Brainwaves and You: Exploring the Potential for Health and Well-being

Ever wondered how the hidden symphony within your brain — the oscillations and vibrations of neurons — can influence your mental state and overall well-being? 

In this episode, we’ll unravel the mysteries of brainwave states, from the slow, dreamy epsilon frequency to the fast, focused gamma frequency. We'll also shine light on brainwave entrainment — a fascinating tool that manipulates these waves to sculpt our mental experiences.

We will also discuss the  potential benefits of the delta and theta brainwaves, including improving  memory, mitigating Alzheimer's risk, and cultivate a state of balance. 

We explore the realm of gamma waves—known for their connection with creativity,  enhanced brain performance, optimised brain health and anti-aging. 

This episode is not just about understanding how your brain works; it's about unlocking its full potential. Join us and empower yourself with the knowledge to take control of your mind and body.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:23

Welcome to Limbic Light Podcast Season 3. In this season, we'll be diving deep into the marvels of our subconscious mind light, sound, brainwave, entrainment and so many other natural ways to help you become clearer, calmer and more potent in being. I've titled this season Deep Brain Retrain. I'm Manisha Blunchley, your host, with more than 40 years experience in the natural health field, ready to share with you my very best tips. Let's get on with the show. Hello everyone, and today I'll be talking about brainwaves. And why did I choose this subject? I wanted to give you a little bit of a background information. Most people do know a little bit about brainwaves, but I wanted to give you a little bit of a deeper dive into a look at what the different brainwave states do for us, both in a mental sphere, but also physically and this is a really good introduction into making us a little bit more hungry or thirsty to be able to I like to use the word manipulate, but maybe that's not the best word to use to influence our brainwave states, so that we can achieve what we want to do, both on a physical and mental mind realm.

Speaker 1: 2:05

Let's have a look at the basic understanding of what a brainwave really is. So, first of all, we start at the very starting point. When we look throughout the universe, everywhere there is vibration, there's oscillations, and what happens when there's oscillation and vibrations? We get a small electrical field. Now in our beautiful brain, which optimally we want to be working efficiently and well, we have trillions of tiny little cells called neurons. These neurons have little arms or dendrites. Dendrites are like little extensions to the central part of the cell and they connect to each other. So these trillions of tiny little cells in our brain, they vibrate and oscillate and in their process they put out, each one of them, a little electrical field. And there is a phenomena called the law of synchronization or the law of resonance. When we have lots of things vibrating at a certain rhythm or pulse, the entire flock, as in, for example, birds or amoeba or all sorts of different types of small cells, will start to resonate with each other. So what you'll see is the whole brain will start to resonate at a certain frequency. All these little neurons which are vibrating and affecting all their neighbouring little neurons create a whole electrical field throughout the brain. This electrical field can be measured by what's known as an EEG. It can be quite a complex arrangement, but there are also devices out there, simple home use devices, which can be used to assess and look at our brain wave state. One of them that I'm quite familiar with is the Muse.

Speaker 1: 4:19

In any case, a lot of people think that when we say our brain is in an alpha state, for example, all of our brain tissue, all of ourselves, are resonating in an alpha frequency state. But that is actually not correct. What happens typically is that we have a gamut, a whole range of different brain waves resonating in our brain all at once, but what does happen is that one of these frequencies becomes predominating or is putting out the largest pulse. So when that happens, for example in alpha state, we'll say that person is in an alpha state of brain waves, but in reality, most of the other brain waves coexist at the same time. It's like a recipe There'll be a little bit of delta, there'll be possibly a little bit of gamma and a huge amount of alpha, and it's like a mix which will determine a certain type of mind state. Now why is this so important? Well, it's a two way system. When we enter into a certain mind state, we're going to naturally start putting out certain types of mixes of our brain waves. But if we can influence from the outside in how our brain waves operate or what they're putting out, then we can influence our mind state. So it goes two ways. So this can be a really an effective therapeutic method to help people come back to certain mind states when they're stuck or unable to produce certain types of brain waves. And this will be a topic for another podcast, all about brain wave entrainment, which is where we influence the brain waves to operate in a certain way or to vibrate at a certain frequency so that we can you could say, artificially influence how our mental state of being becomes.

Speaker 1: 6:36

So let's have a little bit of a dive into the different brainwave states. I'm going to give you a very, very brief outline first, so that you're first familiar with the gradation of the increasing frequency of the different brainwaves. So let's have a look. There's two brainwave states here that I'm going to be mentioning, that not many people have heard about, and they're at the very, very low end of the spectrum and the very, very high end of the spectrum.

Speaker 1: 7:10

Now, when I'm talking about brainwaves, I'll be talking about hertz. Hurts is a form of measurement for frequency and all it means is how many pulses or beats there are per second. So if I'm talking about one hertz, what you can imagine is there is one beat per second. Ok, so starting from the very, very slowest brainwave, we have something that most people have not heard about and it's called epsilon. Epsilon vibrates at a rhythm which is somewhere from zero to half a hertz, but some people will say that it will go as high as one hertz. But it's very, very slow and epsilon frequencies are not very well understood yet, but a lot of people believe or think that they're associated with transcendent states of mind, trance, mystical experiences, lot of body experiences, lucid dreaming and generally altered states of consciousness. Now, I won't be speaking about them very much today, but I may save it for another topic, for another podcast, where we can dive a little bit more into how we can use epsilon in certain brain entrainment audio recordings to help us get into this state that some people who are explorers of consciousness may want to experiment with. Ok, epsilon, very, very slow.

Speaker 1: 8:55

Next is delta. Delta, some people say, starts at one hertz, other people say it starts at half a hertz and it goes up to four hertz, in other words, four beats per second. Now this is considered the slow rhythmic pulse which is associated with our deep sleep and deep regeneration of our body. I'll dive into this a little bit more in a moment, but I just want to give you an overview for now. Theta Theta is the next, going slightly faster, and theta brainwave states resonate at a level of four to seven hertz. Theta is associated with the dream state. It's also at the border of where we fall into a deep sleep and it's associated with our imagination and also the hypnotic state. And of course, theta is also very much associated with the brain state which children are commonly in, in predominance up to the age of about seven, and that's why they're very often easily influenced in what they believe, because it's a theta of the great time to program people into certain beliefs or ideas.

Speaker 1: 10:23

The next one up is alpha, and alpha pulsates at a rhythm from eight hertz to 13 hertz. Alpha has always been associated with relaxation. Some people believe that it's the bridge between the conscious mind of faster brainwave states and the subconscious mind of the slower brainwave states. Many people say that it's the type of idling frequency which occurs when we're just at a nicely gently relaxed state. The next frequency up of brainwave is the beta. Beta resonates at a frequency of 14 to 30 hertz. I'll be diving into this a lot more later in this podcast, but beta is commonly associated with the conscious mind, with our ability to concentrate. With focus and also when we're doing physical activity, we go into beta state. The next one up is gamma. Gamma has received quite a bit of attention lately. I'll dive into that in a little while. But gamma resonates. Some people say it's 50 to 100 hertz, other people say that it starts already, probably around 30 hertz. So it's the upper end of the beta range. Gamma is associated with being hyper alert, you could say a state of super conscious, and some people say that it's the carrier wave for other states or other frequencies.

Speaker 1: 12:11

Okay, and at the very top range, the fastest of all brainwave frequencies, there is lambda. That's spelt L, a, m, b, d, a lambda. Now, lambda is thought to be around 100 to 200 hertz. And of course, if you're listening to this frequency on an audio, you will probably not recognize the pulses because it's going so fast. So if you're watching it in a fast flicker from a light impulse because the brain can be influenced both from light and sound you're not going to notice that it's flickering at that very fast rate because there is a flicker fusion which occurs around 50 hertz. In other words, once you reach 50 pulses per second, your brain is not going to register that they are separate beats, it's just going to appear as one constant tone or light. In any case, lambda also is not very well understood. It's also associated with a super conscious state of mind and altered states of consciousness. So these are great topics the lambda and the epsilon at the very extreme ends of the spectrum to be explored in another podcast, and I will do this for you. It's a very interesting area to explore. Okay, let's go a little bit deeper into each of these different brain waves, but I will omit the lambda and the epsilon for today.

Speaker 1: 14:00

We'll start at Delta. As I said, delta starts somewhere around half a hertz to four hertz, and these are some of the findings that have been discovered about Delta brain waves. It was found that the body starts to heal very well in frequencies of between zero to four hertz and of course this makes sense, because we always say that the body heals when we're asleep, when we're in the very deep sleep. So also, growth hormone production peaks in the Delta range from 0 to 4 Hertz. Now, growth hormone is really important to slow down the aging process. We find that when aging slows down, there's more growth hormone. So if our body can produce more growth hormone, we're going to expect to slow down the aging and stay younger. So this happens in the Delta range in our very deep sleep state and, as we know, as we get older, there are less Delta waves being formed in our brain, which means A that we're not getting as deep and as refreshing sleep as we did when we were possibly younger and, as well as that, our body starts to age more. So the more we can get into these Delta rhythms, the more we can stay young, the more we can regenerate our body tissues.

Speaker 1: 15:44

Hi there, I just wanted to briefly share some very exciting news with you. I have developed a six week online course called Deep Brain Retrain, which comes live early next year. This course is designed to help you free yourself from old, limiting belief patterns and also to help you unlock your fuller, greater potential. You'll be learning topics like understanding brain waves, how they connect to certain mind states, how you can actually influence your mind using brain entrainment, and identifying and rewriting your own early beliefs, crafting personalised hypnotic scripts and, most importantly, you'll be creating your very own brain entrainment audio tracks using free software, binaural or isotonic beats, mixing primordial sounds, music and messages, so that you have a track which resonates specifically with you. You can register your interest in the link below the show notes. Below this podcast, I'll be offering a substantial discount to the first 10 people who enroll and I'll let you know when this offer and enrollment becomes live. So if this resonates with you, just pop your name down in the register your interest link below and I will be in touch. Okay, let's get on with the show.

Speaker 1: 17:24

So, also, memory and learning is increased in these really low delta range. In fact, it was found that at a very low brain wave state of 0.16 hertz, which you could actually say is already reaching the epsilon region, what happens is there's an increase of tissue and connections in our hippocampus part of our brain which is very deep in our brain, and the hippocampus is one of the parts of our brain which is responsible for learning and memory. The other thing which was discovered with delta rhythms of the brain is that the beta amyloid and sticky plaque in the vessels of our brain and for those of you that aren't familiar with what this actually is. When we age or when people are developing certain brain conditions, such as early Alzheimer's or even advanced or early dementia, the blood vessels in our brains become occluded or blocked with a sticky type of substance, which they call beta amyloid or sticky plaque, and of course it obstructs or slows down the amount of blood flow that gets to all parts of our brain, which contributes to these dementia or loss of memory or Alzheimer's types of conditions. So what was discovered with the delta brain waves is that these substances, these sticky plaque, are reduced when we're in the delta 0 to 4 hertz range, and what happens in that range is that there's a removal and clearing of toxic substances from the brain. So in other words, this deep sleep. Once again, it's very good for helping us to prevent any development of Alzheimer's or dementia.

Speaker 1: 19:37

Another thing that helps with the delta brain waves is that there's a greater production of telomerase. Telomerase is an enzyme which helps to preserve our little telomeres. Once again, if you're not familiar with that, telomeres are the very end pieces of our neurons, our nerve endings. They're like very fine, tiny hair, like protrusions that come out of our nerve cells, and what happens as we age is these telomeres become shorter and shorter and associated with that shortening of the telomeres, our body tissue start to age more progressively. So if we can preserve the length of these telomeres, we can also keep younger for longer. So this particular enzyme, telomerase, is hanced at a very, very specific frequency within the range of low, low delta, or you could say it's actually in the epsilon range. That frequency is 0.19 hertz to 0.37 hertz. So you can see there's been some really good study that's gone into this great research and what they found is that other frequencies don't actually affect this enzyme. It's a very specific band of frequencies that's going to preserve these telomeres.

Speaker 1: 21:13

The other thing about delta brain waves is that research found that there was regeneration of nerve cells this regeneration effect is most enhanced and also a specific frequency between 0.5 of hertz and 3 hertz. So that is really smack bang in the delta range. In other words, if we can sleep, our nerves are going to be regenerated. So we're starting to see more and more how important our really deep, refreshing sleep is for our nerve health, for our anti aging. The other thing that was realized or discovered about this delta range is that when people were in this state, they were able to have feelings of connection with the infinite, a sense of oneness with all nature, with all life, and this occurred in the delta range from 0 to 4 hertz. So, once again, this is a brilliant brain wave to be able to achieve. And if we can't get it because we're getting a little bit older, delta brain waves are naturally declining and the quality of our deep sleep is also declining Then it indicates that we could really be benefited by some of the brain wave entrainment getting us deep into this delta range to allow all these things to happen.

Speaker 1: 22:51

The next brainwave is the theta brainwave and, as I said before, theta starts around 4 hertz and goes up to 7. Although we could say it goes as close to 8 hertz the well-known Schumann resonance, which is thought to be the resonance or the average resonance of frequency of the earth. The earth puts out a frequency in response to all the lightning strikes that happens in our atmosphere and of course it varies. It goes up and down, it's never really the same, but in general, if you take an average of this Schumann resonance, we have a 7.8 hertz, and so we call this the Schumann resonance. Now, one of the interesting things about this Schumann resonance is that many people find that when their brain is pulsing in this Schumann resonance at 7.8 hertz, they tend to be in a very balanced state of being. Some people have aggravations with different types of the brainwave states, but you can invariably say nearly everyone is balanced and at ease and in a state of coherence, you could say, in this 7.8 hertz, and this is at the upper end of the theta brainwave state.

Speaker 1: 24:19

So some of the discoveries about theta is that repair of cell tissues occur in this range. So, for example, if you've had broken bones or injured ligaments or you've come out of a surgery, then your body tends to heal much faster when you can be in this theta brainwave state and in particular at the frequency of 6.4 hertz, which is in the mid theta range. One of the other things about theta is that there's neutralization of free radicals and also the antioxidant activity in our body is increased, and this also occurs best at 6.4 hertz, again in the mid theta range. Remember that this is the state of being when we're in a semi-hypnotic state, when we're in a dreamy state or when we're in a highly creative, imaginative state. So let me tell you another thing about theta. Something which was discovered is that there's a large reduction of pain experienced when we're in the 5 to 10 hertz range. So it's going also into the low alpha, but definitely in the theta range. So if you're somebody who experiences a lot of pain, you might want to be listening or putting yourself under some light brain entrainment programs which have a heavy influence on the theta brainwave state. You can expect to have a reduction in the pain that you experience if that's the case. And another curious thing about theta range is that when healers were examined or tested particularly healers that have hands on people, so people who do massage, energy healing, all sorts of different types of healing it was found that they put out a great deal of theta brainwave frequencies, particularly from the 4 to 8 hertz, and this happens specifically when they're doing their healing work.

Speaker 1: 26:34

Okay, getting to alpha. A lot of people are familiar with alpha. Alpha goes from 8 hertz up to 13 hertz. Most of the neurofeedback and biofeedback devices which are used to train the brain and also the body are tuned to the frequency of alpha and, as I said before, alpha can act like a type of a bridge between the higher beta waves and the lower theta and delta waves. So some people say it's a type of bridge between the conscious mind and the subconscious or unconscious mind. Now there's some people who experience difficulty in producing alpha waves and often they're people who've had rain injuries or traumas of different sorts. And if they can't get these alpha waves, alpha frequencies, happening in their brain, then they can't transition into the other brainwave states. So, for example, they won't be able to get into those deeper theta and delta brainwave states which we've just discovered how important they are to our body and to our mind and our rejuvenation. So alpha is really important in the sense that it gives us access to those deeper brainwave states.

Speaker 1: 28:00

Alpha is like a type of idling frequency, so it comes into action when we're in a gentle mode of relaxation or also it comes into action when we're meditating. Generally the moods improve when we're in alpha state as there's a greater production of all sorts of neurotransmitters that we need for mood regulation. If we do exercise, we also increase our alpha waves and, as I said, meditation will also increase our alpha waves. When we're in alpha, our learning and our memory abilities increase greatly and that's why a lot of people say that when you're studying, particularly for an exam where you want to have really good memory and be able to recall certain things that you are learning. You can play an alpha track in the background. That helps you to be really deeply relaxed and make all those parts of your brain work and function well to allow you to learn and memorize more easily. And what's been discovered is that your brain can connect with all parts of itself more readily and more easily when it's in alpha. In other words, we have so many parts of our brain and they're responsible for all sorts of different actions, but when we're in alpha, we've got really good connections, really good communications between all these parts of our brain. So, once again, alpha is a fantastic brain wave to have lots of. Okay, we're getting into the beta range. Now we're getting faster.

Speaker 1: 29:41

There are two different types of beta waves. There's the low beta, which is around 13 to 15 hertz, and it's also known as SMR. You'll probably come across this quite a lot when you deal with different brain entrainment devices, and SMR just stands for Sensory Motor Rhythm. Then there's a second type of beta brain wave and that's the higher beta waves, which resonate at around 15 to 30 hertz. Now SMR. The lower beta waves, which is 13 to 15 hertz are associated with keeping the upkeep of all our bodily functions, so they can be really quite beneficial for us. Whereas the higher beta the 15 to 30 hertz they're present when someone is thinking or focusing on a task, for example when somebody is in a hospital. For example when somebody's writing something or learning or learning a new language or working out a complicated cooking recipe. So we do need high beta and low beta, of course.

Speaker 1: 30:57

But sometimes if we get too much high beta, we refer the mind to be in a monkey mind state of being. So what happens in high beta particularly is that there's an increase in stress, or you could say that stress increases the amount of high beta waves. So, for example, if you might be arguing with somebody, or if you're under pressure to get some work deadline done by a particular time, or if you hear scary sounds at nighttime and you're really focusing on that, and as well if you're remembering childhood traumatic events, then in all those situations you'll be producing more of the high beta brain waves. Higher cortisol and also higher adrenaline levels occur in the high beta brain waves. Those particular hormones are considered the stress hormones. That's why there's often an association between high beta and stress. You'll also find that fear and anxiety produce more high beta brain waves, particularly in the area of 15 to 25 Hertz. What's been found is that the body ages faster in high beta and that correlates, of course, with all the stress hormones. If we've got too many stress hormones, our body's going to degrade a lot faster, and if there's too much high beta waves, it will also suppress DNA production. So bone growth is decreased at 25 Hertz. So, even though we need beta for focus and attention, we don't want too much of it and it needs to be, of course, balanced with some of the other lower brain waves, such as alpha or even theta.

Speaker 1: 33:05

Okay, finally, the last one is gamma. Now, gammas had a lot of interesting attention lately. Not many people realize that gamma actually had a therapeutic role to play or that it has real benefits to be in a state of gamma. So let me tell you a little bit about gamma. Gamma frequency of 30 to 100 Hertz is needed to integrate information all over the brain. So, in other words, when the brain goes into a coherent state of being and you could see that in an EEG when you see all the waves, the brain waves, being expressed, you'll see that they're not chaotic, but they're actually resonating. They're in a form of synchronization. When that appears and often that can appear when we've been doing meditation for a long time or have a real awakening, mystical experience then all of a sudden there's a burst or a large amount of gamma which is seen and all the brain waves goes then into a state of synchronization. So gamma is known for that bringing about coherence and synchronization in the brain.

Speaker 1: 34:27

You'll see gamma being produced in people when they're concentrating on specifically a creative task. So, for example, when a composer is concentrating on writing a piece of music, they'll go into gamma. Or an artist is designing or painting a piece of artwork, you also then see bursts and large amounts of gamma. Also, when a child is playing, you'll see lots of gamma. So it's associated with creative tasks. What's been discovered?

Speaker 1: 35:04

People who are developing Alzheimer's disease or any form of dementia tend to have less amounts of gamma frequencies, and this is why there's been a whole lot of experimental research going over in the last few years to see if gamma waves, both light and sound, can affect or slow down the progression of dementia in aging people, and so far they've seen really good results with that. Interestingly, when people hit a dead end in a task, when they get stuck and they're trying to find a solution. Normally gamma comes out in bursts at that time, which indicates that at once again we're looking for creative synchronization of our brain to bring us solutions to our problem. There was an experiment done with mice where there was a flashing light at a pulsing rate of 40 Hertz which is in the gamma range into the mice's eyes and these mice had been induced, unfortunately without Simon's disease. And what was found was this pulsing light at 40 Hertz helped to reduce the plaque levels in the mice's brains and it actually decreased their levels of plaque by half within one hour, which is quite formidable. It was also discovered that brain cells called microglia, which are our natural scavengers in our brain scavengers basically, are there to help clean up debris or damaged proteins and dead cells in our brain. These microglia are increased in size and also in number after exposure to gamma frequency light. With people with declined brain function, memory and all sorts of brain functions improve after being exposed to gamma frequencies as well. So there's a real avenue of hope and promise for being able to help people who have these dementia types of conditions, to help them with sound and light in the gamma frequency. It was also found that if you have a combination of alpha approximately 10 hertz with the gamma, you can get even better results. Once again, this is another good case to be able to produce your own specifically designed audio tracks where you can superimpose two different frequencies together for a specific need or a specific outcome. And this is one of the reasons why I am embarking and producing force to help people create their own individualized audio brain entrainment tracks specifically for this reason, because we all have different needs for different brainwaves, and that is also a topic for another podcast where I'll be talking about the different needs for different conditions according to different brainwave states.

Speaker 1: 38:31

Coming back to gamma, at the specific hertz of 75 in the higher gamma range level, the body starts to produce anti-inflammatory proteins, so once again, it can help with our inflammatory conditions. In our body, more stem cells are produced at 50 hertz of gamma, which means that there can be new growth of skin, hair, bone and organs. It was also found that 60 hertz in the gamma range regulates stress. Hormones in the body. For example, cortisol, as I had spoken about before, tends to degrade our body, so 60 hertz protects us from this hormone, cortisol. 60 hertz gamma also activates production of the mice gene, myc gene I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly, but it's MYC gene which regulates all other genes in the body. And finally, 75 hertz or higher increases bone growth, which peaks around 125 hertz and it causes three times the amount of bone growth than in high beta waves.

Speaker 1: 39:51

So there's a really good case for using gamma frequencies in your brain entrainment audios or, if you can access certain devices and I'll talk about them. There's the Mind Alive, david Delight, which puts out gamma waves. There's also a Nadi Martel of Sensora Tech, who puts out Vibro Acoustic Hand Devices. In other words, you feel these gamma vibrations through your hands and it enters your whole body. He also puts out a beautiful Sensora Light, both mini sized and larger sizes, and then a massive whole room size which can put out these gamma frequencies. So it might be a good idea to explore some of these if you're having issues or you know somebody who might be having issues with particularly the brain and dementia, inflammatory reactions and bone growth types of conditions. All of these things, by the way, for gamma seem to resonate very well for people who are tending to age a little bit, so it may be one of those great anti-aging types of brain waves which, when are mixed with some of the lower ones, particularly Delta even Delta is the regeneration brain wave you might get some phenomenal results.

Speaker 1: 41:16

Okay, I'm going to leave it at that and I'm going to put a little link down in the show notes for you, in case you are interested to learn more on how to devise your own very personalized and individualized audio track using brain entrainment. This course will be launched somewhere in the early months of 2024. You can click on that link. Let me know so that I can keep you in the loop about when it's released and when there are special offers at hand for you or anyone interested in this course to be able to do it at a reduced amount.

Speaker 1: 41:56

All right, I hope you've enjoyed today's podcast all about brain waves. Hopefully you have all your brain waves functioning optimally and transitioning from one state to another, bringing the optimal mind states, and let's go forward. All right, thanks for listening and all the best to you. Bye, for now You've been listening to Mini Shebunchly on Limbiclight podcasts. If you liked this show, subscribe in the link below in the show notes so that you can be informed every time a new episode is released and also know about my upcoming courses and more. Thanks so much for listening and being here. Bye for now.