[mesasone]

Is anyone here familiar with binaural beats? I've looked up these things at several points in the past couple years and could never tell what was "science" and what was snake oil, but I do get the impression that is that at least some science to this supposed phenomenon?

It's hard to tell though, because it seems that virtually all the "studies" seem to be done by new age "healing centers" that are selling some sort of product using binaural beats.

I tried some of the i-Doser "audio drugs", which unsurprisingly appeared to be bunk. The ones I tried were a 5 minute "French Roast" that was supposed to make you more alert, and another one that was supposed to act as a sedative (two different sessions, not back to back). I thought I approached them with a pretty open mind, figuring though the claims made were well outside of what I've seen represented with the other binaural beats programs, there might be some subtle effects to them, but I had no such "luck". I might try to track down some of the Hemi-sync which are more "reputable" and see if those are any different.

Binaural beats - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thoughts?

 

[b0dhi]

iDoser is a complete rip-off. I'm not sure about independent studies but you can generate binaural beats for free: BrainWave Generator

 

[Reighlok]

If you are looking for the science, I would check this out.

But to summarize my understanding, it is "bunk".

If you are trying to wake up and feel more energized, why not listen to some nice techno music?

 

[haloxt]

EEG machines are very cheap if you want to discover the truth for yourself. If you are asking whether the phenomena of binaural beats exists, it is a widely-accepted truth and if you disagree, good luck disproving it. But whether the multitude of self-help binaural beats cd's live up to their claims, it depends how well the cd was made, how crazy the claim is, and on you. A more important thing to consider, is it healthy to have your brain synchronized to these beats? What sort of side effects from having your dominant brainwave frequency brought down to deepsleep levels at 10PM when your brain normally goes into deepsleep frequencies at 3AM? Or even during daytime with one of their meditation cd's? The consequences may be good or bad, it's a complex issue whenever you mess with nature. They've been making these cd's for decades, and some of the makers must have such an understanding of psychoacoustics that some of their cd's may have impressive results and with good success rates, but my final opinion is that it's best not to use such tools, or at least not to become dependent on them. Many of the binaural beats companies themselves say they are just a crutch to be discarded as soon as you can do without it.

 

[chasec]

hmm...in my personal experience, binaural beats help achieve altered states much much quicker. As haloxt pointed out - there is a ton of EEG evidence to prove that.

Here's a Stanford students thesis on the matter:
http://www.stanford.edu/group/brainw...RitualTech.pdf

I've used the stuff to help learn faster, concentrate for longer and fall asleep without drugs.

Lately all the buzz has been about isochronic tones which perform the same function but in a different manner. There is some simple info here: Brainwave Technology

Best of luck,
Chase

 

[leeperry]

do you really wanna get brainwashed by ppl you don't know? it reminds me of Cypher, and I really think your brain is too precious to play around w/ this sort of things..

 

[deadhead12]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reighlok /img/forum/go_quote.gif If you are looking for the science, I would check this out.

Ok so I was reading this and decided to listen to the sound sample. Wow, is it awful noise. My brain immediately reacted with a "What, turn this s*** off."

 

[haloxt]

Wow I just skimmed through that dumb article saying binaural beats isn't real. It's been an accepted fact for over a hundred years and researched countless times. Nietzsche said God is dead, likewise, I say science is dead.

 

[Riordan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by haloxt /img/forum/go_quote.gif Wow I just skimmed through that dumb article saying binaural beats isn't real. It's been an accepted fact for over a hundred years and researched countless times. Nietzsche said God is dead, likewise, I say science is dead.

you seem to have very confused notions about what science IS. where does that misdirected anger come from?

 

[haloxt]

There's science and there's popular science.

 

[DayoftheGreek]

Quote:

Originally Posted by haloxt /img/forum/go_quote.gif I say science is dead.

Especially if your idea of science is buying a cheap EEG machine and listening to binaural beats.

Quote:

Originally Posted by haloxt /img/forum/go_quote.gif EEG machines are very cheap if you want to discover the truth for yourself.

 

[haloxt]

Heh, yeah if your EEG machine reads your brain entrained to binaural beats, it is scientific proof that the phenomena of binaural beats works. Spare me your rebuttal unless you have proof that all the measurements proving binaural beats is wrong.

 

[DayoftheGreek]

I didn't say anything about the measurements, or about the validity of binaural beats at all.

However, you did you claim that you could prove this phenomena is real with an incredibly simple observation. You can make an EEG machine respond to all sorts of things, blinking lights, movement, thought, TONS of things have an effect. Hell, you can hook a damn EEG machine to a plant and get interesting results.

So, if by phenomena, you mean that when you do something, you get results on and EEG, then yes. This is confirmed.

However, if you mean that binaural beats can be used to reprogram the brain and produced altered states because an EEG changes when you listen to them, you are making the single most ignorant attempt at science I have ever seen on this board, which is pretty monumental considering the things people say in this forum.

Maybe they do produce an altered state? I'm not debating that. But to say science is dead after proposing a 100% irrelevant "scientific" experiment is just silly. Unless your experiment was to prove that you can see beats on an EEG, which nobody here seems to be debating.

 

[haloxt]

We're talking about the existence of the phenomena of binaural beats which is denied by that dumb article. Feel free to reread what I wrote, I'm not talking anymore to defend myself against people who can't read.

 

[DayoftheGreek]

Quote:

Originally Posted by haloxt /img/forum/go_quote.gif We're talking about the existence of the phenomena of binaural beats which is denied by that dumb article. Feel free to reread what I wrote, I'm not talking anymore to defend myself against people who can't read.

The dumb article that cites three studies ruling in the direction of binaural beats not doing anything? The studies from the US library of medicine?

Healthcare performance and the effects of the bina... [J Hosp Mark Public Relations. 2008] - PubMed result
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1...ubmed_RVDocSum
Human auditory steady state responses to binaural ... [Clin Neurophysiol. 2005] - PubMed result

I've read and re-read and I'm still getting nothing more out your posts than someone with a challenged view backing into a corner. You ignored my entire post, and effectively simplified all of psycho-acoustics and neuroscience into an experiment with no more weight than a 1st grade science fair, and than claimed science was dead. And I'm the one not reading.