Earn your MBA from good ol' Altered State

There's no shortage of hard evidence that photic stimulation of the optic nerve directly influences brainwave activity. Flash a light in your eyes at the right frequency, and weird shit happens inside your brain.

Caution: Before we go any further, something has to be made perfectly clear: this mechanism can trigger seizures in people prone to photosensitive epilepsy. The possibility is slim, but does exist. Be aware, be safe. Consult your physician or professional wellness facilitator. Warn your guests. Practice Safe Strobing.

Carry on.

What we are dealing with here is a mechanism of (literally) biblical proportions. Based on his groundbreaking research into the modification and entrainment effects of strobing illumination on human brain waves, in 1946 Dr. W. Grey Walter published a well-received paper which (among other things) postulated that the Old Testament "tree of knowledge" was a veiled allusion to the psychogenic impact of flicker effects caused by the sun through palm leaves.

That's right: enhanced creativity through visual stimulation.

We definitely wanna get us some of that action. Who needs corporate seminars and MSCIE certification for upward career mobility when you can harness your subconscious for enhanced creativity? Furnish your office cube with one of these suckers and lucid-dream your way into a corner office.

Here's the four-eleven: In the late 50s, Brion Gysin and Ian Sommerviller put W. Grey's research into practice by constructing "The Dreamachine." Despite Gysin's insistence on wrapping the entire endeavour in a thick coating of Sufic mysticism (as befits a defrocked surrealist), their intentions were clear: to create a mechanism to aid in achieving an altered state of consciousness (as also befits a defrocked surrealist.

Strobe lights were generally unobtainium in 1959; the easiest way to achieve a reasonably controllable flickering illumination effect was by mechanically rotating a precisely perforated something-or-other in front of a light source. Light sources we can do. Mechanical rotation we can do. Precise perforation we can do. More on this whole brain wave frequency thing later.

The basic plan, therefore, is this: get a record turntable, make a perforated cylinder to sit on it, then bung a lightbulb in the center. What could be easier?

Realistically, many things are *technically* easier.  Few, if any however, boast a Hipness Factor with 3 figures to the left of the decimal.  Buy the book and enjoy greatly enhanced peer esteem.

No, really...