July 9, 2022
From podcast: https://bengreenfieldlife.com/podcast/patrick-porter-podcast/
[00:00:00] Introduction
[00:00:56] Podcast Sponsors
[00:04:06] About this Podcast and Guest Intro
[00:07:10] Dr. Porter's history of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)
[00:11:38] The psychology behind the voice options in the BrainTap
[00:15:28] The founding story of the BrainTap
[00:19:57] Nuts and bolts of how the BrainTap affects the brain
[00:23:52] How binaural beats are used in the BrainTap
[00:28:55] Why the earpiece produces light
[00:30:46] Podcast Sponsors
[00:35:19] Why blue light in the BrainTap does not affect sleep deleteriously
[00:37:00] Isochronic tones explained
[00:41:36] How music is chosen and utilized in the BrainTap
[00:44:43] Entrainment and teaching the body to heal itself
[00:49:12] Precautions using the BrainTap
[00:52:30] Using the BrainTap with plant medicines and other modalities
[00:55:23] About the libraries available on the BrainTap
[00:59:02] Customizing a personal routine into a BrainTap experience
[01:00:54] Upcoming updates in the app
[01:05:07] Closing the Podcast
[01:05:38] Upcoming Events
[01:07:27] End of Podcast
Ben: My name is Ben Greenfield. And, on this episode of the Ben Greenfield Life podcast.
Patrick: It's immediately starting to produce acetylcholine, which is the feel-good fall-in-love neural chemical. So, if you're on a romantic getaway with your wife or your significant other, then what's happening is you're now creating the environment that's more romantic.
If you do these things, you can actually affect a change at the brain that has never been recorded neural feedback. And, I challenge anybody listening to this, if you get me a study that shows neural feedback can do this, I'll pay you a thousand dollars.
Ben: Faith, family, fitness, health, performance, nutrition, longevity, ancestral living, biohacking, and a whole lot more. Welcome to the show.
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Alright, folks, So, you may have heard me talking recently in my articles, on my podcast occasionally and elsewhere about this new technology I've been using on my head. It's called a BrainTap, it's a light sound stimulation machine. And, the reason I've been using it so much was because, well, about two years ago, I got one, I messed around with it a little bit, I didn't notice it that much, I shelved it. And then, I ran to the CEO of the company at a health conference a few months ago, he gave me one of their upgraded units to try because they've been messing around with the hardware and the software and upgrading this thing and it absolutely transformed everything from me from rapid sleep onset to napping, to meditation, to airplane and car rides, to just anything that I needed when it came to shifting my brain very, very rapidly and building my so-called brain fitness.
My guest on today's podcast is going to be able to explain a lot better how this thing works and how to use it. But, I mean, I have become so hooked on this thing. I'm literally using it every day for anywhere from 20 to 45 minutes. I can simulate a two-hour nap in just 20 minutes using this thing. I can use it for energy and a pick-me-up at the beginning of the day. I have, as you'll learn later in this podcast, different prayers and meditations and journaling routines that I've recorded that are actually featured within the library of all the different sessions that are within BrainTap. So, it's pretty cool.
My guest is Dr. Patrick Porter. Now, Patrick is an author, he's an educator, he's a researcher, he's an entrepreneur, he's a speaker and he has a pretty interesting history in terms of what he's actually studied up on. So, not only has he been the honored recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Interdisciplinary Association of Functional Neuroscience and Rehabilitation, but he has a career spanning over three decades on the cutting edge of brainwave entrainment technology. He was the co-developer of one of the first-ever personal light and sound brain training machines a way back in the late '80s at the consumer electronics show and has been a highly sought-after expert within the neuroscience and personal improvement industry because of his ability to use technology to activate the brain's neuroplasticity and do a whole lot more. He's written multiple books on this, many of which I'll link to in the shownotes. And, interestingly, he also has a doctorate degree from Louisiana Baptist University in psychology of Christian Counseling but is also a licensed trainer of neuro-linguistic programming. So, this guy basically knows how to tweak your brain with extreme precision.
And, all the shownotes for everything that Patrick and I are going to talk about as well as all the links you would need to get your own BrainTap if you want to try this thing are at BenGreenfieldLife.com/BrainTapPodcast. That's BenGreenfieldLife.com/BrainTapPodcast.
So, Patrick, first of all, welcome to the show. And, second of all, you have a very interesting history, like I mentioned, with Psychology of Christian Counseling and also neuro-linguistic programming licensed training. So, I would love before we delve into this BrainTap technology to learn a little bit more about what inspired you to get onto this unique path.
Patrick: Well, the main thing that inspired me was my father's alcoholism. And, he went and got help because members of the church came over and said, “Michael, we need to help you get off this alcohol.” And, they had a stress reduction seminar that was going on with something called the Silva Method. And, that changed and transformed my father in such a way that I learned to use this form of if you want to call it technology-driven meditation back in the '70s using GSR, galvanic skin response. And, I just had a unique curiosity about it. I went to school first for electronics, but I just kept coming back helping my dad with his seminars. We used to do seminars twice a month in Michigan. And so, we were helping him set up chairs and doing that. So, it's in my blood to be out there doing these things. And, it got to a point where I had an opportunity to work with a company called Light Sound Research and we developed that first portable light and sound machine you were talking about. And, I was able to use my electronics and my passion for helping people with relaxation, meditation techniques and it just came together. Basically, the six of us that put that together, I'm the last man standing. And, I feel it's a mission I have because it helped me. My first book was called “Awaken the Genius” and I was held back in second grade and had trouble in school until my dad taught me there's a book called “As a Man Thinketh,” I recommend everybody read that. And, when you read that book, that was my penance over one summer when I was 12 years old and it changed my life so profoundly because I realized that my thinking was dictating my emotional behavior. And then, as a result of my life. So, I still feel I'm not working because I still feel I'm working on myself every day that there's so much to do and I'm just sharing it with the world.
Ben: Yeah. That “As a Man Thinketh,” is that related to other books like “The Secret,” and “Think And Grow Rich,” and some of the stuff by Napoleon Hill or I think there's another one called “How to Program the Subconscious Mind.” I forget who wrote that one, but is it a book along those lines? Because I actually haven't read “As a Man Thinketh.” I've heard of it, but I haven't read it.
Patrick: It is similar. James Allen is the author and it's a very easy read. They now have “As a Woman Thinketh” too with the culture the way it is. So, basically, it's taking Bible quotes helping you to understand that God wants what's best for you. And, I actually thought as a kid that God was out to get me that there was no good in the world and I just had a very negative attitude. So, it changes the way you think about your world and your perception because it puts you in the driver's seat. It starts with the way you think and then it also says, like it says in the Bible, “Ask and you shall receive.” What are you asking for all day long? And, if you're just asking for trouble all day long, you're going to get trouble. So, to me, the book is when I was working with suicidal teens which was my first job out of college, that was my assignment. I kept copies of that book with me because it so changed my life, I just wanted to share it with everyone.
Ben: Are there updated ed because I know it was written in the early 1900s? Are there updated editions that you think are good or if people wanted to grab it because I'm totally going to read it this week now that you recommend it so highly? Do you recommend the original edition or is there an upgraded edition that's a little bit easier for our modern-day vernacular?
Patrick: Yeah. I think any edition is good, I don't know of any new additions because it's a simple book, it's not a profound read but it's the resources in it just wake your brain up especially if you have somebody that's never thought of taking control of their life, it just thinks, “Hey, the winds blow and I follow.” It teaches you basically the science of prayer. It's really what's teaching you.
Ben: Yeah. Well, I'm looking on my phone here. The kindle version is 15 cents and the audiobook is $1 and 35 cents, so that's a no-brainer. No-brainer probably being the worst analogy right now for the podcast that we're recording. But, nonetheless, I'm just going to click right now. There we go. I'm delivering it to Audible app right now. So, “As a Man Thinketh.” I got it.
Okay. So, the other question I want to ask you just about your personal history before we dive into the BrainTap is there's two voices because there's a whole bunch of different sessions that one can choose on the BrainTap and different narrators or different personalities that will do everything from guide you into sleep to increase your energy. There are Christ-based Christian bible meditations and there's meditations that target each of the different chakras of the body, things that lull you into a sleep state, things that my kids can use before school for creative programming. I mean, the list goes on and on, but there's two voices, yours and this guy, what's his name, Dr Mumby, is as his full name?
Patrick: Yeah, Keith Scott-Mumby.
Ben: Yeah, Keith Scott-Mumby. Both of you guys when I listen to you over and above any other voice on the BrainTap library, you seem to lull me into this deep state of hypnosis. And, I've always thought I was unhypnotizable until I put this thing on listen to you and Dr. Mumby, and you guys seem to just shift me super quickly into this completely dissociated state that literally I can barely even remember what happened during the session and all I know is I've just been subconsciously programmed. So, I have to ask you, I've been wanting to ask you this. Do you have some training in hypnosis or something like that?
Patrick: Well, NLP, I would say is an advanced form of hypnotherapy and hypnotherapy is one of the things we learned in psychology. I trained with Milton Erickson's group. He's probably the most famous hypnotist of our day. He was no longer alive but I took the training in Scottsdale, Arizona, but Jeffrey Zeig and his organization. So, it's more medically-based, but we're going to use more positive psychology. So, it's similar to hypnosis, but what we're doing is we're going to let the light and sound guide you into that altered state. And then, we can focus on the positive message which can basically tune-up, if you will, 2,300 different gene expressions. So, when we're using positive psychology, it's going to affect the way we show up. And now, we know that our subconscious, which is our physical body, can be tweaked because of what we say just like everything else so your environment's tweaking it, the water you're drinking, the food you're consuming. All of that is going into those epigenetic expressions. So, we're choosing those words to do that. And, I've had a lot of training in it. In fact my franchise, we did a lot of therapy, we were addiction therapy and I would say that at least 25% of the time we would do hypnosis with the people who had addictions in our therapy centers. We had 108 locations around the country.
Ben: Okay, got it. Yeah. I mean, I've done NLP before. I've done podcasts on NLP. I remember way back in the day when I was racing Ironman, I actually had this NLP practitioner come on and program certain anchors for me that I could trigger when I was racing to suppress pain or to go faster. And, I remember during the race, I realized I made a fatal error because during the swim portion which was when I actually needed to activate my anchor, I realized that my anchor was actually touching my thumb to my index finger as hard as I could and I couldn't really do that effectively when swimming obviously because it interferes with the swim stroke. So, it actually worked pretty well on the bike and the run. But, for the swim, my anchor didn't work so well. And then, there was another guy I interviewed, Dr. Don Woods who has a special form of reprogramming like trauma reprogramming and he came up to my house and worked with me and my family. He had hit some really cool neuro-linguistic programming things that he did as well. And, I'll link to that episode in the shownotes for this at BenGreenfieldLife.com/BrainTappodcast for those who want to dig more into NLP and what it can do.
Now, I want to get into the BrainTap now, Patrick. Can you tell me a little bit more about how it actually came to be invented because I know like I mentioned earlier, you were involved with the 1989 consumer electronics show and developed a light and sound brain training machine there? Was that an early model of this or did this pop up elsewhere?
Patrick: That was an early model. Basically, it started with a machine called the SILS, sensory foot learning system that you would have to run by hand. So, think about life before neurofeedback, there was no Muse, none of these devices. So, what we would do is we would look at respiration, hand temperature, heart rate. Those things would tell us, and we would know that if we could get a certain temperature in the hands, we would be an alpha. Now, we didn't have any devices to actually prove that. That came later. This was all done by hand. And, this unit costs $10,000, so how it really came about was I met up with a group and it's a pretty long story but I'll shorten it here that they came to a crossroad. The guy that invented the SILS passed away and they didn't have any records of how to make it. So, with my background on electronics, I told them, and I had an office in Scottsdale and they were happening to be located in Scottsdale. I said, “Come on over to the office, we'll reverse engineer this and we'll figure out how to rebuild it.” Well, while we were rebuilding it, I actually built with the team a little prototype and then I said, “Wow, this is pretty cool, it does it.”
And then, the EPROM chip, which is a programmable microchip, just came out. It was everything happened right at the right time. At that time, we could only use red LEDs, which are a little bit high. I mean, red LEDs are good, we all know that. But, for the eyes, we found that it was too stimulating for them. So, that's why we now go with the 470-nanometer light, it just doesn't have as much energy and it's more about the energy exchange than the light color because your eyes are closed. You don't need that much energy to trigger the cranial nerve 2 and cranial nerve 2 is the one that actually is going to cause the brain to do its thing. And, that's really what's happening also with that double voice that we might explain later. But, what happened was we took this big machine that looked like a microwave and we took it down to a little tiny — it's actually in my book “Awaken the Genius.” And also, my book about NLP is called “Discover The Language Of The Mind” and I have pictures of what it looked like. And, of course, we were building it at RadioShack. We get all the parts from RadioShack, which is in a store that some people out on the call probably remember. And, we were building them in our back office and we were selling as many as we could build. We're building them in the back. And, just one thing led to another. And, this was before cell phones, before CDs. It was like we were aliens who showed up because nobody knew what this thing was, but we were using it first for pain control.
Yeah. When you're in a state of alpha and theta, which is where you go naturally when you're praying or when you're in a deep meditation state, you're creating more of your own body's opioids. We have opioid receptors in our brain, so we trigger these responses in our brain. So, we reduce the pain by reducing the cortisol and adrenaline in the body and increasing the acetylcholine and the GABA production in the brain. And, we do that through this light and sound experience.
Ben: Okay, got it. So, there's so many questions that I have here that I want to get into when it comes to how this thing actually works. And, I know there's a lot of different terminologies that go into this like entrainment and frequency following response, and binaural beats, and isochronic tones.
So, I would love to hear you delve into what exactly is happening. Well, what might actually be really cool here is there are certain sessions that I tend to play a lot that are my go-to. There's probably a dozen. I think there's 800 different sessions on it, but there's about a dozen that I use on a regular basis. I really like the one for sleep on set. I like the one for creative thinking. I like a lot of the delta wave sessions for a nap. I really like the journeys from Dr. Mumby where he'll take you to Avalon, and to Egypt, and a tour of the universe. And so, those just completely dissociate me and it's just amazing. It's like you check out and go to this magical universe except rather than taking drugs and psychedelics and hallucinogenics, your brain's just getting shifted, be the light and the sound.
And, I don't know if you've listened to this one, the “Tour of the Universe” with Dr. Mumby. What's happening like I press Play, the lights and the sound come on, what's actually going on there?
Patrick: I'm probably the only person to listen to everything on there because I mix everything pretty much. But, yeah, what's happening is we're going to start out at beta about 18 cycles per second. That's the beta brain. That's our reactionary mind. And, we're going to attract about 18 cycles per second. That happens to be almost where everybody out there is hanging out in our first sessions. So, what happens is every session starts between 14 and 18 cycles per second. As you get into the series, you'll see that it's faster ramp down, so you might find that it almost like an elevator drops out, you go faster into the steep state but it's going to take you through a cycle from beta down through alpha, down through theta into the threshold of delta. That session is a deep, what we call a deep recycle session. So, what's happening is we're doing a lot of theta. Theta is the brain wave that most adults are missing, but it's also the one that brings about the deepest, let's say, hallucinations or visualizations because GABA is a precursor to DMT. So, when we're triggering that, when you produce enough theta, your brain, the most powerful pharmacy on earth goes to work triggering that.
Now, what we did just so the listeners know, in Dallas with Dr. Rosenthal, Dr. David Rosenthal, we did a study with a psilocybin in BrainTap. And, a half of the military personnel did not want to take a psilocybin. So, we mapped their brains while they were on the psilocybin and we found out that they had a high degree of gamma going on while they were doing it. And, just on the right side, the right hemisphere was more lit up than any other area of the brain. Now, we know that's the spiritual center. People who have these spiritual out-of-body experiences, they activate that region of the brain. So, what I did in my gamma series, and this one will take you down and it'll take you up into gamma because we want to have that expanded state of consciousness. And, gamma is just like theta that it produces GABA as a neurotransmitter. But, what happens then is it's a higher level, you have these zone experience like when you're doing that Ironman, when you're in the zone and you didn't feel your body, you're just doing your thing and you were in the moment, you were probably in a high gamma state. And so, what happens with the BrainTap is we're going to guide you through that, you're going to get in that and it's a timeless place. So, you might hear, “Hello, this is Dr. Patrick Porter,” “Hello, this is Dr. Keith Scott-Mumby.” Whatever is the name and then you hear, “Eyes open wide awake” and you go, “Hey, what happened?” Well, what happened in the middle of that, you were going through at least six if not seven cycles of sleep, but we compressed it into a 20 to 30-minute time period.
Ben: Okay. That's why I can settle down for a nap with this thing and feel like I've slept two hours doing a 20-minute session.
Patrick: Right. Because one of the main functions of sleep, not the only function but one of the main functions is the brain instructs the gut to start making your neurotransmitters. There's 54 of them, right? So, when we sleep, that's when we're filling up our neurotransmitter bank account. If we don't sleep well, that's why we don't think well is because we don't have the neurotransmitters to get the dendrite connections to happen in the cascade of thoughts, ideas, and concepts to come into our awareness because we don't have the chemical factory in order to make those things happen. So then, we rob Peter to pay Paul, we get stressed out and we make poor decisions because we're not rested. But, if we get that deep rest or if we do that recycle session during the middle of the day or in the morning or in the evening, whatever it is, where we can offload the physical stress, our body will go back into that homeostasis and balance state and start operating at that highest level of efficiency.
Ben: Okay, got it. Got it.
So, I know there's a few different key technologies that are being produced by both the earpieces as well as the what I think is one of the more unique components of this, the eye light that's shifting and moving and flickering as it goes through the process. So, first of all, I know you've got binaural beats worked into this thing. And, I'm curious, are those just to do that brainwave shift? Because I've talked about binaural beats briefly on the show before if you play 220-hertz carrier tone in the left ear and 226.5 in the right ear, then you're going to get a beat frequency of 6.5, which is the difference and associated with some kind of a deep meditative state. Now, is that pretty much what you're doing with the binaural beats just using that as the session goes on to determine whether you're going to do alpha, beta, delta, or gamma?
Patrick: Right. What we found in our research because we can measure across time domains, if you just have one 10 hertz frequency, let's say 300 and 310 like you're saying, if you don't change that every three to four seconds, your brain actually goes bye-bye. So, a lot of people listen to the same binaural beat over a 20-minute time period, it's only going to work for three or four minutes and your brain is going to go — I tell people, it's like living next to a paper mill. If you live next to the paper mill, you're not aware of it after a couple of weeks. Friends or family come over and go, “Man, this is terrible, how can you live here?” But, our nervous system says, “You know what, that paper mill is not going to kill us, let's omit that piece of information. We don't need to smell it anymore.” Well, the same thing happens if we don't change that up. That's the neuroplasticity piece. So, what we're doing with light is the same thing we're doing with sound. So, just in the same way that when you look at the lights if you've noticed when you're using the BrainTap, sometimes it seems that the lights have shut off and then you open your eyes and you see they're still on. That's because when your brain balances, you don't see the light anymore.
Ben: Yeah, I've noticed that. You almost forget that the lights are flickering because you do have your eyes closed when you're using this thing but obviously the lights are still shining through, you can detect them but then you get to a state where you can't even detect the lights.
Patrick: So, what will happen is about every three to four minutes we have a certain training protocol we're doing in there that we found the brain will follow but then we change it up. And, that's when you'll see the pattern change and if you're not tired or whatever, you'll return back and you'll see the light again because we disrupted it. We want to keep interrupting the pattern. In light, the whole reason for retinal flashing, there's a lot of research it shows, retinal flashing is really good for depression, anxiety, and stress disorders because the eyes have 300 times more mitochondria than the brain. So, if you want to absorb light, you want to absorb light energy in through the eyes but your eyes are closed because we don't need that much direct light into our eyes.
And then, we have the ear lights that are also flashing. Those appear to be solid, but every two minutes, they change to a different [00:26:41] _____ frequency. And, Dr. [00:26:42] _____, what he found out was there's seven frequencies that if our body is in tune, these seven frequencies are working throughout the body. And, you can do it through sound, through light, or through some frequency response. We use it through light. So, that light is actually flickering between 184 and 2,000 something times per second. So, we can't really see it, but every cell of your body has something called a chromoform or a battery that absorbs energy. So, it's absorbing that energy. So, when we're giving it all this different stimulus, what happens is the brain has to go into the super state. We were talking about the two voices but the whole reason for that is if I speak to your right ear, your left brain will light up. If I had you on an EEG machine and we were just recording live readings, as soon as I say something in your right ear, your left brain will light up, and then it will shut back down. Then, I'll say something in your left ear and your right brain will light up. And, what we find is that about three minutes into doing that, the brain will just stop shutting down. And, what we want to teach the brain is under stress to stay awake because our body's natural residence is under stress is to shut down to go into that freeze response to play dead.
Ben: Yeah.
Patrick: And so, that's not good for us anymore, we're not being chased by saber-toothed tigers anymore. And, that same stress is causing people to shut down. But, if we teach our brain through what they now call neuroplasticity to teach the brain to basically fire and wire around these different whole-brain states, then it's just like any other muscle. If you use muscles, they don't get sore but if you stop using them for a month or two and then you go back to the gym, you're going to get sore, the same is true with your neurology because it's your neurology that's actually moving those muscles. So, I mean, it's instructing those muscles to move and things. So, we're going to start with the core, which is how we think in the energy. When you think about everything we do, it's all about energy. How can we get energy into the brain so that it's self-healing, self-regulating system can go to work and return back to the divine design that the brain knows it has but stress has caused us to get out of balance?
Ben: Okay, that makes sense.
And, I actually have more questions about the sound. I want to delve into these isochronic tones and some of the music too. But, while we're on the topic of light, why is it that the earpieces also produce light?
Patrick: We have meridians in our body. In America, we're used to looking at the spine and we can look at the energy through it. But, in China, they look at meridians. So, we think of them like highways throughout the body. And, what they know is through photobiomodulation, we could put light in one of these meridians in the body because it's the path of least resistance. Energy is used to flowing through there. It flows through the body. Also, we now know that every cell, or I should say every genetic snip, every 40 seconds is changing based on a light impulse called Biophotaic light. But, if your mitochondria does not have the energy, it cannot instruct the cell to return to its optimum state.
So, we're going to give light because I truly believe this, and William Cousins, Dr. Cousins said this first, he said, “The most under-prescribed nutrient on Earth is light.” And, this is very specific light. We're using the light frequencies that are most prevalent in the morning and at night because we know that these two light sources, this red and blue light at 650 nanometer, 470 nanometer. Now, 810 or 860 is really good too, but we're not using those in the BrainTap. And, what's happening is our body absorbs that light energy and then it goes almost a stem cell, it will go to the part of the body that needs it. Wherever the cells are dying, then that light will go in and reclaim the mitochondria and that cell will come back to life. Just like it would with any other red light therapy or other training that's out there. But, we're doing it through the ears. And, we can actually measure this through our NeuroCheck device that shows how this energy moves through the body and wakes up the body's nervous system, so it starts operating at its best in peak potential.
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Alright, so there's this thing you may see me wearing on my head around my neck. It's smart, wearable technology that goes way beyond monitoring your body. It actually impacts how you feel. So, what this thing does is, called a Hapbee, it plays back the unique magnetic signature of any popular substance: caffeine, alcohol, melatonin, CBD, THC, nicotine, you name it. It triggers the sensation of these substances without you having to ingest them. So, no side effects, no chemical dependency, you're in complete control. You just pair the device with your phone and then you use the Hapbee app to select from a menu of the feelings that you desire. You can boost focus and creativity. You can unwind and relax. You can sooth anxiety. You can sleep better. So, I could literally put this thing in caffeine mode. Go out at night. Feel like I've had a cup of coffee. As soon as I take it off, the caffeine just gone out of my system, and go to bed, sleep like a baby, put it in melatonin mode. And, the thing just works like gangbusters. And, it works better the more that you use it. Since I got this thing, it works better and better and better. It's like my brain just getting used to the signal and knows what to do when I flip this thing on.
So, you get a long enough free trial to use it because you get a 9-day free trial of an all-access subscription to their entire Signals catalog; the feel-good, the focus, the deep sleep, the energy, the call, and the relaxation, you name it. It's safe and accessible biohacking, risk-free. 100 bucks off a 90-day free trial. You go to Hapbee.com/Ben. That's H-A-P-B-E-E.com/Ben to get 100 bucks off a 90-day free trial of an all-access subscription to the Hapbee Signals catalog.
Based on what we know, and I'm sure you're aware of this research on even a very low lux of light in terms of intensity and a disruption of melatonin production, why is it that –because I've used this at two or 3 a.m. when I wake up to fall back to sleep or I've used it right before bed for rapid sleep on set, or again, to simulate a couple of full sleep cycles in a 20-minute nap. Why is it that the blue light would not be disrupting my ability to sleep? Does that make sense?
Patrick: Well, this is such a low-level amount. It's really the energy. Think about it, it's only eight LEDs. So, when you think about eight LEDs and your eyes are closed, it's not enough energy and most people don't realize we need energy to sleep. But, we don't need energy in the form of caffeine or sugar, we need clean energy. And so, when you're providing that clean energy to the brain, it can now do the work of sleep because your brain never sleeps, it's got a lot of work to do, it's going to do all the cleanup while you're laying in bed. But, if it doesn't have the energy to do that, it's going to try to wake you up to go get some energy in the form of food or beverage so that you can then energize the body and then do the work that it needs to do. But, if it doesn't have that processes in place, it can't go into that deep state of delta which is necessary to turn on the glial lymphoma system which is going to detox and clean the brain. So, it's hard to explain but most people don't realize we need energy to sleep. When we're sleeping, our body is performing a lot of functions, it's not just laying there doing nothing.
Ben: Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, because I was a little bit nervous about that at first and then realized I'm actually sleeping better when I use it even before bed or when I wake up in the wee hours of the morning. So, in this case, the light doesn't seem to be disrupting anything at all.
Now, back to the sound. We talked about the binaural beats and how you also have this dual voice technology where sometimes it'll speak into one ear to activate the right side. If it's going to the left ear or speaking to the right ear to activate the left side, which is interesting, it's almost like you can hear these subtle differences in terms of where your voice is appearing in one's ears when you play it. But then you've also got, from what I understand, these things called isochronic tones. Can you explain what those are and what's happening with the audio of those.
Patrick: Yeah. What happened to me back in 2009, I actually was on an airline flight, I blew out one of my eardrums. And so, I had to have surgery to repair the hole in my ear and I lost about 20% of my hearing. And, when I was doing some tests in the lab, I realized that binaural beats were not tracking the same way on my brain. And, I realized that what was happening is you have to have perfect hearing for binaural beats to work perfectly. They'll work, but there'll be a lag if you don't have the same because it's measuring the difference. So, I said, “What if I put that same process but as an isochronic tone which is a mono?” My isochronic tone is if you ever saw in an office where you have a waterfall or you have a white noise generator in your bedroom, some people do to sleep, those are isochronic tone generators. The earth itself is an isochronic tone generator. If we were flying a spaceship toward earth, we'd look at Earth and the frequency of the Earth would be between 0.05 and 100. The evoked potential of our brain is also 0.05 to 100. So, what's happening is our brain is always matching its environment. That's why I like to inform people when that tsunami hit, and one of the biggest things in the news was where were all the animals when the tsunami hit? Well, the animals were in tune with nature, they were out of there. They were already in land far enough that they didn't get killed, but the people were so out of touch with reality, they're running out after the wave. And then, five, ten minutes later, here comes this giant wave and washes them out. It's because we're not in tune anymore with our environment, we're on the Earth but we're part of this whole frequency of experiences.
And so, some people will tell us when you go an isochronic tone just as a negative side would be going to the mall during Christmas and you don't like all that phonetic energy. You know what I mean? There are people that just will avoid them all at all costs during the holidays because they don't want to feel that stress. That's because their brain can't handle 18- to 25-hertz frequency, which is about where the malls are during the holidays. But, if you go to the mountaintop and you're just relaxing at tree level, at 7.8 hertz frequency, that happens to be theta. So, when you're sitting there, your body is actually not — one thing with the brain. When your brain is in those different physiological states, it's creating the chemical corresponding relationship. So, if we're in beta, we're going to produce GABA, we're also going to produce feelings of inspiration and we're going to have those epiphanies. If we're in a high-stress state like beta, we're going to produce fear, anxiety, stress. All those things are going to anticipate negative things happening to us.
So, that's why when we can start to control our own emotional state without the help of these other devices — I mean, these are all trainers. I still use my BrainTap every day, but it's one of those things where it's just easy to put it on and let it do it for you. But, these are things that people have been doing since the dawn of history on their own. We say we take ancient traditions and make modern technology out of it because one example of an isochronic tone generator is a fire. We've all been with a sweetheart and we're sitting in front of the fire, that fire is doing two things: One, it's crackling and burning, there's a there's actually a frequency to it, and that fire is at 10-hertz frequency. So, it's immediately starting to produce acetylcholine, which is the feel-good fall-in-love neural chemical. So, if you're on a romantic getaway with your wife or your significant other, then what's happening is you're now creating the environment that's more romantic. But, that's because the brain used its external environment to create an internal environment. But, you can also come the other way around, you can create your internal environment, it doesn't matter what's happening in the external world.
Ben: Well, I would imagine if you program mall or airport isochronic tones into the BrainTap. It probably wouldn't be that popular. But now, I understand why something like the escape to a mountaintop retreat session, that's another one that I like, it seems to really make you feel as though you're literally on top of a mountain, which is pretty crazy.
Now, what about the music? Because almost all of them have music which at first I'll admit, I thought it was a little bit distracting and then I realized there seems to be something going on with the music that's different than just background noises. Are you guys using technology in the music somehow as well?
Patrick: We can use music to offset the right and left ear just a little bit because any time it's off, we're using music now. As bizarre as it sounds, we're trying to just exercise, we're trying to stress out the nervous system. And then, what happens is once the — but it's stressing out in a positive way. So, it's kind of like a sport, it's nerve-wracking and you get stressed about it but you love playing it. That's what's happening with the brain. So, with the music when we can change the pitch and the tone and the speed, we can actually trigger different regions of the brain. Remember, when I was talking about the psilocybin study, we wanted to go right in the middle of the top of the head just to the right. There's a region there that we know on the QEG that lights up when somebody's having a spiritual experience. So, now, during our gamma sessions, I can pinpoint that area of the brain and resonate energy there to activate.
Now, I can't promise people spiritual experience, but we did have people telling us they were having a psilocybin trips without a psilocybin. So, it's just people who do when we do painless surgeries with people, and I had painless surgery myself, I had a shoulder surgery with no anesthetic, you can train your brain to create your own opioids so you don't need external opioids. And so, your brain can do a lot for you, your body can, we're imbued with all of these gifts but it's easier just take a pill so most people do that.
Ben: Yeah, yeah. So, I have combined the BrainTap with a couple of other technologies, one called the Hapbee, which can use a magnetic signal to simulate any molecule, anything from GABA to melatonin, to nicotine, to CBD, to THC, and then I've also used it with a haptic device called the Apollo which you can put in meditation mindfulness mode or relax and unwind mode. And, when I combine the BrainTap with either or both of those devices, I mean, you brought up psilocybin, for example. And, I've really almost completely sworn off the use of any type of plant medicines from a recreational or a journeying type of sense because I've realized using electrical medicine or using a lot of these technologies, I can simulate exactly what I'm getting from those type of compounds without some of the weird edgy hallucinogenic psychotropic type of effects or psychedelic type of effects and also without the obvious need to recover for hours and hours and days and days afterwards. If you take 5 grams of psilocybin, you're screwed up for a few days. Whereas, BrainTap session, I'll do a session. For example, if it's for a nap, I'll do a BrainTap session after lunch, go splash some cold water on my face and get back to work and I'm good to go. So, there's definitely something going on with the tones and the music as well.
I also wanted to ask you about this idea of entrainment. If you can explain what that means because for me personally, I feel every time I use it, my brain gets better at using it if that makes sense. And, I don't know if that's the process of entrainment or something else, but can you explain that phenomenon?
Ben: You're exactly right. We love using the Hapbee because it's going to entrain the body. So, if you can get the physiology involved like a PEMF 2, people like doing that with it, the low-level ones. But, what's happening within the body and within the brain while this is happening is we're basically synchronizing the hemispheres, and then the body is then getting into a synchronization. Our body wants to feel at peace and at one. That's a natural state of existence. So, it's going to the exclusion of stress, anxiety, any fear-based systems, it's going to keep getting rid of those. So, if we can do that by doing the BrainTap or some people do breathing techniques with it, I mean, we have a lot of different people doing breathing with it and that, what's happening is the brain is following along.
So, I'm going to tell you a story of a research project that we're doing right now in Brazil. We did the pilot study in New Bern at our research facility. We took 20 people, 45-minute session on BrainTap. We had them hooked up with the Muse on a live stream where we could measure their brain waves with the Muse device. And, we also had our NeuroCheck which does over time HRV. So, for 45 minutes, we're measuring their brain, we had them listen to a piece of music which we know is a good piece of music, people relax to it. There's something called the Mozart effect, people can just relax. And, a lot of people think music is what's doing it for BrainTap. So, we wanted to prove them it's not music. Music doesn't do what we do, music is good but music only does it while you're listening to it. So, what we did is we had every one of the people go through the training, 15 minutes of music, of course, they relaxed, they felt really good. But, at the end of that 15 minutes, we had a five-minute washout. During that five-minute washout, every person's brain went right back to its stress state it was before the music. That's not entrainment, that's just an experience. So, we took that same piece of music and we encoded it with BrainTap algorithm and we had them listen to that music. At the end of that 15 minutes, their brain did not return at all to their normal stress state, it actually took 72 hours for their brain to go back to its stress state.
Now, what we showed in two different studies. One was a study we did with autism children, they had 23% more alpha which caused 90% of them to speak within four weeks in California. Six months later, we measured their results, they were still at 23% alpha, which is incredible. So, we did a sleep study in New Zealand and these were coal miners, they go to work in the dark, they work in the dark, they leave in the dark. They have no circadian rhythm. It took three weeks to improve their sleep scores 70%. And, that's all we could do. I mean, basically, they were at about 90% sleep scores. And, they weren't seeing the light of day. What it took was we then took them and had them listen to the app only to see what would happen. It took six weeks to get them to that point. Six months later, again, we looked at it, their sleep was still there. Now, eventually, if they don't keep practicing something, obviously the stress is going to cause their brain to go back to dysregulation. That's why we have to do something every day. Life is playing the game of golf, no matter how good you do it, you're going to want to improve something. Especially biohackers, everybody's measuring everything and looking at their statistics. And, the same is true with sleep, but what we're showing you is if you do these things, you can actually affect a change at the brain that has never been recorded neural feedback. And, I challenge anybody listening to this, if you get me a study that shows neural feedback can do this, I'll pay you a thousand dollars. [00:48:54] _____
Ben: Yeah. I've done a lot of neurofeedback and this is totally different. And, it seems to be more effective and obviously, the inexpensiveness and the opportunity to be able to do it just in the comfort of your own home makes it pretty palatable too because sometimes it's tough to be able to do DIY neurofeedback.
Now, my kids have used a lot of the accelerated learning protocols on there for increasing their focus, increasing their creativity, decreasing procrastination. I've noticed it's actually helped them from an educational standpoint. So, I know it's safe for kids, but one thing I did want to ask you was with the light and the sound and everything, are there certain people that shouldn't use it? If someone has a risk for epilepsy or something like that, I just want to make sure that my listeners know.
Patrick: Yeah. If somebody out there has photic epilepsy which is a subset of epilepsy there, if you can't go down a country road, you know how the leaves or the trees are flashing, some people get very nauseous on that, I would not use the visor, you just use your earbud.
Ben: Oh, yeah, that makes sense.
Patrick: Yeah. You can get results with just the sound, it's just not as fast.
Ben: Okay.
Patrick: We're finding it's about 50% less time to get those same results when you're using the headset.
Ben: Okay, got it. Now, there's some days where I will use it twice a day, and I'm just curious because with, for example, red light therapy, technically you're not supposed to do red light therapy more often than about every 24 hours if you're doing a powerful 20-minute photobiomodulation session because it will produce a little bit of an excess of free radicals, there's a law of diminishing returns. With something like the BrainTap, how often could it safely be used? Or, is there no law of diminishing returns?
Patrick: Three times a day is maximum. And, the reason is you're doing different things. In the morning, we're doing what we call SMR training or sensory-motor rhythm. That has to do with focus and concentration. That's the brain wave as we get better looking and more intelligent with age. We start to lose that. That starts to atrophy. In the middle of the day, we're going to do a reboot session. Basically, we call it deep cycle where you're going to go really deep into theta and spend a lot of time there and then bring you back out with energy on a high. And then, we have our evening sessions, which are sleep sessions which actually drop you off in delta, then they don't return you back to awakened state, we want you to sleep through the night.
So, there are different reasons for doing it and the lights will change based on — every session is recorded differently because we want that neuroplasticity to happen. The lights sometimes will go a little dimmer, they'll go a little brighter depending upon what we want to accomplish with that session.
Ben: Okay, got it. Yeah. And, speaking of sleep, by the way, the sleep through the night session where you teach how to draw a number on a chalkboard and then say it three times and erase it and you count from 100 down to 93, and then you go down this set of stairs into this comfortable bed and you just basically walk me through this whole session. The cool thing is when I don't have my BrainTap and I wake up at night and I just do that in my head instead, it's the hypnosis that happened during the BrainTap sticks with me. Have you heard that before?
Patrick: Yeah, that's what we're hoping happens. So, you start to learn because you can do these things on your own, the problem is it takes effort. So, as long as you can remember it. And, a lot of times what's nice is because you've been practicing it, your brain remembers the whole thing. It's like being on an elevator and you start hearing the first three tunes of one of your favorite tunes when you're growing up even though they turned it into Muzak, you can figure it out after a while. The brain, it's beads on a string, it just pulls on that and then the body remembers the feeling and it's the feeling that's going to help you out. So, once you tune into that feeling and put you back in that sleep state, you're able to sleep through the night.
Ben: Okay, got it.
Now, you mentioned that there might be some potential for combining this with microdoses or plant medicines or something like that, I mentioned the use of technologies like the Hapbee or the Apollo in conjunction with it. Have you or any of your customers actually found other things to combine well with the BrainTap?
Patrick: Well, our chiropractors which we have about 3,000 doctors using this in their clinics, our chiropractors use it when they do electro stem. Also, they do it when they're doing decompression work. Really, anything you're doing that they're just laying there or you're just laying there, I do it every morning. I have a sound bed that has the Viber acoustics and I have a PEMF mat with it. I do that every morning.
Ben: Oh, my gosh, I have a sound bed in my living room that has a PEMF Mat stacked underneath it, so I get the PEMF coming up through the sound. So, I could actually use the AV cable port on the BrainTap, plug it into the sound table and actually have the light and sound stimulation in my ears and my eyes and then also get the full sound of it through my body.
Patrick: Oh, yeah. Just like Dr. Emoto talks about. We want to —
Ben: That's my nap this afternoon, by the way. I just wrote that down. I'm going to try this. It's so cool.
Patrick: Yeah. I love that. I mean, when Dr. [00:53:44] _____ created a bed for us for our doctors to have more an up-level experience, I said, “Man, I got to get one of those.” I have two of them at my clinic, but I have one at my house.
Ben: Yeah, I use the BioAcoustic one from BioMat, and then the PEMF table I have is the pulsed centers one. So, that's a perfect setup. I've been using it also quite a bit in the hyperbaric chamber. I mean, I don't know if it's pressure tested or whatever, but I bring in there and the hyperbaric chamber automatically shifts you into this relaxed state. But, with the BrainTap in there, it's a total game-changer. I mean, the combination of that, put the apollo on my ankle, put the BrainTap on, climb into the hyperbaric and, oh, my gosh it's just the best siesta ever. Have you ever used it in hyperbaric?
Patrick: Oh, yeah. I was just out at the hyperbaric conference speaking about it. I showed pictures of myself. And, as long as you don't have oxygen in the tank, you can do that. A lot of them now you just use the capillars and things like that. So, you don't have to worry about oxygen in there, but there's one in Orange County, a group called O2 labs that I would go to and we would do the BrainTap while we're in the hyperbaric.
Ben: Okay, got it. Cool. Yeah, there's so many cool things you can combine with this. And, obviously, any type of adaptogenic herbs, or rhodiola, or rishi, or anything like that fits really, really well with this thing. And, I mean, proceed at your own risk if you're going to try something psychedelic like taking a hit on a vape pen or using psilocybin or something like that beforehand. I personally think there's no need because this thing just shifts you so rapidly and you don't have to mess around with that that iffy effect on your neural chemicals especially if it's in the middle of the day and all you want to do is nap and get up and then go crush the rest of the day.
Now, the libraries, like I mentioned, there's 700, 800 sessions in there. It's almost dizzying. And, I've just settled on the 12-ish that I really, really like, and I just repeat those. But, in terms of the libraries, I know you have a power library, you have a different subscription levels, can you talk about what people get access to if they get a BrainTap device in terms of what's in the app for them for sessions?
Patrick: Most people will get the wellness collection. In fact, when you share that link, I'm sure with the site, they'll download the wellness collection. They can start using it. There's about 800 sessions there. There's actually a 1,800 when they go into the power user but a lot of those are for the clinics. I always come up with new sessions. I mean, your sessions were new just recently here before we went to the Paleo event. So, we're always trying to add new content and enrich the experience of the users. I just finished a series called “Overcoming Overwhelm” because so many people are overwhelmed right now of what's going on. So, there's a doctor we work with, Dr. Joel Rosen out of Florida that I did a series with. He's an expert at overwhelm. So, we took his curriculum and I created a BrainTap series of learning.
Let's say you're going through menopause and you're having a problem with that, of course, I have my reading of it, but I also have a woman's voice reading it. So, if you're wondering, most of our programs are done in men and women's voice, we also have quite a few in other languages like Spanish, German, French, Danish. So, if you're a different language, we have some sessions for you. We're in 120 countries right now and just continue to grow.
Ben: How do I know when you add new sessions? I haven't even paid attention. Is it a notification on the app or do I just need to go in there and scroll through and see what's been added recently?
Patrick: We keep a place on our blog post where we have the new things, but we're updating the app. So, here within the next four to five weeks, there's going to be an addition to the app that's going to say new. So, anything that's been added in the last six weeks will show up there. Because I'm always creating new when I'm home, I'm just creating some more sessions with Jim Quick who based on his new book that he has. So, there's always new things that are out there that we can add to it. And, I'm always adding business books too because we have a lot of entrepreneurs out there that during that afternoon break, they still want to be getting some value out of that time. We have a whole series called Wake Up Audio, it's basically I've taken business books and I've condensed them into 20-minute BrainTap sessions. So, you can keep [00:58:03] _____ —
Ben: I didn't realize that. Holy cow. Now, I'm going to have to go check that out. Okay, I'm writing a note to myself. Yeah, the thing that you mentioned by the way with my sessions, and this was cool because I came up to you and I'm like, well, I do this this morning meditation and journaling session with my spiritual disciplines journal and then the evening meditation, the morning ones focus on purpose and gratitude and service and the evening one on self-examination and purpose, and they're about 10 to 12 minutes long. I'm sure you recall I asked you, well, could I just program these in the BrainTap? And, rather than me just sitting there with my journal, do them with the BrainTap on. And so, I recorded them and sent them to you and you actually turn both of those as well as my daily prayer into a BrainTap session. So, you basically took some of the stuff I do anyways and encoded it. And, I thought it was going to be weird listening to my own voice, but it seems to work really, really well. Have you found that before too like listening to your own voice seems to enhance the experience even more?
Patrick: Oh, yeah. One of my favorite books that's now only sold in Europe, it's called “The Power of Your Voice.” Your voice is more powerful for you. When you hear my voice even though I might know how to say things, you still have to translate it. When it's your voice, there's no filters. Most people, they say we speak 80,000 words a day and 60,000 are negative. So, if you haven't been working on your own internal dialogue, this is a very meaningful way. In the book that I was talking about, “The Power of Your Voice” book that I have, that's no longer in print although Amazon still sells it for $200. I don't know where they're getting them, but there's [00:59:39] _____ book actually has transcripts in it. So, I give people the scripts to read in their own voice because I think that's really important for people to do.
Ben: Yeah. And, that's part of the library. By the way, if people listening in, if you want to try my journaling, my meditation, if you get the BrainTap and you open up the app, I think it's just categorized under Ben Greenfield, if you click on it, there's three sessions there. My daily prayer, which is about an 8 to 10-minute-long prayer, and then two separate 10 to 12-minute sessions, one for the morning and one for the evening. And, I've had a whole bunch of people find that, download it, and they like it better than just sitting there with their journal. Because again, you're shifting the brainwave state super rapidly because it's got everything you and I were just talking about, the isochronic tones, the binaural beats, the holographic music, the light, the sound. So, it's pretty nifty. I think it's super cool. And, I actually want to do a few more sessions eventually.
And, by the way, for people wondering what I do because I'm not a big fan of being constantly connected is I just put on the BrainTap and I have the sessions downloaded that I really like. And, that way, I never have to turn on my phone or be messing around with the Wi-Fi or Bluetooth or any other signal when I'm using it. I can literally just hardwire it into the phone, be in offline mode so that the EMF issues really are not significant at all with this thing, which is really helpful as well.
Now, you mentioned that you guys are going to be upgrading the app. What updates are you looking at in the future in terms of either the software or the hardware component?
Patrick: Well, the main thing is we're going to have playlists. So, your playlist then, you're 12 to 15 that you're listening to all the time because you have a lot of fans that will be on the BrainTap. You could actually share that playlist if you wanted to. And, they could say, “Hey, what is Ben doing today?” And, they would see your playlist if you choose to share that. A lot of our doctors do that and they want, of course, their patients or clients to do certain sessions. And, also, it's going to give us the ability to do more protocols, protocol-driven so people go, “I don't know what to do, I have this problem x,” and then we're going to have a solution for it in the app. And, it's also going to have a gaming component. Like I said, there's three times a day that people can do it, so we're going to have a way to keep score, your BrainTap score during the day. And, there's a lot of fun things that are happening. And, also we're going to be integrating it with other wellness technologies so that while you're wearing your Oura Ring and things like that, you can do your own readings to see how your physiology was affected while you're doing that BrainTap session.
Ben: That's pretty cool. Now, the other thing I think that would be cool, I don't know if this is technically feasible at all, but I was going to ask you about it would be if you could program back-to-back sessions. If I wanted to do let's say a 30-minute relaxation session but then have it shift automatically into the next one that I've selected on the playlist, let's say a 10-minute energy session to wake me up and get me ready to rock and roll again. Do you think that's technically feasible?
Patrick: That's actually one of the features we're putting in because I did a talk about jet lag just a few weeks ago where I showed — usually, I'm 100% and on our neuro check when I'm at home for three to four days to get my body back to where it needs to be, but when you're traveling, your body just flying on airplanes and things messes it up so you got to do your thing. I purposely didn't do any of the things that I would usually do on a flight and I did a pre- and post-scan pre-flight after flight and then I did BrainTap sessions. And, I did a 20-minute and a 10-minute and I brought my body back from my 17, which is probably the worst I've seen of myself in a long time after flying across the country twice. And then, I brought it up to 85%. And, when they asked me how I did it, I said, “Well, I did a 20-minute then I did 10 minutes.” And, they said, “Well, I wish that was something I could just do.” And, I said, “Well, we're fixing that, we are doing that.” Because I do that all the time when I travel because I want to have the reboot, the deep reboot but then I want to have the energy to get up and do something because I'm in a new location, I don't want to just sleep all day, I want to get up in and be mobile.
Ben: Yeah, yeah. Well, I believe you because coming full circle when Nicholas, your guys', I think he's your new CEO, when he gave me the unit at a conference, I was super exhausted. This was down in Phoenix and he put it on a 10-minute session said “Ben, just trust me, lay back and do this.” I did it. I felt like I was laying there for hours, came back after 10 minutes, and I had energy to crush the rest of the day. And, again, I take this thing everywhere when I travel, put in a little soft case, and it freaking works. So, I've been actually looking forward to recording this podcast for a while just because I haven't talked about it in detail that much with my audience. And now, folks are going to know about it and hopefully be able to use a lot of this and some of the cool sessions that you have coming up in the future as well.
So, I'm going to link to everything at BenGreenfieldLife.com/BrainTappodcast. I don't even remember if we have some a link where people get a discount on it or something like that. I think we're working on something along those lines.
Patrick: Yeah. We can provide you a page yeah that can do it.
Ben: Yeah, I'll figure that out between now and when the podcast comes out. But, for now, if you just go to BenGreenfieldLife.com/BrainTappodcast, I'll link to the BrainTap, some of my favorite sessions, some of the previous podcasts I've done on similar things like neuro-linguistic programming, some of the things I like to combine with the BrainTap like the Apollo and the Hapbee, and I'll link to that sound table and the PEMF as well too so you guys can just go to town and upgrade your life with this thing.
So, Patrick, I want to thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing this. It's a fascinating device. It's become just a staple of my routine. So, thanks for it and thanks for everything that you do.
Patrick: Well, thanks for getting it out there and helping us with our mission to better a billion brains.
Ben: Is that the mission, better a billion brains?
Patrick: Yup.
Ben: I like it. Good alliteration. Alright. So, again, URL is at BenGreenfieldLife.com/BrainTappodcast. And, until next time, I'm Ben Greenfield along with Dr. Patrick Porter signing out from BenGreenfieldLife.com, have an amazing week.
Well, I have something that's pretty important for you to know about. If you're into electrical medicine or taking charge of your own health using this cool new technology. Well, it's not new, I think it was developed by NASA long time ago, but it's really taking the biohacking world by storm called Pulsed Electromagnetic Field therapy, PEMF. And, it's something I use every day. I have a giant mat with coils and I'll hit my shoulder with it or my knee or my back or use it for sleep or energy. And, basically, PEMF is just a natural electrical current that you can run through different parts of your body to enhance your health, your performance, your recovery, et cetera. And, it can be a little bit confusing to know what to stack it with, how to use it, what frequencies to use, what settings to use, what kind of power to use, et cetera.
So, whether you are a practitioner who wants to use PEMF in your practice or whether you're somebody who wants to, like me, just use units yourself at home, the upcoming Pulsed Electromagnetic Field Healing Summit is this online summit that teaches you everything about how to use PEMF, what units to use, what type of things it can treat. We got doctors, acupuncturists, naturopaths, scientists, a whole bunch of people presenting, and it's a pretty cool summit. So, it's free. It's one of those deals we can watch the whole thing for free, and you get special welcome gifts and all that jazz. You probably seen this kind of online summits before. That's what it is, but it's all about PEMF.
So, the link that I've been given to share with you is BenGreenfieldLife.com/PEMFSummit. That's BenGreenfieldLife.com/P-E-M-F-S-U-M-M-I-T. And, guess what, I even have a presentation on there. Yeah, the guy interviewed me while I was walking around the forest. But, hey, it's there. If you want it, check it out.
More than ever these days, people like you and me need a fresh entertaining, well-informed, and often outside-the-box approach to discovering the health, and happiness, and hope that we all crave. So, I hope I've been able to do that for you on this episode today. And, if you liked it or if you love what I'm up to, then please leave me a review on your preferred podcast listening channel wherever that might be and just find the Ben Greenfield Life episode. Say something nice. Thanks so much. It means a lot.
BenGreenfieldLife.com/BrainTapPodcast
My latest infatuation is a light-sound stimulation machine called the BrainTap.
Ever since the CEO gave me a trial unit at a health conference this past spring, I've literally been using it every day for the past four months, and it has been a huge game-changer for rapid sleep onset, napping, meditation, airplane/car rides, fast-tracked meditation, and much more.
“BrainTapping” is a quick and easy way to optimize your brain’s peak potential—anytime, anywhere. Backed by neuroscience and research, BrainTap is proven to help people who experience high stress, difficulty sleeping, low energy, and other lifestyle challenges. BrainTap restores your ability, balance, and energy, allowing you to break through the overwhelm and thrive in overdrive. Instead of feeling exhausted and disheartened, you have a fit and resilient brain with clear, focused thinking, and the confidence to make better choices.
The BrainTap device uses light and sound stimulation to create a symphony of brainwave activity, a feeling of calm focus that’s just right for learning and productivity. Each session is designed with brainwave balance in mind. BrainTap’s exclusive neuro-algorithms gently and naturally guide your brain through a broad range of brainwave patterns, instead of just the alpha state. The result is a complete spectrum of brainwave activity.
In addition to the sonic effect in the audio sessions, the BrainTap headset delivers gentle light pulses that travel through the ear meridians and the retina, sending direct signals to the brain and guiding you into extraordinary brain states that would otherwise take years of disciplined effort to achieve. By listening to the varied frequencies and holographic music in BrainTap’s unique audio programs, you can enjoy a healthy and balanced state of brain fitness.
My guest on this podcast is Dr. Patrick Porter, the creator of BrainTap, and an award-winning author, educator, researcher, entrepreneur, and speaker.
In late 2020, Dr. Porter was the honored recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Interdisciplinary Association of Functional Neurosciences and Rehabilitation (IAFNR), and for good reason. Over a career spanning more than three decades, Dr. Porter has been on the cutting edge of brainwave entrainment technology. He was co-developer of the first personal light and sound brain training machine, voted “Best New Gadget of the Year” at the 1989 Consumer Electronics Show, and later developed one of the largest and most popular self-help franchises. He’s since become a highly sought-after expert within the neuroscience and personal improvement industries.
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Additionally, Dr. Porter offers health providers a turnkey system for helping clients achieve better neurological performance and brain fitness. Dr. Porter is also the dean of mind-based studies at the International Quantum University of Integrative Medicine (IQUIM). Dr. Porter’s successes have been featured in NPR, The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, People, Entrepreneur, and INC, as well as ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and the Discovery Channel. His SleepRX program was voted the best sleep app of the year by Health magazine.
Dr. Porter is the author of the award-winning bestseller, Awaken the Genius: Mind Technology for the 21st Century, which was awarded “Best How-To Book of 1994” by the North American Book Dealers Exchange. Awaken the Genius has been translated into four languages and more than 150,000 copies have been sold globally. He also authored Discover the Language of the Mind and Thrive In Overdrive, How to Navigate Your Overloaded Lifestyle, among others. Dr. Porter’s entertaining speeches and seminars deliver the real-life, nuts-and-bolts concepts he used to turn his business ventures into multi-million dollar enterprises.
For ten years, Dr. Porter hosted his own show on WNIS radio in Norfolk, Virginia. Previously, he was the host of a Phoenix television show. As an independent consultant, he wrote Hidden Solutions and Awaken the Genius programs for the State of Arizona. He also created Mind-Over-Cancer, a guided visualization program used in medical facilities to assist patients receiving cancer treatment to better manage stress and side effects.
The producer of an arsenal of more than 1,200 audio-recorded motivational programs and narrated visualization sessions, Dr. Porter has also sold more than 3 million books and recordings worldwide, all uniquely designed to empower humanity. He earned his doctorate degree from Louisiana Baptist University in 1992 in Psychology of Christian Counseling and later became a licensed trainer of Neuro-Linguistic Programming.
Dr. Porter's newest brain-training platform, BrainTap, is distinctively designed to activate the brain’s neuroplasticity. The BrainTap headset uses light and sound technology in combination with Dr. Porter’s proprietary guided visualization audio sessions to help people achieve brain fitness, overcome stress, lose weight, stop smoking, manage pain, accelerate learning, enjoy superb sleep, and make any number of lifestyle improvements.
During our discussion, you'll discover:
-Dr. Porter's history of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)…06:50
- Inspired by father's alcoholism; stress-reduction seminar
- Combination of tech knowledge and mission to help people improve their lives
- Awaken the Genius, Patrick's first book
- As a Man Thinketh, by James Allen
- What we program into our minds becomes our reality
- Think And Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill
- The Subconscious Mind, by Robert Daudish
-The psychology behind the voice options in the BrainTap…11:11
- NLP is an advanced form of hypnotherapy
- Light and sound guide into an altered state, then focus on positive psychology
- Podcast with Don Woods
-The founding story of the BrainTap…15:03
- SILS machine run by hand
- The person who invented the SILS machine passed away
- Patrick reverse engineered the machine to rebuild
- Newer tech allowed newer iterations of the machine to be tiny by comparison
- Cranial Nerve 2
- Awaken the Genius, by Patrick Porter
- Discover the Language of the Mind, by Patrick Porter
- Used it initially for pain control by triggering opioid receptors in the brain
-Nuts and bolts of how the BrainTap affects the brain…19:30
- Beta to alpha, to theta, to delta
- Theta is the phase we're most missing; brings about the deepest visualizations
- GABA is a precursor to DMT
- Study showed a high degree of gamma brain waves with the use of psilocybin
- We have out-of-body or “in the zone” experiences while utilizing gamma brain waves
- Brain makes neurotransmitters during sleep; high-quality sleep is critical for optimum performance
-How binaural beats are used in the BrainTap…23:42
- The brain tunes out to binaural beats after 3-4 minutes (neuroplasticity)
- Pattern changes in the binaural beats keep the brain on its toes so to speak
- Body goes into the stress response (shut down) while under stress
- Keep brain in the “divine healing” mode
-Why the earpiece produces light…28:36
- Meridians throughout the body where the energy flows
- Biophotaic light
- “The most under-prescribed nutrient is light”
- Energy moved through the ears allows energy to flow through the body's meridians
-Why blue light in the BrainTap does not affect sleep deleteriously…34:53
- 8 LEDs is not enough energy to disrupt sleep
- We need clean energy to sleep; the blue light provides such energy
-Isochronic tones explained…36:54
- Patrick blew out an eardrum in 2009; permanent ear damage
- Must have perfect hearing for binaural beats to work perfectly
- Natural sounds are isochronic tones
- The brain is always matching its environment
- Animals are in tune with nature; knew to run inland when a tsunami hit
- We're not in tune with nature
- Sitting in nature, equal to a theta brain wave state
- High-stress state (beta) encourages stress and fear
- Controlling emotional states without devices is the ultimate goal
- Fire is a great example of isochronic tone (10 hz)
-How music is chosen and utilized in the BrainTap…41:10
- Music is used to offset the right and left ears
- Trying to stress out the nervous system, in a positive way
- Trigger different regions of the brain
- Train the brain to create its own opioids
- Hapbee
- Apollo wearable
-Entrainment and teaching the body to heal itself…44:18
- Synchronizing hemispheres; body feels at peace
- Music is good, but only has an effect while listening to it
- Music listened to with Brain Tap algorithms, brain took 72 hours to return to a stressed-out state
-Precautions using the BrainTap…49:01
- Use no more than 3x per day
- SMR (Sensory Motor Rhythm) in the morning; focus and concentration
- Reboot session at noon; deep cycle into theta
- Sleep sessions in the evening
- The hypnosis that occurs while using the device sticks with you after practice
-Using the BrainTap with plant medicines and other modalities…52:10
- Chiropractors use it alongside decompression work
- Sound bed (BioAcoustic Mat) on PEMF table
- Hyperbaric chamber (HBOT)
- Use psychedelics with caution
-About the libraries available on the BrainTap…54:56
- Wellness collection is the most popular for home consumers (about 800 sessions)
- Overcoming Overwhelm series with Dr. Joel Rosen
-Customizing a personal routine into a BrainTap experience…58:42
- The Power of Your Voice book
- Your voice is more powerful for you than anyone else
- We speak 80k words per day, 60k are negative
- Patrick's books have transcripts of the Power of Your Voice book
- Ben's sessions in the library
- Daily prayer
- Morning session
- Evening session
-Upcoming updates in the app…1:00:29
- Playlists
- Protocol driven sessions
- Gaming
- Integrating with other wellness technologies
- Back-to-back sessions
-And much more!
-Upcoming Events:
- Pulsed Electromagnetic Field (PEMF) Healing Summit (July 12 – 20, 2022). Click here to register for the event now
- Keep up on Ben's LIVE appearances by following bengreenfieldlife.com/calendar
Resources from this episode:
- BrainTap
- Awaken the Genius: Mind Technology for the 21st Century
- Discover the Language of the Mind
- Thrive In Overdrive, How to Navigate Your Overloaded Lifestyle
– Podcast:
– Books:
- As a Man Thinketh by James Allen
- Think And Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
- The Subconscious Mind by Robert Daudish
– Other Resources:
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