Customer Reviews

The Open-Focus Brain: Harnessing the Power of Attention to Heal Mind and Body (Book & CD)

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My own introduction to Open Focus took place in the early 1980s when I explored its potential as a tool for spiritual development.

Buddhist meditation techniques such as Vipassana and Dzogchen are attentiveness training practices. In Vipassana you begin by narrowly focusing on breath sensations and gradually widen the field of attention until it takes in whatever is arising in the mind. In Dzogchen meditation (an advanced practice) you go immediately into that wide-angle, all-inclusive mode of attending and hang out there. Both are highly worthwhile practices, but to develop the ability to enter at will that open-to-everything mindset requires an extended period of prior practice.

During the 1970s Les Fehmi developed and recorded a series of exercises designed to talk a person into the Open Focus mind state. By the time I heard about these tapes I had already attended several Vipassana retreats. I bought a set of tapes, and when I started using them I was immediately impressed by how effective they were. If I diligently followed the suggestions being made on the tape, at the end of the half-hour lesson I would invariably be in the Open Focus mode of attending to mind contents. That was rarely the case when I spent an equal amount of time doing Vipassana meditation. Better yet, after using the tapes daily for several weeks I found that in everyday life circumstances I was able to switch at will between narrow-focus attention and Open Focus -- something I had not yet developed the ability to do in my meditation practice.

When I recently obtained a copy of THE OPEN-FOCUS BRAIN and its companion CD I was delighted. It now seems likely that this powerful technique will finally get the widespread recognition it deserves.

I approached this book with pure skepticism. I thought it would be boring, and, as a scientist, I could not believe that a few simple exercises could begin to alleviate the mental and physical pain of stress and depression. But I was wrong!

Fehmi combines his years of research and experience with a forthright and simple presentation. His humanism shines throughgout the book.

The text is simple and clear, and I found myself, wanting to learn more with each chapter I read. In addition, the included CD is terrific, especially, as I love to listen to audio books. My favorite exercises, "Expanding Your Awareness of Visual Space" and "Seeing in Open Focus", are particularly useful to me, in reducing the chronic tension that lives in my shoulder muscles.

Buy this book!

This is an important, groundbreaking book that promises to become a classic that could very well become more and more widely read over the decades.

More than any other book, it reminds me of Herbert Benson's RELAXATION RESPONSE. Just as Benson took a simple concept-- relaxation-- and created a landmark book on how to do it... simply, Les Fehmi, with co-author Jim Robbins, has laid out an approach to attention that is remarkable in its simplicity and power to change lives.

As Fehmi points out, our lives, our experiences, all we know, are determined by how we pay attention. The process of paying attention is usually something we ignore. Yet, Fehmi teaches, we can easily learn how to become aware of how we are paying attention and then voluntarily pay attention as we choose to.

Fehmi walks us through the ways that narrowed, inflexible attention leads to stress and stress disorders, depression, reduced performance, even diminished relationships. The good news is he provides practical, easy to learn and implement techniques which work-- and quickly, at that.

I first learned the Open Focus technique from Les Fehmi 30 years ago. I've used them ever since in my life and as a trainer and consultant teaching newcomer physicians, psychologists, counselors, educators, etc. the field of biofeedback and self regulation. I've taught hundreds of practitioners this technique because I believe it is very effective and powerful.

This book has been long overdue and will be highly valuable to both lay readers and professional psychologists. Fehmi's co-author Jim Robbins is an extraordinary writer who has helped Fehmi to take his ideas and put them into a fun and fascinating to read language that makes this book almost as engaging as a great novel.

Dr. Fehmi has been a consultant to the Dallas Cowboys, Golf Pros, ther US Olympic team and so many others who have benefited from these techniques. He's polished and fine tuned them with biofeedback and brain assessment technologies. This means that, unlike many techniques, Open Focus has been objectively measured and tested with brain wave technologies such as neurofeedback devices and brain maps.

Ask yourself. How much thought have you given to the way YOU pay attention. What are the parameters you assess? What "handles" do you have for modulating and adjusting your attention for different situations? Most people don't have good answers to these questions. This book provides them.

Some people will approach this book as a self-help book for healing disorders caused by stress, anxiety, etc.

Some will, like the pro teams and players who have hired Dr. Fehmi, approach this book as an aid to help improve performance, to reach peak performance and optimal functioning.

Some will seek out this book to help their personal relationships.

Some will approach it as a map for achieving higher consciousness and or spiritual deepening.

All will find answers that will make a difference in their lives and work.

As the founder organizer of one of the world's largest biofeedbac meetings, my job has been to bring together the best and the brightest leaders. Les Fehmi has, with his wife Susan, always been one of the best. The presentations have always drawn big crowds of other experts and leaders in the fields of biofeedback, peak performance, positive psychology, neurofeedback, stress management, meditation and relaxation. The experts come to hear Fehmi because he combines science and solid theory with practical, easy to use techniques. This book does the same thing.

This is one of the few books I'd like my adult children to read, and I'll be passing on copies to any of my employees who want to read it too.

Do I sound enthusiastic? It's a real joy to see that the life work of one of the scientist practitioner psychologists I've come to respect has been put on the printed page in such a stunning, powerful way. You do yourself a great disservice if you fail to avail yourself of the unique, original ideas and life strategies you'll find in this book.

Last but not least, I was amazed to see tht the book includes a CD with guided Open Focus exercises on it. They've always sold separately. Fehmi has given his all on this.

Strongly agree with the above review. Fehmi clearly points out the destructive and healing affects of the way we pay attention. I found the practices in the book to be simple and effective even while reading in a bookstore. Most of the key concepts are not new, as they can be traced back to ancient meditation techniques and understanding. However, backed by over 30 years of practice Fehmi outlines a refreshingly down to earth assessment and implementation of attention in everyday living. As an artist, this book has helped me to realize the differences in attention that is such a critical part of the creative process. No doubt I was intuitively working with them before, but now they are much more apparent. Thanks to Dr. Fehmi for this wonderfully insightful book!

Having read a lot of meditation books, zen books, power of now and attention deficit books, this book is a very interesting perspective on the subject of focus and attention.

First off the book explains what open focus is but it took me a while to grasp it. It wasn't until I read the first exercise that I 'felt' what open focus is about. I feel the book does require a few reads. More importantly, I felt I was very drawn to re-reading it, especially after listening to the cd.

Let me try a technique he uses in open focus. So while you are reading this review, imagine the distance of the screen from your eyes while still reading. Then see the edges of the computer screen yet still managing to read. Notice the spaces between each of the lines of words. Can you feel your shoulders? Can you feel if your arms and fingers are tense? Are your eyes relaxed? Still keep reading yet feel your tightness as you are still reading. Perhaps you can soften that tension and still maintain focus. Perhaps that feels more relaxed and now less urgent?

So one of the ideas is to still function but we don't always need what's known as 'narrow focus' or 'hyper-focus'. This is the focus that uses a high level of energy, tension and focus. We don't always need this type of focus with everything we do. This type of focus is very effective at getting things done, but unless we have a knowledge of 'different types' of focus, we can burn out. We don't always need to use narrow-focus for every task and every conversation. There are lots of other things we could do in open focus, enjoy them more and maybe even do a better job. An obvious one is reading. When I did the exercise he gave while reading I noticed my tension and softened it, especially the tension I was using to hold the book.

There is a cd with the book. The exercises on them are really brilliant. For me, going through the exercises really helps digest the sense of open focus.

One of the main themes of open focus training is to focus on space and spaces. Something like the space between your eyes. On the cd there are 15 second pauses between focuses. So imagine the distance from your eyes to the tip of your nose. pause. Imagine the volume of your lips. pause. The idea is not to say "oh its an inch" but more the greater depth of the space, such as the space between the atoms in the space.

The first of the two long guided sessions is working the head, shoulders and upper back. The second works the whole body. The voice on the cd is very pleasant.

What this book does very well is point out that we are living as if everything is urgent. Yet a lot of the time we aren't aware of it. Our culture rewards this type of focus. We are taught it at school; "stop daydreaming"; "pay attention"; "concentrate". A lot of the time we were paying attention but we look relaxed, or our gaze wasn't looking 'focused' enough.

Theres a lot of scientific biofeedback to back up this open focus training to move the practitioner very quickly into alpha waves using what is know as "imageless imagery".

Les Fehmi has been working with being "a student of how human beings attend both to the world around them and to their internal world of emotions and thoughts" for over 40 years. He's worked with Dallas Cowboys(American Football), the New jersey Nets, and the Olympic Development Committee.

*CE Johnson writes: "This book doesn't explain how the exercises are supposed to bring a person from narrow focus to open focus."

Yes, it does. Fehmi describes how in his early attempts to elicit EEG alpha synchrony (the benefits of which he discusses) failed until he began to work with formless "imagery." His subsequent decades of work have shown that this type of imagery (focusing on empty space) reliably brings about alpha synchrony in his clients and his students' clients. The connection between alpha synchrony and attentional style is discussed, as is the way in which Open-Focus practice generalizes into everyday life. I understand that the exercises can seem a bit quirky at first, and the particular focus (space between body parts) actually still puts me off somewhat. But they DO work. Dr. Fehmi did not begin his work with a metaphysical or aesthetic agenda about the style of the exercises; rather, they emerged directly from scientific observation of what works to guide the brain toward a salutary state, one that is unlikely to arise on its own in the current (perennial?) insanity of the world.

This is a remarkable book. The authors using clear and straightforward explanations, case material and specific practices provide a wonderful introduction to self-regulation through the training of attention. With this book, learning to shift out of stress and over-arousal become possible through changing your way of using your attention. These methods work.

Both my wife and I are psychotherapists and we have begun asking our clients to purchase this book. The explanations, illustrations and clear instructions provide a manual for home practice of basic attention regulation skills which can be a powerful element in working with most forms of psychological discomfort and distress. Learning to change the qualities of your experience by altering how you attend is empowering.

This book can change your life. The heart centered Open Focus practice from the book is one which my wife and I frequently do together. It supports us in cutting through the normal disconnections of busy lives and 'coming home to our deeper connection'.

You may not get much out of this book if you don't actively work with the exercises. Open Focus is a skill and requires practice. The skill of Open Focus once learned can provide feelings of workability and confidence in stressful and difficult situations.

I whole heartedly recommend this book.

I have been doing the Open Focus practice for about three years. This book was long awaited: earlier I read everything on the Dr. Fehmi's site, but wanted something in plain language for everyday reference. The book satisfies both my eager for knowing science behind the method, and supports me in my practice. The chapters on emotional and physical pains are especially useful, since I didn't do much of the dissolving pain exercises before.

The practice which was initially intended for stress-relief has become the focal part of my learning and my life. Many good changes occurred during this time: dramatically improved relationships both in family and at work, courage to own my life, I have become the boss in my own company, my health improved, and there is something deep in the practice which is impossible to express in words. People frequently say now I am a beautiful woman, which was never the case before. I love the book and I love the practice. Doctor Fehmi is a genius.

From co-author Jim Robbins; "The premise is that we all hold on to emotional stress that we have carried with us since infancy and childhood. Because this stress -- which moves through our body as well as our mind -- is painful, we shut it down reflexively to keep from feeling it. To keep our stress from surfacing we stay in a type of attention called narrow objective. This fear lives on in our stomach, our chest, our heart and other organs and muscles and causes a host of problems, including anxiety, depression, chronic pain, ADD, ADHD and many other things. It also contributes to an overall physical and emotional numbness.

Stress and fear is held in place by the narrow focus objective style of attention. We can release this held fear, and reverse negative physiological and psychological symptoms, by moving into a less rigid, more flexible styles of attention. Taken far enough we can even move into transcendent states. The book includes a CD with exercises that very quickly move us out of narrow objective focus, and into other forms of attention."

...I purchased and have been doing the Open Focus exercises for 6 months. After 2 months of twice daily practice, a pleasurable feeling developed throughout my entire body that lasts day and night. This pleasurable feeling is such a gift - I guess I never really knew what true relaxation felt like before as I was unknowingly stuck in alarm-mode 24/7.

Thank you, Dr. Fehmi for this user-friendly, highly effective contribution to the world. It's hard to believe that listening to a CD and using one's imagination can have such a powerful effect on one's life and physiology. Those who panned this book likely failed to hang in there long enough to derive benefits. If stress is the root cause of disease then the relaxation response is the ultimate remedy out there.

These exercises will get you there fast!

I have practiced several forms of meditation/ stress reduction techniques (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), HeartMath, binaural beat brainwave entrainment (Holosync)--all of which I have found extremely helpful. But in 2008 I found myself in a situation that overwhelmed my existing meditation practice. Luckily a few months before I had picked up a copy of Dr. Les Femi's book The Open-Focus Brain. I was surprised and relieved to find the simple exercises (included on CD) were immediately effective (within 10 to 15 minutes) in relieving my acute stress-related symptoms.

Over several decades through his work in clinical settings and the laboratory Dr. Femhi empirically built from the ground up his extremely effective method that he calls Open-Focus.

In his book The Open-Focus Brain Dr. Fehmi shows how much HOW we pay attention matters. We habitually rely on a narrow focus attention. So much so that it is the only commonly acknowledged type. Dr. Femhi introduces four main types of attention. He encourages the development of an attentional flexibility that can be easily integrated into our daily lives.

Last but not least Dr. Femhi developed by far the most effective technique for dissolving pain I've ever encountered. Simple and very effective, it works with both emotional and physical pain. A serendipitous discovery based on his personal experience with kidney-stone pain led Dr. Femhi to "begin a lifelong quest to understand the relationship between how people attend to the world and the profound effect that different forms of attention have on our minds and bodies."

Dr. Femhi has made a valuable contribution to the practical application and theoretically understanding of stress reduction, pain management and optimum performance.

The Open-Focus Brain is recommended for both beginners and serious long-term mediators or anyone interested in stress reduction, pain relief or optimum performance.