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."
It gets worse (Score:2, Interesting)
Cooll Edit anyone? (Score:5, Interesting)
Anyone else ever mess with the "Brainwave Syncronizer" [consciousdreaming.com] In Cool Edit?
I suffer from occasional severe insomnia, and burning a full CD that gradually slowed the binaural beats down into the deep sleep stage was the ONLY non-narcotic solution to ever work.
Sad to realize all these years later, the only reason it worked is because it was my gateway to ambien...~
Means to an end (Score:2, Interesting)
Binaural Beats user here (Score:3, Interesting)
I am a user of binaural beats (not of the illicit/druggie type) but for more sober stuff. I use this for meditation "Hemi-Sync.Gateway Experience" and to enhance focus and concentration "Hemi Sync Metamusic". If you can get hold of Hemi-Sync Metamusic "Einstein's Dream", you will know what I am talking about.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monroe_Institute [wikipedia.org]
http://www.hemi-sync.com/ [hemi-sync.com]
Science fiction becoming science fact? (Score:2, Interesting)
Binaural Beats and Lucid Dreaming (Score:2, Interesting)
Shamanism (Score:3, Interesting)
I've been studying Shamanistic meditation, Kundalini and sexual Tantra, looking for something to quiet my mind and help me deal with my ADD more effectively. I got off the drugs about ten years ago and slowly my mind's becoming more organized; I'm not learning to cope with the voices and hyper-awareness, I'm actually getting better. The hyper-awareness is different, still present but completely reformed, and a powerful tool. I'm at a point where I'd like to polish up what's left, put some structure on myself enough to better organize myself; it used to be impossible to learn to play instruments, now it's difficult and I can't retain progress but it does come. A little work, and maybe I can actually accomplish something in my life.
The options for assistance to relax and open the mind include mexican magic mushrooms, LSD, marijuana, and even alcohol; but although I drink, it's not really to get drunk (and drunkenness is painful and destabilizing for me, it's effectively like having the flu). I'd rather not play with any of that other junk; so I need either much patience and concentration, or a substitute.
What I found in my studies was that the old places were made to do things with sound... beating drums, chants, hums, anything... they were tuned to amplify the certain sounds that put your mind into a particular state. I did some deeper digging, sideways research, and found the details of binaural beats; a quick experiment with this gave me some interesting answers. I expected nothing, or at most a gentle feeling of calm; when I kicked it on and had it pull the beating from 20Hz down to 7Hz in 3 seconds, I nearly blacked out. I yanked the headphones off but felt pretty fucking groggy for a few seconds, before I managed to shake it off.
This is it, this is what I need. Something subtle... music, designed with soft instruments, different wave patterns such that the beat is lost between them, like a flute and a gentle saxophone or a piano... but enough that the effect occurs, gently. Something to ease my mind in an unnatural way, without a drug. My refusal to use substance-based aids for this has lead me to this strikingly effective, pleasant, and constructive solution: rather than encourage drug use, we can encourage a new art form, an exploration into a new method of music creation, new tools transcending just instruments and effects and paradigms.
The most striking thing of all is that these considerations mimic Timothy Leary's thoughts on LSD: this has the potential to expand minds, to drive us as a people towards a period of inner reflection and a search for something beyond the mundane life trying to scratch out a few dollars while being watched over by people in power. Leary thought the drug would do that, would expand peoples' minds, make them start a search for something more, a search for something beyond the bland existence we follow.
I don't support the use of dangerous substances-- LSD may not be so toxic, but it can remain in the system and randomly re-assert itself at any time, even at very bad times; mushrooms are toxic and can cause severe damage. I also believe that people are idiots, and the use of such substances recreationally is pure idiocy; encouraging any general use will swiftly lead to 99.999% of use being an expression of this idiocy, and destruction of society (remember, long ago, mushrooms were considered sacred and not seen as a recreational toy by the masses; this world no longer allows that manner of thinking).
I do, however, strongly encourage introspection to discover one's motives in life, as well as a general examination of the world to attempt to understand and even improve upon the machine we live in. The use of such auditory methods is not inherently addictive; there is no tainted chemistry taking place, and it substitutes as sleep (meaning you sleep less, 6 hours instead of 8 hours). It is not toxic, because it's not a chemical. It's not dangerous, because it's not a physical, life-depriving act such as auto-asphyxiation. This could be a powerful and benign tool for those who wish to walk a path without walking too close to a certain less desirable parallel path.
Re:Further Down the Rabbit Hole (Score:3, Interesting)
So full of win.
BTW, I just spent the last 5 minutes getting high off of the wikipedia article on binaural beats, which includes audio of two examples. I am naturally skeptical of anything that claims to alter human consciousness. While I did not experience an awakening to the presence of the spirit plane or anything like that, I admit that I feel a weird emptiness behind my eyeballs, and it feels like the bridge of my nose is stuffed with cotton.
Something definitely happened in my brain.
Re:plenty of things wrong with the war on drugs (Score:5, Interesting)
I'll tell you, as a non-drug user (besides caffeine and rare alcohol), that the War on Drugs itself is at fault for such misconceptions. You see, I've known people who habitually and recreationally use various banned substances. As a result, I knew that most of the government messages regarding drugs were complete fabrications. Not familiar or interested in the specifics, I treated all of this information as suspect. Only after talking to an experienced drug user did I discover that "yeah, meth is really bad, dangerous, addictive, and horrible." When the government message and the War on Drugs treats things like marijuana as something significantly scary, evil, dangerous, etc... compared to tobacco and alcohol, they do a disservice to everyone. When someone obtaining a recreational substance less dangerous than alcohol also has the opportunity to buy much more dangerous things, and has the same "information" about them, that's where the whole "gateway drug" problem comes in.
My take: put all of it on store shelves and provide real actual data about the stuff being sold. Those who want to kill themselves on meth are people who will cause problems anyway... at least under that situation they won't burn down an apartment complex manufacturing it, or rob houses to pay for a habit no more costly than Night Train.
Make them legally equal, but informationally distinguished, as opposed to the current, more dangerous reversed situation. And this just applies to one benefit...eliminating a ton of violent crime, property crime, and wasted tax dollars would be mere side effects.
Re:Seriously? (Score:5, Interesting)
Now we know better, it's the other way around - aural experiences will act as a gateway to drug usage.
Re:that's why i only drink (Score:4, Interesting)
Heavy water isn't that safe to drink:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_water#Effect_on_biological_systems [wikipedia.org]
People, this is a spoof story. (Score:1, Interesting)
Wired (and consequently Slashdot) got taken. Someone made a VERY CREATIVE remix, using News 9 footage and new content.
For starters, the lip sync throughout the piece is WAY OFF. Its worse than a dubbed Hong Kong kung fu flick. The RPS monitor graphics look pasted on. The 4:20 reference on a laptop screen: too coincidental. The druggies acting is too comical and over the top. The Comic Sans composites, dead giveaway to additional footage.
You guys think you're smarter than everyone and nothing can get past you, but face it, you guys got taken. I was incredulous too, until I viewed the video, and it all became clear. After working 6 years in a TV station, I can tell a real story and when someone has made a mashup.
Re:Further Down the Rabbit Hole (Score:4, Interesting)
get yourself a copy of Gnaural [sourceforge.net] or SBAGen [uazu.net] and play around with the different programs. i frequently drift off to sleep with one running in my ears, and have noticed i seem to sleep fewer hours and feel more refreshed. also good for naps and creative boosts.
oh, and *slow-clap* to the gp. well done, sir.
John Birch Society circa 1971 (Score:4, Interesting)
Nothing new under the sun. This dates me, but when I was in high school the local branch of the John Birch Society advertised an upcoming presentation called "Pot, Rock, and Revolution" that was going to expose how the jungle beat of rock & roll stimulates primitive brain responses and was part of a Communist plot to turn the youth of America into zombies. They seriously cited the Beatles' "Back in the USSR" as propaganda piece, clueless to its status as a parody of "Back in the USA", etc. So a group of long-haired kids went to the meeting, attracting nervous stares but surprisingly little outright hostility, and amazed the crowd by noting that several of us had straight-A grades despite a life-long diet of rock music.
I Experimented with Binaural Beats (Score:3, Interesting)
It's not really music, but it’s like these two tones, one in each ear that produces the beat, which only exists in your head. So you sit there and listen to two tones, then you start to hear a beat, but is more sounds like ocean waves. Then it becomes almost like you feel like dreaming and if you close your eyes you might start to.
With enough training one can begin to lucid dream and it's hard to explain but in some of the sessions I experienced what could only be explained as a non-sexual full body orgasm of pure bliss. It also reduces the amount of sleep one would require in order to feel properly rested. It is really good stuff and even better when you learn to shift your brain waves without the beats while conscious.
Re:No Mistake (Score:1, Interesting)
So yeah. You're wrong.
Audiologist here. You would think that in a perfect environment you are correct but actually Binaural beats were discovered in 1839 [web-us.com] before headphones were invented.
As someone who's done this test in a college setting, you can take the tuning forks described and start them off in front of you. You'll hear something but not a beat. Now start them and put them on either side of your head. What you hear that is different is the binaural beat.
Not posting AC, because (having, y'know, actually familiarized myself with the topic of the story) I actually know what's going on.
Ah, the armchair professor who doesn't have to cite anything. As an audiologist, I find this frequently on Slashdot.
Re:Seriously? (Score:5, Interesting)
Ozzy ozbourne himself said, "drug use makes you a shitty artist... I wrote my best stuff stone sober"
And he is a far better expert at this than anyone else.
Re:Seriously? (Score:5, Interesting)
I think the point being made is that many of the criteria for qualifying if someone is abusing something has to do with how it affects their ability to do everyday, necessary things. Take for instance sex. No one is going to say that sex is unhealthy, but when you pursue it to the exclusion of everything else, its an addiction or an abuse and takes on a clinical aspect. That is actually how professionals do draw the line between harmless habits and addictions. A little fuzzy, but a relatively straightforward way of looking at what represents an abuse.
Of course, possession laws fly in the face of this common sense standard of what constitutes harm and that is yet another reason why drug laws need to be completely overhauled to emphasize avoiding harm to others caused by abuse as opposed to simply demonizing the person for happening to possess something that can't do any harm on its own.