Brainwave Entrainment - Theory and Application

Brain Wave Entrainment: Theory and Application

Abstract

Researchers have been investigating various forms of brainwave entrainment (BWE) for more than 50 years. Yet, few of us have ever heard of it or even know what it is. Consequently, the purpose of this paper is two-fold. The first objective is to establish a brief historical perspective on the evolution of brainwave manipulation theory for the purpose of discerning its applicability in everyday life. This requires the presentation of sufficient information for readers to arrive at an answer to the question, "would I use this technology myself?"

The second section explores how this technology is aiding researched, and being developed and sold in the marketplace. Where is it found in our societies and how is it being used? Perhaps most importantly, how can it be implemented most effectively to serve the greater good?

Brain Wave Entrainment: Theory and Application

For centuries scientists around the globe have pondered, researched and argued over the inner world of human beings. While the natural science approach to understanding the human body has advanced by leaps and bounds over the past few hundred years, the function and processes of the human brain have remained largely shrouded in mystery, it's functional anatomy beyond the common man's realm of understanding and investigation.

Recent discoveries involving brain wave entrainment (BWE) have come from university research facilities as well as the studios of sound engineers who create audio production software any user can manipulate in tenths of seconds and frequency by frequency. These software, called binaural beat generators, including Neuroprogrammer III from Transparent Corp. (a research company), gnaural from Sourceforge (a software designer), or DDtMM from an internet audiophile, can all be used to construct specific BWE audio recordings for the purpose of achieving personally pre-defined dominant brain wave frequencies. Different dominant frequencies have been shown to represent various states of consciousness from anxious and excited to sound asleep (Bansal, N., Kaur, N., and Rana, S. n.d., p. 12)

Available on the world market under many brand names, models, and methodologies, brain wave entrainment (BWE) products have flooded the marketplace in recent years as more and more practitioners, skilled and unskilled alike; develop products for the self-help marketplace. This evolving area in the field of neuropsychology includes a diverse population of highly educated doctorates from around the world as well as the computer savvy kid down the street who tripped over a free binaural beat generator online while searching for music-making software.

Scholars from diverse disciplines like neurology, neurophysiology, information technology, and software engineering are providing new knowledge and tools for examining and assessing just what goes on inside our heads, and perhaps more interestingly, that we can utilize external tools like BWE to understand and possibly create our own unique internal environment.

This is a bright and rapidly expanding area of study where researchers across many disciplines continue to do groundbreaking well controlled studies in support of a wide range of diagnoses. These include relief from maladies like alcoholism and depression, to claims of increased learning potential and profoundly deep meditation. Well-recognized institutions across the U.S. including The Monroe Institute of Applied Sciences in Virginia, The Center for Neuroacoustic Research in California, and several university medical centers including John's Hopkins in New York City, have produced positive peer reviewed results in study after study utilizing BWE.

But how does BWE work, and most importantly, is it a viable resource for unlocking some of the mystery surrounding the workings of the human brain? Can it heal the body, make us smarter, or help us meditate our way to happiness? Moreover, can personally determined modifications through BWE be beneficial in advancing an individual's human experience?

To the contrary, other sources suggest that BWE type technology is already being applied in many ways all around us in society today. Its uses include powerful suggestions not to steal imbedded in store music to military use on the battlefield, though few people are aware of its existence and the resultant effect on the mind. Research indicates BWE can sway the mind through the ears in much the same way subliminal visual advertising can influence the mind through the eyes. Reports as far back as the 1950's demonstrate that the military aspects of BWE have been explored for quite some time and implemented as recently as the Gulf War (Gray, 2005, pp. 8-12). This paper however, will focus on the personal understanding of BWE and its application for enhancing human life.

Defining Terms

The necessity for specific agreement on the terminology of this field became apparent while doing research, the meanings of words becoming muddled from one source to another. Much of the literature readily available to the consumer comes from within the commercial industry selling the products to accomplish it. Disparities in terminology are particularly found between the commercial industry and the arena of scholarly research. Therefore, for the purposes of this paper, specific definitions are supplied for key terms wherein defining information has been extracted from peer reviewed sources and reference materials upon which most concur.

According to Merriam-Webster's online dictionary (2011), the commonly used word, brainwave, is not a word at all, but a composition of the words, brain and wave, which is defined: "1. rhythmic fluctuations of voltage between parts of the brain resulting in the flow of an electric current (Merriam-Webster, 2011, brainwave). As well, Merriam-Webster defines entrainment: "to determine or modify the phase or period of <circadian rhythms entrained by a light cycle>" (2011, entrainment). To summarize these definitions, brain wave entrainment means to be able to change the brain's electrical current as it fluctuates through the brain.

A more comprehensive definition as it applies in this research is found within the commercial industry. Huang and Charyton (2008) in their paper, A Comprehensive Review of the Psychological Effects of Brainwave Entrainment, define brainwave entrainment, "the use of rhythmic stimuli with the intention of producing a frequency-following response of brainwaves to match the frequency of the stimuli" (p. 38). This definition closely matches and then elaborates