Hi Bill!

For about a month or so now I have been listening to my 5 EASE CD's  (2 old, 3 new) on shuffle via my Ipod Touch (properly transferred of course) with HD500A Sennheiser headphones for 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes at night, both while doing computer work or regular inside household chores.

The changes I have noticed in my hearing sensitivity have been greatly positive and much similar to the results I achieved a few years ago with the same program but only 2 CD's.

A few observations from my perspective:

- Listening to the Ease CD's now feel normal to my brain, they did not when I started.

- Real life and Ease CD sounds that were once disturbing are drastically reduced in frustration level.  Oddly enough, some are even welcome to my ears.

- My brain has appeared to have learned to "balance" the disturbing noises.  Previously my left ear perceived hearing (which has the most sensitivity and tinnitus) was absorbing the brunt of the noise, now the right perceived hearing is absorbing the load.  It's as if the noises are in stereo, vs. mono overweighed in the left ear.  It is almost like the right side has been "recruited" to help the left side.

- After a few days of listening, I felt some changes going on in my brain.  One weird thing that happened was I was talking on the telephone in a concentrated mode (not during CD listening) and was walking clockwise in a circle, something I never do as I always walk counter clockwise.

- Sounds like silverware clinking are not resonating as bad like they formally were.

- The sound of my 3 and 5 year olds screaming at the top of their voices right in my face still is extremely annoying, for more than just hearing reasons :) , but I have been able to function much better with the more common high pitched frequent sounds of their voices.

- I really enjoy the water sounds and dolphins and whales and crickets type background tracks.

- I really love listening to the tracks that have some appear to have a lot of concentration on what I believe might be the higher frequencies (for example Ease CD3, track 6 and track 12) or at least the noises that sound like fire crackling or random tapping or a "tissst tisst" type sound.

- It really helped me to be able to be portable in my listening; it gave my mind the ability to just let the Ease CD's to their thing and not concentrate on what I was hearing.

One other thing I noticed was an experience while at a baseball game a month ago. While sitting in the 4th row near the backstop area, I noticed a sharp loud gun pop type noise that made me look to the right into the right field stands to figure out where the noise came from. I did not notice anything until I saw that the noise actually came from straight on in front of me on the field.  This to me served as an example of my right side hearing perception pulling its fair share in interpreting intrusive noises and my brain still getting accustomed to the rebalancing. 

I also noticed that the fireworks afterwards were easier on my system and there were no noises that bothered me whatsoever.  The fireworks were even easier to experience visually as unpredictable bright flashes have always seemed to bother me, like waiting for the firework to explode in the air, or nightclub strobe lights.

A therapist I know is trying to promote some adult auditory therapy.  I will be sharing with her my observations as well.  I do not know, but maybe there might be some mutual interest between you and her on the topic of adult auditory therapy.  Just thought I would mention it in passing for now. 

John