Binaural Beats?

[valpal215]

Does anyone have experience with using binaural beat recordings (like Holosync) for meditation? Is it worth investing in one of these programs?

Thanks

Val

[Jovvi]

I've actually tried the Immrama Institutes FOCUS CD, with pretty good results, and pretty weird results when used incorrectly. I listen to it while working to help me focus. It’s a 2 CD set, with three tracks. The sound waves are masked using the simple sound of falling rain. I find it very relaxing and less distracting than music.

I tried experimenting with different scenarios:

So far I’ve acheived heightened concentration and relaxation while working or studying.

When used in combination with my meditation it seems to heighten my focus. (This was an experiment. This CD is not actually supposed to be used for meditation; the Insight CD was created for that.)

If I listen to it before sleeping, I stay in half sleep/half wake lucid state most of the night. (Interesting, but not fun after a couple of days.) I do remember my dreams, though.

Overall I would say the best benefits can be reaped from a steady diet of listening for the recommended 20 minutes a day. The affects seem to last at least a couple of hours. Definitely worth the money.

[valpal215]

Thanks! I'll check that one out.

Val

[JJH]

Hi valpal215,

I downloaded an app called Brainwave Generator for free and now create my own entrainment tracks. You can download and find out all about it here:

http://www.bwgen.com/

I've been using a custom track for meditation for about 8 months, and it works amazingly well.

[Lucia]

http://users.isp.com/thawk1/

all they ask is a $20. donation!


I have been using this CD, It is much less expensive than the many levels costing thousands of dollars designed to make the folks at Holosync richer. Technology is technology, It means much more to me if it is "given/shared" for the good of all.....

~~~what they say~~~
..."Many individuals report that inducing the brain to a specific frequency following response will produce a state of expanded awareness or transpersonal experience. The attention, beliefs and expectations of the individual directly affect the resulting experience. Because of this, the resulting transpersonal experience differs between individuals."

I like that this CD, is more like white noise, and not masked in New age music that can be a distraction sometimes. This, IMHO, makes for a cleaner meditative experience. ; )

Lucia

[valpal215]

Thanks for all the advice! I plan to try some of these suggestions!

Val

[Andy]

I've used bwgen as was mentioned for awhile. I had some really interesting results with one preset I used that would go proceed to 1hz pretty quickly and then stay there. I'd feel so relaxed that I'd drift in and out of consciousness until it ended, pretty weird.

One piece of advice though, listening to a 6hz beat frequency for several hours in a row is *not* a good idea. I did that once because I liked the spaced out feeling I was getting from it. Little did I realize that I'd be "spaced out" for 3 days straight! It was fun at first, but 3 days is too much to be feeling like that.

[ava]

I'm on the second level of Holosync and I love it. We're so lucky to live in an time where we can just listen to a recording and produce brainwaves that usually take years of meditation... it also ritualizes it and kinda forces you to spend more time in meditation... and blocks off distractions. I find if I try to meditate without it's really hard to keep my focus and do it longer than like 15mins.

I highly recommend it as well as the 3 courses Bill offers. They're both lifechanging. (I get my last lesson next week!)

Why is Centerpointe stuff not cheap? Simply 'cause it's valuable to their customers And he's quite passionate about it all doing what he says it will so you get a lot of one on one customer support.

I kinda sound like an ad but I just want people to know that it will help you! (just don't be one of those people who gets it, doesn't do it, then complains that it doesn't work...)

[valpal215]

Ava,
Thanks for the reply about holosync. I got the free demo cd from Centerpointe and really enjoyed listening to it, but I am hesitant to spend the money for the program. I am glad to hear that you like it.

Thanks

Val

[Brutha]

I would recommend Transparent Corporation . They produce a program with can add such beats to any audio file.
The are quite nice people (who don't make bad New Agey marketing like Centerpoint) and have a forum with people who know about the latest research.
And it isn't based on 30 year old stuff like centerpoints, it is up to date.

[Adam Sargant]

I have a small windows application that I call the Audio Bilateral Stimulator, that sends alternate pulses to each ear at a predetermined frequency. I originally wrote it for use with EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) work, but it has proved useful in a number of other ways and I'm thinking of expanding it's functionality. It's available to subscribers to my newsletter from Hypnosis Audio CDs.

I also created an audio file with a simple loop and and a brainwave entrainment to match the brainwave cycles of experienced meditators... it's not a pretty sound, but an interesting experiment which I could give you a link to an mp3 version if you were interested.

Love and light

Adam

[RandomJohn]

Hey Brutha,

Which of their products have you used? Both the brainwave studio and NP2 look interesting.

[exquisitive]

I'll toss in a plug for SBaGen.

SBaGen -- Binaural Beat Brain Wave Experimenter's Lab

It's easily the most obscure user interface of the bunch - no GUI, it's all DOS-based, but once you work through the user instructions, it's pretty powerful and it comes with a large number of samples to get you started.

What I like:

• polyphonic - I've had it running at least 5 voices simultaneously - much past that and I have a hard time hearing it
• able to produce "presets" by editing text files
• portable - I run it off a removable USB drive
• small - 2.8 MB
• exports to WAV

I've only been using it a few days, but so far it seems pretty good. I'm still new to the binaural beats thing, but I'm interested in seeing if it can help with dream recall/lucid dreaming.

[Greg]

Funny this thread should come up. I just bought the CD's by the Immrama Institute and I like them. I think the industry is leveraging supply and demand to the max with their prices but it's worth spending about $50 for it - so I say go for it. The $200 courses I just couldn't justify but maybe someone can add to that.

If you happen to buy a few from different places, come back and review them. I'd be curious to hear your results.

[JJH]

@Ava: I've now switched from Brainwave generator to Holosync (only 2 weeks in)

So far the results are far in excess of what I was getting with the BWgen default settings and my custom ones. It seems all the research and technology they put into their products is a little better than I could do alone!!

This is definitely the way for me, thanks for posting.

[msd]

Looks like I'm the only one here but I tried holosync once and I hated the feeling I had afterward. I felt like I was losing my mind and I couldn't even think. It was such a weird state that I can't even find words to describe it
Anyone got my kind of experience?

[Gene]

Originally Posted by valpal215

Does anyone have experience with using binaural beat recordings (like Holosync) for meditation? Is it worth investing in one of these programs?

Thanks

Val

I purchased the Neuro-Programmer2 software from Transparent Corporation and it creates audio programs with binaural beats like Holosync.

I am very pleased with the product and with the audios that it creates.

It works for me.

Gene

[neutro]

So, i know that this binaural beat thing works at low frequency sounds. Like 0.5 - 30 hz... am I the only one wondering if the headsets can produce sound at that low frequency? Because I look at high-end Senheisser headsets and i see

Frequency Range : 10 - 39.500 hz.

What about lower than 10? Am I missing something?

[Erki]

I understood that this <10Hz is the difference between the ears.

[Brutha]

Originally Posted by RandomJohn

Hey Brutha,

Which of their products have you used? Both the brainwave studio and NP2 look interesting.

I have used Brainwave Studio for my meditation music and NP2 for things like the Coffeine Replacement session.

You can download a demo on their site and test it yourself.

[RedPanda]

I downloaded Brainwave Generator but the installer hung so I couldn't try it. Anyone experience this problem & solve it? I tried the contact email on the website but it bounced straight back.

[Erki]

I downloaded the Brainwave Generator as well, installation went well but configuring not so... The sound that is supposed to be heard only from the left/right headphone is heard from the other one as well. I checked the Sound options in Control Panel but it didn't go away. Any hints?

[Dave Kaminski]

I'll probably end up buying the ones that Steve suggests, as they seem to be high in quality as well as mystery-free as it's not subconscious messaging. $500 isn't that much money regarding value if they're as strong as they say. if you use them twice a week for a year and it's 20 minutes long, that's only fourteen bucks an hour. That's a freakin' deal IMHO.

[Keith]

Originally Posted by Jovvi

I've actually tried the Immrama Institutes FOCUS CD, with pretty good results, and pretty weird results when used incorrectly.

Now that's an intriguing comment. How would you use it incorrectly and what happens if you do?

[Brutha]

Now that's an intriguing comment. How would you use it incorrectly and what happens if you do?

Use them the whole day as background.
Insomnia and mild headaches.

Their is also someone who claims to have damaged his brain with the Centerpoints Holosync program.

So it is good advice to know what you are doing. Whether or not you buy any products i find this forum good for information.

[Jovvi]

@ Keith

Using it incorrectly would be listening to the Focus CD right before bed. Something they reccomended that you not do. I just had to test it out for myself. Brain wouldn't fully shut down the entire night. It was a wierd experience. Definitely follow the instructions that come with the CDs.