• Corpus ID: 18790859

Inducing Altered States of Consciousness with Binaural Beat Technology

@inproceedings{Atwater1997InducingAS,
  title={Inducing Altered States of Consciousness with Binaural Beat Technology},
  author={F. Holmes Atwater},
  year={1997}
}

• F. Atwater
• Published 1997
• Psychology

Altering consciousness to provide a wide range of beneficial effects (stress- reducing relaxation, improved sleep, intuitive, creative, meditative, healing, and expanded-learning states, etc.) necessarily involves either changing levels of arousal or cognitive content or both. The extended reticular-thalamic activating system model suggests a neural mechanism responsible for regulating generalized levels of arousal (basic rest-activity cycle, sleep cycles, ultradian rhythms, etc.) as well as behavior- or cognition-specific patterns of arousal. The cortical attributes or contents of consciousness are the result of social-psychological conditioning and elemental cognitive acuity. These ambient factors of consciousness (arousal and content) provide us with a first-person experience or awareness. Effective induction of propitious states of consciousness, therefore, requires a multidimensional approach involving sensory- information stimuli, social-psychological conditioning, and education. Binaural beating, a sensory-information stimulus, provides potential consciousness-altering information to the reticular-thalamic activating system which in turn alters arousal states, attentional focus, and level of awareness (crucial elements of consciousness itself). Integrated with other sensory-information techniques, social-psychological conditioning tools, and educational curriculum, binaural beats can provide access to a variety of beneficial applications and first-person experiences of expanded states of consciousness.