Megabrain report - April 1990

“Big things in small packages: new products”

The Dreamer, The Courier, The Alpha Stim CS

The Dreamer

Before discussing the quality of the Dreamer I have to say that this new sound and light machine represents a breakthrough: to my knowledge it's the first truly mass-produced mass-market brain machine. Welcome to the new world of consumer brain technology. The Dreamer's tiny, weighs only a few ounces, provides six different preprogrammed sessions using four different modes of stimulation (i.e. alternating the sound and light between left and right, eyes and ears, stimulating both eyes and ears simultaneously), and is so simple to operate you only need to press one button for a full session.

The European manufacturer, Stéphane Krsmanovic-Dumonceau, managing director of Fonda-mental sa, Belgium is also searcher at the university of Brussels. First active in R.E.S.T (restricted environmental stimulations technique) he turn his interrest from 1987 in research on light and sound stimulations technologies. He has invested in totally automating the assembly of this device -the factory is tooled up so that hundreds of the devices are stamped out and put together simultaneously, without any hand assembly (which is where quality control problems can creep in). The whole thing is sealed together and sold at an attractive US $250 with a one year warranty on parts and workmanship.

This is a significant advance. Those of you who remember the first hand-held calculators from Texas Instruments in the mid-70s recall that they were big, clunky, and cost more than US $150. Now thanks to mass produced circuitry and other advances far more sophisticated calculators the size of a credit card cost only a couple of bucks, and are given away for promotional purposes like balloons and calendars used to be.

Similarly, I think the mass-production of the Dreamer represents an important step toward making mind-enhancement technology simple, attractive, unthreatening and inexpensive enough to appeal to (and be cheap enough to be bought by) those millions and millions of wonderful humans we call The Mainstream.

That said, we can turn our attention to the quality of the device and the experiences it provides. The first thing most users comment on is the lights, and their cornrnents are usuaIly something like, "Wow!" The lights, four red LEDs in front of each eye, are super-bright (the LEDs on most current sound and Iight devices produce about 500 millicandles of light each; these produce some 2000 millicandles each), and stimulate extremely intense and colorful visual imagery. Too intense for sorne users. Fortunately The Dreamer provides a high/low light intensity regulator, but even so these lights may be too strong for some.

The sounds, basicaIly the combination of a single tone and white noise, which can be adjusted (but only to loud or soft), are very basic. Sorme users find the sound quality irritating. There is an input jack for an external sound source, such as a cassette player.

Most users l've compared notes with have found the six preprogrammed sessions effective. Generally they begin with a sweep that goes down to alpha, back up to high beta and then ramps down (or up) toward the target frequency. The sessions are: Sleep (a 30 minute session that leaves you in delta at 3 Hz); Concentration (30 minutes that takes you up to a stimulating 25 Hz); Meditation/ Learning (a 40 minute theta induction at 5 to 7 Hz); Anti-Stress (15 minutes at 9 Hz alpha­, ideal for a "stress-break" at work); Relaxation (40 minutes, much of it at 9 Hz alpha); and Creativity (30 minutes mixing alpha and beta).

The above description points up some of the drawbacks of the Dreamer: while it's delight­fully simple, it's also very Iimited. While I haven't used it long enough yet to have become accustomed to each program, I suspect that those who like new experiences might become bored with the six sessions. There are numerous sound and Iight machines on the market that are far more sophisticated (such as THE COURIER, reviewed next). These devices are also more costly and, to certain would-be users, dauntingly complex.

What we face, as mind machines enter the mainstream, is the same divergence of tastes and interests that personal computers encoun­tered. Some people are explorers, experimen­talists and hackers, and they want advanced and sophisticated devices that permit them to design and store a large array of their own programs. Other people don't care about the technology at aIl, they just have certain things they hope the device can help them accom­plish: they don't care what kind of computer they have as long as it's easy to use for word processing; they don't care about how the mind machine works, as long as it's simple to operate and puts them to sleep, relaxes them, or is fun. You don't need a mainframe to play Nintendo games.

The Dreamer is fun and effective, and the best device to come along so far for those who seek utter simplicity. It's not sophisticated, but that doesn't mean it can't provide even the most experienced mind-machine aficionado with an exciting experience. One friend who makes a multi-modal mind-enhancement system that costs thousands of dollars and incorporates a sound and light system tried out the Dreamer when I first received it and loved the lights so much he actually wondered if there was some way he could use the goggles with his own system! This is the first of what I expect will be a succession of well-designed, mass­produced, user-friendly mind machines.

The Courier

This dynamite little portable is made by computer expert Robert Austin, the same guy who makes the superb MindsEye Plus, and contains many of the features of the Plus at less than half the price. The Courier is completely self-contained: the tough plastic case, about the size of a small book, opens up to reveal the keypad and a storage corn part­ment for the speciaUy molded goggles and headphones. It's powered by a rechargeable battery good for about five hours of use between charges.

There are two superbright red LEDs (2000 millicandle power) over each eye, flashing with a short duty cycle and providing crisp and intense visual effects. It produces eight different stereo sounds, and also has an input for an external audio source. But perhaps the most significant audio feature of the Courier is that it can act as a binaural signal generator, producing a number of beat frequencies, or what Austin calls "HemiTone sounds." The combination of beat frequencies with sound and Iight brainwave entrainment opens up a whole new range of experiences.

The device includes 16 preset sessions that range from 15 minutes to an hour in length. The preset sessions are well-designed and effective, but the parameters of any of them may be modified and saved by the user.

The entire unit weighs about a pound, and, in a nice touch, the volume and brightness control knobs are on the outside of the case, making it easy to adjust the system even when it's in use, with the case closed. The price of US $395 is not cheap, but in comparison with the top-of-the ­line models such as the MindsEye Plus and the DAVID Jr. Plus, which sell for about US $895, this machine delivers a lot of bang for the buck. As with ail of Austin's products, the Courier is well-made, and uses high quality electronic components. It "feels" good. It's almost as simple to use as the Dreamer, but is far more versatile and sophistieated. ln this price range (and even compared with devices costing hundreds of dollars more) the Courier is the best thing yet.

The Alpha Stim CS

l wrote about the Alpha Stim (clinical model 2000 and home model 350) in Megabrain, but now those devices have been superseded (at least for purposes of cranial electrostimulation [CES]) by the brand new CS. While the 2000 is the size of a large typewriter, the 350 about the size of a small shoebox, the CS is tiny ­under 2 1/2 by 3/12 inches -and weighs just 3 ounces.

But the step down in size does not mean a step down in power or effectiveness. Inventor Dr. Daniel Kirsch has enhanced the waveform used in earlier Alpha Stim models, and everyone l know who has experimented with the CS so far finds it an extraordinary experience. (See our discussion of the CS with Kirsch elsewhere in this issue.)

It clips to your earlobes (Kirsch claims that the points on your earlobes closes to your jaw are the "Valium points"), and delivers a complex biphasic OC non sinusoidal modified square waveform. One difficulty with CES has been that most CES devices deliver a repetitive and therefore predictable waveform -the human body quiekly becomes accustomed to that stimulus and effectively ignores or rejects it. At that point the CES is no longer effective. The CS has been designed to avoid habituation by the nervous system by incorporating random factors into its modified square waves: the pulses (y ou can select pulse repetition rates of either 0.5 Hz or 80 Hz) change polarity at 0.4 second intervals.

The current of the CS is adjustable from 10 to 600 microamperes - this is far less than some of the dangerously high current TENS devices: it delivers its weak microampere current for milliseconds, rather than bludgeoning the brain with milliampere current delivered for microseconds. At lower settings it's impercep­tible, turned up high it produces a mild tingling in the earlobes. But for me and others who have used the device the mental effects have been impressive, ranging from mild euphoria combined with heightened alertness to deep relaxation, deeper sleep, alleviation of pain, and long-lasting feelings of well-being.

In another advance on the older versions, the CS is powered by a simple 9 volt battery, has a timer that permits you to choose a session that ranges from three minutes to continuous, and has two channels, thus permitting two people to use it at once in the CES mode, or one pers on to use four electrodes for localized pain treatment and other applications. It's attrac­tively designed (except for one feature -you have to slide open a small side panel to adjust the frequency and timer and to switch it on, but replacing the panel can require dexterity), can be carried in your pocket or clipped to a belt. It cornes with a five year warranty.

The price is steep: US $795. But then this is, at least in the V.S., a "medical device", and thus its purchase is usually approved for benefits by medical insurers. Since CES has proven effective in the treatment of anxiety, drug addiction, depression, inability to concentrate, pain, TMJ problems, memory loss, tinnitus and much more, most people who seek to use it for cognition-enhancement purposes should be able to find either an appropriate medical reason for seeking a prescription, or a medical practitioner who will prescribe it for "unap­proved" uses (as reported in our article on cognition-enhancement drugs in this issue, the FDA recognizes that "unapproved" uses for drugs are quite legal and in fact an important means of therapeutic innovation).

The question that arises, as always, is whether CES is truly safe enough to be used by healthy people for mind-enhancement purposes. Proponents point out that CES has now been used for over 40 years by millions of people without apparent ill effects -no appearances of brain tumors, leukemia, brain damage, psychological problems etc. Opponents argue that in light of evidence that some- kinds of electromagnetism can be harmful, there's still not enough known about how CES works, what it does to the brain and body, to pro­nounce such devices as the CS harmless. For a discussion of this question by experts, see the interviews on bioelectricity elsewhere in this issue.

M. Hutchinson

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