Brainwave Entrainment: Personal Experiences

I've been experimenting with brainwave entrainment (bwe for short) off and on since 2006. For about a year I followed the Holosync program regularly and then I moved on to a self-guided program called Neuroprogrammer. The purpose of this article is not to argue the merits or demerits of any brainwave entrainment program, but to hopefully shed some light on what happens during a bwe session.

I've rarely read personal accounts of experiences had during brainwave entrainment sessions. Generally speaking, you get either detailed explanations of what the various frequencies (beta, alpha, theta, delta) are and how they correspond with levels or states of consciousness. Occasionally, I've read personal anecdotes about what a session feels like, but to my recollection, I've only read about one peak experience, when someone felt they had left their body.

While I personally no longer believe that brainwave entrainment is a great idea as something to do as a regular practice, I do still like to dip into it once in awhile when I feel the need to relax or drift off into a mildly altered state of consciousness. What's it like? I'll give you three examples:

Alpha is often described as the frequency associated with day dreaming, light meditation and "drifting off to sleep." When I do an alpha session for relaxation, I often find myself living in two worlds at once: I'm aware of my body, but I'm having a dream at the same time.

The theta brainwave frequency band is associated with all kinds of cool states of consciousness. It is associated with dreaming, lucid dreaming and psychic activity. Studies have also shown that accomplished Zen practitioners regularly enter a specific theta frequency. As my brain becomes entrained to theta, I often see a short flash of vivid blue. Sometimes it is a field of blue and sometimes I dream that I'm lying on my back looking at the blue sky. It is always extremely pleasurable and never lasts as long as I'd like it to.

Delta is the state of deep dreamless sleep and is the target frequency of the Holosync program. When I first started this program, on a couple of occasions I lost all body awareness and had trouble "finding" my body as the CD ramped back up towards beta (normal waking consciousness). On one occasion, I tried to wiggle my finger to bring me back, but it didn't work because I was visualizing my finger as being in a different place than it was.

What do all of these experiences mean? Nothing, really, other than that brainwave entrainment works. It is one category of recipes in my personal cookbook of consciousness, but not the only one. I like to think of it as a dessert or side dish, but not something I want as a main meal.