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Relax Your Mind: Build Your Own Ganzfeld GogglesMAR 28 2011 FILED IN: BRAIN, HACKS

The Ganzfeld effect is a form of visual sensory deprivation. The idea is to give the openeyes a blank visual field of uniform color. Since there is nothing for the eyes to see, thebrain cuts off the unchanging input, and often manufactures its own images these maybe thought of as mild hallucinations. Personally, I havent experienced any vividhallucinations via a Ganzfield, but I find the effect to be rather relaxing. Ive found that aGanzfeld is very good for helping to eliminate excess chatter in the mind, especiallywhen practicing meditation.

One common meditation technique involves cracking the eyes just barely open, so thateven though your eyes are open, you cant really see anything. There are two purposesfor this technique: 1) its easier to stay awake with the eyes open and 2) when the eyesare closed, the brain goes into the idling alpha wave rhythm. When you meditate, oneaim is to generate alpha with the eyes open; this isnt easy, because in typical settings,there are too many distracting things for your eyes to see. I find it easier to stay awakewhen I use Ganzfeld goggles than when I meditate with my eyes barely cracked open.

A common technique for creating a Ganzfeld goggles is to cut a ping pong ball in half,and then place one half over each eye. While this technique is cheap, and relativelyeasy, its not particular comfortable, as the edges of the cut halves tend to be sharp. Also, theyre easily damaged. Ive devised alternate cheap and easy method of buildingGanzfeld goggles, which is more comfortable and durable, and better than an expensivecommercial alternative.

My take on Ganzfeld goggles starts with a pair of cheap swimming goggles. I bought apack of 3 at Big Lots for $7.

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Its important to use large goggles with a bubble lens as above. What we are looking foris to have a big enough lens that when were wearing them, the edges are basicallyoutside of the visual field. Next, we need a can of frosting spray:

You can find glass frosting spray in the spray paint section of most hardware stores. Ialso tried white paint, but frosting spray is better, because it lets more light through, andfilters the light more evenly. Remove the seals and straps from your goggles, and sprayon the frosting

Be sure to spray both the outside and inside of the goggles. 2-3 coats are needed toachieve a sufficient frostiness. Wait about 10 min between coats. Once theyre dry,reassemble your goggles.

Your Ganzfeld goggles are now ready to use.

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I wont go into detail here on how to use Ganzfeld goggles, because you can find plentyof articles via Google. However here are some basics:

Find a quiet room, and lay down in a recliner or on a bed. Keep your eyes open, andrelax. You may want to try auditory sensory deprivation, as well. Since its hard to finda completely quiet place, another way of decreasing auditory distractions is to listen towhite, pink, or brown noise through sound-isolation headphones. You can make noisefiles easily using Audacity, a free audio editor. Here is a tutorial on YouTube for how togenerate white/pink/brown noise. Although the video says you can use any version ofAudacity, only Audacity 1.3+ can generate pink and brown noise. Audacity 1.2.x canonly generate white noise.

You can also try audio brainwave entrainment, using binaural beats. Some people likealpha wave entrainment; personally, I find 7 Hz theta wave entrainment to work best. There SBaGen and BWGen are two free programs for generating binaural beats. Anexcellent commercial software, which is a lot more flexible, and can generate otherwaveforms, such as isochronic beats, is Neuroprogrammer. STAY AWAY FROM I-DOSER. The author makes ridiculous, fraudulent claims, and the program is just a rip-off of Jim Peters GPLed SBaGen code.

If you want to use the goggles to enhance your meditation, simply wear them whilepracticing your normal meditation techniques. Instead of keeping your eyes barelycracked open, you can keep them fully open, half open, or whatever way feels mostcomfortable. Again, I wont go into detail about meditation techniques, but a goodmethod for beginners is Counting Meditation. Sit with your spine straight and tailboneslightly elevated by a pillow. Inhale and exhale deeply and slowly through yourdiaphragm (you expand your belly, rather than your chest during breathing) while counting your breaths. As you relax, your breath will naturally slow down. If you losecount due to being distracted, simply start over. Eventually, you will be able to get thecount higher and higher before you lose your concentration.

Another experiment you can try is to play with colored light sources. For instance, youcan sit in a room which is lit by a red lightbulb. Ive found that even sitting in the darkwith some colored LEDs works. If you want to attach the LEDs directly to yourgoggles, you can diffuse them with ping-pong balls. Just cut a ping-pong ball in half. Hot glue an LED into each one, pointing away from the opening. Then hot glue the pingpong ball halves onto your goggles.

While I dont experience hallucinations when using the goggles, they are quite relaxing,and really do enhance my meditation practice. With the vision blocked, your brainshifts its attention more to your other senses. If I use them without listening to myentrainment tracks, I become much more aware of the ringing in my ears that my brainnormally filters out.

Ive also played with an alternate pair, which I painted with several coats of blackpaint. The idea is to completely block out the light, so its like youre sitting in a pitchblack room of absolute darkness.

I actually prefer this black pair when meditating. Your brain naturally produces occipitalalpha waves when you close your eyes. The idea of meditating with eyes open is that itforces you to produce the alpha waves by meditation only. However, meditating with



eyes open is visually distracting. Wearing the black glasses allows you to eliminatevisual distractions while meditating with eyes open.

Update 2014-12-18:

If you find swimming goggles to be uncomfortable, you can try using safety glasses. Ibought a pair at my local 99 cent store. You can also find them cheaply atHarborFreight. Simply take out the clear lens, spray with frosting spray, and thenreassemble.

I find the safety glasses to be a bit more comfortable for long sessions. The downside isthat in order to avoid peripheral vision from ruining the ganzfeld, you have to wear themfairly close to your eyes, and avoid rolling your eyes up or down.

Mindmodifications.com has an interesting article about the Ganzfeldeffect: MULTIMODAL GANZFELD GIVES MILD HALLUCINATIONSThey also have detailed instructions on how to build the goggles out of ping-pong balls,should you want to try that version, as well.

Enjoy your Ganzfeld goggles, and feel free to leave feedback about your experiencesbelow, or to tell of any enhancements you devise.

Related Post: Build Ganzfeld-style Photic Goggles (AVS Lightframes)

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TAGS: BRAIN, DIY, GANZFELD, GOGGLES, HALLUCINATION, MEDITATION

There are 14 Comments to "Relax Your Mind: Build YourOwn Ganzfeld Goggles"

DIY Ganzfeld Hacks | Disinformation says:SEPTEMBER 17, 2012 AT 7:12 AM

[] pingback DIY Ganzfeld Hacks[]

ReplyDIY Ganzfeld Hacks says:SEPTEMBER 17, 2012 AT 8:11 AM

[] Build Your Own Ganzfeld Goggles []

Reply

AP says:OCTOBER 8, 2012 AT 2:37 PM

Great idea! I just bought some swimming goggles from Amazon, and I hope theyll dothe trick. One concern is that the corners of the lenses will be visible, and so the fieldwont be uniform.

What do you think about using a single-lens goggle (such as the Paulson ShieldsBubble Goggles on Amazon)?



Reply

lincomatic says:OCTOBER 8, 2012 AT 3:07 PM

My goggles have lenses that are big enough that the corners arent visible as longas Im not purposely looking at them.I havent tried the bubble goggles. Although they might have a larger field of view, Iwonder if light will bleed in aroundthe edges. They dont appear to seal tightly.

Reply

AP says:OCTOBER 13, 2012 AT 9:33 AM

Hmm I meant the rim of the flat lens in front. I ordered some that look much likeyours, and for me that rim ruins the effect. Maybe Ill try the Paulsons!

Reply

lincomatic says:OCTOBER 13, 2012 AT 10:26 AM

Hmm. I cant see the rims in mine. did you put multiple coats of the frostingon both the inside and outside?

Reply

AP says:OCTOBER 13, 2012 AT 10:44 AM

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/64863754/IMG_20121013_130052.jpghttps://dl.dropbox.com/u/64863754/IMG_20121013_130116.jpg

Yours dont look like that? Im admittedly the least handy person who ever lived,so its no surprise if mine didnt turn out as well as yours

Reply

lincomatic says:OCTOBER 13, 2012 AT 1:10 PM

Yours look under frosted. You shouldnt be able to see anything throughthem. I can see the surrounding room through yours (first photo) . Use severalthick coats on both the outside and inside.

Reply

AP says:OCTOBER 13, 2012 AT 2:17 PM

If were looking at the same thing, that apparition on the right side of the lensis the piece of plastic where the eyepiece connects to the strap. But no harmin frosting more I can always just use brighter light!

Reply

Rice says:OCTOBER 25, 2012 AT 8:31 PM

Try these:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Ganzfeld-Hack-Your-Brain-the-Legal-Way/?ALLSTEPS



Mind says:OCTOBER 13, 2012 AT 1:04 AM

Awesome idea with the frost spray (I didnt even know such spray existed..!). This aclever improvement over the basic ping-pong ball version.

Thanks a lot for sharing this.

Reply

A.m says:APRIL 28, 2013 AT 2:04 PM

Hi, I tried the Gansfeld method, but my eyelashes kept distracting me any time Iblinked. This happen to anyone else or have I jut got unnaturally long eyelashes?

Reply

Self Hypnosis and Experiments with Ganzfeld - Feedback Requested! says:MAY 14, 2014 AT 10:46 PM

[] thought I would make them out of swimming goggles and white glass frosting paintas described here: Lincomatic's DIY Blog | electronics, 3d printing, hacking, etc Before Iblow my wad, spend $30.00 or so at Amazon to get the materials and perhapsWagoneer's []

Reply

Pygar says:OCTOBER 9, 2014 AT 11:29 AM

Thank you for this great idea. I found the sharp edges of the ping pong balls quiteannoying. I also found it difficult to keep the spheres in place without adding shadesbecause of the sellotape.

Reply

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