Brain Entrainment: Science or Science Fiction?

In my last two sessions, the topic of the effect of binaural beats on the brain, also called frequency following response or brain entrainment, came up. So I checked into the research and was surprised at what I found. There is no evidence to support the benefits of binaural beats, and one pilot study showed that it was harmful (Wahbeh, Calabrese, Zwickey, and Zajdel, 2007).

First, what is it? Binaural beats refers to hearing a sound at one frequency in the left ear, then hearing a sound of another frequency in the right ear. The brain averages the signal and supposedly entrains itself to the frequency. When the frequency matches that of a particular brain wave, the brain produces more of that wave.

All of the studies I saw were poorly designed. In order to measure this effect, you need several control groups:

--Several groups that hear the binaural beats, then are measured physiologically for relaxation effects. You’d need one group per frequency range. For example, one group should hear binaural beats at 7 Hz, one at 12 Hz, etc.
--One group that did nothing and was measured for relaxation.
--One group that meditated and was measured for relaxation.
--One group that heard silence and was measured for relaxation.
--One group that heard white noise and was measured for relaxation.
--Several groups that listened to various forms of music: Reiki, classical, rock, etc. and was measured for relaxation.

This type of experiment could measure the comparative effectiveness of how the various sounds relax the people in the groups. There were no such study designs like this one.

One study I found that tested subjects at the 7 Hz frequency showed increased depression and poorer immediate memory recall.

The discovery of binaural beats dates back to 1839. The research is dated from the 1960s. My recommendation is to stop wasting your money on meditation aids. You don’t need any commercial gadget to experience the profound effects of meditation. All you need is the will to sit down and shut up for a few minutes each day!

Happiness and the Full Moon

Just about any police officer will tell you that the craziness in people comes out with the full moon. But it is true that magnetic fields impact our personalities? Is there any scientific basis to it? The answer is yes and no, depending on whom you want to believe.

First a primer on frequencies. All brains emit waves. You’ve probably heard about this: delta waves are for sleep, alpha and beta waves are for activity. These brain waves measure below 70Hz and are mostly below 8Hz. Radio waves, cell phone waves, telephone waves, air traffic control waves, TV, microwave, radar, GPS, wireless LANs, heart rate monitors, etc. all measure at frequencies higher than that, in the KHz to MHz to GHz – kilohertz to megahertz to gigahertz – frequency ranges.

If you are conservative and want to believe the university researchers, the answer is that no harm comes from all of the invisible electromagnetic fields from cell phones, computers, electrical devices that are in our world today. There has been one Dutch study that has measured well-being and exposure at the 2100 MHz level and found a small effect. However, another study could not replicate the findings.

The only studies I know of have measured immediate effects from exposure. No study I’ve seen has been able to measure the long-term effects and here’s why. Good study design requires at least two groups of subjects to be tested: the test group and a control group. The test group gets exposed to whatever is being tested, while the control group doesn’t. If there’s a difference between the two groups, you have an experimental effect. Now how can we design a study where people have no long-term access to electromagnetism, given it is all around us. We could have people live in a Faraday cage – a special environment designed to keep out electricity – but that is impractical. Who would volunteer for that? There is also another type of box that keeps out magnetism. But to ask people to live there would be impossible. So there is no simple way to study the long term effects of electromagnetism on people.

But that hasn’t stopped a couple of scientists, whose work has not been widely accepted by the scientific community. Robert Becker, MD has written a book called The Body Electric that delves into this subject. Dr. Becker feels that the proliferation of electromagnetic devices has contributed to many of our current diseases: leukemia, attention deficit disorder, and cancer, to name a few. Valerie Hunt, PhD, explores the subject in her self-published book, Infinite Mind. She gets into the realm of psychic development, which she links to magnetic fields but not electric fields.

One of the problems I see in humans is we tend to ignore what we can’t see through our five senses. If it’s not there it does not exist. The extreme skepticism is a personality trait a regular scientist needs to succeed – this is good in drug trials so people don’t die needlessly, for example -- but is also a setback in having new discoveries become widely accepted. Take brain plasticity – the brain’s ability to learn and change -- as the perfect example. We all know we can learn and change; science had clear proof of it for 100 years. But it wasn’t until 1998 that most of the mainstream scientists finally accepted plasticity as the predominant view.

Another problem that is bigger is that to truly understand how humans are affected by our world requires deep expert knowledge in at least four different disciplines: neuroscience and all things medical, geology to understand the earth’s magnetic field, quantum physics to understand the observer’s contribution, and electrical engineering to understand the electrical impulses in and around the body.

Lynn McTaggert is one person who has attempted to blend research from all of these fields. Lynne is a reporter who does an exceptional job is distilling complicated scientific information into language most of us can understand. Her books, The Field and The Intention Experiment, are well-written and researched and contain a heavy quantum component; however, some of the research she quotes have been rejected by mainstream scientists.

So I’ll leave it up to you. What are you like when the full moon comes out?

Building Structure and Using Our Time Wisely

As we look at how we can bring happiness into our lives, one way is to create some routines or rituals and bring structure to our busy lives. Some suggestions from last night’s workshop were very helpful:

-- Mary Ellen sets a timer for 45 minutes to work on a project that she needs to complete, but doesn’t necessarily love. After the timer goes off, she starts on the next task – gardening -- which she does love.

--Ginnie sets internal deadlines and schedules a task she has to do on her calendar. In that way, she is making room for her priorities and not the world’s.

Here are few tips from my archives:

Start the day without first checking your email and calls – wait until mid-morning.
Work on your #1 priority task first thing in the morning. When I do this, I have nearly two blissful, uninterrupted hours to work my to-do list items. I make progress and feel better about my accomplishments.

Trim.
If all of the information you are receiving is not adding value to your life purpose, then cut it out. Cancel the newspaper subscription, unsubscribe to email lists, drop that negative friend, etc. You’ll be amazed at how much time you just gained.

Maximize down time.
Don’t do things at the same time everyone else does. To avoid long lines, I go to the grocery store during the weekday when everyone is at work. I rarely get caught in traffic because of the way I schedule my appointments. When I do get caught waiting, such as at a doctor’s office, I bring the book that I’m in the middle of reading or do simple yoga poses in line.

Share.
Avoid being Superperson, and let someone else help you get things done. Delegate personal as well as business tasks; time is time, no matter how you save it.

Align daily tasks with your life purpose.
Are you working on things that matter, or are you simply doing busy work? It’s easy to stay busy working on all the wrong things. For every task you do, ask yourself if it will move you toward your life goals.

The best resource I’ve seen in this area is David Allen’s book Getting Things Done. Now the challenge is finding time to read it!

Wellness programs are a growing global phenom

The Society for Human Resource Management just released a report that says 86 percent of North American companies have a wellness program. These programs are designed to help employees stay healthy through good eating, exercise, and overall healthy lifestyles.

Does your company have a wellness program? If so, what does it consist of?

Stress statistics

The American Psychological Association just released a survey that says 1/3 of people are now extremely stressed. This stress interferes with their jobs, productivity, and eating habits. Some of the stressors are work, money, housing, being single, and being parents of young children.

Stress creates dis-ease in your body so that you actually lose time worrying because you get sick more often.

Does it really have to be this way? Why do you think that people are willing to continue to live like this when there are tools for a better life than this?

What are the best tools you've seen that reduce stress?

Happiness classes in German schools

The rest of the world is far ahead of the U.S. in the happiness race. Take a look at what's happening in one German school.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/player/nol/newsid_7010000/newsid_7011600?redirect=7011620.stm&news=1&nbwm=1&bbwm=1&nbram=1&bbram=1&asb=1.

The amazing benefits of happiness

Happier people:

• Have better relationships with their peers, boss, and customers
• Have a bolstered immune system
• Have more energy and activity
• Are more productive and engaged
• Have greater self-control and coping abilities
• Enjoy an upward spiral of success
• Are more likely to accept change
• Discover rewards in mundane ordinary events
• Produce superior work outcomes
• Select higher goals
• Persist longer on tasks

Could it be that if you are happier first, success will follow rather than the other way around as our culture would have everyone believe?

The search for happiness and bliss

Why is happiness so easy for some and elusive for others? Why is it plentiful one day and scarce the next? Who is happy? What causes happiness? Can we control our happiness and other emotions?

These questions and more will be the topics of this blog. Feel free to add your comments; everyone I talk with has an opinion on happiness -- often the most unhappy people speak the loudest about it!

I have just graduated with a masters in neuroscience. I'll provide the latest studies, but will also be exploring an even greater body of literature on happiness than what science can provide. I find the science of happiness incredibly useful, but also limited, in that it has only been around for about ten years, whereas other bodies of knowledgeon the mind and happiness have been proven for thousands of years.

I hope you'll join me for some thought-provoking and happy digital conversations.

Sandi Smith