Just the other day I was on about making a training data set of hypnosis videos from youtube to feed into an ML model that learns the basic hypnotic triggers from the corpus of videos, and then generate ones of its own - sort of like GPT does with text or DALL-E does with images and video, but these would essentially enable me write a botnet agent that has evolved the capability to hypotize humans, and a way to feed text based suggestions into it via a normal botnet C&C protocol. However I got a new job I really like, so it has taken all the spare cycles I would have had for it, but if anyone else is interested in literally taking over the world shoot me a DM.
A huge part of meditation and hypnosis is concentration, sound isolation, wearing headphones, being calm etc. It's still a really interesting idea, just the mass hypnosis part.
I've had my fair share of psychedelics so I was pretty skeptical going into this, but it actually worked pretty well although I would call it a more like a trance than a trip.
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 :)
This sounds to me more like hypnotism, where you're using external stimuli to induce a specific brain wave state, rather than hallucinogenic tripping, where you're inhibiting some of your brain's filtering mechanisms to see phenomena and form connections that would normally be filtered out.
Honestly, this sounds more useful, at least in app form. Not a great article, but I'll definitely be trying it out myself.
> inhibiting some of your brain's filtering mechanisms to see phenomena and form connections that would normally be filtered out.
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.
GP’s description is accurate. Traditional psychedelics work by inhibiting the reticular activating system(1), which indeed is important for cognitive filtering. Phrases like “clogging” and “damage” aren’t particularly scientific or accurate.
Hah! Back in 2010 when I was a teenager and before I had tried drugs of any kind I became fascinated with something called I-doser, which are "binaural beats" marketed as audio drugs.
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.
Around that time I used something called the BrainWave Generator https://www.bwgen.com/ along with files for astral projection/OOBE to try and train myself to lucid dream (did not work for me). Lots of trippy sensations listening to that stuff, though!
What a time to be alive. We pulled that exact thing out on a school trip, and two of my classmates were so affected they literally collapsed. Placebo is kinda crazy. The entire thing doesn’t actually work, of course, but that scene did make me doubt, a tiny bit.
Those of you in London or Belfast (and next up Edinburgh) can try out a large scale immersive version of what I assume this is (strobe lights causing you to see crazy colours and patterns) with a soundtrack by (electronic music producer) Jon Hopkins: https://dreamachine.world/
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.
Uh, careful there, I tried something like that at home and found myself lying on ground a few hours later with no idea what had happened inbetween (my best guess is a seizure!)
Oh yeah, there’s a health disclaimer you have to sign and I can imagine some people do have issues that they were not aware of until trying so obviously take care
Oh awesome, I hope you enjoy it! I vaguely know some of the people behind it and I know they put a huge amount of work into making it a great experience.
I'm surprised there was no mention of binaural beats, which are used in a similar way. I'd expect them to be complementary to the visual stimulus that this app provides. Though only experimentation would tell for sure.
I built a copy of the dreamachine once - I had a Re/Search book about Burroughs, Gyson, etc, and there were lots of pictures, possibly there were even measurements, I don't recall. Anyways, I just got some thick paper and cut out the holes, the hardest part was finding a working record player that did 78 in the late 90s. It wasn't nothing, but it also wasn't much.
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.
I'm not sure if this is related, but one time while tripping balls, we got a kaleidescope and put up to a CRT that was displaying only static. Looking through it was the craziest feeling that I had ever gotten while tripping. We even filmed it with our phones and watched it again and it did the same thing. It was like we all got sucked into the visual. You could almost feel it pulling you in. But it created other crazy visual feelings too. You could see the individual RGB pixels in the CRT all lighting up randomly. Highly recommend if you're gonna trip balls. Haven't tried it sober though to know if it could have the same effects.
Think of a stoner / surfer / skater saying it. That seems the most appropriate origin.
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.
We were just looking at the screen through the kaleidoscope with the scope pressed up against the glass. It wasn't taken apart or anything. If that's dangerous than I'm doomed from all those years sitting too close to the TV, as my parents told me!
Probably not worth a full Show HN. Just get an old TV turn it on so a dead channel so you just get "snow" on the screen. Get a cheapie Kaleidoscope and put it near or up against the glass. Look through it at the CRT and enjoy the show. Helps a lot if the room is dark too.
Tried it out (sceptically).
Quite a fun experience - hallucinations in the 'visual artefacts' sense. I doubt it's comparable to a drug trip (maybe those with experience can comment) but it is a somewhat pleasing way to zone out and be mindful.
The problem with reproducing a hallucinogenic trip is there's a whole mental/headspace side of it that they can't hope to reproduce. The visual aspect isn't even half of it. It's like an app saying it can make you drunk by giving you blurry cross-eyed vision.
Are you seeing the same thing a drunk person might see? Sure. Is it comparable to being drunk? No.
Yes similar to "beer goggles" (yes it's a real thing) they showed us in college to try to prevent drunk driving. We put on the beer goggles and played Mario kart. But it wasn't like being drunk.
Complete fail on my part. No hallucinations or visions of any kind. I just saw a simple flash that appeared greenish (I would have thought it would rather be in the reds...?)
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.
The app doesn't work on my Android device (it's stuck on the "Welcome to Lumenate" screen after signing in). I'm not sure exactly how this app is supposed to function, but assuming it's just similar to something like a stroboscope, it's a bit ridiculous that I have to sign up for an account to use it, when free and open-source alternatives like
https://f-droid.org/packages/co.garmax.materialflashlight/ already exist.
Yeah, there's serious study on this. Like, my dad did the Ganzfeld experiment back in the 80s with the ping pong balls over the eyes with red LED's in them... There's even serious scientific study on it [1] looking into the differences of the effect between people with mental imagery vs aphantasia. Here's another study which looks at fMRI scans of people with the goggles on [2]. This Vice commercial-for-an-app-as-an-article doesn't even touch on any of that, which is pretty weak even by the journalistic standards of this publication. I'm sure I've seen older Vice articles that weren't just an ad for an app which delved into this more seriously.
I've tried both white and red light myself and found the red light you linked to be a LOT more evocative.
Tbf OP does link to research of its own[3] by a team with "a relationship" to the app. [1] is actually what last year's submission is based on. Following the references, there's quite a number of papers on flicker-induced entoptic phenomena.
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)
I made a slightly more tunable one after being disappointed with the "official" flicker. I saw more visuals speeding it up closer to 10hz, but still just basic geometric shapes.
I don't know what you're supposed to see, but the first thing it did to me was make the whole room go dark, then saw some geometric patterns, followed by the silhouette of a man with light exploding out from his limbs, and finally saw a long tunnel heading away into the distance. Funky.
I swear, that's what I saw. It wasn't really hardcore like I was actually tripping, but more like trying to interpret a Rorschach inkblot. I just tried it again. Same darkening of my vision, but this time I saw the tunnel first, then a crucifix, and then Conway's Game of Life like patterns.
I have to pass on this one. The first thing it makes you do is sign up for an account. I have better things to do then another sign up. I’m willing to pay a fair price it pass when I need to sign up and agree to their terms of service.
Not sure if it addresses your issues with signing up or not, but on Apple devices you can “sign in with Apple” which is one touch and hides your email address from them. No need to even create a password.
I built some binaural beat headphones plus stroboscopic eye glasses when in my early 20’s. Incredible effect. However I’ve tried it again since in my 40’s, and the effect seems minimal. Maybe brain changes?
Same with me. In my 20's I adapted a dream machine with a LP player, and experienced fractals very colorful, clear and complex. With this app, now in my 40's, it was only the flickering, with some suggestions of forms and some nice body feelings. I thought that maybe the frequency was too low, or the flash of my phone was weak. I will try later this other app (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tp77.Strob...), that allows to specify the HZ frequency. I remember that the optimal rate for me was 12 HZ.
"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."
99% of what he wrote is unrelated to what he should have written about, but this is no surprise given that it reads like it's written by someone who, not once in his life, experienced a high.
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.
Modern journalism is much more about selling the story rather than listing the facts and citing evidence. He did state that he experienced Altered State of Consciousness and that at least some students in 19 strong study did too. The result is unsurprising to me because that is a known property of meditation. The app itself combined traditional audio meditation techniques with a visual component, so the real question is what visual component adds to the experience. Given that audio stimuli works to help induce meditation, it is highly likely that there is a way to tie in a visual component in a synergistic way.
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.
Depends on the drugs, the set, the setting, your mindset.
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.
There are many types of high, so it's difficult to explain. It's extremely personal in a way that you want to share with everyone as it likely is one of the best times of your life sitting there and feeling the ecstasy and glory of everything around you, but I'm not confident there's a language that can express the feelings of joy and pleasure in a way other than to spark curiosity in a listener. I can certainly try though to describe some more positive experiences.
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.
It's incredibly broad. I'm not trying to quibble, but it depends on what you mean by "high". There are two major overlapping groups of experiences you could be talking about. There's the euphoria and energizing high associated with stimulants (see Jones, Casey 1970). Then there's the psychedelic high. The second one is what's being talked about here. (Again, these experiences aren't distinct but it would more clear if they each had their own word).
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.
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.
Wow, I had no idea this would be so intense (1st session).
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).
I don't expect to pay for minor bugfixes. If there's a major change, get a new app out and give a discount to previous version owners if you feel like.
This implies that I want to pay for an app to stay up to date. I do not. Obviously this would be more expensive, which is why I would only do that when I'm confident that I'll continue to use it. Unfortunately there usually isn't any option
If you can find it, consider the movie "Looker" with Susan Dey in it. The guy who wrote it had been looking at influencing brain state with flickering lights.
I haven't tried the app but I know from experience that ymmv. For example, ASMR videos on YouTube do nothing for me, but some people say they experience frisson. I am susceptible to trypophobia and avoid any pictures with patterns of holes like that.
Wanted to try it, but it asks for you to sign in via google or Facebook etc, and I can’t think of any non-pathological reason it would need you to do that.
Same here on the subject of having to sign up/log in - although it does offer the option to log in using an email address. I do not want an application with the specific intention of changing my state of mind to be connected and transferring personally identifiable information to some remote mothership in any way so thanks but no thanks - no neurocannula for me.
Didn't do anything for me... Saw the light flashing with different frequencies through my eyelids and that's it. Maybe some vague geometric artifacts like zebra stripes and such, depending on the flashing frequency, but didn't feel anything.
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!
