Understanding Brainwaves to Expand our Consciousness

The human brain is a complex entity constantly at work, sending electrical signals, communicating, building new neural connections and so on. This electrical activity generated by the brain, also known as brainwaves, reflect our state of mind. Reality is not based on outside influences but is an internal process based on our thoughts, perception and emotions. If we deepen our understanding of these brainwave frequencies, we can control our reality.

There are five different kinds of brainwaves – Beta, Alpha, Theta, Delta and Gamma

Humans have 5 different types of brainwave that take us to different levels of consciouness . Each occue at a specific frequency or pattern

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.

Alpha brainwaves are considered the healthiest brainwave range and 10 Hz has widely been accepted as the “safest” brainwave frequency to train.

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 as Brainwave 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.

Binaural Beats are a brain wave entrainment audio stimulus that alter your state of consciousness

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 changes to the brain in powerful and positive ways and even the people around you!

Sources:

Theta Brain Waves

Brain wave Frequencies

Via: FractalEnlightenment

Imagination Changes What We See & Hear

A study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden shows, that our imagination may affect how we experience the world more than we perhaps think. What we imagine hearing or seeing "in our head" can change our actual perception. The study, which is published in the scientific journal Current Biology, sheds new light on a classic question in psychology and neuroscience -- about how our brains combine information from the different senses.

"We often think about the things we imagine and the things we perceive as being clearly dissociable," says Christopher Berger, doctoral student at the Department of Neuroscience and lead author of the study. "However, what this study shows is that our imagination of a sound or a shape changes how we perceive the world around us in the same way actually hearing that sound or seeing that shape does. Specifically, we found that what we imagine hearing can change what we actually see, and what we imagine seeing can change what we actually hear."

The study consists of a series of experiments that make use of illusions in which sensory information from one sense changes or distorts one's perception of another sense. Ninety-six healthy volunteers participated in total.

In the first experiment, participants experienced the illusion that two passing objects collided rather than passed by one-another when they imagined a sound at the moment the two objects met. In a second experiment, the participants' spatial perception of a sound was biased towards a location where they imagined seeing the brief appearance of a white circle. In the third experiment, the participants' perception of what a person was saying was changed by their imagination of a particular sound.

Illusion of colliding objects. (Credit: Image courtesy of Karolinska Institutet)

According to the scientists, the results of the current study may be useful in understanding the mechanisms by which the brain fails to distinguish between thought and reality in certain psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia. Another area of use could be research on brain computer interfaces, where paralyzed individuals' imagination is used to control virtual and artificial devices.

"This is the first set of experiments to definitively establish that the sensory signals generated by one's imagination are strong enough to change one's real-world perception of a different sensory modality" says Professor Henrik Ehrsson, the principle investigator behind the study.

Story Source: 

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Karolinska Institutet.

  Originally posted on: Science Daily

This Is Your Brain on Meditation

This site has moved to https://learninghowtothink.net/

By: Rebecca Gladding, M.D., Guest
Waking Times

I realized today that in all my posts regarding the brain and how to sculpt it with mindfulness, I’ve never actually explained how and why meditation works. Specifically, the science behind how your brain changes the longer you meditate. I think this is important for many reasons, but one of the most salient is that this information serves as a great motivator to keep up a daily practice (or start one).

I’m sure you’ve heard people extol the virtues of meditation. You may be skeptical of the claims that it helps with all aspects of life. But, the truth is, it does. Sitting every day, for at least 15-30 minutes, makes a huge difference in how you approach life, how personally you take things and how you interact with others. It enhances compassion, allows you to see things more clearly (including yourself) and creates a sense of calm and centeredness that is indescribable. There really is no substitute.

For those of you who are curious as to how meditation changes the brain, this is for you. Although this may be slightly technical, bear with me because it’s really interesting. The brain, and how we are able to mold it, is fascinating and nothing short of amazing. Here are the brain areas you need to know:

• Lateral prefrontal cortex: the part of the brain that allows you to look at things from a more rational, logical and balanced perspective. In the book, we call it the Assessment Center. It is involved in modulating emotional responses (originating from the fear center or other parts of the brain), overriding automatic behaviors/habits and decreasing the brain’s tendency to take things personally (by modulating the Me Center of the brain, see below).
• Medial prefrontal cortex: the part of the brain that constantly references back to you, your perspective and experiences. Many people call this the “Me Center” of the brain because it processes information related to you, including when you are daydreaming, thinking about the future, reflecting on yourself, engaging in social interactions, inferring other people’s state of mind or feelingempathy for others. We call it the Self-Referencing Center.

What’s interesting about the Medial PreFrontal Cortex (mPFC) is that it actually has two sections:

• Ventromedial medial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) – involved in processing information related to you and people that you view as similar to you. This is the part of the brain that can cause you to end up taking things too personally, which is why we referred to it as the unhelpful aspect of the Self-Referencing Center in the book. (In reality, this brain area has many important and helpful functions – since we were focusing on overcoming anxiety, depression and habits you want to change, we referred to it as unhelpful because it often causes increases in rumination/worry and exacerbates anxious or depressive thoughts/states/feelings.)
• Dorsomedial Prefrontal Cortex (dmPFC) – involved in processing information related to people who you perceive as being dissimilar from you. This very important part of the brain is involved in feeling empathy (especially for people who we perceive of as not being like us) and maintaining social connections.
• Insula: the part of the brain that monitors bodily sensations and is involved in experiencing “gut-level” feelings. Along with other brain areas, it helps “guide” how strongly you will respond to what you sense in your body (i.e., is this sensation something dangerous or benign?). It is also heavily involved in experiencing/feeling empathy.
• Amygdala: the alarm system of the brain, what most refer to as the “Fear Center.” It’s a part of the brain that is responsible for many of our initial emotional responses and reactions, including the “fight-or-flight” response. (Along with the Insula, this is what we referred to as the Uh Oh Center.)

The Brain Without Meditation – Stuck on Me

If you were to look at people’s brains before they began a meditation practice, you would likely see strong neural connections within the Me Center and between the Me Center and the bodily sensation/fear centers of the brain. This means that whenever you feel anxious, scared or have a sensation in your body (e.g., a tingling, pain, itching, whatever), you are far more likely to assume that there is a problem (related to you or your safety). This is precisely because the Me Center is processing the bulk of the information. What’s more, this over-reliance on the Me Center explains how it is that we often get stuck in repeating loops of thought about our life, mistakes we made, how people feel about us, our bodies (e.g., “I’ve had this pain before, does this mean something serious is going on?) and so on.

Why is the Me Center allowed to process information this way, essentially unabated? The reason this happens, in part, is because the Assessment Center’s connection to the Me Center is relatively weak. If the Assessment Center was working at a higher capacity, it would modulate the excessive activity of the vmPFC (the part that takes things personally) and enhance the activity of the dmPFC (the part involved in understanding other’s thoughts and feelings). This would lead us to take in all the relevant information, discard erroneous data (that the Me Center might want to focus on exclusively) and view whatever is happening from a more balanced perspective – essentially decreasing the overthinking, ruminating and worrying that the Me Center is famous for promulgating. One helpful way to think of the Assessment Center is as a sort of “brake” for the unhelpful parts of the Me Center.

The Brain on Meditation – I Can See Clearly Now

In contrast, if you meditate on a regular basis, several positive things happen. First, the strong, tightly held connection between the Me Center (specifically the unhelpful vmPFC) and the bodily sensation/fear centers begins to break down. As this connection withers, you will no longer assume that a bodily sensation or momentary feeling of fear means something is wrong with you or that you are the problem! This explains, in part, why anxiety decreases the more you meditate – it’s because the neural paths that link those upsetting sensations to the Me Center are decreasing. Said another way, your ability to ignore sensations of anxiety is enhanced as you begin to break that connection between the unhelpful parts of the Me Center and the bodily sensation/fear centers. As a result, you are more readily able to see those sensations for what they are and not respond as strongly to them (thanks to your strengthened Assessment Center).

Second, a heftier, healthier connection forms between the Assessment Center and bodily sensation/fear centers. This means that when you experience a bodily sensation or something potentially dangerous or upsetting, you are able to look at it from a more rational perspective (rather than automatically reacting and assuming it has something to do with you). For example, when you experience pain, rather than becoming anxious and assuming it means something is wrong with you, you can watch the pain rise and fall without becoming ensnared in a story about what it might mean.

Finally, an added bonus of meditating is that the connection between the helpful aspects of the Me Center (i.e. dorsomedial prefrontal cortex) – the part involved in processing information related to people we perceive as being not like us – and the bodily sensation center – involved in empathy – becomes stronger. This healthy connection enhances your capacity to understand where another person is coming from, especially those who you cannot intuitively understand because you think or perceive things differently from them (i.e., dissimilar others). This increased connection explains why meditation enhances empathy – it helps us use the part of the brain that infers other people’s states of mind, their motivations, desires, dreams and so on, while simultaneously activating the part of the brain involved in the actual experience of empathy (insula). The end result is that we are more able to put ourselves in another person’s shoes (especially those not like us), thereby increasing our ability to feel empathy and compassion for everyone.

Daily Practice is Important

Essentially, the science “proves” what we know to be true from the actual experience of meditating. What the data demonstrate is that meditation facilitates strengthening the Assessment Center, weakening the unhelpful aspects of the Me Center (that can cause you to take things personally), strengthening the helpful parts of the Me Center (involved with empathy and understanding others) and changing the connections to/from the bodily sensation/fear centers such that you experience sensations in a less reactive, more balanced and holistic way. In a very real way, you literally are changing your brain for the better when you meditate.

In the end, this means that you are able to see yourself and everyone around you from a clearer perspective, while simultaneously being more present, compassionate and empathetic with people no matter the situation. With time and practice, people do truly become calmer, have a greater capacity for empathy and find they tend to respond in a more balanced way to things, people or events in their lives.

However, to maintain your gains, you have to keep meditating. Why? Because the brain can very easily revert back to its old ways if you are not vigilant (I’m referencing the idea of neuroplasticity here). This means you have to keep meditating to ensure that the new neural pathways you worked so hard to form stay strong.

To me, this amazing brain science and the very real rewards gained from meditation combine to form a compelling argument for developing and/or maintaining a daily practice. It definitely motivates me on those days I don’t “feel” like sitting. So, try to remind yourself that meditating every day, even if it’s only 15 minutes, will keep those newly formed connections strong and those unhelpful ones of the past at bay.

Addendum: For those wanting to start a meditation practice or who might be experiencing emotional issues, memories, etc. when meditating, please seek out an experienced medtiation teacher. I have received some comments from people stating they do not believe meditation works (which is likely true for some people) or that it could be harmful if done incorrectly. Obviously, meditation has been very positive for me, but I have always worked with a meditation teacher or mentor and I would suggest you do the same, as a teacher can help you figure out what is right for you and guide you through any difficulties you may be having.

About the Author

Rebecca Gladding, M.D., is an author of the book, You Are Not Your Brain, co-written with Jeffrey M. Schwartz, M.D. Dr. Gladding served as a clinical instructor and attending psychiatrist at UCLA and was featured in A&E’s critically acclaimed series Obsessed. She is an expert in anxiety, depression, mindfulness and the Four Steps. More of Dr. Gladding’s excellent articles can be read on her blog Use Your Mind to Change Your Brain on PsychologyToday.com.

This article was originally published on PsychologyToday.com.