Sound As the New Illegal Narcotic? 561
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."
They are a real thing that do kinda work (Score:3, Informative)
that said, the idea that they could work as a gateway to drugs isn't TECHNICALLY without merit. Trying these could lead to wanting to see what the real drug they're supposed to be emulating is like. But you're just as, if not more, likely to want to try drugs after watching Dazed and Confused than listening to binaural
Intro to Binaural Beats (Score:5, Informative)
I made this video a while back - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weOpxELqn-c [youtube.com] - I've done a lot of research on binaural beats. They are used to calm the mind and promote a lower brain operating frequency that is akin to relaxation or meditation. Some people say it's a placebo effect, others use it to promote a state of calm in their minds as they try to rid themselves of the daily thought process (many, many thoughts coming in and out of your head very quickly, which is associated with high brain frequencies). Trying to demonize BBs would be like trying to demonize meditation...which I'm sure isn't too far off.
I guess the fear surrounding what people don't understand will never go away. I suggest a split in civilization - let the smarties burrow deep into the soil and the dummies can fry up at the surface.
Sorry for the strange comment, I'm high on binaural beats. :p
That reminds me... (Score:1, Informative)
... of one of the first Pokemón episodes, aired in Japan, 1997, which sent over six hundred viewers to the hospital because of the lights and color combinations -- Pokemón Shock.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denn%C5%8D_Senshi_Porygon
Who needs the Internets to get High? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Further Down the Rabbit Hole - A mistake (Score:3, Informative)
There is one slight error in your very good writeup on how binaural beats works. What you described, playing two notes on two different sound producers (in this case tuning forks), causes an actual, physical, "beat". The sound waves interfere or combine with one another in physical space, and a new sound wave (or a composite of the two, same difference) is created and propogated through air, the medium of sound.
The binaural beats mentioned here work a little differently, in that a recording is played, and it must be listened through headphones. One ear hears a certain pitch or frequency, the other ear hears a different pitch or frequency. The difference here is that neither ear "hears" a beat, the beat is created entirely in the brain of the listener. I am not a neurobiologist so I cannot explain the exact mechanism, but it appears it has something to do with how the brain processes sound and attempts to internally combine the two different sounds into a single perception/experience for the consciousness.
I checked out some binaural beat programs once. Basicly just sine wave (or fancier) generators that let you pick the frequency for the left output and right output. If I listed on one ear only using headphones, I hear a single frequency. If I listen to both ears, I hear the two frequencies, AND I perceive a beat in addition to that, that only exists in my brain. Its at the very least neat. At the very most I didn't notice any particular effects on myself, and didn't get addicted or anything to it.
The claim or assumption of the binaural beats people is that the low frequency beats can be used to simulate in the brain the delta waves or alpha waves or whatever waves are associated with deep sleep, or relaxation, or whatever. Again I am not a neurobiologist, so I can't say if this does anything.
Playing two tuning forks together or tuning a guitar is pretty neat to me too.
Re:Seriously? (Score:5, Informative)
Source? I could name 14 people off the top of my head who I know personally that are currently drug users...and every single one of them have a full time job, a family, and would be considered to be financially and maternally/paternally successful.
Re:No Mistake (Score:5, Informative)
A binaural beat is a phenomenon that you only get when you listen: it's two frequencies played back via headphone so that they don't interfere. The beat is purely an artifact of your perceptions.
Not posting AC, because (having, y'know, actually familiarized myself with the topic of the story) I actually know what's going on.
Re:Seriously? (Score:3, Informative)
Also, education is key. EVERY parent with a teenage child needs to let their kids know about http://www.erowid.org./ [www.erowid.org] It very well may save their children's life or one of their children's friend's life some day.
Education and knowledge are unbelievably important. False statistics, fear-mongering, and hearsay only encourage kids to try it, minus the knowledge of how to remain as safe as possible.
Re:Seriously? (Score:1, Informative)
Skeptoid covered this quite well (Score:3, Informative)
the first ones always free (Score:1, Informative)
yay i'm a dealer http://www.torrentz.com/a0c1393f6a101b34000e87228bbad51b69ac1f77
Re:Jenkem (Score:4, Informative)
I'd think it obvious that that shit is bad for you...
Re:No Mistake (Score:5, Informative)
As weird as this is to the "concerned parents and teachers" in Oklahoma, it is a basic effect of our minds and perception. There are no demons, no narcotic gateways, no pushers, and for most people, no permanent effects(*).
When the "Brain Machine" aka Sound-Light Machine (SLM) article came out in MAKE [makezine.com], I immediately built one. For me, it works great, and the visuals I see tend to be geometric patterns, depending on the frequency of the beats. It can be quite intense. For those who haven't seen this, apart from the silly graphics on the glasses as pictured in the article, the "brain machine" is a pair of safety glasses with LEDs, the microcontroller, and a headphone jack. The LEDs flash in synchronicity to the binaural beats, and this is what makes it so powerful -- your brain gets two very important senses stimulated the same way. Once the sequence finishes, the effect is totally over, there is no linger feeling, or "high" or demonic possession.
They used to sell audio cassettes that had binaural beat recordings. After I built the SLM, a friend showed me cassettes he had purchased a couple decades ago in Europe, but I haven't heard them to compare.
(*) The only caution I can think of is the possibility of bad effects in people susceptible to seizures. I don't know enough about that condition to know if seizures can be triggered through our hearing, but the SLM-like devices could possibly be a trigger to light-sensitive individuals.
One can find lots of related devices on the net. In no order are:
MindSpa [hawkridgeproductions.com]
Procyon AVS [amazon.com]
For helping with autism: Audio/Visual Entrainment [autismtoday.com]
Seeing this video I can't help but laugh. It's the same tired Suburbanite Scare Story that D&D was in the 70's-80's, or that "satanic cults" were in the 80's.
Re:Shamanism (Score:1, Informative)
They don’t. That’s not how a binaural beat works at all.
Ever noticed the warbling (beat) sound you get from an out-of-tune guitar or honky-tonk piano? That’s the sound waves interfering with each other in the air – alternately constructively and destructively combining, giving the notes that beat sound. If the notes are only a few Hz apart, there will only be a few noticable pulsations in the volume per second – the closer together the notes are, the slower the beat is, until the notes are perfectly in tune with each other and the beat stops completely – 0 Hz difference gives a 0 Hz beat.
If you play one note at 400 Hz in the left channel of a set of headphones and another note at 420 Hz in the right channel, that 20 Hz interference beat can mess with your brain rhythms. The volume doesn’t have to be loud and a little bit of white or pink noise behind the notes can also help ease the obnoxiously-smooth sound of a clean sine wave.
Re:Seriously? (Score:1, Informative)
Here is the TRUTH.
http://www.monroeinstitute.org/research/binaural-beats-and-the-frequency-following-response/
Mr Monroe was a Hollywood producer from the 50's who dropped out and retired and set-up an institute to study various PSI type things.
His team discovered the technology of binaural beats sounds.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemi-Sync
you REALLY should try them before you go to bed. They are a perfectly natural way to calm the brain.
Re:People, this is a spoof story. (Score:3, Informative)
After working 6 years in a TV station, I can tell a real story
Apparently working 6 years in a TV station doesn't qualify you to do jack: http://www.news9.com/Global/story.asp?S=12793977 [news9.com]
(Undoing all my mods because someone is wrong on the internet, and being a huge asshole about it)
Re:Agree... (Score:5, Informative)
"[Erowid Warning: Our understanding of the literature is that there is no such thing as safe use of volatile solvents, aerosols and other street inhalants : their psychoactive effects are inseparable from nerve and organ damage. We have chosen to include these reports to help document the real world use of inhalants, but their inclusion is not intended to imply that they are anything but dangerous.]
I guess ill start off with some backround info... My grandpa owns an air conditioning repair place. Its basically a family business. Ive worked there, and my cousin used to work there. I worked on a/c units for a few years (illegally though, I was only 18 and didnt even have a license).
While I worked there a few friends of mine kept trying to get me to try huffing freon since I had access to mass quantities of it. They also tried to get me to hook them up with it. I always harshly turned them down, because I know how dangerous this shit is. It says right on the box in big letters that inhaling it can and will make your heart stop, among other bad things. But you guys are probably aware of this, so ill go on with my story...
One morning in 1998 I woke up to a phone ringing. It was my grandpa, and he was sobbing. He told me to wake up my parents and come to 'the shop' quick. I hauled ass over there to find an ambulance in the parking lot, along with a bunch of cops. My cousin (who was working there) had been huffing freon (r-22, if that matters) from a trash bag and had passed out into the bag. There was a small amount of liquid freon in the bottom of the bag. Needless to say, his lungs were practically destroyed and he had been dead for a while.
I guess what im trying to say is do not do this shit!!!! Ive messed with inhalants before and I know how cool they can be, but damn, dont huff freon. When you get it out of someone's a/c, think about it. Youre not even getting quality freon. It has probably been in the unit for at least 5 years; during that time it absorbs oil from the compressor, chemicals from the welds in the freon lines, and other shit like that. Freon is a tasteless, odorless chemical. The 'honey' taste ive heard described is the impurities in it from the machine its been in. And if the compressor is going out or electrically shorting from age, you might be getting burnt freon. Once when changing out an old unit that had some in it, I had on a mask (of course) and let a blast of this stuff out on a nearby anthill. The ants immediately stopped moving, dead. This is nasty shit.
Anyway, if you wanna get high, inhalants are a dumb way to do it. Just smoke some weed or sniff some coke or something. If you like inhalants that much, stick to the tamer ones like whippits or something. Freon is just about the most dangerous one you can do, especially if you are getting it out of an a/c unit. Theyre trying to get rid of freon altogether because of what it does to the atmosphere; just think about what it does to your lungs and brain. Peace.
I miss my cousin"
Maybe your nephew doesn't know how to read, or thinks that stern warnings are not real.
In any case you can hardly blame erowid for not warning him. This took me literally 5 seconds to find and was the first entry in the search results.
Re:Seriously? are you retarded? (Score:2, Informative)