Paraliminal problem?

[WanderingOak]

I had a bit of a problem last night listening to a Paraliminal session. The track I was listening to was New Behavior Generator, side B. The behavior I was focusing on was relaxing my mind during meditation (I have noticed that it tends to 'follow it's own path' at times during the guided meditations on the CDs), and I listened to the tape just before I went to bed. Shortly after the session began, my cat leaped into the bed with me and started kneading my legs. I pushed her off the bed, and relaxed back into the meditation tape. About halfway through the tape, just before the left and right voices began, the cat decided she wanted back on to the bed. Rather than throw her back off, I tolerated her walking across my body and tried to stay under. However, when the voices began, it sounded like a loud confusing cacaphony (I had listened to this track before, and it did not have that effect then), and I had a very difficult time relaxing back into the meditation.

Most of the paraliminals that I have listened to give the listener the option of staying in a relaxed meditative state, or being fully awake and aware afterwards. However, this one did not, the only option was awake. As I was planning on turning in for the evening afterwards, this was not optimal. I put the iPod away, turned out the light, and tried to go to sleep, but couldn't. I'm not sure if this track uses bianural beats to return the listener to full consciousness at the end, but I definitely had problems going to sleep, and when I did, the sleep was very restless. This was the first 'bad night's sleep' that I have had since trying the paraliminal tapes. The cat has been in bed with me before during sessions.

I have tried Automatic Pilot A, both tracks of the Dream Play, and Prosperity before going to bed on other nights, but did not have this problem. I did have an interruption at about the same point in the meditation with New History Generator A (phone call, let it go through to answering machine). The 'bianural voices' had a similarly confusing effect, and I was highly energetic afterwards. I do not remember if this track ended with the option to be relaxed or awake at the end, but as it was still early evening, I wanted to be awake afterwards. It could be the disruption which had me bouncing off the walls afterwards, I dunno.

As a side-note, I listened to 'Instantaneous Personal Magnatism' this morning when I got up. I was able to relax perfectly during the tape (after I let the cat out), and my mind stayed in a state of relaxed awareness during the whole session. Consciously, I was having a problem with the metaphor of people with 'magnetic personalities' being literally magnetic (more on that in another post later), however I was still able to follow the meditation through and be relaxed throughout, and come to a full level of awareness afterwards (while being given the option to stay relaxed). In other words, even though last night's session was less than optimum with undesirable after-effects, I did achieve my goal...

I am going to try to listen to New Behavior Generator B one more time (in the early evening, not just before bedtime). If it has a similar effect on me, I will try changing the 'end track' to one that keeps me in a relaxed state. After all, since this is on my iPod, I can 'mix and match' the individual tracks in each playlist. Has anybody else had similar problems? Can anybody think of why this particular meditation has the listener coming back to a full level of awareness afterwards? Has anybody else had experience in 'splicing' tracks together?

[Michelle]

The doorbell rang as I was in the middle of one meditation. It was a slight shock, but I did as the booklet suggests and just picked up where I left off.

If you want to do sleep learning, set your ipod to repeat either track 3 (of an A Paraliminal) or track 7 (of a B Paraliminal). When you wake, the learning process is done.

[WanderingOak]

Originally Posted by Michelle

The doorbell rang as I was in the middle of one meditation. It was a slight shock, but I did as the booklet suggests and just picked up where I left off.

I find it difficult to move during the sessions. It took all of my effort to push my cat off the bed the first time last night. I'm not sure if I could have gotten up to answer the phone, or pushed my cat off the bed a second time.

Originally Posted by Michelle

If you want to do sleep learning, set your ipod to repeat either track 3 (of an A Paraliminal) or track 7 (of a B Paraliminal). When you wake, the learning process is done.

I've been thinking about trying that, but need to find a pillow speaker. The ear buds are not comfortable enough to sleep with. I'm not sure how the sessions will work in mono. I also need to research how to have the iPod repeat tracks.

[ReallyGoodIdeas]

But do you reckon they work? I know this is a bit off topic, but are they good?

joy to you
Hazel

[Michelle]

I am convinced they work. Take a look at the Paraliminal thread under the Steve Pavlina topic.

[WanderingOak]

Originally Posted by ReallyGoodIdeas

But do you reckon they work? I know this is a bit off topic, but are they good?

joy to you
Hazel

They are quite effective in creating mental clarity and an energised feeling afterwards. Again, this was not what I wanted at 9:30 in the evening, especially when I had to get up at 4 the next morning. From what I understand, you should use the programs more than once in order to get the desired effect that the it is specificly designed to create. The only track that I have tried more than once was last night's New Behavior Generator.

[Steve Pavlina]

I've never had a problem with Paraliminals keeping me awake at night. When I hear the suggestion to become wide awake, and I want to go to sleep instead, I just say to my brain, "Belay that order!" I'm normally able to fall asleep within minutes then.

When Erin hears a suggestion she doesn't want to follow, she'll say, "cancel, clear."

I generally find it most effective to use the Paraliminals during the day, often just after lunch, to get that great afternoon mental boost.

I imagine some programs work better before sleep than others. Last night I listened to the Dream Play Paraliminal (program B) just before bed, and I fell asleep within minutes of the program's end. Had some pretty interesting dreams too.

[WanderingOak]

The more I thought about my reaction to the cat and the phone, the more I realized that both experiences felt like an anxiety attack. I never have liked being startled, and that has triggered similar responses in the past, with a quickened pulse and rapid shalow breathing. Come to think of it, I posted on something similar earlier. Going from relaxed meditation to fight/flight can be quite un-nerving, so of course that messed up the rest of my meditation session. So, I decided to try Anxiety Free B tonight, and followed that up with New Behavior B, again focusing on relaxing my mind during meditation. This time, the New Behavior tape worked better, and I did clearly hear the option to either stay relaxed and meditative or wake up. I can only guess that being startled by the cat must have affected me more than I thought, because I did not remember hearing that last night. I probably should have put the cat out and started over from the start of the session.

[theaznfunk]

What's the difference between side A and B?

[WanderingOak]

Originally Posted by theaznfunk

What's the difference between side A and B?

Both New Behavior Generator and Anxiety Free have two tracks. New Behavior track A is for eliminating an undesirable behavior, track B is for creating a new one. Anxiety Free track A is for dealing with specific anxieties, while track B is for reducing the response when exposed to whatever produces your anxities. At least, that is what I could get from reading the jacket.

[uon]

In my own experience sometimes when you are working on the issues that are the deepest, releasing them does come with a good amount of fear and anxiety. If anxiety has been your protection for sometime, then uprooting it from your experience is certainly going to cause massive amounts of it!

My suggestion would be to continue to work with it, and when the anxiety/cacophony/confusion arises, just allow it to be. Say to yourself .. "I feel really confused right now, but can I be okay with that?" Then relax and work through it.

Learn to let it go, continue to work towards your highest goal, and all will be well!

[Flame]

Does anyone using the Paraliminals CD have tips on how to "get past" idiosyncrasies in the narrator's voice? I've had the full set of CDs for about 3 weeks, but don't think I've been able to benefit b/c I really notice Paul Scheele's lisp on the "s" sounds. It's mild, but having noticed it from the start, it's not something I've been able to ignore. (It's the polar bear effect; the more I "try" to ignore it, the more difficult it is to ignore). So I've tried to redirect my thoughts and either just focus on the music or "zone out", hoping to absorb the message passively. I've put the CDs away for a couple of days, but each time I return I run into the same problem of being distracted by the diction. Switching the CD hasn't helped, b/c words with the "s" sound are so prevalent in each script (eg, listen, exactly, voice, ceiling, eyes, relax, etc).

To anyone who hasn't gotten the Paraliminal CDs, I would still recommend you trying them for yourself. Please don't be dissuaded from my question-- I haven't heard anyone else remark on the diction, so I may be more sensitive to diction and accents in general. I'm not really trying to debate the quality of the narrator (Paul Scheele and Learning Strategies obviously know what they are doing or they wouldn't be successful). Rather, I really want to benefit from the series, and I hope that someone may have strategies on how to train yourself to benefit from the content of a recording and not get distracted by the language.

[Alex w/Learning Strategie]

The Minnesota dialect, sounds like a lisp but seems to be the way they talk there

To get around it ask yourself what is it that bothers you about it? What makes it so wrong and why do you think you take it so personally? Is there someone you know that has a lisp and this remind you of it?

As you noticed what bugs you will continue to bug you as long as you choose to let it.

When I stumbled across a similar problem with another speaker I realised that this was a perfect opportunity for me to get out of my rut. Holding on to what I believed is correct is something that holds me back. By acknowledging that this speaker was teaching me something and it came across differently I had the opportunity to learn. I never imagined how letting go of that rut would help me climb out of so many others because I was only defining my comfort zone by being irritated by it. His breathy voice was outside my comfort zone of how I though a speaker should be presenting information. Ironically it helped me to realise if this guy can teach something by a method which I considered flawed then I don't have to be perfect either to make strides in what I want to do in life.

AlexK

[WanderingOak]

Originally Posted by Alex w/Learning Strategie

The Minnesota dialect, sounds like a lisp but seems to be the way they talk there

So that's what it is! I didn't hear him say "Ya, You betcha!" once.

[WanderingOak]

An interesting note concerning the voice on the tapes came to me last night. The iPod and headphones were on the nightstand three feet away from me, and every now and then I heard a quiet hissing sound coming from that direction. I looked over, and I guess I must have hit the controls puting the iPod away because it had started on a different paraliminal session. The hissing sound that I heard was the speaker's lisp. The only part of the session that I could hear from my bed were his s's. At least I know I wasn't losing my mind .

[uon]

I would agree on Paul Scheele's voice being kind of strange. At first it kind of bothered me, but then I asked why I was letting myself be bothered. The fact was, as long as I stayed bothered, I was not relaxing into the session. So, examine the relationship between your resistance to change and problems w/ the voice.

One of the things that helped me was viewing Scheele's DVD production for PhotoReading. This guy really is strange, but seeing him be strange COMPLETELY and NATURALLY, I knew he was the real deal. Make any sense?

[Flame]

Alex & Co, thank you for the insights. It's helpful to hear how you've all adjusted to the narrator. I'm still having trouble, but I'm improving. I not really sure why it bothers me, as I've lived in many places and heard many accents. I guess that I had expected an audio learning program narrator to have a more neutral sound (no discernable accent, like many nat'l newscasters), and the incongruency is what hangs me up rather than a bias against MN . But, it is getting better.

@Wandering Oak, we still might be losing our minds

@Uon -- Your observation cracked me up. I'm glad I wasn't the only one getting "strange" vibes I do have the PhotoReading program, and you've given me incentive to start it. I'll watch the DVD.