A summary of traditional yogic techniques for altering perception/consciousness and their modern scientific equivalents.
Reflections & learnings
- Every traditional technique has a modern perceptual/neuroscience equivalent:
- Trataka > Troxler’s effect
- Darkness > Sensory deprivation / Ganzfeld
- Yantra gazing > Afterimages / visual adaptation
- Nada yoga > Auditory Ganzfeld
- Yoga masters and contemporary perceptual scientists are describing the same phenomena in different languages. Both are valid.
- For my practice I don’t need to choose between spiritual language and scientific language – I can acknowledge both as complementary frameworks for understanding how perception shifts.
- I think working in this intersection (of spirituality & science) can offer a unique and potentially rich POV for my contemporary art practice.