Entrainment

Entrainment March 19, 2015

“Entrainment,” writes Joshua Leeds, “concerns changing the rate of brain waves, breaths, or heard-beats from one speed to another” (40). Our bodies beat to certain rhythms, and these rhythms fall into sync with one another. When an external vibration hits our bodies, it affects our internal rhythms: “individually, we entrain to . . . ocean waves, music, the periodic sounds of machines, or electromagnetic frequently fields” (44).

It works internal-to-internal, and external-to-internal. With regard to the first, “our pulse systems naturally synchronize with each other. The heart rate entrains, or locks in, with the breath rate. If the heart speeds up, it naturally causes the breath to do the same.” Vibrations from outside affect our internal rhythms: “our brain waves can be entrained to musical rhythms or the pace of a minister’s sermon.” Brain waves of individuals can entrain to the waves of others when communicating; the brain waves of entire groups can entrain. The two processes work together: “Alter one pulse (such as brain waves) with music, and the other major pulses (heart and breath) will dutifiully follow.” 

Entrainment happens among animals too: “entrainment can be seen in flocks of migrating birds flapping in rhythm and gliding at the same time, fireflies blinking together, college roommates having similar menstrual cycles, and loves sharing a synchronized heartbeat as they move closer together” (44).

Music alters our internal rhythms, but those rhythms will line up, because the music has an identifiable rhythmic pattern. Other external vibrations throw off our internal entrainment chaotically: “Some nonperiodic rhythmic elements . . . such as traffic . . . jangle our nervous system, because the brain tries to categorize them. It is looking for the periodicity, or regularity, of the traffic patterns. When it cannot find this neat, organized auditory tonal processing, it acts like a hard drive that can’t find a file: it just keeps on searching,” and “this prevents the brain from paying full attention to other sequential functions, such as concentration” (45).

This can have serious long-term consequences for our nervous systems: “If you passively allow yourself to be surrounded by sounds that do not resonate well with you . . . you stand a good chance of creating nervous system friction, a loop of internal interference. Continued exposure over a long – or sometimes even a short v- period can cause you to fall out of tune, out of harmony with your body’s inherent wisdom state. . . . A jagged nervous system is a stressed nervous system” (17-18).

Make some adjustments. Place “soul” in the spots where Leeds talks about “nervous systems” and “internal pulse systems.” And then you have an update of very ancient wisdom.


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