Kasina - Light & Sound Meditation Aid System

L’appareil est sans aucun doute génial, ce que je n'ai pas apprécié c'est le manque de communication avec le vendeur, malgré trois e-mail adressés celui-ci ne s'est pas manifesté.En effet cet appareil n'a pas de notice en français donc INUTILISABLE. J'attends depuis sa réception que le vendeur veuille bien me l'adresser mais sans résultat à ce jour. MP DERBEZ

I took delivery of a Kasina yesterday, with high hopes and low expectations. Since I have no past history with light and sound machines at all, I didn't expect much. Yet, since I suffer from a monkey mind that won't settle down, I had very high hopes. After several weeks of research I narrowed my choices down to the Kasina, the Laxman and the David. I liked Laxman's goggles and tidier wires, and the David's therapeutic credentials, but ended up with Kasina just on instinct, I guess. It felt right. Plus the track record of satisfied clients MindPlace built up with their earlier devices. On delivery, it's nice, but not an "iPhone" unboxing experience--I didn't expect it to be. I was hoping the real unboxing would take place when I put on the glasses and closed my eyes for a session. I was, fortunately, right. My initial enthusiasm was a little dampened because the device needs charging. So the first night went by unused. The next day, I made up for that with four sessions, all completely different, a nice sampler. My initial session impression was -- oh, this is nice, relaxing, I can enjoy this. Then -- well, that was interesting. Didn't expect that. Then -- this is really making a difference. Finally -- oh, wow. Just really wow. This followed the pattern of sessions and my level of comfort I guess. I started with • Forest and River: relaxing, gentle, nothing surprising -- succeeding in calming my monkey mind somewhat. • Bowlscape: The Tibetan singing bowls drew me, as I'm Buddhist and deep into meditation (one of the reasons I bought the Kasina… my mind needed room to meditate:) It was nice, took me to a comfortable place. • Meditation with Shaman Drum: I liked this one. A lot. It took me places. I felt it right away. The light show wasn't quite as intense as I hoped, but it worked and I plan to repeat the journey. By this time my mind was half to trance level, and the drums took me on a short enjoyable journey. • Vapour Chill: I alms stopped at Shaman drum, but I craved more (craving bad, I'm Buddhist:) This one was a home run WOW for me. The sounds and especially the light show dazzled. More importantly, it took me deep into trance, so much so I was visualizing amazing mandalas of colour. My mind opened up. Compared to the other three sessions, this one was a magnitude of intensity beyond these. I cannot wait to try more sessions, but Shaman Drum and Vapour Chill will definitely be part of my practice. The Device 5/5 Nice, functional, attractive, small, well designed, practical and simple software, wouldn't change a thing. Earbuds (nah) … chucked them, sorry. Using headphones. I'm sure they're okay, I just don't like earbuds Eyeset… okay. 4/5 A little tight on my face, but okay. Good intensity and colour (not that I have anything to compare it to). Eyes must be closed. I was surprised (this being my first experience) that, even with eyes closed, the mandalas of spectacular images are extraordinary. No need to open eyes, and I'd imagine it'd defeat the purpose (i.e. if the purpose is meditation or relaxation). Wires… 1/5 Oh, man, can we do something about the wires? Can I suggest an attractive built in hoop on the eyeglass wires to allow neat clamping of the headphones to the glasses. I'm using a twist tie. Sessions 5/5 Overall 5/5 As my daily practice includes two hours of visualizing, this will be a major tool in advancing my visualizing -- I believe. Aside from the wires and the tight eyewear, I wouldn't change a thing. I will no doubt enjoy years of use from my Kasina.

I was skeptical of Kasina and these pseudo-science technologies. I bought the device out of pure desperation in hope that it may be able to ease my daily headaches or provide a getaway. I have had a steady headache every moment of my life, it only waxes and wains in severity but never comes to a complete stop. I hoped that this would be a shortcut to help with/use in conjunction with biofeedback and meditation. I would say that I was 90% certain that I would be returning the device within the first two weeks but figured that trying it couldn't hurt anything. After the first few sessions, I felt some tension lift out of the back of my head, close to my brain stem. The first weekend I could not help but marvel at this and couldn't help but be excited at the change. I assumed it was simply getting at my tension or at something deeper. It came with the price of an increase in pain from my pulsating headache. After 3 days, the different headache subsided. The feeling in the base of my brain stem is still the same. Very likely may have been placebo. Either way, I really don't care and was quite happy with the very minor relief. Exploring sessions is really fascinating. I've been using the device for 3 weeks now and while I don't think it's having a profound effect on my headaches, the experiences each session brings is staggering and varies each time. At first, seeing images was hard. I would strain and try to alter how tightly my eyelids were closed to "see" them clearer. It has become much easier as I've learned to let go and enjoy the session. Some sessions make my whole body vibrate, some just make my hands and feet warm and tingly(which is awesome as I have issues keeping my feet warm at night which is often linked to migraines). It just so happens that the end of the "sleep" session never fails at warming my feet up and usually helps me rest at night(consistent sleep schedule is really important to managing how bad my migraines get). Some sessions cause areas of my brain to tingle or flex for a lack of a better word. I've especially experienced it in my frontal lobe. It's a really cool sensation although a tad scary. I'll also note that sometimes I really need to turn down the brightness or take off the glasses immediately. It just depends on how sensitive to light I am at the time I'm doing a session(migraines). Overall though, this thing does provide new experiences given that you give it a fair shot. Also cool things of note: I've way more lucid dreams in the last 3 weeks. I've had a handful over my life, but never this many in such a small window. These started with a terrifying experience of waking up to sleep paralysis and insanely intense vibrations in my head. After having a whole night of this continually happening, I learned to calm myself during this state instead of freaking out which led to lucid dreams which I very much enjoy now. It comes with a ton of sessions, something that wasn't very clear to me upon purchase. There are sessions for meditating, relaxing, sleeping/dreaming, waking up/energizing, and a number of frequency sessions along the same lines that I believe come with another mindplace device or used to. There is also a good forum community where one can download user created sessions, get more ideas on how to fully take advantage of kasina, and or learn how to create their own sessions. Overall, I've only scratched the service. The color organ is also an awesome feature. You can listen to your own music The battery life is great. Zero complaints in this department. The 4GB hard drive is really small in my opinion, although they are very cheap to upgrade. I just don't like having to upgrade something in a $350 ipod-like device. 16 or 32 would be much more appropriate IMO. All cables that you would need/want are included which is awesome. Even a stereo to stereo cable is included to stream music from your mp3 player/cell phone through your kasina to use in conjunction with other tracks or color organ. They did a good job in this department. Overall, this is a great device. I'd say that if you have a neurological disorder that you give it a try! Worst case scenario is that you return it if it doesn't work.

It worked great once...then wouldn't turn on again. I tried recharging the battery, holding the "on" button longer than 2 seconds, nothing worked. Fortunately, Amazon took it back and made the return easy. At this price, I'm not sure I want to risk trying another one.

I zone out each time in a way that's stronger than with meditation. I used the sleep program later one morning for an hour, after only a few hours of sleep the night before; when finished, I felt as recharged as I would after a full 7 hours of deep sleep. The ear plugs, unfortunately, have the quality of an afterthought.