• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Mind Machines / Lucid Dreaming Inducers

A

Anonymous

Guest
phitran: "I might sell my units and upgrade to a more sophisticated model."

A line I should memorize.

It sounds far better than, "Trash didn't work, must cut my losses and sucker
someone else." :p

Full points for cheek, though.
 
I actually bought a Mind machine and the accompanying Galvanic Skin Response machine to help induce OBE's and lucid dreaming.

I used to get the same results with Peach Schnapps :)
 
Hi James, shows you what you know.

check out this site, and stop reading between the lines, you're not good at it!

http://www.proteus-support.org/discussions_tocf.htm

Link is dead. FWIW, an archived version of this discussion page can be accessed at:

https://web.archive.org/web/20050428113223/http://www.proteus-support.org:80/discussions_tocf.htm

- EnolaGaia, August 2018



It has helped me have lucid dreams. As I've only had it for one month, the effects are not fully developed yet. I usually try flying but that doesn't last very long. OBE is anyones guess. I have lost faith in trinyg to induce this.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Alexius said:
I actually bought a Mind machine and the accompanying Galvanic Skin Response machine to help induce OBE's and lucid dreaming.

I used to get the same results with Peach Schnapps :)
I remember the amazing results I had with lucid dreaming, after I first read some Carlos Castaneda, it might even have been 'The Teachings of Don Juan'. I didn't really keep up the practice, although I seem to remember that the instructions for inducing the state during sleep were pretty simple and straightforward. No electronic, or mechanical aids were involved.

Mind Machines? We don't need no stinkin' Mind Machines! :D
 
I'm sure I saw one of these on TV many years ago. Does it involve wearing gogles with flashing LEDs in them?
 
Yes thats it. They can flash at different frequencies to affect your brainwaves.

Some people find mind machines invasive. Most meditation experts find them good for beginners but constricting for pros.
 
what a load of rubbish!

you do not need this sort of crap for lucid dreaming for god's sake, if there's one thing i can't stand it's paranormal capitalism:rolleyes: :mad:
 
Mind machines, with the flashing LEDs, work by brainwave entrainment, which does seem to be a valid phenomenon. In the absence of a lot of other stimuli your brainwave frequency will step into synch with a powerful stimulus of a certain frequency, although it seems to be a skill you have to learn to a certain extent. The effects are not particularly dramatic in my experience but people do find it useful for relaxation etc. On psychedelic drugs it can be a pretty intense experience, but then so can going to the bathroom. I've played around with brainwave entrainment quite a lot in the past. You can do the same with sound.

A friend and I built a mind machine at university that had six sets of goggles and we used to take it to raves and charge people a quid for ten minutes. We took mattresses for them to lie on and gave em all headphones too and played weird ambient music to them. Some people reported amazing experiences, some people seemed to get very little out of it. One guy wet himself.

This set up is not really designed for lucid dreaming .... lucid dreaming machines, as far as I know, detect when you are in REM sleep, or simply have a timer set for when you are likely to be in REM sleep, and then beep in your ear to half-wake-you-up so that you hopefully have a lucid dream.

I can see that the mind machine might help though : the lucid dreams I have had have all occured after I'd performed some form of self-hypnosis immediately before going to sleep, including a couple of times after I'd nodded off listening to brainwave synched audio (I think I've posted about this somewhere before).
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Esoterrorist, you are wrong

OF COURSE you can learn lucid dreaming without the machine, BUT for some, it helps.

JUST like someone who wants to become fit may by a treadmill.

People can buy mind machines as it helps them more than say a book by itself. Why are people so touchy?
 
phitran said:
Esoterrorist, you are wrong

OF COURSE you can learn lucid dreaming without the machine, BUT for some, it helps.

have you got any links to reputable websites which are not trying to sell mind machines, but provide somesort of back up for your claims?
 
Hi

If you bothered to read the thread you'd see I linked a mind machines forum with messages from normal people with the unit.

I'm not sure if it will work though.

Why is it so hard to understand that mind machines can help?

Paranormal capitalism is not what its called. You should stop being so stubborn without considering the facts and stop taking the intellectual (I know it all) highground

http://www.proteus-support.org/discussions_tocf.htm

There was a site that had studies but I cna't find it.

Anything that helps change brainwaves can help lucid dreaming. Music for instance can help. Its not so hard to believe visual and audio stimulation can help induce alternative bran states
 
phitran said:
Hi



There was a site that had studies but I cna't find it.

that's handy! ;)

if you bothered to read my post you'd see i asked for reputable sites. you can't find any, that's fine i'll draw my own conclusions...

-cheers
 
An alarm clock with a snooze button is the only machine I've ever needed to lucid dream. It's amazing what I can get up to during those 5 minutes before the next call brings me back.

I usually set the alarm half an hour before I "need" to get up, which gives me plenty of chances to fanny about in my dreamstate. I find it interesting, that each "snooze" continues where the other left off, rather than being a reset or new dream.

For years now I've been using this time to "fly" all over the place, and resolve problems in reoccuring dreams. I just let the weight of my body leave me in a breath, and see what my unconcious mind has in store for me.

I don't believe I've ever had an OOBE before though.
 
Remember to breathe, everyone. :)

Anybody else remember FT reviewing these (or similar-sounding) devices ages ago (like issue #80-something?)? I have this vague recollection the magazine did and gave them good notices.
 
GIZMOS!

lopaka:
I think that would b a grand topic for a semi-regular column in FT. Fortean devices : Fab, Fraud or Flop?

I've always had a fascination with gizmos and occult gizmos are even cooler. I could make a long list that would keep writers busy for quite a while. Everything from Scientolgy's e-meter to orgone accumulators to the Feraliminal Lycanthropizer!

Some installments could be straight-forward reviews of existing, for sale devices. Others would deal more with relating the history behind a ledgendary device and its proponents.
 
I have had one of the flashing led mind machines from Lifetools for many years.

Great for unwinding when I get home from the office.

Never tried the lucid dreaming machines. I tend to have fairly lucid dreams anyway. Still.... might take a look.
 
There is a plant from Mexico called Calea zacatechichi which is not too dificult to get hold of or grow, although growing from seed is dificult. Anyhow Calea is called the dream herb and can be made into a tea or smoked before bedtime and this is meant to stimulate lucid dreaming.
I might get around to trying it if my plant recovers from the snail attack of last weekend.
 
Fenris said:
I might get around to trying it if my plant recovers from the snail attack of last weekend.

Those snails have had some bloody strange dreams no doubt
 
PintQuaff said:
Is it Legal???:cool:

Completely legal. Honestly

It doesn't grow well in winter, all my leaves fell off and it looked dead, however in spring and summer it grows very fast. It is very bitter tasting, I havn't tried smoking it.
And regardless of where you are you shouldn't have much trouble getting hold of it from online vendors.
I got mine no problem, in Australia which seems to have some of the most draconian laws immaginable where this sort of thing is concerned.
 
If you think those are weird, I have found a website that sells

ray guns that shoot out electrified water of something like that

They also sell 'wish machines' and time machines.

Very kooky stuff, real b-movie type items that sound ridiculous.

Does nayone want the link?
 
You shouldnt need to ask m8

Post the link it has gotta be worth a look.

I sooo need a wish machine :p
 
Somewhat releated, but lengthy. Mods, please move if appropriate.

Dreamachines, Wishing Machines or Feraliminal Lycanthropizers, Anyone? An Interview With David Woodard
http://www.newworlddisorder.ca/issuethree/interviews/woodard.html
Jan Bruun

It's a blazing hot September day in Los Angeles. I'm visiting my old friend John Aes-Nihil of the notorious Archives of Aesthetic Nihilism. Upon entering his apartment I see and hear a man playing a loud harmonium while Brion Gysin's invention, the Dreamachine, is spinning right beside him, sending a flickering light throughout the room. In the next few days, this seemingly shy - and soft-spoken to the point of being barely audible - visitor would reveal that he built and sold Dreamachines, and that he had composed and conducted a requiem for Timothy McVeigh on the eve of his execution in Oklahoma City. Or "prequiem", as he's fond of calling his compositions for the "nearly deceased." His name is David Woodard.

In the media, especially in Orange County Weekly, he's portrayed as a person with a strong need to become famous, and as a perpetual myth-maker, obsessed with numerology and strange synchronicities. One thing's for sure, famous does not equal popular in his world. It wasn't easy to stage the performance of the McVeigh piece Ave Atque Vale ("Onward, Valiant Soldier") with a chamber orchestra in an Oklahoma City church. Originally, he wanted it to be played within the prison grounds, with McVeigh listening. That idea didn't go down to well with the local authorities. After 9-11 he unsuccessfully tried to get his hands on an ancient Persian instrument to play a requiem for the hijackers of the two planes. Lately he's been working on a planned concert of some of the pieces composed by the multi-talented Dr. Jack Kevorkian.

Woodard lived in Lawrence, Kansas in 1997 and visited William Burroughs regularly. Woodard made the Dreamachines displayed at a major LA exhibition of Burroughs' paintings, Ports of Entry, and the one used at Burroughs' funeral. He has since auctioned off one machine through Sotheby's, and he's now writing a book on the Dreammachine, the flicker phenomena and other unorthodox ideas and inventions, to be published by Feral House at some point in time.

David Woodard and WSB

New World Disorder: Reading about your previous happenings I get the feeling that you always want to twist your surrounding into succumbing to some sort of alternate reality, every performance seems to be an elaborate prank. Jeffrey Vallance's burial of the frozen supermarket chicken in an LA pet cemetery comes to mind. But I guess you couldn't "break character" and discuss this at all?

David Woodard: Actually, I am open about these matters. The sports writer for O.C. Weekly published a story following the requiem I performed for Joe DiMaggio in 1999, in which he caricatures me as a deadpan comedian who never breaks character. Perhaps I appeared that way to him because he was unfamiliar with Messaian, the unlikely inspiration for my Farewell To The Yankee Clipper. Coincidentally, I lived in the Winnetka (California) house in which Jeffrey Vallance grew up, during most of 1998 with Kenneth Anger and John Aes-Nihil. I gather Vallance is more serious than given credit for.

NWD: Tell me about how you got in touch with William Burroughs.

DW: In 1984, Burroughs and I began corresponding. I had sent him a privately issued treatise on the magical potential of cultivated anonymity, Breed The Unmentioned. He agreed with my adolescent theory that the secret is the secret, and the will to cultural figuredom is a murderous one.

NWD: What was Burroughs' (WSB) life like in Lawrence?

DW: He lived alone in a very modest one-person bungalow. The dining area/living room had one table, on which he both took meals and wrote (in longhand). Two rooms on either side of the bathroom - one his work room, the other his bedroom. Up early in the mornings to be driven by a helper boy (there were three or four) to Kansas City for his methadone appointment, where he had figured out a way of squirreling away a little bit each day so that on Thursday he could go home and have a second dose. Hence, Thursday was always the spaced-out WSB day. He wrote in the mornings after returning from the clinic, then took a nap around noon, and sometimes wrote some more. At 3pm, the alcohol would begin to flow - often with crackers, cheese and caviar served by a helper boy likely to materialize. After dinner, marijuana cigarettes and the Dreamachine were routinely attended to.

After his sudden heart attack and death, WSB's manager/editor James Grauerholz speculated that he had been "blind-dosed" at the clinic - a frowned-upon practice which WSB had caught them trying on him years earlier. Blind-dosing, illegal in most states but legal in Missouri, involves a clinic lying (or omitting) about dosage to a patient, so that psychologically the patient is content that nothing is changing when in fact the dose is decreasing (very slowly, one would hope). In the case of a seasoned junky, whose metabolism is intricately entwined with opiates, blind-dosing may traumatize the body into cardiac arrest. In WSB's case, this hasn't been proven - but it is possible, and I wouldn't be surprised at all. His health had been seemingly fine for an old codger (though he had had a triple bypass five years earlier), his mind cogent.

NWD: Burroughs thought a lot about the spirit world and life after death, didn't he?

DW: In his final months when I knew him, he was obsessed with communications between the living and the dead - reading as much as possible on the subject, usually in the form of mass-market paperback firsthand accounts of ghost busting (especially, where available, in large print). He lent several of these to me, which I read and returned. It was always interesting to see how thoroughly he would mark up any paperback book with his own little snide comments in the margins, at times cruelly adding something even more idiotic to a character's already retarded quote. It was as if he considered any paperback he was reading a very rough draft of something he himself was writing. However, he would never write in a hardback.

NWD: How did you become interested in the Dreamachine?

DW: I first read about the Dreamachine in Burroughs' The Job , and Gysin's The Process. At the same time I was constantly experimenting with other Burroughsian ideas, such as subliminal persuasion in crowds, the Feraliminal Lycanthropizer (courtesy the inventor's son, Bill Jenkins, Jr.) and mass mind control, with often successful results. I assumed that the Dreamachine was some kind of Beat anarchic hoax, an ultimate "literary device," as any machine capable of producing the purported effects would surely be everywhere. Then I attended Andrew McKenzie's (i.e., of Hafler Trio) Dreamachine lecture in San Francisco. Though the lecture itself turned out to be an endlessly digressive ramble about the OTO with nary a mention of the Dreamachine, McKenzie had brought several demonstration models - and, to my astonishment, they were effective.

NWD: And then you built your own?

DW: My landlord in Napa Valley at the time had been a friend of Gysin's, and was storing Dreamachine templates in his home. At my request, he kindly lent them to me.

NWD: Many would probably be skeptic to the alleged benefits. What makes the Dreamachine different from other occult and parapsychological paraphernalia?

DW: My forthcoming book deals with this question. In addition to bioactive and psychoactive resonant frequencies, and non-electromagnetic (e.g., Orgone) energy, I am including material on notions of immortality and, to a lesser degree, teleportation - popularly maligned topics which obviously have everything to do with the welfare and fate of the Species.

NWD: Is the Dreamachine helpful for creativity and writing?

DW: In college, I found the Dreamachine would cure my own writer's block. When I mentioned this to Burroughs, he concurred. That is the extent of what I know about his use of the machine for that purpose. In 1997, when we were both living in Lawrence, Burroughs tended to use his two Dreamachines together as a postprandial ritual along with a marijuana cigarette. He would write the following morning.

I think the Dreamachine's most distinctive property is its (potentially insidious) subtlety. The machine is similar to absinthe, in that both create a residual language-oriented delirium of which the user tends not to be aware. Fortunately light pulses do not yield the additional effect of Syphilis-like rotted brain stem.

NWD: In the nineties there were rumors that Kurt Cobain used the Dreamachine a lot before he topped himself . . .

DW: Let's not speak of the wretched incident. Cobain's death was a marital tragedy that, in its wake, voraciously absorbed the Dreamachine and everything else in its orbit.

(Funnily enough, Woodard's 10 year old Plecid CD has almost the exact same cover design as the recent best of Nirvana CD, an all black cover, with slim shiny serif lettering on the front, the only difference is that the Plecid lettering is purple, while Nirvana is written in silver.)

NWD: High Times reported that there were a string of suicides associated with the machine since the sixties...

DW: I am constantly told and asked about things along these unsubstantiated lines. As with any psychoactive chemical reaction, dysphoria always comes down to set, setting and the user's psychological state. Although the Dreamachine merely produces a flicker, the pulse signal it causes the optic nerve to send into a user's cortical tissue unpredictably alters the brain's neurotransmitter activity. Therefore, if a user is mentally imbalanced to begin with, the condition is likely to worsen.

NWD: What is your typical Dream Machine experience?

DW: Horrific hallucinations more lethally addictive than heroin . . . Seriously, for me it is almost always a metamorphosing Persian rug which is eventually augmented by multiple-exposure home movies from a non-existent childhood. It's a waking dream which begins with optical hallucinations and, if you're lucky, eventually subsumes your entire being.

NWD: What is your most exceptional Dream Machine experience?

DW: Falling asleep with the machine on, waking four hours later and composing. Pardon me, but this seems to bring us to Los Angeles Chamber Group. Currently the ensemble, of which I am a member, is engaging in a number of special projects spawned in part by Dreamachine use. Most of the musicians are young virtuosi, and until this year all material has been original. In February 2003 we are recording Wagner's 1844 Trauermusik ("funeral music" - actually, a gorgeous piece Wagner created from three distinct Euryanthe motives to accompany the exhumation and repatriation of Weber's corpse in a torchlight procession from England back to Dresden). The recording will appear as side B of a 45 RPM vinyl disc showcasing Ave Atque Vale (2001's McVeigh prequiem) in a joint release by AJNA Records and LACG's own burgeoning label. Further, we are honored to be working with little-known composer (and better-known pathologist) Jack Kevorkian on the orchestration of his unpublished organ works (made possible by Geneva's EXIT). A tremendously anticipated collaboration next year is with Elisabeth Foerster-Nietzsche's ad hoc Neu-Germania choir of Paraguay, for which we happen to be in quest of a suitable sponsor.

NWD: What is it people are actually seeing with the Dream Machine? Some say that it allows glimpses of the future or of secret worlds. Skeptics would say that it's just light dancing beneath the eyelids.

DW: Assuming the sensitive user is able to transcend its overt, plastic effects, the Dreamachine is an extremely effective divination tool - theoretically similar to a crystal ball and dreidel rolled into one, yet practical. The Dreamachine is also a gorgeous furniture item certain to devastate today's most discriminating tastes.

NWD: What is the Muslim connection with the Dream Machine?

DW: A protester at the Museum of Neon Art (MONA) opening was complaining about the perceived inappropriateness of the Dreamachine's inclusion, given America's post-911 fragility. My response was that if anything the flicker phenomenon would seem to bridge the Abrahamic Triad, in that each constituent is known to have made some sort of magical use of it.

NWD: Tell me about your show at Museum of Neon Art.

DW: The ermine, copper and cocobolo Dreamachine built for Burroughs' funeral was exhibited at MONA in a show that opened this September. When Sothebys auctioned the machine in November, it was replaced by a standard Bohemian model, which continues to be exhibited there through March of '03. The curator of an Allen Ginsberg retrospective (taking place in '03 in Pennsylvania) won the auction. Assuming he secures cooperation of the museum's Board, Burroughs' funeral Dreamachine will be present at the Ginsberg show.

NWD: What is a Wishing Machine? Was it invented by WSB in his The Western Lands book?

DW: The Wishing Machine is a device I learned about from Burroughs' The Western Lands. It is an audio amplifier with two parallel copper plates attached to the input terminals and an antenna attached to the output terminals. The user places a wish in the form of text, image and/or diorama between the plates and keeps the machine on until the wish comes true, usually within a week or two. When I told Burroughs of my admiration for the story within the novel, he disappeared into his study and returned with an actual Wishing Machine. He used this device regularly for practical purposes, like getting to his methadone appointments on time and killing Allen Ginsberg (coincidentally my birthday). However, he was not the inventor. He had read about the Wishing Machine in a book called Beyond the Frontiers of Science by the late G. Harry Stine (later republished as Mind Machines You Can Build). A local acquaintance of Burroughs' in Lawrence, Len McGruder, was almost as old as Burroughs and at least as eccentric - though Burroughs made his contempt for McGruder pretty obvious. Anyway, it was McGruder who lent Burroughs Beyond the Frontiers of Science and built him a Wishing Machine according to the book's instructions. I was working at a bookstore in Lawrence and decided to order Burroughs his own copy of the book. When it arrived at the store I decided to first send it to the author in Phoenix and have it inscribed to Burroughs, whom Stine had never heard of. One conspicuous thing about Stine's Wishing Machine description was that its plate must be copper. The plates on Burroughs' machine were aluminum, the least conductive metal. I pointed this out to him and offered to replace the aluminum with copper, to which he agreed. I went to the exacting Reuter Pipe Organ Company (where the Lawrence part of Carnival of Souls was filmed) and ordered the correctly sized copper plates. Unfortunately, Burroughs keeled over before the new plates were ready. Hence, I built a Wishing Machine for myself - and have built several others since then.

I have two orgonomic wishing machines on hand and have been commissioned to build these devices in the past - with interesting and positive results .

(What is especially interesting to me about the Wishing Machine clients is that they were all adolescent males with some sort of horrendous affliction. the first was a clinically diagnosed schizophrenic in Alabama, who had already purchased a Dreamachine and was finding that the Dreamachine helped him to feel more stable and focused on creative endeavors. He wanted a Wishing Machine to aid with romantic pursuits, and ended up using it to control the weather so that a particular romantic interest could drive safely to school. The second was an Australian who had already purchased a Dreamachine and was now seeking a means of curing his extreme (including facial) psoriasis. He also wanted to fly, though I warned him before sending the machine that he should attempt the latter with caution. The third and, to me, most interesting case was a boy in Texas dying from a malignant brain tumor. He had tried every other recourse, had been hospitalized for months and been given "less than a year" to live. His girlfriend wrote me on his behalf and explained his dilemma. In his race against time, he had spent all of his family's money on possible means of staying alive. I agreed to place a wish on his behalf in my own wishing machine, in my office. Later in the same month, the boy himself wrote to say that something had happened to his tumor. Doctors had told him it had not merely gone into remission, which itself would have been a miracle, but nearly all traces were now gone. All that remains was a kind of tumor corpse, which would continue to emit pus indefinitely. Some sort of drainage device was implanted, allowing pus to emerge from the top of his head, and he was released from the hospital. He went on to explain that he had already lined up lawn-mowing jobs around town to save for his own Wishing Machine. I offered a 33% brain tumor discount, and shortly thereafter he purchased the machine that had saved him. Next time I'm in Texas, I hope to meet him - Eden is his name.)

NWD: What is a Feraliminal Lycanthropizer?

DW: The Feraliminal Lycanthropizer, invented by Bill Jenkins, is a low frequency thanato-auric wave generator. Known for its use by the Nazis and for its animalizing effects on human subjects tested within measurable vibratory proximity, the machine electrically generates two subsonic sine waves - one 3hz, the other 9hz. Together, these two frequencies (one acting as carrier, the other as program) generate a lower third, 56hz. In addition, the machine contains four tape loops containing textual material.

NWD: What are the effects?

DW: It has a sensual, aphrodisiac effect on subjects. But that is peripheral to the machine's essential function: to trigger states of urgency and fearlessness, and to disarmor the intimate charms of the violent child within. Documented experiments include cases in which subjects previously unacquainted with one another are found freely sharing inner thoughts, secrets and vulnerable feelings, in several cases to the point of impetuously shedding the veil of clothing. Others involve extraordinary strength and detailed focus of will. For example, a dilettante Catalonian national using the machine daily over a period of five or six weeks eventually managed to ingratiate himself with Adolf Hitler, persuade his quarry to adopt the swastika as high totem and emblem of the burgeoning National Socialist Conference.

NWD: I'm not so sure that the world really needs tons of brutally honest, naked, horny Nazis, but each to his own, I guess . . . You've also done some research on ketamine, and you wrote the essay "The Ketamine Necromance" in the Apocalypse Culture II book. Any comments on that drug?

DW: It is extremely useful for treating addiction or otherwise turning obsessive interest away from anything. Though it acts as a hallucinogen in subanesthetic doses, ketamine differs from most other hallucinogens in that it reduces the user's worldview to a few archetypes and causes the attention to turn drastically inward. Hence, while tryptamines such as psilocybin, LSD, DMT and even marijuana may be considered erotic in nature due to their abilities to enhance interest in outside phenomena - colors, textures, objects, organisms - ketamine is decidedly thanatotic. Users tend to develop strong convictions about death - e.g., perhaps that death is a lie. Nietzsche's "eternal recurrence," for example, becomes sensible and tangible on ketamine.

NWD: What are the effects of the plant you wrote a piece for in the 4 CD set Infernal Proteus, released by The AJNA Offensive?

DW: Calea zacatechichi is a Mexican shrub that induces a divinatory state in the user while dreaming. After smoking and drinking an infusion of the leaves, one goes to bed and dreams. In those dreams, one is likely to find lost objects, people and/or animals. On waking, the subject now knows where to go to find those lost objects, people or animals. I was fortunate to successfully grow Calea zacatechichi in my back yard in the Richmond district of San Francisco during the 1990s.

When my friend Tyler from the AJNA Offensive invited me to contribute a piece to his compilation CD set and book, the theme of which is plant life, I didn't hesitate to choose Calea zacatechichi as the subject of a motet which was performed by an all-Hispanic public junior high school in East Los Angeles. My approach was to tell the choir director that I had composed a choral work which was certain to advance his students' interest in their cultural heritage and boost their morale. Remarkably, he never asked what Calea zacatechichi is during the two months the choir was rehearsing and recording the piece. I never had to say, '- Well, uh, actually it's a psychoactive drug, and the CD set it's going to appear on is entirely dedicated to mind-altering substances.'

The title and only words are Calea zacatechichi - and, though the choir didn't quite attain the technical brilliance of Vienna Boys Choir (which I heard in my mind while composing), I nonetheless felt a sort of miracle had occurred when the director came by with the final tape with still nary an idea of what Calea zacatechichi is.

NWD: Do you have any other recordings out?

DW: Commercially available are other compilations to which I've contributed, under the name Plecid. these include: Perpetual State of Oracular Dream (Anomalous Records), A Blind Man's Gallery of Mirrors and Unbecoming (both: Freedom in a Vacuum) and others. Also, the company that released "Infernal Proteus" (http://theajnaoffensive.com) initially launched when it released the self-titled 'Plecid' cd. recently. I also wrote the horn quartet intro to the song "Wotan's Wilde Jagd" for Waldteufel's first full-length cd. I should probably mention Plecid's main output, which is a series of three cassettes - all of which may still be available from Happiest Sound on Earth: Plecid (1986), from which AJNA's CD was later issued (though the cassette version is superior) Plecid II (1987) and Industrial Gems (1988).

David Woodard's own web site is http://www.davidwoodard.com. He can be contacted by emailing [email protected]. Handmade Dreamachines are 0 and up, with a cheaper mass-produced model planned sometime ahead.

John Aes-Nihil has available a rough edit of his unique footage of William Burroughs, Woodard and the Dreammachines, taped at WSB's home in Lawrence, Kansas in 1997. Nihil's web page is now at http://www.aes-nihil.com.

Jan Bruun has written for dozens of publications in the last 20 years. His website is at http://home.online.no/~janbruun/.

This interview was first published in 2003 in the UK journal Headpress (#25: Flicker Machine) (http://www.headpress.com).
 
I took a look at the Proteus on the website. It seems like an older version of the tech they have available now. I didn't want to shell out the dough for the NovaPro, but I did order the Luma 10 device with the more expensive TruWhite LED goggles. (THe whole thing was $200). Has anyone tried the Luma 10? I'm prone to having OBE's every now and again anyway, but was hoping this device would make them more frequent.
By the way- anyone who whines about "paranormal capitalism" is just mad because they don't make enough money at Starbucks to buy that kind of stuff.
 
AndroMan said:
It's a whole other World out there, isn't it? :rofl:

Having lived for the past 19 years in Lawrence, Kansas (the place that kept coming up in the Wiiliam S Burroughs parts of PhiloT's post) I can assure you, Andro, it is. It truly is.

:eek: :D
 
A proper Gysin/Burroughs 'Dream Machine' might make an interesting hobby project for someone with a bit of handy knowhow, mind you.

Trickiest thing to put your hands on, these days, would be a 78rpm, record player turntable.

http://www.txt.de/spress/author/gysin/dream/english.htm

HOW TO BUILD A SIMPLE AND CHEAP DREAMACHINE
Discoverer : BRION GYSIN

___________________________________

EQUIPMENT
- 1 record player working at the speed of 78 tours/minute,
- 1 big cardboard sheet, rigid enough for the future cylinder to stand up, and soft enough to be easily cut and worked; you can get sheets of different thickness and dimensions in an office stationery. Choose the darkest colour you can find as the cardboard must be opaque to the light of a 100 watts bulb.
- 1 graduate rule of 30 or 40 cm long,
- 1 set square,
- 1 thin lead pencil,
- 1 rubber,
- cardboard glue,
- 1 cutter,
- 1 100 watts bulb,
- 1 lamp socket,
- 1 male plug,
- electric lead (5 to 6 meters long),
- 1 multiplug,
- 1 tape measure to measure the circumference of the turn table of the record-player,
- clothes pegs.

PRINCIPLE OF THE DREAMACHINE
To build a dreamachine, you need a cylinder with holes in it, fixed upon the turntable of a record player turning at the speed of 78 tours/minute.
In the middle of the machine, one 100 watts bulb. When you seat in front of the machine, the light of the bulb must come in front of your closed eyes intermittently, according to a rhythm from 7 to 13 light-flashes per second, which is the rhythm of alpha waves of the brain.
For the effects, refer to "Colloque de Tanger", vol. 1, Christian Bourgois éditeur, or "Here to Go - Planer R 101", Brion Gysin - Terry Wilson.

BASIC CALCULUS
- The rhythm of the light flashes is from 7 to 13 flashes/second.
- The turntable of the record-player turns at the speed of 78 tours/minute = 78 tours/60 seconds.
- In one second, the turntable makes : 78/60 = 1,3 tour.
- 1 flash corresponds to a hole in the cylinder.
- 1 row of 6 holes (6 flashes) will give for every tour a rhythm of 6x1,3 = 7,8 flashes/second
- 1 row of 7 holes : 7x1,3 = 9,1 fl/s
- 1 " " 8 " : 8x1,3 = 10,4 fl/s
- 1 " " 9 " : 9x1,3 = 11,7 fl/s
- 1 " " 10 " : 10x1,3 = 13 fl/s
The length of the cardboard sheet must be equal to the circumference of the turntable. The dimensions of the plan are the ones of a Dual 1010 record player; the circumference of its turntable is 85,5 cm.

PROCEDURE
1. Measure the circumference of the turntable with the tape measure.
2. Transfer this dimension on the length of the cardboard sheet from the left side at the top and at the bottom of the sheet. Draw a line joining the 2 points, parallel to the width of the sheet.
3. Once the line is drawn, draw another one, parallel to the first one, 4,5 cm on the right far from it; this is to delimit a little band which, at the end of the operations, will be stuck to the left width to make the cylinder. With the cutter, cut the sheet along the second line. So the final length of the cardboard is : 85,5 cm + 4,5 cm = 90 cm.
4. At the top of the cardboard, on the right and left widths, measure 2,5 cm. Draw a line joining the 2 points. You get a band of 85,5 cm x 2,5 cm. Do the same at he bottom of the cardboard in drawing a band of 3 cm wide (see the drawing). The width between the 2 bands is 65,5 - (2,5+3) = 60 cm.
5. Now divide this width of 60 cm in 5 equal parts of 12 cm. Measure 5 times 12 cm on the right and left widths. Draw the lines joining those new points. You get 4 new lines, parallel to the length.
6. Now calculate the dimensions of the holes in every row. The upper row will contain the most numerous holes (10) and the row of the bottom, the less numerous holes (6), so the base of the cylinder is as solid as possible (see the plan of the cardboard of the cylinder).
a) Upper row :
* Divide this row in 10 equal parts : 85,5/10 = 8,55 cm
* Measure 10 times this dimension at the top and at the bottom of the upper row, in beginning by the left.
* Draw the lines joining the new points : you get 9 parallel lines 8,55 cm far from one another (these lines will be in the middle of the holes) delimiting 10 rectangles of 12x8,55 cm.
* Take the plan of every hole : the line IJ represents the new lines you have just drawn. On this line IJ, measure 2 times 1,5 cm, from I and from J, so you get the points K and L. From these points, perpendicularly to IJ, measure the points A, B, C and D, 2 cm far from K and L. raw the lines joining A and B, B and D, D and C, C and A. The rectangle you get is the hole.
* Proceed the same way to get all the holes of the row. On the left width of this row, you only get half a hole. On the right side, at the end of the row, the last hole encroaches upon the band to stick; the second half of this hole will fit to the half hole on the left when you stick the cylinder, and this for every row. In other words, the left half hole and the hole at the right end of the row will make the same hole.
b) Second row :
It will contain 9 holes. Proceed as you did for the upper row, but divide the length of the cardboard by 9 : 85,5 / 9 = 9,44 cm. Proceed as before with this new dimension and so for the other rows :
c) Third row :
8 holes : 85,5 / 8 = 10,62 cm
d) Forth row :
7 holes : 85,5 / 7 = 12,14 cm
e) Fifth row :
6 holes : 85,5 / 6 = 14,16 cm
Every hole has the same dimensions, whatever the row may be.
7. Once you have delimited all the holes, cut them with the cutter. Put the cut pieces of cardboard aside, you will need them later on.
8. Put the cardboard sheet upon the turntable in giving a cylindrical shape to it. Temporarily fix the 2 widths the one on the other with clothes pegs. Make sure the base of the cylinder fits with the dimensions of the turntable and that the left half holes fit with the holes of the right width. Do not stick the edges yet.
9. If the turntable is covered with a rubber surface, delicately unstick the edges of this surface; you are going to use it to maintain the cylinder in position. If there is no rubber surface, take a thick piece of rigid cardboard and cut it according to the exact dimensions of the turntable. Make a hole in the middle, like a LP record, in introducing it in the axis of the turntable.
10. Go back to the cardboard sheet. Take the cut rectangles ABCD you had previously put aside, and solidly stick them at the bottom of the sheet on the width so you get little tongues to be fold and slipped perpendicularly under the rubber surface, to keep the cylinder upon the turntable. Put as many tongues as needed.
11. Your cylinder is ready. Stick the 2 widths one upon the other, maintaining the stuck band with the clothes pegs, in adapting them in the holes. Leave the pegs until the cardboard and the glue are dry.
If the upper row is not perfectly circular, in cases the cardboard would fold over the holes, make the cardboard more solid in sticking the remaining little triangles ABCD inside the cylinder.
12. Then you adapt the cylinder on the turntable in slipping the little tongues under the rubber surface or the cardboard disc. The body of the dreamachine is ready now. If you turn the record player on, the cylinder must turn on the turntable in remaining solidly fixed.
13. Then you take the bulb, the lamp socket, the electric lead and the male plug. Fix the whole lot together.
14. Put the dreamachine on a stool, near a power point, let the bulb hang in the middle of the cylinder without it to touch the edges. Adjust the length of the lead over the dreamachine in the most adapted way to the room where you are (you can pass the lead in a hook screwed in the ceiling, make a bracket system, etc...). The length of the lead must be adjustable, so the bulb can be put in front of every row.
15. Plug the bulb, plug the record player, turn it on in setting it on the 78 tours speed. Sit comfortably in front of the machine and approach your face the closest you can. Close your eyes and watch : you get inside your head multicolored geometric and stereoscopic 360° images, and lights, the colors, shapes and designs of which constantly changes. You can vary the images in increasing or lessening the pressure of your eyelids and the distance between your face and the machine and in experimenting the different rows.
A record has been specially made to be listened to while watching the dreamachine, its rhythm is the same as the light flashes : "Heathen Earth", Throbbing Gristle (International Records), best in stereo with a headphone.


PLAN OF THE CARDBOARD FOR THE CYLINDER
(The scale is approximative, because of the imprecision of the drawing program. Use the dimensions instead of reproducing the schemas, which are here for indications, to allow to visualize the work to be done.)
 
Back
Top