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| The Amazing World of Brain
Entrainment
Explore
Your Mind with
Light and Sound
The
first time I sat through a Light and Sound session
was in 1987. I remember thinking, "Wow,
all the benefits of sensory deprivation tanks
without having to get wet."
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Mind's
Eye ~ $349.95
plus $10 UPS shipping.
50 sessions plus binaural stereo
sound.
and optional computer interface.
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Galaxy
~ $249.95
plus $10 UPS shipping.
30 sessions, frequency read-out.
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It was Buddha in a Box —
higher consciousness with rechargeable batteries.
I figured everyone would own one of these by the
mid 90's. Of course, I also thought everyone would
be meditating by the end of the 70's. I was wrong
on both counts.
Anyone can manufacture a box with
a computer chip in it that flashes LED's and generates
pulsing tones — and many do. However, I recommend
only the Theta Technology devices
because of the University-quality science and
research technology behind the software that goes
into it.
We can accept your personal check,
a bank check or money order, Visa or MasterCard.
We'll ship via UPS ground anywhere in the USA
except to PO Boxes. Delivery usually takes 4 to
7-days.
For more information, leave me
a voice mail message at 818/569-3017, anytime
24/7. If you prefer, you may send an e-mail to
me: Michael
Benner. Include your phone number but do NOT
send your credit card info via e-mail. I'll call
you back.
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How
Does It Work?
In most instances,
Light & Sound machines are used to reduce
the frequency of brain-waves to promote
a natural, stress-free integration of the
brain, mind, and body. Since the late 1930's,
researchers have understood that high (fast)
brain-wave frequencies scatter attention
and compound stress and confusion. The primary
value of high brain-waves (High Beta, >20
Hz) is the fight-or-flight response to clear
and present danger. However, the tradeoff
for faster and stronger in the short-term
is a loss of higher brain functions such
as creativity, intuition, conceptual understanding,
emotional sensitivity, recall, and long-term
vitality.
Low to very low (slow) brain-wave frequencies,
generally less than thirteen cycles per
second (<13 Hz), induce focused attention
(concentration), deep relaxation, stress
reduction, and conscious access to the creative
genius of the subconscious mind. Interestingly,
we are most alert and aware
when brain-waves are centered between eight
and thirteen cycles per second (approximately
10 Hz).
The term “brain entrainment”
refers to the phenomenon of brain waves
autonomically synchronizing their frequency
rate to match any repetitive stimulus that
falls within brain wave parameters, i.e.
approximately 1 to 40 cycles per second.
Light & Sound machines gradually lower
the frequency of the flashing LEDs and pulsing
audio tones to different degrees over varying
periods of time and the brain waves follow.
These experiences of expanded awareness
promote — to an extraordinary
degree — creative insight, intuition,
memory, emotional management skills, accelerated
learning, conceptual understanding, peak
performance, healing, pain control —
even mystical experiences of universal love,
bliss, and higher consciousness.
Light & Sound machines are guaranteed
safe for everyone but those with epilepsy
or other seizure disorders. If you
are prone to seizures, consult your physician
before using any optical stimulation device.
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The
Magic Wand,
the Wizard's Staff,
and
the
Stairway to Heaven
Perhaps
the richest allegory in all of Mysticism is the
Mystic's Path also known as the Middle Way
or Stairway to Heaven. Yet much confusion exists
around the basic symbol for this pathway — the
cadeusus.
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Asclepius
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The cadeusus is commonly used as
a medical symbol in place of the Asclepius wand
— the true symbol of physical medicine. Asclepius
was the Greek god of medicine and healing. The son of
Apollo and Coronis, Asclepius was often depicted
holding a physician's staff with a single snake wrapped
around it — a reference to the ritual of leaving
non-poisonous snakes overnight with sick people to promote
healing.
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Hermes
(Mercury)
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The cadeusus, however,
is associated with the Egyptian sage Hermes Trismegistus,
the son of Zeus, the highest of Gods, and Maia, the
earth goddess of plants and spring. In the Roman pantheon,
Hermes is known as Mercury and is often
depicted with the winged cadeusus as well as
wings on his cap and feet. The two snakes wrapped
around the cadeusus is a more esoteric symbol
of the energies in the Yoga system of snakes as the
Ida (feminine) and Pingala (masculine)
— the polarities of the spiritual energy the Hindus
call Prana or Kudalini.
Essentially, the wand
of Asclepius represents surgery and the healing
properties of the physical world in the
form of various pills, powders, and potents. The caduceus
carried by Hermes is a symbol of spiritual
healing and alchemical magic
— the ability of a refined consciousness of spiritual
Love to transmute illness to health as water into wine,
lead into gold, or sin to redemption.
Of equal interest is the
rod itself. In yoga it is called the sushumna. It represents
both the spine and the mystical path of refinement or
redemption between the incarnated human and his overshadowing
soul. It is usually depicted as having seven
steps known as chakras in yoga, the seven grades of
advancement or initiation in Rosicrucian philosophy,
and the seven steps of refinement in alchemy.
Besides
being called the Mystic's Path or Stairway to Heaven,
it is also called the Hidden Way, the Unitive or Middle
Way, the Middle Pillar of the Tree of Life, the Ladder
of Lights, Jacob's Ladder, the Path of Liberation, the
Scale of Perfection, the Tao, the Dharma, and "the
Way and the Light."
In
ritual and ceremony, the Redemptive Path of Spiritual
Love is represented by the scepter, crosier, rod of
power, wizard's staff, magic wand, as well as the Hermetic
cadeusus (spine). In fable and myth, the path (teachings
or laws) is represented by Christ turning water into
wine, the Philosopher's (Sorcerer's) Stone for turning
lead into gold (or Rumplestiltskin spinning straw into
gold), the Ark of the Covenant, the Arthurian Quest
for the Holy Grail and Jason's Quest for the Golden
Fleece, the Yellow Brick Road in Oz, and the heartfelt
wishes of Pinocchio, the Velveteen Rabbit, and Data
(Star Trek) to become "real."
Visual
Image Retention
and
other Illusions
Here's a cool experiment about things
not always being what they seem to be. Focus directly
on the four dots in the center of the image below for
about 30-seconds; then turn your eyes to a light-colored
surface and blink your eyes once or twice. What do you
see?
Go to more optical
illusions.
Whales
While
humans have walked upon this earth for three or four
million years, whales have been here for approximately
50-million years — first in water, then on land
as dog-like creatures, eventually returning to the sea.
This long history, plus their ability for communication
over great distances, has led many to believe that whales
may be highly conscious and intelligent, perhaps in
ways we just don't understand.
Male humpback whales sing
long, complex songs. A typical song lasts from 10 to
20 minutes, is repeated continuously for hours at a
time, and changes gradually from year to year. It appears
the songs may be a part of mating behavior.
Here
is a link that allows us to listen to whales just off
Maui, Hawaii in real time. You'll
hear much more singing at night (Hawaii time is 3 hours
behind California time, 11 hours behind GMT), especially
when the moon is full or nearly so. Enjoy.
Listen
live right now!!
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The Moon & Sun
The
phases of the moon are important to esoteric magicians
and alchemists as an allegory for the relationship
of man (the moon) to his Over Soul (the sun). The
waxing approach of the full moon has traditionally
been thought of as a time of receptivity for
both the moon and the mind of man. As the moon becomes
increasingly illumined by the Sun's light, the inner
Light of the Soul enlightens those humans who intentionally
aspire to Spiritual illumination.
The waning two weeks from the full moon to the next
new moon is a causative period of embodiment,
evocation, or expression. By identifying with his
Over Soul, the physical man creates new thought forms,
discerned in Love, for the Greater Good of all humanity.
See current
moon appearance and statistics.
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A Sonic Boom
Credit:
Ensign John Gay, USS Constellation, US Navy
Explanation: Many people
have heard a sonic boom, but few have seen
one. When an airplane travels at a speed faster than
sound, density waves of sound emitted by the plane
cannot precede the plane, and so accumulate in a cone
behind the plane.
When this shock wave passes, a listener
hears all at once the sound emitted over a longer
period: a sonic boom. As a plane accelerates to just
break the sound barrier, however, an unusual cloud
might form.
The origin of this cloud is still debated.
A leading theory is that a drop in air pressure at
the plane described by the Prandtl-Glauert Singularity
occurs so that moist air condenses there to form water
droplets.
Above, an F/A-18 Hornet was photographed
just as it broke the sound barrier. Large meteors
and the space shuttle frequently produce audible sonic
booms before they are slowed below sound speed by
the Earth's atmosphere.
From: NASA's
"Astronomy Picture of the Day" Archive.
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Powers
of Ten
The massive scale of the physical
universe is too much for most of us to comprehend
with linear measurements. However, using multiples
of 10, we can leap into an order of dimension that
makes macro and micro views of the universe more accessible
and, perhaps, even somewhat understandable.
- It all started with a book and later a film by
Charles and Ray Eames. So, we'll begin with a trip
to the Eames
home page, the "official" Powers of
Ten site.
- Florida State University has a nice Java slide
show on the Powers
of Ten.
- At WordWizz.com
you can just click manually to jump up or down by
powers of 10, 100, or 1000.
- The European
Organization for Nuclear Research in Geneva
has a manually clickable tour that allows you to
leap up or down by any power of ten as selected
from a logarithmic ruler. (CERN, as it is known,
is the world's largest particle physics center.
Here physicists come to explore what matter is made
of and what forces hold it together.)
- If you'd like to settle in and read text about
the Powers of Ten and, in particular, the California
Academy of Sciences exhibit, go here.
- There's a great site to help kids understand the
concept at The
Miami Museum of Science.
- Here's a great source if you're looking for good,
solid, math relationships and approximations put
together at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
on the Back
of an Envelope, so to speak.
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Hypnosis
The
rotating spiral like the gently swinging pocket watch
or fixation upon a hypnotist's eyes — collectively
known as fascination — became archaic
as a means of hypnotic induction by the mid-20th Century.
Research comparing hypnosis to meditation and the
emerging field of bio-feeback revealed relaxation
to be key to hyper-suggestibility, that is,
lowering one's inherent resistance to learning, understanding,
and peak performance.
So, relaxation has replaced fascination
as the primary means of hypnotic induction, just
as fascination superseded Mesmer's theories
of animal magnetism a century earlier. Nevertheless,
watching a rotating spiral does tend to draw the observer's
attention to a concentrated and relaxed focus in the
center of the disc. See if it relaxes you.
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Flammarion's
Woodcut
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A
portion of this popular graphic forms the frame used
on most of the pages in this website. It is an unsigned
woodcut that first appears, in black and white of
course, in Camille Flammarion's (1842-1945), L'Atmosphere:
Météorologie Populaire (Paris, 1888),
p. 163. There are currently too many colorized versions
to know which is which.
An astronomer and a popular science
writer, Flammarion's caption reads, "What,
then, is this blue [sky], which certainly does exist,
and which veils from us the stars during the day?"
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With the following paragraphs, Flammarion explores
the question.
“Whether the sky be clear or cloudy, it
always seems to us to have the shape of an elliptic
arch; far from having the form of a circular arch,
it always seems flattened and depressed above our
heads, and gradually to become farther removed toward
the horizon. Our ancestors imagined that this blue
vault was really what the eye would lead them to
believe it to be; but, as Voltaire remarks, this
is about as reasonable as if a silkworm took his
web for the limits of the universe.
“The Greek astronomers represented it as
formed of a solid crystal substance; and so recently
as Copernicus, a large number of astronomers thought
it was as solid as plate-glass. The Latin poets
placed the divinities of Olympus and the stately
mythological court upon this vault, above the planets
and the fixed stars.
“Previous to the knowledge that the Earth
was moving in space, and that space is everywhere,
theologians had installed the Trinity in the empyrean,
the angelic hierarchy, the saints, and all the heavenly
host.... A missionary of the Middle Ages even tells
us that, in one of his voyages in search of the
terrestrial paradise, he reached the horizon where
the earth and the heavens met, and that he discovered
a certain point where they were not joined together,
and where, by stooping, he passed under the roof
of the heavens.... And yet this vault has, in fact,
no real existence!”
Many scholars see deeper, hidden meaning
— the ancient quest theme in particular. In their
book, The Mathematical Experience, Philip Davis
and Reuben Hirsch (1995) write about this woodcut, “The
astronomer reaches for truth. He is depicted as breaking
through the shell of appearances to arrive at an understanding
of the fundamental mechanism that lies behind appearances.”
Said simply, the sky symbolizes a shell
or ring-pass-not where the material world meets
the non-physical Spiritual Realm. In the same sense,
the seeker breaks through and reaches out, craving at-one-ment
with his Beloved Creator. As Plato wrote, “Love
is the longing of the part to be Whole.”
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