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Tuesday, August 12, 2008

I fear for our world some days.

So, somewhere in my RSS, I found a link to an article that just made me shake my head. Feel free to read it here. Go ahead. I'll wait.

I know, right! Oh noes, won't somebody think of the children! Everyone, go worry! Look. Music alters moods. I listen to music that either fits my mood, or even to change my mood when needed. I'll even agree that this mood-altering property can be a bad thing. Don't listen to some NIN when you're having a bad day, kids. But come on, people. Let's all try to worry a little bit less, and live a little bit more.

The article's author, who's website hails her as "America's Digital Goddess", trademarked of course, has a syndicated radio program and apparently somewhat of a following. However, fear-mongering seems to be high on her list of topics, judging from some of the other content out there. Bleah.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Okay, a lot of the pioneering work in binaural beats was done by the guys who invented industrial music: Throbbing Gristle, and then their headman's next band, Psychic TV.

I have a lot of this material.

It's not very potent.

You can zone out to anything, and they have made some really cool stuff to zone out to. But having done both drugs and audio, drugs are a lot stronger, you can't control them, and are much worse for your health.

So, in short, if people are getting off on this stuff, good on them! There is absolutely nothing wrong with altered states (Meditation, anyone? Or, if you don't like that word, how about "slain in the spirit?"). They are the foundation of much of human thought. If people can get there safely and can get out safely, guess what? We just took a big step forward.

However, I don't think that we've made that step. This stuff doesn't work.

There were a whole host of these ideas in the 70s. One of the other big ones was the Dreammachine, which had tried to alter your brainwaves with light. But there is basically no scientific basis for any of this. If you want to alter your perception sans drugs, you have to do it yourself with meditative techniques, and that is basically all this audio is for--it's an audio mandala.

Bah.

So to sum up:

1) It's an old idea that doesn't work.

2) Even if it did, it wouldn't be worth worrying about.

3) Fearmongers are the real terrorists.

Have you read my blog?