Brainwave entrainment is a method to stimulate the brain into entering a specific state by using a pulsing sound, light, or electromagnetic field. The pulses elicit the brain’s ‘frequency following’ response, encouraging the brainwaves to align to the frequency of a given beat.
meditation room | calm relaxing music
Okay, so the word doesn’t exist. I just made it up trying to come up with an interesting title after listening last night to a meditation audio tape specifically for writers.

Even though meditation is so “in” these days, I was surprised to see one aimed specially at us writers.

Lying down with my eyes closed, I listened with both scepticism and an innocent sense of wonder (I’m a sucker for anything that promises creativity and inspiration!)
The music was the typical, soothing “meditation” music which supposedly can slow down and equalize brain waves. Yes, music can modify brain waves. During ordinary consciousness, our brains work on beta waves, vibrating from 14 to 20 hertz. However, during periods of high creativity, meditation and sleep our brains work on delta waves, vibrating from .5 to 3 hertz. The slower the brainwaves, the more happier and serene we feel. Soothing music like some Baroque and New Age can actually shift consciousness by lowering our beta waves to the alpha range, from 8 to 13 hertz, thus creating a sense of lightness and well-being.

Along with the music, the lady speaker had a calm, peaceful, eerily soporific voice (no wonder it says on the tape: Do Not Use While Driving An Automobile) that seemed to “elongate” my sense of space and time.

The tape uses visualization (picture yourself as a successful writer, the ideas flowing easily), affirmations (I am a writer) and the power of intention (I wish to write and will write) to create a feeling of self power, unleash and enhance creativity and induce manifestation. Readers of Deepak Chopra should be familiar with these methods. Combining these are the ideas that we must “listen” and that we’re a “channel” for “something” that wants or needs to get written. Indeed. I must admit it was an interesting–and calming!–ride.

This tape would be especially helpful for aspiring writers who are afraid to take that first step, as well as established writers who suffer from writer’s block or would like to enhance their creativity. For those of you who are interested, the name of the tape is Becoming a Writer: Manifesting Your Writing, by Sanaya and Orin, LuminEssence Productions.
Brainwave entrainment is a method to stimulate the brain into entering a specific state by using a pulsing sound, light, or electromagnetic field. The pulses elicit the brain’s ‘frequency following’ response, encouraging the brainwaves to align to the frequency of a given beat.

This ‘frequency following’ response of brainwave entrainment can be seen in action with those prone to epilepsy. If a strobe flashes at their seizure frequency, the brain will ‘entrain’ to the flashing light, resulting in a seizure.

On the positive side, this same mechanism is commonly used to induce many brainwave states; such as a trance, enhanced focus, relaxation, meditation or sleep induction. The brainwave entrainment effectively pushes the entire brain into a certain state.

Brainwave entrainment works for almost everyone. It is a great way to lead your mind into states that you might usually have difficulty reaching, allowing you to experience what those states feel like.

THE HYPE
There is a lot of marketing hype around brainwave entrainment. It is sold with promises of increasing IQ, promoting weight loss, ‘mind-tripping’, enhancing creativity, concentration, inducing spiritual states and more.

While these claims are not entirely true, they are not altogether false either. In practice, the claims are based on an overly-simplistic view of how the brain and the brainwaves function.
THE RUB
People are very seldom deficient in a certain brainwave type in all areas of their brain. Usually the distribution is much spottier, with an excess in one area and a deficiency in another.

We are all different, especially when it comes to the distribution of our brainwaves. Boosting a certain brainwave state may be beneficial for one person, and emotionally uncomfortable for another. Without knowing each person’s starting position, entrainment can be rather ‘hit and miss’.

If brainwave entrainment leaves you with unwanted side-effects (see below) or discomfort, you’re probably encouraging a range of brainwaves that are already excessive in some area of your brain. The way around this is to get a brain map to see what your brain’s strengths and weaknesses are, and see what (if any) brainwaves could use some encouragement.