Gysin was the seminal influence who introduced William S. Burroughs to the use of cut-ups in writing. His wide cultural synthesis led him also into the world of the Rolling Stones, and particularly Brian Jones, whom he introduced to the Master Musicians of Joujouka in Morocco. He did not identify with any codified, preconceived religion, philosophy or system of thought. He cited his major influence as Hassan i Sabbah, knowing that Hassan i Sabbah left no written teachings or doctrines. Since so little is known about Hassan i Sabbah - the "Old Man of the Mountain" from whom the word "assassin" derived - or his followers, any thought that is informed by Hassan i Sabbah must, therefore, be made up of suppositions and the use of the imagination. Gysin's world was thus magickal in origin. Brion said that we are "here to go". The future is in space. Not, as most thought, outer space, but interior space. The future - like the universe - is here, in the mind.

The Dreamachine is a spacecraft that travels through time. NASA and the technophiles are left behind for the price of a lightbulb. Brion Gysin spent many years of his life in Britain, America, Morocco, and France; but he spent most of his time in theat place where all true visionaries are forced to dwell - in his mind.

"Brain waves, minute electrical oscillations associated with brain activity, can be measured accurately and graphically recorded by the electroencephalograph (EEG) machine. EEG records show that brain rhythms divide into groups according to frequency. One of these groups, the alpha or scanning rhythms, is strongest when the brain is unoccupied, searching for a pattern, and weakest during purposeful thinking, eyes open studying pattern. The strength and type of rhythms vary between individuals. The EEG records of some primitve peoples are similar to those of a ten year old in our society. Variations occur with age. The alpha rhythms do not appear in children until they are about four years old"
-Ian Sommerville, Flicker

"Had a transcendental storm of colour visions today in the bus going to Marseilles. We ran through a long avenue of trees and I closed my eyes against the setting sun. An overwhelming flood of intensely bright colours exploded behind my eyelids: A multi-dimensional kaleidescope whirling out through space. I was swept out of time. The vision stopped abruptly as we left the trees. Was that a vision? What happened to me?"
-Extract from the Diary of Brion Gysin, 21/12/1958

Department of Transport guidelines say that trees planted alongside motorways must not be of uniform height or distance apart. The reason for this is that drivers passing such trees for long periods experience pulses of light and changes in sound levels which can affect their concentration, and their ability to drive. Drowsiness, nausea and "motorway madness" can ensue.

Tests in Britain and America have taken place investigating the effects of strobe lights and loud oscillating sound on humans. It has now been confirmed that this research has been put to use by some security agencies in the area of crowd control. It is believed that systems have been developed which can induce epileptic fits in approximately one in four people - which could be more than enough to confuse and disperse any demonstrating crowd.

On February 15th 1960, Ian Sommerville, who had been recently inspired by gret walters' book "The Living Brain", wrote a letter to Brion Gysin: "I have made a simple flicker machine. You look at it with your eyes shut and the flicker plays over your eyelids. Visions start with a kaleidescope of colours on a plane in front of the eyes and gradually become more complex and beautiful, breaking like surf on a shore until whole patterns of colour are pounding to get in. After a while the visions were permanently behind my eyes and I was in the middle of the whole scene with limitless patterns being generated around me. There was an almost unbearable feeling of spatial movement for a while but it was well worth getting through, for I found that when it stopped I was high above the Earth in a universal blaze of glory. Afterwards I found that my perception of the world around me had increased very notably. All conceptions of being drugged or tired had dropped away..."

Following Sommerville's Later description of the "Flicker Machine", Gysin proceeded to make his own, adding to it an interior cylinder covered with a painting which he produced along the lines of his "flicker" experiences. (Indeed much of Gysin's later painting sprang from his visions experienced in front of the machine.) Gysin wrote at the time:
"Flicker may prove to be a valid instrument of practical psychology: some people see and others do not. The DREAMACHINE, with its patterns visible to the open eyes, induces people to see. The fluctuating elements of flickered design support the development of autonomous movies, intensely pleasurable and possibly, instructive to the viewer.
What is art? What is colour? What is vision? These old questions demand new answers when, in the light of the Dreamachine, one sees all of ancient and modern abstract art with eyes closed."

IN THE HISTORY OF ART. IN THE HISTORY OF MAGIC AND SCIENCE. IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD. ONLY ONE OBJECT HAS BEEN MADE TO BE SEEN WITH THE EYES CLOSED. THE DREAMACHINE.

Dreamachines bring to a conclusion the period of kinetic invention in "modern" painting and sculpture. The Dreamachine opens up a whole new era and a new area of vision...Interior Vision.

Look into a Dreamachine and look deep. Here you will actually SEE the fundamental order present in the physiology of the human brain. Your brain. Order imposed on chaos. Life imposed on matter. History and Mystery.

"You are the artist when you approach a Dreamachine with your eyes closed. What the Dreamachine incites you to see is yours...your own. The brilliant interior visions you so suddenly see whirling around inside your head are produced by your own brain activity. These may not be your first glimpse of these dazzling lights and celestial coloured images. Dreamachines provide them only just as long as you choose to look into them. What you are seeing is perhaps a broader vision than you may have had before of your own incalcuable trasure, the 'Jungian' store of sybols which we share with all normally constituted humanity. From this storehouse, artists and artisians have drawn the elements of art down the ages. In the rapid flux of images, you will immediately recognise crosses, stars, halos...woven patterns like pre-Columbian textiles and Islamic rugs...repetitive patterns on ceramic tile... in embroideries of all times...rapidly fluctuating serial images of abstract art...what look like endless expanses of fresh paint laid on with a palatte knife."
-Brion Gysin

The visions hollowed out of the Dreamachine usually start off with a rapid, and quickening succession of abstract patterns. Often this transit of speeding images is followed by a clear perception of human faces. Humanoid figures and the apparent enactment of highly coloured events, or, as Gysin described them, "pseudo-events", carried out in time and in space.

"Do you dream in colour?"
-Bill Nelson

The Dreamachine really IS just that. A dream machine. One person I know who exposed themself to its spinning glare came out of their semi-halluncinary state talking seriously of visiting another planet, complete with aliens, cavepaintings and children. Some people have reported nightmares of sorts, but these, as all dreams experienced on the Machine, can be abruptly brought to an end by opening your eyes.

"However you look into a Dreamachine, in a short time you will have acquired greater self knowledge, extended the limits of your vision, brightened your perception of a treasure you may not have known you own."
-Brion Gysin

"A light like a billion watt bulb floated up through the bars on my window. The Great White Light, the Ineffable Light the Tibetans are always talking about. I was transfixed, of course. I felt I could see it, naturally, because it ran straight up my optic nerve and through the disintegrating mass of my freshly re-awakened brain right down to my hypothalamus. My narrow cell began to revolve like an old 78 rpm turntable and the bars on my cell window on the spiral stairs to spin at between eight and thirteen flickers a second - thge alpha rhythm of my soft old brainbox. An overwhelming flood of intensely bright abstract patterns in supernatural colours exploded somewhere behind my blnd eyes where multi-dimensional kaleidescopes whirled through endless space. Dazzling lights of unearthly brilliance and complexity at great speed. Infinite acres of geometric wallpaper and rubbishy canvases by painters like Vasarely spread all around me. I was the pivot in the centre of developing worlds, giant galaxies hurtling through my own interior space at the speed of light. It all means that my EEG has not flattened out yet and the old brain is still working. I laugh uncontrollably...
"Long experience of Gysin's Dreamachine had taught me what to expect. I knew I could expect to see the symbols of all the great religions float free from this background noise to pass slowly and majestically across my field of vision. The cross in all its variations flashed as brightly for me as it had for Saul on his way to Damascus racing down an avenue of trees on the buckboard of his chariot as the sun set behing the tree trunks, producing flicker at his alpha rate. So he fell off his chariot and came to as Saint Paul, more's the pity for all of us. As I said before, all these religions ought to be taxed out of existence. Then the swastikas spinning clockwise and counter were followed by a majestically jewelled Tibetan dorje, raised like a club or sceptre. The all-seeing eye of Isis floated by, eyeing me knowingly, succeeding by other eyes flashing fire. The crescent moon of Islam or the Blessed Virgin Mary and the blue hand of Fatima gave way to the symbols of forgotten religions or, who knows, those of other planets. I waited expectantly..."
-Robert Anton Wilson

Gysin was approached by various large companies, including the Dutch electronics giant, Philips, sniffing around the patenting possibilities of the machine which he and Sommerville had effectively invented out of nothing. "When I told them that it made people more awake," said Gysin later, "they lost interest. They were only interested in machines and drugs which made people go to sleep."

If the Dreamachine is real, a non-habit forming , simple spinning dreambox that is capable of inducing a drugless high, why is it not available in your local department store? The answer would seem obvious. Look at the Financial Times and you will see that some of the biggest companies in the world are chemical giants, ICI, Bayer, Hoffman la Roche. Go to your GP and tell him you are ill and what will you get? Drugs. Seek a path out of evryday trivial reality and what will you be offered? Drugs. You can only sell people one Dreamachine, one turntable, the occasional lightbulb. Drugs and their accompanying paraphernalia (and I include most doctors as an integral part of the paraphernalia) generate far more money in a drug dependant world.

How do you go about getting a Dreamachine? Well, only a handful exist, made in metal cylindrical form and costing upwards of £500. But you can experiment by making your own.

Click for larger image To build your own Dreamachine you need a sheet of 4-ply paper (Matteboard works well, $5 at any framing store.-WDYO) 32 inches square, a record player that can revolve at 78 rpm (available from many secondhand shops for a few quid) and a hanging lightbulb.

On the paper, draw three inch borders, along the top and bottom, then carefully divide the rest into two inch squares. Cut out the cardboard templates, then trace them onto the paper in the positions illustrated. With great care and accuracy, then cut the holes out and connect the two ends together, thus forming a cylinder. Dangle a lightbulb down the middle of the cylinder and rest this on the turntable. Now. darken the rest of the room, play some repetitive but "unfocused" music, and spin.

From now on, it's all free, it's all safe, it's legal - and it really works.