This well-understood ERTAS mechanism may explain the objective measureable changes in brainwave arousal noted with binaural beats, monaural beats, and isochronic tones, where “entrainment” fails to do so. But the first-person experience of consciousness is much more than just arousal states, attentional focus, and levels of awareness. The cognitive content of the experience gives it meaning to the individual and provides clues to understanding the underlying mechanisms behind such perceptions. Studying the qualitative aspects of altered-state experiences (the cognitive content) over the last three decades led The Monroe Institute to the understanding of further neurological mechanisms involved in those who have deep, meaningful experiences in extraordinary states of consciousness. Such experiences would appear to involve nonlocal (in the “quantum nonlocality” or “quantum coherence” sense) perceptions of reality and the universe. For such perceptions to emerge, consciousness must necessarily extend beyond the physical body. Presumably, the brain organ must be somehow quantum entangled with information beyond the simplex concept of arousal states, attentional focus, and levels of awareness. If mind-consciousness is not confined to the brain organ within the body, why then does science relate states of consciousness and mental functioning to brainwaves? The question can be answered in terms of an instrumentation
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exemplar. There is no objective way to measure mind or consciousness with an instrument. Mind-consciousness appears to be a field phenomenon that interfaces with the body and the neurological structures of the brain (Hunt, 1995). This field cannot be measured directly with current instrumentation. On the other hand, the electrical potentials of the body can be measured and easily quantified. Contemporary science likes things that can be measured and quantified. The problem here lies in the oversimplification of the observations. EEG patterns measured on the cortex are the result of electroneurological activity of the brain. But the brain’s electroneurological activity is not mind-consciousness. Therefore, EEG measurements are only an indirect means of assessing the mind-consciousness interface with the neurological structures of the brain. As crude as this may seem, the EEG has been a reliable way for researchers to estimate states of consciousness based on the relative proportions of EEG frequencies. Stated another way, certain EEG patterns have been historically associated with specific states of consciousness. Although not an absolute, it is reasonable to assume, given the current EEG literature, that if a specific EEG pattern emerges it is probably accompanied by a particular state of consciousness. This is completely different from saying that a particular stimulus entrains, drives, or causes changes in EEG (a post hoc ergo propter hoc assertion).
The SAM audio support technology is distinct from other audio-guidance technologies in that it is designed to support experiences in altered states of consciousness specifically using new, leading-edge understandings in neuroscience to optimize its effectiveness. There is no supposition by The Monroe Institute that SAM entrains or drives brainwave arousal as in the binaural-beat model. We do, however, think that some objective evidence for SAM’s effectiveness in facilitating enhanced states of awareness will be shown in ongoing studies of gamma synchrony as an electrophysiological correlate of conscious awareness. SAM induces altered states of consciousness that most likely would be evidenced through both alterations in one’s Next Page 3 TMI JOURNAL 2012 qualitative experience of reality (already noted in hundreds of experiences) and the objective measurement of changes in brainwave arousal due to the ERTAS mechanism’s regulation of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which appears to be influential in the quantum coherence of parallel arrayed neuronal microtubules (Woolf & Hameroff, 2001). One aspect of brain functioning somewhat beyond arousal states, attentional focus, and levels of awareness