Sometimes our brains do funny things. Take this study, for example, in which scientists blindfolded 13 people for 96 hours (four days) and had them record everything they “saw”. Ten participants had visual hallucinations, some of them incredibly vivid and intense, all of which began within the first day of wearing the blindfold. Many hallucinations were of lights and shapes, though some were more elaborate (see below for complete descriptions of many of the visual “trips”). But in every case, the participants knew that they were figments of their brains. Here is one of our favorites: “The hallucinations appeared suddenly 12 hours after blindfolding and evolved into a series of different images, much as in a dream. She reported seeing a butterfly that became a sunset, an otter, and finally a flower. She also reported seeing cities, skies, kaleidoscopes, lions, and sunsets so bright she could ‘barely look at them.’ ‘If there is a sunset or a sunrise I couldn’t look at the sun–because it was too bright–it would seem like all of this light would just collect where the sun was and I just could not look there.’ She stressed the intensity of the hallucinations, commenting ‘sometimes they were much prettier, I think, than anything I have ever seen–I really wish I could paint.'”
Thanks to Jessica P. for spotting this gem!
