Walking into any spa, massage centre, beauty centre and the likes, the first thing one would notice is the tranquil and quiet surroundings that are only “broken” by the equally intoxication tranquil sounding light music in the background.
Similar yet different to this is the binaural beats. The underlying reason for using this type of music is similar and so is the intended goal. Binaural beats are sounds that are supposed to stimulate the brain in specific ways. These sounds have been claimed to help induce relaxation, meditation, creativity and other desirable mental states.
The way the brain is affected depends on the varying frequencies of each tone. Each ear listens to these tones at different frequencies.
This may sound strange, but that is the basis of binaural beats. The right ear my listen to a tone of 300Hz while the left ear listens to the same sounds but at a different tone of 310Hz.
In order for the phenomenon to work the low frequency pulsations in the amplitude and sound localization of the sound must be presented separately, ideally using head phones.