Gamma waves and the origin of breakthrough ideas

The alarm clock rings at 06:30 am. You lazily wake up to turn it off and may still be in a "dreamy" camp for a minute or two. After that, you quickly jump out of bed and go right into the bathroom to prepare for a new day of work, school and / or family care.

From this moment until you return to the "quiet" state at night, your day tends to fall into a brainwave known as "Beta wave".

Within the frequency range from 12 to 30Hz, in general, you experience different levels of alertness, attentiveness and mental activity.

Types of brain waves (numbers are relative)

At low frequencies (12-15Hz), we tend to be "idle" and think but only transient. Web surfing times to see something or traffic jams are typical of this situation.

At medium frequency (16-22 Hz), we often enthusiastically participate in activities, such as actively analyzing problems and seeking solutions.

Higher frequency (23-30 Hz) corresponds to extremely complex thoughts, new experiences and excitement. The confusing nature of the problem also makes you need more creativity.

Under the Beta wave is Alpha wave (8 - 12 Hz). You daydream in the middle of the day or fall into a state of relaxation, not concentrating while watching TV. This is not a relaxation that leads to drowsiness, but the pressure of everyday life basically disappears both physically and spiritually.

Alpha waves are Theta waves (4 - 8 Hz), which corresponds to deep relaxation and you may fall into the "Light Sleep" state , which means beginning to sleep. Theta is also recognized as a kind of brainwave that occurs during hypnosis, deep meditation and situations in which we lose common sensory stimuli.

Delat is the slowest brain wave (0.5 - 4 Hz), corresponding to deep sleep. Zen masters are known as those who can attain this state when meditating.

With each frequency of brain waves, we all experience different states

Anyone who has worked with a high degree of intensity when participating in a project or task can experience spiritual differences between a highly concentrated state (such as a doctor). A brain surgeon in a surgery) and a seat on a car seat with a favorite movie - both focused and dreamy (brain surgeon sees television).

When at the concentration point and the highest intellectual capacity, we fall into the brainwave state of about 25-30 Hz during the day, at night will turn to a mild relaxation state (10 0 12 Hz), deep relaxation (6-10 Hz), sleepless (4 - 6 Hz) and deep sleep (0.5 - 4Hz).

However, it is not so simple.

Gamma brain waves are classified with frequencies from 30Hz upwards.

"Aha!" and the explosion of Gamma waves

The relationship between Gamma brainwaves and Aha smoking moments!

In 2009, a study was published in the journal Current Directions in Psychological Science entitled "The Aha! Moment, The Cognitive Neuroscience of Insight" (roughly translated). : Aha! Moment, neuroscience science of awareness) led by John Kounios (Drexel University) and Mark Beeman (Northwestern University) have concluded that the feeling of smoothing out a good problem "Aha!" there is a close connection with the explosion of Gamma waves.

Brain World magazine described the results of this study as follows: "Among volunteers who have reached a smooth state, Kounios and Beeman have found a sudden increase in the activity of Gamma waves by about 1 / 3 seconds before these people have to "Aha!" For finding the solution ".

"Gamma wave activity has shown the arrangement of neural neurons together for the first time in the brain to create a branch of new neural networks. Immediately after the Gamma wave activity increases up, new ideas will be created in consciousness and we call it Aha! ".

Before the Gamma wave explodes, the Alpha wave will fall into a "lull" state. At this point it can be seen that there is a certain basis of making the mind "quiet" and slowing down the brain waves in order to create Gamma waves.

Aha moment! What would it be like at brain waves at higher frequencies?

If these moderate levels of Gamma waves create Aha! Moments, what kind of intuition or experience can one have at the brainwave levels of 50Hz, 60Hz, 70Hz and higher? In addition, the time for each explosion only lasts about 1 second, so what happens if this process takes longer? Can we "nourish" these waves at will?

Enhance Gamma waves

Studies have shown that unusual states when awake, dreaming and meditating produce Gamma waves.

In 2005, a study of the effects of natural hallucinogens Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) published in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs reported "an increase in the cohesion of total EEG in frequency bands 36 - 44. Hz and 50 - 64 Hz (Gamma Hz) ". This study uses DMT externally but DMT also occurs naturally in the body.

In 2009, Neuroscience Magazine published a study that outlines the relationship between Theta and Gamma waves during Rapid Eye Movement. Dreams create at REM sleep. In this study, the Theta frequency and Gamma frequency occurred more frequently at the same time during REM sleep than when awake. In addition "The increase in Gamma energy mainly peaks at 100Hz but the boom must be up to 250Hz".

In 2004, neuroscientist Richard Davidson also performed a study of the energy emitted by Tibetan Zen masters and found that some Zen masters were able to create much more powerful Gamma wave activity than The case has been recorded in history.

The idea of ​​breaking through ideas, in other words, the Gamma wave explosion that takes place in a "dreamy" state is mainly due to hallucinations. However, some of the information obtained in these cases may produce unexpected results, such as Albert Einstein's discovery of the speed of light or the atomic model of Neils Bohr.

Does this confirm that dreams can provide valuable information? The answer may be no but try to figure out what kind of peak knowledge can be achieved when we are able to wake up, when we can optionally create a 250 Hz brainwave to solve a problem.