complexity and activity within the brain to produce that level of
stimulation.
- High-range Beta is characterized by any brain-wave pattern from 22
to 50 hertz. High-Beta patterns are observed during stressful situations
where those nasty survival chemicals are produced in the body. Maintaining
this sustained focus in such a high-arousal state is not the type of focused
attention we use to learn, create, dream, problem solve, or even heal. In
truth, we could say that the brain in high Beta is functioning with too much
focused concentration. The mind is too amped up and the body is too
stimulated to be in any semblance of order. (When you’re in high Beta, just
know for now that you are probably focusing on something too much and
it’s hard to stop.)
High Beta: A Short-Term Survival Mechanism, a Long-Term Source of
Stress and Imbalance
Emergencies always create a considerable need for increased electrical
activity in the brain. Nature has gifted us with the fight-or-flight response,
to help us quickly focus in potentially dangerous situations. The strong
physiological arousal of the heart, lungs, and sympathetic nervous system
leads to a dramatic change in psychological states. Our perception,
behaviors, attitudes, and emotions are all altered. This type of attention is
very different from what we normally use. It causes us to act like a revved-
up animal with a big memory bank. The scales of attention become tipped
toward the external environment, causing an overfocused state of mind.
Anxiety, worry, anger, pain, suffering, frustration, fear, and even
competitive states of mind induce high-range Beta waves to predominate
during the crisis.
In the short term, this serves all organisms well. There is nothing wrong
with this narrow, overfocused range of attention. We “get the job done”
because it affords us the ability to accomplish so many things.
However, if we remain in “emergency mode” for a long time, high Beta
knocks us far out of balance, because maintaining it requires an immense
amount of energy—and because this is the most reactive, unstable, and