Calm Your Brain After Concussion with Dr. Sanjay Manchanda | E68

Brain fog. Poor concentration. Anxiety. Memory problems. Why do some people recover quickly after a concussion while others continue to struggle with persistent symptoms months—or even years—after a traumatic brain injury (TBI)?

In this episode of Life After Impact, Dr. Ayla Wolf sits down with neuroscientist, psychotherapist, meditation teacher, and NeuroMatrix founder Dr. Sanjay Manchanda to explore the latest science behind concussion recovery, QEEG brain mapping, neuroplasticity, and photobiomodulation (red and near-infrared light therapy). Together, they discuss how quantitative EEG (QEEG) can identify abnormal brain activity that may persist even when MRI and CT scans appear normal, and how personalized brain stimulation, meditation, and light therapy may support cognitive function, emotional regulation, and brain healing.

With a unique background spanning electrical engineering, artificial intelligence, psychotherapy, and contemplative neuroscience, Dr. Manchanda brings an integrative perspective to understanding how the brain heals. He explains how quantitative EEG (QEEG) can identify patterns of slowed brain activity, disrupted communication between brain regions, and inefficient neural processing that often persist after concussion.

The conversation also explores how photobiomodulation may support mitochondrial function, reduce inflammation, improve cerebral energy production, and enhance neuroplasticity. Dr. Manchanda shares exciting new research on how different pulsing frequencies of light may influence attention, relaxation, meditation, and higher-order cognitive function, along with emerging work on personalized brain stimulation based on each individual's QEEG findings.

In this episode, you'll learn:

•  Why brain fog can persist long after a concussion 
•  What QEEG reveals that standard brain imaging cannot 
•  Common EEG patterns seen after traumatic brain injury 
•  How red and near-infrared light therapy support brain metabolism 
•  The connection between mitochondria, energy production, and cognitive function 
•  Personalized brain stimulation using QEEG-guided photobiomodulation 
•  The science behind meditation and high-frequency brain activity 
•  How meditation may improve emotional regulation and mental clarity 
•  The future of AI in personalized brain rehabilitation 
•  Why healing the brain requires addressing both physiology and psychology 

One of the most compelling messages from this conversation is that brain recovery isn't simply about repairing damaged tissue—it's about helping the brain become more efficient, better connected, and more resilient. By combining objective measurements like QEEG with emerging technologies such as photobiomodulation and meditation training, clinicians may soon be able to personalize treatment in ways that weren't possible just a few years ago.

Whether you're recovering from a concussion, living with post-concussion syndrome, struggling with brain fog, or simply fascinated by the future of neuroscience, this episode offers an inspiring look at where brain rehabilitation is headed—and how technology and ancient wisdom may work together to help us heal.

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Medical disclaimer: this video or podcast is for general informational purposes only, and does not constitute the practice of medicine or other professional healthcare services, including the giving of medical advice. No doctor patient relationship is formed. The use of this information and materials included is at the user's own risk. The content of this video or podcast is not intended to be a substitute for medical advice diagnosis or treatment. Consumers of this information should seek the advice of a medical professional for any and all health related issues. 

Transcript

Why 40 Hz Gets Attention

Dr. Sanjay Manchanda 1:05

Now, MIT research has shown that flashing lights into the eyes, 40 Hertz into the ears, for example, has special effects. And those effects are really starting a cleanup process in the brain. It activates microglial cells in the brain that do the cleanup of the brain.

Dr. Ayla Wolf 1:26

Welcome to Life After Impact, the concussion recovery podcast. I'm Dr. Ayla Wolf, and I will be hosting today's episode where we help you navigate the often confusing, frustrating, and overwhelming journey of concussion and brain injury recovery. This kind of test is your go-to resource for actionable information. Whether you're dealing with a recent concussion, if you're struggling with post-concussion syndrome, or just feeling stuck in your healing process, know that you are not alone. This kind of chemist can be your guide and partner in recovery, helping you build a better life after impact. Dr. Sanjay Manchanda, thank you for joining me for Life After Impact.

Dr. Sanjay Manchanda 2:07

Yeah, absolutely. It's my pleasure to be here. Thanks for inviting me.

Dr. Ayla Wolf 2:11

Yes, I was first introduced to you from the Love Your Brain summit that they had back a few months ago in March. And so I wanted to talk more about the work that you do with QEEG, with meditation, red light therapy. I imagine you have a lot of insights into the brain and what keeps us in different holding

Welcome And Guest Introduction

Dr. Ayla Wolf 2:31

patterns. Why don't you start by giving a little bit about your background?

Dr. Sanjay Manchanda 2:36

Sure. Yeah. See, originally uh my background is in engineering. I have a bachelor's in electrical engineering, then a master's and PhD in computer science. And I grew up in India, did my bachelor's there, and then I moved to the US to do my PhD in computer science. And I actually, believe it or not, uh did my research in AI at that time. And then I became a professor here at the University of Arizona in Tucson for a while. And around that time is actually when I really started to more look within, more to deal with my own like anxiety and depression or lack of clarity on what I really wanted in my life. And and I started to do a lot of meditation. And as a result of that, I eventually quit my job after

From Engineering And AI To Therapy

Dr. Sanjay Manchanda 3:33

five years, went back to India and for a year and had a big spiritual awakening, and then came back and you know, looked at the the other side of the brain. I will I focused on my body, on studying different healing modalities, on uh teaching meditation, and uh and you know, eventually I realized I also needed therapy, and so I became a psychotherapist. So so I I like to also like be hands-on with what I need. And so my journey really has been sharing with people what I find really works for me. And then uh at some point I started uh doing biofeedback, and sort of my left brain came back, and uh it's a more a more integrated approach that uses the science of the brain, neuroscience, as well as my engineering skills, to as well as my softer skills of uh meditation therapy, body work, sort of combining everything to work with the whole person. That's what works for me.

Dr. Ayla Wolf 4:41

Yeah, and I think that's really important because some people are like very far on one end of that spectrum or the other. It's nice to have people that have a balanced approach that can kind of go back and forth between the, like you said, the soft sciences and then the the actual objective data. Now, I feel like you kind of like glossed over the fact that you had a spiritual awakening. I want to hear more about this. That was when you went back to India.

Dr. Sanjay Manchanda 5:08

Yeah, yeah. So I had been meditating a lot, and then I went back to India, and uh somebody told me about this teacher in Lucknow, and so I went to see him. And he was in this uh in the non-rual tradition in Hinduism, which is really becoming more aware of the fact that our experience is not divided into two, that we have this idea of that we are separate from you and everything else, but there's a level in which we are not separate and experiencing that. So I was with him, and his style was to you know really ask you who you are. And and he was like, Okay, so I want you to tell me who you are, but before you do that, are you willing to take all your clothes off? I said, I'm desperate, I'll do whatever. But he said, I don't mean literally your clothes, I mean literally that every concept that you have about reality is clothing, and uh and so you can tell me who you are without using a single concept. Now, if I were to ask you that, I love what would you say? Tell me who

A Spiritual Awakening And What Changed

Dr. Sanjay Manchanda 6:15

you are without using a single concept. Oh man. Well, you can't say anything. I mean, literally, what are you gonna say? Language is concept. And with his, you know, power of transmission, and in that moment when you realize that you can't really say anything without using concepts and not have a single thought, because concepts uh you know, thoughts are concepts, but reality exists outside your virtual virtualization of it, outside your concept of it. And my mind stopped, and all this burden that I had felt for a long time just lifted off and there's all this energy freed up in the system. And that that was the beginning of a major transformation for me. And uh that's called, you know, different traditions called different things, but there was a moment of awakening and that never really left. Now there was a lot more work to do after that, but you know, that that was uh that was a spiritual awake that was the beginning of my awakening there, yeah.

Dr. Ayla Wolf 7:25

And then when you came back, what was kind of immediately different? What what was the the shift in terms of what your life was.

Dr. Sanjay Manchanda 7:35

And it's something that I actually help people to achieve myself now. The shift that happens is that you get a distance from the story of you. So, you know, you normally live the story of who we are, this is who I am, but that story is not us. It's you know kind of made up of certain elements, and it's limiting. So you I've since then I always had this distance and ability to even laugh at myself and and realize that the story is not me, the emotions are not me. They are important, but they're not me. And and that kind of equanimity and uh distance is what that gave me. And uh, but then I still realized, for example, I came back and realized I needed needed therapy because there was all this uh past trauma and ideas that needed to be kind of cleaned out. So you can have an awakening, but you still need to do a cleanup process. And uh when we in a way that I had to awaken all the aspects of me that were not awake. You know, they're all it's and to move in the direction of uh the kind of life or or feelings that I prefer instead of a lot of negativity that was running my life. And now you do that work with other people. Yeah, I know that work with other people. Yeah, the fact that you can have a distance from the your system of meaning making of who you are, what the world is, allows you to do that work more effectively. Then you realize that it's a construction, so you can change it. You know, you're not so caught in it. Yeah. But it still needs to be worked on. So yeah.

Dr. Ayla Wolf 9:18

And how did you end up working with people with brain injuries and concussions?

Dr. Sanjay Manchanda 9:23

Yeah, so after all in my practice, I was working with someone, a client, and who said, you know, you the meditations you're teaching are so similar to this guy, Les Femi. He's been teaching similar meditations, and I looked him up and he was a Zen practitioner, but he was also a biofeedback researcher. So he was one of the original work discoverers of alpha training. You know, the when the 70s and the 80s, the alpha training was a big the idea that if you train the alpha waves in the brain, then as you train them up, you get into a more deeply relaxed state. And he was one of the researchers originally of that. And then he figured out that if you focused on space, then alpha would go up on the brain. And because he was also a meditation expert. So he made this connection. And then he was so I trained with him in biofeedback, in neurofeedback, and then I discovered the field of neurofeedback was amazing, and they were working with ADD

How Neurofeedback Led To Brain Injury Work

Dr. Sanjay Manchanda 10:23

and attention disorders at that time, and that was also very connected being with being able to meditate. It was also connected with the fact that I wanted to improve my attention, and so I took professional training in neurofeedback, and uh that's and uh I it was easy for me because I have an engineering background, and I started to work with people with uh neurofeedback in my practice and uh from there there's a natural movement to starting to work with the brain, learn neuroscience, and then help people who are having attention problems or memory problems or mood problems because of brain injury. So when people come to me sometimes, you know, they say I have this issue or that issue, but I see that there's psychological and organic causes and maybe some things I can address from both sides. So that's how I start working with people with brain injuries. Yeah.

Dr. Ayla Wolf 11:23

For our listeners, can you explain the difference between standard EEG and then what QEEG does and how that helps you from more of a clinical perspective?

Dr. Sanjay Manchanda 11:34

Yeah, so one of the things we do clinically is to do a 19-channel EEG recording, but it's different than just a urologist doing a recording because we actually do a quantitative statistical analysis to see how various parts of the brain are functioning, and especially relative to an average brain of your age. And so we can then see, okay, maybe there's certain slowing in a part of the brain compared to the average. And that slowing is related to how you're functioning. We can see how different, for example, two parts of the brain are not in the same timing, and this timing is an issue that uh clearly makes your cortical processing inefficient. So that's called a quantitative EEG, where we do statistical analysis and look at various timing and power aspects

QEEG Explained With Clinical Examples

Dr. Sanjay Manchanda 12:28

of how your brain is doing and how that might be related to what you want to achieve or what your symptoms are. So, for example, you can get a heat map of the brain which shows okay, this particular frequency has more power in this region and less in this region, and maybe it should be the reverse, for example.

Dr. Ayla Wolf 12:47

And are there any common QEEG patterns that you see come up time and time again with people that have had brain injuries?

Dr. Sanjay Manchanda 12:55

Yeah, definitely. So when you have injuries, typically what will happen is in the part that's injured is not able to function well. So you actually will often see an increase in the power in the lower frequencies. So there's a slowing in that part of the brain. If it's a more severe damage, you may notice that the power is less in all the frequencies. But often it's not that, it's that the slow slower frequencies take over. And it's the higher frequencies that take more energy. So you can see this metabolic effect, you can see the damage effect, you can also see disconnections with other parts of the brain. So there's white matter damage which connects different parts of the brain, and you can see the disconnection in the timing of the brain.

Dr. Ayla Wolf 13:43

And I know you also incorporate photobiomodulation into your practice as well.

Dr. Sanjay Manchanda 13:48

So I've been a neurofeedback practitioner for decades. And then actually, around COVID, when I had to close my offices, then I moved to more of a home model. And at that point, I also became more interested in photobiomodulation or modulating brain function with light. And I've been doing it for like 15 years already. But I realized that I really loved using light to help people, that it was gentler and more effective. So while doing biofeedback, I also used current and magnetism and light to stimulate the brain and support the biofeedback process. So if some person needs a certain frequency, we can stimulate the brain at that frequency using current or magnetism or light to support the functioning of that frequency. Just as a simplistic way of saying it, but we can generally support the brain. And uh and then I switched to

Photobiomodulation And The Neuromatrix Headset

Dr. Sanjay Manchanda 14:47

basically using light with uh for that purpose, and I find that it's almost as effective as the combination of neurofeedback and other modalities. And so I've been using photobiomodulation to help people. And last year I started my own company that manufactures infrared light headsets for this purpose.

Dr. Ayla Wolf 15:10

So that was gonna be my next question is what are the different devices that you've worked with and what are you using?

Dr. Sanjay Manchanda 15:17

Yeah, so I have my own company now called Neuromatrix, Neuromatrix.health, and we have a device that has 288 LEDs that project infrared light into the brain at two different wavelengths. Uh which of this is basically a wavelength gives is a certain color of red. So there's two different colors, and they're both infrared. So 810 nanometers and 1070 nanometers. And 1070 nanometers is deeper in the infrared, you can't even see it with your naked eyes. But it's a longer wavelength that penetrates through the skull and affects the brain. And the thing about photobiomodulation and infrared photobiomodulation is that it really feeds your system. It's not you're not just like retraining your brain, but you're feeding your brain with energy. So, for those who don't know, where infrared light feeds any part of the body, it feeds all the cells of the body, and the way it does that is it acts a little bit like photosynthesis. The light is absorbed by mitochondria in the cells, which are the energy, uh sort of the energy factories in our cells. And it turns into energy directly. So in photosynthesis, plants take light, turn it into food. In our bodies, the mitochondrial factories take infrared light and turn it into energy. They create ATP, the energy molecule. And that's just one of the things it does. It also speeds up the energy reaction. It speeds up the reaction that takes food, combines it with oxygen, and creates energy. It burnt the burning reaction. And it also supports beneficial signaling. It affects these the water in the cells, has a special state. The water in our cells has a special state. And it affects this water called exclusion zone water, affects its viscosity, and it affects the channels at the membranes of cells that let in different ions in and out and different proteins in and out. And so it has a strong signaling effect on our cells that's beneficial.

Dr. Ayla Wolf 17:25

And what do you feel is the right dose? Is this something people use every day or a couple times a week as far as on the on the skull?

Dr. Sanjay Manchanda 17:34

Yeah, so with our devices, they are gentle and highly non-invasive and very safe. And so we have people use them six days a week, even seven days a week. And for if you're younger and you're recovering from an injury, typically you'll use the device extensively and then you may need it less and less. If you're older and we're using it for, say, cognitive decline, where you have other metabolic processes that are creating aging or damage, then you just use it every day to support your functioning. So it depends.

Dr. Ayla Wolf 18:06

Yeah. And then is it pulsing at 40 hertz or 10 hertz or both?

Dr. Sanjay Manchanda 18:11

Yeah, that's very interesting. So that's really a lot of my research currently is you know, looking at the effects of different pulsing frequencies. So you can if you just shine the light in into your head or actually any part of your body, it feeds it, it supports healing, it reduces inflammation, it improves

Pulsing Frequencies From 40 Hz To 3000 Hz

Dr. Sanjay Manchanda 19:25

circulation. Like in the brain, it's supposed neurogenesis, prevents self-death. And then the question is, what if you flash the light? Does that matter? And the answer is yes. You get better results with flashing sometimes than if and then it than if you don't flash. So we do both. Now MIT research has shown that flashing lights into the eyes, 40 hertz into the ears, for example, has special effects. And those effects are really starting a cleanup process in the brain. It activates microglial cells in the brain that do the cleanup of the brain and it reduces plaque in the brain. So we use a lot of 40 hertz flashing for improving the functioning of the brain. But we also use other frequencies. We might use a frequency that your brain is lacking, like the thinking frequencies are lower, they're more like 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 hertz. So we also use that if a person needs the thinking function to improve.

Dr. Ayla Wolf 20:31

We all need the thinking function to improve. Yeah, yeah.

Dr. Sanjay Manchanda 20:34

And the latest research that I did really was about meditation. And what I discovered was that you for meditation, we need very high frequencies. So literally, when we say that, you know, you want to be in a high frequency state, it's like a new age thing to say. There's some truth to it. It literally, if you pulse high frequencies into the brain, it helps your brain to go into these states of equanimity, into and and we can support more awakening in the person. So we've really like a thousand hertz or two thousand hertz or three thousand hertz, not just 40 hertz, which is great. 40 hertz is great, 10 hertz is great. But uh but that's the latest research that we we are really looking at. And I created a meditation, advanced meditation protocol that has a very high degree of success. And we currently uh designed a study to show that it helps people to, you know, beginners even to meditate. And oh wow. And uh you know how hard it is for people to meditate. So this is really an advanced. I've never seen a device that supports meditation that effectively yet.

Dr. Ayla Wolf 21:48

And is this a separate device from the other red light therapy? Okay, amazing. And it's actually at more of like closer to a thousand hertz.

Dr. Sanjay Manchanda 21:58

Yeah, yeah. In fact, I the current my current program ends at 3,000. But we can go up to 20,000. We're still figuring out everything we can do with this. And what we find is that like long-term meditators need higher frequencies. They're already in a high frequency state, but they can go higher. So actually, I started this company because I'm a meditation teacher as well, and I was demoing the helmet to my students, and they all wanted to buy it, you know, once we started doing the meditation programs on it. And I was like, oh, this is great stuff. I want to support that. So even long-term students really find benefit using it.

Dr. Ayla Wolf 22:37

And so what is, I mean, we talk about the different hertz frequencies of brainwave activity. What is the highest hertz brainwave activity that has been measured?

Dr. Sanjay Manchanda 22:49

Oh anywhere from 200 to 1000 hertz. And to measure those, you actually have to have the split the skull open or do it during surgery because the skull filters out the high frequencies. And and but we are using even higher than thousands, so it's not just like it's a question of what level you measure it at. The brain, you could say, uh, runs at gigahertz, and that's not the EG firing. Our whole body is a symphony of frequency, it's just happening at these very high frequencies are happening at more microscopic levels. And you know, there's you know different uh parts of the cell that are actually running at very high frequencies, like microtubules. And so there's this whole we we say we know when we talk about chemistry, we have to realize that chemistry is actually electricity. That when two chemicals combine, what's really happening is an electrical shift. And we use the chemistry as a shorthand. So we are really electromagnetic beings, and we literally are functioning at all these layers of frequencies. Now, I'm not necessarily addressing all these. Levels. But the fact that we can go higher with light, include and current, you know, is because we are electrical beings at various levels. And to the more microscopic levels run at higher frequencies.

Dr. Ayla Wolf 24:15

And so really what you're saying too is that the way that we're assessing the brain, our understanding of it is limited by the tool that we're using. Exactly, right?

Dr. Sanjay Manchanda 24:25

Yeah. For a long time people thought, oh, you know, we only need to help you to meditate and relax. We only need to do alpha and theta because we noticed that they increase when you're relaxed. But then they weren't able to measure the gamma, the higher frequencies, because the brain was filtering them out. And then we figured out, oh no, there's higher frequencies and we have better equipment. And in fact, the high frequencies ride on the lower ones. So yeah, your theta increases when you meditate, but the gamma increases too. And that gamma is more significant for higher functioning. And they both are connected. And so that's the kind of the meditation protocol does that. It supports the increase in bulk. And the other thing that I wanted to mention at some point we can talk about how we can customize the headset for your brain using a QEG. And if, for example, for you know recovery from injury. Yeah, let's talk about it. Yeah, so so a headset has different parts that can run at different uh pulse frequencies and powers. And if you look at your brain and do a quantitative analysis, and if you've had an injury, different people's brains are different, different injuries are different. So we can see which parts of your brain are running too slow or too fast or having timing issues, and we can customize the helmet for your particular brain that will support you to heal better.

Dr. Ayla Wolf 25:45

So you're saying, for example, let's say somebody has diminished activity on the right hemisphere compared to the left hemisphere in the frontal lobe, you could customize the helmet, and there would be different frequencies happening on the right frontal versus the left frontal. Exactly. Okay. Okay.

Dr. Sanjay Manchanda 26:02

And also typically a well-functioning brain has slightly different frequency kind of spectrum at, you know, even during normal functioning. So we can duplicate that with the helmet. And some of some of the protocols duplicate that. So

Custom Light Protocols Using QEEG Data

Dr. Sanjay Manchanda 26:17

we have built-in protocols for different things like sleep, relaxation, meditation, you know, recovery from injury, etc.

Dr. Ayla Wolf 26:25

And is the user interface through a phone app, or how are people changing the settings?

Dr. Sanjay Manchanda 26:31

Yeah, currently we have a controller. So you don't have to use a phone app, we just it's on the controller. And then you know, we're working for future designs that will have an app as well.

Dr. Ayla Wolf 26:43

Incredible. And so you said you created this last year.

Dr. Sanjay Manchanda 26:47

Yes.

Dr. Ayla Wolf 26:48

Okay, so this is brand new.

Dr. Sanjay Manchanda 26:50

This is a new company. Our company is new. Yeah, we got a lot of exciting things going on. New research, new designs coming in. But our current headset is you know very successful. We are we currently just added uh the two wavelengths, made it from one wavelength to two wavelengths, and we keep adding new programs as we discover more on how to use it most effectively for people.

Dr. Ayla Wolf 27:15

Amazing. And what is your website? Where can people look into this? It's called neuromatrix.health. Okay. Perfect. And so I'm assuming you are doing QEEG studies before and after people use this.

Dr. Sanjay Manchanda 27:31

We have some our studies are just starting.

Dr. Ayla Wolf 27:33

So excellent. So that will be very fascinating when it comes out to see the difference.

Dr. Sanjay Manchanda 27:40

Yeah, that'll that's exactly right. We did the meditation study with the VLAD NeuroPro. And it's an excellent device. And we have results that we'll be publishing on that one. And we'll be doing more studies with the neuromatrix as well.

Dr. Ayla Wolf 27:55

Fantastic. Yeah, the V Lite is uh unique in the sense that it also has that intranasal component.

Dr. Sanjay Manchanda 28:02

That's right. Yeah. Yeah, and that does help the brain. And so it's it's uh it's just a different device. The V Lite has uh a fewer LEDs, but they're more power. So let's say you have six or eight LEDs, including an intranasal LED, and our headset has 288 LEDs, each one is less power, so there's a summation effect over the brain. So they're just two different devices. I'm actually going to create a website focusing on meditation that's going to sell both. So we give people options.

Dr. Ayla Wolf 28:34

Sure. And in that study, what was the protocol? How long were people meditating for? For how long, how many days?

Dr. Sanjay Manchanda 28:42

Yeah, so it was a 33-minute uh 33-minute session, and we used different frequencies. We went from low frequencies to high frequencies. So we started at seven, and to say 10, 40, 120, 432, etc., all the way to 1024 hertz over 33 minutes. And uh in the study, we only have we use experienced meditators to make to shorten the duration of the study because they have more ability to self-report to sense into what's happening. So one session showed significant results in the mystical experience questionnaire, which is a questionnaire which is used for uh you know trying to measure the effects of uh psychedelics. And there was a significant result on that questionnaire from uh in the active session. So we had an active session, a sham session, and a baseline session. And so there were significant results, mystical level experiences from one session. And there was interesting EEG results where we found that there's this sort of higher arousal in the system that

Meditation Study Results And Beginner On Ramps

Dr. Sanjay Manchanda 29:47

comes especially in the front of the brain, and increased gamma, increased high frequencies, and increased alpha in the center of the brain, and which has to do with reduced thinking and more relaxation. And that's exactly what we were looking for: a balanced state of relaxation and arousal, not sleepiness, not dullness, and not like some kind of high frequency manic state.

Dr. Ayla Wolf 30:15

Yeah, uh, absolutely. And so for somebody who maybe has never meditated before, where do you guide them? What is a good starting point?

Dr. Sanjay Manchanda 30:26

Yeah, so typically we'll uh I'm not teaching beginners right now, and although we'll actually be doing that in the new website. But typically what I do is I send them to a teacher, Lektions and Yang, he has a beautiful system of meditation called Unified Mindfulness. And so I would send them there. I also work for a course in Awakening that I've supported, and now I'm starting to teach my own course on awakening. And uh it's called 45 Days to Awakening. And uh so we'll be creating our own course in Awakening, and that that people can do that, includes deep meditations. So I will say, okay, find someone that you're already working with, you know, that you want to work with, or we'll send you to a couple of possibilities to an online course or to online courses with Shenzhen, and then you can use the device along with it. Yeah. Fantastic. And we'll actually be partnering with spiritual teachers to do this, to you know, give them the device for their students. Yeah.

Dr. Ayla Wolf 31:24

Yeah, that's amazing that people could not only start a meditation program, but kind of have a leg up by using a photobiomodulation device to just so they'll be thinking of right now for my long-term vision uh is three kinds of partnerships.

Dr. Sanjay Manchanda 31:41

One is with spiritual teachers. The other, we already have partnerships with neurofeedback providers. So when you use photobiomodulation along with neurofeedback, again you get an exponential effect. Better to do both if you can. And then the third one will be with therapists because it's really good for anxiety and general improvement of mood. So we'll be doing some studies to show more on that also, and we'll be partnering with therapists as well.

Dr. Ayla Wolf 32:07

And at this point in your career, how much of your day is spent doing one-on-one counseling work?

Dr. Sanjay Manchanda 32:13

Oh, yeah, it's down to 10%. You know, I'm really focusing on the research and the company right now. And running a startup takes time. So yes.

Dr. Ayla Wolf 32:23

Yeah, there's not enough hours in the day, right?

Dr. Sanjay Manchanda 32:26

Exactly, exactly.

Dr. Ayla Wolf 32:27

Yep. Amazing. And I'm assuming that with the the work that you have done, or even just with the the meditation courses and and the tools that you offer people, tell me a little bit about the feedback that that you're hearing from people that are doing that as far as neurological symptoms.

Dr. Sanjay Manchanda 32:47

Oh, the good the most common you know response is that uh I'm more present, my mood is better, I have more energy, uh, I'm able to focus better. So these are the main uh neurological things that people report. The other thing that people are surprised to find is that they have more equanimity in their life. So tip and it's I think it's because we offer the meditation programs along with no matter who's buying the helmet, they get the meditation program. And if and they get a free consult with me. So I recommend that they do it a little bit anyway, whether they meditate or not. They just run the program once a week at least. And uh in general, they find that they just even just running the program, even if they're not meditators, they find that they have less reactivity in their life, which is a real gift.

Dr. Ayla Wolf 33:39

It is, yeah, to be able to go through your life and not just be reacting to everything that's happening around you. Amazing. Okay, well, where do you see the the future of all of this?

Dr. Sanjay Manchanda 33:50

Well, you know, our goal is to support uh the use of light for health, for well-being, for awakening, and for human flourishing. And so the question is, how many different ways can we use it? And so we certainly we already have devices that work for healing the body, that are infrared devices, for all kinds that you can buy in the market. So that's not our focus, but our focus will be more on the brain, maybe looking more deeply at vagus nerve stimulation with light. That's another goal of ours. And really researching the frequency effects. So we have to figure out what are the optimal doses of how much power to put in. Too much, if you use too much of light, that's damaging and creates reactive oxygen species. It's just like over-exercising. And some reactive oxygen species are actually very beneficial. And so, what is the optimal dosing and how much intensity do you need to get through the skull? This is a controversy in the field. And what are the effects, what are the real effects of these high frequencies, how do they work, and how we can optimize them for different reasons. And then there's

Future Research Dosing AI And Closed Loop EEG

Dr. Sanjay Manchanda 35:01

also the idea of closed loop stimulation, which is you read the EEG and then you stimulate and you read it again and see what it's doing to the brain. And that's uh very doable in theory, but in practice, it's been hard to implement. So that's another thing to do that you know would be part of our goal, is that we can do this real-time changes so it's much more flexible and individualized and personalized.

Dr. Ayla Wolf 35:28

Yeah. And now you started out the conversation by saying back back in the day you were actually studying AI. Do you see that coming back into play here as you?

Dr. Sanjay Manchanda 35:38

AI is here as an amazing tool for every field, you know. And uh so the the way we use AI right now, the best way to use it is to is to do EEG analysis. So when we pick up EEG, it's a very complicated signal. So yeah, you can read EEG, but we we we don't really understand much about it or how it's always related, you know, to your symptoms. But AI is going to tell help us. They're gonna, you know, if you pick up EEG from a lot of people, then AI is going to help us to analyze, say, oh, we I know I can tell you that this person has this, or that this stimulation will help them. So it's really doing the data crunching that is going to help us. Yeah.

Dr. Ayla Wolf 36:23

Mm-hmm. Yeah. How cool that all of your life experiences have really culminated into where you are right now. That must feel feel really exciting.

Dr. Sanjay Manchanda 36:34

Definitely, definitely does. It it and so yeah, I want to do all of it. Uh is to support the the whole being at all these various levels, you know, and uh whether it's physical, I'm a biohacker myself, and I want to support biohacking in this context. I want to support uh more of an awakened life, flourishing life with great health and great brain health. So uh nutrition, all of that. Yeah.

Dr. Ayla Wolf 37:03

Beautiful. I love it. Is there anything we haven't talked about that you'd like to touch upon?

Dr. Sanjay Manchanda 37:10

Um I I like to offer a discount code to your listeners. If they want to if they want to purchase a neuromatrix, they can use the discount code LifeAfter Impact to get $350 off the retail price. And we'll make sure that's available to them.

Dr. Ayla Wolf 37:28

That's very generous of you. Thank you. Yes. I will link in the show notes the links to your website and the discount code, and then also perhaps we can put in your meditation courses that are available too, so people can find those as well. Absolutely.

Dr. Sanjay Manchanda 37:44

We'll do that.

Dr. Ayla Wolf 37:45

Beautiful. Well, I appreciate you sharing all this information, and I'm so excited to see where uh where you go next with all of this. Yes, yes. Beautiful.

Dr. Sanjay Manchanda 37:57

It's wonderful to be here.

Dr. Ayla Wolf 37:58

Thanks. Medical disclaimer. This video or podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine or other professional healthcare services, including the giving of medical advice. No doctor-patient relationship is formed. The use of this information and materials

Listener Discount Code And Closing

Dr. Ayla Wolf 38:22

included is at the user's own risk. The content of this video or podcast is not intended to be a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment, and consumers of this information should seek the advice of a medical professional for any and all health related issues. A link to our full medical disclaimer is available in the notes.