What is Brainwave Entrainment, and Does It Really Have Anything to Do with Hypnosis? A Brief Introduction

I still remember vividly that day in the early 90s when a student in the college freshman composition class I was teaching came by my office and said, "Sir, you've got to try this. It makes you feel like you're on drugs without any side-effects."

He handed me a little vinyl bag containing some headphones, some funny-looking goggles, a box full of electronic circuitry, and a power cord. Curious as to what it would feel like to do recreational drugs—something I've always avoided because I've observed the damage addiction can cause—I hooked it all up, turned it on, and put on the blinky-light goggles and the headphones.

About forty-five minutes later, I took them off, profoundly disappointed that I really didn't feel much of anything. The lights had seemed an awful lot like what I see when I stare at the inside of my eyelids anyway.

That was my first encounter with Brainwave Entrainment.

Now, the idea behind BWE is that by modifying our brainwaves, we can enter into different states of consciousness that may be beneficial to us. I won't go into great detail here because there is a lot of information on this topic on the web, and I'd rather let you learn about it from experts than from me.

After the electro-encephalogram (EEG) was invented in the early twentieth century, scientists were able to measure brain waves, and they began to categorize the waves numerically. Beta waves, associated with normal waking awareness, fluctuate from 13 to 40 Hz. Alpha waves, associated with visualization, relaxation, and creativity, range from 7 to 12 Hz. Theta waves, said to indicate meditation, are a bit lower on the scale, 4 to 7 Hz. Below 4 Hz lies the Delta brainwave state, associated with deep sleep. Highly agitated states are said to be associated with the over-40 Hz Gamma waves.

The theory behind light and sound machines (i.e. the headphones and the blinky goggles) and BWE audio recordings is that by flashing lights or playing tones at certain frequencies, the machines induce your brainwaves to synchronize with the input, thus causing states of relaxation, meditation, or even sleep. Advocates often trumpet brainwave entrainment as a way to get the benefits of meditation without the years of practice; teenagers caused a big scare a few years ago by claiming that mp3s with entrainment tones could simulate the effects of various drugs, a practice called "i-dosing." Quite a few hypnotists include entrainment tones in their recordings or live sessions because it is simple to do, and the worst case scenario is that they have no added benefit.

Now, an awful lot of hypnosis books like to start with a discussion of brainwave states, often with very scientific looking charts, because it makes what we do appear more exact and scientific. Many want to associate hypnotic trance with the Alpha or Theta states. However, as has been pointed out by some critics, a client having an abreaction or a stage volunteer dancing may very well be experiencing Gamma waves or other brain wave frequencies. Ultimately, beyond a little scientific window-dressing, measurable brainwave states are really not an integral part of most hypnotherapy.

Ultimately, I find that L&S machines are far from being necessary in my practice. Nonetheless, I've encountered the rare client who says, "The only thing that ever got me in hypnosis is one of those machines." Rather than argue definitions of hypnosis with the client, I give them the hypnosis they want, the hypnosis that works best for them. I also find that I enjoy using L&S machines, even if I'm not convinced that they always do what they claim. (I'd love to put them on someone wearing a brain scanner and just read the results to see how well they match.) In fact, I often find that an L&S machine, even one set for deep trance, can keep me in a light, focused trance state that is ideal for self-hypnosis and shamanic trancing; of course, beating on a shaman drum while trancing has the same effect on me.

Because the next few reviews are going to discuss brainwave entrainment technology, both hardware and software, I want to take the rest of this article to just cover a little bit of terminology.

Binaural beats, monaural beats, and isochronic tones are all different forms of auditory entrainment. Detailed and technical descriptions are easily available on the Internet.

Audiostrobe is another term that will come up. Most L&S machines can read an Audiostrobe file—it is essentially a uniform protocol that allows machines made by different companies to reproduce the same (or very similar) light shows along with identical music and BWE tones, much the way that any CD player can play any CD, or any mp3 player can play any mp3, even if the CD or the mp3 were not produced by the same company as the player.

Now, the reason Audiostrobe works is actually pretty simple. The video information is encoded as a sound at a supersonic frequency; in other words, it's too high-pitched for the human ear to hear, kind of like a dog whistle. However, any Audiostrobe-ready L&S machine can "hear" the tone and "play" it as flashing lights in the goggles. In order for the video programming to come through, the mp3 must be created at top fidelity.

Now, this format would be the basis for a whole new art form, except that the creators of Audiostrobe want a big slice of licensing pie any time someone uses their idea, and creators of software for Audiostrobe design also want hefty licensing fees. Industry insiders informed recently that a court ruling determined that anyone can use the idea and the technology; only the use of the term Audiostrobe requires licensing. Of course, a little searching on the Internet will turn up information on how to create your own license-free video programming for any device that is Audiostrobe ready, but it's not an easy process. More on that in a later article.

And that's about as technical as I want to get. Stay tuned for reviews of some really fun hardware and software for brainwave entrainment.