If you are unfortunate enough to become an Iranian dissident, you may know that whites are being tortured. Also known as sensory deprivation, this is an annoying job.

You don't have to suffer in order to break others. All you need is wearing goggles, noise canceling headphones and time. A lot of time.

The brain is very good at inferring meaning from data fragments. A few dimples on the bright red meat make you feel "strawberry." Two points and a curve look like a happy face. The short smell is reminiscent of memories, emotions and movements.

But when there is no data to find meaning…

Ok, that part of the people is still active. It is still looking for meaning in data that does not exist.

Your brain is eager for novelty, interaction and stimulation. Removing it is like pointing your brain at yourself.

You are not used to it. Time will only make things worse.

I don't want it to be among my biggest enemies, assuming I have one.

I would recommend it as a meditation technique.

Small doses, feeling deprivation are valuable tools for exploring the mind. Stay away from all the noise and distractions, it is calm. Contrary to torture, the good news is that you can stay away from it. Stimulation and deprivation in a continuous cycle.

You can experience this by renting a flotation slot for an hour or so. You float in the saline solution, there is no sound, nothing to see. This is an incredible center.

If you want to try it yourself, all you need is a blindfold, headphones and some white noise. YouTube has a lot of tracks.

Allow some time to shut down the world and enter the interior.

It's fun to do this. I mentioned that the instinct of your brain is to extract meaning from small signals. I also mentioned that this situation continues to occur even during sensory deprivation.

Experience is like dreaming. Random images flash in front of your eyes. With almost no signal, your brain can do its best. Is that a squirrel or a fireplace? What color is this… bicycle?

But as long as it has an image, it will discard it and try something else.

I am amazed at the speed and intensity of these hallucinations. I think it only takes a few minutes to get me completely immersed in it. Then, it is difficult to measure time in this state.

This is probably one of the simplest meditation techniques, but I don't recommend it for beginners. After all, you are playing with fire here. This is safe enough for most people – to say, knowing how to control your experience can help.

I understand why people use white noise to fall asleep. Once I start dreaming, it's hard to stay awake.

Think that meditation is torture? You may be right was originally published on Spring