrodes, one in each hand, with a relaxed but steady grip, holding each electrode in the same position relative to the hand. Then you balance the needle on the Bilateral dial by using the calibrated knob on the right. When the subject squeezes the left hand, the needle should move to the right of the dial. If this isn't the case then either swap over the electrodes between hands or swap the two jack inputs into the Bilateral. There should also be a fall of the needle on the GSR.

It is also important to ensure that the electrodes are held with the index finger and thumb at the correct ('live') end of the electrode. If you try it both ways round, you will find that the needle is much more responsive with the index finger at one end: this is the correct way round. It is normally the end that the lead trails from.

When you have established a correct set up, it's a good idea to use small colored stickers to mark the corresponding left and right electrode/lead/socket orientations.

Set the Sensitivity of the Bilateral to the same position as on the GSR. This position is determined by the normal 'Sensitivity Test', i.e. starting with an average Sensitivity of 5 on the GSR, the subject should gently squeeze the electrodes and you see how far the needle moves to the right on the GSR. If more than 1/2 of the dial, reduce the Sensitivity; if less than 1/2 of the dial, increase the Sensitivity. Then re-test and adjust accordingly.

Using this set-up, the balance point is about a division higher on the GSR than with single electrodes, due to the reduced surface area of hand contact. This should be taken account of when judging the session progress: 2.5-3 becomes a low balance point and 5.5 a high balance point, whereas with normal electrodes this would be 2.0 and 4.5 respectively.

As you use the meters in session, you need to manually adjust the Bilateral to its central Set position. Balance positions less than central indicate a left hemispheric balance; a central balance indicates exact L/R hemispheric balance; more than central indicates a right hemispheric balance. This is the overall balance. As the needle moves to the left or right in response to a question or a called item, this is a relative reading - even if the overall balance is to the left or right, a response of the needle to the left or right nevertheless means that the left or right brain is relatively more aroused in response to the question or item. As the needle moves to the right (corresponding to left-brain arousal), you re-balance by turning the Balance to the left (a balance moving towards the left brain); as the needle moves to the left (corresponding to right-brain arousal), you re-balance by turning the Balance knob to the right (moving towards the right brain).

In the course of a session, the subject may approach a topic or experience quite defensively in a left brain dominant way (the GSR balance will tend to be higher). As he or she starts to confront the material the balance will tend to move towards the right overall (the GSR balance will tend to be lower as there is more emotonal involvement). When the truth is fully experienced and can be viewed with equanimity, the balance should be near central, with a gently 'floating' needle on both the Bilateral and GSR meters (the GSR balance will tend to be midway).

Left responses indicate that there is an element of fabrication in the way the subject is viewing. This is defensive. There may be rationalization, justification and blame expressed. One needs to direct the subject to look in a new direction.

Right responses indicate contact with real experience or deeply held beliefs but also a degree of emotional charge that is being suppressed. The right brain cannot lie! One needs to direct the subject to look further in the same direction: "Is there more to it?"

If there is no left nor right response, then there is no charge on the topic beinng examined that arouses thought (of a left or right brain nature) in the cerebral hemispheres. At the client's current state of awareness, responsibility and confront there is no accessible charge to clear; later on this situation may change. Unblocking procedures may be used to clear bypassed charge in the area. Even when the Bilateral is not responding, there may be a response on the GSR corresponding to lower brain (brain stem) deeply imprinted reactive programming; the appropriate action in this case is to indicate that the item that produced this reactive response is imprinted material, so that the client may have some distance from it and not be so identified with the concept.

With experience, the client will become educated in the significance of Left or Right needle reads and be prompted to look in the appropriate direction just by pointing out the reads, 'Left' and 'Right'.

When the needle responds to an addressed item with an instant response of significant length, this means that reactive mental mechanisms are in play, rather than the more delayed and smaller responses to normal thought processes.

A withheld communication may go first to the right (the truth) then to the left as a lie is fabricated. Left reads generally relate to intellectual defenses of one kind or another.

When assessing various items as to their suitability for further handling, those items that read to the right will be the most accessible and relate to real experiences with which the client has emotional contact.

When asking a question repeatedly to provoke the client to examine a topic in depth, when right reads begin to occur, you know the client is confronting the truth of the matter and the process is bearing fruit.

When going over a past experience to unburden it of charge, when the overall balance moves to the right, you know that the experience is being confronted directly. Catharsis may move the balance well over to the right, but as the charge comes off, the balance will return to normal as relief occurs.

The Bilateral meter can be used on its own (with the GSR connection lead left unattached) if the GSR function is not required, for example when checking overall balance for psychological diagnosis, but usually the two types of meter are best used simultaneously.

When used in conjunction with a GSR meter, the practitioner has valuable insight into two dimensions of the client's mental response to the issues addressed: firstly on the GSR, the overall level of brain arousal and reactive arousal in response to specific items mentioned; and secondly on the Bilateral, the overall hemispheric balance and reactive hemispheric response to specific items mentioned.

 

The complete 'Bilateral Meter Course' by Peter Shepherd is
available uniquely to purchasers of the Psychotechnics Bilateral Meter.
Please contact Peter Shepherd with proof of purchase.

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