Brain Entrainment And Schumann Resonance

What Is Resonance?

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All vibrating things in this world have their own, "natural" frequency which they are most comfortable with. When a thing is subjected to an external force that makes it vibrate at a frequency it vibes with the most, the thing responds joyfully, by vibrating at the maximum amplitude (energy). This phenomenon manifests throughout the universe. This natural frequency of that thing or body is known as its "resonating" or "resonant" frequency, and the phenomenon is known as "Resonance".

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Examples abound. The accomplished guitarist keeps tweaking the different wires on his instrument, and knows exactly where to strum a particular wire in order to make it vibrate at its natural frequency. The Minas Basin, an inlet in the Bay of Fundy, and the Leaf Basin in the Unguva Bay (both in Canada) are the scenes of the highest tide in the world. These tides are a result of tidal resonance caused by the moon playing with the waters every twelve hours or so. The dance of the Galilean moons - Ganymede, Europa and Io - around Jupiter is another divine resonating phenomenon being played out since eons. When you move the dial on the radio to tune into a favorite station, you are arriving at the perfect resonance between its circuit and the station's frequencies.

Stretching the point further, we human beings have different frequencies at which we resonate, at different point of our life. Try to chat up a down-and-out, recently-sacked employee about poverty conditions in certain parts of the world. They will not resonate. But send out thoughts of a possible opening in a newly-opened company in the neighborhood, and boy! See them resonate! There are almost infinite subjects on which there are millions of websites currently operational on the internet. But you clicked on this article to read up on brain entrainment and Schumann resonance. Why? Because this is a subject that your mind resonates with. :) In tune with me? Good, it gets even more exciting from here on.

The Earth's Resonance

The Earth, our beloved Earth, is, as we all know, a huge ball with an equatorial radius of approximately 6,378 kilometers, and an equatorial circumference of about 40,075 kilometers. Despite its huge mass, as you were reading this last sentence, the planet hurtled ahead - and continues to do so - at 30 kilometers every second.

Surrounding this massive ball is the atmosphere, which is a mixture of gases that is dense near the surface but thins out as we go towards the space. From about 80-85 kilometer onwards and away from the earth's surface, the atmosphere is populated with a sizable population of freely moving electrons and positive ions. The resulting plasma of differently charged particles at this height forms a belt around the earth, and is known as the ionosphere. It is the activity of the sun, its sunspot cycles, solar flares, solar winds and all the fireworks that determine how ionized the ionosphere is going to be at any point of time. The earth's internal magnetic field and its magnetosphere at the outer reaches of the ionosphere together ensure that these free souls remain free and don't bond. (Oh well, life is not very social up there.)

The surface of the Earth, the ionosphere and the atmosphere together form one gigantic electrical circuit. This near-circular belt around the earth's surface acts as a "waveguide" that handles the continuous flow of electromagnetic waves. When the weather is "fair", this belt acts as a cavity, with the ionospheric end maintaining a potential of 200,000 to 500,000 volts higher than the earth's surface end. The current during such time is about 0.002 nano-amperes per square meter. (See here for data.) Confined between the two ends, the electromagnetic waves ripple longitudinally from one end to another, and when they reflect back, interfere with the incident waves rolling forward. The net result? Terrestrial Stationary waves. These waves gently undulate (hopefully) forever, at frequencies that the Earth likes and rejoices in.

It was in 1899 that scientist Nikola Tesla discovered them, and it was in 1952 that Dr. Winfried Otto Schumann, professor of Electrical Engineering at the Technical University, Munich, detected the resonance. Dr. Schumann measured the Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) band of these vibrating electromagnetic waves.

The lowest frequency at which the resonance takes place is 7.83Hz. Higher resonances occur at 14Hz, then 20, then 26, 33, 39 and finally 45Hz.

The Earth's electrical circuit is extremely sensitive to diurnal, seasonal and solar fireworks variations. Scientists have gone ahead and calculated Schumann resonance on exotic locales such as the Venus, Mars and Titan.

Brain's Natural Frequencies

The brain too is a electromagnetic device, with chemistry and physics (besides lots of other sciences) thrown in for good measure. EEG measurements have found that the brain loves to create electromagnetic waves in the following four frequency bands, and is quite happy when it is in one of the following bands. By a remarkable coincidence (coincidence?), these frequency bands are the same as that in which the earth's global electric circuit too resonates.

Delta - This is the band lying between >0 and 3Hz. These waves have the highest amplitude, and when they are dominant, the brain has the lowest consciousness of the "physical" world (sensory systems take a break and relax).

Theta - This is the band lying between >3 and 7.5Hz. These waves are found to be dominant when the mind is focusing internally, meditating, or being spiritually aware.

Alpha - This is the band between 7.5 and 13Hz. This is the major rhythm observed in normal adults - people are active, efficient, and involved in completing the task they have before them.

Beta - This frequency range lies between 13 and 30Hz. As the mind shifts from the lower to the higher beta frequencies, one tends to become more alert, agitated even.

Gamma - On the brain's landscape, this is the highest vibration, between 30 and 40Hz. When an individual is put in a situation requiring integrated memory processing, for example, these waves begin to be formed.

Resonating With Nature

Ah, from physics and Atmospheric Science to metaphysics and epistemology! This is where my mind resonates the most! :)

Science ends; and phenomenology begins.

When we enter the state of meditation, either through internal stimulus (self-efforts, directed towards sitting still and becoming aware of one's consciousness), or through external stimulus (using brain entrainment CDs, etc); we experience the calmness that we normally associate with other, routine experiences such as when we get up in the morning after a deep sleep. In the state of meditation, our brain dips from lower beta to alpha, and from alpha to theta.

After some time, when we are able to hold ourselves at one particular level of ELF vibration, the same vibrations begin to be transduced to the entire nervous system, from the brain, spinal chord downward to the last neuron touching the pores of the skin. In time the cells of the entire body resonate at the same frequency. The consciousness permeates the entire body.

It is not possible to know when it happens, but as we dip lower from alpha to theta, the body's cellular vibrations become aligned to the stationary wave in the environment. It is much like the two leaves of a bascule bridge aligning with each other. That is precisely the time when the consciousness (and aura) gets the chance to expand, go beyond the limitations of the body and spread itself into the vast expanse of the universe beyond. And this is an ineffable experience.

When two vibrating systems are in resonance with each other, a rise in amplitude in the waves takes place. In our case, the brain and the global electric circuit resonance leads to a rise in amplitude in the waves dancing in our brain. Rise in amplitude causes a rise in our consciousness energy. Logically, at some point, damping forces set in, which prevent the amplitude to go beyond a certain level. Which is in our best interest too, for this damping protects us from an experience which we may not be prepared for. The trick, therefore, is to keep reaching and touching this amplitude, and gradually increasing its levels (pushing the damping force further back).

I used to think that hermits of yore would go to the mountains and hilltops to be more in tune with this circuit, until a research paper revealed that the "altitude profile" remains unchanged from ground to a height of 70 km (the Everest is just about 8.8 km), and it is only beyond that point that some drop is observed. (Unless, the hermits knew something that the scientists don't?)

Though popular literature suggests that the Schumann Resonance value is rising (and has jumped from 7.83Hz in 1970s to 11.00Hz now), research done at the Northern California Earthquake Data Center proves that SR has been stable at the 7.8Hz range. But what if it indeed rises in the future?

Final Word

Meditation is known to rejuvenate the mind and the body. For the materialistic-minded, this translates to higher throughput and efficiency in day-to-day work. For the spiritually-centered, meditation is the best route to connect to the higher realms of consciousness. Knowledge of Schumann resonance makes one aware of the different mechanisms possibly available in nature to achieve this connection.

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