7 replies to this topic

[losty]

Has anyone had any experiences they would care to share with:

L&S machines ?

Cranial Electrical Stimulation ?

I have recently taken up training martial arts and know well the power of visualisation as Im a skydiver. You only get so long to pratice per jump so skill progression relies heavily on the imagination. I do alot of mental imagery in the pre-sleep(half asleep dreamy?)state and was wondering if these machines could evoke this at will??

I am also interested in CES as there have been claims for it having a normalizing effect on sleep patters and easing insomnia.

I lack the education to see though any marketing hype and I strongly want to believe in them so I was looking to seek advice from any knowledgable people out there as to their efficacy before I lash out with the hard-earned.

Thanks

[synaesthetic]

I have been experimenting with wearing headphones and listening to the monroe institute's hemi-sync 'gateway experience', its a 7 cd set with binural beats that entrain your mind to specific frequencies. It has guided steps through meditation lucid dreaming and other realms of consciousness, I've enjoyed my results.
There is also a similar program out there you can play around with called brainwave generator - They have a large amount of user generated presets. It's pretty neat!
I believe it is located at www.bwgen.com

[mitkat]

i bought the first few cds from holosync...and i feel that i have wasted my money. i knew i was taking a gamble, but i was very interested in the idea of binural beats. the first cd is basically a nature cd, with some maritime sounds. Then they throw in some binural beats (apparently) on the next few discs...i know it's totaly subjective, but i feel like i've gained nothing through the experience.and yes, i've been trying patiently for a while. i'm sure if you were willing to continue buying all of the merchandise, it might get helpful, but i see a lot of it as new-age placebo kind of stuff. I think a light and sound machine would be swell.

[magellan]

old topic. responding for benefit of others.
I use CES. destroys insomnia. best treatment possible
L/S devices awesome for visualization in combo with binaurals/isochromic audio

[Logan]

old topic. responding for benefit of others.
I use CES. destroys insomnia. best treatment possible
L/S devices awesome for visualization in combo with binaurals/isochromic audio

What kind of CES device do you use?

[r1776]

well, hey, sort of relevant stuff follows..

I have never used any commercial CES device, but I have messed around with a simple magnetic stimulator (basically just an MP3 player to generate the desired wave and a coil of the telephone-pickup variety). it really worked surprisingly well at inducing sleep quickly (delta freqs, can't remember exactly where but probably the right temporal/frontal area), but prolonged usage (greater than a few minutes) had a nasty side-effect of a weird and long lasting pseudo-headache. some quick PubMed cruising (main ones regarding magnetic field exposure in mice and induced DNA damage) led me to give ascorbate pre-treatment a try... and it worked - I had no more headaches during the times I used mag. ascorbate beforehand (and consistent headaches without). despite that, I still had no real understanding of the consequences of any-term usage so I didn't mess with it much more. also, http://home.comcast....iofeedback.html + http://home.comcast....feedback_2.html might be of some interest

on binaural beats and the like... I used to use bwgen a fair amount. I found it pretty useful and I believe that it helped me shift into meditative states easier than without. the photic stimulation also sometimes induced OOB-esque sensations (which I would describe as feeling as if your body was moving backwards and compressing into an infinitely small point) for me at times (fairly frequently) which were pretty neat. I remain skeptical that the effects of it are wholly beneficial (related anecdote, during the time I was frequently using bwgen I had gone to get my license renewed. during the eye test I had not realized that I had completely neglected my left visual field and did not until it was finally brought to my attention), however.