Project: Overclock

Tools and equipment to get the job done.
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Psychlonic
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Project: Overclock

Post by Psychlonic » Fri Nov 06, 2015 12:11 am

First let's get this out of the way: this experiment carries far less weight than Euryphaessa and I'd say it's so unnecessary that nobody needs to do this. However, because I'm interested in the technology for other purposes and night ops is just a fun way to add to the experiments...

Overclock is an upcoming attempt to increase neural plasticity and focus using nootropics (smart drugs) and tDCS - transcranial Direct Current Stimulation. Any ideas for testing these is welcome and I will be reporting on the successes as they come. I've got a tDCS kit on the way along with a few selected nootropics and supplements for some "proven" stacks. Stacks in the nootropic meaning are various supplements that work together in a positive way. Some reports state that a complete calm state can be achieved using the right combos even in high pressure situations. Although this has never proven to be a problem for me I wonder if I can still be improved on at the mental level. I do not intend to make nootropics or tDCS a regular part of my life, just want to test ideas and possibly find proven combinations for those occasions in life that might warrant them.

Results as they come, stay tuned.
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Re: Project: Overclock

Post by Xanatos » Fri Nov 06, 2015 8:17 am

Well, this sounds interesting. How does it work? Do you wear a helmet of some sort (like a typical soldier) to alter brain functions? And does it just reduce stress levels or does it improve cognition & brain power in some way?
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Re: Project: Overclock

Post by Psychlonic » Fri Nov 06, 2015 7:10 pm

It's more of a therapy, you place free electrodes attached with banana clips such as to target specific areas of the brain and generally people hold them in place with a headband. Typically this is done for half an hour at 2 milliamps and the effect lasts for a decent time afterward. So you wouldn't necessarily need to use the device while out trying to perform your task you'd do this afterward. The supposed idea is that this doesn't directly fire neurons in the brain but rather improve the conditions for them to fire like pressure systems creating an electrical storm (as a shitty comparison) thus increasing the rate of firing. It's a very low current and you're definitely not shocking your brain, brute forcing it into working in a specific manner. Beyond that I'll have to see for myself what works - if anything - and what doesn't.
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Re: Project: Overclock

Post by Psychlonic » Wed Nov 18, 2015 3:29 pm

Been into this for about a week and a half now with a variety of combinations and results I'll be posting soon. Currently I've only been using nootropics and results have been a mixed bag. I'll cut the shit and TL/DR it for you: It's probably not worth your money. However, there are some slight gains in areas and some other major alterations I think are responsible for these persisting in the market. One combination for example, I've taken to thinking of as "sociopath in a bottle".

I'll report more soon and after the tDCS device arrives.
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Re: Project: Overclock

Post by Xanatos » Wed Nov 18, 2015 7:44 pm

"Sociopath in a bottle"? That's some Dr. Evil shit right there.
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Re: Project: Overclock

Post by Psychlonic » Wed Dec 23, 2015 7:16 am

Testing has come to a close, for the past week now I've been analyzing myself further after halting all stacks and tDCS therapies. Impressions of the testing to come soon, but for right now I can say that they turned out far more impressive than I had figured they would in the beginning.
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Re: Project: Overclock

Post by Xanatos » Wed Dec 23, 2015 11:05 am

Looking forward to analysis.
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Re: Project: Overclock

Post by Lynx » Thu Dec 24, 2015 9:07 pm

This sounds interesting. Any early christmas presents headed our way?
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Re: Project: Overclock

Post by Psychlonic » Fri Dec 25, 2015 1:39 am

Well, :) It's not that I wouldn't be willing to write out the report, I just want to carefully analyze my own thoughts and behavioral patterns longer before hastily writing anything based on fleeting thoughts. But for now, between this and the night vision it's a pretty weird sensation returning to normal. It's probably funny to read without any experience in the matter, but I always think to myself I feel like my wings have been clipped in comparison to how I was just a few weeks ago.
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Re: Project: Overclock

Post by Xanatos » Fri Dec 25, 2015 6:25 am

Bird of Hermes...
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Re: Project: Overclock

Post by Absent » Mon Dec 28, 2015 8:48 am

I experimented with a number of nootropics for a while. Pretty much most stuff people said could help cognition. I was not diligent enough to get anything resembling scientific results. I ended up concluding that, even if some of them did improve cognition (which I couldn't find any studies to back up), they didn't improve motivation which was (and is) my primary area of focus. Some days I thought they did, but it wasn't consistent enough for me to keep going. Essentially, I just turned to amphetamines. My primary disappointment with them was the inconsistent results from day to day.

Imho, getting an accurate analysis would require some sort of pre-planned tracking system. Subjectively I was all over the place with my analysis. Here's some of my analysis if anyone is bored: https://forums.darknedgy.net/viewtopic.php?id=2766

and another one:
https://forums.darknedgy.net/viewtopic.php?id=845

The analysis is almost certainly useless. If I were to redo that "trial" I would be way more consistent and take a daily log for 2 weeks before and then consistently up to a month afterward. It's all very subjective and incredibly subject to bias and placebo, imho. If I had to guess I'd say I *did* get something out of them, but it was never enough for me to consistently use them and keep buying them. Prami (which is supposed to be very strong) actually made me pretty bland, emotionally. Even reduced motivation imo. Even if it has significant cognitive positives, I couldn't get myself to do shit on it so it wasn't useful. Imo the only thing piracetam alone ever did for me was reduce sleep-loss fatigue and act as a neuro-protectant.. Maybe very slight improvements in writing fluidity. Like I could come up with words faster. Other than that, I couldn't notice anything changing emotionally.


Maybe I'll give it another, more-scientific go. I haven't tried any of the newer harder to find ampakines. Maybe I'll dip into those, too.

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Re: Project: Overclock

Post by Psychlonic » Thu Feb 11, 2016 4:19 am

Time for a long overdue report, the delay caused mostly by jumping into a secondary experiment afterward but with goals straying far outside of our forum here.

My ultimate overclock stack became as follows:
600mg Alpha-GPC (Choline)
20mg Noopept
1600mg Piracetam
500mg Ginkgo Biloba
200mg Magnesium
200mg Theanine
100mg Caffeine
50mg Zinc

This was taken every morning. In addition to this stack, 2mA of trans-cranial direct current stimulation was performed every other evening in the DARPA "focus" montage for one half-hour.

As you can see I was slamming a pharmacy every morning. Diet was unchanged - I typically consume a high calorie, high protein diet with plenty of fruits, vegetables, and tea. I do cheat occasionally and eat processed junk.

The stack has pros and cons. On the upside, my social wit had improved dramatically. I can already be dry and sarcastic so this got cranked up to max because things just popped up instantly. This brings me to another point. Wit goes up but inhibition just falls straight off. Usually those smart ass comments would simply roll off my tongue. I noticed a bit of an attitude change on the stack that was hard to adjust to at first. My brain almost becomes too snappy and I become very impatient with what I perceive as ineptitude, incompetence, or just general stupidity.

Years ago, we had discussed operation simulation in your own head and I've touched on the subject in my guide as well. Basically, you slowly play out the operation in your head, like a daydream. You include every detail and do not "warp" ahead to new points. On the stack, this became very fluid for any thoughts detailing out an idea, trip, etc. Scenarios flowed naturally, quickly, and in large quantity until I quickly whittled them down to what I perceived to be my top options. From time to time, I noticed this could get out of control. Not necessarily in a bad way, but unintentional. An idea would rise in my mind and I'd instantly begin to analyze it and come up with ways to accomplish that. Even if it was what would normally be a passing thought, instead I would elaborate on it. Sometimes, this merged with my impatience and I would auto-plot nefarious ideas that would come up out of the blue. The urge itself may not have even been serious (although, more on this below) but the rapid plotting became a regular habit.

Physically, I had some help setting up reflex tests. In one, I would stand in front of a shelf of objects, unable to see the person behind it. This person would then push a random object or even more than one, and my goal was to catch the object/s before they hit the ground. Following suit with removing my smart ass filter, so too did the stack seem to override the thinking process in this particular matter. To say I'd be holding an object and wondering what happened after is a bit of an overstatement here, but I none the less acted much quicker than I could think about what was going on. We also set up tennis balls attached by paracord to a large tree and had them all set into motion with the goal of me dodging each tennis ball. This again seemed to produce quick reactions from myself.

I should add that I haven't been able to replicate these tests off of the stack yet. As a percentage of failure, I'd be interested in seeing how many objects I fumble on the shelf test now in particular.

tDCS definitely focused me on any subject I set in front of myself. This proved handy in watching some videos and practicing some ideas I'd never really been able to sit through before. While I can't tell you which had the larger impact between this and the stack, I CAN say that the urge to go to something else was never there during this time. I always learned attentively, stopping and practicing what I had seen at regular intervals. I feel this could be a very legitimate learning aid for operators here unable to stick with such things as lock picking, alarm fundamentals, and other seemingly difficult learning materials. Note that most of my learning materials were NOT night ops related although a few were. tDCS became something I started looking forward to because I began to embrace the fact that while I was under its influence, I could most effectively learn materials I've been wanting to learn.

Memory for me seemed to remain mostly the same although I functioned a little better than normal if I was slightly sleep deprived. I'd say this can provide an emergency boost but isn't going to take you beyond your natural abilities in this respect, but your brain works different than mine so who knows?


Now I'd like to discuss some downsides and failures of this experiment.

My most immediate memory is of high piracetam dosage without sufficient (or any) choline supplementation. This made me personally very irritable and I had zero patience for most people. Thoughts became pretty violent and I'd spend lengths of time simultaneously working as normal and "watching" them die multiple deaths. I was also taking the 50mg of zinc, and my hypothesis here is that my already considerably high testosterone boosted even higher and became "enabled" by the piracetam giving me a constant sense of superiority over everyone else. The worst was that I admittedly loved the feeling in a sick way but quickly halted the process. I have a normal life to live and cannot go around thinking the way I was on that combination!

While we're here, let's discuss that testosterone and violence. Both are kind of part of my physiological and old psychological make up and I have no doubt this has an impact on my test results. I highly, highly doubt most users would experience the same mood alterations as I did, and this could even lead to other interesting possibilities and avenues for learning or socializing. I would like to add that much of my life once focused on controlling myself so the fact that was overrode was, to me, very interesting.

Noopept by itself or with lowered choline doses seemed really hit and miss. I think this was what removed my social filter because I retained that quick wit on noopept only but noticed sometimes things would slip my mind that hadn't before. Other than that, the results here were nothing worth writing about.

At one point, I actually switched from the capsule of theanine and caffeine to good quality matcha tea instead. The pill gave me a weird sensation of having tons of energy and focus but a strange chilled/numb feeling inside. Probably psychological, but I switched anyway and had better results with the tea. I enjoy drinking tea anyhow so got plenty from this method.

Shortly before the experiment, I tried to use zinc, ginkgo, and magnesium together with regular bagged green tea to see if anything happened while I waited on my nootropics to arrive in the mail. Without the tea, I noticed little to no effect from the other items however the zinc would presumably take some time to boost testosterone. I would assume the boost with caffeine would make me considerably more energetic overall, if not risking being temperamental again. To say nothing of the two with piracetam and no other supplements!

Another strange side-effect on the whole stack was my dream cycle. I had some of the most vivid, abstract dreams of my life. They were very intense and I remember a lot of them even now. This can be good or bad depending on how you dream and how you handle them. I enjoy all of my dreams and think of them as another life of mine, so the increased intensity was only a good thing.

Coming down off the stack left me feeling depressed for a couple of days after. I felt tired and sad for no real reason. I mostly did nothing in my free time, going through the motions just to get daily tasks completed. This did pass though, but the awareness that I was just a little more dull than while I was on the stack remained. I consider myself driven and motivated, but being on the stack cranked that up to max. I really enjoyed the experience overall and have carried it along with a more physiologically oriented "stack" into today where I'm working to really maximize my creative and productive potentials.
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Re: Project: Overclock

Post by Psychlonic » Thu Feb 11, 2016 4:19 am

One last thing for a fun read :) The origin of this test. Or, Psychlonic gets high as a kite and flies through the "Sky Ocean".

Back in the summer of last year, I was already interested in the idea of altering the mind to suit practical situations better. My goal then was to inhibit emotion and become cold-blooded in the interest of accomplishing anything, anything if the need were dire. Eventually I settled on DXM - dextromethorphan. This stuff had always scared the shit out of me, I had kept a large bottle full of pure DXM syrup but never had the balls to use it for fear my heart would explode. I'd be that unlucky bastard that died. And this is very relevant as you'll read soon.

So I learned that a dose of 100mg or slightly less would put me into the low 1st plateau. This should avoid most of the more obvious side effects - basically, getting high was failure I only wanted mood alteration but otherwise be able to function. I dosed out what should have been 100mg DXM content of syrup on a day where the sun was red from smoke and poured it into a goblet for laughs. Before the sun could return to normal I downed the goblet. Utterly disgusting of course, but the elaboration in setup focused my mind in ignoring the taste almost completely. After half an hour, my mind sharped up considerably. Success! My mind felt very focused and as though I was ready for anything. I walked around outside for a bit and let this feeling set in a bit. When I came back inside. I began to feel a little light headed.

And that's where I fell down the fucking rabbit hole. Soon, parts of my body felt like they were on fire. If you've ever been high on DXM you'll find this hilarious but I certainly did not! In my mind, everything was carefully calculated but I was still feeling bad, something went horribly wrong. The burning feeling consumed every part of me until I could feel a numbness rising up from my core to my head. "This is it." I thought to myself. "I'm going to die. I fucked up somehow." I thought about calling 911. Anyone. I felt my mortality hit me in the face. I truly expected to die then and there. But I didn't. I dragged myself to my computer and contacted a friend who used to be heavily into drugs and explained my situation. I could still function ok, I just felt like I was dying. She laughed and told me I'd be fine, just drink lots of water.

I spent the next half hour feeling like I was resurrected over and over from dying, not knowing what was going on. I'm pretty sure psychologically mock executions have nothing on this experience. It was living hell. Eventually, I realized what was happening. Then the tables turned. I realized that if I imagined something, it "became real", at least in my own head. I felt like a fucking wizard. I told you I was high! I was bending my own reality when at some point I closed my eyes and saw this incredible thing. It was like a glowing ocean, turbulent and beautiful. A horizon of bright white light, and the sky was another ocean just like the one below - inverted. An ocean in the sky. I was racing for the horizon. Was I dying after all? I opened my eyes after the thought. Not yet.

The next couple of hours were spent in the dark just toying with the images in my head. Truly amazing, like a gateway to the subconscious. Whereas something like DMT is a drug of the light, something visual, DXM is like the drug of the darkness. It's all internal. I passed out some time later and woke up to a world flash framing like a game with shitty FPS lag. It took 4 days to fully recover and during that time I tried to unravel what the fuck had happened. Needless to say the experiment was a complete failure, and I estimate that I was deep into the third plateau somehow. I still have no idea what went wrong but in retrospect I have an idea and I should have known better. The syrup was quite old - about 3 years - and I had smoked tobacco from my pipe earlier in the day. This probably combo'd into my repeated death experiences and subsequent roleplay as God.

To tell the truth, it was quite the psychological fuck over dying over and over - even if it wasn't real I felt very fucking real to me. And for all I know maybe I did nearly die. Fortunately, I walked away and with the mindset of lessons learned rather than letting it simply scar up and change me.
Last edited by Psychlonic on Sun Feb 28, 2016 8:01 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Project: Overclock

Post by Xanatos » Thu Feb 11, 2016 6:38 am

Wow. I'm... not even sure where to begin. How close to your goal did you get? Seemed like it worked at the start; try a lighter dose maybe? Even dampen the experience with some other drugs? Not sure how far you want to experiment with this.
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Re: Project: Overclock

Post by Psychlonic » Thu Feb 11, 2016 6:57 am

The second post was a summer experiment. I axed DXM afterward as being too unsuitable even after smaller doses. The stack + tDCS was successful IMO and certainly improved enough things by a noticeable margin that I'm actually back on that today along with the physical regimen and some other lifestyle changes.
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Re: Project: Overclock

Post by Absent » Sun Feb 28, 2016 3:13 am

For what it's worth, I mix 375mg of Oxiracetam and 375mg of aniracetam + 400mg of CDP Choline, and I've had noticeable benefits in the classroom.
Helps me focus while sleep deprived. Adding caffeine really brings out the effect even more, too, because it reduces fatigue and tiredness. Big difference,
subjectively, between just caffeine and caffeine + supplements. Could be placebo, doubt it. Even when I sleep well, taking the supplements helps me focus
in class and pick up more information, at least that's what it feels like. It took several tries to get a good dosage, too high of a dose had an adverse effect (kind of a
weird state where I felt a bit scatterbrained / borderline tired / out of it.) Staying hydrated on this stuff is important as it can be dehydrating.

I made a questionnaire to fill out based on the standard drug effects questionnaire, and filled it out a few times, but didn't do it consistently (as usual I'm lazy), so no useful long term data to draw on. So far with the new dosage, it's been almost a month, and it hasn't failed to work, whereas before it was real hit and miss with the higher dosages or just one drug alone. There are studies that say ani and oxi work differently on choline receptors or whatever, and they potentate each other when taken togeather.

I'm going to add nicotine (via patches) to the mix as well. It's literally the strongest nootropic known to man and raises IQ by ~15 points, but the stigma has kept people away from it. It's not nearly as addictive when taken alone as it is in tobacco, as MAOI's in tobacco double up on addiction and cigarette companies engineer them to make it even more addictive. Alone, it's comparable to caffeine imho, based on the research I've studied. YMMV. Note that oxiracetam has a study in mice that says oxiracetam and nicotine, and aniracetam and nicotine, also potentiate nicotine affects, whereas memory works better with both, than either of the effects of them taken alone combined. Am excited to try it out during a study session.

Questionairre if anyone wants it:

http://darknedgy.net/files/nootropic_trial.pdf

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Re: Project: Overclock

Post by Psychlonic » Sun Feb 28, 2016 8:07 am

Thanks for the added input, the part about hydration is definitely true. I consume probably double the electrolytes I normally do when on nootropics, I find coconut water is a huge asset for me since it seems to hydrate so well.

That's interesting about nicotine, I'd read that in some stacks and it makes sense being a strange, underrated drug that does several things at once. I enjoy a pipe of tobacco from time to time and did so while on my stack but it's hard to measure precisely how much absorbs through my mouth/what makes it into my lungs and the synergy it had, but I've always smoked a bowl when concentrating on something important at home since, if nothing else, the act of smoking itself has always been relaxing.
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