A few months ago, I was curious about biofeedback, and the Journey to Wild Divine seemed like a fun and interesting way to get into it.

If you find this guide useful, please click the "Yes" button below.  If you do not find it useful, Please e-mail me, and tell me what you wanted to know, and I will add that info to the guide.  Also, please understand that I call 'em as I see 'em, but I don't know everything about everything so I may say things that you disagree with.  In this case, you should also Email me, and if your point is valid, I will include it in the notes at the end of the article. Thanks in advance.

Let me begin by saying that Wild Divine is fun, and even useful, but it is not all that it pretends to be.

The basic game play is myst like, you use the mouse to navigate from one location to another, and then when you are there, you use the lightstone and magic rings (the biofeedback adaptor) to play individual events. The hardware is only available through the purchase of

 Journey to Wild Divine, the Passage

 You can also exit the game at any time to check your hardware function.

First it is not a video game, although to be fair, I don't think its creators ever claimed it was.  True, you do get to juggle and levitate, and even shoot things, using your mind to control your body's responses.  When I say shoot things, this is exactly what I mean, Things.  You cannot shoot people in this game, or even mutants.   Think of this game kind of like Myst, with biofeedback.  Its beautiful, peaceful, and interesting.

The second thing that it is not, is Biofeedback.  There are those who will disagree with me, but let me explain it thus:

To be biofeedback, you need at least two things, bio, and feedback.  This game measures two biological factors, your heart beat and skin conductance.  From these two factors, the software derives more attributes such as:

This is Ok, as far as it goes, but it is a far cry from detecting brain states.  This is not a fault of the developer, its just too darned expensive right now to do these. However, the technology is coming fast, so keep an eye out for it.

The second part of biofeedback is feedback.  This is where the game really lets you down. From the first pinwheel you have to spin, you don't really have a good idea of what factors you are trying to control, and a very limited sense of how you are doing at any given moment.  This is the opposite of feedback.   Sooner or later, you will get the double durga, (you'll see) which is the first actual biofeedback device you will encounter.  When using the double durga, you are experiencing actual biofeedback, though you will not see your theta states or anything like that.   In my personal opinion, the biofeedback aspect is intentionally masked. The game is very heavily influenced by eastern philosophy, so the game goes to some lengths to make the experience more mystical than scientific.

Personally, I can take it or leave it, as far as the mystical aspects. Those who have strong western style religious convictions may find this offensive, and may even end up going to hell if they play this game. Just kidding, ha ha.  For those that find this game boring or offensive, there are a couple of aftermarket games such as Grapher, Inner Tube and Particle Editor that focus more on the biofeedback aspects.

The problem here is, of course, that to use anything that needs the lightstone (the magic USB compatible interface) you need to buy The Journey to wild divine, the passage. Since you have to buy it anyway, why not play it?

I find that to get the most out of any immersive game, its best to play along as best you can.  Up to the point where you gag. When you get to the theater of the mind, you will know what I mean.  just push the "Back" button when you can't stand it anymore, and continue the adventure.

One extremely valuable thing I got from this game is breathing techniques.  Of course, growing up in the California 70's, I got plenty of that already, but this game definitely illustrates the very real physiological effects of breathing styles.  As a person who frequently can't fall asleep because I can't stop thinking, this game helped me a lot.  This game uses several breathing techniques to acheive various effects.  I now use the long count (7) breath to fall asleep, and it works every time. That alone, for me was worth the couple hundred bucks.  I used to use benzodiazapines for this purpose, but now I don't need them anymore.

In short, Journey to wild divine is OK for people who like slow paced stuff, want to experiment with biofeedback, and are not averse to eastern philosophy.  (Depak is their poster child.)  

I definitely feel that although this is a good first effort, although there is much more that could have been done with this technology.

Wisdom quest is both better and worse.  Worse, if you hate being lectured by Deepak Chopra, (and flying pixies) and better, from the aspect of game play.  In wisdom quest, they start to combine biofeedback with other controllers (mouse or trackball) which is definitely the direction this technology should be taking.

Grapher is mostly for the scientists among us.  It is not a game in itself, but can be used with the games for some post-game debriefing.

All in all, I found the games relaxing, entertaining, and useful. Keep an eye on this Genre as more sophisticated Biofeedback becomes available.  

There are some glitches.  At the rainbow stones, I thought the puzzle was incredibly difficult.  It was not.  It was just that some of the key stones had dissapeared from my magic bag that the lady of the woods gave me.  Guess that she needs to bone up on her sewing skills. You cannot recover from such a glitch, you have to start over.

The major hardware malfunction is that the magic rings require good hand circulation. You can cover your hand with a warm towel or something, but this doesn't help as much as just removing the sensors for a minute or two before attempting an event. A headband would have been a nice option, but is not offered. Perhaps I will hack my lightstone, and make one.  I will let you know how it works out.

Leaning to hoax the system is also a good idea.  The most obvious is of course, lifting the magic rings ever so slightly to desrease contact area, and therefore, raise skin resistance.  Of course, cheating at this game is completely pointless. However, you should do it just the same, to become more familiar with the operating aspects of the hardware.

More importantly, if you have trouble doing a particular passage, take off the rings, wait a while, and put them back on.  Why? well, because one of the things they don't mention is that some of the events measure the CHANGE in your relaxation state. (this is why its poor biofeedback, they don't let you know) so if you go into an event where you have to relax, and you are already relaxed, expect difficulties. Or remove and replace your finger sensors, as described above.

Overall, would I recommend this game, yes, I would.  I think there are very few people who would not benefit from playing this game, even if it is just for their intellectual enjoyment. Those interested in gaining more control over their own mind and body should definitely try it. I think this might be great for quadrapeligics, but I don't know any.  They should be able to use this, even if they can't move thier fingers.  I'll let you know if I find out.

If you just want the novelty of operating a game event without movng, I would just get the first episode and try that, instead of ordering the whole series. That way, if you don't like it, you aren't out that much money.

That's about it, I guess, If you know something I have forgotten,  please do email me,

Thanks!