Last night on the PBS News Hour there was a story about transcranial direct current stimulation or TDCS.  Does anyone here have any experience with this?  It gives you a boost in mental energy by running a low voltage current through your head.

Here is a link to the News Hour story

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/gentle-electrical-jolt-can-focus-sluggish-mind/

Here is what wikipedia says:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcranial_direct-current_stimulation

I think I want to try this unless someone here tells me a reason not to.

I looked at this a while back, but never did anything about it. Here are some links:

Shinzen on tDCS: http://shinzenyoung.blogspot.com/2012/07/meet-my-new-girlfriend-tdcs.html
DIY tDCS: http://www.diytdcs.com/
tDCS on Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/tDCS/
Thync: http://thync.com

Let us know how things go.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06olLYiMvM4

A neuroscientist/meditator talking to Joe Rogan about neurofeedback, among many many other things.

I was gonna post this in the original thread but thought it wasn't exactly on topic. But, it fits the theme of 'technoboost' as Shinzen describes in the article Andy posted (he even mentions neurofeedback).

I have tried something that sounds like what you're describing. It was 8 or 9 years ago, and in regards to fibromyalgia and anxiety. The doctor called it "Alpha-stim" because it was supposed to boost alpha waves, which are connected with a state of calm attention. Unfortunately, in my case it triggered worse anxiety. When I spoke to another doctor about it, she said, "Oh yes, that happens sometimes." Great. But I don't know what would happen if someone else tried it; obviously not everyone could react like me or else they'd quit using it.

I also did some neurofeedback off and on for several years. It didn't make a difference for my symptoms, but it did train the mind to recognize certain deep relaxation states. I wonder now whether the training might have helped me in my meditation practice when I started in later on. It's impossible to know one way or the other.

ETA: I can say that following the instructions for noting practice, combined with jhana practice, has been It for me. Nothing else comes close, and I've tried a lot of different things.

Maybe related to research area seen in the cover article in March 2015 Scientific American magazine: "Electric Cures -- Bioelectronic medicine..."

The article ("Shock Medicine -- Stimulation of the nervous system could replace drugs for inflammatory and autoimmune conditions") focuses on the use of electricity at the interface of nervous and immune systems to control inflammation.

Inflammation is a current fad topic in medicine/science; used to be cholesterol was the culprit in CV disease, but now it's inflammation, which is also blamed for much else, such as migraine / cluster HA, etc.

Might be of use, though, if it works, in this context here (DhO). In classical Chinese medicine, 'damp & heat' (their way of expressing inflammation) can also be extended to the mental emotional dimension of human qi (activity, behavior) as well as in the physical dimension.  In the mental-emotional aspect, 'heat' is seen as the desire that burns* for something, and 'damp' as the clinging to stuff one's already grasped.

Maybe TDCS can give you a boost along the path in helping eliminate spiritual inflammation (craving and clinging)?

* Compare the Pali term abhijjha -- as in "abhijjhadomanassa" -- "covetiveness and grief" (as for worldy things). It's said to be made up of 'abhi-'  -- towards -- and 'jhayati', which means "to covet", but also has a cognate meaning "to burn"; so it's "burning for something just beyond reach", so to speak.