One of the random experiences that I chose to conduct on myself is something I like (well, like isn't the term, but it just sounds good) to call senses modification. Now, there's a couple of things that need to be explained here. First of all, I don't normally conduct experiments on myself, it was just something that I was thinking about when I was wandering around, trying to look like I was working. And secondly, senses modification is not body modification. Body mod is more physical attributes (ie. tattoos, piercing, bigger testicles, etc) whereas this modification deal more with the 5 senses (sight, touch, hearing, taste, smell).

So, what I've developed (through 2 minutes intervals over the span of a couple of weeks) is the following experiments to enhance your senses. They say that if you lose your sight, then you're other senses will become more acute over time. Well, that's what I wanted to accomplish only without losing anything.

SIGHT: To enhance your sight, you have to lose some of it. So, what I have been doing in the past couple of days is walking home in the dark with sunglasses on. Yes, I look like I'm a stupid idiot, but your eyes must work harder to pick up details from the shadows and so forth. So, if you ever do this, don't do it for more than an hour or two. You could damage your eyes due to strain. What I have noticed in my experiments is that you lose your sense of depth. Or at least I did. I would constantly misjudge bumps or divets in the sidewalk and would stumble. This happened a lot when I first started out, but has since been negligible. Did it work? Kinda. Now it hurts to be out in the sunshine. Thus, this is a really good idea for practicing goths. It gives them a more realistic cringe when they have to suffer through real-life.

TOUCH: The only thing I could think of to do with touch was to walk around with gloves on. All the time. Everywhere. If you have a public image, then be prepared to lose it or have it damaged. In my experiences, this didn't work at all unless you put pressure on practically everything so that you can pick up details better. However this has proved damaging on the following objects: balloons, fingers, twinkies, plants, some guy named Andrew, and an open can of soda. Caution is warranted. You might also have problems sweating alot. This is because it is hot out. You should buy a couple of pairs of gloves so you can wash them when they get unbearable. Did it work? Not at all. Enhancement of this sense would be a long time coming.

HEARING: If you ever went to school and had a shop class, then you must remember those huge earphones things that weighed about 5 pounds, and covered your whole ear and about half of the rest of your head. Yeah, well, to enhance your hearing, you need to get one of those. Several disadvantages of this experiment: your neck gets tired, your hair gets all messed up, and people get sick of you yelling out "what?" all the time. Several advantages of this experiment: your neck gets stronger, you become less concerned about what your hair looks like and you begin to hear better with the earphones on (yet, when you take them off, you hear too well and it becomes painful... it also feels like you are in this huge vortex with water running by you). This experiment actually did work, and it gives a happy side benefit: the ability to read lips.

TASTE: Well... um, I had no clue how to enhance this. Well, I had an idea, but scraping off all of your taste buds didn't seem really enjoyable (and what if the experiment didn't work?). However, you can inadvertently make your taste buds more sensitive by enhancing your sense of smell (see below).

SMELL: This one is pretty obvious. You can look stupid and wear a clothespin on your nose, but those things hurt and fall off alot. Another thing you can do (which I used) is to get those little ear plugs and stuff them up your nose. They expand and thus you can't smell. There is a huge disadvantage to this and that is that all your food is going to taste bland. It's all gonna taste like crap because a major part of eating is being able to smell the food. So, this experiment ties in with TASTE (above). So did this work? Yeah, vaguely. You do start to smell a tiny bit of scent after a while, but it has to be very strong. And as a warning: do not sniff developer to try to verify that you can't smell. That stuff is strong, and I smelled only peanut butter for days afterward. I vainly searched for something that would make me smell jelly, but to no avail.

You might be wondering what the point of this article is. It's an essay for treehuggers to survive in the future. You see, as mechanical implementation becomes more commonplace, the treehuggers and hippies are going to balk at it. But, perhaps, deep down inside, they wish that they could become more powerful or better seeing, or whatever. This essay attempts to set forth a realistic means for those who don't want to look like a robot.

As I watch television shows, I find that the roots of racism come almost subliminally in commercials and other various forms of children and other family programming. The series of commercials that really grabbed my attention were the commercials for the cereal Trix. These are special because one figment is turned away by other figments because he is a rabbit. To tell you the truth, I believe that all of the commercials for the Trix are actually metaphors. This is how I see it: the Rabbit is a minority group; the bowl of Trix is money, nice neighborhoods, etc.; the children are anyone from the government to a majority race. By seeing this, the children of our country will think it is perfectly okay to disrespect all minority groups wanting a piece of the American Pie (or shall we say the Trix Cereal Box) and that is not right. Some of you reading this may be thinking that; "this is just coincidence" or "maybe this person is trying to start some trouble." Well my answer to you is that you are all wrong, my theory is that the people making these commercials have been warped by the Civil Rights Revolution and are still in that old way of thinking, even though it may not be all that obvious. But if you look at the facts, it does seem quite odd that the rabbit isn't allowed to eat the cereal just because he is a "Silly Rabbit." Is this term just a racial slur, or are they picking on him because he is determined to be treated equal?

To give an example of what I mean by discrimination, recall the time when the Rabbit entered a bike race and the prize was a bowl full of Trix (might I add that they did not say what the winner had to be). When the Rabbit won the contest, the judges were quite apprehensive about giving him his well-deserved prize, but when he got the prize it was soon taken away from the Rabbit, because "Trix are for Kids." Something else that supports my theory is that he is always disguising himself up as a kid so that he is able to get the bowl of Trix, but I also remember reading that during the Civil War Era slaves used to disguise themselves as white people so that they could get into the north. Is this another strong coincidence or am I right?

Well suppose that I am wrong, and that all those factors I mentioned really are just coincidences. If that is so, then why is it that the Rabbit never gets the Trix? Don't tell me that he can't have them because he is a rabbit so it's not healthy for him. And please don't tell me that this is nothing but a stupid cartoon and it has nothing to do with real life, because as I said before: these commercials are metaphors so that it's not so obvious. Just because this is a cartoon does not mean I am barking up the wrong tree, because as some of you intellectual minds out there should now; if something is a metaphor, it doesn't mean it has to be live action (e.g., Disney films would make Freud famous all over again). So, unless you have good reasons to say why the Trix Commercials are not metaphors for racism, shut up.

©1992 G. Nih Ton. All rights reserved.

98-Nov-18
raper_x@hotmail.com

maverick is on the right track but he is wrong. The rabbit has to be white, because if he was any other color then it would be right out in the open. Or maybe it has to do with the fact that the rabbit is representing all those ethnics out there that want to "become" or "be" white. And anyway, homosexuality being present in smurfs would not surprise me, and to close: wasn't the whole Trixx rabbit thing on Saturday Night Live once? (the old good days when david spade wasn't there)

I must tell you of a very interesting experiment conducted by myself and some friends with regard to the sense of hearing. We were all at a dining hall eating and the sounds of many people talking is already one of the strangest things. I had finished drinking my liquids (milk and water) and realized that I could "hear the ocean" with my glasses if I wanted to. So I put the two glasses over my ears and what happenned was INCREDIBLE. Aside from a strange distortion in sound, I could hear conversations across the room very clearly. But as soon as I would hear one conversation I would then hear someone say something nearby, then someone far away, then someone nearby, etc. It was very strange. Its a challenge for the brain to process sensory input of this sort. A visual experiment of possible interest - try to do something under a strobe light. So much is interesting with strobe lights!(like clapping your hands - fucks with your mind if you do it right) Anyhow, I would agree that your article may be intended for the treehugging/hippie audience, though they tend to have their own equally valid(though unfortunately illegal) ways of enhancing sensual perception.

i was wondering, how many of those experiments were conducted at the same time? were each conducted separately? if they were conducted at the same time it would be a good example of sensory enhancement. for example, if you were able to determine that while squeezing twinkies and a guy named andrew, while wearing nose plugs and headphones, that the gloves developed a repulsive odor, then you would be definately experiencing sensory enhancement. if you conducted the experiments one at a time of course this would not be accurate. just thought i would ask. have a nice day.

Another quality piece by you, in the latest issue. However, the same cannot be said for the one written by Mr. G. Nih Ton. Granted, his comparing "racism" and Trix commercials are as founded as me comparing "homosexuality" to the "Smurfs" (nah, I think I raise better arguments... oh no, the lack of sleep is talking), that still does not change the fact that the guy is deluded and brainwashed. Once again, a member of society proves to me that the media propaganda and lies have sunk in too far into the miniscule brains of the public at large. I mean, come on, racism and cereal commercials. Anyway, while I find his grasping (for an argument) irritating, I must say that it was very funny. Maybe if the rabbit was Black or yellow or something, he'd have a more valid point.

Is there a point to this e-mail? Not really. That line about the goths in the "Sense" article still has me laughing.

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Devil Shat Twenty One was released on 02/26/98. Last updated: 01/02/99.