<p>Alpha/theta training, in which the goal is to achieve an altered, hypnogogic state of&nbsp;</p><p>consciousness, useful for therapeutic purposes.&nbsp; During alpha theta training, the participant is typically reclined or laying supine, in a comfortable room in a comfortable position, with their eyes shut, They are listening to auditory feedback (one popular set of sounds is the sounds of ocean waves and the sound of waves upon the shore). The individual in alpha theta training is trained to increased the amplitude of their theta frequencies so that they surpass their alpha frequencies, inducing what is considered a deep state. This increase of theta and decrease of alpha is called a cross-over and is the clinical goal of alpha-theta neurofeedback.</p><p>Some clinicians use Alpha-Theta neurofeedback only as polish at the end of many neurofeedback sessions, as the accessing of theta while conscious can create abreactions in individuals who are not ready to access the deeper realms where suppressions and repressions reside. On the flip side, this can be a hugely healing protocol for individuals who need to integrate and incorporate the activation behind stress responses.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p style="text-align: center;"><img src="@@PLUGINFILE@@/theta-crossover.png" alt="A diagram showing the concept of an alpha theta crossover, the y-axis related to amplitude" width="434" height="238" class="img-responsive atto_image_button_text-bottom"><br></p><p style="text-align: center;">Figure : A diagram showing the concept of <br>an alpha theta crossover, the y-axis related to amplitude<br></p><p style="text-align: center;"><br></p><p>Many of the great minds of our times—artists, musicians, scientists, and geniuses of all sorts—have described arriving at their discoveries and innovations often when in a deep dream-like reverie. The alpha-theta brain wave state that reflects this level of trance teeters on the borderline between consciousness and unconsciousness and is the threshold between alpha and theta—a soft, awake brain wave state. This altered state of consciousness has been called different things by different researchers. Maury (1848) called it “hypnogogia,” Green, Green, &amp; Walters (1970) called it “the reverie state,” and Budzynski (1977) dubbed it “the twilight state.”</p><p>Individuals will often enter this state when daydreaming, resting, meditating, engaging in “mindless” activity (i.e. running, driving long distances), or entering sleep. This state is a calm, relaxed, and unattached presence wherein people report receiving imagery, sounds/music, or thoughts of novelty. Einstein reported coming to the notion of this theory of relativity while daydreaming, observing sunbeams and imagining what it would be like to ride on them (Boyd, 1995). Thomas Edison used to intentionally induce this state to answer his pressing questions by falling asleep in a chair while holding a ball bearing, with a pie tin placed on the ground underneath his hand. Upon entering light sleep, he would drop the ball bearing onto the pie tin, waking him—at which point he would scribble the ideas that arrived in his mind (Robbins, 2000, p. 191).&nbsp;</p><p>In a letter published in 1912, Mozart wrote a colleague about his experience around creativity, music, and this light stage of reverie:</p><div class="editor-indent" style="margin-left: 30px;"><p>When I am . . . completely myself, entirely alone, and of good cheer—say, traveling in a carriage or walking after a good meal, or during the night when I cannot sleep, it is on such occasions that my ideas flow best and most abundantly. Whence and how they come I know not, I cannot force them. . . . All this fires my soul, and provided I am not disturbed, my subject enlarges itself, becoming methodized and defined, and the whole, though it be long, stands almost complete and finished in my mind, so I can survey it, like a fine picture or a beautiful statue, at a glance. Nor do I hear in my imagination the parts successively, but I hear them, as it were, all at once. What a delight this is, I cannot tell! All this inventing, this producing, takes place in a lively dream. (34)</p></div><p>This brain wave state Einstein, Mozart, Edison, and others created their masterpieces in is was likely composed of two frequencies: alpha, which is recorded on an electroencephalogram (EEG) as 9-12 oscillations per second (Hz), and theta, 5-8 oscillations per second (Hz).&nbsp; Alpha theta is used for many clientele populations, including&nbsp; peak performance neurofeedback training. This training is a means of inducing in the performer heightened amplitudes and presence of alpha and theta brain wave states, theorized to bring about “flow” states, or experiences of “being in the zone.” The goal of this type of neurotherapy is to increase the ratio of theta to alpha, encouraging a crossover, whereby the amplitude of theta brainwaves supersedes the amplitude of alpha being produced. In personal neurofeedback practice as clinician, I often incorporate alpha-theta training into neurotherapy sessions once an individual has worked through their major psychological or emotional problems via psychotherapy or other forms of neurofeedback, demonstrating self-regulation. Otherwise there is risk in accessing the unconscious memories residing in theta state and bringing them into conscious awareness while the individual is psychologically unprepared. Alpha-theta training is like a polish, used once a subject displays evidenced psychological readiness to fine-tune their higher-level functioning skills.</p><p>In Egner and Gruzelier’s 2003 study on the enhancement of musicianship in music conservatoires with the aid of neurofeedback, it was discovered that individuals training alpha-theta brainwave states had a positive trend in three criteria of instrumental competence (notably, “perceived instrumental competence, especially rhythmic accuracy”), musicality (notably “stylistic accuracy, interpretive imagination, and expressive range”), and communication (notably “emotional commitment and conviction, ability to cope with the stress of the situation and with deportment”), whereas the study’s control group (without any neurofeedback) evidenced no improvements (p. 3). In the conservatoires’ real-life quantification, the neurofeedback recipients also saw an average a jump of two class grades.&nbsp;</p><p>Another study testing novice singers’ singing abilities as a result of alpha-theta training found similar results in performance communication (specifically “scales of commitment, confidence, enjoyment, attention holding, and deportment”) as well as in the technical areas of “breathing, diction, and pitch.” Lastly, the individuals subject to alpha-theta neurofeedback experienced “increased expressiveness, confidence, and stage presence,” all of which positively corresponded with their respective alpha-theta learning indices (Leach et al., 2008). While these studies are exciting and noteworthy, they are the first of few and there remains to be a lack of science linking alpha-theta brainwave states and musical abilities.</p>