users showed dramatic improvements in IQ, memory, concentration,
reacLion time, sensory acuity, creadvity and more. Ofteo the devices
produced peak experiences, euphoria, or "Eureka events." One brain
researcher called the use of such devices "the most significant
development in learning since the invention of writing." This, I decided,
was something worth looking into. So for soveral years, ln additioo to
investigating all the available research data on the devices, I spent
hundreds of hours trying each of them out myself. I describe these
explorations in Megabrain: New Tools and Techniquesiar Brain Growth
and M'nd Expans~on (Morrow 1986~.

	But, you may wonder, how can mere mechanical devices a1ter such
things as intelligence, creative skills or the physical brain? These things
are "given" to each of us, like our faces, aren't they? Well, that's what
scientists had long believed. Now, however, a series of extraordinary
neuroscientific discoveries have rovolutionized ourviewofLow thebrain
works.

BRAIN EXPANSION THROUGH STIMULATION

	The major discovery has been that the human brain has the potential
for irumensely Breater growth and transformation than anyone had
imagined. This new understand~ng of the brain's remarkableplast~c'~
began to emerge from a series of studies at UC Berkeley in which groups
of rats were raised in different environments: some were kept isolated in
"irnpovenshed environments," and some were placed in "ennched
environments"Älarge cages with swings, bridges, ladders, tvys,
frequently changing stimuli, and a variety of challenges. As expected,
when tested for intelligence, the "enriched" rats scored much hiBher than
the others. However, the researchers were astonished to discover lhat the
brains of the enriched rats actually gre~v larger and heavier. Analysis
showed tbat this brain growth was caused by a growth of individual
neurons, and was accompanied by an enormous increase in the richness
and density of connect~ons between neurons.

	These results were so extraordinary that the researchers themselves
found them hard to believe, but studies by other scientists throughout the
world qickly verified the findings and went beyond them; they found
that such brain changes in response to stimulation could take place
virtually u~sianIaneously, and not just in laboratory animals, but in
human beings. Thcre is no longer any doubt: whcn presented wi~h new,
challenging experiences or stimulations, the brain alters, grows. As
neurobiolgist Gary Lynch of UC [rvine puts it, when the brain receives
certain types of shmulations, "just bip ~Äliterally that long, the nerve
ci~cuits change and don't go back."

	The implications of these f~ndings are breathtaLing. Since the brain
grows in nesponse to stimulation, then it should be possible to create
instruments that deliver optimal types and amounts of stimulation
directly to the brain, feeding concentrated bursts of experience to our
neurons and, in a hothouse effect, triggering brain growth and neural
enrichment. Such mind machines could rapidly create the sOn of
intensified, high-efficiency mental states produced more slowly by such
~aditional r~nd-expanding techniques as meditation, chanting, and
yoga peak experience virtually on demand.

THE EVOLUTIONARY BRAIN

	As I expenmented with devices wi~h names like the Mind Mirror,
Tranquilite, and Alphatronic l became increasingly impressed, not ouly
wi~h the sheer variety of imaginative tools people have devisod in their
aLtempts to enhance mental powers, bt by the fact tbat so many people
have felt driven to create such devices, and that so many others are so
eager to make use of them. The phenomenon seems to be the cutting edge
of some powerful but as yet little recognizcd cultural dnve.

	The recurrent comparison of the machines with exercise and body-
building provides one explanation. As our national obsession with
physical fitness grows, an obvious next step is a turn to mental fitness.
What use is a youthful, powerful body wi~h a deteriorating, 97 pound
weakling of a brain? Seen in this light, mind machines are simply mental
counterpans of Nautilus machines: moving from pumping iron to pump-

~ng energy.

	But there's a funher, and perhaps more important explanation. We
know the evolutionary process continues as the human race faces serious
threats to its survival. Perhaps today the humans "fiLtest" to survive are
not the strongest or best hunters, but those most imaginative, adaptive,
and capable of developing strategies to insure the survital of the species.
The unprecedented problems the world faces tuday demand mental
solutions, ncw ideas. Human survival may depend on our ability to
increase our mental powers and develop new strategies for overcoming
our present crises. Evolution involves developing new mental powers;
we have reached "childhood's end." So, effective rnind machines,
devices that enhanee mental funetioning and stimulate richer neural
interconnections, might be seen as evolutionary tools.

	It is possible, then, that the growing drive toward mental enrichment,
brain stimulation, and the exploration of our mind's potentials (what
writer Robert Anbon Wilson calls the "Intelligence IntensiF~cation Ex-
plosion") represents the upsurge of some survival instinct from the depths
of our collective human unconscious, and may well be part of a potcn-
tially beneficial, history-deterrnining processÄone which could widen
our knowledge and, conceivably, help determine Lhe fuLure of the race.
Then there's this, too: the maehines are fun and feel good! They offer
large numbers of people the opportunity to explore altered states of
consciousness safely, legally, and without any of the potential side effects
of mind altering ehernicals.

	In his seminal book, Prome~heus Risir~, Robert Anton Wilson,
discussing the "robotcycles" humans seem trapped into repeating, claims
that, "W~en the accamulated fiacts, tools, techniques and gadgers of
neuro-sc~enes tf~e sc~en~e of brnin change and bra~n liberut~or~reacf'
a certain critical mass, we will all be able tofree ourselvesfrom these
rohotcycles." He asserts thatwewillreachthiscritical massofcrossover
point in "less than ten years." Ihose words were wrilten over six years
ago. I believe that we are reaching that critical mass now.

Here are some-of the "brain liberation" tools that are now available.

Pacemaker for
thn Rrain

	Synchro	The SYNCHRO ENERGIZER is a
		console about the size of a small briefcase
	Energlzer;	covered with dials, to which are at(ached s[ereo
		headphones and goggles tbat encircle each eye
	Pacemaker for	wiLh tiny light bulbs. When the maehine is
	the Brain	turned on the user hears rhythrnic sound
		patterns that pulse in synchronization with a

stroboscopic flickering of lights. EEG studies show that brainwave
activity falls into rhy~m with (or becomes "entrained" to) the device,
fascillitaling the desired brain wave frequeney at the tum of a dial.

	What's more, the synergistic effect of the sound and light produees a
kaleidoseopic stream of brilliant patterns and images. Even Lhough the
lights are white, the visions that appear are vivid, spectacular, of bright
primary colors. Often, the images become realistic mind movies:
emotionally charged and dreamlike scenes. Dr. Thomas Budzynsk~, who
uses the device in his biofeedback clinie in Denver, has called it "a
faeilitator of urconscious retrievel." The device is now the subject of
rescarch at over a dazen universities in such areas as educarion and
aceelerated learning, gerontology, sports performance, pain reduc~ion,
and substance abuse.

Hemi Sync:

I Hear A
Synchrony

	Radio-TV executive E}ob Monroe (best
known for his bookJourrzeysOutoftheBody ~,
trying to induee states of high-level brain
functioning, experimented with special sounds
called "binaural beat frequencies." He found
that when these sounds, made of combinations
of two or more pure tones, were introduced into
the brain, Lhey caused the brainwave activity to hll into the same rhythm
as lhe beat, lilce aerystal gobletresonating to apure tone. SelecLing sound
signals of appropriate frequencies, Monroe could alter and enLrain brain
wave activity, causing both brain herruspheres to resonate at whatever
freqency he desired.

~llis was a valuable and revolutionary discovery. ExLensive researeh
`t,

