Just read your room of requirement post on mySpace. I've read your book, but I'm a little fuzzy on the lab details.

What experiments do you plan and with what equipment? Are you performing them now, or are they still in the planning phase?

That is a very good question. The trick is that there are so many directions to go in with the experiments so I go with what is available (equipment-wise) and what sounds the most interesting to pursue.

For instance, the link below is an experiment I very much want to pursue when we get back into Uru:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/12/081203-swapping-video-ap.html?source=rss

This research has been going on for at least a year in various parts of Europe and very much supports what I've been observing.

The second thing that I have been very taken with is the Zengar neurofeedback system which I was introduced to in the lab (you can check out the Zengar website but it doesn't say much). I have not been sharing about this yet because I'm only a little ways into the process, but I've already seen some amazing things come out of it. I wanted to wait until I had a more complete report before I started writing about it. Also, the equipment is prohibitively expensive so we need to brainstorm on ways to increase the availability if the results are as good as I suspect. Unfortunately that whole track has come to a stop because of the lab situation.

I stay a little vague about the lab because I'm not sure what is OK to talk about and what isn't—since it's not my setup. It is very small with a few key pieces of equipment and it has a very interesting rotating chair in a separate room. We have a couple of very interesting experiments mapped out for the chair as well.

Right now I'm a bit stuck because I don't have lab access due to scheduling conflicts. There have also been delays and complications with Uru coming back online (but it will happen apparently) so I have been using the time to start a business that has nothing to do with reality hacking (it's basic website design and promotion packs for small businesses and individuals).

I want the Reality Hacker to become as low-cost/no cost/collaborative as possible so I created this second separate business to be all about making money :^) The goal is to start buying my own equipment so I will be much less dependant on the lab and then I'll be able to experiment wildly on my own with some really serious gear. If you think Wild Divine is a big investment, try $6,000 plus for the Zengar!

So, for the moment I'm handling the boring practical stuff that will lay the groundwork for some good exploration. I'm also reading some new material and creating new models to work with when I can start experimenting again. What I'm really looking forward to, however, is getting back into Uru so those who want to can work together.

Ask me more if you want. I'll tell you whatever I can.

The Zengar does look interesting. You're right, though, not a lot on their site.

Other than general self-improvement, what experiments do you have planned for it?

I just love mad science.

The Zengar doohickey is so innocuous because it looks like a million other medical and non-medical products out on the market, but I have been really impressed with what it does and I'm only in the early stages of using it. (BTW, The company cannot make any big claims about what the Zengar does because that would bring the FDA down on them pretty hard, so all of the really "non-standard" wild stuff that it can do has to remain in the anecdotal underground.) The best way I can summarize it is to tell you my nickname for it: "Buddhism in a Box"

As far as I can tell, the Zengar system gives you something strikingly similar to the results you would gain if you became a Buddhist monk and devoted most of your life to meditation--except that instead of taking decades, it only takes weeks. It is a highly accelerated, precisely targeted, technologically assisted, mind development tool.

It works on an idea similar to chiropractic practice. Like your spine, your brain gets knocked out of its optimal alignment through the bumps and bruises of life. Traumas, emotional dings, mental difficulties of any kind, etc all cause the brain to reconfigure itself in order to work around these challenges. Each of these neurological workarounds pulls your mind further and further out of its optimal configuration. The Zengar system uses neurofeedback to gently and quickly "ping" your brain back into alignment.

When someone who knows what they are doing is running the software it is very easy to be the "patient." You have four sensors that are placed on your head and ears and you simply lie down for about an hour and go into the deepest quiet meditative state you can. It is completely painless and I always come out of the session feeling immensely "zen"-- like I have been meditating for hours and hours. I use my iPod while on Zengar because the background noise/music embedded in the software flickers on and off as an audio cue as to how much "pinging" is going on during the session which I find distracting and annoying. At the end you can see graphs that show what was happening with your brainwaves during the session. I'm still a little unsure of what exactly I'm looking at and I still have a great deal to learn about the software and how it works. (It's not exactly plug-n-play.) On top of the expense of the equipment, you have to be trained as a technician to use it and I can see why that is.

The one funny thing about using the Zengar is that the sensors are attached to your head using conductance gel, so you get this Cameron Diaz/There's Something About Mary hair gel thing happening afterwards if you aren't careful, lol.

I have had several conversations with people regarding the issue of "earning" higher consciousness and what happens when you take "shortcuts" like Zengar. What is interesting about the Zengar is that it will only take you up so far from the level you have worked yourself to through your own discipline, so you still have to earn it! For example, (from what little I can tell so far) if you are autistic or have a developmental issue the Zengar can improve that and bring you closer to "normal" brain function. If you are already "normal" but are crippled by numerous psychological issues the Zengar will bring you up from that point to a better level of normal. However, if you have already done your therapeutic homework and have trained yourself spiritually on top of that, this is when the Zengar can actually help you attain states of higher consciousness.

First, you go through a basic phase that usually lasts for at least ten sessions. This is where the basic adjustments happen and you are pinged back into optimal mental alignment by the software. This phase also establishes a solid baseline of data on your specific brain. Again, if you have already done a great deal of spiritual work this phase can be greatly shortened. Apparently, I was barreling through the first phase well ahead of the expected arc. I was able to finish four or five sessions before I temporarily lost access to the lab and I was maybe two sessions away from completing the first phase.

It is after this first baseline phase that things start to really get interesting because there are (apparently) ways to tweak the system to configure your brain into higher and higher states of consciousness. This is the part I am very curious about and still know next to nothing. However, in just going through the few sessions I've done, I've noticed some marked rewiring—especially in my left arm. My "handedness" has been very much affected and I am much more adept with my left hand and arm than I used to be.

Also, I have noticed an increase in this thing that happens with me and electrical appliances. Before Zengar I would screw up something electrical once or twice a year. Now it's happening several times a month. I've just destroyed my second microwave oven and my computer and answering machine are now having problems (but still limping along for the moment). Also I have this house key with a built-in led light that runs on a standard watch battery. Several months ago the light faded out and went dead. I was too lazy to replace the watch battery so I left it dead for many weeks. Then the key began lighting up again—weakly at first, but now it is back at full strength. I seem to conduct much more static electricity than most people do so it seems that when I slide across the cloth seat of my truck I create static charge which is then discharged through my body and the key light when I touch the key to the door. To the best of my knowledge, watch batteries are not usually rechargeable, but this one is definitely recharged.

I don't have any specific experiments in mind right now because I still know so little about the machine. Also, I seem to have more than enough going on just by experiencing the most basic process. So, right now it seems I am adrift in the middle of a process that I can't finish yet. Eventually, I'll have access to the Zengar again and I am very anxious to see what happens from here. In the meantime, I am just trying to keep my electronics working

Kewl. Thanks for the detailed response. Please keep us posted on your progress.