binaural beats / i-doser

[Brian the Automator]

This is something I've been looking at for the past half a day.

 

I have to say, I hesitate to even post this thread, because it could easily become a can of worms. Music obviously can affect your mood, but these ambient sounds take things a bit further. There are sounds that are as innocuous as helping you relax and energize. Conversely, there are sounds designed to simulate the effects of the illegal of most illegal drugs (cocaine, heroin).

 

I'm not really much of a "new age" person, but I'm extremely open-minded as I think there's a lot of uncharted waters around the mind. Was a bit skeptical of this, but then I tried "French Roast" (which is supposed to simulate the effects of caffeine) and 5-HTP, a "naturally-occurring amino acid, a pre-cursor to serotonin". To my astonishment, the effects were as sort of as advertised (although, certainly muted, to some extent). After "French Roast", I was awake after having my normal afternoon lull (lunch coma). Last night, I listened to 5-HTP, and my mood improved drastically. Now, there's certainly the idea that since I wanted it to work, I got a placebo effect.

 

If this is something you're interested in, you NEED to use headphones (the over-the-ear noise-cancelling variety, if you can), and you need to make sure you're "ready" for it to work (much as you would if you were meditating). Most of the "doses" take 25 minutes or so to listen to (so, you certainly need to be patient), and I noticed that the 5-HTP affect lasted about an hour after the "dose" ended.

 

This is something that's perfectly legal, and the idea isn't new at all. I used to do something similar with a pre-recorded mp3 for a 20 minute "power nap" that really did keep me going, in a much safer way than getting jittery on caffeine did. I think it's really interesting, although we're started to the realm of "digital drugs", and it's just a weird concept to deal with.

 

Scary, cool, or snake oil?

[bullox]

Looks interesting. I'll check it out.

[TheCrew07]

My mother has been into natural herbal treatments for years, so I have no problem with this. When I was in highschool my father always played natural sound CDs at bed time, many nights I feel asleep to the sound of waves rolling up on a beach (it was my favorite in the series), the CDs were part of a relaxation technique I learned. I got to the point where I didn't need the sound and could just relax the various muscle groups by thinking about them being warm and relaxed. It's a very handy technique for times when I need to go to bed but I'm not tired at all as I'm a nightowl, always have been. I've been using the same technique for 17 years now.. It's definately an eye opening experience to realize the power of the mind...

[mothershipconnection]

I'm gonna guess snake oil. Now, it's quite possible that someone who has experienced these things essentially re-creates them covertly and the partial stimulation elicits something similar to the original response. Think of the greatest experience in your life and the partial stimulation may evoke the by-product we'd call happiness. Our understanding of the brain is just nowhere near close to being able to so easily manipulate complex sensations, let alone those of very specific drugs. I mean, we can't even create the brown noise, and the bowels are much simpler than the brain while pooping is much simpler than the complex neural activity involved in the reaction to peyote.