The Ganzfeld effect.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganzfeld_effect

 The Ganzfeld effect occurs naturally in situations like snow storms (white out), thick fog, and conditions of total darkness, where our field of vision is uninterrupted by any information (visible contours, changes in texture, light reflections, edges) that would otherwise help us to construct a coherent three dimensional interpretation.




George Poonkhin Khut on James Turrell.

The spatial ambiguities created by Turrell's perceptually focused experiences produce an intense sense of other-worldliness. Our perceived presence within such situations gives rise to an equally transformed, otherworldly experience of self and it’s sense of being in the world, invoking the mysterious edges of our own personal journey between birth and death at the thresholds of perceptual becoming and unbecoming. While light and luminosity have long been associated with mystical or transcendent experiences, the intensely suggestive power of Turrell's perceptual works resides more in the way it alters our perception of space and our sense of self-location within it.

Khut, G. (2006). Development and Evaluation of Participant-Centred Biofeedback Artworks. PhD,
University of Western Sydney, School of Communication Arts, Sydney.