The sequence went like this. It’s around 2:30am. I’ve been awake reading a book – which I’ve just put down. Lying quietly in the dark staring at the ceiling, I start to see gently swirling blobs of plasma colours with my eyes open. I know these well. Either they mark a shift in brainwave frequency in the direction of dreaming, or they are a telltale sign that whatever chemical is released that relates to dream visuals – DMT? – has just manifested in the brain. They move in a slow, rhythmic liquid swirl. I close my eyes and the colours are still there. Then open them again and very, very gently continue to gaze at them.

Out of the colours, a scene begins to form. Completely of its own accord. It is outside. A green, open, lightly wooded area. Still a little pixellated and rather vague. As I gently interpret the scene, its focus increases. Interestingly, a tree in my right field of vision is flip-flopping – constantly inverting along its vertical axis – as though it were a bug in an OpenGL scene.

I (again) gently, and here’s where the meditation part comes in, focus on slowing down the axis flip – of slowing down everything in the scene. Slowing the scene, slowing the mind. Once more the reality of the images before me intensifies and the next moment I am sitting quietly in meditation before a vast lake in the wilderness. Perfect clarity. As real as your most real experience. It is night and the filtered moonlight through the clouds gently warps off the lake’s still surface. It is peaceful, quiet, and sublimely beautiful. Into this stillness, my soul sense soars out into that ever-cascading bliss that marks this type of experience as “spiritual”.

I give myself up to the bliss and my consciousness disappears into it.

These experiences are precisely why I give such import to our sleeping selves. Sleeping isn’t the simply gap between waking moments. It is a mind-space that offers up a tremendous diversity of experiences and one of the few times in which we can witness our true creativity at work – unbounded and effortless.

Transcendence has morphed into tranceNdance. Mainly because “transcendence” is too long a name for the iPhone to display without truncation. But the name fits as well; merging trance, transcendence and dance as it does. With music responsiveness and the ability to manually control the visual output, tranceNdance definitely does have a party mode.

tranceNdance isn’t a half-bad desktop wallpaper generator as well – whether it be for iPhone, iPad or mac (they upscale nicely). More examples:

A couple of Transcendence images for you. The first has an alien feel, whilst the second is a little more floral. I’ve just added a nice “contemplate” mode for Transcendence which is low key and will be very much appreciated by open eye meditators.

One of the many aspects of my upcoming app for iPhone and iPad, Transcendence.

A short video of a couple of display modes in Portal of Light, my app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Great for gaze based meditation and gentle trip outs.

music sourced from: here

Sneak peak of my next update of Anemone which will add sound reactivity via the microphone. It’s better in real-life as my macbook pro was struggling with simulating and recording.

Special thanks to Justin De Candia for the background music, an original composition titled “union”.

Memorising the 2 letter word list is certainly a challenge, but its still doable. Internalising the 3 letter word list, however, is for hyper-competitive word nuts suffering from some sort of obsessive compulsive disorder only. Now let me get back to memorising this list…

AAH AAL AAS ABA ABO ABS ABY ACE ACT ADD ADO ADS ADZ AFF AFT AGA AGE AGO AHA AID AIL AIM AIN AIR AIS AIT ALA ALB ALE ALL ALP ALS ALT AMA AMI AMP AMU ANA AND ANE ANI ANT ANY APE APT ARB ARC ARE ARF ARK ARM ARS ART ASH ASK ASP ASS ATE ATT AUK AVA AVE AVO AWA AWE AWL AWN AXE AYE AYS AZO BAA BAD BAG BAH BAL BAM BAN BAP BAR BAS BAT BAY BED BEE BEG BEL BEN BET BEY BIB BID BIG BIN BIO BIS BIT BIZ BOA BOB BOD BOG BOO BOP BOS BOT BOW BOX BOY BRA BRO BRR BUB BUD BUG BUM BUN BUR BUS BUT BUY BYE BYS CAB CAD CAM CAN CAP CAR CAT CAW CAY CEE CEL CEP CHI CIS COB COD COG COL CON COO COP COR COS COT COW COX COY COZ CRY CUB CUD CUE CUM CUP CUR CUT CWM DAB DAD DAG DAH DAK DAL DAM DAP DAW DAY DEB DEE DEL DEN DEV DEW DEX DEY DIB DID DIE DIG DIM DIN DIP DIS DIT DOC DOE DOG DOL DOM DON DOR DOS DOT DOW DRY DUB DUD DUE DUG DUI DUN DUO DUP DYE EAR EAT EAU EBB ECU EDH EEL EFF EFS EFT EGG EGO EKE ELD ELF ELK ELL ELM ELS EME EMF EMS EMU END ENG ENS EON ERA ERE ERG ERN ERR ERS ESS ETA ETH EVE EWE EYE FAD FAG FAN FAR FAS FAT FAX FAY FED FEE FEH FEM FEN FER FET FEU FEW FEY FEZ FIB FID FIE FIG FIL FIN FIR FIT FIX FIZ FLU FLY FOB FOE FOG FOH FON FOP FOR FOU FOX FOY FRO FRY FUB FUD FUG FUN FUR GAB GAD GAE GAG GAL GAM GAN GAP GAR GAS GAT GAY GED GEE GEL GEM GEN GET GEY GHI GIB GID GIE GIG GIN GIP GIT GNU GOA GOB GOD GOO GOR GOT GOX GOY GUL GUM GUN GUT GUV GUY GYM GYP HAD HAE HAG HAH HAJ HAM HAO HAP HAS HAT HAW HAY HEH HEM HEN HEP HER HES HET HEW HEX HEY HIC HID HIE HIM HIN HIP HIS HIT HMM HOB HOD HOE HOG HON HOP HOT HOW HOY HUB HUE HUG HUH HUM HUN HUP HUT HYP ICE ICH ICK ICY IDS IFF IFS ILK ILL IMP INK INN INS ION IRE IRK ISM ITS IVY JAB JAG JAM JAR JAW JAY JEE JET JEU JEW JIB JIG JIN JOB JOE JOG JOT JOW JOY JUG JUN JUS JUT KAB KAE KAF KAS KAT KAY KEA KEF KEG KEN KEP KEX KEY KHI KID KIF KIN KIP KIR KIT KOA KOB KOI KOP KOR KOS KUE LAB LAC LAD LAG LAM LAP LAR LAS LAT LAV LAW LAX LAY LEA LED LEE LEG LEI LEK LET LEU LEV LEX LEY LEZ LIB LID LIE LIN LIP LIS LIT LOB LOG LOO LOP LOT LOW LOX LUG LUM LUV LUX LYE MAC MAD MAE MAG MAN MAP MAR MAS MAT MAW MAX MAY MED MEL MEM MEN MET MEW MHO MIB MID MIG MIL MIM MIR MIS MIX MOA MOB MOC MOD MOG MOL MOM MON MOO MOP MOR MOS MOT MOW MUD MUG MUM MUN MUS MUT NAB NAE NAG NAH NAM NAN NAP NAW NAY NEB NEE NET NEW NIB NIL NIM NIP NIT NIX NOB NOD NOG NOH NOM NOO NOR NOS NOT NOW NTH NUB NUN NUS NUT OAF OAK OAR OAT OBE OBI OCA ODD ODE ODS OES OFF OFT OHM OHO OHS OIL OKA OKE OLD OLE OMS ONE ONS OOH OOT OPE OPS OPT ORA ORB ORC ORE ORS ORT OSE OUD OUR OUT OVA OWE OWL OWN OXO OXY PAC PAD PAH PAL PAM PAN PAP PAR PAS PAT PAW PAX PAY PEA PEC PED PEE PEG PEH PEN PEP PER PES PET PEW PHI PHT PIA PIC PIE PIG PIN PIP PIS PIT PIU PIX PLY POD POH POI POL POM POP POT POW POX PRO PRY PSI PUB PUD PUG PUL PUN PUP PUR PUS PUT PYA PYE PYX QAT QIN QUA RAD RAG RAH RAJ RAM RAN RAP RAS RAT RAW RAX RAY REB REC RED REE REF REG REI REM REP RES RET REV REX RHO RIA RIB RID RIF RIG RIM RIN RIP ROB ROC ROD ROE ROM ROT ROW RUB RUE RUG RUM RUN RUT RYA RYE SAB SAC SAD SAE SAG SAL SAP SAT SAU SAW SAX SAY SEA SEC SEE SEG SEI SEL SEN SER SET SEW SEX SHA SHE SHH SHY SIB SIC SIM SIN SIP SIR SIS SIT SIX SKA SKI SKY SLY SOB SOD SOL SON SOP SOS SOT SOU SOW SOX SOY SPA SPY SRI STY SUB SUE SUM SUN SUP SUQ SYN TAB TAD TAE TAG TAJ TAM TAN TAO TAP TAR TAS TAT TAU TAV TAW TAX TEA TED TEE TEG TEL TEN TET TEW THE THO THY TIC TIE TIL TIN TIP TIS TIT TOD TOE TOG TOM TON TOO TOP TOR TOT TOW TOY TRY TSK TUB TUG TUI TUN TUP TUT TUX TWA TWO TYE UDO UGH UKE ULU UMM UMP UNS UPO UPS URB URD URN USE UTA UTS VAC VAN VAR VAS VAT VAU VAV VAW VEE VEG VET VEX VIA VIE VIG VIM VIS VOE VOW VOX VUG WAB WAD WAE WAG WAN WAP WAR WAS WAT WAW WAX WAY WEB WED WEE WEN WET WHA WHO WHY WIG WIN WIS WIT WIZ WOE WOG WOK WON WOO WOP WOS WOT WOW WRY WUD WYE WYN XIS YAH YAK YAM YAP YAR YAW YAY YEA YEH YEN YEP YES YET YEW YID YIN YIP YOB YOD YOK YOM YON YOU YOW YUK YUM YUP ZAG ZAP ZAX ZED ZEE ZEK ZEN ZIG ZIN ZIP ZIT ZOA ZOO

By and large, Double Quotes is won not with big words, but with small ones. 2 letter words particularly, will help you keep your move-average high and improve your chances of forming a quote word. Memorising the following list is probably the single best thing you could do to improve your score.

AA AB AD AE AG AH AI AL AM AN AR AS AT AW AX AY BA BE BI BO BY CH DA DE DI DO EA ED EE EF EH EL EM EN ER ES ET EX FA FE FY GI GO GU HA HE HI HM HO ID IF IN IO IS IT JA JO KA KI KO KY LA LI LO MA ME MI MM MO MU MY NA NE NO NU NY OB OD OE OF OH OI OM ON OO OP OR OS OU OW OX OY PA PE PI PO QI RE SH SI SO ST TA TE TI TO UG UH UM UN UP UR US UT WE WO XI XU YA YE YO YU ZA ZO

Your word protests have come in, and by popular demand v1.11 adds the following words to the lexicon:

BLOG, BLOGGER, BLOGGERS, BLOGGING, BLOGS, CHATROOM, CHATROOMS, EMAIL, EMAILED, EMAILING, EMAILS, ETHERNET, EXTRANET, INTERNET, INTRANET, MALWARE, MEME, MEMES, MEMETICS, QIN, SUFI, SUFIS, TEXTING, WEBLOG, WEBLOGS, WEBSITE, WEBSITES, WIKI, ZEN

I hope players are enjoying the game. I know I’ve gotten a kick out of watching my opponents improve, as they begin to realise that they are not playing Scrabble anymore. Scrabble or Words With Friends strategies will only get you so far in Double Quotes. If you ignore the quote and if you don’t double tiles, you will most likely lose.