Psychotronics (therapy)
Psychotronics was a therapy popularized in Canada by family physician Terry Burrows. According to an article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, Burrows' version of psychotronics "is concerned with the energy exchange capacities of a mind-body-environment relationship; in other words explaining by technology something that, until recently, was the preserve of Eastern philosophers - how the mind relates to the body in sickness and health"[1] Suggestions that it was a psychic effect or related to mind control were explicitly rejected.[1] Instead, some research was conducted into biofeedback and whether the relationship between the human mind and body could be used in medical treatment of patients, including those suffering from psychosomatic illnesses.[1]
Burrows joined with engineer Henry Evering, who had been experimenting with changing work-environments to improve the mental health of workers. Burrows and Evering created techniques of biofeedback which were further developed by Dr. Bob James. James described his biofeedback as "the relating of body changes to thinking".[1] According to James, patients hook themselves up to a "galvanic skin response (GSR) biofeedback instrument", which alters the sounds it makes according to levels of stress. Thus they learn to control their own breathing and heart-rate. James then encouraged patients to externalise their own mental imagery, by drawing anything that came into their heads and discussing it.