future development

The Dreamachine is one of many ways of altering consciousness. It operates through the optic nerve, which functions as our sense of sight. Other senses can be affected in ways to accomplish similar results. The sense of hearing, for example, provides another easy method for altering consciousness through a phenomenon known as binaural beats. If a tone of, say, 100 Hz were played directly into the left ear via headphones while a tone of 108 Hz was played in the right ear, there would be a difference of 8 Hz, which corresponds to alpha wave patterns (presumably the same as the dreamachine). The ear cannot tell the difference between the tones, but the left and right lobes of the brain detect the difference. The result is a wah-wah effect inside the brain, and it causes the lobes to communicate with each other more effectively than normal. This can trigger an altering of consciousness that has been credited with causing creativity and insight. Another method of altering consciousness through hearing involves playing simple drum beats that correspond to the different brain wave patterns. As for the senses of smell, taste, and touch, recent efforts such as aromatherapy and acupuncture have been suggested to have therapeutic benefits, and we plan to explore this realm along with sight and hearing. An important component to our future development is an EEG machine, which tracks and records brain wave activity. But, because the graphic readouts are not particularly interesting in themselves, and because they are not easy for the layman to interpret, we will configure a program to process the readout and give back frequency-based tone. This will allow observers to actually witness the effects the different methods have at altering brain-waves, providing a performative and intriguing element to the experimentation.