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 people hear the word “dowsing”, if they recognize the term at all, they most often think of someone who uses a forked stick or metal rods to find water. However, the applications of dowsing stretch far beyond the use of this skill to find water–and forked sticks are rarely used by 21st century dowsers.
Dowsing is a form of neuromuscular interfacing that can be used to intuitively access information on just about anything. The dowser starts by asking a question, like “Would taking Vitamin B supplements benefit my health at this time?”, while at the same time holding a dowsing instrument, such as a pendulum or a pair of copper rods. As soon as the dowser asks the question, the “answer” is delivered via small neuromuscular reflexes in the dowsers body. The dowsing instrument amplifies the dowser’s neuromuscular responses so those responses can be detected by the movement of the instrument. The movement provides visual feedback that the dowser uses to interpret the answer based on whatever motion the dowser has programmed as a “Yes” or “No” response.
Today, this ancient craft is called by many different names, so you may have been exposed to dowsing without even realizing it. If you know someone who uses a pendulum–that’s dowsing. If your doctor uses muscle testing to determine what food substances you are allergic to–that’s dowsing. If you have ever played with a Ouija Board and watched the little plastic device mysteriously spell out answers to your questions–that’s dowsing.
Anyone can learn to dowse. Once a reasonable degree of skill has been attained, the dowser possesses the incredible ability to intuitively access a seemingly infinite amount of information on-command.
In this introductory dowsing lesson you will learn how to use a pendulum, a very common and easy to operate dowsing tool, to achieve simple “Yes” and “No” answers to questions that you ask. As a bonus, there is a section at the end of the lesson on how to dowse using just your body, which is often referred to as “applied kinesiology” or “muscle testing”.
To prepare for the dowsing process:
1) Be well hydrated and well rested.
2) Minimize distractions and situate yourself in a quiet environment.
3) Relax, calm your breathing, and induce a coherent brainwave state (essential for effective dowsing) by focusing your attention on the area just between your eyebrows on your forehead.
After you are prepared to dowse, take your pendulum and hold the cord or chain between your thumb and index finger. Force the pendulum into a forward swing, 45 degrees to the right, and say out loud, “This is my ‘Ready’ position” — meaning you are now ready to seek an answer to a question through the dowsing process. By making this statement you are acknowledging consciously that this is your intention, and at the same time, programming your subconscious mind with this thought.
Next, force the pendulum into a forward swing, straight away from your body, while saying “This is my ‘Yes’ response.” Finally, force the pendulum into a forward swing, 90 degrees to the left and say, “This is my ‘No’ response.”
To see a picture of how to properly hold the pendulum and a simple graph that you can dowse over to more easily monitor your pendulum swings, click here: http://www.sedonaportal.com/dowsinglesson.htm
You can actually choose any “Ready”, “Yes”, and “No” responses you want, such as a counterclockwise swing of the tool for “Yes” and the opposite for “No”, but the above responses are commonly chosen.
Practice whatever response positions you choose a few times, forcing the pendulum into the appropriate swing angles. Then attempt to achieve the responses without forcing the pendulum. After a few forced demonstrations, your subconscious mind will pick up the pattern and cause your body to produce the neuromuscular signals to create the appropriate response without your conscious attention. To speed up your body’s response time, from the point you ask the question to the point the tool actually moves, all you need to do is practice.
Asking Questions
Your subconscious mind is the middleman between your conscious thoughts and the pool of information that you are going to be tapping into to get a response. No one is quite sure where this pool of information is, or how it came to be, but apparently it does exist, because all practiced dowsers can retrieve information from it.
In posing dowsing questions, it is important to realize that the subconscious mind is very literal. Because the subconscious is the aspect of your mind that will be retrieving answers for you, it is crucial that you are very specific in describing the information you are seeking and that you phrase your questions in ways that cannot be misinterpreted.
Example of a Poorly Phrased Question
“Do I need vitamins?”
The answer will always be “Yes”. The body needs vitamins and minerals to operate properly.
A Better Question
“Would I benefit from taking vitamin supplements at this time?”
If you get a “Yes” response, you will at least know that the purchase and intake of vitamin supplements will not be a waste of time and money. How much of a benefit you would realize and what form the benefits will take are still unknown, so you would have to ask more questions if you want more specific information. Also, you would have to ask more questions to find out which vitamins (A? B?, E?) and what dosage would be most beneficial.
Another Example of a Poorly Phrased Question
“Is George a good match for me?”
The subconscious mind cannot clearly interpret this question. The word “match” has too many possible meanings. To name a few:
1) An instrument for starting fires
2) A competitive game, as in “tennis match”
3) A complimentary coupling of colors
4) A pairing of a set
5) A person considered with regard to suitability as a partner in marriage
A Better Question
“Considering the following aspects of relationships (list the aspects that are important to you), and using a scale of 1-10 (where 10 is a perfect partner and 1 is totally unsuitable), does George rate an 8 or above in all of these categories?” Or, dowse each category separately to see how George rates in specific areas.
How to Dowse Lists of Information
Now that you can achieve “Yes” and “No” answers with your pendulum, you can utilize this skill to dowse lists of information. Taking the vitamin example noted above, if you want to know which vitamins would be beneficial to your health and well-being at this time, do the following:
1) Get a list of vitamins, like the label from a bottle of multivitamins.
2) Instruct your “dowsing system” (you, your subconscious mind, your body, and the information pool) as follows:
“Considering my optimal health and well-being, please give me a ‘Yes’ response when I point to a vitamin that my body needs more of at this time.”
3) Point at each vitamin on the list using one hand, and while swinging your pendulum with your other hand, make note of the “Yes” responses you receive.
Finger Dowsing
To achieve “Yes” and “No” responses with your body, instead of a pendulum, a very easy method is to use “finger dowsing”, which is a form of applied kinesiology or muscle testing. With this method you establish “strong” and “weak” signals as codes for “Yes” and “No”. Strength will equal “Yes”, and weakness will equal “No”. Start by connecting your thumb and index finger to make a circle, as shown in the photograph on the webpage noted earlier in this article.
Using two fingers from your opposite hand, insert them into the circle and try to break the connection of your thumb and index finger by pulling forward with the finger set. Before doing this, instruct your dowsing system to make your thumb and index finger very strong (hard to break apart) if the answer is “Yes” to your question. If the answer is “No”, instruct your dowsing system to make your thumb and index finger weak so the circle breaks easily when minimal pressure is applied from your fingers.
Learning how to achieve “Yes” and “No” answers is an entry level dowsing skill. With further training and practice, you can learn how to use dowsing to intuitively access more sophisticated and detailed information, such as linear measurements, percentages, and probabilities. You can learn how to detect and measure energy fields with dowsing, such as electromagnetic fields and the human aura. You can even learn how to use dowsing to focus, direct, and super-charge the power of your thoughts to create desirable outcomes in life. So, get busy and see what you can do with dowsing.
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.