BUT what I think it’s good for is getting a general introduction to what these things sound like and just what it is you’re buying or downloading, before you do either.

Enjoy.

You can convert the audio from any of these videos to an mp3, for free, using FireFox and installing the YouTube Mp3 Add-on. This is what I personally use and it works great.

Videos Using Music with Binaural Beats

Here are videos using binaural beats, most of them layered with music and other relaxing sounds.

Tranquil Dreams Cosmoses – Theta Meditation & Delta Sleep

Delta Waves Subliminal Journey

BrainSync Theta Wave With Fractals Video

Delta/Theta/Gamma Binaural Beat Meditation Video

Videos using Isochronic Tones

Here are videos using isochronic tones. This is what it sounds like when using a Sound and light Machine like the Sirius Mind Machine. Personally I prefer this over the musical binaural beats above.

Alpha Brainwave Entrainment I

Alpha Brainwave Entrainment II

“Wait. You want me to strap on a headband that shoots electrical currents through my brain. Are you serious?”

Indeed, it sounds like bunk science.

But it turns out that cranial electrical stimulation therapy is a legit treatment and is very helpful in treating specific conditions, particularly anxiety.

Recently the cost and availability of these treatments has surged due to the release of a small, portable cranial stimulator from Fisher Wallace, which is what we’ll be talking about today.

What Is It?

The Fisher Wallace Cranial Stimulator is a device that uses cranial electrical stimulation to treat anxiety, depression, insomnia, OCD, and ADD.

In contrast with other cranial stimulator machines which are large and bulky, the Fisher Wallace unit is designed primarily for patients to use at home.

It is often associated as an effective treatment for some of the symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder for soldiers and veterans – namely anxiety and insomnia.

How Does It Work?

The device uses radiofrequencies and a microcurrent of electricity to stimulate serotonin, dopamine, and cortisol in the brain.

For those suffering from sleep deprivation who are used taking sleeping pills which suppress REM sleep, this is interesting because the CES treatments can restore or promote REM sleep.

While many patients may use in combination with drug therapy as directed by their doctor, a benefit many find is they may need less of the drug, or eventually none of the drug, to treat their symptoms. This is very beneficial in that you experience less of the unwanted side effects of prescription medication for insomnia, anxiety, OCD, ADD, and depression.

Typically a patient will use it for 20 minutes a day for 40-45 days. It is used on a maintenance basis for conditions such as depression and insomnia.

Fast Facts About The Fisher Wallace Cranial Stimulator

• You’ll need a prescription to buy one. While this is the most well known and affordable do it yourself device for cranial stimulation, you cannot buy it over the counter. In order to purchase any of the CES devices from Fisher Wallace, the first thing you have to do is submit a prescription from your doctor. (Note: FYI you might be interested in the David Pal 36 Cranio Electro Stimulation. This is a Sound and Light Machine with built-in CES that does not require a doctors prescription. It’s also cheaper.)

• It costs between $500-$700. Standard price is $695 but they also kindly offer a military/veteran discount of $495. This sounds expensive but compared to alternatives it’s a bargain. For example, just one or two sessions with the competitor NeuroStar TMS device can cost as much as owning the Fisher Wallace device.

• You don’t feel any zaps, zings, or bolts of electricity hitting you. Contrary to what you might expect, a person wearing the CES headband turns it on and actually feels… nothing. There is no sensation of electricity whizzing through you’re head. It feels absolutely nothing like electric stimulation therapy nor is it like using an electromagnetic therapy machine. The headband emits a 1 milliamp current of electricity. This is about 1/1000th of the strength of static electricity. Simply put, you just don’t feel anything.

• It works. Fisher Wallace reports a study in which 65-70% of people were successful in using their device for treatment.

Where Can I Buy One?

You need to get your doctor to approve of your purchase with a prescription and then you can by one directly from Fisher Wallace.

According to Fisher Wallace, a prescription would read something like this:

Example Doctors Prescription:

Fisher Wallace Stimulator, for the treatment of [depression, anxiety, insomnia or chronic pain], use as directed.

Fisher Wallace offers fact sheets and data to print up on their website to submit to your doctor in order to get the prescription.

Related Videos

Here are some videos on the Fisher Wallace Cranial Stimulator.

Video 1: Segment on The Doctors television show.

This clip on The Doctors show is a good, light hearted introduction to the device.

Video 2: A Veteran Discusses His Experience with Cranial Stimulation

This clip features a veteran discussing how his usage of the device has helped him deal with sleep problems and other conditions associated with soldiers returning from the stress of war.

Video 3: An Instructional Video from Fisher Wallace

This official instructional video is a straight forward look at how to use the Fisher Wallace Cranial Stimulator.

Alive Mind Media is releasing 3 films this summer, dubbing the release “The Trippy Trilogy – Alive Mind’s Altered Consciousness Collection”.

Flicker
DVD release Date: July 15

Documentary on the 1961 invention of Brion Gysin’s “Dreammachine”, described as “a hypnotic light device with the power to induce hallucinations.” (Is this a precursor to the Sound and Light Machine?)

Hofmann’s Potion
DVD release Date:  June 15

Documentary on LSD featuring Albert Hofmann, Timonthy Leary, Aldous Huxley, Ram Dass, Ralph Metzner Stanisav Grof, and more.
Preview:

Hofmann’s Potion – 9 Minute Preview

Hippie Masala
DVD Release Date: August 8, 2008

Official Description:

“In the 1960s and 1970s thousands of hippies journeyed East in the search for enlightenment, free drugs or a ‘pure’ life. Indian peasants assumed that a severe drought in the West was the reason for their migration. India’s holy men saw it, more accurately, as a search for spirituality. Most moved back to their home countries after a few months or years. Some stayed for good. Hippie Masala shows aging flower children who, after fleeing Western civilization, found a new home in India.”

Hippie Masala Trailer:

Check out the Alive Mind Media site for complete info, including links to buying any of these DVD’s.

I really hope Hippie Masala comes to my local indie theatre, because it looks super fascinating!

The story revolves around a young scientist named Eddie Jessup, whose interest in his work overshadows everything else, including not only his marriage to but even his own well-being.

I read that the actors experimented with ketamine while making this film. I thought this was strange but awesome of them. Later on I discovered why they did it; ALTERED STATES is based on the life and work of scientist, writer, and ketamine-enthusiast John Lilly.

I did some searching and found an incredibly fascinating interview with John Lily interview on the Erowid archives, originally appearing in Omni magazine, about his life and his work and a bit on the film Altered States.

Learning more about Lily’s personality, life, and work made me appreciate this film even more. He, just like the character in Altered States, was driven nearly to madness, and almost to his death, for his passionate and all-consuming interest in exploring his own mind with drugs. This was no joke to him. I was astonished to learn that Lily once spent 100 days straight on ketamine.

Despite the fact that this makes him sound like a crackpot, he was a real scientist with a number of mainstream accomplishments under his belt. He is credited with inventing the sensory deprivation tank in order to learn if the brain needed external stimuli to “stay awake.” He also devoted much research into inventing a technique for communication between humans and dolphins. (I would very much like to know where this research went; in the interview, nearly 25 years ago, he states that we’re about five years away from breaking the language barrier between humans and dolphins.) He also published many books over the years on his own experiences and scientific research.

….

I loved ALTERED STATES from the very beginning – the sense deprivation tank, the crazy drug trips, the religious nature of his hallucinations (including burning crosses, visions of hell, and scenes from the Book of Revelations). I also enjoyed spotting the side references to Charles Tart, Timothy Leary, and amanita muscaria. (And being that I was born in 1980, I’m sure I missed quite a few other things key to 60′s and 70′s drug culture.)

The plot moves along pretty quickly and goes something like this:

• After attending a shamanic religious ritual and tripping with a bunch of Indians, Eddie brings back a few grams of the drug for scientific analysis.

• Once he combines this unknown drug with the sensory deprivation tank, the movie really kicks up it’s psychedelic heels and takes you for a crazy ride.

• At this point, these trips in the tank have become much more than just journeys of the mind. The combination of the sensory deprivation tank with this unknown drug allow him to tap into the genetic history contained within every cell of his body. First he regresses into a primal, pre-human ape-like creature. Ultimately, by the end of the film, he regresses back to the very beginning of existence itself, terrified by the overwhelming nothing that he becomes one with, and saved from it only by his love for his wife, Emily.

Some of the imagery is fitting for a horror film and I certainly don’t recommend anyone trip while watching this fun. Ultimately this film is a throwback to a post-60’s scientific culture when scientists were allowed to experiment with mind-altering substances in the lab. If you’ll excuse some of the cheesy dialogue and the under-developed romance between Eddie and Emily, you’ll find a fascinating film about drugs, the brain, and the nature of reality.

Sidenote: I’ve not had the chance to get inside a sensory deprivation tank but would really enjoy doing so. I would love to hear from you if you’ve had a chance to use one. I’d also be curious to know where it is and how you were able to use it. Maybe you’d want to write something about your experience and we can post it on the blog?

Entheogen: Awakening the Divine Within

Below is a 9 minute trailer video for the film ENTHEOGEN: Awakening the Divine Within.

I’ll be posting an interview with director Rod Mann later this week!

Official description:

“Entheogen: Awakening the Divine Within is a feature length documentary which invites the viewer to rediscover an enchanted cosmos in the modern world by awakening to the divine within.

The film examines the re-emergence of archaic techniques of ecstacy in the modern world by weaving a synthesis of ecological and evolutionary awareness,electronic dance culture, and the current pharmacological re-evaluation of entheogenic compounds. Within a narrative framework that imagines consciousness itself to be evolving, Entheogen documents the emergence of techno-shamanism in the post-modern world that frames the following questions: How can a renewal of ancient initiatory rites of passage alleviate our ecological crisis? What do trance dancing and festivals celebrating unbridled artistic expression speak to in our collective psyche? How do we re-invent ourselves in a disenchanted world from which God has long ago withdrawn? Entheogen invites the viewer to consider that the answers to these questions lie within the consciousness of each and every human being, and are accessible if only we give ourselves permission to awaken to the divine within.

Stan Grof, Marilyn Schlitz, Ralph Metzner, Alex Grey, Terrence McKenna, John Markoff, Daniel Pinchbeck, and Kat Harrison among others, postulate how the disenchantment of the modern world may be remedied by summoning the courage to take the next leap in the evolution of planetary consciousness.”

To this end, he has invented a technique to stimulate the temporal lobes of the brain via magnetic pulses. The resulting device is known as the “God Helmet”, and in his lab people wearing it have experienced all sorts of wild and paranormal sensations - invisible presences, alien abductions, meeting the devil, out of body experiences and so on.

Since no one else in the room sees or experiences these things, this certainly lends evidence to the idea that the experiences are taking place in the brain and not in physical reality.

Personally, I have little problem accepting that out of body experiences (and associated phenomenon) take place within the brain. I’m open to the idea that I’m wrong – in fact I would LOVE to be proven wrong – but I’ve just not seen any solid evidence that points to the OBE as actually being a physically real experience.

Either way, I would love to be a subject in one of these tests and I fully support research into understanding what’s happening in the brain when we have mystical, out of body, and near-death experiences.

Question:

If we know how to physically manipulate the brain in order to experience out of body sensations, near-death experiences, the presence of (invisible) beings, aliens, demons, and angels, etc – does this mean that there is no value to these experiences?

Today I found a very enthusiastic video about lucid dreaming and using entheogens INSIDE the dream to have a psychedelic trip.

She also discusses the idea of intentionally accessing the DMT inside our own body, as opposed to taking in from plants elsewhere, to experience its mindblowing effects, and using 5-MEO-DMT as to enhance your dreams. She even says she had shared dreams with the other people she used 5-MEO-DMT with!

My favorite episode is below. Check out the rest of the episodes at theLucidTV page on YouTube.

Thanks goes out to Michel for bringing these videos to my attention.

This idea is related to the Expectation Fulfillment Theory of Dreaming.