Korean Job Discussion Forums

[tfunk]

There was an article in the Korean Herald (I think) about a website where you can download MP3's that give you similar symptoms to being on drugs.

I've forgotten the address, so does anybody know about this or have they tried it out?

[Underwaterbob]

I imagine they're about as effective as those DOS screen flasher programs that were supposed to alter your brainwaves.

[tfunk]

[Underwaterbob]

It's ancient, you'll probably have to run Dosbox to get it to work. I think it was called "strobe" or something like that...

Found it, it's called "Flasher" (hyuk). You can download it (and some other, dubious mind altering software) here:

http://www.shaktitechnology.com/downloads.htm

[re:cursive]

Not sure about the article you mentioned but I imagine it will have something to do with binaural tones/beats. People have been doing stuff with these for ages.

Without going into too much technical stuff, they are reported to influence the brain through a process of entrainment. Basically, over time your brainwaves sync up to the ghost pulsations triggered by the binaural tones but in actuality created by your brain.

Most recordings generally work by taking you from your estimated current brainwave frequency and then moving you through to another or multiple frequencies over a period of time (delta, theta, alpha, beta, or gamma)

There are multiple factors that can prevent this from working and I believe the effects are still officially considered hypothetical.

Back in 2000 I did the sound design for an audio/visual interactive installation that incorporated binaural tones. The end result was somewhat interesting but the binaural tones did not really appear to drastically modify anyones pereption in that context. The conditions were not exactly ideal.

What was somewhat interesting was what occured to me whilst synthesising, preparing and arranging the sounds for the installation. I was continuously listening to my self made binaural recordings for hours and hours, day after day while working on them. I noticed some effects. I generally felt slightly spaced out whilst working and this effect lingered while the headphones were removed. I also noticed physical effects mainly focused on the eyes. After a long session and generally when I was very tired my eyes would begin to feel as if they were resonating at either the frequency of the binaural or a higher overtone. This was also visible, with my visiual field taking on a slightly strobe like effect at the same frequency. It was a bit like the effect created when you are on the subway and one of the lights is rapidly flickering. It's not a drastic strobe but it is noticeable (I wasn't using any external visual stimulus).

Towards the end of the project it was quite easy to slip into the recordings. I think it is one of those things that you have to get used to. I was doing a lot of all nighters as the deadline approached and instead of sleeping, used a recording I made which went through the brainwave frequency associated with restorative sleep. I found this to work very well and felt like I had napped without actually doing so. It was far better than a coffee.

There were other effects, but to be honest I think all of this is a bit overated. The effects don't seem to be that significant if you casually listen to them. In my extreme case when I was listening to them almost full time I noticed some effects, but who really has time to listen to them for that long?

I think with a sophisticated feedback mechanism this stuff could be very effective but otherwise it is not much more than an interesting novelty.

[Mint]

Re:cursive that sounds awesome.
Where can we find things of this nature? Any chance we can bribe you into megauploading that coffee track?

[re:cursive]

http://www.bwgen.com/ is a free application that will allow you to listen to various simple binaural tones and easily experiment with making your own without needing to manually synthesise and arrange the frequencies.

Alternatively you could also look into the theory, grab any software or hardware with adjustable oscillators and the ability to implement automation and start making them yourself.

There are also a number of overly priced packages that market this sort of thing promising such things as astral projection and lucid dreaming. I've never personally tried them but some people report beneficial experiences.

I think there is a strong correlation between this stuff and hypnosis. The effectiveness of hypnosis is largely determined by the individuals level of suggestibility and I believe the same is true for these recordings. I've always had low scores for hypnotic suggestibility in any tests I've done but people with higher scores may find that this type of thing works more easily for them.

As for the "coffee" recording I made...sorry but I won't be uploading it. That was a long time ago.

[Mint]

Right on, thanks for the links.

I have been meditating for 5 years now and have found a few interesting tricks. If these tunes can indeed induce certain brain waves this should prove very interesting indeed. Thanks again.