How Music Feeds Our Waking State

When we are awake and alert, We have a predominance of beta rhythms and a few alpha rhythms within our neural patterns. Imagine a busy, but relatively uneventful work day.

When we invest in brainwave entrainment (BWE) programs, it's usually for purposes of relaxation . We invest in alpha and theta rhythm programs to help with stress relief and relaxation . We invest in delta rhythm programs to help with pain relief and sleep. There are all kinds of BWE programs for other purposes too.

But ponder this: We are conditioned into certain habits, tendencies, and impulses when we are awake and alert. Familiar examples might be traumatic experiences from our childhoods like emotional abuse or a terrible accident. The
consequence is an invisible barrier of fear placed within the mind that can extend into all sorts of adult idiosyncrasies; these psychosocial intentions are difficult to counter.

On the other end of the spectrum, we push through situations that give us confidence. We always test ourselves to gain confidence in our abilities. One of the greatest tests is to find true love and happiness . First, we must have the courage to share true love and happiness with others. Imagine doing a public performance, saving a life, or giving a distraught person a reason for living.

Whether gaining fear or confidence, we do it under extreme conditions: Our hearts are pounding in our ears. We break into cold sweats. Adrenaline rushes hot through our veins as if in a life or death struggle. Our brainwaves shoot into gamma rhythms, sometimes beyond, in moments of intense stress. All things relative, the person next to us who's already done it 1000 times is as peaceful as can be.

We can meditate on a situation. Play it in our heads again and again until we get it right, but our waking state must deal with that tense situation in real time with all the unknown factors and intricacies.

Fortunately, our subconscious and super conscious are there to guide our intuition and gut instincts. Unfortunately, we are not always raised with good, productive intuition . Sometimes, we haven't been nurtured with life positive intentions, so our "knee jerk" reactions don't always serve us or those around us.

How Our "Knee Jerk" Reactions Fail

In general, we tend to avoid tense situations, not because we know what might happen, but because we don't know how to deal with adversity. Our emotional securities may tell us, "don't rock the boat, that's too dangerous..." while avoiding the unknown becomes habit forming. Avoiding the "unknowns" is an idiosyncrasy caused by barriers of fear within the mind. Most people reach a point in their lives where they no longer wish to test their true metal because of fear.

In decadent society, mainstream media justifies and feeds our human frailties including fear. Politicians and the media consistently raise fears of maniacs, terrorist plots, economic depravities, and threat of disease. Then they point their fingers at corruption in other countries while avoiding our own. Meanwhile, another spotlight is on Charlie Sheen. Is mainstream media helping him to justify his corruption and that of others?

Decadent Society is only interested in our lower level reasoning. Mainstream marketers aim at our limbic system (id) which is instinctive, older than language, yet faster than thinking; it controls trust, attention and desire. Mainstream marketers depend on our lower level reasoning to "make the sale." For this reason, the mainstream sells its contents like processed sweets for our instant gratification.

Mainstream music is produced with the same intention. For example, country music and gothic rock tends to resonate with depression which is based in fear. "Mature" rap and thrash metal justifies anger and vengeance within its audience. Most pop music and their artists such as Katy Perry are packaged like processed sweets for our instant gratification.

How Music Feeds Us in a Good Way

I've mentioned relaxation programs using BWE. For example, Dr. Jeffrey Thompson produces relaxing piano music with underlying entrainment, but it lacks intention. In general, most BWE programs do not induce intentions the way mainstream media does. Whereas the mainstream feeds id and ego, most BWE programs only feed the superego, if at all.

Mainstream neuropsychology does not treat people as spiritual beings. On the other hand, mainstream media including the music industry DOES treat people as spiritual beings, (but closer to demonic than angelic) . The music industry connects with people at the emotional level. If you've ever watched American Idol, the judges like to tell contestants to "connect" with their audience, so they become marketable products.

Amid the musical genres, uplifting music feeds us in a good way. The problem is most people are attracted to music that resonates only with their id and ego. Preston Nichols in "The Music of Time"2 says that rock n' roll has been engineered for decades to appeal to the id. According to my studies, I tend to agree.

For this reason, we have upbeat music that feeds us in a good way. Music that induces life-positive, productive intentions is not in big demand, but it exists for the few of us who crave it; for example, gospel rock, soul and some new age music resonates with our super egos, our higher level reasoning, morals and ethics because they induce good intentions.

We are attracted to that which justifies or feeds our personalities. Our favorite music usually does that, but most people only want to feed their human frailties. At times, I also have a guilty pleasures for emo-rock, probably because of Amy Lee. Sometimes, we have to face those frailties to move past them.

Nature vs. Nurture

A myriad of research on the human mind took my interest as I discovered a golden thread running through all of the music and BWE tools that resonate with us most: We love nature. We love the way it stimulates our senses.

Imagine yourself under an apple tree: All the branches are slightly different, but they're mostly the same patterns. We can look beyond one layer and see the same pattern in the next layer, then the next; this is fractal geometry. We are attracted to nature because it reflects natural order within our minds - which are reflections of nature.

The same applies to weather phenomena. Although storms consist mostly of white noise, there are also textures and rhythms which form familiar patterns. Storms also contain choruses like wind and cadences like thunder, the same typeof patterns we expect to hear in music.

Reflections of Our Minds

The music we love resonates with the fractal patterns within our minds. For this reason, younger people tend to listen to heavier, upbeat patterns or beta rhythms while older people who want to relax tend to listen to softer patterns like alpha rhythms.

More important than the music are the concepts and intentions within that music. For example, death metal reflects a subculture of mind patterns obsessed with dark, life-negative concepts, a facet of decadent society. The neural patterns associated with these concepts simply resonate with dark mind patterns.

On the other hand, waking rhythms are also applied by people like Sarah Brightman, Enya, and Yanni. The music they make reflects their mind patterns with enlightened, life-positive intentions.

Rhythms are resonant carriers for all of these concepts and intentions which also reflect our mind patterns.

We remember "catchy" lyrics of a song as a mantra that we sing in our heads ad infinitum because the rhythm and the concept reflects our emotions. We have an intrinsic emotional order for songs in the same way we have a intrinsic geometric order for trees or clouds: In some way, they match our mind patterns like pieces in a puzzle. For this reason, we remember songs with the greatest emotional triggers, no matter how old we get.

Intentions within a song are like the music carried on radio waves: When we tune into those waves, we tune into the music. When we tune into the music, we tune into the intentions. Good or bad, these intentions nurture us to reflect who we are.

Let's do ourselves a favor by feeding our minds once in a while with good intentions; it's a balanced diet for the soul.