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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."
I made this video a while back - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weOpxELqn-c - 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
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
With a bit of training, you can do it without the headphones or music or drugs It's done in monasteries all the time. Some religious groups do it with repeated chanting. na-mu-my-h-ren-ge-ky y'all.
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.
Living With a Nerd
Except it's not the same at all. A beat from two similar frequencies is an actual acoustic effect caused by cyclic constructive and destructive interference between the two waves.
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.
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, 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
Procyon AVS
For helping with autism: Audio/Visual Entrainment
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.
Funny, I went to erowid and searched "Freon". Here was the very first story that came up:
"[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.
"But this one goes to 11!"