Mental games are computer games in which you control the game using a sensor placed on your fingers.

The sensor analyzes the changes in the electrical resistance of your skin (skin-galvanic reaction) and transfers them to the computer.

mental games

Ментальные игры

This device was primarily interesting to me in that I wanted to try to use it as a home lie detector. The fact is that in real lie detectors (polygraphs) the exact same sensor is used (plus pressure, respiration, voltage sensors). The main information in the polygraph was just given by the skin-galvanic reaction sensor.

Проверка на полиграфе

I met a polygraph at the department in KubGTU. In Krasnodar, as it turned out, is the most powerful polygraph school. The first lie detector in our country was created in Krasnodar. We have courses for polygraph examiners at our department. I happened to listen to such a course.

I’ll tell you this, it’s unrealistic to deceive a polygraph that an experienced specialist works on.

How a lie detector works, for example, a situation: a large sum of money disappeared from the safe of the director of the company. Suspicion that one of the employees of the company did this. A polygraph examiner examines the situation and determines the details that only the criminal could know.





Let's say in the safe, besides money, there was a toy - a white teddy bear. This fact is known only to the director and the criminal. The criminal also knows how the money was packed, how much it was there, how the safe was closed, etc. No one else but him and the director knows such details.

The staff of the company is going to check. Each employee is checked separately. They pick up the sensors and ask specially prepared questions (this is the most important thing in the work of a polygraph examiner).

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For example, a polygraph examiner asks a question:
"What do you think lay besides money in the director’s safe?" and in turn lists the answer options:
- Vase (waiting for a response from an employee, then a pause, measurements are taken from all sensors to this answer, with the other answer options a similar procedure)
- Figurine
- A toy
- Documents
- Jewels

A person can answer "Yes", "No", "I do not know." Actually, that he will answer is not important, since the sensors measure the testimony of the body and it "gives out" the criminal.

No matter how innocent a person is, he will be equally worried about all the answers (since he does not know what was in the safe) and the sensors will take the same readings.

But the criminal’s reaction to the answer option “toy” will differ from other options (vase, figurine ...), since he himself saw the toy in the safe. Accordingly, his tension will increase and his body will give him on this version of the answer. He can, of course, counteract and relax when they call “toy”, but this will also give him away, since how did he know that he needed to relax on the answer “toy” ?!

There are dozens of such questions, the next one may be the question "What do you think, what kind of toy was it?" (it’s not important that you report that there was a toy in the safe):

- Robot Transformer
- Railway
- Teddy bear
- Flying saucer
Again, only a criminal knows that there was a teddy bear there, it will give him away. Next come questions about the color of the bear, the amount of money, their packaging, the situation in the office, etc.

An innocent person cannot even accidentally react many times to the “right” answers. But the criminal will be caught.
Conclusion: do not do anything illegal. They will find you.

Returning to mental games, I thought that you could, firstly, test someone at home, and secondly, train yourself to manage your state.

It will not work to use mental games as a lie detector - since the sensitivity is not the same, and there is no corresponding software.

But you can manage your condition. Actually, this is the main purpose of mental games.

From the description: “Mental Games” are specially designed to achieve the following goals:

- A quick and effective transition between states of deep relaxation and maximum physical and mental concentration and vice versa.
- "fine tuning" the ability to maximize concentration.
- remain calm in extremely stressful and difficult situations.
- achieving a continuous state of crystal clarity of consciousness.

In mental games, there are two levels of games.

At the first level, you need to control the movement of the balloon. Relax - the ball goes down, tenses up - goes up. My first reaction is a misunderstanding. The sensor is connected, but nothing happens. The ball hung in the middle as well. I begin to relax, control my breathing - the ball slowly begins to sink down. I close my eyes and the ball falls to the ground. Game number 1 passed. The following games of the first level are similar - you need to land the ball, only the landing conditions are more difficult, then temporarily, then at the right point. Passed the level quickly.

Games of the second level are more complicated: there are ordinary games, for example, Schulte tables, and at the same time your state of tension is read, which is then taken into account when calculating points. At this level, you can still rotate shapes and compose music.
But this requires a lot of patience. I’m just not enough for so much.

But the girls are more patient. As an example of how to read information from a person, I showed a couple of students "Mental Games".

They tried everything. Moreover, at first the reaction was misunderstanding, since no changes occurred on the screen. And then one girl managed to instantly plant a ball. To the question “How did you manage this?”, She answered, “I just remembered my mother.” This was a good example of how our thoughts affect the state of the body.

Feedback from the user of mental games (Darina - 22 years old):

I was sure that I would like it when I first heard about mental games. It was very interesting to control the balloon, regulating your psychological state. I stocked up free time, the desire to have fun and began to test a new toy. Focusing on the sensations, I managed to catch the moment when the ball began to "obey." So, listening to the accompanying sound, I began to relax, and the ball - to fall. After taking a few energetic breaths, I forced him to take off, and the deeper the breath, the higher the ball flew away.

Games of the first level give a real opportunity to listen to yourself, indeed with time, thanks to classes, you can develop the ability to control your emotional stress. This process begins to occur at a subconscious level, without my conscious intervention. Inadvertently arising irritation is suppressed. The effect is palpable.

Games of the second level did not make a proper impression. The meaning of many of them eluded me at the first examination. Over time, of course, you can understand and engage with them consciously. However, the effect of them is not so obvious with short and not systematic activities.
The general impression is the delight and joy that I have such a toy!

To summarize: for me personally, there is not enough patience for classes with mental games. I have mastered the first level of games, but not yet the second one, it is fraught with a lot of unknown, twist figures, compose music controlling its state, but it takes a long time to sit and figure it out. And if I practice the mind machine almost every day, then I launch mental games once a week.

The most interesting thing is that despite the rarity of use, mental games somehow quietly settled on the desktop. They have become an integral part of a computer, like a mouse or modem. The thing is certainly unusual and it has become, along with the mind machine, a kind of attraction, the so-called "something" that attracts attention.

Everyone who comes to visit is happy to play mental games. And do not disconnect from the game until at least one game passes.

Games will be interesting to both children and adults, but you need to have a lot of patience to play them.

author: Nikonov Vladimir

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