Sensory Deprivation
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Sensory Deprivation
an article in "Floating", Fall 1987.
Did It Really Start With Monotony?
1956 was the year that John C. Lilly, M.D., first published his observations
in a new technique, eventually known as floatation.
Prior to Lilly's work, research had been done in 1951 at McGill University,
Canada, by psychologist D.O. Hebbs, labeled "sensory deprivation."
"The aim of the project was to obtain basic information on how human
beings would react in situations where nothing was happening. The purpose
was not to cut indivituals off from any sensory stimulation whatever,
but to remove all patterned or perceptual stimulation, so far as we could
arrange it."1
This research was sponsored by the Canadian Defense Research Board in
an attempt to solve a specific problem. "It seems that radar observers,
radio monitors, truck drivers, and others who have very monotonous and
routine jobs that last for long periods are often subject to unusual sensory
effects. They see a radar pip that isn't there; they hear messages that
aren't real, they see hitchhikers who don't exist, or they experience
a wide variety of other sensory distortions."2
The McGill subjects were male college students, paid $20 a day. They lay
on a comvortable bed in a lighted cubicle 24 hours a day, with time out
for meals (which they ate sitting on the edge of the bed) and going to
the toilet. They wore translucent plastic visors which transmitted diffuse
light but prevented pattern vision. Cotton gloves and cardboard cuffs
extending beyond the fingertips restricted perception by touch. Auditory
perception was limited by a U shaped foam rubber pillow for their heads
plus a continuous hum of air conditioning equipment to mask small sounds.
They were instructed to press the "panic button" if they wished
to end the experiment. This writer believes the suggestion of "panic"
creates or reinforces negative expectations. Why was this research called
"sensory deprivation?" This label is inaccurate since the word
"sensory" has to do with seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting...
(Dr. Lilly says we have something like 28 senses) and "deprivation"
means to "take entirely away."
"It is possible to deprive the visual sense totally by extinguishing
light, but it is not possible to do a similar thing with hearing. Even
if a man is placed in a completely soundproof chamber, where not external
sounds will reach him, he will still experience auditory sensations. He
will hear blood vessels that are near the ear. He will hear his breathing
movements as well as occasional rumblings of the stomach, and it can be
easily appreciated that to deprive a man totally of sensory stimulation
would be a very difficult, if not impossible task. There are many who
claim that if a person were so deprived his brain would cease functioning.
This altogether reasonable belief holds that sensory stimulation, in addition
to having its normal function of bringing information to the individual,
serves to keep the briain active, alert, and alive."3
The McGill studies were actually studies in "monotonous stimulation"
which fit the needs of the Canadian Defense Research Board. Years later,
1961, Hebb published an introductory note in the book "Sensory Deprivation"
which shed light on the true original purpose. "...The work we have
done at McGill University becan, actually, with the problem of 'brainwashing'.
We were not permitted to say so in the first publishing. What we did say
however, was true – that we were interested in problems of monotony
on the man with a watch – keeping hob or other tasks of that sort.
The chief impetus, of course was the dismay at the kinds of confessions
being produced at the Russian Communists' trials. 'Brainwashing' was a
term that came a little later, applied to Chinese procedures. We did not
know what the Russian procedures were, but it seemed that they were producing
some peculiar changes in attitude. How? One possible factor was perceptual
isolation and we concentrated on that."
Nowhere in any published literature is there any evidence showing that
the McGill group had ever established any meaningful linkages between
'brainwashing' and 'monotonous stimulation' conditions they had investigated.
There have been allegations that the U.S.A., C.I.A. Sponsored some of
the early research.
By 1956, Edward Hunter, an American journalist, shed some light on the
term 'brainwashing'. He wrote that "brainwashing is a strategy for
expansion and control made up of two processes. One is a conditioning
or 'softening up' process for purposes of control, while the other is
an 'indoctrination or persuasion process for conversion purposes. The
two processes may be conducted simultaneously, or either one can preced
the other. Those processes involve seven elements: 1. hunger, 2. fatigue,
3. tenseness, 4. threats, 5. violence, 6. drugs, and 7. hypnosis."4
When Dr. Lilly entered the research, he focused on the quesion, does the
brain need sensory stimulation to remain active, alert and alive. This
focus resulted in his designing his research to minimize external stimulation
rather than have conditions of monotonous stimulation.
1 Heron Woodburn, Scientific American, The Pathology of Boredom, 1957
2 Vernon, Jack, Inside the Black Room, p. Xi
3 ibid., p. 3, 4
4 Adams, Henry, The Environmental Therapies and "Sensory Deprivation".
Positive Research Findings vs. Common Negative Stereotypes, p. 2
Peter Martino is President of Pacis Enterprises in New York City. Pacis
manufactures and distributes their own invention: the Iso-Bed, which is
a 3-way convertible in one: a standard water bed, ha hydrotherapy spa
or a float chamber. Mr. Martino has a degree in Mechanical Engineering
with a minor in Psychology from Syracuse University.
From chapter three of The Deep Self by John Lilly
Peace in Physical Isolation vs "Sensory Deprivation"
In the 1950s, several research projects were started that were called
"sensory deprivation." In our experience in the tank ("physical
isolation"), there has been no psychological state that can be termed
"sensory deprivation." In the absence of sensory input (and
physical output), we have found no "deprived" states except
those created by Self-metaprogramming. The latter are reprogrammable into
richly elaborate states of inner experience.
Apparently the term "sensory deprivation" was invented by those
psychologists who did not do self-investigation and who did experiments
on subjects, expecting a "deprivation state" in the isolated
circumstances. In a series of over three hundred subjects we have found
no such states of "deprivation," nor the predicated "stress"
of physical isolation.
In Peter Suedfeld’s review of "sensory deprivation,"* the
author begins to understand that such isolation work does not necessarily
lead to unpleasant consequences. This field of research has been very
slow to take up "physical isolation" as a tool rather than a
state of mind preprogrammed by negative expectations ("stress").
Our 1961 paper (J. C. Lilly and J. T. Shurley, reproduced in this book)
was omitted from the Harvard Press (1961) Symposium on Sensory Deprivation,
apparently because our point of view was not consensus preprogrammed.
We disagreed with the then consensus opinion that the phenomena experienced
were "psychopathological." We found most of the phenomena experienced
to be quite within an expanded view of "normal mind-processes."
In my first paper on physical isolation, written in 1956 (reproduced in
this book), I examined the literature on the effects of extended periods
(weeks to months) of solitude (in small boats on oceans, in the polar
night), and came to the conclusion that physical dangers combined with
solitude are very stressful. This does not say that physical isolation
and solitude without danger are stressful. This confusion between factors
responsible has been perpetuated in the "sensory deprivation"
literature.
Our current work bears out our early findings that if one eliminates external
sources of low-level pain and sources of danger, the inner experience
("inperience," if you wish) can be anything that one can allow
oneself to experience.
With our high-density solution (H2O saturated with MgSO4), the last remaining
low-level physical danger ("a sinking head") was removed. The
subjects report mostly "self-programmed" or "spontaneous"
experiences rather than fear-filled/stressful/deprived ones. The complete
comfort of the isothermal supportive bath in the dark and the silence
affords a complete physical/mental/spiritual resting place, which can
contain a great peace for those ready for it.
* Peter Suedfeld, The Benefits of Boredom: Sensory Deprivation Reconsidered.
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