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I recently decided to purchase two mind machine AVS (Audio Visual Stimulation) devices which are basically light and sound generators that alter your brainwave states through entrainment. Why do this? Altering your brainwave state can help decrease anxiety, pain, depression and even help with ADD and memory tasks. 

In a nutshell, our brain operates at different frequencies throughout the day depending on what we are doing or thinking. (see graph on left, click to enlarge)

When we are wide awake and concentrating we are operating in Beta and as we relax our brain waves shift to a slower Alpha state.  Then next lower state ,Theta, usually occurs when we are ideating or day dreaming followed by Delta which is the sleep and dreaming state. Finally, When we when we are in a deep dreamless state our brains are operating in Sub-Delta.

The mind machines in this comparison are designed to induce the desired brainwave state using pulsing tones and flashing lights which cause our brain to sync or entrain to the frequency of the chosen brainwave state.

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I was at my friend’s house several months ago and noticed what looked like a xylophone on his coffee table. It was rather nondescript looking but when I struck the mallet to the metal bars it produced very mesmerizing tones. I asked my friend where he bought it, and he said it was given as a gift. Needless to say, I really wanted one and looked all over the Internet but all I could find were xylophones. This was not a typical xylophone.

In my search, I stumbled upon a website called tonguedrum.com which piqued my interest. I listened to some tongue drum audio samples on their site and fell in love with the sounds they produced- a haunting, beautiful sound reminiscent of a Caribbean steel drum with wooden overtones.  I learned that one of the producers of the movie “Crash” had bought one and was using it in his next soundtrack…Cool.

Anyway, I ordered their smallest tongue drum and it arrived last week. It is made of solid hardwood with slits or tongues that you hit with a mallet. The sound just resonates throughout the wooden box and fills the room with a organic, tropical sound. The designer says the instrument is tuned so you cannot hit a bad note which I found to be the case ( I never learned to read music notes).

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In my quest to find decent music for meditation, I discovered a Tibetan Singing Bowl CD.Singing bowls were traditionally used throughout Asia as part of Buddhist and other meditation practices. Today they are used for meditation, relaxation, health care and religious practices.

The sound is created by striking the bowl with a mallet or by running the mallet around the outer circumference until it starts to resonate. The resulting sound is very hypnotic and quite beautiful. Apparently, our brain entrains on this sound altering our brainwave states which is basically what hemisync©, brainsync©, holosync© (that’s alot of sync’s!!) do with synthesizers.

I warmed my amplifier up (vacuum tube amp) and pressed play on the Cd player. Suddenly, this beautiful golden sound drifted out of my speakers and immediately had a soothing effect. I sat there for a half an hour totally mesmerized by the harmonically rich resonant sounds.

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I have always been very sensitive to odors and regularly use scent oils, incense, candles and other aromatic devices to help relieve stress or just to create an inviting atmosphere.

Over the years I have found certain diffusion methods more effective than others. Here is a quick comparison and review.

Japanese style incense- No inner bamboo or wood core means it burns cleanly without that burnt wood smell that makes you cough. Prefer over regular incense.

Electric oil warmers- I found these convenient and very effective at dispersing fragrance and essential oils. The scents spread through the room pretty quickly and it is safer than the candle warmers. I also use a “Scent Ball” plug in diffuser that works OK for a couple of hours but after that, the oil loses it’s scent and smells slightly burnt.

Soy high fragrance candles- I like these because there is a large variety of scents and they are made of soy which burn cleaner and lasts longer than wax candles.

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