DREAMACHINE

ANON Faction: Reference Media

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DREAMACHINE
Had a transcendental storm of color visions today in the bus going to Marseilles. We ran through a long avenue of trees and I closed my eyes against the setting sun. An overwhelming flood of intensely bright patterns in supernatural colors exploded behind my eyelids: a multi-dimensional kaleidoscope whirling out through space. I was swept out of time. I was out in a world of infinite number. The vision stopped abruptly as we left the trees. Was that a vision? What happened to me? That is an entry in my journal, dated December21, 1958. Ian Sommerville, who had also read Walter, (Grey Walter, The Living Brain) wrote me from Cambridge on February 15, 1960: I have made a simple flicker machine. You look at it with your eyes shut and the flicker plays over your eyelids. Visions start with a kaleidoscope of colors on a plane in front of the eyes and gradually become more complex and beautiful, breaking like surf on a shore until whole patterns of color are pounding to get in. After awhile the visions were permanently behind my eyes and I was in the middle of the whole scene with limitless patterns being generated around me. There was an almost unbearable feeling of spatial movement for a while but it was well A worth getting through for I found that when it stopped I was high above earth in a universal blaze of glory. Afterwards I found that my perception of the world around me had increased very notably. AU conceptions of being dragged or tired had dropped away... I made a machine from his ensuing description and added to it an interior cylinder covered with the type of painting I have developed in the three years since my first flicker experience. Flicker may prove to be a valid instrument of practical psychology: some people see and others do not. The DREAMACHINE, with its patterns visible to the open eye, induces people to see. The fluctuating elements of flickered design support the development of autonomous movies, intensely pleasurable and, possibly, instructive to the viewer. What is art? What is color? What is vision? These old questions demand new answers when, in the light of the DREAMACHINE one sees all of ancient and modern abstract art with eyes closed. From: Brion Gysin,Dreamachine WHAT IS A DREAMACHINE? In the history of the world, DREAMACHINES are the first objects made to be viewed with closed eyes. In the history of art, DREAMACHINES bring to a conclusion the period of kinetic invention in modern painting and sculpture. DREAMACHINES open a new era and a new area of vision ... interior vision. DREAMACHINES make visible the fundamental order present in the physiology of the brain. You are the artist when you approach a DREAMACHINE and close your eyes. What the DREAMACHINE incites you to see is yours. . . your own. The brilliant interior visions you so suddenly see whirling around inside your head are produced by your own brain activity. These may not be your first glimpse of these dazzling lights and celestially colored images. DREAMACHINES provide them only just as long as you choose to look into them.What you are seeing is perhaps a broader vision than you may have had before of your own incalculable treasure, the Jungian store of symbols which we share with all normally constituted humanity. From this storehouse, artists and artisans have drawn the elements of art down the ages. In the rapid flux of images, you will immediately recognize crosses, stars and halos... woven patterns like pre-Columbian textiles and Islamic rugs. .. repetitive patterns on ceramic tile. . in embroideries of all times.. . rapidly fluctuating serial images of abstract art. . . what look like endless expanses of fresh paint laid on with a palette knife.

DREAMACHINE visions usually begin by the meteorically rapid transit of infinite series of abstract elements.These may be followed in time by clear perception of faces, figures and the apparent enactment of highly colored serial pseudo events. In other words, dreams in color. The DREAMACHINE is a dream-machine. These dreams can be immediately interrupted and brought to an end simply by opening your eyes. However you look into a DREAMACHINE, in a short time you will have acquired greater self-knowledge, extended the limits of your vision, brightened your perception of a treasure you may not have known you own. Brion Gysin

FLICKER Brain waves, minute electrical oscillations associated with brain activity, can be measured accurately and graphically recorded by the electroencephalograph (EEG) machine. EEG records show that brain rhythms divide into groups according to frequency. One of these groups, the alp ha or scanning rhythms, is strongest when the brain is unoccupied, searching for pattern; weakest during purposeful thinking, eyes open studying pattern. The strength and type of rhythms vary between individuals. The EEG records of some primitive peoples are similar to those of a ten year old in our society. Variations occur with age. The alpha rhythms do not appear in children until they are about four years old. (The flicker signal of the DREAMACHINE is approximately 8 13 Hz and simulates an alpha frequency.) 1. 2. 3. 4. Every person has to find the right distance for himself. Move closer to view more colors. Every person has to find the right height for himself. Wait a certain time until your own brain rhythms are brought into phase with the machine.

We hope you enjoy building and experimenting with your DREAMACHINE. To build the DREAMACHINE, you need a 32 x 32 sheet of fairly heavy paper (we found 4ply or Matte to be good), a 78RPM record player (available for under $15 at a thrift store), and a hanging light bulb. Draw three inch borders along the top and bottom of the paper. Then divide the rest into two inch squares. Cut out the cardboard templates, then trace them onto the proper spots on the paper. CAREFULLY cut out the holes and connect the two ends together, thus forming a cylinder. It may be necessary to score the paper vertically to achieve an even circle. Dangle a light bulb down the middle and youre ready to SPIN. We at TOPY feel that everyone should have a DREAMACHINE. It is a wonderful way to demystify and decentralize the trance state, and religious (so called) experience in general. It is free, safe, non-addictive non-dogmatic, requires no training to use, AND IT WORKS. So we are asking for YOUR help in proliferating and investigating the DREAMACHINE. If anyone you know wants their own DREAMACHINE, photocopy the information we sent you and sell it to them for $3. Keep 2 and send 1 to us along with their name and address.We will, at some point in the future be sending out questionnaires and maybe uniform experiments, so we can get some scientific data on which to make some generalizations.We will send results and updates to everyone on our DREAMACHINE list. In the meantime, incorporate the DREAMACHINE into your daily and ritual life. Let us know of any patterns you see developing around your use of it. Or of any particularly interesting results in general. In London, they built a 5 foot tall METAL version and it was found to modulate sound in a similar way to that it does light (ooh thats a rough sentence!) We found that hissing into the DREAMACHINE produces interesting results, but unfortunately the paper version doesnt amplify enough to use voice, only breath. Please make a particular point of sharing any data you may accumulate on sonics, as this is a particular focus of all the different braches of TOPY WORLD NETWORK at the moment. Again, please help us by spreading the DREAMACHINE out as far and wide as possible.We have set op a system whereby it can actually be slightly profitable to you to further the growth of the DREAMACHINE family. If you want, you can even give them away. But in any case, please do send along the ADDRESS of anyone who gets one. We will send them ONLY DREAMACHINE related material, unless they request TOPY stuff. We respect the fact that not everyone wants to be involved inTOPY per se, but still want to have access to EVIERYONE with a DREAMACHINE. Plus, we want to be able to have the exact number of DREAMACHINE owners in North America. THANK YOU PS. Brion Gysin used to paint the inside of his machine. It has been observed that splotches of red, orange and yella work the best. And one question. When workink with the DREAMACHINE, what types of music are most effective? Have you ever noticed a sort of light to come out of it? if so, what color is it?