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Hi,
I just received today an old Stress Shield unit which I was able to track down. On the literature it says "synetic systems". When I google this, or when I visited their old website it forwarded me to the Mindplace site. Did Mindplace come from, or acquire Synetic Systems? :icon_surprised:
MindPlace used to be Synetic Systems. Robert Austin was and still is in charge of the company.
Wow, that's awesome, so the stress shield I received today ultimately came from Mindplace as well! I thought I might find the stress shield ganzfield kind of dull as its not electroluminescent, but I thoroughly enjoyed a ganzfield session today! I found it much easier to keep my eyes open then compared to when I was younger. Does anyone know if Synetic Systems also made the "Theta One" blue ganzfield device from the 90's? That screen was amazing. That screen in a stress shield like closed environment would be very nice. Id be grateful if anyone knows if the Theta One was also Synetic. I understand that Robert will most likely know for sure when he returns from vacation.
How come they stopped those old products. I also saw good reviews of those old products.
This is just my guess, but compared to the flickering light/sound entrainment devices, ganzfeld was not nearly as popular, and was a harder sell, as in "here, try these glasses and stare at a blank color"! I would imagine the r&d plus cost of setting up manufacturing made it prohibitive.
Hopefully when Robert is back from vacation he can shed some light on it. I would consider going out of my way to try and build a prototype of an electroluminescent ganzfeld device like the theta one if I had a bit more info on the subject.
Greetings, dbit! We didn't manufacture the Stress Shield, this was made in Australia. We did make a number of RGB prototypes based on the SS and were hoping to use it as an 'eyes open' RGB product, but the injection molds (in Australia...) were extensively damaged in a fire in the late 90s, so that was the end of the Stress Shield as a viable product.
You're right: staring into a blank field of color can become boring quickly, though that was perhaps part of the point from a cognitive perspective.
We've also built prototype electroluminescent eyewear over the years, but were a bit concerned about possible long term effects from the ca. 100 volts AC needed to drive those. The first incarnation of Theta Technologies (Dan Clausing) did market such a device for a couple of years, ca. late 1980s or early 1990s, with a nice blue color. Richard Daab (of Inner Technologies/Magical Blend) eventually joined forces with Dan and Synetic to produce a series of Voyager light and sound systems.
Anyway, that's the brief answer, and you've clearly been paying attention to this little field for a long time!
-Robert
Hi Robert,
Thanks for this update! That's terrible to hear about the Australian fire. It's wild how something as random as that can kill a product in development for a small company. I definitely remember the Synetic Systems name from those years, and it's really awesome to have found you guys in your current incarnation as Mindplace, and looking great!
It's always exciting to learn more about the history and evolution of these technologies. I started getting into these machines after happening upon a Tools for Exploration catalog back in the day at a local metaphysical shop. After that I sought out a clinic in the area that offered sessions with both flotation and light and sound machines. Not only did I ended up doing sessions there, but I ended up working there as a young teenager! I already owned the Theta-One that I had purchased from the catalog, and I bought a PR-2 system from the clinic on a discount and used it for years until I lost it in a massive flood which took out my entire library of books, tools, and toys.
I've also recently been in touch with Terry Patten from Tools for Exploration. It seems we have some mutual friends/teachers in the Integral world, and it was wild to find out that he was the founder of Tools. I'm expecting to receive some old catalogs from him that he has on hand. With Terry's permission I'm going to scan and digitize some of them (as best I can with consumer grade equipment) in order to preserve them for posterity. I'll let you know when that project is complete!
Thanks for your response. It's so cool to be reconnecting with this stuff after the various legs of my journey!
David