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Kenn Brown and Chris Wren
Meditate on this: You are the controller. In Journey to Wild Divine, a new computer game designed with help from a biomedical engineer and an ex-Tibetan monk, you harness your biofeedback to navigate Myst-like temples and mountain ranges. To complete each level, you must perform tasks while managing stress with breathing techniques and mind tricks. Hardware wired to your fingers monitors your meatware for anxiety. Sound tough? Get the game (www.wilddivine.com) and put your chi to the test.
4 Steps to Enlightenment: How One Player Fared
1. Tune In A sensor on my middle finger monitored my heart, measuring the time between beats. The readings were charted against a sine wave; when the durations matched the wave, I was in the zone! The other finger sensors determined my skin conductivity: The more elevated my vibe, whether from fear or excitement, the harder my sweat glands worked, and the higher my juice registered.
2. Game On Walking down a path, I came upon a purple globe. A voice told me that it was time to practice levitating. To lift the globe, I had to get excited. My in-game guide recommended heavy breathing and laughing out loud. Translation: Hyperventilate while thinking of car chases and Britney Spears. The adrenaline junkie in me had that ball spinning off the screen in no time. Hot damn!
3. Bliss Out Type-A gamers will find the energy-boosting tests easy, but try stoking a hearth with deep breaths and relaxing thoughts – now that's a challenge! I calmly inhaled the suggested seven-count yoga breath. I thought of grassy fields and happy puppies. It took 20 minutes, but I got that fire roaring. Then I opened my eyes, which jacked up my heart rate and snuffed out the flames.
4. Nirvana To check my Buddha status, I compared my skills with those of my in-game guide, Nawang Khechog. In real-life, Khechog studied with the Dalai Lama in Tibet. The relaxation exercise that took me 20 minutes to complete? He did it in seconds. Through years of training, his heart runs coherence patterns constantly, and his skin conductivity is, shall we say, much lower than normal.
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