Sometimes hallucinations can appear in a healthy person, if he is in a homogeneous auditory and visual environment. For example, the researchers of the Arctic, who for a long time have to look at the endless expanses of ice, or the miners, after an accident, found themselves locked in a mine. 

This phenomenon is called the “ganzfeld effect”, it is the German “full field”. Some people deliberately evoke such visions in themselves. Is it dangerous for the psyche?

What is the Ganzfeld Effect?

About its existence, people knew the ganzfeld effect for a long time. Thus, the northern people who had to deal with such phenomena believed that these visions were sent to people by spirits. The followers of Pythagoras spent a lot of time in dark caves to gain wisdom by connecting with their subconscious.

When we are in a homogeneous, infinite space, where there is nothing to catch the eye, hallucinations may appear. The brain does not receive information, neither visual nor auditory. It cannot exist in reality, where there is no information, so it takes white noise as a basis and supplements it with some kind of visual picture.

The ganzfeld effect is not an aberration. It is based on the work of the brain, which needs to receive a flow of information from the senses. With the help of them, it recognizes models familiar to it, gives out ready-made templates. It does not need to be given any commands or instructions, the brain independently carries out this work. If there is not enough visual information, it complements the visual picture of sensations o its own accord, i.e. a person sees what is not really there.

This was confirmed experimentally in the 1930s by Wolfgang Metzger. His subjects, for a long time looking at a homogeneous field, began to see hallucinations. There are instructions by following which, you can evoke these visions in yourself.

To try this method for yourself, you need to find a clean ping-pong ball, cut it in half. It is advisable to turn on the red light in the room or turn off the lighting. To create “white noise”, you need to tune the radio so that only hiss is heard. You can lie down, fix the halves of the balloon in front of your eyes and wait. If you do not fall asleep, then hallucinations may appear after 10-30 minutes.

Experts advise against doing this. Psychiatrists write that this procedure is stressful for the psyche. If a person has caused such visions in himself many times, he may develop neurotic states. But if you had to face this phenomenon, you should not worry about it, there should be no negative consequences for the psyche.

The ganzfeld effect and telepathy

It is believed that the ganzfeld effect is associated with clairvoyance. Due to the fact that auditory and visual analyzers are completely turned off, a person seems to fall out of objective reality and can plunge into a dialogue with the subconscious. It is this that creates different images in the head.

Many believed that in this way it was possible to establish contact with the universal information field and receive information from there. In the 1970s, experiments took place on the transmission of information telepathically.

One of the subjects sat in a room with dim red lighting, with halves of ping-pong balls in front of him, headphones with white noise in his ears. In another room, a second subject was sitting, trying to transmit a message using psychic abilities.

In 1983, 354 pairs of subjects took part in the experiment, 34% of the participants chose the right card from the proposed ones. In a similar 1985 study, that number rose to 37%. Given that the probability of random guessing is 25%, we can say that it was not possible to prove the presence of telepathic abilities at that time.

The ganzfeld effect does exist, scientists have tried to study and explain it. Knowing about it, one can understand the origin of many legends and superstitions associated with caves, mines, etc. People really heard mysterious sounds and saw some figures, but all these images could be created by our brain, the work of which has not yet been fully studied.

Dr. Alexander Batthyany, a professor of psychology at the University of Vienna, has studied thousands of cases of near-death experiences. Human thinking ability has nothing to do with the brain.

Near death experience case study

Dr. Batthyany and others collected thousands of complete cases describing near-death experiences , and recorded in detail the content of the near-death’s private prosecution and doctor’s consultation.

Doctors ask dozens of questions about what the patient sees (visual), what he hears (hearing), what he thinks (consciousness and thinking), life background (such as religious beliefs, life experience), etc., such as “Have this experience before Do you?”, “Do you see the light?”, “Who do you talk about your death experience?”, “Do you believe in your death experience?”, etc., to judge and evaluate the credibility of the patient’s narration of the near death experience Degree and the patient’s mental state after death (whether normal, etc.).

Dr. Batthyany said that the results of the study are reliable and fully confirm that the near-death experience is a real mental activity rather than an illusion. He also said that research methods have certain limitations, which will lead to underestimation of the proportion of near-death experiences.

Extremely credible near-death experiences

Dr. Batthyany explained that due to the limitations of the method, cases are likely to be missed, so the actual rate of near death experience should be higher.

Dr. Batthyany explained how he and his colleagues analyzed thousands of cases by compiling and integrating medical records into a resource library (such as the NDERF website), and then using search terms related to vision (vision) or cognition (such as “See” (saw) or “thought”> search for related medical records and score them according to visual or cognitive content, and then further narrow the scope of the study, such as selecting near-death experience cases with detailed medical records. This screening method based only on search terms is likely to miss cases where there is no such vocabulary in the expression.

Dr. Batthyany said that the near-death experience cases are highly credible. They considered that thousands of cases with near-death experiences are likely to have false reports, but in the process of sorting and analyzing, they noticed that only 1% of near-death cases were deleted due to validity.

Therefore, Dr. Batthyany believes that even if there are still false cases, the number is not enough to affect the overall conclusion.

Evidence of the phenomenon

In addition to these near-death experience studies, Dr. Batthyany also pointed out that the phenomenon of back light also shows that the phenomenon of thinking consciousness is extremely complex, even in the case of severe deterioration of brain function, there can be active thinking.

Dr. Batthyany studies the back-to-light phenomenon in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Among patients with Alzheimer’s disease (ie, Alzheimer’s disease), some people have been completely incoherent for many years, but suddenly showed a marked improvement or normal thinking shortly before their death. This is what is commonly referred to as “return to light”.

According to the current neurological concept, as the brain function of Alzheimer’s patients gets worse and worse, their thinking performance should be that their memory and various thoughts and feelings are becoming more and more lost, and there is even no human thinking at all.

However, the actual situation is just the opposite. The whole state of mind of Alzheimer’s patients may suddenly become intact like a spark burst.

“Psychological Vision” of the Blind

In fact, there is also a phenomenon of “mindsight” or “mind intuition” which also illustrates the independence of thinking. “Psychovision” refers to the sight of a blind person who reports during a near-death experience.

Kenneth Ring of the University of Connecticut found that among 21 blind cases who reported near-death experiences, 15 blind people described seeing the scene and had vision.

Dr. Batthyany pointed out that some scientists believe that near-death experiences are hallucinations produced by human neurophysiological processes. However, “in this study, the results of near-death experience, rebirth, and psycho-visual phenomena suggest that patients experience near-death experiences when their condition deteriorates, die, or have no neurological activity, and it is common.”

Therefore, Dr. Batthyany concluded that even when the brain function changes or even the electrical activity of the brain stops (the EEG is flat), there is still a clear sense of self, complex visual images, and clear mental activities. And other thinking phenomena.

Even though back-lighting and psychological vision are very rare phenomena, the countless examples of near-death experiences are enough to illustrate the problem.

Dr. Batthyany wrote:

“Our research results show that the visual scene, mental state and self-awareness that people continue to appear in the near-death experience are a rule rather than an exception.”

Humanity still does not know much about death. Of course, it’s easy to write it off as “nothingness,” but what if in reality everything is a little more complicated? In the selection below – ten creepy stories “from the other world” from people who survived clinical death.

Recently, the user Aidanmartin3 asked near-death survivors on Reddit to describe what it was like. The post quickly went viral, with hundreds of people sharing their stories in the comments.

I was about fifteen years old. Climbed onto the kitchen counter to grab something from the top cabinet, but slipped and fell headlong onto the marble floor. The next thing I remember is walking barefoot on water. Then I look to the right, I see a very bright light and a hand, as if calling me. I go to her and suddenly realize how peaceful and relaxed I am. Like the best deep sleep ever. Then I said to myself: “Dude, this is so cool, I would never wake up.” And then all of a sudden everything disappears, and I wake up because of my mother, who is crying over me.By that time, I was already numb, cold, pulseless and even managed to urinate in my pants. As an atheist who does not believe in all this, I often think about that case.

Cule4444

My father died for a short while and then said that at that time he was walking along a long corridor to the door. But when he was about to open it, his father felt himself being “sucked” into his own body

Whiskeynostalgic

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He died of an overdose for several minutes.In reality, there was nothing. It’s just darkness and an incomprehensible period of time. It was almost like waking up after hanging out all night and feeling like a horse kicked in the chest.

Th30xygen

It seemed to me that I was kind of floating in a long tunnel and I felt very tired. I remember how I fell asleep then and had a dream that I was in the kitchen of my childhood home, and dad was preparing breakfast. I heard turmoil and chaos at one end, and at the other, there was a warm light that seemed soothing. But then all of a sudden I ended up in the chaos of the emergency room.

Free_Hat_McCullough

The story of my ex-girlfriend’s mom. Her heart stopped for 28 minutes. The doctors had already told the family that she had left, and even brought in a priest to bless the room. But in the end she returned. She said that she recalls running around the field with a little girl, who, according to the woman, was her niece, in the dress in which she was buried.

CastingPouch

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I heard a loud, high-pitched noise telling me that I am still too young to die. Then he got even higher, and I saw a bright light and woke up. The ambulance driver was shining a flashlight in my eyes

Workerhard62

Anaphylactic reaction to the deadly sting of the Irukandji jellyfish. I saw this white glow and how I soared up, then my family and the doctors and nurses who were saving me. Came back and felt a lot of pain

Georgestarr

It felt as if my body was being filmed on a CCTV camera from a third person. Then the camera gradually moved away and rose. I became very cold and began to hear loud clanking sounds. Woke up in an ambulance to the sound of a gurney bouncing on a rough road. It was so surreal. Since then I have not been afraid of death, to be honest. It was almost six years ago, but I still think about that case several times a month.

Hemptations

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I was hit by a car. I could see everything, blood had not yet got into my eyes. I heard all the commotion. I felt myself being pushed in the back, and then doing artificial respiration … After that I felt only the first beats of the heart and how the blood flowed through my body. The pain began to build up with renewed vigor, and then everything went black

Outsider531

I was pronounced dead three times. But “after death” I have never seen anything. At least i don’t remember

Amihuman159