Visual Imposition Idea

[fennecfoxx]

In class today, we learned about visual perception, and the professor mentioned the Ganzfeld effect. He said that, if you take a ping-pong ball, cut it in half, place on half over each eye, and then put a blindfold on, you’ll begin to hallucinate after awhile (since your brain prefers a complex visual field over a completely uniform one). That got me thinking - could such a technique be used for visual imposition? Learning imposition that way would theoretically just be a matter of learning to control hallucinations rather than learning to hallucinate from scratch, and I’d imagine the lack of proper visual input to interfere would be helpful as well.

 

I don’t have the necessary supplies to try this myself, though I’ll definitely test it if I find something else to use to achieve this effect.

[Guest amber5885]

I can't link at the moment but this has been brought up on the boards before and I belive it was successful. Anywho there is a type of blindfold meant For sensory deprivation that could be used for this.

 

I would try to make sure you're in the right state of mind first, you don't want your brain throwing something crazy at you but I think this could be a really interesting way to go about it.

[fennecfoxx]

That's good (and not too surprising) that it's worked. I'm really hoping to get success with this as well.

[FurryBlueNaki]

Sounds like a great idea. I used to be interested in sensory deprivation tanks, but never got to try one.

[Quilten]

I've thought about this a lot. Sensory deprivation to enhance hallucinatory senses. I've tried it in plenty of ways, but it never worked enough for me to be worth the effort.

 

The problem with the Ganzfeld effect is that all it does is deprive you of sensory input, so you start getting all kinds of hallucinations. It's not really something that can give you the ability to impose your tulpa. While you might be able to more clearly see, hear, or feel your tulpa, it's just going to be a funfest of all kinds of unwanted hallucinations that will only distract and bother you. I don't think that it provides any long term benefit and really only serves as a fun experiement that makes you see stuff. It allows temporary access to some enhanced ability to see or hear things that aren't really there, but isn't much use to you in everyday life, unless you walk around with half ping pong balls taped to your face and listen to white noise all day.

 

Basically, you would probably just be better off practicing visualization/imposition by actively forcing with your tulpa. I would suggest trying out the experiement on yourself sometime, though, because it is an interesting experience.

 

That's just my two cents, take it how you will, but I'd like to hear about other's experiences with the Ganzfeld effect and other sensory deprivation experiments, especially when their tulpas are involved.

[sushi]

We've discussed this a bit in the Neuromancy community. I'll just C&P what I posted there:

 

I've tried the ping-pong ball thing. Frankly, that's not the way you should do it. Ping-pong balls usually have a logo on one side, and a visible seam, and if you secure them to your eyes as shown in the picture, you'll see the tape through the ball as well. Plus you can still see out the corners of your eyes underneath the ping-pong balls.

 

What you want is pure white, so you might get better results by using a blank sheet of paper cut into a goggles shape over your eyes. It also helps to have plenty of light on the other side of the paper -- not enough that it's actually causing strain on your eyes, but enough that your brain should be trying to see something and grinding gears when it doesn't.

 

Edit: Also, I do agree with Phaneron. For this, and other hallucinations caused by sensory deprivation, you don't seem to be able to control them.

[fennecfoxx]

@Phaneron: I get that there would be uncontrolled hallucinations, but couldn't you learn to control them? Maybe I'm wrong, but learning to control hallucinations sounds easier than making yourself hallucinate from scratch.

 

@sushi: That's what the point of the blindfold would be. It'd block light that would normally come through the ping-pong ball. I think the purpose of putting the ping-pong ball over your eyes is just so you can comfortably open your eyes.

[Quilten]

Eh, it's certainly a possibility that someone might be able to focus on specific hallucinations and potentially prompt your mind for something more specific, but it wouldn't be as if you could gain the ability to "control" the hallucinations. Even if you could get to that point through this method, it wouldn't be any different from learning how to willfully create an image of something that is not actually there. You would spend your time trying to control something that is inherently uncontrollable, as opposed to gaining the skill to be able to consciously allow these things to happen in the way you want them to. In other words, it's much more difficult building a house from materials you have to salvage from a bunch of old, half-torn down houses than it is to go to Home Depot, but the right materials you need, and start building from there. I hope I answered your question.

[sushi]

Fennec, you may have a point there. I've always read that they're uncontrolled, but that was always in brief three week or so experiments. Maybe over a longer period, you could learn control.

 

As for the blindfold, yes you will get hallucinations that way, but they will take longer. Hallucinations from blindness are called Charles Bonnet Syndrome, and there have been experiments with blindfolds that show that a high percentage of people (though not everyone) starts hallucinating within three days.

 

I always thought that the Ganzfield effect required light, but then I was getting something similar with a toy eyepatch yesterday, so you could be right.

[Leaf]

I have tried the Ganzfeld effect before with some success, although I imagine it takes multiple attempts to get anything substantial. I usually do it with the blindfold, and the result seems to be consistent with basic closed-eye hallucination. As for how it relates to imposition, well that is where it gets interesting. Most imposition guides on this forum are for a psuedo-hallucination, one that is from overlaying your mental mindscape onto your senses. I have heard it is possible to develop something similar to closed-eye hallucination and actually be able to control it, but I have not done it myself. The Ganzfeld effect is closer to a real hallucination because your brain is actually receiving stimulus from your eyes that it normally filters out, and thus isn't exactly the same as visual imposition.

 

If that is what you would like to try, I found this on dreamviews (probably from some other thread around here) that is useful.