Sound As the New Illegal Narcotic?

ehrichweiss writes "The Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics is warning parents and teachers of a new threat to our children: sounds. Apparently kids are now discovering binaural beats and using them to get 'physiological effects.' The report goes on with everyone suggesting that such aural experiences will act as a gateway to drug usage and even has one student claiming there are 'demons' involved. Anyone who has used one of those light/sound machines knows all about the effects that these sounds will give and to state that they will lead kids to do drugs is nonsense at best. It seems the trend in scaring the citizens with a made-up problem has gone to the next level."

Seriously?

[dmgxmichael]

... Whiskey Tango Foxtrot to the max ...

Further Down the Rabbit Hole

[eldavojohn]

Up until high school, I spent my entire life locked into an ideal Norman Rockwell painting. No cares, no worries and just high on life. Things took a turn for the worse one day when I picked up an 288 tuning fork and a 320 tuning fork. I struck them both against my leg and held one up near either ear.

It was pure bliss. Like Jesus was just 32 hertz away from me. I wish I could describe the feeling. Like half of all the blades of grass in the universe were hummingbirds and the other half were bumble bees.

Let's see--I was a freshman at that time. Yeah, things just went downhill from there. I had earrings made with a tuning fork hanging from each one. The left side was A440 and the right side was a custom 444. I could raise my fingers to either lobe and flick it for instant gratification. The other kids called it ear basing. I called it god. And he was just nineteen dollars and eighty cents on Amazon [amazon.com]. By my sophomore year I was already pretty hard into Fourier transforms. Everyone's tympanic membrane had a bifurcation sweet spot that could be exploited with the right theoretical frequencies. Yeah, we would rent middle of nowhere motel rooms to smelt hematite down into custom tuning forks and poor them into clay molds in the bathtub. We paid in cash and by the time the cleaning made hit the room it was slag burns in the carpet and clay all over the place. You probably remember the 20/20 investigations following all the reports.

Shit got real heavy real quick and one day we found Scrye (nickname for the metallurgist) hemorrhaging blood out of his ears in a coma from strapping two subwoofers to either side of his head with duct tape. I knew I had to get out, but how?

We gathered up all our text books on math, audio & music theory, physics, chemistry, electronics and metalworking and burned them in the parking lot of the hospital we brought Scrye to. I would never read about science again.

Parents, heed the images of those children getting 'innocent' highs from sounds and make sure they don't make the same mistake I did. This is just a gateway to bigger and badder things. If you find literature on Fourier Analysis, Electronics or Calculus in your child's bedroom, please get your child to Oklahoma and get them help from the nearest minister. I don't care if you have to lock them up in the basement against their will. Just make sure you save them from the same fate as I ... COMPLETE EAR DESTRUCTION!

OMG Stereo!

[rrohbeck]

Kids these days getting high on new beats! The sky is falling!
Back in my day it was only Techno and we walked to school, uphill both ways. Now get off my lawn.

Band?

[dtmos]

As this beating phenomenon is used by musicians the world over to tune their instruments, I now predict a great increase in high school band participation.

Confession of a Pusher

[Beardydog]

My friend and I used to sit on opposite sides of another friend and sing a falsetto "oooooo" at slightly different frequencies. Her annoyance was entertaining at the time, but now I can't help but worry what kind of life we got her into. She's probably dead in a gutter somewhere, in a pair of studio headphones.

mandatory ROYKSOPP

[pigwiggle]

"Hello?"
"Yeah it's me ... I wanna give you some good frequencies .. 1710, 2.6, 2245...'
"Yeah?"
"... 3032, 400 .. "
"Four hundred?"
"Yeah."
"I'm coming right over!"
"Do that."

Re:Obligatory

[Anonymous Coward]

Be honest. I've been to band camp, and those weren't flutes you and Suzy were blowing.

Re:Cooll Edit anyone?

[AndrewNeo]

ambien..t music, right?

Paul is Dead

[stubob]

Yes, but what happens if you listen to it backwards?

Poor Dan Rather!

[boristdog]

Those dudes that attacked Dan Rather must've just thought he was a dealer!

But now we KNOW the frequency, Kenneth!

Re:Seriously?

[bunratty]

Everyone knows dihydrogen monoxide is the real gateway drug. It's a proven fact that all drug addicts consumed significant quantities of the substance before turning to the harder stuff!

Beware!

[Dragoniz3r]

I once bought some level_upper off a buddy, and I thought it was the real deal, but as soon as I took the first hit I knew it was laced with Lady Gaga. Now I'm hooked on pop music :( Just be careful where you buy your sound from guys.

Re:Intro to Binaural Beats

[pushing-robot]

After experiencing a few, I can say that I've started to get a sense of euphoria after I listen to them. More to the point, I'm just really glad the damn noise stopped.

Re:Seriously?

[blai]

Listen,

NO! I had been warned!

Re:Seriously?

[rubycodez]

it is indeed the worst from dependency standpoint, those who do quit imbibing it have 100% mortality rate!

Next on the TV news hitlist...

[AC-x]

FRACTALS, are your children being exposed to visual ACID [google.co.uk]?

Re:Further Down the Rabbit Hole - A mistake

[frank_adrian314159]

... tuning a guitar is pretty neat to me too.

Now if we could only get more guitarists to do it...

Who knows where this could lead?

[Linux_ho]

Maybe even to the dark side of the moon.

Re:Seriously?

[Mister Whirly]

Get with the times man! Now days it is eating some Ecstasy tablets and listening to MGMT on your Bluetooth headphones.

Re:Further Down the Rabbit Hole

[QRDeNameland]

Things took a turn for the worse one day when I picked up an 288 tuning fork and a 320 tuning fork. I struck them both against my leg and held one up near either ear. It was pure bliss. Like Jesus was just 32 hertz away from me.

That's only the beginning. I tried it with a 398 tuning fork and a 440 tuning fork and discovered the Ultimate Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything.

Re:Seriously?

[wgoodman]

I used to drink pure dihydrogen oxide, but now I've cut it down to only 60% pure, mixed with 40% alcohol to dilute it.

Re:Seriously?

[Z80xxc!]

Everyone knows dihydrogen monoxide is the real gateway drug. It's a proven fact that all drug addicts consumed significant quantities of the substance before turning to the harder stuff!

Really? It's hard to find anything harder than the dihydrogen monoxide from around here...

Re:Seriously?

[csrjjsmp]

Those who don't quit also have a 100% mortailty rate. You really can't win when it comes to drugs.

Re:Next on the TV news hitlist...

[SpeedBump0619]

I don't think that's what "tab based browsing" really means...

Re:Seriously?

[Mister Whirly]

"Kids"

I think I've experienced this

[bigsexyjoe]

I played the above youtube video and found myself laughing hysterically. Is that the same effect?

Re:Seriously?

[grrrl]

My soon-to-be wife can't get started in the morning without caffeine; she has a dependency on it. That being said, if we suddenly found ourselves low on money, she isn't going to sell our DVD player just so she can go to Starbucks.

I would! mmmm coffeee