Hack your brain: How to hallucinate with ping-pong balls and a radio

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/graphics/011109_hacking_your_brain/

by makimaki • 18 years ago

116 37 18 years ago

eru• 18 years ago

I tend to hallucinate (mostly classical) music when I am about to fall asleep.

river_styx• 18 years ago

This happens to me as well. Sometimes I also hear random disconnected sounds: a bell, pots clanging, voices, etc. There have been many nights where I've actually struggled to sleep through all the cacophony.

yan• 18 years ago

In "Surely you're joking, Mr Feynman", Feynman went over a few experiments he did to notice what happens when you're falling asleep when he was an undergrad. He concluded that your thoughts become more and more random and flooded as you get closer to actual sleep, until your brain gets overwhelmed and passes out.

kirse2• 18 years ago

These sensations are usually just a result of being stressed.

bilch• 18 years ago

So do I; but then I'm narcoleptic, and sleep-onset (hypnagogic) hallucinations seem to be a symptom of mostly narcolepsy, but also some other sleep disorders: http://www.sleepnet.com/forum3/messages/367.html While having a symphony orchestra play in your head is fun, if you experience other sleep problems, especially excessive daytime drowsiness, maybe you should have it checked out.

yters• 18 years ago

I start hallucinating in class when I'm almost asleep. It can be kind of funny.

drcode• 18 years ago

I used to be able to do this when I was like 4 years old, just by having my eyes closed for a few minutes. I told my mom that I was seeing things when I closed my eyes and asked her what it was. She acted very worried so I never mentioned it again.

By a year later the effect went away and I've never experienced it since- But I kinda remember what it was like.

martythemaniak• 18 years ago

None of those look fun or useful. Talk to your friendly local dealer and he'll be able to provide something better.

DaniFong6• 18 years ago

You'll learn more about sober, typical perception through these than you will on drugs, the carpet bombing approach to psychedelia. And it's that exploration that's most interesting for me.

time_management5• 18 years ago

::Grabs popcorn and dons flamewar armor.::

I don't disagree with you, but "carpet bombing" is going a little far. I don't think psychedelic drugs are the best way to explore one's mind for most people, but they are interesting and can be valuable in some circumstances. Unfortunately, we as a collective know very little about how to use them, and individuals generally know less.

time_management5• 18 years ago

There's nothing special about the ping-pong balls and radio. These are the effects of sensory deprivation, which can be intense if it's done right. Most interesting states of consciousness involve sensory deprivation or overload at root, including those induced by psychedelics. For example, sleep occurs most readily in partial sensory deprivation, and many forms of meditation likewise involve sensory deprivation.

Regarding the role of the radio static in this experiment, it's there to produce white noise. It's nearly impossible to drown out all noise. At 15 dB, you'll hear your heartbeat. However, the brain at rest cancels out white noise up to about 70 dB, so you can create essential soundlessness in a moderate quiet environment.

Sensory overload can be fun, too. I recommend listening to music on headphones around 80-85 dB, with your eyes shut and a blindfold on. You want the music to be just loud enough that it sounds like it's coming from within your head, but not so loud as to stimulate adrenal responses (or damage your ears).

Also, binaural beats are pretty cool. You can induce altered states of consciousness pretty easily with these technologies.

silentbicycle2• 18 years ago

Pink noise (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_noise) is good, too - it's white noise which has had its frequencies adjusted logarithmically, so instead of being mostly high-end hiss it sounds like rushing water. I made a 16ish minute sound loop somewhere, but don't have it on hand at the moment. (It's just the loop on wikipedia, concatenated repeatedly.)

Also, isolation tanks can be nice.

apmee• 18 years ago

If the effects are anything like those encountered by William Hurt in Altered States then I'll be keeping well away from all beats, binaural or not, from now on.

nfg• 18 years ago

> Also, binaural beats are pretty cool. You can induce altered states of consciousness pretty easily with these technologies.

For anyone interested in this see sbagen: http://uazu.net/sbagen/

captainobvious• 18 years ago

beware looking for this on youtube; youtube is mono =)

johngunderman• 18 years ago

I'm trying this as soon as I get home.

biohacker42• 18 years ago

Is there anyone who doesn't know this?

Who hasn't relaxed with some classical music and their eyes closed, while their brain fires off pseudo random pretty imagery?

nihilocrat• 18 years ago

I think I remember seeing a much better set of procedures, involving a special set of glasses and maybe some other equpiment that you had to build, which would actually lead to something that wasn't just a fun party trick.

Oh, this is it: http://www.makershed.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=MSBM

Also, if you want a much more painful way of achieving hallucination, experience a traumatic situation repeatedly, which is clearly preceded by a distinct sound. From personal experience I can say you will occasionally hallucinate the sound in situations where it would never sensibly occur.

time_management5• 18 years ago

You can buy "mind machines" for about $100. Or you can use get the sound component, at least, out of your computer using an online beat generator.

innernode• 18 years ago

Just go to the App Store and buy a Binaural Beats app for a couple of bucks instead

LogicHoleFlaw• 18 years ago

experience a traumatic situation repeatedly, which is clearly preceded by a distinct sound.

That would be.... my alarm clock?

bd• 18 years ago

Ah, ganzfeld. It reminds me of Altered States, a movie about sensory deprivation that went horribly wrong. I was fascinated by this movie when I was a kid.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altered_States

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbYT3UclhNY (trailer)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTqFXfn3kdo (few scary scenes)

jgrahamc• 18 years ago

I hallucinated after pulling two all-nighters in a row in college. I ended up being awake for three days and two nights and ended up seeing that the world was just _beautiful_. Spent hours in a park looking at blades of grass and then a long time examining the surface of an orange.

Hack your brain: How to hallucinate with ping-pong balls and a radio

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