Brainwave Generator

I can’t validate the usefulness of some of the presets (particularly those boasting effects comparable to certain illicit drugs), but I do think some people are expecting a little too much. The concept isn’t an astounding breakthrough in neurology – it’s just a simply program that plays sounds at various (often changing) frequencies in an attempt to influence your own mind’s binaural rhythm. In particular, the ‘relaxation’ presets involve a slowly-decreasing frequency, which over 10 or 15 minutes can actually slow your own mind down from its usual Beta pattern (14+ cycles per second) to a more relaxed Alpha pattern (8-13 cycles).

Inversely, presets such as “Lucid Dreaming” work to enhance your mind from Theta (4-7 cycles per second, light sleep) up to a hopefully provoking Alpha range, and hence might kick-start your mind into a state of consciousness.

It’s simple, but it works for what it was designed to do.

I’ve never managed to have a lucid dream with Brainwave Generator, but I do use it a lot for general relaxation. I’ve created lots of presets myself, and have learned a lot through experimenting on myself. My two favourite presets are one that goes all the way down to 5Hz theta, and anther one which goes down to 10hz alpha (which stimulates the production of serotonin).

I’ve never actually got round to trying out one of those ones that you listen to all night to get a LD. Especially since when I was first using this a lot I had a job, and felt I didn’t want to mess with my sleep too much. Now I am unemployed, so maybe this is a good time for experimenting more?

Maybe tonight I’ll download the one with the most positive user comments on the site, and try it out tonight, just to see what happens. It must be possible, since it’s all to do with altering your state of conciousness. Presumably the idea is to try to raise your conciousness slightly when you are asleep, maybe making you more concious during a dream experience?

It’s definately worth a shot anyway.

:happy:

Ed.

This afternoon I tried the Lucid dreaming Audiostrobe preset which was quite ok to listen to for 30minutes. Perhaps you could try this one instead of the longer ones…

[b]For all interested, just yesterday I decided that I’m going to try to experiment nightly as much as I can, using the best rated presets from the bwgen site. If you are interested in reading the log of all experiments, you can read about it in the “Brainwave Generator Experiments” thread in my astral society journal, by clicking here

Right now I’m working with Tommi’s Vibration Starter. So far it really DID work, induced the vibes easily, (I wasn’t even focusing on anything or paying attention) but last night when I tried it didn’t work too well, due to a bad night of sleep, and being woken up many times.[/b]

What a coincidence, clarkkent, because I did try that! :happy:

I decided against the long one, and tried a different short one first (Lucid In The Sky With Cubic Zirconias), and that did absolutely nothing. Didn’t even relax me.

Then this afternoon I tried the one that you mentioned, and, although it didn’t give me a LD, it was quite an interesting experience. There’s so many voices in that one, that I think it put my mind in a weird state, and I think there’s real potential in it. It says it might take a few sessions to get the full effects, so I’ll try it again, maybe next time I wake up in the night.

Ed.

P.S. I find it interesting that you wear lipstick.

Strangely, I wasn’t receptive at all to any of them, except the “dentist” one, which was probably placebo, but I felt a little discomfort along random teeth. However, one of the euphoria inductors punched through easily and made me receptive to all of them. Gave me a huge buzzing in my head, too. I’ve never been high, so I can’t tell you if I was, but I did experience a temporary inability to type correctly. I was typing bad spellings and all. A lot of them. Strangely enough, one of the sexual stimulation ones punched through too.

I wonder whether this preset could help.

It’s supposed to create seratonin!

bwgen.com/presets/desc95.htm

^^^^^^^^^
CLASSICALHISUX STOLE MY AVATAR IDEA!!! :grrr:

anyway… :smile: I tried the deep meditation preset before I went to bed one night with the intent of giving myself suggestions that I would have lucid dreams… I don’t think I reached a really deep state of meditaion using it but I did have some really intense HI…shrug I’ll try some of the other presets from the website.

Hey Clarkkent, that might actually be a good idea! :happy:

I’ve actually got my own preset which goes down to 10Hz, and 10Hz is the frequency associated with serotonin. Maybe I could try using this in the early hours of the morning?

I could listen to this whilst trying to stay awake, and see what happens?

It might make my body fall asleep while my mind remains concious…

:happy:

Ed.

I don’t mean to put brain generators down, but when I tried one I ended up with a head ache. I don’t think changing states of your barin so quikly is a good idea, the brain could realease chemicals to early. Or am I just worry on to much.

Most of the presets allow time for you to “wind down”. If you switch presets too fast, well, you’re gonna get it. Choose one preset for 10 mins, and then take a break. Most presets are designed to affect you over a period of 10-30 mins or so. In short, be patient with them!

I haven’t been able to reproduce the “punch through” effect anymore. I don’t know why. Now they have absolutely no effect on me. Darn.

I tend to listen to just one in a day, and not every day.

Just a thought about the seratonin preset… I had this vision of people at a rave all dancing around wearing headphones listening to brainwave generator CDs :content: and then on the news… " According to police, the latest underground designer drug comes in cd form. commonly used at raves and dance clubs, this dangerous new drug is not yet regulated!"

Another thing some of you might want to try is sbagen
It’s a free binaural beat brain wave generator (well, something like that). It comes with some nice presets like focus 10 (some of you might know this ‘state’) and so on.

Well, give it a try if you want.

I just thought I’d let people know that I’m now in the process of trying to make my own Brainwave Generator Lucid Dreaming preset. By looking at the list of frequencies, it says that 3.9Hz is associated with Lucid Dreaming.

I am designing one that goes down to this frequency, with the idea that I would use it in conjunction with trying to stay awake and doing a WILD technique.

I’m pretty convinced that there is serious LD potential in Brainwave Generator as long as it’s not relied upon entirely, if used instead as a tool to enhance an existing WILD technique.

I know from past experience that it can be very easy to fall asleep whilst listening to Brainwave Generator, especially when listening to frequencies which go that low down. My aim is to combine this along with trying to keep a part of the mind awake, either through visualisations, counting, breathing, or whatever.

I am designing it to my own personal preference, because through trial and error I have discovered that I like my Brainwave Generator presets made a certain way which I have found to work almost perfectly for me. I like to begin with 15 minutes of the centering frequency of 12Hz (to give me time to get relaxed), and then do a sweep downwards at the rate of 1Hz per minute. I also have brown noise at half volume, and have the binaural tone itself set at a very low 15%. I find this perfect, and I can listen to it at quite a quiet volume and not really notice the tone and just hear mainly the quiet noise, and it works best for me like that.

If anybody wants a copy of it once I’ve finished making it, I’ll be more than happy to share it.

And even if in the unlikely event that this doesn’t work eventually, it won’t be wasted, because it will all be good practice for trying to stay awake while the body falls asleep.

:smile:

Ed.

I think you can upload it on the bwgen.com site, in the presets section. It would be a great way to share it. I would be interested in trying it, in any case.

I can see it now: “LD Brought to you by Ed Case” preset. We’ll rate it for you!

Last night I slept listening to Dream Experience 1.4.1, put on repeat…
(I’ve never been able to sleep to it before…) You might recall from another posting of mine this particular bwgen preset made me vibrate the first time I listened to it. I was hoping it would do it and induce a WILD for me, but no go. I did feel a slight possible vibration but nothing more.

I did have a weird non-lucid dream with a bathroom this time.

I have been developing my Bwgen preset, and my latest idea goes like this:

The theory is that it’ll get you really relaxed, and then pureposefully send you to sleep for a few minutes, and then have a brief spike of increased frequency, at which point you become slightly more concious, just enough to then start a WILD technique while the Bwgen takes you back down.

Well, something like anyway, it’s still in the development stages. I’m just trying ideas out on myself.

You see, when I tried the one that went down from 12 to 3.9, I was trying to focus on a technique, and I found that I kept my mind TOO active and the Bwgen stopped being as effective as it would have done if I had just relaxed into it. So my idea now is to just go with the flow for the first bit, and just let myself be drawn down into it, but THEN have the bit where it rises back up every few minutes (or maye just once? not sure yet), to temporarily increase conciousness just enough to take control.

My theory is then, that if the volume is set fairly soft, that once the mind is on it’s way towards the goal of an LD, that the brain will the switch off from following the monotonous sound of the Bwgen, and then off you go into your LD world.

It’s all just theories and experiments though at the moment, and I’m just going to keep messing around with it until it works. Nothing else has worked for me lately, so I’m perfectly happy to experiment on myself, because I feel quite experienced with Brainwave Generator now, and it’s certainly fun playing around with it anyway.

:smile:

Ed.

Update

Still no luck so far, but still trying, and it’s been fun experimenting so far.

I’ve been radically changing my approach each time I try a new version. Also, I’m trying it at different times. Afternoon, morning. I haven’t got round to trying one in the middle of the night yet though, so I may backtrack to other versions for that purpose (different conditions may lead to different results).

Each time I try one and it doesn’t quite do what I want, I then immediately create a new version for the next time. I have been numbering them simply in integers. This morning I tried 11 and then created 12.

12 has a drastically different approach to the previous ones. Here is a description of it:

15 minutes at 12Hz. Down to 10Hz, spending 10 minutes there. 10-minute slightly curved sweep down to 3.9Hz. 10 minutes at 3.9 as it fades out, leaving only modulating brown noise.

Now, about the noise. Instead of constant brown noise, this time I opted for modulation at the “Slow Waves” setting. This then gradually slows down as the preset goes on, and then in the last 10 minutes, while the 3.9Hz tone fades to silence, the noise goes slightly quieter but then still remains.

The idea of all this is to create preset which acts as a sleep inducer, but then a slow modulating wave type sound remains, which might re-awaken (or keep awake) some part of your conciousness.

At the moment it’s all just theories and experiments, but it’s all good fun finding out what sort of things happen if you do certain things with Brainwave Generator. And it’s good to have a goal to focus on (Lucid Dreaming).

I haven’t tried this one out myself yet, but I will either tonight or tomorrow. If anybody else wants to volunteer to test it out as well, then I can easily upload it to my web space. Clark Kent? Want to give it a try? It would be fun to compare notes.

:smile:

Ed.