Imagine a picture familiar from cinema: a hypnotist induces a patient into a trance state, holding a pendulum on a thin thread in front of his eyes. Hypnosis is a poorly understood phenomenon; if some do not doubt the need for its use, others consider it quackery and nothing more. Oddly enough, in the 1960s, a number of electrical devices appeared to put the patient into a state of either sleep or trance - the so-called "brain machines".
On July 18, 1961, a young electronics specialist, British Ian Sommerville, received a patent number PV868.281 for an apparatus called "Procedure and device for generating artistic hallucinations." It would seem that a strange name, giving quackery, for which only crazy devices are not granted patents - but Sommerville's invention had a very interesting history, and later the "dream machine" received a number of sequels, including those used in official medicine. The inspirer of Sommerville and, to a certain extent, the customer of the device was the famous writer William Burroughs, who by that time had already become famous for the first of his beatnik novels "Naked Lunch" and the murder of his wife while playing William Tell. Burroughs himself was inspired by his friend, surrealist artist Brion Gysin.
The car was an ordinary, in general, stroboscope, and made almost on the knee. It was based on a standard turntable electrophone rotating at 78 rpm. A hollow cylinder made of thick cardboard with a height of 81.28 cm was installed on it, in which holes of several standard configurations were made in a certain order. A light source was located inside the cylinder at a height of about 27 cm - and that was all.
Dream Machine.
The first car was tested by the three mentioned - Sommerville, Burroughs and Gysin. Subsequently, they complicated the machine: Gaisin painted the inside of the cylinder in various ways. What did the beatniks want? Lucid hallucinations. Burroughs, who by that time had undergone a course of drug addiction treatment, did not want to get addicted to pills again (although sometimes he did not disdain them either) and was looking for a mechanical and safe way to introduce himself into a state of altered consciousness.
What is the real effect of the "dream machine"? When the cylinder rotates, the light that the subject is looking at (by the way, you can sit in front of the car with your eyes closed) has a flicker frequency of about 9-13 Hz. Such light exposure can really cause hallucinations in a person, mostly abstract, light-colored. Moreover, the effect of self-hypnosis is superimposed on the real impact of the machine: the user really wants to get into the world of dreams, using the device, and unconsciously transforms abstract images into concrete ones - as on the blots of the Rorschach psychological test.
The car was described in their works by many writers, including the same Burroughs, Ken Kesey and Timothy Leary, directors have repeatedly shown it in the movies. The Dream Machine is often shown at various shows and exhibitions. At least one of its positive effects has been confirmed: a number of people addicted to chemical drugs in the wake of the beatnik fashion, abandoned them in favor of "new technologies." Official neurobiology recognizes the effectiveness of the stroboscopic effect; a number of neuroscientists use similar devices to study the nervous system (of course, not for treatment). But the fact is that the "dream machine" was only one of the first attempts to influence the mental state of a person mechanically.
Ian Somerville's dream machine sweep for 72 rpm. For 45 rpm, the cylinder should have 12, not 8, holes in one row.
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Brain under control
The impact of the "dream machine" is primarily based on rhythmic stimulation of the optic nerve, that is, visual stimulation. In fact, Sommerville's invention laid the foundation for a whole line of medical devices, which were collectively called "brain machines", "mind machines" or AVS-devices. AVS stands for simply: auditory visual stimulation, audiovisual stimulation.
AVS devices work in the same way as a "dream machine", but as a pacemaker they can use not only flashes of light, but also various sounds, such as clicks or beats. There are several dozen AVS device manufacturers in the world today. The most famous companies are Photosonix and Mind Spa. Interestingly, the first is a completely honest Californian company with a legal and physical address, its owners do not promise anything magic - only relaxation, meditation, rest and pleasure. Deprived of any design, purely technical devices Photosonix simultaneously stimulate the eyes (using special glasses) and ears (using headphones), the signal generator has many settings - frequency, volume, brightness, as well as a number of built-in programs. In general, this is a device for relaxation and disconnection from the hardships of the surrounding world.
Mind Spa is a "dark horse" headed by renowned "NLP specialist" Richard Bandler, which is great for loud advertising, but probably only for her. Despite the fact that Mind Spa devices are no different from Photosonix in anything other than spectacular design, Bandler promises to "develop mental abilities and open new horizons", and this is unconditional quack. By the way, similar devices are also produced in Russia, the most famous of which is TMM-005 Insight Mirage.
There are no objective studies proving the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of AVS devices. They are used, as mentioned above, for relaxation, rest, and also for studies of the central nervous system. Rhythmic signals reaching the brain can cause responsive fluctuations in the activity of neurons, thus affecting the psyche.
The most characteristic auditory method of exposure is the so-called binaural beats. Their principle is quite simple. Suppose one ear receives a high-frequency signal, and the other receives the same signal with a lag of 10-25 Hz; in addition to objective sound, a person will hear a certain low-frequency beat. These artifact sounds, which do not exist in reality, are called binaural beats. Neurophysiologists assign this effect a certain role in the study of the brain and hearing, rhythms cause a wave response in the brain. True, binaural beats do not carry any benefit to humans, except for research.
Binaural beats - These are artifact sounds formed by the human brain when signals of different frequencies are fed to the right and left ears.
Soviet scientists …
In addition to light and sound, there is another way of acting on the brain that can induce sleep, hallucinations, or hypnotism - electricity. Perhaps the most famous device in this area is the Electrosone device, or LIDA-machine, created in the USSR in the mid-1960s. LIDA is an abbreviation for the name "therapeutic impulse remote device", and today they often write "lead machine", that is, the abbreviation has gradually become part of the noun.
Lida-machine was created by a group of doctors from Chisinau under the leadership of Lev Yakovlevich Rabichev in 1965. There was nothing revolutionary about the development: in fact, the lead machine was an improved and sophisticated "dream machine" of Sommerville. The new "layer" was the addition of a physiotherapeutic effect in the form of a high-frequency magnetic field, that is, in fact, UHF therapy. The patient was simultaneously affected by four rhythmized elements: sound (clatter of drops), light (green flashes), heat waves and UHF. The state into which the patient was introduced by means of a lead machine was called "electrosleep".
Subsequently, already in the 1970s, the lead machine was developed in the form of the Ritmoson apparatus, from which currents and thermal effects were excluded. The effect was about the same: the patient gradually fell asleep. True, the sleep into which the patient was introduced to the apparatus was somewhat different from healthy deep sleep: it was accompanied by dreams, but was more superficial and did not always bring rest.
First of all, Soviet developments were intended for the treatment of insomnia. After several sessions, the patient "got used" to a given rhythm, the body memorized the process of falling asleep at a reflex level. In this area, the apparatus, in general, helped.
The Soviet "Ritmoson" is similar in principle to the modern Photosonix devices described above. In it, in the same way, it was possible to adjust the beat frequency, the brightness of light flashes, the volume of clicks. The patient, who was in a darkened room, felt comfort, calmness, coziness - so the lead machine can be called a device for relaxation. And relaxation always accompanies health, isn't it?
Are Brain Machines Dangerous? In general, no. They are not recommended for people suffering from disorders of the central nervous system, initially prone to hallucinations, as well as epileptics: it has long been known that flashing light (for example, when riding a bicycle along a picket fence) can provoke an epileptic seizure. A healthy person, on the other hand, may well “play” with the “dream machine”. Will it make him healthier? Hardly. But, it is likely that he will get some pleasure. And it will become calmer.
Tim Korenko
