Getting high from... Sunglasses?
by Dan Eden

Okay... I have tried just about everything to forget about how much Bush reminds me of Nixon. I recently discovered that my cable company offered digital music and had a classic rock channel. As soon as I hooked up I heard Led Zep followed by Hendrix singing, "Are you experienced?" Ahhhh! That's much better than watching the news. And what's with all those same commercials that keep repeating over and over... anyway...

In my past articles I have tried "legal highs" like Salvia Divinorum and a myriad of other herbs that really worked -- really, that is, if you wanted to take a mini-acid trip in the middle of the day and then try and relate to the rest of humanity.

But the other day Viewzone got an interesting e-mail. A manufacturer had read my article on Left Brain / Right Brain functions and informed me about a new product that was designed to "align" the hemispheres - to make them function in harmony - instead of playing the B/D and S/M games that usually determine our waking consciousness.

I wrote back to them, "Sure! Send me a pair and I'll give them a try." And they did.

The glasses are way cool looking, I must admit, and I decided to take their advice and try flipping up either side of the mirrored front lenses to reveal the peripheral vision, unfiltered, to each of my eyes for a period of time and to be aware of how I felt. Cool.

Although the right eye is connected to the left brain, and left eye to the right brain, there is a small part of our visual field in each eye that is actually wired to the same-side hemisphere. And these new glasses take advantage of this by allowing you to selectively stimulate the visual centers of each hemisphere that normally get neglected in "bicameral" function.

Okay. I went for a drive to my old home town, Northampton, Massachusetts - home of the all-women Smith College and self-appointed "Lesbian Capitol of the World." The ride on the Massachusetts Turnpike from Boston was especially long and tedious. I had forgotten that I was wearing the glasses until I began to jones for a coffee and thought I'd flip the left side of my glasses to expose my peripheral vision to unfiltered light.

After about 20 minutes I realized I was no longer tired. My attention was heightened and I was contemplating a programming problem I had been working on prior to leaving. In fact, I solved the problem, without pencil or paper, just by thinking it through. Wow. So now let me try the other side.

Flipping the right side at first seemed to do nothing. A good 20 minutes passed and my exit was approaching. Wait - it wasn't 20 minutes at all but more like 45 minutes had passed. I had been in a kind of daze - attentive to driving but engaged in fantasy and visual imagery - a dream like state.

When I finally reached the Starbucks in Northampton I repeated the experiment. A gay couple sat near me and began to talk and stroke each other's hands.

Left side up: I wonder if it is true that gayness is the result of intra-uteral adrenosterones that inhibit the hypothalamus development...

Right side up: God, that girl with the tight jeans is way cute! I like the way she has her hair cut short. It really does something good for her facial features... what's it like to be gay... is it easier for gay women than gay men... wish I had a girlfriend...

Obviously the shaded lens diminishes visual input. By elevating each "flap" the bright visual information is allowed to enter the SAME SIDE of the brain as the eye that collects it - a refreshing change for the brain and one that almost immediately allows each hemisphere to gain the upper hand in controlling our conscious mind. By switching from left to right, you can switch from verbal/logical/analytic to visual/emotional/artistic. It seems like now is the first time you can easily control your brain, as opposed to it controlling you.

With both sides down I was in my own world. These glasses are cool from the inside and outside. I must have looked cool because I got lots of glances and a few unsolicited "hello" remarks with smiles.

The glasses are cool. I am not sending mine back - they're keepers. You might want to try them - I'm sure there is a wealth of experimenting that you can do. and, hey, you'll look way cool in them anyway! Check their website at WWW.NEUVIEWGLASSES.COM [NeuView Inc., One North St., Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 10706].

Now where did I leave that pipe?


A personal note: There's a lots of people who experiment with realities outside the norm. I'm obviously one of them. It's not something I suggest for everyone and certainly not for anyone who is young and has yet to experience life. Be responsible in that you do, respect your own mind and that of your neighbor.

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