A phone app called Lumenate claims to alter the brain’s rhythms (2021)
vice.com
vice.com
/s but not so /s
I suspect this is exactly what state actor technology exists at and is deployed in various receptacles throughout.
It can't alter mental state anywhere nearly the same way as acid though - really the most significant part not just flashy light patterns. Still very cool can't wait to try next trip :)
Honestly, this sounds more useful, at least in app form. Not a great article, but I'll definitely be trying it out myself.
I think it's more like inhibiting some of the functioning of your brain by clogging a type of receptor, so your sensations are severely distorted and you have to work around the damage by processing input using other pathways.
1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reticular_formation#Ascendin...
They basically offered mp3 files which would emit sound waves which would allegedly mimic certain drugs.
After reading success reports on forums, I tried a few and from memory it did slightly put me into a meditative state but nothing more.
I thought it was fun, definitely worth a visit and quite an impressive effect. I think the London tickets are all gone but the site says there are usually walk-ups due to people not turning up.
I also remember trying out a more fun device at the third Lollapalooze where you lay with your face to the sun and the thing fit over your face like a snorkel mask, with a little plastic tube you blew into and which spun a thingy and did the same effect. What was neat about that one was that you could control the intensity of the visuals by blowing harder or softer, by tilting your head for more or less light, etc - more interaction makes better fun.
A more capable than me friend even had a go at an electronic version with LEDs, but it was also more boring. I wish I had bought the snorkel mask.
Tripping itself is easy to understand. This is from acid trip.
The balls part is like balls-out (a locomotive term, popular because it was similar to ballsy or they suspected it was related to testicles somehow) or balls-deep (an obviously sexual term). We like to make things about balls, IDK.
Tripping balls just means very very high. Typically mushrooms or other psychedelics, but not necessarily. You could come out of an anesthesia and have someone say “he was tripping balls when he came out”, and it wouldn’t be too out of place.
"Videotaping Static Through a Kaleidoscope", 42 seconds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU9SrubEx58
Are you seeing the same thing a drunk person might see? Sure. Is it comparable to being drunk? No.
Signed up for a month, will see if it helps me stick to a meditation practice better than usual (I’m very off and on with it).
The music is repetitive and rather upsetting; the tone of the speakers annoying.
I read (most of) the article but I'm still not sure what it's supposed to do. Didn't seem to do anything to me.
Direct link to fullscreen flicker: (warning)
kerblooee.github.io/ganzflicker
I've tried both white and red light myself and found the red light you linked to be a LOT more evocative.
It's really cool, have you tried it before? I seemed to get imagery of animal-like faces, like morphing between intricate and defined portraits of owls and wolves from what I recall, like what you might see on one of those tshirts. It seems like it might be great for coming up with interesting illustrations, or other creative process stuff as mentioned in the article (I'll give it credit at least for mentioning Margaret Atwood and her liking it as a tool for these reasons as I'm a big fan of her work)
https://igmcdowell.github.io/ganzfeld/
Note: You can hit backtick (`) to make the controls appear/disappear.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Looker [1981]
"During his investigation, Roberts discovers some advanced technology that the Digital Matrix corporation is using to hypnotize consumers into buying the products they advertise. He also discovers a light pulse device, the Light Ocular-Oriented Kinetic Emotive Responses (L.O.O.K.E.R.) gun, that gives the illusion of invisibility by instantly mesmerizing its victims into losing all sense of time."
:)
Because he had barely anything to share about the experience (which means he definitely was NOT high), he filled the article with as much as he can about everything around what he should be talking about.
As someone who dabbles in meditation I would like to see a study with a lot more people split into 3 groups: control group who are put in same environment without anything, group with audio component only, and a group with both audio and video component.
P.S. in additional to audio stimuli there are many other techniques that can induce ASC: concentrating really hard (this one is for flow most of us are familiar with), smells, walking, breathing patterns (including breathing super rapidly and over oxygenating), dancing, yoga/exercise routine, etc.
You can smoke the right sort of weed and go on a journey of realisations and epiphanies, actively rewiring your brain into a state of openness, causing a fuckton of new connections to be formed and old ones to be strengthened, ending up in causing a massive boost in creativity.
Or you just sit on the couch, bathing in the feeling inside of you.
A little bit of cocaine and you're just awake and aware, a little bit too much cocaine and your ego explodes, exposing a lust for sex and power.
A lot of the experience also depends on your ability to introspect. The better your connection to your body, the better not just the experience, but the easier you can drag it into normalcy.
I could go on and on and on, I guess.
One thing's for sure, though: There's no reason not to explore different states of mind.
See https://www.erowid.org/ for a large collection
All wayward thoughts, the problems that bog you down, the sad thoughts and feelings that creep in or the little worries about what you need to do today, tomorrow, next week, they don't appear as tasks or problems, if they appear at all. If they do, there is an unbridled energy towards how well you're going to handle them, and then they're out of your mind. As you approach the peak of your state, there is a rush to your head like a warmth, a little unnerving at first, but it will just let loose over you and you'll feel your body let go of stresses and tension you never realized you had.
Uncontrollably, you'll start to smile and want to share what you're feeling with anyone around, finding the joy of life in absolutely everything. Everything will seem more real, with small details that mesmerize you and astound you and you focus on with incredible attention and admiration. Imagine the scenes you've probably seen in movies or TV shows where someone is stunned by the beauty of a piece of art or by music, and then try to imagine how powerful the emotions would have to be to stop you in your tracks and just gaze upon something that registers to you as pure beauty. I once stared at puffy white clouds against a huge blue sky, and they had a silver shimmer outlining them, each cloud seeming "happy" to just be a cloud floating in the sky, sharing their happiness with the world below them. As I took in their happiness, I felt I "gave it back" and they loved and appreciated our connection so much, they shimmered even greater. The vastness of how far the clouds stretched and reached felt immense as logically I could know they stretched for kilometers, but at the same time it felt as if we were in the same room sharing our positiveness with one another. (To this day I cannot look at clouds without smiling, even when completely sober)
Tastes and feelings are taken to something else, as even sipping on a simple glass of juice felt like drinking from the divine, whatever that means, and every molecule of the juice was friendly and soothing to every part of me it touched, and gladly gave me its energy to help me feel stronger and better, and I thanked every drop as it rejuvenated me because I felt so close to each and every moment and was almost brought to tears as I thought of how much work had to happen for this fruit to become a juice, the care and love to grow the plants and to bring them to fruition and now the juice shared the same love and care it had with me as it gave me energy and refreshed me.
If you're with people, you want nothing but the best for them and to tell them how much they matter and how wonderful they are. You never lie, but you also find the positive in everything and even if sad subjects do come up, you cannot help but approach it from a strategy of understanding, and conflicts are anything but that, you just want to show that no matter what they are loved and appreciated and that they matter. Even telling of such subjects isn't an offense, it's a brave and human act of someone who wants to grow, and you want to help them grow, so you even thank them for the offenses and want to help them take the next steps they want to become the best "them" they can be.
During this time, your entire body relaxes in ways maybe you've felt before. If you've ever had a partner and held them at night and realized you didn't know when your body ended and theirs began, it's a similar experience, but when you're on a high, it's an intensity of comfort and happiness that really cannot be described. For hours, you barely feel the weight of your own body while having full control over it.
For other highs, everything just seems more "intense", both the good and sometimes the bad (hence, bad trips). You will think and understand yourself in ways you consciously avoid, and it can go either way depending on the conditions you prepare for. Directing your attention to the simple things like calming music, some gentle twinkling lights, it brings you to the same joy where you just can't compare it to any sober experience as everything is enhanced. There is a beauty and "feel" that inhabits the world as you see it and all things have a significance you cannot ignore.
I doubt this really conveys it, but I tried :)
The experience of a psychedelic high is incredibly broad. It's like asking "what's it like to experience a vacation?". It might be relaxing if you're on the beach in Barbados. It might be exhilarating if you're skiing in the Alps. It might be serious work if you're cave diving in Tulum. Then there's the individual experience. Do you feel relaxed and free from your job? Do you feel stressed because you can't stop thinking about it? Fighting with your family? Connecting with them? Lonely? Content?
In defense of the person you're replying to, someone could give you an impression they've never been on a vacation by the way they talk about it. It's not that their experience is different than yours, it's just that what they're saying doesn't seemed to be informed by any sort of experience at all.
Even though psychedelic highs are incredibly broad, there are a few common (usually opposing) themes. The first is hallucinations. These are perceptions that aren't real, or more generously, outside of consensus reality. If the paint on the wall looks like it's flowing, it won't to anyone else in the same room. At least not in the same way. You could feel a snake wrapping around you, but a video recording wouldn't show one. Then there are delusions, which are beliefs disconnected from reality. You believe you're Jesus. You believe someone is out to get you. You believe nothing bad could possibly happen to you.
You could feel complete boundary dissolution. Everything is one. Or, strong separateness. You're talking to the parts of yourself as distinct, external parts. Or are communicating with a spirit. Faded memories can come back, or you can have trouble remembering anything. Fearlessness or fear, heart rate increase or decrease, peace or terror.
Decreased motor control is the only thing I can think of close to universal, but it isn't. There are reports of people having temporary increases in motor function, often in an area that is deficient due to physical trauma.
Anyone who answers your question with a few simple declarations is like answering "what's it like experiencing a vacation?" with "You take a break from your job, go somewhere sunny with your family, have a nice time doing fun and relaxing things, then feel refreshed when you go back to work". It's not even an oversimplification. It's a sample presented as a summary. Suitable for a telling a 3-year-old what "vacation" means, but certainly not right.
This page is great if you'd like more examples, and examples are the best you're going to get: https://psychonautwiki.org/wiki/Subjective_effect_index
I've definitely had experienced polar opposites that both involved visual hallucinations or delusions / shifts in belief.
For example, I've experienced the belief that my life is a beautiful story where everything is going to be revealed to be part of some sort of divine plan, with people in my life turning out to have some kind of angelic knowledge and agency in this plan.
I've also experienced the belief that existence is a horrendous joke, and that everything from physical reality to my identity is actually some kind of swirling prison-prism that is eternally flowing into horrible nothingness.
Well, those are both true in certain ways and false in other ways. But boy were they experiences.
I suspect that the sound and music has a pretty high impact, even independently to the binaural tech.
I think that because in my experience I can be pretty easily moved in a movie theatre too, especially if the soundtrack is well engineered (but yet, in a movie theatre there is the effect of flickering light too!! so that can also be a big part).
If this is what shrooms supposed to do, then it's very much overblown.
It’s certainly useful, and I like the way if it feels too intense, you just move the strobe away from your eyes. Something you can’t do in the thralls of a shroom trip. With actual drugs you’re stuck in that state and have to wait it out!