How to Listen to Brainwave Audio – A Checklist for Successful Meditation

Article by Richard M. Frost

Brainwave entrainment audio recordings have made genuinely altered states of consciousness available to a wide audience, regardless of prior experience with meditation. These products are not mere music, but contain specially engineered sub-sonic sounds that affect the listener’s brain in a profound way. As such, they should be used with more care and attention than one would give to Lady Gaga. Let’s review some ground rules for successful sessions.

* Choose the right time. You will need at least 30 minutes of uninterrupted quiet time to derive any meaningful benefit from brainwave audio, maybe more depending on the product you’re using and its objectives.The time of day that is best will depend on your purpose. If you’re looking to relax and reduce stress, a session on returning from work might be helpful. But if you’re trying to enhance your focus by entraining faster brainwave frequencies that may agitate you, this would be better done in the morning and certainly not late at night – that is, if you plan on sleeping!

* Choose the right place. Never listen to brainwave audio while performing any task that requires your full attention, such as driving or operating equipment. Again, this is not regular music and is not intended to provide background entertainment. (And if it was, you could have chosen a much cheaper way of getting it!) Your physical surroundings should be comfortable, and you may need to experiment with various chairs or even your bed to find the right balance between alertness and relaxation. You don’t necessarily want to get too comfortable and drift off to sleep, unless you are deliberately entraining Delta waves.

* Use Good-Quality Stereo Headphones. If your entrainment recording uses binaural beats – which present slightly different “carrier frequencies” to each ear independently in order to encourage both hemispheres of the brain to cooperate in “hearing” the difference between them – then you must use stereo headphones for the entrainment to work. If the MP3 or CD you’re using employs other techniques, such as monaural beats, isochronic tones or, less commonly, temporal entrainment, then headphones are not essential. This option is particularly useful when going to bed listening to sleep-inducing audio. But, as a general rule, you will have better results with headphones. Noise-cancellation features, however, should not be used as they can interfere with the entrainment signals.

* Do Not Use Mind-Altering Substances. There’s not much point spending good money on a precisely engineered MP3 or CD if you listen to it while under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Yes, those substances do affect your brainwaves, but they also compromise your ability to retain conscious awareness during the session and experience – or exploit – the wonders of your inner self. Save the vodka for your next party.

* Decide Beforehand on Your Objectives. If you wish to practice mindfulness meditation, and simply observe what happens as the audio takes you to deeper levels of awareness, you will want to keep your mind focused on the present moment and go with the flow of your “mindstream.” But if you wish to reprogram yourself on a subconscious level, decide what sort of positive affirmation you wish to employ and then concentrate upon it. Do not second-guess yourself during the session, and start debating different tactics. That’s a sure-fire way to destroy your concentration and keep you at the Beta level of incessant mental chatter – precisely the state we’re trying to escape.

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