One can use binaural beats to encourage OOBE, remote viewing, or healing ability. You can purchase Hemi-synch, a professional mix of binaural beats and other sounds (Google "The Monroe Institute") or you can make your own binaural beat audio file for free. Which is better? Only you can answer that with experimentation -- everyone is different. Both have the ability to help you learn to be a good meditator. Many individuals find binaural beats helpful, some don't. Google "binaural beat" and find a site that lets you make your own customized audio file for free. The binaural beat frequency is the difference between two base frequencies. A pure tone generated at the base frequency goes in one ear and the base frequency plus the desired beat frequency goes in the other ear (using stereo headphones). The two tones combine in the brain producing a "beat" frequency that is the difference between the two pure tones. This beat frequency (which you can "hear") drives your brain wave pattern toward the beat frequency, thus inducing an altered state of consciousness similar to a very effective and practiced meditation state. If you already know how to meditate you won't need to ramp in and out. Make several binaural beat stereo audio files using different base frequencies and use each for a month to pick the one you like best. Some suggestions: 100 Hz and 104 Hz; 500Hz and 504Hz; 2000Hz and 2004; 5000Hz and 5004Hz These different base frequencies will all produce a 4 Hz binaural beat. Males tend to like the lower frequencies and females the higher. You can try a slightly slower beat (difference between frequencies) of 3.75 or 3.8 instead of 4 later on if you get to that level of refinement. Experiment. Continue to experiment always, but don’t jump between things too quickly. Take the long view …….take your time …… don’t rush the process. Many people, especially in the beginning, want to ease themselves into and out of the 4Hz theta brainwave state. This softening and slowing the transition to and from the desired theta state of 4 Hz (to make it easier to follow) is called ramping. The ramp going in from beta to theta should be slow and gradual enough for you to follow. The ramp coming out from theta back to beta can be much quicker and steeper. On and off ramps are individual. A typical relaxed, focused in the physical, awake state is in the beta region (20 to 15 Hz) A typical meditation state is in the alpha-theta region (somewhere between 14 to 7 Hz). To encourage OOBE or remote viewing, or healing ability, you want to be in the theta region at about 4 Hz or slightly less (3.75 Hz to 3.8Hz). If you are a good meditator you don’t need ramps at all. If you are fair, start in the alpha region and step down in 1 Hz steps from 10Hz to 4Hz to theta. Each step should last anywhere from 30 sec to 3 minutes depending on how quickly you can follow (better meditators follow more quickly). If you are poor at meditation, start in the mid beta region and step down in 1 Hz steps from beta at 20Hz to theta at 4Hz. Each step should last anywhere from 30 sec to 3 minutes depending on how quickly you can follow. Lower your starting beat frequency as you get better at it. Once you are in the 4 Hz theta state that is your goal, stay there for a half hour to two hours -- that's enough. You are in this physical reality for a reason. Do not use this as an escape. It is a tool, as is meditation itself, for teaching you to eliminate the noise in your mind thus allowing you to more powerfully, clearly and steadily focus your conscious intent. You want to learn the process of coming and going to and from this 4 Hz state so that eventually you can do it on your own. Sometimes try it on your own without the binaural beats. So you see, you have to do some experimenting to optimize your sound to your ability and then modify the sound as your ability changes. One size does not fit all. Trying to sort all this out in a week or two won't work so well. Pick 3 to 5 different configurations that span your personal unknowns. If you are a good meditator, use each one for a few days cycling through all configurations three or four times each. If a fair mediator, use each configuration for a week or two, cycling through all configurations at least three or four times each. If you’re a poor meditator, use each configuration for at least three weeks, cycling through all configurations four or five times each. Dispense with a given configuration when it is clearly inferior to the others (but not too quickly). Every three to six months add new more refined configurations that are converging to your optimum. In several weeks to a year, depending on where you start and how quickly you progress, you should find an optimum sound. Use it for six months to a year or two, by then it will be time to change it because you will have changed. Commit to a life of constant experimentation because, as you progress, what is optimum changes. Binaural beats are like training wheels on a five year old's bicycle -- eventually you must wean yourself from the training wheels and take them off or they will retard your development by locking you into specific altered states when you should be free to shift states as easily as you shift your attention. Eventually, you will even let go of formal meditation because you no longer will have a need for the process. You will be able to accomplish the same thing (actually better, being unencumbered) instantaneously. Do not become habituated or addicted to this tool or any tool -- or the tool that was once so helpful may turn into a self-limiting crutch. Tom C