Binaural Mutterings

Many people who are interested in self improvement and personal development have heard of binaural beats. However, very few people really know what they are or the huge potential that exists for changing your life through their use.

Here I will try to give a brief description of what binaural beats are and how you can use them to dramatically change your life for the better!

So what are Binaural Beats?

Binaural beats are sounds that are fabricated by the brain. By using special sound frequencies you can actually make your brain think it is hearing beats. Basically, binaural beats are illusions create by the brain when one sound is played into one ear, while a slightly different sound is played into the other ear.

Even though each ear is hearing a different sound the brain merges the the sounds to create just one sound. This is a natural occurrence as you hear slightly different tones and volume levels in each ear, so the brain just merges the sounds into one. To understand this better let's look at how your eyes work. One eye sees things from a slightly different angle that the other eye, like two camera lenses, but the brain merges the two pictures together to form one.

When special sounds are used it is possible to create the illusion that you are hearing beats. Let me explain.

The only difference in the sounds heard by each ear is the frequency of the sound wave. When the left ear hears a tone with a frequency of 30Hz and the right ear hears a sound that is almost identical except its frequency is 20Hz then the brain merges these two sounds to make them one. However, because the sounds are not identical and have different frequencies the brain produces a beat type effect with a frequency that is the difference between the two sounds.

In our example above the binaural beats produced by the brain would have a frequency of 10Hz (30Hz minus 20Hz equals 10Hz).

What's the point of Binaural Beats?

As you have just learned, when the brain merges the tone from the left ear with the tone from the right ear it merges them together to form one tone. This is not he only effect of this however. It is the fact that these binaural beats have a very specific frequency that is so interesting.

When the brain produces these binaural beats it also produces brain waves that are the same frequency as the binaural beats it thinks it is hearing. This phenomenon is known as brain entrainment.

Brain entrainment forces the brain to produce specific brain wave states. Because there are physical and mental states assosiated with specific brain wave states it is thus possible to create these states just by changing your brain waves. When you feel stressed, for example, you brain produces waves that have a frequency of approximately 25Hz. By listening to a binaural beats recording, which fools the brain into thinking it is hearing binaural beats with a frequency of 10Hz, the brain will begin to produce brain waves at a frequency of 10Hz.

It has been shown in many scientific studies that brain waves with a frequency of 10Hz relax the mind and body. So, just by listening to a binaural beats recording you can quickly alleviate stress and create deep states of relaxation and peace within your mind and body.

This is only one use of binaural beats. There are many. Scientific studies have shown that brain wave state has a corresponding physical and mental state assosiated with it. After many years of research and experimentation it is now possible to get binaural beats that produce many different physical and mental effects.

Are binaural beats safe?

Binaural beats have been used since the late '70s for a myriad of different applications and have even been used as an alternative healing method. Although there are some people who fear their use there is no evidence to suggest they cause any harm and much scientific evidence to suggest they are purely beneficial.