Meditation 201

1. People new to brainwave entrainment usually start first with Meditation 101 (Alpha Brainwave Entrainment).
2. After at least two or more weeks of daily use, they then progress to Meditation 201 (Theta Brainwave Entrainment).
3. And after at least two or more weeks of daily use, they then move on to Meditation 301 (Delta Brainwave Entrainment).

This approach gives the user time to thoroughly entrain to progressively deeper levels.

Brainwave entrainment involves the fascinating science of low frequency sound.

Listening to a particular binaural frequency can produce a similar frequency in your brain which can lead to the effects associated with that particular brainwave. This sound-induced phenomenon is called the “frequency following response”. In other words, your brain moves toward (or entrains) to match the particular binaural sound frequency you’re listening to.

Binaural beats have been documented to activate various sites in the brain. Ordinarily, you would not be able to consciously entrain to these frequencies, because you can’t “hear” them. Binaural beat technology makes it possible.

Brainwave entrainment is used by many to induce various beneficial states from greater relaxation to better focus to enhanced creativity. Some promising studies have even shown that, with repeated use, a reorganization and balancing of the brain’s hemispheres occurs.

Your dominant brain wave frequency at any given time is related to the state you’re in.

GAMMA (over 40Hz): High mental activity. Problem solving. Increased perception.

BETA (40 – 13Hz): Alert. Waking state. Time and space perceived. Upper levels can be stressful.

ALPHA (12 – 8Hz): Relaxation (while awake). Meditation. Daydreaming. Reflection. Visionary experiences. Pre-sleep and pre-waking drowsiness. No time and space limitations. Some subconscious access. Increased serotonin levels.

THETA (7 – 4Hz): Even deeper states of relaxation and meditation. Enhanced creativity. Improved receptivity to learning. Further access to the subconscious mind. Dreaming sleep (REM).

DELTA (4 – 0Hz): Very deep, dreamless sleep. Repairing and rejuvenation of the body. Human growth hormone released. Unconsciousness.

In 1839, German scientist Heinrich Wilhelm Dove recognized an interesting phenomenon. Though it’s impossible for the human ear to hear sounds lower than about 20Hz, if you play the sound of an audible frequency in one ear, and a sound of a different audible frequency in the other ear, the brain deciphers the sound as the difference between the two sounds.

For example, if the left ear hears 100Hz, and the right ear hears 90Hz, the brain interprets a sound of 10Hz. That sound is called a binaural beat.

With the publishing of Dr. Gerald Oster’s article “Auditory Beats in the Brain” (Scientific American, 1973), new insight was introduced regarding the cognitive and neurological applications of binaural beats. Dr. Oster, a research scientist at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York, discovered that binaural beats are processed by different neurological pathways in the brain than ordinary sounds are.