Can someone explain this phenomenon to me?

[Tyler Durden]

Okay, so last night, I was up really late, until about 3:30AM local time.

 

I finished my homework for my college classes for today, and then I decided to meditate. I occasionally meditate, just whenever I really feel like it. I don't do it too often.

 

This time, however, I had a really good idea on meditation. I went to this one website that allowed me to play an audio clip of different natural sounds. I made the website play a sound of soft ocean waves, and then I turned off all the lights in my room, except for a blue LED light on one of the fans in my computer. The room was almost completely devoid of light, though I could still make out the posters on my walls and other objects in the room.

 

I meditated for about fifteen minutes to this sound of ocean waves, and I completely cleared my mind, except for the sound of these waves. After about five minutes, I started slipping into REM, and I kept this going for the rest of my meditation session.

 

Something strange happened when I finally stopped meditating and I opened my eyes. Somehow, the sound of the waves and my past experience with seeing ocean waves on the beach was now incorporated into my visual field. My entire room was flowing in waves, and my body could feel these waves.

 

What the heck happened here? Did my brain make a connection between the sound of the waves and my visual cortex? Was it a temporary experience of synesthesia? It certainly seemed like one. And furthermore, was this just a neural connection that happened, or did it trigger the production of some sort of hallucinogenic tryptamine in my body? I've read that DMT may be produced in the pineal gland in humans, and could be released during REM, and I'm wondering if I experienced a short-lived natural "trip" off of my meditation.

 

Thoughts?

[Mr Skeptic]

You fell asleep and the sound of an ocean primed you to dream of an ocean?

[LimbicLoser]

I was trying to run down some information of such similar cases, but have not had time to do a good job. I was kind of thinking lucid dreaming; without the control that is often reported. It might also be thinkable that the 'I opened my eyes' part is the hitch; that may have been the lucid part which had been interpreted through the orbital frontal area as 'real time.'

 

If I may here, I often find problems with meditation reports. If the mind had been closed down except for the primary auditory region and its association area overlaps with the particular limbic systems, somota-sensory loops, and so on, how can the time be known to have been 5 minutes? This is likely related to circadian clock activity (pre-conscious) so to have cognitative memory of it, means not so much of the brain was closed down.

 

And that, actually, is the trouble I so often find. Mind is a different projection (in the literal sense of 'neurons project') from many aspects of brain activity. I recall one National Geographic article entitled something along the lines of, 'mind is what brain does,' and that very well sums it up, I do reason.

 

Thus, at the moment, I would say that it was not a synesthesia matter--because that is most often something which is stable for the person who has that particular overlap. And holding any details of how such could happen, aside, I would reason that it was a very 'fringe consciousness' event; bordering lucid dreaming (and perhaps the meditation act had little to do with it).

 

It does sound like fun, however ! I kind of wish I could do that.

[Tyler Durden]

That definitely sounds like what happened....being on the edge of lucid dreaming but maintaining enough consciousness to make me feel like I was completely awake, so my mind was in a dream but my consciousness was nearly or fully active. I felt like I kept track of time accurately, but then again, I didn't look at any clocks for reference points.

 

Seems to me that this must be something very difficult to do. I've never had it before. Feeling "waves" going through my body was kind of weird, it sort of felt like I was in an ocean, and the waves made my body feel like a buoy. I was reading earlier about advanced meditation techniques and they said to try one with a particular sound or low volume static on the radio, and after a while you will start to enter a bizarre state of mind.

 

I can recall a study where subjects would have their eyes covered with ping-pong ball halves and static radio would be played at a low volume, and after a while the brain enters a hypnotic type of lucid dreaming. Perhaps I came close to the same thing.

[LimbicLoser]

Seems to me that this must be something very difficult to do. I've never had it before. Feeling "waves" going through my body was kind of weird, it sort of felt like I was in an ocean, and the waves made my body feel like a buoy.

 

Yes, in a more volitional-like manner, I'd very much agree, very, very hard 'to do. In the sense of brain doing it, it may be very, very uncommon to have had that particular signaling, or oscillation picked up in this 'state of consciousness' fashion.

 

I can recall a study where subjects would have their eyes covered with ping-pong ball halves and static radio would be played at a low volume, and after a while the brain enters a hypnotic type of lucid dreaming. Perhaps I came close to the same thing.

 

Yes, there was that study done (can't recall the team, at the moment). It seems (as best I recall) to have been interpreted as being a state of 'focalness' being reduced so as to lead a type of filling in. I'll see if I can run that down again.

[Tyler Durden]

My guess is that certain sounds/frequencies can influence brainwaves/brain-states. There's another study where someone would be put in a giant drum and someone outside the drum would rhythmically beat the drum at a certain frequency, and the subject would experience themselves as a completely different organism. I don't know how that one works. The brain is a very interesting and powerful organ, indeed.

[LimbicLoser]

That study sounds a bit off, if you catch my drift. Please see if you can get some info on where to find that. I'll try to get back here later in the week, or next week.