I'm still new on this forum and so far I noticed a few people who are relatively new to this sort of technology and others who have been working with it for a long time. What I'd be interested to hear is, what peaked your interest when your heard about mindmachines? And how do you use it? For a certain goal, like deeper meditation, peak performance? Is it 'just' for relaxation, enjoying the visuals or exploration of your inner world?
In my case it started as just curiosity for machines I'd read about that could give you a sort of psychedelic trip and make you relaxed as if you'd just taken a long nap. I was in my early twenties, a student and in my spare time devouring books about psychology, meditation, hypnosis and psychedelics. This little shop I just heard about sold hundreds of books, psychosonic CDs, Light & Sound devices and biofeedback, a candystore if I ever saw one. I ended up working there and lavished myself in all the different machines that were being sold there. I just wanted to try everything. I guess that was my focus.
Somewhere in that period I had a very lucid experience with a mindmachine that made a huge impression on me. It was the most clear and focussed experience I ever had with such a device, a momentary state of expanded consciousness. I understood that this was the state I had been unconsciously looking for for years, experimenting with relaxation exercises, self-hypnosis, meditation, psychedelics. Here was a technique that could induce it (even though that experience has remained unique in all those years) and make it seem that this 'state of wide minds' as I called it was a natural state, and one that was waiting just around the corner.
Like I said, such a profound experience with AVS has remained a rarity, although most sessions leave me fit and rested nowadays. I never cared much about the visuals the lights gave me, the mental and hypnogogic images were always much more interesting for me. It's also a great way to shut up the monkey mind. After not having been involved with mindmachines for about ten years, lately I've been having a kind of 'brainaissance' and am exploring the Kasina, Thoughtstream, Mind Workstation and MindWave. At the moment I see SMR training as a way to work towards my wide minds-state.
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