What is the Alpha State and Why is it Essential to Psychic Development?
There are four types of brain wave that can occur while you’re thinking, sleeping, dreaming, concentrating and doing what you do – those brain waves are called beta, alpha, theta and delta. Put rather crudely, for certain states of consciousness and activities, certain brain waves occur.
Take a look at the brain wave states that occur with certain activities:
|
Cycles per second |
Type of brain wave |
Activities |
|
21 > 14 |
BETA |
Fully Conscious / Awake – the conscious mind is busy, concentrating and engaged in this state |
|
14 > 7 |
ALPHA |
Light Sleep / Dreams / Meditation / Daydreams/ Creative Visualization / Connection to the subconscious |
|
7 > 4 |
THETA |
Deep Sleep / Lucid dreaming / Deep Trance / Deep Hypnosis |
|
3 > 1 |
DELTA |
Very deep sleep or an unconscious state |
Beta is the brain wave that’s present for your normal waking state and all the busy-ness that happens during this state. Most of us are in beta (fully conscious/awake/concentrating) throughout the day. But note that you cannot usually receive psychic insights or intuitive guidance in a beta state. That’s the state where your conscious mind is fully engaged and operative and everything is busy, busy, busy.
You need to be in an alpha state (at the least) to receive psychic information.
Before I begin a reading, I always take myself down to an alpha state through meditation and visualization. I obviously don’t call it ‘putting myself in an alpha state’, but if I remain in beta (with my conscious mind engaged), I can’t read for someone – quite simply – I can’t connect with someone’s spirit guides in that state. If I tried, I wouldn’t get any information.
It would be like being tuned into the wrong radio station. I’m trying to connect to the frequency your guides are at (alpha) – the equivalent of some exotic far-away longwave radio station, set on an island somewhere. But all I can hear is my mind chattering about anything and everything (in beta) – the equivalent of some rubbish local breakfast show with lots of adverts and small talk: “What shall I have for dinner tonight? Oh, it’s raining, someone needs to bring the washing in!”, “Hmm, my eczema’s really itchy today” etc, etc.
Likewise, if you’re trying to hear your own guides, you may just hear thoughts. You’re just listening to yourself. It’s because you’re in beta.
How do you take yourself down to the alpha state?
If you’re not used to doing this at will, you will probably need to practise. I’ve done a few hundred readings now and I have to sit down and put myself in this state – every time. Plus, all the psychics I know have to put themselves in this state to do a reading for someone.
Ways to put yourself in the alpha state:
1. Meditation. Here’s how:
Choose a quiet place to meditate and sit in a comfortable position. You can sit in a traditional cross-legged posture or you can sit in a chair. Make sure your back is straight – this helps to prevent your mind from becoming sleepy. I don’t recommend that you lie down to meditate as you can fall asleep while you’re doing it.
Sit with your eyes closed and turn your attention to your breathing. Breathe through the nostrils, without trying to control your breath, just notice the sensation of the air going in and out of your nostrils. Focus on this sensation. As you’re doing this, your thoughts will continue to arise, but bring your attention back to your breath.
A lot of psychics/intuitives make meditation a part of their spiritual practice – mostly because it trains the mind to relax at will and enter the alpha state. It’s a hard skill to develop, but it’s worth it.
What if you find meditation really hard?
If you don’t like regular meditation, try guided visualization to put you in the alpha state.
Visualize what you want to happen tomorrow. Visualize meeting your spirit guides.
I like to visualize going down a staircase to visit my guides in a garden. Sometimes I imagine meeting them on a mountain top or a beach.
Even if you’re the one doing the visualizing and it’s not really your spirit guides, it doesn’t matter. Allow yourself to daydream – it’s good for your psychic development!
When you daydream and visualize and imagine, you’re in the alpha state. The more often you can put yourself in that state, the easier it is to do it next time you want to connect with your spirit guides at will. And the next time, they might actually show up because you can access them at the frequency of alpha.
Binaural Beats
Another recent discovery of mine that helps me to be in the alpha state is binaural beats. I first discovered this via my friend Angela Lord who put me together a hypnosis mp3 to help me sleep. Firstly, she sent a hypnosis mp3 with her talking. I listened to it a few times but it was hard to get my mind to shut up and pay attention. I wasn’t sure I was being hypnotized.
Then a few days later, she sent me an updated version of the hypnosis, with binaural beats in the background. When I listened to this mp3, straight away it was like it was speaking to a whole different part of me – that was present, and listening. I was hypnotized.
Once I saw what binaural beats could do, I decided to order an extra-sensory perception binaural beats mp3 from the Unexplainable Store, with the aim of training myself to reach the alpha state more easily and quickly. My plan is to listen to the mp3 for 21 days, to see whether it actually makes a difference to how easily I can tune into spirit (for myself and before readings) and then review it on my blog. I have listened to the binaural beats for 4 days in a row. So far, I have found it a really helpful tool for training myself to bypass my very busy and chatty mind and put me in a state where I can quickly access spiritual guidance. So much so that I plan on using it to replace my meditation that I do in the morning before readings. But I will write more on that in a couple of weeks time when I’ve finished my experiment.
Update (12/10/2009): I wrote a review of Binaural beats for psychic development and quietening the mind here.
What do you do to relax your mind and hear your spirit guides and higher self? Please share below, in the comments!
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You mean when you go to Alpha, you’ll forget that your eczema is itching?
Hi Anna, I breathe. I also like tune into the air around me. i focus on the stillness. not consciously, just habit. i also do things like light incense or spray myself with oil sprays, like an aura spray. and i say a prayer. I suppose it sets the intention, But the breathing really helps centre me very fast.
You know how when you’re in Alpha, your physiology changes? You can also use the mind/body connection in the opposite direction, and use your physiology to put your mind in Alpha — instantly!
Sit or lay comfortably and gently relax your eyelids and softly close them. Now roll your eyes up 20 degrees in your head — this happens naturally when you transition into your normal sleeping state, so you will immediately begin to relax. Breathe comfortably and slowly….. and enjoy going into Alpha easily and effortlessly, in only a few short seconds.
This is a really nice way to relax tension, too, just in the normal course of your day. If you find you’ve got tension in your thoughts, or in your head, neck, or shoulders, just take a few moments to do this exercise, and you’ll be amazed at how instantly they just *poof* disappear.
Ariff – Yes – you stop feeling your body so much after being in alpha for so many minutes.
Hi Kate – Yes! I agree, deep breathing or breathing exercises is an easy way to raise your vibration and go into alpha, I forgot about that one.
Angela – Thanks for this suggestion! I tried it out last night to sleep and it worked nicely. I think it was easy for me because my brain waves were ‘entrained’ to alpha after 5 days of binaural beats
Do you ever use music in your meditation or guided visualization? If you do what kind of music do you think it best?
I’ve only ever meditated in silence, but I know that some people use music.
If you have an iPhone, there are a few binaural beats applications available. I like one called Attractor. Put the iPhone into Airplane mode before using it so you don’t get interrupted by a phone call. Anna, I’m going to take your idea and try using it for a set number of days in a row to see what happens.
Also, for meditation, there’s an application called Peace Alarm. You can set the timer and it has some nice sounds for starting and ending meditation (chakra bowls, bells, etc.). You can also use it as an alarm clock to wake in the morning but don’t do that unless you have it plugged in or the battery will run out.
Hi Mark, I don’t use music in my visualizations/meditations, I find it a bit distracting and prefer silence.
Hi Alex, thanks for those tips. I’m sure someone will find them helpful. I don’t have an iphone but would like one. Good luck with your experiment.
Well, I have some hypnosis tapes from different sources that I use for different purposes, and they are really good for me. I am beginning to try some simple breathing meditation, but obviously I need to work more at it. One does feel ever so much better afterwards.
Very thoughtfull post on creative visualization.It should be very much helpfull
Thanks,
Karim –
Positive thinking
Very informative. Thank you.
Maik´s last blog ..hypnotize to sleep
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