MindPlace Kasina User manual

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Kasina:
Pali word meaning meditation upon an
object, often a colored object or bright light.
Congratulations! You now own one of the most
advanced personal audio/visual stimulation devices
available. To ensure the best experience, please take
a few moments to read this User Guide.
1. Carefully unpack your Kasina and its accessories.
The package includes:
Kasina Console
GanzFrame™ Multi-Color eyewear
Ear-bud Style Headphones
USB Cable
Power Supply
Stereo Patch Cable
Micro SD Card in Adaptor
Soft carry case
This User Guide
2. Please read the product standard and safety
statements on the front cover fold-out.
Note: The supplied GanzFrames are intended for
use with your EYES CLOSED.
3. It is advisable to charge the system for a few
hours before initial use. Plug the USB power supply
into the mini-USB socket on the top of the console.
4. Before turning your Kasina on, remove the MicroSD
card from the SD adapter and push it carefully,

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contacts facing up and towards the Kasina, into
the MicroSD slot at the bottom of the console.
You will feel slight spring pressure and then the
card will lock into place. You may need to use your
ngernail to lock it in place. To remove, ensure
your Kasina is turned off, then gently press the
MicroSD card so that it unlatches and springs out
sufciently to grasp.
5. Plug the GanzFrames into the socket to the right
of the MicroSD socket.
6. Plug the earbuds (or your own headphones) into the
socket to the left of the MicroSD socket.
7. You may now turn on your Kasina by pressing the
button on the top of the console for about two
seconds. The LCD will display four main icons
(Sessions, USB, Aux Audio, and Settings), as
well as smaller icons at the top for audio volume,
brightness, and battery charge level.

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HOW TO...
How to reset your Kasina
To reset all settings to factory defaults, turn the unit
on while holding the audio and light “-“ buttons, then
press the center ring when text appears on screen.
How to increase maximum volume level
Kasina ships with the maximum volume set to EU
standards to prevent hearing damage. If you are not in
Europe, want to use larger headphones, etc. you can
increase this in Settings/Audio/Max. Volume, use the
up and down keys then press the center ring to set.
Once done, the maximum volume level is indicated on
the volume meter by a red line.
Transfer les to your Kasina:
If you have an SD card slot in your computer, the
fastest way to transfer les is to remove the micro
SD card from the console, put it into the SD card
adapter, and copy directly into the folder of your
choice. You can also create your own folders on the
card. Alternately, you can connect via USB (select
USB on the main menu and press the mid-dle button;
the Kasina will appear on your Mac or PC as an
external drive). Just drag and drop les into the
appropriate folder. Note that les will transfer more
slowly using the USB connection.
File formats and conversion
Kasina currently supports only MP3 and WAV le
formats.
See the Kasina section of Mindplacesupport.com for
information about how to convert other formats to
MP3.

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PLAYING SESSIONS
From Memory Card
Use the Up/Down buttons to select [Sessions] and
press the central Select button. Notice that there
are several folders below “SD Card”. Use the Up/Down
buttons to select a folder and press the Select button
to view the tracks within, then scroll down to nd the
session you wish to play. Press the Select button to
start the session after the ten second countdown
timer appears, again to start immediately. During
the session, pressing the Select button once will
pause the session, keeping your place, while pressing
it again resumes the session. Pressing the Right
button during a session will cause it to fast-forward.
Once your session has ended, or while the session is
paused, use the Left button to navigate back to the
main menu.
Press or press-and-hold the buttons on the left
and right sides of the Kasina to adjust volume and
brightness. The bars on the top of the display indicate
the current volume and brightness levels.
From a Computer (USB Sound Device)
Connect the USB cable from the Kasina mini-USB
port to a USB socket on your computer. Select USB
Audio, and press the middle button. You can now
play tracks from iTunes, Windows Media Player etc.
through the Kasina. A small USB icon will appear
in the USB Audio bar at the top of the screen. In
some operating systems you may need to select the
Kasina as the default audio device and/or respond to
a message regarding the SD card (see the Kasina
section of www.mindplacesupport.com for further

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instructions). The Kasina will automatically recognize
whether the audio is encoded with AudioStrobe®
or SpectraStrobe™, displaying Mode Spectra/AS. If
your audio is encoded with neither, you can select the
ColorOrgan (CO), described later in this guide.
From a PC, iPod or MP3 player (Audio Device)
Connect the stereo patch cable to the Audio In
(AUX) socket and to the audio device headphone
jack. Select Line In and press the middle button,
then ‘play’ on your audio device.If your music doesn’t
have SpectraStrobe or AudioStrobe encoding, press
the Up button to select ColorOrgan.If AudioStrobe
is detected, the Down button cycles through the
ColorSets.
TROUBLESHOOTING AND SUPPORT
First, try turning the Kasina off (press the on/off
button for several seconds), unplugging the USB cable
and then turn it on again. Problems are often due
to discharged batteries or cables connected to the
wrong sockets. In the event of any problems, please
check all of your connections and, if necessary, place
your Kasina on charge for at least an hour and then
try again.
To reset all settings to factory defaults, turn the unit
on while holding the audio and light “-“ buttons, then
press the center ring when text appears on screen.
The MindPlace User Forum, a great place for answers
to questions and sharing experiences, as well as
manuals, tutorials, guides, downloads and other useful
material can be found on the MindPlace support site...
http://mindplacesupport.com/forum/

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DURING A SESSION
While a session is playing you will notice that the
active mode is displayed. You can toggle Mode
SpectraStr/AS by pressing the Up button. If you are
playing AudioStrobe content, then the Colorsets
govern the colors you see, and can be stepped
through by pressing the Down button.
BATTERY CONDITION
At the top right of the Kasina display you will see
the battery condition indicator. When connected to a
power source (AC power supply or PC USB port) the
indicator will repeatedly “ll” from right to left. When
using Kasina away from a power source, the indicator
will show approximate remaining charge.
SETTINGS
You generally won’t need to visit this menu very often,
instead using it to tweak various parameters. When
you select or change something, be sure to press the
Select button to save them. The options are:
Language
Use this menu to select which language is used
for the various Kasina menus. This does not affect
session names, which are in English.
General
Show File Extensions turns on or off the display of
lename extensions.
Play Countdown changes the default Play countdown.
Button Backlight changes the color of the LEDs under
the Control Pad.

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ADVANCED OPERATION
This section describes in detail all of the Kasina
settings, controls and features.
ENCODED AUDIO
SpectraStrobe
Kasina uses a new form of encoding, SpectraStrobe™
(SS) which is similar to AudioStrobe® (AS) but with
six light control signals instead of just two. This allows
full red, green and blue control for both the left and
right side of the glasses, synchronized with the audio
content. Files created with this format offer a much
richer and more subtle experience than does AS.
AudioStrobe
Your Kasina is also a great AS decoder that can map
the two AS signals onto any combination of red, green
and blue via the ColorSets. Some ColorSets slowly
change the color mapping during a session, creating a
more dynamic and complex experience. See inside back
cover fold-out for ColorSet details.
ColorOrgan
Just for fun there is also a ColorOrgan (CO) option
which works with any audio, this mapping low
frequencies onto blue, mid frequencies onto green, and
higher frequencies onto red.There are three intensity
levels (50%, 100%, 200%) and response rates (fast
and slow fall). CO works best with music that has a
beat, but can be quite interesting with other genres
– please experiment! To use it, simply select and start
the piece you want to play, then press the top key.
You should see Mode ColorOrgan on the LCD. Use the
bottom button to cycle through the six CO options.

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Power Management
Use this to select display ‘Display Backlight’ (1-7, 6 is
the default), ‘Display off timeout’ (default is ‘never’),
and ‘Device off timeout’ (default is ‘Never off’, but
consider setting it to a shorter period if there is a
chance you might fall asleep, etc.)
Visuals
Adjust the maximum brightness of each LED color,
both left and right. Default is 100% for all LEDs.
Audio
Adjust left/right balance, Line-in Level, AUX/INT Mix Vol
and Volume Max.
The Volume Max is preset to a safe hearing level. This
value is the highest volume that will be displayed on
the volume indicator.
KBS is another Kasina session type. See the KBS
reference information at www.mindplacesupport.com
for more details.
Service
This screen provides technical details about your
Kasina - you may be asked to provide some of these
details in the event that you require support.
Where to nd your Kasina serial number
In the Settings section, select Service. Your serial
number follows the letters SN.
CREATING KASINA SESSIONS
There are various software tools available for creating
your own Kasina sessions.
See www.mindplacesupport.com for further details
and downloads.

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Kasina micro-SD Card Contents
When you turn on your Kasina and select Sessions,
you’ll notice six numbered folders: SpectraStrobe.
AudioStrobe, KBS Sessions, Color Organ, Docs, and
KASINA. Though most of your sessions will reside in
the SpectraStrobe folder, there is some AudioStrobe
content in that folder, to help show off how well the
Kasina can decode that older technology using the
different ColorSets. The Docs folder includes the
Kasina Quickstart manual in a number of languages,
and some bonus software. The KASINA folder has
been prepared for use with Mind Workstation and
NeuroProgrammer software from Transparent
Corporation – please do not delete that folder or the
KasinaSD.id le found inside.
The KBS folder includes sessions in the Kasina Basic
Session format, as well as software for creating
such sessions quickly and easily. The les in the Music
section are not encoded and intended to demon-
strate the capabilities of the Color Organ.
Finally, the SpectraStrobe folder is divided into six
categories: Accelerate (energy, peak performance,
focus, etc.), Meditate (meditation and relaxation
training, mainly), Mind Art (experimental, visualization,
and some intended purely for consciousness-altering
enjoyment), Night Voyage (before bed, lucid dreaming),
Rejuvenate (sports recovery, after a long day in
the ofce, etc.) and nally, Trance (hypnagogia, the
fascinating region between sleep and wakefulness, also
used for Lozanov’s ‘Superlearning’ and some spiritual
practices).
These sessions include both simple and complex

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designs. Simple sessions may include gentle nature
sounds, binaural beats and the like as audio content,
with frequencies ramping towards a specic target,
much like conventional mind machines. Complex
sessions may include ambient electronic backgrounds
or more complex compositions, with sometimes very
sophisticated control of the lights and resulting visual
effects.
Where should you start? If you want to quickly get
a sense of what the Kasina is capable of, try A
Starlit Night or Patternity, in the Mind Art category.
Biomarkers (Rejuvenate) is another great place to
start… the frequencies encoded are designed to help
guide you towards slowing your breath and heart
rates into desirable ‘coherent’ ranges - 5 breaths per
minute, and 60 bpm heart rate. Red is heart rate,
blue is breath.
We hope you thoroughly enjoy these sessions, and nd
them benecial. The Kasina is a work in progress, and
you’ll nd additional free content as well as innovative,
inexpensive tracks for sale; be sure to visit www.
mindplacesupport.com and especially the Forums
there for the latest information and discussions about
how to get the most out of your Kasina.
Bon voyage!
www.mindplace.com
www.mindplacesupport.com
www.youtube.com/user/TheMindplace
www.soundcloud.com/Mindplace
www.facebook.com/Mindplace

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Name Category Length
Before Learning Accelerate 12:00
Designed for use before class, studies, this starts at 9 Hz and targets
4.5, 7.83, 11.25, and 18 Hz.
Cheer Up Accelerate 35:00
Starting at an alert 12 Hz, Cheer Up steps up to a vigorous 35 Hz be-
fore makings its way back to a calm 10 Hz.
Create Accelerate 25:00
This session moves between 7, 14 and 10 Hz, and is intended to en-
courage novel thoughts from the subconscious to emerge for con-
scious consideration.
Energize Accelerate 20:00
Stepping up from 15 Hz to 30 Hz, Energize promotes alertness and
vigor. Not recommended before sleep.
Focus Accelerate 30:00
Repeatedly ramps between 12 and 16 Hz, minimizing tendency to be
distracted and promoting a flexible working state.
Wake Accelerate 20:00
18 Hz throughout, you many not need coffee or tea after this session.
Not recommended before sleep.

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Name Category Length
Everglade Meditate 20:00
A spring morning with gentle rain… time is suspended in this peaceful,
calming session. Mostly low to mid range light frequencies to pro-
mote calm clarity.
Forest and River Meditate 16:00
Another peaceful backdrop of nature, in another locale. Frequencies
start at 14 Hz and end at 4 Hz for deeper relaxation. Into meditation.
Meditate Meditate 50:00
Starting at a relaxed 10 Hz, Meditate reaches the target of 2 Hz after
15 minutes. A few minutes at 6 Hz on the way down provides a useful
intermediate step on the path to a deeply meditative state.
Relax Meditate 25:00
From an alert 13 Hz this session steps down to a calm 10 Hz. Left and
right sides are stimulated at slightly different frequencies to help the
mind let go of nuisance thoughts.
Relax More Meditate 40:00
Similar to Relax but longer and with a target of 5 Hz, suited to deeper
relaxation or contemplation.
Relaxation with Wind-
chimes Meditate 15:00
The peaceful sounds of wind-chimes on a peaceful Summer after-
noon. This session starts at 12 Hz and leaves you at a deep 2.5 Hz.

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Name Category Length
Touch of Silence Meditate 14:36
Peaceful sounds of Tibetan bowls and minimalist piano sets a calming
ambience; lights start at 10 Hz and descent to 6.25 Hz.
A Starlit Night Mind Art 15:00
This entrancing, ambient soundtrack and complex visual encoding
evokes a clear, Moonless Summer’s night, with shooting stars tracing
patterns in the sky.
Astroturf Mind Art 10:00
Slow, shimmering washes of color accent this deeply reflective ambi-
ent soundtrack. This track would live equally well in the ‘meditate’
category.
Cascade Mind Art 11:28
Subtle, slowly shifting and sometimes hopping light patterns are inter-
woven with nature sounds and underlying evocative audio tapestries.
Dreamy Sax Mind Art 17:09
This session is based on a music piece of soothing synth chords with a bluesy
and dreamy saxophone solo. Light patterns are synchronized with the change
of the synth chords. The frequencies range between 10 Hz and 3 Hz while the
light colors shift between a pastel orange and green.
EcoSync Mind Art 20:00
Another peaceful audio ecosystem, this time with light patterns syn-
chronized with the sounds of nature.

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Name Category Length
Patternity Mind Art 20:00
Rich synthesizer textures combine with lush visual effects to create a
dreamy, slightly surreal and entrancing mind-scape.
Phobos Mind Art 6:00
Your spacecraft has just arrived in orbit around Mars, and the crea-
tures living inside Phobos have started communicating with you using
sound and light...
Sanguine Mind Art 10:00
A mysterious journey into a subterranean realm, lit only by shifting,
multi-colored strobe candles… what is that sound coming from the
next cavern?
Soliton Mind Art 12:03
A gently meandering excursion towards something Deeper. Emphasis
on slower frequencies, softer visuals.
Space Trace Mind Art 15:00
You are exploring a methane ocean on a distant planet, and marveling
at the life-forms you are finding and hearing there...
Spectra Mind Art 20:00
Gazing into a gently flickering camp-fire, you become lost in fantasy,
and pass through a portal into a realm of magic.

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Name Category Length
Stagecraft Mind Art 20:00
Gazing out across a land never before seen, you feel yourself lifting off
the ground, gently riding the currents, always safe and amazed.
Trainspot Mind Art 7:02
Variation on a simple EcoSync system. The sound of low rumbling
subway train or trip on a space probe lulls you into meditative mind-
set.
Weaver Mind Art 12:00
Tribal audio art with a strong influence from ambient masters. Spec-
traStrobe rhythms paint a potent tapestry.
Yonder Mind Art 20:00
The depths of consciousness beacon in a floating flotsam of synth
washes. Allow the times and troubles to melt far, far away. Out yon-
der.
Dream Night Voyage 1:00:00
Dream is a sleep session with intermittent bursts of higher frequency
stimulation intended to evoke REM activity and dfreams.
Night Shift Night Voyage 45:00
This incorporates an evolving nature-soundscape (from day to night)
and the light colors change from yellow over green and blue to violet
over time. Starting at 12 Hz, this ramps to 3.5 Hz with plateaus at 10
Hz, 7.83 Hz and finally 3.5 Hz.

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Name Category Length
Rest Night Voyage 30:00
Very slow and subtle modulations of light and sound, intended to
quiet your mind before sleep.
Sleep Night Voyage 1:00:00
A gradual descent from 10 Hz, pausing at 6 Hz before continuing to
very slow modulations. Low key audio modulations over a pleasant
pink noise background.
Soliton Night Voyage 12:03
Lush, slow filter sweeps and modulations prepare you for some inter-
esting dreams...
Submerge-level I Night Voyage 30:00
This session winds slowly down to 4 Hz, with soothing visual modula-
tions overlaying the sounds of water in motion.
Biomarkers Rejuvenate 10:00
The frequencies encoded in Biomarkers are designed to help guide
you towards slowing your breath and heart rates into desirable
‘coherent’ ranges - 5 breaths per minute, and 60 bpm heart rate. Red
is heart rate, blue is breath; practice breathing with the blue.
Center Rejuvenate 30:00
Working down from an alert 13 Hz to the Schumann frequency of 7.83
Hz, Center helps you put aside your immediate concerns and enter a
period of quiet contemplation and rejuvenation.

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Name Category Length
Clear Your Mind Rejuvenate 16:00
Frequent hops between slower and higher frequencies, together with
the relaxing sounds of Tibetan bowls to help restore your mental en-
ergy. Starts at 12.8 Hz and ends at 13.5 Hz.
Deep Rejuvenation Rejuvenate 24:00
With a starting frequency of 8.5 Hz and a target of just 1.45 Hz, and
accompanied by binaural beats and modulations, Deep Rejuvenation
can take you to a very peaceful, restorative mind-state.
Eddies Rejuvenate 12:30
Floating down a meandering stream, visuals are mostly gentle blues
and greens.
Fantasy Rejuvenate 5:30
This brief session highlights the 7.83 Hz Schumann Resonance, with
gentle sounds of frame drum and gamelan.
Overtone Universe Rejuvenate 11:04
Sounds of peaceful overtone singing accent and augment the flicker-
ing light, descending from 12 Hz to 7.83 Hz.
Alphabet Trance 20:00
This session was designed to gently guide you towards hypnagogia,
that magical half-dream, half-awake state sought after by many ex-
plorers of deep states of consciousness.

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Name Category Length
BowlScape Trance 15:20
Mysterious, deep resonances of large Tibetan singing bowls permeate
a night-world of mainly blues and greens.
Meditation with Sha-
man Drum Trance 19:55
Hypnotic sounds of a Shaman’s drum and binaural beats augment
both synchronous and left-right stimulation, starting at 22 Hz and
taking you all the way down to 2.2 Hz.
Vapor-Chill Trance 20:00
Is this the sound of a November wind that never stops, or a 20 minute
long out-breath? You decide. Lights start at 10 Hz and gradually,
gently leave you at 7 Hz.
Zodiac Trance 20:06
This will take you even deeper than Vapor-Chill, as the slowly shifting
drone-structures and beat frequencies lead to towards the edge of
sleep.
Be sure to visit www.soundcloud.com/mindplace for additional free
SpectraStrobe and AudioStrobe sessions, and
www.mindplacesupport.com for the latest information and updates
for your Kasina!

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