Hi Abbey, please be prepared for a somewhat long reply (though it is good news)
Referring to your question:-
“Due to binaural waves requiring both ears, I assume, and possibly wrongly so, that I may not be able to achieve the same benefits from those as someone who had full hearing in both ears would.”
Is it possible for you to be a little more specific about your condition? When you say in one ear you are clinically deaf do you know the exact levels of hearing acuity in that ear?
If your condition affects your hearing at high Hz frequencies and not low ones then stimulation via binaural waves will not be affected by your condition. LifeFlow 10 has 10Hz as it's target entrainment frequency. Certain elements of the soundscape that masks the entrainment waves may not sound as pristine to you as to others but the binaural entrainment waves themselves would get through just fine.
In answer to your statement “I tend to hear things other people don't and feel some sound as vibrations through the body as a result of the hearing.”
If your hearing problem is related to low Hz frequencies and/or if it pertains to decibel volume then very likely the binaurals will not produce much effect for you, so for entrainment purposes it would be better for you to listen over open speakers allowing the waves to interact with your whole body.
However, if a track is pleasing and relaxing for you to listen to independent of its entrainment effects, listening over headphones may still be a very pleasant experience; as much so as listening to any other quiet music or recording of nature sounds, and if that's the case then by all means enjoy the experience.
Monaural and isochronic tones share the big advantage in that they can both be listened to over open speakers, i.e., without the need of using headphones. This is a real bonus for people like yourself or others who don't want to be tied down by a pair of headphones with a cord. An extra benefit to using entrainment waves over open speakers is the fact that, as you have already experienced, we "listen" with our entire body, not just our ears.
Those of us with normal hearing may not be as aware of the effect that sound vibrations in the air have on our bodies as a whole, because we focus our attention almost exclusively on those vibrations as they are received through the normal auditory mechanism, but if we tune that out we will often find that we continue to experience the sense of "sound" through our body as a whole.
Taking this a step further, entrainment waves restricted to a set of headphones, such as isolated binaural waves, will impact only our ordinary auditory senses.
Monaural and isochronics, played out in the open air, however, have the capacity to impact and influence the entire body.
Monaural and isochronic waves produce more pronounced brainwave entrainment than binaural beats.
Of the two, the most current research suggests that isochronic waves have the greatest entrainment effect.
I recommend that you experiment and vary how you listen to the LifeFlow program – that is some times with stereo headphones and sometimes simply from open speakers.
LifeFlow tracks contain much more than binaural waves Abbey and I believe you can experience the benefits of entrainment in a way you cannot get by using any other commercial tracks of which I am aware.
A very close friend of my family has a condition similar to yours and after using various entrainment tracks over a number of years, and then using LifeFlow he stated “LifeFlow tracks vs. a track with only binaural waves is the equivalent of giving a blind person a book in Braille rather than a standard printed book.”
I would use the LifeFlow series the same as anyone. Both with and without headphones. That way you will find out which you prefer or you may realize that both ways are beneficial to you. It may be that binaural beats are still effective for you – however if they are not as beneficial, Isochronic and Monaural waves will still be extremely beneficial to you.
Look forward to hearing how you progress.
Michael
