From: Scott Badger (wbadger@psyberlink.net)
Date: Sat Oct 24 1998 - 07:43:42 MDT
>> At 01:24 PM 10/19/98 +0100, den Otter wrote:
>>
>> >Even a machine with just one setting, pleasure, would be
>> >an absolutely unbeatable product (and a very transhuman
>> >one too: now you control your own emotions). The stuff that
>> >dreams are made of. Now of course follows the inevitable
>> >question: why hasn't this been done yet?
Den, I'm having a hard time recalling the details, but
there was a research scientist working out of a
Canadian university who has published several papers
on the effects of a machine he designed which
manipulated and focused electromagnetic frequencies
on various places in the brain. It looked like a rather
large and cumbersome helmet. Anyway, the subjective
reports from the experimental subjects included feelings
of deep relaxation, spiritual insight, out-of-body
experiences, etc. These effects sound similar to those
produced through the direct stimulation techniques used
by Wilder Penfield.
Mind machine people talk about the greatest effects
occurring at the "crossover point", that point where the
brain starts generating greater levels of theta than alpha.
Interestingly, for most people the crossover point is close
to 7.8 hertz, a frequency which is also known as the
"Shumann Frequency", the natural resonant frequency of
the Earth's electromagnetic field. Is it all about getting "in
tune" with mother Earth?
Anyway, this Canadian researcher noticed that UFO reports
around the world were strongly correlated to fluctuations in the
Earth's magnetic field and posited that these fluctuations were
inducing hallucinations. I also recall some reference to tectonic
plate activity as generating some of these fluctuations.
Anyway, he had the closest thing to what you seem to be
describing that I've heard of. Except, of course, for "The Orb"
seen in Woody Allen's movie, "Sleeper".
Scott
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