A Visionary State in 30 Minutes or Less

It is rumored to provide psychic powers, invoke dream states and cure writer’s block. It has also been rumored to cause epileptic seizures and, possibly, prompt suicide.

This year marks the 40-year anniversary of the Dreamachine--a psychedelic contraption invented in 1959 by author Brion Gysin that is now the domain of David Woodard, a Long Beach composer who makes a living from constructing them.

Woodard claims it takes just 30 minutes with the Dreamachine to achieve a visionary state, which happens while sitting, eyes closed, within an inch of the spinning object or, as Woodard says, “as close as possible without cutting your nose.”

A series of geometric shapes are cut into the surface of a cylinder, which spins at 80 rotations a minute, or 10 Hertz--the same frequency at which the brain functions while dreaming, says Woodard. A 200-watt bulb is situated in the center and at the base of the cylinder, creating a flicker effect, which works upon the eyelids and affects the brain’s cortical tissue, he says.

Woodard’s introduction to the motorized Dreamachine came through novels: “The Last Museum” by Gysin and “The Job” by William S. Burroughs. But it was skepticism, coupled with a little luck, that drove Woodard to build one.

“It seemed you would encounter them everywhere if the Dreamachine really did what it purported to do,” he says. Perhaps there were mysterious forces at work that caused Woodard to rent a home in Napa Valley in 1992.

“My landlord [there] had been an old friend of Gysin’s and had the templates for his [original design],” Woodard says. Tracing the machine’s shapes onto museum board, he cut them out, formed a cylinder and set it spinning on a turntable.

“I hoped it would be at least neurologically effective, and it was,” Woodard, 33, explains. “Shortly thereafter, a friend offered to buy it, so I had to build another one to continue experimenting. Then someone offered to purchase that machine, so I got into the habit of building them regularly.”

In the past seven years, he has sold more than 260 Dreamachines, mostly through word of mouth, though he does advertise in the Bargain Basement section of the Advertiser, a San Francisco newspaper similar to the Recycler in L.A.

“There’s almost always an impressive amount of versedness in beat literature among customers,” Woodard says of his clients, who include Beck, Iggy Pop and William Burroughs, who was a close friend. Woodard neither confirms nor denies that he built the Dreamachine Kurt Cobain was rumored to have used before his death. “That’s a touchy subject,” he says.

Woodard built the Dreamachine that was featured in the 1996 LACMA retrospective “Ports of Entry: William S. Burroughs and the Arts.” This Museum Archive model features a copper cylinder, stained mahogany base and calibrated motor ($4,000). Woodard also manufactures a Bohemian version ($500), with a cylinder constructed from acid-free, museum matting board, like his initial prototype.

While the majority of machines he builds are 3 feet tall, he says the height is arbitrary. “I made a version that was only 1 1/2 feet tall because someone called once and was insistent on having one for a rave the next night.” He built it out of construction paper he had lying around the house, and it worked just fine.

For more information: https://www.davidwoodard.com.