HaCKeRz KrOnIcKLeZ 3/HaCKeRz_KrOnIcKLeZ.iso/drugs/mastermind

Text File | 1996-05-06 | 4KB | 75 lines

[e-mail] (Todd Blakaitis) asks:
TO>** Has anybody ever tried those "Mind Machine" glasses with the blinking
TO>   led's  and headphones?  They claim to introduce a hallucinagenic-like (sp
TO>   state?!?!?!

Yes, my wife and I have one called "MasterMind" which we bought at an
outrageous price from the Hammacher Schlemmer catalog.  It definitely
has an effect, but whether it's anything like chemical hallucinogens I
can't say due to lack of experience.  (Honest!)

The unit consists of a small black box containing the electronics, a set
of earphones, and a set of opaque "sunglasses" with four red LED's (2 on
a side) mounted so they will flash in your eyes.  (Note: you use this
device with your eyes _closed_.)  The idea is that your brain waves will
synchronize to the flashing lights, and you will be drawn into various
medidative states associated with the different frequencies.  The unit
also provides pulsing sounds via the earphones to intensify the effect.

You can select any of a dozen "sessions" of 10 to 40 minutes duration
(plus another dozen that are half-length versions of these).  The
different sessions follow different patterns of moving between high and
low frequencies.  There are also some user-unfriendly controls for
volume, pitch, brightness, etc.

The device really does do more-or-less what it claims, in our
experience.  You would think that having bright rapidly-flashing lights
next to your eyelids would be unpleasant, but it's not.  As for
"hallucinogenic", here's what you get:  At high flash frequencies (10 to
30 Hz or so), the eyes and/or the visual center of the brain generate
all sorts of lines and swirly things and plaids and geometric patterns
in red and blue and yellow.  The pattern varies with the frequency and
with how the lights are synchronized (both eyes together, or
alternately).  I found the patterns to be overwhelmingly brilliant the
first time I used the device, but less so after I got used to it.  (The
human mind seems to have an infinite capacity for getting bored!)

At lower frequencies there is very little "light show", and the effect
is hypnotic.  I assume this is the "alpha state" that people achieve
with meditation.  Yet lower frequencies (a few Hz) take the user into a
light doze.  A typical session with the machine starts at the
high-frequency end, slowly wanders down into the lower range, and then
comes back up again at the end to wake you up and give you a final light
show.

Sometimes, when the frequency starts to increase from its minimum, I
will notice what feels like a flood of warmth and general well-being
spreading out through my body.  There's some actual physical effect
here: cold feet and hands become warm, for example.  I suppose some
hormone is being released.  This doesn't happen every time (and I can
ruin it by waiting for it to happen).

I use this device for a "controlled nap" -- I can set in advance exactly
how long it will be and how deep, and ensure that I wake up gently.
Five minutes is enough to relax computer-strained eyes, but 10 to 40
minutes is needed to really give my brain a reset.

I know someone who used one of these along with a moderate dose of
dextromethorphan, and had a loss-of-ego experience ("I couldn't
distinguish what was me, what was the light show, and what was the bed
I was lying in"). If anyone has used one in conjunction with other
psychoactive materials, I'd like to hear about it.

WARNING: THESE DEVICES CAN TRIGGER SOME FORMS OF EPILEPSY!  Remember the
epileptic researcher in "The Andromeda Strain" who got knocked out by a
flashing computer display?  That part wasn't fiction.

I suppose this really ought to be in alt.cyberpunk.tech.  But it's not.

===================================
Bill Statler ([e-mail])
Pasco, Washington, USA