Posts like this may be well-intentioned, but they're a public health menace.
1. The ultrasound scanning that MidJourney promises can't penetrate bone, air, or deep tissue, so at best it would have limited use (e.g., brain imaging would be impossible). In any case, there are no studies yet on MidJourney's device. We only have the company's claims that their scanner gives us "much" data. They don't tell us what that data is. This is alarmingly sketchy compared to, say, the roll-out of other imaging technologies (CT scanning, MRI, etc.).
2. The statement that "researchers eliminated 50% of the brain plaque associated with Alzheimer’s" is near-criminal, because this was reported in a study done with mice. The hyperlinked paper is actually a review/opinion piece which merely suggests that maybe ultrasound can help people someday.
Two of several examples of misinformation in this post, both of which are cruel (unintentionally, I assume), because they create false hope.
I love sounds. Some of them do feel magical. That doesn't mean they cure diseases.
Am getting major Elizabeth Holmes/Enron vibes from this MidJourney company, and not just because last week they were selling that AI slop.
Sounds like they are a promises factory.
And they have the requisite entrancing images all ready to go.
I do think that sound and light will be major healing modalities in the future, and will make our current medicine seem medieval by comparison. But this doesn't smell right to me at all. My BS detectors are going off. A lot of promises, but where are the research papers to back them up? Where are the results?
Decades ago people created goggles that produced sound and light shows, but where are they now?
We can't let our enthusiasm overwhelm our judgement. Even if you invent a new technology, it usually takes decades to make it practical to use.
The people who have created real healing methods aren't motivated like business people. They discover truths about man and nature, not opportunities to corner a market. They are nearly always individual pioneers, not tech companies. They are givers, not takers.
I do believe that music's destiny is to help cure us, but not necessarily our bodies. Music already can be quite magical. The beautiful work with assisting the dying done by Therese Schroeder-Sheker is an example of this.
Is attempting to extend one human lifespan in one body forever even desirable? Are we nothing but our current corporeal bodies? That's what silicon valley seems to think. But what the hell do they know?
Yes, there are frauds and deluded people who claim to be "healers."
Then there are the genuine ones, who deserve our respect.
Thank you. I agree that MidJourney feels like a "promises factory", as you so aptly put it.
I believe that music is one of the most powerful and healthy ways of reducing stress. We know that prolonged stress causes cardiovascular disease and other health problems, so it's fair to say that listening to music can, for instance, help prevent a heart attack. But that's not some sort of woo-woo magic phenomenon. It's physiology 101.
Working past midnight in some windowless lab doesn't feel as magical as what our favorite musicians do, but, like you said, folks who are working in those labs to make our lives better deserve our respect too.
Hi. When I was referring to genuine healing work I was thinking of people in the bodywork and "healing" communities, which I am familiar with. I have encountered some people who did great work, and a few who fall into the scammer/deluded category. If you read my other comment elsewhere I am willing to go pretty far out, but only if the evidence supports it. In short, I am empirical.
In the bodywork sphere there is case after case of individual innovators who created approaches that obviously DO produce results (though sometimes their theories are wrong), and they usually get shunned by the medical establishment. In "bodywork," which is a general term that includes massage, you are literally working with the physical body, so if you get or don't get results it is obvious.
One example I am thinking of is the late Dr. Milton Trager, who almost accidentally created his own approach to bodywork (sensitivity and receptivity) but couldn't get it accepted, so in his forties he actually went to medical school to become an MD so his work might be accepted, but that didn't work. The doctors thought it was a bunch of "philosophy."
I read about his work and thought it made sense (despite reading comments somewhere by a "skeptic" that it couldn't work) so I booked a session with a local person who did it, and for $55 (about 30 years ago) I had a life changing experience. I got what seemed like a whole new body! It was wonderful. And some of the effects were quite long lasting, unlike those from massage. Trager really works on the mind, not just the muscles.
I have also been to highly paid orthopedists who were completely clueless (one had back problems of his own) who ordered X-rays and an MRI which only showed that my spine was perfect. Useless people.
(To learn more about "bodywork" I can recommend "Bone, Breath, & Gesture" by Don Hanlon Johnson, and also "Bodywork" by Thomas Claire.)
I have also had some amazing and even funny experiences on the "energy healing" street, which are hard to believe if you haven't had such experiences.
Did you ever read the column the arch skeptic Michael Shermer wrote in Scientific American about what happened to him on his wedding day? He had an experience that was so uncanny that it really shook him up, but he is a conservative who just doesn't like certain things he can't understand. I would give you the link here but it is now behind a paywall. I did find these:
I was reacting viscerally to the MidJourney case because I have seen first hand that there are people in the "New Age" community who have a desire to believe in certain things, along with a lack of rigorous critical thinking skills. I once paid $300 for some supposedly "healing" music that turned out to be worthless, and upon investigating the people behind it they seemed to be both deluded and scammers (they actually set up a pyramid scheme!) and people like that harm the reputations of the legit people, and the field itself.
It is very easy to fall into a cultish phenomenon. Most of the "gurus" who came to the US from India ended up having sex scandals. You have to be discerning.
Yeah. It is easy to get carried away by enthusiasm.
If the MidJourney people are genuine, they should have nothing to hide. So, I say: show us your work.
I am willing to change my mind. I do it all the time!
FWIW I recently went to this YouTube channel that offers pure brainwaves, even down to 1 hz and below. It actually put me to sleep, which I never do in the middle of the day. It uses binaural sound, which requires headphones.
The first time I listened to this next music I later had a dream about a lot of snakes, which are supposed to be symbols of the Kundalini (and the medical symbol the caduceus):
Just now I put it on and felt a tingling at the top of the head.
Try this one, to open the Third Eye. It frequently has me shaking violently when I hear it. It just did it again. Play it loud, unless it gets too much:
It is hard to know what to make of phenomena. Are you imagining things, or are they real? Watch how the audience responds to this next one, it's a classic example of what happens in deep healing or meditation. First you shake your head as if saying "NO!", then you nod your head as if saying "YES."
I once went to a demo of Reiki healing at my former Borders Bookstore, and the guy gave brief samples to ten people, all of whom responded by shifting to abdominal breathing. I knew this was the tell, so I thought it was funny!
......
There are so many influencers working for eyeballs and money, and fake AI "doctors," so you don't always know who is for real.
I come here because Ted is for real. I don't always agree with him, but so what? That does not bother me. We are all just humans trying to figure it all out. It's hard!
Your viewpoint represents a large faction of humanity that looks forward to the new technologies predicted by Nicola Tesla, yet is leary of companies attempting to capitalize (monetize) this tech without a track record. Hopefully we're just in the "growing pains " stage, where this is bound to happen.
Thank you for the additional information and context and the conversation it hads sparked.
As a lifelong Disabled person who recently discovered that I have chronic pain and anxiety I know sound heals. I lie in bed and let frequencies I discovered on Substack loosening my muscles and work on restoring patterns that have been disrupted in my brain. It's going to take time and I still need to work on the repressed emotions and traumas that cause the conditions. But it turns out Eno was right and I love it!
Yawn. Science is catching up with what we "crazies" in the so-called paranormal community have known for some time now. 1. We already are telepathic. We are conditioned and programmed to ignore and devalue our intuition/instincts/psychic senses/soul senses (whatever name you prefer). Telepathy, in fact, is just one of four soul senses. 2. Of course sound can heal. After more than 100 years, science is finally getting to the full meaning of E = MC2. Matter and energy are fundamental equivalents. But so are consciousness and love. Expand the meaning of Einstein's equivalence equation and it's easy to see why/how sound interacts with matter, like the physical body. 3. Sound can also harm and even kill. This is a two-edged sword. I fully expect the major militaries of the world have already developed sound weapons and are itching to unleash them in another dominance display. God help us.
Agreed. The trouble with 'paranormal' research is not that it is based on false premises but, first, that science doesn't take it seriously (for commercial and ideological rather than rational reasons) and therefore doesn't provide useful research assistance, and second, there is no objective quality control. Although, judging by the number of peer-reviewed scientific studies that have been invalidated in recent years, this is a problem for science also.
Poor Ted may freak out if he reads these remarks and discovers he has intruded into well-trodden 'paranormal' territory.
Rather than trying to understand with my mental body, I choose to live out of my whole self. What the mental body calls paranormal is just par for the course for the emotional and spiritual bodies. Once you feel something--like a Kundalini experience, for example--you don't need research to know it's real. The mental body is too limited to grok the whole of the multiverse. It can only splutter, "This isn't logical!" Dam straight and thank goodness. A life confined only to the mental and physical is waayyy too limited.
I’ve always thought experiments involving spirits, etc, don’t even make logical sense because why would a spirit give a damn about showing up twice or enough times in your controlled experiment bent on proving something?
Why would a soul in a physical body show up to talk to someone or be part of an experiment? Curiosity? Grandiosity? The only thing that dies is the physical body. The rest of self remains. I personally think trying to prove the existence of souls after physical death is pointless because the scientific method is reductionist and therefore too limited. So I would never ask a person not in a physical body to be part of any experiment. But I might help someone ask for a soul to show up out of love and a need for resolution.
Ahh. But it makes it very relevant and important to those who need such resolution. I do not allow science to define what is important or irrelevant for me. The scientific method is just not the end-all/be-all you seem to think it is.
you do realize that scans WILL find 'incidentalomas", many of which would have no repercussions if not discovered but when discovered will almost necessitate treatment, some of which will kill people.
writing from the UK Ted I too have had to undergo several MRI scans and CT scan and a cardiac scan which made me radioactive for 24 hours. All on the national Health Service and all free….no expensive insurance needed. I feel for you in the USA with all these attacks on Obamacare and ordinary people voting for a government which actively attacks public health care. I only hope ordinary americans come to their senses and realise what is clearly in their own best interests. Its not until the finger of fate points at you individually that the collective dimension dawns. For socialised medicine to work we do need to understand that we are all in this together. Rich or poor we all get sick in the same ways.
Ted, yes healing sounds have been going on for at least 40,000 years for the aboriginals, and also the rainforest people I stayed with in Indonesia. Nice to see us slowly catching up.
Hi Ted, I am a jazz musician/singer/songwriter but I am also on the woo woo side of things. My book works with jazz music as preventative medicine. It sounds crazy, but I channel frequencies through my voice that allow people to name and release forgotten trauma with out having to relive it. While enjoying jazz! Jazz is part of the healing by entraining the listeners' vibration because jazz is played in the now moment-very powerful. I have always said, Spirituality is just science that hasn't caught up. The scientist should consult with those of us who have been gifted amazing spiritual tech. They are finally on the right path. Connie Lansberg
It’s well established that humming, chanting, and slow breathing increase the body’s (specifically the sinus cavities’) production of nitric oxide, which relaxes blood vessels. They also trigger the vagus nerve, which calms the fight-or-flight stress reaction that so many live with.
Interesting, but there is really nothing "new" here. Pythagorus taught the ancient Greeks that there were healing intervals in the 6th century BCE. Let us hope that people begin to incorporate what you discuss above in their healing practices today!
Really interesting but Midjourney gives me pause why did they abandon AI slop and suddenly decide to do something good? Color me extremely suspicious of their motives and intention!
Yea I’m cynical and skeptical and usually Ted is too so I was very surprised by his face value take of “they used to do shit AI slop and now they want to save lives” take!
Posts like this may be well-intentioned, but they're a public health menace.
1. The ultrasound scanning that MidJourney promises can't penetrate bone, air, or deep tissue, so at best it would have limited use (e.g., brain imaging would be impossible). In any case, there are no studies yet on MidJourney's device. We only have the company's claims that their scanner gives us "much" data. They don't tell us what that data is. This is alarmingly sketchy compared to, say, the roll-out of other imaging technologies (CT scanning, MRI, etc.).
2. The statement that "researchers eliminated 50% of the brain plaque associated with Alzheimer’s" is near-criminal, because this was reported in a study done with mice. The hyperlinked paper is actually a review/opinion piece which merely suggests that maybe ultrasound can help people someday.
Two of several examples of misinformation in this post, both of which are cruel (unintentionally, I assume), because they create false hope.
I love sounds. Some of them do feel magical. That doesn't mean they cure diseases.
Am getting major Elizabeth Holmes/Enron vibes from this MidJourney company, and not just because last week they were selling that AI slop.
Sounds like they are a promises factory.
And they have the requisite entrancing images all ready to go.
I do think that sound and light will be major healing modalities in the future, and will make our current medicine seem medieval by comparison. But this doesn't smell right to me at all. My BS detectors are going off. A lot of promises, but where are the research papers to back them up? Where are the results?
Decades ago people created goggles that produced sound and light shows, but where are they now?
We can't let our enthusiasm overwhelm our judgement. Even if you invent a new technology, it usually takes decades to make it practical to use.
The people who have created real healing methods aren't motivated like business people. They discover truths about man and nature, not opportunities to corner a market. They are nearly always individual pioneers, not tech companies. They are givers, not takers.
I do believe that music's destiny is to help cure us, but not necessarily our bodies. Music already can be quite magical. The beautiful work with assisting the dying done by Therese Schroeder-Sheker is an example of this.
Is attempting to extend one human lifespan in one body forever even desirable? Are we nothing but our current corporeal bodies? That's what silicon valley seems to think. But what the hell do they know?
Yes, there are frauds and deluded people who claim to be "healers."
Then there are the genuine ones, who deserve our respect.
Thank you. I agree that MidJourney feels like a "promises factory", as you so aptly put it.
I believe that music is one of the most powerful and healthy ways of reducing stress. We know that prolonged stress causes cardiovascular disease and other health problems, so it's fair to say that listening to music can, for instance, help prevent a heart attack. But that's not some sort of woo-woo magic phenomenon. It's physiology 101.
Working past midnight in some windowless lab doesn't feel as magical as what our favorite musicians do, but, like you said, folks who are working in those labs to make our lives better deserve our respect too.
Hi. When I was referring to genuine healing work I was thinking of people in the bodywork and "healing" communities, which I am familiar with. I have encountered some people who did great work, and a few who fall into the scammer/deluded category. If you read my other comment elsewhere I am willing to go pretty far out, but only if the evidence supports it. In short, I am empirical.
In the bodywork sphere there is case after case of individual innovators who created approaches that obviously DO produce results (though sometimes their theories are wrong), and they usually get shunned by the medical establishment. In "bodywork," which is a general term that includes massage, you are literally working with the physical body, so if you get or don't get results it is obvious.
One example I am thinking of is the late Dr. Milton Trager, who almost accidentally created his own approach to bodywork (sensitivity and receptivity) but couldn't get it accepted, so in his forties he actually went to medical school to become an MD so his work might be accepted, but that didn't work. The doctors thought it was a bunch of "philosophy."
I read about his work and thought it made sense (despite reading comments somewhere by a "skeptic" that it couldn't work) so I booked a session with a local person who did it, and for $55 (about 30 years ago) I had a life changing experience. I got what seemed like a whole new body! It was wonderful. And some of the effects were quite long lasting, unlike those from massage. Trager really works on the mind, not just the muscles.
I have also been to highly paid orthopedists who were completely clueless (one had back problems of his own) who ordered X-rays and an MRI which only showed that my spine was perfect. Useless people.
(To learn more about "bodywork" I can recommend "Bone, Breath, & Gesture" by Don Hanlon Johnson, and also "Bodywork" by Thomas Claire.)
I have also had some amazing and even funny experiences on the "energy healing" street, which are hard to believe if you haven't had such experiences.
Did you ever read the column the arch skeptic Michael Shermer wrote in Scientific American about what happened to him on his wedding day? He had an experience that was so uncanny that it really shook him up, but he is a conservative who just doesn't like certain things he can't understand. I would give you the link here but it is now behind a paywall. I did find these:
https://unknowncountry.com/headline-news/weekender-a-skeptics-close-encounter-on-his-wedding-day/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1lzxBIWscA
I was reacting viscerally to the MidJourney case because I have seen first hand that there are people in the "New Age" community who have a desire to believe in certain things, along with a lack of rigorous critical thinking skills. I once paid $300 for some supposedly "healing" music that turned out to be worthless, and upon investigating the people behind it they seemed to be both deluded and scammers (they actually set up a pyramid scheme!) and people like that harm the reputations of the legit people, and the field itself.
It is very easy to fall into a cultish phenomenon. Most of the "gurus" who came to the US from India ended up having sex scandals. You have to be discerning.
We need to keep our minds open, but not empty.
It is important to get this right.
Thank you for the comments (and links). I appreciate the need for both open-mindedness and discernment!
Yeah. It is easy to get carried away by enthusiasm.
If the MidJourney people are genuine, they should have nothing to hide. So, I say: show us your work.
I am willing to change my mind. I do it all the time!
FWIW I recently went to this YouTube channel that offers pure brainwaves, even down to 1 hz and below. It actually put me to sleep, which I never do in the middle of the day. It uses binaural sound, which requires headphones.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AplTkEt59ok&t=240s
The first time I listened to this next music I later had a dream about a lot of snakes, which are supposed to be symbols of the Kundalini (and the medical symbol the caduceus):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AplTkEt59ok&t=240s
Just now I put it on and felt a tingling at the top of the head.
Try this one, to open the Third Eye. It frequently has me shaking violently when I hear it. It just did it again. Play it loud, unless it gets too much:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZhhXGLN_nE
Am I going too woo woo?
LOL
It is hard to know what to make of phenomena. Are you imagining things, or are they real? Watch how the audience responds to this next one, it's a classic example of what happens in deep healing or meditation. First you shake your head as if saying "NO!", then you nod your head as if saying "YES."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJi6maTueSc
I once went to a demo of Reiki healing at my former Borders Bookstore, and the guy gave brief samples to ten people, all of whom responded by shifting to abdominal breathing. I knew this was the tell, so I thought it was funny!
......
There are so many influencers working for eyeballs and money, and fake AI "doctors," so you don't always know who is for real.
I come here because Ted is for real. I don't always agree with him, but so what? That does not bother me. We are all just humans trying to figure it all out. It's hard!
Yes, thank you, the fact that we disagree with someone doesn't mean their message has no value.
Your viewpoint represents a large faction of humanity that looks forward to the new technologies predicted by Nicola Tesla, yet is leary of companies attempting to capitalize (monetize) this tech without a track record. Hopefully we're just in the "growing pains " stage, where this is bound to happen.
Thank you for the additional information and context and the conversation it hads sparked.
As a lifelong Disabled person who recently discovered that I have chronic pain and anxiety I know sound heals. I lie in bed and let frequencies I discovered on Substack loosening my muscles and work on restoring patterns that have been disrupted in my brain. It's going to take time and I still need to work on the repressed emotions and traumas that cause the conditions. But it turns out Eno was right and I love it!
Yawn. Science is catching up with what we "crazies" in the so-called paranormal community have known for some time now. 1. We already are telepathic. We are conditioned and programmed to ignore and devalue our intuition/instincts/psychic senses/soul senses (whatever name you prefer). Telepathy, in fact, is just one of four soul senses. 2. Of course sound can heal. After more than 100 years, science is finally getting to the full meaning of E = MC2. Matter and energy are fundamental equivalents. But so are consciousness and love. Expand the meaning of Einstein's equivalence equation and it's easy to see why/how sound interacts with matter, like the physical body. 3. Sound can also harm and even kill. This is a two-edged sword. I fully expect the major militaries of the world have already developed sound weapons and are itching to unleash them in another dominance display. God help us.
Agreed. The trouble with 'paranormal' research is not that it is based on false premises but, first, that science doesn't take it seriously (for commercial and ideological rather than rational reasons) and therefore doesn't provide useful research assistance, and second, there is no objective quality control. Although, judging by the number of peer-reviewed scientific studies that have been invalidated in recent years, this is a problem for science also.
Poor Ted may freak out if he reads these remarks and discovers he has intruded into well-trodden 'paranormal' territory.
Rather than trying to understand with my mental body, I choose to live out of my whole self. What the mental body calls paranormal is just par for the course for the emotional and spiritual bodies. Once you feel something--like a Kundalini experience, for example--you don't need research to know it's real. The mental body is too limited to grok the whole of the multiverse. It can only splutter, "This isn't logical!" Dam straight and thank goodness. A life confined only to the mental and physical is waayyy too limited.
I’ve always thought experiments involving spirits, etc, don’t even make logical sense because why would a spirit give a damn about showing up twice or enough times in your controlled experiment bent on proving something?
Why would a soul in a physical body show up to talk to someone or be part of an experiment? Curiosity? Grandiosity? The only thing that dies is the physical body. The rest of self remains. I personally think trying to prove the existence of souls after physical death is pointless because the scientific method is reductionist and therefore too limited. So I would never ask a person not in a physical body to be part of any experiment. But I might help someone ask for a soul to show up out of love and a need for resolution.
Yeah exactly. Non-repeatable because it doesn’t matter, and that makes it irrelevant to the scientific method
Ahh. But it makes it very relevant and important to those who need such resolution. I do not allow science to define what is important or irrelevant for me. The scientific method is just not the end-all/be-all you seem to think it is.
My dear we are agreeing lol
How much of this health data will go to data centers for AI to then know everything about us? Seems like a dangerous double-edged sword.
Probably way too late to do a thing about it.
you do realize that scans WILL find 'incidentalomas", many of which would have no repercussions if not discovered but when discovered will almost necessitate treatment, some of which will kill people.
It’s not sci-fi, it’s lo-fi.
writing from the UK Ted I too have had to undergo several MRI scans and CT scan and a cardiac scan which made me radioactive for 24 hours. All on the national Health Service and all free….no expensive insurance needed. I feel for you in the USA with all these attacks on Obamacare and ordinary people voting for a government which actively attacks public health care. I only hope ordinary americans come to their senses and realise what is clearly in their own best interests. Its not until the finger of fate points at you individually that the collective dimension dawns. For socialised medicine to work we do need to understand that we are all in this together. Rich or poor we all get sick in the same ways.
"...early imaging could eliminate 50% of all healthcare costs". I wonder what United Healthcare thinks about that possibility.
They will think it should double their profit margins, especially if they come to own the technology, and the customers.
I hope I don't come off as always negative. I could blame it on anosmia for the last 6.5 years.
Ted, yes healing sounds have been going on for at least 40,000 years for the aboriginals, and also the rainforest people I stayed with in Indonesia. Nice to see us slowly catching up.
I kept thinking “that Midjourney?” Surely there’s something they’re not telling us in all of this.
Sound has been used for healing for thousands of years! Singing bowls, Reiki, Tibetan chanting, and much more!
The bells!
Hi Ted, I am a jazz musician/singer/songwriter but I am also on the woo woo side of things. My book works with jazz music as preventative medicine. It sounds crazy, but I channel frequencies through my voice that allow people to name and release forgotten trauma with out having to relive it. While enjoying jazz! Jazz is part of the healing by entraining the listeners' vibration because jazz is played in the now moment-very powerful. I have always said, Spirituality is just science that hasn't caught up. The scientist should consult with those of us who have been gifted amazing spiritual tech. They are finally on the right path. Connie Lansberg
Sweet.
The most healing sound of all is a blues harp in the key of Bb played in 2nd position soft & low
It’s well established that humming, chanting, and slow breathing increase the body’s (specifically the sinus cavities’) production of nitric oxide, which relaxes blood vessels. They also trigger the vagus nerve, which calms the fight-or-flight stress reaction that so many live with.
Baptism by other means. Glad I read this today!
Interesting, but there is really nothing "new" here. Pythagorus taught the ancient Greeks that there were healing intervals in the 6th century BCE. Let us hope that people begin to incorporate what you discuss above in their healing practices today!
Really interesting but Midjourney gives me pause why did they abandon AI slop and suddenly decide to do something good? Color me extremely suspicious of their motives and intention!
Maybe they didn't abandon ship.
Yea I’m cynical and skeptical and usually Ted is too so I was very surprised by his face value take of “they used to do shit AI slop and now they want to save lives” take!