The “high” only comes from listening. The new virtual drug is called I-Doser and to work it does not need to be smoked or ingested. You need just a pair of headphones and an mp3. The effect comes from the “binaural beats” effect that stimulates the brain at very low frequencies, between 3 and 30 Hertz, triggering the most diverse reactions and stimulating brain activity in an abnormal way. The new virtual drug seems to come out of a science fiction tale, yet it is real. The particular sounds emitted by the files, first free and then for a fee, offer in fact psychedelic effects equal to those of drugs. We talked about this new phenomenon with Dr. Vincenzo Tullo, neurologist at Humanitas.
A phenomenon that comes from the USA
The phenomenon, born in the U.S. and arrived in Europe, is already spreading in Italy. The online communities, blogs and forums, are the places where cyber-drugs are sold, which has now ended under the lens of the CNR experts who warn that “its potential pitfalls are still to be investigated”.
“These very low frequency sounds – explains Michelangelo Iannone of the Institute of Neurological Sciences (Isn) of the CNR of Catanzaro – are not administered ‘as is’, but are the result of the complex technique of ‘binaural beats’, which manages to produce such a low frequency from two audible frequencies, which have a small difference.
A market similar to the traditional one
You start using the free files, just to try. Then, the addictive effect convinces someone to buy even the most powerful and sophisticated paid files. In short, nothing is new from a marketing point of view. The market for new drugs seems to work just like the market for more traditional substances.
What are the consequences for the nervous system?
There is a fair amount of international scientific literature on the ‘binaural beats’ and on the consequences on the nervous system that proves that these waves have an effect on humans. Everything still needs to be studied in depth. But whatever it is, there is no doubt about it.
“However, there are some areas where binaural tones could be useful, without yet definitive experimental evidence, on psychological disorders, memory enhancement and cures for smoking and alcoholism”.
