The Art of Smart Thinking

THE ART OF SMART THINKING is written by James Hardt, Ph.D. Dr. Hardt, a physicist, psychologist and psychophysiologist with over thirty years of research and clinical practice in neurofeedback brain wave enhancement, is founder of The Biocybernaut Institute. Before I go further, let me explain the purpose of The Biocybernaut Institute. Simply put, it offers intensive training using neurofeedback. Having an ADHD child, I'd heard about this through the psychologist who did my oldest son's testing. For those who haven't heard of this term, neurofeedback is a technique designed to teach people how to control their brain waves. It's a very expensive and yes, intensive program. This was a couple of decades ago and it all sounded a bit kooky to me. I feel differently about it now. Since then, there has been more exploration and media coverage. Though it's still an expensive process, I know of people who have had success and this is one reason I wanted to read the book. In THE ART OF SMART THINKING, Dr. Hardt does start at the basics for those who haven't heard of the various brain waves and how our emotions affect those waves. He explains the reason for Alpha feedback and the Biocybernaunt process. He also shares that forgiveness and opening your heart are a necessary for the rapid learning of enhanced alpha waves. These are the brain waves that we can consciously create which will lead us to a happy and relaxed state. The key point in the book for me was under Extreme Forgiveness. Having such dysfunctional family, forgiveness has been a rough road to travel. With my parents, showing forgiveness is just giving them permission to do the act over and over again. And I'll be honest, I wasn't taking this part too seriously until I read one of the quotes from someone like me. It was "Why should I forgive? They deserve to have me angry at them!" I had to smile because he add that this anger will only hurt me and isn't that the truth. I could go on and on. The book covers so much information that I could write several pages and write a complete summary of it all. The contents are priceless in my opinion.

If you do not have the $15,000 to get the training, read "Peek Performance: Mental Training Techniques of the World's Greatest Athletes" by Charles A. Garfield, Ph.D., 1985. It has a biofeedback technique that will teach you how to increase you Alpha waves! You can do it yourself with just the book. I have used it for over 15 years. It can't duplicate the training you get for $15,000 but it is a start. As for me, I will raise the $15,000 any way I can because I know it is worth it because of the personal experience I have with the Peek Performance book. The biofeedback technique takes about 3 months to master - well worth it. It goes on to teach you visualization. It really does teach you how to get into the Zone. Man. Dr. Hardt really blew my mind when I heard him on the radio. I have been waiting for something like this for 15 years! Incredible.

In this book are many discoveries that Dr. Hardt has taken a lifetime to discover. Many are unique and exotic such as the studies of ZEN monks and how their brain waves progress through meditation. The most mind blowing concept in the book was that of NEURALPLASTISY, basically that our brains are changeable, malleable, and moldable even as ADULTS, and that during Dr. Hardt's Alpha one training people GAINED on average 11.7 IQ points during the 7 days of the training AND this was stable one year out as measured by psychological tests. Another paradigm-shattering discovery is that this training works on elderly people and returns then to a more youthful brain state...AMAZING.

The Art of Smart Thinking is a book long overdue. To learn that there is a way to train your brain to produce more Alpha waves, which have been scientifically linked to more creativity, reversing brain age, and increasing IQ is mind-blowing. For over 30 years, Dr. Hardt has made this research his life's work - his credentials are impeccable, and he has received patents from the U.S. government for his neurofeedback technology. No easy feat. Neurofeedback technology I might add, that has LONG been buried by mainstream medicine since the 70's (in favor of pill-popping I suppose). After all, if we humans really do have the ability to create and sustain positive emotional states by simply learning how to use something we all already have (a brain and Alpha brain waves) then the big pharmaceutical companies would not be very happy now, would they?

Before I came into an awareness of Dr. Hardt and his technology, I didn't give my brain waves a moments consideration. All I knew about them was that they flat-lined upon death; and like everyone else, I'd seen many variations of that scene played out. This book changed that limited point of view dramatically. I now realize how important my brain waves are; and that they are, in fact, the catylyst behind everything else I experience in life. The statement that blew my mind the most is called the "Psychophysiological Principle", which states that: "Any experience you have as a living Human Being, you have only when you have a certain pattern of brain waves." When I read that, I had to stop and just ponder the magnitude of it. If the brain wave pattern determines every experience; and you can learn to control that pattern, then you're state of mind and the quality of your experience is in your hands. What incredible news for anyone ready to step out of victimhood into self empowerment!