entering your nervous system. Your brain waves naturally slow down into
the Alpha state. You relax. You become less preoccupied with the elements
in your outer world, and the internal world begins to consume your
attention. You tend to think and analyze less. In Alpha, the brain is in a light
meditative state (when you practice the meditation in Part III, you’ll go into
an even deeper Alpha state).
On a daily basis, your brain moves into Alpha without much effort on
your part. For example, when you’re learning something new in a lecture,
generally your brain is functioning in low- to mid-range Beta. You’re
listening to the message and analyzing the concepts being presented. Then
when you’ve heard enough or you particularly like something interesting
that applies to you, you naturally pause and your brain slips into Alpha. You
do this because that information is being consolidated in your gray matter.
And as you stare into space, you are attending to your thoughts and making
them more real than the external world. The moment that happens, your
frontal lobe is now wiring that information into your cerebral architecture
... and like magic, you can remember what you just learned.
Theta. In adults, Theta waves emerge in the twilight state or lucid state,
during which some people find themselves half-awake and half-asleep (the
conscious mind is awake, while the body is somewhat asleep). This is the
state when a hypnotherapist can access the subconscious mind. In Theta, we
are more programmable because there is no veil between the conscious and
subconscious minds.
Delta. For most of us, Delta waves are representative of deep sleep. In
this realm there is very little conscious awareness, and the body is restoring
itself.
As this overview demonstrates, when we move into slower brain-wave
states, we move deeper into the inner world of the subconscious mind. The
reverse is also true: as we move into higher brain-wave states, the more we
become conscious and attend to the external world.
With repeated practice, these terrains of the mind will begin to become
familiar to you. Just like anything else you persist at, you will come to