The name brainwave levels indicates the frequency bands — beta, alpha, theta, delta and gamma — that electroencephalography (EEG) records as the electrical rhythm of the brain, each accompanying a different lived state: active focus, calm alertness, inner imagery, deep sleep, integrated insight. Rhythms of this kind belong to every human brain since the dawn of our species; science learned to measure them only in 1929, when Hans Berger recorded the first human EEG and named the alpha wave[1]. Who has not wished, in the middle of a scattered day, to shift at will into the state where everything flows and we feel good? Modern neuroscience has worked hard to understand why these rhythms shape experience so strongly — and it describes them as the coordinated firing of millions of neurons, the pulse on which attention and arousal ride[2].
In our discipline, the Mesmerismus® of Prof. Dr. Marco Paret, brainwave awareness is learned from the master as a practical art: recognizing your state, and shifting it — through the body, the gaze and the breath, before any words. It is an experiential reality.
One can go further. Fundamental is also the practice of fascination — that is, of the gaze: research on live face-to-face interaction shows that real eye contact can be accompanied by measurable coordination between the nervous systems of two people[7].
And here is the news that sometimes surprises those who arrive here after trying apps and audio tracks: the fastest lever for changing your brainwave state is your own body. Most of us live all day on one loud station — beta, the channel of daily chatter — having lost the hand that turns the dial. In our art, the dial is the body. You do not force a brainwave. You invite it — with the body.
Recognize Your Changing Brainwave States During the Day
You surf these levels already. In the morning meeting, sharp and quick on every reply: that is beta — as a rule, when you speak or reason logically, you are in beta. When you listen to music and relax, or on the walk home, when the eyes rest on the horizon and thoughts settle: alpha. In the shower, when an idea arrives whole, out of nowhere: the doorway of theta. At night, gone to the world while the body repairs itself: delta. And in the rare moments when everything connects — the problem, the answer, the feeling of seeing it all at once: gamma has been proposed as the signature of such integration[2]. What almost nobody knows is that these passages can be recognized as they happen, and then produced at will, both in yourself and in others. That is exactly the knowledge our School preserves and teaches. But what do the five levels actually do? Let us go through them.
Beta Waves for Active Focus and Everyday Engagement
Beta is the rhythm of the engaged mind. Frequency: roughly 13–30 cycles per second[2]. It carries conversation, planning, problem-solving, quick reaction: the state our fast-paced society rewards, and the state it rarely lets us leave. Beta is precious — and a mind locked in beta all day burns energy in a constant low hum of alert. The cost appears as tension, shallow breath, a busy tiredness at night. The art is having beta available, and being free to step out of it.
Alpha Waves for Calm Alertness and Receptive Attention
Alpha is the bridge state: awake, present, and at ease. Frequency: roughly 8–12 cycles per second — the rhythm Berger saw strengthen the moment his subjects simply closed their eyes[1]. Research links alpha to relaxed wakefulness and to the gating of attention: the brain turning down what does not matter so that what matters can enter[3]. Subjectively it is the state of the good listener, the calm speaker, the receptive learner. Alpha is the doorway to the deep mind — practitioners everywhere agree on this — and the old masters of our tradition knew how to open that door without a single word. In our practice it works like this: soft open gaze, low slow breath, weight settled — the body assembles the configuration, and the rhythm follows naturally. And if someone struggles to enter alpha, we can guide them with the gaze: the gaze reorganizes mental activity, as many studies show[6].
Theta Waves for Imagery, Memory and Absorbed Inner Experience
Theta is the rhythm of the inner world. Frequency: roughly 4–8 cycles per second. It accompanies absorbed states: hypnagogic imagery on the edge of sleep, deep trance — that is, the deepest state —, emotionally charged memory, the absorbed inner focus that meditation traditions cultivate[3]. This is the level where the deep states of hypnosis live — and here our tradition speaks from direct experience. Prof. Dr. Paret, in his seminar on fascination, says of the ancient non-verbal inductions:
«These techniques are even stronger than traditional instant hypnosis inductions, because they affect the serpentine brain and are characterized by theta and even delta waves.» — Prof. Dr. Marco Paret, seminar Hypnosis with Fascination[4]
Theta, in other words, is the floating threshold you cross every night without noticing — and our art learns to cross it on purpose, even with open eyes. At this depth the inner gatekeeper, the critic that screens every new idea, grows quiet, and a natural rebalancing can begin. Theta can be invited — and transmitted.
Delta Waves and the Restorative Rhythm of Deep Sleep
Delta is the slowest and largest rhythm. Frequency: below 4 cycles per second. It dominates deep, dreamless sleep, when the brain performs its housekeeping: consolidation, restoration, recovery[2]. A day with real alpha and theta moments earns a night with deeper delta: the levels support one another, and the person who learns to descend by day sleeps differently by night. It is possible to feel this change within days of practice.
Gamma Waves and Integrated Processing
Gamma is the fastest rhythm, above 30 cycles per second, and the most discussed: research associates it with the binding of perception into wholes and with moments of high integration — famously, unusually strong gamma was recorded in long-term meditators during compassion practice[5]. A curious element: the deepest states and the highest integration seem to call to each other. The old masters would not have been surprised.
Hypnosis and Brainwaves
Hypnosis appears as a reorganization of brain dynamics. A very recent high-density EEG investigation observed that hypnotic induction unfolds progressively: parieto-occipital alpha suppression, an increase in theta activity, and then enhanced frontoparietal theta connectivity[8]. In other words: the brain changes the way it coordinates attention and its large-scale networks — and it does so by degrees, like a descent. It is the same direction — toward alpha and theta, that is, toward the receptive and deep states — that our tradition has walked for two centuries with its non-verbal keys.
Use Brainwave Awareness in Mesmerismus® Practice
Why does a school of mesmerism teach brainwave levels? Because our art works exactly where the levels shift. Ancient hypnotists worked without words, and very quickly; as Prof. Dr. Paret notes, «it is impossible to fully describe in words a system that is basically non-verbal»[4] — the deep levels themselves are non-verbal, and they answer to non-verbal keys. In the hypnotic gaze and in fascination, the state of the operator passes into the other person: the receiver’s mind empties, absorbed, eyes open — and the shift toward alpha and theta can be watched in the softening of the face and the slowing of the breath. Our practitioners use this daily with their clients, to help them let go. In our trainings, participants learn to recognize the shift as it happens in the other person — the room goes quiet in a way you can almost hear. And this is why one learns live: the transmission from master to student passes through the gaze, and the gaze does not travel in books. Change stops being a fight against yourself: you stop trying harder and start tuning deeper, and the state does the heavy lifting — and what alone would take months of guessing matures in days of guided practice. There is a precise key, concerning where the gaze rests and how attention opens; that key is received directly, from person to person.
Choose the State Quality That Serves Your Next Step
With brainwave awareness trained, the impossible becomes possible in the situations that count. It is possible to arrive at a difficult conversation and set yourself to calm alpha in three breaths, instead of meeting beta with beta — that is, meeting tension with tension —. It is possible to court theta on purpose before creative work, and receive images instead of chasing them. It is possible to prepare delta at night by descending during the day. And there are the effects that astonish: a speaker who knows the levels can feel the moment an entire audience slides into alpha together — the texture of the silence changes — and those who have felt it never forget it. These belong to the range of what practitioners report, not to every day; that is precisely why they are worth training for.
Tonight, the first exercise: sit, shoulders loose, choose a point slightly below eye level. Steady, soft gaze on the point; let peripheral vision open until you see the point and the whole room together. Three slow breaths, feeling the weight of the body. One minute. The observable criterion arrives at once: at some moment you notice that for a few seconds there was no inner commentary — you notice it afterwards, and that is the right sign. You have just visited alpha on purpose. Or practice some of the exercises you see on our YouTube channel.
Scientific Context and the Living Practice of Mesmerismus®
The science of brainwaves is honest about its own limits: the bands are a map of rhythms, not a full explanation of experience, and the borders between them are conventions of measurement[2]. Tools like neurofeedback and audio entrainment are useful, and they reach halfway when not integrated with the body that produces the rhythms in the first place. This is where a living tradition adds what charts cannot: the Western lineage of mesmerism — from the wordless inductions of the old masters, through Donato, Erminio Di Pisa and Master Virgilio Torrizzano, to Prof. Dr. Paret, who was initiated in hypnotic fascination by Master Virgilio and reconnected these techniques «with the most recent discoveries about man and his potentials»[4] — has cultivated state-shifting for two centuries, person to person. This is our strength, and it is our manifesto: to work also on the non-verbal aspects and on the body — aspects often neglected, for which we continue a long tradition and a lineage — and at the same time to be connected to the most modern neurosciences, connecting distant points, committed to studying them ever more deeply. Practice: those who practice these states come to know them more intimately than those who only read the charts. You can read the history of mesmerism, see what non-verbal hypnosis is, and find the complete path on the trainings page. Those who practice these states come to know them more intimately than those who only read the charts.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I really change my brainwave state — my waves — at will?
Yes — indirectly, which is the secret. You do not command a frequency; you change the body‘s configuration (gaze, breath, weight, attention) and the rhythm follows. The one-minute exercise above lets you verify it tonight.
Are binaural beats and brainwave apps enough?
They are useful supports. Sound can nudge a rhythm; only the body sustains it — used alone, they stop at the doorstepound, breath, gaze, posture — the shift becomes yours, available anywhere, with no headphones.
Which brainwave state is the best?
None: each serves its moment — beta to act, alpha to receive, theta to imagine, delta to restore, gamma to integrate. Mastery is movement between them, chosen instead of suffered.
How fast can a deep state arrive?
Faster than most people believe: the non-verbal inductions of our tradition reach absorbed states in seconds in trained hands, precisely because they speak to the deep brain in its own wordless language. It is like swimming: there are many levels, from entering the pool to swimming well — and the first level is one minute away.
Brainwave awareness, in Mesmerismus®, is an art of self-knowledge, communication, well-being and personal growth, transmitted in its traditional form and in the modern reading of the School of Prof. Dr. Marco Paret; it is not a medical diagnostic tool.
Notes and References
[1] Berger, H. (1929). «Über das Elektrenkephalogramm des Menschen». Archiv für Psychiatrie und Nervenkrankheiten, 87, 527–570 — the first human EEG and the naming of the alpha rhythm.
[2] Buzsáki, G. (2006). Rhythms of the Brain. Oxford University Press — brain oscillations, their frequency bands and functions.
[3] Klimesch, W. (1999). «EEG alpha and theta oscillations reflect cognitive and memory performance». Brain Research Reviews, 29(2–3), 169–195; Cahn, B. R. & Polich, J. (2006). «Meditation states and traits: EEG, ERP, and neuroimaging studies». Psychological Bulletin, 132(2), 180–211.
[4] Paret, M., seminar Hypnosis with Fascination (video, YouTube channel of Dr. Paret) — non-verbal inductions, theta and delta; Paret, M., Hypnotic fascination writings — the non-verbal nature of deep states and the lineage of Master Virgilio.
[5] Lutz, A., Greischar, L. L., Rawlings, N. B., Ricard, M. & Davidson, R. J. (2004). «Long-term meditators self-induce high-amplitude gamma synchrony during mental practice». PNAS, 101(46), 16369–16373.
[6] Senju, A. & Johnson, M. H. (2009). «The eye contact effect: mechanisms and development». Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 13(3), 127–134; Hietanen, J. K. (2018). «Affective eye contact: an integrative review». Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 1587.
[7] Hirsch, J. et al. (2017). «Frontal, temporal and parietal systems synchronize within and across brains during live eye-to-eye contact». NeuroImage, 157, 314–330; Palumbo, R. V. et al. (2017). «Interpersonal autonomic physiology: a systematic review». Personality and Social Psychology Review, 21(2), 99–141.
[8] «Decoding hypnotic consciousness: neural and experiential insights into induced and ideomotor suggestions» (2026). Neuroscience of Consciousness, 2026(1), niag019 — high-density EEG: parieto-occipital alpha suppression, theta increase, frontoparietal theta connectivity during induction; Jensen, M. P., Adachi, T. & Hakimian, S. (2015). «Brain oscillations, hypnosis, and hypnotizability». American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 57(3), 230–253.
The scientific keys remain partial but useful readings. For the science of rapport: the secrets of rapport.
If your days feel locked in one gear, know that the gearbox exists, and it is in your body. Start from yourself: the one-minute point exercise is there tonight. The rest you will discover in training.
P.S. — Begin with the smallest gesture: one point, one minute, soft steady gaze, tonight. It is the same doorway through which every master of state, from the old mesmerists to Prof. Dr. Paret, first passed.
