ganzfeld experiment at home

DIY Ganzfeld Goggles

Introduction: DIY Ganzfeld Goggles

Ganzfeld goggles are used to create a range of hallucinations. The most common and mild of hallucinations is visualizing colors streaking across an otherwise plain background. These hallucinations are caused by your brain attempting to make sense of the surroundings with a lack of neural input, thus, creating the ganzfeld effect.

The ganzfeld effect is a perception phenomena in which the brain looks for missing visual signals in an unstructured visual stimulus. In other words, when staring at blank space, your mind makes up its own visual cues known has hallucinations.

The common way of making ganzfeld goggles is by cutting a ping pong ball in half, but I will show you a simpler way to do so in less than 10 minutes.

Step 1: Gather Your Supplies

You will need:

1. Paper mask cutout (provided)

2. Scissors

3. Cotton balls

5. Elastic band

Step 2: Download, Print, and Cutout the Provided Pattern

Step 3: The Elastic Band

Cut the elastic band so that the mask will fit snuggly to your face. You can do this by slightly stretching the band so that each end will reach your temples.

Attach each end of the band to your mask using staples. You may want to use a few staples for reinforcement.

Step 4: Cotton Balls

Glue cotton balls (about 10-12) around the entire inside boarder of the mask.

The cotton balls help the mask to form better to your face, reducing peripheral vision.

Step 5: Finished Ganzfeld Goggles

You should now have your own pair of ganzfeld goggles.

Step 6: Using Your Ganzfeld Goggles

To create the ganzfeld effect, all neural input should be minimized as much as possible.

The goggles are used to block out all visual stimuli. In order to limit auditory stimuli, you can use noise canceling headphones or play white noise (many frequencies playing at one time that it washes all other external sounds out). There are apps for smart phones or websites that play white noise (provided below).

http://simplynoise.com/

http://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/whiteNoiseGenerator.php

You should sit comfortably in a chair, wearing ganzfeld goggles, and listen to white noise through headphones. During this time, you will be in a state of mild sensory deprivation. After several minutes, your mind should begin producing hallucinations. A typical session should only last about 30 minutes.

Disclaimer: Hallucinations can range from mild to severe. For this reason, you should use caution when attempting the experiment. Severe isolation and sensory deprivation for long periods of time can be harmful to the human psyche, so sessions should not be longer than 30 minutes. Lastly, a person with a mental illness in which white noise or isolation could agitate should not attempt the procedure.

Experiments

The Ganzfeld Effect: A Fascinating Look Inside Your Mind

How to generate the Ganzfeld effect

The core of the technique is exposing a person to homogeneous and unstructured sensory stimulation (Schmidt & Prein, 2019). It should be administered consistently and monotonously to avoid variability in sensory signals.

Visual techniques to generate the Ganzfeld effect

Various complex strategies have been created to reproduce the Ganzfeld effect at home. For example, observing smooth walls on a large scale or translucent globes illuminated by diffuse light. Also, simpler ones have been proposed. For instance, cutting a ping-pong ball in half and using a half to cover each eye. They should be shaped to the face so there are no gaps to let the light in. Furthermore, to stop them from falling off they need to be taped to the face.

Another way is to make an eye mask out of white paper . Cotton balls can be glued around the edge of the mask to stop any light from entering. Another alternative is to buy some Ganzfeld glasses.

Auditory techniques to create the Ganzfeld effect

To achieve aural homogeneity, white noise, such as untuned TV or radio sound, or pink noise can be used. The important thing is that the sound is uniform.

The techniques, both visual and auditory, can be used together. It’s also recommended to avoid any distractions from the stimulation of your other senses. As far as possible, you should carry out the experiment in a quiet place.

This type of experiment isn’t dangerous. However, it isn’t recommended for those people who’ve already had problems of a psychotic nature. This is because we don’t know the type of perception or hallucination they might experience.

Why do these hallucinations occur?

Visual hallucinations, a consequence of the Ganzfeld effect, can be the result of a neuronal amplification of the brain. In effect, your brain is looking for the missing visual signals . The superior visual cortex interprets the neural noise. This causes hallucinations (Dunning and Woodrow, 2013).

In the same way, it’s thought that the patterns that are observed, such as zigzag lines or dots, are the result of phenomena that occur in the retina. Receptor cells in the retina exhibit spontaneous activity, supersaturation, and inhibitory reactions . Prolonged exposure generates complex perceptions that involve the central nervous system (Zdravković, 2016).

The internal model

Reality, as you see it, hear it, smell it and feel it, doesn’t come from outside. It comes from within. In fact, your brain builds its own reality before receiving information from your senses . This is known as the internal model.

Neuroscientist David Eagleman (2017) states that the foundation of this model can be observed in the anatomy of the brain. Almost all sensory information passes through the thalamus, on its way to the region of the brain responsible for processing these signals. There are many connections that go from the thalamus to the cortex. However, there are many more that go in the opposite direction (cortex-thalamus).

Your expectations of the world are transmitted from your brain to your thalamus . This structure examines what comes from the senses and compares it with your expectations. The thalamus only reports on discrepancies between the signals from the senses and what the internal model has predicted.

Eagleman states that “i nstead of using the senses to reconstruct reality at every moment from scratch, you compare the sensory information with an internal model that the brain has already built: it updates it, refines it, corrects it ” (Eagleman, 2017, p.71 ). The above is proof that reality isn’t external, but internal. Indeed, it doesn’t depend on what’s outside, but what’s inside. In effect, your senses don’t capture the world as you perceive it. Your brain builds it all .

This model allows us to propose another explanation for the hallucinations of the Ganzfeld effect. That’s because it doesn’t require much sensory information to perceive. In fact, when the brain doesn’t receive signals other than those of the homogeneous field, it has no more new information to contrast and it unleashes its model of reality.

Changing Your Brain State Through the Ganzfeld Effect

Twenty-four hours a day, the cells within our brains are in constant communication with our bodies and the world around us. They generate electrical impulses that fluctuate rhythmically in distinct patterns called brain wave states.

These states are closely correlated with our thoughts, emotions and our general state of being, as well as the functioning of the various systems of our body. There are four categories of brain wave states, which our brain cycles through many times throughout the day and night.

Your brain doesn’t operate in only one brainwave state at a time but instead pulses in all these states simultaneously, with one of the states being dominant at any given time.

The first state is beta, which is associated with a heightened state of alertness and focused concentration, such as being in a conversation or playing a sport.

Then we have alpha , which are slower in frequency than Beta and represents a state of relaxed mental awareness or reflection, and are often associated with visualisation, problem solving and accessing deeper levels of creativity.

Even slower frequency still is theta , which represents a state of deep relaxation and meditation, enhanced creativity, stress relief, light sleep and dreaming. Actually research has shown that by spend just 30 minutes a day in a Theta state, can dramatically improve a person’s overall health and wellbeing.

Finally we have delta , which is the slowest of the frequencies and is experienced in deep, dreamless sleep and in very deep meditation where awareness is fully detached. To get into a theta state, one of the most powerful ways of doing this is through the Ganzfeld effect.

The Ganzfeld effect was discovered in the 1930’s, by psychologist Wolfgang Metzger whose research established that when people gazed into a featureless field of vision they consistently hallucinated and there were noticeable changes in brain EEG readings. Metzger claimed the phenomenon was the result of the brain’s search for missing sensory stimuli, resulting in amplified neural noise which was interpreted in the higher visual cortex.

When our brains are starved of any stimuli after staring at any featureless, uninterrupted field even for a few seconds, it triggers the Ganzfeld effect, which in German means ‘total field’ or ‘entire field’.

The ancient Greeks and Tibetans engaged in a similar process by entering dark caverns to receive insights from their subconscious minds, or from the otherworldly realms. Furthermore this phenomenon has been experienced by arctic explorers staring at featureless expanses of white snow, prisoners in dark cells (for which the phenomenon has been termed ‘prisoner’s cinema”’), astronauts, pilots, and miners trapped in underground caverns who end up having visions of apparitions.

You can access the Ganzfeld effect by using a Ganzfeld mask with your eyes open and headphones on with meditation music or white noise to block out any outside distractions. This keeps the brain alert and looking for information. When no information is present, the brain start amplifying the senses, until the neural noise is confused as real sensory information. Dreams are produced in a similar manner.

Once the brain determines there is nothing to distract the eyes, it automatically shifts into a Theta state within a few minutes.

Experimenting with the Ganzfeld effect is a faster way to reach a deep hypnotic trance, and connect with your subconscious mind, which is where all our habits and behaviours originate. This allows your mind to bring messages to your conscious awareness to be cleared. Although, it is good to remember that with any new technique, it takes time and patience to really get the benefits of what is has to offer. So dive in and see what happens!

Dean Griffiths is the founder and CEO of Energy Fusion , the first interactive online platform to subjectively assess physical and mental health for companies and individuals.

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Ganzfeld hallucinations

The Ganzfeld procedure exposes the participant to ‘unstructured’ sensations usually by placing half ping-pong balls over the eyes so they can only see diffuse white light and by playing white noise through headphones.

It is probably best known for its uses in parapsychology experiments, but it is also used to induce hallucinations and sensory distortions which are much more likely to occur in the absence of clearly defined sensory experiences.

The article reviews the sorts of hallucinations reported in during these experiments and discusses what electrophysiology (EEG or ‘brain wave’) studies tell us about what happens in the cortex when these perceptual distortions kick off.

Some of the descriptions of hallucinations are really quite striking:

“For quite a long time, there was nothing except a green-greyish fog. It was really boring, I thought, ‘ah, what a non-sense 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 black-board 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 sky-line reflected in the water surface like in a mirror.” “a clearing in a forest [Lichtung], a place bathed in bright sun-shine, and the trunks of trees around. A feeling of a tranquile 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’.” “It was like running a bob sleigh on an uneven runway right down… [There] was snow or maybe water running down… I could hear music, there was music coming from the left side below.” “In the right side of the visual field, a manikin 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.”

You can simulate the Ganzfeld procedure in your own home by taping two half ping-pong balls over your eyes and listing to the radio tuned to static in an evenly lighted room.

The other articles in the special issue are also fascinating, and range from a study finding greater body asymmetry is related to higher levels of unusual beliefs – likely reflecting asymmetrical brain development, to an experiment looking at the cognitive psychology of people who believe they’ve been abducted by aliens.

Needless to say, there’s many more fascinating studies and Cortex has the advantage of not only being a leading neuropsychology journal but also making its material freely available as open-access articles. Enjoy!

Link to Cortex special issue.

This ganzfeld procedure actually uses certain binaural beats to help in the medication or relaxation process. Binaural beats uses certain sound frequencies to produce certain actions in the brain. with the cortex procedure the binaural beats used here are static sounds. ganzfeld really is an effective process to create relaxation

somebody whos experienced this tell me if it really works. be honest about the experience please

I’ve tried something quite similar to this before. it involved listening to a source of white noise, but not just any white noise. Certain frequencies were played at certain intervals and patterns. Specifically, three’s one frequency in one ear, one frequency in another (due to this imbalance, you MUST listen through ear buds/head phones). depending on the patterns of frequencies, the “track” of noise can produce any number of experiences (ie, anything you could find in any sort of drug, you name it. Stimulants, depressants, prescription, sedatives, sexual, religious, hallucinogenic. again, you name it). I’ve tried many different simulated “drugs” with this same neurological base of white noise. Personally, I’m quite impressed. I haven’t tried any hallucinogenics, but the sedatives are QUITE impressive, a few uppers made me feel like a million bucks, i’ve even tried a couple of opiates that completely sent me to a different world. But, as is the same for many other things, not everyone is effected differently. One of my friends had a MUCH stronger experience from what has become my favorite “drug track,” called Anesthesia. I found it to be like the best power nap I’ve ever had. I had an out of body experience, my head got squished at one point (which was actually pretty interesting), and even when I had to scratch my face or move slightly, I’ve never felt so still in my entire life. he experienced something completely different, the most notable experiences being floating in a pool of water and seeing god. If you have an open mind, TRY THIS. If you’re willing to experiment with things that may alter your mind temporarily, TRY THIS. If absolutely nothing else, you’ll feel moderately better afterword. 🙂 -The Ninja Penguin

@theNinjaPenguin, i just dont understand what exactly do you to to “TRY THIS?”. I tried the ping pong thing for like 20 minutes and nothing happened. I also havent slept for over 36 hours so i thought well that might help because i might sorta already feel ‘out of it’. but nothing, i didnt see anything, feel anything, nothing. Although once i took the ping pong ball halves off of my eyes, i would see weird random shadows every now and then out of my peripherals but im sure that was simply just because of the light adjustment and etc. Now the ping pong ball i used was a orange ball, does it matter what color the ball is?? My friend said he did the ping pong ball trip once and he tripped once he took the halves off of his eyes and took the headphones off. he said the posters on his walls were literally coming off the wall at him then going back and just weird shit, but i almost dont really believe in being able to hallucinate without actually taking a hullucinogenic drug.

i’m pretty sure it’s called “eye doser”

I just tried this literally 5 minutes ago. It was very interesting, not what anyone would think of in their normal state of minds. I will try to tell you in best detail what I experienced(: At first I thought this experiment was a hoax because for the first 5 – 10 minutes I saw nothing, but then it happened, I saw a dot in the middle of my sight, and it slowly got closer and closer, bigger and bigger. It eventually got so close, it kind of “popped” and I saw some colors that I can not describe. I had two noises playing, (Thunderstorm, and White Noise) and they reminded me of a beach, and for the next few minutes it felt like, I was on a beach where the sand was different colors, (the colors I saw at first) and I saw myself kicking it up in the air. I felt freaked out at seeing my self so I took my mask off and said “Whoa” I am here now typing this haha. Hope this helps you in any way!

was the images clear or was it misty like a dream????

This always happens to me when I’m riding a bus. Closing my eyes during an late afternoon cruise and hearing only the shuttle motor. I can see very detailed moving landscape of trees, grassland, seashores, industrial complex, buildings, so detailed I can see the differences between leaves, or peebles. a very relaxing experience : )

I saw a shape of a black smiley face, lol. So I got scared and rage quit.

I tried listening to binaural tones ( http://www.i-dose.us/ ) a few times before, but they never do what they say on the tin.

I often find if I meditate for over 40mins, I experience ‘unstructured sensations’ similar to the descriptions in the post.

i just got done doing it and my friend is currently doing it i saw a few things i kept seeing a purple ghostly looking girl from the side for a second wasn’t very clear.. i was in heaven talking to god and satans hand ripped me out of the clouds into hell he burned me and i felt my body getting hot.. it i saw shadow figures grabbing me and i felt something in my body like i was being pulled off the bed. it wasn’t clear at all actually the only clear thing was that face if anyone knows how to make this happen with clear images please let me know.

That’s so creepy !! Haha I’m terrified of ghosts and demons and I’m paranoid that they’ll find me and stuff all the time , so I’m scared to try this now !! cx

It’s kind of cute how all of these apparent straights are marveling at the sorts of experiences that heads have every day. I particularly like how ‘theninjapenguin’ says “(ie, anything you could find in any sort of drug, you name it. Stimulants, depressants, prescription, sedatives, sexual, religious, hallucinogenic. again, you name it). I’ve tried many different simulated “drugs” with this same neurological base of white noise. Personally, I’m quite impressed. I haven’t tried any hallucinogenics, but the sedatives are QUITE impressive,….” No offense, ninjapenguin, but how exactly do you know that it produces the same experience as hallucinogenic drugs, if you’ve never taken any hallucinogenic drugs? I’m not trying to be a jerk, but that was a rather dubious claim. Speaking for myself, the whole point of hallucinogenic drugs is that there is at least an order of magnitude of difference between the ‘simulated’ experience and the real thing. That you thought the simulated experience was valuable, I appreciate, but don’t make the mistake of thinking that’s all that is available to our consciousness. If you truly appreciate the simulation, give the real thing a go.

Have you tried the Ganzfeld goggles? If not, how do you know they’re *not* the same as chemical hallucinogens?

(you know, like, back at ya)

Because I have done hallucinogens and listened to the binaural for LSD and I will say they are NOT the same

After trying this experiment I will confirm to you they are nothing anywhere near the feeling of true hallucinogens. Like Jim said the difference can only be represented by orders of magnitude not simply a mild difference.

We just did this and it was the scariest sensation I’ve ever felt

I just did this not even half an hour ago. I had my friends watch what was happening to me. It felt like I was doing it for 5 minutes, but I was doing it for over an hour. I did it with a red light and had a really high frequency white noise in both headphones. I kept seeing these black masses shoot across my face. They looked like big black tumors with tentacles and yellow eyes. Eventually I started breathing very heavy,and tensing up. I started hearing what sounded like factory machines starting up in the distance,and I tried to talk but it felt like my jaw was wired shut. My friends had to cut the white noise in the headphones because they said it looked like I was so scared that I started shaking violently and they thought I was going into a seizure.

I don’t have ping pong balls and they may be my problem, but I used paper to cover up my eyes. Apparently it worked for my friend, but I didn’t get any big effects! I done this for about 20 minutes and only heard a few odd sounds. My friend’s experience was much more detailed than mine. Not sure if he is lying, but he could still feel his feet wet from the procedure. Why can’t I do it? Perhaps it’s because I can’t relax properly? Every now and then I would see scary images of monsters pop in my head. Hahaha, just random things and it scared me.

Any suggestions? Would ping pong balls do the trick or is it that I can’t relax properly?

It is an undoubted truth that there is a very close interaction between brain, and mind, and vice versa. My project may be of interest in this respect..

http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Multi-Dimensional_Science

That last description… Slenderman.

That’s what I was thinking !!

I have read elsewhere that doing this method while also suspending a red light a few feet from your face can produce interesting results. Has anyone tried this method?

Sounds like a hypnogogic state rather than a hallucinatory state. Light can pass through your eyelids in much the same way, during the day, and your eyes are still open behind them…

I tried a three types of binural beats first was the lsd one which all i saw in the forty minutes was a few pink and orange snake like looking shapes second was also the lsd one which i got nothing from then last i tried one called dream tunnel which was great no hallucinations or anything just a very relaxed and good feeling can anyone help me with the hallucinations and is paper also as good as ping pong balls for the ganzfeld experiment???

I just went thru this whole process yesterday. I’ll try to be as detailed as I can be. Like a lot of people said, I felt like I was going blind in the beginning. I didn’t see as much as other people did, but I heard some water droplets that sounded like I was in a cavern. Then that faded away and I started to hear growls, not dog-like whatsoever, which creeped me out but I tried to ignore it as much as possible to get passed it. After that faded away I heard cars passing me by one-by-one. Then as this sound continued I saw something come into my vision. It was a red car passing me by in sync with the sound. And someone was in the car waving to me and as they left my vision another car with the same person in a different outfit passed me again. My eyes started to sting with pain so I took off everything and sat up. I remembered that but I didnt remember what I did after I woke up from it. According to my brother, I walked into the living room and said. “I will be back.” And then went back to the room I was in. My vision was blurry and all around my eyes were dark, but it faded away by night. So yea, that was my experience with it. Not sure if I should do it again or not. Btw did u guys clean the ping pong balls you used before u put them on? I watered the inside of them down just to clear out any debris in the inside of the ball.

First, from someone who has given a great deal of his life to experimentation with various mind altering substances and practices in order to induce altered states of consciousness: ‘simulated’ drugs are, in fact, orders of magnitude weaker than their chemical counterparts. There is no non-chemical intervention (no amount of meditation, no device) that can induce states equivalent to taking LSD, DMT, or similar chemicals.

That said, the Ganzfeld effect “works” to induce something akin to hypnogogic hallucinations if done correctly. In my experience, ping pong balls work the best, but the object is to minimize visual input; therefore, you have to make sure they fit COMPLETELY around the eyes (that’s why the “pro” ones are curved. Likewise, binaural beats + noise (white or pink) facilitate the same sorts of meditative and hypnotic states. Again these are NOTHING like drugs, and have a character all their own. Likely, they are also quite healthy for the brain, with no side effects – unlike many psychedelic drugs.

Note to the heads: that’s not to say that psychedelics are inherently bad; LSD, for example, has almost no physiological side effects, and other psychedelics have been shown to be neuroprotective… so don’t flame a brother.

Experiment Performed: April 17th 2013

Witnessed: (note: Recorded times are assumed) At first: nothing. 5 minutes: A small fish like creature with animal paws protruding from it’s mouth 12 minutes: Several red balls rolling in an alternating clockwise and counter clockwise pattern 18 minutes: Three fists made of metal that appeared to be playing a game of rock, paper, scissors around a green human heart 20 minutes: Crying sounds. No visuals 25 minutes: Crying increases in volume. Still no visuals 35 minutes: Source of crying found to be a goat shaped lump of feces that appears to be emitting a visible Doppler wave. 40 minutes: A view from outside my bedroom 45 minutes: My bedroom door is closed by an unknown force and digestive sounds are heard 50 minutes: The door opens and reveals a decapitated teddy bear 59 minutes: A disembodied tentacle floats within my field of vision 60 minutes: Nothing 62 minutes: Awoken by testing partner

This experiment was done with white ping pong balls in a darkroom with a red light bulb.

Would it be possible to do something similar to this in a pitch black room with noise cancelling headphones? like 0 light whatsoever.

Eyes opened or closed??

I’m totally intrigued. I’ve tried every real hallucinogen there is, ok that’s a lie…I never took ecstasy. The last time I took anything was in high school over 20 years ago. I saw Fred Krueger from Nightmare on Elm Street walking next to me, singing “one two Freddy’s coming for you.” So I think this experiment would be relatively safe, lol. Will try and get back to you all.

The links in this post are not working for me.

If anyone else is interested in the article cited here, it is titled “Ganzfeld-induced hallucinatory experience, its phenomenology and cerebral electrophysiology”.

I really can’t seem to get it right please more advice

What would happen we tried listening to binaural beats instead of static in this experiment?