Warning: The video in this article contains flashing images.
Never before have scientists found a way to induce visual hallucinations in healthy people without the use of drugs.
The new method, developed by the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia, could lead to new treatments for controlling hallucination in people with Parkinson’s disease, the Independent reports.
Lead researcher Joel Pearson said:
We have known for more than 100 years that flickering light can cause almost anyone to experience a hallucination.
However, the unpredictability, complexity and personal nature of these hallucinations make them difficult to measure scientifically.
You should see pale grey blobs appear in the ring and rotate around it, first in one direction and then the other.
These are the blobs he’s talking about:
Pearson says the next step is to investigate whether the video methods can be used to model hallucinations produced by psychiatric disorders, like Parkinson’s disease.
Someone please tell me I’m not the only one who couldn’t really see the blobs!
