Mindflex is a Mattel gadget that you hook up to your head to read your brainwaves: Among other uses, you can play with Mindflex by levitating and manipulating a foam ball.  Naturally, an $80 out-of-the-box brainwave reader is going to be like catnip to electrical engineering types, many of whom have hacked the Mindflex to suit their own ends.

The folks at Harcos Laboratories just may have come with the most devious use of Mindflex yet: they’ve hooked it up to an electroshock unit such that if you think too hard, you get zapped. Yes, that includes thinking about not thinking too hard.

Here’s how it works: the sensors recognize five different levels of brainwave activity. So long as you stay in the lower, alpha level of activity, you’re fine, but if you think your way into the orange zone, you get a mild jolt. If you intensely concentrate, you get a full-on shock.

Fortunately, Harcos’ business model is more geared towards energy drinks than towards sadism (including this mana potion), but if they ever decide to open up a really, really stringent yoga center, we think they’ve found their killer app.

(Harcos Labs via Hack a Day)