Psychomantium Mirrors - Past, Present, Future?

[Persej]

I am using the laptop which has the screen replaced. Unfortunately, the replaced screen is of bad quality and has a very obvious flicker, especially during the night. In my apartment I am using it attached to the monitor so it doesn't bother me, but currently I am away, so I am looking at the laptop screen directly. What I noticed a few days ago is that if I am using the laptop late at night, with a very dim background light, something happens to me. I feel a very familiar feeling to me, it's like something is tickling me in my chest. It's not a physical feeling, but like an emotional feeling. It used to happen to me randomly before, and I don't know what triggers it. But this thing works every time, with the proper dim background lighting, and if I am tired. It doesn't work during the day.

Once, I was reading something interesting on the laptop late at night, so I spent a lot of time looking at the screen with this feeling in my chest. After that, I couldn't sleep normally all night because I was constantly feeling this tickling. But last night I stopped looking at the screen as soon as I felt the feeling. I was able to sleep nicely after that, and I had some interesting emotional dreams. I think that this flickering light has some kind of effect on me, which caries on into my dream state.

I used a Flicker Meter application on my phone and I measured a flicker of about 265 Hz. It goes a little bit up a down, but I don't know if the screen is changing the frequency or the application cannot measure the correct frequency with my phone camera. It's probably later.

I don't know if there is anything special about this frequency, if it really is 265 and not 240 or something else. So far, scientists measured effects of low frequencies below 100, so there are no studies with this high numbers.

But it seems that flickering lights can be powerful tools, if we learn how to use them properly.

I still haven't figured out this flicker. But I found this article, which perhaps goes into the right direction.

Evidence suggests that electroencephalographic (EEG) activity extends far beyond the traditional frequency range. Much of the prior study of >120 Hz EEG is in epileptic brains. In the current work, we measured EEG activity in the range of 200 to 2000 Hz, in the brains of healthy, spontaneously behaving rats. Both arrhythmic (1/f-type) and rhythmic (band) activities were identified and their properties shown to depend on EEG-defined stage of sleep/wakefulness. The inverse power law exponent of 1/f-type noise is shown to decrease from 3.08 in REM and 2.58 in NonREM to a value of 1.99 in the Waking state. Such a trend represents a transition from long- to short-term memory processes when examined in terms of the corresponding Hurst index. In addition, treating the 1/f-type activity as baseline noise reveals the presence of two, newly identified, high frequency EEG bands. The first band (ψ) is centered between 260–280 Hz; the second, and stronger, band is a broad peak in the 400–500 Hz range (termed ω). Both of these peaks display lognormal distributions. The functional significance of these frequency bands is supported by the variation in the strength of the peaks with EEG-defined sleep/wakefulness.

Dynamics of high frequency brain activity - Scientific Reports

Evidence suggests that electroencephalographic (EEG) activity extends far beyond the traditional frequency range. Much of the prior study of >120 Hz EEG is in epileptic brains. In the current work, we measured EEG activity in the range of 200 to 2000 Hz, in the brains of healthy, spontaneously...

www.nature.com

I don't think that this flicker is useful for psychomantium, but perhaps it could be useful for something else.

 

[katarinak]

I keep thinking about candles. It seems that the height and uneven distribution of the candles will affect their flickering. The tallest candle kept flickering. When I compare it with the mini-fireplace, it also did not flash as stably. I apologize if I write here things that others have known for a long time

0:00 - 0:15 - 1st combination
0:16 - 0:52 - 2nd combination
0:53 - 1:16 - 3rd combination

 

[Persej]

I keep thinking about candles. It seems that the height and uneven distribution of the candles will affect their flickering. The tallest candle kept flickering. When I compare it with the mini-fireplace, it also did not flash as stably. I apologize if I write here things that others have known for a long time

Don't worry. Soon, you will know it too.

Wicks are still far away from each other because each has its own flame. Like I said, they must burn as a single flame.

 

[Wandering Star]

Have you tried putting the candles behind the mirror so that the lighting is totally indirect?

The mirror on the floor, slightly tilted, and the candles behind it on the floor where they cannot be seen from where you are sitting.

The black walls and the dim light where the source cannot be seen from the seat, not reflected in the mirror.

The mirror would be like a deep and still mountain lake illuminated only by the stars, which are not reflected as the lake is in the darkness of the valley floor.

Oh!..., and fear should not be welcomed.

Total peace and tranquility without wanting anything.

I am not going to do it, but I would do it like this.

 

[Persej]

Have you tried putting the candles behind the mirror so that the lighting is totally indirect?

If you do this, then the area around the mirror would be illuminated, which would distract you from viewing the mirror.

The mirror on the floor

If you do this, then your head would be tilted down, and that is not relaxing. Mirror should be above you, so that your head is tilted above.

The mirror would be like a deep and still mountain lake illuminated only by the stars, which are not reflected as the lake is in the darkness of the valley floor.

Stars would be reflected in the lake. Darkness in the lake or a bowl helps to create a better reflection.

 

[katarinak]

Have you tried putting the candles behind the mirror so that the lighting is totally indirect?

At the beginning, I also tried this variant. As Laura wrote in Casswiki that "Candles are placed behind the mirror so that there is
minimal indirect lighting reflected from the mostly absorbing black walls." I wasn't sure if it was a mistake or if it was written like this on purpose but with a different placement of the candles than the C's said. It's a completely different feeling when the candles are behind the mirror. The mirror is illuminated much less. Thank you for the warning in this direction, I will test both options to the same extent and see what comes out of it.

Oh!..., and fear should not be welcomed.

Total peace and tranquility without wanting anything.

I was afraid at the beginning. I got into psychomancy kind of "by accident", I didn't plan it at all and I didn't even really want to try it. I was asked by a friend to help her with it, and it ended up being that I continue and she somehow gets over it. I guess I can't leave things unfinished. Fortunately, the fear has passed, but I still have a huge amount of respect. I myself am curious what it will bring. I realize that I still feel huge reserves from the point of view of internal relaxation, which is a natural phenomenon when falling asleep. So are the streams of thoughts that are sometimes difficult to silence. I find meditating with open eyes more challenging than classical meditation, when one can fully concentrate only on one's inner self.

 

[Persej]

I got into psychomancy kind of "by accident", I didn't plan it at all and I didn't even really want to try it. I was asked by a friend to help her with it, and it ended up being that I continue and she somehow gets over it. I guess I can't leave things unfinished.

It's funny how life sometimes work.

I experimented again with candles, and I was able to create this flickering that I was talking about, but not for long. After some time, my candles would stop flickering. They stop flickering after they reach the point below the glass wall. If I remove the glass wall, the candles also do not flicker. Also, they flicker on the floor, close to the room wall, but not on other places. So I think that air circulation is an important aspect of it. I think that for this effect, candles need a glass wall with proper position, probably raised a little above the table so that air can come in from the bottom and go out through the top. Perhaps even a single candle can be made to flicker in this enclosure.

 

[katarinak]

I experimented again with candles, and I was able to create this flickering that I was talking about, but not for long. After some time, my candles would stop flickering. They stop flickering after they reach the point below the glass wall. If I remove the glass wall, the candles also do not flicker. Also, they flicker on the floor, close to the room wall, but not on other places. So I think that air circulation is an important aspect of it. I think that for this effect, candles need a glass wall with proper position, probably raised a little above the table so that air can come in from the bottom and go out through the top. Perhaps even a single candle can be made to flicker in this enclosure.

Great, that sounds very good. I thought of the candle video after reading your post. A candle needs oxygen. By creating glass barriers or a wall there, you regulated the supply of oxygen to the candles. I used a small fan during the summer, far enough away from the candles to create a current of air and the candles then danced nicely. Maybe it would be enough to open the window a little so that there is no air, but I don't have that option here.

I also thought of the candle behind the mirror and the candle behind you. Both options, although the candles will be far from each other, but maybe they will interact with each other. I haven't tried it yet, but I plan to try this alternative as well.

 

[katarinak]

I think this is it - the lower candle takes the oxygen from the upper one and that's why it started flickering. Sorry for the video quality

 

[Persej]

I think this is it - the lower candle takes the oxygen from the upper one and that's why it started flickering.

OK. But in that case, you only have one candle flickering.

Here is another way to create a candle flicker. It's like a Dreamachine but with candles.

 

[Persej]

Here is one comment about candle flicker. I think it agrees with what I said in my post #337:

Any time a candle flame is enclosed all around with an opening at the top, it will want to flicker. Even the flame of a pillar will start to jump around if it burns down into the candle and has a tall shell of solid wax around it. So, some flickering is inevitable. All you can do is try to minimize it, because it can be annoying and generate soot.

Flickering will vary with the size and shape of the container and other considerations. The biggest factor though is how fast the candle is burning, so whatever you can do to keep the flame size down is very helpful. That generally means using the smallest wick size that burns well and doesn't leave an unreasonable amount of wax on the glass once the candle burns to the bottom.

Flickering Flames

Hello...new to this. I believe I may just be ridiculous about the flickering flames in my attempted candles, but need some opinions. Tried 4627, 4630 and CB Adv., Did them seperate, mixed them together, did everything! Used all kinds of wicks -containers are 16 oz wide mouth masons and 8 oz jelly...

www.craftserver.com

And here you can see a single candle flicker where a flame created a wall around itself:

 

[Persej]

Here is another example of single candle flicker:

This woman ascribes it to spirits, but the real reason is candle tunneling. Here is an explanation why candle tunneling happens:

And how to make it happen:

So, one way to create a candle wall, is to let it tunnel. Of course, just because you have a tunnel doesn't mean that you will have flicker. So there has to be some experimentation for each candle, what are the best conditions. As you can see in the first video, the right candle is flickering much more than the left one. They were obviously the same in the beginning, but in the video they have different wall thickness, so we can conclude that they were burned differently and that probably affected their flicker.

Another way is to buy a glass wall and find a proper candle for it.

 

[Persej]

Now, if you do manage to make all 5 candles to flicker, the question arises, how would that affect the human brain, since they would be all flickering in a non-synchronized way?

Well, we do have an article about something similar. Here they studied the relationship between individual phase shift of brainwaves and expected behavioral modulation depth, and they determined that individual phase angle at target onset influences the modulation depth.

an individual alpha phase angle at target onset of ½ π or 3/2 π was optimal for the modulation depth (Figure 4), because these two phases reflect the peak (or trough, respectively) of a sine and lead to maximal modulation depth (see Figure 1). An alpha phase angle of 0 as well as π at target onset, on the other hand, is considered as least optimal, because in that instance both targets would be presented during zero crossing of the EEG oscillation.

Frontiers | Flicker Regularity Is Crucial for Entrainment of Alpha Oscillations

Previous studies have shown that alpha oscillations (8–13 Hz) in human electroencephalogram (EEG) modulate perception via phase-dependent inhibition. If entr...

www.frontiersin.org

So having 5 candles with 5 different light onsets would make sure that at least one of those onsets hit your individual phase angle? Or perhaps they would augment each other? There are several studies with multi-frequency flicker, but I haven't found a study with the same frequency but with multiple light sources. I guess that it's something that we would have to experiment on ourselves.

 

[Persej]

There are some interesting comments in this forum: jumpy flame on second half of burn

A candle in a container with straight walls seems to produce a flicker, similar to a tunneled candle.

I also found another interesting scientific article about vibratory flame movement in glass tubes:

In the 2-foot tube, only oscillations corresponding to the fundamental mode of the half-open pipe were excited by the flames. The frequency of the oscillations was about 270 c.p.s. The oscillations started when the flames had travelled about half the tube length; their amplitude reached a maximum at a flame position about three-quarters of the tube length from the top, and generally dropped rapidly to low values during flame travel in the last quarter of the tube.

Depending on mixture composition, the records obtained with the 4-foot tube were of one of the two types shown in figure 8b and 8c. The former started with the fundamental frequency (about 110 c.p.s.) of the tube; again the oscillation appeared when the flame had travelled about half-way down the tube and reached maximum amplitude when it entered the last quarter. The portion of the records following this maximum were often rather irregular, showing superpositions of fundamental mode and higher harmonics. The other type of record started with the first harmonic (about 260 c.p.s.) when the flame had travelled about one-third of the tube length; this oscillation reached maximum amplitude at a flame position about two-fifths of the tube length from the top, then decreased rapidly and was followed by the fundamental mode. This latter part was similar to the records that started with the fundamental mode.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0082078453800731

They mention the oscillations in the 260-280 Hz range that I mentioned in my post #331. Perhaps the flicker that we are looking for is not the visible 10 Hz flicker, but the invisible one, at the 260-280 Hz range?

 

[Persej]

Some more examples of flame flicker, this time with oil/gas lamps.

As you can see, the shape of the wick influences the amount of oxygen that goes into the flame, which influences the flicker. Chimney also influences oxygen intake.