subject: Brainwave Entrainment - Realizing How It May Augment Your Meditation [print this page] The expression brainwave entrainment will cause quite a few to get flashbacks to high school or even college biology and makes them need to rush yelling into the night. For other people, the concept may seem really cool and also generate a response of 'Wow, that does seem interesting, let me know more'. Consequently in the following paragraphs, I'd like to talk about each side of this, offering up a little bit of science for those that are fascinated and a 'bottom-line' version if you have no affinity for this science portion.
To begin with, the science aspect. As you may know, the brain consists of vast amounts of cells called neurons that, while transmitting impulses all at one time, create 'electrical' activity termed brainwaves. Now entrainment s really a physics concept that may be used across many systems, such as astronomy, chemistry, electrical, and so on. and may also be ascribed to the mind. It means the process by which 2 cycles synchronize by natural means with each other in order to perform better.
If the brain is given a stimulus, it experiences a Cortical Evoked Response, where it discharges an electrical charge in response to the stimulus. Once the brain is provided a repeating stimulus, it responds by simply syncing, or entraining, its cycles to the current external rhythm. This is known as the Frequency Following Response and can be used to alter brainwave patterns.
There have been numerous scientific tests performed that show brainwave training could affect numerous elements of a person's life. Several of the uses have been:
1) Medical doctors utilizing entrainment to assist individuals increase the speed of recovery.
2) Psychologists using it to boost standard treatment.
3) Athletes utilizing it to teach their brain to focus more and better succeed in competition.
There are many others uses, which includes (as you may speculate given the subject of this article) strengthening meditation. The two primary techniques for brainwave entrainment are generally using Binaural Beats and Isochronic Tones. These will be reviewed more completely in a subsequent article.
Now, for the bottom line people, here you go. Fundamentally what the term means (in the context of meditative use) is to modify our internal brain rhythms so they synchronize with the external cycle of a sound wave. Or put another way, we play a sound beat directly into our ears which in turn directs the waves to the brain. The brain 'listens' and actually starts to adhere to the speed and rhythm of the external sound wave.
So we can utilize brainwave entrainment to influence many aspects of our lives. One way would be to improve our meditation with the use of binaural beats or isochronic tones from a meditation download site. These kinds of meditation downloads can help many different individuals. For beginners that have issues getting into that meditative state, brainwave entrainment can make the process much easier. For people who are more experienced in meditation, it will also help deepen your experience.
Brainwave Entrainment - Realizing How It May Augment Your Meditation
