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Subject: Dead Media Working Note 05.3
Dead medium: The Experiential Typewriter
From: larrys_AT_mail.utexas.edu (Larry Schroeder)
Sources: Timothy Leary. HIGH PRIEST. College Notes and
Texts, Inc., New American Library, NYC, 1968. Library of
Congress 68-9031.
Timothy Leary. The Experiential Typewriter. Psychedelic
Review #7, pp 70-85. University Books, New Hyde Park, NY,
1966.
(((Following excerpts outline the article. I give the
terminal summary in full, and move it to the beginning in
lieu of an abstract. Breaks not indicated.)))
*Summary*
A communication device - the Experiential Typewriter - is
described, consisting of a twenty-key manual keyboard
linked to a moving pen-recorder. Subjects are pretrained
in a code of experiential categories. The recording paper
then gives a moment-to-moment record of the flow of
experience. The uses of such a device are outlined in 1)
recording the flow of experience, 2) session programming,
3) ESP research, 4) correlation of experiential with
physiological recordings, 5) developing languages of
consciousness. Different codes should be developed for
different kinds of experiential research. A code based on
"*The Psychedelic Experience*" and an illustrative
experiment using a single subject are presented.
(((End of summary)))
The communicating device known as the Experiential
Typewriter was designed by Dr. Ogden Lindsey of the
Harvard Medical School and William Getzinger, electronic
engineer with MIT's Lincoln Laboratory.
Certain requirements had to be met: the device should
allow for touch tying of messages by subjects lying or
sitting in darkened rooms. The keyboards had to be
separate and the keys had to be engineered to fit the
structure of the hand and fingers.
The recording had to be set up so that a separate finger-
movement had to be made to register an experience. It was
anticipated that during high points of sessions subjects
would lose contact with the instruments and might hold
down a key for long periods. To avoid this eventuality,
each time a key is depressed a mark is made on the
polygraph, but if the key is held down no further
impression is recorded until the key is released.
Mr. Getzinger's description of the four major parts of the
typewriter is as follows:
1. Twenty-pen Recorder
a. The registration of reactions is accomplished
by an Esterline-Angus Operation Recorder with internal
wiring modified so that operation with pulsed D.C. is
possible.
2. The Console
d. The phone recept connects with a similar recept
on the left-hand keyboard to allow spoken communication
between keyboard location and console location.
e. The round button on the sloping panel energizes
a lamp in a similar button on the left-hand keyboard, and
vice versa, thus allowing simple visual signaling between
keyboard and console.
3. Connecting Cables
4. The Keyboards
1 2 3 4 11 12 13 14
5 6 7 8 15 16 17 18
9 10 19 20
*The Keyboard of the Experiential Typewriter*
The usefulness of the Experiential Typewriter depends on
the meaningfulness of the experiential language to be
coded.
At this point, *ad hoc* languages should be set up for
each session: for each raid into the uncharted.
We divided the two ten-unit boards of the typewriter into:
Game-concepts from conventional language: left-hand keys.
Hallucinatory, revelatory, and transcendental experiences:
right-hand keys.
*Experiential Modes Based on Self Games*
1. Bodily sensations (e.g., pain, itch, tickle)
2. Moods and emotional states
3. Interpersonal felings towards others
4. Cognitive modes of perception
*Experiential Modes Based on Cultural Games*
5. Awareness in terms of body-maintenance games,
including sex
6. Awareness in terms of social-cultural games, including
family
7. Awareness in terms of aesthetic-recreational games
8. Awareness in terms of intellectual-scientific games
9. Awareness in terms of religious-philosophic games
*The Negative Experience Key*
The right thumb key (of the left hand) is a master key
which can modify any other key to indicate a negative
experience.
10. Negative modification or interpretation of experience
(((The right-hand keys are reserved for the, uh, far-out
stuff.)))
*Transcendental and Transitional-Experiential Modes*
(((Discussion includes "DPIs," *direct process images*,
"LFIs," *learned form images*, and "trans-language" based
on the Tibetan Book of the Dead.)))
*The Two Basic Transcendental States*
20. Awareness of physical energy processes,
phenomenologically labeled "void," "white light," "pure
energy," "vibratons," etc.
19. Biological processes. Phenomenologically the subject
experiences the life energy directly and without the
imposition of any conceptual LFI.
*The Four Basic Transitional States*
12. Immediate sensory awareness (without cognitive
contact)
13. Revelation
17. Ecstacy-unity-liberation
18. Hallucinations
11. Internal modifier of awareness (((used to signify an
internal (eyes-closed) awareness))).
THE USES OF THE EXPERIENTIAL TYPEWRITER
After a trained subject has over-learned the keyboard
and has practiced sending experiences it is now possible
to use the typewriter in a wide range of empirical
studies.
1. Basic Recording of a Flow of Experience
2. Sessions Programming
The typwriter console and keyboards have telephone sockets
which make it possible for a person in another room to
communicate with the subject. If the observer reads the
typewriter and sees that the subject is not experiencing
what he has planned he can immediately communicate with
the subject and get instant feedback as to whether his
intervention has changed the subject's consciousness in
the direction of the plan.
3. Extrasensory Perception Research
4. Physiological Studies of Consciousness
(((Used in conjunction with bio-telemetry)))
5. Detailed Languages of Consciousness
(((To evolve and tailor the language of the keyboard.
Given the foregoing and Dr. Leary's subsequent career, the
concluding sentence of this paragraph aroused some bemused
cynicism)))
The day of the psychologist imposing his game, his roles,
rules, rituals and above all his language on the subject
is about over.
*Example of Experiment Using the Experiential Typewriter*
(((This used a simplified 10-key typewriter, a lad of 24,
and 250 gamma of LSD. Results are summarized and comments
follow.)))
The subject reported drifting off into areas of reduced
awareness during [the last part of the test]. He was
apparently no longer aware of the room, the E.T. and the
task.
Larry Schroeder, larrys_AT_mail.utexas.edu
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