Creative Attributions
Foreword
This page discusses the creative process and backstory behind the audiovisuals I've produced for use in my manifestation practice. Here I'll talk about how I produced both the audio and the video, and also describe why I picked certain creators to sample from. Since this work is ongoing, I'll be updating this page with additional information as new releases become available.
About
My music can best be described as isochronic soundscapes. They are designed to place the listener in a relaxed state of mind by influencing brain waves. There’s some science behind the way this works, but I only loosely design around scientific principles and try to find an optimal blend between what’s effective and what sounds good.
My compositions are titled with two words that capture the theme of the piece. Some examples are Divine Mystery, Mystic Enigma, Astral Meridian, etc… In the most basic form, the music itself is absent any kind of subliminal messaging. Additionally, any audio I produce that contains subliminal messaging will be clearly labeled as such.
The audio templates are similar to a musical composition, but I usually don’t think much about time signature or a beat that rigidly confines the structure of the audio. The isochronic tones are aligned to emulate a kind of rhythmic pattern, which might be regarded as a beat. Rarely are specific notes placed within the composition, and generally speaking, the work is composition of compositions. In a sense, they transform existing audio into something that aims to achieve a purpose somewhat different than the original intent.
As for my creative process, I start out with a concept; sometimes derived from my every day experiences or even just something someone mentions in a conversation. Sometimes I start with a sound and figure out how I want to use it or I seek out audio that might help implement an idea I have in mind. When at all possible, I try to incorporate work from creators who have had a positive impact on my life. Basically, inspiration comes from a variety of places, and there's no one set path I take when starting out.
Creative Works
With respect to copyright and fair use, my goal is to produce something transformative that doesn’t compete in the same space as the sampled works. Though some of my work may seem professional in quality, I consider myself a hobbyist audiovisual engineer and my decision to sample a particular artist is - for the most part - done from a fan tribute perspective. I never decide to use something based on potential profit or popularity. My current videos will be intentionally demonetized (when YouTube allows) for this reason.
If I find something I can pay for and works pretty well, I will usually just use that to alleviate any burden of having to convince someone to let me use their content. In the event that I can't pay for something outright, or I just happen to find something that is an overwhelmingly perfect fit, I attempt to reach out to content creator to get permission to use their work. In the majority of cases, people are happy to let me sample their content given that certain conditions are met. However, for the more popular content creators, I usually don’t get a reply back.
When I'm not explicitly given permission, I proceed with caution and with the expectation that I might be asked to remove a video. It's troubling that one day I might be asked to take down a video that I spent many hundreds of hours working on, but that's the risk I take. In a sense, I'd rather ask forgiveness than seek permission when the answer is unknown or uncertain.
One other thing to note, I would love to post all of my videos free of advertisements. I’m absolutely against ads of any kind shown before, during, or after my videos. If I make $0 in ad revenue from my work, I'm completely fine with that as long as no one has their viewing experience interrupted. On the other hand, probably most of the creators who I sample from rely on their content as a primary source of income, and so there's a source of contention here where I'm presenting some element of their content free of charge. As mentioned previously, I often sample content based on my love of the original creator, and I never pick samples based on how much profit, user engagement, or buzz that it might generate. Still, if you are a content creator mentioned below and object to my use of your work for any reason, just let me know what you want me to do and I will oblige. Ideally, I would like to explore opportunities to collaborate, because as I mentioned before, most of the artists I choose are people I creatively admire. This work means everything to me, but what's also important to me is respecting the wishes of those who enable work like mine to exist.
So, with all that being said, here's the story behind each audio template. I'll first list out the content creators and the pieces where their work is utilized, and then I'll list out the audio template descriptions. There’s no particular order here other than the first one.
Content Creators
IndigoAurora
The YouTuber IndigoAurora has been the most influential figure in my work. Many years ago, I was going through a challenging time in my life where negative impulses and temptations controlled me. After searching for something that could set me on the right path, I landed on the subliminals produced by IndigoAurora. There were other content creators who made similar kinds of subliminals, but there was something truly inspired about IA's work. Though seemingly implausible to achieve, his affirmations embodied a powerful vision for humanity. So, I wanted to run with that idea and test the impossible. I integrated his subliminals into a kind of self-improvement discipline, and through this practice I started to overcome many of the more damaging aspects in my life. After probably a year or so of using them, I felt as if they were making a difference. However, I determined there were elements of the listening experience that I wanted to improve upon, and I felt my ideas were so specific that probably only I would be able to implement them. So, I began the quest that has lead me to where I am today.
I've kept in touch with IA over the years, and we're pretty much like modern day pen pals at this point. He's all around genuine person and was happy to let me use some of his affirmations as a basis for my work. In terms of how our content differs, I rely heavily on the concept of manifestation, the dream state, and an accompanying practice. Fundamentally, the common purpose behind his past content and my current content is to radically improve the human condition using the power of the mind.
Many of my audio templates use the same samples found in his audio. I did some pretty heavy editing to the samples, but I still consider it an homage to his work. Most of the tracks are available for download on pond5 and prosounds - usually for $5 to $20 each.
Example:
His original production: Energy Shield, Force Field, Divine Protection subliminal with 444hz
The force field sound effect on prosounds: https://download.prosoundeffects.com/track/938616
My usage of the force field sound effect is present in Divine Mystery.
Sound and Silence Resonant Healing
I've been in contact with Pam and Jurek via email since around the time I released my first video in Oct. 2020, and I've received great and thoughtful feedback from them over the years. For letting me use their temple bell recordings at no cost or obligation, I've donated money to them each time I release a new set of videos to promote and encourage their work. If you like what they produce, please consider donating as well. They are among the very few people who actually took the time to listen to my early work and give their feedback.
Example:
432hz Temple Bell from Sound and Silence Resonant Healing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQ4LE2B96Is
My usage of this is present in Divine Mystery, Mystic Enigma, and Onward Within. I use some of their other recordings in Astral Meridian and Celestial Starway.
Gibi ASMR
Quick backstory; I took edibles and was browsing around YouTube in late 2018 after I had moved to a new city. YouTube recommended one of Gibi's mic scratching videos to me, and I found it to be very relaxing. Some time after I released my first video, I went through several of her other mic scratching videos and extracted some audio samples. However, my audio engineering skills weren't quite good enough to clean up and fine tune the samples for what I had in mind. So, they just sat idle on my hard drive for a while. Fast forward a year or so, and after many tireless hours of effort, I was able to produce my vision for an "ASMR mic scratching" audio template. Gibi is the queen of ASMR in my mind and pioneered a lot of the ASMR content we see on YouTube today. So, much credit goes to her for creating the fundamental sound you hear in this audio template.
I have a playlist (Get Tingly) on my personal channel with many "mic scratching" videos from Gibi ASMR. I don't know exactly which videos I sampled because it was quite a while ago. However, the ones I used are contained somewhere in the playlist.
Gibi ASMR sampled content is used in the Astral Meridian audio template.
Relaxing Sounds of Nature
I had a really hard time finding the right kind of wind for my videos. Wind is a very relaxing kind of white noise, and I use it frequently in my audio. In fact, you could even say wind is just a part of my style at this point. I'm not 100% sure that this is the original track because I made so many edits and misplaced the original file, but in the email where I requested permission to use the content, this is the video I linked to the content creator. For use of his work, the creator only asked me to consider making a donation, to which I happily obliged.
Strong Howling Wind Sound 2 Hours / Swaying Spruce Trees in The Wind
Eric Whitacre
Around the time before my 1st son was born, I was still in an era of making bad choices and stuck in a mindset of self-interest. I came across Eric Whitacre's Lux Aurumque on YouTube, and the beauty and talent that went into creating such a wonderful piece of music was truly inspiring to me. I remember the day I placed my hand on my pregnant wife's belly and felt my unborn son kicking in response to the sound of Lux Aurumque playing through our living room speakers. In that beautiful moment, I felt compelled to be a better person, and make the sacrifices necessary so that my children could grow up in a healthy and loving environment. I'm not sure if Eric anticipated such a profound impact with his music, but I suspect he would be happy to hear of the positive effect it had in someone's life.
Abby ASMR
Abby is an ASMRtist that Youtube probably recommended to me probably around early 2019. I listened to her Reiki ASMR videos and thought they were very pleasant. I knew her sweet whisper voice would work very well with the audio effect I had in mind, but it would be another couple of years learning audio engineering before I could take a shot at it. I basically wanted to create something with a lot of audio panning, echo, delay, reverb, etc... So, I think this came out pretty close to what I was aiming for. Abby comes across with such a calm and soothing demeanor, and I like the way she remains exclusively focused on the Reiki experience. To complement her style, I decided on Recode Mastery and Dream Wake as backing tracks since the breathing in that audio closely aligns with what she encourages during the session.
My oldest son says that out of all the videos I've made, Abby is his favorite, and listens to her pretty frequently to fall asleep. So, that's a major seal of approval from probably my biggest fan.
Meditative Mind
Back when I was regularly listening to IA subliminals, the YouTube algorithm showed me a video by Meditative Mind. A big part of my practice at the time was listening to this one particular video of theirs and doing various workouts, meditations, and breathing exercises. After a while, this particular video fell out of use. Fast forward to me trying to design breathing exercise audio, and I remembered the video that I used so many times previously. So, I extracted a section that would fit into what I was making and thought it was a nice callback to the way I had originally used the audio.
Jörg Blümlinger
For Holotropic Odyssey, I wanted some kind of monochord and/or shruti box during the breath hold portion. I couldn't find a good isolated monochord sample anywhere. I did some browsing of YouTube and found this guy's video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-CRO1wl6Nk His style is basically what I was looking for. However, he speaks German. So, I used an online translator to converse with him to see if he would create a recording for me. He obliged and created a pretty decent cut, but there was an ambient hum and some other quality issues with the recording. Since I wasn't able to fix the recording issues with my skillset at the time, I just put it aside due to the overwhelming amount of other activities I had going on. Unfortunately, replying back to Jörg sorta slipped my mind, and I basically just ghosted him. Very shameful look on my part, but I'm hoping my content blows up in popularity at some point just so he can unexpectedly be in the spotlight for trying to help me out. He seems like a pretty cool dude.
Jörg’s skillful monochord playing is present in the breath hold portion of the Holotropic Odyssey template.
Audio Templates
Here's a general overview of each audio template. These aren't meant to be a comprehensive description of all the work and thought that went into each piece. Instead, it's just supposed to be a glimpse into what went through my mind when working on them. There's a lot of audio engineering behind each composition that would take too long to explain in this format, but I'll list out some of the fundamental info.
Since I'm always short on time, I'm just going to link paid downloads for Divine Mystery. If the time or need arises, I'll come back in here and source everything else. For the most part, it's all from prosounds, pond5, or from youtubers who I contacted or tried to contact.
Divine Mystery
My original ambition with this audio template was to create a heavenly sound with a hint of sadness. If a divine being walks the Earth, a glimmer of hope will shine in this realm of darkness. Heavenly light will exist in contrast to the sorrowful domain in which it remains trapped. What is the good in this triumph? The answer to this question is what inspired the name "Divine Mystery".
The audio is pitched at A=432hz, and uses overlapping 1, 3, and 6hz isochronic tones, which creates the rolling bouncy feel.
Monk sound was a paid download from pond5: https://www.pond5.com/sound-effects/item/111045153-monk-chant-japanese-buddhist-temple-surreal
Heavenly chorus was a paid download from prosounds: https://download.prosoundeffects.com/track/25382424
Force field was a paid download from prosounds: https://download.prosoundeffects.com/track/938616
Astral Meridian
For this one, I started out with audio samples from Gibi ASMR and then had to figure out how I wanted to use them. The path I took was to just emphasize, refine, and repeat the already pleasant sounds in the ASMR experience. The end result is aurally pleasurable and elicits a sense of safety, comfort, and relaxation. I also used the really cool "healing chamber" effect from one of IA's videos.
The audio is pitched at A=432hz, and uses overlapping 2, 4, and 8hz isochronic tones. However, there's also some delay's on the iso, so it's not quite a true isochronic - only suggestive of one. There's also a rhythmic descending modulation of the "healing chamber" and wind from 8hz to 2hz.
Mystic Enigma
Divine Mystery and Mystic Enigma were intended to be two sides of the same coin. I wanted to reflect the enigmatic darkness embodied in the light beings created by my practice. Though shining and resplendent, they still exist in the material realm, and so will be forever flawed by their very nature. In a sense, they are a monument to imperfection.
The audio is pitched at A=432hz, and uses overlapping 1hz, 4hz, and 8hz isochronics. The 1hz is what gives the occasional sense of a driving heart beat.
Celestial Starway
I've always loved the sound of trains, and find them very relaxing when heard from a distance. Around the time I was working on this train idea, I knew I wanted to use something from Eric Whitacre. Since I woo'd my wife with a video about the Hubble Deep Field image, I put my sights on Eric Whitacre's "Deep Field", which I recall featured a section with some beautiful and mostly isolated choir vocals. Thus was born Celestial Starway. I'm really happy with the end result, and I think it's probably the most pleasant sounding of all my tracks just by nature of Eric Whitacre's touch.
Recode Mastery
Right around the time I released TMS2, I was posting on the /r/EscapingPrisonPlanet subreddit pretty frequently. A user there took note of some of my replies to his posts, and invited me to mod on a subreddit called /r/RecodeReality, which I accepted. Since I was already working on some breathing exercise video ideas, I figured I'd borrow the "Recode" and mix it in with the naming of my very first subliminal "Dream and Sleep Mastery". The result is "Recode Mastery". As far as the actual audio, it's intended to act as a downregulation of the parasympathetic nervous system. Basically, 4 second in and 6 second out breathing. This style of breathing can lower the heart rate and induce a calm state of mind.
The audio is pitched at A=436, and uses an 8hz isochronic tone. The idea here is to put the user in a relaxed alpha brain state.
Dream Wake
Similar in concept to Recode Mastery, but with a 5 second in and 8 second out breathing style. The name is based on the 4hz and 32hz overlapping isochronics. This is the common "theta / gamma" lucid dreaming brainwave state. Since you listen to this while awake, I think of it like a waking dream state of mind - hence the name.
The audio is pitched at A=442hz, and uses 4hz and 32hz isochronic tones.
Holotropic Odyssey
I'm not sure how well I'd handle the challenges of life had it not been for Wim Hof and the way he popularized holotropic breathing. His personality and attitude are phenomenal. Right around when I first discovered IA's videos, I think I had been doing Wim Hof breathing for maybe couple of weeks. This was around late 2018. So, things just kind of converged for me in a rather amazing way during that time. Holotropic Odyssey isn't exactly the Wim Hof breathing method, but it does attempt to capture his same energy while incorporating some breathwork techniques that I frequently like to use.
Recode Abby
I created this audio as a fan tribute to Abby ASMR. This is basically the first reiki video of hers that I discovered, and it uses Recode Mastery as the backing track.
Dream Abby
Similar to Recode Abby, but another one of her Reiki videos. I wanted to create a different layered vocals effect with this one, which I feel like I accomplished pretty well. This one uses Dream Wake as a backing track.
Rise Eternal
This one originally was going to be something like the Jody Hutton videos that use binaural beats, but instead use isochronic tones. However, I kind of got carried away and it became it's own thing that was still sort of modeled after Jody Hutton's work. This one came out very good and I think it's probably one of the best tracks to fall asleep to. For this reason, I made a 90m version in addition to the shorter 7:10. I think used 3 or 4 different samples from prosounds/pond5 and did a lot of mixing to create the silky smooth and airy sound you hear in the composition.
Rise Eternal is pitched at A=432hz. Side note, I have an 8.5h version of this one I can release if there's any interest in it. It just takes a very long time to export and I'd rather spend my time on other activities with my very limited free time.
Onward Within
My original work was supraliminal - meaning you could perceive the presence of the affirmations, but may have difficulty discerning them. My sister in law said she prefers my original content where she can try to pick out the affirmations. While I think the supraliminal content maybe isn't as effective at reaching the unconscious mind, I decided to create something more on a supraliminal side for listeners who might want to be immersed in a word swarm of the affirmations. So, that's the idea behind Onward Within.
Onward Within is pitched at A=432hz. All the samples are from prosounds and pond5.