Psychs + brainwave synchronization

[thespiral]

Has anyone ever tried the two together.

 

[GZero]

Is this the binaural beats idea? A different frequencies of "beats" in each ear supposed to sync the two hemisphere's in the brain?

Just sounded like noise to me, the "relaxing" ones reminded me of some kind of ambient glitch music. Not pleasant.

 

[morbiddoctor]

i tried it once, didnt do anything for me. i still have some samples of the different wavelengths ive been avoiding. apparently one must listen to them for a while before anything happens.

 

[VeX_Harbinger]

I have a PR2X and the thing just rocks but, I'm hoping to upgrade to an iLightz this year. That one oscillates the colors. I pretty much use it every other day right now and it can really help you hack your brain. I like to use it while I'm awaiting my Adderall to kick in, it really helps you set a mental pace. There is some great info here;http://www.mindmachines.com/AVsJournal/AVSJournals.htm

The guy who writes them is pretty open minded and they are chock full of great info.

The noise, sometimes it's cool but, you don't really need to hear it loudly. Sometimes, you can get lost in the noise more than with real music. Depends on to what state your sending your mind to but, it can be used as more of a subliminal effect. The unit I use has an aux in for my iPod and I put the noise at about 1/2 -2/3rds of the iPod volume. The iLights has an iPod port.

As for how long you need to use it, it varies. There are programs that only take 5 min. I find I'm most deterred in benefiting fully from it is when I can hear noise from outside over the volume of the unit. Also, I find that duller colors work for me better in the am, like the blues and reds. while at night I like the pure white or yellow to punch up the visuals more.

 

[Listening]

...it really helps you set a mental pace.

Can you elaborate on what that's like and what you see as the benefits personally?

 

[VeX_Harbinger]

Can you elaborate on what that's like and what you see as the benefits personally?

lol, I think I wrote waaay more than you were asking for. Owell, enjoy.

Sure thing and I'd be happy to. Light & Sound has been around for a long time but, the problem is unless you know someone who's into it, people never get to see or play with them. lol, there aren't any kiosks at the mall selling them, that's for sure. I guess the easiest way to explain the basic principal of the device then I can delve into how I use it. I'll go pretty basic since I'm not sure what you already know about Light & Sound and/or brain mechanics. So pretty much I'll paint the picture in broad & simple strokes.
First, as your brain is doing the things a brain does, it generates brainwaves. Brainwaves are the electrical wave patterns generated in every person's brain. These waves vary according to level of consciousness, sub-consciousness and unconsciousness and, are characterized by four distinct types of brainwaves.

Alpha brainwaves commonly occur when we are calm and relaxed, yet mentally alert. These brainwaves are also present during daydreaming.
Beta brainwaves are characterized by logical, analytical and intellectual thinking, verbal communication and awareness of surroundings.

Theta brainwaves are characterized by being deeply relaxed and inwardly focused. This brainwave state is also associated with rapid learning and the assimilation of new information with high retention, heightened motivation to activate goals, bursts of creativity, insight and new behavior patterns.
Delta brainwaves range from five-tenths to three hertz and are associated with being extremely relaxed, characterized by sleep.

While you can think of each of these types of brainwaves like the gears in a car however, each type is a range of frequencies. For example, Alpha brainwaves measure eight to twelve hertz on an EEG while Theta brainwaves range from four to seven hertz.

Okey dokey, now on to the hardware. The Light & Sound machines will have several programs (called sessions) build into them, each to help synchronize your brain to a specific target frequency. Here are 4 of the 50 programs on my PR2X;

Time - Description - Start Freq - Target Freq - Notes
30 - Meditation Medicine - 20 - 7, 5, 3 - Theta meditation
15 - Accelerated Learning - 25 - 6, 10 - Absorbing Information
20 - Problem Solver - 7.83 - 4,12, 7.83 - Creativity
22 - Fire of the Mind - 30 Many - High energy, good visuals

A cool part about L&S is while it's kind of forcing your mind into a specific mode, it's also helping train your brain how to switch modes easier. So depending on how you use it, it can eventually become quicker and easier to achieve an operating mode.

The L&S machine uses a pair of sunglasses with LEDs in them and headphones. Like I said the one I have allows you to connect an external audio device to it, I use my iPod. The PR2X can also be used by 2 people at once, it has 2 jacks for the glasses and headphones. So you just pick a session, get comfy, close your eyes, and let your mind go. The device pulses lights and sounds which help lead your brain to the desired mode.

Now, basically this device is just training wheels for meditation. So the same kind of rules apply. The more you relax and not let your mind prattle on about unimportant crap, the more intense the effect will be. So if you use it and instead of just letting your mind go blank, you think about bills & phone calls, your fighting the desired effect of the machine. So just dedicate yourself to the length of the session. Say to yourself, for the next 20 min I'm not going to worry about anything then, in 20 min I'll worry about everything else.

OK, so now on to what I'm sure you were really interested in, what are the visuals like and what are the effects. Now, don't expect some high-rez graphics. I see, well basically what you see when you close your eyes on some good LSD or shrooms. Lots of triangles and geometric shapes spinning about. The LED in the glasses are usually a single color but, as the session progresses you'll see other colors. While the visuals are a neat effect, they are nothing to the way your brain will spin when you totally let go and just let it wash over you. lol, I've had times where I'd do a session that lasts like 20 minutes but, after a while I'd realize that the session was over and my brain was still floating on. Then when I take the glasses off I realize the session was over a half hour ago. I just got lost in the tranquility of it. I can't really give you a more specific detail about the effect it's just a feeling of, er, kind of like your brain is on auto shuffle. I'll tell you this though, it's an amazing thing to just let go and drift into your mind and see what's in there.

I mostly use the sessions geared towards getting my system amped up and for learning on some mornings and use the meditation/visual stuff at night. After a shit day this thing will unwind you in a few minutes, like a sigh of relief. This is of course dependent on my ability to stop fuming about the day and push it out of my mind while I play the session. That's the biggest reason why people think it's all bullshit, their brain is busy saying that it is bullshit instead of shutting up and giving it a chance.

 

[slackley]

Very interesting. I've never heard of this before. I'll have to check into it more.

 

[2CEECS]

I have been building "dream machines" since last year, after I heard about the mechanical version (search Wikipedia for "dream machine"). I attended the MAPS Psychedelic Science conference in San Jose this past week, and built a newer version to give to The Shulgins as some labor of love.

I don't get much from binaural beats alone, but a stroboscopic flicker device like the dream machine is stunningly novel and fascinating in both sober and non-ordinary states!