Binaural Beats discussion

[Kevin]

Let's talk about listening to binaural beat soundtracks...what kind has what effects?

Is there such a thing as listening too much?

What have you experienced?

etc.

[Kevin]

...had to do with listening to binaural audio and the symptoms of listening too much. I've been listening to them quite a bit and would like to know when it's time to back off. Hope you don't mind discussing it.

The above is a question from ImBill.

Hi ImBill,

Your question presupposes that one can listen "too much". I reckon that is possible....I think it would depend on many factors.

Type of Binuaral soundtrack
Length of time
What you are doing while listening
and probably other factors I am not thinking of right now.

I personally have been using binaural beat soundtracks for over 10 years now.

I listen to one 8 hours a night while sleeping.

I also listen to the one in my PATHS Theaters every week.

I also listen to one while TRVing.

Altogether, I average around 63 hours a week.

I have not noticed anything that would suggest it is "too much" or I would need to back off.

However, I do NOT do anything that requires coordination or involves any kind of potential (driving, operating any kind of equipment, even using a knife) danger for 30 minutes after listening to a sound track.

All that said, there are a few binaural soundtracks I have that are MUCH more mind altering than the typical ones I listen to....If I were to listen to those for many hours each week, I am not sure what the results would be....a few of them really make me lose touch with "reality".

All that said, if you shared what you were listening to, and what you were experiencing, I am sure myself and others would learn and possibly have some input for you.

[noises]

Well, a binaural really is just a physical stimulus. The whole point is entrainment, so the more you're exposed, the more effective the binaural should be in terms of it accomplishing what it's intended to do. The only real problem I see in terms of over exposure would be if you weren't doing anything except listening to binaurals, and it was effecting your productivity and general level of participation in life.

See, with binaurals, the focus is drawn to the auditory stimulation by dint of the "aural" part of the name, but in fact, it's the body's largest organ, the skin, which actually receives the most stimulation. Oh, I feel the vibes, is that it? No, what I feel, although very subtle, is no different to the rumble you feel in your belly that pulses in time with the bass in a nightclub. The subtle waves of sound hitting the predominantly liquid mass of your body entrain or teach, the body to resonate at a certain frequency through sympathetic resonance.

Now, you're body is going to resonate anyway. Be it to the sound of traffic and sirens, the intermitent roar of lowflying aircraft, the sound of your neighbors fighting again or nicer things like birds chirping or waves crashing on a beach. I would opine that of all the things one could never have too much of, a stable, productive, unobtrusive acoustic environment would be top of the list. And that's exactly what a binaural does, it brings stability to your acoustic environment. Gives you something positive to resonate in tune to. I have some tone or another playing in the background most times I'm asleep, or a polyphasic binaural playing when I'm writing. About the only time there isn't one playing at home is if I'm listening to or making music, but it's a background thing. I'm not sat in the lotus position tripping to the vibe, man, I'm on the job, focused and getting things done. In that environment, I can honestly say I don't think there's any such thing as too much of a good thing.

[ImBill]

Thanks, Kevin, for starting this thread. Aaron did finally reply with a PM and indicated that he had burning sensations in his feet that upon referencing to a reflexology chart pointed to over stimulation of the brain. He was apparently able to cut down on the amount of time spent listening to BBs and had no ill effects afterwards.

Here are my observations from listening so far. Shortly after starting to meditate, I started hearing a high pitched whine. At first it was intermittent, then as I spent more time at it and started meditating with a group, and added in listening to binaural audio, it is now more or less a constant thing for me. I notice it gets more intense during deep meditation. I tend to think of it as the sound of my personal vibrational frequency (which for all I know it could be) or possibly the sound of the cosmos or ether.

I started out listening to the free beats that come with the sbaGen program and some others that I found. My interest lies mostly in increasing my vibrational frequency to allow me to experience other planes of existence, so I tend to stay away from the other beats, but have listened to some of the Idoser and Focus/Concentration beats. I have never had any experiences beyond attaining a meditative state or dosing off.

Now I mostly listen to a Hemi-sync CD that I have, a recording of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada leading a group of devotees in the Hare Krishna mantra, and some of the beats from Aaron's ESM site. I tried listening to the Focus/Concentration stuff while playing pool, but didn't notice any real improvement.

I have also noticed over time that I get these kind of strange sensations in my brain. They are kind of like the weird sensation you get when the hair on the back of your neck stands up but no shivering. I'm not sure what causes it, but imagine it to be new connections being made or expansion of capability. I don't have any proof, but I also feel that I have increased my cognitive power. It seems like solutions come more easily and in greater quantity.

It's difficult to attribute any phenomenon to a certain activity as I am always engaged in as many things that I can find to help speed things along. Right now, for instance, I spend at least an hour every day and usually many more chanting the hare krishna mantra, an hour or more a day in meditation (with or without binaural audio accompaniment), 3-6 hours listening to binaural audio, 20 minutes listening to the Solfeggio frequencies, spiritual activation/group meditation one day a week, and PATHS. Who can say what is doing what?

It's comforting to know that whatever may occur due to listening to BBs that the chance of something being detrimental is unlikely. Thanks for the input.

[noises]

Shortly after starting to meditate, I started hearing a high pitched whine. At first it was intermittent, then as I spent more time at it and started meditating with a group, and added in listening to binaural audio, it is now more or less a constant thing for me. I notice it gets more intense during deep meditation. I tend to think of it as the sound of my personal vibrational frequency (which for all I know it could be) or possibly the sound of the cosmos or ether.

DO NOT use this binaural if you SUFFER from tinitus (a form of auditory damage arising from bending the cillia which manifests as a ringing in the ears.) If like me you HAVE tinitus but don't SUFFER from it, be aware this binaural will effect the condition and make the ringing more intense and frequent than usual for some time after listening.

any high pitched whine is far, far above your vibrational frequency. We humans have a measurable vibratory rate around 4-6hz, which is sub sonic, ie, below the level of human hearing. At around 30 to 40hz sound becomes audible to us shaved apes. Interesting fact, elephants "hear" down to about 10hz, but they hear these subsonics through an acutely focused awareness of the vibration being conducted through the ground and felt in their feet. The high pitched whine of tinitus is (in my case at least,) closer to 15,000hz. I hate to break it to you, but that rining in your ears is tinitus, and there's a number of known causes. I'm of the opinion binaurals do agrovate existing tinitus, and if listened to in a harmful (ie very loud) environment, would easily cause it.

Tinnitus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia <further info.

I guess this does qualify as a hazard, but I imagined the hazard isn't so much the binaural as the volume you listen to it. Since I already have chronic tinitus, I'm probably the wrong subject for testing

[ImBill]

Thanks for the info, but I am pretty certain that I don't have tinnitus. I'm not talking about our bodies' vibrational rates. I'm sure that our spirit vibrates at a much higher frequency than our body does. What I'm talking about is more of a sensation than a sound, isn't at all annoying, doesn't affect my hearing at all, and appears to change intensity with my brain wave state. It is loudest when I wake up in the middle of the night or after deep meditation, i.e. delta.
I will definitely keep the tinnitus in mind, though. Thanks again.
After thinking about this some more, I tried stopping the sound/sensation with my intention and had no problem doing so. It also goes way down in intensity when I am focusing on something like writing this, for example.

[Aaron]

Ring Stop

I used to own a vitamin shop and had customers that got tinnitus relief from this product: RingStop - $16.35 it is a combo homeopathic, herb, vitamin and mineral mix.

I'd shop around for pricing, I have no idea what a good deal on this stuff is anymore.

Also, the mineral MANGANESE (NOT MAGNESIUM) - helps to protect the inner ear and many people have had tinnitus disappear with this alone.

Personally, I'd use both Ringstop and a separate Manganese supplement. Search online for recommended dosages of Manganese for this purpose.

[noises]

Here's a positive effect of binaurals, insights. Can I share a couple?

All vibratory forces have three manifestations. Let's start with the example of a binaural playing on your computer speakers. The first manifestation of force is the positive or productive force. This is the physical movement of the speaker cone, pushing backwards and forwards to create physical waves of pressure in the air. The second manifestation is the neutral or transmissive force. this is the action of the air as a medium to transmit the vibration initialised by the speaker. The final manifestation is the negative or receptive force. In auditory terms, this is the "hammering" of the cochlea against the eardrum. In each manifestation, the same vibration is described, but in different ways.

So when we see a wind tossed ocean hurling waves at the shore, we're seeing the transmissive, or neutral manifestation of the force of the wind action that produced the wave action on the ocean. The higher the velocity of the wind and the longer the wave's "fetch" (open another tab and look it up, you're already online,) the higher the amplitude of the waves when they reach the shore. And by switching the analogy from a wave of sound to a wave of water, we see that one transmissive manifestation of a vibratory force can create another. This is resonance. When a transmissive manifestation of vibratory force triggers a second transmissive manifestation of the same force, it is resonance between the two transmissive mediums that transfers the vibratory force.

And now we see that the line blurs, because now the original transmissive manifestation of the storm's barometric force, wind, has acted at the motive or positive or productive force to generate the waves in the water. And let it get more confusing. When those waves break at the shore, and you hear the crash of water onto water, now the water's waves, which from the storm's perspective are the negative or reactive manifestations of it's force, now act as the positive or productive force on the air in another area of space and time, which transfers the new wave of vibration, still traceable back to the drop in barometric pressure that caused the wind to blow, now coming to your ears as sound. And so we must conclude that while each vibratory force does have three manifestations of itself, which of the three manifestations of vibratory force any given medium is said to represent is relative to the observer, and their point of observation in a potentially unending chain of resonant, transmissive reactions to an initial vibratory force... You know, every now and then I let myself be annoyed at how I can't talk about the force of vibration echoing through the universe without sounding like the kind of guy who might change his last name by deed pole to Skywalker and list his religion on census night as Jedi. I just had one of those annoyed moments then, thought I'd share it and let you know I'm not that type of guy. Meanwhile, back at the subject at hand...

How does this apply to binaurals? Apart from the obvious, providing a framework to describe the three manifestations of any vibratory force, it also provides a launching pad for some very interesting speculations as to what exactly happens as that wave of vibratory force progresses along it's observation-dependent chain of manifestations, and what physical and non-physical mediums are acting as transmissive forces, how far and along what steps their chain of resonance extends and what biological, physical, mental and etheric manifestations of force are involved in not only the mind and it's reality, but also the body and it's reality, inward infinitely and outward infinitely in the conduction of that force. In short, it gives you something pretty interesting to think about while you listen to some of them.

Another interesting point, when you make your own binaurals according to frequencies you've heard of and think may be important, the first manifestation of a vibratory force is the thought, the IDEA that leads you to create a binaural in that frequency, it resonates in binary through your computer, is resolved into audio by your soundcard, transferred along the speaker cable as an electrical signal, and then the motion of the speakers becomes the negative, receptive, reactive manifestation of force which, as a by product, resonates the air as sound. The big question is, what positive, motive force caused the idea to begin to resonate in the first place, and what media was it transfered through?

Now, a lot talk of people talk about frequencies and resonating, especially in a new age sense, of "raising our vibrational frequency." But lets just stop for a second and think, shall we? As far as "normal" states of consciousness are concerned, the higher the frequency of brainwaves, the more alert and active the mind. Conversely, the lower the frequency, the closer to deep, deep sleep we move. But the mediatative state, trance state, even the hypnogogic state, are at much LOWER frequencies than even sleep, let alone normal consciousness. These "higher" states of consciousness are in fact associated with lowering the vibrational frequency of the mind, not raising it. Soooo... what's that mean? Perhaps this. Our bodies (or more preciesly, the atomic structure of the atoms that make up our bodies,) is in a constant state of vibration. This rate of vibration is not the same rate of vibration as the the rates measured by an EEG monitoring brainwave activity, and it is the vibrational rate of brainwaves that binaurals have an effect on. As far as we understand, anyway. If you're looking for a way to use binaurals to raise your vibrational level and thus attain enlightenment, perhaps you're barking up entirley the wrong tree. Or perhaps you'd be better served by first figuring out exactly which rate of vibration you're talking about. Three obvious cantidates spring to mind for me, the frequency of brainwaves, the frequency of sub-atomic vibration in the matter that makes you, and the frequency of the electromagnetic field you produce with that big old pump in your chest running on a dc microvoltage regulated by your brain and pushing blood around your sack of skin, meat and bone which can be messured up to six feet away from your body.

Because if it's the first one, the frequency of brainwaves that I'm meant to be raising, well, questions like this are exactly the kind of thing that should be popping into my head all the time, along with the answers. But the thing is, finding your center, nirvana, satori, godhead, trancendental mental and spiritual experience, that all lays at the other end of the scale, lowering your brainwave frequency. Interesting paradox, isn't it? Anyway, if it's the second one, then raising the frequency of your atomic structure, even lowering it, is probably going to mean some fairly catastrophic atomic decoherence which spiritualy I have no problems with but physically am somehow simultaneously both mortally terrified of and boyishly excited about, as long as I retain some sense of self-awareness through the process and afterwards. In any case, the adult in me chides that every other application of will I've managed to achieve quantifiable results from has required at least a complex visualisation of the process involved, if not an intricate understanding of how, in a mundane, physical or creative sense, I will make it happen. The idea of raising my atomic vibrational rate is an desired outcome which leaves me scratching my bewildered little head in trying to understand the principles involved in achieving it, potentially explosive ramifications of success notwithstanding. The third, raising my heartrate? No brainer, but I've been to 150+ plenty of times and there's no deeper understanding of anything there, just a lactic acid buildup that's going to ache like nobody's business as soon as I stop racing, and I guess a deep understaning of how vital the volume of air I exhale is, because that alone determines how much oxygen I can suck into my lungs on the next breath.

There's a fourth cantidate I only considered on reflection. In a movie called "The Voice" there was some work shown that demonstrated different emotional states had quantifiable resonant frequencies, and that love and goodwill had significantly a higher frequency than fear or hate. Perhaps that's all raising your vibrational rate means, doing away with hateful, fearful thoughts and resonating with in tune with love as a positive manifestation of that vibration, in other words, to be the speaker and the storm, resonating the emotional air around you that fills your immediate environment with waves of love and goodwill, intended only to be transfered outwards by everything around you to resonate the entire universe across space and time in sympathetic, harmonious resonance with you. Lock in D, the simple, grand, beautiful and most elegant potential answer.


ps thanks for the stop-ring tip, Aaron, but I don't suffer from tinitus, I just have it. The suffering part's a choice.

[ImBill]

Excellent, excellent post. Very well written and entertaining, I must say. I'm at work, so won't wax eloquent with you on this one. D is the right answer. Everything I've read says that our soul needs to vibrate at a lower rate to fit into our bodies and that to be able to stay above the astral plane, we need to increase our vibratory rate. Accounts abound of several planes above these two lowest planes. That's what I've aimed my sights on.

On an unrelated note, I have a question about gamma frequencies. Let's say I want to entrain my brain to a gamma frequency, say 150Hz. Do you know if it would be necessary to do a binaural beat or if just listening to a 150Hz tone would do it? As indicated above, I've been listening to the Solfeggion frequencies and seem to be having some sort of reaction to them. They are not binaural, but I have no idea if my brain is entraining to the fundamental frequencies or not. They all have additional audio components playing at the same time, like wave sounds or some other instrumental accompaniment.
Thanks!

[noises]

why not try a 150hz carrier and a 300 hz modulator? That'd give you a disonance of 150hz, as well as a 150hz tone in the room. the 300hz tone is in harmonic ratio and thus shouldn't have any counter-productive effects.

Edit: thank you for the praise. I really do enjoy writing and I'd do it for my own sake if nobody read it anyway, but having what's been writ be appreciated? That's just icing on an already delicious cake. Thanks!

[ImBill]

Good idea. Thanks!

[Mozaar]

Hi guys,
Do I need special headphones for binauarals to work? I read somewhere that perhaps commercially available headphones won't pick up lower frequencies.

[gtrlvr83]

In my use of binauaral beats I have found that just regular stereo headphones work out just fine. I personally like over the ear ones. Also which program are you using? I use a program called Neuro Programmer 2, and I have found that it works quite well.

Josh
PATHS ~ Mind Energetics

[Mozaar]

I have been using a trial version of the BrainWave Generator for a couple of weeks, this was around the same time I started using PATHS. I am a newbie to this so apart from this and the binaurals I got from ESM site thats all that I have tried.
I love meditating, few more times a day would be nice so I will like to take my mp3's on the road to work or appointments, if I could pull myself away for some time to myself. I have been using in ear earphones and now I am looking into noise-cancelling headphones. I just want to be sure there was no special ones to be looking into. Those noise-cancelling ones are expensive

[gtrlvr83]

Good luck with everything, just keep with it. Always feel free to ask questions too, I have found alot of really great people on this forum that are always willing to help out.
Josh
PATHS ~ Mind Energetics