Cumol for the drug research
thenewgreen for the musical possibilities
This is a vagal nerve stimulator. It can be used to treat depression. Note that not only does it look very little like headphones, but that it looks suspiciously like something involving a general anesthetic and some sharp, skilled bladework. These are Nervana headphones. Although you could probably invoke a sharp knife and a general anesthetic, the results are not likely to be FDA-approved. Long has there been a pervasive myth that the vagus nerve can be stimulated through binaural beats. I'm not entirely up on the whole shitshow. WORTHY OF NOTE - a lot of my music sounds like weird-ass binaural beats stuff. And while it certainly affects my mood, so does all music. I certainly wouldn't ascribe any clinical effects to Tom Heasley.
Ha! Funny stuff. Time to leverage that contraption of yours.
oh man i remember trying to get binaural beats to work in high school. i only owned shitty headphones so i assumed that's why it failed and i just wound up sitting in the dark listening to reverberations for an hour. there's one floating around that supposedly is supposed to make you go insane but i was too chicken to try it...
Infrasound can supposedly have funny effects on people. I've heard stories about Throbbing Gristle trying to play the brown note, but I don't think that's a real thing.
True dat. The problem with infrasound is it requires a shit-ton of energy consumed by transducers you've never met. an 18" JBL woofer can suck down a thousand watts and roll off 12dB at 18Hz. 9Hz is effectively out of reach for all but the most die-hard tweakers. I'd characterize G-ennesis and crew as punters. I once read a semi-credible account of infrasonic weapons deployed by the US Army in Somalia (Scientific American) but I haven't seen anything in 15 years and there aren't many credible sources on the Internet these days. Thing is, the amount of energy you need to burn in order to create infrasound, you could pretty much tase a herd of cattle quieter, more effectively and over a greater range.
Doesn't sound like there's a lot of evidence yet. I find this pretty hard to believe. But, I'd be happy to be proven wrong. If so, I would try them out
What's the verdict on this, and the related Thync? The thought of owning a gadget that will let you select a mood in the case of the Thync or be instantly happy in the case of these headphones is alluring. But I it's think because it's so alluring that I also feel the need to be more skeptical. What's your guys' take on this? Is it something you'd be willing to drop the $300 on right now?
I'm definitely not going to drop any money on it, especially not $300, until I know more about the product. It seems like snake oil to me. However, I'm interested to see how it's reviewed as more information comes out! It would be cool if it worked. Although I have to admit, it isn't something I'd be interested in owning even if it does work. It seems odd to me. I can't pin a difference between the purported effects of these headphones and something like drinking/smoking, which I actively engage in on the weekends, but I feel like the difference is there. Anyone else feel that way, or is it just me?
I could totally see some parallels between this and a real life Experience Machine. Although this is more about pure sensations rather than simulated experiences. Is the issue that the pleasure coming from isn't real? You could argue that the pleasure coming from drugs (including alcohol and tobacco) aren't real, which I think is what you were getting at. So it's probably something else. I think the difference comes from the separation from consuming a drug and then feeling happy in your brain versus zapping your brain into a happy state. That said, if it works, I think it's something I'd buy. Right now it's at a combination of price and lack of convincing evidence that I'm hesitating, but if it were found to be totally proven or at least reasonably so and a bit cheaper I'd totally give it a shot.