If you were to see an electro-encephalographic printout of your brainwave emissions you would most likely see that prominent amongst them would be the wavelength called Beta in the chart to the right, the fastest wavelength registered by our brain. These waves typically oscillate at between 14 and 24 cycles per second (cps) also know as herz. (Yes, the same herz that you see on your radio dial, but radio waves are measured in thousands or even millions of herz).

These brainwaves are mostly associated with the left hemisphere of the brain and have to do with outwardly directed activity, going about our daily activities, such as working, playing and earning a living. They have to do with the rational part of the brain, otherwise called deductive reasoning: "If this is so then it follows that that must also be so". It is where the logical approach to any problem is handled. It is particularly dominant amongst those of us brought up in the Western cultural tradition, relying almost entirely on this part of our brain activity and largely ignoring the other brainwave states. It is the critic or editor in us, deciding what items of incoming information fit our reality and what we have to reject as being useless, absurd, impossible or unbelievable. People in whom this faculty is particularly highly developed are sometimes called cynics. The peculiarity of the Beta state is that it has little or no memory.

For memory, at least to recall data, we have to get down to the next fastest state, Alpha. Here the brainwaves are oscillating at between 8 and 14 cycles per second. This state can be called "The Bridge to the Subconscious" and was, until not long ago, commonly thought to be the be-all and end-all of meditation. In fact, we can get into Alpha very easily, just by relaxing, closing our eyes and breathing deeply and consciously. We can also get into it by day-dreaming or watching TV, though if there is a gripping drama on the TV we will probably be in a high state of Beta rather than Alpha. However, if you have ever turned the set on at 7pm and found yourself gazing at it at midnight and wondering what on earth you have been watching all evening, you were most likely in Alpha (unless you actually nodded off, in which case you were probably in a still deeper state). So Alpha occurs in a lightly meditative, relaxed state, light trance or light hypnosis.

Below Alpha come the Theta waves. These oscillate at around 4 - 7 herz and this is the true subconscious. Theta waves are experienced by all of us in our sleep-with-dreams state. This is also called REM for (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep. You can tell if a sleeping person is dreaming by the slight but rapid movement of their eyelashes.

Some very experienced meditators can also get into Theta at will, but for the rest of us there is a problem. Notice that the waveband for Beta is about 10 herz wide, for Alpha about 7 herz and for Theta only 3. So, if we try to go deeper into meditation than Alpha, we can easily slip straight through into Delta and go off to sleep.

And that, of course, is the fourth brainwave state, Delta, oscillating at between 0.5 and 3 herz. Delta is the Unconscious and is experienced in dreamless sleep.

However, we haven't finished with Theta yet, because Theta is the source of our creativity. Inspiration happens here and getting into contact with our intuition. Shamanic consciousness is hereabouts, our ability to create miracles at will and Theta is also present when we have "peak" experiences, those experiences that go far beyond the ordinary, what might be once-in-a-lifetime happenings - unless that is, we were to find out how to create them whenever we wanted.

However, for the time being, let us go back to Beta. We said that the Beta brainwaves are between 14 and 24 herz. That is, they should be, in a normally functioning individual. But the way our society operates today is to try to keep us in a state called High Beta, where the brain oscillates at up to 40 herz. There is one very common term for how we feel when our brains are at this frequency and that is S-T-R-E-S-S. We could also call it anxiety, worry, panic, hyperactivity, frantic and any number of other terms with which most of us today will be only too familiar. We tend to BUY things when we are in High Beta, in fact all advertising is designed to get us into this state: "If you don't drive the right car you won't be sexually attractive, if you don't use this deoderant you won't be socially acceptable, if you don't put your funds into this bank you may lose money etc". Most business managers think that by getting their employees into this state they will produce optimum results. Which would seem pretty obvious, wouldn't it? Make your people believe that their jobs are at risk if they don't perform and they will work harder and more efficiently, won't they?

Well, actually no!

Why not?

Have a look at the chart below, which shows the state of play at this stage. Notice that the line between Alpha and Beta has a gap in it. This gap corresponds to the synapses in the brain, connecting the left and right hemispheres. Most of the activity in Alpha and below goes on in the right-hand hemisphere of the brain. In order for the logical, Beta part of the brain to work it has to call on the store-house of data in the Alpha brain. If we are operating in the normal Beta brainwave state we are not too far from the oscillations of the Alpha state and the crossover is made relatively effectively. Consciously or unconsciously, the Beta brain sends a message to the Alpha brain: "Send me all the data I need to know in order to solve this problem, carry out this activity or do this job efficiently etc".

The Alpha brain scans all the available information and produces the files necessary for the Beta brain to do its job properly.

The more relaxed the Beta brain is, the easier and more effective the contact and the more comprehensive the information produced will be. That means the more efficient and productive you will be.

Here is an exercise to show you from your own experience how this works. Go back to a time when you were late for an appointment. You were rushing hither and yon, gathering all the things that you needed for your date. Then you noticed that a document or your keys were missing. You panicked and the more you panicked the less able you were to find the missing item. Most of us have had such an experience, some of us on a regular basis. If this happens to you, next time you are running late and are panicking at the mislaying of a crucial item, try this.

Sit down.

Stop looking for it. Stop even wanting to find it.

Relax, the world is not going to come to an end just because you cannot find that document.

Put your attention on something entirely different, let go completely of wanting to find that item. As you relax, send a message to your Alpha mind: "I know where I have put that item. Show me where it is". Everything, every single thing that has ever happened to you is stored somewhere in your subconscious mind. That part of your mind knows where your missing document is, you just have to allow the memory to come through. There is no use trying to force or coerce it, that just puts you further up into High Beta, which is where of course you were when you were panicking. As you relax and calm yourself, notice that you may be attracted to a certain pile of papers or an ornament or a place in your home. Allow yourself to go to that place and eventually, (with practise and trust, sooner rather than later) your subconscious mind will guide you to where the missing object is. This is an example of effective correspondence between the Beta and Alpha parts of your mind.

If you go to an ashram in India and ask the guru a question to help in solving a problem that you have, the guru will almost certainly not answer the question for you. Instead, he will tell you to go into meditation. If, a week later, you go back and say that you still have not found the solution to the problem, the guru will simply tell you to go deeper into meditation. In other words get down into Theta, that vast storehouse of experiences accumulated over our whole life-time - or maybe many life-times that is available to you if only you knew how to tap into it. The truth is, the answer to almost everything lies down there deep within us.

If you meet a siddi, or advanced meditator, you will probably notice a certain serenity, a deep tranquility and imperturbability in this person. It may have taken him 20 or 30 years to acquire, but having acquired it he is almost completely impervious to the traumas that afflict most of us less evolved beings, he will have an enviable stillness.

The problem is, most of us do not have 20 - 30 years to practise meditation - especially if we have been told that we can only meditate for a maximum of 20 minutes at a time.

Herein lies the secret of "The Journey to the Magician". We have found a very sophisticated, subtle and effective method of getting down to Theta and enabling us to be in that state for a large part of the weekend. Remarkable changes take place in our body chemistry when we do that.

If you decide to join us on The Journey to the Magician", life will never be quite the same again for you. Your ability to take charge of your life, to have things happen the way you want them to, will be enhanced beyond all recognition. Relationships blossom, illnesses disappear, wealth is created, in fact abundance in all things becomes what we can expect rather than just hope for. We experience the actuality of states that were previously just concepts read about in esoteric literature or heard from the lips of mystics. States such as bliss, unconditional love and limitlessness become our companions. Connection with our Higher Selves, if that means anything to you, becomes a reality we can personally experience.