Can it really be true that the Department of Homeland Security has been sponsoring research into what it describes as "Brain Music" — "a form of neurotraining … that uses music created in
advance from listeners’ own brain waves to help them deal with common
ailments like insomnia, fatigue, and headaches stemming from stressful
environments"? When I first read the story, on AC Douglas's blog,
I assumed it was an April Fool's joke that had got lost in the
shuffle, but it seems to be the real deal. You can listen to an MP3 of
a brain-wave composition
that is supposed to engender a state of "alertness," and which a DHS
operative describes as having a "Mozart sound." To me, it sounds like
something fit for Dick Cheney's torture chamber. Plus, Alvin Lucier did it better in 1965.