Neuroscientists regard the brain as an electrochemical organ that works using electromagnetic energy. The orchestrated electrical signals from many neurons communicating with each other are known as ‘brainwaves’, measured in Hertz (Hz), or cycles per second. Brainwaves can be brought into beneficial proportions and whole-brain functioning for optimal well-being, performance and evolutionary goals. This makes brainwave training a gentle, natural, synergistic, effective holistic self-care strategy.
“How can brain stress affect me?”
Stress can interfere with the electrical communication signals between neurons and produce disorderly, unsynchronized energy patterns in the brainwaves. Brain stress can come from pathogens, allergens, toxins, trauma, problematic EMFs and nutrient imbalances. It can also come from conditioned states of mind that limit human consciousness, including self-limiting beliefs, covert emotional tension, and self-defeating attitudes.
Brain stress can show up in many forms. For example, brain fog can come from overall life stress or from the particular stress of allergens, toxins, nutrient deficiency, hormonal imbalance, and sleeplessness, and show up as forgetfulness, lack of focus and confusion. Brain fatigue can come from stress in the nervous system or the stress of trauma or injury, and show up as a disabling mental weariness after moderate mental effort and be accompanied by head pain, irritability and weepiness. Brain stress can also show up in the form of emotions, thoughts and behaviors, all of which are produced by communication between neurons in the brain. Brain stress can:
- fuel negative emotions, moodiness, restlessness, impulsivity and sleeplessness
- contribute to the cycle of pain impacting emotions, sleep, ease and quality of life
- dull the skills of learning and performance: attention, alertness, focus, concentration, sensory perception, verbal and spatial reasoning, organized thinking, logical analysis, motivation
- impair memory, reasoning, flexibility, problem solving, planning and execution – all key cognitive skills for managerial and executive decision-making
- disrupt the balance between left-brain logic and right-brain creativity
- interfere with capacities involved in being healthy, creative and connected: relaxation, awareness, insight, inspiration, empathy, emotional intelligence, communication, pure being, transcendence to universal and mystical truths
- block the abilities involved in developing consciousness: instinctual awareness, intuitive awareness, spiritual awareness, multi-dimensional perception, meditation, critical reflective and independent thinking, self-compassionate thinking, detached mindfulness
- hinder positive, productive, relationships with the inner self and others
- get in the way of skillfully managing stress
“What do brainwaves do?”
There are different types of brainwaves. Each type is associated with unique attributes, activities, and a level of consciousness. All the brainwaves are important and work together, but the pattern of each brainwave type changes depending upon the body’s activity. more
Beta waves (14 – 40 Hz):
- active with normal thought processes when we are awake and engaged in everyday activity in the outside world, with external awareness that thinks, reasons and plans
- allow for the attention, focus, concentration involved in organization and processing of thought
- give access to heightened alertness, logic and critical thinking, analytical and verbal reasoning, multi-tasking, decision-making
- give voice to the inner critic
- a high proportion of Beta is associated with being deeply engaged and excited, as well as stress, restlessness and anxious or panicky feelings
Alpha waves (7.5 – 14 Hz):
- present in deep relaxation, typically when eyes are closed, during light meditation, hypnosis, and in lucid, vivid whole-picture sensory experience e.g. when caught up in inspiring music or the beauty of nature or participating in guided visualization
- give access to a relaxed, non-aroused state of mind, awareness that is detached, heightened concentration, diffuse visual-spatial capacity and imagination
- give voice to intuition
- provide a bridge between the conscious mind and the subconscious minds through meditation
- reduce stress, elevate mood with light euphoric feelings, improve memory, and accelerate learning, insight and creative problem solving, all optimal conditions for programming the mind
- a high proportion of Alpha waves promotes clarity of intuition and deep relaxation with alertness
Theta waves (4 – 7.5 Hz):
- present during light/REM/dreaming sleep and deep meditation, briefly in the twilight periods of waking from deep sleep (from a Delta state) and drifting into sleep (from an Alpha state), associated with daydreaming and repetitive tasks
- constitute the subconscious realm of mind
- place of deep-seated programming of the mind
- allow for deep connection with spirit and the universe
- give access to exceptional creativity, visualization, inspiration, insight, extrasensory perception, inner wisdom about places that need healing and ways to heal, spiritual experiences, more intense euphoria than Alpha
- voice is silent and elusive
- where Alpha and Theta waves meet (7 – 8 Hz) there is deep relaxation with awareness of the environment and it is an optimal range for harnessing the mind’s power to create reality through visualization and programming of the mind
Delta waves (0.5 – 4 Hz):
- present in deep, dreamless sleep, in the fully detached awareness of deep transcendental meditation
- constitute the unconscious realm of mind, with bodily processes that are unconsciously regulated, such as heartbeat, kidney function, digestion
- provide a connection to information from the collective unconscious and universal mind, otherwise not available to the conscious mind
- act in waking states as an unconscious radar that intuitively seeks information beyond the realm of thinking, e.g. psychic, intuitive, gut instinct
- give access to empathic attunement, multi-dimensional and oneness awareness
- the deep sleep associated with Delta is key for the restoring the body to balance and rejuvenating the mind – engaging immunity, recuperating, regenerating, recovery from illness or trauma, even miracle-type healing
- the empathy and sensitivity e.g. of healers and psychics stimulate Delta waves
- difficult to access for people with chronic stress
“How can brainwave training help me de-stress and improve my health, growth and performance?”
Brainwave training has the potential to 
impart vitality and function-boosting assets for the highest quality of life. Optimally functioning brainwaves can help people reduce stress, manage pain and cope with illness. People can develop the ability to harness the power of brainwaves to relieve anxious feelings, improve mood, increase sleep, and relax. Alpha and Theta brainwaves stimulate neuro-chemicals called endorphins, opiate-like, pain-killing, feel-good hormones that counteract stress and promote relaxation and feelings of well-being. Endorphins also produce anti-aging hormones, detoxify the body of damaging free-radicals, and enhance the immune system’s capacity to eradicate malfunctioning cells. Brainwaves can also help people boost their performance potentials. People can develop the ability to harness the power of brainwaves to stimulate creativity, insight, intuition, and higher levels of consciousness. more
For example, for most adults, the Beta wave state is left brain-hemisphere dominant state with logical thinking involving language, and linear and spatial thinking that relies on sensory input. While Beta waves are important for effective functioning in the external world, they can tie up mental energy in persistent self-criticism, or the time-oriented stress of future worries or past dramas, and the brain can dump stress hormones into the system that pile up and lead to deeper, prolonged stress. Is it any wonder that a Beta wave state may be accompanied by agitation and distress? And when the time and space logic of left-brain logic thinking prevails, how can out-of-the-box solutions emerge? Because of its ‘seeing is believing’ mode, Beta waves can limit imagination, creativity and complex problem solving.
The antidote to getting out of the Beta wave state is getting into an Alpha wave state while awake to activate whole-brain functioning. In the deep relaxation of Alpha waves, the two brain hemispheres adopt a single, coherent, electromagnetic wave-firing pattern. They work together in a synchronous, balanced manner. Right-brain creativity engages in problem solving, and left-brain linear logic recedes. In whole-brain functioning with activated Alpha waves, the brain is also highly suggestible and can bypass the limitations of Beta wave thinking to re-reprogram the mind for success.
The brain contributes to the state of the mind. People often look at emotions to become healthier, happier and more spiritual, but brainwaves and the subconscious mind play a central role. For example:
- If people were never in Beta wave mode, they couldn’t accomplish anything. Alpha waves allow Beta and Theta waves to connect and transfer information, making it possible to take insights discovered in a Theta state and put them into action in a Beta state.
- Activated Alpha waves promote relaxation, focus, imaginative creativity, super-learning, intuitive awareness, periods of insight, bursts of inspiration, and out-of-the-box thinking, all useful for growth and success. Even brief periods of whole-brain functioning with Alpha waves can build stronger concentration, sharper memory, heightened imagination and vivid visualization.
- Delta waves allow conscious access to information from the realm of the unconscious, universal mind and collective unconscious that is otherwise unavailable and can support the body’s innate capacity to heal and regenerate in deep sleep.
- Where Alpha and Theta waves join and activate the right brain, the left brain cannot censor deep spiritual connection, super-conscious insight, clarity of spiritual purpose, and imaginative, inspired creativity. Alpha bridges to the conscious mind so insights from meditation may be recalled. Theta taps into innate subconscious capacities for inner peace, healing, creativity, awareness of mystical truths and life purpose, and transformation of subconscious limiting beliefs.
- At the border between Alpha and Theta, perception expands into ‘believing is seeing’ and provides access to both subconscious and universal knowledge for expansive visualization, high levels of performance, and innovative solutions. The body is deeply relaxed. It can enter peak states and feel less limited by the physical form. This state is optimal for powerfully focusing the mind’s power to create through visualization and programming the mind with universal truths.
The health and performance benefits of brainwave training are seemingly endless. Brainwaves can help you:
- orchestrate your body’s innate capacities to de-stress, overcome pain, and recover from illness and trauma
- relax your mind so it’s clear, alert, emotionally resilient and programmable for goals
- skillfully manage stress, time, energy and life
- experience non-judgment, empathy and care towards yourself and others
- meet the challenges of learning and tests
- achieve high-level performance on-the-job, in sports or on-stage
- stimulate your body to produce natural opiate-like, pain-reducing feel-good endorphins and their relaxing, mood-boosting, anti-aging, anti-oxidant, and immune-enhancing effects
“How can brainwave training help me develop my consciousness potentials?”
Consciousness trainer, Judith Pennington works with brainwave biofeedback, meditation and hypnosis to empower people to expand their consciousness and enter profound transformative states. She explains that the sustained attention and focused awareness involved in the mindfulness of activities such as deep meditation, creative endeavors, spiritual or contemplative practice, and Reiki transmission calm Beta waves to quiet the analytical mind, generate an Alpha wave bridge that awakens the mind to itself, and combine Theta and Alpha waves to facilitate the harmonizing of mind-body-spirit for health. In this awakened state, awareness flows openly, and there is access to all the layers of brainwave frequency and their capacities: clarity, intuition, insight, memory, creativity and spiritual awareness.
The ability to simultaneously think and be in meditative mindfulness enables people to direct their attention and energy into skillfully managing stress and creating well-being and fulfilling life realities. Contemporary brain imaging studies of meditating illumined spiritual masters and other evolved minds confirm that the light of consciousness vibrates in the brain as brainwaves.
Pennington points out that many find the climb to meditative awareness and focus is slow, but research on the psycho-physiology of awakening consciousness has shown that biofeedback can speed awakening by helping people transform and evolve the mind — a new road down an ancient path. more
Pennington discusses the research of C. Maxwell Cade, pioneer psycho-biologist, biophysicist, Zen master and hypnotist documented in The Awakened Mind: Biofeedback and the Development of Higher States of Awareness . Cade used biofeedback to observe people’s brainwaves, gauge relaxation levels, map and awaken consciousness. He studied altered states of consciousness of hundreds of yogis, spiritual healers, and psychics who work with energy, and seasoned meditators deep in meditation. He found that meditation dramatically increase the possibilities of relaxation, health, awareness, and mental and creative potentials.
Pennington also reviews research from the 1980s of Cade’s student, Anna Wise, who held a masters in humanist psychology and diplomates in neurotherapy and peak performance. After going through two near-death experiences, she wanted to re-enter the bliss of higher awareness. Wise researched training the mind to awaken with brainwave biofeedback for more expanded ways of being in the world. She measured the brainwaves of successful artists, dancers, composers, inventors, scientists, mathematicians, and CEOs of major corporations. Wise discovered awakened mind patterns not only in spiritually oriented people, but also in those who are creatively oriented and draw on the subconscious to expand the mind for insight, creativity and healing. Brainwave training with biofeedback sped the process of reaching deep awareness states that awaken, open and transform a mind, and expand perspectives. Wise discusses this research and the qualities of the “Awakened Mind” in The High-Performance Mind: Mastering Brainwaves for Insight, Healing, and Creativity:
- An open, awake, alert, clear, focused mind flowing with coherent light waves enhances brainpower, intelligence and health. It draws a flow of creativity, intuition and insight from the subconscious to resolve challenges, which prompts the mind to expand further. The mind thinks and meditates simultaneously, and the two functions are linked in a flow.
- In meditation, the mind expands into pure awareness of the indwelling super-conscious intelligence. It attunes to a constant stream of intuitive insight, higher perspectives, and a blissful sense of inter-connectedness or ‘oneness’ that stirs compassion and love for self and all existence.
- Once the brain and mind have experienced these higher states, they continue seeking these. As unconscious blockages are eliminated, the consciousness of an individual progressively integrates with ‘the unlimited infinite’, which Wise calls ‘the ineffable’, some call ‘the source of all consciousness’, and others call ‘God’.
- Expanding awareness of stress lodged in the unconscious depths of mind connects people with all they are and can be. As they proceed towards brainwave mastery, awakened people gain clearer understanding of what they want and how to attain it.
Independent of spiritual orientation, belief or tradition, high achievers at the top of their professions demonstrate these qualities of a mind that is awake:
- the ability to quiet the mind, go within and master brainwaves for creativity, insight, healing and actualizing a fulfilling, joyful life
- self-directed approach that imparts a sense of boundless freedom and joy
- heightened intuition and focus for self-directed health care, creative problem-solving, inventive leadership, interpersonal success
- excitement, enthusiasm and enjoyment of the ‘aha’ experience with inner and outer revelation
- a steady stream of insights and peak moments of joy and bliss compassion,
detachment,
non-judgment,
clarity, equanimity, service and love
- empathy, helpful, peaceful, kind, warm, balanced, perceptive, insightful
- non-judgmental, non-blaming, uncritical towards others, not trying to control their thought or actions
- devoted to love and service arising from a deep, heartfelt devotion to humanity, and to God, or divine, universal consciousness
“How can I optimize my brain functions?”
There are many ways to develop the ability to harness the power of brainwaves, including deep breathing, meditation, time with nature, and biofeedback. These methods alone or in combination can alter brainwave activity and increase whole-brain functioning with the brainwaves balanced in effective proportions. With Quantum Breakthroughs you can Tune Up Your Brain to de-stress, optimize your health and performance, and make the most of your consciousness capacities.
Working with the brainwaves is one of most efficient, effective, affordable holistic self-care strategies available for relaxation, health, performance and evolution.