Understanding Entrainment

“Entrainment involves the ability of the more powerful rhythmic vibrations of one object to change the less powerful rhythmic vibrations of another object and cause them to synchronise their rhythms with the first object. Through sound it is possible to change the rhythms of our brainwaves, as well as our heart beat and respiration.”

— Jonathan Goldman, Healing Sounds

Because of entrainment, sound waves draw our brainwaves into different states of consciousness — shifting the rhythms of our brainwaves, heartbeat and respiration. On its own, this is a remarkable thing. When you understand it, you can begin using sound intentionally to alter your state of mind — depending on what you need in that moment.

Christiaan Huygens pioneering pendulum clock design alongside his landmark 1673 work, Horologium Oscillatorium.

Examples of entrainment;

  • Women living together and their menstrual cycles synchronise.
  • Talking to someone who is anxious…you start to feel anxious.
  • Talking to someone who is very relaxed (monk / swami) brings you into a state of relaxation.
  • Listening to fast fitness music and you exercise for longer than if there was slow or no music.
  • A baby’s heart beat will synchronise to the slow steady beat of a lullaby being sung to them.
  • Preterm babies are encouraged to be held skin-to-skin with their Mother (heart-beat to heart-beat).

What This Means in a Sound Bath

What makes entrainment so remarkable — and so beautifully suited to sound healing — is that it works without effort. You don’t concentrate or visualise or try to relax. You simply receive.

During a sound bath, the crystal singing bowls produce sustained, harmonic frequencies that your brain and body begin to follow. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, your brainwaves ease away from the Beta state — that busy waking frequency of thinking, doing, and planning — and begin to settle into Alpha. At 8–13 Hz, Alpha is where rest meets alertness: the feeling of being fully present but deeply at ease. In longer or deeper sessions, the journey can continue into Theta — the territory of profound meditation, where the body begins to repair and the mind quietly opens.

This is why a sound bath isn’t something that happens to you — it’s something that happens within you. The bowls create the conditions. Your nervous system responds. And entrainment does the rest.

When I play, I’m guiding your brainwaves gently toward Alpha — that place where the mind stills
and the body begins to release.

Trevor Haynes

I am a subtle energy worker with more than twenty years of practice in sound healing, Reiki, and massage. I lead sound baths using frosted quartz crystal singing bowls and Koshi chimes — weaving harmonic resonance and Reiki to guide people into deep rest. My path to this work took me from corporate life to a decade living in an off-grid cabin, through studies at the Thai Massage School of Chiang Mai, and into the world of lomi lomi. I believes strongly in the principal that everything in the universe, including our bodies, is in a state of vibration and we each have the power to influence that energy.Read my bio ↝

The understanding in Science & Research builds as you go.
The next article takes it further — and the one before is always there if you’d like a steadier footing first.