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.
alphabeat | meditation lessons
With all the guided meditation CD products on the market today you might think that they are a sure fire way to revolutionizing your life, right? Well, yes and no…
Are you confused? Let me explain: The benefits of meditation are undeniable. I mean, for literally thousands of years now meditation techniques have been helping people to develop a state of tranquility, calmness, and inner peace, and also to help them grow as a person on many levels.
Ok, so because meditation can be highly beneficial, it stands to reason that listening to guided meditation CD’s should also be highly beneficial as well right?
Well, that all depends on a few different things:
1. What is your purpose for meditating?
2. The quality and effectiveness of the guided meditation you listen to
Now, for the sake of this article I am just going to assume that most people are looking to meditate to become more relaxed, reduce stress and to work towards achieving an overall state of well being in their lives. That would be pretty good right?
To achieve this, you would actually be pretty safe in purchasing a large percentage of the guided meditation CD products on the market today, simply because they are typically made up of soothing music and sometimes have a person guiding you with words into a meditative state. So far so good.
Will these products work? Generally speaking yes. If you listen to them on a daily basis and practice meditating with them you will definitely get benefits, as long as you are effective at focusing and quieting your mind down into a deeply relaxed state.
Now, this is where a lot of people run into trouble! They simply cannot allow their minds to ‘let go’ or to keep the ‘mind chatter’ at bay long enough to actually quiet their mind and receive the benefits they are seeking from doing the meditation in the first place…
So if you are the type of person that has trouble focusing on things, relaxing and keeping your mind from being overactive (which is a large percentage of the population!) then purchasing the usual type of guided meditation products can actually be a bit of a waste of time and money for you! I mean, over time you might be able to get better at meditating and get some benefit, but the cold hard reality is that a lot of people get fed up with the whole thing and give up before they have really gotten anywhere…
Now, how can you overcome this common problem with meditation? Simply by choosing to practice using a specific type of guided meditation, that is scientifically based, proven and can in fact be guaranteed to guide your mind down into the deep meditative states of mind that you are seeking!
Sounds too good to be true doesn’t it? Well, the type of meditation I am talking about uses special audio technology to ‘train your brain’ using scientifically based frequencies woven into soothing sound tracks that will after just 6 minutes of listening to them, will guide your mind into specific brainwave frequencies that provide you with all the amazing benefits of meditation!
The best part is, because this type of recording is engineered to guide your mind automatically into the right brainwave state, you don’t have to worry about whether or not you are meditating effectively or not… The hard work is all done for you! You just simply put on your headphones, kick back relax and listen and let your mind be taken where it needs to go!
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.