My level 1 experience

[CaliKS]

I am into my second week of level 1 and this is what I have been doing and how it has been going.

For the first two days I listened just after lunch. I was in a good mood (I always enjoy my meals ) when I lay down to listen to the session. The blinds were open and the sun was shining brightly in. I did not fall asleep when I listened, but I did feel very relaxed. The first day I felt a brief moment of pain just above my left wrist. I had the most interesting experience as I was coming out of the session. Even though my eyes were closed my inner vision brightened as the session came to a close. It was as though I was in a dark room and someone turned a dimmer up. I hadn't even noticed how my inner vision had darkened during the session. I have this experience fairly consistently (it happens now not at the very end, but a few minutes from the end).

Starting with the third day I began listening first thing in the morning before I get out of bed. My mind is quieter at that time and it felt good getting to done right away. Once or twice I had another unusual experience. It was like my eyes closed for a second time as my inner vision became darker.

Even listening early is the morning I do not fall asleep. I don't have a strong sense of feeling relaxed or energized afterwards either. I was a bit tired after one session, but I was not well rested when I listened.

My initial impressions are that I feel more generally calm, but I do have moments of intense emotion. I felt like giving myself a gold star for not having to run to the bathroom after listening to running water for 30 minutes . The audio is calming and I don't notice any "entrainment noise" in the background.

We shall see what the next couple of weeks bring.

Best wishes to all for clarity, strength, and peace.
KS

[rchoates]

Hi Keith,

It sounds like you're off to a pretty good start.

I listen to my BrainEv sessions just before sleep. It's a nice way to end the day's activity and clear the mind before drifting off into the land of dreams, which for me, the BrainEv audio entrainment has intensified. I've never had a problem with dream recall, but for weeks now I'll recall hundreds of dream details in a six hour sleep period. Sometimes it literally feels like I'm dreaming the entire time.

I've never been one to listen to audio entrainment just after waking up. I've tried, and I just can't relax. It's like my body and mind want to wake up, and the entrainment makes it very restless. But many people can listen just after waking up. I'm just not one of them.

Before I finished my first 30 days in level 1, I did notice an increased focus and centering in my day to day activities, and this "centered focus" still remains. It's almost as though the BrainEv program organizes the brain's electrical activity into a more cohesive pattern. That's my explanation thus far.

I hope you enjoy all your sessions, and if you happen to run into any so-called roadblocks, there's so much on this forum that probably has addressed almost every conceivable "difficulty" a user has experienced.

Wishing you an awesome journey, Robert

[jennyswift46]

It's really good.

[Dreamer]

Hello Keith,

It sounds like you are doing well with Brain Ev. I enjoyed reading about what you experienced during your sessions. I, also, listen in the morning. Not before I get out of bed but about an hour after I get up. Now that I am beginning my sixth month it has become such a habit that on my rest days I feel like something is missing when I don't use it to start my day.

Please continue posting about your experiences. It is a good way to journal and what you write may help someone else.

Dreamer

[CaliKS]

I listened to Level 1 at night just to see if it would help me get to sleep faster. I slept through the night uninterrupted the first two days, but now my sleep has not been so good. I am not sleeping as much, but it is not affecting me as much as it would have in the past. So maybe my sleeping is more efficient, but not as effective as it needs to be. It takes me a long time to get to sleep (even after listening to Power Chill and Ultra Deep Sleep). I am just not settling down. I am going to bed later than usual and waking up early or at the usual time (no alarm clock), but I don't feel rested. Still, when I get out of bed I don't do that bad. I would say I function at a 6 or 7 out of 10 (when looking at clarity, energy, focus, and productivity) based on my completely arbitrary judgment . Normally when I do not get good sleep much of my day is spent in a low-energy quagmire and very little gets done.

I wonder if a Brain Salon session works better after listening to Brain Evolution.

Last friday night I started to cry shortly after the session began. I just lay there with tears streaming down my face. I felt a tremendous amount of emotion. I think it was grief. It felt like I was suddenly in mourning. I felt a little sick to my stomach, and then a minute or two later the nausea turned into a tightness in my stomach. A few minutes after it began, suddenly it all melted away. My thoughts turned to the social and emotional neglect I suffered when I was a child. It made me very self-sufficient, but the cost was dear. It was as though a wall had been put up between me and the rest of the human race. I've certainly given this a lot of thought in my time, and could probably write a great deal about it. Perhaps another post. I started writing this on Saturday, and now it's Wednesday. It's just not easy to share certain things about myself. I will work up to it. I know it will be good for me.

Tears did not flow the next night, though they almost did. Similar feelings, but not nearly as strong. This time I saw the image of a child, a little boy. He was not a cute, innocent little boy, and he was very angry. I could tell by the look on his face as well as the knife he had in his hand. He was looking towards the object of his anger in some other direction, and I did not look that way. I walked up to this little boy, lovingly put my hands on his, and gently pushed them together. I told him, "Nothing can undo what has been done to you. You will never be what you were before. This will not help you heal." He relented and dropped the knife. I caressed his head and held him to me.

It looks like I have begun my journey down The Yellow Brick Road. I'm off to see the Wizard, everyone! I wonder what he has for me (that I don't know I already have). Is anybody coming with me?

Things have been fairly quiet since those two nights. We shall see what comes up next. These next two and a half weeks are extremely busy for me. I have way too much that I hope to accomplish in the time I have. I wonder how that will affect my sessions.

[Colleen]

That yellow brick road is looking good KS - we can keep each other company every step of the way as we journey towards our Wizards  in a journey where we do not need to know the where, what, how or why...just to trust our inner selves (our maturing Wizards)

[rchoates]

Hi Keith,

It seems like you've tapped into the emotional wellspring, that space in us we usual keep quietly in the shadows, and that a program which fosters introspection, such as BrainEv, can bring into the open space of awareness when you least expect.

I can relate to what you wrote: I lived a childhood where my natural self was never accepted, and that rejection led me to be very self sufficient. I put enormous energy into a wall that separated me from the world and people, because I never wanted to be seen. I thought if people knew the real me, the rejection I experienced in childhood would repeat all over again.

I worked through the vast majority of my emotional and psychological issues in my late twenties and throughout my thirties, and now that I'm forty-one, I'm finally beginning to feel the full force of my true self emerge into a world that belongs to me. It's been a challenging road.

Like you, I'm not too good at "sharing". I hate exposing the personal, and I've never in my life belonged to a forum. The awakening of my inner freedom, however, has led me into new territory, and when I purchased BrainEv, I registered on the forum without so much as a thought. After my first post, I was like, "What in the world am I doing??!!"

But sharing the experiences I've had is a result of my self-acceptance, however emotionally generalized my posts tend to be. I'm very much in tune with Karl Moore (our fantastic Hero Administrator) and his The Secret Art of Self-Development, in which he lists a number of "rules".
Rule # 1 "Stop feeling sorry for yourself" and rule # 4 "Stop being so damn sensitive" have to be my favorites. I don't like to soak in emotional states (even joy), and through years of meditation, I've developed an objectified distance between me and what I feel. I don't deny what I feel, but I don't take it serious either, so sharing the personal underside of me often becomes unnecessary. At least in my mind. Posting on this forum has opened up a new avenue.

The BrainEv journey is fascinating. One day at a time; one session at a time, and where it leads will be a gift for us all.

Here's a toast to the Yellow Brick Road, Robert

[Karl]

Brilliant thread -- I appreciate all of the almost poetic insights here. (And thank you, Robert, for your extremely kind words!)

General advice for BrainEv: These emotions can sometimes come in waves for those not used to them. You'll find this listed in our disclaimer, and on our support site. It's a perfectly natural part of brainwave entrainment, and the meditation process. You're effectively clearing out some of your mental garbage, and this can cause upwellings.

Know this: It WILL pass. I would state however that you shouldn't RUSH through the sessions. Don't listen more than once a day. And don't shift to the next level if you feel you're not ready. If it all gets too much, simply take a break from the program for a few days. Never rush. Patience is a luxury that ultimately pays for itself.

[rchoates]

That's amazing advise, Karl, because I was just thinking to myself that 30 days in level 2 just isn't enough. Level 1 was so easy, but there seems to be a complexity to level 2, that in just over three weeks, I'm beginning to scratch the surface of.

[CaliKS]

Thank you for your words. Robert. You are right; I did tap into something. I have done a great deal of processing of that time and I thought I was done with it. For whatever reason, I needed to mourn things I never had. I suppose those experiences will always be with me in some form. They are part of who I am. I can learn from them and be a better person.

Colleen, it seems we will be keeping each other company on our respective journeys. I think we started at just about the same time. Robert is a little bit ahead of us right now, but it sounds like he may spend some extra time in Level 2. It is also nice to have the company of others that are much farther ahead (or are doing another round like Pure Bliss).

My listening this past week has been pretty quiet. I still do feel emotion in my stomach for part of the time when I listen. It forms in my body and then dissipates after a short while. I do not fall asleep, but I do usually feel relaxed when the session is over with.

Thank you Karl for the reminder about not rushing things. While I do want to get through this, I understand that I need to do at least 30 days at each level. I had not considered or realized that I might feel like I would want to listen to a level for longer. I will be open to this idea, though I have a feeling that it is something you just feel. After 30 days I will make it a point to ask myself if I feel like doing more or if I feel like it is time to move on to the next level.

[Karl]

In general, one month of listening works for most people.

But people are different, and it's not a hard and fast rule. If you need more time, then take it.

Robert: Yes, Level 1 is purposefully easy-going and designed to help those new to meditation. From Level 2 onward, it gets more challenging -- but always in a good way. The ability of the brain to handle stress and the like grows more with each subsequent level.