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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Want to have an out of body experience? Imagine being free to leave your body at will, and flying out over the rooftops to exotic locales, or exploring the mysteries of the astral plane. There’s no longer any need to wait until you have time off from work to go travelling, or to pay expensive air fares or accommodation costs – you can go anywhere, at any time!
Astral projection techniques – it should be easy
Many people want to learn astral projection for just these reasons. However, it’s easier said than done. There are many methods that have been put forward over the years to help would-be projectors to leave their bodies, and these can be very helpful. Most involve lying down in a quiet place, relaxing deeply, entering a meditative state, and then engaging in a visualisation process. Examples include seeing yourself climbing up a rope that is dangling just over your body, or seeing a double of your body floating just above the bed, and mentally transferring your perspective into it. By means of these (and similar) visualisations, your consciousness may actually ‘flip’ out of your physical body and into its astral equivalent.
The problem:
Sounds simple, right?
In practice, many people find that such techniques may indeed be simple in theory, but they’re actually anything but easy. And the main stumbling block in many cases is not that the methods don’t work, but that they have trouble relaxing deeply and quieting the mind. These steps are vital prerequisites to leaving the body for most people, and in normal circumstances this level of mental control can take years to develop.
Brainwave entrainment can help
Fortunately for all of us who aren’t trained meditators, brainwave entrainment can help to shortcut the process, allowing ‘normal’ people to achieve and maintain deep states of relaxation with relatively little effort. Brainwave entrainment simply refers to the tendency of the brain to synchronise (or entrain) with an externally-imposed rhythm (for example a sound recording or light pulses). Binaural beats, monaural beats and isochronic tones are examples of sound-based brainwave entrainment technologies that can be used to induce the type of deep trance state that is required for successful astral projection.
Simply put, these recordings contain sounds of specific frequencies that are known to correspond to particular mental states. Recordings that are designed with astral projection in mind typically contain frequencies which induce a theta (about 4 – 8 Hz) brainwave pattern. The theta range has been found to be most effective for allowing out of body experience to occur, so by using a brainwave synchronization recording that helps your brain to settle into this frequency pattern, you’re maximising your chances for success.
Binaural beats or isochronic tones?
Binaural beats and isochronic tone recordings work in slightly different ways, but their effect is similar. Both can be used to help you learn to astrally project. However, isochronic tones may have a slight edge, as many people have found them to be a bit more effective than binaurals. They also don’t require the use of headphones, which can be more convenient. However isochronics are less commonly available than the more well-known binaural beats. It may help to try both, and see which you prefer.
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.