Brainwaves
What are brainwaves, and how are they related to my state of consciousness?
Brainwaves are electrical impulses produced by the brain. The frequency — the speed of these electrical undulations — is measured in cycles per second, or Hz, and the strength of the signal in microvolts.
Brainwaves fall into five main categories based on their frequency, each with its own functions and qualities. The interplay of all five underlies every state of consciousness you experience.
Just like muscles can be trained for greater strength, speed, and flexibility, brainwaves can too. They can be trained for improved clarity, focus, self-regulation, emotional flexibility, and more.
The Awakened Mind — the peak performance pattern this practice trains toward — is defined by the relationship between four of them: beta, alpha, theta and delta. Gamma is present, as it is in every state, but it isn't part of what defines the pattern.
In that state, information flows smoothly between these four categories, reaching all levels of consciousness. In everyday brainwave patterns however, most people experience some blockage in this flow. In peak performance there are no blocks — you have access to all the information and qualities stored within the four frequency types, in just the right proportion. This creates the foundation for optimal clarity, profound insight and peak creativity.
Brainwave types
Beta (14 to 38 Hz) Conscious logical thinking, concrete problem solving, active external attention. Excess beta causes an overactive monkey mind, inner critic, and self-judgment.
Alpha (8 to 14 Hz) Relaxed detached awareness, vivid imagery, bridge between the conscious and subconscious, short-term memory, the light reverie of meditation. Too much can create the tendency to get lost in fantasy. Too little manifests in the inability to remember dreams or recall the depth of meditative insights, because the link to the subconscious is broken.
Theta (4 to 8 Hz) REM (dreaming sleep). Subconscious storehouse of untapped creativity and repressed emotions. Theta provides the profundity in meditation often unavailable to the conscious mind. Experiences stored in theta can still govern attitudes, actions and expectations.
Delta (0 to 4 Hz) Deep dreamless sleep. Instinctive personal radar. Delta is often found in the waking state of highly intuitive and empathic people and those who work in the healing professions. It has also been associated with the Jungian concept of the collective unconscious. Overactive delta can result in hypervigilance and difficulty keeping boundaries.
Gamma (38 Hz and above) Its role is integration — binding activity from separate regions of the brain so that what you see, hear and remember arrive as one experience rather than as parts. Associated with attention and working memory. Gamma is also where muscle tension shows up on an EEG, so a clean reading depends on ruling that out.
A note on gamma
Gamma gets a lot of popular attention in writing about meditation, and some of it needs correcting. It isn't one of the four bands that make up the signature pattern, and its absence from that configuration doesn't make the pattern incomplete. What gamma does — binding the brain's separate activity into one experience — happens in every state you have. Whether it plays a distinct role in peak performance is an open question.
This is coaching, not therapy. I don't diagnose or treat. This work is not a substitute for medical or psychological care.