33 ms·

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

116 points by makimaki 18y ago

eru 18y ago
I tend to hallucinate (mostly classical) music when I am about to fall asleep.
- river_styx 18y 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 18y 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.
    - DaniFong 18y ago
      It feels the same way when I'm waking up. Whatever I'm doing in the dream seems incomprehensibly crucial, then I realize it doesn't make sense, and then that I'm dreaming, and then that I'm awake.
      - pmjordan 18y ago
        I feel like I'm missing out on something here. The most I've hallucinated while falling asleep is occasional swirly patterns. No sounds, ever. Maybe because I've had a tinnitus for as long as I can remember? (constant ~20kHz) Likewise, nothing when waking up. Once every couple of months or so I "know" that I've been dreaming and at best can remember a person or object from the dream. After a few seconds even that is irretrievably gone.
        silentbicycle 18y ago
        You may not remember it. The technical term for this sort of thing is hypnagogia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnagogia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnagogia); if you want to dig deeper, that's where to look. It's sort the sensory parallel to when you're just starting to fall asleep and suddenly your leg kicks and wakes you up. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnic_jerk http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnic_jerk) I've been on the edge of sleep and thought the gurgling noises from my radiator were mumbled speech outside my window.
    - ph0rque 18y ago
      >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. At one point when I had trouble falling asleep in less than 1/2 an hour, I used the reverse to fall asleep quicker: I'd guide myself into thinking outlandish things, then my brain would naturally progress in this fashion until I fell asleep.
      - Shamiq 18y ago
        This has worked for me in the past. Though I can never repeat it reliably. Given enough stress for the following day, my thoughts will gravitate back to what needs to get done.
  - kirse 18y ago
    These sensations are usually just a result of being stressed.
- bilch 18y 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 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 18y ago
  I start hallucinating in class when I'm almost asleep. It can be kind of funny.
drcode 18y 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 18y ago
None of those look fun or useful. Talk to your friendly local dealer and he'll be able to provide something better.
- DaniFong 18y 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_management 18y 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.
    - DaniFong 18y ago
      For some people, it's a harmless way to alter perception and consciousness. For some, they never come back. Dropping LSD, in particular, can be, to some minds, catastrophic. Someone close to our family now claims, among other things, to have been approached by the reptilian leader Pindar, disguised as Prince Charles, to be his understudy.
      - time_management 18y ago
        Did he use LSD once, or many times? My understanding is that it's pretty rare for someone to develop those sorts of mental issues from psychedelic drug use alone, though these drugs can provoke an episode. (There's a neverending debate over whether those events "would have happened anyway".) Frequent use of psychedelics, however, can be really dangerous. Acidheads aren't profound, shamanic people; they're often really boring and screwed up. Drugs have an utterly opposite marginal utility behavior to that of meditation. Drugs take off rapidly (too rapidly for some people) but the marginal utility drops off (and becomes negative) very quickly. Meditation starts more slowly, but the marginal utility increases as one progresses.
time_management 18y 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.
- silentbicycle 18y ago
  Pink noise (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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 18y 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 18y 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/ http://uazu.net/sbagen/
johngunderman 18y ago
I'm trying this as soon as I get home.
biohacker42 18y 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 18y 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 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_management 18y 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 18y ago
    Just go to the App Store and buy a Binaural Beats app for a couple of bucks instead
- LogicHoleFlaw 18y ago
  experience a traumatic situation repeatedly, which is clearly preceded by a distinct sound. That would be.... my alarm clock?
bd 18y 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://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altered_States http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbYT3UclhNY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbYT3UclhNY (trailer) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTqFXfn3kdo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTqFXfn3kdo (few scary scenes)
jgrahamc 18y 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.

116 points by makimaki 18y ago

eru 18y ago

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

river_styx 18y 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 18y 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.
  - DaniFong 18y ago
    It feels the same way when I'm waking up. Whatever I'm doing in the dream seems incomprehensibly crucial, then I realize it doesn't make sense, and then that I'm dreaming, and then that I'm awake.
    - pmjordan 18y ago
      I feel like I'm missing out on something here. The most I've hallucinated while falling asleep is occasional swirly patterns. No sounds, ever. Maybe because I've had a tinnitus for as long as I can remember? (constant ~20kHz) Likewise, nothing when waking up. Once every couple of months or so I "know" that I've been dreaming and at best can remember a person or object from the dream. After a few seconds even that is irretrievably gone.
      - silentbicycle 18y ago
        You may not remember it. The technical term for this sort of thing is hypnagogia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnagogia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnagogia); if you want to dig deeper, that's where to look. It's sort the sensory parallel to when you're just starting to fall asleep and suddenly your leg kicks and wakes you up. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnic_jerk http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnic_jerk) I've been on the edge of sleep and thought the gurgling noises from my radiator were mumbled speech outside my window.
  - ph0rque 18y ago
    >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. At one point when I had trouble falling asleep in less than 1/2 an hour, I used the reverse to fall asleep quicker: I'd guide myself into thinking outlandish things, then my brain would naturally progress in this fashion until I fell asleep.
    - Shamiq 18y ago
      This has worked for me in the past. Though I can never repeat it reliably. Given enough stress for the following day, my thoughts will gravitate back to what needs to get done.
- kirse 18y ago
  These sensations are usually just a result of being stressed.
bilch 18y 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 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 18y ago
I start hallucinating in class when I'm almost asleep. It can be kind of funny.

drcode 18y 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 18y ago

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

DaniFong 18y 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_management 18y 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.
  - DaniFong 18y ago
    For some people, it's a harmless way to alter perception and consciousness. For some, they never come back. Dropping LSD, in particular, can be, to some minds, catastrophic. Someone close to our family now claims, among other things, to have been approached by the reptilian leader Pindar, disguised as Prince Charles, to be his understudy.
    - time_management 18y ago
      Did he use LSD once, or many times? My understanding is that it's pretty rare for someone to develop those sorts of mental issues from psychedelic drug use alone, though these drugs can provoke an episode. (There's a neverending debate over whether those events "would have happened anyway".) Frequent use of psychedelics, however, can be really dangerous. Acidheads aren't profound, shamanic people; they're often really boring and screwed up. Drugs have an utterly opposite marginal utility behavior to that of meditation. Drugs take off rapidly (too rapidly for some people) but the marginal utility drops off (and becomes negative) very quickly. Meditation starts more slowly, but the marginal utility increases as one progresses.

time_management 18y 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.

silentbicycle 18y ago
Pink noise (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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 18y 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 18y 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/ http://uazu.net/sbagen/

johngunderman 18y ago

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

biohacker42 18y 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 18y 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 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_management 18y 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 18y ago
  Just go to the App Store and buy a Binaural Beats app for a couple of bucks instead
LogicHoleFlaw 18y ago
experience a traumatic situation repeatedly, which is clearly preceded by a distinct sound. That would be.... my alarm clock?

bd 18y 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://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altered_States http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbYT3UclhNY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbYT3UclhNY (trailer) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTqFXfn3kdo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTqFXfn3kdo (few scary scenes)

jgrahamc 18y 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.