The Facts About Binaural Beats And Altered States Of Consciousness

The latest thing in personal development is binaural beats

. These words are so well-known that many people take them at face value without even knowing what they mean. They know that they have something to do with listening to music through headphones and that they are used for easily entering into meditation, but that's about it. There's actually much more to it than that.

A German scientist named H. W. Dove discovered binaural beats (BB). While studying the range of human hearing, he discovered that if a tone of one frequency was introduced into one ear and another tone into the other ear, a remarkable thing happened in the brain. The brain heard neither tone, but instead interpreted them together as the difference between the two.

It wasn't until 1973, though, that BBs captured the imagination of the wider community. That was the year that Dr. Gerald Oster published an article in Scientific American about them. While he did not even mention brainwave entrainment in his article, it made others think that they could be used for that purpose.

The electromagnetic energy that our brains emit is measured in hertz (hz) or beats per second. These have been studied by researchers ever since the first brainwave monitoring devices were invented. The various frequencies that our brains emit have been categorized according to our general states of consciousness. Our waking "beta" state, for instance, is around 25 hz.

Brainwave entrainment occurs through a process called the frequency following response (ffr). This simply means that our brain naturally mimics the frequency that is introduced to it through any of the five senses. In the case of brainwave entrainment, the easiest way to introduce a stimulus is through sound. The first beats to be introduced are fairly fast, somewhere in the beta range, because the brain most easily entrains to a pulse that is close to the frequency it is already producing.

In a binaural beat meditation CD or MP3, the frequency is slowly and methodically lowered until it reaches a target frequency in the alpha, theta or delta ranges. These frequencies correspond with drowsiness or daydreaming, dreaming and deep sleep. They also correspond with different levels of meditation and altered states of consciousness.

Many thousands of people have used brainwave entrainment mp3s in order to achieve deep levels of relaxation and meditation. Their testimonies give credence to the claim that brainwave entrainment using BBs can induce meditative states of consciousness that otherwise would have taken a lifetime to achieve.

There are now scores of CDs and mp3s and other programs on the market that use binaural beats for meditation or to alter consciousness in other ways. Some of the programs are designed to be practiced for years, while others also add hypnosis or subliminal messages. Still others are stand alone mp3s for different purposes.

Aside from being used as a meditative aid, brainwave entrainment mp3s are also used for a variety of other uses, from focused attention to an afternoon "coffee break." They can be used to speed up or slow down mental activity. They are perfectly safe, as long as you bear in mind the fact that they actually work. Never play a sleep inducing CD while you're driving your car!

If you're interested in trying out brainwave entrainment, but are still skeptical, you can find free samples online. Many reputable companies also offer a money back guarantee, in the unlikely event that brainwave entrainment does not work for you. It's a good bet that you won't be wanting your money back, though!

by: Ed Crivello

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