So I just spent four hours with my head phones on listening to the static sounds from an old TV, with a piece of red plastic bag tied over my eyes.
Ganzfield Phenomena
I have not gone mad, at least I don't think I have. I was attempting to recreate the ganzfiled procedure.
The ganzfield procedure was basically a sensory deprivation experiment developed by psychologist Wolfgang Metzger in the 1930's and later modified by William G Braud and Charles Honorton to be used in parapsychology.
Sensory deprivation has been said to bring about altered states of mind or deeper levels of consciousness, hallucinations or visions, and has seemingly been used as a tool for gaining wisdom and insight for a very long time. Ancient Greeks such as Pythagoras would hang about in caves to cause sensory deprivation for the purpose of divination.
The word ganzfield is translated from German as 'complete field' and the ganzfield phenomena happens when a complete field such as the field of vision is without any discernible structure and then after some time the brain essentially begins to add structure into that field.
The Apparatus
Traditionally the removal of structure from the visual field is accomplished by taping half a ping-pong ball over each eye, I didn't have a ping-pong ball to hand so instead I cut an eye mask from a piece of foam.
A red light bulb illuminates the room in the original method, I didn't have one to hand so I cut a red plastic bag to secure the mask and provide a pinkish hue to my visual field.
White noise is played through headphones to remove structure from the audio field, I found white noise audio on youtube.
So I strapped on my ganzfield mask, stuck on my head phones, and lay down on my bed waiting for the magic to happen
Here I am donning my ganzfeid mask, I'm ready to see into the future and gain deep wisdom!
The Experiment
So there i was laid down, slightly apprehensive about the reports of hallucinations but excited to see if I had any psychic visions and mostly just interested to observe whether there were any dramatic changes in perception.
The first thing I noted was that after about ten minutes it was difficult to tell if my eyes were open or shut, then, all of a sudden, I fell asleep. It had been a long day so I had a nap for about 30 minutes.
I awoke slightly startled, removed the apparatus and made a coffee. I moved into a sitting position in front of the window to allow a little more light to filter through the mask and turned up the white noise sound, I started the test again.
This time round despite a very brief break to the lavatory, I sat for about three and a half hours straight with the mask on, my eyes open and white noise filling my ear canals.
The Results
The first three hours of this experiment yielded nothing I would deem extraordinary.
There was a shift in my state of being. Pictures did appear within my minds eye which could be read as some profound spiritual insight, though almost everything that showed up could be linked to conversation I had earlier that day.
I saw a purple planet, an alien, the eye of horus, an owl and a couple other things. That day I had heard someone ask how to say "purple" in Indonesian, I had conversed with the same person about theories that included aliens from other planets. I had recently learned the Indonesian word for "must", which translates as "Harus", so make of that what you will.
All in all the general experience for the first three hours was a deep meditation, thoughts came and went, images came and went, sensations and emotions in the body came and went.
Round about the three hour mark there was a big shift and i was overcome with a great sense of well being, it's difficult to explain really but firstly my heart began to radiate the warmth of love into my entire body and then my body dissolved into a warm glow of well being, it was similar to a pleasant dream though more profound as I was awake to the experience.
There was a natural flow of wanting to send this love outward to the people I know and a strange sort of astral projection where I glimpsed these people an delivered this loving feeling. In referring to "I" in this experience there was no real sense of self involved, only an energy in the spirit of love.
My "out of body experience" lasted maybe five minutes, I continued the the ganzfeild experiment for a further ten to fifteen minutes then decided to call it a day.