reply to post by Wandering Scribe
The original BT-5 Pro was designed (IIRC) by Dr Bob Beck, who was a researcher into bio-electric phenomena. The BT-5 Pro has a lot of uses, among the
claims for it are increased concentration, increased IQ, the ability to sort of stifle the stray thought uproar in your head, better memory recall and
it's also bonzer for hangovers.
It has a few interesting side effects. One is that you sleep better, at the time I was having really bad issues with staying asleep and was damned if
I was going to take Trazodone which the VA was promulgating as a fix. Both that and what the Army was euphemistically terming "asymptomatic
inappropriate situational awareness", which was a nice way of saying I had a mild case of agoraphobia. The BT-5 is good for both, or at least that's
what the scuttlebutt was at the time. And it was. It worked great, it took a couple of weeks, but after you get used to the way the thing feels, you
get to
liking it.
Other things it is apparently good for is addiction/alcoholism, which I didn't have an issue with, but a lot of people were using them for that.
A biggie is that a LOT of people using it gain access to their dream states. Not everyone, and it wasn't what I really was after, but I was one of
the ones it worked for.
A clip from another site:
"Some sites that sell the device do actually mention lucid dreaming as a positive benefit. However, as I was researching the product, I also
read several articles that spoke of it as a side effect. For example:
"The most troublesome side effect that has been noted almost universally is that it stimulates lucid dreaming. Some people who have been shut off
from their dreams are a little alarmed, at first."
And in another article:
"Users of the BT-5 have reported startling memory transformations. A woman of Dr. Beck’s acquaintances suffered a spinal block 25 years ago and was
unable to recall phone numbers or addresses. After using the BT-5 for a single day she remembered phone numbers from even 20 years earlier. Dr. Beck
claims amazing things for the memory. 'They’re just there. It also a specific for stress reduction, anxiety, depression, insomnia.'
There appears to be an overdose plateau: Forty minutes realizes good results, forty-five won’t do damage, but it undoes the benefits.
An interesting side effect of the BT-5 pertains to lucid dreaming. Memories of dreams can be vivid and persistent. This could be an ideal device for
dream researchers."
It's true, you can overdo it, in which case you end up like I was, routinely stuck in the mind awake/body asleep state which OOBErs would kill for,
but it's not very restful.
About 30 minutes did the trick for me. It's real easy to keep resetting the thing for another 10 minutes at full power. Sort of a masochistic thing,
I guess.
edit: In case you don't know about the basics of the thing, mine is a little beige box about the size of a cigarette pack. You plug in what looks
like a stethescope headset, but instead of earphones, it's metal balls on the end. You lube 'em up with tak-gel, and put them in the little hollows
under your ears. Then you start at "0" and rev the thing up until it's just starting to get uncomfortable. It sends tiny pulsed electric currents
into your head. If you turn it up a bit too high it'll start contracting your neck muscles a little. The sweet spot is just below that.
These days, the BT7 (that's what SOTA instruments is selling these days, much more advanced) clips onto your earlobes instead. Mode 1 is BT5 Pro
mode. I'm not sure what the other modes do. I've got the manuals for both the BT5 and BT7 as PDFs, not sure where to post them so you guys could
read it.
ps - got to dig mine out and dust it off, haven't used it in years.
[edit on 30-4-2010 by Bedlam]
[edit on 30-4-2010 by Bedlam]