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Rather than kicking off with a full-blown generic medical disclaimer, I would only strongly advise that, if you are subject to conditions such as epilepsy, that you do NOT attempt to use brainwave entrainment technologies. Feel free to discuss this with your doctor, psychiatrist, or psychologist.
In the last exercise, we looked at what meditation is and how it is done traditionally.
In this final article of the brain training series, we are going to discuss brainwave entrainment and how you can use it as part of your meditative practice as you move along your spiritual (or non-spiritual) path.
If you already know what this is and you want to try it out, have a go at the classic Centering Exercise from the Silva Method.
Note: If you are unable to visualize any of the instructions, say to yourself: “This is so”.
To remind you, I am neither an affiliate, a salesperson, or an Instructor, for the Silva Method.
With that, I would like to share…
A short testimonial
In 2009, I decided to buy access to the program after playing around with a pirated copy of the Alpha Sound for some years.
I think it was called the Silva Life Accelerator then.
When I tried out the Alarm Clock exercise, what happened just blew me away!
I needed to get up at 5.30am one morning and I set the body’s internal clock using this technique to wake me up.
Following the instructions, I did not set the alarm on the clock.
I went to sleep.
Suddenly, I became aware of the sound of a child giggling over my head.
The sound echoed.
I was aware of being in a lighted place and, for a brief moment, I thought the sound was coming from outside my door (I lived in an apartment block at the time).
And then I looked at the clock.
Precisely 5.30am.
I recently returned to going through the program again because I want to get better at using my mind.
A rather intriguing thing happens now when I use the Alarm Clock Technique.
I wake up 40 minutes early!!!
And the most amazing thing happened when I used the Dream Control Technique recently. Yet, I wasn’t even at stage three (the advanced stage)!
Maybe I will share this one at another time. Right now, it is rather personal to me.
Suffice it to say, it involves my parents (both deceased) showing up – in a manner of speaking – on the same day to support me in a particular area of my life.
So what is brainwave entrainment?
This is the process of training (or entraining) your brain through the use of sound frequencies. These sound frequencies are often referred to as binaural beats.
These beats usually comprise two sound frequencies which, when combined together, result in a third sound which is perceived by the brain.
For example, if you play a sound at 100hz in one ear, and play a sound at 108hz in the other, the brain will make the middle sound: 104hz.
This is what is known as frequency-followed response. The brainwaves want to follow the sound and match it. This process is called entrainment.
A very good product that clearly demonstrates this is that one which comes out of the Monroe Institute.
How they were discovered
Centuries ago, it was discovered that if you played one note in one ear, and another in the other, a new note or tone appeared to be heard inside your head.
However, it wasn’t until 1839 that the concept was proven to be true after it was scientifically tested and noted to be true.
Prussian physicist and meteorologist Heinrich Wilhelm Dove discovered the effect of binaural beats on the brain in 1839.
Dove had a very broad career which included over three hundred papers on experimental physics.
He discovered this effect early on in his career and then spent long periods of time exploring it in more depth, uncovering the ways in which it affects the brain.
He discovered that playing slightly different beats into each ear produces a perception of beats that are not actually there.
This is the essence of binaural beats.
It feels a little like a ‘wah-wah’ sound inside your head, similar to the feeling of all the car windows down as you are heading down the highway, or an opera singer’s vibrato.
If you’ve ever listened to the sound of a baby’s heart in-utero, that ‘wah-wah’ sound will sound a little similar. Basically if two slightly different frequencies are playing into either ear, the brain tries to find the common ground which gives this ‘wah-wah’ effect.
Dove also made important discoveries about a raft of other areas, including observing cyclones travel the earth clockwise in the southern hemisphere but anticlockwise in the northern hemisphere.
He has had a lot of influence on the development of meteorological science, looking at the effect of our climate on the growth of plants, and how heat is distributed over the surface of the earth.
Dove was also the first person to measure the strength of an electrical current in a wire which he found by using a magnetic field. He was a well esteemed scientist and researcher, whose work was respected and valued.
How do they work?
When you were a kid were you fascinated by those dog whistles that you could blow, though not hear yet all the dogs in the vicinity would come running?
The high pitch was something that only they could hear, and though it seemed the dogs didn’t seem to arrive in droves as they did in the movies, it was enough for perhaps your pet dog to prick up its ears before sliding back into sleep.
In the case of entraining your brain, you use sound frequencies that talk to different parts of your brain directly, instead of needing to be filtered though your thoughts and conscious mind.
Brainwave entrainment using binaural beats is a little like that dog whistle – you might not be able to understand or “hear” what those sounds mean, but those parts of your brain it is designed for – can.
Binaural beats give your subconscious a chance to get itself sorted. Because they are going direct to your brain, they can slip past that chatterbox conscious self and talk directly to your subconscious.
These beats shift your brain’s frequencies from one state to another.
Did I forget to mention that the process is drug-free?
They are particularly good for those who find traditional meditation difficult to achieve as they give you something to focus on that your brain is doing automatically.
Because so much of our day-to-day living stems from our subconscious, making it easier to talk to through opening up the pathways with binaural beats makes a lot of sense.
You are considered a psychonaut engaged in psychonautic practices designed to hack your brain and mind when you use brainwave entrainment products as part of your brain training toolkit.
What are they used for?
When seeking out brainwave entrainment products, people generally look for something that will help them with a particular aspect of brain training that might help them attain a goal:
For example…
- creativity
- manifestation for health
- manifestation for wealth
- relaxation and stress management
- behavior modification
- increasing psychic ability
- achieving altered states
- enabling concentration and focus
- programming for happiness
- enabling speed learning
- etc., etc., etc…
What would be your goal for using brainwave entrainment?
How to use brainwave entrainment
Warning: Do be aware that some of these frequencies may be too strong for beginners.
It would be like me stacking 1000 pounds on a barbell and saying to you, a complete beginner to weight training, “I want you to bench press that”.
Okay, I exaggerate.
You do get my meaning, though, don’t you?
Particularly, if you have tried them before and have had some challenges with them.
If I were to recommend a structured approach to brainwave entrainment, I would advise starting off with something gentle.
- Like the Silva Alpha Sound. While this is not, technically speaking, a binaural beat (in fact, I consider this a monotone), its frequency has been proven time and time again to produce the Alpha mental state.
Oh wait…you DO know what I am talking about when I say Alpha mental state, don’t you?
I do NOT mean how the word is used in dominance display, for example, where you learn about how to become an alpha in your group.
For a quick introduction to brain mental states here is an article from the Silva Method folks.
If you have never heard this sound before, or if you need to be reminded, this is what it sounds like:
- I would then move on to something like Holosync™ I do not know if the system has changed since I started using it years ago. You do the program in stages, giving your brain the chance to get used to the frequencies before moving on to the next stage.
- After Holosync™, I would go with someone like Dr. Steve G. Jones whose hypnosis tracks employ binaural beats.
- Then, perhaps, the Monroe Institute, if you want to specialize in something like astral projection.
At least, that is what I think it is for.
- Once you have all this down pat, you are ready for stronger stuff. You might even try stacking them. For example, if I wanted to enhance my creativity, I might stack a creativity brainwave entrainment track from, say, World of Alternatives (UK-based) on one media player, while at the same time I would run a creativity daytime hypnosis track from Dr. Jones on another media player. Both tracks would be playing at the same time on my computer.
If stacking them to run sequentially, I would stack them so they run from alpha, to theta, then delta or gamma.
It all depends on what you want to achieve. Play around with them and see what works for you.
It is a bit like planning a strength training routine where you increase the resistance of a weight progressively as your strength increases.
Right now, as I am writing this, I am playing Kelly Howell’s Winning hypnosis tracks. I love the music on these tracks.
By the way, do drink lots of water when using these tracks.
And do take care with your hearing.
One more thing.
Don’t overdo it.
You can overstimulate your brain with these things, you know.
To a better, wiser, stronger – YOU.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
This site contains affiliate links to products sold by selected self improvement partners. We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links.