h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'd like to ask the author whether they have done any series research into the "new age" techniques such as crystals. This is mainly due to the comment that "unlike those things, brainwave alteration does work". While there are undopubtedly many books and so on on crystal techniques and so on which are at best useless, and in some cases possibly even counter-productive, there are also a good number of techniques in this vain which do work, and are often developed by people who have an understanding of the science behind them.

My own experience is mainly with trance induction techniques such as meditation, often involving the use of audio and/or visual stimuli. When properly developed these techniques really do work, and I expect that a proper scientific study of them would show that they do work, and probably be able to give scientific reasons for why/how they work.

Many of these techniques have been used to induce altered mental states for centuries, and the reason they continue to be used is because they really do work.

Of course, there can be little doubt that many "new age" techniques are designed simply to sell books to the gullible and impressionable, but that doesn't mean that there are valid techniques coming from the "new age" type areas.