What is Brainwave Entrainment ?
Brainwave Entrainment is a very interesting field of study that has been becoming more and more popular and important in the last couple of years.
It has completely revolutionized the world of meditation in the West.
Essentially it is a method of stimulating the brainwaves, to powerfully deepen the depth of meditations.
- that sounds complicated, but in actual fact is not difficult to understand.
If we look first at how it developed it will be clear to you.
First of all, you need to be able to understand the principle of Synchronization.
The principle of Synchronization was first studied by a Dutch scientist called Christian Huygens way back in 1665.
(He obviously was a brilliant man, and gave a lot to our present day understanding of science.
He played a role in the development of Mathematical Calculus; he was the first to discover the moon Titan, that circles around Saturn, and he - with others - was the first group to recognize that light traveled in a wave form, - and several other interesting inventions.)
However, the one that concerns us most - in this website at least - is that he was the first to develop clocks that kept time using pendulums.
While he was studying pendulums, he came across two very interesting things;-
Firstly - that if he set two pendulums swinging together suspended from a beam - that after a while the two pendulums would begin to swing in exactly the same frequency as each other - each swinging at the same rate but in opposite directions.
Secondly - he noticed that when he had a room full of pendulum clocks, and started all their pendulums swinging at slightly different times - after about 24 hours, when he came back, they would all be swinging together at the same times !
He called this phenomenon "Odd Sympathy" which we now know by the name of Synchronization.
It sounds a little strange at first glance - but if I can give you some examples - you will see that it is all around us and is a part of everyday life. For Example;-
.............A large audience of people who are clapping after a performance - will all be clapping in unison and together if the clapping goes on long enough.
.............A large group of women living in close proximity with each other - for example in a prison or a college dorm - will eventually all start to menstruate at the same time.
.............Two electric drying machines standing next to each other, when they are both turned on - will start to spin at different rates - but then after a while they will 'synchronize' and will spin together at the same rate.
.............Two or three people walking together will very quickly all start to 'walk in step' with each other.
.............If you have two tuning forks - both of the same note - and you strike one so that it is 'singing' and then bring it near to the other one - the second one will also start to 'sing !'
These are all examples of Synchronization.
Another term that basically means the same as Synchronization is Entrainment.
We 'Entrain' to the cycles of day and night for our awake/sleep rhythms - and we feel disoriented if that gets disturbed by long airline travel over many time zones (what we call "jet lag").
We entrain to the beat of a drum while listening to music - and will tap our feet or tap our fingers in time with the beat without even really being aware of it.
At the same time, studies have shown that our heartbeat will also often entrain to the same beat as the drum !
So what is the connection with Meditation ?
We have already talked about the different kinds of Brainwaves that we all have in different situations (see the page on
Meditation - How it Works,
in this website),
- well we now know that these brainwaves can also be Entrained - by putting an external stimulus to the brain at the frequency, or beats per second - that we want the brain to synchronize to.
For example - if the brain is in a normal/active type Beta brainwave pattern - with the brainwaves at say 15 beats or waves per second -
- and we give regular stimulation to the body at a slower rate of, say 10 beats per second,(which is the Alpha frequency) -
- then the brain will slowly shift, over several minutes, until the brainwaves are also at 10 beats per second.
But we have already seen, in our study of brainwaves - that Alpha brainwaves are produced in a calm relaxed meditative state.
So what we have done is to gently 'push' the brain into a meditation situation !
...and that is exactly what Brainwave Entrainment is all about !
(If you would like to learn more about the Science of Entrainment in greater detail, with more of the technical background, then click
HERE
which will take you to my attached page which gives full Entrainment Science details.)
Stimulation that causes entrainment can be of different kinds - we can use flashing lights, sound pulses, clicks, very mild skin electrical shocks, or rapid and regular tapping on the skin.
- and all will tend to produce the same effect as long as they are at the number of 'beats per second' that we want the brain to entrain to.
However the most effective is sound pulses of one kind of another, so that is what the majority use nowadays, and it is relatively easy to incorporate into recordings.
So the connection to meditation - specifically to Guided Meditation is obvious -
......if someone is being led into a Guided Meditation using a Pre-Recorded voice - then the meditation will be much deeper if there is an Entrainment sound pulse stimulus going on at the same time, and designed to be at the same rate as the brainwaves shown in deep meditation states.
That is why I am using this powerful technology in all of my own Pre-Recorded Guided Meditations that I am offering, in order to make those meditations automatically and effortlessly more powerful for you - as if you had been meditating for years !
To summarize all of the above, we can say that Entrainment is;-
- a technique that can be added to any Pre-recorded guided meditation....
- and that because it acts as an addition to the meditation itself in producing a relaxed state....
- then it is a technique that can make the meditation much more powerful and effective.
In the Pre-Recorded Meditation CD and MP3 downloads that I am offering, I am using one kind of Entrainment or another - in order to make them very much more efficient and effortless for you.
An interesting company has provided me with the software to make that possible, it is very easy to use, and if you would like more information about it then just click on the link below, to get all their information - which is very extensive - and comprehensive also.
Click to go from this page to the Science of Entrainment page
Click to return from Entrainment to the Home page

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