. . . one . . .”
Okay, okay, you’re right. I’ve seen too many Star Trek reruns as a child. Okay, I’ve seen too many Star Trek reruns as a child and as an adult. But the truth is these kinds of experiments have been done extensively, just without the Ken Adam movie sets. Through an EEG, we can measure the electrical activity of the brain, and we can recognize various states of focus as they correlate to certain kinds of brainwave activity. Our brains actually generate enough electricity to light a ten watt light bulb, which, I guess means we are all pretty dim, if you take that at face value. But, as it turns out, it’s the kind of electrical activity that counts. After decades of research, studies have demonstrated that different brainwave patterns directly correlate to different states of being. According to sound researcher Dr. Jeffrey Thompson at the Center for Neuroacoustic Research, although there are no universally accepted standards for where one state breaks into another, science on our planet has traditionally divided brainwave activity into four major states:
•Beta (13-30 Hz) Concentrated mental ability, concrete problem solving, speaking
•Alpha (8-13 Hz) Calm and relaxed
•Theta (4-7 Hz) Deep meditation, dreaming, creative states, access to the unconscious
•Delta (½-4 Hz) Sleep state, access to intuition and psychic phenomena
Now, if you are not a sound engineer, don’t let the “Hz” throw you. Hz simply stands for “hertz” which means cycles per second or how “energetic” the electrical activity is. Once again, imagine that you are at the beach. Déjà vu, huh? When you watch a wave, you identify it by seeing the trough immediately before it, which then rises to a peak and then goes back down again. From trough to peak to trough again is one cycle. Simply put, a higher Hz level just means choppier waves, going by faster: more waves per second. And a low number of cycles per second would be like those subtle slow swells in the waves that you see farther from shore. It really just reflects faster or slower electrical brainwave activity, which makes sense when you think about it. When we are anxious or excited, we are thinking “lots of thoughts” and when we relax, our brains “slow down” and our thinking feels more spacious.
Of course, at any moment, you have lots of different kinds of waves in your head, but one range of wavelength is typically more dominant than others, so if you have a lot of activity in the 13-30 Hz wavelength (i.e., a lot of waves going by), we would say you were in a Beta state with your mind and body alert and engaged with life. You are probably talking or shopping or thinking analytically about that loser you went out with last night and how you are beginning to wonder whether you should have spent all that money on online dating after all.
Now, close your eyes, take a deep breath, and exhale, saying the Universal Mantra of Relaxation: “Ahhhhhhh.” You are now beginning to generate slower alpha waves.
Did you do it? Feels nice, huh? See, you are more like the Dalai Lama already. Look at you, leaping ahead on your spiritual journey, even before you finish reading this book, you rascal, you.
If we had you hooked up to the electrical spaghetti swim cap wired to the Univac that they call an electroencephalograph or EEG, we would see more activity in the 8-13 Hz alpha range. Enough alpha waves that you will find yourself feeling relaxed, but focused. This can be useful for light meditation, internal mental reflection (i.e., “pondering,” if you will), and, if the alpha state is not too deep, maybe doing some really effective studying.
Legend has it that Thomas Edison so valued this creative twilight arena just before deep sleep that he would nap in an armchair with metal ball-bearings in each hand, positioned over steel bowls. As he dozed, his hands would relax slowly until, eventually, he dropped the ball bearings into the bowls. Their clatter awakened him in the middle of what was very likely an Alpha state or light Theta state. Judging by the, oh, one or two productive ideas that came out of his head, I would say it worked for him.
Edgar Cayce had a name for this zone between wakefulness and slumber; he called it “pre-sleep.” He said that the mind was very amenable to instructions in this state, and he helped a young mother successfully cure her child of bed-wetting by having her make audible suggestions as he drifted off to slumber land.
The next level “down,” Theta states (4-7 Hz), involving long, slow brainwaves, are associated with deeper, visionary states of meditation, spontaneous problem solving, and psychic experiences, including out-of-body experiences.
Delta states (.5 to 4 Hz) are associated with sleep, but also shamanic or mystical experiences—important to know if you want to do some shape-shifting or soul retrieval. (Where the hell is that thing? I swear I put it my jacket pocket when I left the house. God, I hope nobody stole it! Talk about identity theft! Jeez.)
So now that we know where we “need to be,” (neurologically speaking) to access mystical experiences, greater intuition, and deep meditation, how do we flip the switch?
Well, first we have to climb into our time machine, fire up the flux capacitor, and go back a few years. Relax and get in. The leather bucket seats have bun warmers so you won’t get cold. I bought it used with all the options. As you can see, there is a lot more legroom in here than in the Back to the Future car. Bear with me while we leap backward on our spiritual journey.
The year is 1839, and the handsome Prussian gentleman before you with the moustache and graying temples is one Heinrich Wilhelm Dove, known as Hiney to his friends, I am sure. If he were from Texas, like me, where everybody has two names, they would probably just call him Richey Bill.
But I digress.
Perhaps you noticed.
Richey Bill, er, Heinrich was quite the man of letters, now regarded by some as a pioneer in the field of meteorology, early experimental physics, and natural sciences. There is even a crater on the moon named for him, the Richey Bill Crater.
Just kidding, it’s called the Hiney Hole.
Okay, so it’s called the Dove Crater; it’s just north of the crater Pitiscus. Inquiring minds want to know.
For those of you not laughing, I am aghast, aghast, I tell you, at this brief detour into scatological humor. How this escaped my editor is completely beyond me. Spirituality is very serious business. Shame, shame on me.
For those of you smiling, thank you for remembering that we take all this enlightenment stuff too seriously sometimes. Come and see me at my next workshop. We will laugh our butts off and leap forward.
So, before you are gone too long from the present and your jerkwagon of a boss thinks you are on an extended Red Bull break, here is what is important about Heinrich. He noted that if you sent a musical tone to one ear of, say, 200 Hz, and then another slightly higher tone of, say 210Hz, to the other ear that this confused the brain, which then manufactured an experience of a “phantom tone” which was the difference between two frequencies, 10 Hz. You might remember from high school biology that the nerve endings in the right ear connect up with the left part of the brain and the nerve endings in the left ear go to the right part of your brain. Apparently, Mother Nature, in her infinite wisdom, decided it was a good idea for us to be born with our wires crossed. In any case, since both hemispheres of the brain were involved in the experience, your entire meat computer begins to attune or entrain to this frequency and starts buzzing along at 10 Hz. Hiney called the phenomena binaural beat frequencies, now often abbreviated BBF. It sounds like something nightclub disc jockeys with too many pierced body parts generate on weekends. But, stay with me. Binaural simply means “two ears hearing,” like you ladies always wish your husband would do.
