There's plenty of reasons these days to be depressed or discouraged, and it's always tempting when you feel down to seek solace in things that are addictive or self-destructive (you know what I'm talking about). Here are ten better things to do, that can also make you feel  better:
 

Brain-wave typing could become reality in just a few years. Researchers in the brain-computer interface, or BCI, Group at New York State Public Health Department's Wadsworth Center are enrolling patients in trials of a system that could enable them to send e-mail and communicate using their brain waves. Read all (via artsjournal)

So, Now it is being made for the use of  disabled people. and I say(and hope, and dream..), that in Future it could be an Extremely powerful and interesting tool for ALL of us.

 

 

 

 

The researchers showed nine participants a series of pictures and then asked them to
recall what they had seen. By applying a computerized pattern-recognition
program to brain scanning data, the researchers were able to show that the
participants' brain state gradually aligned with their brain state from when they
first studied the pictures. This supports the theory that memory retrieval is a
form of mental time travel. 

WHAT IS A DREAMACHINE?

DREAMACHINE visions usually begin by the meteorically rapid transit of infinite series of abstract elements. These may be followed in time by clear perception of faces, figures and the apparent entractment of highly colored serial pseudo-events. In other words, dreams in color. These dreams can be immediately interrupted and brought to an end simply by opening your eyes. However you look into a DREAMACHINE, in a short time you will have acquired greater self-knowledge, extended the limits of your vision, brightened your perception of a treasure you may not have known you own. -- Brion Gysin

 

A Dreamachine is little more than a perforated tube of paper placed on a spinning platter with a light bulb positioned in the tube. Holes are cut from the tube according to a specific pattern. You sit in front of the dreamachine at eye-level with the bulb, with your eyes closed. If constructed correctly the dreamachine should emit a pulse of light between 8-13 Hz, which is the precise rhythm of alpha-waves in the brain. Alpha-waves are dominant during the "alpha state," which occurs during deep meditation or the early stages of sleep. Alpha-waves are associated with a healthy mind and a stress-free life.

The Dream Machine consists of a cardboard cylinder with holes in it attached to a record-player turntable, in the middle of which sits a 100-watt light bulb. When the machine is turned on, the cylinder spins at 78 rpm. Subjects sit in front of the cylinder and close their eyes, and the light reflects through the holes in the spinning cylinder on the eyelids. The resulting flashes of light may, if the subjects are susceptible, create a mild sensation akin to the effect of the simplest light show.  It's an adaptation of flicker technology, first seen with strobe lights and now packaged as brain machines.

Burroughs once said about the Dream Machine, "Subjects report dazzling lights and 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.

 

How to build one..

  

I tried to summarize this very interesting article:

We've all had the experience of shifting into a heightened or metanormal state - call it lucidity, insight, mastery, wisdom, enlightenment, grace, bliss, satori, creativity, learning, waking up -a state in which we know beyond doubt that our ordinary state is a deep sleep compared to this rich awakening.
And we know too, this is how we should be all the time.  Most of us would like to be in this high gear, high-efficiency state as often as possible. In fact, it has become clear that humans are genetically programmed to seek out these altered, awakened states. recent evidence supports, that a key to human evolution, to our species' rapid growth in brain size, and to our unique creative capacities, has been our instinctive drive to experience these metanormal or exceptional realms of consciousness and performance. From kids who spin themselves into dizzy altered states and euphorically roll down hills, to performers, surgeons, rock climbers, chess players or creative artists who find that the most vital and rewarding parts of their lives occur when they're in a state of "flow," humans naturally crave the experience of being awake.

IN SEARCH OF TOOLS FOR WAKING UP

A central thread running through human history has been the quest for effective and reliable techniques for entering these awakened states -"spiritual technologies. One of the most ancient spiritual technologies is shamanism.  Out of shamanism and paralleling it have emerged a vast number of other spiritual technologies, including the mind-body exercises of yoga, and a rich variety of esoteric schools, mystery cults and technological rituals, including gnosticism, Sufism, Kaballism, trantricism, taoism, alchemy and meditation. In exploring these spiritual technologies. humans have pounded on drums, danced, chanted, fasted, tried different ways of breathing, stood on their heads, spent years in dark caves, prayed, muttered magic phrases, eaten wild herbs and plants, gazed into fires, devised odd sexual practices, contemplated symbols, created stirring rituals. And the ingenuity and effort paid off.

 But, the most frustrating and discouraging aspect for many about the various spiritual technologies is that they often require enormous amounts of practice - hard, rigorous discipline -be fore they really work powerfully and reliably.

 

Go To article via bruceeisner

 Contributing Illlustrator Danny Gregory writes, about fatherhood.

Another chapter in the illustrated chronicle of worry.