MIND MEDIA REVIEW No. 12
July 1997
Edited by Bruce Ehrlich
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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

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

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

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
Stanford and UCLA.
* IQ Builder --A program developed by Russian-born
programmer Vladimer Asinovsky which measures 53 components
of human intelligence and trains people in developing these
abilities in incremental levels (Note: Mind Media now publishes this
program!)
* Insight -- a psychometric testing program that was the first to
take advantage of increases in computer graphics. The program
used the Kahler Process Model first developed by Dr. Tabi Kahler
for NASA to provide deep psychological insight. Unfortunately,
the company that developed the program over a four-year period -
Three-Sixty, Inc. of San Jose -- was forced to take the program off
the market when Dr.Kahler's wife, who had won control of the test
in divorce, blocked continued sales.
* Dream Analyzer - a test which allowed people to analyze the
contents of their dreams developed by Dr. James Johnson (Note: Mind
Media publishes this program and it is included in Mind Prober 3.0)
* PC Therapist - a program by Joseph Weintraub 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 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 Media Life-Enhancement Network site, he launched an
electronic version of his print catalog -- Mindware Interactive
Online Catalog

About a year ago, David Marshall's Journeyware 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.