So I picked up a "David Pal," or "mind machine" as Patri calls it.

The setting I used, A4, is an "ADD and Learning" setting, which is supposed to help keep the user "engaged" in the session. I do find that it keeps me engaged for a while, although it has put me to sleep over half of the times I've tried it before the 26 minute long session was over ;)

I also tried the B3 setting, which is supposed to be "for a quick, thorough afternoon meditation," in other words, its supposed to be relaxing, but unlike the stimulating ADD setting which put me to sleep, I found the relaxing session made me anxious and I ended up turning it off early due to agitation ;)

Not sure why I don't like the B3 setting, but one possibility for why the A4 setting puts me to sleep is that it is working to keep me engaged, and my brain just gets tired because its not used to it ;) I do indeed very much enjoy using the setting, and tend to get very meditative during the 15 to 20 minutes of waking time that I spend in that state ;)

Interestingly, it has pretty consistently triggered childhood memories for me. Things that do cross my mind on occasion, but that I generally don't think about much, and almost never so clearly. And its been mostly positive memories, or at least explorative.

On a different note, it was very amusing when the therapist talked to me about settings. He mentioned that some settings invoked anxiety in people, and that some were for calming, but then stated offhandedly that I was very low anxiety and didn't need to worry about that. I think I kept from laughing out loud, and I informed him that I'm actually rather high anxiety, which surprised him.

I should clarify, that despite his being a therapist, I'm not seeing him for therapy (I'm seeing him for neurofeedback), so I don't really talk to him about my feelings or history or whatnot. In fact, I'm *much* more open in this journal than I am with him. Still, funny :)

I guess neurofeedback is a setting in which I am very calm: test taking, and trying to play a video game and things of that nature don't tend to bother me much.... especially in a case like neurofeedback where its non-competitive, it can be rather relaxing... boring even ;) (I typically start yawning and having a hard time keeping my eyes open by the end of the 20-30 minute session, sometimes even within a few minutes of starting the session). I just stress about everything else ;)