Got some time to kill? (of course you do, you’re online reading a blog aren’t you). Enter the world of Get High Now, a complementary site to the book Get High Now Without Drugs: Over 175 Sensory Trips and Tricks for Visual Stimulation, Compressing Time, Lucid Dreaming, Mediation, and More by James Nestor. Here is a brief description of the book from its author’s website:
Get High Now is an illustrated, mind-blowing magic carpet ride of more than 175 ways to alter human perception and consciousness—without drugs or alcohol. But, like, you already know that.
Get ready for your brain to melt, or at least waste fifteen minutes of your work day. Click on the images to activate the larger versions.
The Cafe Wall
Stare at the pattern for a moment. Does the pattern grow distorted and funneled at the tips? Examine it closely and you’ll see the alternating black and white lines are actually completely straight and square.
How It Works
The Café Wall works by feeding our brain too much contrasting information at once. Our visual systems are not very precise when perceiving strong contrasts in color, and the strong black-and-white pattern with mortar in the middle on the Café Wall immediately overpowers the brain.
Chronosynclastic Infundibulum (aka Rotating Snake)
What you’ll be seeing here is a stationary image that looks as though it is alive, squirming, slithering. Stare if you dare.
WARNING: This high can cause extreme dizziness and could provoke epileptic seizures. If while staring at this you feel very dizzy, immediately look away and cover one eye. Do not close both eyes! Doing so could prolong and increase the intensity of the attack.
How It Works
This visual high was developed by psychology professor Akiyoshi Kitaoka of Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan. Kitaoka theorizes that when our eyes see alternating light and dark shades of color in a particular order, such as in this illusion, they will naturally assume a prescribed route of motion within the object on which they are concentrating.
Enigma
Stare at the image for at least a minute. Watch as the lines jittery around the circle, as the circles move up and down the line. Even weirder, most people see an alteration in the color of the circle after a few moments of intense staring.
How It Works
Created in 1981 by artist Isia Leviant, the painting titled Engima has long stumped scientists. Nobody knew why the lines appeared to jitter, how the concentric circles could move, or what exactly it was that gave us this two-dimensional illusion its appearance of depth. Why did we feel so sucked in to the painting? Then in November 2008, neuroscientists at Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona, discovered most of the blame goes to the microsaccades, the tiny involuntary movements that occur naturally in the eyes at various times.
Fraser Spiral
Try the follow the spiral by tracing just above it with a pen or the tip of your finger. You can’t. Why? Because what you’ll be seeing is not a spiral but a set of circles. Yes, really. Check it out.
How It Works
This illusion was created by British psychologist James Fraser, who first published it in 1908. When you look at the Fraser Spiral it appears a single line is twisting its way into the center, spiraling into a funnel. Your eyes, Judas-like, are deceiving you. The Fraser Spiral works by guiding the eye through a sequence of counter-angles. The eye and brain are not accustomed to processing images this geometrically complicated, and thus try to normalize the circles by imagining them as a single line, a phantom spiral corkscrewing its way to the center.
Hermann’s Sparkling Grid
Look at it! It’s sparkles! It shines! But, um, how?!?
How It Works
When overfed, the stomach regurgitates Joseph and His Technicolor Dreamcoat. The same things happen when we overfeed the brain, but instead of vomit the brain hurls hallucinations, distorted perceptions, and other coolness. We like that. Which is why we like Wow! Hermann’s Sparkling Grid! This illusionary high was created in 1870 by German speech researcher Ludimar Hermann (1838 – 1914). The most popular (and controversial) theory is that the illusion works by stimulating the neurons in our eyes so much that they shut off the neurons near them in a process known as lateral inhibition.
Vomit Vectors
Look at this illusionary high. The dots appear to be moving, undulating, and animated. Stare at Vomit Vectors for at least one minute—longer if you can stomach it. Disgusting.
How It Works
Some researchers blame our reaction to Vomit Vectors on the eyes’ neurons—the brain and body’s messenger cells. When the neurons process a white area from our eyes, they send an on/off signal to our brains. Black areas generate the opposite off/on signal. The complex map of black and white areas in Vomit Vectors overloads our brains by countering on/off with off/on signals.
Is your stomach turning yet? Did you want access to these and more illusions at any time? Then check out the iPhone app! Any other good optical illusions you want to share? Leave it in the comments.
Recent Comments