What Are Brainwaves? The brain consists of billions of brain cells called neurones. These cells communicate with each other using electricity. When all of the cells are communicating they produce a large amount of electrical activity, which can be detected and measured using sensitive medical equipment, eg. an EEG (Electroencephalogram). This electrical activity is cyclical in nature, much like radio waves, and is commonly referred to as brainwaves.
This is the first EEG, recorded by Hans Berger in 1924. 
Once scientists were able to measure brainwaves, they discovered that electrical activity in the brain could vary widely, depending on what "state" your mind is in. There are five know brainwaves types or ranges:
| Wave | Frequency | State | | Gamma | 38Hz – 100Hz | Gamma waves are associated with consciousness, clarity and perception. | | Beta | 12Hz – 38Hz | Wide awake and alert. This is usually the state most people are in when they are awake. Stimulating Beta waves can have a major impact on intelligence, attention, mood, emotional stability and more. | | Alpha | 8Hz – 12Hz | Awake but deeply relaxed. People are generally in this state the first thing in the morning, while daydreaming, when totally focused on a task, or when meditating. When in this state visualizations are more enhanced, and the mind is more receptive to affirmations and other psychological techniques. | | Theta | 3Hz – 8Hz | Light sleep or extreme relaxation. Experienced meditators can reach Theta. Hypnosis and affirmations are most effective at this level.
| | Delta | 0.2Hz – 3Hz | Deep, dreamless sleep. This is the slowest of the known band of brainwaves. Your body is healing itself at this level, and generally you do not dream at this level – you are completely unconscious. Delta level stimulation can be very effective in reducing migraines, fibromyalgia, chronic pain and blood pressure. |
Researchers found that brainwaves can reveal a lot about someone's current mental state. They also discovered that it was possible to actually change a person's mental state by stimulating their brainwaves. Further, they found they could also use these techniques to treat a variety of mental disorders.
Stimulating the Brain Neural or brainwave entrainment is the term used to describe the brain's electrical response to rhythmic sensory stimulation, which is usually done using visual or auditory patterns.
 Neural entrainment technology can be used to stimulate specific brainwaves in your mind to induce whatever state is required. When your mind is stimulated by the specially encoded signals, it emits an electrical charge in response, which is called a Cortical Evoked Response.
By synchronizing with your brain’s natural internal rhythm’s (brainwaves) and then introducing a special rhythmic stimulus, your brain will respond by synchronizing its own electric cycles to the same rhythm. This is commonly called Frequency Following Response (FFR).
As brainwaves are tightly linked to mental state, FFR can be used to guide the mind down (or up) to specific frequencies and thus induce the required mental state. For example, if someone is in a deep state of dreamless sleep their brain frequency will typically be in the range 0.2Hz - 3Hz range. Stimulating a person's brain with say a 3Hz sound pattern will induce sleep.
Entrainment Methods One of the most popular methods for brainwave synchronization is Binaural Beat. Although Binaural Beats were discovered back in 1839 by Prussian physicist Heinrich Wilhelm Dove, it seems that they weren't used in earnest for brainwave entrainment until at least 1958 when Robert Monroe started experimenting with them. He later established the Monroe Institute and created a system based on Binaural Beats called Hemi-Sync.
So what are Binaural Beats? It's an effect that is created by playing two slightly different pure tones, once in each ear. The two waves subtract from each other to form a single wave. For example, playing a tone of 95 Hz in your left ear and 105 Hz in your right ear creates a wave of 10 Hz, which the brain perceives as a pulse. The interesting thing if the pulse is formed in your brain!
The lower tone is referred to as the "carrier" while the upper or higher tone is called the "offset'. Here's a visual example of the tones: Some other entrainment methods are: Monaural Beats, Harmonic Box X (a unique method of harmonically arranged Monaural and Binaural Beats), Spatial Binaural Beats, Isochronic Tones, and special acoustic entrainment filters. Mindwaves MeditationsWe have found through our own research that people can respond differently to the various neural entrainment methods. While some people find all of the methods effective, others find that only specific entrainment techniques work on them. For example, you may find that Binaural Beats do nothing for you but Isochronic Tones are very effective. For this reason we use a range of entrainment methods (eg. all of the ones mentioned in the previous section) in our products rather than just one (although obviously not all at the same time). When creating meditations, we add the audio patterns to stimulate the desired frequencies in your brain and overlay them with one or more layers of sounds. Where nature sounds are used, eg. rain, forests, oceans, etc., we only use real live professionally recorded sounds (ie. none of the sounds are synthetic). In some cases we use music or White Noise (which are, of course, generated sounds). The sounds serve a number of purposes. Firstly, they are used to mask the audio patterns which aren't that great to listen to on their own. Secondly, the sounds also provide some relaxation effect themselves. For instance, most people find the sound of rain naturally relaxing so combining it with audio patterns makes the meditation even more effective. And lastly, the sounds can block out unwanted distractions, eg. noises in other rooms or outside. It Takes Time
You may have noticed that many of our meditation products have more than one track, usually an Alpha track and a Theta track. The Alpha track is usually around 20 minutes long, while the Theta track is typically around 50 minutes. If you've wondered why there is such a large difference between the two tracks, and why there aren't any 20 minute long Theta tracks, the answer is simple. It takes time to entrain the brain to the target level. The deeper or lower frequency we're aiming for, the longer it takes to get there. It's not possible to go, for example, straight from Beta (your normally awake state) to Theta instantly. The brain has to be guided to the desired frequency at a specific rate. Too fast and it just won't work. In our experience we have found that you can't do an effective Theta level meditation in just 15 or 20 minutes. It takes longer.
If you would like to find more information about neural entrainment in general, please refer to our Research section.
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