Jiggling Your Microtubles with Ultrasound
A lazy intro to brain stimulation with high frequency sound
I first heard about Transcranial Ultrasound Stimulation (TUS), a brain stimulation technique using ultrasonic waves, at a Consciousness Hacking meetup in San Francisco back in the 2010s. CH was one of my favorite communities in the Bay: a mix of STEM nerds, contemplatives, psychonauts, and crystal-rubbing woo-sters (sometimes all in the same body) coming together to explore technology, in the broadest sense, for enhancing consciousness. Topics ranged from nootropics and diets (yes, keto) to quantified-self systems and meditation techniques, and, of course, brain-hacking hardware like TUS.
Having already tried TUS’s cousin, Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation, finding the experience prickly and the effects unremarkable, I didn’t pay much heed to TUS at first blush. Then, one of my all-time favorite meditation teachers, Shinzen Young (who I adored for his humor, frankness, and STEM fluency), started writing and talking about it—and with glowing optimism. He described his experiences as on par with the deepest states of meditation he had achieved by natural means. He began collaborating with neuroscientist Jay Sanguinetti to study and publish research on the effects and benefits from a meditative perspective. In Hacking Enlightenment, a 9-minute video overview of their work produced by The Guardian, Jay shares an inspiring quote from the Dalai Llama: “If neuroscientists could create an intervention that could give me the effects of meditating without meditating, I would be the first one to sign up.”
But the benefits of TUS are not just for meditators. A 2023 meta-review found TUS improved a broad range of conditions affecting the central nervous system: epilepsy, essential tremor, depression, Parkinson's, and Alzheimer's. A 2020 University of Arizona study found that TUS makes people feel good.
Recently, I stumbled across Sterling Cooley, who is a TUS shill in the best possible sense. His enthusiastic tweets on TUS and related topics renewed my own, and I find myself writing this post after my third 5-minute session with the TENSpros US 1000, a $55 (2/1/2025) TUS device that Sterling recommends. Every session has left me lighter and brighter, and today, in particular, made it clear it was time to write something to make sharing with friends and family a bit easier.
And what about the risks? History is, of course, littered with cases where an innovation thought safe turned out, decades later, to have unintended and undesirable consequences. However, ultrasound has found medical applications for nearly a century; in the 1940s, it was first used to detect brain tumors. It’s how we get our first glimpse of a baby in the womb. While using it for stimulation (as opposed to imaging) is a more recent development, and studied timeframes are in months, not years, the current literature offers little cause for concern about TUS when applied according to studied protocols. Anyway, we’re at Burning Man, right? Safety third.
Whether you’re in, out, or on the fence, feel free to keep an eye on me—I’m looking forward to following in the steps of Bryan Johnson, the world’s youngest 47-year-old, and giving vagus nerve stimulation a shot to see if it helps with my digestive troubles.