A PREWARNING: My results have been AMAZING. Far more than any placebo and far greater than anything I initially expected.
There's occasional talk of Binaural Beats here on these forums, but not many structured experiments I've noticed. I mostly see people trying to do entrainment at 7, 12, and sometimes 15-20hz. Most of these result in slowing down the mind, and becoming more relaxed.... though nobody has seemed to entrain to higher levels.
I haven't really officially documented anything, but have kept mindful of my thought processes. This past week I haven't taken any supplements, nootropics, or any vitamins. I repeat NO SUPPLEMENTS, VITAMINS, or NOOTROPICS.
What I did: Upon waking, I plopped on my headphones and listened to 40(or 48hz) for about 30 minutes, either while browsing online, reading, or just sitting there and listening to the sound. I would also periodically listen to it throughout the day. I find the immediate effects most noticeable depending on what activity I am doing.
My Theory:The theory I have been able to draw from my experiences here is that brainwave entrainment with Binaural Beats seems to entrain your brainwave speeds to whatever you are doing at the present moment. It's not as if you're entire brain is active in a single instance. Though, this elevated brainwave state seems to persist even after I stop listening for up to several hours, depending on how long I listen for. Sometimes I would browse online for an hour with the sound playing in my headphones.
Effect:There is a noticeable increase in my cognitive energy levels, and in my thought coherency. I don't really seem to be "stimulated" like in terms of physical energy, but my thought processes and focus seems to be highly elevated.
Effect: My creativity is massively increased. I can come up with elaborate stories in my head, as well as coming up with complex jokes and flirts. I seem to be much more witty and my thoughts seem to hold together much more easily, as well as my memory being increased.
Effect: I also seem to notice an increased awareness of my senses, as if I am noticing more things about what I perceive.
Effect: My reflexes in playing First Person Shooter games have seem to risen dramatically. There is almost no hesitation to shoot. It is as if I am responding immediately to what pops up on my screen. This also would make sense. Slower brain waves = slower brain processing & slower reaction time. Faster Brain Waves = Faster reaction time.
Effect: I seem to be much less emotional so to speak. Almost sort of feels like the emotional blunting from Pramiracetam. I feel barely any pressure in social situations, being very focused, and my come backs seem to be very witty. This emotional damping also seems to effect both positive and negative emotions, but in a good way. I feel almost uninhibited emotionally. When it comes to talking to random women, I am not distracted or concerned with my attraction to them.
Effect: I seem to be so focused and mentally 'fast' that any negative/depressing thoughts are gone. Even trying to think about such thoughts is very hard, or rather, I don't care. My past weeks have been filled with wishing I could kill myself for no real reason, but after a few sessions of listening to this high frequency Binaural beat, those thoughts/feelings are totally gone.
Effect: I have already said it, but I am much much more perceptive, my eyes pick up more details, and overall I am aware of more sensory input.
Effect: Hundreds of instances of vivid memory recall. Basically I would hear or smell something particular and it would vividly bring back a specific memory that is maybe 2-4 years old, or even if I have recently done it.
Effect on waking from sleep: I am able to wake up SOOOO much easier, usually it is hard as hell for me to get my ass out of bed.
Effect: All of the above effects would last many minutes after the sessions. It seems the more sessions I do, the longer the effects last inbetween long periods. So for instance my first 30 minute session may have only had lingering effects for about 30-40 minutes. 7 days later(now), I can do a 30 minute session in the morning and experience things all day long that I never experienced a week ago.
THE ONLY DOWNSIDE: If I do a session too soon before bed, It makes it very hard to sleep. The only way I can describe it is that my mind is very awake and energized... but not in a hectic, unable to relax sense. Not Jittery, and not like you just drank coffee.... Just... very "Awake". I find I can usually avoid this being kept awake effect by not listening too close to my bed time.
There are many many more effects, which I probably should have kept a Journal. So far it has been an amazing experience.
Theory of Effects: Based on what I know about Gamma brainwaves, everything I have experienced so far seems to fit there descriptions perfectly, and it seems the power of the effects increase cumulatively. It is as if all of these effects stem directly from my brainwaves simply being faster and being able to be held together with greater ease. I just generally feel as if my brain can process more information at any given time, leading to more complex thoughts, and inevitably, more creative thoughts.
The effects seem to work no matter what you are doing, as long as you can somewhat hear the noise. I doubt it works subconsciously, but I haven't tried so I wouldn't know. I find the most immediately noticeable after effects occur when I am doing something of a focused nature while listening(such as typing this post). Though, it seems no matter what I am doing the effects happen either way when I switch activities. It can be subtle in a sense, but has a very noticeable impact on the effectiveness of my thought processes, and the nature of them in general.
GENERALLY, I try to avoid listening to them when watching TV on my computer, or doing something that has a lot of noise, I don't seem to notice much immediate effect when watching TV while listening to the sound. Though, there does seem to be an AFTER-effect when I am playing FPS shooter games on my PC, ON TOP OF the noticeable improvement in my gameplay ability and reflexes while playing.
The program I used: I experimented with some pre-recorded uploads of 40hz people put on youtube, but with my knowledge of digital audio, I know mp3 recordings are never pure, not that it matters, but it led me to download BWGEN(Brainwave Generator). With BWGen I can make my own custom tracks by basically programming the frequency in each ear. It also gives me more freedom to switch up the frequencies while keeping them at 40/48. So basically I might do 200hz one ear, and 240 in the other. Or maybe 120hz one ear, and 160hz in the other. Binaural beats theoretically work by your brain compensating for the difference between the 2 frequencies. So far, my experience is that this is true.
I change up the base frequencies occasionally incase I get bored of the sound, or if I'm worrying about becoming tolerant to it's potential effects, but this so far has proven to not matter. I have been having consistent results using a linear progression of the frequencies from a base of 100hz to 200hz, over a period of 60 minutes. Basically it gradually changes the tone while keeping the difference between the 2 frequencies in the right ear and left ear at 48, or whatever I specify.
The reason I use BWGen is because it immediately generates the sound, in it's purest mathematical form. MP3's are compressed. The only downside with this is you can't put it on your MP3 Player unless you convert the .wav file output to an Mp3, A single 10 minute wave file might take up several gigabytes of disc space. In theory mp3 files have been shown to work, but overall wave files are more pure as digital audio. It really shouldn't matter with your results, but I just like to get technical. My choosing to stream the sounds directly from BWGen limits me to only being able to listen at my computer, which hasn't been a problem since I work from home.
My results have been AMAZING. I expect them to continually accumulate and increase in strength over time. I have never had such good results from anything, not piracetam(nor megadoses of it with fishoil) or any nootropic. These are true long-term results with no substances involved.
I have tried to cover as many points as I can presently think of, so if you have any questions, please do post. These past 7 days have shown me the true life changing power of Binaural beats... I could not be happier. I will honestly continue to do what I have been doing and using these daily as often as I can, because so far the results just seem to be getting better and better.
Honestly overtime I am going to work on increasing the frequencies. I have been mostly doing 40 or 48hz this past week. I plan to increase to around 55hz or 60hz next week. It seems like the higher the frequencies, the more focused and computerized(unaffected by most emotions) I become.
There seems to be less noticeable effects if I try to jump up immediately to say 70-80hz. The theory is that the closer to your current brainwaves the beat frequency is, the more easily they can be influenced. So perhaps I will get amazing effects from them a few weeks down the line. I will continue to post and update this as my journey continues.
Edited by Siro, 01 February 2013 - 12:25 AM.
