Are brainwave entrainment CDs overpriced ? yes, I guess
I read a very interesting 10-parts investigation from the DallasFood blog about Noka a chocolatier selling the most expensive chocolate in the world.
Apparently, that company makes false claim to sell their products to at a very expensive price. The market of brainwave entrainment CDs suffered during long time of this high prices – extraordinary claim. Holosync still is suffering from this, the product is sold for $159, labelled as the most revolutionary solution in personal growth and mind development.
Many users claim that Holosync is overrated , the mixed review and the high price tag are the reason I didn’t buy that one. The Mindtek Eternety CD has many praise to it, over the years I haven’t read a negative review about this CD, but it is a simple theta induction CD, it certainly does work, I worked with that CD during months however I still believe that the $50 price tag is too high for that type of product, Eternity CD for me was no better than the Theta Meditation System from Dr. Jeffrey Thompson which is sold for $11 at Amazon.com.
The first track of Eternity CD contains subliminal affirmations that the vendor doesn’t disclose, the vendor claims that the affirmations reinforce the effect, I haven’t notice this to be true.
. TMS works the same and there is no affirmations, the Immrama Insight CD works better and there is no affirmation, the Insight CD is sold for $35, while Immrama Institute seems to have become a dormant company their CD has a good price tag and works well.
Brain Sync is another company selling fine products at reasonable price, frankly, the idea that an expensive will bring better results than a cheap one is plain dull when it comes to binaural beats technology.
Even the free Deep Mind Ultra 2 and DNA activator mp3s will bring many good results to many people.
I haven’t notice difference between the expensive products and the cheap one, The Zapper is 1 hour mp3 and it put in 15 minutes in a theta state, price 10 dollars from success.com, yes, sure the Zapper doesn’t have a nice music , it is a plain rather dull beat, but if you like music Brainsync has that and they are also in that range of price 10 dollars the mp3.
The insight CD which is 74 minutes (3 tracks) has a dull constant rainfall as soundtrack, at the first listening I didn’t like it but I quickly became accustomed . Depending of your tastes and goals – they are many CDs and MP3s nowadays at affordable prices, choose carefully.
Technorati Tags: brainsync, binaural, beat, brainwave, entrainment, immrama, insight, cd, mindtek, jeffrey, thompson, theta
December 30th, 2006 09:47
Hi Louis, I enjoy your blog! I’ve used many of the products you’ve listed above as well, and have pretty much the same opinions. Price seems to be no indicator of quality. The Supermind track from Dane Spotts (sp?) which came free in his book, was one of the most powerful entrainments I’ve come across; I didn’t like the subliminals on it though. Also, grasshopper enterprises has some nice ones, the brain flex (free) is my current favorite.
December 30th, 2006 14:47
ah yes, I remember that CD from Dane Spotts , the Super Brain Power with 2 tracks Super Intelligence and Mozart Brain Boost. I liked the Super Intelligence track.
Grasshopper Enterprises never heard of them, I managed to find their website. May be, a 30 days-trial for BrainFlex should tell me something . Thanks for the info
December 31st, 2006 14:37
Louis, I have several question about application of this technology.
I have listened to Immrama’s Insight and it indeed got me into a relaxed state. I usually fall asleep listening to it, though.
How one should work with the CDs? Should I do something specific while listening to them?
Isn’t Theta state should be already at the sleep level?
December 31st, 2006 17:48
It depends what you want from the CD, some people use that type of CD for creative visualisation, meditation, sedona method , pain and anxiety reduction.
Immrama recommends this series of exercise to combine with Insight CD : http://www.immrama.org/insighttips.html
I wrote about the various brainwave patterns such as theta in that post http://www.louisyagera.com/2006/01/16/states-of-consciousness/
Theta is indeed close to the sleep level (delta), theta brainwaves are dominants when we have these uncontrolled images (hypnagogic) just like when we are about to fall asleep. However, if you are interested to use the Theta state to explore extra-sensory perception, you have to pass that, stay focused and ignore these images, the purpose is to reach a stay whereby the body is asleep and your mind is awake, this is a great state to be in, a full description of that state can be found at http://www.explorations-in-consciousness.com/focus10.html
The way I used to work with Insight CD was to do 5 minutes of progressive relaxation prior to the session.( it is important to have all muscles relaxed)
During the session I count backward from 100 to 1, at that point, I do some energy work (Chi work) , if done properly I will be able to switch in the mind awake/body asleep state.
Hope this helps and happy new year;)
January 3rd, 2007 09:35
I wonder why you still need the after all the preparatory work that you do? Counting from 100 to 1 after a progressive relaxation will already take you into lower alpha at the least.
I wonder what kind of chi work you do in that state? I study qigong and have done some chi exercises as well, so I’ll be glad if you could elaborate more on the Chi work that you do while in that state.
January 3rd, 2007 11:39
Well, you can be in a trance state (alpha, theta whatever) and still have pockets of tension in various part of the body.
I want to avoid this so I do the prepwork even in the Hemi-sync Gateway experience each track has such prepwork with relexation, breathing and chi-work routine.
The form of Chi work I do is the one developed by Robert Bruce, see the intro course at http://www.astraldynamics.com/tutorials/?BoardID=18
It is a form of chi work I can do in trance state.
“Essentially, N.E.W is a tactile system (based on the sense of touch and ‘feel’) that utilizes focused body awareness actions to move energy through your body.
In practice, when one’s attention is focused in a specific part of one’s body, that part becomes energetically stimulated. When this focus of body awareness is given motion-meaning, when one focuses on a specific body part and then moves that focus through the body-the underlying energy body structures of that area are directly stimulated. This body awareness movement causes energy body stimulation and development.
In this way, energy can be moved at will throughout the body, and specific energy centers (chakras) can be targeted and directly stimulated. This stimulates higher levels of energy body functioning, opening the way to psychic and spiritual abilities.”
January 8th, 2007 01:32
I’m still a little confused on which brain wave entrainment CD is best for reaching progressively deeper states of relaxation and trance. I want to move through mind “overactivity” when meditating. I just recently discovered this whole area of science when I found the Holosync website. Would you recommend the Insight CD over the Holosync CDs? I am a little leary that IMMRAMA company that sells the Insight CD has an affiliate program — is this a multilevel marketing scheme?
January 8th, 2007 08:51
Cool, Louis!
would be nice to see a list of stuff to download and use
January 9th, 2007 01:42
@Katie , Back then when they had their forum at the Immarama site users claimed that the Insight CD was better than Holosync, however, if you are unsure you can start with a cheaper product from http://www.brainsync.com, for the affiliate program this nothng to worry about, it is a way to promote and sell their products through other websites.
@Kostya
Yes, I thought about something like this, I will probably do it soon
January 25th, 2007 16:49
Moonfish Design have a free brain entrainment program called the Braingym. The lite version has 12 presets and the facility to add your own mp3 backgrounds. The program can be downloaded for free. In the full version you can add your own mp3 songs and have access to a growing library of over 125 presets.
To download go to :
http://www.moonfish-design.co.uk
Cheers Rob
January 30th, 2007 04:40
As a Pennsylvania psychologist, I haven’t found “entrainment CDs” or “binural beats” particularly helpful. Despite the potential pitfalls of the useless products and trends, there also certainly exists, many effective self-help programs.
In 1997, Dr. Herbert Bensen of the Harvard medical School claimed, “Sixty to ninety percent of [doctor-patient] visits are prompted by conditions related to stress.” One exciting new product which has gained much popularity, since that time, is the Light and Sound Machine. As your article highlights, the deep meditative effect is produced through the purported phenomenon associated with “Brainwave Entrainment” and “Audio-visual Stimulation”. I have actually found these high-tech devices to be a fascinating and healthy way to de-stress.
To experience this phenomenon for themselves, I invite your readers to try my FREE software download, which helps to create the relaxation effect on one’s own computer monitor: http://www.SimplifiedHealth.com/virtuallightandsound.htm