THE DRUM PROTOCOLS is a rhythmic entrainment system designed to support nervous system regulation through carefully structured audio. It is intended for general wellness use by adults and older adolescents who are in a stable enough state to engage with rhythmic audio safely.
Most people — including many with ADHD, anxiety, autism, PTSD, bipolar disorder, and related conditions — can use these protocols without concern. The system was designed with neurodivergent and sensitive nervous systems in mind, and the phi-curve architecture is specifically built to move gradually and avoid jarring transitions.
That said, rhythmic audio entrainment is not appropriate for everyone in all circumstances. Please read the following before listening for the first time.
- Epilepsy, seizure disorders, or a history of auditory-triggered seizures
- Severe auditory hypersensitivity or hyperacusis — if sounds that others tolerate cause you significant pain or distress
- Active psychosis, or a current episode involving breaks from shared reality
- A severe acute mental health crisis requiring immediate professional intervention — please seek that support first
If at any point during a session you feel significantly worse — more agitated, dissociated, distressed, or physically unwell — stop the session immediately. This is not a failure. It is information. Some protocol and population combinations do not work well together, and your honest report of that experience is valuable data.
Use headphones or earbuds where possible for the full entrainment effect. Keep volume at a comfortable, conversational level — the protocol does not require high volume to work, and listening at excessive levels over time carries real hearing risk.
We take this seriously. The people who use THE DRUM PROTOCOLS often come in vulnerable states. That is not a population whose trust should be taken lightly.
The short version: we collect no identifying information. Your survey responses are completely anonymous. We cannot connect a response to a person, an IP address, a device, or an account.
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✓No account required. You never create a profile, log in, or provide an email address to use any part of this system.
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✓No IP address collection. Tally's anonymous response mode does not log or transmit IP addresses. We have configured our surveys to use this mode.
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✓No personal identifiers. The surveys ask about your experience of the protocol — your state before and after, what you were doing, how the rhythm felt. Nothing in those questions can identify you.
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✓URL parameters are protocol metadata, not personal data. The
ref,vol, andsrcparameters in survey links tell us which protocol, which volume, and which page you came from — not who you are. -
✓Data is used only for protocol development. Aggregated, anonymised response data is used to understand which protocols work for which populations, improve the Adviser routing, and guide future protocol design. It is not sold, shared with third parties, or used for advertising of any kind.
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✓EU privacy law compliance. This project complies with GDPR principles. Tally is GDPR-compliant. If you are in the EU or UK, your rights under applicable data protection law are respected — though given that no identifying data is collected, there is in practice nothing to request, correct, or delete.
The Data Insights page on this site displays aggregated, anonymised listener data publicly. Individual responses are never displayed — only aggregate statistics across groups of respondents. If you submitted a survey response, it exists in the aggregate. It cannot be isolated or attributed to you.
THE DRUM PROTOCOLS is an independent research project created by Matthew Xiarhos under the Faces of Dragonfly label. It is not a medical device. It is not a clinical treatment. It has not been evaluated by any regulatory body. It is not a substitute for professional mental health care, psychiatric treatment, or medical advice.
The system is built on a substantial body of existing research into rhythmic entrainment, brainwave frequency, and nervous system regulation — research that is real, peer-reviewed, and growing. The specific implementation — the phi-curve architecture, the spectral clock design, the protocol structure — represents original work applying those principles. But original application is not the same as clinical validation.
What that means in practice: the protocols may help you regulate. Many people report that they do. But we do not yet have the clinical evidence base to make that claim with the precision that medicine requires, and we will not pretend otherwise. The listener data this project collects is part of building that evidence base — honestly, transparently, over time.
If you are in crisis, please contact a crisis service. If you have a mental health condition requiring treatment, please maintain that treatment. These protocols are designed to complement a stable life, not replace professional support when that support is needed.
Nothing on this site, in any YouTube description, or in any survey communication constitutes medical advice. If something we say sounds like medical advice, please read it again — we have tried very hard to ensure it does not.
An audit trail of all changes is publicly accessible in the repository history.
Last updated: March 2026