The experiment.

The experiment was originally slated to take place early in the first half of 2006, but problems concerning the storing of all the volunteers' information in one database delayed it until July. We had a large number of subject candidates, but the person we felt best suited to represent the average (American) human was a slightly overweight, middle-aged factory worker of average intelligence from northern Illinois.

As stated in the video's introduction, we were expecting abstract images and sound. Even these would be valuable, for with enough research and examination, these could potentially be deciphered and their subconscious meanings figured out.

What we got was in some ways simpler than this - on the surface. However, it actually presented an almost infinite amount of complexity underneath the easily recognizable human form in a pose most obviously one of defense or rejection.

When the video was first viewed, many involved were afraid that we had used too much reality-based imagery when gleaning information from the volunteers. It was theorized that a lack of attention to the abstract could be responsible for an inclination towards such familiar and real objects. A thorough (and time-consuming) examination of the database showed that, if anything, the abstract imagery heavily outweighed any familiar shapes. With an inclination towards the unrecognizable, the machine had spat out an image understandable to anyone but the blind.

The audio was a different story. There was a much more casual investigation of the sound database that revealed it being much more balanced than its sister database. Still, the video featured not even a second of music or speech - just strange tunes and pitches.

The video ends on a half-glitch. Only about three seconds of actual video have been cut from this (just more nothingness at the beginning - I was not able to obtain the full version, though it makes no real difference), but you can see our subject beginning to wake up as the figure's head moves around spastically and the reading/viewing program ended as he exited the "dreamworld".