Immanence is a mystical tradition where the divine is experienced from within the material world (rather than transcending it). This speculation imagines a journey at the core of Jewish mysticism- Solomon’s Temple 3000 years ago- framed as a brain stimulated DMT trip given entheogen theories of religion and today’s psychedelic renaissance. In a psychedelic future, what should be our attitudes towards altered states of consciousness, such as mystical experiences?
This speculation was my Royal College of Art graduate show project. It was reviewed in The Guardian where I was profiled as one of three rising stars.
This 15 minutes listening experience is split across two layers of sound heard simultaneously while wearing a pair of bone conducting headphones (inner layer) inside a ring of six speakers (outer layer). This experience is site specific and designed to be heard with this unique dual setup, so its effects cannot be fully recreated on normal stereo speaker or headphone playback. Nonetheless, this recording collapses the two layers into a single stereo recording.
Headphones on!
Immanence: is reality an illusion? (2023)
Arrival at the temple
Imagine arriving at a large cube covered in black cloth. Standing like the monolith in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, you walk slowly around trying to comprehend it.
A representative of Soul Systems welcomes you, asking you to remove your shoes since this is sacred ground. You are offered eucalyptus and sandalwood to inhale as you feel the soft turf under the soles of your feet. As you ground yourself, a ‘brain stimulation device’- a pair of bone conducting headphones- is fitted that gradually transports your mind to Solomon’s temple 3,000 years ago.
When ready, you enter the candlelit atmosphere of the golden hall, Hekhal, along the grassy royal carpet towards the throne room, Devir (‘room of words’).
Immersive storytelling
You sit on the throne surrounded by a ring of six speakers and enclosed within an inner cube of acoustic panels that shut out external sounds and reinforce the experience. Your mystical guide poetically narrates as the healing unfolds and hallucinations begin.
Integrating afterwards
You leave the temple where the Soul Systems representative is ready to help make sense of what you felt and heard.
Keep reading to learn more about the world building and hallucinatory sound design.
A session of neuropsychedelic therapy
“The breathing felt like someone was breathing next to me”
“There were moments when I felt as if someone was directly on my shoulders and in my ears”
“I experienced a range of physical sensations- hair standing on end, and breath/wind on my face at the start”
Hallucinatory sound design
“Ben’s work stands apart from the rest of the work in the RCA 2023 show by creating a truly transformative space which focused on senses such as sound and scent, which in installations usually come second to visuals. I was really impressed by his use of spatial audio techniques in an innovative and abstract way which makes sound flow through the the space, rather on your peripheral as you do in traditional panning techniques”
Illusory design
Listen here as I explain how I used audio illusions to create a sonic representation of Solomon’s Temple.
Hallucinatory design
Listen here as I explain how the sound design was informed by the phenomenology of auditory hallucinations.
Psychedelic design
Listen here as I explain how the sound design was inspired by the phenomenology of psychedelic experiences.