Hemi-Synch (hemispherical synchronization)
Hemi-Sync is an audio-based technology that was developed to safely and non-invasively induce altered states of consciousness. It was used as a complementary technology in the military’s Star Gate program, particularly in connection with extended remote viewing (ERV).
When out-of-body experiences (OBE) pioneer Robert A. Monroe started his Monroe Institute, it was their job to find out how to trigger experiences similar to the OBEs he had himself. Monroe’s knowledge of sound engineering resulted in a solution that seemed to work, at least in part. The split-brain research of Nobel Prize winner Dr. Roger Sperry at the California Institute of Technology in the 1950s and 1960s showed that there is a division of labor between the two hemispheres of the human brain. Although the two halves of the brain work cooperatively, they also specialize in certain activities.
In general, the so-called “left brain hemisphere” performs linear, analytical functions such as: B. Reading, reasoning, categorizing things, arithmetic functions, etc.
The “right hemisphere” is better at recognizing patterns, perceiving shapes (ie recognizing faces, distinguishing whole objects from the collection of their parts) and imagery. The “right brain hemisphere” is creative and artistic, the “left brain hemisphere” factual and business-like. This division is flexible. The two halves of the brain work together as partners. Some of their functions overlap or are even shared. When one hemisphere is damaged by illness or injury, the other can sometimes take over some or all of the damaged functions.
Monroe and his co-workers found that the more closely the two hemispheres were aligned and working together, the more efficiently people’s minds seemed to work. Another discovery showed that a binaural beat played in the ears of a test person could influence the brain frequencies and thus presumably also the interaction between the two hemispheres.
So what is a “binaural beat”?
Anyone who has ever heard two tones that almost, but not entirely match, will remember the slightly fluctuating quality when the sound waves of the two separate tones alternate and work with each other. These vibrations are caused by a physical principle known as creative and destructive interference. When slightly offset waves meet, the individual waves either cancel each other out or build up on each other. This can be seen on the beach when waves collide from slightly different directions. Some of the waves support each other and form “super waves” that tower over their fellows. But when the valley of one wave meets the apex of another, they cancel each other out, creating an unusual “flat” or seemingly undulating spot in the water.
When a tone is played in one ear and a second tone, which is only slightly out of phase with the first, is played in the other ear, the tones meet “in the middle” of the brain and a third frequency is created. The sound does not actually penetrate beyond the inner ears, but the electrical signals that the ears convert the sound into are composed by a specialized brain structure that creates the electrical equivalent of a combined frequency, similar in quality to when sound waves are in the air, who are currently out of phase with each other converge The vibrating “beat” created in the brain by this electrical version of constructive and destructive interference represents a frequency pattern that can be varied by varying the tones. The brain “accepts” this artificial beat frequency as a legitimate signal and, according to Monroe’s hemi-sync theory, adjusts states of consciousness in a relatively controllable way, which is interesting, perhaps useful, but harmless. Through careful trial and error, Monroe and his technicians managed to find the best frequencies to get the left and right brains to work together – to synchronize. So Hemi-Sync (for “hemispheric synchronization”) was born.
By continuing to experiment with his Hemi-Sync techniques, Monroe developed “recipes” for binaural beat frequencies that appeared to evoke selected altered states of consciousness in a person. While the process could not directly produce an out-of-body experience, it was possible to produce a state of consciousness conducive to such. The institute that developed around this technology could not guarantee that a person attending one of its weeklong “Gateway” workshops would become temporarily “out of body”. But those who had never made it before reported that they successfully had an OBE, and even those who didn’t make it almost always had an interesting and often life-improving experience.
(Adapted from Reading the Enemy’s Mind – Inside Star Gate, America’s Psychic Espionage Program, by Paul H. Smith, Tor Books, 2005.) Copyright 2005, Paul H. Smith, all rights reserved. (You may link to this content but may not copy or reprint it without permission.)
