A Brief History of Brainwave Entrainment
Despite the fact that many have a natural skepticism when it comes to brainwave entrainment there is actually 70 years of solid scientific research into its use and effectiveness in inducing altered states of consciousness. Even as far back as 150AD there was knowledge of the effects of entrainment on an individuals consciousness and the Mystics and Shamans from long ago knew the power of sounds and beats to induce trance states in humans and animals. Long before modern humans had invented general anesthetics Shamans were able to induce trance states in their patients deep enough for surgery to be performed without any anesthetics or pain.
In 1929 Hans Berger discovered the Alpha brainwave and soon after it was discovered that flickering lights could be used to push the brainwave past its normal frequency. This type of entrainment is called Photic stimulation. In 1942 Dempsey and Morison found that tactile stimulation could also cause brainwave entrainment and in 1959 Dr Chatrian found that auditory sounds such as repetitive clicks could be used to induce different brainwave states in an individual.
Since then, from the 1960’s to 1990’s the knowledge of entrainment grew with various scientists researching its usage in many areas. Some of these included:
The use of Photic stimulation to lessen the amount of anesthetic needed for surgery.
The use of bainwave entrainment during dental procedures to lessen the amount of anesthetic required, lessen bleeding, lessen gagging and lessen the amount of anxiety in patients.
Headache relief
Serotonin release
HGH release
Meditation
Super learning
The use of photic stimulation to produce Cerebral synchronization (found to be effective in over 5000 patients)
The use of audio-visual brain stimulation to induce hemispheric coherence and improved intellectual functioning.
ADD and learning disorders
PMS
Chronic Fatigue
Chronic Pain
Depression
Hypertension
Research and usage of entrainment continues to today and is being increasingly used in areas such as mental health, psychiatry, learning, self improvement, spiritual experience, lucid dreaming, extraordinary perception and many others.
Despite being grounded in an abundance of scientific research and a huge amount of anecdotal evidence brainwave entrainment still seems to be largely unknown. Many people have never heard of entrainment and when they do they are often extremely skeptical until they actually try it for themselves. “Wow, I had no idea something like this could be so powerful” is a common thread among first time users of entrainment technology and it does make one wonder why it is not more main stream. The modern mentality of going straight to the doctor and following his/her advice blindly really needs to be reexamined as the Doctor’s main source of information is a massive and extremely profitable drug empire. If we were to take our own physical and mental health more seriously and stop eating whatever these drug companies feed us then surely entrainment would become common knowledge and its numerous benefits could be gained by many.
