Brainwave entrainment: the basics

What is brainwave entrainment?

Brainwave entrainment is simply the act of stimulating the brain through specialized audio recordings to change the pattern of your brain waves. This is done through a scientific method called “frequency following” response (FFR) which gets the brain waves to follow the frequency of the recording.

A little bit about brain waves:

Your brain is constantly working. Billions of neurons produce strong electrical signals that communicate to other parts of the brain and body. The energy produced from all of this mental electricity can be measured in waves.

Brain waves are measured in hertz, or cycles per second, and have 5 categories:

Delta- 0.1 – 4 Hz (deep sleep)
Theta- 4 – 7.5 Hz (light sleep)
Alpha- 7.5 – 13 Hz (daydreaming, meditation)
Beta- 14 – 40 Hz (consciousness, wake state)
Gamma- 40 Hz and up (associated with compassion and higher level emotions)

Your brain typically operates in the beta frequency throughout most of your waking life. This is great, because it allows you to do things like walk around, communicate with others, and make everyday life decisions. However, the higher range of beta (up to 30 or 40 hz) is associated with stress, anxiety, worry, and frustration.

More about brain frequencies here>>

Why should I listen to brainwave entrainment?

Quite simply… because it makes you feel good!

When you listen to a brain entrainment recording, you are listening to a specifically designed frequency of sound that replicates the cycles of brain waves. Your brain will sync up with this rhythmic frequency which will alter your state of consciousness. This has many great benefits for your mental, physical, and spiritual health.

Benefits of brain entrainment

The most common benefits of using brain entrainment are to calm the mind to create clarity, stability, and reduce stress and anxiety. It can help to lower your brainwaves to more relaxed frequencies. They can help you reach states of calm, focus, and clearer thinking.

Meditation:

One of the most advertised benefits of using brain entrainment is to help you reach a meditative state with no practice at all. While this is relatively true in the fact that your brainwaves will be in the same frequency of those who have practiced meditation for years, the true mindset of meditation is one that has to be learned from practice. If you are new to meditation, there are guided meditation recordings that incorporate brainwave entrainment that GREATLY speed up the process of reaping the benefits of meditation.

Whole brain thinking and brainwave synchronization:

Brain entrainment audio technology is becoming very advanced. With the development of entrainment programs like The Brain Evolution System that use several layers of frequency following response technology in a single recording, you can stretch the limits of your brain’s abilities.

Programs like this promote whole brain thinking by stimulating growth of the connective tissue in the collisum (the area between the two hemispheres of the brain) which facilitates more productive communication between the two sides of the brain. This helps bridge the gap between the right and left brain, opening up creative thinking and logical processing. Think of how productive you could be when you are using your brain to its full capacity like this.

Normal brain activity is scattered and many different levels of brainwave activity are produced from different areas of the brain at the same time. Listening to brain entrainment technology synchronizes all of your brainwaves to one frequency. This process of brainwave synchronization has been studied and proven with electroencephalography (EEG), or the study of brain wave activity. The picture below is a before and after picture of brain frequencies when listening to The Brain Evolution System.

EEG readout of brain after Brain Evolution System

Health benefits:

Dr. Vincent Giampapa, MD, Former President of the American Board of Anti-Aging Medicine, New England Journal of Medicine concluded that binaural beats drastically affect three different key hormones in our bodies.

The first is cortisol which impacts learning and memory. Having too much of cortisol causes stress which listening to binaural beats can reduce by 46%. DHEA, which helps your immune system, is increased by 43% by the regular use of binaural beats. The third great health benefit Dr. Gimpapa found of listening to binaural beats was a98% increase in melatonin levels (one of your body’s natural antioxidants).

Other studies over the past 20 years have shown the effects of brain entrainment to increase IQ, improve behavior in children, relieve PMS, alleviate ADD, decrease depression, stimulate dendritic growth, relive anxiety, and cure chronic pain.

Check out the Unexplainable Store to see a huge selection of very specific brain entrainment recordings at very affordable prices.

Why brainwave entrainment doesn’t work for some people.

Even with all of this scientific proof, there are people that claim binaural beats and other brain entrainment programs don’t work for them. The truth is that it doesn’t work for some people. It’s not that it can’t work for them, but some people do not have the right mindset before they listen.

When listening, you have to sit quietly with your eyes closed, and try to clear your mind to allow your brain frequencies to follow the the entrainment audio. Many people get caught up in thinking about what is supposed to happen and if it is working or not while they are listening. The key is to just stay relaxed and focus on your breathing. Don’t expect anything to happen. That is when great things do happen!

Another big reason why some people claim it doesn’t work is because there is a lot of CRAP products out there. A lot of times, people go for the cheapest recording they can find, or just get whatever they can find for free to test it out. Make sure you listen to a good quality recording before you dismiss the whole concept.

What are the long term effects of brain entrainment?

Brain entrainment creates positive long term effects in the brain. Once you have been listening for a few months, you will notice a shift in your brain behavior. You may not be able to feel the effects quite as strong as you did at he beginning. This is actually a great thing! This means that your brain has become more accustomed to being in these altered brain states and will be able to shift in and out of different frequencies easier. Your mind is essentially training itself to shift out of stressful thought patterns and therefore creating a happier, healthier you!

Is brain entrainment safe?

Altering the pattern of your brainwaves may seen like risky business, but it is totally safe and natural with brain entrainment. There are however a few things to consider when using brain entrainment.

Because of the strong and repetitive pulsating rhythms, people who are prone to seizures or epilepsy should not use this technology. Also, because brainwave entrainment alters your brainwaves to a more relaxed state, you should not operate a vehicle or heavy machinery while listening. Children and pregnant women should also use caution when considering using brainwave entrainment. If you would like to know more about brainwave entrainment safety, check out my disclaimer here.

I want to give brain entrainment a try, but I want to do it for free…

Buying a brainwave entrainment recording is a small investment for all of the life changing returns. However, I was skeptical at first too and didn’t want to invest in something that I wasn’t sure was going to work. So I wrote an article with some of the best free samples of brainwave entrainment I could find on the internet.

Also, sign up below for my free newsletter series and get a free isochronic tone and an information packed ebook guide to brainwave entrainment.