funny to see this thread. I just read this about I-Doser...
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Students using audio download as new 'high'
But critics say the digital drug promotes illegal substances.
October 8, 2007
Ames, Ia. - The wired generation makes friends, goes shopping, attends class and listens to music on the Web.
Now, they think they've found a way to get high online.
It's called I-Doser. The product works by allowing customers to download an audio file that contains a strange mix of beats and whooshes that the company claims can create a high, similar to being on drugs or under the influence of alcohol.
Chris Peck, an Iowa State University freshman from Marion, said he estimated 100 people in his dormitory alone have tried it.
He said he tried it about a month ago when his roommate came to campus with the program after a visit in Minnesota.
Late at night in his dorm room, Peck said he selected a track titled "Nitrous Oxide."
"I cleared my mind, sat back and relaxed and pretty much vegged out," he said. "The people around me said I was giggling and twitching a little. When I came to, I was really, really happy."
Compact discs from the company range from about $17 to $20, and individual audio tracks sport titles such as "Peyote," "Ecstasy," "Orgasm" and "LSD." The tracks cost between $3 and $4.50, three or four times the cost of standard music on iTunes.
The I-Doser Web site claims to use safe methods of "synchronizing your brain waves." It says the CDs and music downloads are a mix of binaural doses mixed with "advanced auditory pulses."
Binaural usually means hitting both ears at one time with sound stimulation, said John Polich, who has a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from Dartmouth College and is an experimental psychologist at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., a nonprofit research organization.
Polich said I-Doser "looks like a pretty good snow job," and he didn't know of any lab or scientist that has claimed patterns of sounds or tones produced changes in brain wave patterns.
"I've heard companies over the last couple of years claiming this type of stuff, but (there is) no scientific research to back it up," he said.
Several attempts to reach officials at I-Doser for comment were unsuccessful because e-mails sent to the company were not responded to. Its Web site does not include any company contact information or a headquarters location.
It says the I-Doser group is a team of underground music and tonal experts, programmers, testers, researchers and administrators.
Jim Peters of London, England, said in an e-mail interview that he is confident there is a "real provable effect" to listening to the I-Doser downloads, but said there are other uses for the type of sounds I-Doser sells, such as for emotional or spiritual cleansing.
I-Doser uses open-source software that Peters developed.
Jim Clayton, chairman of executive committee of the Stepping Up Project, a coalition in the University of Iowa and Iowa City/Coralville communities that works to reduce high-risk drinking, said even though I-Doser sounds like "bunk," he has some concerns.
"I do object that we have people who would go out into the world with a marketing plan that would try to glorify or sanctify the use of illegal or mind-altering substances," he said.
Peck, the ISU freshman who has tried I-Doser, described himself as a "pretty conservative person," and said he doesn't use real drugs. But he saw I-Doser as a safe alternative to drugs.
"Pretty much, it's experimenting without screwing yourself over," he said. "I think it's some placebo effect that makes you think you were doing this."
Jonathan Butz, 18, of Elk River, Minn., called I-Doser "just something to try," and a trend that has been sweeping campus, especially after it was featured recently in the campus newspaper, the Iowa State Daily.
He said he's heard sounds from I-Doser drifting out of dorm rooms, and conversations about it on campus.
He said he's tried tracks titled "Nitrous Oxide," "Alcohol" and "Acid."
He said the nitrous track made him laugh, almost as if he had no control over it. (Nitrous oxide is also known as laughing gas.)
"At first it just sounds weird and it hurts your ears, but then after a little while, the sounds are subtle differences," he said. "It's almost, like, hypnotizing."
Butz said he and a friend with surround sound in his dorm room cranked up a download of "Alcohol" after midnight about two weeks ago.
"It's really loud, and this blaring weird noise," he said.
Butz predicted the initial fascination with I-Doser on campus will soon fizzle out. He's already "kind of bored of it," and said some tracks last 45 minutes.
Michael Bugeja, director of ISU's Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication, said it's no surprise young people think they are getting a high from I-Doser, because they've grown up with virtual reality, surrounded by television, electronic gadgets and video games.
"Why shouldn't they think it's real?" asked Bugeja, who has studied how electronic communication influences relationships. "We've engaged them."
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