I'm enjoying my Mendi neurofeedback device

Recently I got the Mendi brain exercise (neurofeedback) device that I'd ordered early last year via a Kickstarter campaign. Repeated delays kept pushing back the estimated time us backers would get our Mendi.

Finally it came, from Sweden. Here I am modeling my Mendi. I took the photo in front of several katana swords and a fan in my office, because the Mendi has a certain Japanese/samurai look to it.

The Mendi web site describes what the device does.

An iPhone app connects with the Mendi via bluetooth. You train your brain by playing a game. You focus on a ball, with the goal to have the ball rise vertically. This video shows an early version of the app. The current version is a bit slicker, but works in the same way.

I've only been using the Mendi for a short time and need to do more exploring with it. This is my initial impression of what works best to get the ball moving upward.

My first try with the Mendi produced a pretty good score. I think this was because I simply focused on the ball and didn't try to make the ball go up.

The next few Mendi sessions didn't go so well, probably because I was trying to get a better score. From what I can tell so far -- and my experience likely is different from other Mendi users -- trying isn't the best way to train the brain.

Not trying is. 

Meaning, I do best when I simply look at the ball with a sense of open curiosity. This is hard to put into words. My best scores come when I'm alert and aware of the ball, yet am looking at it with no motivation to control it, just to observe it.

Which, of course, is what mindfulness is all about: nonjudgemental awareness of what is happening in the present moment. 

I started meditating in 1970 when I was 21. Now I'm 72 and have only missed a day or two of meditation in the past 51 years. So I have a lot of experience with various forms of meditation: mantra, open awareness, mindfulness, counting breaths.

But I've never used a neurofeedback device like Mendi. I'm seeing the benefits of it. When I enter a certain relaxed state of mind, the ball moves upward. If I'm tense or trying too hard, the ball jumps around or goes down.

I'm already able to visualize the ball going up and thereby approach the same state of mind I'm in when using the Mendi device. Can't say my life has markedly changed, just that I see the potential of this form of brain training. 

Here's a screenshot of my most recent session. 

This is what the three scores mean.

The app keeps track of all of your sessions. I was definitely in a zone during the 3-minute session at 8:24 pm yesterday. Focusing on the ball seemed quite effortless. I was sitting on the floor for that session, rather than in a chair.

A few times the app has told me that something was wrong, like I was moving too much (I wasn't) or light was shining directly on my head (yes, I was facing a bright window). It's advised to use the Mendi in a dim room.

This might explain whey I did better when I used my Mendi in the evening when it was almost dark here in Oregon. I also could have been in a more relaxed frame of mind.

Testimonials on the Mendi web site are impressive. But that's to be expected of testimonials on a web site. I'll keep experimenting with the device and report on how that goes in a subsequent blog post. Some early reviews are here, here, and here.

Comments

[Spence Tepper]

Wonderful!
Biofeedback.
You can experiment with it!
What happens if I center before using it?
What happens when I'm done using it if I then begin formal mindfulness?

What conditions of my daily life affect my ability to Max my Mendi?

This is really excellent. Because it helps with something real in you, without all the superstition.
And generates a hard measurement.
Like daily steps.

I'm curious myself and may need to get one of these.

Does a loving attitude, or a focus on something loving affect my score?

Brian, would you mind reporting any patterns you notice as you use it?

I think your initial observation, that not trying to focus on anything actually yielded better initial results.

Maybe trying is actually a distraction from letting our natural processes guide us?

Please keep us up on your experiments.

Very exciting!

[Daniel]

This post was in 2021 what have you noticed over the past year and a half using the Mendi?

[Brian Hines]

Daniel, I stopped using the device a few months after I wrote this post. A September post described my problem with it.

https://hinessight.blogs.com/hinessight/2021/09/my-problem-with-the-mendi-neurofeedback-device.html

Basically, my experience was that there was essentially zero correlation between what I felt my mind/brain was doing and what the device showed on my iPhone's screen. And I wasn't seeing any benefit to using the Mendi.

Actually it was worse than that, because I found the Mendi increasingly frustrating to use, given the seeming lack of connection between my mental state and the score I'd get.

I still get Mendi-related Facebook posts, so understand that some changes have been made to the app that perhaps deal with the problem I, and others, encountered. Hopefully you're liking it, or will like it, more than I did.

I had high hopes for Mendi, since I suffer from anxiety caused by some health problems I have. But like I said, when I felt more anxious using the Mendi than not using it, I decided there was no point in using it.