Brainwave Entrainment (as Mysticism and Medicine)

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For those interested in discussing new ideas, technologies, and personal experiences with "brainwave entrainment", as well as exploring its possibilities in the context of healing and the facilitation of mystical experience.

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A Bit About Brainwave Entrainment

Brainwave Entrainment is process by which one actively changes his or her brainwaves by concentrating on a repeated sequence of beats at a constant tempo or frequency (cycles per second). Why do Shamans beat on drums? A large part of the mechanics of shamanic drumming is an act of what we are calling brain entrainment, and, boy, do they have it figured out - focus, visualizations, drugs and all! These components, along with the continued progress made in entrainment technology, are all topics to be explored and discussed in this group, so they can be better employed in one's technique of brain entrainment.

Here is a list of the different frequency rages that occur in the brain and how they are divided by the experience they produce or are associated with. This knowledge is practically applied in the practice of brainwave entrainment, in that one can train his or her brainwaves to match a given frequency in a given range, creating a state of mind conducive to whatever mental activity one wishes to elicit. There are other frequencies not listed here, like Lambda (100+hz - upper end of frequencies experienced in the brain) or Epsilon (< 0.1hz - coma).

Frequency range	Name	Usually associated with:
> 40 Hz	Gamma waves	Higher mental activity, including perception, problem solving, fear, and consciousness
13–39 Hz	Beta waves	Active, busy or anxious thinking and active concentration, arousal, cognition, and or paranoia
7–13 Hz	Alpha waves	Relaxation (while awake), pre-sleep and pre-wake drowsiness, REM sleep, Dreams
4–7 Hz	Theta waves	deep meditation/relaxation, NREM sleep
< 4 Hz	Delta waves	Deep dreamless sleep, loss of body awareness

Copied from Wikipedia.

Brain entrainment is often done today with the help of technology, by listening to "binaural beats" or "isochronic tones", repetitious beats or pulses or sound designed for brain entrainment. There is software available for making and using this technology like Neuro-Programmer 3. For more programs and their comparisons, look here. Entrainment can also be achieved or enhanced by using flashing lights. When both are combined, this is called AVS, or audio-visual stimulation. This is what one employs when using a "mind machine" or "light and sound machine" or when using the photic entrainment in certain software. One can imagine all the other ways sense perception can be worked into this process. This again, points to why one would engage in the physical act of beating on a drum. The repetitious sense experience gives the drummer more to "get in sync with" and focus on, allowing one to be throw even deeper into meditation. Also still to be utilized in this field, is brainwave entrainment with monitoring attachments that allow for a "biofeedback loop" in the user, allowing them to see and interact with their own brainwaves in real-time, along with their blood pressure, heart rate, and other vital stats.

If you haven't already been introduced to brainwave entrainment and would like to learn more, please Google it or check out some of these links.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainwave_entrainment
http://www.askert.com/binaural-beats-brainwave-entrainment-solfeggio-tones.html
http://web-us.com/binaural.htm
http://www.profoundmeditationprogram.com/science-of-brainwave-entrainment
http://brain-entrain.blogspot.com/
http://4mind4life.com/blog/2008/04/11/gamma-brain-waves/
http://synthesislearning.com/article/brwav.htm
http://lunarsight.com/freq.htm (a very nice list of frequencies, for experimenting with)

For free brainwave entrainment sounds, one can search Youtube, Google, or download some of the free files I have made and put up on my blog, here.

Let us begin the discussion on this ancient and simple method for achieving altered states of consciousness, which has the potential to be a powerful ingredient in the meditation and medicine for all in the future. Join us and share your experience, or for new brain-trainers, begin your transformative journey into new brain states here!

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Comment by eagle eyes on May 13, 2012 at 12:04pm: thanks again for the invite understanding our brain and mind is essential to getting the most out of our experiences...

Comment by C K on March 17, 2012 at 3:00am: @Sylvia
Yes! Please post your experience! ANYONE who has experience with these kinds of things please post about it so we can share the knowledge. I've posted a little bit about what I experienced a while ago in page for this group. Since then I've received my "brain machine" and it's curved my experiences into even greater complexity and profundity. I'll say it again - my life changed from the sound (auditory entrainment) alone. For those who are interested and learning about this, try looking up some topics like AVS (audio-visual stimulation), "brain machines", "mind machines", or light and sound machines - L/S machines. The Photosonix Luma 10, which is what I am fortunate enough to have, runs for about $300. Way overpriced, but made in the USA, which just means expensive (but not necessarily good) labor. I also encourage you to look into Neuroprogrammer 3, the link is in the info above. NP3 can produce both auditory and visual stimulation, and it is FREE.
You might could train to some nice high-alpha/low-beta frequencies like 14-16 for a good stabilizing, energizing effect to focus and perhaps, stay awake meditating, though the quality of meditation will be more "heady", you might say, given the frequency you'd be entraining to. If you could stay awake during some deep delta/theta meditation, that might aid in reaching some out of body states as well. My L/S machine has a session called "Mind Awake, Body Asleep". It's usually too deep for my mood. Let us know what happens during or after your entrainment!
@Veitlan
I haven't heard of any studies on this, but it sure does sound plausible to me. Though I might want to facilitate synchonization of the frequencies that the child is naturally experiencing for that phase of life anyway, so perhaps their experience OF them and their memory and the potential for their relation to that experience can be greater, possibly giving them better ways to relate to that memory later on in life... training future mystics? I'm just brainstorming. But I think ocean waves and things of that nature come in handy for this, and provide a natural example to produce the entrainment. You might also be able to use "mini-loops" or whatever they are called - tiny fluctuations in the entrainment frequency - to slowly introduce a child to new brain states.
@Lotuslakedawn
I haven't tried Hemisync but I've heard such great things about it. I'm thinking I might be going to the Monroe Institute while on a trip this Summer so I can see where Hemisync was developed. And a good "theta nap" feels like some of the best sleep a man can have.

I will post an article or something on the various possibilities and current realities of brainwave entrainment technology (if no one else beats me to it first) whenever I access the right state of mind. ;) Thanks all for being members! In the meantime, please share your story or ask questions!

Comment by Sylvia Marie Richardson on March 10, 2012 at 3:32pm: I am excited. Downloaded some of these tones and will let you know any outcome. I have had trouble falling asleep in meditative trance. I have fallen asleep trying to work 'out of body'. Hope this helps! Thank you

Comment by Lotuslakedawn on February 29, 2012 at 9:46am: After couple of decades of various meditations I started to explore and use different 'sound' and pulsing light meditations. One I find particularly useful is the Hemisynch from Bill Harris as I do not sleep long enough and an hour of that is meant to be equivalent to two hrs sleep. I have seldom found any that come close to such a refreshing effect as these although they are expensive. I have found some that do not need headphones though which I found did have a measurable effect as I had to replace these for a while when without headphones.

I will check out what Tris has made available thank you.

Comment by Veitlan on February 27, 2012 at 7:18pm: I've heard that children spend the first 6 or so year of their lives in primarily delta and theta states. This is why they are so open to new ideas and have what seems like a limitless capacity for imagination and creativity. They are however, lacking alpha waves which are important for sorting through information and deciding what is logically important. This leads to high levels of impressionability. I wonder what would happen if you were to try to stimulate alpha waves on a child under 6. Would it be detrimental to their creative imagination or allow them a new capacity for creative and imaginative reasoning... Let me know if you know about any studies you've heard about on this. I'm happy to be able to tell at least to a functional degree what is real and what is not but I certainly miss the days when it didn't matter or not whether I was just imagining. I'm sure if you could lower alpha waves and increase theta and delta you would be able to make an adult more open and imaginative as well.

Comment by C K on February 19, 2012 at 11:26pm: @Michael
Yes Michael, I often wonder about things to the extent of sub-audible tones and all the neuro-linguistic programming strategies being sent through our televisions and all the advertisements by our culture. Focusing one's own intellect and attention on something like an isochronic tone pushes ones imagination by introducing new thresholds for experience. When else do you purposefully sit and listen to the exact same sound for minutes, with occasional light flashed on your eyelids for added "effect"? It's madness! - no - It's entrainment. When I train with my "light and sound machine", the images, shapes, colors, and movements that I see have gotten progressively more and more complex and intense as I continue to use it. To be quite honest, simply incredible visual and perceptual hallucinations, without chemical drugs. The practice of brainwave entrainment gives ones mind a powerful and effective environment for self-programming or self-hypnosis, so think all the positive thoughts your heart can muster when "under the influence" of brainwave entrainment technology. Your heart and mind will thank you for it.

@DancingWind
Solfeggio tones potentially grant other interesting properties that can be utilized when making brainwave entrainment sounds, or even frequencies of light. For instance, the free sounds on my blog often utilize Solfeggio tones and intervals, octaves, and combinations thereof either as carriers or as one parts of carriers - like a binaural beat set at 96hz (very high Gamma or Lambda frequency, effects unknown) that is carried by a frequency of 528hz in one ear and 432hz in the other.
The reason why one would want to repeat a sound over and over is due to it's ability to induce trance and facilitate looping thoughts and concentrated states of mind. I don't know the stats, but I recall hearing about research done on the ability for repeated sounds to promote thought. Take as an example, it's use as a brainwashing and torture device. This points to why we must be conscious of our intentions for POSITIVE effects and healing while doing this. Solfeggio tones work on an entirely different level than actively training one's brain waves to a given frequency, i.e. if it's almost bed time and I want to read a book, listening to an isochronic tone at an Alpha frequency (about 9-12hz) would help make my state of mind conducive to reading or going to sleep, as this is a characteristic of Alpha brainwaves. Your brain will match the frequency being listened to by sheer exposure and attention given to the frequency. If you'd like to learn the different aspects of each state of mind, look at the page I added for this group, or read some of the links I posted in the information. It would be a good idea for me to post this basic info on the group information as well, which I will do soon, thank you. :) I hope you enjoy learning about it, if you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask. Have fun with it! But do be careful and use your own discretion. Imo, you can't go wrong starting out with Alpha some nights before bed and working your way around the frequency range. For instance, working towards Beta or Gamma for energy during the day or Theta or Delta for rest or meditation.

Comment by Blaze on February 19, 2012 at 8:00am: Very good Tris...I downloaded the player. Thanks.

Comment by DancingWind on February 19, 2012 at 6:18am: Solfeggio (SP) Harmonics uses sound and color ( the ones I have seen on the net) So tell me, what makes this one different? The sound being repeated over and over?

This is a very interesting topic to me, I look forward to more discussions.

Comment by michael alaska on February 19, 2012 at 2:34am: commercially being the media , commercial sale on television, radio, and our pc.

we as humans respond to rhythm, beat, sound, and

electromagnetic wave, or bioelectric energy field.

we all have them how we manage them is another discussion

Comment by michael alaska on February 19, 2012 at 2:21am: i have often wondered how brain waves can affect water , plants have been tested for human brain wave affects , the abilty of human thought to affect

each other all point to energy that is tap-able usable and natural .

in many case the trance induced can be very euphoric or hallucinogenic, at times great wisdom or a deep sense of understanding enhance the ability to evoke a spirit or a recollection of something spiritual.

your right it is very arcane knowledge , but i wonder how it is put to use commercially , packaged like food, to deceive the masses

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