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.
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The phrase brainwave entrainment causes quite a few to get flashbacks to high school or even college biology and makes them want to sprint yelling into the night. For some individuals, the concept may sound really cool as well as bring about a response of ‘Wow, that does sound exciting, tell me more’. So in the following paragraphs, I’d like to tackle both sides of this, presenting a bit science for those that are fascinated and a ‘bottom-line’ version for people who have no interest in the actual science element.
To start with, the actual science part. As you may realize, the brain is made of huge amounts of cells known as neurons that, while sending impulses all at once, produce ‘electrical’ activity termed brainwaves. Now entrainment s really a physics theory that is utilized throughout numerous systems, like astronomy, chemistry, and electrical, for example. and can certainly be applied to the brain. This theory means the process in which a pair of cycles synchronize by natural means together to be able to work better.
Now on to how this can affect your brain. Once the brain is given a stimulus, it experiences a Cortical Evoked Response, whereby it gives off an electrical charge in reaction to the stimulus. When the brain is given a repeating stimulus, it reacts by synchronizing, or entraining, its electrical cycles to the current external rhythm. This is called the Frequency Following Response and can be used to alter brainwave patterns.
There have been many scientific tests conducted that report brainwave training can impact lots of elements of your life. Some of the uses have been:
1) Physicians utilizing entrainment to help patients hasten healing.
2) Psychologists using it to augment standard therapies.
3) Athletes utilizing it to train their mind to concentrate more and better excel in competition.
There are numerous other uses, which includes strengthening your meditation. The two main means of brainwave entrainment altering your meditation are generally through the use of Binaural Beats and Isochronic Tones. These will be described more thoroughly in a later article.
Now, for the bottom line individuals, here you go. Fundamentally what the phrase means (in the context of meditative use) is to change our own inner brain rhythms so they synchronize with the external cycle of a sound wave. Or put yet another way, we play a sound beat into our ears which directs the waves to the brain. Our brain ‘listens’ and begins to emulate the speed and rhythm of the outside sound wave.
So we can use brainwave entrainment to have a positive effect on our meditation. The primary way to strengthen our meditation is with the use of binaural beats or isochronic tones from a meditation download site. These kinds of meditation downloads can certainly help many different people. For beginners that have difficulty entering that meditative state, brainwave entrainment, by helping your brain achieve the proper brainwave pattern, can make the process a lot easier. If you tend to be more seasoned in meditation, it can help deepen your experience.
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.