A quick look at the Laxman

The Laxman is special. It is quite unlike any of the other machines I have used. The Laxman is a relaxation machine. It even has its very own pedigree to that effect, in the form of the study conducted by Doctor A. Gabriel of the Psychiatric University Hospital of the Charite.

The study was done using 20 minute alpha sessions each day, six days per week for three weeks. Results, using standard psychometric ratings, improvements of 14%  in concentration/attention, 26% cognitive speed, 12% in memory, 9% in psychomotor speed and 14% in concentration/working memory.

This is all very good. Chances are similar results would have been obtained with any mind-machine. Where the Laxman stands apart is that there’s a good chance that a person would actually do a 20 minute session six days a week. Of the machines I’ve used, none make the AVS experience as beautiful and immersive as the Laxman.

The Laxman is a relatively basic MP3 player with a simple beat generator and a light controller. Sessions consist of a session file and an optional MP3 file. Half the standard sessions use MP3 recordings of what is referred to as ‘psychoactive music’. This music contains no beats as such, but is decidedly engaging. I can’t quite put my finger on what’s going on with these tracks, and some are dangerously close to too weird for me, but they’ve got me hooked. The other sessions use the inbuilt beat generator, which, although very basic, is pleasant enough to listen to. The matching white in-ear phones are a completely adequate, and do quite a good job of suppressing outside sounds.

The Laxman also has random and user modes. Random generates a new session based on a chosen frequency band, while use mode allows selection of frequencies, beats, light colours, etc. Unfortunately manual mode is not controllable in real time, you set it up and then play, which means it’s not quite ideal for experiments or finding ‘sweet spots’.

The big news is the light show. The Laxman uses goggles instead of glasses, similar to swimming goggles, but very robustly built with thick translucent rubber ‘lenses’ edge illuminated by tricolour LEDs located at the top inner corners. Used open-eye, the colour spectrum and intensity is stunning, with some of the most spectacular visual effects I’ve seen. One preset does the rather clever trick of simulating lightning to correspond to thunder in the audio track – very cool. Apart from a somewhat brighter patch near the LEDs, the ganzfeld effect is superb. It is this superb light goggle system that allowed the designers to declare that audio was secondary to visual, and that the lights would provide all the entraining effect necessary. It seems to me that they are right. Open or closed eye, the Laxman does a fine job of setting the scene for any mental state you may desire. The goggles are extremely comfortable and well made, with such thoughtful features as slots to store the earphones and a little packet of curly cable ties to keep the earphone and goggle cables in one piece and untangled.

The unit itself is classy. Somewhat bigger than I expected, but it conveys a sense of quality and good German engineering. The polished metal case looks great, but it’s just as well they supply a polishing cloth in the boutique quality, pristine white zippered nylon storage case. The controls are a set of soft touch buttons, three of which are up/down pairs for volume, brightness and contrast. The on/off button is nicely recessed to prevent accidental operation, however it does occasionally catch on the casing in the down position. The remaining controls are the usual up/down above and below a central select button. Navigating the menus on the blue backlit LCD screen is easy, but I do have to put on my reading glasses to do so. Most of the sessions display ‘cute’ names along with the frequency band. Even with the LCD display, it still helps to have the manual or a cheat sheet at hand to pick the right session. I’m a little suspicious of the German monologue in one of the tracks – if anyone can provide a translation I’d be grateful. [I have just heard that it is Russian, and it’s a short fairy tale about someone who searches for love and finds it under the tree on a hill.]

The Laxman connects to a PC via USB and is seen as a standard disk drive. Sessions are simply copied back and forth, as are any ordinary MP3s you may wish to load. A MiniSD slot, accessible via the battery holder, facilitates memory expansion. Standard power is provided by two AA cells which need fairly frequent replacement (there’s still plenty of juice left in them for TV remotes, etc. when you need to change them). I haven’t quite worked out the logic here, but it appears that the unit can be USB powered if you turn it on with battery power first and then plug in the USB cable.

If your primary desire is for an MP3 player, you’d be better off with a $50 one from the local electronics shop – the Laxman plays MP3s, that’s all. No playlists, no shuffle, just play. An MP3 track of your choice can be used to accompany random or user sessions. This is great for those who use hypnosis or NLP recordings – fire up a random alpha or theta session, decide whether or not to add beats, select the MP3, and away you go.

There is a socket for external audio, but the Laxman has no Audiostrobe or any other sound-to-light capability.

The Laxedit editor, a good clean Windows application, is simple but effective. Comparing it to the editors of machines like the Procyon or the David, it seems rather bereft of controls, and indeed, it really does cut things down to the basics, but the Laxman just isn’t like other machines. It doesn’t need a lot of fancy settings to look awesome. The light control is single channel many-colour. There is no option for individual frame control, and colour is selected from a palette rather than by RGB. With very little effort truly beautiful light shows can be created, and the range of effects, from ganzfeld, to flicker, to high contrast strobe is all you really need. Of all the programmable machines I’ve used, this would be the one I’d rate least likely to intimidate, which means it’s the one I’d consider most people likely to have a go at programming. The Laxedit software can be downloaded free of charge from the Laxman website ( http://www.mylaxman.de/) and plays the audio even without a Laxman.

The supplied dual-language (English/German) manual looks the part with it’s crisp gloss white cover and contemporary typeset and design, and has useful content. The English is excellent, with only a few quirky turns of phrase from the translation.

I haven’t been able to lay my hands on a Hastens MindSpa, which I gather from the literature is probably the Laxman’s nearest peer, but I would say that these machines do a fine job of establishing the luxury end of the mind-machine market. As a designer accessory, and to impress the living daylights out of your guests, the Laxman is simply stunning. As an effective and enjoyable relaxation machine, the Laxman is simply stunning. As a tool for experimentation and research, not my first choice. I’d like to see a few improvements in MP3 player functionality and the manual mode changed so that it can be tweaked in real time, but these are changes that should be readily accomplished by firmware upgrade, so I’ll look forward to seeing what emerges as the product matures.

I love the Laxman. It’s the visuals that have really captivated me; everything else about it ranges from okay to perfectly fine, but the visuals have to be seen to be believed. As a complete package, I could see it gracing any boutique and it would be perfect in any dayspa. Expensive, but then, luxury goods are.

Cheers,
Craig

P.S. You’ll find a few more of my ramblings on the Laxman user forum.