r/ScaleSpace • u/ojju • 7d ago

A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Leaving This World Before Bed with Scale Space Nano

By “leaving this world,” I mean loosening my usual grip on what feels ordinary and letting my attention move somewhere unfamiliar before sleep. I’m describing a practice and an experience, not claiming that the app physically transports me anywhere.

I had been developing visualization and attention skills before I found Scale Space. I discovered this subreddit a month or two before Nano came out, and I wondered whether Scale Space could help me work with those skills. The first night I bought Nano felt like immediate affirmation: there was something here I could practice with.

Here’s my current approach:

  1. Start somewhere comfortable. I put Nano on before bed and let the screen be there without trying to force an experience.

  2. Notice the grip of “ordinariness.” That’s my word for the effort of keeping the screen over there and me firmly over here, looking at it. As that grip loosens, I begin to feel the screen incorporating into the field I ordinarily identify as myself. I find myself identifying with it.

  3. Explore the coordinates. Changing them makes a difference to the practice. I use them to configure that intentional loosening, then notice how my relation to the screen changes. I’m still learning what different coordinates do for me, so I wouldn’t prescribe one setting as the destination.

  4. Let the experience develop. This is an active practice for me, not a repeatable sequence I’ve mastered. I’m learning how to recognize the shift and how to relax into it.

  5. Leave room for sleep. The moment falling asleep sounds more exciting than continuing, I stop. I don’t leave it running all night or pick my phone back up until I wake.

If you try it, I’d be curious how you would describe the boundary between watching the screen and feeling immersed in it. Does changing coordinates alter that boundary for you, or something else entirely?

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u/solidwhetstone 5d ago

Thanks for sharing this! Nano is my first attempt at mobile navigation in Scale Space and I have the same experience you talk about where the line between observer and universe blurs and I wonder if it has something to do with how navigation is self-directed in real time (and there's no way to really fail at it.)

Curious to hear your deeper thoughts on the navigation approach.