How It Started

It’s January 2016 and The NAMM (National Association of Music Merchandisers) Show is in full swing. Thousands of booths unfold endlessly in all directions, each demonstrating the latest gear for the masses.

Somehow, wandering through the sea of people and products, David Sampson ends up at the far end of the Anaheim Convention Center. There are barely any people there–a tumbleweed may as well blow by. 

He locks eyes with a man at a booth who looks like he’s been waiting a long time to talk to someone. 

“Hello,” David says, mostly out of friendly courtesy. 

“Hey man, do you know what a tactile transducer is?…” the gentleman bellowed with a smile.

“No,” was David’s reply.

It was fate.

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Part 1: Finding the Harmony

David is a professional guitarist with a 28-year-long career.  He’s played jazz, rock, blues and R&B on stages around the world. He’s recorded with many notable artists including Charles Earland, Freddie Hubbard, Peven Everette, Somi, Lauryn Hill, Ceelo Green, John Legend, Anthony Hamilton, and Craig Robinson.  Since 2016 he’s devoted his creativity,  knowledge and skill to building Vibroluxe, a 3D Sound Immersion system for musicians and people who work at home. 

“What I felt when that man instructed me to stand on a two-foot-square piece of wood–when he sent the signal through the system–changed my life and my relationship to music forever. It was my eureka moment.”

“It felt amazing, and I immediately thought of the potential as a therapeutic device,” Sampson says. 

“It actually reminded me of a colored light healing apparatus I had seen in my Grandfather’s office…”

Part 2: Sensory Memory 

David’s Grandfather was an Herbalist and one of the first Naturopaths* in the United States. He opened his own pharmacy in 1928 Chicago.  Dr. Michael’s Herbs was one of the first stores of its kind. He shipped specialized herb blends and tinctures around the world and practiced at his shop until the ripe age of 82.  He employed herbal medicine as well as other alternative healing modalities.  He was a trailblazer.  

“When I felt the vibration in my body at the NAMM Show, I thought of him,” Sampson recalls.

David immediately returned home and ordered transducers to experiment with. They arrived and he attached them to this platform he built:

David spent as much time as he could experimenting–with guitar, bass, synthesizer, and his voice.  He was totally consumed with experimentation, as the feeling was so unique and amazing.  He used digital delay and other effects to see if he could get a swirling effect or something profound.  

“I was looking for something…” he waxes.  

Part 3: Coming into Resonance

Sampson began experimenting with Binaural Beats–where you put on headphones and hear two different tones, thereby entraining your brain waves to the space between the two tones.** 

The Binaural Beats “effect was discovered by Heinrich Wilhelm Dove in 1839 and it has been used widely to promote relaxation, meditation, manage pain, reduce anxiety and enhance creativity for more than 150 years.

When you listen to binaural beats/tones, you are actually listening to two slightly different pitched frequencies. Each frequency goes to each of your ears independently. When this happens your brain responds by creating a third tone, making up the difference between the two frequencies. This shift in frequency then shifts your brain’s consciousness and changes your state.” (Zen)

He thought, if binaural beats work with 2 speakers (stereo) on the ears, maybe I could make binaural beats in the body. 

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One day, Sampson placed the platform under his 12 inch memory foam mattress to see if it would transmit the vibrations through the thick mattress.  

He used a tone generator app on his phone and began experimenting with different frequencies.  He sent one tone through the left channel and another on the right channel…and it changed his life forever. 

“I felt the beat frequency go through my body.  It felt like I was floating, it stopped my mind from thinking and made me just focus on a feeling.  This was what I was looking for!”  

Now Sampson knew this was his future, and it could help change the world. 

Sampson has partnered with app programmers, sound healers, carpenters and furniture builders to bring the gift of sound vibration to each human and each home. 

He’s created a number of 3D Sound Immersion pieces: a queen bed platform, a yoga mat, a massage table, a bassist’s platform, and the flagship product, The VibroChair ™, the world’s first totally wireless vibroacoustic office chair.

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*A Naturopathic Doctor practices a system of treatment of disease that avoids drugs and surgery and emphasizes the use of natural agents (such as air, water, and herbs) and physical means (such as tissue manipulation, massage) https://bastyr.edu/academics/naturopathic-medicine

**For more on Brain Waves, see our article here

References: 

https://www.zenlama.com/the-beginners-guide-to-binaural-beats-brainwave-entrainment/