External: Collegian Online

[idoser]

Reaching Altered States
By Billy Wellock
Collegian Staff Writer

Some music gets people pumped up, some can be relaxing and some can get you high.

At least that's the idea behind the Web site I-Doser.com.

I-Doser is a Web site that uses a series of sounds called binaural beats to change the psychological state of its users. Most "doses" cost between $2 and $3 and can be downloaded to a computer, iPod, or other MP3 player.

A binaural beat is an auditory phenomenon that occurs when listening to two different sounds with frequencies that differ between one and 30 hertz -- a unit of frequency equal to one cycle of sound per second.

When someone is listening to the sounds, they will hear a series of beats inside their head, music technology professor Mark Ballora said.

Binaural means "with both ears," professor of communication sciences and disorders Tom Frank said, and to hear binaural beats, users have to listen to the different frequencies in separate ears, requiring the use of headphones.

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica online the sounds each ear hears mix in the brain not as physical vibrations but as electrical signals. If the electrical signals have a frequency between one and 30 hertz, it may alter the listener's consciousness.

The I-Doser Web site claims that "a simulated state can be achieved through the use of our advanced Binaural Methods" and names different downloadable beats after drugs.

For example, users listening to the "Crystal Meth" track should "expect increased energy and alertness, decreased need for sleep, increased sexuality, excessive talking, sweating, visual and auditory hallucinations," according to the Web site.

The description cautions potential users that the "Crystal Meth" track "literally freaked out several of our beta testers when they got sweats and reported hearing things from inside their head [s]."

Other Web sites, such as binaural-beats.com and BrainWave Generator, also use binaural beats and claim to alter their users' mental states. Though these sites claim to have an effect on users' mental states, Frank said he is skeptical of the services the Web sites offer.

"There is no 'scientific method' to back up the claims made on the Web site that listening to binaural beats creates a relaxing state by changing brain wave activity," Frank wrote in an e-mail message.

He also wrote that when some people perceive an acoustic stimulus in the temporal lobe of the brain -- the part of the brain responsible for processing sounds -- that area of the brain will show increased activity.

"I think it's a rip-off," he said. "There's a lot of research to indicate that listening to music can relax you, but no research that shows that listening to binaural beats will better relax you than just listening to music."

Ballora explained the feeling of listening to binaural beats.

"It's kind of a curiosity, you listen to it and you go 'How weird,' " Ballora said. "It's just some peculiar thing because of the mismatch of the two cues in the two ears. It's just something about how our brains are wired that we process the sound that way."

Ballora said he has doubts about the ability of binaural beats to replicate the effects of drugs.

"I'm pretty skeptical," he said. "I'm sure it can be kind of interesting and maybe intoxicating. These things beating inside your head can be a little bit trippy. I don't know if I would start comparing it to other drug experiences."

Frank said there are different factors that could change users' ability to perceive binaural beats. He said the quality of users' headphones could affect their experience -- the I-Doser-approved headphones run about $115 on Amazon.com. He also said a user must have the same hearing sensitivity in each ear to hear binaural beats occurring equally.

Jesse Cramer (freshman-English and theatre) said he's used I-Doser and it does something to him; he's just not sure what.

"It puts you in this relaxed state," he said, adding that the relaxed environment users are supposed to listen to I-Doser in might affect the experience. "I think it does work," he said, "but I'm not sure if it's mind-altering."

Whether or not I-Doser is effective may be different for every user.

"Everybody experiences everything a little bit differently," Ballora said. "There's a lot we don't know about the auditory system."

[ressotto]

The binaural-beat process offers a wide variety of applications which include, but are not limited to: relaxation, meditation, enhanced creativity, intuition development, enriched learning, improved sleep, wellness, and the exploration of expanded mind-consciousness states.