The last thing we want while listening to music at our desks on a Thursday morning is to trip out, but teens in the US are doing just that. So, is iDosing, otherwise known as the ‘digital drug’, a bonafide experience or is it absolute rubbish? We speak to the experts to find out more about this trippy state of mind and how it could affect you.
LET’S GET TECHNICAL
‘It doesn’t sound like rubbish at all,’ says Cape Town-based audio engineer, Matthew Catto. ‘Sound, or music in this case, is comprised of waves or vibrations travelling through the air, which your ears receive and your brain interprets as specific sounds and tones.’ The way your brain receives them depends on the lengths and combinations of the waves; the longer the wavelengths, the lower the frequencies, and vice versa.
‘iDosing has its origins in binaural beat therapy,’ says
Edrich Smook, a counselling psychologist based in Johannesburg. ‘Binaural tones, or beats, create perceptually-generated experiences as interpreted in the brain – this is as a result of listening to different wave lengths as it relates to different stages of consciousness.’ The effects were first discovered in 1839, he says. ‘It has been used by neuropsychologists in their studies around the sense of hearing.’
Human thoughts and emotions use similar principles, says Catto. ‘Thought patterns can be measured in terms of wavelength and frequencies, just like sound.’ This means brain waves or thoughts can be altered or influenced by a specific combination of sound frequencies, he says.
BRAIN WAVES
‘There are many accounts of people who induce a trance-like state of mind by playing certain types of music designed for that purpose,’ says Catto. But what is worrying, as with any real or perceived high, is the reason behind using digital drugs in the first place, says Smook. If any drug, electronic or chemical, is being used as a means of escape from a world perceived as out-of-control and hostile, then it needs to be addressed.
‘After all, as with any high, the possibility of addiction is the major concern, and that addiction is often the result of using the high as a coping mechanism in seemingly unmanageable circumstances.’
DANGER ZONE
As with real drugs, digital drugs are available readily. There are hundreds of iDosing websites selling ‘digital highs’. You can choose whether you want a marijuana-inspired high or a cocaine-fuelled experience. You name it, it’s available.
We decided to conduct our own experiment and listened to this common iDosing track. While it seems to affect many iDosers out there, we certainly didn’t feel anything.
Clearly, this guy felt something when listening to the ‘Gates of Hades’, a popular music choice when it comes to iDosing.
It is up to you to decide, but we’d rather party the night away on the dance floor with our girls than lie on our beds alone listening to weird trance-like music. Leave your comments below and let us know what you think of this new trend.