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I hope you are all having a lovely Holiday in the USA. I am not in the USA but I know you have all been having your Thanksgiving holiday. Not sure what happens except I know that you have a meal and give thanks for all your blessings. I guess it makes the beginning of the Christmas season.

I am glad we don't have a big festival just a month before Christmas though. I am already cooking for Christmas. I made the Christmas pudding today and mincemeat for the mince pies.

Do you get stressed out with all the Holiday season pressures? So much to do with shopping, parties, children, work and so on. Its all too tempting to unstress with too much alcohol. I am trying to be calm using my Complete Calm Mp3s rather than a bottle- though I like to have a drink too. I just don't like to overdo it since it disturbs my sleep and it makes me feel less than good the following day.

Anyway I hope you aren't feeling stressed and that you are having a happy Thanksgiving. (I am not exactly sure when it is but I know it is sometime about now)

It is only 34 days until Christmas folks. Have you started your Christmas shopping yet? If the thought of Christmas stresses you out you could download some calming MP3s to listen to each day. Christmas is said to be the most stressful time of year so it would be a good time to start looking after yourself before the season really kicks in.

Another way to keep stress free and calm over the Thanksgiving and Christmas period is to try and do most or all of your Christmas shopping online. I have been doing that myself and am feeling pleased to have already done all my shopping for my daughter and family who live overseas. I used this site Best Christmas Toys to get some ideas for the top toys because I am out of the loop on children's toys now. Its so much easier to be able to read all about a toy before buying it. The whole online shopping thing has been a wonderful release from sore feet and frustration!

How do you plan for your Christmas?

Depression is something that hits and hurts too many people. Can brainwave entrainment help with depression?

I am talking about chronic depression rather than the blues. If you suffer from chronic depression you have a serious debilitating illness. I remember one woman I met at my daughter's graduation. She could not stop weeping. She had clearly made a huge effort just to be there with her husband but she couldn't enjoy it. Her poor husband did his best but we were not even able to be introduced as she was in no fit state to talk to anyone. I so felt for her and her husband and daughter. I am sure she was on medication but it wasn't making a lot of difference to how she felt.

This was the severe end of depression. There are others who are not so severely affected but they also suffer.

So I was interested to read that work had been done on brainwave entrainment and depression. Dr Cantor, PH.D., presented a paper on a pilot study at the annual meeting of the EEG and Clinical Neuroscience Society. of which he is President.

The pilot study included 16 patients, with a mean age of 45 years, who had a long history of refractory depression that was minimally responsive to medication. Patients were required to stop all medications 1 month prior to the start of the study. Baseline tests included quantitative electroencephalography (QEEG) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Patients were divided into two groups of eight, with the first group receiving 20 minutes of audiovisual entrainment (AVE) therapy daily for 4 weeks, at a frequency of 14 Hz. The other group of patients wore the AVE equipment for 4 weeks but did not get the stimulation treatment. The equipment consists of a control device, a goggle-like eyeset, and headphones that produce flashing lights and pulsing sounds. After 4 weeks, BDI testing revealed "a huge drop" in self-reported depression scores in the treatment group, compared with no change in the untreated group, said Dr. Cantor. QEEG testing also showed neurophysiologic changes in the treated patients (but not the untreated group) that corresponded to their reports of improved mood. "The QEEG changes we saw were noted in the frontal regions of the brain that have been shown by other studies to be involved in mood regulation," he said. The groups were then crossed over, so that the untreated group received treatment and vice versa for another 4 weeks. Similar results were noted in the newly treated group, but the group that had received the first phase of treatment showed a sustained effect of treatment, both behaviorally and neurophysiologically, even after 4 weeks of discontinuation. "That is suggestive of an enduring effect of the therapy," Dr. Cantor said.

The study used audio visual brainwave entrainment at 14hz which is the beta range for helping with depression.

This was just one study and with only 16 patients. it will be interesting to see if this can be replicated and whether the severity of the depression affects results.

Read the whole article here: Brainwave entrainment and depression

We have a self help for depression MP3 download that uses the same protocol of 14hz. If you would like to try this kind of self help for your depression you can learn more about it here: Depression Audio

I learned that you can make a brainwave entrainment CD for a lot less than $179. Eventually, many years later, I started making brainwave entrainment audios myself (and I don't charge $179 for them!)

I have a lovely one that I now use for meditation. I only charge $9.94 for it and it does exactly the same thing that the Holosync CDs do. It takes you into an alpha brain wave at 7.83 hz. Studies of the most advanced meditators, such as Tibetan monks, have repeatedly shown 7.83 hz to be a significant frequency.  More spiritual experiences have been reported using this frequency than any other. Out of body experiences have also been reported.Have you ever tried to meditate? I have, lots of times. I even paid and went to one of those Transcendental Meditation courses. It was expensive even though I got it half price due to being a student at the time.

I wasn't very successful with it, even though I did practice for 15 minutes twice a day as they instructed. I was a little put off by the guru aspects of the final ceremony but I didn't let it bother me. Sad to say I didn't progress with my meditation. Perhaps I didn't do it for long enough or maybe I wasn't concentrating properly. I had 3 teenage children at the time and was doing a full time law degree so possibly I didn't relax into it enough.

I have tried to meditate several times since then as I have always believed that it was a good and health giving practice. Reading the book "The Relaxation Response" and "Beyond The Relaxation Response" by Herbert Benson M.D. was quite convincing for me. He is a cardiac specialist and in the book he talks about the many health giving results of daily meditation.

So when I discovered brainwave entrainment and its ability to fast track the results one can gain from meditating I was keen to purchase a copy of the brainwave entrainment audio that was being discussed. I bought the well known original from Centerpoint, called: Holosync ,which is $179 for two CDs. Wow! It's is a lot to pay but their sales info was very convincing and they have a lot of well known people giving testimonials.

It turns out that this CD is the first level and they want you to progress as time goes by to further levels with more expensive CDs to be purchased.

Did it work? Yes. The Holosync CD is very effective at sending you into the alpha state.  It gave me an interest in the whole subject of brainwave entrainment and how it can help with a variety of problems. ( What is brainwave entrainment?)

I learned that you can make a brainwave entrainment CD for a lot less than $179. Eventually, many years later, I started making brainwave entrainment audios myself (and I don't charge $179 for them!)

I have a lovely one that I now use for meditation. I only charge $9.94 for it and it does exactly the same thing that the Holosync CDs do. It takes you into an alpha brain wave at 7.83 hz. Studies of the most advanced meditators, such as Tibetan monks, have repeatedly shown 7.83 hz to be a significant frequency.  More spiritual experiences have been reported using this frequency than any other. Out of body experiences have also been reported.

I would like you to hear a clip of it and see what you think.

[media:http://www.magneticsounds.com/audios/wp-content/uploads/meditate-preview2.mp3]

Listening to it on a daily basis will relax you as it sends your brainwaves into alpha. You will become very calm and serene. The benefits of meditation will be yours.

If you like this learn more about it here: Meditation