Strobonaut

Research Project

The Induction of Mystical Experience by Ganzflicker Meditation

Introduction

There is currently a renaissance of interest in the use of psychedelic drugs to boost the effectiveness of psychotherapy. A widely accepted principle of this psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, one supported by many empirical studies, is that the quality of peak mystical-like experiences occurring during the therapy sessions contributes significantly to a positive long-term outcome. One notable form of peak mystical experience, traditionally occurring in religious contexts but now a regularly reported phenomenon of psychedelic drug and near-death experiences, is the subjective perception of intense bright light1,2. Visions of heightened luminosity have been purposefully cultivated by mystical traditions through the ages and there is a plenitude of anecdotal accounts of the profoundly positive and transformative impact of the bright light experience upon the perceiver.

A drug-free method for inducing psychedelic experience is the combination of flickering light and the ganzfeld procedure called ganzflicker3,4. The Strobonaut homepage describes how to enjoy the benefits of the ganzflicker experience via a smartphone mounted in a headset. During self-experimentation with ganzflicker meditation last year I unexpectedly discovered a simple method for inducing the bright light experience, using alpha rebound following a period of eye closure, as described in the Current Research section of the homepage. The aim therefore of this current project is to investigate the extent to which other people can also induce this extraordinary effect. This will help evaluate the therapeutic potential of the ganzflicker-induced bright light experience.

Participants do a 30 minute session of ganzflicker meditation while listening to a playlist of peaceful music of their choice. During the session they carry out a simple experiment — closing their eyes for a time, and then re-opening them to watch for a delayed brightening of the flicker screen. The audio prompts from an interval timer guide them through the procedure and they fill out an online questionnaire about their experience afterwards. The questionnaire is anonymised and asks for no personal information other than your experience of the ganzflicker session.

The philosophy behind the design of this research project is agnostic and open-minded. However it intentionally sets a moderate degree of expectancy, and what I hope are appropriate demand characteristics, to increase the likelihood of therapeutic mystical experience.

Dr Pete Carr
strobonautinfo@gmail.co.uk
Sept. 2026

  1. Dinsmore, J. 2024. Mystical Luminosity Experience: An Initiation of a Construct Grounded in Phenomenology. Psychological Science Faculty Publications and Presentations. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.uark.edu/psycpub/51
  2. Stocker et al, 2026. Mystical dynamics: renewal, luminous light, and ego disintegration as key features associated with mystical oneness — a psychometric analysis using the PES100 in controlled psychedelic studies, Religion, Brain & Behavior, DOI: 10.1080/2153599X.2026.2635353
  3. MacKisak, M., & Reeder, R.R., 2022. Manipulating light can induce psychedelic experiences – and scientists aren’t quite sure why. The Conversation, https://doi.org/10.64628/AB.kmyxfk7qn
  4. Königsmark, V.T., Bergmann, J. & Reeder, R.R., 2021. The Ganzflicker experience: High probability of seeing vivid and complex pseudo-hallucinations with imagery but not aphantasia. Cortex, 141, pp.522-534. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2021.05.007

Safety

Photosensitive epilepsy warning: The experiment involves watching a rhythmically flashing screen. Do not proceed if you or anyone in your family suffers from epileptic seizures. Please read the Safety Information page of the Strobonaut website. You need to be aged 18 or over to participate in this research.

The Procedure

  • The procedure consists of doing a 30 minute session of ganzflicker meditation via a phone mounted in a headset while lying down, or lying back in a recliner.
  • During the session you listen to a playlist of peaceful music of your choice to promote a pleasant state of rest, reverie and relaxation.
  • For much of the session you rest listening to the music and watching the flicker screen for changes of brightness or the emergence of visual images. You need to be mindful enough to make a mental note of these for recording in the online questionnaire after the session.
  • Instead of just resting you can if you wish practise a meditation method, e.g. focusing on your breathing, autogenic training, mantra meditation etc.
  • An interval timer with audio prompts is run on your phone alongside the ganzflicker and the music playlist. It guides you through the experimental procedure telling you when to close your eyes, and when to open them and begin counting slowly up to forty.

The Ganzflicker

The ganzflicker is delivered from your phone mounted in a headset and running Strobonaut web.

This image is a button linking to the Strobonaut-web file in github.

Strobonaut web can be accessed directly in your phone’s browser with no installation required. Have your phone’s auto-rotate switched on so the screen is in landscape orientation when mounted in a headset, brightness 100%, and screen timeout switched off or extended to maximum. Full information on how to prepare your phone is given at PreFlicker

The Interval Timer

For Android

  1. Download the file of the session program onto your phone by tapping here: strobonaut android program.txt, then open the menu from the three dots at the top right, and tap download
  2. Open your phone’s Files app. Go to Downloads and tap the Strobonaut One.txt file. It should open in a text editor/viewer or open it in a browser such as Chrome. Press and hold on the text, then choose Select all → Copy. The entire text is now on your Android clipboard
  3. Download TimeR Machine from Play Store onto your phone:
    https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.github.deweyreed.timer.google
  4. Open TimeR Machine, exit the tutorial by clicking on the back arrow at the bottom of the window, click on the blue circle containing a plus sign to go to Create Timer
  5. Tap on the three dots at the top right
  6. Tap Import from the clipboard. The Strobonaut One program should appear.
  7. Save the program by tapping the small tick symbol to the left of the three dots at the top

For iPhone

  1. Download the STRNTH Interval Timer from the App Store
    https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/interval-timer-by-strnth/id6787253056
  2. Download the file of the timer program onto your phone by tapping here: strobonaut iphone program.txt

Launch a Session

With one phone:

  1. Open and run your music playlist via earbuds or headphones.
  2. Open Strobonaut web from this page or from the homepage. Check the box saying you’ve read the Safety Information but do not start the ganzflicker yet.
  3. Open the interval timer program and start it. It will say “Get ready” — it starts with a 15 second preparation period. It does not matter if you take longer than 15 seconds.
  4. Go back to Strobonaut web and tap the button to start the ganzflicker.
  5. Put the phone in the headset lining up the central line of the flicker screen with the centre of the headset and being careful not to touch the screen itself or it will exit full screen.
  6. Put the headset on and settle yourself down into a comfortable position.

With two phones:

Run strobonaut web from the dedicated phone in the headset, and the two audio apps, i.e. the music and the interval timer, from your main phone.

Experimental Procedure

The interval timer chunks the session into blocks of three minutes and for most of the session prompts you to alternate between eyes open and eyes closed.

Audio Prompts over Two Trials of the Experimental Procedure:

The experimental procedure is as follows:-

  1. Close your eyes for three minutes and rest listening to the music, or practise a meditation method of your choice, e.g. focus on the breathing, or use autogenic training as described on the Flicker Drive page of the Strobonaut website.
  2. When the prompted by the audio, open your eyes and begin counting slowly (at approx one count per second) up to forty.
  3. Watch the flicker screen carefully and wait for a increase in brightness coming after 15-40 seconds. To start with this increase may be quite faint and it may get stronger with repeated practice.
  4. Make a mental note of the delay, i.e. the count number at which the brightening occurred. The questionnaire will ask you where in your counting the brightening usually occurred, i.e. an approx estimate of the delay:- 1-10, 10-20, 20-30, 30-40.
  5. For the remainder of the 3 minute block continue your meditation watching the screen to see how the brightness persists, and if it fades, whether visions emerge from the luminous mist which remains.

Control Trial at Session Start

As a control, to determine any effect of expectancy on changes in brightness, induced by the counting alone without a period of eye closure, at the start of the session the experiment is carried out with the eyes open during the first block.

Start of Session:

Session Structure

After the control trial, four trials of the experimental procedure are carried out. Each trial is made up of two blocks and so lasts six minutes, making a thirty minute session overall. The overall structure is :

Extra Control Trials

It may happen that you are experiencing a flow of unusually vivid, interesting, numinous or enjoyable visual imagery with your eyes open just as the voice of the audio prompt says “Close your eyes”. Closing your eyes at this point may break the flow of visions (though sometimes they do continue when you shut your eyes) and you may want to ignore the instruction and count the two blocks that follow as an extra control trial instead of an experimental one.

The questionnaire will ask you to include what you experienced during these extra control trials.

The Questionnaire

Please fill in the questionnaire after every session of ganzflicker meditation which you do with the interval timer program. The questionnaire asks you to create a Participant ID which you use each time. It does not ask for any personal information other than your experience of the sessions.

Contact:
Any problems with the technology, questions, requests for further information, or giving feedback, contact me at:

Pete Carr
strobonautinfo@gmail.co.uk

Good luck! I hope you enjoy your ganzflicker experience.