# SOMA.TONE — Evidence Ledger

*The moat is frequency honesty. This file is where every claim the instrument
implies is written down, tiered, and sourced — so a protocol can never say
more than the literature does.*

Revision 1 · paired with Protocol Library REV 3.1

---

## 00 · Positioning

SOMA.TONE is **sound-healing under wellness**: support for relaxation,
attention, sleep preparation, and stress reduction. It is:

- **not medical.** It does not diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent disease.
- **not "miracle frequency."** No claim that a tone detoxes the body,
  repairs DNA, or heals tissue.
- **not entertainment.** It is an instrument with a reproducible repertoire.

The strongest clinical category adjacent to this work is **music therapy**
(individualized, delivered by a credentialed professional) — which SOMA.TONE
is *not*. What we defensibly offer is a designed acoustic environment; what it
does past "it sounds and shows" belongs to the operator.

---

## 01 · Evidence tiers

Every protocol declares one. Ordered from hardest to softest:

| Tier | Meaning | Example in the library |
|---|---|---|
| **MEASURED** | a deterministic or robustly-measured physical/EEG fact, no bodily claim | Cymatics (modal geometry); the 40 Hz ASSR |
| **ENTRAINMENT** | real but modest; the parametrisation is the effect, band/duration/headphone dependent | Binaural SIGNALS (Δ/θ/α/β) |
| **VIBROACOUSTIC** | a real modality with clinical overlap; adjunctive, needs a transducer | SUB · 34 Hz |
| **RESEARCH** | active neurostimulation research; disease-mechanism, **not** a wellness claim | GENUS / GAMMA 40 Hz |
| **TRADITION** | a named traditional tuning, unverified; folklore kept and labeled | 528 Hz; 7.83 Hz Schumann |
| **RECORDING** | a field recording or data sonification; no efficacy claim at all | NATURAL FIELDS, EXPEDITIONS |

A protocol with no honest tier does not ship.

---

## 02 · Verified evidence (citations I stand behind)

- **Huang & Charyton (2008)**, *Altern Ther Health Med* 14(5) — comprehensive
  review of brainwave entrainment; "an effective therapeutic tool" across
  cognition/stress/pain/headache, **but more controlled trials are needed**.
  The epilepsy caution applies to **photic (light)** stimulation, not audio.
- **Garcia-Argibay et al. (2019)**, *Psychological Research* — meta-analysis of
  binaural-beat effects; real but modest, dependent on band/duration/headphones.
- **Martorell et al. (2019)**, *Cell* — combined 40 Hz **auditory + visual**
  stimulation (Tsai/Boyden, MIT); Alzheimer's-mechanism work, preclinical.
- **Iaccarino et al. (2016)**, *Nature* — 40 Hz gamma entrainment reduces
  amyloid (mouse, visual flicker).
- **Chan et al. (2022)**, *PLOS One*, PMID 36454969 — 40 Hz sensory
  stimulation in mild Alzheimer's; feasibility/pilot, **not** efficacy.
- **Bowling (2023)**, *Transl Psychiatry*, PMID 38049408 — biological principles
  for music and mental health; a framework for *why* music helps **without**
  miracle-frequency language. The conceptual anchor for our positioning.
- **NIOSH** — 85 dBA averaged over 8h as the recommended exposure limit;
  louder ⇒ shorter. The instrument limits at −6 dBFS and asks for moderate levels.

---

## 03 · Frontier watchlist (leads to monitor — NOT evidence yet)

Handed in from the field dossier. These are **scouting leads**, explicitly not
proof. Registered trials are not positive evidence until published; preprints
are not clinical validation.

| Source | Watch for | Do **not** |
|---|---|---|
| **NIH / NCCIH · Sound Health** | official evidence summaries, claim boundaries | over-read preliminary findings |
| **WHO · arts & health** (Fancourt & Finn 2019, HEN report 67) | policy framing, social prescribing | imply every arts result applies to sound |
| **Stanford / Bowling line** | music-based digital therapeutics for stress/anxiety/depression | treat the Stanford label alone as evidence |
| **MIT / 40 Hz GENUS** | auditory+visual gamma, Alzheimer's | present as spa/wellness proof |
| **ClinicalTrials.gov** | music therapy, binaural beats, tinnitus, gamma trials | cite a registration as a result |
| **arXiv / AI + biofeedback** | HRV/EEG-adaptive & generative music | cite a preprint as clinical proof |

Links: nih.gov/sound-health · nccih.nih.gov/health/music-and-health-what-you-need-to-know ·
who.int arts-and-health HEN-67 · clinicaltrials.gov · pubmed 38049408 (Bowling)

---

## 04 · Safety

- **Hearing** — moderate levels; long loud exposure is the real risk (NIOSH 85 dBA/8h).
- **Seizure** — the entrainment seizure caution is for **light flicker**, not
  audio; audio entrainment is the safer path. When in doubt, consult a clinician.
- **Vibration (SUB / vibroacoustic)** — adjunctive; clear strong low-frequency
  stimulation with a clinician for implanted devices, pregnancy, vascular issues,
  recent surgery, or fragile-bone conditions.
- **Psychological** — trauma-sensitive: sudden volume shifts, low drones, and
  forced catharsis can dysregulate. Onsets ramp; the master limits.
- **Vulnerable groups** — lower levels, shorter durations, oversight.

---

## 05 · The rule

> Every surface that implies an effect declares its tier and, where research is
> claimed, names the paper. The tag never softens into marketing and never
> hardens folklore into a citation it hasn't earned.

Source dossier: `Desktop/Sound_Healing_Dossier_with_Sources.docx`.