Re: Mind machines, a badly neglected topic? (Was: Re: Mind Control, 1990s)

Scott Badger (wbadger@psyberlink.net)
Sat, 24 Oct 1998 08:43:42 -0500

>> 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