
Site replicates effects of psychedelic drugs - SquareOne
http://squareeater.com
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ohyes
I've never done any sort of drug. I was skeptical that this would do anything.
Having just cancelled my cable (because, you know, fuck TV and its rot...)

\-- I decided to test this out. My procedure was to turn off all of the lights
in my apartment, put on my headphones, and set this short 'Lucid' to full
screen.

Here are my results: No hallucinations or anything, I do feel very calm. This
may be because I was just sitting there not thinking for a while. No seizures
either, thanks creator.

It is a very interesting effect as the flashes from the screen end up taking
up your entire field of view, not just the screen. Also if you close your eyes
a bit, you can see the flashes on your eyelids quite clearly, kind of in
reverse.

If you kind of let go a little bit, and let your eyes loose focus, the effect
gets a bit more intense. I had this really deep scared feeling at one moment
towards the end, because the feeling was so novel to me (the screen was
starting to consume my whole field of vision... it was really weird).

Altogether, however, nothing particularly unexpected in terms of results I
don't think. I suspect you could stare at any flashing screen with random
patterns and achieve a similar effect. (Perhaps that is the point?)

Also, I'm glad this didn't turn out like Snow Crash where the white noise
causes the programmers to

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dananimal
Never taken good psychoactives have you?!

You cannot simulate the solvency of consciousness and ego.

If you experiment with psychoactives don't do so alone and make sure you are
in a safe secure environment with people you trust and preferable have
experience with psychoactives themselves.

Tread carefully - a full on trip is a VERY confronting experience if you don't
know what to expect.

You might just as well trawl <http://www.pown.it/> \- but 9.5 points for the
link bait

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scythe
Site _attempts_ to replicate the effects of psychedelic drugs. It's mildly
effective, but no more effective than listening to dubstep with a subwoofer.

.

Actually, a bit less effective than the latter.

~~~
kennu
But the music in the squares is better than your average dubstep track.

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Lost_BiomedE
I have found a few uses for binaural beats such as power napping, stimulation
for studying, and meditation/relaxation/anti-anxiety.

For psychedelic effects...meh

One interesting experiment I have tried is looking at brain wave recording of
monks in pubmed and trying to recreate the frequencies, with mixed results.

This week, I am blindfolding myself for a few days and expect interesting
results.

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Luyt
Brian Dunning, of Skeptoid fame, has written an article/podcast about 'Digital
Drugs':

<http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4147>

 _"[...] while the claimed science behind binaural beats is unfounded, this
doesn't mean that the effect isn't real and simply unexplained. Maybe you can
listen to a certain binaural beat and induce a desired state, but for reasons
we don't yet understand. So let's take a look at the research, and see if such
an effect has actually been observed. [...]"_

..follows a lot of background info, with references, and at the end of the
article he comes to the conclusion:

 _"So, in summary, binaural beats certainly do not work the way the sellers
claim, but there's no reason to think they're any less effective than any
other music track you might listen to that effects you in a way you like. If
they make you sleepy (like they all do for me), use them to go to sleep. If
they relax you or get you amped, use them for that. But don't expect them to
be any more effective than regular music. If someone you know claims that they
are, put them to the test, and bust the myth."_

~~~
SquareOne
Squareeater has a page about the science from real journals:
<http://squareeater.com/howitworks.html>

From that page: <i>We are often asked "aren't the effects just placebo?".
While there certainly have been users whose response is largely imagined,
there have been a number of studies (see research below) published in
legitimate scientific journals drawing a correlation between binaural beats
and brainwave functions. While the research is insufficient at this point to
fully understand how the brain reacts with entrainment, a variety of responses
have been well documented.</i>

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ZackOfAllTrades
I had an idea like this a while back, but I tried to go with less flashy and
more interesting patterns. I was making a website for stoners who were up late
at night. The plan was to sell them pizza and other munchies.

<http://www.treeowls.com>

Navigation is rough but click on "content" and then the picture of what you
want to view. Some of them move along with the mouse, most don't. It never got
much further than how it is now because I felt guilty selling things to people
who were chemically dependent on drugs. Still a pretty good idea though.

~~~
sp332
Ever since I saw this webcomic, I knew that was a great idea!
<http://www.octopuspie.com/2007-07-09/025-well-duh/>

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fugoki
"Site replicates effects of psychedelic drugs"

No, it doesn't.

~~~
veb
I still can't wait for the day I can simply lick my choice-of-screen-at-the-
time to get a high, akin to LSD. :P

 _ponders whether licking an image of blotter paper works just as well_

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exch
I am unsure what these things are intended to induce, but I mostly find the
flashy bits annoying at best. The sound by itself can be soothing, but
combined with the flashes, it just stresses me out.

edit: I should probably note that my brain is not exactly wired 'right'. So
that may have some mitigating consequences.

~~~
joelhooks
In my case it induced a sweet end of the workday headache.

~~~
redwood
Thanks for the head's up...

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bemmu
This is like trying to replicate the effect of food by looking at pictures of
spinning donuts.

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A79
Make sure you're following the instructions before you criticize the site.
Being as near to the monitor as possible (moving it half and inch or less in
front of your face) is really important.

~~~
wtracy
Well, here's my first criticism of the site: I could not find instructions
anywhere.

~~~
SquareOne
<http://squareeater.com/howtouse.html>

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andywood
Very, very cool, for what it is. After about 7 minutes, I begin to see fairly
interesting evolving kaleidoscopic patterns that are in my mind, and not
actually on the screen. I'd like to go further, but the sound stops randomly
after 3-7 minutes, which is the only thing seriously limiting my enjoyment of
it.

Of course, this has very little in common with a real psychedelic experience.
It's more trance-like, and somewhat meditative, which is still neat.

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zbowling
Not as good as the real thing. Don't visit if you are epileptic.

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jamesbkel
Weird. I've never had any problem with visuals inducing nausea or motion
sickness, but that (Deep Down, short) made me feel very unwell. Interesting
part is the nausea only came on 5-10min later (I'm assuming it was that...
aside from HN/Google News and a glass of water, that has been my only stimulus
so far today).

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unclickable
real disruptors. They might take drug dealers out of business in a matter of
months considering the fact that it's an easy scalable idea. If you add
bitcoins they might take over the world. Unless someone from Mexico will buy
them out.

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torstesu
Funny thing. Site supports it's claims by referencing 3 articles, whilst there
are 10^2 articles claiming the opposite. Good old TV-shop marketing trick.

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salver4m
It's an interesting idea, but after 10 minutes of staring at the flashing
screen, the only thing I got out of it was a headache.

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brudgers
There were no leaves on the bed, so I turned it off.

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derleth
Doesn't work at all for me, and it introduced me to a whole new failure mode
for Flash: They load to the initial screen, which flickers like mad and would
likely induce a seizure were I prone to them at all. My mouse cursor changes
to a 'hand' when it's over the play button, but when I click it doesn't
register at all. No sound, no change.

(Firefox 4.0.1 from the repos on Natty x86_64 with flashplugin-installer
10.3.181.14ubuntu0.11.04.1 from the repos (latest; installed just this
evening). I can do things like YouTube just fine; this is the only site I have
Flash problems on. It is, in fact, the only site I've _ever_ had Flash
problems on in many years with Ubuntu.)

