Biofeedback Archives

GSR question esp Dr. Stoll

Dr. Stoll and everyone: I just bought a used GSR device. Dr. Stoll, it is actually the one that you used in your practice some years ago, at least I am fairly certain of that from the archives. I purchased it used from a fellow poster - ie it is a brown faux wood box, with 2 knobs on the top to set the needle, and it send out a tone that changes as the needle drops and rises.

Anyway, I am really technically challenged. I read the whole instruction manual and I get the general gyst of course - i.e. that the goal is to get the needle to go down which indicates de-stressing. I am having trouble linking it to the ultimate goal and was wondering if you (Dr. Stoll) or others who have used a GSR device could explain to me how I should generally proceed in using it to come as close to possible to verifying that whatever techniques I am using are working.

Here is my basic dilemma - the manual suggests hooking yourself up to the electrodes and then figuring out what makes the needle drop. When it has dropped all the way it needs to be reset and then the manual suggests trying to drop it again and repeating this procedure until I cannot make it drop anymore. When I reset it, is it resetting based on my now more relaxed state so that the next drop indicates an even greater stage of relaxation? Now, when I did this I kept resetting and resetting and never reached a point where I could not make it drop further. I am not sure what this means. I started at the lowest settings (ie had the knobs on really low numbers) and maybe that was my problem? Is the lower the setting the easier it is to make it drop?

Another concern I had was that it seemed like it kept on dropping even when my thoughts started to wander etc. I have read that some people say they have "monkey minds" and they just let them wander so maybe that is me?

I don't mean to make this into rocket science but I just kind of felt like I did not know if I was getting anything accomplished today and wanted to make sure I was using the device in the proper manner. I guess, in a nutshell, my question is what should I do with this machine to try to show that I am reaching the RR? Keep resettin' till I can't reset no more? Set the needle really high (i.e. by setting the knobs to really high levels) and then seeing if I can get it down from there?

Re: GSR question esp Dr. Stoll (Archive in biofeedback.)

Re: GSR question esp Dr. Stoll (Archive in biofeedback.)