Gathering Information On Brainwaves

Brainwave manipulation is no joke, it is very real. But I'm not talking about little aliens running around shooting rayguns to hyptnotize you, I'm speaking of the ability to use sound, light and electricity to induce an altered state in the mind.

Here are the basic Brainwaves:

State ------- Frequency range -------- State of mind
Delta ---------- 0.5Hz - 4Hz ------------- Deep sleep
Theta ---------- 4Hz - 8Hz ---------Drowsiness (also first stage of sleep)
Alpha ---------- 8Hz - 14Hz ----------- Relaxed but alert
Beta ---------- 14Hz - 30Hz -------- Highly alert and focused

Those are the most common brainwaves found in your head at any time of day (there are many more of course; the brain is not that simple).

Lets say you are wide awake ( beta ) and you heard a 4 hz tone. Slowly, but surley, you would become 'entraced' to that tone. This is called frequency following response.

How can we hear a 4 Hz tone tho?

Easily. When two seperate tones are played at the same time, and there in a difference between the tones, we hear what is called a beat. Because the human ear cannot hear below 20Hz we have to take two tones (above 20hz) and play them at the same time to get a difference of 4 Hz.

Ex. 63hz (left ear) --- 4 hz 'beat' --- 67Hz (right ear)
--->This is the Formula for a BINAURAL BEAT

Ex. 63Hz (both speakers) - 4 hz 'beat' - 67 Hz. (both speakers)
---> This is the formula for a MONAURAL BEAT

The difference between the two is not just in the way they are played. The difference is the resulant wave. For instance, lets assume you are waering headphones and hear both tones (63 & 67) in each ear. This would result in a 4hz 'beat' in each ear, which (depending on how you programed the sounds) amplify eachother, or cancel eachother out. This method is concidered under par, although i do not see why as it seems more effective in theory.

With seperate tones in each ear you have to seperate waves meeting and creating a 4 hz tone near the center of your head. A standing wave that echoes in the scull and causes entrainment.

More info and a demo of BWGEN ---- >www.bwgen.com




Now my questions.

- The brain is not simply one tone that determines your state of mind and emotions. What are some of the other dominant brainwaves that should be took into concideration when attempting to alter ones brainwaves?
- Do these other brainwaves need attention?
- And how to entrain the brain. An full explanation of the physics behind it all is greatly appreciated.

I pulled out my first year university physics book and looked up beat frequencies, and you have that exactly right. In your example of a 63Hz sound and a 67Hz sound, you would get a 4Hz beat, the difference of the two frequencies. If the 63&67 Hz sounds reach your ears simultaneously, your ear also detects the average of the two, in this case 65Hz.

I also saw a documentary once about some paranormal researchers (don't worry, relevance will appear in a moment!) who were checking out some houses that were supposed to be haunted. The paranormal team brought in these sensors that pick up low frequencies, and found that in areas that people feel the strange, spooky, fearful feelings like you are being watched, or someone is in the room with you, are often produced when something nearby is producing a frequency of about 20Hz. As you noted already, this is too low for humans to hear. So my point is if sound waves at 20Hz can do that to the human brain, maybe other frequencies do other things?

One thing my physics book also mentions about beats is that this concept is used by musicians to tune instruments to particular frequencies. This means that musicians are often exposing themselves to low frequencies similar to those in your basic brainwave list. And, as far as I know, those musicians don't have any significant changes occuring in their brains while they do this, though maybe they aren't 'entrained', as that website puts it.

I was thinking of trying this after looking at that website. They have a program to produce beats on your speaker. They claim it can reduce learning time and sleeping time, which would be awesome, so I was going to play it on my computer while I slept, but then I saw this:

WARNING!
The following people should not use brain entrainment products like BrainWave Generator:
People subject to any forms of seizures or epilepsy
People using pacemakers
People suffering from cardiac arrhythmia or other heart disorders
People taking stimulants, psychoactive drugs, or tranquilizers

Without going into specifics, I fall in that list, so I'm not going to try it. I am curious why people in that list shouldn't try it though; the website doesn't explain.

Yes those warnings are there because the efects of the stimulus plus drugs can have massive effects (both positive and negative). Just like flashing light causes seizures, "flashing" sound (the 'beat') could result in a seizure (also untested)

basically its a list of warnings of things that havent been tested

Does anybody in the Toronto area happend to have the National Post for Monday October 3rd? It actually has an article in it about exactly this. Apparently they can already read thoughts and soon will be able to generate thoughts. It's an elaborate network of electrodes that relays information to the viewers. I'll try and dig it up.

Originally posted by Linux
Does anybody in the Toronto area happend to have the National Post for Monday October 3rd? It actually has an article in it about exactly this. Apparently they can already read thoughts and soon will be able to generate thoughts. It's an elaborate network of electrodes that relays information to the viewers. I'll try and dig it up.

I dont think they can do that via a regular computer or even via a supercomputer. They would need one of them' rumored supercomputers to generate a thought, because a thought usually concists of an emotion, and it would require something like a quantum computer to generate or reproduce the effects of a thought.

And no sorry, I dont live in the Toronto Area.

Originally posted by ivanglam
I dont think they can do that via a regular computer or even via a supercomputer. They would need one of them' rumored supercomputers to generate a thought, because a thought usually concists of an emotion, and it would require something like a quantum computer to generate or reproduce the effects of a thought.

Your right, I found the article and it only says its theoretically possible. However it says they can already read thoughts, I will be scanning and uploading the article later on tonight. Stay tuned.

Originally posted by Linux
Your right, I found the article and it only says its theoretically possible. However it says they can already read thoughts, I will be scanning and uploading the article later on tonight. Stay tuned.

Interesting.. I'm asuming, by 'read your thoughts' they mean record similar brainwaves and compare them to see if there are any similarities to a certian degree of accuracy.

But anyway, back to my origional question.. anyone know anything else about the physics beind brainwaves? Like Full appliacation?

For more starting info, visit Brainwave Generator.com

[edit on 10/10/05 by ivanglam]

How perfect is it that I found this thread again. Just the other day while in chat, some of us were discussing the brain.



Don't look at me in that tone of voice, don't want to hear it.


Besides, what other reason would I have for bumping this.