Meditation and The Brain

Meditation describes a state of concentrated attention on some thought or object of awareness. It usually involves turning the attention inward. Meditation is often recognized as a component of Eastern religions, where it has been practiced for over 5,000 years. It is now mainstream in Western culture. It encompasses any of a wide variety of spiritual practices which emphasize mental activity or quiescence. Meditation can be used for personal development, or to focus the mind on God, an aspect of God, or to achieve peace.

Meditation is usually defined as:

• · a state of relaxed concentration on the reality of the present moment; 
• · a state that is experienced when the mind dissolves and is free of all thoughts; 
• · concentration in which the attention has been liberated from restlessness; 
• · focusing the mind on a single object, such as a religious statue, or one’s breath, or a mantra; 
• · invoking the guidance of a higher power

Meditation may also be known as: Centering, Going within, Prayer, Deep relaxation, Daydreaming, Self-hypnosis, Alpha state, Your level Basic plane etc.

The Brain

The average vibration of the adult’s brain when wide awake is normally about twenty cycles per second (or twenty hertz). Brain frequencies between fourteen and twenty-one hertz are referred to as beta brainwave activity, which is associated with the outer objective world. The brain, while at beta, perceives and gets information through the use of the outer, physical senses, and is conscious of time and space. This relates to outer conscious levels of awareness.

Slower vibrations between seven and fourteen hertz are known as alpha brain waves. This level is associated with creativity, imagination, intuition and daydreams. While at alpha, the mode of thinking is dynamic. Human intelligence can question, explore, deduce and create solutions to problems.

Frequencies between four and seven hertz are called theta brain waves. While at theta, the mode of thinking is passive and inductive. Human intelligence will take in information but cannot question and remain at theta at the same time. The moment one begins to question, the frequency of brain moves higher into alpha or beta.

Alpha and theta are not directly involved with the physical world nor physical senses. We are not necessarily aware of time and space at this dimension. This is the dimension where we can access our intuition and use our subjective senses to obtain information to help accomplish our goals. We relate this to inner conscious levels of awareness.

The lower frequencies below four cycles per second, which we reach during deep sleep, are called delta brainwave frequencies. It is said that few people are able to remember information when at delta levels. Little is known about delta at this time.

You can rewire your brain just by meditating because our brains change based on how they are used. Every time you have a thought , neurons connect like little impulses across the map of your brain. With these neuron your brain grow thicker and stronger based on the thoughts you think. We can actually change the circuitry of the brain to help us be more peaceful and compassionate, simply by directing our thoughts and imagination and tuning your brain into your desired frequency.

The human brain remain in four different state and release four different brain waves.

Brain waves 

You probably know that our brain emits brain waves which reflect our state of mind. The frequency of the brain waves changes according to various things like how relaxed we are, if we are awake or asleep conscious we are.  We can say in general that our brain waves slow down as we relax, reduce our wakefulness and fall deeper asleep. Brain waves change as we spiritually grow too but not in the same way.

Types of brain waves 

There are 4 main types of brainwaves as follows (ranked from the highest to the lowest frequencies):

Beta (above 12-13 pulses per second in the Hertz scale) This is the realm of our conscious mind. We tend to have beta waves during normal consciousness and alertness, during normal daily activities. Especially when we are logically thinking and processing staff on our mind. When we experience emotions of stress, anger, fear, the frequency of our beta waves increases.

Alpha (7.5 to 12-13 pulses per second) This is the gateway to the surface of our subconscious mind. We tend to be in alpha during deep physical and mental relaxation. Whilst in alpha, we tend to have improved visualization, creativity, learning ability, concentration, memory, enlarged mental clarity and better understanding of images like diagrams and drawings. And we find it easier to access parts of our intuition when in alpha. So it is an ideal state to develop intuition, learn new information, memories facts & data, perform hard and complex tasks, learn languages and analyse complex situations. Meditation, relaxation exercises, and activities that bring the sense of calmness help people get to alpha.

Theta (4 to 7.5 pulses per second) This is the realm of our subconscious mind with those parts of our internal reality that we are not consciously aware of. We can access even the deep-rooted parts of our internal reality / subconscious mind when in theta. We are in theta in light sleep. One can also get to theta during deep meditations with reduced alertness / wakefulness. When in theta, we tend to communicate easily with our intuition, have huge creativity, perfect memory & visualization, and very high awareness combined with exceptional insight into things. We are also connected to our soul and may even experience a sense of oneness with the nature, other people and the whole Universe.

Delta (0.1 to 4 pulses per second) This is the realm of our unconscious mind. Many our body organs and functions like the immune system and automatic self-healing function at this unconscious level. People are normally in delta when they are unconscious like during a deep dreamless or in very deep transcendental meditation where awareness is completely detached. Delta is associated with deep healing and regeneration. It is the gateway to the divine levels of consciousness (above heart consciousness) and to the collective human unconsciousness.

Brain waves of spiritually awakened person 

The question that many people ask is what happens to our brain waves as we expand our consciousness / spiritually grow.   It goes hand in hand with what happens when we expand our consciousness to heart consciousness. We still operate at the lower levels simultaneously. And so it is with the brain waves of a spiritually awakened person. He/she tends to be in delta, theta, alpha and less in beta at the same time... Similar to heart consciousness, people can experience this awakened brain wave pattern for short moments of time or longer periods.  Sudden deep insights and aha-experiences are usually linked with a brief flash of the awakened brain wave pattern. The awakened brain wave pattern is common in advanced yogis, which is no surprise, as well as in children of preschool age!  As soon as they start school though, the pattern starts changing towards more and more higher beta frequency, just like for most adults.

Remember: Conscious is the part of your mind that is responsible for logic and reasoning . Sub conscious is the storage room of all your beliefs and room of all your beliefs and memories. Unconscious is that part of the mind where in psychic activity takes place of which the person is unaware.