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.
