This article is in today's paper. While different from hemi-sync, it seems to me to be related to it (noise stimulation of the brain).

http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2010/02/22/brown_professor_ma...

One of the things that interests me is why listening to hemi-sync makes my tinnitus worse.

I had it years ago too. I think the latest theory is that it...I forget, but it has to be something that happens only in the brain because there is no "real" noise. Only I hear it. I don't know if anyone knows what part of the brain it happens in.

The funny thing is, hemi-sync is also something that happens only in the brain. The tone one hears is not "Real." Do they know what part of the brain that happens in?

But not everyone who listens ot hemi-sync has this happen to them.

(aspirin and tonic water also do a number on me, but they produce a different/second tone sometimes. And it goes away... )

After that little two-day hemi-sync workshop I took last summer I felt sick and the noise in my ears was bigger for a while.

Good points, Hawkeye. I guess the whole topic is much bigger than I was originally thinking. The other day, Tom Ashbrook/On Point (radio) was interviewing two musicologists/anthropologists who have studied "primitive" music. It made me think that maybe we have not explored this area enough: the effect of sound on everything! The interview included a mention of the Pygmies, who I think are one group who use song in all aspects of life. Not like us, with Muzac or pop radio always on in the background (well ok there are more choices...) but in the Pygmy culture, the song is an integral part fo the life. If I understand it correctly, you need the song to do the activity. Surely that reflects some power in the sound. Jane Roberts wrote a novel about an oversoul who ...mmm...shows up in different time frames. I mean reincarnates. Anyway, one place he (Seven was his name) shows up is in an ancient culture where sound is used to perform work. Or maybe that was in the sequel to the Seven book. Anyway, maybe sound has powers we have no idea how to tap. Maybe the Pygmies are descendents of an ancient culture that knew that. OK I'm getting carried away! but maybe it is true.

I love the experience of listening to that first Hemi-Sync tape that had you hear one tone in one ear and another tone in the other ear. Then it put the two tones together. There was a little pause and then : TaDa! a third tone took over! I pulled the earphones off to prove to myself that each was still producing a separate tone. I can't remember where I put that cassette. (yeah it was a long time ago). : (

Bets I tried re-finding some articles I once found on tinnitis. Still looking. I did come across a bit that claimed that melatonin could help someone sleep if they had the kind of tinnitis that keeps them awake. And that piece mentioned experiemntal use of transcranial magnetic stimulation to treat tinnitis. Well that caught my attention. We're back to  wave phenomena again. I looked up TMS at Mayo Clinic website, which should be good. It is used to treat depression. I'm just playing with ideas here. But sound is waves and magnetic waves are waves. Maybe it is time to pull out the old physics book. Maybe one part of my brain is trying to operate at one wavelength and another part is trying to operate at another wavelength and the tinnitis I hear that is not really "there" is the two waves crashing in to each other. That doesn't tell me how to stop it or why it started in the first place.

Bets here's an article from over a year ago but still interesting:

http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2008/04/01/new_therapies_fi...

Hawk subliminal messages not to steal????