Brainwave entrainment artist Douglas Prater has created Infinity: two evolutionary brainwave entraining tracks that take you down through epsilon to the little known, high frequency state of lambda. Here he talks with iAwake Technologies’ CEO, John Dupuy, about lambda waves and the experience of being in the lambda brainwave state.

Lambda brain waves, for those of you who have never heard of lambda before, are one of the lesser-known frequencies—one of the last to be discovered. They are very rare, and they are difficult to measure. They are a very fast frequency of brain wave that is way up, above even the hyper-gamma spectrum. With a lambda wave we’re talking 200 Hz.

You might imagine a brainwave state as fast as lambda would be very intense and kind of hyper, but it isn’t at all.

In fact, the effects of lambda feel more like a slow, deep epsilon wave. Most of what you get from meditating with lambda entrainment is a lot like what you get from a really deep epsilon frequency, but without the drowsiness that epsilon tracks tend to induce—making it a lot more enjoyable (even just possible) for those of us who get sleepy in really deep states to actually experience the transcendent states you get with epsilon.

So when we’re talking about brainwave states, the delta frequency, which for a long time was the slowest frequency ever observed, is normally associated with deep, dreamless sleep. It goes from about 3.5 to 4 Hz all the way down to about 1 Hz. Below that, less than one cycle per second, we get into the range called epsilon, which can be as slow as even one wave every 10 seconds or so—these are very, very slow waves. In fact, epsilon is associated with people going into sort of a “stilled” state. It’s not like a near-death experience, but people can slow their heartbeat almost to nothing and slow their brain waves almost to nothing. When they studied it in meditators, they used the term “suspended animation.” Down at the very low end of 0.5 Hz or less, you start to get into epsilon. Then the lambda waves actually emerge on top of that.

If you look at the long, slow epsilon wave, and you zoom way, way into it, you’ll see that wave jitters a bit at 200 Hz or faster—these are the lambda frequencies.

With the Infinity  tracks, what I’ve been working on is a way to get the lambda waves to emerge out of epsilon. It’s not as simple as just putting a 200 Hz binaural beat in each ear or making a 200 cycles per second isochronic tone. I actually developed a method of embedding the fast-speed lambda waves into a slow epsilon wave, and that’s what you’re working with in the Infinity  tracks.

So, rather than ascending through the brainwave frequencies up to 200 Hz, I’ve taken a reverse approach, moving down through the frequencies into epsilon. Epsilon and lambda are both states that are for advanced meditators: the people who have been observed in these states so far are people who have been meditating for years and years. Because they can be so tricky to get to, you really need to ease your way in with the meditation tracks.

The first 20 minutes of Infinity  take you from a normal, relaxed alpha state down into a delta state. Then the 10 minutes after that take you from delta into the epsilon wave. From there, the lambda waves slowly start to emerge over the next 10 minutes or so. The last 20 minutes of these hour-long tracks are a nice solid ride in the lambda brainwave state.

The Lambda State: A Mystical Experience Generator

You know, meditation practice has benefited me in so many different ways over the years, and the lambda state (while I’ve been working on Infinity ) has helped me reach levels of transcendence that I have never—well, not never, but only with great difficulty—seen before. It’s been a real mystical experience generator for me and has expanded my consciousness in some pretty interesting ways. I’m really eager to see what other people have to say about it after having tried it. In fact, I really hope people will be willing to share their stories and experiences with us, because as I said earlier, lambda is one of the least studied brainwave states. Everything we can collect is going to be an important part of the ongoing research moving forward.

John: The basic data I’ve been reading about lambda says it causes integration and wholeness, as well as spiritual or mystical transcendent states. With Infinity, when you go past the half hour mark, it’s like you are in the deep end of the pool. It’s really beautiful. It’s really still, but there’s a spiritual kind of warmth, wisdom, love, compassion, and bliss that come through. At least that’s my personal experience, and it’s been really exciting.

Doug: Yes, I’ve had the same sort of experience: a lot of bliss, integration, transcendence, moving forward. And it does take a long time to get into that state, which is why the hour-long track is necessary. But not everyone has an hour to meditate every day—I deliberately made the entrainment pretty strong and used some of my own protocols I’ve been experimenting with as I created Infinity, so the first 20 or 30 minutes are still going to be a good meditation experience. But, it’s at the end where the power of lambda really kicks in. Unfortunately, you can’t start there and just do the lambda half. It really takes the beginning part to get you into that state. Fortunately, I think people will find the whole thing rather enjoyable.

Infinity: A Great Leap Forward in Brainwave Entrainment

John: So, there are two tracks in Infinity. One is a music track, and the second has water sounds. They both have their own qualities; they’re the same, but they’re not. The water one is really beautiful—Doug layered many different layers of flowing water sounds, and also does a panning thing, so you feel like you have a stream of water going through your ears. I love these effects. They sound beautiful and feel beautiful also.

Doug: The reason I created two different versions for folks, both the music and the stream track, is that not everybody likes to listen to music when they’re meditating. The stream track can make it easier to listen to without being distracted. It’s just a nice, soothing tone that’s not going to pull your attention anywhere and allows you to really get down into that focused state in a pleasant and easy way.

On the other hand, sometimes people don’t always want to listen to nature sounds—they want something a little bit more musical. I did a lot of moving filters around, changing and layering the instruments, and changing the envelope of all the sounds that morph and evolve as it goes along, so the sounds wouldn’t be distracting but just very natural and harmonious. So, whichever one you’re in the mood for on any given day, or even if you like only one or the other on a regular basis, they’re complementary. Hopefully, there will be something here for everybody.

John: Absolutely. Infinity  is a great leap forward in brain entrainment and in creating these transformational tools—our mission at iAwake Technologies. Doug, congratulations. iAwake will be releasing this in the near future, and then I’ll start harassing you about your next master work. And, thank you so much. We really appreciate you. You’re creating exceptional quality stuff that’s healing people and waking us up.

Listen to the full interview with Doug Prater here:

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Doug Prater is the creator of iAwake Technologies’ Stealing Flow  suite—an outstanding peak performance and flow-enhancing set of tracks—and the developer of the soundscape on iAwake’s guided The Freedom of Forgiveness meditation. He is also an author, meditator, fitness enthusiast, and musician who holds a degree in Music: Sound Recording Technology from Texas State University. Born and raised in Littleton, Colorado, Doug also spent significant periods of his life in Austin, TX, and Atlanta, GA. Always longing to return to the mountains, he now lives in the Smokey Mountains of western North Carolina.