Some years ago, I was invited to take part in some wacky sleep deprivation experimentation going on down in Devon, UK..
Not fully knowing what to really expect, myself, and friend of the time, Antony, agreed to meet up down there, and give it a shot.
I was living in France back then, up in the Pyrenees, but a stone throw from the Spanish border.. pretty well off the beaten track.
Ant on the other hand, was in the UK, and therefore able to get there quicker than I, so thus arrived a day or 2 before I did.
On arrival at Exeter bus terminal, Ant was there to greet me together with another guy named Tony Wright.
What followed were probably 10 of the most unusual days of my existence.. spent in a big old farm house out in the countryside.
There were a bunch of us there.. Me, Ant, Tony, Dave, Steve, Harmonie and Karen. Karen was the original editor and publisher of the FRESH network magazine, which some readers may recall from the 1990s, before it became a glossy commercialised affair.
The theory was that one half of the brain is basically a demented version of what it once may have been. Likely rendered so, due to generations of cooked food abuse. Supposedly, it is this half of the brain which is generally in control.
Meanwhile, the other half, supposedly relatively undamaged and properly functional, slumbers on in a sort of "hibernation" mode.
Tony Wright was the man with the theory, and according to him, simplifying the story somewhat, once the mind becomes weary, it sort of switches off the bulk of our senses before finally shutting itself down, allowing us to enter into the sleep state. It is during this time, that the fully functional not demented half, kicks in. But it seems it's a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing, and once sleep is over, the evil half wakes rubs it's eyes and pushes aside the good half with a complete lack of disrespect for communication.
So the whole point of the sleep deprivation experimentation I was part of, was/is that if you can force yourself to stay awake for long enough, eventually the evil half will become too tired to function, and without the opportunity to turn off the senses as it normally would do, just shuts down, leaving for quite likely the first time ever, the good half active with a conscious mind.
OK.. I admit, I may be simplifying the whole scenario, but basically during the following 10 days, apart from what we christened the odd "micro"nap, (short lapses into sleep of no more than a minute), I remained awake.
Now this seems an unlikely tale.. especially when one considers that I enjoy my sleep and can easily sleep 10 or 11 hours every night, but somehow, I believe that the above paragraph is for all intents and purposes truthful.
The events that ensued are not what I wish to go into right now. They can wait for another when. But, the fact that we were all pretty much eating fruit only, I believe helped the experience unfold.
But the point of this article?
Well, in recent years, I've had very little contact with those folks from back then, but recently I stumbled upon a few interviews with Tony on Youtube, and thought I'd share them with yous all:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrznMP-VH90&feature=related
And:
Not fully knowing what to really expect, myself, and friend of the time, Antony, agreed to meet up down there, and give it a shot.
I was living in France back then, up in the Pyrenees, but a stone throw from the Spanish border.. pretty well off the beaten track.
Ant on the other hand, was in the UK, and therefore able to get there quicker than I, so thus arrived a day or 2 before I did.
On arrival at Exeter bus terminal, Ant was there to greet me together with another guy named Tony Wright.
What followed were probably 10 of the most unusual days of my existence.. spent in a big old farm house out in the countryside.
There were a bunch of us there.. Me, Ant, Tony, Dave, Steve, Harmonie and Karen. Karen was the original editor and publisher of the FRESH network magazine, which some readers may recall from the 1990s, before it became a glossy commercialised affair.
The theory was that one half of the brain is basically a demented version of what it once may have been. Likely rendered so, due to generations of cooked food abuse. Supposedly, it is this half of the brain which is generally in control.
Meanwhile, the other half, supposedly relatively undamaged and properly functional, slumbers on in a sort of "hibernation" mode.
Tony Wright was the man with the theory, and according to him, simplifying the story somewhat, once the mind becomes weary, it sort of switches off the bulk of our senses before finally shutting itself down, allowing us to enter into the sleep state. It is during this time, that the fully functional not demented half, kicks in. But it seems it's a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing, and once sleep is over, the evil half wakes rubs it's eyes and pushes aside the good half with a complete lack of disrespect for communication.
So the whole point of the sleep deprivation experimentation I was part of, was/is that if you can force yourself to stay awake for long enough, eventually the evil half will become too tired to function, and without the opportunity to turn off the senses as it normally would do, just shuts down, leaving for quite likely the first time ever, the good half active with a conscious mind.
OK.. I admit, I may be simplifying the whole scenario, but basically during the following 10 days, apart from what we christened the odd "micro"nap, (short lapses into sleep of no more than a minute), I remained awake.
Now this seems an unlikely tale.. especially when one considers that I enjoy my sleep and can easily sleep 10 or 11 hours every night, but somehow, I believe that the above paragraph is for all intents and purposes truthful.
The events that ensued are not what I wish to go into right now. They can wait for another when. But, the fact that we were all pretty much eating fruit only, I believe helped the experience unfold.
But the point of this article?
Well, in recent years, I've had very little contact with those folks from back then, but recently I stumbled upon a few interviews with Tony on Youtube, and thought I'd share them with yous all:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrznMP-VH90&feature=related
And: