Focus and Expand Stimulation Patterns
The concept of focus is that this type of stimulation tends to draw people's attention down the middle of their visual and auditory fields, while they watch "pillows" of intense colors blanket the visual field and listen to pulsed sounds run up their center of the auditory field.

Expand stimulation tends to draw people's attention toward the periphery of their visual and auditory fields, while they watch a multitude of lines and geometric patterns while hearing far left and right pulsed tones.

The ability to select focus and expand stimulation as part of a session, is absolutely critical. Persons who appear somewhat "grounded" despite their level of anxiety, prefer to use focus stimulation (Figure 1). When subjected to expand stimulation, they complain that it is too "busy", making them feel nauseous and anxious.

Those who are rather "hyper" tend to prefer expand as the stimulation pattern (Figure 2). They complain that focus stimulation is rather boring and that they remain fully alert during the session, which left them to wonder if there was any benefit from using audio-visual entrainment (AVE).

Figure 1

Figure 2

The choice of focus or expand depends, in part, of how it produces disassociation in the user. Under stimulation won't dissociate the user, whereas over-dissociating the user can make him/her quickly uncomfortable.

Dissociation, like most methods of meditation, is an intended mind state when mental chatter and noise in the mind is "quiet." It is in this place of quiet that negative associations, conditioned responses and negative beliefs and attitudes in general are also silenced for a period of time. This temporary freedom from thoughts helps to bring about a return of somatic (body) activity of natural homeostasis, similar to that of an accomplished meditator. I call this body/mind state, dissociation and restabilization or DAR.

DAR can be produced by hypnotic induction, meditation or with audio-visual entrainment (AVE). The events that lead to DAR (in order) are:

1. Entrainment evoked confusion and disassociation.
2. A complete quieting of all skeletal muscles, smooth muscles (arteries dilate and hands become warmer), thoughts, feelings, bracing habits and conditioned responses.
3. Conscious and subconscious associations to the new body/mind state are formed.
4. Restabilization in a homeostatic body/mind state.

As the stimulation complexity increases, so does its dissociative ability. The order of increased stimulation, producing increased dissociation, is listed below;

1. Focus stimulation (with Tru-Vu or Harmonic Omniscreen^TM eyesets)
2. Expand stimulation (with the Tru-Vu Omniscreen^TM Eyesets)
3. Hemi-step stimulation (with the Tru-Vu Omniscreen^TM Eyesets)
4. Expand stimulation (with the Harmonic Omniscreen^TM eyeset)
5. Hemi-step stimulation (with the Harmonic Omniscreen^TM eyeset)

Focus, Expand and Hemi-step stimulation from the Tru-Vu Omniscreen^TM are preferred by most people. Expand and Hemi-step stimulation from the Harmonic Omniscreen^TM is too intense and dissociating for most people, although there are those who really like and must have this stimulation to receive any benefit from the audio-visual entrainment (AVE) experience.

Our book "The Rediscovery of Audio-Visual Entrainment Technology" has more information on stimulation, dissociation and restabilization.