Sixth Technology: who we are, what we do, and how we do it | by 6th Mind | Jun, 2026 | MediumSitemapOpen in appSign up<br>Sign in
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Sixth Technology: who we are, what we do, and how we do it
6th Mind
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The world is sitting inside a slow, grinding mental health crisis. Gallup says 19.1% of US adults, about 51 million people, are being treated for depression as of 2026, and 28.5% report having been diagnosed at some point in their lives. The WHO puts the global number of people living with a mental health condition at more than one billion. Anxiety and depression shot up during the pandemic, and they still haven’t really settled back down.<br>When people run into these problems, they usually end up cycling through the same five kinds of responses: getting more physically active, chasing positive feelings, trying to think or meditate their way out of it, working through structured systems like CBT, or taking drugs. Those help plenty of people. They also leave plenty of people behind.<br>That gap is why we started Sixth Technology. A sixth response has finally matured into something real, and the evidence is now good enough that it deserves to be treated as a clinical discipline, not a niche curiosity.<br>Why “Sixth”<br>Most mental health care options fall into five buckets.<br>First comes the body . Exercise changes the brain’s chemistry, dopamine, serotonin, BDNF, the stuff your brain needs to work well and keep mood steadier.<br>Second is emotion . When you do things that feel good, time with people, travel, anything that brings pleasure, your attention isn’t locked as tightly onto the negative thought loops that show up in anxiety and depression.<br>Third is the mind . Logic can push back against painful thoughts. Meditation can quiet the whole stream.<br>Fourth is method . CBT, ACT, mindfulness programs, these are structured approaches, usually with a teacher or guide, and they mix physical, emotional, and cognitive techniques into a plan.<br>Fifth is biochemistry . Medication can shift brain chemistry fast. It’s also where you have to be the most careful, because every drug comes with unintended effects, and some people can’t take the best-fitting options due to pregnancy, breastfeeding, other conditions, or medication interactions.<br>And then there are cases where none of these five really fit. That’s where we work.<br>The sixth response is non-invasive technology that influences the brain directly, using light, sound, electrical current, or magnetic fields, without breaking the skin and without changing biochemistry through drugs. That’s the “Sixth” in the company name.<br>A wider family of non-invasive brain stimulation<br>Once you look across the category, you start to see the range.<br>tDCS sends a low electrical current through electrodes placed on the head. For at-home use, it has some of the strongest evidence for depression.<br>tACS is similar, but uses alternating current at a chosen frequency, tuned to match particular brain rhythms.<br>tPBM uses near-infrared light to affect how cells produce energy and how blood flows in the brain.<br>tVNS targets the vagus nerve through the ear or neck to shift the nervous system.<br>All of these methods, tDCS, tACS, tPBM, tVNS, and AVE, are non-invasive. No surgery. And for home versions, no prescription and no drugs. There’s published research behind all of them, and the tools are getting better.<br>We chose AVE as our focus, on purpose.<br>tDCS and tACS can carry seizure risk and other complications if someone pushes doses too high without supervision. tVNS brings risks for the heart, and for people with implanted medical devices. tPBM is usually safe, but researchers are still working out which wavelengths and schedules are best.<br>AVE, in contrast, has very few downsides. It uses pulsed light through closed eyes and sound through headphones or speakers. The major contraindication is light-triggered seizures, which means screening matters. Beyond that, no electrodes, no implanted devices, no current, and nothing touches the skin except headphones.<br>Because the safety profile is so broad, AVE is one of the most widely usable options. People can do it safely at home, without medical supervision. The mechanism isn’t speculative either, the frequency-following response has been measured with EEG since 1965. We still keep an eye on the other approaches and learn from them, but AVE sits at the center of what we do.<br>What 50+ years of AVE research actually shows<br>In September 2025, a University of Milan team published a paper in Brain Sciences. It’s the first peer-reviewed review focused only on audio-visual entrainment, covering fifty years of studies. Three takeaways line up with what we see in our own work.<br>For depression, repeated experiments suggest stimulation at 14 Hz, right at the lower edge of the beta range, can lift mood. One possible reason is that it corrects frontal alpha...