[reprinted from my former site How to Tune a Human, April 22, 2007]

For various reasons of diagnosis or research, doctors or lab technicians have for some years used a device called an “Electroencephalograph”, which measures electrical voltages in the brain and graphs them on a long sheet of paper. (Electro=”electric,” encephalo=”brain,” and graph=”mark on paper.”)

The resulting marks on the long sheet of paper are called an “electroencephalogram,” which is therefore a fancy name for “a piece of paper with marks on it from measuring electrical voltages in the brain.”

These graphed marks look like waves, and they represent electrical signals from a large number of the neurons inside the brain. So the common way people describe these signals is “brainwaves.”

::: OTHER BRAIN RESEARCH

Other machines have since been developed that scientists and researchers can use to measure the brain’s activity in other ways, such as measuring the magnetic fields of the brain, or using near-infrared signals to measure blood flow inside the brain, and even using radioactive materials whose emission of particles can be used to create a map of the brain.

But what we’re interested in does not involve this complex technology. Neither the exact map of the brain, nor the blood flow here or there is needed for our discussion.

Instead, we’re interested in the “brainwaves,” because it has become clear that the brainwaves in your head have a lot to do with how you feel, and how you perform.

::: WHAT DOES THIS MATTER TO ME?

At any moment, your inner reality — including whether you are happy or sad, tense or calm, scattered or focussed, alert or sleepy — may be either creating a particular type of brainwave, or your mood may be the result of the current brainwaves operating inside your head.

So it matters a lot to you.

::: WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH BRAINWAVE PATTERNS?

Using simple techniques now available, you can:

1. Learn to control your brainwaves, and directly change your internal state;
2. Use a surprisingly easy method of resetting your brainwaves to any desired state, without spending the years of a Tibetan Monk to do so;
3. By the regular use of this process, over time the practice clears out the accumulated “garbage” in our thoughts — old hurts and disappointments, old angers, old confusions and upsets — all gone;
4. By the easy induction of one particular brainwave pattern, you can begin feeling calm and relaxed, when before you were tense;
5. Using another brainwave pattern, you can experience “superlearning,” where your ability to absorb and retain new material is tremendously increased;
6. Another brainwave pattern wakes you up and give you expanded alertness, without the dragged-out feeling of too-much coffee;
7. The use of brainwave patterns can be combined, if you wish, with techniques from the study of hypnosis and NLP (“NeuroLinguistic Programming”), so that you can learn to reprogram your own mind, and this can be anything from getting rid of a fear of spiders or high places, to quitting smoking or losing weight, or gaining confidence for speaking in public before large crowds; and
8. For people who are interested in such things, certain other brainwave patterns are often associated with spiritual experiences, mystical out-of-the-body experiences, and sudden enlightenment.

::: WHERE DOES IT ALL END?

Can brainwaves make the coffee and walk the dog? No, but making coffee is part of the coffee experience, and you wouldn’t want to miss out on walking with your dog, anyway.

However, you now have access to a wonderful method to empower and enhance your life, without spending the years of a Tibetan Monk to do so. Is that majorly cool … or what?