Binaural CD's with Light and Sound

[dbit]

I've read that its generally discouraged to use cd's containing binaural beats or other entrainment technologies while using a light and sound machine, as the entrainment frequencies will interfere with each other. I also read in many places that sound is far inferior to light with regards to entrainment, and then there is the fact that our brainwaves really represent a spectrum and that we're usually producing many frequencies but will often monitor or talk about the dominant one.

Given these facts, has there been any research done showing what happens when sound containing binaural beats are used with light entrainment of a differing frequency? Does anyone have any thoughts or opinions on this?

I have many excellent cd programs I'd like to use with light and sound, but so many of them contain some kind of entrainment technology, usually binaural beats embedded in the program, and thus I write them off as being 'unusable' with the l&s machine.

[Marisa]

Hi Dbit,

While it's true that light provides a more direct delivery modality to the brain, sound alone can produce good results as well. I often use just the sound on my Procyon when I am working at my desk. I put it on one of the concentration programs and I've had great results with this. All brains are different and some things work better with some people than others.

If the brain gets conflicting information (different frequencies) it will either choose to follow one of the modalities and ignore the other or it may choose something in between the two. It depends.

You may have okay results, or really good results, if you choose a program that targets similar frequencies to your CD. It's always best to work with a range of frequencies (i.e. Alpha 8 - 11 Hz) than just one frequency anyway.

Another option is, if you are working with a Procyon, is to set up a Ganz program. You won't get any "entrainment" value from the Ganz, but it will give you something pleasant and interesting to look at while you listen to the encoded CD program.

Finally, if the CD is not encoded - you can turn it into an encoded CD by either using NP3 or through Synchromuse.

Hope this helps.

M.

[neuroasis]

It would be nice to say there were definitive answers to these questions... but the jury is still out. Some relevant research is posted here: http://www.mindplacesupport.com/foru...ss-Entrainment

From a common sense standpoint audio certainly provides a reinforcing factor in the sense that we are much more accustomed to following along with musical rhythms and tempos. It is nearly unavoidable while music is playing to not tap our feet or fingers or at the very least decode the pulse. Music also has a strong consciousness altering influence as well.

Now as for the the beeping, blipping, tones pulses that accompany mind machine sessions, while they certainly contain patterned stimuli designed for a specific purpose, some people find this audio incredibly distracting and irritating. Thus, they are encouraged to mix it with music or turn it off entirely. Although effectiveness could possibly be lessened the added benefit of removing the distracting element makes up for it.

Audio and visual modalities operate along different pathways in the brain and I personally experience the greatest effects when they reinforce each other but have some variety of movement, tone, and type.