pretty kewl eh

Nice.

The Ganzfeld & Pukinje effects can be done easily with a decent light & sound brain machine. In fact, such setups go even further and add in binaural beats, programmable brainwave entrainment and more. Anyone who loves tripping should do themselves a favor and try a set. They've been a staple of my mind kit since the 80's.

Truthfully, you can get the Ganzfeld effect simply by going into a pitch black environment, or standing in a snowstorm or a fog-bank where everything looks the same.

Thanks for posting that RIS. Makes me wanna lay down and do some mind machine journeying.

i wonder where he bought half ping pong balls?

I can't seem to get this to work :/

try it with a bit of spice, that'll get it going

If you are talking about the ganzfeld effect, it is pretty simple. The ping pong ball thing is cool because it lets you have open eye diffuse light experiences. Only thing is, the light hitting the balls needs to be uniform, and not stronger from any direction. Your brain must be able to discern no pattern for at least 5 to 10 minutes for this to take off.

Everyone is different, but if you point a lamp at a sheet, or use a more professional light diffusion setup (think photo shoot) you should be able to get it to work.

You can also rig a pair of swim goggles or ski goggles to do it pretty easily as well. And, of course, if you are already somewhat high, or have a facility with hypnogogic imagery, all the better.

Still, if you wanna hallucinate without any drugs... buy a mind machine.

I thought you are supposed to paint the ping pong balls a certain color and then face a bright light source so that you see a uniform field of color, or just look at a colored light source. Different colors will have different effects. (Markers or water-color paint seem like good options because they let in enough light)

Also, these are technically illusions, not hallucinations, but way cool, nonetheless!

Looking directly at a light source should work if the light is hitting both ping pong balls (or whatever) evenly. If there is a discernibly bright spot or one eye is getting more light than the other it can ruin the effect.

Using a marker to color the balls is probably a good idea. It has been decades since I tried a low tech setup and my light and sound device does ganzfeld rather well.

I don't know if what I experience with ganzfeld would be considered an illusion though. Illusions generally produce the same effect for everyone, whereas ganzfeld is your mind projecting your current thoughtforms onto a blank canvas. It is much more like drug induced hallucinating than any kind of optical illusion. It is pretty much the same as hypnogogic imagery that people get just before falling to sleep.

I guess I was referring to the rest of the techniques. I agree, ganzfield effects aren't really illusions, especially considering the psychic phenomenon they can produce.

I wonder if it really was the nose that felt so long after stroking...

Hey now, this is a serious discussion!

Huh huh, you said "stroking".