Customer Reviews

Healing Rhythms from the Wild Divine Project (Biofeedback Software and Hardware for PC and Mac)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am a former Physiology Teaching Fellow, biochemist and current personal growth coach and organizational consultant. In addition, I have a background in psychology and work with biofeedack in my practice. I familiar with many of the products that are out there and this one certainly is not a toy.

This software utilized two primary physiological measurements in novel ways that help you to develop skills that increase your resilience and ability to relax. Practicing as little as two times for 12 minutes a day can make a tremendous difference in your health and well being.

Also, there is a lot of value-added material included with this package. It is being marketed hard, but it really is an economical way to take advantage of biofeedback technology.

FreezeFramer is also an excellent product with a great user interface. The primary difference between the two is that this products also tracks skin conductance which correlates with sympathetic nervous system arousal i.e. your state anxiety. Seeing both of these together has a lot of value and the different ways learning to manipulate your body through different practices is imaginative. The activities for FreezeFramer are less interesting, but it is a very solid program too which focuses on heart rate variablity and does it in-depth including frequency distributions which also correlate with well being.

I don't think you can go wrong with either package. However, you probably don't need both. Read about them and see which one makes the most sense for your needs. If you're primary issue is anxiety, this may be a better way to go. Also, budgetary concerns can be an issue for some. Read my review of FreezeFramer, compare prices and look at the book HeartMath and see what product fits your needs and budget most closely. If you found this review helpful, I would appreciate you letting me know and also providing your comments as I will revise it at different points based on feedback that I receive.

Finally, this is a pretty high price point and if you wanted to you could pick up a skin conductance or skin temperature sensor for a small amount of money used or new from various vendors. This is another way that you can go if you don't want or need the integrated package or value-added content. If you go this route, you can buy FreezeFramer and get the skin conductance functionality separately. However, it's very nice to have it all intergrated together and certainly more convenient.

I've had this program about 3 weeks and have finished the 15 steps, now I'm ready to go back and do my favorite meditation/breathing exercises.
I look forward to doing the program nightly and it has re-sparked my commitment to meditation. I like that you can spend as long as you like in meditation, although sometimes the words of wisdom/guidance seem too short in the beginning of the meditation, and I yearn for more. A lot of focus on breath in the exercises. I also have Wild Divine's "The Passage" an am using the biofeedback sensors from that program. I much prefer "Healing Rhythms" because of the focus on meditation. "The Passage" has short bouts of breathing exercises and you have to keep your hand on the mouse quite a bit-plus it's very visually stimulationg, which keeps me from creating my own mental pictures. "Healing Rhythms" is much more soothing and healing and I've had some great visions and dreams as a result of the program.

Last year I bought Journey to Wild Divine, which was an interesting game that uses biofeedback. Although I liked it, it quickly became tiresome having to wade through the game over and over to try and get to places I hadn't discovered yet.

Healing Rhythms combines the biofeedback device with a set of 15 guided exercises. It basically centers around learning to meditate and breathe. The interface is easy to use, and you can either select guided instruction, or go directly to the events.

The biofeedback unit attaches to 3 fingers, and measures skin conductivity and heartbeat.

Since I already had the biofeedback hardware, the software only cost $80. I don't know if I'd pay almost $300 for the package, but the software put my already purchased hardware to good use.

I am pleased with this purchase.

I've purchased all the basic programs from The Wild Divine Project, and I've found them to be very helpful in developing useful biofeedback skills. Unfortunately, this company that creates expensive "enlightenment" software often disappoints me with their unenlightened business practices and unenlightened product support.

For example, they don't exactly make it obvious that there are no new biofeedback scenarios in the repackaged set sold as Relaxing Rhythms (formerly Healing Rhythms). It's all old graphics, albeit with an attractive new navigational interface, interspersed with some thoughtful discussion from well-known gurus. I'll bet many buyers were as disappointed as I was, to find out they'd been sold the same graphics twice. It's an old trick but I didn't see it coming from this company.

As another example, Wild Divine is currently (October 2010) selling only the XP/Vista version of their software for PCs, even on their Web site, though they have upgrades for Windows 7. Those upgrades will cost you an extra 20 bucks (each), but Wild Divine doesn't tell you that up front. (Why charge once when you can charge twice?) Again, an old trick, but I didn't expect it from this company.

I've also been disappointed with their product support. Their online information seems poorly organized, poorly communicated and incomplete. Some of their software still has annoying bugs that should have been patched out years ago. If you attempt to contact their tech support, don't hold your breath waiting for a reply. You may or may not get a response.

So yes, I still recommend this software, but it's ironic that the business practices of the maker are so out of sync with the intentions of their product. Be prepared for some frustration.

Healing Rhythms is a wonderful tool that helps a person discover his own healing energies. By way of self-awareness, breathing, and a simple bio-feedback tool,a person learns to control his response to stress. Old thinking patterns are changed into positive ones. When a person practices daily, these positive changes start to happen automatically and make life better and less stressful. I highly recommend this system to anyone who wants to become more conscious of self and thoughts and better able to handle stress. This will definitely help heal you from within.

Other important information- I use this on a MAC and it works beautifully. The biofeedback software does a nice job of tracking your heart rate, breathing, and skin conduction. These data files can be saved. The only downside is that the finger leads sometimes have a hard time being detected if your skin is dry. But a quick coat of lotion resolves that problem.

For me it was too expensive, and with lots of unnecessary fluff. The basics are ok, but you can get a cheapo version on the net that just measures heart rate, so overall, I would have bought another biofeedback version.
However, to parents of kids with emotional disturbances like ADD, this might be quite valuable in teaching kids how to focus, and thus be well worth the price.

I own the first two products they put out, Journey to Wild Divine and the Passage, with the original lightstone. If you own either of these you should recognize that this product is not really NEW. It contains much of what you already have. Also note that I can't use either of them anymore becaue they didn't upgrade the lightstone software. I also had an issue after I lost my disks. They told me they had no record of my purchase. Luckily I keep paperwork and was able to send them the original purchase order that came with the product...but it took a good deal of time to get through to them.

The problem here is that they don't appear to be a real hardware/software company, just product promoters who subcontract as needed. They purchased services to create these products which they have now re-assymbled by adding new dialog and an enhanced interface. There does not appear to be a full time programer on staff who sends out updates to registered users. As one viewer remarked, you have to purchase upgrades to Windows 7. That is not something a registered user should have to do, especially on a "new" product. This also suggests that there is no programmer on staff, so they pass the cost of subcontracting one to make changes on to you. They design and sell updates when they get complaints about things not working or when a new operating system forces them to. Unlike Heartmath, the company that makes EMWAVE they are just three men with reputations that can sell and a product that can be rehashed every so often for resale. Companies like Emwave produce new products periodically because they intend to stay in business. This should be another concern here. If they are rehashing old stuff, do they really intend to be around next year when you lose your disk or need a new driver for Windows 8?

The program is simple and effective for learning the basics of meditation. The biofeedback helps refine the meditation process. Many books and videos intellectualize the process where this explains and guides your body as you go into a state of relaxation.
My reservations about the product are only in the area of tech support for the Macintosh version. The program is written for Windows and only uses a conversion program to run on a Mac. When the program had an error I reinstalled it but that didn't fix the problem so I contacted tech support. From the first email their only suggestion was to format my hard drive and reinstall the operating system.
The installation process adds and or modifies more files than just the main program file. I was able to find some of them on my own but not the one causing the problem. Wild Divine tech support didn't answer any of my questions directly. Instead they repeatedly made suggestions about reinstalling my operating system and not using time machine to restore my other files.
In the end I got the program to work at the expense of some of my personal files. The process of getting the program to work was very stressful.

After practicing yoga and meditation regularly for a few years, I have developed an intuitive sense of when I am deeply calmed. When I reach this state of calmness, I can feel my whole body throb with my heart rate, I can then "clock" my inhalations and exhalations to my heart beat. I also see distinct visual patterns with my eyes closed. But I never knew if these sensations were indicative of a good practice of meditation or if I was just imagining the whole thing. The Healing Rhythms method works very well for me. It was a pleasure to see heart rate variation and Galvanic skin potential applied to the ancient practice of meditation in a visually pleasing manner. I can achieve all the visual targets using techniques I have honed through my intuitive practice. The instructions that precede the biofeedback exercises are quite nice themselves but it sometimes feels a bit inadequate. Yet if you stick with it you can usually divine what you need to do (or what to let go) to reach the final state. I find myself closing my eyes during the practice and seem to get to the goal without much feedback.

It doesn't take much to increase medical bills if anxiety, stress, and blood pressure are a concern. Instead of spending an hour waiting for your doctor and then additional expense on prescriptions, use that time to learn breathing and relaxation techniques that you can use most anywhere.

This is not a quick fix, not a gimmick, it takes practice and patience, and the program gives you immediate feedback on your progress, and has the option to keep a history of your gains. There are various exercises and challenges. I found some easier than others, so each person is likely to run into something that will keep interest going for a long time to come. I anticipate it will be a while before I master all of the possibilities.

There are multiple levels of difficulties. If over the course of a year, a person spent 100 hours on this program, that comes out to about $3/hour to learn lasting stress reduction approaches that are built on natural principles, that can be used anywhere.

A good set up will help a lot - comfortable chair, quiet room, minimal external stimulation and interruption. Think of it as "quiet time" with yourself. Noise cancelling headphones can be used to shut out distracting sounds as needed. Others may have different experiences, but for me at least 30 minutes/session has worked, a couple of times/week. I find myself looking forward to it. I've done it as much as an hour at once, with rewarding progress. The better I get while hooked up to Healing Rhythms the faster I am able to induce relaxation while away from it.

The program instructions mention something that is absolutely true. If you are the competitive type and try to outwit the program, you won't get very far. The harder your try, the more you impede your progress. You learn quickly that "less is more."

If you are serious about managing unhealthy stress, are willing to do your part and take the time to pay close attention to your body and teach yourself natural approaches, Healing Rhythms will do its part to take you on that journey as far as you want to go.

I know there are other approaches for controlling blood pressure naturally. I haven't tried any others. This is to say that Healing Rhytms isn't the only way to achieve such goals, but so far my experience is that it is a good one.