The Boston Globe has a cool infographic by Jonah Lehrer and Javier Zarracina, describing five simple ways in which sensory perception can be altered using everyday objects. These include the Ganzfeld procedure, a mild sensory deprivation technique which leads to visual or auditory hallucinations; the Pinocchio illusion, in which one's nose is perceived as being incredibly long; and the rubber hand illusion, whereby one can be fooled into thinking that a fake hand is a part of one's own body.
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A great article in the NYTimes about the debate over a sensory integration disorder:
I was watching David Byrne + Daniel Levitin at The Seed Salon yesterday evening and heard Daniel Levitin (the professor dude) talk about how ironic that the brain, which receives sensory inputs from all over the body, does not i
i cut my finger off once. i didnt feel the pain, but i did hear the crunch/snap/crack.i looked around trying to figure out what that was... and when i looked at it, i felt the pain.
I'm 100% sure I'm wrong but if the hallucinations produced during the Ganzfeld Procedure are as a result of sensory deprivation then perhaps sensory deprivation plays a role in dreams? Because obviously when one is sleeping it is quiet and there is no light.