Red Light and White Noise Therapy

Do you remember the sound of a waterfall? Take a minute and visualise it. It is a uniform sound frequency that can activate the alpha-theta rhythms of your brain when combined with red light. Red light and white noise therapy is known as Ganzfeld Effect Therapy or GET. Sometimes white noise is replaced with pink or brown noise depending on your choice.

Alpha rhythms can help you relax, enhance your mood, calm your mind and also unlock your creativity. It paves way for an alert mind that's full of dreaming and free flowing thoughts. You might see visuals such as geometrical shapes and blending colours. That has got to uplift your mood.

When combined with the sound of a waterfall, it can decrease your blood pressure and muscle tension, increase attentiveness and also facilitate learning. Doesn't that sound good for high blood pressure or ADHD?

Now think about the colour red. How does that make you feel? What emotions and memory do you associate with it? Usually we might associate love, hate, anger, sexuality, boldness, danger, maybe even periods or blood to it. Can you think of anything else that can be associated?

Red light and white noise stimulation goes one step beyond merely thinking about waterfalls and the colour red. You are immersed in it. In 1930, Gestalt psychologists used this stimulation to study the Ganzfeld Effect and the association of the whole of an individual and their consciousness to the sum of its parts. Ganzfeld when translated from German means the whole field of perceptual stimulation in English.

Gestalt therapy is a person-centered approach towards your mental health challenges. It helps you focus on the here and now. It aims to take you forward by bringing your locus of control to the present.

As observed in 'The Wiley Handbook of Positive Clinical Psychology' by Alex M. Wood and Judith Johnson, positive emotions are closely associated with depressed emotions as compared to other types of negative emotions such as anxious mood or anger. Similarly, joviality is a close relative to saddness and not fear. Ganzfeld Effect can help you with your mood dysregulation by strengthening your emotional regulation. It will help you take one step forward by activating your alpha brainwaves while you relax your rhythms.

How to use Ganzfeld Effect Therapy?

1. 1. Get a pair of earphones.
2. 2. Get a disposable face mask to cover your eyes.
3. 3. Get inside a quiet room.
4. 4. Turn your computer on and the lights off.
5. 5. Project red light from your computer monitor.
6. A picture of a red screen will do the job.
   
7. 6. Play the sound of waterfalls on your computer.
8. If you type white, pink or brown noise on YouTube, you will get plenty of resources free of ads. Choose the colour of the waterfall sounds to your liking and adjust the volume until it's comfy for your ears.

Plugin your earphones, cover your eyes with the mask, breath, keep blinking, relax and listen to the sound of a waterfall for 30 minutes every second day .

You can choose to sit in a chair or lie down on your bed. Make sure the light is falling on your face. Record your thoughts, feelings and emotions. Some days your thoughts might overwhelm you based on the state of your mind. Take extra care of yourself on those days by practising mindful breathing. Drink an extra glass of water and give yourself a reason to smile. In case it gets difficult to cope, reach out to heal.

Oh! And also, red light is good for your skin and white light for seasonal depression.

References

Angwin, A. J., Wilson, W. J., Arnott, W. L., Signorini, A., Barry, R. J., & Copland, D. A. (2017). White noise enhances new-word learning in healthy adults. Sci Rep, 7(13045). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-13383-3

Miskovic, V., Bagg, J. O., Ríos, M., & Pouliot, J. J. (2019). Electrophysiological and phenomenological effects of short-term immersion in an altered sensory environment. Conscious Cogn. 70, 39-49. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2019.02.003

Tressoldi, P. E., & Storm, L. (2020). Stage 1 registered report: Anomalous perception in a Ganzfeld condition - A meta-analysis of more than 40 years investigation. F1000Research, 9. https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.24868.3

Wackermann, J., Putz, P., & Allefeld, C. (2008). Ganzfeld-induced hallucinatory experience, its phenomenology and cerebral electrophysiology. Cortex, 44(10), 1364–1378. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2007.05.003

Wood, A. M., & Johnson, J. (2016). The Wiley Handbook of Positive Clinical Psychology. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN: 9781118468241