Dreamachine

The dreamachine was invented by Ian Sommerville. Apparently, this was after reading the book The Living Brain, by William Grey Walter. Although I also read that his friend persuaded him to do it after having a hallucination while sleeping on a bus from the flickering of the sunlight through the trees as the bus was moving. The light flickers between 8 and 13 pulses per second. The frequency range corresponds to alpha waves, which are electrical oscillations that are present in the human brain while relaxing. I hate reading scientific definitions like that, since they never make sense to me. However, I did find that kind of interesting, because I have an alarm clock that can wake you up using music-like sound that somehow corresponds to alpha waves (it must be the speed of the beats or the frequencies of the pitches or something. I forget.) I've never used it to wake up, but I have used it to try to get to sleep a few times or when trying to relax. It has an entirely different effect than the dreamachine; however, I find it interesting that we can study neurological patterns like that and use them to effect our bodies/minds in certain ways. According to an article, this machine was once used in "psychedelic circles" but is now mainly used by scientists doing research on hallucinations. Much to my surprise, I cannot find much other information on the dreamachine, although I'd really like to know more about it. As someone who has always been sensitive to light (I have to have a filtered screen protector on my laptop) I was surprised when I was not given a headache from looking into the dreamachine. This is something that interests me.