The cloud of unknowing: Cognitive dedifferentiation in whole-body perceptual deprivation.
Progress in brain research – January 01, 2023
Source: PubMed
Summary
Immersion in the OVO Whole-Body Perceptual Deprivation chamber (OVO-WBPD) consistently leads to profound alterations in perception. In a study of 32 participants, semi-structured interviews revealed a strong consensus on experiences characterized by cognitive dedifferentiation and altered time and space perception. Notably, 85% reported positively connoted, bodily-oriented states. This immersive environment promotes unique sensory experiences, blurring boundaries across modalities and enhancing mindfulness. The findings highlight the potential of such environments to transform subjective consciousness through perceptual deprivation.
Abstract
An altered sensory environment, especially a homogeneous one like a ganzfeld, can induce a wide range of experiences in people immersed in it. The ganzfeld of our current focus is the OVO Whole-Body Perceptual Deprivation chamber (OVO-WBPD). Previous literature has found this specific immersive environment to be capable of softening and dissolving perception of boundaries across time and sensory modalities, among other domains. Since recent published electrophysiological results demonstrated that immersion in the OVO-WBPD significantly increased delta and beta activity, in the left inferior frontal cortex and in the left insula, we sought to better understand the subjective experiences of participants utilizing this altered sensory environment via semi-qualitative methodology. Consequently, semi-structured interviews of participants were analyzed by three independent evaluators focusing on several domains of experience often reported in perceptual deprivation environments. We found a significantly shared consensus on the presence of experiences belonging to semantic domains of altered experience, demonstrating that the OVO-WBPD chamber consistently elicits positively connotated, bodily-oriented and cognitively dedifferentiated subjective states of consciousness in the majority of 32 examined participants.