Handpicked Software

The Journey to Wild Divine is a brilliant idea: couple a biofeedback device that monitors perspiration and heart rate with a beautifully rendered three-dimensional world where you encounter guides and mentors, learn breathing and meditation techniques, and perform virtual psychokinetic feats—such as juggling balls, opening doors, and building bridges. And while The Journey to Wild Divine may fall short of its potential for some users, it’s definitely a journey worth taking.

Biofeedback and Heart Rate Variability

The Journey to Wild Divine includes three “Magic Rings” Biofeedback Sensors connected to a “Light Stone” Energy Translator, which plugs into your computer’s USB port. One of these sensors (the “Heart Ring”) is worn on your middle finger. The other two, which measure Skin Conductance Level (SCL), are attached to your ring and index fingers. SCL is a measure of sweat gland activity. As the autonomic nervous system is activated and energy increases (due to excitement or nervousness), perspiration increases. The heart sensor measures heart rate and calculates Heart Rate Variability (HRV), the difference in heart rate from one heartbeat to the next.

According to Don Childre and Howard Martin, authors of The HeartMath Solution, HRV is a reliable health indicator; people with greater HRV tend to be healthier, happier, and live longer. Under stress (when we’re angry or frustrated, for example), HRV becomes erratic. But when we’re relaxed or feeling positive, HRV increases and becomes smoother and more coherent. Though not very pronounced, you can see this difference in my own HRV below. The top graph is a baseline recorded after attaching the Heart Ring. The bottom graph was recorded a couple of minutes later while practicing the Heart Breath, a very simple breathing technique I learned in The Journey to Wild Divine.

Note: HeartMath sells a heart rhythm monitor and companion software program (the Freeze-Framer Interactive Learning System) for $295. The Freeze-Framer doesn’t measure SCL, but the USB sensor features a gain control that increases signal strength (I did have some problems with the Heart Ring) and an optional USB Ear Sensor is available for hands-free sessions. The Ear Sensor costs $25 and requires a Freeze-Framer Sensor POD, which offers more sensitive readings with less signal loss, but will set you back another $125.

The Journey to Wild Divine’s Light Stone and the Magic Rings are sold with The Passage, the first of two available journeys (the second journey is called Wisdom Quest). The Passage is $159.95 and Wisdom Quest is $59.95, but you can buy both programs in a bundle for $199.95. While numerous programs are available for Windows users, Wild Divine is the only program I’ve found that runs on Mac OS X, as well as Windows.

Entering The Wild Divine

To play, clip your fingers into the Magic Rings, fire up The Passage, and start a new game or open a previously saved game. You can also take a Chapter Tour, which lets you jump directly to any of 23 destinations, such as the Subtle Body Temple (where you’ll learn how to exercise your subtle, energy body) or the Theatre of Inner Imagery in the Town of Reverence (where you can do visualization exercises with a partner, each of you wearing one of the SCL sensors).

The Passage begins with an opening narrated by Jean Houston (which you can choose to skip): “In the beginning, there were and continue to be the Great Gardeners who live in the Metaverse, a vast farm fertile with energy, creativity, intelligence, and love.” That’s where you come in. Welcome to the Garden. Remember that you, too, are a Gardener and discover the Wild Divine within yourself.

Your first guide, Sophia, will greet you at the Sun Gate. A variety of allies and teachers will help you on your journey as you participate in numerous “Events,” opportunities to manipulate the virtual world via the Magic Rings, either by relaxing, energizing, or maintaining a stable SCL and heart rate. Energizing yourself is easy—breathe heavily, laugh, or thump your thymus (just tap your breastbone below the hollow of your throat)—but relaxing your SCL and smoothing your HRV takes some practice. Fortunately, you’ll learn a variety of techniques. Even with the guides, you’ll still want to read the friendly User’s Manual. There’s also a Companion Guide with more “story” and clues to game play.

Anyone familiar with the Myst games will make the inevitable comparisons to The Journey to Wild Divine. Don’t expect the same captivating—or maddening—game play and jaw dropping graphics. The Passage is beautifully rendered, but the resolution is limited to 800 by 600. Wisdom Quest bumps the resolution up to as high as 1150 by 768, but I could only display 1024 by 768 on my 30-inch Cinema Display.

The journey isn’t very challenging as game play goes, and requires some patience, but isn’t that the point?. There are no challenging puzzles, but then Myst doesn’t let you build bridges or float balloons with your will (think The Matrix—and remember, there is no spoon). The biggest problem is the conspicuous absence of the dark side, the Shadow, evil. Everything is as bright and cheery as Disneyland—brighter.

Still, I find it relaxing to give up the need to accomplish anything, to wander inside The Wild Divine, to float down the steps of a temple, watch the dancing Durgas (Hindu goddesses that kill your demons) or listen to Deepak Chopra, M.D., who acts as one of the guides in Wisdom Quest. If I only have a few minutes, I’ll start a game and go directly to one of the Events.

If you’d rather skip The Journey, you can use the sensors with the Wild Divine Grapher, a program that lets you graph SCL and HRV directly (it can also open data saved during game play). Resolution is limited to 640×480, but the grapher displays live data and can display BPM (beats-per-minute), as well as raw heartbeat information. If you save Grapher data at the end of a Passage or Wisdom Quest session, you can display thumbnails beneath the data that show you where you were in the game when the data was recorded.

I had to fiddle with the heart sensor to get it to work (warming your hands and reducing ambient light can help), and movement can cause it to drop the signal. Installation, at least on the Mac, is not without a few hitches, but tech support is outstanding. When I couldn’t get Wisdom Quest to run, I called support. As I was being connected, I discovered in the FAQ on the Wild Divine site that I needed to download an updater, so I hung up. A short time later, I got a call from tech support asking if they could help with anything. That’s never happened to me before. These guys are really out to rack up the good karma.

Is The Journey to Wild Divine for You?

My guess is that The Journey to Wild Divine will appeal primarily to five kinds of people: New Age types who will be attracted to the uplifting music, heart-warming messages, and gorgeously rendered imaginary spaces; parents looking for alternatives to games like Grand Theft Auto; aficionados of Myst-like games looking for fantasy game play; geeks attracted to the hardware and biofeedback aspect; and stressed out Type A personalities seeking relief from their tension-filled lives. The Journey to Wild Divine offers something for all of these people, especially New Agers. Myst fans are likely to be a little disappointed and, sadly, Type A personalities—who stand to benefit the most from what Wild Divine has to offer—are the ones most likely to become impatient with the experience. Geeks will probably be satisfied to dabble in the games and focus most of their attention on The Wild Divine Grapher, which may make The Journey to Wild Divine a bargain alternative to HeartMath’s Freeze-Framer.

Bottom Line: If you aren’t put off by the New Age trappings, you’ll find The Journey to Wild Divine an innovative pairing of biofeedback technology and lush imaginary worlds. And it may be the only biofeedback program for Mac users.
From: The Wild Divine Project
Price: The Journey to Wild Divine: The Passage, $159.95; The Journey to Wild Divine: Wisdom Quest, $59.95; Wild Divine Bundle Pack (includes The Passage and Wisdom Quest), $199.95; The Wild Divine Grapher, $49.95 ($39.95 downloaded).
Platform: Macintosh and Windows

Full Disclosure: If you purchase The Journey to Wild Divine through a link on this page, I’ll receive a small affiliate commission. The Journey to Wild Divine comes with a 30 day, 100% Satisfaction Guarantee.