Personal Neurotech and EEG's.

[bodi]

Originally Posted by wolfgang

Does running the same audio over and over make it less effective? Like if I have a theta binaural and play it during sessions all the time, will I become desensitized to the entrainment?

As a general rule, yes, but there are lots of different factors that affect habituation (the fancy name for this phenomenon). It is something like your brain becoming 'bored', and then tuning out the repetitive sensory perception.

Not all programs are created equal, and people respond differently, of course. Better programmers can incorporate methods to resist habituation in prerecorded programs. If you use software to create the session, many of them have settings which provide a slight randomization to the program to prevent it.

Originally Posted by wolfgang

Are the fancy binaural audios more effective than just a straight theta tone/blip that stays at one frequency? Like some start at beta and go down to theta, while others are even just a theta metronome. And then some have the binaural tones but no extra sound scape entertainment factors.

Programs which ramp (going from say midline beta, or roughly so called normal consciousness, to say theta, or the near sleep, hypnogogic freq range) are typically more effective at entrainment. Also, if done well, programs which embed the binaurals underneath white or pink noise, or such are, in my opinion, more effective.

Once again there are many different factors at work here, and a well done, less complicated program might work better for you than a lower quality, more complex one. A lot depends on what your goals are for using them.

Originally Posted by wolfgang

Lastly, is there a system that uses EEG feedback to pull you to a target brain wave? This is an idea that a computer would take your EEG and output a slightly lower binaural tone with some algorithm as to how much lower this is or even to match your EEG for a bit.

Yes, there are systems like this, and they show tremendous potential. I don't know of a reasonably priced commercial system targeted at the average user and already set up for use with binaurals, though. Most of the home EEG equipment out there that I know of would require you to find or make your own interface.

A friend of mine and I are have been discussing this concept for a couple years now, and we are going with the Emotiv system, which we are adapting to our own AVI (Audio Visual Integrator) equipment. Depending on how technical you are, I could send you lots of good info and links.

Emotiv | EEG System | Electroencephalography

Another source I have been using on this concept is the Open EEG Project.

The OpenEEG project

[wolfgang]

Thank you for the reply.

It's interesting to me. I once had designs for a EEG pickup circuit and bought the parts. But never put it together. Must be in a box in the attic. It was a long time ago, like pre-USB and pre-windows days. Probably wouldn't interface with my modern laptop! Every once and a while I see someone offering biofeedback with EEG and think of checking them out.

But then lots of audios have given me good entrainment. It does seem mostly those with extra sounds are more effective than bland tones only. Although sometimes they get too music like and become something that I end up listening to. haha. Not sure that made sense. Of coarse I'm listening to it. But yeah, sometimes the soundscape is too active and distractive to trance.

[wolfgang]

Neuro-Programmer 3 - Innovative Brainwave Entrainment Software

Looks to have only GSR feedback though.

[bodi]

i hadn't looked into this software. Thx for pointing it out. It looks like it does support several feedback systems including the Emotiv. I'll have to check this out.

[wolfgang]

Bliss Coded sound

This site has entrainment sounds that uses a different way.
I haven't tried them, but it peaked my interest.

from that page:

This "special sound" or sound technology that I now call BlissCoded sound is created using a very powerful, yet natural technology that has nothing to do with the "old" ways of stimulating the brain with tones to get it to enter deeper relaxation and meditation, used in such products as the well-known hemisync and holosync audio meditation products. They use "binaural beats". These are used in all the ordinary meditation/relaxation CD's flooding the market today. My discovery does not involve any of that. Neither does it involve speech, voices and not even music. No, this is something totally different.

BlissCoded sound is created using a sound manipulation process invented by me, that uses the Golden ratio principle. After research about Phi, the Golden ratio and how this is found in everything in nature, I had an idea about how I wanted to manipulate or create a sound. It resulted in a meditative soundscape (not music) which was coded with extremely precise frequencies that I found through my research and converted the math behind it into sound.