Andy Tran

CONTACT US

info@somadome.com

(888) 426-5789

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

QUESTIONS ABOUT SOMADOME

What is the Somadome?

Somadome is the world’s first healing individual meditation space. The 20-minute experience combines ancient healing practices with modern technology to promote stress relief, vitality, and alignment. Our mission is to make the world a more peaceful place by providing a sanctuary of wellness that replenishes the whole person.

How does the Somadome work?

You will be guided through a meditation of your choosing: tracks target a specific goal such as manifest, focus, love or overcoming various obstacles. The experience immerses you in a synergistic cocoon of healing that uses LED color and light therapy, binaural beat meditation, and energy healing magnets for optimal restoration. The space also shields from EMF / electronic device emissions, allowing your body’s natural alignment to be restored – so please put your phone in airplane mode!

Which track should I choose?

Each track focuses on a specific need: get focused in the morning, revitalize midday, relax in the evening. Choose what resonates with the current moment, as our needs always change. The ‘talking head’ icon denotes verbal guidance – those new to meditation may prefer this, while others may prefer an unguided track with just ambient music. All tracks include binaural beats.

(Who) When + How often should I dome?

You can dome any time. Sessions leave you feeling relaxed, replenished or recharged, depending on the session. Mindfulness is a consistent practice. People who dome 2-3 / week have the best results. Any age or health condition can benefit from alignment.

What will it do for me?

Research has shown that 2-3 sessions / week over the course of four weeks dramatically reduces anxiety and depression in 87% of people studied – across diverse demographics. Additionally, 69% of professional athletes studied reported better performance and recovery, and students and professionals better focus and creativity. Virtually all users regardless of frequency report reduction in stress and a sense of calm after one session.

What does Somadome mean?

In Greek and Latin, root “soma” means Self, or whole being. The “dome” is the space. Somadome is a private Sanctuary for the Self in the context of today’s complicated reality that comes to you, when and where you need to recharge, relax, and restore.

Is the dome safe for use during pregnancy?

Yes, the dome is certainly safe to use during your pregnancy. In fact, the dome does not have any contraindications through its use of LED therapy, Binaural Beats, and our low power static magnet therapy system. It is actually quite beneficial because it can help calm your nerves, balance your chakras and energy centers, align your body/mind/spirit, and visualize a healthy pregnancy and send nurturing energy to your growing baby!

Can I connect my ear buds while in the dome or must I use the headphones?

No you cannot.
We are preparing to launch the Somadome App which will enable users to pair their bluetooth headphones with the controller board to operate the Somadome, but for the next few months, the dome operates locally with hard-wired local headphones. This is for a reason, btw: it mitigates EMF interference and is by design to use hard-wired headphones. 

QUESTIONS ABOUT BINAURAL BEATS

What are binaural beats?

Binaural beats are inaudible sounds perceived by your brain, in the setting of listening to stereo musical frequencies through a headset. They guide you into different states associated with various benefits: theta for visualization, delta for deep healing, alpha for relaxed relaxation, etc.

Will it make me tired?

Even if you fall asleep, people consistently report emerging refreshed and renewed; returning to work or your workout with added energy and focus, enjoying life with an enhanced feeling of calm, clarity & inner resonance.

Why use binaural beats?

Like any tool, there are many potential uses – we believe binaural beats either assist in achieving a state where altering your mood is more likely, or that binaural beats may actually ‘entrain’ your brain towards the preferred state of mind you choose. A comprehensive review of brainwave entrainment studies reveals the use of binaural beats to reduce insomnia, headaches, improve response to exercise, improving concentration in hyperactivity disorders, and for reduce anxiety or depression.

How frequently do you have to meditate, or use binaural beats to have an effect?

It depends on the effect you are looking for, but for anxiety you could see a difference within even a single session. Programs of 20-minutes per day has been shown to reduce pain sensitivity and reception after only 5 days. Since there is so much reasonable expectation for overlap between meditation and binaural beats, we think Somadome is ideal for the person who believes they are too busy to fit meditation into their life, or does not feel they have a space in their home or workplace where meditation is possible.

What does scientific research show about effects of listening to binaural beat meditations on human health and well-being?

Binaural beats have been studied for decades, however much of the research is poorly controlled or has been difficult to reproduce, and there is a mix of scientific and non-scientific studies. The most common flaws in many psychology and alternative medicine journals has been poor study design, inadequate binaural beat exposure time, or lack of validated outcome measures. However, there have been several randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled studie that show binaural beats are effective at reducing anxiety, improving mood, or increasing attention. A particularly interesting study was conducted on patients during surgery, and showed that exposure to binaural beats resulted in less pain medication needed during the operation, less pain after the surgery, and earlier discharge from the hospital. It does appear to be true that listening to binaural beats for only 15 – 20 minutes can alter your mood, thinking, or perception of pain in as little as a single session when compared to sounds that appear to be binaural beats, but are just random acoustic patterns. The potential for Somadome to improve quality of life in people with chronic pain is one of the most exciting claims we are expecting to validate in large population studies.

Can I get the same kind of benefits from binaural beats as I could from meditation?

Yes, but it matters what binaural beats you use. Many studies have shown that meditation is an effective way to move the baseline rhythm of the brain towards alpha and theta, coinciding with feelings of relaxation and a state that resists stress and anxious disturbance while awake. In finding studies that show therapeutic benefits of meditation, there are many of the same problems of poor study design, lack of controls or subjective clinical outcomes that contain intrinsic bias. However, a review of meditation literature does reference good clinical studies with positive outcomes for anxiety, pain, immune functioning, and skin disorders presumed due to stress. When looking to compare meditation and binaural beats, it is important that the sound used is of impeccable quality, reproducibility, and coherence with the intended frequency.

Are there any negative side effects associated with listening to binaural beat meditations in the Somadome?

None. Being in the Somadome carries the same risks as sitting at home in your chair and listening to an audiobook. There is no evidence, or scientific hypothesis whatsoever to justify a concern for safety or harm based on sitting in quiet contemplation of an improved state of mind.

Where can I learn about brain function changes over time?

This Frontiers in Neuroscience article is a great place to start:
Developing Brain Vital Signs: Initial Framework for Monitoring Brain Function Changes Over Time

QUESTIONS ABOUT ENERGY MEDICINE

What does magnet therapy do?

The magnets cancel out harmful EMFs and work synergistically to create a cocoon that replicates the frequency of a healthy human body and stimulates the free flow of chi.

What is energy medicine?

The term “Energy Medicine” was coined in the 1980s by Dr. Elmer Green with the establishment of the International Society for the Study of Subtle Energy and Energy Medicine (ISSSEE). Dr. Green used the term to refer to alternative and traditional forms of healing that viewed the body as an energy system and believe that the body has subtle energies that shape health and disease but cannot yet be measured by current instruments. However, today, there are Western-trained physicians and scientists who embrace the term and include forms of electromagnetic healing used in mainstream medicine as well.

The foremost scientific writer on energy medicine today is Dr. James L. Oschman, Ph.D., a biologist and biophysicist who studied under Nobel Prize winner Albert Szent-Gyorgi and was influenced by Szent-Gyorgi’s work on bioelectronics. His book, Energy Medicine: The Scientific Basis (Churchill Livingstone: 2000), is the best available synthesis of western experimental and clinical work that relates to understanding the body as an energy system or set of energy systems.

At Somadome, we define energy medicine as techniques or other modes of healing that share the common thread of viewing the body as a system of energies, rather than a mere summation of biochemical interaction.

Among healers and doctors who view disease primarily in energetic terms, such as Traditional Chinese Medicine doctors and acupuncturists, disease is understood to result from blockages in or mismanagement of preferred energy flow in the body, or problems with the type of energy that communicates within human tissue.

Developing a rigorous and scientifically plausible theory of the human energy system that is consistent with what we know of human biology and allows for testable hypotheses and measurable results is at the cutting edge of science and medicine today.

What is a low static magnet?

A magnet is a material or object that produces a magnetic field. This magnetic field is invisible and attracts or repels with other energy fields.

Why is magnet therapy being used in the Somadome?

EMFs are entrained by a low static magnetic field. A low static magnet uses entrainment to capture EMFs – which could mean neutralizing EMFs.

What are some examples of energy medicine?

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is an energy medicine system. Acupuncture, a core medical practice within TCM, claims to modify energy flow in the body and thus restore health and balance. There is evidence from placebo controlled trials that acupuncture can modulate heart-rate variability[Anderson et al, 2012], evidence from imaging studies that it can effect deep cortical structures that are not limited to the somatosensory cortex affected by needles, and may modify the “default mode network,” a background of mental activity in the brain [Hui et al 2000, 2010]. There is also evidence that acupuncture points on the skin have low electrical impedance compared to non-acupuncture points and are anatomically associated with connective tissue planes. [Han et al, 2010]. Other traditional medical systems, including Ayurvedic medicine, Tibetan medicine, traditional Incan medicine, ancient Egyptian medicine, and ancient Greek medicine hold or held a similar view of disease as caused primarily by blockages in energy flow. In more modern times, one will often hear discussions involving the term “quantum,” for example, to describe how homeopathic remedies are purported to affect disease through energetic reorganization of the body’s water molecules. Collectively, these traditional forms of energy medicine are core beliefs for billions of people, and often represent an unmet need by western physicians who are unable to speak to patients with an understanding of their point of view.

Within mainstream American medicine, there are accepted treatments which overlap the boundaries of energy medicine. For example, pulsed electromagnetic field therapy (PEFT) has been FDA approved since 1979 for the indication of improving bone fracture [Midura et al, 2005] and has been used off label to control pain, inflammation and sleep disorders. TENS device have been used routinely since the 1970s to control pain by providing stimulating pulses to the skin. Electroencephalograms (EEG) and electrocardiograms (ECG/EKG) operate diagnostically through amplification of electric fields summed from the biochemical potentials generated by their cellular networks. More recently, doctors have begun to write guidelines for using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and ultrasound to treat insomnia, inflammation, and pain, and TMS has shown substantial effect at improving outcomes in treatment resistant depression that has failed pharmacotherapy [Fitzgerald et al 2014]. Transcranial direct stimulation (tDCS) is being used in a number of IIa clinical trials to reduce tinnitus, enhance learning, and reduce cognitive symptoms of aging and multiple sclerosis, and a randomized, double-blinded and sham-controlled study has shown that tDCS energy treatments reduced symptoms of fibromyalgia for up to three weeks following a single treatment [Fregni et al 2006].

At Somadome we encourage readers to examine the growing evidence and indications for use of non-invasive energetic methods of medical treatment, for example for pain [Connell et al 2011], and understand what they have, and have not yet, to been shown to treat.

How do we know magnet therapy works?

We know they work because acupuncturists and other healers around the world have successful been using magnets in their practices. This is hardly unprecedented – medical history is replete with examples of successful treatments and healing modalities that have been used before we have had theories to explain their mechanism of action. Under the tutelage of Dr. Norman Suhu of New York City (and a member of the somadome Research Advisory Board) acupuncturists have been using them around the world in lieu of needles, planning them on acupuncture points and experienced tremendous success, often getting better results than with needles. A number of acupuncturists have abandoned needles in favor of magnets. Other medical and healing practitioners have also been experimenting with magnets. Somadome is looking for a research partner to run a double-blind test on a Somadome with magnets and a Somadome without magnets to assess the efficacy of the magnets in impacting users’ states of health and well being.

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