Abstract

Exposure to binaural beats in an environment of restricted stimulation coupled with a guidance process can safely provide access to and experiences in many propitious states of consciousness. This method requires a unique combination of well-understood psycho-physiological inductive techniques with the addition of a refined binaural-beat technology.

Binaural beats provide potential consciousness-altering information to the brain's reticular activating system. The reticular activating system in turn interprets and reacts to this information by stimulating the thalamus and cortex thereby altering arousal states, attentional focus, and the level of awareness, i.e., the elements of consciousness itself. This effective binaural-beat process offers a wide variety of beneficial applications and vehicle for the exploration of expanded states of consciousness.

Keywords: consciousness - altered states

Introduction

The audio phenomenon known as binaural beating can be used to access altered states of consciousness. This is done through a process in which individuals in an environment of restricted stimulation willfully focus attentional processes on a combination of multiplexed audio binaural beats that are mixed with music, pink sound, and/or assorted natural sounds. In most cases the process also includes breathing exercises, guided relaxation, affirmation, and visualization. The binaural-beat element of the process appears to be associated with an electoencephalographic (EEG) frequency-following response in the brain.

Many studies have demonstrated the presence of a frequency-following response to auditory stimuli, recorded at the vertex of the human brain (top of the head). This EEG activity was termed "frequency-following response" because its period (cycles per second) corresponds to the fundamental frequency of the stimulus (Smith, Marsh, & Brown 1975). Stated plainly, if the audio stimulus is 40 Hz the resulting measured EEG will show a 40 Hz frequency-following response using appropriate time-domain averaging protocols.

Binaural-beat stimulation, coupled with the effects of the other procedures within the process outlined above, appears to regulate neuronal activity and encourage access to propitious mental states. The effectiveness of binaural beats in engendering state changes is supported by the consistent reports of thousands of users, as well as the documentation of physiological changes associated with its use.

The reported uses of this binaural-beat method for accessing propitious states of consciousness range from sensory integration (Morris 1990), relaxation, meditation, stress reduction, pain management, improved sleep (Wilson 1990; Rhodes 1993), health care (Carter 1993), and enriched learning environments and enhanced memory (Kennerly 1994) to creativity (Hiew 1995), enhanced intuition, remote viewing (McMoneagle 1993), telepathy, and out-of-body experience.

An understanding of the applied binaural-beat technology involves the well-known autonomic effects of controlled breathing and progressive relaxation and the psychology of affirmations and visualizations (subjects not addressed in this paper). For the purposes of this paper, discussion is limited to the physiology of the brain, the brain-mind model, brain waves and their relationship to the behavioral psychology of consciousness, and the role of the reticular activating system (RAS) in regulating brain waves and consciousness.

Binaural Beats and The Physiology of the Brain

Binaural beats were discovered in 1839 by a German experimenter, H. W. Dove. The human ability to "hear" binaural beats appears to be the result of evolutionary adaptation. Many evolved species can detect binaural beats because of their brain structure. The frequencies at which binaural beats can be detected change depending upon the size of the species' cranium. In the human, binaural beats can be detected when carrier tones are below approximately 1000 Hz (Oster 1973). Below 1000 Hz the wave length of the signal is longer than the diameter of the human skull. Thus, signals below 1000 Hz curve around the skull by diffraction.

The same effect can be observed with radio wave propagation. Lower-frequency (longer wave length) radio waves (such as AM radio) travel around the earth over and in between mountains and structures. Higher-frequency (shorter wave length) radio waves (such as FM radio, TV, and microwaves) travel in a straight line and cannot curve around the earth. Mountains and structures block these high-frequency signals.

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Because frequencies below 1000 Hz curve around the skull, incoming signals below 1000 Hz are heard by both ears. But due to the distance between the ears, the brain "hears" the inputs from the ears as out of phase with each other. As the sound wave passes around the skull, each ear gets a different portion of the wave.

It is this phase difference that allows for accurate location of sounds below 1000 Hz. Audio direction finding at higher frequencies is less accurate than it is for frequencies below 1000 Hz. At 8000 Hz the pinna (external ear) becomes effective as an aid to localization. Virtually all animal sounds are below 1000 Hz. It is easy to imagine why animals developed the ability to accurately detect the location of each others' sounds. The relevant issue here, however, is that it is this innate ability of the brain to detect a phase difference that enables it to perceive binaural beats.

The sensation of "hearing" binaural beats occurs when two coherent sounds of nearly similar frequencies are presented, one to each ear, and the brain detects phase differences between these sounds. This phase difference normally provides directional information to the listener but when presented with stereo headphones or speakers the brain integrates the two signals, producing a sensation of a third sound called the binaural beat. Perceived as a fluctuating rhythm at the frequency of the difference between the two (stereo left and right) auditory inputs, binaural beats appear to originate in the brainstem’s superior olivary nucleus, the site of contralateral integration of auditory input (Oster 1973).

This auditory sensation is neurologically routed to the reticular formation (Swann et al. 1982) and simultaneously volume conducted to the cortex where it can be objectively measured as a frequency-following response (Oster 1973; Smith, Marsh, & Brown 1975; Marsh, Brown & Smith 1975; Smith et al. 1978; Hink et al. 1980). The frequency-following response provides proof that the sensation of binaural beating has neurological efficacy.

Binaural beats can easily be heard at the low frequencies (< 30 Hz) that are characteristic of the EEG spectrum (Oster 1973; Atwater 1997). This perceptual phenomenon of binaural beating and the objective measurement of the frequency-following response (Oster 1973; Hink et al. 1980) suggest conditions which facilitate alteration of brain waves and states of consciousness. There have been numerous anecdotal reports and a growing number of research efforts reporting changes in consciousness associated with binaural-beats.

Binaural beats in the delta (1 to 4 Hz) and theta (4 to 8 Hz) ranges have been associated with reports of relaxed, meditative, and creative states (Hiew 1995), sensory integration (Morris 1990), and used as an aid to falling asleep (Wilson 1990; Rhodes 1993). Exposure to audio-guidance training using lower-frequency binaural beats in concert with cognitive therapy resulted in decreased depressive symptoms in alcoholic patients (Waldkoetter & Sanders 1997). Binaural beats in the alpha frequencies (8 to 12 Hz) have increased alpha brain waves (Foster 1990) and binaural beats in the beta frequencies (typically 16 to 24 Hz) have been associated with reports of increased concentration or alertness (Monroe 1985), improved memory (Kennerly 1994), and increases in focused attention in mentally retarded adults (Guilfoyle & Carbone 1996).

Passively listening to binaural beats may not automatically engender an altered state of consciousness. The process usually used when listening to binaural beats includes a number of procedures; binaural beats are only one element. We all maintain a psychophysiological momentum, a homeostasis which may resist the influence of the binaural beats. These homeostatic states are generally controlled by life situations as well as by acts of will, both conscious and subconscious. The willingness and ability of the listener to relax and focus attention or their level of practice in meditative processes may in some way contribute to binaural-beat effectiveness. Naturally occurring neurological ultradian rhythms, characterized by periodic changes in arousal and states of consciousness (Webb & Dube 1981; Rossi 1986; Shannahoff-Khalsa 1991), may underlie the anecdotal reports of fluctuations in the effectiveness of binaural beats.

The perception of a binaural beat is said to be heightened by the addition of masking noise to the carrier signal (Oster 1973), so white or pink noise is often used as background. Practices such as humming, toning, breathing exercises, autogenic training, and/or biofeedback can also be used to interrupt the homeostasis of subjects resistant to the effects of binaural beats (Tart 1975).

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