Brainwave Entrainment: safe?

[Fabrizio]

Hi,

I'm really interested in brainwave entrainment and I would like to try it to improve my concentration and my creative skills.

Did you have any good or bad experience with it, or suggestions to give? Is there a risk associated to this system (for starting, I would use Brainwave Generator because it's free)?

I would try it to see what happens but I fear that, even trying it once, it could mess up my brain.

Thank you,
Fabrizio.

[placebo]

I was using Neuro Programer 2 for the same reason. It is a great thing. You can find explanations and manuals in it, it is easy to use and IMO very useful. First night i was using it before sleep and realized that i was aware during sleep (lucid dream). Also i was using it before learning and it was relaxing, so i'm recomending it to you and everyone else

[FearlessGhost]

I have been using Hemi-Sync for about 3 years now and have seen tremendous results. I highly reccomend the Gateway Experience as a portal to self discovery. If you have ever experienced a seizure or epilepsy, or have any other ailments that affect the brain, you may want to consult with your doctor before using any kind of assisted brain entrainment.

To help increase focus and concentration withought using outside technology for brain entrainment, try focusing on the breath. Breath in for a count of six, hold it for a count of two, breath out for a count of 6, pause for a count of one, then repeat. There are countless exercises that help improve focus and concentration; i prefer those that deal with the breath because allowing natural, unrestricted breathing leads to relaxation.

If you would like to try a free sample of Hemi-Sync, J.S. Epperson has a Myspace page with a few of his songs that you can listen to here.

There is also a free manual available on the subject of focus and concentration called, "Ther Power of Concentration," available here.

[uon]

I have had great success with brainwave entrainment. Mostly with the above mentioned program (Neuro Programmer 2) and Dr. Jeffrey Thompsons programs. I find that with entrainment, I am able to get deeply relaxed while being creative, or go even deeper with meditation. Although sometimes I wonder if it is a crutch for a true meditative state, if the brainwaves patterns seen in experienced meditators can be replicated, what are the implications for entrainment in normal individuals? For example, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Gamma range (30-80hz) was recorded in Tibetan monks. Results of the observations showed that the brainwaves were activated differently, in larger amounts in the monks. Further studies then linked these increased levels of gamma to be associated with the knitting together of disparate brain circuits, associated with states of higher mental activity and higher awareness.

I'd recommend this process to tune your nervous system up to "entrain" quicker. I for one have definitely enjoyed the results.

[RandomJohn]

It definitely helps during relaxation, meditation, and situations where I have to focus. (Different frequencies, of course.) I also use entrainment from a program called pzizz to go to sleep (and sometimes nap during the day).

[Juan Pablo]

Hi everybody;

I decided to join this group after a Google search on the title of my message. Steve's group forum was the highest priority result, and a lot of ideas came to my head when I read the answers to Fabrizio being worried about messing his brain with Brainwave Entrainment.

I am a mature ( long lived ) chilean engineer, who started Trascendental Meditation in my university years, at the same time I was deeply atracted to my studies of the physics of electromagnetic waves. 25 years later I became a Brainwave Entrainmente Programmer and a Neurofeedback Practitioner in USA, aming at my self treatment of Chronic Fatigue, after a wrong and exhausting executive life, where I gave up my health daily, as my sucess increased, hoping to strech my recovery capabilities to cope with my stressfull life.

After my self treatment using this two techniques to change brainwave patterns, people arround started to become interested in my work. Using my own previous experience, knowledge from my couses, and my own developments in this field, evolved to became, to my understanding, the only therapists in the world that combines both techniques sinergically and safely, obtainning the best possible results out theese.

I have a lot to tell to mind machine or similar software users, be it for conciousness expansion/ special states, attention focus, learning, stress reduction, relaxation, peack performance, etc.

I will to anybody who is interested, but for now, I can only tell you that mind machines or similar software brainwave entrainment effectivenes, increases as your real need for it decreases, and its safety decreases as your real need for it increases. Allthough you might be lucky, this type of technologies is not specific enough, and brainwaves induced to massive brain cortex areas, can absolutelly worsen the condition you want to progress in. The good news, is that there is a way to make audio brainwave entrainment as specific as neurofeedback, to make it a really benefical tool, and I have profed it recording brainwave data from my patients. It is still a rather slow and personalized process, but it is not costly, can be done remotely, and works consistenly through time.

[placebo]

Hi Juan Pablo

I was using Neuro Programmer 2 just for fun, i was interested in that area. Then one day i had a creative assignment for school and put my headphones on, relax and story was written in a second. It was amazing experience. I think i was using alpha waves, but i'm not sure now.

Actually that was demo version of neuro programmer. Because i'm a student in one small East european country i don't have money for full version of that software. Is there any good and free software for that?

[Nicketas]

It's safe.

Your brainwaves are activated no matter what you do, and certainly no matter what music you listen to.

If you listen to ANY song repeatedly, you are entraining your brain in some way (though the effect is not always permanent, it depends on how emotional the experience is for you).

The difference with self-help entrainment is that it is geared toward a focused result, not just aesthetic enjoyment as most music.

[Gene]

Originally Posted by placebo

Hi Juan Pablo

I was using Neuro Programmer 2 just for fun, i was interested in that area. Then one day i had a creative assignment for school and put my headphones on, relax and story was written in a second. It was amazing experience. I think i was using alpha waves, but i'm not sure now.

Hi Placebo,

Like you, I am a big fan of the Neuro Programmer 2 software. I have the paid PRO version and after some testing I am going to upgrade to the Commercial version so that I can re-distribute the programs I make with the software.

[Juan Pablo]

Hi, placebo, Gene; Niketas;

Brainwave Generator freeware is fine if you know how to programme it, and some presests are awsome, but beware. I have seen expert zen meditators, whose lifes dont flow easily anymore, and instead have swithched to an exhausting Murphy's law lifes, where everything that can go wrong does, or can´t keep thier focus of attention to read or work properly. The problen is that once you have beeb extra stressed out by life, you star generating alpha, theta and delta waves ( so good in deep or creativity states ), in wrong sites of your cortex, and no brainwave entrainment software will do anything but worsen your situation. Your brain is like a bush with millions of interconected leaves, that surface out from the stem and branches. Once a wind storm, or too much heat, or rain ( stress factors ), twist, bend, burn, or dump a branch, the neurons in the corresponding surface start working at lower frequencies, or become polarized ( useless ). Then the stem provides extra oxigen and nutrients to other surface leafs, and your brain still works with same total power, but has lost its resilence and flexibility, and thus, you are unable to reach maximum processing capacities related to unoverstressed specific sites of your brain cortex. Brainwave entrainment software will then try to induce alpha, theta or delta waves to all the leaves through the stem, but 90% will go to the damaged areas, worsening the problem. Same will happen if you use common brainwave entrainment to provide beta to the left hemisphere of a depressed friend, unless you have the technology to focus it left front, and not left rear, where it will add Murphy's symdrome. Life provides with very stron stress factors, and unless you isolate yourseleves live like a monk in the Tibet, or a bush in a wintergarden with totally controled enviroment, you really have big chances of damaging some branches and loose some of the resilence and flrexibility of your central nervous system ( includes the brain ).

All the best,

Juan Pablo

[Andrew Brunelle]

These programs could become a dependency issue. You may start out doing them once in awhile, but sooner or later you won't be able to get through the day without getting your "fix." Eventually, it will become an addiction, while it's not a bad addiction, you may not want to do it for too long every day as it may detract from other meaningful activities. I know you can listen to it while you do other things, but wouldn't you rather not have noise in your head when you're trying to do regular activities? I don't know, but I certainly do not believe it would be beneficial for me, but I can't say for sure.