ganzfeld
Ganzfeld:(German for "uniform or whole field").
"A sensory-deprivation protocol for inducing a state of consciousness between wakefulness and sleep; in parapsychology, the ganzfeld is typically used in association with telepathy experiments, with one person attempting to influence the thoughts or feelings of another person. The "ganzfeld" experiment, conducted by a large number of different researchers, is considered to be among the best series of experiments ever done in parapsychological research."
Psi experiments:
the research side of this field is full of tests which search for evidence
of the existence of psi.
The ganzfeld fascinated us as an experiment: the protocol, the tools,
the procedure of the experiment is curious both artistically and scientifically
- the ping pong balls covering opened eyes, a red light submersion, white
noise surround sound, the images thrown up by the computer programme,
the experience of attempting to send an image to another.
And especially curious: the 1970/80s era of photographs of the ganzfeld
with the domestic furniture as an integral part of the laboratory setting:
the flowery print mattress, the angle poise, the clunky technical equipment,
as shown in this photo from the book The Power of The Mind edited by P.Brookesmith
(1986).
And of course,
the inherent desire: to see if we can read each others’ minds.
Dr. Serena Roney Dougal came to do a ganzfeld experiment with us.
ganzfeld one:
Location:
A terraced house in Glastonbury, Somerset, England
Date: 11th November 2003
Time: 2.30pm
Sender: Lisa Griffiths
Receiver: Vic Llewellyn
Monitor: Sue Palmer
Experimenter: Dr Serena Roney Dougal
Video: Stephen Clarke
the experiment:
"The receiver rests in a reclining chair in a soundproof chamber. Translucent ping pong ball halves are taped over the eyes and headphones placed over the ears. A red floodlight is directed toward the receiver's eyes and white noise is played through the headphones. (White noise is a random mixture of sound frequencies similar to the hiss made by a radio tuned bewteeen stations.) This homogeneous visual and auditory environment is called the Ganzfeld. To quiet "noise" produced by internal bodily tension, the receiver is also led through a set of relaxation exercises at the beginning of the ganzfeld period.
While the receiver is in the ganzfeld, a sender sits in a separate soundproof room and concentrates on the "target," a randomly selected picture. For about 30 minutes, the receiver thinks aloud, providing a continuous report of all the thoughts, feelings, and images that pass through his or her mind.
At the end of the ganzfeld period, the receiver is presented with several stimuli (usually four) and, without knowing which one was the target, is asked to rate the degree to which each matches the thoughts and images experienced during the ganzfeld period. If the receiver assigns the highest rating to the target, it is scored as a hit.Ó
Our experiment was filmed by three cameras simultaneously covering the sender, the receiver and the experimenter. This was edited into a split screen document of the whole process (one hour 20 mins), to see together everything that had been seperate.
Play a 2 minute video extract of the Ganzfeld Experiment
We conducted two experiments that day
ganzfeld
two:
Sender: Sue Palmer
Receiver: Lisa Griffiths
play 90 second loop video clip
"The
Ganzfeld is a very dramatic and powerful method for taking one into the
hypnagogic state...(that which Tantrics call the fourth state of consciousness)....
The quality and quantity of subconscious mentation that emerges is dependent
on the personality. In the Ganzfeld first of all senses are stripped away,
then the wittering mind; so that fantasies, imagery, memories, daydreams
and other expressions of the subliminal mind can come into play."
'Where
Science and Magic Meet' by Dr. Serena Roney Dougal
more info on the ganzfeld:
These websites provided the information on the ganzfeld quoted above - the first contains an excellent article on the ganzfeld.
http://comp9.psych.cornell.edu/dbem/ganzfeld.html
