The light and sound habit

[caleb]

I have been pretty much experiencing a light and sound session when I go to bed each night for a few nights now. The sessions have varied somewhat but I did get a few which seemed to have an impact on my "state".

In any case, it feels like a shift which affects my whole body. Ummm - a little like feeling a wave of effects from being drunk perhaps? Not sure if that's how I should describe it.

Anyway - last night I didn't have a light and sound session and I noticed as I was lying there preparing for sleep that a similar "wave" of sensation was felt in my body.

I'm really not sure if this "state" is something that's desirable or not, maybe it's what I'm looking for - maybe it's a red herring. But I'm wondering if anyone has managed to re-experience a sensation used during a light session outside of a session like this.

I was hoping that light and sound could act like training wheels for the body (including the mind) to understand how to reproduce certain states at will. Is this what I'm experiencing?

I must point out that neither in a session nor out of a session am I terribly good at maintaining this state. Again - my wandering, chattering mind the culprit. If I ever find a way to actually shut it up I'll be happy.

Regards
Caleb

[Marisa]

In any case, it feels like a shift which affects my whole body. Ummm - a little like feeling a wave of effects from being drunk perhaps? Not sure if that's how I should describe it.

Some would describe that as the beginnings of astral travel.

Anyway - last night I didn't have a light and sound session and I noticed as I was lying there preparing for sleep that a similar "wave" of sensation was felt in my body.

It is possible to experience "entrainment" effects without the L&S machine. Your body has been conditioned to experience certain sensations when you lie down as a result of doing this with the L&S machine repeatedly.

Some people have described similar sensations in that they can be sitting somewhere and close their eyes and experience a "session" even though they don't have the machine on.

I'm really not sure if this "state" is something that's desirable or not, maybe it's what I'm looking for - maybe it's a red herring. But I'm wondering if anyone has managed to re-experience a sensation used during a light session outside of a session like this.

Yes it can happen.

I was hoping that light and sound could act like training wheels for the body (including the mind) to understand how to reproduce certain states at will. Is this what I'm experiencing?

It appears so.

I must point out that neither in a session nor out of a session am I terribly good at maintaining this state. Again - my wandering, chattering mind the culprit. If I ever find a way to actually shut it up I'll be happy.

Here are a few things you can try:

1. Imagining that there is a volume and speed control the screen that controls your inner voice, next you imagine turning that volume lower and to slower. This is really good to do if you are trying to go to sleep because the slower (self-talk) voice is more congruent with slower brain waves.

2. Another thing you can try is to speed up the inner voice so much that it becomes a buzz and disappears.

3. Become aware of your thoughts and push them away and tell yourself "silence". It will take a while to gain control of this so don't give up. The trick is to catch yourself in the self-talk and stop it before the thought gets fully formed.

4. An alteration of #3 is to focus on looking at the lights (on the machine) and when a thought comes to mind, you dismiss it and focus on the lights. Many people when meditating concentrate on their breathing.

You may only achieve an "empty mind" for a few seconds at first and gradually work your way up to longer periods of time. It's easiest to do half way through a session as the beginning of the session is to take your brain from Beta to Alpha and then down to Theta or stay in Alpha.

Self talk can actually prevent you from achieving a state lower than SMR, because thinking occurs in SMR and Beta and if you are thinking about stuff then you are not allowing your self to go deeper. If this is the case, I think slowing down the speed of the self talk may be a good first step.

Let me know if any of these methods are helpful or if you come up with something else that works. Many people experience the same difficulties - the brain never sleeps.

M.

Regards
Caleb[/quote]

[caleb]

Thanks Marisa.

The mind chatter was one of the reasons I pursued light and sound in the first place. I was hoping it would help me past the problem. I've been quite unsuccessful doing it by myself.

When I'm in a session I try to focus on my breathing - in fact, more specifically, I focus on the sensation of breathing with my nostrils. Cold as I inhale, warm as I exhale.

I don't manage to keep my attention on the breathing for very long even with the light and sound helping me out.

The other thing is that once I feel that wooziness come on, I try and force myself deeper into it - maybe I should just ignore it and continue focusing on my breathing.

Regards
Caleb

[Marisa]

The other thing is that once I feel that wooziness come on, I try and force myself deeper into it - maybe I should just ignore it and continue focusing on my breathing.

Can you describe this "wooziness" in more detail? I may have misunderstood what you were saying in the first message. Body close to astral or lucid dreaming is almost a rocking feeling in some cases or being light headed - not quite dizzy but slightly disorientated. Is this what you are experiencing? If so, ya, just ignore it.

Try slowing down the speed of your thoughts - this really does work.

M.

[caleb]

Hmmm - describe in more detail.

It might be a rocking - but it's more like an impact that has a ripple effect throughout my body.

Suddenly everything is a bit fluffy.

I think I might have experienced something similar under the influence of alcohol before.

It's really hard to give the feeling justice in my words because it's fleeting enough that although the experience itself if very memorable, the details are not - and I may be drawing parallels that are not really accurate.

I will try the slowing down of my thoughts though and see how I go.

I dream of one day being able to tame my mind and take control of my thoughts - that would be nice.

Maybe I should ask your advice on appropriate NLP/scripting/affirmations etc... to try and "reprogram" myself - but it looks like first I have to be able to bypass exactly the part of me that's the problem.

Regards
Caleb

[Marisa]

Hi Caleb,

What you are experiencing is your body going from an awake state into a sleep state except you are lucid (aware of the sensations). All is good.

How did the slowing down of your thoughts work?

You can achieve enough control over your mind to still or change your thoughts. It just takes practice.

I'll take a look through my books and see if I can find any interesting techniques to try.

M.

[caleb]

Unfortunately, last night my session was not a truly successful one.

I find that if I haven't started going into a trance where I don't really know where I am in a particular amount of time I will progressively become more and more fidgety because I'm lying so still.

For example, if I were not to be using entrainment techniques, I might be able to last 15 - 20 mins at the most before I get so fidgety that I have to move.

With L&S, I can last longer, but if I'm not starting to become really affected by the session eventually I'll follow the same pattern.

I lasted 33 minutes last night. I might swap my AudioStrobe session as I have another one with Isochronic Tones that I haven't really given a good go. The session I've been using uses binaurals and a Harmonic Box X in the middle where there are 4 voices playing all quite close together. It's funny when you listen to it because the difference is only quite subtle from when the standard two voices are playing.

My Isochronic session is a bit different as it goes for a dissociative effect - where one tone is 0.5 to 1 Hz out from the other ear. In fact, I have a few beats in this session with a rain/bird track and a subtle pink noise track all pulsing in an almost inaudible way.

The idea is not so much to directly strengthen the entrainment but to make it less likely for my mind to wander and hopefully keep me a bit off-balance, maybe indirectly helping the entrainment.

Apparently the effect is supposed to be good for people who have alot of mind chatter.

The last time I tried it I didn't like it much, but I think I had the rain track far too loud - it did not sound relaxing at all. But I spent time modifying it and bringing down the volume of various parts - so I'll give it a go tonight.

Regards
Caleb

[C-shore]

Apparently the effect is supposed to be good for people who have alot of mind chatter.

You know, everyone does. It's not just you.

As a newcomer to L&S machines, I'm not sure what I think of them yet. However, as a long-time meditator, I do know that you can control your thoughts... or rather you can by NOT trying to control them.

You said, "I dream of one day being able to tame my mind and take control of my thoughts - that would be nice.". The real trick is not to try to control them, since as long as you do, you're stuck 'here' instead of wherever you're trying to get to.

The simplest techniques I know - machine, CD or nothing - is to focus on your breath. Either count to 10, then count to 10, then count to 10, etc., etc., OR just focus on the point where the air goes into and out of your body (i.e., your nose or mouth).

Your thoughts WILL wander. Just keep going back to your breath. Your thought WILL wander again, and again. Keep going back to your breath. Each session it gets easier. I like sessions of 20-30 minutes. I usually pick 24-25 and have a timer next to me that beeps when done do I don't have to think about THAT.

Good luck.