Question:
Good day, Mr. Jeffery!
I hope all is well with you, sir! I had a question about binaural beats. They are purported to produce different frequencies in the brain to achieve positive outcomes, such as reduced anxiety, better sleep, and improved health.
There is this YouTube channel that has them on there for people who work out, which supposedly gives you strength benefits. And the creator of the channel claims they are giving effects like actual testosterone. It’s just different frequencies and isotonic tones.
Is it sinful to listen to it?
Answer:
When something sounds too good to be true, it probably isn’t what it claims to be.
Binaural beats are the play of two different frequencies, one in each ear. The conflicting frequencies cause the brain to perceive a phantom frequency equal to the difference between them.
“There’s a growing body of research exploring how different types of binaural beats affect various functions,” says Anastasiia Melnichuk, a neuroscience researcher studying binaural beats at The University of Texas at Austin. “Some studies have shown promising effects on anxiety, pain perception, attention, and memory. That said, results can vary depending on the specific parameters of the beats and the task being measured.” … There’s no clear consensus yet on how binaural beats work,” Melnichuk says. “We know that the brain can ‘follow’ the beat frequency through something called a frequency-following response. But the exact mechanisms linking that brain activity to changes in things like attention or memory haven’t been pinned down yet.” [Kendall K. Morgan, “What Are Binaural Beats?“, WebMD, 9 May 2025].
Notice that the research focuses on the effects of binaural beats on the brain. Let’s suppose that binaural beats could cause an anxious person to relax, which would improve that person’s health, but it would not show much improvement in a person who is not anxious.
Unfortunately, reviews of the research show no conclusive evidence [Ruth Maria Ingendoh, “Binaural beats to entrain the brain? A systematic review of the effects of binaural beat stimulation on brain oscillatory activity, and the implications for psychological research and intervention,” PubMed Central, 19 May 2023]. Many of the studies are simply poorly done. One of the problems is that the claims are that the binaural beats match the brainwaves produced by the brain in certain states. What is lacking is proof that external sounds put the brain into such a state. Another problem is that there haven’t been good studies to rule out the placebo effect (in which something is perceived to work because the person expects it to) [Brian Dunning, “Binaural Beats: Not Digital Drugs,” Skeptiod, 31 March 2009].
Does listening to binaural beats cause harm? No. Does it have benefits? Most likely not. Is it wrong to listen to them? No. It is not violating any moral principle.\
Response:
Thank you so much for this answer, Mr. Jeffrey! I appreciate all the work you do.