New cool down software from Neuro-Programmer

[Jon_Knowles]

I used Neuro-Programmer 2 and 3 for a couple of years for cool down for a session and liked it. I got an email this morning from them about their new product, based on AI. They also provided am extensive list of published research articles on the subject.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B69lG4KUuauXUVV1R2hEZXhlNVE/view

Their web site is:
https://brain.fm/

They have monthly, yearly and ‘forever’ payment plans.

They have this to say about binaural beats:

“Binaural beats is 1970s technology. It’s akin to comparing dial up internet (binaural beats) to fiber optic internet (Brain.fm). The difference is advanced technology equates to superior results.

Gerald Oster, the original researcher of binaural beats, denied it’s (sic) therapeutic use cases and endorsed other audio methods as more effective (find the research paper on google).

Why are binaural beats so popular? They’ve been overhyped by marketers, not scientists.”

I imagine the folks at the Monroe Institute would shout to differ! I’ve tried Hemi-Synch tapes and youtube videos and like those too. (Sometimes, with any of these modalities, I get a “moving feeling” in my head; as if things are moving around in there – don’t know if it correlates with a good session or not!)

 

[Mycroft]

I've used binaurals for years and have hundreds of tracks, I'm either listening to binaurals or Chant. Both do work and serve a purpose. I'll leave it to others and their personal experience, no need to debate it because it only works for some people.

As for the brain.fm site whatever entrainment they are using is very high order stuff indeed. I can see myself investing in some of their newer technology whatever they care to call it. Took me about 20 seconds to decide if it would work on me, of course brainwave entrainment through sound alone takes a minimum of six minutes.

Hmm, very nice. Thanks for the lead on this, without using my Ultimate Ears 5 Pro ear buds I can tell this is prime stuff.

Mycroft

Edited to say with their sleep program I fell asleep fast and gave me the wildest dreams, very effective!

 

[Jon_Knowles]

Mycroft,

Glad you found it promising.

You do know my viewing name is Ear3, right? I see that there are also Ear3 ear phones and a musical group called Ear3. Who knew?

Ear3 is short for earthearthearth, the viewing name I took during my first class with TDS - we were urged to take a name. earthearthearth came from my being told I'm a triple Capricorn -sun, moon, and rising sign. That just about exhausts my knowledge of astrology.

Jon

 

[satyanveshi]

Sorry for reviving an old thread, but this one serves the purpose of discussing new non-binaural methods esp. that of Brain.FM.

I've tried A LOT of binaural and isochronic entrainment sounds (Hemi-Sync/Monroe Institute, Brain-Sync/Kelly Howell, Holosync/Centerpointe, Center for Neuroacoustic Research/Jeffrey Thompson, iAWAKE TEchnologies, Brainwave Sync, Christopher Lloyd Clarke, Brainwave Mind Voyages, Blisscoded/Marcus Knudsen, Immrama, etc).

Most of these do not produce a very profound effect for me. Yes, I meditate daily (mostly mindfulness type and single point of focus, but have also experimented with energy moving and liminal meditations), but somehow I seem not to be very sensitive to most binaural or isochronic tones. For me, breathing, posture and proper selection of time (no big emotional / psychological perturbation) seem to work much better.

If one reads the original Gerald Oster paper on binaural beats (along with comments on subsequent research by other authors):

http://www.amadeux.net/sublimen/documenti/G.OsterAuditoryBeatsintheBrain.pdf

... then it becomes quite apparent that :

- binaural beats do not work for all (women may not always get the same benefit)
- binaural beats do not work in all situations
- monoaural and isochronic beats have a stronger entrainment effect (this is what we are after)

So these findings, which have been out for decades, beg the question: why are we still using binaural beats? For placebo? For mild-effects? Clearly there are better options available.

So, how about brain.fm?

Their own 'EEG Analysis on Brain.fm (Focus) whitepaper' it appears that the EEG results of brain.fm music 'focus' compared to placebo sounds or no music are quite small, in terms of EEG differences.

How about in practise?

Here's a 30minute session with brain.fm relaxation along wtih OpenBCI EEG measurements of brain waves:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BDcVx6kEj8

And the same for 'intense focus' from brain.fm (along with EEG live recording again):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HA7qrdNzPqE

As you can see, the results are clearly different. Whether they are what one is after, is totally another matter, but brain.fm stuff really works by clearly pushing the brainwave frequencies to a certain direction (here 'relaxation' vs. 'focus'). Again the difference is not night and day in terms of EEG data, but clearly noticeable in terms of measurements.

My very rudimentary experiences with brain.fm 'focus' music are as follows:
- intensified one-point focus
- more 'in the flow' kind of experience with loss of sense of time and self increasing
- ability to read / comprehend verbally seems to go down
- ability to produce text (write) seems to be increased (odd, I know)
- I have not tried the 'relax' music as I lack an iOS device and have no subscription to play the 'relax' music on the web app.

What is interesting is that some users have started reporting that they start to feel addicted to the intense focus they get from the brain.fm 'focus' music. As if they aren't able to perform at the same level of focus without listening to brain.fm.

To me this sounds like neural adaptation and is to be expected. A way around this would be to only use brain.fm or something similar occasionally and sometimes with use just pure noise or music of your choice instead. This keeps the neural response guessing and it doesn't become habituated to any one type of signal/crutch.

So, what's my take - TL;DR for this?

1. Yes binaural can work, but efficacy can vary tremendously
2. Not all binaurals are made equal
3. Monoaural and isochronic beats tend to work better (stronger effect, higher likelihood to work across different people)
4. Brain.fm is not binaural nor isochronic and currently it only has 3 different types of sountracks (focus, relax and sleep)
5. Relax might work for RV cooldown - you need to try it for yourself
6. Brain.fm appears to be distinctly different from binaural/isochronic entrainment audio and I would suggest people interested in entrainment try it out for themselves.

Full disclosure: not affiliated in any way to brain.fm or it's people, not even a paying customer. Just a student of RV, looking to improve my ability.