null24 said:
Interesting.
Good links, eg. I've been intrigued by binaural beats and constructed a dream machine many years ago.
I could never really get the dream machine to work for me, but the principle is sound. When I was young writing with my mom in the car, sometimes I would close my eyes and allow the flickering light to flash across my eyelids that is caused by a combination of the cars movement, the sun, and trees or other regular obstructions to the sunlight. Within seconds I would begin to experience dreamlike images
OT I know, but there are other ways to stimulate activity in the brain besides ingesting substances.
I'll check these headphones out that could be pretty cool.
Once when I was young I went through a "Closed Eye EEG Strobe Test", the flashing light produced vivid geometric patterns and brilliant colors on the backs of my eyelids. I was instantly intrigued, and after some research built my first "dreamachine".
I find that if you allow yourself to focus on the geometric patterns and colors and "let go" of what's going on around you, you can generate hypnogogic or disorienting mental states...
I've never tried the "mind machine", which is basically a dreamachine with added headphones which supply binaural beats and isochronic tones, but I can picture the effect it may produce.
I use binaural beats and isochronic tones for brainwave entrainment during meditation and occasionally sleep. Personally I feel these methods go beyond generating psychosomatic or placebo effects, and actually can be very effective.
I'm fascinated by consciousness, and methods of altering consciousness, and I feel in the future there will be methods of doing this that will make ingestion if chemical compounds an obsolete practice...but all this technology is still in its infancy...as is our understanding of consciousness itself...(serotonin was discovered in 1948, and it's importance in psychological function was realized shortly after. Before this, science was unaware that "chemicals" played an enormous role in mental function and psychological health. Now, the mid 1950s really was not that long ago, and in reality our understanding of consciousness and the mind is rudimentary at best.
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and other forms of neurostimulation May prove to yield promising results.
...Though as of now the old fashion methods (meditation, spiritual practice, and entheogens) seem to work best, I still eagerly attempt to incorporate these new technologies into my exploration of conscious states.
-eg
www.sciencealert.com
I'm skeptical.
