Adrenal - An organ located above the kidneys - it manufactures a natural steroid called cortisol, which is associated with stress.
Amygdala - This is a pair of structures that exist an inch or so in from the forehead - there's one on the right side and one on the left side - they supposedly have an impact on moods. (The right one is active when a person is depressed, and the left one is active when a person is cheerful.) Also, they are associated with fear, and the "fight or flight" response.
Note - some disagreement over precisely how the Amgydalae operate - this article seems to reflect what I put above. Although, other sources I've been told say the backs of the two amgydalae are associated with "bad" feelings and the fronts of both are associated with good feelings. (Neil Slade seems to subscribe to this theory. Here's his website.)
Assc with religious experiences - one causes elation/the other fear[ http://www.innerworlds.50megs.com/shakti_lite/index.htm ]
Angular Gyrus - A tiny part of the brain in the right cortex that some sources connect with out of body experiences. (Here's the link - judge the validity of this claim for yourself:)
Astral Projection - In a nutshell, it's a kind of out of body experience. I don't want to bog the definition down with a lot of details. (I've never astrally projected, myself - so I can't really vouch for it one way or the other.)
Auriculotherapy - "Ear Acupuncture". This site has more information:
Binaural Beats - A technique used with brainwave entrainment that allows a person to perceive tones that are below the range of human hearing (or pretty damn close to it.) For a more elaborate explanation, read the definition for Brainwave Entrainment in its entirety.
Brainwave Entrainment - This is using stimulii (such as sound, light, or EM fields) to influence the rate of our brainwaves, which in the process affects our mental state.
Our brain plays "monkey see/monkey do" with stimulii in the proximity. If you have lights flashing at 4 cycles a second, our brain will begin to mimic that with its own brainwaves. When our brainwaves are at a certain frequency, our body will do whatever it normally would do -- we normally produce brainwaves of 4 cycles a second when we're sleeping - so pulsating light at this rate would put a person to sleep.
Say you want to do this with sound instead of pulsating light - since most brainwave entrainment frequencies are below 30 HZ, and are often below human hearing range, you (usually) can't just generate the tones using a wave generator. There are two methods that are typically used to generate these ultra-low tones in a way that humans can perceive them and feel their effects :
1) Binaural Beats - Using a computer or synthesizer (and a good pair of stereo headphones), generate two tones, one in the left ear, one in the right - your brain imagines it hears a third tone equal to the difference between the two tones. (For instance, if you had a 400 HZ tone in one ear, and a 404 HZ tone in the other, you would perceive a third tone of 4 HZ.) And this would have the same effects that a pulsating light at 4 cycles per second would. In order for this to work, the two tones need to be below 1000 HZ. There are two good programs for creating Binaural Beats : CoolEdit from Syntrillium Software and Brainwave Generator. The latter is probably the most user-friendly, and is good for people new to brainwave entrainment, since it has presets that come with it. (I found it to work very well, since it incorporates a strobe light into the mix as well.)
2) Modulation - While a tone at 4 HZ would be too low to hear by itself, if you generate noise and then fluctuate its pitch or volume at 4 times each second, this can also be used for brainwave entrainment, and would affect us the same way a 4 HZ binaural would. CoolEdit from Syntrillium Software is the best software to use with this method. (Although, he uses a slightly more complicated technique than just fluctuating the pitch or volume.)
As far as which of these two methods are better - binaural beats probably work better for brainwave entrainment, but the second method will work from speakers - headphones aren't required. That can come in handy - especially when you want to experiment with brainwave entrainment while sleeping or meditating - ever tried falling asleep wearing headphones? I have a cordless pair, and even with those, it's not that comfortable.
(And if that's not enough information about Brainwave Entrainment, check out the Brainwave Entrainment links for even more.)
Brainwave Ranges - In talking about brainwaves, they are typically broken up into ranges, each range being associated with different mental states. The five common brainwave ranges are listed below (although I really simplify what they're associated with here - for more specific mental states these ranges are associated with, consult the brainwave frequency list itself.)
Delta Range - 0.5 to 4 HZ (associated with deep sleep)
Theta Range - 4 HZ to 8 HZ (seen in dreaming sleep, and other mental states where the mind is wandering, like daydreaming and imagining)
"A person .. driving on a freeway & discovers .. they can't recall the last five miles, is often in a theta state--induced by the process of freeway driving .. [It's] .. a state where tasks become so automatic .. you can mentally disengage from them." http://brain.web-us.com/brainwavesfunction.htm
"[Our dominant brainwave] edges down toward theta when we go into trance." http://www.enformy.com/dma-chin.htm
Alpha Range - 8 to 13 HZ (relaxed but awake)
" [There is] .. more alpha wave functioning when we listen (but it edges up into beta when we do extremely active listening, as in the cocktail-party effect when we consciously narrow attention to one voice amidst a babble.)" http://www.enformy.com/dma-chin.htm
Beta Range - 13 HZ to 30 (??) HZ (normal awake state/aware)
There is an abundance of betawave functioning when we speak .. http://www.enformy.com/dma-chin.htm
Gamma Range - 30 (??) HZ to 60 (??) HZ (associated with consciousness - the brain stops producing gamma waves when we're put under for anaesthesia, for example)
"Gamma rhythms appear to be involved in higher mental activity, including perception and consciousness. It seems to be associated with consciousness, eg it disappears with general anaesthesia .. Synchronous activity at about 40Hz appears to be involved in binding sensory inputs into the single, unitary object we perceive." [INT] http://brain.web-us.com/40hz/default.htm
Note that there's a LOT of disagreement over where Beta range ends and Gamma range begins. (hence the question marks)
Also, some sources will take it and break it down further, into "high beta" & "low beta" or "Theta1" & "Theta2", for example. And there are a couple other ranges like Epsilon, Lambda & Sigma that some sources throw in to the mix that really aren't as commonly used.
Caudate Nucleus - a part of the brain - one side of it is associated with various states of arousal. The other side is associated with relaxation/calm. http://www.innerworlds.50megs.com/shakti_lite/principles.htm
Clairvoyance - the alleged power of seeing things not present to the senses. (from a dictionary I own - unfortunately the cover and cover pages got lost a long time ago, so I'm not sure which one it is.)
Christ Consciousness - it seems to be a similar concept to the "Holy Spirit" of Christianity. Edgar Cayce mentions it quite a few times.
Color - WARNING : Those frequency listing entries that requested you see this - they really aren't frequencies in HZ - they are wavelength values in NM. On the Brainwave Generator message board in April 2003, Glen Oberman posted a conversion equation between NM and HZ for colors. In his words :
If you had 'k' nm, you would have 3*10^17 / 'k' hz.
Since the true values in HZ would be extremely high, it's necessary to reduce the octave [divide in half] until you're in the audible hearing range. (In much the same way Hans Cuosto does with the orbits and revolutions of planets, except he's usually going up in octave, not down.)
I used the table on this webpage as the basis for the wavelength values for the various colors, for the sake of converting them into frequency values in HZ. I plugged them into a spreadsheet I cooked up in Quattro Pro, and arrived at these values :
|Color Range||Values in NM||Values in HZ|
|Infrared||1000-751||68.21 - 90.83|
|Red||750-650||90.95 - 104.94|
|Yellow||580-550||117.61 - 124.02|
|Green||530-490||128.70 - 139.21|
|Blue||480-460||142.11 - 148.29|
|Violet||430-390||158.63 - 174.90|
|Ultraviolet||380-280||179.51 - 243.61|
Potential problems with this table :
1) As you can see, the source for the wavelength values left tiny gaps in between where one color ended and the next began. (It probably doesn't make a big difference in terms of wavelengths.) Take red and orange, for instance. A value between 104.94 and 106.58 likely would be right on the border between the two.
2) Any of these HZ ranges for each color can be reduced or increased an octave by doubling or halving the values in that range. So, you likely have ranges that overlap. For instance, a value HZ that may be associated with the color red could also be associated with a lower octave of another color. So it makes me think perhaps other methods of associating colors with sound frequencies are needed.
(Chakras, anybody?) (What does www.voicesync.org use to associate colors and tones? They seem to have some funky system they use in all their freeware sound programs.)
Cortisol - It's a natural steroid which is produced in the adrenal cortex (located above the kidneys) which both inhibits the immune system and has anti-inflammatory effects. It's also associated with stress and aging. (It's released in response to stress.) Reducing cortisol production in theory could be used for anti-aging effects. Increasing it could be helpful for people with allergies, where the immune system is going bonkers over a foreign agent in the body which is usually harmless - it's not the agent itself which causes the allergic reaction, but the inflammation caused by the immune system attacking the hell out of it. If you can eliminate this misfiring of the immune system, in theory, you can eliminate the allergic reaction.
Cymatics - The study of the effects of sound on matter - I use it as a very loose term to cover sound frequencies that claim to effect matter or human biology in some way.
DHEA - A hormone manufactured in the Adrenals, just above the kidneys - production of it starts off slow in early childhood, and then begins to pick up, hitting its maximum when a person is in his/her 20s, and then it declines from there. It's not completely known what this hormone does - although many claims are associated with it [anti-aging, AIDS therapy, anti-cancer, increased sex drive, weight loss, muscle gain, etc]. This site has a lot of useful information on DHEA - http://www.quackwatch.com/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/dhea.html
Endogenous Opiates - A family of chemicals the brain produces that serve as pain-killers, and also help to reduce anxiety and fear. This family includes Endorphins, Ekephalins, and Dynorphins. (Paraphrased from : http://www.xrefer.com/entry/149561)
Endorphins - These are chemicals the brain generates that regulate pain. (the right sort of endorphins serve as natural pain killers.)
"Endorphins actually determine what 'reality'
is for each of us - endorphins, our natural opiates, are
a filtering mechanism in the brain. The opiate system
selectively filters incoming information from every sense
- sight , hearing , smell, taste and touch and blocks
some of it from percolating to higher levels of
Enkephalins - Like endorphins, these are chemicals the brain generates that can serve as natural pain killers.
Excretion - The process of removing waste materials from the body. Besides the most obvious 'waste materials', excretion would also cover things like exhaling carbon dioxide. Per the Merriam-Webster dictionary, an excretion differs from a secretion in that secretions are useful biologically in some way (like sweat), whereas excretions are not - the body just dumps them. (This makes for a great topic at parties, particularly when people are eating.)
Frontal Lobe - The frontal lobe is one of the five lobes of the cortex and its primarily function is receiving input from the rest of the brain, planning, organizing, problem solving, selective attention, personality, motor control, and a variety of higher cognitive functions, including behavior and emotions. Source : http://pbl.cc.gatech.edu:8080/mindy/377
Ganzfeld Effect - This effect was first noticed by Arctic explorers - when they encountered blizzard conditions and could see nothing but white regardless of where they looked, it tended to create altered states of consciousness. These altered states can also be created by sound in the same way - if pink noise is blasted through headphones into both ears, it creates a "sonic blizzard" with the same altered states of consciousness that you get with a literal blizzard.
More information : http://brain.web-us.com/ganzfeld.htm
Harmonic Box X Method - A method of creating binaural beats using more than one voice, where the monaurals and accidental binaurals created actually complement the primary binaural, either having the same value of it, or a multiple of that value. This post on the BwGen message board explains how to create them using Brainwave Generator :
An example of a preset using the Harmonic Box method can be found on the Sonic Alchemy Logbook page [see entry for 10/26/03].
Hippocampus - Simple definition - A part of the brain that is required to form long term memories. If we took that part of the brain out, short term memories could still be formed, and memories stored would still be there, but no new long term memories could be formed. For more information, visit this site, scrolling about midway down the page.
Assc with religious experiences; one side deals with nonverbal thinking/positive thoughts/spatial perception/visual memory/imagination; other side deals with verbal skills/negative thoughts/logical thought [ http://www.innerworlds.50megs.com/shakti_lite/index.htm ]
Hypersonic Sounds - sounds above human hearing. while not audible to humans directly, can "affect the acoustic perception of audible sounds .. Psychological evaluation indicated that the subjects felt the sound containing an HFC to be more pleasant than the same sound lacking an HFC." From : http://jn.physiology.org/cgi/content/abstract/83/6/3548
Hypnagogic State - This is the state where a person is right on the brink between being awake and being asleep. It's often accompanied by sleep paralysis, and some believe it to be the state a person needs to be in to have out of body experiences.
Hypnopompic State - Similar to the Hypnagogic State, except where the Hypnagogic State happens while in the process of falling asleep, the Hypnopompic State happens while coming out of sleep.
Hypothalamus - "The hypothalamus is generally very active in regulating our primary instincts and emotional responses. The instincts for basic survival, fight or flight, mating, eating, and drinking, are all regulated right here. It is very easy to evoke an intense rage or pleasure response by stimulating the hypothalamus." (This definition is from this article.)
Infratonic Qui Gong Machine - The Infratonic QGM was developed out of scientific research in Beijing China which studied natural healers and found that most powerful healers were able to emit a strong infrasonic (low frequency sound) signal from their hands. The sound emitted from average individuals was only a hundredth as strong. The Infratonic, now used by 1% of all doctors in the United States, was developed out of this research. http://www.chiexplorer.com/infrasonic.html
Keely - Full name is John Ernst Worrell Keely. He was an American inventor in the 19th Century who claimed to have found a new form of power. (Vaporic/Etheric force). This Wikipedia article has additional information.
Kundalini - A very general description - Kundalini is some sort of mystical energy or force that exists at your base, and during a Kundalini awakening, makes its way up from your base into your forehead region. Supposedly, if people aren't "ready" for a kundalini awakening, it can really mess them up. There are forms of yoga that help to stimulate the kundalini. (I've never had any experience with any of this - but I feel the need to include a definition though, since it's mentioned in the frequency list and it's not a common word.)
"Life energy" frequency - 10 PHZ (PETAHERTZ) "This was probably the frequency used by the Russian scientist Vlail P. Kaznacheyev in his experiment. The result of the experiment, the Kaznacheyev effect, is that if a cell culture is killed or injured, and the "death" photons from it are sent to another culture, which in the absence of visible light (which would quench the paranormal effects, see the above mentioned Excalibur Briefing), suffers the same effects." [MM]
Limbic System - "a group of subcortical structures (as the hypothalamus, the hippocampus, and the amygdala) of the brain that are concerned especially with emotion and motivation" [from Merriam-Webster dictionary via AOL]
Lucid Dreaming - A form of dreaming where you are consciously aware that you are dreaming, and can control your actions in the dream, and in some cases, even control the environment of the dream itself.
Lymphocytes - Simple definition - these are a sort of white blood cell that help fend off foreign cells and other unwanted things that have "invaded" the body. It's the lymphocytes that sometimes cause a body to reject a transplanted organ, for instance, and they're sometimes responsible for allergic reactions as well.
Window - Frequencies which (according to Thomas E. Bearden)
are especially suited for coupling to and bringing energies from
other dimensions. [EX via MM] Another source seems to imply such frequencies could be used to
communicate from one dimension to another. (As you can see - this
is kind of venturing into the realm of new-agey pseudo-science,
but I wouldn't rule it out for that reason alone - much of what
we take for granted today in science was seen as pseudo-scientific
at one point.)
The range of frequencies that most of these magic windows fall under are well above human hearing - more than likely, they are intended to be 'accessed' using electromagnetic means (a device that creates an EM field). Although, if you're up for a challenge, you could try lowering the octave of these frequencies (i.e. dividing the number by two) until you reach a point where you're in the range of audible sound, and then try plugging that frequency into a sound generator.
Melantonin - A hormone produced by the pineal gland in the brain - it helps to promote normal sleep patterns. [TM] also mentions that it can decrease the aging process. Another source says it can create very vivid dreams.
Neuralgias - A simple definition - a condition that causes brief episodes of stabbing pain between the eyes and ears.
Norepinephrine - A natural chemical the body generates which acts as a vaso-constrictor [constricts blood vessels]. It also increases heartrate & blood pressure, and opens up the air passages in the lungs. It is generated in response to short-term stress, and serves to mobilize the body's resources in order to meet the stressful challenge.
(Paraphrased from : http://www.encyclopedia.com/articles/09326.html)
Octave - Okay, a very simple definition. Ready? "do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do". The two do's are an octave apart. The second "do" is a higher octave of the first "do". The first "do" is a lower octave of the second "do". The significance of octaves is that they are the same note - the only difference is the pitch. So, for any of the (sound) frequencies on this list, higher and lower octaves in theory could have the same effects that the original frequency does.
Determining higher and lower octaves of a frequency is a piece of cake - just double or half the number. Higher octaves of 7.0 HZ, for instance, would be 14.0, 28.0, 56.0, etc. You can keep going until infinity - just keep on doubling it.
One use for this is to bring frequencies that are below hearing range to a point where it is an audible sound - this is how a lot of the "planetary" tones were calculated. They determined the fraction of a revolution a planet would go through in a second, and then kept doubling the number until they got to an octave that was an audible tone.
It also can be used to bring frequencies above the human hearing range to the point where they're an audible sound - instead of doubling the number, half it instead until you reach an octave that is within human hearing range.
Phosphene Imagery - The funky pattern/haze you get when you rub your eyes.
Pineal - a tiny organ in the brain [about the size of a pea] that helps to regulate sleeping patterns in mammals [i.e. circadian rhythm], as well as seasonal changes. It is sensitive to light - in the absence of light, it produces a hormone (melantonin) that makes us sleep. Functionally, it is the closest thing we have to a "third eye".
Pyramid Frequency - We finally have a definition for this one, thanks to Kris Edgar. Per Kris, the 'outside' pyramid frequency is the frequency found to resonate outside of the great pyramids in Egypt. The 'inside' pyramid frequency resonates inside the great pyramids. It's still a little ambiguous for a definition, but it's better than we had before. (Can anybody add any additional detail? I'm kind of curious if it's any particular Egyptian pyramid, like Cheops, for instance.)
Rife frequency - Rife was a fellow who tinkered with using electromagnetic fields at certain frequencies to cure/treat various ills. The frequency set of 20 HZ, 727 HZ, 787 HZ, 800 HZ, 880 HZ, 5000 HZ, and 10000 HZ were used for general treatment across the board, and other frequencies were then added to treat specific conditions.
While Rife's frequencies were generated using electromagnetic means - some of the "mental state" entries for Rife may work using a sound medium, since brainwave entrainment can be done with any periodic phenomena, whether it be light [strobe lights], sound [ocean waves,binaural beats,etc], EM fields [from appliances], vibration [those funky massaging contraptions they sell], or even motion [rocking a baby to sleep].
I don't have every Rife frequency that exists on this page - really, I doubt a frequency to treat something like scoliosis or rectal itching would be very useful to many people, and would only serve to take up a lot of space - if you're looking for frequencies to treat very specific diseases, this page looks like it has every frequency ever used by Rife or any of the researchers who played around with the same sort of thing : Turf's Electroherbalism Page / frequency listing archives.
Samadhi - The state of being aware of one's existence without thinking. Definition from + More Info at : http://www.self-realization.com/samadhi.htm
Schumann resonance - A simple definition - EM field generated by the earth's atmosphere when it's struck by energy from the sun - it can entrain brainwaves much as EM fields from appliances can, in theory. Here's some additional information.
The Schumann Resonances are actually observed by experiment to occur at several frequencies between 6 and 50 cycles per second, specifically 7.8, 14, 20, 26, 33, 39 and 45 Hertz, with a daily variation of about +/- 0.5 Hertz. [from http://www.innerx.net/personal/tsmith/Schumann.html]
Serotonin - A chemical in the brain which helps regulate moods - too little of it, and you can end up depressed. Too much of it can cause migraines and nausea. Just the right amount, and it's a great anti-depressant/mood elevator.
Sleep, Deep Dreamless - Experts are finding that it's only during deep, dreamless sleep that the body restores itself, fixing wear and tear and building new skin, bone, and muscle. http://health.com/wynks/SleepDisWYNK2000-MAL/whatishappening.html
Sphincter Resonance - In the 1960s, apparently, somebody discovered the resonating frequency of the sphincter. They created a device called an "Anal Sphincter Resonator" - an organ-like device. It was used in a suspense thriller play - they intended it to "shake up" the audience when danger was being acted out - apparently it caused the entire audience to soil themselves. (I've also heard this referred to as a 'Brown Note'.)
Synodic Month - Middle period from one new moon to the next.
Thalamus - A component of the brain that acts as a 'routing center' for all sensory information that comes up the spinal cord from the body. Drugs that shut down the Thalmus are often used for anesthetic effects. (This definition came from this article.)
Thyroid - A butterfly-shaped gland just below the Adam's apple which controls the body's metabolism - it does this by producing thyroid hormones, which tell the body how fast to work and use energy.