You might have heard that drugs like LSD can cause an altered state of consciousness or disassociation in medical terms (distortion of colors, loss of memory etc. ) but now a psychologist has figured out an astoundingly easy way of doing that: all one has to do is to stare in someone’s eyes for 10 minutes. Do that and you will experience effects that are similar to those of recreational drugs.
Giovanni Caputo, a psychologist in Italy, was the brain behind this experiment. He split 20 people into pairs and asked them to stare into each other eyes for 10 minutes straight. The room in which the experiment took place was dimly lit but there was enough light to make out the features of one’s face. As a control group, 20 more people were also split into pairs but they were asked to stare at a blank stretch of wall for the same amount of time.
Once the experiment was over, the volunteers were asked to fill out a questionnaire. Those who stared into someone’s eyes for 10 minutes reported that they saw hallucinations that ranged from their relatives to scary monster. Some volunteers even saw themselves in a strange “out of body” experience.
So why does this happen? It all has to do with how our neurons react to stimulation. When there isn’t much change in the environment, the neurons in our brain fire at a much slower rate than usual. In some cases, they stop firing at all. This change in response of neurons is known as neural adaptation and that is the cause of all this.
The findings of this research are fascinating while being scary. Who knew that looking into someone’s eyes for an extended period of time can result in an altered state of consciousness. Further research along these lines will definitely be quite interesting.