The theory behind binaural beats is entrainment. Entrainment is basically getting your brain to resonate at a certain frequency.

One of the goals of entrainment is to get both hemispheres of the brain working cooperatively together. If this is happening, it follows that your creative right hemisphere is producing vivid imagery, and your analytical left hemisphere is helping you process and remember it.

I have used binaural beats of 7.83 hertz for quite some time and changes in the brain have been positive. The brain processes information faster and seems more alert. But you must take into account that just as each person is different, every brain is different and the effects they produce the binaural beats on me, in you may be different.

I have also listened to some of Kelly Howell's recordings. I too experienced vivid dreams. I think the brainwave meditations help to clear up unresolved energy, which is why familiar people and places occur in our dreams.