PsyPost: Fake ‘God Helmet’ can elicit extraordinary experiences — especially among ‘spiritual’ people

[China]

Fake ‘God Helmet’ can elicit extraordinary experiences — especially among ‘spiritual’ people

 

Some people report “extraordinary experiences” after wearing a skateboarding helmet with inactive wires attached to it — particularly those who describe themselves as spiritual.

That’s according to a new field study in the journal Religion, Brain & Behavior, in which Dutch scientists took a so-called God Helmet — a placebo brain stimulation device — to a music festival.

 

“From previous studies, we knew that the God Helmet is able to elicit authentic extraordinary experiences (i.e., ‘feeling of a presence’; ‘out-of-body’ experience) in a minority of the subjects we test,” explained study author David Maij of the University of Amsterdam.

 

“With this study we wanted to examine: What type of traits are associated with people who get extraordinary experiences? Would alcohol, by decreasing prefrontal regulation, increase the percentage of people that are responsive to the God Helmet?”

 

The researchers recruited 193 participants at Lowlands — a large three-day music festival — and measured their blood alcohol level. The participants were told the God Helmet would electromagnetically stimulate their brain to elicit spiritual experiences, and they were also hooked up to a variety of sham medical equipment that was never turned on.

 

The helmet itself was “a transformed metallic-colored skate helmet with wires attached to the back of a bogus analog to digital-box which had a flickering light,” the researchers explained in their study.

 

 

Each participant sat with the God Helmet on for 15 minutes while they were blindfolded and listened to earphones that played white noise. They were able to click a computer mouse to indicate when they were having an extraordinary experience.

 

Maij and his colleagues found that the God Helmet elicited a wide range of extraordinary experiences. Several participants reported strong bodily sensations, such as involuntary movements or the sensation of floating. Many also reported seeing imagery and hearing voices.

 

“I came loose from the chair, the chair fell and I was floating. The desk started to shake heavily and I felt the presence of a dark figure next to me. It whispered something in my ear that I could not understand,” one participant told the researchers.

 

Weak bodily sensations such as itches, dizziness, sleepiness and heart rate increases were also frequently reported.

 

Maij and his colleagues found that people who said they were spiritual believers were more likely to have a response to the God Helmet. But they failed to find evidence that alcohol consumption increased responsiveness to the God Helmet.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Mr. Sinister]

Bless their hearts

[Mooka]

“I came loose from the chair, the chair fell and I was floating. The desk started to shake heavily and I felt the presence of a dark figure next to me. It whispered something in my ear that I could not understand,” one participant told the researchers.

 

 

The dark voice said:

 

"Please exit through the gift shop."

[Fresh8686]

I wonder how many of these subjects were dropping acid or doing other things before having a go with the bicycle helmet.

[Kosher Ham]

Hell, the edibles over there can give you that experience. 

 

[Zguy28]

If you sat blindfolded, with nothing but white noise in your head, you will begin to hallucinate after time. I've seen similar things happen when people are put in "silent rooms" where there is absolutely no sound but yourself. Most can't last 45 minutes.