(Hemi-Sync® Journal, Vol. X, No. 4, Fall 1992) BEHAVIORAL EFFECTS OF HEMI-SYNC®: EMBEDDED MEDITATION MUSIC ON A HORSE by Helene N. Guttman, Ph.D. and Shirley Bliley Helene Guttman heads HNG Associates, the sponsor of these studies, in Bethesda, Maryland, and is also animal care coordinator at the Agricultural Research Services, USDA. Shirley Bliley is an applied equine ethologist (behaviorist) who maintains horses in Lovingston, Virginia, and is a member of the TMI staff. Here the authors discuss observed behavioral changes in a subject horse during a Hemi-Sync experiment. In her 1990 article, Guttman proposed using studies with species other than humans to determine whether listening to binaural beat technology, namely Hemi-Sync, would synchronize the left and right brain hemispheres and also result in a similar array of altered behavioral effects as experienced by humans. A number of beneficial applications of the use of Hemi-Sync for nonhuman animal species also were proposed. The first experimental test of this proposal, using an equine subject, was reported in Guttman’s 1991 article. This study showed that the equine brain became synchronized (as shown by Fourier-transformed EEGs) as a result of listening to a music tape embedded with binaural beats. Methods This study was done in the home upper pasture of the equine subject, Kerry Mist. It is
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Hemi-Sync® Journal 1992-4 (Fall) · 2 Behavioral Effects of Hemi-Sync® - Embedded Meditation Music on a Horse.pdf
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important to note the environmental conditions on the day of the study because the subject usually expresses particular behaviors under such conditions. The study was done in the early afternoon of a very humid, hot (95°F) day with an electrical storm approaching rapidly. Under such circumstances, this horse usually moved inside her shelter in the lower pasture. Thus, the conditions were unfavorable for inducing the expression of a “calm behavior.” Setting conditions that are opposed to a potential experiment-induced effect controls against the experimenter creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. Kerry Mist’s stable mate, Bonny Dick, was allowed to roam freely in the pasture during the study, but chose to stay close to Kerry Mist for the entire study time. Kerry Mist was outfitted with a hood to which was sewn headphones that were attached to a small, portable tape player. Care was taken not to touch the horse’s ears with the headphones. The tape player was secured to Kerry Mist’s neck with veterinary tape. The initial experiment plan was to play two tapes in sequence for thirty minutes each. The entire experiment was recorded on videotape archive with date and time and with audio behavioral observations by Bliley. Bliley stood near the subject for the duration of the study and was unaware of the music tape that Guttman selected for play. The meditation music tapes played to Kerry Mist were