last summer, More than 40,000 people visited the Dreammachine, a large space designed to induce hallucinogenic experiences with white strobe lights and electronic music, in various UK cities. “Initially there were guardians to guide people through breathing exercises and to help them relax,” says a neuroscientist at the University of Sussex and collaborators on the project, which includes a team of artists, engineers, designers and musicians. Anil Seth says Twenty to thirty people were allowed into the room and asked to lie down and close their eyes. After the 30-minute session, participants typically describe their experience using adjectives such as: Brilliant, Kaleidoscopic, powerfuland magic. “It was so unusual and magical to come out from behind the curtain and see the reactions of the participants who had just gone through this experience,” says Seth. “We are really trying to turn the inner, transcendent, personal into a collective experience.”
One of the aims of the Dreammachine project is to shed light on what Seth has been doing for over a decade: the effects of strobe light on the brain. “It’s still a phenomenon we don’t understand,” he says. “The flickering of light causes truly unexpected and powerful perceptual effects and conscious experiences that are independent of what’s outside. It’s just white light, but people see colors and shapes.” This psychedelic effect may be key to understanding the neural underpinnings of visual experience, as participants report having visual experiences even with their eyes closed. “There is something about experiencing the power of your own mind and brain to create truly transformative experiences,” says Seth.
What was even more intriguing for Seth was that although the participants were immersed in the same environment, they reported completely different experiences. “Of course, this is not just the Dreammachine,” he says. “One of the lessons is that we all have different experiences, anytime, anywhere, even though we share the same objective reality.”
To better understand the diversity of inner perception, Seth and his team also started a project called the Perception Census. This is an online survey aimed at measuring how different people perceive different dimensions such as sound, time, color and even expectations. “The aim is to understand the potential space,” he says. “Underlying organizational structures are different within all of us because they are less visible. 20,000 people from more than 100 countries have already taken part in the census, making it the largest experiment of its kind. there is
Despite this diversity, Dreammachine participants overwhelmingly report experiencing a common feeling of peace. This finding may indicate that the Dreammachine could also lead to new forms of mental health therapy in the near future. “There’s a long history of light-based treatments for things like depression and sadness, even treating seasonal affective disorder and other forms of depression,” Seth said. “This experience has similarities to psychedelics in that it creates an unusual, unexpected and vivid perceptual experience in the brain. .”
This article appeared in the July/August 2023 issue of WIRED UK magazine.
