Modern life is stressful. Keeping up with responsibilities can be emotionally and physically taxing if we do not manage our time wisely and develop good habits. Chronic stress and anxiety suppresses immune function, facilitates disease and impairs healing, though a small dose of stress is healthy for keeping us on our toes. Realizing the importance of balance and relaxation, there are neo-ancient tools to optimize our health, creativity and vitality.

Sound has been used throughout the ages to enter deep, expanded states of consciousness and heal imbalance. From Shamans to Pop Stars, sound is used to connect, bridge the gap between us, strengthen community and attain ecstatic states. It is my experience that vibration carries and amplifies intention, and sound is no exception, it can be used to heal or to harm. This is why it is very important to cultivate awareness about our intentions and how they are implemented.

Ancient intuitive understandings of sound are now being empowered and confirmed by science and technology. The tools Tibetan monks developed hundreds of years ago to enter deeper states of meditation, we now have access to at home and on the go. Both children and adults can benefit from these electronically generated tones and tools for balancing the mind. When a pair of Tibetan ting-shaws
(2 metal saucer shaped bells attached by a string) are struck, they are purposefully not the same exact frequency. This produces a pulsating variation of specific cycles per second. The specific number of cycles per second this pulse creates makes the brain respond differently through the law of entrainment and the brain’s Frequency Following Response. Different mental functions occur at different brainwave pattern speeds measured in Hertz (cycles per second). They have been divided into the basic categories of beta (30-13Hz), alpha (13-7 Hz), theta (7-3.5 Hz), delta (3.5 – 0.5 Hz). Recently gamma and epsilon brainwaves have been detected, and both gamma and extreme delta are associated with mystical experience.

This phenomenon of 2 slightly different tones (within 30 Hz) creating a third pulse has been called a binaural beat. The term was coined in October of 1973 by Gerald Oster, a medical researcher at Mount Sinai Hospital who published an article in Scientific American entitled “Auditory Beats in the Brain”. He found not only did brainwave entrainment occur to the specific Hz of the binaural beat, but that it would also synchronize the electrical activity of the right and left hemisphere. (The Clinical Use of Sound, by Dr. Jeffrey Thompson, DC, BFA)

If 100 Hz is introduced to the left ear and 105 Hz is introduced to the right ear, a 5 Hz panning pulse is perceived. Generally within 15 minutes the brain will entrain to the speed which has been mapped as theta, which involves balancing of thought and emotions, as well as resolving unresolved emotions, increased creativity, problem-solving and REM dreaming. Through the perceptive process of listening to binaural beats, evidence shows they help to balance neurotransmitters in the brain, thereby optimizing brain functions and overall stability and health.

Binaural Beats use sound technology to entrain brain wave patterns, giving us the ability to influence and/or create tranquility, pain control, creativity, euphoria, excitement, focused attention, relief from stress, enhanced learning ability, enhanced problem solving ability, increased memory, accelerated healing, behavior modification, and improvements in mental and emotional health.

Other scientists have noted that these slower brain wave patterns are accompanied by deep tranquility, flashes of creative insight, euphoria, intensely focused attention, and enhanced learning abilities. Dr. Lester Fehmi, director of the Princeton Biofeedback Research Institute has said that hemispheric synchronization represents "the maximum efficiency of information transport through the whole brain" and "is correlated experientially with a union with experience, and 'into-it-ness'. Instead of feeling separate and narrow-focused, you tend to feel more into it -- that is, unified with the experience, you are the experience -- and the scope of your awareness is widened a great deal, so that you're including many more experiences at the same time. There's a whole-brain sensory integration going on, and it's as if you become less self-conscious and you function more intuitively." The Scientific Research Behind Acoustic Brainwave Entrainment, Compliments to Centerpoint Research for this Article (excerpts from Dr. Jeffrey Thompson’s Center for Neuroacoustic Research articles).

Michael Hutchison in his book Megabrain Power sums up this revolution in neuroscience:

...[N]ew breakthroughs in neuroscience and microelectronics have permitted scientists to 'map' the electrical and chemical activity of the brain in action. Scientists have used the new technology to monitor the brains of those meditators, artists, and other rare individuals who are able to enter peak domains at will and to map their brain activity during those peak states. Their first findings were that those peak states are not mysterious and unpredictable phenomena, but are very clearly linked to very specific patterns of brain activity. These include dramatic changes in brain wave activity, hemispheric symmetry, and rapid alterations in the levels of various neurochemicals. If we could learn to produce these patterns of brain activity, they reasoned, we should be able to produce the peak states they are associated with.

Robert Monroe reported that inducing brain wave patterns through the creation of binaural beats in the brain had a wide range of effects, including "focusing of attention, suggestibility, problem solving, creativity, memory, and learning...sleep induction, pain control...and enhanced learning..."

Sound therapy has been shown to be effective in cases of speech problems, seasonal affective disorder, brain dominance, handedness, behavioral difficulties, learning disabilities, hearing and singing. It has also had success in areas involving pain management, digestive difficulties, regulation of body temperature, nutritional evaluation, arthritis, tissue regeneration, emphysema, structural problems, broken bones and sports injuries, and as a diagnostic tool for areas in need of medical attention (excerpt from Heartherapy.com).

As awareness of these powerfully needed tools becomes more popular, not only will healthcare professionals and eccentric musicians be utilizing binaural beats, but within 20 years, I see them being globally integrated into education, in every personal computer and in use by practically all of humanity. Rather than neglect the root cause of illness and treat symptoms with toxic drugs with harmful side effects, these safe, illness-preventing tools can empower us to energetically get in touch with and resolve the root cause of our emotional blockages and physical illnesses. Binaural beats can complement allopathic medicine and greatly reduce the amount of iatrogenic (physician-caused) disease.

I first became aware of this sonic phenomenon in 2002 while playing the violin, I heard this amazing third sound really affecting my head, but had no clue what caused it. Then in 2003, as I was recording jungle music with deep sub-bass glides, I realized the bass vibrated my back in different places, corresponding to the tones, which led me to the idea of sound massage. To accompany the bass oscillations, I would let two notes phase in and out to produce a trance-like meditative state. Realize the healing effects it had on me, I googled sound healing and found the Center for Neuroacoustic Research and Dr. Jeffrey Thompson’s Peak Performance Sonic Induction workshop. I attended in May of 2006 and became deeply inspired, returned to my studio and began working on DaoShen (Way of Spirit) Meditation 1: Heart’s Dream, 1st of a series of 12 CDs for each organ/meridian in Chinese Medicine and 5 Element Shiatsu. It is a blissful sonic adventure to interact deeply to the Cosmic Spirit in Nature and nurture the safe space for Healing and Creativity. It has both raw and embedded binaural beats that contain alpha, theta and delta frequencies, and will be released in early 2007. You can hear a sample at www.worldpeacestudio.com.

Benefits of Meditation (according to Higher Balance Institute):

• Deep rest-as measured by decreased metabolic rate, lower heart rate, and reduced work load of the heart.
• Lowered levels of cortisol and lactate-two chemicals associated with stress.
• Reduction of free radicals- unstable oxygen molecules that can cause tissue damage.
• Decreased high blood pressure.
• Higher skin resistance. Low skin resistance is correlated with higher stress and anxiety levels.
• Drop in cholesterol levels. High cholesterol is associated with cardiovascular disease.
• Improved flow of air to the lungs resulting in easier breathing. This has been very helpful to asthma patients.
• Decreases the aging process.
• Higher levels of DHEAS in the elderly. An additional sign of youthfulness.
• Increased brain wave coherence.
• Greater creativity.
• Decreased anxiety.
• Decreased depression
• Decreased irritability and moodiness
• Improved learning ability and memory.
• Increased self-actualization.
• Increased feelings of vitality and rejuvenation.
• Increased happiness.
• Increased emotional stability.