Saturday, April 6, 2013

Does Brainwave Entrainment Work?

By Luana Oliveira Silva


Stress has become the most common dilemma of a modern contemporary life. The prevalence of emotional, mental, physical and social pressures, developing with everyday hassles of expectations around performance, has risen to its greatest degree ever in history. The lives of most individuals living in this fast-paced world have become more complex and demanding than ever. It leads to feelings of overwhelm and responses like agitation, frustration, depression, irritability etc causing an overall deterioration of the quality of life.
[Brain Entrainment]


What is Brainwave Entrainment? Brainwave entrainment is a deliberate process that synchronizes, or entrains natural brainwaves to that of an external stimulus frequency, that is usually auditory and/or visual in nature. When the brain entrains, it duplicates the frequency of the stimulus, causing a change in the electrical activity in the brain. Each different electrical response produces a different brain state or brainwave frequency. Each different brainwave frequency has a specific pattern and can be designed to induce a certain effect or state of consciousness.

In effect, brainwave entrainment is the manipulation of the brain's natural brainwave frequencies, through the use of touch, sound and/or visual stimulus, to deliberately alter the brain's state of mind, inducing it to entrain at a specific frequency, for a specific purpose.Entrainment can induce a desired psychological state corresponding with arousal or relaxation and all states in-between.How does the Brain Entrain? Entrainment is a physics principle that simply means, the process of where two cycles synchronize naturally with each other to work more efficiently. The principles of entrainment appear in chemistry, neurology, biology, pharmacology, medicine, astronomy and more.

When the brain is exposed to a frequency, it undergoes a Cortical Evoked Response, where it emits an electrical charge in response to the stimulus. The predominant brainwave frequency is said to move towards the frequency of the stimulus, matching its frequency.Pulses and patterns of neural activity move through the brain in waves in a dynamic ocean of subtle electrical matter at all times. These patterns of electrical activity are called brainwaves and are responsible for different states of consciousness.

For instance,GAMMA WAVE 40 Hz-is associated with higher mental activity, perception, problem solving, fear, and consciousness.BETA WAVE-13--39 Hz-is associated with active, busy, anxious thinking, active concentration, arousal, cognition, and/or paranoia.ALPHA WAVE-7 - 13 Hz-is associated with relaxed awareness, pre-sleep, and pre-wake drowsiness, REM sleep, and dreams.THETA WAVE-4 - 7 Hz-is associated with deep meditation/relaxation, NREM sleep.DELTA WAVE-4 Hz-is associated with deep dreamless sleep, loss of body awareness, and the state recorded when one is nearing death.If a stimulus is introduced to the brain that repeats and is rhythmic and consistent, the brain responds by synchronizing or entraining its brainwaves to the external stimulus, using the Frequency Following Response principle. This means that the brain will naturally entrain to repeated, rhythmic stimulus, whether it is man-made or from nature (as in the sound of rain or ocean waves).Entrainment uses the Frequency Following Response principle to alter brainwave patterns.

The brain rapidly entrains motor responses to auditory rhythms that are stable and steady, synchronizing states below and above conscious perception thresholds.Different Methods of Brainwave Entrainment.There are three main forms of entrainment used today to alter consciousness.BINAURAL BEATS-one frequency is played in one ear and a slightly different frequency is played in the other. Each ear is connected to the opposite side of the brain and when each half hears something different, it compensates by creating a third beat, that is not really there. The sound only exists in your brain and causes both hemispheres to entrain at a single frequency.

As for brainwave music being dull and monotonous it depends upon your mental state when listening to the music. When your mind is in a hurry and in a distracted, scattered condition more than likely brainwave music will seem very boring and monotonous, long and drawn-out. But if you get over these "withdrawal symptoms" of your day to day frenzied mindset your brain will start to adjust to the new audio energy and in time it will become relaxing, as well as something to look forward to listen to each day.Furthermore, when listening to some brainwave recordings for the first time some people may not only feel uncomfortable, but may even experience temporary headaches or tearing eyes. This is normal and not a danger. Some people are always very tensed-up and rarely ever experience a relaxed mental state. As a result they may feel some slight discomfort such as headaches when they physically relax and "let go". It's this sudden release and relief that causes a slight headache or tearing. These side-effects are only temporary and usually go away the next time you listen to brainwave entrainment recordings because your brain builds new neural pathways to accommodate the new incoming brainwave audio energy. For most other people, once your brain waves slow down to Alpha, you'll naturally feel very relaxed and peaceful, deep down inside. Ultimately, depending upon the musical tastes of each individual, one type of music may affect one person in one way, and affect another person in a different way. What may free one person mentally and emotionally, may depress someone else, or be completely meaningless and boring to another. While some music may free one person to the point of giving them an out of body experience, and/or to the point of enhancing their dreams at night and making them more lucid, and also transforming them into a more loving, gentle person; to another person certain music/beats may serve to stir up subconscious "junk" and previous bad memories which need to be dealt with and healed. Everyone's brain is wired differently so it is unpredictable exactly how certain music, sounds, beats or frequencies will affect each individual. Some may be led to astral heights after listening to just one recording. Whereas for another person listening to the same recording, nothing may happen until after they listen to the same recording for 25 minutes to an hour a day for a few weeks. It comes down to being patient, prepared and receptive in consciousness, not in a hurry, not in a rush, but in a relaxed, receptive, humble frame of heart and mind.

The Benefit of Using Brainwave Entrainment.If you want to create a brainwave state that is deficient or impossible to experience consciously, brainwave entrainment can allow you to access that brainwave frequency by guiding your natural brainwaves, using principles in physics.Entrainment happens naturally, everyday, all day, to everyone.Specifically designed brainwave entrainment (entrainment that is targeted), is a beneficial and effective way to produce specific brainwave frequencies, that induce various states of mind, at your will, making it a cutting-edge personal advancement tool.




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