This Fake "God Helmet" Can Induce Mystical Experiences in People
MICHELLE STARR
22 JAN 2018
A skateboarding helmet with nonfunctional wires attached has nevertheless proven to have a powerful placebo effect - especially among people who describe themselves as spiritual.
Called the "God Helmet," the device was found to deliver "extraordinary experiences" when participants were invited to try it at a three-day music festival in the Netherlands - but, interestingly, alcohol made no difference to the effect.
The research team, led by David Maij of the University of Amsterdam, wanted to study the role of alcohol in the context of religious rituals.
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In reality, the health monitors were not connected to anything, and "the helmet was a transformed metallic-colored skate helmet with wires attached to the back of a bogus analog to digital-box which had a flickering light, but the helmet was not attached to any electrical generator," the researchers wrote in the paper.
The majority of participants reported feeling some sort of "extraordinary" experience. By far the most frequent type was a weak bodily sensation, which 78.5 percent of the participants reported feeling, followed by strong bodily sensations at 30.1 percent. Other experiences included hallucinations, and time and space distortion.
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more: https://www.sciencealert.com/god-helmet-placebo-mystical-experiences-spirituality
It. was. fake.
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