It has been 8 weeks since I started Bill Harris' Holosync Awakening Prologue. And I must say that I have been pleasantly surprised by the results. I was not looking for gut-wrenching changes in my personality. After all I am, on the whole, quite even in temperament. Like most folks, I am happy, confident and secure most of the time.

What attracted me to Bill Harris' program initially was the fact that his promises did not carry the usual sales pitch. He did not promise that all your dreams would materialize with the use of his product. Nor did he say that you would become infinitely wealthy or successful or that all your desires would be made manifest. What he did promise was that

a) you would become more happy, more tranquil;

b) you would improve your brain power"increase in learning ability, memory, intuition, creativity and concentration;

c) you would experience remarkable improvement in spiritual and emotional health;

d) you would ( if you follow through with the 12 levels of the program until the end) develop the brain state of a Zen Buddhist monk.

It was this last promise"that I can have the mind and brain state of a Zen Buddhist monk-- that really intrigued me. So I ordered the initial program"the Awakening Prologue online.

So far, 8 weeks into the program ( meditating 1 hour a day with Holosync), I have noticed

a)a remarkable ability on my part to focus on my work( writing),

b)increased creativity and productivity,

c)a deep, deep sense of happiness that wells up several times during the course of the day.

But what has been for me the most profound change is the ease with which I seem to enter a meta-consciousness, an "other" me looking at myself and all that happens to me in a detached, witnessing manner. It's as though I am able to enter an altered state that prevents me from judging or reacting with blind emotions. I am watching my response( whether it be joy, anger, annoyance) as though it were someone else's , another reality, not mine. And the benefit of this detachment is the ability not to be aroused unnecessarily by circumstance.

Well, you are probably wondering, what is Holosync and how does it work?

In its simplest form, Holosync is meditation through neurotechnology. It is based on the work of Dr. Gerald Oster whose research into the effects of sound waves on brain wave patterns led to his use of sound to create desired electrical patterns in the brain, including those of a Zen Buddhist monk who has been meditating for over 20 years. Studies have shown that these monks have unusually balanced and synchronized whole brains, developed through years of focusing by repeating a prayer or mantra. The repetitive practice of meditation has created new neural pathways in their brains allowing them to experience the ineffable sense of oneness and connectedness so typical of spiritual experiences.

Instead of merely duplicating these brain wave patterns, Harris chose to view the entire Holosync meditation process as evolutionary which means that the brain is pushed by progressively stronger stimulus to develop new structures and new thresholds. And it is this search for stronger stimulus that led Harris to the use of progressively lower frequency carriers to push the brain to higher levels of organization .

Using the analogy of a runner, Harris explains the uniqueness of his meditation process in this way:

"Once the brain finished creating the pathways needed to handle the first set of frequencies we originally gave it, evolution would stop. We would be like a runner who could never increase his run to two, three or more miles.

"In terms of the running analogy I've used, lowering the carrier frequency is like adding more miles to your run. On the other hand, the meditative brainwave pattern caused by the beat frequency the brain creates in reconciling the Holosync tones corresponds to how fast you run. Slowing the brain wave from beta to alpha to theta to delta is like running increasingly faster. By allowing us to run faster and farther, carrier frequency allowed us to really push the brain to change."

The technology behind Holosync is part of a new revolution in neuroscience which sees brain wave entrainment as a means to enhanced brain power, health and longevity. Research now shows that the endorphins released when the brain is exposed to alpha and theta binaural beat patterns enhance many mental functions such as learning and memory. A recent study by Dr. Vincent Giampapa M.D. revealed that placing a listener in the various brain wave patterns using Holosync audio technology dramatically affects three hormones related to longevity and well-being. He found the following changes in levels of melatonin, DHEA and cortisol in 19 users of Holosync listening 4 hours a day over a 3 day period:

a)Over 68% had increases in DHEA ( the hormone that acts as a buffer against stress and aging) levels with an average increase of 43.77%.

b)Cortisol, the stress hormone , was down an average of 46.47%, with positive changes in 68% of the people.

c)Levels of melatonin, the hormone associated with restful sleep, increased an average of 97.77% with positive changes detected in over 73% of the participants.

The entire process of moving through the 12 levels of Holosync would take 7 years. This is really quite encouraging considering that a normal Buddhist monk would take 20 years or more of intense meditation to arrive at this level. For me, the die is cast. I am committed to the entire program; even the 7 year engagement is seductive because it tells me that this is not a simple exercise in magic, but a lifelong commitment to mind and spiritual development.

Copyright 2006 Mary Desaulniers