Frequency-Following Response, Binaural Beats, the "God" helmet??? - What are the limits of FFR technology?

Frequency-Following Response, (or more affectionately: FFR) is a scientific way to describe "grooving to your favourite tune". And it's a handy phrase in that it points to the neural function that would otherwise be referred to rather insubstantially as: "You know that feeling you get when you listen to good music?"

FFR was discovered in 1839 by Heinrich Dove, the neuro-scientist who revealed that the "beat" observed when hearing two, dissonant, pure tones, is assimilated in the brain when the two tones are presented separately through stereo headphones. By changing the frequency (the note) of the two tones, Dove observed that the brain patterns of his subjects were responding by "following" the changes in frequency.

The topic was dismissed as irrelevant by the medical community until 1973, when it was revisited by Dr. Gerald Oster, who's research paper "Auditory Beats In The Brain" was published in Scientific American. But the attitude of the medical associations remained a condescending "Ok, so what?"

It may be of interest that, at this point, the implications of FFR were the replacement of risky experimental psycho-active drugs with self hypnosis - learning positive suggestions aided by Binaural Beats - and that the very idea of such a revolution in accepted psychological treatment immediately provoked a strongly negative response from the medical fraternity, and more specifically the pharmaceutical industry. 

Koren "God" Helmet, Stanley Koren,
senior technician for the research group

Like Tesla, Essiac, and water cars, FFR technology went underground, and came up recently in a highly controversial project which became known as "The God Helmet". Taking the Frequency-Following Response to a new extension, Dr. Michael Persinger's research into the role of the limbic system in the perception of mystical experiences, Laurentian University's Neuroscience Department, resulted in the construction of an apparatus which provides magnetic signals to the brain, and runs on a computer software program. The brain follows the frequency of the signals, and according to test subject reports, tends to produce experiences of a spiritual nature.


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