Tripping with Sensory Deprivation

[alkatrope]

I've heard from people that taking mushrooms in a small place where you are completely isolated from sound and light produces a very different and much more intense trip.

What are other peoples' experiences with this?

[lampy]

I had a friend that has tried this and have found it a very intense experience. They told me they could only stand to be without light and sound for about 20 mins and then it became frightening.

I have read it is much more of a spiritual experience, and would like to give it a go one day.

Will definatly have to be a small dose though. Large doses could get out of control rather easily i think.

[mu!]

I've had good results with some sensory-deprivation like setting (where legal of course). I was laying flat out on a real comfy double size mattress, eyes closed (in a dimly lit caravan), but with my favourite psy tunes pumpin. The result - very cool :D All there was, was the void, and slight visuals playin in it. Total disconnection from body. Definitely intensified the trip. The psytrance would've contributed too (dig those 1/16th note fat 140bpm basslines :D).

Makes sense too when you think about it; the senses get deprived of input, so there's nothing (or less, what do i know?) for the brain to process, which allows it more energy to use for the trip.

Edited December 4, 2006 by mu.

[alkatrope]

Makes sense too when you think about it; the senses get deprived of input, so there's nothing (or less, what do i know?) for the brain to process, which allows it more energy to use for the trip.

Yeah that's what I'm thinking, too. Kinda like a tiny tiny pinch of what happens in a ketamine trip.

I like the responses so far.. Keep 'em comin' please

[faustus]

my nicuraguan pen pal carlos has a sensory deprivation tank. he has taken an array of psychedelic substances, particularly LSD and ketamine. he says that although very, very dangerous, the ketamine experiences were extremely interesting. on many occasions he lost complete awareness of his body and every so often would need to check that he was still alive (re turning upside and drowning). given the nature of ketamine, the exact details of his experience are long forgotten, but he does recall that the "simulations" were extremely vivid.

if you're interested in sensory deprivation (via the isolation tank method) i suggest you read anything by john lilly. in the absence of sensory input, the brain (probably to keep the neurons firing) starts to generate its own output. if all sensory input is blocked, then any simulation experienced in the tank is entirely output from the brain.

[wandjina]

if you're interested in sensory deprivation (via the isolation tank method) i suggest you read anything by john lilly. in the absence of sensory input, the brain (probably to keep the neurons firing) starts to generate its own output. if all sensory input is blocked, then any simulation experienced in the tank is entirely output from the brain.

yes, 'Eye of the cyclone' is well worth a read..though I can not agree with the animal experiments, especially when he decided to 'sacrifice' the dolphins they were using in the research.

Neither can I agree with your (and if my memory serves me Lilys) view that 'any simulation experienced in the tank is entirely output from the brain'... i, and i imagine many other members, prescribe to more expansive notions of mind, and the mind-brain interface.

Edited December 5, 2006 by wandjina

[apothecary]

Yeah twix I agree with your definition 'at this point everything is brain output', but at that point, your subconcious probably becomes a lot more pronounced, and I imagine most peoples subconcious is littered with exogenous world input.

[faustus]

Neither can I agree with your (and if my memory serves me Lilys) view that 'any simulation experienced in the tank is entirely output from the brain'...

this is the initial, logical belief you start with when floating in the tank. lilly eventually came to experience very unusual states, which made him question the assumption that it was "all in the mind". he found that in the tank, the only limits to what he could experience were his beliefs. by changing his assumptions about the nature of self and mind, he found that he could experience states often described in religious texts. but at the end of the day, the guiding principle is that anything you experience is an output from the brain.

[Μορφέας]

hehe someone send me some dried shrooms and il test out sensory deprivation

Edited December 5, 2006 by tepa