ABOUT DAVE SIEVER

David Siever, C.E.T. graduated from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) in 1978 in Telecommunications. In 1980, Dave accepted a position at the University of Alberta, Faculty of Dentistry, as a design technologist. Dave conducted research with Dr. Norman Thomas, an internationally recognized specialist in the area of Temporo-Mandibular Dysfunction and myofacial pain. During his employment with the University, Dave developed equipment for the TMJ research laboratory and Educational Psychology Department. These devices included TENS stimulators, biofeedback devices, gnathodynamometers, signal processing and EMG spectral analysis equipment. In 1983, Dave began assistant teaching a dental physiology course at the University of Alberta. In 1987 and 1988 he taught the graduate year course for Advance Myofacial Pain and TMJ Diagnostic and Treatment Techniques. Dave published a paper with Dr. Norman Thomas on the effects of audio-visual stimulation in the 4th European Congress of Hypnosis in 1987.

From late 1985 to 1987, Dave provided TMJ consulting services to five dentists in the Edmonton area. Over the years, Dave has helped treat approximately 1500 patients with TMJ and MPD. Dave’s realization that many TMJ problems were psychologically related, prompted him to pursue his interest in biofeedback. This brought about the inception of the original D.A.V.I.D. 1 in the spring of 1985, which was used in the Faculty of Arts to help acting students overcome stage fright.

Since this time, through his company, Mind Alive Inc., Dave has continued to develop several Audio-Visual Entrainment (AVE), Cranio-Electro Stimulation (CES), transcranial DC Stimulation (tDCS) and biofeedback devices, with each new development responding to the changes in technology and the demands of the marketplace. Dave continues to design new products relating to personal growth and well-being.

Dave served for many years as the chairperson for the Computer Engineering Advisory Council for the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT). He is also a member of ASET, ISNR and AAPB.

Dave travels throughout North America and internationally lecturing to dentists, medical groups, biofeedback and neurofeedback professionals, teachers and the general public at various conferences about the use of these technologies as an alternative method to improved health, accelerated learning and peace of mind.

Dave has also developed and written a Stimulation Technologies/Entrainment course for the Behavioral Medicine Research and Training Foundation of Saybrook University and instructs it along with Dr. Cynthia Kerson. 

Dave talks AVE

I got involved in AVE when I was designing a research lab to diagnose and treat TMJ Dysfunction in the Faculty of Dentistry at the University of Alberta with Dr. Norman Thomas (now teaching in Las Vegas, NV). While I was there, an instructor from Performing Arts commissioned me to design an AVE system for him to help his students overcome stage-fright. Given that I was extremely busy building a biofeedback lab, performing TMJ studies, teaching the Basic Human Physiology course and wondering if AVE was just some “new age” fad, I was hesitant in taking time to design a system for him. But I did. He was pleased with the results he was getting with his students, but I didn’t buy in until 1988, when I ran a study with our most difficult TMJ patients. To my complete astonishment, I had never seen anything else eliminate masseter muscle tension as measured with EMG and pain sensitivity to palpation, plus hand warming (a sign of sympathetic reduction) as well as the AVE. I then got very interested in the topic of AVE and scoured the U of A Health Sciences library to discover that photic and auditory driving had been around for a long time.

Since the concept of photic driving was discovered by Adrian & Matthews in 1943, several thousand studies have been published on the topic of AVE. In the 1950s, there was growing interest in the subjective effects of AVE. W. Gray Walters exposed several thousand subjects to photic stimulation at various frequencies and recorded their subjective experiences. On another front, was Dr. William Kroger. Kroger was a physician with the US military and Kroger noticed that battle ships and bomber planes were being driven into enemy territory because the radar operators were being entrained into a trance state from the old-fashioned “blip” style radars. This spurned Kroger to team up with Sidney Schneider of the Schneider Instrument Company where they developed the first commercial photic stimulator in 1955, which they used primarily for hypnotic induction and pain reduction during gastro-intestinal surgery and dental work.

Since this time, close to 100 clinical studies have been published on AVE. There are over two dozen studies on our DAVID products alone. There are approximately 70 schools using our products for ADHD and behavior disorders. It is currently being used to reduce PTSD in several VA centers around the USA. Some studies, such as Michael Telch’s studies, are published in journals such as “Behavior, Research and Therapy.” I have published several research articles on AVE, written two chapters in college level psychology text books and produced an online Stimulation Technologies/Entrainment course. I wrote a book named “The Rediscovery of Audio-Visual Entrainment.” I have also traveled to many locations in North America, the UK, and Europe to present training workshops.