Binaural Beats Experiences

[Denyoz]

I heard you can use binaural beats to induce different states of consciousness and out-of-body experiences. Just by listening to audio tracks with headphones. The sounds apparently change your brain frequency, putting you in a different mental state. Some call this "digital drugs".

 

I have zero experience with this and I am wondering if anyone has.

 

Happy would I be if anyone could share his experience: What kind of headphones you used, which audio tracks you tried, what effect it had on you, what would you recommend.

 

Thanks!

[London]

How bizarre that this would come up, just about a week ago I ran into this very subject by accident. I was actually considering using this for white noise to sleep by.

 

When I ran into this on Youtube I was wearing headphones, Bose Triport (TP1A, highly recommend them), and I was just sampling sounds. They are very calming and I could see how they could make you feel relaxed.

 

I didn't do any research into the validity of this "science" and I have not used them to try and sleep or anything. I'm not really much help here.

 

 

[Denyoz]

Thank you London for your response. I looked into those headphones, not the cheapest ones on the market, they must be one of the best. I know Bose is a very good brand. It's about time I get myself a good pair.

[qadeshet]

If you have Spotify, you can listen to as many Technomind titles as you like. I have been using Mind machines and other Neuro-Entrainment products for over 20 years. The technology really works.

 

http://www.facebook....147304928622798

 

Below is a chart showing the various Brainwave states.

 

http://binaural-beats.org/page_brainwave_chart.php

[Denyoz]

I have been using Mind machines and other Neuro-Entrainment products for over 20 years. The technology really works.

 

Thanks qadeshet, I'll check these sites out.

 

Can you share some experiences?

[mcdaddy]

I downloaded a bunch of that stuff a year or so ago. Not sure if I wasnt doing something right or what, but I never really got much out of it besides drowsy.

[qadeshet]

I have been using Mind machines and other Neuro-Entrainment products for over 20 years. The technology really works.

 

Thanks qadeshet, I'll check these sites out.

 

Can you share some experiences?

 

Altered States without drugs is hard to beat. Deep relaxation, Endorphin release, vivid dreams, are some of the effects. Average headphones are fine, you don't need the most expensive. It can take some time to train your brain to generate the desired frequencies. One or two 30 minute sessions a day for a week or two and you should start seeing good results. You might start with Alpha, and then move on to Theta and Delta. Epsilon, Gamma, Hyper Gamma, and Lambda are more experimental.

 

Some of ny favorite Technomind titles:

 

Relaxation System

Tibetan Meditations

Theta Meditation

Tao Te Ching

Supernova

Pyramid Frequencies

Nosce Te Ipsum

Luau

Kaleidoscopic Mind

Chakra Suite 1

Sounds of the Night

[Denyoz]

Altered States without drugs is hard to beat. Deep relaxation, Endorphin release, vivid dreams, are some of the effects. Average headphones are fine, you don't need the most expensive. It can take some time to train your brain to generate the desired frequencies. One or two 30 minute sessions a day for a week or two and you should start seeing good results. You might start with Alpha, and then move on to Theta and Delta. Epsilon, Gamma, Hyper Gamma, and Lambda are more experimental.

 

Really? Oh goodie! I have to try this. Thank you so much for the advice!

[TrailBlazer]

http://web-us.com/thescience.htm

 

I read a little bit into this when I found some binaural beats offered on one of my mother's video games. Altered states of consciousness are pretty interesting. Let us know what happens if you try this Denyoz, I'm curious about it too!

[RintrahRoars]

This is pretty interesting stuff. I feel like I need to learn more about what brain waves really are though first.

[qadeshet]

 

Really? Oh goodie! I have to try this. Thank you so much for the advice!

 

Besides Technomind, I also recommend Dr Jeffrey Thompson. He's been working with Neuro Entrainment since 1982. You can find his programs at Spotify as well as Technomind.

Dr Thompson has some good articles on his website.

 

http://www.neuroacoustic.com/entrainment.html

[TrailBlazer]

Besides Technomind, I also recommend Dr Jeffrey Thompson. He's been working with Neuro Entrainment since 1982. You can find his programs at Spotify as well as Technomind.

Dr Thompson has some good articles on his website.

 

http://www.neuroacou...ntrainment.html

 

The article I found on a different website is the same as this one. I think the other website must have bought out the copyright on it, or they plagiarized it. lol, great stuff tho, who would't want to copy it?!

[qadeshet]

Besides Technomind, I also recommend Dr Jeffrey Thompson. He's been working with Neuro Entrainment since 1982. You can find his programs at Spotify as well as Technomind.

Dr Thompson has some good articles on his website.

 

http://www.neuroacou...ntrainment.html

 

The article I found on a different website is the same as this one. I think the other website must have bought out the copyright on it, or they plagiarized it. lol, great stuff tho, who would't want to copy it?!

 

I assumed that Dr Thompson gave his permission to republish the article. The other article does give credit to Dr Thompson and provides a link to his Site.

[par4dcourse]

A good joint and Pink Floyd on Bose phones will put you in a new frame of mind.

[Denyoz]

Last night I had my first binaural beat session. I listened to

on YouTube. It's 45 minutes long. Now I know what it sounds like. It's not music, not at all. It sounds like being inside a washing machine during the spin cycle. Not very pleasant. But I read somewhere that it works best if you are deeply relaxed, so I closed my eyes and relaxed as much as I could.

 

Then I started feeling like how I felt when I used to meditate a long time ago: you "let go" of everything and eventually your thoughts slow down to almost a complete stop, then your body feels paralysed and you enter your core self. I am familiar with this. You have to go through a "vibration stage" before you can enter the "quiet zone". So the binaural beat induces the vibration stage and you get an experience after you stop the sound, as long as you remain still and keep the mind quiet. That's how it worked for me anyway.

 

I went to bed after the 45 minute session. While remaining awake with my eyes closed, I was able to go through the stages rather quickly and enter the quiet zone. This is the cool place which is, in itself, ecstatic compared to normal consciousness. Apparently this stage is just the portal that can lead into either astral projection or lucid dreaming, where anything is possible.

 

I have never gone passed the quiet zone though. There, you get complete control of your thought process. You can switch your thoughts off and float inside the full/empty la-la land, or think anything you want and get a "very strong impression" of that thing. For example, you think "rock" and immediately you get an awareness of the rock, a new perspective you never had before, or "tree" and you experience oneness with the tree. It might sound boring, but it isn't. Even more powerful if you bring up words like "friendship" and "love" or even "fear" if you want. I was enjoying myself so much, I lost track of time. Afterwards, my brain was so calm... it's like I was drunk or something.

 

What did I get from this? Insight into anything I chose. And a whole lot of pleasure, and it's free

[qadeshet]

A good joint and Pink Floyd on Bose phones will put you in a new frame of mind.

 

I did more than my share of Pot and Pink Floyd(don't forget the Moody Blues). But once I started listening to Neuro Entrainment programs, I have had no desire for Weed. Haven't done it in 20 years. And where I live, you still go to jail for Marijuana possession.

[WMDKitty]

I have to try this...

[qadeshet]

There is a free open source Program called Gnaural that will let you create your own Binaural-Beats sessions.

 

http://gnaural.sourceforge.net/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_brainwave_entrainment_software

[TrailBlazer]

With my ADD brain, I feel like George Harrison: "I really wanna be with you, I really like to see you lord, Oh it takes so long..."

[WMDKitty]

Downloaded gnaural last night, put on the "purr" preset, and... DAMN! That's the most soothing thing I've ever heard!

[qadeshet]

Downloaded gnaural last night, put on the "purr" preset, and... DAMN! That's the most soothing thing I've ever heard!

 

There are some good Presets, and it's really easy to create your own sessions. After you export your Sessions in WAV format, you can use Audacity to create MP3s.

[WMDKitty]

@qadeshet -- Ooh, that's great for travel!

[BMandeville]

I have zero experience with this and I am wondering if anyone has.

 

Happy would I be if anyone could share his experience: What kind of headphones you used, which audio tracks you tried, what effect it had on you, what would you recommend.

 

Thanks!

 

 

I downloaded a bunch of that stuff a year or so ago. Not sure if I wasnt doing something right or what, but I never really got much out of it besides drowsy.

 

 

This is pretty interesting stuff. I feel like I need to learn more about what brain waves really are though first.

 

 

I used to be a sleep technologist, so I have a bit of experience with this.

 

First off, claims that binaural beats induce psychedelic states are bogus and any perceived difference the listener's mental state is likely a placebo effect (people buy these with certain expectations, after all). That being said, they can and do induce states similar to those of sleep and/or relaxation. I will explain why in a minute.

 

Binaural beats work by way of two different, often inaudible frequencies played in stereo. From the left comes one frequency or tone, and from the right, another separate, distinct tone. The frequency of each tone doesn't actually matter; what causes the desired effect is the difference between those two frequencies.

 

The human brain is like a snare drum; that is, it will vibrate sympathetically with an outside frequency. In the case of binaural beats, an example would be a 40Hz tone in the left side and a 30Hz tone on the right, for a difference of 10Hz. The brain will actually vibrate in concert with this difference between the two frequencies and, if you looked at an EEG tracing of the person using binaural beats with this frequency, you would see brain waves that measured roughly 10Hz. It's a bit more complicated than that, but that's the general idea.

 

The reason all of this matters is because of the way human awareness is structured. For our purposes, we will use "awake" as an all-encompassing term for states other than sleep, coma, or death, and divide "sleep" into four stages: Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, and REM (dream state). This is going to get a little complicated, but I promise it's relevant, so bear with me. In a state of wakefulness, the brain resonates at a frequency between 8Hz and 25Hz. Once we lie down, turn out the lights, and close our eyes, our brain waves start to decrease in speed and increase in amplitude. These are known as "alpha waves," and mark both the transition from wakefulness to sleep as well as the beginnings of Stage 1 sleep. Alpha waves fall between 8Hz and 12Hz. Throughout Stage 1, the frequency of our brain waves descends from around 8Hz to 4Hz, which are known as "theta waves." Stage 2 is where most adults spend their time asleep, and is characterized by continuing loss of muscle tone and a further increase in amplitude and decrease in frequency of brain waves. In Stage 2, bran activity is characterized by waves with a frequency between 4Hz and 7Hz. From there, we go to Stage 3, which is known as "deep," "Delta," or "slow-wave" sleep. Again, the trend of decreasing speed and increased amplitude continues. To throw in a bit of trivia about Stage 3, it's an almost coma-like state from which arousal is very difficult and the patient is often confused upon finally waking up (they may not even remember the experience in the morning). Most adults spend very little time in Stage 3, while young children spend a great deal of the night there, which is why kids are so freaking hard to wake up. Brain waves in Stage 3 vibrate at a frequency between 1Hz and 3Hz. Finally, we arrive at REM, in which it is theorized (but not definitively proven) that we do most if not all of our dreaming. On an EEG tracing, brain waves in REM actually resemble states of wakefulness, and the brain is extremely active, which can also be seen on MRI scans. During REM, the frequency of our brain waves is between 10Hz and 15Hz.

 

The reason all of that boring stuff is important is because one can in theory tailor binaural beats to induce a particular desired state. If we use my first example of 40Hz in the left side and 30Hz on the right, the difference of 10Hz could induce a relaxed, meditative alpha state. Likewise, if we used frequencies of 40Hz and 35Hz, the induced state may be closer to deeper sleep. I'm a musician and a few years ago I experimented with this, panning inaudible frequencies with an appropriate difference to the left and right, respectively, to induce various states and inserted them into my own trance music. Needless to say, it didn't work out quite as well as a bright-eyed 20-year-old would have expected, but it was cool nonetheless.

 

Before I go any further, I need to state that it is indeed possible to "help" one's brain along the path to sleep using binaural beats. For all the skepticism I'm about to hurl at the concept, as a result of my experience in this field I feel very strongly that use of binaural beats or appropriate sleep hygiene is a much healthier sleep aid than the chemicals passed out by doctors like candy on Halloween. Also worth mentioning is that most sleeping pills actually suppress REM, which can cause psychological distress, decreased cognitive abilities, memory problems, and less restorative sleep. For sleep, binaural beats actually do have an effect, but it's subtle and not analogous to taking a sleeping pill and passing out. Our brains have to filter out literally thousands of competing external frequencies on a daily basis: radio waves, Schumann's Resonance, cosmic radiation, etc. Had they not evolved to do so, we wouldn't be able to survive, so it's a little unrealistic to expect one's brain to forget over a million years' worth of evolution in one specific instance, but as those of you who have used binaural beats can attest, there is a slight effect.

 

That being said, binaural beats do not induce psychedelic, euphoric, or dreamlike states, mostly because the process by which we achieve such things is chemical rather than electromagnetic. Hallucinations are the result of random neuronal misfires in the prefrontal cortex, resulting in odd thoughts, images that have not been consciously recalled, and sometimes absurd concepts and motifs. This can result from hallucinogenic drugs, hypothermia, illness, lack of oxygen, or sleep, but not from external frequencies or vibration (at least, none are known at this time). When these neurons misfire and send a barrage of contradictory or absurd concepts and images, our brain, being evolutionarily wired to organize things into recognizable shapes, patterns, or in the case of dreams, narratives, does what it does best and tries to make sense of what it perceives. The result is a dream or hallucinogenic image. It's worth mentioning that there is little difference between a psychedelic state and a dream; they're largely the same thing (also, dreams are super-cool in that the dreamer is both creating and perceiving their reality simultaneously, which requires more effort than perception alone - I think it's amazing).

[WMDKitty]

Screw the science, this shit is SOOTHING.

[qadeshet]

Humans have been using sound to alter consciousness for thousands of years. Brainwave Entrainment is something everyone can try and judge for themselves.