Binaural Beats

tabula

Hi folks, I have been away for a while trying to meditate. lol. It's not working the way it used to, doesn't seem to have the same affect on me as before. I don't know what has changed but I'm not getting the same kick out of it as I have in the past.

So this has left me a little frustrated and in that frustration I was searching for other techniques. I found this place called OmHarmonics and was hoping for your opinions on it.

It claims to have a new type of binaural beats that puts you directly into the alpha state. But it is extremely expensive. $199 for its audio files. And no matter how good it is I won't be spending that.

I was wondering though about the effectiveness of binaural beats and if they actually work? This place OmHarmonics gives out a free 10 minute sample which I haven't tried yet. I am looking for opinions first. But if it works I will take their free sample and just loop it.

So folks what do yah's all think about Binaural Beats? Do they work or is this just another con trick to part the innocent from their money?

Thanks,

Alan.

ThailandTom

Hey Alan. Personally I would please suggest you not to bother purchasing such a thing. Firstly every wall you come across in meditation, people have done so before you and have climbed that wall in their own time without anything apart from their mind, that is all you need. Please do not invest so much money in something that is pretty much a scam of sorts. Instead invest a lot less money in some decent meditation books, Buddhist preferably, and or meditation classes. You will find that in time these walls will get broken down without such things as binary beats. In itself it will bring up an attachment, it is not necessary and can be negated all together.

person

Maybe think about your meditation in terms of climbing a mountain, at the start maybe you only have foothills and the going is easy. Your moving along making progress and things are enjoyable. Then you hit a rock wall, things slow down and compared to before it doesn't feel like much is going on anymore. This is a necessary part of the path that everyone goes through. At times things are like this then at some point you break through and things are easier or maybe there's another wall.

tabula

Thank you for your reply. I wouldn't spend that amount of money anyway I was just curious about the technology of binaural beats.

I'm just going through a bit of a difficult time at the minute and it's not so much as looking for an easy way out, but more of...looking for an easy way back in. The lack of progress is frustrating and annoying coupled with the fact that I keep reading about people who have been meditating for years and still find it very difficult. That just freaks me out and it is very un-motivating.

Alan

rivercane

I actually have a bit of experience with binaural beats. You can try a free sample at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binaural_beats but you need to use headphones and it helps to have high quality headphones. You want to listen someplace where you won't be disturbed and focus your attention on the different pulsating frequencies. That's what produces the effect.

They don't always work. Sometimes you have to listen a few times for it to take effect and some people never experience anything. Other people find it quite intense. There is a program called I-Doser that produces a wide range of effects. With all that said, I wouldn't recommend binaural beats as a meditation tool. At the most, it may produce a calm, hypnotic state of mind that is conducive to meditation but in the end I don't think there are any shortcuts.

ThailandTom

tabula said:

Thank you for your reply. I wouldn't spend that amount of money anyway I was just curious about the technology of binaural beats.

I'm just going through a bit of a difficult time at the minute and it's not so much as looking for an easy way out, but more of...looking for an easy way back in. The lack of progress is frustrating and annoying coupled with the fact that I keep reading about people who have been meditating for years and still find it very difficult. That just freaks me out and it is very un-motivating.

Alan

There are always multiple ways out and we all go through phases of being down or having a hard time, the thing is these phases pass and come, go and arise, that is the nature of life. Meditation firstly helps the meditator to relax, but at a deeper level to learn and observe how the mind works. This can generate deep concentration which can leads to insights into the dharma.

lamaramadingdong

I just bought an "album" on iTunes of Tibetan Buddhist chants with binaural beats for $10. Might be a better (cheaper) place for you to explore. Don't have the title at my fingertips, but if you search the iTunes Store for Buddhist chants you should be able to find it.

lobster

I wouldn't recommend binaural beats as a meditation tool.

Agreed. I have explored the theory and sounds extensively and their effect is too subtle for my coarse mind. The result is minimal and perhaps like chameleon tea, little more than a palliative. That should be 'chamomile tea' (spell checker) but as long as they don't use real chameleons, I rather like the change . . .

There are free apps, program's and youtube videos or you can get a cheap music plus beats CD as already mentioned. Music can change ones orientation. You mIght. be better off with a motivational hypnosis CD/DVD . . .

Meditation = easy as sitting around with earphones on listening to bird song . . . bubbling brooks . . . OM MANI PEME HUM . . .

:om:

Ficus_religiosa

I tried them (free from Youtube) and didn't gain anything from it. Try it out, it's not like it hurts If you want something more meaningful (imo), then try and listen to the band Wäldchengarten - they make music in the genre "noise ambient". It's sound-scapes made from forms of white noise. It's chilling!
I prefer no music when meditating though.

sova

do some yoga

Arthurbodhi

Some recent study says that pink noise could help to sleep and improve memory if is synchronized with brain's wave.
http://m.digitaljournal.com/article/347895
Well I just don't know if other type of noise like binaural beats could help to meditate, I think that for some people could help but not for others, the same that music or any sound or no sound at all. I like rain sound, well, because I like rain.

thickpaper

I have been using them for years for meditation and other things. I like them.

shanyin

I have a friend who likes them except I think it's something different them what you mentioned same concept though.

rivercane

Arthurbodhi said:

Some recent study says that pink noise could help to sleep and improve memory if is synchronized with brain's wave.
http://m.digitaljournal.com/article/347895

I love the sound of pink noise and will sometimes listen with headphones on my laptop to help me concentrate and block out the sounds around me.

lobster

White noise from sea scape, bubbling brooks etc + Schumann resonance, had the best effect I could ever notice . . .

At the moment I am plugged into an hour of pure gamma waves on the off chance that it will do some good . . . after hearing about the effects of studies on advanced meditators . . . however I may have got my feet crossed . . .

Floating_Abu

Hi tabula -- Sorry to hear that you are not feeling well, but I also wonder what kicks you think meditation might provide. Anyway I wish you well in what you are seeking.
Abu

Florian

tabula said:

Thank you for your reply. I wouldn't spend that amount of money anyway I was just curious about the technology of binaural beats.

I'm just going through a bit of a difficult time at the minute and it's not so much as looking for an easy way out, but more of...looking for an easy way back in. The lack of progress is frustrating and annoying coupled with the fact that I keep reading about people who have been meditating for years and still find it very difficult. That just freaks me out and it is very un-motivating.

Alan

Yes. I met someone who had been meditating for thirty years and felt he had got nowhere. But it was a very odd form of meditation. Not a Buddhist, but a follower of some dodgy and very famous 'guru' of the seventies. But some people are aware of results after the first thirty minutes. Doesn't seem fair really.

I think quite often we are going somewhere without realising it. It also seems to me that meditation, if it is not going well, can be geatly helped by reading. The problem is finding just the right text, and there's no predicting which it will be. So it means buying a lot of books, while knowing that later you'll be burning them all.

rivercane

I recently started using binaural beats again. I find that sometimes when I'm unable to focus enough to meditate, I can use binaural beats to acquire a pretty close approximation. I'll lie on a yoga mat in corpse pose and listen with headphones for up to an hour or sometimes do sitting meditation.

The software I mentioned earlier, I-Doser, is free software but only comes with a couple of sound files. The rest you will have to purchase. I recommend what is none as the "Pure" tones - delta, theta, gamma, etc. There is another free program called SBaGen which can generate delta, theta, and gamma tones.

If you're not lying perfectly still in a dark, quiet room and focusing your attention on the sound frequencies, it is not likely to work. And everyone seems to have certain files that will work form them but not others. You never really know until you try.

You can also find binaural beats on YouTube, as others have said. Some of the ones available on YouTube really do seem to work but the sound is not nearly the same quality as I-Doser or SBaGen. There is one called Deep Meditation that I really like and I have had good results with the Schumann frequency that @lobster mentioned.

I'm really not sure this is a road anyone should go down, but if someone is curious to try, I guess it won't hurt. The first binaural beat I experienced was theta and it had an immediate and powerful effect.

At any rate, binaural beats sure are interesting. There's debate over whether or not these can actually put your brain in a delta or theta state but they do seem to produce effects that certainly seem real.