Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

God Helmet

en.wikipedia.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 51 posts

Re: God Helmet

#11

Post by philwelch »

ahelwer wrote: post #3

This made me recall some wild online catalog website from the early 2000s that was primarily known (and advertised) for hoverboard sales, where the hoverboard was basically a small noisy gas-powered rectangular hovercraft you could stand on. I think I first saw their ad in Wired, or maybe a gaming magazine. Anyway if you dug into their catalog there was all sorts of wild stuff, from sleep masks that used LEDs to indu…

Do the LEDs “induce” lucid dreaming or are they just a cue for you to look for? Because the cue thing might be slightly less absurd. If you get in the habit of performing “reality checks” (is checking for things that would be present in reality but not in a dream or vice versa), you would notice when you were dreaming and would hence have lucid dreams.

Of course, it’s still a dumb product since you can just check whether written text changes when you’re not looking at it, but it’s not necessarily as dumb as it sounds.

Re: God Helmet

#12

Post by dr_dshiv »

0x8BADF00D wrote: post #4
ahelwer wrote: post #3

This made me recall some wild online catalog website from the early 2000s that was primarily known (and advertised) for hoverboard sales, where the hoverboard was basically a small noisy gas-powered rectangular hovercraft you could stand on. I think I first saw their ad in Wired, or maybe a gaming magazine. Anyway if you dug into their catalog there was all sorts of wild stuff, from sleep masks that used LEDs to indu…

There are a lot of wearables promising to do everything, it wouldn’t surprise me if you were talking about this site. Although it wasn’t around in the early 2000s.

The hapbee wearable comes to mind. "Choose how you feel"

https://hapbee.com/

Endorsed by founder of bulletproof coffee, which says something.

Re: God Helmet

#13

Post by dr_dshiv »

ahelwer wrote: post #3

This made me recall some wild online catalog website from the early 2000s that was primarily known (and advertised) for hoverboard sales, where the hoverboard was basically a small noisy gas-powered rectangular hovercraft you could stand on. I think I first saw their ad in Wired, or maybe a gaming magazine. Anyway if you dug into their catalog there was all sorts of wild stuff, from sleep masks that used LEDs to indu…

I don't know the website and I can't speak to lucid dreaming, but the most incredible "sacred geometry" effects can come from "brain machine" or "audio visual entrainment" devices. Mitch Altman had a classic Make Magazine build -- the things are essentially LEDs flickering around 10hz alpha. We built one recently with Arduino to support open eye meditation -- and you see some pretty crazy things generated by your visual cortex.

Interestingly, the effect was discovered by the neuroscientist purkinje while at the beach as a boy. He noticed that waving his open fingers over his eyes produced geometric hallucinations and later published his drawings -- back in the mid 1800s.

Re: God Helmet

#14

Post by toomanybeersies »

dr_dshiv wrote: post #13
ahelwer wrote: post #3

This made me recall some wild online catalog website from the early 2000s that was primarily known (and advertised) for hoverboard sales, where the hoverboard was basically a small noisy gas-powered rectangular hovercraft you could stand on. I think I first saw their ad in Wired, or maybe a gaming magazine. Anyway if you dug into their catalog there was all sorts of wild stuff, from sleep masks that used LEDs to indu…

I don't know the website and I can't speak to lucid dreaming, but the most incredible "sacred geometry" effects can come from "brain machine" or "audio visual entrainment" devices. Mitch Altman had a classic Make Magazine build -- the things are essentially LEDs flickering around 10hz alpha. We built one recently with Arduino to support open eye meditation -- and you see some pretty crazy things generated by your vis…

Got any links to resources around making one of these things? Sounds like an interesting project.

Re: God Helmet

#15

Post by macrolime »

ahelwer wrote: post #3

This made me recall some wild online catalog website from the early 2000s that was primarily known (and advertised) for hoverboard sales, where the hoverboard was basically a small noisy gas-powered rectangular hovercraft you could stand on. I think I first saw their ad in Wired, or maybe a gaming magazine. Anyway if you dug into their catalog there was all sorts of wild stuff, from sleep masks that used LEDs to indu…

This site maybe? It's from that time and still exists https://www.amazing1.com

Re: God Helmet

#16

Post by tecleandor »

toomanybeersies wrote: post #14
dr_dshiv wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know the website and I can't speak to lucid dreaming, but the most incredible "sacred geometry" effects can come from "brain machine" or "audio visual entrainment" devices. Mitch Altman had a classic Make Magazine build -- the things are essentially LEDs flickering around 10hz alpha. We built one recently with Arduino to support open eye meditation -- and you see some pretty crazy things generated by your vis…

Got any links to resources around making one of these things? Sounds like an interesting project.

Adafruit used to sell the kit (not anymore), but you have the instructions, parts list, pcb files and firmware (on the download section) and everything here:

https://learn.adafruit.com/brain-machine/overview

Re: God Helmet

#18

Post by jacobush »

philwelch wrote: post #11
ahelwer wrote: post #3

This made me recall some wild online catalog website from the early 2000s that was primarily known (and advertised) for hoverboard sales, where the hoverboard was basically a small noisy gas-powered rectangular hovercraft you could stand on. I think I first saw their ad in Wired, or maybe a gaming magazine. Anyway if you dug into their catalog there was all sorts of wild stuff, from sleep masks that used LEDs to indu…

Do the LEDs “induce” lucid dreaming or are they just a cue for you to look for? Because the cue thing might be slightly less absurd. If you get in the habit of performing “reality checks” (is checking for things that would be present in reality but not in a dream or vice versa), you would notice when you were dreaming and would hence have lucid dreams. Of course, it’s still a dumb product since you can just check whe…

My dreams are often pretty chaotic. It would be very uncharacteristically solemn for me to write something and check if it's there when I look again.

I haven't tried, but I can imagine blinking lights always present would be a much bigger clue to me.

Re: God Helmet

#19

Post by pavel_lishin »

philwelch wrote: post #11
ahelwer wrote: post #3

This made me recall some wild online catalog website from the early 2000s that was primarily known (and advertised) for hoverboard sales, where the hoverboard was basically a small noisy gas-powered rectangular hovercraft you could stand on. I think I first saw their ad in Wired, or maybe a gaming magazine. Anyway if you dug into their catalog there was all sorts of wild stuff, from sleep masks that used LEDs to indu…

Do the LEDs “induce” lucid dreaming or are they just a cue for you to look for? Because the cue thing might be slightly less absurd. If you get in the habit of performing “reality checks” (is checking for things that would be present in reality but not in a dream or vice versa), you would notice when you were dreaming and would hence have lucid dreams. Of course, it’s still a dumb product since you can just check whe…

> since you can just check whether written text changes when you’re not looking at it

To throw an anecdote into the bucket, I've had a dream where I read a word, and it didn't seem to change on closer inspection, and I remembered it when I woke up. But it didn't cue any lucid dreaming.

But I'm also out of the habit of checking.

Re: God Helmet

#20

Post by pavel_lishin »

jmiskovic wrote: post #10
cleanroom wrote: post #8

Atheism is not a scientific fact; it's a faith. Rupert Sheldrake says of Dawkins that his purpose in life is to convince everyone else that life has no purpose. I don't claim that Dawkins would lie to defend his faith but there is absolutely no reason why he shouldn't.

Atheism is not the topic here, it is not even mentioned in article. Although it is not a scientific fact, I wouldn't call it a faith because there is nothing really to be gained by wishing it was true. Most faiths promise a decent return of interest for true believers. If a human-made device could produce sensation of God presence, it would diminish all the holy visions reported by saints. Dawkins denied feeling any…

> Dawkins denied feeling any such sensation, so it doesn't seem like he is lying to defend his beliefs?

Maybe cleanroom believes that the helmet induces accurate visions of religious phenomena, so they think Dawkins did see something, but denied seeing it to support his worldview?

Post reply on HN