The premise stacks three uncertain things on top of each other, and the honest answer has to take them apart. Entrainment audio, the family of sounds that includes binaural beats, isochronic tones, and frequency-tuned soundscapes, is sold on the idea that listening nudges the brain into matching a target rhythm. That nudge is more contested than the marketing suggests.
Reviews of binaural beats describe the picture as mixed and often inconclusive. Some studies report modest gains on a memory or attention task, others report nothing, and a few report the opposite of what was predicted, with effects appearing to depend on the frequency tested and the task used. A further problem runs underneath the results: only a minority of trials measured brain activity at all while the sound was playing, so the claim that the audio actually entrains neural oscillations rests on thin direct evidence. The honest summary is that the basic effect is real for some people on some tasks and absent for many others.
Layered onto that is a second, larger gap. The question asks whether adding this audio improves Reiki or hypnosis specifically. There is no body of research that tests that combination for focus and memory. Practitioners may play ambient or rhythmic sound during a session, and clients often report that it helps them settle, but a reported sense of settling is not the same as a measured cognitive gain, and no controlled comparison has shown that the audio adds anything on top of the session itself.
A few things are worth holding separately.
What can reasonably be said:
- quiet, steady sound can help some people relax and tune out distraction
- relaxation and reduced anxiety can let a person perform closer to their real attention span
- none of that requires a special frequency to be doing the work
What has not been shown:
- that entrainment audio reliably improves memory or sustained focus
- that pairing it with Reiki or hypnosis adds a measurable cognitive benefit
- that any particular Hz value produces a specific mental result
For someone whose attention scatters during a session, audio that feels calming may be worth trying, with expectations kept low and the benefit understood as comfort rather than a tuned brain. The claim to be skeptical of is the precise one: that a chosen frequency, delivered through headphones, sharpens memory or deepens trance in a way the evidence can back.