Brain Tumbler Experiment

Brain Tumbler Experiment

Gallery

Theme

Brain Tumbler Experiment
Image shown during the credits.
Basic Information
Character	Razputin Aquato (Caravan Only) Coach Oleander (Hatching Grounds, Onwards)
Game	Psychonauts
Memory Vaults	Razputin's Getaway The World Shall Taste my Eggs!
Enemies found	Stamping Censors Shouting Censors Little Censors Personal Demons Monster Plant / Attack Vine Nightmare Lungfish
Boss enemy	Blueprint Brain Tank
PSI-Popper Generator teleportation points	Caravan Hatching Grounds
Amount of Figments	Total: 92 Caravan: 4 Hatching Grounds: 88
Amount of Mental Cobwebs	Total: 5 Caravan: 0 Hatching Grounds: 5
Upgrades found	Golden Helmet

“The Brain Tumbler Experiment is Raz’s own inner psyche, which Raz can access with the help of Sasha’s Brain Tumbler. It’s basically a gross, hideous mishmash of weird green organic things and lots of random hunks of meat. There’s also a white bunny which emanates pink hearts who leads Raz to a weird, twisted, thorny tower.”

–Character blurb from the Old Psychopedia.

The Brain Tumbler Experiment is the second level in Psychonauts, albeit this mental world allegedly belongs to Razputin. Its purpose is to foreshadow events that the young boy will have to face once havoc starts happening at Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp.

Description

“Sasha, I’m going inside the caravan.”

–Razputin Aquato.

The Brain Tumbler Experiment was the result of a test carried out on Razputin by Sasha Nein using the Brain Tumbler, a device in Agent Nein's lab that allows the subject to enter the Collective Unconscious, and visit already explored mental worlds, although, by that point Raz can only visit his own. This is done so Sasha can learn about Razputin’s abilities and current state of his psyche. However, the Brain Tumbler picked up on psychic interference in the form of Coach Oleander’s thoughts about his secret plan to take over the world, broadcast through the camp’s intercom.

As a result, most of this world has less to say about Raz and more about the plot; only exception is the starting area, a dark void with the Aquato’s caravan in the middle, while also cover in tons of mist (area which Raz frequents while learning new PSI-Powers with Ford Cruller with the more he levels up on his PSI Cadet Rank). Past the starting area, a dark winding path overgrown with plants; most of them thorny, some of them vicious and many made of meat, leads to a tall tower made of thorns that looks like it's wearing a straitjacket and is surrounded by more thorns. A colossal brain sits at the top, which has a dentist’s office inside where a vision of Dr. Caligosto Loboto performs surgery.

Down a chute where he puts extracted brains, there’s only a small room with a set of blueprints, which leads to yet another area made entirely of blueprint drawings. Because this world is made up mostly of temporary psychic interference, it most likely no longer exists beyond the end of Psychonauts.

Points of Interest

• Aquato Family Caravan: One of the few remnants of Raz psyche. A dark void surrounded in mist having as main feature the caravan where Razputin and his brothers have been raised. During the training with Ford Cruller, Raz spawns different elements related to his memories of the circus; a couple of tents to burn, clown trash cans to throw, circus hoops to calculate his TK throws and a wooden lion toy to lock his focus while burning stuff.
• The Hatching Grounds: Right after breaking free from the inside of an egg, Raz meets a small funny-looking bunny who the boy ends up calling Mr. Bun. The area consists of a lowered area and a tilted path with many unusual environment stuff.
• Nightmarish Meadow: Mostly an extensive path with many surreal elements such as: meat plants, skullish-looking mushrooms, rattlesnake bushes and some creepy looking Monster Plant. The ground is unevenness, having constantly to climb high grounds or descended to walk around. The place is nearly dark and outside of this paranoid landscape, from the sky, screaming faces can barely be distinguished.
  • S. S. Oblongata: Near the end, in the already surreal mental landscape, there’s a section with an empty bathtub titled "S. S. Oblongata". It’s stuck on a upper section of the environment and Raz must punch a rancid meat to liberate a gas that can use to float with Levitation.
  • The Tower: At the end of the meadow, an enormous tower made up of thorns that "wears" a straitjacket makes its presence. The top includes a laboratory with the shape of a brain and it is where the mental replica of Dr. Loboto does his evil bidding. Razputin needs levitation to float up on the gas coming off a rotten meat to reach the top of the tower. Through a chute, where the brains are dispensed, there’s a secret room upholstered with blueprints and on one of the halls, the blueprint of a war machine can be seen.
    • The Blueprints: The battlefield in which Razputin ends up being teleported thanks to the Blueprint Brain Tank, piloted by the brain of camper Dogen Boole. The area resembles a canyon, with its pillars although covered in blue and white chalk textures, orange arrows float above the battlefield pointing at various places and the sky features a couple of stars and a giant cardinal direction.

Foreshadowing

The many elements foreshadowed through this mental landscape.

As a result of having Razputin’s mental world messed up by Coach Oleander’s thoughts interfering. There are various elements that foreshadow upcoming events or character from later in the game. What’s follows is a list of all spotted foreshadowings and answers to why Oleander even knows about them:

• The bathtub itself in this game exclusively references the fact that Raz must cross Lake Oblongata to reach the Coach’s base of operations. While the figment of a fish underneath symbolizes Linda who’s been taking the route of the lake to go back and forth when capturing the campers.
  1. While in Psychonauts there’s no solid answer as to why a bathtub in Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin, the mental world of Dr. Loboto is presented as a enormous bathtub surrounded by curtains. Possibly, Coach Oleander read the doctor’s mind and came across a memory related to that object, either leaving him unease or just linking the object with Loboto to remember who the brains must be deliver to.
• The creepy tower made of thorns evidently symbolizes Thorney Towers Home for the Disturbed, the headquarters in a sense of Oleander for his evil bidding. Strangely enough, figments including milk bottles in a basket, a spike vine, a Napoleon hat, a bull and various brains with wings on them can be seen around this location.
  1. Either Oleander already knew about the place, or he decided to visit it to see if there was anything he could use to start with his plan. In the end, he meets the doctor and recruits him to concrete his plan for world domination. This lead to Oleander exploring more about the asylum.
  2. As expected, Oleander while exploring the abandoned insane asylum, came across the inmates that still resided there; possibly reading their minds or just observing their behaviours. This was done so he can choose which one would become the guardian of the entrance of the asylum. The figments as a whole references both the inmates and the brains of the campers which Razputin will have to retrieve and bring back to Ford Cruller in his sanctuary.
  3. The structure of the tower, the straijacket it wears and the way of reaching the top of the brain laboratory also foreshadows how Raz will have to get through the lower and upper floors of Thorney Towers while disguising himself to reach The Lab of Dr. Loboto.
• The Memory Vault "The World Shall Taste my Eggs!" in its entirety represents the plot. The eggshell is a head, the "chick" that hatches is a brain, the fish taking them to the amusement park is Linda taking them to the insane asylum, and the teacup is the Brain Tank.
• The environment supposedly is meant to represent a meadow, one which for some reason it has flora and funga composed of meat-like and skull-like elements. Also, for such a horrid place, it is inhabited by a cute tiny bunny.
  1. Of course, this meat and bone stuff is linked to the emotional scar Oleander carries from his childhood. An event where his best animal friend named Mr. Bun got slaughtered in front of him by an devious Butcher. Even before this mental world, there were some signs of this in Basic Braining
  2. The Dream Bunny is the mental replica of Oleander old animal friend, curious, since back at Basic Braining, during the Snowy Battlefield; Raz finds a lot of bunnies wearing soldier helmets.

As expected, most elements unravel the more the history advances, being the point where everything starts to connect the most once reaching the final level.

In Psychonauts

“Little boy, I am sorry to say that you have a very serious mental problem. The trouble originates in this area here, the area that we in the medical profession like to refer to as… …the brain. You see, son, it’s just no good!”

–Dr. Caligosto Loboto.

Immediately after completing Basic Braining, Razputin is approached by Sasha Nein, who suggests the boy come over to his lab for additional training. Once there, Sasha asks Raz to subject himself to the Brain Tumbler to explore the possibilities of his own mind.

Upon entering the door to his own mind through the Collective Unconscious, Raz finds himself in a dark clearing covered in thick fog, with a lone caravan sitting nearby. Raz identifies this caravan as belonging to his family: it's the place where he was born. Upon entering, however, static fills his view, and he soon realizes he's trapped in a tiny ball-shaped room made of static. Upon punching the static, the "walls" shatter, and Raz tumbles into a large bird's nest, having apparently "hatched" from an egg. The first thing Raz spots nearby is a small bunny-like creature that quickly scampers away. Raz decides to follow it. The bunny leads him to an open clearing, where a nightmarish monster with big glowing eyes lies in wait. Since the young PSI-cadet has not yet learned how to defend himself, Sasha immediately pulls him back into the real world just as the creature spits a diving helmet at him.

Raz learns Marksmanship from Sasha Nein by completing Sasha's Shooting Gallery, then returns to face the demon. However, after shooting just one PSI-Blast at it, the monster disappears. Raz continues to follow the bunny until he reaches the last clearing, past a giant bathtub marked "S.S. Oblongata". In the middle of the clearing a colossal tower made of thorns rises out of the fog. At the very top is a brain with a small round room inside, where Raz can clearly see Dogen strapped to a chair, threatened by a strange dentist intent on removing his brain. Raz climbs up as high as he can, only to be informed by Sasha that he can't reach the top without using Levitation, an ability he has not learned yet. Once again, Razputin leaves the experiment for additional training.

After learning how to levitate in Milla's Dance Party, Raz returns to the experiment once more. This time, he witnesses the dentist remove Dogen's brain and dump it into a garbage chute. The dentist then walks into the next room, revealing Lili is also strapped to a chair, and locks the door behind him. Raz enters into the lab and immediately jumps down the chute to follow Dogen's brain. He falls into a small square room with walls covered entirely in blueprints. Dogen's brain is within reach, but before he can grab it, a mechanized claw snatches it and drops it into one of the blueprints, where it animates the machine that's depicted: a sort of tank powered by psychic energy.

The brain tank fires at Raz, and the boy engages it in combat, ending up in an arena made up entirely of blueprints. Even when the tank portion is destroyed, the brain inside still puts up a fight by itself, but Razputin eventually gets the better of it. As he is thrown back by the explosion that occurs when it's defeated, he is transported through the blueprint to the hallway he found at the end of Basic Braining, and realizes the Brain Tank is a plot set up by Coach Oleander. Immediately afterwards, Sasha extracts him from the Brain Tumbler, but the agent rushes off on "important Psychonauts business" before Raz can tell him what he has uncovered.

Collectibles

Figments

The Brain Tumbler Experiment contains 92 figments, most of which are shaped like meat, bones, thorns, or relate in some way to the foreshadowing already present in the level. For a list of figments and their locations, see the unofficial Psychonauts figment guide.

Figments of Interest

• Underneath the tower, a pink bull figment, a basket of milk bottles, and a Napoleonic hat all reference the patients Raz will encounter at Thorney Towers. One figment shaped like a thorny vine might stand in for Gloria.

Emotional Baggage

• Dufflebag
  • Bag: On a platform next to the large spire with netting on it.
  • Tag: On the ledge near the second censor swarm.
• Hatbox
  • Bag: At the base of the thorn tower.
  • Tag: To the left after the fourth bunch of censors.
• Purse
  • Bag: Behind the big monster.
  • Tag: Behind the large egg at the start of the level.
• Steamer Trunk
  • ​Bag: On the high ledge after the big monster. Climb the tree to reach it.
  • Tag: Follow the bunny the bunny bath, after the egg is broken. The tag will be to the left.
• Suitcase
  • Bag: Located after the third censor swarm. Double jump to the ledge with the bag.
  • Tag: Located in the area before the third censor swarm.

Mental Cobwebs

1. In the area where the big monster was. The cobweb is behind a tree in the back.
2. Past the area where you get attacked my vendors. Using branches, swing to the large spire. Climb around the netting to reach the cobweb.
3. This cobweb is located off to the left against a wall after the fourth censor swarm.
4. The cobweb is behind a spire against a wall near the thorn tower.
5. Inside the massive bathtub next to a levitation stone.

Memory Vaults

• Razputin's Getaway - In the starting area around the Aquato Caravan.
• The World Shall Taste my Eggs! - In the area surrounding the tower of thorns.

The blueprints of the Brain Tank coming to life.

Enemies

• Blueprint Brain Tank (Boss)
• Censors
  • Little Censors
  • Shouting Censors
  • Stamping Censors
• Monster Plant / Attack Vine
• Nightmare Lungfish
• Personal Demons

NPCs

• Emotional Baggage
• Dogen Boole
• Dr. Caligosto Loboto
• Dream Bunny
• Memory Vaults
• Oatmeal (PSI-Popper Generator)

Trivia

• Brain Tumbler Experiment is among the levels with the most changes from its early iterations.
  • Screenshots, and a E3 trailer shows the area to originally feature a much brightly purple lightning, a fight with a dream version of Linda was intended to be here and the name of this mind was once called "Nightmare in the Brain Tumbler"
• Among the audio files for the Brain Tumbler Experiment a short sound bite from The Wizard of Oz exists; belonging to the Scarecrow when he sings and says the lyric "if I only had a brain", most likely put in as a joke.
• The Brain Tumbler Experiment level was inspired by the transformative works of Salvador Dali, who was quite fond of eggs. One of Dali’s painting techniques involved connecting two images with no rational connection to simulate a state of paranoia. Explaining as to why the features many surreal objects.
  • The Brain Tumbler Experiment level was also inspired by LucasArts adventure Zak McKraken and the Alien Mindbenders, which opens with a dream sequence in which Zak comes across a series of surreal objects.
• Inside the files from the Playstation 2 version of Psychonauts between some unused maps; one called "nila.plb" or translated as "Nightmare Lab" presents the original map where the Nightmare Lungfish was going to be fought. (Video showcasing the map).
  • This exact map is also shown multiple times in the E3 2002 trailer.
• The Brain Tumbler Experiment is the only mental world in Psychonauts 1 that doesn’t have an achievement.
  • And strangely enough the only mental world in the entire series to not have one. Since even the mental worlds for Hollis and Ford have their own separated achievements.
• Texture for Lili in a purple background and with her eyes closed exists inside the files. This matches with a statement of the E3 saying that Raz was intended to enter Lili’s mind revolving around the idea that her father was a butcher.
  • This could have been done mostly back then to avoid spoilers of the main antagonist, cause no other physical evidence exists to confirm this was originally the mental world of Lili.
• Razputin, Quentin and Lili are the only campers that have visited this mental world. So keeping in mind that, two of them managed to visit this place without using the Brain Tumbler, more than a mental world, this place is an unintentional and artificially made mental construct, caused by the interference of Oleander’s thoughts (both trauma and gathered info for his plan) while he was asleep on the camp’s intercom.