Multimodal Ganzfeld Gives Mild Hallucinations
What is a Ganzfeld effect? The Ganzfeld (German for “complete/full field”) effect happens when the sensory system is steadily overloaded with a uniform signal. For example, a uniform, steady and all-encompassing soft light to the eyes will cause a “loss of vision”. This happens because, essentially, there is no change in the signal going to the brain, so the brain stops processing the signal.
The Ganzfeld is interesting because it is a simple, yet effective tool which provides a mild form of sensory deprivation. And sensory deprivation is interesting because the effects include hallucinations, relaxation and time distortion – it’s like turning on the screen saver in your brains.
Mild sensory deprivation through the Ganzfeld effect gives mild effects. The sensory deprivation effect can be deepened, but be advised that for prolonged total sensory deprivation there will also be some adverse effects, for example loss of identity, apathy and depression.
Anyway, to enhance the effect, the basic idea is to extend the Ganzfeld idea to other senses than vision. For example, you can use earphones with white noise sound for hearing, thick gloves on hands to prevent touch sensations, and so on. In such a multimodal Ganzfeld (MMGF), dreamlike, pseudo-hallucinatory images are frequently induced.
While trying out the Ganzfeld with a big blank wall in a darkened room, for a short period of time I saw myself in a snowy parking lot. After that I saw as if I was sitting on the ground at street level and people were walking by – I could see legs of people walking by.
Experimenting with the Ganzfeld Effect
A simple “Ganzfeld device” is easy to build; first, cut a uniform colour ping-pong ball in two. Make the cut slightly wavy to fit the eye socket better. File the sharp edges down a bit e.g. with a nail file. Now, place the ball halves over the eyes. Operating the device is likewise easy: while wearing the apparatus and keeping the eyes open, shine a light source at the ping-pong balls. The visual field should appear to be of an uniform colour and intensity. Stay still and just relax your eyes while staring at the uniform visual field.
You can also achieve a kind of Ganzfeld effect by staring at a stationary point for some time. The eyes should not move. Eventually the vision will begin to fade out, and will return once the eyes are moved enough. Starting to see an afterimage is a good sign, but it also means your eyes are moving. It may help to try to reduce the rate of blinking. Also, it might be easier to experiment with a large area of uniform colour, such as a wall.
Extending the Ganzfeld Effect to Do Basic Sensory Deprivation
If you want to block your aural senses, put earplugs into your ears, or play noise for example with a portable music player. To avoid background noises, e.g. traffic noises from outside, sports earphones which go inside the ears, or more expensive active noise cancellation earphones work well. If you use earplugs, you’ll be hearing a silent noise-like whoosh sound which is the sound of circulating blood – like music from your body.
Here are 60 second loopable clips of white, pink and brown noise for your experiments.
To block the touch sense of your hands, you can wear gloves, or cross the fingers of the left and right hands, or place the hands inside each other, and so on – find a configuration which feels comfortable. After some time, the hands will feel like a uniform warm mass and you cannot feel your individual fingers.
For some real sensory deprivation, you can check around if there’s a spa with a “sensory deprivation tank” in your area.
Uses of Ganzfeld
The Ganzfeld effect can be used in combination with other methods which do not require inputs from the senses. For instance, a Ganzfeld effect could be desireable during visualization or relaxation practices to reduce distractions and to deepen the state of visualization and relaxation.
Also, the mild hallucinations might be interesting to experiment with. Since it’s hard to command dreams to appear at will, Ganzfeld is a good alternative for gaining better access to your brain’s capabilities.
Do you believe this can be used to achieve other states such as slipping into a lucid dream (WILD technique) or OBE?
John, as for facilitating a lucid dream through wake-initiation, I would say yes, this technique can be beneficial.
However, learning to spot the transition towards sleep can be difficult. With an aural Ganzfeld (eyes closed, white noise in headphones) experiment late in the evening it seemed that nothing was happening, but then I got woken up because I had been snoring. I did not spot the transition to sleep and subjectively felt being “fully awake” all the time. I have to repeat it a few times to see if it’s reproduceable.
When doing MMGF experiments in a fully rested state (weekend, daytime) I have noticed that I do not fall asleep at all (at least not after around 20-25 minute sessions), so when aiming for a MILD it might be good to be a bit tired.
I don’t believe this information to be entirely accurate. The reason your eyes temporarily lose vision while staring at an object for a prolonged period of time, is due to retinal fatigue. Not the brain turning off you eyes.
The brain as computer ?
Vice versa: a computer is a very very very very very primitive brain
Read
GERALD EDELMAN Bright Air, Brilliant Fire
On the Matter of the Mind.
Nomad, thanks for the book link!
The computer reference points to the programmability (an aspect usually associated with computers) of the brain.
Not many people realize they indeed reprogram their brains on a small scale, every day. The main idea is to make this programming more controlled, more defined, and more accessible in order to let people achieve whatever goal they desire (and what is feasible and realistic) to obtain.
Have you tried any of this stuff? and what happened and how long did it take to happen?
To me it works like a slightly more powerful form of meditation. I find the hypnagogic state easier to achieve with this – that’s the point where you may get some mild hallucinations.
One time it felt like being at a sea, feeling the rocking motions and having an idea of the Sun shining at my face. One time I saw some “animal” (or some blob which I interpreted as an animal, like a small black rodent) from the corner of my eye.
As for time… I don’t know, 20 minute session should work, perhaps. It depends. Try it out, but don’t expect clear, crisp and fancy visuals like the ending scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey!
I found it to be quite de-stressing and rebooting for the mind. I felt my eyes relax to the fullest and my ears buzzed in a nice soothing vibration. I found that I could use my imagination to generate small scenarios (ex: being at a beach or flying on the back of an eagle) and tried to use my imagination to take a trip.
Def. something to be experimented with in combination of psychedelic mindstates through plants.
Interesting
[...] http://mindmodifications.com/2008/02/09/ganzfeld-effect/ [...]
I am very serious about my son snoring my snore at a very small age. I can’t understand what to do.
please help me.
To the snoring moron who spams this blog with snoring crap: why don’t you try stopping breathing… like forever, maybe it’ll help in your snoring.
Edit: I have removed the malware website link from the comment.
We are living in the machine age, but our brains are not machines. It’s time the machine model of nature was updated. The information on this site fits the model – but I don’t, neither does the natural world I see around me. The machines are taking over – it’s their age. What about us!
We need a new model of nature. Prigogine and Stengers suggested an excellent new scientific model for our times. Order out of Chaos: Man’s New Dialogue with Nature (Flamingo 1984) Page 22.
Two questions: Has anyone ever experimented with (full) body stimuli? Such as full body vibration, i.e. vibrating bed’s/chair massagers slipped between a bed mattress. Second question: Has anyone experimentd with simultaneously changin light hue, sound pitch, and any other variable to an opposing multi-modal? Such as (simultaneously) changing red to blue light, white to pink noise, etc.
So I pondered this situation more and came up with a couple more questions. First, is there any possability that you’re subconscience mind wouldn’t hold control of things like bowel movements or bladder control? And on that note (S.W.I.M) taking a journey on research chemicals(R.C.)/mutiple combonations of R.C’s. For example the combonation of MDMA with LSD harbors the chance of vomiting. Now mixed during a Ganzfeld sesion, will the body know to terminate session in the event of nausea? And on that note, does the primitive body know how to terinate the session in the event that it is too intense?
Also, is the session effective with things like layered sound pitch such as white noise with a bell tone on at the same time. If so, what are the effects? And if gloves on the hands equalizes the feeling of your hands, will a full body suite equalize the feeling of the entire body? Is there a chance of organ’s shutting down if this theory is correct?
This is a quite fascinating topic. I wonder if the lack of input to the brain through sensory deprivation may not activate other latent brain activity.Here I’m referring to both psychological and psychic phenomena. Could repressed memories surface as so called hallucinations? Could the visual dream-like images be actual remote viewing? Could it induce astral travel? I mean, has anyone done research regarding these possibilities? Just curious….
Marietta, as for research into remote viewing: I’m not sure if you knew this already, but during the Cold War (around 1972 to 1995) the CIA ran a program called “STAR GATE”. They researched into remote viewing for military intelligence purposes, but did not find conclusive evidence.
Some of the material is available, released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in the USA.
A nice summary is at Federation of American Scientists’ page. Wikipedia has also an article about STAR GATE.
By googling “CIA STAR GATE FOIA” you’ll find places which have some of the FOIA documents.
Although some people agree with Jessica Utts and interpret the STAR GATE program results as positive proof, the consensus is the opposite. Human beings are very good at matching patterns, and confirmation bias is sometimes easy to overlook (accepting/seeing things which match expectations). These facts can distort the results and analysis of the sessions, leading to “seeing things” (pardon the pun).
I’d agree with the memories-interpretation (repressed or not). My personal feeling is that the hallucinatory imagery seen during sensory deprivation is the same/similar thing as in meditation and dreams – something springing forth from our experiences, with the imagery triggered by an association of a memory with something currently in the unconscious, or a synthesis of an old memory and imagination to create something new.
Marietta, this post might also interest you.
Has this been tried using binaural beats instead of white noise? Or some kinds of drugs legal or not?
i did this with a couple of friends of mine. i saw some weird stuff… not like a full blown hallucinogenic trip, more like random images, feelings, and sounds that last for no more than a couple of seconds. to put it bluntly and simply, they were creepy.
I’ve done this twice, using white halved ping pong balls, loud white noise, and a sitting in a chair with a red lightbulb right in front of me. The first time it was like dreaming without sleeping and I was able to remember everything. I saw things like I was watching a movie, not actually participating.
The second time the effect was less pronounced, I noticed that half of my images were of things I had seen or heard throughout my life. I did however, have the most peculiar sensation that I was floating through space and that my hands were 20 feet away from my face. Very hard to describe.
I think the true worth of the Ganzfeld effect is that it allows your mind to wander, coming up with the most incredible and terrifying images. I find it useful for writing, because it allows you to be far more creative. I’ve never meditated, but I imagine it’s a lot like that.
I’m also pretty sure that your organs will not shut off.
This experiment can be done without supervision. I mean, can I “return” voluntarily if the experience is not pleasant? (Please, pardon my English)
if this effect as same as the “total black out effect” in scrying, which happen just before the vision appears, then this is totally real. when using black mirror for scrying, the same thing happen (i think so). gaze in to the mirror, everything you see vanishes and all you start to see is black, then vision appears. Any idea on this?
Francisco, you can quite easily return. In fact, it’s quite easy to “drop out” of that state. So don’t worry about it.
Natha, the Ganzfeld effect makes similar but more pronounced effects than the blackout you mention. Kind of like when daydreaming one might get a very clear visual picture of whatever imagery the mind produces.
The “blackout” as in scrying can be done with a mirror, but also by staring at any stationary object such that there is a high contrast between the object and background: a tall house against a clear summer sky, a lecturer standing at a lighted speaker-box, an object against a bright wall, etc.
In Ganzfeld you can get short glimpses of visual things which appear much more realistic. I don’t think they are blackouts as in scrying, as in Ganzfeld you won’t see anything in the first place so there’s not much to black out.
Also, in Ganzfeld it can be multimodal: you can experience motion at the corner of your eye, see pictures, hear sounds, and so on.
I think the mechanisms behind the blackout in scrying and the ones at play with Ganzfeld have the same neurophysiological basis.
I don’t have any rooms that get very dark, so I sat in my closet and put on my radio thing, put it on a station that didn’t come in and I put red paper of a desk lamp, everything was set up and I sat there for about 30 minutes a couple times I kinda zoned out but didn’t see anything… The most I felt was either on a roller coaster like doing flips and stuff or laying in the ocean… is there anything I should do to actually see things?
i wanna try this but i have a couple questions
does the red light need to be really intense?can there be no other lights? and how long is a good enough time to hallucinate really well?
Matt, the more uniform the light, the better.
Over 20 minutes is OK.
Note that you’re perhaps not going to get 2001 Space Odyssey end-scene visuals. It will be more subtle.
Ive jsut started looking into the Ganzfeld experiments and effects and i am very curious to how this could be linked into exploreing dreams and the mind itself. By what ive read sofar that the test works off a basic “set” lighting and sound. It seems that these seem to produce consistant results of basic hulicinations (shadows, fog, shapes)and some detailed visions of specific scenarios or things. I was wondering if these visions could be directed or infulenced on the outside. Say by adding subaudial sounds to change the mood of the person with out them knowing. or things of that nature.
Blade, interesting question.
I’d say yes, directing them from the outside is possible in general, in the sense that one can impact sensory stimuli. E.g. make a soft sound and the brain would most likely integrate this into the Ganzfeld experience in “some” way, perhaps by turning the sound into a flash of light, a change in flowing motion of the patterns seen, or just waking you up, etc.
The problem is how to control this association and direct it with enough detail. I would expect “coarse” and strongly associated stimuli to work. For example, if one were to e.g. play sea shore sounds it might take the visions to beaches, or to marine life, making you see a glimpse of a fish, and so on.
One could experiment by mixing the white noise audio with some soft sea-shore/beach sounds which appear after some time.
Or, one could, in some way, learn to associate a certain sound with a certain freely chosen place, and then play that sound during the experiment, with the idea that associations of that sound to the place would make the place appear in the visions.