
Out of LSD? Just 15 Minutes of Sensory Deprivation Triggers Hallucinations - mshafrir
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/10/hallucinations/
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divia
I find these results surprising. For what it's worth, I've been in a sensory
deprivation tank around five times (for an hour the first time, and for an
hour and a half all subsequent times), known a handful of other people who've
tried it too, talked to the two women who ran the place I went to, and leafed
through The Deep Self by John Lilly, which includes many descriptions of
people's time in the tank. All of these things led me to believe that
hallucinations after just 15 minutes were quite rare. Granted, half the
participants were picked because they tested as prone to hallucinations, and
maybe there's something about the room they used that makes it different from
the tank, but I'm still quite surprised.

If anyone's interested in reading about my experience the first time I went,
which was less dramatic, I described what I could remember here:
[http://divia.posterous.com/my-first-hour-in-the-flotation-
ta...](http://divia.posterous.com/my-first-hour-in-the-flotation-tank).

~~~
dcurtis
I'm not sure, but I think an anechoic chamber is a different, more deprived,
experience. I've been in the one at NPS in Monterey, and it's a very strange
experience. No echos, no external sounds, no vibrations, still body temp air,
and no light. In a water tank, you still hear the water, feel the edges of the
tank, feel the water move when you move your body, etc, right?

~~~
a-priori
I was also in an anechoic chamber a few times years ago. I remember once, I
had been working on a robot for the FIRST competition for about 10 hours
straight. I was exhausted, so I thought, 'I'll take a nap in the anechoic
chamber'. It was probably the only quiet, dark place around.

I couldn't sleep, and lasted only about 20 minutes in the chamber. I didn't
have hallucinations, but I did start feeling paranoid and the lack of
sensation was (for lack of a better word) intense. I couldn't stand it.
Perhaps I would have started hallucinating if I had stayed longer. Sensory
deprivation is a truly bizarre experience.

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davidkellis
I'll jokingly point out that any 4 year old that's scared of the the monster
under the bed, the scary man in the corner of the room (coatrack), or the
noises that those monsters make (creaking floor/ceiling, etc.) is well aware
of this discovery.

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nimbix
Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong here, but I believe the title should
say "Out of Salvia/Iboga/Ketamine/...?" because it's dissociative
hallucinogens that induce hallucinations through sensory deprivation. LSD does
the exact opposite; it increases sensory stimulation.

~~~
tezza
You are right nimbix, the focus seems to be on LSD consistently. The meme on
'teh interwebs' and here on HN seems to be that

    
    
      LSD == Hallucinations
      Hallucinations == Good
      .: LSD == Good
    

And the meme also says that somehow if you are stuck in plain old reality,
your life sucks in lots of ways you'll never know about, because hey, you just
aren't cool enough if you don't hallucinate on LSD.

Now of course I've taken a lot of LSD and all the other stuff I could lay my
hands on: But I reject the notion that hallucinating is better than real life.
After each hallucination, real life is what you return to, and must deal with.

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marcusbooster
I wonder if there's a correlation between this and dreaming?

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robg
James Turrell (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Turrell>) is an interesting
artist who plays with these effects and how they can go from subtle to almost
overpowering.

Here's a really good interview with him:
<http://conversations.org/story.php?sid=32>

~~~
RevRal
I've seen this guy in Flagstaff; I had no idea he was so cool!

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awolf
I wonder if the participants would still experience the hallucinations if they
didn't know they were part of an experiment.

They were expecting something out of the ordinary therefore they got it.

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stcredzero
I think that language deprivation is more useful. Try not speaking, listening
to human speech, or reading _anything_ for an entire weekend. (72 hours. Think
about this for a moment and look around your home. This isn't as easy to
arrange as you might think.)

Doing this, one will often achieve a feeling of elation and altered
consciousness.

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jrockway
I wonder how many people in prison for taking hallucinogenic drugs are put
into solitary confinement and are forced to experience said hallucinations.

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Alex3917
You can rent a sensory deprivation take for an hour in NYC. It's less than a
hundred bucks. I thought about it for a while, but then decided against it
after thinking about all those Gitmo prisoners who ended up with permanent
brain damage.

~~~
divia
One thing about renting a tank for an hour that makes it quite different from
what's done at Gitmo is that you're free to get out of the tank at any time.
If you're curious, I'd recommend doing it.

~~~
Alex3917
Right I realize doing it voluntarily for an hour is a lot different than being
left in there for six days against your will after being beaten and injected
with god knows what.

Then again, the guy who invented these tanks thought that dolphins were
talking to him.

~~~
divia
Heh, sorry to state the obvious. I had such a good time in the tank that I
tend to be a bit of an evangelist. If you trust them at all, it's also been
studied by the National Institute of Mental Health and they think it's safe.

~~~
Alex3917
Cool, can you email me, I'd like to ask you more about it but your email isn't
in your profile.

