Rei and the Ganzfeld

A ganzfeld is a device used by perceptual scientists to study what happens when the eye receives no visual stimulation. This is different from lack of light. Rather, a ganzfeld is akin to a partial ping-pong ball. A person stares into the ganzfeld and while the visual field is illuminated, it has no structure and no detail. Most people's brains begin to reject the input. As a result, many people describe seeing black essentially developing a case of apparent blindness. Occasionally, it causes hallucinatory percepts or can even induce an altered state of consciousness.



I had the chance to play around with ganzfelds in graduate school and I always wanted to find a way to squeeze them into a story somehow. I got my chance in Rome's Revolution when Rome took Rei on a tour of Skyler Base and brought him into the stellar cartography lab. Here is a snippet of that encounter:

     Rome pressed a stud and the twin doors opened, allowing them entry. The entire room was darkened. The acoustics of the chamber had an even more complete sound-dampening quality to them.
     Rei looked around for a light switch, but could not find one. “Do you need to keep it this dark?” Rei asked.
     Suddenly the light came on and what Rei saw made him woozy. He was standing beneath a huge dome, three-quarters of a sphere, really, that stretched out in front of him and over his head. The inner surface was easily 40 meters in diameter. For a moment, Rei felt like he had stepped inside of a ping pong ball, a very large ping pong ball. Looking left and right, Rei could see no discernable features anywhere. The sensation was almost as if his vision was shutting down.
     “We use this, eh, planetarium,” Rome said, pointing over her head and to her right, “to do three dimensional projections. Because it uses reflection, it works best in a dim light. Too much ambient light diminishes the effect.”
     “OK,” Rei said, looking down and focusing on the girl.

Notice the reference to stepping inside of a ping-pong ball. Since Rei attended Syracuse (where I went to graduate school), he must have been aware of the possibility of hallucinations so he elected to stare at Rome instead. Actually, I've seen pictures of her and I think I'd stare at her too!