Resources

• OPEN FOCUS™

The Open Focus™ approach and techniques were developed out of a series of experiments conducted over a thirty year period, in the area of EEG biofeedback (also called neurofeedback) training and psychotherapeutic applications of neurofeedback, and particularly brain synchrony training. The technique has some similarities with meditative procedures and other imagery techniques. However, it is a unique goal in OPEN FOCUS training to develop aseries of “objectless images” which facilitate the distribution of one’s attention between and among various regions of the body and among various other sense modalities of experience.  With continued practice, OPEN FOCUS training is designed to lead one to a simultaneous awareness of the totality of available experience and the background of objectlessness from which it emerges and into which it dissolves. The goal of OPEN FOCUS training is the effortless processing of awareness in which no one type of attention, or aspect of simultaneousexperience is weighted more heavily than any other part. OPEN FOCUS is an inclusive awareness which encompasses narrow, diffuse, separate and immersed attention simultaneously along with an awareness of how one is attending.

The OPEN FOCUS training exercises, presented on the sets of MP3s and CD’s were developed by and are narrated by the originator of this technique, Les Fehmi, Ph.D., for use with his students and clients at the Princeton Biofeedback Centre. These exercises and applications of the technique have been derived from, and developed to work in conjunction with, neurobiofeedback for peak performance training of artists, athletes, meditators, business professionals, lay persons and client populations in stress managemen, as well as for personal and transpersonal growth. The exercises are used with or without neurofeedback, since the exercises serve as a powerful and independent training technique for enhancing attentional flexibility, mental, emotional and spiritual integration, and in the treatment of a number of functional or stress related disorders. A major application of the exercises is for dissolving physical and emotional pain and related to stress.

OPEN FOCUS exercises consist of a series of questions which are designed to stimulate your imagination of objectless experience (the space between and around objects), and to broaden attentional scope in an effortless and relaxed way. For example, one question is“can you imagine the space bewteen your eyes?”

By distributing attention over adistance, volume, region or space in the body, one naturally lessens one’s grip on focal internal and external sensations, reduces the effort associated with the apprehension of a limited focus of objective attention. Because space is the absence of matter and sensation, it cannot be grasped in the same way that sensory objects can. Any amount of effort is counter productive in that the effort is experienced more prominently than the sense of absence which is space. The sensory experience of effort over shadows the sense of absence which is space.

• “The Open-Focus Brain”

Already, tens of thousands have read and have benefitted from this ground- breaking book.  Just recently, “The Open-Focus Brain” by Dr. Les Fehmi and Jim Robbins, appeared on the Jumbo-Tron in Times Square, NYC.   Years of research and clinical expertise are made readily available to the reader.  The book has been translated into German, Chinese, French, Korean and Dutch.

A consistent best seller, “The Open-Focus Brain–Harnessing the Power of Attention to Heal Mind and Body” has gained a following among athletes, performing artists and others looking for a drug free alternative to addictive medications.  The book offers a natural, effective, time-tested, and easy to read approach to improved health, pain relief and peak performance.

How the brain uses attention to orchestrate health, dissolve pain and enhance performance is the subject of “The Open-Focus Brain”.   Dr. Fehmi and Jim Robbins offer a simple to follow program of attention training, backed up with clinical evidence, and with an exercise CD in the back cover of the book.

•  “Dissolving Pain -Simple Brain Training Exercises for Overcoming Chronic Pain”

Revolutionary, Drug-Free Approach to Pain Relief

Leading neurofeedback researcher offers hope to chronic pain sufferers

      “The techniques described in this book can make life fuller, more enjoyable, and more productive. I recommend it.”—Andrew Weil, MD      

September 9, 2010—Back, neck, and joint pain. Migraines. Pain from stress and tension.  At one time we’ve all experienced some degree of pain.  Drugs aren’t always effective or they have adverse side effects. What if we had the tools to heal ourselves?

For four decades, Dr. Les Fehmi has been a leader in brainwave biofeedback (also called neurofeedback), training people how to balance and regulate their brainwave patterns to improve mental, emotional, and physical health.  His new book, with Jim Robbins, Dissolving Pain: Simple Brain-Training Exercises for Overcoming Chronic Pain (Trumpeter, September 2010) is based on the premise that although pain is perceived to exist in a particular part of the body, pain in fact resides in the brain.  He shows us that it is possible to learn to resolve pain at the brain level, using simple attention exercises.  Drawing on scientific research, he explains how to quiet the pain signal in the brain, empowering readers to free themselves from many forms of pain and discomfort.

Included with the book is a 65-minute audio CD in which Dr. Fehmi guides listeners through the fundamental Dissolving Pain exercises.

Les Fehmi, PhD, BCIA-EEG, is the director of Princeton Biofeedback Centre in Princeton, New Jersey.  For over forty years he has conducted research and practiced clinically in the field of neurofeedback.  He is the author, with Jim Robbins, of The Open-Focus Brain: Harnessing the Power of Attention to Heal Mind and Body.  For more information, visit  www.openfocus.com.

Jim Robbins is a journalist and science writer, with frequent contributions to the New York Times, Smithsonian, Scientific American, and Discover.  He is also the author of A Symphony in the Brain: The Evolution of the New Brain Wave Biofeedback.