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00:00:00His name is Brian Geisen.
00:00:30He was born in England in 1916 to a Canadian mother and a British father who died in the trenches
00:00:36of France before Brian could know him.
00:00:39He grew up in Edmonton, Alberta and then went back to England to attend a Catholic boys'
00:00:43school.
00:00:44He never could decide on a nationality.
00:00:47Sometimes he was Swiss, sometimes British, American, French and Moroccan.
00:00:52He'd get angry if anyone called him Canadian, but he studied Japanese calligraphy, which
00:00:56was so important to his art while training as a spy in the Canadian army in World War
00:01:00II.
00:01:01He met his soulmate William S. Burroughs in Tangier in 1954 and fused his art with the great beat
00:01:07writer, together creating a kind of third mind which led to remarkable collaborations in art
00:01:13and magic.
00:01:14Geisen died in Paris in 1986, poor and little known except to the amazing artists he still
00:01:20influences.
00:01:21A serious dabbler in the occult, he believed he was channeling the 10th century king of
00:01:26the assassins, Hassani Sabah, and just like him, had found a portal into the time-space continuum.
00:01:32The world wasn't ready for it.
00:01:33The world wasn't ready for it.
00:01:34That was the story of his life.
00:01:39This would be magic.
00:01:45Beautiful, sugar, magical, magical, magic.
00:01:58Agile legend.
00:01:59We have to look at it when closing your eyes.
00:02:06Yes.
00:02:07Political crime!
00:02:08Oh, my God, my God.
00:02:38Cool. Wow.
00:02:42So was it a bit of a bugger to make?
00:02:44Mostly because of the motor.
00:02:46Yeah.
00:02:46You were saying it's 10 hertz?
00:02:4810 hertz is what we're after.
00:02:50It's got to be between 8 and 13.
00:02:5210 is what we're after, is the ideal.
00:02:55And it creates this stroboscopic light effect,
00:02:57which, if you close your eyes, engages the alpha waves in your brain,
00:03:01because it's the same dream state thing, right?
00:03:04And a lot of people get hallucinations and this kind of thing, right?
00:03:06And one in 4,000 people will have an epileptic fit.
00:03:09We didn't know to close our eyes.
00:03:11Everybody was staring at it.
00:03:12No, no, no.
00:03:13The whole point is you close your eyes.
00:03:15All the stuff we read on the internet,
00:03:16nothing said anything about closing your eyes.
00:03:18You're kidding.
00:03:19They just had to stare at it.
00:03:20Yeah.
00:03:21So, and staring at 100-watt light bulb as it's...
00:03:23No, that's just going to be a little bit painful.
00:03:24Yeah, and a bit dizzying after a little while.
00:03:27You get dizzy even with the eyes closed effect.
00:03:29Really?
00:03:29Yeah, but it's supposed to be the drugless high.
00:03:36The dream machine is a kind of portal into the time-space continuum.
00:03:55It opens a window on a magical universe,
00:03:58a very real place inside all of our heads.
00:04:01To bring the dream machine to life again,
00:04:04we need to take a journey to find the keepers of the secret knowledge
00:04:07behind this flickering device.
00:04:09So, what do you see?
00:04:11Now, this is the idea that I had of telling Brian to put it on a...
00:04:17thing, not to have it hanging down,
00:04:21but to have it on a fixed pole.
00:04:25Already, this looks wonderful.
00:04:27Well, I think you'll...
00:04:28But you're tormenting me.
00:04:29A torture.
00:04:31Total torture.
00:04:32Well, you've waited 30 years.
00:04:33What's another five minutes?
00:04:34Well, it's a lot, you know.
00:04:41I think we'll get it dark enough in here, right?
00:04:44Yeah, okay.
00:04:45Now, uh...
00:04:47What kind of settings have you been giving people with this stuff?
00:04:52I mean, does it need the appropriate music or hashish or...
00:04:56Look at that.
00:04:58Oh, it's hypnotic.
00:05:00I can't...
00:05:01It's...
00:05:02That's the most tempting thing.
00:05:05I can't tell you how I want to sink into it
00:05:07to get 360-degree vision of this.
00:05:12Close my eyes first, I think.
00:05:14Just to see that it works.
00:05:17Then the hallucinations take two or three minutes to...
00:05:20How long did everybody else to take get hallucinations?
00:05:23Well, Lee Ranallo instantly started seeing colors, shapes, things.
00:05:27Were your eyes open?
00:05:29Uh, lights closed.
00:05:31Where shall I sit for your best, uh...
00:05:33Is it profile or sit back here?
00:05:38Oh, man.
00:05:38I remember going to an exhibition of Brian McGuysen, and there was the dream machine.
00:05:44I mean, I knew it was really special, because I think I was tripping, and then I really understood what a beautiful, simple, magical object it is.
00:05:56I believe you have one.
00:05:58Oh, my God, isn't that...
00:05:59Oh, my God, isn't that...
00:06:00That's the way it should look.
00:06:02Oh, how beautiful.
00:06:05Oh.
00:06:07Oh, isn't that wonderful.
00:06:10Oh.
00:06:12Oh.
00:06:12Now, should we draw the blinds first?
00:06:19Oh, just...
00:06:20Yeah.
00:06:25Yeah, there, that's the way it should be.
00:06:27That's the way it should be.
00:06:30I turned around, I looked at it, I just watched it for a while, and as you saw, it starts to go in and out.
00:06:35You start seeing, and then it looks like it's slowing down and speeding up, and then I close my eyes.
00:06:41And immediately, a flood of angels flew out of the night, or out of the starry sky, into, well, it was indescribable, through a tunnel right past me.
00:06:57And it was a complete eureka moment, and I just went, oh, my God, this machine actually works.
00:07:04It's really like touching God, in a way, you know, you're somewhere that you don't have access to in your daily life.
00:07:11It's kind of funny, because the dream machine relates to that early, early forms of cinema, as well as to, like, 60s drug culture, because, boy, it's certainly evocative of a drug trip, just what I'm seeing.
00:07:27Yeah, I would, yeah, I would, I would trade this for a TV set.
00:07:34Well, I'm seeing the shapes, and then I see darkness, but it's kind of friendly darkness.
00:07:47How do you explain the dream machine?
00:07:53The story of the dream machine began in 1958, in December.
00:08:00Brian Gyson was travelling on a coach to Marseille in order to visit an artist colony there.
00:08:08Brian was tired and laid his head against the window and closed his eyes and drifted like that.
00:08:17Unconsciously, at first, he was experiencing flashes of sunlight.
00:08:33As I was riding down a road and closed my eyes in the back of a bus and had these extraordinary visions, which I thought at that time were some kind of spiritual grace which had been allotted to me.
00:08:46Well, I found out later that this was a purely physiological, neurological effect known as the activity within the alpha rhythm of the brain.
00:08:56As soon as this vision ended, Gyson asked, you know, what happened to me?
00:09:06And the person he asked was Burroughs, his great friend, you know, and they were co-inhabitants at that time at the Beat Hotel.
00:09:12And so he wrote Burroughs, what happened?
00:09:14And Burroughs wrote back, we must storm the citadels of enlightenment, the means are at hand.
00:09:19And he was referring to what was the dream machine, that there was a way to harness the visionary potential of light.
00:09:25There's just, I mean, there's very vivids, vivid reds and blues, but...
00:09:31Rock stars have always been really big on dream machines.
00:09:33They found one in Kurt Cobain's house after his suicide, and there have been whispers ever since that it fed his nihilistic reveries.
00:09:40Something bad happened to Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones, too, back in the days of flower power.
00:09:47The dream machine didn't kill anybody, of course, it was just around.
00:09:52Tranquil imagery.
00:09:58Which is a good thing.
00:09:59Only a magical creature could think up something like that.
00:10:08It's like, it is like a wonderful, idealistic idea.
00:10:14But you know it's never going to fly.
00:10:16People, unfortunately, prefer television.
00:10:22Brian ultimately was a way of perceiving the world.
00:10:26He wasn't a work of art.
00:10:28And he wasn't an artist.
00:10:29He didn't make things with that being the end in itself.
00:10:33Later on, he started to try to.
00:10:36But really, I think, behind everything, he was trying to teach people to see differently.
00:10:43You imagine a nation of people glued to their television sets, you know, all sitting in their living rooms.
00:10:49You know, mom, dad, the kids, the dog, the cat.
00:10:52You know, all sort of in this blue, gray light, bathed in this and like automatons, you know, like a nation of automatons.
00:11:04And suddenly you have an alternative to that, and that alternative is a kind of a beautiful device that moves and that allows each of those people in that room to have a completely different experience.
00:11:16And that there's no sort of central authority that's, you know, projecting this from a studio somewhere.
00:11:21But rather, each of these people inventing their own scripts and their own films.
00:11:25This was the ultimate way to defeat control.
00:11:29What has been hitherto considered as incalculable can now, with our modern means of neurological aids, which are these machines that we're using, we can actually calculate them.
00:11:52Well, as soon as you calculate that, you come to the end of a sum, and therefore, this must be a program.
00:12:01And if there is a program, there would seem to be a programmer.
00:12:05And this programmer is hiding behind the name of control.
00:12:09So therefore, we get into this other area that Burroughs has been so very interested in.
00:12:14And that was, in a way, what really brought us together, the same sort of vision of the possibilities of the human brain.
00:12:21And, again, both by interruption, accidental interruption, like the cut-ups, or provoked accident, like the dream machine, one actually changed people's memories, first of all.
00:12:33And as much as all of you now who've looked at the machine very recently, you have a set of very vivid and very immediate memories, which is more than art has ever done.
00:12:43I mean, pictures of whatever kind have ever done.
00:12:47Certainly under the influence of drugs, many people who have smoked cannabis for thousands of years have produced art objects or a series of repetitive design,
00:13:04which are very much like what one sees in the dream machine, and which one experiences by smoking cannabis.
00:13:10Anything that can be done chemically can be done in other ways.
00:13:14Control, control, control, control, control, control, control, control.
00:13:30These guys were kind of like looking at the world as a particle physics of language.
00:13:43where if you had access to the right codes you could access all sorts of distant realms
00:13:49interstellar space cosmic realms magnetic pulses you name it so there was a kind of magic realism
00:13:57going on with burroughs and geison and the dream machines were meant to tap into these kind of
00:14:02magic code landscapes and let the subconscious become a kind of an open system i usually don't
00:14:08show but i'll do it for you for brian's sake because brian brian saw it when it was brand new
00:14:14it's at least 30 years old so it's faded slightly look the oldest alpha wave machine or dream machine
00:14:22was staring into a fire like a bonfire and the flickering and all that i mean this was uh
00:14:30something to meditate on and it's always different in other words you'll never see two flames exactly
00:14:36the same i mean it builds a little something in your fireplace and you've created a whole world
00:14:41there and you could take snap pictures of it as i've done and suddenly you see a demon demon face
00:14:47in those flames you can see with just an accident of shadows but you see you could see quite specific
00:14:52things in the flames yes yes yes
00:14:55wow it's totally incredible i mean there's all kinds of blues and reds and like turquoises
00:15:05and like breaking up into little sort of like pixelated dots kind of like like magical checkerboards
00:15:13sort of going out to infinity on the edge of my what would be my vision i guess
00:15:18the pattern that goes on the back of my eyelids is basically my eyes are seeing through a small
00:15:26curtain of blood pulsing through my eyelids so the color red and the orange of the interior of the
00:15:35dream machine kind of make a really interesting optical backdrop the funny thing is this kind of
00:15:40flickering i've seen at nightclubs quite a bit uh with all the cyber lasers they use
00:15:46you know in the middle of the night you'll have all these lights flickering
00:15:51hypnotic hypnotic this is really absolutely wonderful
00:15:57even if i was hoping i'd hallucinate just watching all the changing patterns is fascinating because they do
00:16:08i mean they do look like women arabic women in hijabs and they look like heels on shoes
00:16:16hypnotic
00:16:18here you got the shoes
00:16:20should i close my eyes
00:16:22they induce so much pain that there's nothing else but to dream to get out of that right
00:16:31let's get out of the pain
00:16:33the beats were three writers named jack kerouac alan gidsberg and william s burroughs
00:16:40who wrote ecstatic transcendent prose poetry that turned on a whole generation to a new way of seeing
00:16:46they were the precursors of the hippies and the flower children but with all the ecstasy and
00:16:51transcendence they told the truth about the cruel shoes the hard world truman capote famously said that
00:16:57beat writing was only typing and he wasn't totally wrong the idea was spontaneous genius first thought
00:17:03best thought words talk and then that's when introduced other colors it would go warmer more purple
00:17:10and then uh it's funny when i lean back completely different colors yeah so it's amazing so it turns
00:17:19into its primary opposite right the brain is a still is a black box so you put something
00:17:27in it and something comes out but what is actually happening we don't know
00:17:34madame bonjour bonjour monsieur vous parlez l'anglais yes i do i'm a neurologist from the netherlands
00:17:55um i'm writing a paper about the dream machine and i'm wondering if you would show me brian
00:18:02gyson's room here in the hotel oh it is impossible because the whole hotel was renovated so there's
00:18:09this construct of secret knowledge yeah well they were trying to blast it wide open at the beat hotel
00:18:15you know let's give it to everybody you know come one come all and uh uh you know one could look at
00:18:24that as rather irresponsible in many ways but uh of course there they were working on along the lines
00:18:33like there are only minutes to go so this was justified anything was justified that for the purpose
00:18:39as it puts it of abolishing all nuclear weapons they all live together uh in separate rooms uh i'm
00:18:48sure you that place has been described to you already we've been there we were there yesterday
00:18:52yeah but that had nothing to do with what it looked like then there were rats all over the place just at
00:18:58the time of the big hotel you know one shower for the whole building when you you needed a shower you
00:19:04had to buy a key and when you had the key you invited all your friends in the shower american used to
00:19:12call my life the love machine because it is so small should we go in there together then yeah okay
00:19:23you are too young for me
00:19:25shatter the theater the oven your two-bit narrative line to walgreens the theme explodes strictly from
00:19:35moochville his relationship a very creative and fundamentally important relationship between
00:19:41burroughs and he not only in tangiers and in paris but in new york and everywhere
00:19:45was finally recognized as one of the great friendships of the literary century wow
00:19:55it's not a not really that peculiar you know if you read bill's letters as opposed to his books
00:20:04you know you can see how incredibly needy he was really and how much he wanted to be loved
00:20:17i was whatever in my mid-20s and my first 34 lsd trips were taken with brian
00:20:24geisen in the hotel chelsea room 703 so he had a very strong effect on me the closest person in
00:20:33brian's life was william and the closest person in william's life was brian i mean almost like beyond
00:20:38lover they never had sex but it was as though they were lifelong lovers bonded and devoted to each other
00:20:43and brian did love him unconditionally all the beams are dated 1480
00:20:56you realize if the beams could speak
00:21:02it's really ancient
00:21:03and you know when i arrived in 1980s i started to clean the hotel with wallpapers and sometimes
00:21:15some people scratched my paper i said why hey they were looking for painting i even had a gallery from
00:21:23new york coming here i said if you find painting on a wall i buy you the wall i thought he was crazy
00:21:30it was only one telephone and i remember brian and i laughing about it so many times when we met
00:21:3720 30 40 years later and he would whenever he would see me or i would see him we'd cried out
00:21:46because that was the owner she was a wonderful old lady she knew about all these crazy gay
00:21:54potheads and and and etc but she sort of like was very motherly about it and when somebody
00:22:00called on the telephone from one of them she couldn't walk up or didn't feel like walking
00:22:04up five or six flights so she'd go out into the street and say brian is the telephone yes
00:22:11hello look at that picture hello yes where are we now yes hello
00:22:18i miss brian so i keep thinking i'm gonna he's still there at the beat hotel or something
00:22:24oh we're convinced that he's actually following us around following us around every minute i think
00:22:29he's in the machine it's the ghost in the machine that's right he was always so interested in finding
00:22:35out what his name should be did it look better brian b-r-i-o-n or did it look better b-r-i-i-n
00:22:45or g-y-s-i-n or g-y-s-o-n it was gyson who discovered the idea of cutting up words and sentences and
00:22:52rearranging them as mind scrambling magic spells the cut-ups
00:23:07he was an important bridge between william burroughs and europe william burroughs and
00:23:13morocco a two-way bridge and a great poet and an important painter and a performer
00:23:21he would be a commanding presence on stage and always very smiling and very gentleman-like
00:23:28you almost expected him to be a crooner but of course what came out of his mouth were not
00:23:37hollywoodian sons they were very post dadaistic prophetic implementations
00:23:50but i love his paintings very much too you know all that is very interesting but i just love his ordinary
00:24:00sort of painting paintings
00:24:03geysine he reinvented this grille he appropriated and with the idea of the rouleau
00:24:13the dream machine and so the calligraphy all that confondues which gives body to a
00:24:18an oeuvre really completely unique
00:24:28it's an absolutely magical object which i think is not quite highlighted in our museum
00:24:33It's quite evident in our museum because it's an object where we don't know where it's located.
00:25:03Let the mice in was great and proposed the same idea that the cut-ups do.
00:25:12Basically, if you can find a way to stop tending the structure of the building and just let the mice in,
00:25:26something nice is going to happen.
00:25:29You'll like this. Let's do this. Let's let the mice in.
00:25:32Which was the same idea. The cut-ups are basically words. Words talk. Words talk.
00:25:41I am that I am. I am that am I. Am I that I am. Am I I that am? I that I am am. Am that I? Am I? That I am I am.
00:25:55That am I I am. That I am am. Am I? That I am I am am. Am I am I that am am I am I that am am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I
00:26:25And that I am I, am that, am I I, am that I, I am, am that, I am, am that, am I.
00:26:35And so on, you know, on it goes.
00:26:38But of course, what he's incredibly famous for is inventing the cut-up.
00:26:46I had a number of sheets of newspapers, some British newspapers, an American newspaper published in Paris,
00:26:52and some other things that happened to be, they happened to be lying on my desk,
00:26:56and I took a Stanley blade and cut through them, and these little bits and pieces looked so amusing to me
00:27:04that I started jiggling them around as one would in a collage.
00:27:08Yep. Cut. Stangle. Forward line.
00:27:11Hello. Hello. Yes. Yes. Hello. Yes. Hello. Yes. Hello. Yes. Yes. Hello. Yes. Yes. Hello. Yes. Hello. Yes.
00:27:20Look at that picture. The cut-ups I'd been into for a long time and hadn't known,
00:27:26those were so commonly credited to Burroughs that it was only after I read Burroughs on it
00:27:32that I realized it was from Brian, so when I met him, I knew who he was.
00:27:39I said, I'm Ira Cohen.
00:27:43Anyway, you don't have to like me if you don't want to, but just don't tell me about it.
00:27:47That was really a good shot, huh?
00:27:51I created the shot, really.
00:27:53Brian was just sitting there, and I just nosed right into him
00:27:56so he could get a good double profile.
00:27:59The first time that I met Brian in his room,
00:28:02he was talking about the cut-up,
00:28:04Minutes to Go, which I read at that time,
00:28:07and when I went home, I tried making cut-ups.
00:28:11So I made a few, and I used that technique here and there
00:28:17to somehow get something started when I just felt like writing,
00:28:21but I didn't have anything in mind,
00:28:23and then I started thinking, okay, I'll play the cut-up game,
00:28:26and sometimes it would actually really work.
00:28:29Throw it out the window, and it'll come in the door.
00:28:32John Latouche to Brian Gyson.
00:28:35For Brian Gyson, the original blue-eyed sailor of the Sahara,
00:28:40welding your ship with rivets of Japanese calligraphy,
00:28:43you tack your sails of smoke
00:28:45and rise like the golden eagles of Fabergé,
00:28:50stolen from the blunted edge of a Tangier fantasy.
00:28:53Searching in a world of reflections,
00:28:55I invoke the spirits, both celestial and demonic.
00:29:03He said, I write to be loved,
00:29:06and for his writing, one cannot love him too much,
00:29:10but for his talking, one could love him, like,
00:29:14all the time, you know, like hugging him.
00:29:20He was such a grand character,
00:29:22his voice and his, the way he's, you know,
00:29:26he was walking and moving.
00:29:28It was just beautiful.
00:29:32And the next row of windows,
00:29:34on the sixth floor, where Brian Gyson stayed,
00:29:37this is where we first met in January 1972,
00:29:42the same year at Christmas,
00:29:43William and Brian invited me
00:29:45to spend Christmas and New Year's with them,
00:29:48and I spent, like, two and a half weeks in this house.
00:29:52And it was a, it was a fantastic time.
00:29:54I mean, there was quite a, quite a bit of difference in age.
00:29:58And what was fascinating was,
00:30:00we had the same concerns.
00:30:02At night, we would find out,
00:30:03is there enough whiskey?
00:30:05Do we have enough to smoke?
00:30:07Where do we get any food?
00:30:08And how much money do we carry around?
00:30:11I said, these old guys,
00:30:12and so famous and prominent,
00:30:14and the same concerns as I had.
00:30:25The MI5 is just over there,
00:30:28and that's the building one could see
00:30:30from Brian Gyson's kitchen,
00:30:32from apartment 22.
00:30:34He loved the idea to have these guys as neighbors.
00:30:38He whispered in my ear once, you know,
00:30:55Gyson worked with the CIA.
00:30:58He, for years, he was a CIA agent.
00:31:02And, I mean, it's complete invention, right?
00:31:05He, briefly, for a period of about a year,
00:31:09was in counterespionage,
00:31:12Corps of the Canadian Army in the Second World War.
00:31:14But he was at school.
00:31:15He was studying to become,
00:31:17and the war ended.
00:31:18And thus, his career as a spy ended.
00:31:22But just the thought that he somehow was involved in this,
00:31:24it's always, well, can you provide some evidence of this?
00:31:27There was never any evidence of it, right?
00:31:29It's just sort of, it's just part of the whole, you know,
00:31:33you know, the mystery.
00:31:34Con and bullshit.
00:31:37And we have heard enough con and bullshit.
00:31:40Each time you have an avant-garde,
00:31:42and whatever the century is,
00:31:44you have this kind of great liars,
00:31:47with a G and an L.
00:31:49I think he was interested in purely aesthetic terms
00:31:53with unravelling control.
00:31:57And I think, with him,
00:32:00there was a more direct self-exploration as well.
00:32:04You know, those statements of
00:32:05the name Brian Gyson being a kind of control system,
00:32:12and that when he painted or did art,
00:32:14he actually disappeared as Brian Gyson
00:32:17and became this kind of invisible force
00:32:21operating through painting or through sound poems,
00:32:25or presumably the dream machine.
00:32:27What's happened since Brian and William passed on
00:32:30is that control isn't really the issue anymore.
00:32:35Control has become so all-pervasive in the media
00:32:38and in culture as globalisation happens
00:32:41that we're actually fighting inertia.
00:32:47Gentlemen, this was to be expected.
00:32:52After all, he's been a medium all his life.
00:33:00Aristotle already said that
00:33:02a man thinks through images, with images.
00:33:06Not concepts, not words, images.
00:33:08So if you meditate on that,
00:33:12you're bound one day or other to invent a machine
00:33:15that strips it down to the essentials,
00:33:18which is what Brian and Ian did.
00:33:21Well, I talked to Ian Somerville about it,
00:33:23who was a mathematician.
00:33:24I said, how can we do this at home?
00:33:27And with the very meagre means
00:33:30that we had at our disposal,
00:33:32we worked out something,
00:33:33but it wasn't anything like this great,
00:33:35very perfected machine
00:33:37that we had here all these years later.
00:33:40Here's Ian Somerville, right here.
00:33:42He was the technician who put it together
00:33:45and he was a very brilliant mind.
00:33:47He was a professional mathematician,
00:33:49which Brian wasn't.
00:33:50I met him at a party
00:33:52where they had punch spiked with acid.
00:33:55I thought he was quite a dark presence.
00:33:58Yeah.
00:33:59Ian never really used his maths and stuff.
00:34:02after university,
00:34:03you know, he never kind of did much.
00:34:05Well, he became a computer programmer.
00:34:07Oh, afterwards, yes.
00:34:09Yeah, when he and Bill split up.
00:34:13And he finally got a driving license
00:34:15and then got killed in the car.
00:34:18He shouldn't have learned.
00:34:32And now what it says is,
00:34:33Heeler saw saw,
00:34:34Heeler saw saw.
00:34:35What do you hear it say?
00:34:38Don't you hear it say anything?
00:34:39Can the light effect be efficient without the sound?
00:34:59Even the fellow sitting in the bus
00:35:04was a sound completely absent.
00:35:07Light and sound are playing together,
00:35:09which means that the lights alone are not enough.
00:35:14There is no trance without sound.
00:35:16And nobody can say where it is affecting,
00:35:20in which part of the body it is affecting.
00:35:22Many a sailor has drowned after being mesmerized
00:35:37when the sun flickers on the waves near sunset or sunrise.
00:35:40St. Paul of the Gospels had a revelation
00:35:42on the road to Damascus
00:35:44when a light from heaven flickered all around him.
00:35:46The mystics have long known about Flicker.
00:35:48It's alleged that Nostradamus would do this,
00:35:59you know, with his direct sun,
00:36:00sitting in a tower with the sun on his eyelids,
00:36:02and that this is how his prophetic visions were produced.
00:36:06This is the living brain by William Braywater.
00:36:10William Burroughs, I think, was the first one who read it.
00:36:13He handed a copy to Brian Gyson,
00:36:15and Brian Gyson first read about the Flicker phenomenon.
00:36:18The Flicker effect was widely reported,
00:36:21and so in The Living Brain,
00:36:23which was his popular work he wrote in 1953,
00:36:26what he claims is that the Flicker effect
00:36:27was first discovered by a group of soldiers
00:36:30who were travelling down a kind of tree-lined lane in France.
00:36:34So Walter's interested in the use of kind of like photic stimulation,
00:36:38and the use of light stimulation,
00:36:39first of all, just simply as a technique
00:36:41for triggering epileptic seizures.
00:36:43And what he's doing in his clinical work
00:36:45is trying to find the brainwave patterns
00:36:47which map on to epileptic seizures.
00:36:50But from that point,
00:36:52then Flicker starts to take on a life of its own,
00:36:54and it escapes from a clinical setting
00:36:57out into the kind of beatnik world.
00:36:59Now meet Dr. Gray Walter of Bristol.
00:37:01Why the torch?
00:37:03Well, here's the reason.
00:37:05It's Toby,
00:37:05a mechanical tortoise with an electronic brain
00:37:08which functions like the human mind.
00:37:11I mean, a lot of people credit him
00:37:12with being the father of artificial life.
00:37:14To some extent, Walter can take credit for that.
00:37:17I mean, all Walter was trying to do
00:37:18was trying to demonstrate,
00:37:19but what we see as very kind of like spiritual
00:37:23or transcendent experiences
00:37:26can in fact be modelled
00:37:27out of relatively simple devices.
00:37:30It can also negotiate obstacles.
00:37:33When it hits an object,
00:37:34the pressure on the shell
00:37:35causes a short circuit
00:37:36of the photoelectric cell mechanism,
00:37:38and the tortoise moves at random
00:37:40until it is free of the obstacle.
00:37:44Gray Walter speculated that our ancestors,
00:37:47seeing the sun flickering in the leaves,
00:37:49would fall into spiritual trances,
00:37:51and this is where we got the idea
00:37:52of the tree of life.
00:38:09I said, of course we can sell it.
00:38:11Of course we can market it.
00:38:14Everybody would want one, you know.
00:38:17But then nobody knew what it could be.
00:38:21They didn't know whether it was an art object
00:38:23or whether it was a toy,
00:38:27an entertainment, what it was.
00:38:30Yes?
00:38:30Look at that picture.
00:38:31Hello?
00:38:32Yes.
00:38:34Good.
00:38:34Look at that picture.
00:38:38How does it seem to you now?
00:38:39Good.
00:38:40Columbia Records, this thing and that thing,
00:38:42and we went to people who made novelty toys.
00:38:47We went everywhere.
00:38:49And for some reason,
00:38:51we just couldn't seem to find anybody
00:38:53who wanted to risk doing it.
00:38:58I couldn't believe it.
00:38:59And people might suffer seizures.
00:39:03So how common it is,
00:39:04we think one person every 4,000
00:39:07is susceptible to flicker-induced seizures.
00:39:12But as for the other people,
00:39:17are they possible that they might gain something?
00:39:20A calm, a creativity?
00:39:23Well, I think those people
00:39:24should buy a dream machine, right?
00:39:27Fundamentally, he saw it as a ticket.
00:39:29You know, it was a way to,
00:39:32more than transporting him
00:39:33into one of these altered states of consciousness,
00:39:35it was a way to transport him
00:39:36from a garret in Paris,
00:39:38living an impoverished life of an artist,
00:39:41to a state of some comfort and wealth.
00:39:52Olympia Magazine,
00:39:53he has sort of this early version of it
00:39:55where it was actually in the,
00:39:57that you could cut out the cylinder
00:39:58and pause and paste it all together
00:39:59and put it together
00:40:00and on your home LP phonograph record turntable,
00:40:04you could put this thing and do it.
00:40:06Anybody else like Brian,
00:40:07who had sort of this idea,
00:40:08more or less at the right time
00:40:09with the right connections,
00:40:11would have parlayed into a,
00:40:13you know, some gigantic thing
00:40:16and have, you know,
00:40:1720 million dollars in houses in Malibu
00:40:19and whatever,
00:40:20like a lava lamp.
00:40:21That happened to the lava lamp.
00:40:23But somehow Brian,
00:40:24Brian was never able to do it.
00:40:26Well, a lava lamp is just camp.
00:40:29The dream machine was asking for more.
00:40:32I don't think it really works
00:40:33unless you've smoked a pipe of hash.
00:40:36Or I think it's too dangerous
00:40:38if you've taken acid
00:40:39because you can flip out
00:40:41and it's also dangerous
00:40:42if you have any tendency to epilepsy.
00:40:44You know, you can get a convulsion or something.
00:40:47You can, you can build one,
00:40:49you know, there,
00:40:49it's sort of like the Ark of the Covenant
00:40:52in the Bible
00:40:53where they give these 23 pages of instructions.
00:40:57Now, God says you have to make this
00:40:5923 and a half cubits this way
00:41:02and then throw, you know,
00:41:05throw a sailor's knot
00:41:06five cubits to 42 degrees over here
00:41:09and, you know,
00:41:10cover it in purple cloth always, you know.
00:41:13We're actually going to bioengineer a dream machine.
00:41:15We'll take a bunch of fireflies,
00:41:18isolate the phosphorescence,
00:41:19and then turn it into
00:41:21some type of flickering mammal.
00:41:25No.
00:41:28Here's our anarchist cookbook
00:41:30to make a dream machine.
00:41:31This is like first year art school stuff.
00:41:33It's great.
00:41:33You have a nice little list of ingredients.
00:41:36You need a centimeter ruler,
00:41:39you need a set square,
00:41:40thin lead pencil,
00:41:41one in rubber,
00:41:42which I'm assuming is not a condom,
00:41:44cardboard glue,
00:41:46something to cut with,
00:41:48100-watt bulb.
00:41:49The tabs of the cardboard
00:41:50just go under here
00:41:51and then you place it on.
00:41:53It's going to all be taped back.
00:41:55Ready to go?
00:41:57It works beautifully.
00:41:59It's not iconic.
00:42:00It really is that simple.
00:42:04But there was a time
00:42:05when we thought
00:42:06this would be the great
00:42:07drugless turn-on of the 1960s.
00:42:10And I got myself
00:42:12into all sorts of
00:42:13complicated deals
00:42:15with Philips
00:42:17who make those
00:42:18light bulbs and things
00:42:19like that one in there.
00:42:22And they really were looking
00:42:23for machines
00:42:23that would send people to sleep.
00:42:26I was looking for machines
00:42:27that got people more awake.
00:42:29So this is where we're at.
00:42:32I think we were trying
00:42:33to sell it to Pi Television,
00:42:34weren't they?
00:42:34Or Philips.
00:42:35Philips.
00:42:36Yeah, it was Philips.
00:42:37I guess we didn't want
00:42:38to get into bed
00:42:39with Brian Geissin,
00:42:41really, would be my guess.
00:42:42The thing about Brian,
00:42:44this was just one of many things.
00:42:46And it poisoned his life,
00:42:47the fact that it wasn't successful.
00:42:49I mean, the dream machine
00:42:49just being one,
00:42:50or the painter thing.
00:42:51He comes to New York,
00:42:52and his paintings
00:42:53are thoroughly original
00:42:54and totally, you know,
00:42:55developed by him.
00:42:57And there are these people
00:42:57like Mark Tobey
00:42:58and Ken Nolan
00:43:00and various others
00:43:01who do something similar
00:43:02and he's just dismissed
00:43:03as having copied them.
00:43:04And he didn't copy them at all.
00:43:06He said he came upon it
00:43:07by himself
00:43:08and do more Arabic calligraphy
00:43:10and all the rest,
00:43:11but completely dismissed
00:43:12by the New York art world.
00:43:14Perhaps the powers that be
00:43:16are sophisticated
00:43:18and they didn't want
00:43:19a society riddled with profits,
00:43:24especially when they're not
00:43:26making a profit.
00:43:26I'm just very cynical
00:43:28about the human species
00:43:29at the moment.
00:43:30I'm not sure
00:43:30if they even deserve
00:43:31to have a drugless high.
00:43:35I think they deserve
00:43:36to have their bottoms smacked.
00:43:38Hello.
00:43:38Look at that.
00:43:39Yes.
00:43:40Hello.
00:43:41Yes.
00:43:41Good.
00:43:42Hello.
00:43:42Brian, whenever there was
00:43:45some success coming,
00:43:47like having a good show
00:43:49or a publication,
00:43:51very probable,
00:43:53he fucked it up.
00:43:55One way over the other.
00:43:56He had a talent to,
00:43:58you know,
00:43:58to kill
00:43:59upcoming success
00:44:01for a moment.
00:44:02Hello.
00:44:03Yes.
00:44:04Hello.
00:44:05Look at that picture.
00:44:06Hello.
00:44:06Yes.
00:44:07Good.
00:44:07Hello.
00:44:09Hello.
00:44:09Yes.
00:44:09Yes.
00:44:10Hello.
00:44:11Yes.
00:44:12Hello.
00:44:14Hello.
00:44:15Hello.
00:44:15Geison was a very,
00:44:17very bitter artist,
00:44:18a bitter writer,
00:44:19a bitter poet.
00:44:21Brian Geison was someone
00:44:22who tried in so many fields
00:44:23and never really succeeded
00:44:24in any.
00:44:26So I think the bitterness
00:44:28kind of was his great characteristic.
00:44:31This was not a pleasant person
00:44:32to be around.
00:44:33This is someone who had,
00:44:35you know,
00:44:35legion fights
00:44:36with people around him,
00:44:38was for the most part
00:44:40disliked,
00:44:42except by the few
00:44:43who adored him
00:44:44and thus he was able
00:44:45to maintain
00:44:45this cult-like status.
00:44:47The moment I met Brian,
00:45:12everything,
00:45:12it was as if,
00:45:14you know,
00:45:14he's just turned a switch
00:45:15and the rest of the world
00:45:16goes a diluted gray
00:45:18and the world inside Brian's sphere
00:45:22is psychedelic colored.
00:45:24It was that different.
00:45:25I like you,
00:45:42I like you,
00:45:43you're very nice.
00:45:46Oh, you're very nice,
00:45:54but eyes arise,
00:45:56I think that I'm in paradise,
00:46:00but as I've never been to the taste,
00:46:03I think that I'll make more
00:46:05than I've never been to the rest of the world.
00:46:09This is the restricted area.
00:46:11This is,
00:46:12whoops,
00:46:13the remains of the archive.
00:46:15Genesis P. Orridge
00:46:17is physically morphing his body
00:46:18into a woman's,
00:46:20testing evolution,
00:46:21creating a mutation
00:46:22in one lifetime.
00:46:24This is the stuff
00:46:25that Scotland Yard didn't get.
00:46:27This is what they didn't take,
00:46:28yeah,
00:46:29like,
00:46:29so each box has a number
00:46:32and then,
00:46:34thank goodness,
00:46:35oh,
00:46:35here's a,
00:46:36oh,
00:46:36look,
00:46:36isn't this nice here?
00:46:39That's the one
00:46:40that I was meant to get.
00:46:41Brian was doing me
00:46:42a psychic cross.
00:46:44Can you see it?
00:46:46So,
00:46:46you see they're wearing
00:46:47this fur thing around them?
00:46:50Those are weasels.
00:46:53Why did Scotland Yard
00:46:54take everything?
00:46:57Well,
00:46:58according to Timothy Leary,
00:47:01the same reason
00:47:02that they wanted his archive
00:47:03and they take
00:47:04quite often take
00:47:05archives of
00:47:07radical artists
00:47:09and don't return them
00:47:10and either destroy them
00:47:11or keep them.
00:47:12They want to know
00:47:13what everybody's doing.
00:47:15gin keeps the portal
00:47:18into Geisen and Burroughs'
00:47:20experiments in magic open.
00:47:22That he now looks
00:47:22a bit like
00:47:23Marian Faithful
00:47:24and maybe even
00:47:25Layla Luce
00:47:25just makes me remember
00:47:26the coolest thing
00:47:27Burroughs ever said,
00:47:29there are no accidents.
00:47:31Brian Jones.
00:47:33This is the only painting
00:47:35he's known to have done
00:47:36in his life
00:47:36on the wall
00:47:37of one of his apartments
00:47:38in London.
00:47:39and I really like this.
00:47:42You see you've got
00:47:42the phoenix rising
00:47:44out of all the old
00:47:44chemical things here
00:47:45and then the grave
00:47:46with the water look.
00:47:49Kind of spooky, huh?
00:47:50I knew that
00:47:57Brian Geisen
00:47:59had met
00:47:59Brian Jones
00:48:00and the final project
00:48:02Brian Jones worked on
00:48:03was a recording
00:48:05of the master musicians
00:48:06of Ziazuka.
00:48:11Of course,
00:48:12it was a sort of
00:48:13pilgrimage to
00:48:14C. Burroughs
00:48:15and Bowles
00:48:16and, of course,
00:48:17Brian.
00:48:18Already,
00:48:18he was extremely
00:48:19involved
00:48:21in the Ziazuka group.
00:48:24There's a bunch
00:48:25of witchcraft,
00:48:26heavy witchcraft,
00:48:28pre-Islamic brotherhood
00:48:31of men
00:48:32doing strange things
00:48:34like bringing about
00:48:36ghosts.
00:48:39Geisen and the Beetz
00:48:40were drawn to Tangier
00:48:41in the 50s
00:48:41when it was
00:48:42an international free zone.
00:48:44It was in Morocco
00:48:44he discovered
00:48:45his past identity
00:48:46as a 10th century
00:48:47king of the assassins,
00:48:49the old man
00:48:49of the mountain,
00:48:50Hassani Sabah.
00:48:52Feast time came around,
00:48:54the idol Kabir
00:48:55when each head
00:48:56of a family
00:48:57in all of Islam
00:48:59has to kill
00:49:00a sheep
00:49:01in memory
00:49:02of Father Abraham's
00:49:03sacrifice.
00:49:05I would make
00:49:06an attempt
00:49:07to get up there
00:49:08and occasionally
00:49:09take friends
00:49:10who were capable
00:49:11of listening.
00:49:13Among the writers
00:49:14that I took up
00:49:14to the mountain
00:49:15one could name
00:49:16Paul Bowles
00:49:17and then of course
00:49:18William Burroughs
00:49:19who came up twice
00:49:20I believe,
00:49:21Brian Jones
00:49:22of the Rolling Stones
00:49:23at that time
00:49:23who went up
00:49:25to the mountain
00:49:26after he had come here
00:49:27with most of the group
00:49:29in 1968
00:49:31it must have been.
00:49:33there would be a car
00:49:37or a bus
00:49:37or something
00:49:38what they call
00:49:39Muslims
00:49:39sort of a religious
00:49:40feast
00:49:41where the great
00:49:42musicians would go
00:49:42and play
00:49:43and dance
00:49:43for three days
00:49:44and every day
00:49:45one day
00:49:45would be going
00:49:46over to Tetouan
00:49:47another day
00:49:47we'd be going
00:49:48to Marrakesh
00:49:49or to Guimine
00:49:49or to Guazazad
00:49:50into the Sahara
00:49:51and then come back
00:49:52and two days later
00:49:53it was by chance
00:49:54in Magnesa
00:49:55we'd go back down
00:49:56and Brian
00:49:56since they all knew
00:49:57Brian
00:49:57on some level
00:49:58or they respect
00:49:59all of the Moroccans
00:50:01musicians for sure
00:50:02but all the ordinary
00:50:03people had sort of
00:50:03because he spoke Arabic
00:50:05and they had
00:50:06this commanding presence
00:50:07so each
00:50:08for that six months
00:50:09these endless
00:50:10miraculous things
00:50:11took place
00:50:11Brian wasn't just
00:50:28a passing through
00:50:30he lived there
00:50:31he and Burroughs
00:50:33and Bowles
00:50:34actually took a house
00:50:35and lived there
00:50:36that's something else
00:50:37he was an expatriate
00:50:39not only to France
00:50:41like so many other
00:50:45great American writers
00:50:46in the 30s
00:50:47before him
00:50:48before them
00:50:48but into an Arab society
00:50:51Arab speaking society
00:50:53that's something else
00:50:54that's really
00:50:55another universe
00:50:56and he took from that
00:50:58a great amount
00:50:59of spiritual energy
00:51:01well that's the police
00:51:04or the fire department
00:51:06so we talk about Brian
00:51:07and of course
00:51:08starts a fire somewhere
00:51:09rattle
00:51:12burroughs
00:51:26and I think
00:51:27guys in helping
00:51:28and we're seriously
00:51:28working
00:51:29on doing
00:51:31putting spells
00:51:32on the astronauts
00:51:33in outer space
00:51:35in the space station
00:51:36and the idea
00:51:37that these people
00:51:38that went into
00:51:39outer space
00:51:39would be contacted
00:51:41by entities
00:51:41he'd had enough
00:51:47of me in Paris
00:51:48at one period
00:51:49and wanted me
00:51:49to go back to London
00:51:50and I didn't want
00:51:51to go back
00:51:51so you know
00:51:52so you know
00:51:52every day
00:51:52I was still
00:51:53turning up
00:51:54in the morning
00:51:54I had a key
00:51:55you know
00:51:56so I could just
00:51:56go in
00:51:57and all that
00:51:57so I was about
00:52:00a week overdue
00:52:01from leaving
00:52:01going back to London
00:52:02and all that
00:52:03he didn't say anything
00:52:07and suddenly
00:52:09suddenly everything
00:52:10I touched
00:52:10in his apartment
00:52:11glass
00:52:13you know
00:52:14I shut the windows
00:52:17everything
00:52:17it would break
00:52:18every time
00:52:19every time
00:52:20flowers
00:52:21and obviously
00:52:26it was getting
00:52:26quite scary
00:52:27but also
00:52:28I mean
00:52:29there could be
00:52:30no doubt
00:52:31who was responsible
00:52:32for this
00:52:32but at the same time
00:52:33he was wrecking
00:52:34his own apartment
00:52:35oh he was a devil
00:52:36with things like that
00:52:37I think everybody's
00:52:38experienced telepathy
00:52:39every time
00:52:41that you say
00:52:41oh I was just
00:52:43thinking of you
00:52:43when you rang up
00:52:44that happens
00:52:45constantly
00:52:46for just about
00:52:47everybody
00:52:47yet most of the
00:52:49people who have
00:52:49that happen
00:52:50will tell you
00:52:50they don't believe
00:52:51in telepathy
00:52:51the word that
00:52:55comes up
00:52:55is transcendence
00:52:56well they really
00:52:57believed in that
00:52:58they weren't
00:53:00bullshitting
00:53:01and that must have
00:53:02obviously intrigued
00:53:03you greatly
00:53:04well yeah
00:53:05yeah
00:53:06I mean a lot more
00:53:07than the bloody
00:53:08Maharishi
00:53:09this is where I
00:53:11make my sculptures
00:53:12a bit of a mess
00:53:15I'm afraid
00:53:16Jin believes
00:53:17that things made
00:53:18by artists
00:53:19are magical talismans
00:53:20containing the power
00:53:21of the artist
00:53:22within
00:53:22mounted on here
00:53:24turning
00:53:25slowly
00:53:26in the 60s
00:53:28inevitably
00:53:29through the use
00:53:29of psychedelic drugs
00:53:31some individuals
00:53:33that were incredibly
00:53:34innately
00:53:35creative
00:53:36had shamanic
00:53:38experiences
00:53:39and were channeling
00:53:41and were channeling
00:53:41I think Brian Jones
00:53:42and Jim Morrison
00:53:43and Janice Joplin
00:53:44are really easy
00:53:45examples
00:53:45Jimi Hendrix
00:53:46and others
00:53:47that we don't know
00:53:47the names of
00:53:48but in other societies
00:53:51that we think of
00:53:52as primitive
00:53:52as soon as someone
00:53:55starts to demonstrate
00:53:57the symptoms
00:53:58of being shamanic
00:53:59of having these
00:54:00abilities to see
00:54:02other dimensions
00:54:03or be visionary
00:54:04they're taken
00:54:05and looked after
00:54:08and protected
00:54:09and trained
00:54:10and given
00:54:11different disciplines
00:54:12to survive
00:54:13and to understand
00:54:15the shocks
00:54:16to their system
00:54:18both mentally
00:54:18and physically
00:54:19and it's a very
00:54:21honoured calling
00:54:22but in the west
00:54:24in the 60s
00:54:25these people
00:54:26were just seen
00:54:27as very
00:54:28extraordinary performers
00:54:30but if you watch
00:54:31carefully
00:54:31what they're trying
00:54:33to do
00:54:33especially on stage
00:54:35with Jim Morrison
00:54:36and Janice Joplin
00:54:37they're shamanic
00:54:39dancing
00:54:39they're channeling
00:54:40some kind of
00:54:41spirit force
00:54:42recalling
00:54:43active agents
00:54:44all
00:54:45recalling agents
00:54:47active
00:54:47all
00:54:48Brian Gerson
00:54:49Hassan I.
00:54:51Saba
00:54:51you collaborators
00:54:53you liars
00:54:55you traitors
00:54:56you
00:54:57now
00:54:59will speak
00:55:00to the world
00:55:01under the name
00:55:03of Hassan Saba
00:55:04if Brian had a lineage
00:55:06or a teacher
00:55:06it would be
00:55:07Hassan I. Saba
00:55:08who was a thousand
00:55:08years before
00:55:09and maybe some
00:55:10transmission
00:55:11did take place
00:55:12I mean it was
00:55:13just on that level
00:55:14just on that level
00:55:16you know
00:55:16very unexplainable
00:55:18in the 10th century
00:55:20from the valley
00:55:21of the assassins
00:55:22in what is today
00:55:22northern Iran
00:55:23in the castle
00:55:24of Alamut
00:55:25there lived
00:55:26a remarkable king
00:55:27known to the world
00:55:28as the old man
00:55:29on the mountain
00:55:29Hassan I. Saba
00:55:30he ruled a vast empire
00:55:32with no army
00:55:33to speak of
00:55:34instead
00:55:35he would recruit
00:55:35assassins
00:55:36from among
00:55:36his young soldiers
00:55:37nobody can be sure
00:55:39of how he brainwashed
00:55:40them
00:55:40but no one
00:55:41has ever achieved
00:55:42his level of success
00:55:43legend tells of them
00:55:44being given
00:55:45vast amounts
00:55:46of hashish
00:55:46where they would
00:55:47fall into
00:55:47a blissful sleep
00:55:48awakening
00:55:49into a garden
00:55:50of earthly delights
00:55:51which Hassan
00:55:52had set up
00:55:52within the castle
00:55:53Hassan had founded
00:55:55a heretical
00:55:55Islamic sect
00:55:56a whole new
00:55:57control system
00:55:58the next morning
00:56:00the soldier
00:56:01would be brought
00:56:01to Hassan
00:56:02who knew all the
00:56:03details of the
00:56:03young man's dream
00:56:04things only a god
00:56:06could know
00:56:07the assassin
00:56:09was sent to a
00:56:09far off land
00:56:10to befriend
00:56:11the local ruler
00:56:12and he would
00:56:16serve him well
00:56:17over many years
00:56:18but if there was
00:56:20a problem
00:56:21if one day
00:56:22Hassan was
00:56:22disobeyed
00:56:23by the foolish king
00:56:24the penalty
00:56:25was sure
00:56:25and swift
00:56:26Hassani Sabah
00:56:33ruled with his
00:56:34long knife
00:56:35for many years
00:56:36and lived to
00:56:37the ripe old
00:56:37age of 90
00:56:38much has been
00:56:40said of his
00:56:41last words
00:56:42they were into
00:56:43Hassan
00:56:44as the
00:56:45original assassin
00:56:46who was
00:56:47kind of
00:56:48driven from
00:56:49paradise
00:56:49or from his
00:56:50relationship
00:56:50to the prophet
00:56:51and became
00:56:53an assassin figure
00:56:55who was able
00:56:55to have
00:56:56stealth societies
00:56:57infiltrate
00:56:58the control
00:56:59societies of his
00:57:00day
00:57:00and transform
00:57:01them
00:57:01I'm a big fan
00:57:05of that kind
00:57:06of aesthetic
00:57:06but the funny
00:57:08thing and the
00:57:08twisted thing
00:57:09is that if you
00:57:09now update
00:57:10that formula
00:57:10you have
00:57:11somebody like
00:57:11Osama bin Laden
00:57:12they saw
00:57:19themselves
00:57:19as cultural
00:57:20assassins
00:57:21in a sense
00:57:22a sort of
00:57:23terrorism
00:57:23and Burroughs
00:57:24himself
00:57:25put together
00:57:25these amazing
00:57:26essays about
00:57:27how to use
00:57:28sound
00:57:29as a weapon
00:57:30showers
00:57:30open
00:57:31fire
00:57:32passing themselves
00:57:53off as an
00:57:54artistic
00:57:55avant-garde
00:57:56movement
00:57:57was a cover
00:57:57to quite an
00:57:58extent
00:57:58I mean
00:57:59obviously
00:57:59they were
00:57:59wonderful
00:58:00practitioners
00:58:01at such a
00:58:01thing
00:58:02a cover
00:58:04for their
00:58:05esoteric
00:58:06activities
00:58:07so studies
00:58:09have been
00:58:09made on
00:58:10these
00:58:11visions
00:58:12in the
00:58:13alpha band
00:58:14and you
00:58:15also see
00:58:16all of
00:58:16these
00:58:17symbols
00:58:18which are
00:58:19common
00:58:19to all
00:58:19the great
00:58:20religions
00:58:20crosses
00:58:22you even
00:58:22see the
00:58:23eye of
00:58:23Isis
00:58:23suddenly
00:58:24very slowly
00:58:25sometimes
00:58:26just sort
00:58:26of
00:58:27streams
00:58:28across
00:58:28your line
00:58:29of vision
00:58:29here
00:58:30you know
00:58:46Geisen at once
00:58:47wanted the
00:58:48dream machine
00:58:48to be an
00:58:48artwork
00:58:49he wanted
00:58:49you know
00:58:50it was a
00:58:51sculpture
00:58:51kinetic sculpture
00:58:52but on the other
00:58:53hand he
00:58:54recognized it
00:58:55really it
00:58:55represented
00:58:56the end of art
00:58:57because suddenly
00:58:57it was just light
00:58:59that was creating
00:59:00the imagery
00:59:01there wasn't
00:59:02the painterly
00:59:03touch
00:59:04well it's self-made
00:59:06art in a way
00:59:07self-created art
00:59:08and nobody sees what you do
00:59:10when you close your eyes
00:59:11and nobody sees what you do
00:59:13when your eyes open
00:59:15so it's totally
00:59:17individual art
00:59:19that's coming out
00:59:20of oneself
00:59:21how is this art?
00:59:44this is something
00:59:45that's coming
00:59:46from our
00:59:46neurological
00:59:47makeup
00:59:48you know
00:59:49it's a brain
00:59:50response to
00:59:51a stimulus
00:59:52so it really
00:59:53is that art?
00:59:54I don't think so
00:59:55it's really the end of art
00:59:56because suddenly
00:59:57everyone is an artist
00:59:58because everyone
00:59:59can create this
00:59:59yeah well he thought
01:00:00it was the end of art
01:00:01because you have to look
01:00:02at it with your eyes
01:00:02closed
01:00:03right right
01:00:04there you go
01:00:05that's over my head
01:00:06I'm not smart
01:00:08I'm not smart
01:00:09well you're into
01:00:09transcendence
01:00:10you talk about
01:00:11golf and transcendence
01:00:12right
01:00:12all right
01:00:13but yeah
01:00:14that basically
01:00:14you look at it
01:00:15with your eyes closed
01:00:16right
01:00:17or you don't look at it
01:00:19actually that's the
01:00:19way I used it
01:00:21was I never really liked
01:00:22looking at it too much
01:00:23I liked looking
01:00:25being in it
01:00:26or looking at
01:00:27things that
01:00:28you know
01:00:28as it projected
01:00:29on whatever was around
01:00:30I just liked being there
01:00:32with it
01:00:33I mean you go deeper
01:00:34into your head
01:00:35at that point
01:00:35you know
01:00:35art doesn't stop
01:00:36when you close your eyes
01:00:37I mean especially
01:00:38in these days
01:00:39you know lots of
01:00:40people making art
01:00:42are making art
01:00:42that's more about
01:00:43concept or thought
01:00:45than anything else
01:00:46you know
01:00:46so in a certain way
01:00:47ultimately art
01:00:47is here
01:00:48the ability to make
01:00:49your own inner movie
01:00:50is now a software thing
01:00:52whether or not
01:00:52you have garage
01:00:53or iTunes
01:00:54or iMovie
01:00:55or iPod
01:00:56you know
01:00:57all of the puns
01:00:58there are kind of
01:00:59Barozian
01:00:59the iPod of course
01:01:01if you see those
01:01:02dancing shadows
01:01:03on every street corner
01:01:04of the industrialized world
01:01:06people are dancing
01:01:07to their own
01:01:07you know
01:01:08again
01:01:08turntables of the mind
01:01:09so the invisible war
01:01:13going on here
01:01:14is between operating systems
01:01:15it's eerie
01:01:16how a lot of the
01:01:17artists of the west
01:01:18whether you were
01:01:19the Italian futurist
01:01:20whether you were
01:01:21looking at surrealism
01:01:22where they called
01:01:23automatic
01:01:24writing
01:01:24all of them
01:01:26were trying to figure out
01:01:27what happens
01:01:27when the imagination
01:01:28gets caught up
01:01:29in these mechanical devices
01:01:30and we have to
01:01:31play back ourselves
01:01:32I was in Göttingen
01:01:41for my 45th birthday
01:01:44in 1986
01:01:46it was a very beautiful
01:01:48summer day
01:01:49Sunday morning
01:01:50around 8.30
01:01:52I dreamt about Brian
01:01:54the elevator in his house
01:01:56was very
01:01:57very small
01:01:59and in this dream
01:02:00the elevator was
01:02:01rather wide
01:02:03and hung with
01:02:04precious carpets
01:02:05and it was very spacious
01:02:07and there was a toilet seat
01:02:08and Brian was sitting
01:02:10on this toilet
01:02:10with his pants up
01:02:11and he had a black
01:02:13and he had a black
01:02:13and he was sitting there
01:02:17a little like that
01:02:18and sad
01:02:19and I tried to make
01:02:21a very encouraging gesture
01:02:23maybe said something
01:02:25like hey Brian
01:02:26or something
01:02:27and then Brian
01:02:30made just this
01:02:31resignative mood
01:02:32like shit
01:02:34you know
01:02:35forget it
01:02:35and this was so vivid
01:02:39and I woke up
01:02:42and I noted it down
01:02:43and before that
01:02:45was a little scene
01:02:46with William in Basel
01:02:48very different setting
01:02:50and more positive
01:02:52and then
01:02:54I wrote that down
01:02:56and I went to sleep again
01:02:57and later after breakfast
01:03:00I copied it
01:03:01and sent it
01:03:02one copy to Brian
01:03:04and one copy to William
01:03:05and in the afternoon
01:03:08around five o'clock
01:03:09Fafa de Palamini
01:03:11one of his closest friends
01:03:13called in Göttingen
01:03:14he had found out
01:03:15where I was
01:03:16to tell me that Brian
01:03:17had died
01:03:17that same morning
01:03:18so mixed in the sadness
01:03:22of losing somebody
01:03:25close
01:03:26there was coming in
01:03:28a little feeling
01:03:31of relief
01:03:32for him
01:03:33and then
01:03:34a kind of joy
01:03:37that he had
01:03:38waved goodbye
01:03:39I thought hey
01:03:40beautiful
01:03:42well
01:03:43that's the story
01:03:45yeah
01:03:47one has the
01:03:49the feeling
01:03:51with Gysen
01:03:51of
01:03:52the conjurer
01:03:55swallowed up
01:03:56by his own spell
01:03:58in some sense
01:03:59you know
01:04:00that he conjured up
01:04:01these things
01:04:02and it's almost as though
01:04:03he was sucked into
01:04:04the force
01:04:06unleashed
01:04:06by his own magic
01:04:08he somehow
01:04:09disappeared
01:04:10as the agent
01:04:11of the forces
01:04:13that he was
01:04:14setting in motion
01:04:15and that that
01:04:16that in some sense
01:04:17was a success
01:04:18it actually proved
01:04:19that he was able
01:04:20to do something
01:04:21or other
01:04:21and again
01:04:23you know
01:04:23that's why we're
01:04:23talking about him
01:04:2420 years after his death
01:04:26that some kind of force
01:04:28was unleashed
01:04:29and made its way
01:04:30into all these different
01:04:31channels of culture
01:04:33but he himself
01:04:34seems to have
01:04:35disappeared
01:04:35in the process
01:04:36in Paris
01:04:54the city of light
01:04:56where Brian Gysen died
01:04:57poor and unknown
01:04:58we deliver our dream machine
01:05:00to Iggy Pop
01:05:01a purist in the craft
01:05:02of Dionysian transcendence
01:05:04better known as rock and roll
01:05:06oh there it is
01:05:08beautiful
01:05:10wow
01:05:13we'll go off
01:05:15if we haven't been
01:05:16like strangled
01:05:18or God knows
01:05:19whatever happens
01:05:20and leave it on about
01:05:23just leave it on
01:05:25until you can be
01:05:25no no
01:05:26leave it on about
01:05:2830 seconds
01:05:29count to 30
01:05:30and then
01:05:31get it off fast
01:05:32or pull the plug
01:05:33and
01:05:34and
01:05:35there will be
01:05:36weirdness
01:05:37because it'll still be black
01:05:39yeah
01:05:39and then the guy
01:05:40will have to figure out
01:05:41it'll be dark
01:05:42and then it'll be light
01:05:43and people will be pissed off
01:05:45and everyone
01:05:46what is the meaning
01:05:47you know
01:05:47it'll be good
01:05:47yeah
01:05:48I can't
01:05:50I can't
01:06:00yeah
01:06:01but then
01:06:03I can't
01:06:04go
01:09:04I am that I am.
01:09:07I am that I am.
01:09:11Am I that I am?
01:09:14Am I that I am?
01:09:19I that I am, am I that I am, am I that I am, am I?
01:09:29Am I that I am, am I that I am, am I?
01:09:39Am I that I am, am I, am I, am I, am I, am I?
01:09:51It's hypnotic.
01:10:03It's hypnotic.
01:10:33It's hypnotic.
01:11:03It's hypnotic.
01:11:33It's hypnotic.