Entering The Psychedelic Space Without Medicine: Dreamachine
by MADELINE FERGUSON
Upon running across a video with a title something along the lines of the entire population of Britain being given something close to state-sponsored LSD, I had to do my research. Turns out the title of the video was a little misleading but still brought an incredible story
Turns out, there is no LSD involved just the opportunity for those across the pond to enter the psychedelic space using something called Dreamachine.
The Dreamachine uses technology invented in the 60s that involves flashing lights. Scientists found that lights flashing between eight and 13 times per second sync with the Alpha waves in the brain triggering hallucinations. The flashing lights happen while the person’s eyes are closed.
Hallucinations are different for everyone, they can be visual, auditory or in some cases physical. The flashing light technique used in the Dreamachine is a mostly visual and auditory (music is being played) experience but can vary from person to person.
The experience in England involves a medical screening before participants enter a large room with recliners and speakers on both sides of their heads. From there the light starts flashing and music plays.
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One writer described the experience as abstract and beautiful, “In my case, it was all deliriously abstract except for one moment when there seemed to be a face at the end of a tunnel of light, but I couldn’t recognize who it might be. At the maximum intensity of sound and light, complex crystalline structures like bright white beehives or molecular lattices formed out of nowhere, an architecture of pure light.”
Creator of the Dreamachine, Brion Gysin set out to make “the first art object to be seen with the eyes closed.”
The Dreamachine Experience
Years later, the Dreamachine experience was re-introduced by Jennifer Cook along with a team of musicians, neuroscientists and philosophers to create the current exhibit.
“Gysin created an object, I wanted to create an experience,” Crook told The Gaurdian. “Both an intensely subjective one, rather like the transcendental one he had on the bus, but also a collective one.”
Jon Hopkins created the music for the experience. He is passionate about finding alternative states of mind through music, dance and yoga. He commented on the importance of the group setting in which Dreamachine takes place.
“It’s like the difference between singing solo and in a choir. There’s an exponential improvement to the experience in the collective,” Hopkins said.
This experience hopes to form a community experience that can help Brits move past some of the trauma the world has faced over the past two years by providing them with new and enlightened ways of thinking, all by using some flashing light and music. Isn’t the human brain incredible?
Looking for other ways to enter the psychedelic realm without plant medicine? Look here, here, here, and here.
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