Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010 at
2:42 pm

To begin with, the best meditation CDs are not the “sounds of nature” or “mellow jazz” recordings that are sometimes sold to help one relax or meditate. Without a doubt some of these can help you relax, and possibly even help you get into a meditative state. This is even more likely if you enjoy listening to a specific one.
On the other hand, if it is just something pleasant and relaxing to listen to, there is no need to pay extra for this kind of recording. In fact, you may already own some relaxing music that you enjoy. If so, why not just use that?
Then there is the music that actually affects your brainwaves more directly. This includes some pieces by Bach and other classical composers. It was discovered decades ago that some music has a meditative effect on your brain when listened to, particularly if you are sitting or otherwise relaxing. Baroque music in particular is more likely to have this effect, although probably just certain pieces, according to the number of beats-per-minute in the tune.
Naturally, once people were using certain classical and other musical compositions for meditation, scientists looked into why they work. This was the beginning of our understanding of brainwave entrainment. When we listen to recordings with a certain pattern or beat, our brains tend to follow that pattern. Our brainwaves are altered or “entrained” into a particular frequency. If that happens to be the frequency in the alpha range (8 – 14 hertz), we have entered a meditative state.
But the best meditation CDs are not those with classical music, nor even those with the specific pieces proven to have some effect. These may affect our brainwave patterns, but they may do so only partially or during certain musical movements. After all, they were not designed for the purpose of assisting us in meditating.
The good news is that many companies have now developed recordings that are designed for the purpose of brainwave entrainment. Some use sounds of nature (the ones with rain are really soothing), and others use music, but those are just for background. Specific beats and sounds are embedded in the recording in order to lead your brain into a meditative state. All you have to do is sit down and listen with headphones. These make meditating easy for anyone.
You can enter into various levels with products like these. Some are designed for light meditation, meaning your brainwaves will be in the Alpha range. Others will take you down into the Theta range (4 – 8 hertz). The ones that take you into the theta range or even deeper are also a great tool for going to sleep if you lay down while listening.
These products can be bought individually, one CD at a time. If you start that way you’ll want to get one that is meant for light meditation. You can also get programs that include several recordings, though. These will usually be designed so each takes you to a deeper level of meditation. In any case, the best meditation CDs are definitely those that are specifically designed for brainwave entrainment.
By: Steven Gillman
Thursday, January 28th, 2010 at
7:50 am

Recent studies and researches of Neuroscience prove that there’s great possibility for the brain to be able to repair itself. This information could help scientists discover new ways of defeating conditions/disease like Parkinson and Alzheimer.
Scientists have come to the conclusion that our brain generates new brain cells all the time. After these general purpose cells are created, they are divided and start to self-transform and move through areas of the brain containing damaged or unhealthy cells. The new healthy cells are then taking the place of the destroyed cells.
Your brain creates a pathway for cells only, so they can move from one area of the brain to the other, replacing damaged cells on the way. The understanding of how this complicated cell pathway works is really important and scientists all over the world are making experiments to discover how this system works.
What challenges the scientists is to understand how these new cells are created and how they are moving through the brain identifying problem areas and transforming to replace the old and unhealthy cells. Is there a way to help this process of generating, new cells? After years of research on rats scientists have discovered that we can actually increase the production rate of healthy cells and we can further clear the way (cell pathway) for the cells to move through the brain into problem areas and replace destroyed cells quickly and effectively.
Here are some more facts you need to know:
Your body is one magnificent self-repairing mechanism/system. Its core/base lies on the brain. For years, this ability of our brain to repair itself (and the rest of the body) has been underestimated and replaced by conventional ideas/medicine. Its time for people to learn that they can actually heal themselves and recover from any condition/illness/disease by only using their brains and understanding the facts.
The more we look and understand how our brain and body works the more we can develop the ability of natural self healing. Illness comes from within and can only be healed from within. The more we realize that chemicals, drugs or medication have nothing to do with genuine health, the better we can achieve a natural self-healing body.
Use your brain to actively help your body regenerate and heal itself. But how can you do that? The first step will be to fully understand and believe in the idea that your brain is a self-healing machine. Belief is the key concept. So, believe. Take full responsibility for your condition/situation and use your mind to start a self-healing process. It’s up to you really.
By: Maria Markella
Saturday, January 23rd, 2010 at
4:05 pm

Binaural beats operate at different frequencies and are designed to quickly and easily take your brain into different states. Theta binaural beats are programmed to induce the patterns that your brain runs when it is in either deep sleep or a deep meditative state.
Binaural beats work by playing slightly different frequencies into your ears. When your brain tries to resolve the minor difference between the two beats you’re hearing, they take you quickly and effortlessly into the brainwave level that you’ve decided to listen to.
In case you want to program your own, the frequency range for Theta is between 4 and 7 Hz.
Various trials have shown that this level encourages your brain to make the “feel good” things called endorphins.
One of the other reasons for choosing the theta level when you consider buying a binaural beats MP3 is that they are generally considered to help with learning. Studies have also shown that people listening to them on a regular basis find that they need less sleep – reports vary from between one and four hours less, depending on the person.
Because the theta frequency level is associated with dreaming, you may well come across them when you are searching for items to help you dream – whether that’s lucid dreamingor just the quest to banish sleepless nights.
Theta level binaural beats are also associated with increases in memory as well as learning that was mentioned earlier. Because of the way they operate, this can help you to learn topics when other methods haven’t been successful.
Research shows that children spend a lot more time with their brains in a theta state than adults do. Which helps to explain why children can soak up information as though they were a sponge, whereas adults can often take longer. It’s kind of the same as the saying “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks”. Maybe the equivalent in humans is at least in part to do with a lower level of theta brainwave activity.
You may also come across binaural beat MP3s and CD that use the alpha brainwave level for learning – this works as well as the theta level. So don’t panic if you come across different levels of brainwave entrainment being used to the same thing.
Quite a lot of the experiments to prove the effectiveness of binaural beats have been done by an organization called the Monroe Institute. They tend to combine their use with other systems, such as hypnosis.
One thing to be aware of if you are buying any sort of audio with binaural beats included is that the compression used should be as low as possible. Technologies such as MP3 are designed to compress file sizes by cutting out parts of recordings that we don’t normally listen to. Typically this includes things such as binaural beats. So you need to make sure that you’re getting what you think you’re purchasing. It’s often better to wait a few days for a CD to arrive but if the download you’re looking at is large, chances are that it will also be uncompressed.
By: Trevor Johnson