Gamma Mind Enhancement Experiment - Day 1

June 15th, 2007

Yesterday was Day 1 of the Gamma Mind Enhancement Experiment. I used the technology for 30 minutes, beginning the session at 9:55 p.m. and ending at 10:25 p.m. It can take days or weeks for significant results to appear, but there were a few things I observed during and after last night’s session that are worth noting. As I mentioned in yesterday's description of the experiment, I'll report observations in several categories, including Physical, Mental, Emotional, Dreaming, and Psi.

Physical

I experienced a tingling sensation in my head as well as a pulsing sensation in my whole body. The two sensations were very different from each other. I was sitting in a dark room with my eyes closed and had no access to a clock or timer, so it’s difficult to gauge the exact time these physical sensations began but I’ve done my best to estimate.

The tingling started in my forehead approximately halfway through the session. I then noticed the same sensation in the back of my head on the right side, then in the back on the left side, then on the top on both the right and left sides. It never reached a point where the tingling sensation occurred everywhere simultaneously, but there were times when the sensation was occurring in more than one location at the same time.

The tingling sensation lasted several minutes. This sensation is very common with certain types of mind technology, and I’ve experienced it before while testing other programs so I believe it has more to do with the form of technology rather than with the Gamma state alone.

The pulsing sensation began approximately two thirds of the way into the session. Even though I’m using the word “pulsing”, I’m not referring to the feeling of blood pulsing through your body. Instead, it felt as if my whole body was expanding outward in every direction and then contracting back to its original size, over and over in very slow gradual pulses. It wasn’t the least bit uncomfortable, but it was certainly unusual. At first, it felt like my body was expanding outward only a few inches. As the pulsing went on, it felt as if I was expanding further and further outward with each cycle.

Those two sensations occurred during the session, but I observed no physical effects after the session was over.

Mental

There are no specific mental exercises or techniques I’m required to use during the session, so I decided to let my mind wander. I do a lot of writing in my spare time — sometimes fiction, sometimes non-fiction. One project in particular has been on my mind often lately, and my mind naturally wandered to that topic, which prompted some interesting results.

I’ve been working on a particular novel for more than a year, but lately the progress has stalled. I’ve been having trouble with the story and haven’t been able to figure out how to handle certain details. During last night’s listening session, I was mentally sorting through parts of the story and suddenly an idea hit me, and then another idea struck, and then another. The ideas just kept coming, and they wove together in a way that perfectly resolved the problems in my story.

I’m not certain if this can be attributed to the mind enhancement technology and the heightened Gamma activity it is supposed to trigger, or if instead it was simply the culmination of many months of mulling over the story details. Creativity and insight often come only after a person spends days, weeks, months, or sometimes even years pondering a problem and considering potential solutions.

Emotional

I observed no changes related to emotion.

Dreaming

I had extremely intense, vivid dreams last night. Because of my lucid dreaming practice I usually have no problem recalling my dreams, and my dreams are almost always vivid, but they're rarely as intense as they were last night.

I’m reluctant to attribute this to the technology yet because my dreams could have been unusually intense due to any number of other reasons. The fact that I found a solution to the problems with my novel could have generated enough excitement immediately before bedtime that my mind felt the need to generate dreams intense enough to match that excitement. Or it could’ve been something I ate. One instance isn’t enough to label this effect a direct result of the technology. If the intense dreams continue throughout the 30-day timeframe of the Gamma experiment, I’ll be much more inclined to attribute them to the technology.

Psychic

I observed no psi-related effects. Some people might consider the pulsing sensation a psi effect instead of a physical effect, and they may or may not be right. It’s much too early to make that determination.

General Notes

After using the technology only once, I’ve noted some effects that are definitely related to the technology and other effects that may or may not be related to the technology. I’m very curious to see how things will progress over the next 29 days.