The Journey to Wild Divine Biofeedback Software & Hardware for PC & Mac: The Passage

If there is one thing which most interferes with my sense of peace, relaxation and serenity, it is the wealthy practitioners of New Age self-help mumbo jumbo who take advantage of the vulnerable sheep who seek relief from their anxieties and feelings of emptiness. Just create a soundtrack with the mandatory cheezy strings and flute-whistles, mount that on a snazzy motif of floating orbs, otherworldly opulence, and flowing robes, throw in some pseudo high-tech wires and clamps which do nothing more than measure one's rate of heart-beat (which is in no way "biofeedback"), place that in an elegant upscale box, charge an upscale price, and you have created a package which will cater to all those non discriminating suckers as represented by the glowing and almost universally positive reviews found here. Another similar product which is even more costly and which I ordered and returned along with this one, says it all in small print on the box: "has no medical efficacy, and is to be considered as entertainment." But if this kind of "entertainment" reinforces your oblivious sense of accomplishment, just send in your big bucks to the New Age dudes in their big houses who sit around and conjure up even more "infinite possibilities" of developing their "full potential" to make even more money. I recommend a good book on meditation, and actually sitting down and doing it.

As others have noted, it may take some finagaling(sp?) to get this to work on your computer. One of the problems we are having is to get the program to save where you are and then return to that location later.Otherwise, this is a great "game" for people who are not into video games. It does indeed help you to control your breathing, heart rate, and tension level. Sometimes it's difficult for the finger sensors to sense. I found that sticking my sensor-wired hand under my sweatshirt to warm it up helped a lot, especially in colder weather.I would suggest waiting for an updated version of this program, one that displays in something greater than 800 x 600 and returns your screen to its original resolution when you exit.

I bought this product because I had a dr. accuse me of being anxious and depressed. While I would agree I suffer from white coat anxiety, I didn't agree with the dr. otherwise. I figured, though, that if the dr was right, a biofeedback game would be the perfect help. I had wanted to try Journey, anyway, and this gave me an excellent excuse to buy it. I bought it for myself for Christmas. I have probably spent hundreds of dollars on meditation tapes, meditation books, classes - you name it, I've tried it. I do an excellent job of falling asleep using any of them. Journey to the Wild has been wonderful for me. I am finally experiencing the powerful benefits of meditation without falling asleep. I am given different experiences to entice me to keep trying, keep going - and stay awake. I am sustaining a feeling of happiness and life satisfaction. The only negative would be coming from my husband. He thinks I'm hogging the computer now. I've started timing myself so that I don't stay on too long. Who would have ever thought that a person who has found no computer games she liked previously would have to time herself so that she doesn't become so wrapped up she does nothing else? If you are looking for an adventure game, you won't like this. If you are looking for a meditation assistant, I think you'll love it.

I'd give this zero stars, but the amazon.com rep was so helpful that I gave it two stars just for amazon service. The problem is that it no longer works with the newer Mac OS (operating system). The company offered to send me an update patch, but then I read review after review and discovered that THAT wouldn't solve all of the problems either.I bought several of the earlier versions of this when it was first launched years ago, and thought it was both interesting and pretty effective. Sure, you don't need technology to meditate, BUT, it does a good job of focusing you so the "real world" is easier to ignore, and best of all, the biofeedback component gives you a sense that when you are trying to meditate, you're actually getting somewhere, at least in a physiological sense. So it's excellent for newbies.The graphics and music are a little New Age (not necessarily a bad thing), but they handled it pretty well. It's really too bad because it's effective. [Personally, I'm a little tired of Deepak Chopra -- and all of his bling. But you could ignore that part.]Wild Divine: PLEASE get it together!