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Subject: CenterPointe HoloSync entry level analysis

I received the entry level package in the CenterPointe HoloSync
programme a couple of weeks before Christmas.  I've been using it more
or less every day since.

I hadn't been tempted to analyse what frequencies they'd been using
until just recently, and now I've got some results that might be
interesting to others on this list.

Basically, they are using plain binaurals with no fancy tricks at all,
as far as I can make out.  It is simple enough that I don't even think
they would object to me showing you.

See this image for an overview of the beat frequencies in the
entry-level "Dive", their basic 30-minute track to listen to each day:
(The image is in my 'temp' directory, so I may delete it in a few
months).

  http://uazu.net/temp/dive-beats.gif

So, this is very reassuring for the rest of us experimenters out here.
I think what it shows is that you don't need anything too fancy -- the
thing that matters more is the dedication to keep using it.

I think the thing that makes their programme work is the structure and
encouragement they give to people who have signed up, rather than
purely the raw technology.  I mean, it's the technology that does the
work, but it can't do anything for you unless you listen to it often
enough (e.g. every day), and that is where the support system and
structure comes in.  They apparently send out letters or packages
every two weeks once you're on the programme.  There is loads of
stuff, too much to handle (in 4-5 weeks I have received in total 5 CDs
of talks, a couple of subliminal soundtracks, a 'bonus' CD, a book,
and loads of 'special reports' etc).  This is what makes their
programme tick -- the activity and constant reminders to stick with
it.

Anyway, apart from the binaural beats you can see in the image above,
there are also other sounds on the tracks.  There is a constant
background of falling rain, which seems to increase and decrease in
strength at times.  There are also some kinds of bells (or 'crystal
bowls').  These resonate, and this sound seems to go right through
your brain sometimes.  At times I thought I heard sub-bass tones, but
I haven't found those yet through analysis.

I know they claim that it is the binaurals that are doing all the
work, but the other sounds must have some effect, psychologically at
least.  When I was doing analysis to find the binaurals, I noticed
that the 'bell' sounds often modulated at delta-frequency kinds of
rates, for instance (although not binaurally).

You can hear an example of the whole thing on their MP3 demo on their
website:

  http://www.centerpointe.com/links.cfm?ad=27103

Anyway, back to the binaurals.  Their idea is that deeper levels of
their programme use lower and lower carrier frequencies.  You take
this stage-by-stage, spending 4-6 months on each level, requiring 12
levels and about 7 years for the whole thing.  By the end you can be
entraining to carriers down as low as 4-8Hz, and using special
headphones.  The lowest beat frequency they entrain to is 0.2Hz, I
believe.  In much later levels they also do use some night-long
entrainment.  (All the above information is my impression from the
various materials sent, and so on, and I may have got some of the
details wrong).

Each level takes as long as it does in order to allow any emotional
junk to clear as necessary.

The entry-level "Awakening" that I have here uses carriers around
140-145Hz.  The demo on the site uses carriers around 85Hz.  (Who
knows what level that corresponds to!)

Anyway, here are the frequencies, approximately, for the entry-level
"Dive", with about 3 minutes on each, using SBaGen notation
(i.e. centre carrier frequency, then beat frequency, so 100+2 means
101Hz and 99Hz; a negative sign (100-2) would put the channels the
other way around).

  144.6+10
  144.3+9
  143.9+8
  143.4+7
  142.9+6
  142.4+5
  141.7+3.5 (x2)
  141.3+2.6 (x2)

These values are not too accurate -- probably +/- 0.1.  Also, I had to
use a long filter (0.1Hz low-pass) to get these values, as the signal
levels are quite unstable.  I don't know if this is intentional, or
simply a side-effect of the rest of the audio going on.  If they put
the whole thing through a dynamic compressor (the kind of compressor
you use in a music studio), it could perhaps have had this effect.
Also, one channel is often louder than the other.

Maybe all these things are significant, and I'm missing some big
secret in their technique, or maybe it is all accidental.  I really
can't say.

"Immersion", which is the 30-minute CD you use immediately after
listening to "The Dive", once you have got used to "The Dive" by
itself, just keeps you at a nice low beat frequency for the whole
track:

  141.4-2.5

Apart from that there is more rain, varying, but no bells, if I
remember rightly.  However, I'm often far away by this stage.  I think
there may be some other sounds/tones around as well.

Regarding levels for the binaurals, these vary between about 0.5 and
0.2, using SBaGen notation again (i.e. between 0.5% and 0.2% of the
amplitude of full-scale sine-waves), assuming I count the quieter of
the two tones when they are unbalanced.  However, the tracks
themselves aren't too loud (except for the resonances), so these might
need adjusting.

Incidentally, is it possible, do you think, that this left-right
imbalance is intentional, to give some kind of bias towards one side
of the brain?  I can't be sure myself.

Now, looking at the MP3 Demo on their site.  This one is quite
confused -- there is a loud tone one one side, and a much quieter one
on the other.  The difference is large -- much larger than in the
packaged level -- the signal in the left ear is 6x greater amplitude
than the right.  There also seems to be significant cross-over,
perhaps due to the joint-stereo encoding.  However, the binaural
effect is still clearly present in the analysis:

  http://uazu.net/temp/demo-beats.gif

The tones go like this, about 2:30 each one, taking 18 minutes in
total:

  86.3-10.2
  85.8-9.1
  85.3-8.0
  84.8-7.0
  84.3-6.0
  83.9-5.3
  83.5-4.4

So, there we are.  Never mind slides or long fades or anything like
that, just plain tones seem to be doing the job, at least for the
binaural part of the HoloSync package.  (Add to that: rain, resonating
bells, "Silent Subliminals" in later levels, possible unidentified
low-frequency content, huge amounts of support materials, and so on,
and so on).

So, that's interesting, I think.  I certainly don't mind recommending
their programme now to other people, so long as those people are
willing and able to pay the asking price.

For myself, I don't have the cash for later levels, so I'll probably
be experimenting with lowering carrier frequencies in my own way.  If
cash were not an issue, though, I would be tempted to carry on with
the programme.

That's it for now --

Jim

P.S.  Incidentally, in writing this note and my web-site pages, I've
been trying to send all the uncertain people with cash to spend and a
need for support to CenterPointe, keeping the remaining hard-core
experimenters to play with SBaGen.  I think this serves everyone's
purposes, and avoids any collision of interest when I reverse-engineer
their tracks, like I just did above.

-- 
 Jim Peters                  (_)/=\~/_(_)                 jim@uazu.net
                          (_)  /=\  ~/_  (_)
 Uazú                  (_)    /=\    ~/_    (_)                http://
 B'ham, UK          (_) ____ /=\ ____ ~/_ ____ (_)            uazu.net

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