How to Get High Without Drugs?

Have you heard of the terms ‘Ganzfeld Effect’ and ‘Ganzfeld Experiment'?

The Ganzfeld effect is the outcome of the Ganzfeld experiment. The Ganzfeld experiment creates a visual and auditory sensory deprivation in us.

Due to that, our brain will try to make sense of what is happening. Without any sensory stimulation, our brain would then proceed to fill in the gaps on its own.

This will then create very vivid visual hallucinations and auditory hallucinations – similar to those created by some drugs. This is called the Ganzfeld effect.

The concept of the Ganzfeld effect was introduced by Psychologist Wolfgang Metzger in 1930. The word ‘Ganzfeld’ in German means ‘whole field’ which is the purpose of this experiment.

To experience the Ganzfeld effect, our whole field of vision must be filled with a uniform colour, with no changes in brightness, no movement of objects, no colour changes, or no changes in the depth of the ability of detection.

The Ganzfeld experiment is usually done to investigate telepathy and hallucinatory states.

Some people use the Ganzfeld effect to induce hallucinations without taking dangerous drugs. Some use it for deep meditation.

However, some people just do it for a fun experience. The Ganzfeld experiment can be done in the comfort of our own homes.

How to Conduct the Ganzfeld Experiment?

For the Ganzfeld experiment, we need to have our eyes and ears completely covered to deprive all visual and audio senses.

Things Required for the Ganzfeld Experiment:

1. Ping-Pong ball / plain white paper (Ganzfeld goggles)
2. For Ping-Pong ball: scissors and tape/adhesive
3. For plain white paper: scissors, elastic band, stapler, cotton balls and glue
4. Noise-cancelling earphones playing white noise
5. A room filled with a uniform colour, with no changes in brightness, no movement of objects, no colour changes and no shadows
6. Bright red light for the light source in the room
7. A comfortable surface to lie on

The Ganzfeld goggles can be made using a Ping-Pong ball or plain white paper.

To use the Ping-Pong ball, we need to cut it in half and use each half to cover each eye. It is important to ensure the balls are clean, with no spots or anything on them.

We also need to ensure those halves are tailored to our face so that there are no gaps to let light in. Tapes or adhesives can be used to make sure they don’t move.

To use the plain white paper, we need to cut it into the shape of an eye mask.

Then cut an elastic band and staple each end of the elastic band to each side of the paper eye mask. That will ensure our eye mask doesn’t keep moving.

Cotton balls can be glued around the border of the eye mask to make sure there’s no gap for light to enter.

The crucial thing here is, that no matter how we do it, light must reach our eyes equally in all directions. This should be set up in a room with bright red light. Make sure it doesn’t flicker.

To cover our ears, we can use noise-cancelling earphones to play white noise on them.

When everything is set, our eyes and ears covered, we just have to lie down, be still and let the experiment begin. OUR EYES SHOULD BE OPEN THE WHOLE TIME!

We might start to get bored after some time if it still hasn’t worked but don’t give up! Instead, we just have to be patient and give it more time or attempt it again later.

The experience we get from the Ganzfeld effect is subjective. The outcome of hallucinations would differ from one person to another.

According to the cognitive science journal, Cortex, here are hallucinations experienced by some people during the Ganzfeld experiment:

“In the right side of the visual field, a mannequin suddenly appeared. He was all in black, had a long narrow head, fairly broad shoulders, very long arms and a relatively small trunk…. He approached me, stretching out his hands, very long, very big, like a bowl, and he stayed so for a while, and then he went back to where he came from, slowly.”

“For quite a long time, there was nothing except a green-greyish fog. It was really boring, I thought, ‘ah, what a nonsense experiment!’ Then, for an indefinite period of time, I was ‘off’, like completely absent-minded. Then, all of sudden, I saw a hand holding a piece of chalk and writing on a blackboard something like a mathematical formula. The vision was very clear, but it stayed only for few seconds and disappeared again. The image did not fill up the entire visual field, it was just like a ‘window’ into that foggy stuff.

“An urban scenery, like an empty avenue after a rain, large areas covered with water, and the city skyline reflected in the water surface like in a mirror.”

“A clearing in a forest [Lichtung], a place bathed in bright sunshine, and the trunks of trees around. A feeling of a tranquil summer afternoon in a forest, so quiet, so peaceful. And then, suddenly, a young woman passed by on a bicycle, very fast, she crossed the visual field from the right to the left, with her blond long hair waving in the air. The image of the entire scene was very clear, with many details, and yes, the colours were very vivid.”

“I can see his face, still, it’s very expressive… [I could see] only the horse that comes as if out of clouds. A white horse that jumped over me.”

“A friend of mine and I, we were inside a cave. We made a fire. There was a creek flowing under our feet, and we were on a stone. She had fallen into the creek, and she had to wait to have her things dried. Then she said to me: ‘Hey, move on, we should go now.”

Potential Side Effects of Ganzfeld Experiment

Producing the Ganzfeld effect is safe for most people but for some, it can be disorienting or too intense.

We might experience intermittent loss of vision after undergoing the Ganzfeld experiment for ten to twenty minutes. Although this is temporary, it can be unsettling.

We might also experience some very disturbing hallucinations. For some of us, this may be the desired outcome but it may be very terrifying for some.

A person who has a mental health condition such as schizophrenia shouldn’t try this experiment as the sensory deprivation or hallucination might exacerbate it.
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