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What is Sensory Deprivation?
Sensory Deprivation. It doesn’t sound as appealing as one would like, huh? It sounds a bit like, I am inviting you for a dark night of torture, with no fun in sight, (literally and figuratively) But what if I told you, that’s where you’re wrong?
Sensory deprivation is just the reduction of direct stimuli from one of your senses, or in the most simplest terms, I’m temporarily taking away one of your senses in order for your other ones to kick into high gear. Pretty cool right?
After doing the sensory experience with Mel, my seemingly never ending creative block was lifted and I’ve been more inspired than ever before, highly recommend!
Let’s Rewind..
My name is Mel (or Marti!) and I have been doing research on how to alter my state of consciousness without any outside substances for the past couple of months, and finally feel like I’ve come to a place of understanding how to actually do that.
I’m no crazy scientist, but rather just a girl who enjoys exploring other realms of myself often, without having to think I need to take something to get there. I started exploring the world of psychedelics a few years back and loved what I found. I went on journeys, I’ve learned amazing lessons, had crazy revelations, and every time the trip ended I had a journal full of words, sometimes I could barely read, because it was all flooding thoughts from my subconscious mind, using my hand as it’s vessel to transcribe.
You see, ‘tripping’ has always been an escape for me. Not in the way people use alcohol to escape their lives, more so the way a wanderer uses travel to learn new things. So essentially that’s what I did, I traveled, but within myself.
I’m pretty sure we can all agree, these past few years on earth have been a little weird to say the least. COVID has changed some things we found to be normal, and all of us have had to do some adapting, and so through my many journeys around this planet, I found myself back to my roots, here in the USA. That is something I would have never seen for myself but, here we are.
I started seeing someone..
…who wasn’t so into substances, although I wouldn’t necessarily call magic mushrooms a substance, more of a medicine if you ask me, however psychedelic journeys were not a part of this particular curriculum. Being in this mindset had me wondering, if it was still possible to access these different parts of me, without the medicine. And somehow I ended up in a shop that displayed a very intriguing book called “255 Ways To Alter Your Consciousness, Without Drugs.”
I was immediately sold.
I’ve read through the book a few times and found many interesting techniques practiced by people from all walks of life, but the thing that actually stood out the most to me was the introduction.
“Drugs reinforce the illusion that highs come from external chemicals when, in fact, they come from the human nervous system.” -Andrew Weil
Read that again.
Drugs make it easier to reach these different states of altered consciousness but they are by no means, the only way to get there. These different altered states can be reached if we would just do the work. No one said all of the work is easy, but it is work for ourselves which is clearly worth it.
So after flipping through quite a bit of these different mind altering techniques, one spoke to me more than the others, and that was the debilitating of your senses, or as I’ve called it before, Sensory Deprivation.
So, what is it?
As mentioned before, sensory deprivation is a technique in which you take away one of your primary senses, in order to explore the way the rest of your senses try and make up for the lacking.
I was so intrigued by this because I felt that this is a way I know I could touch other people. I have spent the last 10 years working as a chef, talking to people through their tastebuds has always been my thing, my go to, if you will.
And so what better way to communicate with an audience, than by taking away their sight, and letting their taste, smell, and touch, do all of the thinking? It felt genius to me. So I started thinking of ways I could bring people together, and really get in touch with their inner selves, really start exploring their capabilities, and pretty much go on journey, through their own minds.
And now, here we are.
I’ve put together sacred ceremonies, where I can help you activate your subconscious mind, in a way you’ve never done before. These ceremonies are designed to help you remain present in yourself, and really pay attention to where your mind takes you. All the while you will be fed, you will be touched, and you will be tested, in the most friendly way possible.
These ceremonies are not here to make anyone feel uncomfortable, just a way to really explore the way your body and your mind react under different circumstances. After each ceremony a journal reflection is encouraged, but not forced.
If you are anything like me, keeping yourself in the present moment all the time, can sometimes be a bit of a challenge. Meditation was always hard for me, trying to connect with myself and clear the clouded thoughts, mostly gave me a headache and I always felt like giving up. These ceremonies are executed in a way to keep you fully present, and fully aware of your surroundings at all times. So much , that your mind wont have anywhere else to go, because it is so busy, trying to figure out where you already are.
You will pay close attention to your feelings. Are you scared? Are you nervous? Are you excited? What did I just taste? What do I feel? Where am I?
There are so many questions, and only your mind can give you those answers. So I’m asking you to take a chance, to come on a journey, where no one can take you, except yourself. My first question though, is this…
Are you ready?