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October 2003: Press Release
Biofeedback Technology in The Journey to The Wild Divine
“The Journey to Wild Divine is a computer journey that elevates biofeedback and video games to a higher level,” said Dr. Bob Whitehouse, a psychologist certified in biofeedback, and a former Board member for the Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback. “Indeed, the game utilizes biofeedback in new and exciting ways.”
Biofeedback, according to Whitehouse, uses electronic equipment to monitor people’s internal physiological states and gives feedback that helps the recipient learn how to control these states, to activate balance, release or to recover from them. “Usually this also involves a coach, who guides the process, interprets the results, and makes suggestions,” he said. “In The Journey to Wild Divine, however, the game itself gives you information about whether you’re progressing or not. And, if you’re having trouble, you can ask for help from a mentor within the game on how to change your energy.
The Journey to Wild Divine, produced by The Wild Divine Project, based in Boulder, Colorado, and scheduled for release in November 2003, is a groundbreaking “Inner-active” computer journey that integrates the power of the spiritual quest with an innovative biofeedback interface and high-end multimedia production. Whitehouse was asked early on, along with his associate Sunny Turner, to look at the technology and design of the game by Corwin Bell, The Journey’s creator. He had been Bell’s psychology professor, teaching one of the first college biofeedback programs in the country. “The Journey’s biofeedback occurs in a beautiful and elegant style—along with the best graphics I’ve ever seen in a game,” Whitehouse said. “In particular, the feedback matches, in a more metaphoric way, what a player is trying to accomplish in the game, and goes beyond any physiologically controlled game that I’ve experienced.”
The Journey’s biofeedback component measures a player’s galvanic skin response (GSR) and heart rate variability. GSR measures sweat gland activity. Increased perspiration indicates increased autonomic nervous system activation, which is associated with increased energy—both positive, like excitement, and negative, like nervousness.
Heart-rate variability is calculated from the differences in heart rate from one heartbeat to another. No two are exactly the same, and you need a device more sophisticated than just taking your pulse to determine it. Greater heart rate variability is the healthy goal, and the game requires greater variability in certain areas in order to move ahead in the game. According to Whitehouse, examining heart rate variability is the fastest growing area in biofeedback because it provides important means of working with our own physiology.
In an example of how the biofeedback component of The Journey works, a player who’s required to lower a floating feather won’t be able to do it until moving into a somewhat meditative state. The player actually sees how getting into this state helps move the feather down.
Movement through The Journey is dependent upon a person’s ability to regulate their energy or physiological reactions by experiencing the mind/body connection associated with such emotions as joy, hope, excitement, relaxation and patience, to mention a few. The body responds by increasing, decreasing or synchronizing body rhythms, like the “heart-breath”, in a positive and healthy way. According to Dr. Whitehouse, “Most of these other games simply tell people whether their GSR or pulse rate, is moving up or down, and they have to figure out what’s happening to them when this occurs,” he said. “Basically, these games require players to maintain just one thing—a very stable GSR or heart rate. At best, they can create some subtle changes to influence the outcome of the game.
“In The Journey, players are on an evolutionary journey of self-exploration and discovery. Here, they not only see what’s happening on the computer screen, but learn that, unlike most types of computer games, the harder they try, the worse they do.”
To succeed in the game, according to Whitehouse, players have to learn certain principles, which basically require what he calls an ‘allowing attitude’—a kind of passive will. “It’s the difference between saying ‘I must do this,’ to learning that the only way you’re going to progress is by deepening your breathing or being in touch with more positive emotions or imagining that what you want to happen is already happening—bringing the wished-for event into the present,” he says.
In biofeedback terms, the game is set up so that players might actually have to raise either their sweat gland activity or heart rate in order to get through one particular barrier, while moving into a more balanced, or even calmer, state to successfully navigate another area. Progress in the game depends upon how well players have learned what they needed to learn to accomplish the varying events.
“At some point in the game, if a player has learned how to control their internal states to a degree, they can have an internal shift—something akin to an ‘aha’ experience, where they just know how to do things,” said Whitehouse, who particularly enjoys working in the area of optimal performance. “The game actually begins to occur in their minds. For example, they might just automatically let the inhale and exhale become equal in their breathing and deepen it a little bit. This would result in their going into the desired pattern of increased heart rate variability. Or they might accomplish the same thing by connecting with positive emotions.”
The game gives players more awareness of the emotional, mental—and potentially spiritual—correlation of physical states, according to Whitehouse. “When players acquire enough awareness of how to make the shift from one state to another, they can begin to do this voluntarily,” he said. “They can have integrated what I call our BEST team: Body, Emotions, Spirit and Thought.”
Whitehouse predicts that the game will appeal to a wide range of people and be used in a wide variety of areas in addition to people interested in home gaming and self discovery. “I think that companies and all sorts of businesses are going to get involved with it in a big way,” he said. “We’re moving towards more practical games where people can learn better control of their own internal states of consciousness. Many of these games will have a metaphysical base to them in line with the new recognition of the value of including ‘spirit in the workplace.’”
The game will also be welcomed by scientists, scholars, educators, and students who are focusing on personal exploration or optimal performance, according to Whitehouse. “At it’s core, The Journey to Wild Divine is just plain fun to play,” he said. “In addition, however, people who play the game will not only love it, but learn some valuable lessons in the process.”
The Journey to Wild Divine, which will have an introductory promotional price for the holiday season of $129.00 ($159.95 SRP), is the first in a series of “Inner Active” multi-media, computer adventures from the Wild Divine Project, offering hours of imaginative entertainment and mind/body mastery. It will be available on CD, with both a PC and a Mac version.
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