Binaural Beats

Binaural Beats. As a person that tends to combine the traditional with the modern, their revelation seemed very useful to me.To give you a basic understanding what they are and how they work, I will try to provide a brief introduction into the topic.



During deep sleep, REM-sleep, the awake but relaxed state and the alert state the human brain features specific wave patterns characterized through different frequency ranges:

DELTA        0.5 - 3 Hz (or 0.5 - 4 Hz)
THETA        3 - 8 Hz (or 4 - 8 Hz)
ALPHA        8 - 12 Hz
BETA          12 - 36 Hz

As you see, there are different views on the specific ranges of the regarding brain states. But that should not irritate us any further. So, let's take a brief look at the human's auditive system:

The human's ears are capable to perceive sounds that range between 20 Hz and 20,000 Hz max on the apex of a human life. Getting older, the ability to hear high pitched sounds decreases. There indeed exist frequencies that have an impact on the human body and especially the brain, so says the theory.
As we see above, all the variant brainwave patterns (except the beta range) in a normal person's life lie outside the spectrum that is perceivable with our auditive apparatus.
But wouldn't it be fascinating to just alter our consciousness by setting it to these states at will through the use of these frequency ranges? Some studies say that the brain indeed responds to external stimulation with sound frequencies (Just think of the OM- or AUM-chants in Buddhism and Hinduism).

Now, here is the trick:
We now know that these brainwave patterns lie outside the range of our ears' perception, so we wouldn't be able to perceive a 4 Hz frequency that is characteristical for an REM-sleep state. Right? - Wrong. There is in fact a way to produce a phantom sound that vibrates at a frequency of 4 Hz like we wanted in this example.
At first you should produce two audibly perceivable sounds, one in each channel (stereo sound through headphones needed). Those sounds should be slightly different. In fact, the difference must amount 4 Hz exactly. So, you could use these frequencies:

                                         Phantom sound aka binaural beat
Left channel -> 400 Hz                             4 Hz                            396 Hz <- Right channel

The generated phantom sound will be heard as constant humming or the specific beats, from which their name derives.


With a little practice you can produce binaural beats on your own and mix them with your favorite music (Audacity is a very nice freeware for this purpose), but that might be a topic for another post.

I suggest you to use the Brain Wave Generator that can be downloaded on this site. The download is free as is the software in itself. It is an evaluation version, but has all functions. After the evaluation period ends, you will just have to wait 10 seconds to look at a window dialog advertising the product - after this you can continue as usual. The program provides several presets which produce specific states of consciousness through different frequency patterns. Some are more effective, some less.You can download more presets on the site mentioned above or through browsing through the links I will give you at the end of this post.

It is best to relax while listening to binaural beats and to switch the lights off, so don't work or sit at the desk and stare at the computer screen. Just calm down and find a comfortable position to let go.

Use headphones, speakers won't work because they mix the different frequencies in mid-air.

Enjoy your mind.