Altered States of Consciousness

I've been thinking about altered states of consciousness this week. It seems the more I read about this concept the more I find that many really exceptional people found a manner to tap into the resource of our own subconsciousness for creative endeavors or solutions to life's conundrums. Albert Einstein, Salvador Dali, Kurt Cobain, and one of my personal hero's Genesis Breyer P-Orridge all explored ways to access this resource we all have within us. Genesis often refers to Brion Gysin who created what he called a Dream Machine in 1950 with electronics technician Ian Sommerville. It is a device for altering the brainwave frequency of the user and putting it into an alpha state, at which point it begins generating waking, sober hallucinations and internal “movies,” on demand. The machine is a rotating cylinder with openings in the sides lighted from the interior, that creates a flicker pattern as it spins. The user of the Dream Machine sits in front of it with eyes closed, and allows the precisely-calibrated flicker pattern to play over their face, creating a strobe effect in the darkness behind their eyelids. After a short period of adjustment, the user begins to experience eidetic imagery, in the same way that one does just as passing over the threshold between wakefulness and sleep. The Dream Machine allowed for a convenient and immediate way to get at eidetic imagery without having to go to sleep or take chemicals. Over the past 50 it has been used by William Burroughs, David Bowie, John Giorno, Paul McCartney, Marilyn Manson, Laurie Anderson, Keith Haring, Allen Ginsberg, Ira Cohen, Iggy Pop, Marianne Faithfull, Kenneth Anger, Beck, and countless other artists and hipsters. William S Burroughs wrote about Dream Machines extensively in his novels, where he depicted them as a weapon for the freedom of consciousness in the eternal war against control. Burroughs spoke highly of his friends’ invention, saying: “Subjects report dazzling lights of unearthly brilliance and color… Elaborate geometric constructions of incredible intricacy build up from multidimensional mosaic into living fireballs like the mandalas of Eastern mysticism or resolve momentarily into apparently individual images and powerfully dramatic scenes like brightly colored dreams.”You can make your own Dream Machine - Here Or you can purchase one - Here Or use this website which replicates the flicker of the Dream Machine - Here