What are brainwaves? Although many resources can be found on the subject of "what are brainwaves", from my own personal experience I find that many of them can be rather confusing to a person who is just learning.

So, if I may, please allow me to describe the topic to you in a matter which serves to make this topic a bit easier to understand moving forward.

Also, below this simple parallel of terms more advanced users may enjoy the more technical definition of what a brainwave "is" and what it is "not".

Would you agree that most people know what the "basic" parts of an automobile are?

The human body can be considered the entire vehicle, with moving parts, operative onboard computer systems, air intake, fuel tank, navigation, transmission, and an audio system.

So, let's just assume we're a Ford Mustang... We've got all of this horsepower at the wheels and we need to put ourselves into gear to get where we are going.

The onboard computer system can be matched in parallel with that of the human brain, as it regulates combustible fuels from the gas tank (stomach), air flow from the intake (lungs), and ensures that oil levels (blood) and other coolants (water) are all functioning in the proper order so that the engine (heart) can appropriately direct this vehicle's energy (human body) into the direction it needs to go at the appropriate speed.

The car can idle by itself for days, but what mechanism controls the velocity at which the onboard computer and engine interact with the wheels? The transmission.

Brainwaves can be closely linked to a vehicle's transmission, and I will show you how.
(Described using a common AUTOMATIC layout, excluding gamma and hypergamma)

This is just a rough example showing that how a car operates can also apply to the topic of brainwaves and human functioning and is in no way meant to be scientific, however I think this closely represents the topic of brainwaves in a very simplistic approach.

As many individuals do not properly control these states and move throughout them daily in an automatic fashion, the above chart is linked to automatic transmission operation.

Briefly speaking, your brainwave states occur in response to particular environmental stimulus and your waking (or sleeping) moods. They are caused by continuous bursts of electrical currents which occur within the brain and are called brainwaves due to their "wavelike" appearance.

Brainwave states can also attribute to your mood, relaxation, sleep patterns, concentration, creativity, and motivation.

Brainwaves are a very important natural part of all daily activities.

For those of us who would rather use "manual" drive, brainwave entrainment and psychoacoustics are a great alternative. Experienced meditators , namely tibetan monks, can control their brainwave states instantaneously.

For the rest of us who lack the time required to spend years in practice, entrainment becomes a priceless tool.

A More Scientific Explanation

For various reasons of diagnosis or research, doctors or lab technicians have for some years used a device called an “Electroencephalograph”, which measures electrical voltages in the brain and graphs them on a long sheet of paper. (Electro=”electric,” encephalo=”brain,” graph=”mark on paper”)

The resulting marks on the long sheet of paper are called an “electroencephalogram,” which is therefore a fancy name for “a piece of paper with marks on it from measuring electrical voltages in the brain.”

These graphed marks look like waves, and they represent electrical signals from a large number of the neurons inside the brain. So the common way people describe these signals is “brainwaves.”

Quantum physics has determined that wave patterns are the essential building blocks of the brain's electrochemical neurotransmitters. It is at the synapse that quantum wave patterns are transformed into neurotransmitters.

Through this neuronal synaptic firing the translated wave frequencies are made coherent.

These coherent frequencies are then transferred from dendrite to dendrite to the appropriate areas of the brain. Tinfoil hats are not necessary since the electricity in your brain follows pathways called "dendrites".

Electricity doesn't leak out of your head for the same reason that it doesn't leak out of the electrical outlets in your home - its own rules say that it has to stay on the pathways.

In your home, it's the wiring. In your brain, it's the dendrites.

However, biomagnetic patterns resulting from your brainwave states and other physiological functions DO exist outside of your body. Quantumbiologists, as well as traditional esoteric theorists, call this the "aura". Enhance your brainwaves and mood and you also affect the aura.

At any moment, your inner reality - including whether you are happy or sad, tense or calm, scattered or focused, alert or sleepy — may be either creating a particular type of brainwave, or your mood may be the result of the current brainwaves operating inside your head.

Other Resources:

http://www.doctorhugo.org/brainwaves/brainwaves.html