Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!m.cs.uiuc.edu!vela!amaranth
From: amaranth@vela.acs.oakland.edu (Paul Amaranth)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: Mind Machine - Need LED Flasher
Message-ID: <5618@vela.acs.oakland.edu>
Date: 3 Apr 91 18:29:03 GMT
References: <1991Apr03.005649.22625@ddsw1.MCS.COM>
Reply-To: amaranth@vela.acs.oakland.edu (Paul Amaranth)
Distribution: sci
Organization: Oakland University, Rochester MI
Lines: 26

In article <1991Apr03.005649.22625@ddsw1.MCS.COM> whos@ddsw1.MCS.COM (Ben Feen) writes:
>Help!  I want to make a "Mind machine" type device - 2 pairs of red/green
>LEDs, arranged thus:
>
>	RG           RG
>
>I will build them into a pair of goggles, and supposedly, the correct
>frequency will have psychological effects.  

One of the electronic project magazine had a project like this within
the last couple of months.  They used a single red led for each eye with
a 555 to blink them.  The article included a discussion of the photo-optic
effect.  If you get the lights to blink at your natural alpha frequency,
your brain "locks" in on it resulting in a state of relaxation.  Apparently
you can also do this with the theta frequency, although the article was
vague on the experienced effects.

DISCLAIMER:  I have not tried this, and the article explicitly warns of
the danger of TRIGGERING AN EPILEPTIC SEIZURE IN SUSCEPTIBLE PEOPLE.

Has anyone built one of these gizmos?
-- 
Paul Amaranth  office: (313) 370 4541 (also voicemail) 
(internet)     amaranth@vela.acs.oakland.edu  | WANTED: Clever saying
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