> Suppose you didn't have to eat or sleep or excrete anything, etc. Now
> suppose you were locked in a small closet with no light and nothing in it.
> Now suppose you suspended in this locked closet for one billion years with
> nothing to do but sit there. What would that be like? As a child I used to
> scare myself on purpose by thinking about that.
I suppose it would be torture, right? The brain freaks without some
kind of stimulation. We must not have evolved the ability to deal with
it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensory_deprivation
Sensory deprivation experiments of the 1950s have shown that human
beings need environmental stimulation to function normally. In a
classic early experiment, college students lay on a cot in a small,
empty cubicle nearly 24 hours a day, leaving only to eat and use the
bathroom. They wore translucent goggles that let in light but
prevented them from seeing any shapes or patterns, and they were
fitted with cotton gloves and cardboard cuffs to restrict the sense of
touch. The continuous hum of an air conditioner and U-shaped pillows
placed around their heads blocked out auditory stimulation.
Initially, the subjects slept, but eventually they became bored,
restless, and moody. They became disoriented and had difficulty
concentrating, and their performance on problem-solving tests
progressively deteriorated the longer they were isolated in the
cubicle. Some experienced auditory or visual hallucinations. Although
they were paid a generous sum for each day they participated in the
experiment, most subjects refused to continue past the second or third
day. After they left the isolation chamber, the perceptions of many
were temporarily distorted, and their brain-wave patterns, which had
slowed down during the experiment, took several hours to return to
normal. The intensity of the discomfort these volunteers experienced
helps explain why solitary confinement is often regarded as the most
severe form of punishment in prisons.
The deterioration in both physical and psychological functioning that
occurs with sensory deprivation has been linked to the need of human
beings for an optimal level of arousal. Too much or too little arousal
can produce stress and impair a person's mental and physical
abilities. Thus, appropriate degrees of sensory deprivation may
actually have a therapeutic effect when arousal levels are too high. A
form of sensory deprivation known as REST (restricted environmental
stimulation), which consists of floating for several hours in a dark,
soundproof tank of water heated to body temperature, has been used to
treat drug and smoking addictions, lower back pain, and other
conditions associated with excessive stress.
An isolation tank is a large, coffin-like structure in which a person
can float effortlessly, due to a water solution present. Once a person
is inside the tank, the top is closed and it becomes a completely
dark, soundproof enclosure. Thus the subject is devoid of all visual
stimuli, most auditory stimuli, and much kinesthetic stimuli (of
course, there is radio communication between subject and observer, in
case the subject wishes to be let out).
The purpose of these techniques is to limit the amount of external
stimuli that a person can sense, in hopes of learning what the mind
does in such situations and whether or not these circumstances has any
effects on that person’s cognitive, verbal, and perceptual abilities.
Given the mind’s ability to create its own stimuli in absence of
external stimuli, it is interesting to examine reports of being in a
seclusion room or tank.
Also worth noting is that most subjects reported a loss of conception
of time. Without external cues which would indicate time passage,
people may become confused and not know how much time has passed. This
can be seen easily in "The Man Who Lived Underground," a short story
by Richard Wright. In this story, a man is in the sewer system, thus
with very little visual stimuli. Very quickly he finds that he has no
idea what time of day it is, nor how much time has passed since he
first entered "underground". There is also psychological evidence
which supports this idea – a survey conducted by Soloff and Turner, in
which some patients stated that they could not always tell how long
they were in seclusion for (Soloff & Turner, 41). This is also
evidenced in other works, such as Chayefsky’s fiction novel, Altered
States, and in Aquino’s journal article, "Relationships Between
Stimulus Deprivation Theory and Creative Communications," in which he
describes his experiences in an isolation tank. Both account to the
loss of conception of the passage of time.
There is a filmic representation of this phenomena. In the movie The
Shining, by Stanley Kubrick, Jack Nicholson plays the role of a
caretaker of a hotel in Colorado in the winter when the hotel is shut
down. They are all alone in this hotel for about a month when he
looses his sanity, partly because of the seclusion that he and his
family are in. He begins to think that they are plotting against him.
It is evident that, aside from the supernatural quality of the house,
his seclusion has partially led him to this conclusion. It is easy to
see the breakdown between his fantasy and reality. He has an
hallucinogenic experience of drinking at a bar and being at a party.
This is a very good representation of what the mind may do in response
to being in a seclusion environment.
