The Peak Experience Event

We've all experienced a moment when we seemed to be at our best, a moment when our mind and body functioned together with the precision of a perfectly calibrated machine, churning out an exceptional effort: A truly peak experience event. What happens in the brains of people who encounter a peak performance event and experience illumination, extreme clarity, enlightenment, flow and ingenuity?

Finally, science has allowed us to fully explore these distinctive states of peak performance. Neuro scientists around the globe have investigated the brains of celebrated artists, monumental geniuses, mathematicians, top physicists, monks, yogis, top performing athletes and numerous field-leaders using cutting edge brain observation equipment such as the EEG (electroencephalograph), PET (positron emission topography), SPECT (single photon emission computerized tomography), MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) and SQUID (superconducting quantum interference device); watching with full attention as these very special subjects experienced rapid brain state changes and entered amazing states of cognition.

These observations have been integrated with clinical studies, anecdotal and empirical research by psychiatrists, psychologists, educators, therapists, physicians, sports trainers, counselors, researchers and clinicians, leading to this universally accepted and unified conclusion: heightened states of mental functioning are consistently linked to specific and clearly defined patterns of activity and events in the brain and more specifically, changes in the brain's electrical activity.

The High Performance State

The brain is powered by a vast network of neurons that discharge waves of electrical energy in different frequencies and patterns; it is this phenomenon that we call brainwaves. Brain observation equipment allows us to read and monitor every tiny electrical signal and flash that happens within the brain much the way an anemometer records the currents and gale forces of the wind. We can accurately measure the electrical patterns within the millions of neurons that comprise the vast neural network of the human brain and determine the frequency and intensity of the pulsations that occur. With this ability, experts in the field have been able to match peak performance states with the actual physiological brainwaves that allow them to occur.

Exceptional performers have been monitored, and it has been found that certain brainwave frequencies and states are associated with high performance in certain tasks. We know the exact frequencies of brainwave activity that are present when geniuses such as Einstein and Edison conceive amazing new ideas, when artists such as Da Vinci and Picasso paint brilliant art and when grandmasters such as Bobby Fischer mentally play out a chess game 8 moves ahead.

Take a look at Your Guide to Brainwaves to learn more about brainwaves and mental states.

The Frequency Following Response

How do I optimize my brain, enter the ideal mental state and perform at my best? The answer can be found by looking at the principle of the Frequency Following Response. If you have ever jogged in pace with another, walked in rhythm with another, or sung in harmony with another, you've experienced this universal force.

CASE IN POINT
In 1656, a Dutch scientist named Christian Huygens patented the first pendulum clock, greatly increasing the accuracy of time measurement. About 10 years later, Huygens discovered that mounting two of his pendulum clocks side by side created a strange effect. The pendulums would slowly synchronize with one another and form a mutual rhythm;a shared beat and concurrent cadence that was so precise, not even mechanical intervention could more accurately calibrate them synchronously. According to George Leonard, this occurs due to nature seeking the most "efficient energy state and it takes less energy to pulse in cooperation that in opposition". This phenomenon has come to be known as mutual phase-locking of two oscillators, or the Frequency Following Response.

Solar systems spin and twirl in accord, dust flies through the air at the same speed as the wind blows and a stick floats down river at the speed of the current because it's more efficient, so says the principle of the Frequency Following Response.

Rhythms and patterns affect our brain and more specifically, our brainwaves in much the same way.  If you apply a stimulus to the brain at a certain frequency or tempo, the brains neurons will start to fire a response and vibrate at the same frequency. This occurs because of a powerful Frequency Following Response within the brain.

For instance, if you listen to music containing a frequency that the neurons of monks and very relaxed people fire at when they feel very relaxed, it will cause you to feel very relaxed, because your brain will begin to follow this frequency and reproduce the rhythm in the music. You will automatically generate more brainwaves at a frequency that is relaxing. (See Your Guide to Brainwaves to learn more about the different brain states).

Virtually any repeating stimulus that is applied to your brain or body, whether it be sound, lights, visual images, vibrations or electrical sensations, causes the electrical activity in your brain to change. If you watch the intense pyrotechnics of a rock concert or the strobe light in a night club, your brain will respond in a different way and produce different types and frequencies of brainwaves, than if you are watching a ceiling fan. You've probably experienced this without ever realizing it, if you've ever stared at a camp fire, felt the physical rush and natural mental high from night club dance music, or felt relaxed by the vibrations felt while sitting in a car.

The principle of the Frequency Following Response has been applied, knowingly or not, among civilizations of the past and super achievers of the present. Even politicians and statesmen benefit from it. How? The most basic and well understood way many of us benefit from this principle is to focus our mind and attune our body by taking slow, steady and deep breathes that bring us into a more relaxed and centered state, readying our physiology before doing anything important such as a public address. We've witnessed this phenomenon at work as professional sports teams form together and chant fast paced team mantras to charge their minds and tune their brains into a high energy state, in preparation for intense physical action.

For thousands of years, primitive cultures have taken advantage of it through breathing techniques, visual stimuli, music and ritualistic dances to lift the spirit, galvanize the soul and repair the body. The repetitive chants, mantras and rhythmic drum beats of Tibetan monks, Native American shamans, Hindu healers, Sufi dervishes, and practiced Yogis are central to their cultures and have been chronicled by anthropologists for centuries. Many believe such primitive, ancient cultures were aware of the Frequency Following Response and the power it has to alter the state of the mind before modern science did.

The Power of BrainIgnite

Music has a powerful influence on our thoughts, mood, state of mind and even attitude. Amid the vast variety of consumptive activities and pop-culture experiences that vary from delightful to euphoric rapture, few modern day experiences can match listening to music in pure evocative power. It can soothe the most savage of beasts, captivate the soul, promote order within the mind, stir our emotions, incite energy in our loins and cause a broad range of intense emotions from cloud 9 level euphoria to abysmal sadness.

"Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without." Confucius

Music has a scientifically documented ability to diminish the electrical resistance of our skin, cause the pupil of our eye to dilate, quicken or slow down our respiratory system, increase our heart rate and blood pressure, increase our muscular tone, entrain the brain and change the amplitude and frequency of our brainwaves. But with the advent of BrainIgnite, never before has sound elicited such a precise, powerful and performance enhancing response from the brain.

People of the past and present have uncovered countless ways of arousing, stimulating and stoking the human brain, but none are more effective, convenient and more simply applied than tools that contain BrainIgnite.

How does BrainIgnite work?

While BrainIgnited music, or iMusic sounds like regular music, it contains powerful mind activating characteristics.

The ear is the super highway to the brain, a channel through which BrainIgnite sends nearly undetectable beats (all you hear is beautiful music) and pulses through your ear drums into your brain creating subtle vibrations that echo into the sensory cortex, causing a precise cortical evoked response that causes a change in neuro frequency, eliciting an immediate and powerful change in mental state. No matter your age, intelligence, cultural background or system of beliefs, this physiological phenomenon is a hardwired and natural behavior that we all share. Whether we're learning, thinking, relaxing, working, training or playing, with BrainIgnite, the experience can become richer, more powerful, higher in intensity and produce better quality results.

The science of psychomusicology and the principles of the brain have been united to create a zenith of understanding; a powerful foundation upon which BrainIgnite has been built. For the first time ever it requires zero training, commitment, discipline nor effort to access your peak performance state, dial into your best self and activate permanent improvements in your intellectual abilities.