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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When you hear about brainwave entrainment, you will probably think that it can’t be a natural thing. And we don’t blame you.
But open your eyes, and mind, and you’ll see that the opposite is in fact true.
Just think back to many times when your emotional state or state of mind seems to be in synchronicity with your surroundings.
An excellent example is the music you catch over the air waves. Do you find that you settle into a state of calm and relaxation after listening to an album of ambient sounds or classical music?
Or doesn’t an up-tempo song with a quick beat increase your heartbeat, causing your body to groove along, lifting your mood altogether.
Anyone who has ever experienced the effect of music will have experienced the effect of brainwave entrainment.
Each type of music causes your state of mind to change in a totally different way. Each changes your state of mind completely.
Both are instances of brainwave entrainment you come across in your daily life.
Perhaps you’d argue that music is by no means a natural occurrence.
Let’s go a little bit more natural then.
Remember those sleepy afternoons when you dose off while listening to the pitter patter of rain drops on the roof? You may not have known it, but it’s the steady and rhythmic drumming of the raindrops on the roof that has entrained your brain to a more relaxed dreamlike state.
That’s brainwave entrainment at its natural best.
So how does brainwave entrainment work? It is based on a natural law of physics – the frequency following response. What happens is that when two bodies vibrating at different frequencies are placed together, both will synchronize together so that they will eventually vibrate at the same frequency.
This means that if your brain is exposed to an external stimulus (which can be sound or light it will gradually vibrate to the frequency of the outside stimulus.
Scientists have made use of these phenomena to design sounds that can attune your brain to certain frequencies. By doing so, they can induce in the person the emotional state associated with certain frequencies.
That’s what the whole concept of brainwave entrainment is basically based on. There are many ways you can entrain your brain to produce the result you want.
There’s one store that carries a wide range of brainwave entrainment audios designed for different purposes. Explore it and pick one that suits your need or requirement.
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.