[roywiggins]

A lot of the binaural stuff try to set up "beats" by playing a slightly different frequency to each ear. Neither frequency is 40Hz, but the beat frequency may be.

There's an absolute shedload of woo-woo stuff on the purported consciousness-enhancing benefits if you google around. That's not to say they definitely don't do funny things to your brain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beat_(acoustics)#Binaural_beat...

[pmoriarty]

"That's not to say they definitely don't do funny things to your brain."

Exactly.

I actually just went in to Ardour and edited down that one "20 Hz" video I mentioned made me feel weird [1] so that it played the loudest part continuously instead of fading in and out, and then listened to it again and after 5 or 10 minutes of listening to it I felt really weird again, and started to get worried about what it might be doing to me, so I stopped.

It's really interesting, though, and I hope some serious research is conducted on this sort of sound's psychological effects.

[1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-eTVW8VMRQ

[duskwuff]

> There's an absolute shedload of woo-woo stuff on the purported consciousness-enhancing benefits if you google around.

Oh god, yes, and it isn't even new. Back around 2005, I ran into a web site selling audio files which they claimed would cure addictions, attract romantic partners, improve luck...

[joezydeco]

And, twenty years before that, this group claimed that binaural "synchronization" of the hemispheres of the brain could lead to out-of-body travel.

https://www.monroeinstitute.org/

I think they've backed down on some of those claims over the last 30 years, but they'll be happy to take your money for a 5 day onsite retreat.