Showing posts with label janusvr. Show all posts
Showing posts with label janusvr. Show all posts
Thursday, December 3, 2020
Sunday, October 18, 2020
Session 4: The Mind Palace - gunpigew
“Only psychos and shamans create their own reality” - Terence McKenna
Fall, 2015.
“Hey..” a sheepish voice announced itself on the Ventrilo server. “I think this stuff is so cool. I want to learn how to make it.”
“It’s just HTML. Here’s a link to get started,” said the gruff words of a world builder, pasting a link to the W3schools website. Not exactly a welcoming statement--his models might have been crashing his system at the time, unsettling his mood. But he wasn’t wrong. It was indeed simple to make stuff.
As the conversation grew, it was apparent that this newcomer had never made a simple website. A simple mastery of HTML was a basic skill that the cadre of JanusVR world builders took for granted. I had picked it up in college. My first student website was a blue sky background with annoying animated gif files, the required “under construction” banner and a wav file of the hamster dance playing on a loop--artistically contemporary for its time.
Over the next few months I would jump onto the Ventrilo server and hear a conversation in progress over the basics of HTML and polygon counts. My attention would divert to the latest webspace I was working on. I was glad someone was helping, but I had work to do, and web development wasn’t exactly my day job—I was in no position to tutor. The conversations were placed in the back of my mind like a distant office chat. Then there was a series of links pasted in the chat. That was followed by urging from this person to check out what they’ve done.
Workspaces in JanusVR. A place to develop your works in progress before uploading.
I exited out of my VR workspace where I was going back and forth from Virtual Desktop editing locally before uploading my work. I made my way to the main portal and then to the lobby where a few other users were gathered. I clicked on the portal that had been created next to the fountain in the center of the room. When you would do this in JanusVR it would send a request to the server where the website was hosted to fetch the necessary data to build the space. Then it took some time to load the majority of it into memory, at least enough for you to enter and explore. The loading bar took a long time on this one, but I waited patiently. Eventually, a foyer came into view. In the center of it was a face that cycled through various colors almost like a neon sign. The walls were covered in bright animated gifs that looped eternally. The themes seemed to cover a gamut from natural awe, to spiritualism, to encouragement of taking psychedelics. Next to these were the author’s face in various decoration. To me it was alien. The gender was ambiguous. Remember, I’m a veteran, and my customers are typically church-going simulator operators and highly dependable, albeit, predictable and sober engineers. My social circle wasn’t much different. I had stepped into a realm of the strange. Like a drag dinner show I was surprised with for a birthday gag while on leave in San Francisco years back, I took this new experience just as light heartedly. I rounded the corner and saw a 3D model of a face scanned by pphotogrammetry rotating on a pedestal. The eyes were completely black with special contact lenses. The face was adorned with makeup and tattoos. This was most definitely someone I would never encounter in my sleepy seaside village in Florida.
Source: www.goodreads.com
I looked at every corner of this space. I even hit the hover button and floated around a bit to take in every meticulous detail that was added to this place. This was one of the reasons this room took so long to download and populate in VR. The other was that this novice had yet to learn the art of optimization to reduce bandwidth. As I ventured deeper into the snaking space, I saw other portals that were branching off into other webspaces. I held off investigating them until I reached the end of this space. Around a blind corner I saw a wall with a parental warning. Cleverly, the builder put a false wall there. The collision logic was turned off--you could pass right through it like a hologram. Oh. I’m intrigued. That’s a use of virtual space I hadn’t considered! Being at the end of the space, I went back to the beginning to investigate the portals. A few were dead links. They defaulted to the virtual equivalent of an “Error 404” Others were much larger in size than the central hub I had first entered. One was a large forest at night, with a campfire hidden among the trees. Around the campfire was a flying saucer and colorful pieces of art cycling through their animated gif textures. I worked my way through these webspaces, returning to the hub to open the next portal. I made it near the end of the hallway where there was a portal to what looked like a bar. I entered and found myself on a street in Toronto. The surroundings were a 360 photosphere. The building that was of interest was lined up with the photo. A staircase led down to a dance club that was industrial in theme. It was a faithful, but simple reproduction. Instead of a wall of liquor bottles behind a bar, a stock photo of a repeating pattern of bottles did the trick. The main impression that the size and orientation were mostly correct. As I walked through the empty venue, I saw pictures floating about showing people in full goth regalia. I imagined these were friends of the author. From the smiles, it seemed like they had some fun nights.
Descending the steps to Techn0’s favorite and no longer existing bar.
Upon returning to the main hub, I saw the author’s avatar. We greeted each other via the built in voice method in the world. Then we decided to switch to Ventrilo. While the in-world speech engine worked fine, it faded over distance as speech naturally would the further you stepped away. Not many people had the patience to traverse webspaces at human speeds. Often you would only hear half a sentence before they would zoom out of sight. Ventrilo, which would later be replaced by Mumble, and eventually Discord, operated more like a satellite radio, allowing you to talk to anyone as long as they were in the same channel. It also had another purpose. If you have been reading this blog since the first post, I used a second computer for communication. JanusVR was prone to crashes, especially if you were like many users are using the bleeding edge build. You never knew what would kick it off. Adventuring into a new webspace was novel data for the engine to crunch on. Crashes were often expected.
This was the first trans person I had ever met. I confessed it was new territory for me, and that my brain might not have the plasticity to keep up with the pronouns. He said to use whatever I like, just to keep being nice about it. And so in this post, I’m going to do the same. I’m not stopping at transsexual. This person was transhumanist. There were some concepts I felt were truly alien to me, but I was going to find that the use of immersive technology could convey information in a more direct way.
He went by the handle “techn0shaman”. The moniker fit the webspaces that he built. They were all mixtures of spirituality and technology; some of that technology being biological in nature.
I showed him my webspaces that I had been building. They were mostly demonstrations of my JavaScript prowess--interactive places that showcased hand tracking. Others were exhibits for the services my work provided. Compared to the techn0shaman, my creations were steeped in utility and lacked the creativity and reflection he brought to bear.
Techn0 brought me to a very interesting webspace that forced you to contemplate. You entered on a shore where you had to cross a narrow bridge to an island. Haunting sounds of birds and monkeys made you feel you were in a deep jungle. On the island were images that were inspired by Hinduism and Buddhism. These icons led you up a ramp to a black pyramid. Inside the dome was a “ghost recording” of Techn0 pacing around the pyramid. Along the walls were more images, and among them was Techn0’s real name and his birthdate. He explained that this was a digital fragment of himself that will continue to live on in the metaverse as long as the data is hosted. I believe he used IPFS, a distributed method of cloud storage, to host the ghost recording, so it possibly could. Techn0 thought a lot about how he could be more than what limited him in his mortal coil. He entertained thoughts of the singularity, and augmenting his body with technology as it became available. This metaverse was just a first step.
Me admiring that instead of modeling a fish tank, Techn0 put four animated gifs on planes together.
Techn0shaman became one of the most prolific worldbuilders. I learned that he liked to hide content, usually in places that were tricks of the eye--a gap in a rock face camouflaged with repeating textures, for example. I eventually went behind the false wall hiding mature content--I admired his daring to share unabashedly. I also found a vent that wasn’t readily visible. If you flew up to the top of it you could find more portals to webspaces. He had recreated his childhood home to scale. Photographs were placed exactly where they were taken, filling in the details. Smiling family faces looked back at me as I stood in a simple space. There was a dissonance growing in my mind. I wasn’t learning all the details about Techn0shaman as one would in memoir or biography. I was getting the feeling of his life, the sentiment. I started to know this person, at least what he was showing the world, very well. But it wasn’t a knowing of life events and history. It was attitude, fears, and hopes. This became evident to me as I stood on the balcony of his “someday” luxury hi-rise apartment in downtown Toronto.
This is the story of how VR brought together a transsexual woman from Toronto and a former special operations veteran from Florida to friendship. If Virtual Reality can achieve something like that, imagine what other chasms it could breach if used properly.
written by gunpigew about techn0shaman - Jayelynn
Sunday, June 21, 2020
VRTO 2020 Optimism Panel
June 21st 2020 Solstice VRTO Party!
Theme for the panel: Optimism Moving Forward
Objective: to bring together a panel of intelligent and creative minds to discuss the optimistic points of the present and future of virtual realities & plants with their potentials for advancing our collective civilization.
The reasoning behind our choices is that psychedelic people are often pollinators of good ideas and scientific driven people are results driven and authors are the most effective communicators
Pre-recorded Zoom Chat that will debut in VRTO spaces on the Summer Solstice.
Dream Panel Wishlist!
Martine Rothblatt/ SiriusXM, United Therapeutics, Transhumanist
editor@terasemjournal.org ? need better email contact. Not Confirmed.
Dennis McKenna/ Ethnobotanist, Author connect@mckenna.academy Not Confirmed.
David E Nichols/ Pharmacologist, Biochemist drdave@purdue.edu Not Confirmed.
Moses Znaimer/ ideacity!, Academic media@carp.ca Not Confirmed.
Ytasha Womack/ Afrofuturist Author, filmmaker ysolstar@gmail.com Confirmed
E Edge/ Psychonaut, Author eliedge@gmail.com Confirmed.
Maria Karam/ Inventor, VR Developer maria@theredwood.org Confirmed.
Miss Metaverse Futurist, Youtuber katie@provoke.fm Confirmed.
Celestina Aurora Madry/ Psychonaut, Harm Reduction Agent madrytina@gmail.com Confirmed.
techn0shaman/ Pristess, VR Developer techno.shamanto@gmail.com Confirmed.
Moderator/HOST
Questions ?
How can we use virtual reality, psychedelics, generational wisdom and satellite internet technologies to evolve our language so we can communicate more effectively?
How have altered states of consciousness such as dreams, meditations, or visionary induced states influenced your work?
How can art, communications technology, virtual reality, and psychedelics all play a role in creating a brighter future?
When you imagine the world in 2030, what do you see?
We seem more collectively aware that we are facing a global crisis - if we are able to effectively coordinate resource distribution and create a form of sustainable relationship to the planet - how can we share those ideas in a way that will be received well by the collectivity?
https://conference.virtualreality.to/
Tuesday, July 17, 2018
Synchronicities are Cascades into more Synchronicities
I recreated the visual effects of a psilocybin dose in virtual reality - techn0shaman
Given that this mushroom trip was a significant experience that fundamentally altered my life forever I am going to try and download this high bandwidth experience into english in the best way that I can articulate it for you and for myself, but please keep in mind that at any given moment the human brain is receiving a sensory experience of about 40+ HD4K movies every second and english is an inferior method of trying to accurately describe the journey I had taken. So its like compressing 40+HD4K movies into an audio file that is being transmitted over a dialup 56k modem. There is a lot of loss that is going to happen, and some local jargon will be incorporated, however! Please read ahead with an open mind and maybe someone who listens my words will vibrate the same memory or feeling or experience and share that same thing in common with me or similar.
The evening started on the patio around 9pm just in the last few moments of twilight left in the sky to illuminate the deck with a soft warm glow, I was sitting with Jacob a friend since 2009 and now my roomate, Cressa the lovely amazing neighbor who lives upstairs and has become a friend to me this summer because we spend many hours together listening to music, chatting, relaxing in the sun ect. and my friend of 9 years Celestina who I met in Edmonton and has been a great friend and intellectual personality in my life, with the warm summer weather and a clear sky with a huge looming tree that shared this whole experience with my friends and me. I started my dose by eating mushrooms at 10pm and nibbled on them for about an hour while chatting away to my friends, having a drink of cider. As the digestion of the mushrooms started we all used this time to reflect on other psychedelic mushroom trips we have had, and while discussing that in particular this was an important trip for me because it was my 25th encounter with psilocybin. Tina noted that: “This was my 25th trip in my 25th year” I believe this to be an important synchronicity, this was the cascade into novelty for us, Terence McKenna has taught all of us in the lectures we have listened to , to “pay attention” so we all had the mindset that allowed our pattern recognizing part of the brain active and this created a large amount of data with many synchronicities that began to unfold throughout during and after the trip.
Approximately 1hr 20 mins after consuming 1 gram of psilocybin, My trip began …
with the mental feeling of being propelled upwards at a very fast rate similar to a spacecraft- through a membrane/frequency/atmosphere vertically. After what I assume to be 20 mins give or take I was in what I call “the fungus funk” and it’s a feeling of being in the mushrooms domain/space. So after achieving Ascension by using cannabis to bring the trip into focus I started to see a seductive, kinky, scary, exhilarating entity that was very dark but shimmering with iridescent refractions, this moth type entity had a wingspan of 50 feet or more in diameter with thousands of flickering staring eyes on the surface of it's entire body and wings. This being was teasing me and trying to coax me into the trip. Finally I convinced myself to say yes and after this happened the entirety fully consumed me and that's when I lost consciousness.
This is a recurring theme and it's the third time this has happened to me. After doing some research I have found that this is a phenomenon called a “shaman shake” and it's a complete reset of the brain that allowed me to heal the deepest parts of my soul. In the moment when I blacked out I felt like I was sleeping in warm black velvet while still aware that I was alive.
Tina recounted to me that I slouched back and knocked over my bong which spilled onto the deck. She said to me “are you okay” three times, but I only heard it once. It’s what brought me back after blacking out.
After awakening from losing consciousness, Cressa returned outside after going in for a moment and my friend Celestina was ultimately worried that I had some sort of neurological seizure, but I assure you this is much different, this is some sort of psilocybin brain reset that happens as a result of personality archetypes and many other factors. This subjective recurring phenomenon that I experienced with taking psilocybin, combining THC/CBD and seeing the entity before blacking out, has me wondering exactly what is going on? I want proper scientific rhetoric and a research team to study the effects of psilocybin on my brain and the correlation between these events which seem to be linked.
The following 2 hours were very intense and difficult to get through, the physical discomfort from the mushrooms raising and lowering my body temperature was almost unbearable, the visuals were beautiful, I was seeing the tree above me fade in and out of my visual acuity.the recursive frames and visual tracers were excruciatingly beautiful with the stars literally touching our eyes from the milky way galaxy the moments of very hard to get through were made possible by the beauty of my visual cortex being stimulated. Also my friend tina who was a very great support force during the humbling healing aspects of my trip, she was able to answer all my questions relentlessly and assure me that I am fine and this is all part of the process, Tina was the archetypical shaman figure in the ritual that occured that evening. She was the transdimensional seerest who was able to guide me through the 100ft psilocybin waves that would rush in and out. We would be laying on our back and look up at the sky, and see shooting stars trickle across the horizon.
Cressa’s energy was so important to the evening and I told her that too, she was the mother, maiden, crone and kept us all grounded. While the mushroom was healing me by dissolving my ego and my body was telling me I was dieing. It was all for the better, and in the moment I knew that but it still was so difficult and strenuous to get through.
After about 2 hours, I had a breakthrough! At last! Time was an eternity to me at this point and I could feel and see the psilocybin molecules sponge out the residual detritus of the ego and dissolve the anxiety membrane right from inside my brain. Similar to how lichen on a time lapse that has been sped up, the sponging growing feeling within the neocortex was accompanied with visuals. All medicine was founded on shamanic, psychedelic principles.The DNA Helix was discovered under the influence of psychedelics, so I have no doubt that I was gifted this vision from the intelligence that lives inside the mycelium networks that is scattered throughout the galaxy,as a coping mechanism but also from the divine nature of the entity inside that has the innate ability to communicate with me and with others in english. This entity was trying to help me, I believe it was the mushroom, or is inside the dimension that the mushroom changes your frequency too so you can inhabit this zone as a visitor.
To calm everyone down because now things were getting very chaotic as visuals were coming on very strong. We were getting some frame overlay synchronicities were starting to really protrude into this dimension and we were all peaking, we put on a lecture by Terence McKenna, one that I was quite familiar with “Conversations at the Edge of Magic” ; it’s basically the story of humanity from the point of view he created with his ‘Stoned Ape Theory’.’
After finishing the lecture Cressa went inside for what seemed like a fairly long time, as our understanding of time shifted from linear to chaotic. Tina and me were discussing the subjective effects of the neurological reset I had earlier in the evening. I noted that it had been a while since we spoke to Cressa so I went inside to find her standing at the kitchen stove, with a huge ridiculous, sparkly, hilarious, crinkly wrapper and what was inside???? A surprise?? A miracle?
a giant chocolate egg!! that was made of swiss chocolate that she had inherited as a gift from the previous owner of the apartment. We were all giggling and carrying on about how hilarious it was, as Cressa was smearing peanut butter on the chocolate and taking bites to eat. It was so funny and there actually was a surprise inside. Specifically for me! [i’m going to leave out what it was for some mystery]
Once we returned outside we played some uplifting space ambient music.
Cressa, Celestina, and myself took this time to reflect on our positions in the universe, the world, the context of our culture, how the culture is sick, what we can do about it, how we can channel the positive aspects of our psychedelic teachings back into our lives and integrate them into our outlook on the world. Where humanity will exist in the future. Where we are going, The past and how we can redeem history by saving the human soul. all combined into one moment of excruciatingly beautiful complex emotion and geometry.
While all of this chatter about the universal future humanity, one consciousness. Satellites were passing by and we were seeing shooting stars all evening. I had brought out a crystal ball that was a gift from Lady Tamarra, the founder of the Wiccan church of Canada. Cressa and me were studying the light refractions from the candle flames, and looking deep into the crystal physically, describing it to each other, then Celestina joined in and we had a really great discussion about magic. At the time that I received the crystal ball I did not fully understand the full meaning of what that would entail. This is a very magical crystal. It goes from life to life, witnessing magical events. Collecting wisdom. I wonder what memories its gained from Lady Tamarra, where did she get it? Who made this thing? As far as I am concerned this is an oracle of some sort that is going to be with me for a period during my life and then be passed on to a future generation to teach and inspire and fill the caretaker with wonder.
Now the visuals are starting to fade and a quiet serene feeling is in the air, we all look to the stars and I notice the ISS international space station, We all looked to the sky at the same moment after I pointed it out, and when we did. The whole thing flared up with light for one second. I think the solar panels were positioned in just a way, to be hit by the sun and reflect into our viewing range. It was absolutely incredible.
We are blessed, synchronicities are cascades into more synchronicities.
The munchies were kicking in, it was 4am and after smoking cannabis all evening and coming down from our mushroom peak we wanted some food. I suggested that we have peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, so I went down to my apartment, said hello to my beautiful best friend, my dog Odis and kissed him and then grabbed all the supplies we needed for snack time. I emerged from the basement and sat back down on the patio with bread, creamy soft peanut butter, and smuckers raspberry jam. It was delicious, it was so nice to have had a successful mushroom trip and good vibes all evening. We were all just taking in the moment together and eventually we started to get tired, Cressa announced that she wanted to go to bed. Celestina and me decided that we were going to sleep on the patio because it was so nice out and we already had our blankets out there anyway.
I fell asleep peacefully on the patio under the night sky and was awoken at 10am by the birds chirping and the hot sun beating down on me. It was so spectacular. The afterglow had me feeling great and I spent the day relaxing in the sun with my friends.
That was one of my favorite encounters with psilocybin and I will spend the next few weeks and months assimilating everything I have learned from this experience. I am glad to be able to share this experience with you, no matter how bad of a download into english it is from full immersion virtual reality in my memory. I am happy to had been able to experience this and I look forward to a day in the future when our civilization is more enlightened. These consciousness expanding hallucinogens are essential to the evolution of the individual and the society.
- techn0shaman
Sunday, June 24, 2018
How Virtual Reality Will Help Shape Our Psychedelic Future - B. J Murphy
When I think about the future, I envision mass technological disruptions across the entire landscape. Artificial intelligence (AI) being embedded into the very fabric of our architecture and institutions, 3D printing transforming our socio-economic system from scarcity to abundance, and virtual reality/augmented reality (VR/AR) unleashing infinite potential in shaping our perceptions of reality.
One could argue that we've already been experimenting with VR/AR via the use of psychedelic drugs, like psilocybin, DMT, etc. But for many, the perception of these drugs tend to carry an unfortunate negative connotation. When people think of someone doing shrooms, a lot of them think of a person going mad in the middle of the woods. When people think of someone doing LSD, a lot of them think of a person believing they're Peter Pan as they hoist themselves off the top of a skyscraper.
The devil may be in the details, but for those who actually experiment with psychedelics, the devil isn't this terrible thing which results in their immediate death or psychological disruption; the devil is the infinite potential of their mind overcoming the many obstacles of reality.
And with this understanding, futurists and psychonauts techn0shaman and Celestina Madry attended this year's VRTO expo in Toronto. It was there they'd discussed "the limitations of our current cultural linguistic models of communication as well as the potential solutions that may result in the transformation of civilization."
In translation, they went into the science and history behind the use of psychedelics and how technologies, like VR, can help people grasp a much more thorough understanding in the potential of psychedelic use.
"I surf information waves, waves that can change the mind. Mind-changing drugs, yeah! Alternate reality drugs, yeah!"
- Timothy Leary
By unlocking the potentialities of the human mind via VR/AR, our psychedelic future is unleashed. To mold and shape our reality through our imagination and creativity has been the aspiration of psychonauts throughout history.
The famous psychologist Timothy Leary once referred to himself as a "surfer," envisioning a future where, "[t]o study biology, you can press a button and make yourself part of the human body. You can become a white blood cell and learn about the circulatory system by traveling through an artery. You can call up the Prado Museum in Madrid and study Goya's paintings."
"I surf information waves," Leary would say. "Waves that can change the mind. Mind-changing drugs, yeah! Alternate reality drugs, yeah!"
Though, the question remains: Will you surf the information waves? Will you immerse yourself into virtual and augmented worlds via VR/AR just as psychonauts have done with the help of psychedelics? Will you open up your mind to the possibilities of our impending psychedelic future?
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