The reason for WILD sensations

Any of you who have seen me post around the forums before may have noticed that I'm quite interested in the science of lucid dreaming and here's an extract I read in article earlier today.

"In 2007, for example, Dirk De Ridder of University Hospital Antwerp in Belgium was trying to help a 63-year-old man with intractable tinnitus. In a last-ditch attempt to silence the ringing in his ears, Ridder's team implanted electrodes near the patient's TPJ. It did not cure his tinnitus, but it did lead to him experiencing something close to an out-of-body experience: he would feel his self shift about 50 centimetres behind and to the left of his body. The feeling would last more than 15 seconds, long enough to carry out PET scans of his brain. Sure enough, the team found that the TPJ was activated during the experiences."

The TPJ is a brain region called the temporoparietal junction (although the name doesn't really matter).

What interested me is that this region of the brain is linked with the inner ear, which in turn is responsible for balance, touch and spatial awareness.

The article suggests that malfunctions in this area can lead to people having OBE's and that it is most probably responsible for sleep paralysis.

This theory also seems to explain the waves and vibrations that many people feel upon wild attempts.

Hope this interests you!

brbPETscan.

That's actually really interesting stuff, thanks for sharing. What exactly is happening when they implant the electrodes? Could it be at all related to binaural or isochronic beats? Not to go too off-topic, but I have on occasion listened to a few beats that, quite quickly and dramatically, space me out and make me feel like I'm drifting a few centimeters away from my body in any given direction. I've yet to obtain a full on WILD with them but I have gotten to points of deep SP and a few vibrations as well.

astral pixels,

I'm searching a lot of scientific journals so I can brush up on my knowledge about all things lucid, but from what I've recently read I have come up with a theory.

Binaural beats work because the difference in tone frequency between the left and right headphones cause the brain to "work out the difference" so to speak. This "difference" correlates with specific brain waves involved during sleep. (Correct me if I'm wrong at all)

If this all occurs within the TPJ, perhaps it's possible that the jump in sound frequency also affects movement and touch simultaneously.

Therefore sound infers movement.



Sorry if that all looks a bit jumbled, it's quite late and I'm getting tired. I'll do some more reading tomorrow!

Hmmm... I was trying to WILD last night, and I noticed something odd, the vibrations and weird bodily sensations I got became much more severe if i focused my attention "forward." I don't know how else to explain that, it's like my default focus when trying to fall asleep is up and to the left, but by shifting it to directly forward the blackness seemed to bulge and my sensations got a lot stronger. Wonder if it's related.... It was especially weird considering that this was all abstract, no concrete visuals or actions taking place. Unfortunately I found the sensations so distracting I couldn't WILD successfully and eventually had to give up and just try regular sleep.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Oerath

Hmmm... I was trying to WILD last night, and I noticed something odd, the vibrations and weird bodily sensations I got became much more severe if i focused my attention "forward." I don't know how else to explain that, it's like my default focus when trying to fall asleep is up and to the left, but by shifting it to directly forward the blackness seemed to bulge and my sensations got a lot stronger. Wonder if it's related.... It was especially weird considering that this was all abstract, no concrete visuals or actions taking place. Unfortunately I found the sensations so distracting I couldn't WILD successfully and eventually had to give up and just try regular sleep.

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I can do the exact same with my ears! In fact my most successful WILD involved me "refocusing" my ears to hear a more all-encompassing ringing noise, I literally fell into the dream after that.

I've also noticed that my eyes cross when I close my eyes for sleep, perhaps your experience is something similar to that?

I think I know what you mean about "refocusing" the ears, though the sound I hear is more of a static or white noise? I only get it when I've woken up and try not to move so that I can fall back asleep and when I do it feels like the sound engulfs me completely and is accompanied by a weird head pressure. If I do it right i enter a dream instantly (WILD), though other times I'll feel the sound coming on but for whatever reason it stops abruptly and my sleepiness seems to instantly go away and I feel very awake and alert.