The Dreamachine

My ability for Lucid Dreaming and Astral Projection has always been a gift I possessed since childhood. However, I must admit that even in this fantastic realm, as a child, I managed to maintain a scientific observation and approach. Even in moments when I delved into the realms of the surreal and the entirely unexplainable, my skepticism was challenging to shake. Those who know me are aware of how resolute my skepticism is – to the extent that, even today, I am unsure of the limits of how, not far, but deep lucid awareness can reach.

One of my diligent explorations involves a construct known as the “DreamMachine,” the effects of which I stumbled upon entirely spontaneously, as a child. I remember that during my early years in elementary school, I discovered that when I closed my eyes, faced the sun, and waved my hand with fingers spread in front of my closed eyes, I could see an ever-changing interplay of shadow and light on my eyelids. This created the impression that, with my eyes closed, I could “see” my own hand. My young mind, which had already begun to explore lucid dreaming and the transfer of consciousness into the light body through my wholly personal and spontaneous methods, eventually entered a specific trance-like state, closely resembling the awareness I had experienced in my lucid dreams. This unique awareness was entirely different from the usual, and I must admit that the knowledge of having two entirely identical “selves” fascinated me far more than all my wanderings through astral landscapes or the bedrooms of my neighbors.

During numerous experiments exploring how to apply the technique of “shadow waving,” as I had solemnly named it back then, I discovered certain patterns and procedures for quickly reaching an altered state of consciousness that allowed for a seamless transition into the “light body,” or conscious astral projection. This conscious method eventually became so effective that I performed it during bus journeys and even during classes, where no one would ever suspect that I was in a completely different universe.

But I must express my gratitude, even to serendipity, for enabling me to explore the deepest secrets of magic and mysticism through play, as a child. All that remained for me later was one now easier task – to continue nurturing that child who had already effortlessly mastered many “difficult and impossible” exercises, which I later encountered in countless books and instructions on occultism, devouring and reading multiple titles simultaneously.

During the initial visions using the shadow waving technique, akin to a celestial greeting to the sun, I noticed that the visions were intense, vibrant, and tinged with a thrilling sense of awe. As I will mention later in my discussion of lucid dreaming, this technique is ideal for manifesting the “shadow” or “demon at the threshold,” which can induce unnecessary fascination and eerie paralysis in beginners during spontaneous sleep paralysis. One of my early experiences is quite interesting, considering it was constructed by the mind of an 11 or 12-year-old boy. I will retell it with a touch of magical nostalgia, paraphrasing mostly because it happened so long ago, and there is no substantial record of it. I will certainly strive to present all the essential elements for a more authentic understanding of this phenomenon.

“I had just returned from school in the morning shift, which I always loved so much – leaving me time to play and engage in gaming – I had a Commodore 64 at the time, and every free moment was spent loading games, as every other loading attempt was accompanied by the dreaded “?load error” message – known only to my fellow comrades who also used this computer during that time. I remember I had already had lunch and was quite tired and sleepy. Later, I was supposed to go to music school in the evening because I had already enrolled and was seriously playing the piano – twice a week, which often left me quite exhausted. Since I wasn’t in the habit of taking afternoon naps, I spontaneously induced my mind into an ideal lucid state. I recall lying in bed, waiting for my father to call me to get ready and drive to music school, and as I lacked ideas and had a child’s desire to play anything, I lay in a reclining position on the bed, looked toward the window, closed my eyes, and placed my hand with fingers spread in front of me. The hand was positioned very close, almost touching my nose. Then I began to move my hand from left to right, like a pendulum, with my eyes closed. This motion allowed the outlines of my fingers to appear in the darkness of my eyelids, creating the impression that I was actually “seeing” my own hand with my eyes closed. I’m not sure why I adored this phenomenon so much; it was as if I somehow knew that there was a much deeper and more significant purpose behind this movement and observation. It was as if this waving motion concealed the opening of some doors leading to the corridors of imagination, those that we, as children fascinated with esotericism, had always dreamed of. It was the time of the Labyrinth, the Neverending Story, Big trouble in the Little China, the Flight of the Navigator, the Explorers, the era of the Lego, Masters, and Transformers, the time of endless daydreams in each of those worlds. While waving my hand, creating a shadow that produced wondrous visual patterns in my eye, I noticed that my consciousness was changing, everything seemed strangely slowed down, and I no longer felt my body. I relished this feeling, as I was already tired; this motion seemed to recharge my batteries and refresh me with a very specific energy. I remember daydreaming about the Masters of the Universe, imagining the Castle Grayskull because I desperately wanted my parents to buy it for me. This spontaneous detail provided me with one of the most important tricks for inducing visions using the Dream Machine, which I will explain later. After just a few seconds, I was already gazing at the Castle Grayskull, which had now been fully constructed, complete with all the surrounding landscape elements. I consciously started dreaming within a minute, maybe two or three at most. I wanted to scream with joy in the lucid dream, for which I already had ample experience on how to control it, but until then, I had never experienced such a quick entry into a lucid dream. While screaming and rejoicing, I was met with the familiar feeling of being unable to speak in a lucid dream, where the sound distorted and twisted to the point that it would remind any novice of a demon’s howl.

I remember reaching the gate of the castle and seeing glass doors. I approached these doors and started knocking. To my surprise, no one opened them. I turned back and saw a completely distorted, almost hellish plane – everything was immersed in a brownish-yellowish haze, smelling almost like sulfur. When I turned back to the gate, I saw someone’s outlines in the glass. I approached even closer and saw someone wiping the glass. Since it was quite dusty and full of that brownish substance that radiated throughout the vision, I started wiping the glass myself. After a few seconds, I saw myself wiping the same glass from the other side. I wanted to enter “inside,” and the space behind the glass began to suck me in, and I found myself in my own room, with my double, who appeared very surprised by my presence and seemed much older. He told me that I shouldn’t be in his world. I saw the same room as mine, but in that brownish hue. I began to look around the room and noticed different things than I normally had, although it was the same room. I saw many new elements in the room, including the absence of the piano. I looked at myself standing opposite, and I looked into his eyes, which had no whites but were completely black, and from which I felt as if a dreadful dark wind was blowing. I felt an overwhelming fear; my simulacrum told me never to come here again and that I must return, giving up playing the piano. I felt great discomfort and negativity from my double, a very specific dread. Everything started to blend into the shades of black and brown, and I once again saw the darkness of my eyelids. I felt movement and heard my dad calling me to wake up because it was time to go to music school… “unless you want to give up,” making a joke out of it. I was totally shocked by the sequence of events. Even now, this vision is more shocking to me because it showed me that visions and astral experiences are far from what we think they are and how they are portrayed in movies and imagination. This impression has never disappointed me to this day.”

The Dream Machine itself is quite straightforward. Before I delve into the fascinating ways in which it can aid in exploring the depths of one’s Self, let me provide some information about its essence. In the grand tapestry of human history, innovation and imagination have often worked hand in hand to propel us forward, opening new vistas of possibility and unlocking the potential of our inner nature. One such chapter in the story of human ingenuity is the tale of the Dream Machine. An embodiment of human creativity and technological prowess, the Dream Machine represents a fusion of art, science, and human ambition. The inception of the Dream Machine can be traced back to the fertile ground of the 20th century. In the post-World War II era, when the world was grappling with the scars of conflict and the promise of a brighter future, inventors and visionaries began to explore the frontiers of art and technology in unison. It was a time when the boundaries between reality and dreams seemed more malleable than ever before.

“Dream Machine”, is a concept brought to life by a group of creative luminaries, among them Brion Gysin and Ian Sommerville. In the early 1960s, they envisioned a device that would alter perception, stimulate the imagination, and transport individuals to the uncharted realms of their subconscious. The Dream Machine was a marriage of art and science, a rotating cylinder adorned with intricate patterns and designs that, when illuminated by a flickering light source, induced a hypnotic, dreamlike state in those who gazed upon it.

This unconventional apparatus was inspired by the desire to explore the boundaries of human consciousness and expand the horizons of creativity. Its creators believed that through altered states of perception, individuals could tap into the wellspring of their creativity, unearthing ideas and insights hidden beneath the surface of their conscious minds.

The Dream Machine quickly gained notoriety within artistic and occult circles, captivating the imaginations of renowned figures such as William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg. Its mesmerizing effects became synonymous with the counterculture movements of the 1960s, serving as a catalyst for creative expression and introspection.

Although the construction of this machine is simple (everything is readily available on the internet) and has been explained so far without any contradictions or ambiguity, little has been said about how it can be used – except that one should simply ‘stare’ at the center of closed-eye light until the trance overtakes the practitioner. Just as in the case of lucid dreaming, skrying, and transferring consciousness into the light body in the waking state, countless completely wrong instructions have been written, which only serve to train the student in patience; to be infinitely patient with techniques that simply do not lead to the attainment of vision or the appearance of astral experiences. I have always been amazed by two facts: how practical magic has almost intentionally incorrect instructions related to such an important area, and the second, more important fact – how practitioners persist in using completely wrong techniques without any sense or desire to change them through simple experimentation. On one hand, as much as we nurture or at least wish to nurture the idea of ‘scientific illuminism,’ we fail ourselves in that principle when it comes to using that same scientific illuminism to address our own failures and practical work.

I want to be practical, just as I was in my previous discussions about lucid dreaming, skrying, and the ‘body of the light.’

Certainly, the first step is to construct the mechanism itself, which is not really that difficult and can be done in an hour – if you have all the necessary components. Here, I will present a diagram that you should print on sturdy paper and then cut along the designated lines with scissors. Then, attach it around a turntable, which, thanks to the appearance of digital devices, is incredibly inexpensive. You can even buy a turntable just for this exploration of inner planes – which is a perfect act that already projects success in your mind, even as you contemplate whether to do it. Once the cardboard is drawn and the holes and necessary shapes are cut with scissors, the next step is to make a cone out of it, which is glued around the turntable, and inside it, you place a light bulb – which you can also buy very cheaply. There are bicycle lamps that emit extremely bright white light and can be powered via a USB cable. All of this is relatively easy to make, except for the will to do it – which, unfortunately, has become a luxury in the age of mouse clicks. What needs to be emphasized is that once you have constructed the machine, what then?

There are many delicate details tricks that lie in the application of this method, so you can obtain a truly fantastic trance and a vision that is no different from the image you see as you read these words. Without such help, most of the time will be filled with frustration – a frustration unique to the failures in lucid attempts and skrying attempts. There is nothing worse than preparing to explore the inner plane, and after spending the entire day in anticipation of turning to the ‘other world,’ all you get is another failure, one more that again shows you are unworthy, that these things don’t work, and that all of this is a waste of time.

The first and most important rule is never to attempt to have an experience or practice during the day, and the worst time for the experiment is in the evening. On the contrary, wake up around 5 or 6 in the morning, and then start the practice. You will be amazed at how this time is immeasurably better than all the minutes during the day or evening combined. Dim the lights if the sunlight is starting to enter the room, turn on the light in the center of the mechanism, let the turntable rotate, and sit with your eyes closed in front of that light. Also, instead of the entire turntable mechanism, you can use a computer monitor with numerous applications and small software programs that simulate a strobe effect. I have tried both variations, and both work, but I prefer the effect with the turntable. As for the frequency and rate of light interruptions, you can experiment on your own, but it’s best not to go too slow or too fast, as it will distract your attention. The flickering should be a minor, unimportant phenomenon in your concentration on the image you have chosen. Do not make any effort to make the visualization perfect. The trigger for the appearance of a vision is not in the strength of visualization – it should only subtly guide the mind to where and how the formless clay should be poured and in what form that energy will begin to manifest. Your concentration on the image should only serve as a reminder; simply remember what was drawn on that piece of paper you placed under your pillow. At one point, just as in the formation of an astral scenario during a lucid attempt, which I explained in detail in my presentation on the practice of lucid dreaming, the vision will suddenly be there – you may be surprised at the speed, as if it had actually been there all along, but you simply didn’t notice it. Not that you didn’t see it, but that you didn’t notice it. All further work is exactly the same as in lucid dreaming, where you need to strengthen the image with a tactile sense of touch all over yourself and around you – which has already been explained in detail.

Also, the ideal time to use this practice is if you wake up an hour earlier than usual – ideally between 5 and 6 in the morning, stay awake until 4 PM, and then take an afternoon nap. Set an alarm to wake you up after an hour, and as soon as the alarm wakes you, try everything mentioned. If you wake up on your own earlier, also use that awakening to do the same thing.

An ideal scenario for forming visions is to imagine Tarot cards, as well as Tattvas. I must admit that the effect of flashing colors has gained its true significance with this technique, where everything else is a pale variation of this. The aspirant should definitely experience both techniques and decide for themselves which one is more useful and better for their progress.

This is by no means a replacement for lucid dreaming, scrying, or the method of the “body of light”, but just one other, different experience. Or perhaps, another form of the One Experience we have all been striving for since the begining of the time, and because of which we have built all the Others – running so far from that One that we no longer know where we left it, and we no longer know where we are.