Mission Statement: My goal is to create the most immersive, healing, and mind-manifesting experience possible, through the integration of cutting edge consciousness technologies with ancient shamanic practices. I have found the psychedelic experience to be the most Self-empowering, life-affirming, and awe-inspiring of adventures that one can possibly have, and so I seek to introduce people to this experience, in order to re-awaken their authentic, divine Selves, touch the core of their being, and step into the imagination. This is an exciting time in history because it is only recently that the technology exists to allow such interactive feedback between the mind and the body, and the seemingly outside, physical world. I believe that when one can experience, through visual, auditory and tactile sensations, the effects of the mind upon the world around them, a dissolution of the formerly strict boundaries between self and other, inside and outside, occurs. This transformation of perception is critical to overcoming any obstacle that we may face. In essence, the experience I aspire to create, is one where all boundaries are realized to be self-imposed illusions of the mind, and consequently, the range of possibilities for creation are seen to be only limited by our ability to conceive of them.
Preliminary Research and Testing: There are three main projects that will allow me to achieve my goals: the isolation chamber, the floatation tank, and the NeoShamanic Tuning Ritual Temple, the latter being the most ambitious and technically challenging. I plan to design, build and test these projects this winter, with the idea that they would be fully functional and open for use by Spring 2011. The house in Maine where I’m staying, already has adequate facilities for each of these projects, and I think it would be a perfect place to fine tune the procedures and devices with willing volunteers. This testing would provide valuable feedback, experiental and technical data, and promotional material. It will eventually require training facilitators, such as those experienced with Holotrpic Breathwork or shamanic journeying, to help guide the transformation of the participants.
Isolation Chamber: This environment seeks to reduce external stimuli to the brain, at the same time as enhancing the output of the brain itself, with biofeedback mechanisms such as the Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) meter, Heart Rate Variance (HRV) monitor, skin temperature, and rate of breath. In addition to biofeedback, brainwave entrainment with sound and light would be a powerful tool to induce meditative or trance states. For example, the brain will follow the frequency of flashing lights or pulsing sounds within the environment, allowing one to go from a fast, waking Beta state, into a slower, more hypnagogic dreamlike Alpha state. In addition, binaural beats would be used by varying the frequency between the left and right ears, creating a third, or binaural frequency in the brain. Another powerful new sound technology is the use of the transducer to vibrate objects and transfer a particular frequency to the participant in the form of tactile vibrations. I imagine integrating all of these devices into a comfortable pod for inner exploration. It would measure 8 feet long, 4 feet wide, and utilize sound dampening material to block external noise, electromagnetic isolation like a Faraday cage, and also a special vibration dampening pedestal. An ergonomically designed, adjustable sound bed would be placed inside, along with a computer controlled, multicolored strobe light, and multiple high quality speakers. An alternate structure may be preferable, such as a small dome, which could fit 4 people, and would have superior acoustic qualities to an 8 by 4 box, however it would be far less portable.
Floatation Tank: This environment is one of enhanced sensory deprivation - in addition to blocking out all light and sound, the tank allows one to float on a high density solution of magnesium sulfate and water that is perfectly heated to skin temperature. Since the brain uses much of it’s computing power to simply keep the body upright and balanced in normal life, the tank allows the natural focus of this energy toward inner processes and exploration of the psyche. The brain is used to getting lots of stimulation from the environment, so when this is drastically reduced, it creates stimuli (visual, auditory hallucinations) from it’s own thought processes. This allows one to examine and experience one’s thought patterns in a new way, dis-identifying with them, and potentially leading to the relaxation of the normal chattering and posturing, to reveal the incredible tranquility and peace of the formless void from which all arises. Like the Isolation Chamber, the Float Tank experience can be guided with audio-visual entrainment and enhanced with biofeedback. I believe that sound is a powerful tool to gently lead one from normal consciousness, into the depths of their own being and contact with source, and back into waking reality, with fresh insights and renewed sense of inner peace, which will pervade one’s life, being, and the world around them.
NeoShamanic Tuning Ritual Temple: This is a concept I have explored in three different blog posts. It has many pieces of technology and many more ways to implement and integrate them, along with many permutations of ritual and ceremonial procedures to accompany them.
A distinguished part of this temple is the use of sacred geometrical forms to fine tune the energy field within. Many of these have been displayed to us in the form of crop circles in recent years. I believe these are instructions to be downloaded and used for such purposes as tuning the resonant energy field of the earth and it’s inhabitants. From the perspective of sacred geometry, creation is based on the expansion and complexification of geometrical shapes and forms. I believe that if one could experience a harmonic tuning, with the help of sound and light, from within such a structure, (the isometric vector matrix for example) one could realize oneself to be at the the very center of creation, and powerful transformations and awakenings would occur.
The technology that started this idea, is of course the Random Event Generator (REG). This device produces fundamentally random outcomes from a quantum interaction using electron tunnelling. The outcomes are converted into 1s or 0s and can be plotted on a line graph that measures the coherence of the outcomes, or the distance away from perfect expected randomness - half 1s and half 0s. Deviation from the mean is certainly expected, but significant and continuous deviation over many trials is not. It has been found, through millions of trials and hundreds of experiments, that consciousness can affect this device to a highly statistically significant degree. When left alone, these devices also tend to pick up on major “disturbances in the force” or high profile world events, such as 9/11 or the inauguration of Barack Obama. I believe that when the output of the REG is fedback to a participant with sound and light, that it may be possible to resonant more strongly with it and increase coherence. For example, I envision a structure, such as a pyramid, to be covered in LED lights that are illuminated up and down, according to the coherence of the REG. Inside, where participants are sitting would be another, smaller pyramid displaying the coherence. This would literally envelope one in a manifestation of mind, the literal translation of the psyche-delic experience. The frequency or amplitude of vibrations, from speakers inside and transducers under the floor, would also respond to the REG.
As with the other two immersive environments, sound will be an integral part of the NeoShamanic Temple. One idea is to have hundreds of small speakers attached to the pyramid in a spiral formation from the center and emanate to the floor and then spiral under the floor towards the center, with vibrating transducers. This could create the experience of being inside a swirling vortex of energy, perhaps not unlike being inside a black hole or singularity. Again, as with the sacred geometry, this temple is designed to create the experience of being inside the center of creation. With the REG and biofeedback mechanisms dynamically displaying the power of the mind, it is easy to see that this would be the case.
An exciting way to transform sound or voice into visible forms and color, is with a device called the Cymascope. It vibrates water and other liquids to produce complex moving geometric forms, which can be projected on a wall or floor. This is one more mechanism to literally “manifest the mind,” and could literally envelope participants in the graphical form of their own voice. An interesting idea is to use a speaker to vibrate broken quartz crystals in water, as is practiced by shamans with the drum during ceremonies. At the end, participants drink the water that has been charged by their intentions, and are rejuvenated.
Yet another powerful technology is the Orgone Generator, which uses quartz crystals embedded in fiberglass resin and metal shavings, to transmute and transmit subtle energy. This could be used as the centerpiece REG pyramid, as well as integrated into the surrounding sacred geometrical form by using tubes of quartz, metal shavings, and resin in the construction. To help tune the temple’s subtle energies to certain frequencies, lasers or other lights would be sent through the tubes and illuminate the structure. These lasers would be attached to special transducers, which would transfer frequency from any number of sources.
For healing modalities, I think the models of Holotropic Breathwork and shamanic drum journeying would facilitate deep transformations. Both of these utilize sound, especially repetitive drumming to drive the process. I envision a temple with twelve people, each laying on the sound floor, and each of them with speakers on either side of the head, to produce binaural beats, which I’ve found very effective at inducing a deep meditative state. Audio compilations such as Hemi-Sync, which use these methods could be a model, as well as the fast, repetitive, “sonic driving” of the drum beat.
In addition, the overall model for the journey would be the “Hero’s Journey” as described by Joseph Campbell. He found this story of finding something not quite right with the world, following a curiosity, confronting challenging demons and the nature of Self, experiencing a death of the ego and rebirth of the spirit, reconnecting with the source of creation within oneself, and then coming back and giving the boon of new insights to mankind, to pervade all ancient mythologies. It is thus a pattern of development or initiation that is found deep within the psyche of all human beings, and therefore a journey that utilizes this process would relate to and touch something of ancient and archetypal dimensions. I believe that the full experience of psilocybin mushrooms is a compacted Hero’s Journey, including death and rebirth, and the experience of all the archetypes of creation. It is thus fitting that the Hero’s Journey be used to guide an exogenously induced psychedelic experience, and anchor the insights from source in consensus reality.
Burning Man Collaboration: The idea for the temple above could be scaled up to be an art installation at the Burning Man Festival in 2011. I think it would be a fitting addition to a festival whose theme will be “Rites of Passage.” This would involve building a large pyramid structure, capable of accommodating up to 100 people inside, and many thousands outside. It would be covered in LED lights, responsive to the REG and also capable of entrainment with pulsing light. Depending on the technical capabilities of the collaborators, the centerpiece could be a 3d holographic projection of the combined data from each individual’s Hear Rate Variance monitor, as well as a projection of the REG data, similar to the “Brainpaint” algorithms that currently produce visually dynamic displays from REG data. With such combinations of feedback data streams rendered into real-time moving holographic displays, the possibilities for creating an immersive rite of passage for thousands of people could be the most novel and trance-formative event to have graced the face of this earth.
Sustainable Conscious Community: The final resting place for these ideas would be an idyllic hillside in Vermont. The center would implement sustainable design in the buildings and permaculture in the surrounding landscape. It would be a place for the exploration and awakening of consciousness, and a model for future societies. People would be invited to stay and experience the various consciousness technologies and healing modalities as described above, and contribute their unique gifts, energy, and time to the project. The hope is that this node of consciousness exploration would awaken the innate curiosity and passion within those who visit, and encourage the development of such ideas and projects throughout the world.
