Emotional Intelligence *~··.,¸¸.·)

MIND MEDIA REVIEW No. 12
July 1997
Edited by Bruce Ehrlich
*************
To visit our site, tune your favorite web browser to
http://www.mindmedia.com
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Welcome back Mind Media Review readers. Every month, we will bring you
news
and information from the cutting edge of "mindware" interactive
technologies for self-improvement and creativity.
-. . .-- ... --- ..-. - .... . .-- .. .-. . -..
* Going Beyond: Software and Human Potential
* Your Mythic Journey Summer Sale
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Feature Article: Going Beyond: Software and the Mind
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Going Beyond: Software and the Mind
By Bruce Eisner
Imagine a future in which your personal computer becomes a
doorway into a world of enhanced intelligence and creativity,
emotional stability and previously unrealized personal success. In
this world, the computer has become more than just a word
processor or a web browser; it has become both an instantaneous
communication tool for contacting seminar leaders or personal
therapists and an interactive councilor that uses artificial
intelligence to provide personal coaching and wise guidance. Or
even further in the future, computer aided methods of
transformation of human consciousness.
Could that colorful screen upon which you may be reading this
become that door? This is a question that has intrigued those who
have studies the potential of the PC, and the answer may be that
this reality is closer than we realize. Before we look ahead and
examine the possibilities, let's take a brief glimpse backward at the
history if the mind/computer connection.
A Brief History of Software "Mind Tools"
The notion that computers could be tools for mental development
and transformation goes back further than the personal computer.

Ehrlich published his first collection of mind software in the
Spring 1988 Mindware catalog. It probably is no accident that two
of the most popular programs in that catalog were a modern
version of Eliza for the PC (the first ones only ran on mainframes),
and Mindviewer, an upgrade to Mind Prober. Another popular
program was Calmpute! manufactured by Thought Technology of
Toronto, Canada - a biofeedback program that measured galvanic
skin response. A special mouse measured your GSR and displayed
the results on a computer screen. By discovering what kind of
things you did to make the display graph change, you could learn
to control your levels of stress and relaxation.
The Mindware catalog continued in its print version from 1988
until 1993 when it reached a circulation of a half million catalogs..
Programs became increasingly sophisticated and diverse. Among
the most noteworthy of the new offerings in the catalog were:
* Overcoming Depression -- A program by computer-assisted
therapy expert Professor Thomas Colby, based on his reseub which did
Eliza one better, winning the Loebner award by beating the
famous Touring Test, in which a British cybernetics expert
in the 'Fifties suggested a

test for machine intelligence
which consisted of the ability to fool people into believing
they were talking to a real human over a teletype devise.
* Idea Generator Plus - a program developed by Roy
Nierenberg, founder of based on
Gerard Nierenberg's (the founder's father), book The Art of
Creative Thinking and presents an interactive process based on
exercises from the book, for developing new ideas on the user
project of

With the introduction of this CD-ROM, mind software had taken a
giant step forward, with the user finding that they can continue to
gain value through exploring their lives. A series of other CD-
ROM titles began to be released including one by John Gray, Ph.D.
based on his best-selling book, Men are from Mars, Women are
from Venus, a relationship seminar-on-a-disk and many others.
In addition to these new CD-ROM based interactive multimedia
presentations, a number of new software programs with increased
features have been released. One program, from BrainTainment
(http://www.brain.com), called ThinkFast, measures and coaches
users on increasing a variety of mental abilities including memory,
cognitive abilities and reflexes. Using a high quality graphical
interface running in the Windows environment, programs like
these and those that follow may become "mind gyms", a term that
Bruce Ehrlich of Mind Media began using around 1990 to describe
the potential of this type of mind software
(http://newciv.org/GIB/BOV/BV-488.HTML)
Another area that has taken great leaps forward since the early
Mindware catalog days is the area of computers and biofeedback.
Biofeedback first became popular in the `Sixties. Biofeedback was
invented by Professor Joe Kamiya, who first discovered that the
brain could actually control processes in the body and brain
previously thought only to be under control of the autonomic
nervous system, which was considered to be completely
unavailable to consciousness. By feeding back signals from
various body and brain processes, people could learn to control
how they felt and thought!
The earliest devices were simple ones that measured GSR or EEG
and gave a simple noise like a tone so that the user could learn to
control these body and brain functions. Because they were rather
boring to use and because they looked at only one modality of the
particular process they monitored, these biofeedback systems
quickly lost their popularity.
However biofeedback clinics continued to operate and help people
with a variety of tasks including stress reduction and control of
migraine headaches and even blood pressure control. With the
invention and increasing sophistication of the PC however, these
tools have made remarkable progress.

former psychology professor
from the University of Minnesota and a salesman for IBM.
Johnson's company developed a program called Mind Prober, still
the most successful mind-related software ever sold with an
amazing one-quarter million sold in the world of 1985, when there
were only perhaps only four million PC's in the entire world. This
would be the equivalent of selling five million programs in today.
Mind Prober was and is simply a computerized personality profile.
It's the descendent of tests like those you probably took in school
but never got to see the results - or the MMPI test that is used to
classify people with mental disorders. What is so remarkable about
Mind Prober and its descendents is that with the answering of a
short questionnaire, they reveal so much about your own
personality of the personality of someone you've known for only a
short while. This is because they are based on one of the most solid
parts of the mostly unsystematic study called psychology -
psychometrics.
Psychometrics is the basis of personality testing, and can measure
and describe personality by comparing answers to the test on paper
or, in this case, in the computer program with groups of people
with known personality attributes. The unique way that specific
personality type answers certain questions gives the personality
test program uncanny insight into what seem to be hidden
dimensions of an individual.
These early psychological programs were text-based CGA graphic
programs. But both programs proved fascinating to many people
with psychological curiosity including a graduate student named
Bruce Ehrlich, who was just about to complete a Ph.D. in
psychology and who had collected a series of programs he called
Mindware.
Ehrlich published his first collection of mind software in the
Spring 1988 Mindware catalog. It probably is no accident that two
of the most popular programs in that catalog were a modern
version of Eliza for the PC (the first ones only ran on mainframes),
and Mindviewer, an upgrade to Mind Prober. Another popular
program was Calmpute! manufactured by Thought Technology of
Toronto, Canada - a biofeedback program that measured galvanic
skin response. A special mouse measured your GSR and displayed
the results on a computer screen. By discovering what kind of
things you did to make the display graph change, you could learn
to control your levels of stress and relaxation.
The Mindware catalog continued in its print version from 1988
until 1993 when it reached a circulation of a half million catalogs..
Programs became increasingly sophisticated and diverse. Among
the most noteworthy of the new offerings in the catalog were:
* Overcoming Depression -- A program by computer-assisted
therapy expert Professor Thomas Colby, based on his research at remarkable progress.

A number of biofeedback systems that interact with the personal
computer have been developed. These include such sophisticated
new products as the IBVA system, which includes a biofeedback
system that will read EEG or brainwaves, rather than the more
simple GSR (Galvanic Skin Response) systems which simply
measured the skin's ability to conduct electricity and allows for
comparisons between the brain's left and right hemisphere. The
screen shows a three-dimensional graph while speakers let you
hear the sound of your brain waves rise and fall. There are even a
number of CD-ROM programs that allow you to use the IBVA
system in new and more useful ways.
There are several other computer based biofeedback systems
including the Neuolink developed by NLP expert Robert Dilts, the
Stress Saver Systems biofeedback system with mind games, and
the WaveRider Pro Biofeedback System with WaveWare 2.0
software. As you can see, we have come a long way since the first
Mindware catalog offered Calmpute!.
The Near Future
Bruce Ehrlich of Mind Media has plans for his Mind Media Life
Enhancement Network which give us an idea about where the field
of mind software may be heading in the next few years.
Ehrlich plans to begin broadcasting seminars with popular self-
improvement leaders and self-help writers using streaming audio
and video technology. This technology is already being
successfully used by companies like NetSeminar
(http://www.netseminar.com) to successfully broadcast educational
seminars on a variety of topics. You can actually interact with the
seminar leaders online, making it more than the passive experience
presented by audio or video tapes or reading a self-help book.Ehrlich is also developing a new kind of CD-ROM seminar that
uses "hybrid" CD-ROM technology. This would allow for
continuous updates of content on CD-ROMS from the Mind Media
web site -- allowing the user for example to get additional sessions
and information from seminar leaders whose CD-ROM they had
purchased.
The use of on-line programs written in Java will make available
on-line pay-per-use versions of popular mind software. This pay-
per-use model is already being done on the BrainTainment Center
Web site at http://www.brain.com. The whole genre of mind
software for creativity, problem solving, psychotherapy etc. will.
be available on-line anytime.
The Far Realms of Computers and the Mind
In 1990, Simon and Shuster published Would the Buddha Wear a
Walkman? by Judith Hooper and Dick Terisi, both editors at Omni
magazine at the time and co-authors of the best selling book, The
Three-Pound Universe.
In the chapter, "Using Your Computer to Expand Your Mind", they
say:

Imagine then the computer developing an expert system model of a
Zen master or psychotherapist. Expert systems that go far beyond
Eliza's simple trickery to programs that teach real wisdom.
Now combine this with biofeedback, the technology we have
talked about below. The most recent biofeedback breakthroughs
have involved the recording and training of actual altered states of
consciousness experiences. There actually has been recording
flesh-and-blood Zen Masters as they enter Samadhi, the highest
state of being in the Zen school.
Already, computers are giving us multimedia biofeedback rather
than the primitive tones of three decades ago. Certainly at the
current rate of technological progress, virtual reality will becomes
available as an interface on the home PC. Already there is a
graphical VRML (virtual reality markup language). Soon, goggles
and gloves will supplement screen and mouse.
Consider the power of a virtual reality computerized biofeedback
system. A system augmented by an artificially intelligent computer
coach. Or perhaps a real human guiding a group of people over the
Web. Still another possibility, a group of humans supporting
each other in their exploration consciousness linked up through a
computer network. Shades of virtual group therapy!
As we look to the future of software for enlarging the capacity of
the human mind and consciousness, we see
* The power of computers doubling every two years,
* The creation of a global community"-linking everyone's
homes by PC through interactive video and the World Wide Web
* New technologies such as biofeedback and virtually-reality
ready for primetime.
* The rapid and dramatic breakthroughs in our understanding of
the brain, consciousness and behavior.
Computers and software as an expander of human intellect,
creativity and conscio

usness has a glorious future that we only
begin to imagine.
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Summer Sale! Your Mythic Journey
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Your Mythic Journey, presented in collaboration with JourneyWare
has been described as the first truly adult CD-ROM and the first CD-ROM
that actually simulates a real life seminar experience.
Take a Journey ... into your past, present and future to better
understand your life, and ultimately compose your multimedia
autobiography.
Explore your life story with the author and five real-life seminar
participants. The social interface lets you walk through a forest to
arrive
at a retreat cabin where the seminar is taking place, register for the
seminar, meet Sam Keen and other seminar attendees, and proceed through
various gates down paths into the past, present and future.
Sam Keen appears throughout (in video and audio clips), leading you
through
interactive exercises that provide a deeper understanding of your life
story,
answering questions, and sharing his own stories. When you have completed
this
seminar, you can go into a library and work on your own multimedia
autobiography, enhancing your written story with personal photographs,
illustrations, and voice or music clips.
Your Mythic Journey CD-ROM may be used by up to twelve persons,
making it a valuable tool for families and other groups. It may
be used by one person at a time, allowing users to work at their
own pace. Or, up to four persons can use it in a concurrent session,
providing a real-life seminar experience. order your copy today
and begin exploring your personal myth. For the next 30 days, only
$24.98 -- one half off $49.95 list!
Mind Media Investment Opportunity
Mind Media is in the process of preparing a public offering of stock. If
any of you wish to be informed of investment opportunities, please contact
Bruce Ehrlich at bruce@mindmedia.com.
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Mind Media
849 Almar Ave. Suite C-125
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
http://www.mindmedia.com
For more information or to order call 800 818-9445
Catlaog information mailed back by sending any mail to
mindmedia-info@jjplaza.com
+ + +
Thank you for reading and stay tuned for more!
For comments or contributions, send e-mail to (bruce@mindmedia.com)
Copyright 1997, Mind Media,Inc.
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MIND MEDIA REVIEW No. 12
July 1997
Edited by Bruce Ehrlich
*************
To visit our site, tune your favorite web browser to
http://www.mindmedia.com
+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
Welcome back Mind Media Review readers. Every month, we will bring you
news
and information from the cutting edge of "mindware" interactive
technologies for self-improvement and creativity.
-. . .-- ... --- ..-. - .... . .-- .. .-. . -..
* Going Beyond: Software and Human Potential
* Your Mythic Journey Summer Sale
-. . .-- ... --- ..-. - .... . .-- .. .-. . -..
-. . .-- ... --- ..-. - .... . .-- .. .-. . -..
Feature Article: Going Beyond: Software and the Mind
+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+-
Going Beyond: Software and the Mind
By Bruce Eisner
Imagine a future in which your personal computer becomes a
doorway into a world of enhanced intelligence and creativity,
emotional stability and previously unrealized personal success. In
this world, the computer has become more than just a word
processor or a web browser; it has become both an instantaneous
communication tool for contacting seminar leaders or personal
therapists and an interactive councilor that uses artificial
intelligence to provide personal coaching and wise guidance. Or
even further in the future, computer aided methods of
transformation of human consciousness.
Could that colorful screen upon which you may be reading this
become that door? This is a question that has intrigued those who
have studies the potential of the PC, and the answer may be that
this reality is closer than we realize. Before we look ahead and
examine the possibilities, let's take a brief glimpse backward at the
history if the mind/computer connection.
A Brief History of Software "Mind Tools"
The notion that computers could be tools for mental development
and transformation goes back further than the personal computer.
Joseph Weisenbaum, a professor at MIT in the 1960's developed a
program on a mainframe that he called Eliza, which imitated a
psychotherapist of the Rogerian school by rephrasing what the user
said or sometimes posing a oddball question about his or her
mother - from out of the blue. Although meant to be a kind of
joke, a comment on artificial intelligence, he was astounded to find
people having real conversations with his newly created program,
and some found that they liked talking to it better than their flesh-
and-blood "shrink."
The earliest company to harness the earliest PCs, Macs,
Commodores and Apples in the early `Eighties was Human Edge --
founded by Dr. James Johnson, a former psychology professor
from the University of Minnesota and a salesman for IBM.
Johnson's company developed a program called Mind Prober, still
the most successful mind-related software ever sold with an
amazing one-quarter million sold in the world of 1985, when there
were only perhaps only four million PC's in the entire world. This
would be the equivalent of selling five million programs in today.
Mind Prober was and is simply a computerized personality profile.
It's the descendent of tests like those you probably took in school
but never got to see the results - or the MMPI test that is used to
classify people with mental disorders. What is so remarkable about
Mind Prober and its descendents is that with the answering of a
short questionnaire, they reveal so much about your own
personality of the personality of someone you've known for only a
short while. This is because they are based on one of the most solid
parts of the mostly unsystematic study called psychology -
psychometrics.
Psychometrics is the basis of personality testing, and can measure
and describe personality by comparing answers to the test on paper
or, in this case, in the computer program with groups of people
with known personality attributes. The unique way that specific
personality type answers certain questions gives the personality
test program uncanny insight into what seem to be hidden
dimensions of an individual.
These early psychological programs were text-based CGA graphic
programs. But both programs proved fascinating to many people
with psychological curiosity including a graduate student named
Bruce Ehrlich, who was just about to complete a Ph.D. in
psychology and who had collected a series of believing
they were talking to a real human over a teletype devise.
* Idea Generator Plus - a program developed by Roy
Nierenberg, founder of Experience-In-Software
(http://www.experienceware.com). The Program is based on
Gerard Nierenberg's (the founder's father), book The Art of
Creative Thinking and presents an interactive process based on
exercises from the book, for developing new ideas on the user
project of choice.
Mind Software Today
In 1994, Ehrlich moved the Mindware catalog to the World Wide
Web and began to focus on publishing some of his best sellers
from the Mindware catalog as the Mental Edge software series and
creating a web site which has evolved into the Mind Media Life-
Enhancement Network (http://www.mindmedia.com). Ehrlich
plans to develop this site into the central source for products and
information about the mind software technology on the Web.
Ehrlich's Mindware catalog was the first direct mail catalog to
offer CD-ROM players and CD-ROMs to the public by direct mail

Ehrlich understood that the greater amounts of multimedia
information held by CD-ROMs would contribute to mind software
that was both more effective and that would provide users a richer,
friendlier experience.
On his Mind MeJourneyware New Media
published a CD-ROM, Your Mythic Journey. The software
presented a seminar-on-a-disk by best-selling psychology author
Sam Keen. The program used a multimedia authoring system
called Macromind Director, which allows the disk to be used by
both Windows and Macintosh systems.
It works by combining video visits with Sam Keen, (who beams
down like a Startrek officer using the "transporter" into a series of
beautiful graphic environments) with interactive exercises
designed to explore the past, present and future of your personal
mythic journey through life. What makes the program especially
enjoyable is the graphical environments created by David
Marshall's brother, a highly creative computer artist. .
With the introduction of this CD-ROM, mind software had taken a
giant step forward, with the user finding that they can continue to
gain value through exploring their lives. A series of other CD-
ROM titles began to be released including one by John Gray, Ph.D.
based on his best-selling book, Men are from Mars, Women are
from Venus, a relationship seminar-on-a-disk and many others.
In addition to these new CD-ROM based interactive multimedia
presentations, a number of new software programs with increased
features have been released. One program, from BrainTainment
(http://www.brain.com), called ThinkFast, measures and coaches
users on increasing a variety of mental abilities including memory,
cognitive abilities and reflexes. Using a high quality graphical
interface running in the Windows environment, programs like
these and those that follow may become "mind gyms", a term that
Bruce Ehrlich of Mind Media began using around 1990 to describe
the potential of this type of mind software
(http://newciv.org/GIB/BOV/BV-488.HTML)
Another area that has taken great leaps forward since the early
Mindware catalog days is the area of computers and biofeedback.
Biofeedback first became popular in the `Sixties. Biofeedback was
invented by Professor Joe Kamiya, who first discovered that the
brain could actually control processes in the body and brain
previously thought only to be under control of the autonomic
nervous system, which was considered to be completely
unavailable to consciousness. By feeding back signals from
various body and brain processes, people could learn to control
how they felt and thought!
The earliest devices were simple ones that measured GSR or EEG
and gave a simple noise like a tone so that the user could learn to
control these body and brain functions. Because they were rather
boring to use and because they looked at only one modality of the
particular process they monitored, these biofeedback systems
quickly lost their popularity.
However biofeedback clinics continued to operate and help people
with a variety of tasks including stress reduction and control of
migraine headaches and even blood pressure control. With the
invention and increasing sophistication of the PC however, these
tools have made remarkable progress.