About Brain Entrainment

Your brain is made up of billions of brain cells called neurons, which use electricity to communicate with each other. The combination of millions of neurons sending signals at once produces an enormous amount of electrical activity in the brain, which can be detected using sensitive medical equipment (such as an EEG), measuring electricity levels over areas of the scalp.

The combination of electrical activity in the brain is commonly called a BrainWave pattern, because of its cyclic, "wave-like" nature.

Example: Old style EEG. Generalized 3 Hz spike and wave discharges in a child with childhood absence epilepsy.

Example: Modern EEG.

With the discovery of brainwaves came the discovery that electrical activity in the brain will change depending on what the person is doing. For instance, the brainwaves of a sleeping person are vastly different than the brainwaves of someone wide awake. Over the years, more sensitive equipment has brought us closer to figuring out exactly what brainwaves represent and with that, what they mean about a person's health and state of mind.

You can tell a lot about a person simply by observing their brainwave patterns. For example, anxious people tend to produce an overabundance of high Beta waves while people with depression tend to produce an overabundance of slower Alpha/Theta brainwaves.

Researchers have found that not only are brainwaves representative of of mental state, but they can be stimulated to change a person's mental state, and even help treat a variety of mental disorders. Certain Brainwave patterns can even be used to access exotic or extraordinary experiences such as "lucid dreaming" or ultra-realistic visualization.

Brainwave Entrainment refers to the brain's electrical response to rhythmic sensory stimulation, such as pulses of sound or light. When the brain is given a stimulus, through the ears, eyes or other senses, it emits an electrical charge in response, called a Cortical Evoked Response (shown below). These electrical responses travel throughout the brain to become what you see and hear.

When the brain is presented with a rhythmic stimulus, such as a drum beat for example, the rhythm is reproduced in the brain in the form of these electrical impulses. If the rhythm becomes fast and consistent enough, it can start to resemble the natural internal rhythms of the brain, called brainwaves. When this happens, the brain responds by synchronizing its own electric cycles to the same rhythm. This is commonly called the Frequency Following Response (or FFR):

FFR can be useful because brainwaves are very much related to mental state. For example, a 4 Hz brainwave is associated with sleep, so a 4 Hz sound pattern would help reproduce the sleep state in your brain. The same concept can be applied to nearly all mental states, including concentration, creativity and many others. It can even act as a gateway to exotic or extraordinary experiences, such as deep meditation or "lucid dreaming" type states.

The aim of brainwave entrainment is to induce the brain into a specific targeted brainwave frequency. It is therefore important to understand the nature of human brainwaves and what they appear to do. EEG recordings show that there are different types of brainwaves each working on a different 'frequency'. These frequencies are measurable in Hz in much the same way a radio signal can be measured. It is interesting to realize that the brain produces different brainwave frequencies depending upon its current activity. For example whilst in daily activity, the brain tends to operate between the frequencies of 12hz to 38hz, this frequency is know as the Beta Frequency.

There are also a number of other dominate brainwave frequencies. In addition to the below, a growing number of scientific studies have shown that the brain and body also respond to a variety of other specific frequencies. Using brainwave entrainment each of the following (and any other) frequency can be stimulated within the individuals brain.

• Beta - 12hz to 38hz: This is the frequency of alert activity - it is the dominate state during our waking hours. When our brainwaves fall below the beta threshold we can often find ourselves entering a more relaxed or sometimes even a 'sluggish' state. Using the beta frequency is an ideal way of increasing our mental alertness.
• Alpha - 8hz to 11hz: Alpha is the state of relaxation, rest and light meditation. This state is dominate whilst you are awake but not totally mentally active. For example you maybe sitting down and relaxing. The alpha frequency has been noted to be stimulated whilst watching TV, which explains why many people people can relax in front of the TV. The alpha frequency is extremely useful, and is one of the states aimed for whilst meditating.
• Theta - 3hz to 8hz: We enter the Theta frequency when we first fall asleep. It is also the state our brain enters when we dream, and therefore is often used for hypnosis. The theta brainwave frequency is an extremely deep state, and has been noted in many meditators whilst in a 'altered state of consciousness', for example the frequency of 4.5hz has been observed in Buddhist monks and shamanic traditions.
• Delta - 0.2hz to 3hz: This is the frequency of deep sleep (some experienced meditators can actually retain awareness during deep sleep by using delta wave entrainment).

Brainwave entrainment is the process of using sound to synchronize brainwaves with a desired frequency. There is a famous experiment made in 1665 by physicist Christiaan Huygens. In this experiment Huygens noticed that two clock pendulums would always synchronize with each other, no matter how unsynchronized they were initially. Brainwave entrainment works in much the same way; when a person listens to a sound set at a specific frequency - after a period of a few minutes the brain will begin to synchronize with the frequency - this is known as Frequency Following Response (or FFR). Using this phenomenon it is possible to induce the human brain into all manner of desired frequencies to achieve specific results. For example when the brainwave synchronizes with a sound set to the frequency of 2hz, it will induce sleep.

There are a number of different brainwave entrainment technologies, each capable of entraining the brain. Some of these technologies are very well known, such as binaural beats, monoaural beats, harmonic beats others are less known. It is actually possible to use a combination of these technologies with lights to achieve optimal results.

• Binaural Beats - The human ear is incapable of hearing frequencies as low as those necessary for brainwave entrainment. This is where binaural beats come in; two frequencies are generated, one sent to each ear. For example one ear receives a signal of 100hz whilst the other ear receives 105hz. The brain cancels out the difference between the frequencies, in this case 105hz - 100hz = 5hz. 5hz is a low level theta frequency. Binaural beats are the most common form of brainwave entrainment.
• Isochronic Beats - are formed in a very different way than binaural beats. Isochronic beats work by modulating the volume of a tone. This tone then becomes a rhythmic pulse, capable of inducing brainwave entrainment. The 'speed' of the pulse determines the frequency.
• White Noise - is a signal which covers all frequencies. In very general terms white noise is effective because it forms a constant uninterrupted sound, which is ideal for the mind to focus upon. White noise can be adjusted in tone, and can sound like anything from rain, to waterfalls to hissing. Beware of CDs which claim to be recordings of rain - when they are in fact simply white noise.

At Asiahypnosis, we use the lastest leading edge technologies in Brain Entrainment research and equipment to help you cope with a wide variety of ailments such as insomnia, concentration, peak performance, mental disorders, psychosomatic disorders, anxiety attacks and panic attacks. Call us at 012 3300413 for a brain tune-up.

Ref: http://www.neuroacoustic.com/epsilon.html
Ref: http://brainwave-sync.com
Ref: NP2