What Are Binaural Beats and Why Should You Care?
The Scientific Breakthrough That You Have Been Waiting For!
There has been a considerable amount of press recently about “binaural beats” but much of the information can be very technical. This article will explain in simple terms what binaural beats are, and how you can benefit by listening to them.
The easiest way to understand binaural beats is to explain that it is simply a different sound tone sent to each ear at the same time. Your right ear gets one tone, and the left ear gets a slightly different tone. Our brain has an amazing ability to “merge” the two tones to form a third tone. The reason this third tone isn’t just sent to both ears directly and simultaneously is because the best tones to change our brainwave patterns are at frequencies lower than the human ear can detect. But by sending two tones that the ear can detect, these tones can form the elusive third low tone that our ears cannot normally detect.
Why is changing our brainwave pattern important? Because there are distinct brainwave patterns, and researchers in the last 40 years have discovered that our brains work in different ways when operating within these different patterns. There are five distinct recognized brainwave patterns, each with unique mental and functional characteristics, described below.
These brainwave patterns can be achieved by practicing meditation, but that is difficult, time consuming, and challenging. In contrast, binaural beats encourage our brains to automatically shift into these enhanced brainwave patterns quickly and effortlessly.
The easiest analogy to describe improved brainwave patterns is to think of defragging a computer hard drive. Information and data is scattered about a hard drive, and defragging organizes those files so they can be easily accessed. Binaural beats do not move information around in our brains, but they do help the brain to function more coherently, more efficiently, naturally, and binaural beat induced brainwave patterns can stimulate portions of the brain that normally lie dormant. There can be significant benefits by activating these portions of the brain.
When we stimulate our brains in specific ways using binaural beats, our brain and bodies will respond accordingly. We can improve creativity, improve memory and concentration, induce sleep, improve learning, and even go into higher states of consciousness that would otherwise only be experience during very deep and prolonged meditation.
Scientists are still discovering more about sound and brainwave patterns, but enough is known to help people in their day to day lives by simply lying down or sitting in a chair and listening to recordings of these simple tones. Sometimes other music or natural sounds, including “white noise” are played along with the tones, but these are just for pleasure and do not interfere with the binaural beats process. They are quite pleasant to listen to, and you will usually notice yourself shifting into either a relaxed state, or a very alert and focused state, depending on the tones you are listening to.
| Gamma Wave Pattern | “Higher” mental activity, including reasoning, analysis, perception, problem solving, etc. take place in the Gamma wave pattern. |
| Beta Wave Pattern | Similar to this is the Beta brainwave pattern, in which we experience active, busy, or anxious thinking, active concentration. The brain is really “working” hard trying to find solutions to our conscious problems in this state. |
| Alpha Wave Pattern | The Alpha pattern is where we start to relax, calm down, and tap into more “subconscious” functions while awake, including pre-sleep, and this state is what you are operating in right before you wake up if you feel drowsiness. |
| Theta Wave Pattern | As we relax further, we enter the Theta brainwave pattern where we experience REM sleep, vivid dreams, and experience a deep sense of peace and intuitive “knowing”. |
| Delta Wave Pattern | Finally, there is also the Delta brainwave pattern, where we experience deep dreamless sleep, and if conscious, we can experience a loss of body awareness. It is in this state that we can experience our biggest “breakthroughs” or insights, and experience a connection to a sense of a “higher power”. |
The Five Major Brainwave Patterns & Descriptions of Activity
Binaural beats are commonly used to induce relaxed states so that self-hypnosis or hypnotherapy can take place with much greater effectiveness. It is much easier to “reprogram” our thinking, or to adopt positive mental suggestions during very relaxed states. The more relaxed, the better!
Binaural Beats are a scientific breakthrough that you can use to improve your life drastically when used in conjunction with self-hypnosis recordings.
