Ed Grimsley believes that with the latest generation of night vision goggles anyone can observe on-going battles between different alien factions in the night sky over Earth. Or, they might be military aircraft engaged in training exercises, or possibly military aircraft in actual combat using secret technology. Who's the good guy? Who's the enemy? Is it real? For about twenty thousand dollars you can watch and form your own opinion.

ATN PhantomIR Thermal
Vision Binocular

Only the latest generation of night vision technology offers the resolution needed for observation of small but very distant objects. Night vision isn't simple amplification of light -- the technology it places in between the human eye and the outside world creates new problems and new opportunities for misinterpretation. What you actually see when looking into a night vision device is an LCD screen a few inches from your eyes. Stereo systems use two screens and mono systems use one. You're not looking into outer space with one of these things -- you're watching an electronic representation of something the machine itself detects. That opens the door to amazing new information and amazing new distortions of perception. We don't really understand all the things that can go wrong, so keep an open mind and be critical.

The high resolution of new night vision systems makes detail observable at much greater distances than before, but what we see when we look at the night sky through these devices needs criticism. Are those UFO's, or are they bugs? It's really hard for us to tell except by interpretation of behavior.

If a formation of lights seen only through night vision goggles moves across the sky and keep the same general orientation -- like a flight of military aircraft -- that's a good sign you're watching something unusual. If the movements seem individual and random, you might be watching insects at closer range. Perception of distance is the real problem here. You're looking at a very small stereo screen, not at the night sky. Objects close up and tiny could look the same as objects far away and large.

The new night vision systems do seem to reveal new information. You don't get this from older versions of the same technology which had less resolution. But exactly what's up there? No one knows as yet. It's worth watching, but it could turn out to be totally explainable in ways that aren't nearly as interesting as interstellar alien combat.

Alice sent me a link to this story -- Teens Using Digital Drugs to Get High -- a couple of days ago and at first it didn't connect to my memory banks. Then, it started to sound familiar. I-Doser? Wait a minute . . . .

Well, yeah, I remember I-Doser from years ago when it was a sloppy webpage and a free download that looked like an outdated zip file. I-Doser gave you two or three free downloads of binaural beat sound files called "Alcohol" or "Relaxation" and then if you wanted more, I think it was six bucks a pop back then. I tried them out, wasn't impressed, and erased the program.

Yesterday I went back and checked out the new I-Doser and Wow! Things have changed in the I-Doser building. It's like they're making money or something, and they have all these new files called Orgasm, Hand of God, and Gateway to Hell. That's a huge improvement over Alcohol and Headache Remedy -- obviously somebody signed up who knows something about marketing.

Currently you'll find all sorts of youtube videos displaying the reactions of teenagers to these sound files. If you don't understand what's happening it probably is disturbing -- especially if you're a parent. After all, Oklahoma's Bureau of Narcotics warns us that I-Doser downloads could be the new gateway drug.

Oops, sorry guys, but this stuff has been around awhile already and it hasn't ruined the young minds of America as yet. Robert Monroe, founder of the Monroe Institute, first developed the technological concept of binaural brainwave stimulation but many others have observed it. In fact, it may be one of the reasons we enjoy music -- any music; even classical music. We get in tune with the beat. Music makes us happy; music makes us sad. The world hasn't collapsed because of music.

Binaural beats just take the art out of the music and get down to the nitty gritty functional data. If you listen to Gateway to Hell, you'll get the idea quickly. Some of it's startling and the sudden contrasts are intended to jolt you out of a calm reverie, that's part of the bit. Much is unpleasant and even painful, especially to a person of my age. After all, it's Gateway to Hell. If you're the type who enjoys being scared, you will be. Lots of nearly subliminal voices towards the end so if you want to fear subconscious demonic conditioning you have that option, too. I personally think it's about as dangerous as watching Damien, which was longer and much creepier.

This might be best described as music boiled down. All that's left is the primal stuff that makes people react in emotional and instinctive terms, either towards the positive or the negative. Sometimes the new I-Doser series works pretty well, but I would expect the effects of any single "dose" to fade rather quickly as the audio becomes familiar. Then you'll want to try a new "dose." No problem. I-Doser makes plenty, and they'll probably all be lots of fun until you get tired of it.

Some people do react very strongly to auditory prompts like drumming, chanting and binaural beats. I don't. Sometimes I feel bad about that, because it seems like a convenient way to reach the higher mental states, when it does work. I have no criticism of anything that actually helps people do that, and individuals must find their own route if that's what they seek. Some people might find these audio files helpful. Others will simply find them to be entertaining for a little while. It's still pretty cheap entertainment.

I'd not be concerned that experimenting with I-Doser might lead anyone to try hard drugs or even soft drugs, unless that person was headed for drug addiction anyway. If life doesn't provide the emotional high you seek, you'll find it somehow. What returning to I-Doser has taught me is that a long time ago I was a teenager looking for new experiences and grand adventures. Much of what I did to find that emotional high was a lot more dangerous than lying down on the couch and listening to Gateway to Hell.

Adults be warned: this isn't music and you won't want to hear it on the commute to work. You probably won't care for it and you'll probably be puzzled by it, which may be why teenagers love it right now. Eh, if you're over forty you've been through hell already, you don't need MP3's for that.

Tips for enhancing the experience:

Lie down or recline in a quiet place. Turn lights out or blindfold your eyes. Do a relaxation procedure first, focusing on the different parts of your body from feet up to the head and intentionally relaxing each. Then just take the ride without preconceptions. Forcing things won't make things happen and having clear ideas of what you want from the experience just gets in the way.

Links:
Check out our Mind Machines articles for more info on binaural meditation tools.
I-Doser Free Download and Samples
Gateway to Hell on Youtube
Hand of God on DIY Dharma

Does the resonance of storms
affect the human mind?
Photo by phatman; License CC 2.0

Being Heyoka is kind of special. We're the only type of shaman that has a special ceremony for breaking the contact with our spirit guides. The spirits who guide us are the spirits of storms, and they aren't really compatible with human beings. If you get chosen by the Wakanyan, the Old Holy Ones who guide us, you'll probably go crazy. You won't have any truly useful talents except fighting and maybe a couple of other things I shouldn't mention. Storms will go around you, and that's kind of cool, and every now and then you might get a mission, a dream that you have to live out in your waking life. Most people who become heyoka opt out, take the ceremony and break the connection. Then they try for a better guiding spirit, something less hazardous and more useful.

By the time I learned all of that I was several years into actually being heyoka, child of the lightning, and I was doing ok with it. I decided I'd just keep going, and at least for me personally it has worked out all right. Neat stuff happens, and if you don't pay close attention you get hammered by it. I truly understand the crazy part, if you didn't have access to the knowledge of the rest of the ancient world you'd drive yourself nuts trying to figure this out on your own. Being an electronics dude also helps, because a lot of what happens does have an electromagnetic basis, and that's why I'm so interested in things like the Stephen Gibbs Hyperdimensional Resonator. Haven't had much luck with it lately, but I'm not quite finished with the concept. There's something familiar about it to me, and that's the point of this post.

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Statue of Cleopatra VII, San Jose
Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum;
photo by myrkathika; CC 2.0 License.

Since I've been busy the past few weeks making a living I have only played with the Stephen Gibbs Time Machine or HyperDimensional Resonator once, recently. That would, I think, be my eighth experiment in the ten-effort series, and I got no results at all from it that I noticed. It's not really disappointing, since I've had some interesting results now and then, and I'd think I'm doing better than the expected ten percent success if I look at this in terms of something cool happening.

There is a simpler way to travel back through time and speak with the dead and I use it most of the time, instead of the time machine and whatever astral talents I might be able to trigger occasionally. This other method was well respected even in the old days when the priesthood was a closed society and knowledge was available to a select few. One of the requirements for a person wishing to become an adept of the Egyptian mysteries, for example, was the ability to read and write. It's pretty much essential, since books are the best time travel machines we have.

My interests include many other things besides mental or physical time travel, and I spend most of my days and nights doing those other things. Lately I've been taking renewed interest in books, researching old topics and conversing with dead masters by digging through the books I have lying about, looking for important bits and pieces I remember. I've been picking some of my favorites out and explaining why they were important to me (on Smoke, one of the other blog pages on Skinwalker Files. Many of these books are now available online at no charge -- some in public domain and others intentionally released.

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Chaotic soundscapes generate the supernatural
voice. Photo: Randolph Femmer /life.nbii.gov

As an electronics technician and a heyoka, I'm fascinated by both the natural and artificial worlds. I've personally had more success with the natural sources of strange experience, but the possibility of re-creating natural power places with technology is really interesting. If I could do it, I would, and that's the reason I experiment with odd technology.

Sound has always been recognized as a powerful trigger for the shamanic journey or contact with the spirit world. Drumming, chanting, mantras and magical languages -- many people swear by them. I've not had much luck with any of that although I don't discount it. Maybe I'm sensitive to other things. Everyone is a little different in that way, triggered by different stimuli into altered states of perception.

For me, natural sounds with chaotic rhythm work the best. The sound of wind rushing through the pine trees over a campsite, or moaning beneath the eaves of the house late in a winter's night; the visceral pounding of stones on the bottom of a rushing spring creek; the echoes of falling water from a cave creek all have that effect on me. I drift into a space where the silences between the sounds fill with new meaning. Spirits talk to me. Music radiates from silent stones.

Sony ICD-PX720

I doubt that digital voice recorders would pick up what I hear, because I'm not listening in a literal sense. There's a mental transition involved into realms undetectable by electronic machinery but real enough to those who wander through those veils. Occasionally things do cross over to this side, and some of that might show up on film or as digital voice, or it might not. I'm still skeptical of EVP or Electronic Voice Phenomena, and at this point I'm betting it's electronic in origin, not supernatural. Digital voice recorders are new, and the phenomenon of ghost voice recording seems largely to have begun with the new devices. Although some stories exist about prior contacts in this same general way, there's no real proof possible from old stories. If no useful information comes through in the form of EVP, it's probably only misinterpreted random noise and quirks in the circuitry.

But. I've experienced quite a few strange things which I do wish I could have recorded.

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