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BinauralBeatsBinaural beats (or tones) are created by playing one note for one ear, and a different (but "close") note for the other ear. Headphones, earphones, etc. are required for optimal effect. Quoted from Wikipedia article above: Binaural beats may influence functions of the brain besides those related to hearing. This phenomenon is called frequency following response. In addition, binaural beats have been credibly documented to entrain brainwave rhythms, according to the frequency following response, at various sites in the brain. See also brainwave synchronization, also called entrainment. In order words, the difference between the two notes (or tones) will cause the brain to shift mental states so that the dominant frequency tends to follow the difference between the tones. Binaural beats can assist in meditation, guiding the listener into a state that might take many years of unassisted practice to accomplish. The beats can be used by themselves or as part of a guided meditation session. Often pink noise is added to make the tones easier to listen to, since they can be quite jarring otherwise. Gnaural2 (download) (website) is a free (as in speech and as in beer) program for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux that can produce binaural beats and mix in other sounds. Gnaural2 also has a Help Forum at Sourceforge. Schedule FileGnaural2 comes with a sample schedule for meditation. I have added natural sounding waves, Westminster Chimes, and a sample of crickets to the default schedule. Only the crickets require an external sound file. Since the default schedule is 73 1/2 minutes (one CD length) the chimes serve to indicate where in the schedule you are without having to open your eyes. The chimes occur at 15 minute intervals from the start of playback. The chimes are slightly unbalanced to the left and quiet to attempt to give a sense that they are coming from far off. Unfortunately the effect is only partial; a good imagination will help. To hear this schedule, you will need to download Gnaural2, get the Snowy Tree Cricket (right click, "Save Target As...") wave file (1,690 KB), and download the schedule file (1,309 KB). On the other hand, if you hate the sound of crickets, there's no need to download the cricket sample. Gnaural2 will silently ignore that voice. If you want to hear it, then after you load the schedule file, you will need to let Gnaural2 know where you put the cricket sample. To do that, uncheck the "View" checkbox for the first voice, and check the "View" checkbox for voice 1. Select Edit -> Voice -> Properties from the menu. Click the "Choose Audio File" button. Select the location where you saved the cricket file, then click "Open". Then click "OK". You may also want to save the schedule at this point so that you don't have to do that again. Do not click the "View" checkbox of voice 3 or 4 before playing or while playing the schedule unless you enjoy disjointed sound or you have a supercomputer. The snowy tree cricket was chosen for its melodic qualities. This cricket's characteristic sound is the mainstay of film producers that want to add realistic rural or suburban night-time or dusk sounds to their movies. To change the volume, uncheck all the "View" checkboxes except for voice 1. Select the "Volume" radio button. Drag the small box on the left hand side of the chart. When you let it go, Gnaural2 will update the sample volume to the new setting. The particular sample offered above was downloaded from Singing Insects of North America and modified slightly so that it can be looped. The snowy tree cricket also has the most regular period over differing temperatures. The sample provided was taken at 18.3°C (64.9°F), a cool night in the Chiricahua Mountains of Cochise Country, Arizona (ok, sure, the cricket was only from there). |