Anyone else able to control their Tensor tympani? The Tensor tympani is a muscle in the inner ear that produces 10-30Hz vibrations if contracted. I learned to contract it during a very heavy 4-aco-dmt trip in the dark, finding that contracting it grealty increases the presence and speed of visuals. I can only do it briefly when I'm sober, but I'm able to do it for quite a while when tripping (30+ sec at a time). Appearantly it is relatively common (especially among divers), so I am curious if there are any psychonauts that are also able to control their Tensor tympani? Do you also note increased visuals?

I realize that if you're not famalair with it this thread is really weird .
Cheers

Is it the same buzzing effect you get when yawning and swallowing? Not familiar with the science of it, so not sure if it's the same feeling. But sometimes I can flex the feeling in the ear to amplify and pulse it for a second or two, but then I lose it. And at the moment I can't flex it at all. Oh, I actually can do it If I clench my jaw while pulling my face muscles back as if in a smile. I've never tried to do it intentionally while tripping or thought it was of any significance tho.

Once on mushrooms I tried focusing on a physical point within my mind and let my attention go there as intently as possible. I was greeted with a buzzing pop that sort of pushed me back out of my mind as if it were defending itself from being probed. Felt like a blood vessel just ruptured or something, nothing special happened after. Maybe if I had held focus.

Yes it is the same muscle. Give it a try next time if you remember.

I can do that. I never knew what it was called though. I couldn't stop doing it on LSD once and it kind of irritated me until I distracted myself. I don't really remember if it affected the visuals any, and, like you said, I can only do it briefly in a normal state of mind.

So that's what that is.

Yeah, seems to occur nearly spontaneously sometimes, but I've never noticed any visionary effect.

I don't know if it's the same thing, buy one of the signs that i knew whatever opiate i had taken was working (in the bad old days) was when i could flex my inner ear in such a way as to make the blood rushing there become a roar.

Just reading this made me do it! Never thought of it being the tensor tympani but I've noticed myself being able to tweak this muscle for quite some time. It's never occurred to me (so far as I can recall) to investigate its effects while tripping.

I can also use this muscle to trigger yawning voluntarily. If I yawn hard enough I get some interesting musculo-skeletal releases right inside my skull, the culmination of which feels rather like a popping sensation where I would imagine my pineal gland to be... But that's only happened a couple of times. Yawning is a special function which is perhaps overlooked as a technique in and of itself.

I found myself doing this last night unintentionally after having read this thread
Kind of cool. I had mild tinnitus while attempting to fall asleep & noticed i could alter the frequency & pitch to some degree.