Overview: The Dreamachine created in the early 1960s by artist Brion Gysin and mathematician Ian Sommerville is possibly the most effective of all the brain-wave simulators, which can create hallucinations and induced visions, without the use of drugs. When Beatnik writer William S. Burroughs (Junkie, Naked Lunch) introduced it to a wider audience in the 1980s it became a phenomenon in the underground scene, and was re-introduced by Dr. David Woodard in the 1990s when he started re-creating the Dreamachines.

DVD Verdict: In truth, and for those that are not in the know, we should "paint a picture" of the man in question first: William S. Burroughs, one of the three seminal writers of the Beat Generation (the other two being his friends Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg), was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on February 5, 1914, to the son of the founder of the Burroughs Adding Machine Co. He grew up in patrician surroundings and attended private school in Los Alamos, New Mexico, chosen due to the climate as he suffered from sinus trouble (the school was later used to house the Manhattan Project during World War II)).

Burroughs took his undergraduate degree at Harvard College (Class of 1936) but rebelled inwardly against the life that the upper-class Harvard man was supposed to lead during the pre-war period (outwardly he dressed the part of a patrician, with three-piece suit, necktie, black homburg and chesterfield overcoat being his standard wardrobe. His political options generally were also of his class, i.e., right-wing).

Planning to become a physician, Burroughs moved to Germany to study medicine. The plight of the Jews under the Nazis was desperate, and in 1937 Burroughs agreed to marry Ilse Herzfeld Klapper, a German Jewish woman, so she could leave Germany and eventually become a U.S. citizen. The two remained friends for many years after they moved back to the U.S., meeting often for lunch when Burroughs eventually settled in New York City in the early 1940s. They never lived together, and Burroughs formally divorced her in 1946 so he could marry his second wife, Joan.

Perhaps it was his exposure to National Socialism in Adolf Hitler's Germany that raised Burroughs' interest in his lifelong fascination: control mechanisms used by the state against its citizens. Burroughs left Germany for the United States without completing his studies, bringing along Ilse.

The rest, including him being a homosexual in an extremely homophobic age, is history, as they say, but here in 'William S. Burroughs In The Dreamachine' we witness a fascinating documentary about the Dreamachine's invention in 1959 by poet Brion Gysin and mathematician Ian Sommerville. Possibly the most effective of all brainwave simulators, triggering mental aberrations that are comparable to drug intoxication or dreaming, writer William S. Burroughs (Naked Lunch) introduced the Dreamachine to a wider audience through interviews in the 1970s and '80s.

The idea of the machine became an counterculture sensation, but it wasn't until the mid-'80s, when David Woodard began fabricating Dreamachines, that it became a phenomenon. Watch this documentary today and you will never be the same person again! This is a Widescreen Presentation (1.85:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs and comes with the Special Features of:

Dr. David Woodward Dreamachine Installation (Freud Museum of Dreams, St. Petersberg, Russia 2007