It’s enough to spend only 15 minutes in dark soundproofed room in order to get worried.
Psychotherapists of University College London have concluded that the 15-minute stay in conditions of sensory deprivation – with an absolute absence of any external stimuli – is enough to have psychedelic experiences and visual hallucinations.
19 volunteers were placed in a dark room with full sound insulation. Before the experiment each volunteer has passed a series of tests. The purpose was to determine the propensity of all volunteers to hallucinations and various mental disorders.
During the study, researchers found out that after 15-minute stay in the room, people suddenly began to see unusual things. Five volunteers reported that they clearly saw faces in the darkness, and six described the objects which shape was constantly changing. In addition, some volunteers felt smells, and two men felt a sense of anxiety because of the presence of “something horrific and inexplicable” in the room.
“We believe that the visual and olfactory hallucinations are caused by disoriented senses. Sensory deprivation is a powerful tool to study the characteristics of human consciousness, and it is likely that this method has a high potential for psychological studies.” – said one of the authors of the research, Dr. Oliver Mason.
It should be also noted that the author of this method is the American psychologist John Lilly.
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