Gerald Oster, binaural beats, and New Agers

[Charles Lucy]

Xochi Zen (x at asylum.sf.ca.us) wrote:
:  Is Gerald Oster still alive? If so, does he have an e-mail address?
: I'd like to interview him for a book I'm writing about so-called 
: "mind machines." It seems that many new agers believe that presenting 
: binaural beats (say, a 100 HZ tone to the left ear, and a 104 HZ tone to
: the right ear - with headphones) will induce "altered states of consciousness"
: in the human brain. As far as I know, poor Gerald never claimed that binaural
: beats could do _this_... yet many new agers cite him in their books 
: and/or product literature, as if he supported this weirdness. 

:  Apparently, it is true that such stimulation can entrain neurons 
: in portions of the cortex, but so what? As far as I know, this sort of 
: "synchronization" doesn't do anything special to consciousness and/or
: cognition. The new agers claim that being in a "4HZ or 7HZ theta state"
: thereby makes someone hyper-suggestible, allowing a person to learn large
: quantities of information, and so forth. The new agers also love theta 
: because they claim it is some sort of key to the "unconscious" - a state 
: in which creativity is boosted, hypnogogic imagery occurs, and so forth.

:         Please reply by private e-mail, or at least send me a copy of 
: your response if you decide to reply publically.


:                    Cheers,

:                      Dana

:                      x at elf.com

:  
Does anyone have any experimental data on these "new age" hypotheses
or any other consciousness effects of ELF? LucyTuning produces beating
in these regions. This is a consequence of the mathematics of the musical
harmonics, which are generated. I am interested in any studies, which
readers are aware of, concerning changes in consciousness resulting from
the effects or these frequencies. (Either confirming or denying the
hypotheses).
TIA


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