Brainwave states
Near the back of the notebook, Sunita writes a heading and a single line of purpose: brain wave — to make the nerves of our brain flow smoothly. Underneath it, five states, each with a description of when a person is in it.
The descriptions are accurate. This lesson gives them, adds the numbers, and is clear about which part is science and which part is not.
By the end of this lesson you will know the five brainwave states, know which one a session is aiming for, and be able to read the signs of someone descending through them.
The five states
| State | Roughly | When you are in it |
|---|---|---|
| Gamma | Above 30 Hz | The fastest. The notebook associates it with hypertension and with thinking too much. |
| Beta | 12–30 Hz | Ordinary waking life — walking, talking with family and friends, working. Where most of your day happens. |
| Alpha | 8–12 Hz | Relaxed. The notebook's example is exact: when we listen to something we like, we go into alpha. |
| Theta | 4–8 Hz | Meditative, drowsy, dreaming sleep. |
| Delta | 0.5–4 Hz | The slowest. Deep sleep without dreams, where the body rests. The notebook calls this the healing state. |
Sunita records delta as 0.1 to 4 Hz. The usual figure is 0.5 to 4. Everything else in her list matches standard descriptions of these states, which is unusual for material passed down by hand.
Which state is a session aiming for?
Alpha, and then theta.
Someone arrives in beta — busy, talking, thinking about the traffic. The whole shape of a session is designed to walk them down the list: the quiet room, the closed eyes, the slow strikes, the lengthening silences.
Alpha is where relaxation lives. Theta is the meditative edge, the drowsy state where people lose track of time and afterwards cannot say how long they were there.
Delta is sleep. Some clients will get there, particularly in a long session, and that is fine — but it is not the target. A person who sleeps through a session has had a nap, which is worth having and is not what they came for.
What can honestly be said. Relaxation and meditation practices are associated with a shift toward alpha activity, and this is reasonably well established. What is not established is that a practitioner can put someone into a chosen state on demand, or that a particular bowl produces a particular brainwave. Talk about the states as a description of what relaxation looks like, not as something you control.
The one claim that is not science
Beside theta, the notebook writes: to memorise our past lives.
We have kept it, because it is what she wrote and because removing the parts of a tradition that do not fit modern science leaves you with something that is neither. But it should be labelled clearly: that is a traditional and spiritual claim, not a scientific one.
Everything else in her list is a description of measurable brain activity. This line is a description of something else, and a practitioner should know which is which before repeating either.
A useful clarification about apps
The heading in the notebook mentions a tuner app, and this causes confusion worth heading off.
No phone app measures your brainwaves. A tuner app measures sound frequency — it tells you that a bowl is sounding at 175 Hz. Reading brain activity requires EEG equipment and electrodes on the scalp.
The two kinds of frequency share a word and nothing else. A bowl at 175 Hz does not produce a 175 Hz brainwave; brainwaves top out below 100 Hz and mostly sit under 30.
If you want to identify what your bowls actually are, our frequency analyser does that job properly. It tells you nothing whatsoever about anyone's brain.
Reading the signs without equipment
You cannot measure the state someone is in. You can observe fairly reliable outward signs, and learning them is the practical half of this lesson.
| What you see | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| Fidgeting, swallowing, adjusting position | Still in beta. Give it time. |
| Breathing slows and deepens; jaw releases | Settling toward alpha. |
| Hands open, fingers uncurl; face goes slack | Alpha. |
| Eyes moving under the lids; a sudden small limb twitch | Drifting into theta, at the edge of sleep. |
| Breathing becomes very slow and regular; possibly snoring | Asleep. Delta. Let them. |
The single limb twitch is worth knowing about. It is a normal event at the boundary of sleep, it startles new practitioners, and it means the session is working rather than going wrong.
Practice
Observe rather than intervene.
- Give someone a simple twenty-minute session — any method you know.
- Do not try to change anything. Play, and watch.
- Note the time whenever you see one of the signs in the table above.
- Afterwards, ask how long they thought it lasted.
Most people underestimate by a third or more, and the underestimate usually begins around the point you noted their breathing changing. That correspondence — between what you observed and what they experienced — is more useful to a practitioner than any number.
Common mistakes
- Claiming to put people into delta. You cannot, and delta is sleep anyway.
- Saying a bowl's frequency matches a brainwave frequency. They are different kinds of measurement that share a word.
- Using an app and calling it brainwave measurement. It is a tuner.
- Repeating the past-lives line as science. Know which claim you are making.
- Worrying when someone twitches. Normal, and a good sign.
- Waking someone who has fallen asleep. Let them, and add the time to the end.
How do you know you got it right?
You can name the five states in order with their approximate ranges, say which two a session aims for, and explain why a phone app cannot measure brainwaves.
And you can watch a person for twenty minutes and describe what changed, without touching them and without needing to be told.
Something to sit with
The notebook says most of a person's day happens in beta — walking, talking, working, thinking.
Alpha is described simply as what happens when we listen to something we like. How much of your week contains any of that?