Light and the Brain
Lucia N°03 is a neurostimulator, which combines a stroboscope (flickering light), flexible in both, speed and intensity, with a constant light, available in different degrees of brightness. The computer-controlled interaction of these light sources activates different ways of experiencing (seeing intense worlds of colour and shape, a sense of leaving the body etc. ) allowing for an impressive individual light experience that is different every time. Lucia N°03 creates wave patterns in the EEG that would usually only appear after several years of meditation practice. Since this involves a real neurostimulation and not an optical post-image phenomenon, each session is different. Lucia N°03 allows for a transcendental experience as it is usually seen only under extreme conditions (during high performance sport, through using entheogenic substances or in near-death experiences) and consequently triggers the same positive effects. The experience value is one of a kind and the effects are noticeably intense, even after the very first use
When presented with light, the electrical activity in the brain changes. The pineal gland (glandula pinealis) is stimulated to produce mind-activating hormones that have a significant influence on the circadian rhythm. This small light organ, deep inside the brain, has always been a matter of speculation. Not without good reason, the gland is frequently also called the “third eye”. In the case of the tuatara, a living fossil, the third eye still has a lens rudiment and papillary muscles innervated by the sympathetic nervous system. Even in the area of the human pineal gland, tissue cells, as we find them in the eye, could be histologically detected.
The Light Projekt is a Barcelona initiative centred around the Lucia N°03 Hypnagogic Lamp developed by clinical psychologist Dr Englebert Winkler and specialist in Neurology Dr Dirk Proeckl.
The Lucia N°03 is a stroboscopic lamp controlled by a dedicated software system that has the effect of inducing in the experiencer various states such as deep relaxation, meditative or dream-like states and various transcendental experiences. It is increasingly used in therapeutic settings as well as in research environments relating to entheogenic or perceived near-death experiences.
Austrian clinical psychologist Dr. Engelbert Winkler and his research partner, neurologist Dr. Dirk Proeckl first developed the Lucia Hypnagogic Light device arising out of research into Near-Death Experiences and the realization of the health and psychological benefits that often were a result of such experiences. Looking at ways of replicating the benefits of the NDE they hit on the idea of simulating one of the key motifs of the experience – interaction with light - and developed Lucia as a means of stimulating the brain via an external stroboscopic light source. The resulting EEG brain-wave patterns and mental states have been shown to be equivalents of the measured reactions of subjects who are meditation practitioners of many years experience.
Lucia N°03 as a neurostimulator therefore is capable of inducing experiences that can be compared to deep relaxation and meditative states, mystical experiences, simulations of the Near-Death or Out-of-Body experience and realities experienced under entheogenic substances such as DMT.
Dr.med. Dipl.- Psych. Dirk Proeckl
Neurologist and psychologist now working in private medical practice, focussing on the interaction between the psyche and the nervous system.
Studied:
- medicine - universities of Saarbrücken, Regensburg, München.
- psychology - universities of Regensburg, Freiburg, München
- Post graduate research work, both solo and in teams, conducted at several clinics in Germany, Switzerland and Austria on:
- multimodale psychosomatic rehabilitation of migraine
- neurotransmitter distribution within the central nervous system
- readyness potential in the electroencephalogram
- dipol source analysis of colour evoked potentials and of epileptic potentials in the electroencephalogram
Dr. Phil. Engelbert Winkler
Clinical & health psychologist, supervising psychotherapist, and legal expert witness, graduated in Innsbruck 1989 with qualifications in philosophy, pedagocics and psychology, later adding additional certification in logotherapy, existential analyses and hypnotherapy.
In 1994 Dr. Winkler founded the Kooperative Familieberatung, a Tyerolean governmental welfare initiative offering both out-patient and residential care, with particular emphasis on the care and treatment of children and young persons with extreme behavioral problems.The centre, of which Dr. Winkler remains director, has developed outreach programmes for homeless teenagers and those not fitting the criteria for admission to other centres. The XXL-project of Kooperative Familienberatung is designed for a maximum of eight teenagers aged between 14 – 18 to live in their own apartment.
Exploratory focus:
- Neuronal basis and effects of near-death experience
- Development of new psychotherapeutic intervention methods for systemic and individual use – among other things: Hypnagogic Light Experience
By using neurostimulation lamp Lucia N°03, with our natural sensory channel of vision, the interdependency between the state of consciousness, brain waves and hormone production is illustrated. The resulting brain activity recorded shows in its analysis an image of increasing harmonisation which, depending on the characteristics of the light and willingness of the viewer, corresponds to a state of deep relaxation and the highest level of concentration. The activity of the brain is reflected in the eye of the beholder in previously unseen scenarios and the client learns be guided by this bidirectional neuro feedback. This phenomenon of central vision in Hypnagogic Light Experience results in the merging of object and subject.
