interesting.. my honors thesis was the effect of rhythmic drumming
on brain waves. we found that 4hz was the optimal beat to entrain one's
brainwaves to, hence the cross-cultural phenomenon of shamanic drumming
rituals occuring at 4hz (beats per second). shamans literally "ride"
their 4hz drumming into altered states of consciousness. it takes a good
15-20 minutes for brainwaves to converge to the auditory input, which is a
long time to consciously listen to a repetitive beat for most people. of
course, some people are more subject to the effect then others
(hypnotizability scales apply). try it sometime.
-j
On Tue, 30 Jul 2002, Noah Thorp wrote:
quoted 61 lines Brainwave entrainment experiment.
> Brainwave entrainment experiment.
>
> Take two sine waves 100hz and 108hz. Pan one hard left the other hard right.
> In space these waves will cancel eachother out physically with phase
> cancellation 8 times a second. If you listen to them on headphones with the
> waves hard panned there is no physical reason for them to cancel out... but
> your brain creates the beating sound. Brainwaves then have a tendency to
> entrain to this frequency. 8hz is in the light sleep Theta range. I have
> found this tone to be helpful for falling asleep. Try it for yourself.
>
> Monroe Institute tapes use this principle and the brain machines use it too.
> Don't try it if you have epilepsy (same with strobe lights) and I would
> suggest a very low volume for sine waves in headphones because they can
> cause hearing loss.
>
> Here's an interesting page on the Monroe site. I think it has an audio
> example:
> http://www.monroeinstitute.org/programs/hemi-sync.html
>
> I'm not necessarily endorsing the Monroe Institute but I don think it's
> quite interesting :-)
>
> Noah,
> www.listenlabs.com
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Aaron Meyers" <adm226@nyu.edu>
> To: "nat hawks" <natbot@hotmail.com>
> Cc: <idm@hyperreal.org>; <leo.goldsmith@harpercollins.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, July 30, 2002 11:28 AM
> Subject: Re: [idm] noise is the frontier?
>
>
> I came across this program on the web somewhere not too long ago and it
> was this Brainwave Generator thing. Anyway, I don't feel like hunting
> it down and getting specific numbers, but our brains apparently generate
> different frequencies in different states of awakeness and whatnot.
> These frequencies, if I remember correctly, are very low... something
> like in the 20 Hz range. Since no pair of headphones out there is
> capable of generating those kind of low frequencies, the guys who made
> the program found a workaround where two separate frequencies are
> generated, one in each stereo channel and the difference between these
> two frequencies will be something in the 10-30 Hz range of the different
> states of the human brain.
>
> The point is, by means of their subtractive frequency trick, by
> subjecting yourself to these frequencies, your brain will float towards
> them and you will enter the coresponding brain state. Their program has
> different settings... some for relaxation, some for inducing sleep, some
> for alertness and creativity.
>
> I'll admit, I gave it a shot and I'm not really sure if I felt any
> closer to falling asleep or whatever. Sham or not, all the theory
> behind it was damn interesting. Try googling "brainwave generator" and
> I'm sure it'll come up right quick. Enjoy being a nerd.
>
>
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