Kaleidoscope Glasses : The Inventor's Journal

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(this book is currently being written/edited)

Kaleidoscope Glasses : The Inventor's Journal

 

1. notes before Introduction

The best way to teleport through time is to evolve your mind. Think the way a futurist thinks and instantly you're in the future. Think the way a historian thinks and you will immediately be in the past.

The process of invention is happening everyday, the future is almost always in preparation, even stillness is preparation for something, even perhaps more stillness.

Naked in the morning sun, birds chirping melodies...

The invention of new experience is happening now.

 

INTRODUCTION (unedited)

 

In December, 2011 an idea revealed itself and nothing at the time was more important than unravelling this vision. I was able to give myself this obsession. I called it Future Eyes and they were optical crystals for time travel* - they would later be called Kaleidoscope Glasses, wearable Crystal Vision. This multidimensional way of seeing became a fascination and building a philosophy and social mission around it became my art form. 

* Explain what is meant by "time travel" and the redefining of this term as a measure of motion and how one can speed up or slow down their own voyage through time by increasing or decreasing their levels of awareness. More on this in chapter 8 (Time Travel)

I noticed early on that when people experienced the glasses they were overwhelmed with levity and laughter and I could ask very complex questions and people were able to hyper focus their consciousness on very mystical thought patterns, as if teleporting into the world of memories and imagination, a kind of wonderland, second only to a psychedelic experience*. It seemed I had uncovered a natural gateway to the astral plane - no small discovery. They represented a new tool for what I called "conscious sensory exploration." 

 *most closely resembled the psychedelic experience of DMT.

 

 

 2. Conscious Sensory Exploration

 

When you place a crystal up to your eye something very interesting happens, you are teleported from the worlds of memories and thoughts into the fullness of now. By exploring these senses of the body we can bring our awareness into the present moment. Then and only then can new ideas begin to form. 

When you look through a crystal your brain is sent into a hyper state because it has more information to process. Each facet of the crystal represents a unique potential reality* and the imagination can begin to run wild, attempting to reconfigure the architecture into something comprehensible by the current state of the human brain, and soon your mind will shift its understanding of what it means to see. 

 * this idea covered more completely in chapter 4

This is a highly debated and still very mysterious area of Science. Some scientists believe that images and memories are stored in the brain*, inside your head, and others believe they are projected outward from the eyes and from the mind, and still another believe the images are floating around us in a collective field accessible to the mind only when it tunes into the correct frequency of the image.

* find some scientific references

This brings up the question, what does it mean to see? Another important question, what is the difference between imagination and seeing the future? Some people feel that there is no difference. Others feel the only difference is action. So is the verb "to see" an action or reaction?*

*do we have free will? what is the historical understanding of fate or destiny?

When you focus on something or talk about something are you in fact accelerating your consciousness in the direction of that reality? If so, then we have finally ended the confusion about free will, because we have proven that we can in fact choose our perception of reality based on the feelings we are desiring.

Optical aerobics* is a term we've coined that supports the idea that by consciously exploring and exercising your senses you can improve your relationship with your mind in the same way as you might strengthen your physical body by swimming or dancing or making love. 

* see later chapter for more in depth examination of "Optical Aerobics." 

 

 

 

These glasses began to represent a kind of evolutionary leap for humanity - in the rapidly approaching age of virtual reality - they offered an ultra-human experience using natural technology to recalibrate the mind body relationship.

"Kaleidoscope glasses" are strange words to define this invention. The word kaleidoscope historically refers to an optical instrument or device with moving pieces of glass and a wheel that turns with mirrors to create a dazzling mandala effect in motion. The word kaleidoscope derives from the ancient Greek words kalos (beauty) eidos (that which is seen, shape) and skopeo (to look at) all translating to the "observation of beautiful forms." A more accurate description would be crystal vision glasses but because of the programming over generations starting with The Beatles' phrase "the girl with kaleidoscope eyes" in the 1974 song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" which referred to the LSD craze sweeping the nation at that time. That song and the psychedelic art of the time inspired by hallucinogenic drugs and psycho tropic medicines would become symbolic of a kaleidoscopic way of seeing the world. 

A series of films* would start to explore these ideas and camera effects - actually using crystals in front of the lens - to simulate an acid trip or altered state or opening of the third eye. Still with all this kaleidoscopic art being made the invention of kaleidoscope glasses would have to wait almost 40 years before they were actually created.

Kaleidoscopes however were widely popular as instruments of playing with light but hardly had any other purpose but the joyful appreciation of pretty light effects. The kaleidoscope was invented in 1816 by a man named David Brewster in Scotland who was studying many aspects of the physical sciences focusing on optics and the properties of light. While looking at some objects at the end of two mirrors he noticed patterns and colors were recreated and reformed in beautiful new arrangements. He named this new design the kaleidoscope and in 1817 he patented his invention, however, the idea was too easily recreated with slightly different parts and anyone who wanted to see this brilliance could make their own*.

*Future Eyes would have a similar issue with copyright protection because anyone could change the number of facets or frame style and produce their own "kaleidoscope glasses."

*The Trip (1967), Wonderwall (1968, with score by George Harrison of the Beatles), Midnight Cowboy (1969), Easy Rider (1969), The Holy Mountain (1973, produced by John Lennon and Yoko Ono)

 There are only a few recorded images of kaleidoscope glasses in history. The first one was a pair of opera glasses in the early 1800s that may have been created as a custom edition for a selected operatic theater presentation.

There also seemed to be a few floating around during the 1960s Summers of Love (there were quite a few more summers, or so I've been told) and one can catch a brief glimpse of a pair in the movie Midnight Cowboy during a wild party sequence. 

The next recorded images is a very limited collection by the Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyake in 2010, famous for his angles and architectural patterns, and so this style had pointed glass set in the frame and was considered an art object* more than anything else.

* Define "art object" 

But neither of these designs would be made accessible for anybody outside of these niche groups. Not until late December of 2011 would they get the attention they deserved as a central part of an art project about seeing the future. This is the beginning of the Future Eyes movement in visual art and wearable sculptures - which later would transform into wearable camera lenses.

For the next 5 years I devoted my life to "crystal vision" and researching the many ways of consciously activating the imagination in the body through ritual and physically exploring the senses. For me this new invention would become a gateway into the universe of imagination, the Imaginarium. 

 

3 What is the difference between Imagination and seeing the future? 

The glasses became part of a creative ritual, and the difference between imagination and seeing the future became an obsession for me. All delusions of grandeur aside who are we but the creators of the eternal now? Seriously. After all, in any moment we can alter the shape and sound of the universe, with a very simple motion we can send the entire cosmos hurling in one direction, or the other. Give it a try. Pick up this book or your computer and toss it across the room and witness how the next few minutes, possibly hours, are completely altered. The crystal lens is the perfect symbol for exactly this, the infinite possibilities in any given moment and the even more innumerable potential realities waiting to be born on an idea, of every choice we make consciously or unconsciously. Simply say yes and observe the ubiquitous forest of eyes come to your doorstep and peak in to great the now, sprouting arms and legs with blossoming curiosity. 

Kaleidoscope glasses are a key for self exploration, with the power to invert through patterns, to open up pathways of self reflection, they help you see what you are projecting! After only a few moments of wearing them most people feel a sensation, an ache, in the center of the head. There are many ways to interpret this. After many years of investigation and surveying I found that their are certain people open to new experience, living more often in a state of wonder, raw and ready for letting go and breaking open their head*, so to speak, while others are locked into their focus, their mission, their identity (for better or worse). This is an observation without judgement; clearly there are a range of personality types. If we consider the idea that some characteristics are more useful than others then it would benefit us to have a technology to grow more aware and selective of the behavior patterns we want or that bring us the optimal emotional reaction. This is emotional intelligence and supposing our reward in life is emotional it could be extremely valuable a discovery that one could in fact choose their perception of reality based on the feeling it gives you. Looking through a crystal reminds you that we are creating the world around us all day long with our thoughts, that with each new idea we are planting seeds for the world to come. 

 * homage to Daniel Pinchbeck's mind opening book "Breaking Open the Head"

 

4 – Potential Reality

 

Action waters those seeds of the minds eye. Another important aspect of crystal vision is each person’s unique affection for colors. Some people find themselves vibrating with a red, yellow, or blue frequency while others are green, orange, or violet, as well as harmonies of color fields, triads and obscure color patterns, there are radiant subtle bodies and deep, subdued astral bodies. Its what makes us unique.

 

When we choose to use such tools as kaleidoscopes or other optical instruments we allow ourselves the opportunity to open up a gateway between the here and now and the visionary realms of the mind’s eye, like the white rabbit lead Alice into the wonderland or the cyclone that carried Dorothy to Oz, the architecture of a crystal rips apart space and time, like the cyclone, and teleports the mind through this reality into an un-definable space full of potential realities. Its opposite of the observer effect in a way, reversing the wave-particle phenomenon into a particle-wave perspective; we set things in motion and the existential world bends to the will of this undefined biomorphic sacred geometry in the glass, and the unique patterns of the glass provide options for introspection and the reconfiguration of space-time, rivers flow in oblique angles, birds fly upside down and split off into seemingly impossible flight patterns, one wing heading north and the other south as if new migratory patterns have taken hold of and shifted the DNA map that was given at birth, as if altering the molecular biology of the creature in mid flight, simply by splitting its form in the mind, it’s a morphogenetic cause effect by observation. The observer effect is one of the greatest mysteries in science, and more and more we as a species our contributing our mental touch to what we see. It is one of the main functions of a human being.

 

 

5 – Kaleidoscopes and The modern festival

 

There is a very wonderful relationship forming with kaleidoscope glasses and the modern festival culture. A perfect synergy can be found between light and sound in the midst of thousands of people or alone in nature there is a sensationalism about sensory exploration in community celebration and dancing with light and sound creates a heightened chemical state naturally, but with the help of “medicines” such as MDMA, LSD, and ketamine, etc, you can really push the envelope of human experience, not to mention all the new pharmacological and neurological recipes being introduced by way of certified chemistry labs or hacked together in bathtubs.

 

The world is clearly craving a more rich connection to source, and the really awake people are finding it in yoga practices and conscious holistic eating practices as well as sensory exploration, breath-work and optical aerobics* and the more scientific pineal gland recalibration techniques involving bioptrons, didgeridoos for chakra tuning combined with holotropic breath work and mantra based chanting.

 

• This is a term I have incorporated into this art project and various installations and borrowed originally from a book by Alduous Huxley called “The Art of Seeing” where he discusses methods for improving the eyes through optical exercises, and different focusing techniques.

 

The most adventurous and aware are also taking to plant medicine (psilosibin, ayahuasca, DMT, eboga) combined with sacred ritual. All these techniques and modalities have at their core a similar purpose, unlocking human potential and aligning the mind and body with its highest most heart centric pathway. These crystal glasses are above all else an immediate reminder to live a more intentional life. They are a symbol representing that the doors of perception can be opened and closed and painted with iridescence, or reshaped in any moment anywhere, and any time.

 

6

 

“Come with me, and you’ll be,

in a world of pure imagination.”

 

Not without deep respect and reverence for the present moment we begin to truly consider what it means to see the future, the act of seeing the future. Not to steal a glimpse of what will happen later on, but to participate in the unraveling of events. That is what seeing the future means. There is an art to the unraveling of events, and there are artists responsible for the way things unfold. A brilliant artist takes care in all the details and is aware of every being wrapped up in the ecstasy of now. All the while, there is a tumbling, an unstoppable force pushing everything toward the future, and an artist is a lover to that force.

 

There’s a hierarchy of forms going backwards in time ending – or beginning, depending on how you look – with the range of complexity and simplicity, the triangle being the first dynamic three-dimensional shape or building block. As we move forward in time we gain momentum and dimension expanding as it were like lungs, building molecular cathedrals, searching for the limits, the outer limits, to overcome them if possible, and indeed it is possible.

 

7

• SACRED GEOMETRY AND THE FLOWER OF LIFE

 The vesica pisces and the womb of creation. 

 

There are certain parameters set by civilizations, and belief systems within systems, worlds within worlds. There is a film series exploring this that began in Germany in 1973 called “World on a Wire” that was one of the first truly cinematic portraits of what would later be called the Matrix. Before this in literature Science Fiction writers would – in many cases for purely sensational value – create stories such as H.G. Wells’ “Time Machine” and actually create the “Scientific” observations of parallel universes (which scientists would spend the next hundred years trying to prove) and it was the imagination that sparked a revolution in quantum physics, not the other way around. A very considerable part of the historical record and confirmed by Albert Einstein, arguably the greatest of all physicists, who’s most famous quote, “Imagination is more important than knowledge” leads one to believe that we humans can do quite a lot more with our minds than we understand today. Could it be that imagination is what plants the seeds from which the future is born? If this is true than inspiration is the greatest gift, the gift of life, and we want to be swimming in inspiration and any creative rituals or physical technology we can surround ourselves with to bring the blessings of visions are invaluable to future generations. And so it could be that a kaleidoscope is to the eyes what an orgasm is to the body with tremendous creative power, life flows from the body ripe and bursting with futures. Millions of futures seeking the finest soil to root and in that greatest rapture of now time and space collapse and the alien god child telescoping universes, smiles and says again another future to behold and to call my very own, and the process of reawakening begins, another pair of eyes flicker open and radiate with the wish of a thousand suns.

 

If you want to teach someone about creativity show them a cage, give them certain constrains and watch them rebel first subconsciously and then emotionally and then physically… or give them a psychedelic experience and observe how they are suddenly over the moon with creative potential:

 

“Can you remember when you were a child watching someone put a pencil to a sheet of paper for the first time, to draw a picture… and the lines begin to grow – into a nose! And it is not just a pattern of graphite line on a sheet of paper but the very miracle of creation itself and your own dreams flowed into that magical… growing… line, and it was not a picture but a miracle… an experience… and now that you’re soaring on LSD that feeling is coming on again – only now the creation is of the entire Universe-”

 -Tom Wolfe

 

8 - What is it that gets you out of bed, that makes you want to take a bath or cover your body in paint or touch another human being with the ringing, singing in the ears, of the flesh pulsing with rhythm and breathtaking flashes of light imagery in the mind to the deep warm womb sensation of safety and belonging? What does a grown person cling to when there’s no “mother” in sight and folds over in surrender to the great big Earth and cry tears beyond emotion?

 

9 - Creativity ritual + seeing the future. 

10 - The crystal lens

11 - Optical quality

12 - Dear Future

13 - The difference between Prophecy & Prediction

14 - Oracular Technology 

15 - Sacred Geometry

16 - Womb Of Creation

17 - Time Travel