How light machines work

Since the discovery of photic driving by Adiran and Matthews in 1934, there has been much research since then about light stimulation for brainwave entrainment (BWE) regarding the use of audio-visual entrainment (AVE).

AVE has the ability and huge potential for relieving and treating ADD, ADHD, PMS, SAD, anxiety, depression, migraines & headaches, chronic pain and hypertension. As well as using alongside holistic therapies such as Reiki, Gong Healing, meditation and hypnotherapy etc. But where did flickering light stimulation first occur?

The first clinical reports of flickering light stimulation were in the 20th century by Pierre Janet at the Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris, where patients gazed into the flickering light from a spinning wheel in front of their face by a kerosene lantern. This effectiveness lowered their depression, tension and hysteria. Since then many more studies such as William Kroger who found that the light stimulation & sound of the blip from radar panels were putting operators into a trance. All the way to modern-day, wheres highway hypnosis affects many people every day, driving on hearing the bump after bump of tarmac connections, as well as seeing cats eyes reflected back to the driver in a repetitive way, combined with the ongoing drone of the engine, with the visual of the white line that separates lanes can slowly entrain the brain, especially after long distances and putting drivers into trance. Often long-distance drivers report having no recollection of consciously driving their previous route.

Since the 1950s with the use of binaural beats & mind machines/light machines, they are powerful light flickering devices with very sophisticated software and hardware, entraining the viewer to a sustained brainwave state of their choice, purposely putting them into altered states.

All lamps are different, but the light is the same - Rumi

But how do they work

With eyes closed, in a relaxed position laying down or sitting up. The stroboscopic pulses of light via the light machine flash in front of the closed eyelids. 

The flashing lights from the light machine makes different complex light patterns of different brightness's, decay, frequencies, etc, via light-waves “flashes-per-second”. How these flashes affect us are very similar to how binaural beats (audio tones, for brainwave entrainment) affect us, also known as cycles per second. If you imagine our brain is pulsing at a certain rhythm, like a motor, breathing in and out, sending electrical waves throughout the whole brain. When these pulses are faster we are more awake, conscious and thinking when they are a little bit slower, we are relaxed and creative, even slower yet we are resting and sleeping.

For example, 126.22hz is the frequency from the sun, and these light waves can be detected by our retina, keeping us awake and refreshed. Since our eyelids can not block out all light, as our eyelids have a thin layer of skin covering the eye, thus our eyes can detect light trying to pass through the eyelids.

Try this now. Look up to the light around you with your eyes closed or in front of the sun, and wave your hand left to right across your eyes slowly, you will notice a flicker. So it’s very easy to detect darker spots and light spots where your hand was and wasn’t.

Now imagine that with your eyes closed, you have a torch strobing slowly in front of your closed eyelids. Flickering on and off, you too will notice these dark and light patches, to get an idea of how the light machine works, you can always download a strobe light app and experience a 'feeling' of the light machine. However it will never give you an idea of what is going on.

So what happens to our brain in regards to flickering light?

When these lightwaves do pass through the eyelids, they go on a very fast journey passing through the cornea & pupil. Illuminating the back of the eye which where the retina is located. These light pulses then hit the optic disc which is connected via the retina and sends that information as an eye response down through the optic nerve.

It then runs at the ends of the thalamus via the lateral geniculate, which a lot of these fibres run to the visual cortex which is located in the occipital lobe, these signals then bounce backwards and forth to the neocortex creating brainwave rhythms between the two brain regions. Neurons throughout the brain begin to send electrical messages at the same rate as the imaginary beat, creating a whole brainwave state or otherwise known as ‘synchronisation’ or entrainment.

This is how we get entrainment, the very small space only a few inches wide of a repetition of two sides of the brain creates a vibrato effect and then a focused whole brain wave state very similar to how binaural beats work, wheres the difference in frequencies & tones creates the illusion of a third sound, a rhythmic beat which is only created through the ears.

You can then entrain the brain within seconds, however some studies show that the brain needs time to synchronise, and this can be anything from five minutes up to twenty minutes depending on person to person.

Usually a modified square wave is what is used to create brainwave forms, especially when trying to influence cognitive performance of 18hz above using a modified square wave form, allows there to be second harmonics using more frequencies at once.

A sine wave is typically what is used when applying to meditation and usually 18hz and lower.

Like a square wave, the triangle wave contains only odd harmonics. However, the higher harmonics roll off much faster than in a square wave (proportional to the inverse square of the harmonic number as opposed to just the inverse).

As we know the brain is divided up into two parts, the left hemisphere and the right hemisphere. The left brain is where more logical & analytical thinking takes place, i.e faster brainwaves. The right side of the brain is to do with slower brainwaves to do with creative, artistic and visual parts of the brain.

Thus when harmonic frequencies are being stimulated, especially via light entrainment the brain recognises these and influences those brain regions associated with either faster brainwave states for cognitive performance and/or more creative, artistic and intuitive brainwaves (right brain).

Using a modified square wave can influence both left and right sides of our brain at the same time, being both fully awake and alert but relaxed. How to influence the right and left hemispheres independently is by strobing lights into the right fields of both eyes goes to the right part of the brain and the left fields of both eyes go to the left part of the brain

All of our senses except for our sense of smell come from our thalamus.
Brainwave patterns oscillate from the prefrontal cortex and the thalamus, we can interrupt these brainwaves by stimulation by sending audio signals to then re-train (entrain) the brain which we call entrainment, light does this very similarly but by the incoming signal of the light vibrating at a certain frequency as it passes through our eye.

So with the use of very tried and tested sessions (pre-programmed) software we can help guide the brain and focus on specific brainwave patterns for sustained brainwave potential.

There are other devices that use colour therapy within the light with the benefits of colour therapy with other smaller mind machines that can separate colours for each left and right visual field and for random colour selection:

Blue – Calming and relaxing

Cyan – Shown to reduce risk of seizure

Green – Effective for pain reduction and meditation

Yellow – Improve cognition and focus

Red – Increase physical arousal and energy

Magenta – Best for contemplative meditation and enhancing creativity

Selecting the color/s which you want to experience during a mind machine session is very easy. However, for the most part, sufficient brainwave entrainment comes usually from using white light

Disclaimer:

Always be cautious about downloading online videos of entrainment, audio-visual entrainment and brainwave entrainment as these can be compressed when downloaded and uploaded. Always do your research and trust companies with the knowledge, software and hardware which has been used specifically for that purpose. For this reason, that is why I usually buy the CD itself. Companies like Hemi-Sync are very trustworthy with their material. I know CD’s now are quite ancient, but converting them to WAV or apple lossless using iTunes is the way to go.