Free Prophecy. An ARKANE thriller. (Book 2) by J.F. Penn

charisma swept all before him. Maria began.  
    “My lab has been focusing on mental health for the last four years, specifically investigating binaural beat brainwaves and how they can be used to carry messages into the deep brain. This is the key to the new anxiety and depression treatment that has just recently been released to the public. That method has been tested and proven, but today I want to take a step further into the realms of behavior modification using the same mechanism.”
    Maria could see she had the full attention of the Board members and she changed the slide to show a brain and aural apparatus used in the experiments.  
    “First, we went back to basics,” she explained. “Binaural beats are auditory brainstem responses that originate in the superior olivary nucleus of each hemisphere. They result from the interaction of two different auditory impulses in opposite ears where the difference between the frequencies is experienced as a wave across the hemispheres. The binaural beat is not heard as you would listen to music, but it is perceived by the unconscious and can be used to communicate messages based on an alternate state of consciousness. Brain waves oscillate in the same way as tuning forks and we have access to control them through binaural beats. Until now the research hasn’t been used to affect physical behavior, but our breakthrough came when we combined this with research by Persinger and also with a drug regime.”  
    Milan Noble had been writing notes, but at this he looked up.  
    “I’ve read Persinger’s research with the God helmet but how does it relate to binaural beats?”
    Maria nodded her acknowledgment of the question and clicked forward to show highlights of the original God helmet research.  
    “For those who may be unfamiliar, Professor Michael Persinger is a cognitive specialist who has been researching neuro-theology, a specific branch of brain science that looks at religious experience and how it occurs in the brain. The original God helmet was a crude device that stimulated the temporal lobe with a weak magnetic field. Participants in the original experiments sometimes experienced visions or felt another presence in the room. But now, regardless of what an individual believes, we have been able to use the suggestion of God or the Other in our binaural experiments.”
    Maria looked at Milan to check for further questions but he nodded for her to continue. She felt elated at his encouraging response so she clicked the button for the next slide. It showed a Caravaggio painting in muted reds with a dark Italian landscape in the background. An old man stood holding his young son down, a knife to his throat. An angel grasped the man’s hand to stay the blade as a ram nudged into the frame, awaiting sacrifice in the boy’s place. Next to the image was a headline from a newspaper article that announced the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, Israeli Prime Minister, at the hands of Yigal Amir, a right wing extremist Jew who protested against the peace accords between Israel and the Palestinians. Maria had Milan’s focused attention now. He was leaning forward, his eyes fixated on the screen.  
    “Abraham,” he said. “Why?”
    “This started out as a thought experiment for me,” Maria replied. “For many people, the ultimate authority is God, so I based the experiments on that principle. In 1995, Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated and his murderer said that God told him to do it.   It echoes the biblical story of Abraham. If you believe that the ultimate authority is God, even if you are asked to do things you don’t want to, you will perform them anyway. Even if the task is abhorrent, people will usually obey a higher authority figure. This is also demonstrated by Stanley Milgram’s studies on obedience.”  
    “Could you refresh our memories on that too, Dr Van Garre,” Milan asked with a raised eyebrow.  
    “Of course.” Maria flicked to images of subjects