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Keywords: Thomas Budzynski, biofeedback, neurofeedback, twilight learning, photic stimulation
Helen Budzynski, widow and collaborator of Thomas Budzynski, describes his life and work, from his early involvement with the SR-71 Blackbird, through his doctoral dissertation research on the use of feedback to induce muscle relaxation, to the first commercial production of a muscle biofeedback device, the development of the Twilight Learning neurofeedback protocol, and his research on the use of sound and light stimulation to modify brain processes.
Introduction
What stood out about the young Tom Budzynski and his equally young fellow engineer Herb Weed, such that they were chosen from a whole lineup of experienced engineers to help develop this undercover low-profile costly secret project, the stealth SR-71 BlackBird? Tom was the inertial navigation systems chief for Honeywell on that first SR-71 Blackbird in the early 1960s. How does a person get chosen to develop the advanced inertial navigation system for a never before built complex machine like this?
The Development of His Lifelong Theories and Approach
As I mull this question over, I wonder about what other happenings occurred that then became part of the fabric of Tom's life. Did he choose or did he get directed into a line of psychophysiological study that now seems to have become whole cloth, cleverly woven of his electrical knowledge and physiology? A marriage of the two fields of engineering and psychophysiology was not easily visualized in the 1960s, when Tom was in graduate school. Were it not for a staunch supporter, namely Johann Stoyva, Tom's vision could not have been achieved. Tom's doctoral dissertation in psychology, on feedback-induced muscle relaxation, was initially pronounced to be an "engineering project" and rejected by his first doctoral committee (Budzynski, 1969). With Johann's careful politicking, a second dissertation committee accepted it.
The integration of the two fields soon became an integral part of his innovations in the treatment of the brain. The brain, for Tom, was always the master. For him, it was natural to use the concept of frequencies, as recognized in electricity and as seen in electroencephalogram (EEG) frequencies of the brain, to link photic and sound frequency activities. Could they interface with brain frequencies and augment change? Tom's theoretical foray into energy medicine seems finally to...