Digital drug spam sweeps Russian search engines

Binaural high

I-dozers, digital drugs or aural drugs are sound recordings with the so-called binaural beat, which are sold online much like music is sold via iTunes. They have two tones with very close but differing frequencies played for the left and right ear. When you listen to it through headphones, your brain perceives the two as if they were producing a pulsing sensation.

The phenomenon was discovered in 1839 and was proven to have a mild neurophysiologic effect, although there have been no large-scale scientific studies into it ever since. Several organizations like the Virginia-based Monroe Institute have studied the possible effects of the binaural beat on human consciousness.

Sellers claim binaural beat recordings cause a profound altering of the mind. Some say they develop extrasensory perception or help meditation, but the majority of websites sell them as a substitution to chemical drugs. This is stressed by marketing where sound files of binaural beat with extra noises or music added to mask its harsh sound are named like “marijuana” or “crack” and anecdotal support of YouTube videos and posts on online forums, where authors claim to have had a “unique experience” from their “doze”. At the same time, i-dozer-selling websites almost always state that their product has nothing to do with illegal drugs in fine print.

It’s all in your head

Medics doubt that binaural beats can have any drug-like effect.

“In singled-out cases such an effect is possible, especially if he has a hysterical set of mind, but en masse it’s of course unreal,” said psychology professor Valery Yakunin to RIA Novosti news agency. “There is a possibility of a placebo effect, but again only for some individuals who can be subjected to this effect.”

“They may cause sleepiness, doziness for a dozen minutes, may put a man into a trance. But the efficiency is not assured. An individual trial of soundtracks is needed,” agrees Mark Sandomirsky, neurophysiology researcher, who is quoted by Kommersant daily.

According to neurosurgeon Nikolas Teodor, i-dozers may be dangerous in the sense that people who paid for them and were disappointed by the lack of effect may go on to try the real thing. Since most of the customers are supposed to be teenagers, that gives a real scare to parents.

A steal at six dollars?

Physicist Heinrich Wilhelm Dove discovered binaural beats in 1839.

“Digital drugs” have been around for quite some time. Interestingly, in the United States, public interest in them peaked last summer after an opinion piece in USA Today.

Kommersant newspaper believes the surge in the business in Russia was caused by the wider availability of pay-by-SMS service. People can pay for products – from mobile phone ringtones to porn site subscription – simply by sending a paid text message to a designated number.

Several companies now act as aggregators, buying paid numbers from mobile operators and subcontracting them to several smaller companies, allowing businesses with smaller turnover to use the system, which would be too expensive for them otherwise.

An average i-dozer costs $6.00 to $6.50 – way more than the $3.00+ price tag as their US counterparts. However the price is bound to drop. Over a year since the USA Today report, the sellers sliced $1.50 off their products.