There are five different kinds of brainwaves – Beta, Alpha, Theta, Delta and Gamma
It is completely a natural biological occurrence in every human being to experience these different states at various times in a day, and generally one state is dominant.
Did you know that each brainwave has its own set of characteristics representing a unique state of consciousness? Each brainwave state occur in a specific frequency range measured in cycles per second (Hz).
Each type of brainwave played a critical role in our mental development during our childhood. And today, they play an important role in maintaining our health and vitality as adults. Lets take a look at the different brain wave states and the associated benefits and experiences.
Beta (12 to 30 Hz)
Beta are the brainwaves of our normal waking consciousness. It is associated with a heightened state of alertness, logical thinking, problem-solving ability, concentration, when the mind is actively engaged in mental activities. Like a person in active conversation, playing sports or making a presentation would be in a Beta state. But higher Beta levels also result into stress, anxiety and restlessness.
Most people spend their waking lives in a beta state, no wonder many people experience high stress levels in today’s world. At the same time Beta is required for effective functioning in daily life.
Brainwave frequency chart showing the different frequencies and its state of mind
Alpha – (8 to 12 Hz)
Alpha brainwaves are slower in frequency as compared to Beta, which translates to a highly relaxed state of awareness. It is a normal brainwave pattern in people who are naturally relaxed and creative. Like you are daydreaming, or even when one close their eyes and meditate, this frequency enhances your imagination, memory, concentration, creativity, reduces stress so you can focus on learning and performance.
Meditation results in increase in alpha waves, therefore many meditation and energy healing techniques utilize an alpha brain wave for relaxation and healing. Even the use of Cannabis has been linked to an increase in alpha waves in the brain. Children tend to have much higher levels of alpha brainwaves than adults.
Listen to the Alpha Brainwave Music -
Theta – (4 to 7 Hz)
Theta brainwave occur during deep relaxation and meditation, light sleep or lucid dreaming including the REM dream state. It is the realm of your subconsciousness, where the mind is capable of profound insight, advanced intuition, healing, and oneness – in Theta state our minds can connect to the universe and manifest life-enhacing changes.
You can also experience vivid visualizations, great inspiration and profound creativity. The lower the brain frequency the faster the learning. Meditation or yoga is credited as being so relaxing because they induce the mind in a trance like state where it starts generating theta waves. People tend to have paranormal, psychic experiences when their brain is full of theta brainwaves.
Most children and teenagers have dominant theta brainwave patterns.
Listen to some Theta Meditation music -
Delta – (0.5 to 4 Hz)
Delta waves are the slowest in frequency but are the highest in amplitude. Observed in deep, dreamless sleep, this frequency is the gateway to the universal mind and the collective unconscious, where information received is otherwise unavailable at the conscious level.
Delta brainwave states have long been associated with healing, because deep sleep is necessary for regeneration and for your body’s self-healing mechanisms! Delta waves in meditation are said to help experienced practitioners access the unconscious mind. It is a dominant brainwave of infants (birth to 24 months) and even adults in deep sleep.
Gamma (25 to 100 Hz)
The Gamma brainwave is the fastest frequency at which the brain functions, where an individual can experience bursts of insight or high-level information processing. Experiments on Tibetan Buddhist monks have shown a correlation between transcendental mental states and gamma waves. When the monks were asked to generate feelings of compassion, their brain activity went into gamma frequency in a rhythmic, coherent manner. It is the state of being ‘in the Zone,’ the feeling that you can do anything.
Altering Brainwave states
All of us experience these brainwave frequencies at different times every day, which take us to different levels of consciousness. Like when you are awake you are in a different brainwave state as compared to when you are sleeping. You can alter your brainwave pattern in order to reach a desired level of consciousness. For example if you can’t get sleep at night when you feel stressed, you can synchronize your brainwave into the frequency that corresponds to sleep using sound.
This technique of synchronizing your brainwave frequencies to an external audio stimuli is known asBrainwave Entrainment. As this process is continued for sometime, the brainwave is tuned to the frequency of external sound and thus achieve the particular frequency level of that sound (alpha, theta or delta).
But you don’t need external stimulus if you can meditate. During meditation you reach a calm and relaxed state, this is the alpha state of consciousness. As the meditation deepens you find yourself being more calm and focused and the brainwave level reaches to theta (and finally to delta) state.
Ways of Brainwave Entrainment
Binaural Beats
How can a sound with frequency lower than 20 Hz range be audible to the human ear? The answer lies in a specialized sound known as Binaural beats. What it did was simple – playing two different frequencies in each ear, the brain detects the difference between the two frequencies and tunes into the third ‘binaural beat.’
So if you play 400Hz into the right ear, and 410Hz into your left ear (using stereo headphones) your brain produces a third binaural beat pulsing at 10 Hz, which is the difference between the two tones. 10 Hz is also equal to the alpha frequency, which brings about light relaxation, meditation, and creative thinking.
Binaural Beats shall provide you some excellent results often instantly which will help you in many ways.
Binaural Beats (Use headphones while listening)
Theta is associated with extreme relaxation, sleep or drowsiness. Generally, one feels a sense of peace and calm when the brain kicks into theta gear.
Isochronic tones
Isochronic tones are switched on and off via predictable patterns, creating a pulse effect that is extremely effective when used for therapeutic reasons
Isochronic are even more intense than binaural beats and considered more effective. An isochronic tone is a single tone that turns on and off in a particular pattern. Each of the tones are distinct and are evenly spaced to be able to create a lasting impression on the brain.
Basically our brains have to do much less work to get the same effects as binaural beats – which allows us to feel more relaxed, get in a more powerful and peaceful meditative state and visualize better. It is recommended to use headphones. Many people who do not respond well to binaural beats often respond very well to isochronic tones.
However, for a permanent life-changing spiritual focus, you need to use traditional meditation methods as your primary tools to access higher dimensions. As you know meditation can also make structural changesto the brain in powerful and positive ways and even the people around you!
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