Thread: Try This !!! Activate the Amygdala Nuclei in the Medial Temporal Lobes of Your Brain

Thanks for that post. Technique definitely works.

Didn't work for me, I dunno....

Keep trying, did you follow my tips?

Are they on page 2? I didn't read page two, I only really read the OP and a few of the first posts? But I tried exactly what the OP says. I felt a little bit warm and nice, but that always happens when I close my eyes if I'm feeling pretty good already. It's like meditative afterglow. But that happens to me if I just sit there breathing with my eyes closed.

Feeling warm and nice is a good sign. Keep practicing!!!

It is most definitely a post meditative feeling, but without having to meditate.

Concentration does not seem to come along with this new skill automatically, though. Along with accessing more commend over your frontal lobes, I believe it's also necessary to train your focus. So this activity cannot replace proper meditation. So far, I haven't seen the website mention this necessity but I've experienced my awareness beginning to overcrowd my concentration in the last few days.

The two should be mutually beneficial.

The descriptions of this frontal lobe "popping" sounds like something I've been able to do for a good while (at least 4 or 5 years). To quote myself from the Adrenaline Rush at Will? thread,

Originally Posted by snoop

I've experienced two phenomena similar to the descriptions everyone has posted in this thread, although it sounds like some are describing one and others describing the other.

To induce an adrenaline rush, having played football, it helps most to envision myself quite honestly just doing awesome while playing, or really any daydream scenario in which I do something that requires physical action and awesomeness. The feeling is literally identical to adrenaline, and I've never questioned whether it was or wasn't. My hands get cold and clammy, I get a bit shaky, my heart beats a lot faster, and I breathe faster. I also get the specific adrenaline feeling, idk how to really describe it, but it's highly distinctive and it's one in the same.

The second feeling begins in the base of my neck. It sounds more like what people have been describing is Qi. It's like I think of certain things that are enjoyable (nothing in specific, it just happens) or kind of just focus on this feeling in my spine, though mostly in my neck, and it's as if a surge of tingly (not painful, more like almost euphoric) electrical energy jolts down my spine. The feeling spreads, mostly over my head, and is very tingly but it makes me feel very awake and aware. Usually the "jolt" is strong enough that I contort my body in some way, usually just my neck. Kind of what a tic would look like I guess. I've learned to do it without contorting so much, just a very limited movement in my neck when it occurs. The tingly feeling usually lasts 4 or 5 seconds.

The two might both be a result of adrenaline, but the latter does not have the distinctive feeling of adrenaline at all. I feel like the first is legitimately inducing an adrenaline rush, and the second is... something entirely different. I spoke to my friends about it once and they said every once in a while it happens to them (they said nothing of inducing it), and they referred to it as a "brain tickle".

Thinking about it, having read what frontal lobe popping is by a google search, that seems to be what I'm experiencing. I had a suspicion that it may be the same thing the OP and OD were experiencing, but I didn't have solid descriptions to go off of until now.

However, I still find it very hard to believe that the feeling is caused by the mechanism being put forth. I really don't see why it's so hard to accept that you might not actually be activating the amygdala and stimulating the frontal lobe. Perhaps it could be, or perhaps you're merely stimulating the frontal lobe alone. I'm just very very confused as to how you're arriving at such a conclusion. Being a person who has never heard of this and has achieved the effect by thinking of the base of my neck (as in near the c1 and c2 vertebrae as you can see here), what reason is there to believe the amygdala is responsible? Before, all you knew was you tried what this guy said and he said to think of the amygdala. Given my case, why can't it be the brain stem (as I never thought of the amygdala or thought of the inside of my brain)? Or why is it not simply tactile sensation? It could be a lot of things, but asserting it's this one very specific thing makes little sense without brain scans to back it up.

It's not hard to accept that it may not be the amygdala. It's hard to accept that it's not a physiological occurrence. I don't believe that this is being caused by wishful thinking, whatever's taking place.

But anyways, what you're describing doesn't appear to fully coincide with the experiment. And furthermore, there are brainscans. If I posted one, it wouldn't make a whole lot of sense to someone who isn't a neuroscientist. But the information is that amygdala activity increases during meditation. The religious or transcendental experience itself is caused by the amygdala overloading the frontal lobes. This has been confirmed by EEGs for some time.

And lastly, multiple experiments have been done on the issue. TD Lingo did not start with tickling the amygdala, see a positive response and use confirmation bias for the rest. The amygdala tickling exercise emerged from strenuous and diverse exercises and ended up proving to be the easiest and most effective.

Question, in an interview Neil Slade explains

"Purely self-centered gratification that does not involve CICIL (cooperation-imagination-creativity-intuition-logic) frontal lobe behaviors inevitably leads to short-circuiting of the pleasure responses in the brain and amygdala... Clicking the amygdala is similar to the ignition switch in your car, you have to turn it on to get things going. But if you don't leave your driveway, you won't get anywhere... the trick in proper and continuing amygdala positive response is to keep growing, rather than rerunning the same program. Nature rewards new life sustaining thought and behavior with amygdala pleasure response."

Could you explain to me what he means by growth and by involving CICIL? Do I need to apply my increased frontal lobe activity toward a purpose? I don't really understand.

Im going thorugh the 'Frontal Lobes Supercharge' book again for some more specific text on the processes of tickling the amygdala to paraphrase and post here. Clicking the amygdala forward is not meant to be a goal in itself, it is not just a novelty. The goal is to achieve a fronal lobes 'Big Bang', as Neil Slade puts it, which on average takes three to five years of regular amygdala clicking.

I just wanted to make sure I wouldn't simply build up a tolerance and then lose the ability. Perhaps the change is simply more noticeable at first but once it becomes habitual you only notice when you haven't clicked for a while, rather than when you have clicked.

I want to ensure to myself that I am progressing forward, I suppose.

Just read through the whole thread and I find it interesting the whole range of responses.

I believe that it is possible in some way to stimulate areas of the brain, for one thing I've had some... mixed results in doing just this, and the anecdotal evidence from members such as Robot_Butler and Nina (whose thread http://www.dreamviews.com/f79/quickl...ons-ld-107643/ should be required reading for everyone who has posted in this thread). The brain may not be mapped in the corticol homunculus but perhaps there is specific self-image for the brain?

That being said the amygdala are primarily involved in fear/pain responses, communicating stimuli travelling from the brainstem (and CNS) to other areas of the brain. I could only think that 'activation' would lead to a higher incidence of nightmares.

Lucid dreamers like to try to attach lucid dreaming to something physical in the brain. That's natural, psychologists try to do it all the time, it's how neuroscience came about.
But there's a term in debating for when you make the logical error of trying to attach a concept that is wholly abstract to a concrete object: 'reification'.
If there is an organ of the brain responsible for lucid dreaming and spiritual phenomena then where does it lie? The amygdala? The dorso-lateral prefrontal cortex? The pineal gland?
What if lucid dreaming really is a purely psychological function, a construct of brain chemistry and neurons in the forebrain? It's good to be curious, to seek answers and apply science where possible.

But Neil Slade really is dealing in pseudo science, it's really no closer to any falsifiable evidence than physiognomy or phrenology.

The resultant increases in intelligence, creativity, and positive emotions were demonstrated and measured by a variety of objective and subjective means, standardized tests and analysis methods. Lingo reports that this included 10 to 40 point increases on the Stanford-Binet I.Q. test, and 500% to 1400% increases on the Getzels-Jackson Creativity Index.

Sorry, but this is bullshit of the highest degree, a 10-40 point increase in IQ? Why isn't the entire psychological establishment aware of this miracle? And increases of 500-1400%? That's in the realm of fantasy, no psychological study ever has yielded results so disproportionately significant, a study over 30 years with 300 participants? Most studies of that nature find it difficult to get significant results at all. It really smacks of poorly carried out research, did he even use a stats test?
More importantly what was your source for that little gem?

Originally Posted by Ctharlhie

That being said the amygdala are primarily involved in fear/pain responses, communicating stimuli travelling from the brainstem (and CNS) to other areas of the brain. I could only think that 'activation' would lead to a higher incidence of nightmares.

And also pleasure responses too. Smell some dog faeces and we instinctively want to recoil from it. Smell roses and we feel pleasing emotions. This is the amygdala in action in essence switching back and forth to provide either pleasing or painful emotions. It is postulated the amygdalas' main purpose is to provide a fight/flight safety mechanism through the olfactory nerves which are directly linked to the amygdala's.

Originally Posted by Ctharlhie

If there is an organ of the brain responsible for lucid dreaming and spiritual phenomena then where does it lie? The amygdala? The dorso-lateral prefrontal cortex? The pineal gland?
What if lucid dreaming really is a purely psychological function, a construct of brain chemistry and neurons in the forebrain? It's good to be curious, to seek answers and apply science where possible.

Good question. Omnis Dei experienced a profound result from 'clicking' his amygdalas just by thought alone. It would be wonderful if we could do this with perhaps another part of the brain to induce lucidity.

Originally Posted by Ctharlhie

Sorry, but this is bullshit of the highest degree, a 10-40 point increase in IQ? Why isn't the entire psychological establishment aware of this miracle? And increases of 500-1400%? That's in the realm of fantasy, no psychological study ever has yielded results so disproportionately significant, a study over 30 years with 300 participants? Most studies of that nature find it difficult to get significant results at all. Did he even use a stats test?
More importantly what was your source for that little gem?

How is a 500-1400% increase possible on any scale? Google searching 'Getzel-Jackson Creativity Index' only yields results related to Neil Slade. Yeah...

Interesting. The psychological establishment I think is aware that the auditing process of Dianetics has a profound result on increasing IQ's. I don't know if any serious studies have been done on this & haven't anything to back this up but I have no doubt for one moment that amygdala 'clicking' will result in better brain/mind function and an increased result in IQ gain.

I'm finding this a bit difficult as I can't recall what the feeling of being tickled by a feather is. Also how long do you have to apply the visualisation before the "click" happens?

Also has anyone tried this exercise with a WBTB? If its true that this causes the amygdala to send a mass of electrical impulses to the forebrain this could possibly be an excellent technique for fostering increased awareness in dreams.

Sorry for the double post but I decided to abandon the feather and instead visualise my index finger wiggling against it. I'm feeling quite strange, I can't say if its good strange or bad strange but I doubt that such an abstract visualization can elict this kind of feeling through placebo especially as its nothing like what I predicted.

Originally Posted by RationalMystic

Sorry for the double post but I decided to abandon the feather and instead visualise my index finger wiggling against it. I'm feeling quite strange, I can't say if its good strange or bad strange but I doubt that such an abstract visualization can elict this kind of feeling through placebo especially as its nothing like what I predicted.

If I remember correctly what matters is getting the tickling sensation. Imagining the feather alone doesn't seem to work. Adding the sensation of tickling does. Keep us updated on what you experience. If the imagined sensation of tickling is strong then the rsults are immediate. You may have to aquire a feather to feel the sensation.

I had to stop my attempt before but I'm going to try again. Thanks for answering my questions. One last highly pedantic query: do you have to visualise tickling on both the right and left amygdala?

Edit: never mind the question, I read up a bit more on this and it says that its not really necessary to visualise the tickling on both amygdalas.

Ok I tried this again a while back and while I don't think I've quite succeeded in "clicking" yet (I'm awful at tactile visualisation and visualisation in general...), that strange feeling came back again onky stronger this time. I think I can finally articulate the sensation better. It felt kind of like how a crush feels with a warmth that seemed to emenate in my torso and the stomach. It was a feeling that was somehow sexual without being actually sexual. I think I also felt that tension Omnis Dei was eluding to, as if I was dipping my head in a deep well. I think I have to calm my thoughts a bit before my next attempt as my mental vocalising is distracting me from the visualisation. Since I don't actually have a feather with me what I'm doing is lightly brushing my index finger against my cheek untill I get a strong tickle sensation. Then I assign that tickle feeling to the imaginary feather I'm brushing my amygdala with. I think this is a decent improvisation.

Originally Posted by RationalMystic

Ok I tried this again a while back and while I don't think I've quite succeeded in "clicking" yet (I'm awful at tactile visualisation and visualisation in general...), that strange feeling came back again onky stronger this time. I think I can finally articulate the sensation better. It felt kind of like how a crush feels with a warmth that seemed to emenate in my torso and the stomach. It was a feeling that was somehow sexual without being actually sexual. I think I also felt that tension Omnis Dei was eluding to, as if I was dipping my head in a deep well. I think I have to calm my thoughts a bit before my next attempt as my mental vocalising is distracting me from the visualisation. Since I don't actually have a feather with me what I'm doing is lightly brushing my index finger against my cheek untill I get a strong tickle sensation. Then I assign that tickle feeling to the imaginary feather I'm brushing my amygdala with. I think this is a decent improvisation.

You may be making this harder than it is, just try using your imagination rather than creating a strong visualisation. Your improvisation sounds good. I have found from experience if I get the tickling sensation just right then the results are the most powerful. The tickling technique is just one of many that Lingo and Slade experimented with. They found that it was the best universal technique for amygdala 'clicking'.

I know that meditation has been shown to change activation of different regions of the brain, such as the amygdala and frontal lobes, but when people are meditating, they aren't imagining tickling sensation on the brain. Did they ever conduct fMRI on someone doing this task to verify that its actually doing what it claims? It would be very simple to do and would help clear up a lot of skepticism. To me this idea of "activating your own brain" seems unfounded, and you can't really conclude that because meditation causes certain brain activations, imagining you're tickling your brain causes the same activation. They're two entirely different activities.

I tried it. And it worked. I was laughing, almost uncontrollably, and felt a warm, fuzzy feeling like I just heard a hilarious joke. It was probably the most sincere laughter I've ever felt, not that fake giggle you do when someone tells a joke that's not really funny but you want to laugh so it's not awkward. It was kind of weird. :/

Originally Posted by Taffy

I tried it. And it worked. I was laughing, almost uncontrollably, and felt a warm, fuzzy feeling like I just heard a hilarious joke. It was probably the most sincere laughter I've ever felt, not that fake giggle you do when someone tells a joke that's not really funny but you want to laugh so it's not awkward. It was kind of weird. :/

Amazing isn't it!

Originally Posted by mcwillis

Amazing isn't it!

Sure is. I was kind of folliwing along as I read the instructions, so when it happened I was like "h-huh?" Then I read on and you said I should feel exactly how I felt. >w<