How to hallucinate with ping-pong balls and a radio

[Ivan Seeking]

DO YOU EVER want to change the way you see the world? Wouldn't it be fun to hallucinate on your lunch break? Although we typically associate such phenomena with powerful drugs like LSD or mescaline, it's easy to fling open the doors of perception without them: All it takes is a basic understanding of how the mind works.

The first thing to know is that the mind isn't a mirror, or even a passive observer of reality. Much of what we think of as being out there actually comes from in here, and is a byproduct of how the brain processes sensation. In recent years scientists have come up with a number of simple tricks that expose the artifice of our senses, so that we end up perceiving what we know isn't real - tweaking the cortex to produce something uncannily like hallucinations. Perhaps we hear the voice of someone who is no longer alive, or feel as if our nose is suddenly 3 feet long...

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/graphics/011109_hacking_your_brain/

 

[Math Jeans]

How well does it work?

 

[BobG]

The rubber hand illusion is a good way to make someone throw up. The illusion becomes very disconcerting for some people since they know the hand isn't real, but their sense of touch keeps telling them otherwise.

 

[physics girl phd]

This is great. I may do the finger-in-the-eye/binoculars activity with my "How things work" class when we cover optics. I have ping-pong balls from last term... I'll have to sacrifice one to try this at home.