Mindplace Kasina - Light & Sound Meditation Aid System

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.

I have been meditating for several years and sometimes use binaural and isochronic beats to look for new experiences. I've been looking at these audiostrobe devices for a while, thinking it would offer me something new, and finally coughed up the money for the Kasina. I'm glad I did. Now, a little honesty... At first I was a little let down. I had come to expect this awesome visual experience based on reviews and claims made in youtube videos. While there is no doubt that many people see the beautiful images on their first use, this was not the case for me. I was a little overwhelmed with the flashing of the little LED's. I couldn't see anything except crazy flashing colored lights. (Maybe I'm a little too left brained!) Since I don't give up easily, I tried to find out why I wasn't seeing what others do. It was hard to find any information to make me feel better, that's why I'm taking the time to explain it here. It became clear to me that my visual cortex needed some adjusting to this new kind of stimulation. I was used to silent meditation, or working with binaural beats, and really getting lost in the tones. This, to me, is like visual meditation. I had to relearn with my eyes what I learned with my ears. The great paradox of focus without focusing. Watch without watching. The more my mind relaxed into the light, the less flashing I noticed, and more images became clear. At first look for little dots that seem to be moving across your field of vision. Once you can notice those and stay with them, you'll get closer to seeing more. As soon as you can watch those lines moving without getting distracted anymore, you'll then start to notice them slowing down, then winding around into spirals, and spinning. After that you'll be able to focus in the middle and see the geometry start to appear, rotate and unfold. Very cool. It gets better every time I use it. You can call me crazy, but after a few days of use, I swear that things around me have taken on an added depth, color, or quality that I hadn't seen before. Perhaps my dulled visual cortex needed a little waking up! I used the Kasina 3 or 4 times a day, for 10-20 minutes each time, trying to get a feel for the lights. Each time I would see a little more of something, but then get lost in the flashing. By the fourth day of use, I realized how much progress I had made, and was really glad I bought it, and didn't give up. Also, I found in the MindPlace blog some Kasina cutouts for the glasses that you can print at home so you can use them with your eyes open. Normally the light just goes through your eyelids, but you can miss out on a lot of colors that way. I found that it was easier for me to start seeing things when I put the 2 little paper inserts in the glasses. I see that soon the company is releasing a new pair of glasses that are specifically for the open eye experience. I'm gonna get a pair. Anyway, as far as the unit itself is concerned, it's awesome. I'm on day 5 of aggressive use and the battery is still half charged. It's full of cool sessions, and very computer friendly. You can easily add to the memory card all of the stuff you want. I bought a mountain of audiostrobe tunes, and put all of my favorite meditation tracks and spa music on it too. I use NeuroProgrammer 3 for all of my meditation tracks (it's awesome software), and the Kasina seamlessly integrates with the program. You can export sessions right to the Kasina. It also gives you full control over the light colors and flash frequencies. A really cool bonus if you're into customizing things for yourself. I really love the fact that it can play audiostrobe, spectrastrobe, color organ, and their old Sirius format. Also being able to click through the colorsets while it's playing is really cool. Certain color combinations seemed easier to see for me, and I appreciate being able to customize it to my liking. Overall, this little thing scores a 10 with me. It's like a little magical box. The more I use it, the more secrets it reveals...

Since getting my Kasina I have used it at a rate of once per week for an hour session. And not even a year into it and already one of the arms of the goggles broke. It's irreparable, as even super glue does not work on it. It's made of plastic. And it broke not through any abusive treatment, but from wear and tear...under a year! Additionally, the cord to my earbuds had split or somehow ripped into the core, exposing part of the wiring. Again not through any negligence or abuse but through wear and tear...under a year! I'm also a little worried about this thing breaking down in another year, since the manufacturer says that the Kasina has only so many hours of use before the internal battery goes dead. Then what am I going to do? Have to buy a new one? That sucks. Overall I'd say it's a good mind machine with quality effects on your mind, quality experiences... But it could do much better as far as the quality of the hardware that supports the mind experiences. The manufacturer should focus on improving the longevity and durability of the goggles, the earbuds, the cords, etc. Unless of course they purposely made the hardware flimsy in order to promote customers to spend more! Oh I miss the good old days when things were built to last.

I first got the Mindplace Proteus like a year ago, I really enjoyed it and was able to reach meditative states much quicker and for the price it was pretty good. I saw this one before but after seeing the price backed away, however after experiencing the proteus for a while I decided to finally get this one more as a "yolo" move. The device is quite an improvement, first off the interface is great and easy to use, the fact that you can store audio tracks on it is great and has the color organ which is nice. One thing I liked to do on the proteus was put on a music track and listen to it over the proteus track, I thought you would be able to do the same thing from the SD card but I guess you still have to go through aux (or at least I haven't found a way). The tracks on the Kasina are a lot more musical, rather than constant binural beats i was used to on the proteus. The lights are simply amazing so vibrant and bright really lifts you up and feels like a true audio strobe. This is however quite expensive and although its much more fancy in terms of music and lights i am hesitant to say it will increase your meditation dramatically, but it is enjoyable I guess. If you have the money I would say its definitely a good investment for life as you will have this thing for a very long time, but if you cant spare 350 or are new to the field and just want to try it out, the Proteus is still an excellent device i think its like 160. http://www.amazon.com/MindPlace-Proteus-Light-Meditation-Machine/dp/B00061URFG/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1447017162&sr=8-3&keywords=mindplace

This is THE BEST Audio Visual Synthesizer available today. MP3 player already built in so it can be customized for specific sessions either with the included software or for more advanced users Neuroprogrammer 3 or Mind Workstation. Personally I have about 50GB of Brainwave Entrainment and another 10GB of meditation music. For me alternative therapy is the only thing that keeps me sane from chronic pain. I buy only the best products on the market and that includes the MindPlace Kasina (I've owned it for two days and put it through its paces and my only recommendation to MindPlace was to offer a case for the Kasina). Some companies pretend to have good customer service up until you buy the product and then it goes down hill. Before even owning the Kasina customer service has been excellent, and even after owning the Kasina costumer service has stayed excellent, courteous and prompt. Here are some personal recommendations. 1.) Upgrade the firmware - information is on the MindPlace community boards as well as additional downloadable sessions. 2.) Upgrade to a 64GB Micro SD card - I bought the class 10 UHS-1 Sony card on Amazon for $37.95 (recommend not to upgrade to 128GB - not stable enough). Yes it can be done, all you have to do is format it with FAT32. Mac users use Disk Utility (careful do not erase the wrong hard drive). Windows users get a mac or Google formatting micro sd to FAT32 (no there is no drive limit to FAT32 - FAT32 simply limits file transfer to under 4GB on Windows computers, not Mac) 3.) For a little better sound add SRS Lab inc iWOW-U1F Adaptable Audio Enhancer - HD Sound. TigerDirect has it on sale for only $15.97 (on sale from list price $89.99) 4.) The best over the ear headphones available for a reasonable price are Audio-Technica ATH-M50 $138.69 or ATH-M50x $169.99 (Amazon prices). Amazon has a deal for ATH-M50x which includes velvet ear pieces free of charge and the audio cable can be switched from short to stretchable to long. Google reviews and you'll find they are the best on the market. I bought the ATH-M50 at least 5 years ago and they still sell for about the same price. The MindPlace Kasina is a miracle machine. Check out this site for more information on light and sound therapy: [...] Studies of light and sound therapy have been around for a long time. The Kasina is a perfect balance of both. I spent around $500 on the Photosonix Nova Pro 100 with color track glasses. I had to send it in for warranty 4 times starting just after I bought it and when there were still issues they wouldn't let me return it. The company isn't even responding to the Better Business Bureau, thats how well they stand by their products. I've spent a lot of time researching Audio Visual Synthesizers and the first mistake was trusting Photosonix. Trust me, DO NOT ORDER FROM PHOTOSONIX. Mindmachines.com Permanently Discontinues Photosonix® Products Including Nova Pro 100, InnerPulse and Luma 10 Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) May 20, 2012 The MindMachines board has voted unanimously to irrevocably discontinue all Photosonix® products on a permanent basis. This is the first time the board has voted unanimously on the subject. The light and sound machines affected by this decision are the Nova Pro 100, the InnerPulse, and the Luma 10. Board member Christopher Oliver says, As the session designer for nearly all of the Photosonix® sessions I really wanted to reconcile a dealer agreement with Photosonix®, but even after a personal guarantee from me, Ray Wolfe would not agree. I have made several overtures to Photosonix® since joining the board and they have been declined. I have finally decided to change my vote and make this a permanent company decision. . MindMachines representative, Fred Williams states, There will be no further dialogue with Photosonix® regarding dealerships or distribution. We will no longer answer any inquiries regarding Photosonix® products. Our relationship with Photosonix® is one hundred percent dissolved.". MindMachines.com is one of the largest global retailers of light and sound mind machines. The company also owns the AVS Journal magazine. Microfirm Inc. owns the Photosonix® brand name and manufacturers the Nova Pro 100 (released in 1998), the InnerPulse (released in 2002) and the Luma 10 (released in 2003). Photosonix, Nova Pro 100, InnerPulse and Luma 10 are trademarks of Microfirm Inc.

First, let me say that I do not work for MindPlace nor am I writing this quick little review with any ulterior motive. I would just like others to know what I thought of it and I would like the company to know my reaction to it. I should also mention that I own a Proteus and a Procyon so my thoughts are based on my comparison to those previous releases. With that said, the Kasina is by far the best AVS ever made and I love it! The new session format dubbed Spectra-strobe is phenomenal! The first thing you notice is the awesome soundtrack with each session, no longer do I have to run my mp3 player into the aux port to add atmospheric music in the background (this is something I did with both the Proteus and the Procyon). The music that is added to the sessions really sounds professional. I must admit I was scared it was going to sound real cheesy; that is to say like bad Casio keyboard new age music. I was really impressed and my expectations were blown away. I have not listened to every single one yet but I have listened to several and they all sound out-standing. Like previous models the sessions have different categories from meditation to mind art. I am not sure the total number but it seemed around 50. Some of the sessions that I really enjoyed so far are Meditate, Forest and River, A Starlit Night, Patternity, Trainspot and Center. I swear the Mind Art flicker is highly Hallucinogenic, patterns just roll in and out of one another, you don't even need a hit of acid. The addition of the Sirius sessions is like getting a huge bonus thrown in. I had never used those sessions and found them to be very entrancing and I loved being able to change the color theme while using them. I think there are around 22 of those in the KBS folder. Another great gift are the free audio-strobes thrown in. I have not tried them yet but I am sure they are awesome. I have actually used tons of audio strobes on my Proteus and Procyon. Some are really good like the Tibetan one and some are well a little cheesy. I hope to see more of these available in the future. Attention musicians, it's time to start releasing your music in audio-strobe or spectra-strobe format especially in a time period when people only steal music off the internet it would be smart to offer something extra that could get people back into buying music. Last I would like to mention the color organ function. This was a feature I really wanted to see on the next device that you guys put out and I am very glad to see it here. I experimented with it for about 20 minutes. My first impression is that it works good to great for electronic and industrial music like Nine Inch Nails but was horrible for extreme heavy metal music. When I used it I ran my mp3 player into the Kasina Aux port and found that the volume of my mp3 player effected the performance. I wonder if that will be different when I load tracks onto the actual SD card. Further investigation of this feature is needed. Review update on the color organ: I loaded songs onto the SD card and they worked much better in color organ mode then running an external mp3 player into the device. As for musical styles, it seems to work best with electronic music; Nine Inch Nails song Closer creates a really cool light show. Overall impression. I love it! It is better then all previous models I have used and I could not say enough good things about it! At the moment I can not comment on the build quality as I have only owned it for a few days, I am hoping it will last a long time.

Nice light and sound patterns. I'm okay with that aspect of this device. Had problem with eyepiece that has since been resolved (not - see below) by forwarding of new glasses (see pics below) following contact with Mindplace. I said before "IF & WHEN the manufacture ever designs a more robust frame for the eyepiece, I'd be much more inclined to offer a more favorable recommendation". The only problem I had with this machine was with the glasses, and now that the problem has been resolved (not), I very highly recommend this machine as a way of opening up your perceptions in a way that only those with 60s drug experiences or much meditative practice are likely to have experienced. Don't expect a trip to Nirvana in five minutes, although that could happen for some, but if you really "look deeply into what is before your eyes" for a while, you might be surprised at what you can see. 31 December 2016 - It has been a while, but the glasses have crumbled once again, 2nd time around. I've seen this same issue reported by others, so I have to assume it is a fairly common occurrence. I really like the machine, but I have serious safety concerns about the broken frames so close to my eyes. I would love to imagine a serene peaceful experience, but the thought of living the remainder of my life with an eye patch is very disturbing. Has anyone tried patching / reinforcing these defective glasses with JB Weld or some other epoxy?

I've been using AVS machines since I first fell for a Zygon ad 30 years ago. Even though I have had mixed results, I have always been a sucker for the latest and greatest. That said, I had plateaued with my last purchase (a Procyon by the same company that builds Kasina) and had begun focusing on other technologies, like Neurofeedback, instead. I have also been a longtime user of brainwave entrainment software from transparent Corp, which is excellent stuff. Kasina was mentioned with great excitement by members of Transparent's web forum, so I thought I'd check it out. The price gave me pause, but I eventually gave in and ordered one. Those of you who have a history with these machines will immediately appreciate what a leap forward Kasina is from a UI and general build quality perspective. The user interfaces on most AVS machines have been primitive at best. Kasina is very easy to navigate and manipulate. Does it achieve Apple-like levels of slickness and elegance? Not a chance, but by the standards of this strange and tiny industry it is exemplary. After unboxing it, I fired up the Kasina with great anticipation and ... was pretty underwhelmed. Audio quality was good and the RGB glasses made for a slightly better visual experience, but it still felt like more of the same in a better package. At that point I remembered that I could download sessions from Transparent's Mind Workstation product onto Kasina, so I popped out the micro SD card from Kasina, put it into my PC card reader, and proceeded to download a slew of sessions. Kasina was built from the ground up to integrate with mind Workstation, so there are options to play directly from the software when Kasina is hooked up to the PC via USB. This time around I was astounded at the difference. Other reviewers mention incredible visuals, and whenn using Kasina with MWS sessions I was amazed at how intense the light display was vs. older machines/glasses. Truly, I found myself laughing out loud at the intensity of the images that I was seeing. There is no question that the RGB visuals of Kasina made the entrainment of the MWS sessions more effective for me, I now find myself using Kasina as a regular part of my brain entrainment arsenal (along with Muse from Interaxon, my most recent addition). AVS machines of the past were typically expensive novelty items for me -- Kasina is a real entrainment powerhouse. So, to sum up my experience: * Great user interface * Expandable storage via micro SD * Effective USB connectivity * Hugely effective and entertaining visuals from the RGB Ganz frames * Very good battery life * Decent built-in session, but dramatically improved for me personally when used in conjunction with Transparent Corp. software (please note that I am not an employee of, nor in anyway affiliated with Transparent -- just a huge fan of their products). If you're looking for the latest in AVS without wanting to spend a small fortune, Kasina is the way to go.

Lo recomiendo 100%

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.

Much more effective at relaxing and/or stimulating than I ever thought it would be.

Perfect for meditation, pocket size device, and great programm.