What experimenting with blindfolds is teaching me about psychic awareness
Your sight might be limiting the fullness of your Extra Sensory Perception
In April, I was at a training on shadow work facilitation skills. The instructor had us put blindfolds on and then walk in the room until we thought we had reached the center of the room. He then asked us to share what we knew about the location of other participants and where we thought we were, in the room. I was able to locate other people, but even though I thought I was in the center of the room, it turned out I wasn’t.
Later, in that same training I watched as two of the participants were blindfolded and then expected to facilitate a third participant. It was another fascinating example to observe what happened when one sense was cut off. The blindfolded people began to adapt themselves to the situation, using the other classical senses as well as their psychic intuition to get a sense of the person being facilitated as well as the room itself.
Just recently, I got back from another training where we were blindfolded for a period of time as a way of connecting with the dark. Cutting off the sense of sight enhanced my other physical senses, but I discovered it sharpened some other skills as well and it prompted me to experiment further with blindfolds.
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I’ve been using a blindfold each day during my daily magical practice and I’ve experienced the following benefits:
Sharper memory recall - With the distraction of sight removed, I’ve been finding that my memory recall is even better than it was before.
Enhanced sensory awareness - I’ve been more aware of tactile, kinesthetic and auditory experiences. I’ve even noticed that sense of smell seems more distinct.
Deeper state of altered consciousness - The blindfold cuts out most of the light and what I’ve noticed is a deeper state of altered consciousness.
I’m planning on continuing to work with the blindfold for the foreseeable future. There may be other benefits I discover, but just as importantly I think what an exercise like this reveals is how much we can discover about our senses when we bring a sense of play and curiosity to how we experience them.
Sight is the sense that most people take for granted. It’s also a sense that takes up a lot of mental bandwidth because of all the information that is visually processed. Humans also tend to block out a lot of sensory information in general, because if we were actively paying attention to all of the sensory information we would be overloaded by everything being taken in.
The removal of a sense frees up some of the mental processing, but also opens the doors to deeper sensory experiences. Over the years I’ve tried different experiments such as using ear plugs and weighted blankets as well as other forms of sensory deprivation or overstimulation to discover how the other senses, both physical and psychic respond and each time I discover new ways to open the doors of possibility.
Have you experimented with sensory deprivation or overstimulation? What have you learned about yourself and how you experience the world?
If you want to experiment with sensory deprivation, I’ve come up with an exercise you can do. This is a good introduction into how to apply sensory deprivation to your practice.
Sensory Deprivation Exercise: "The Veil of Sight"
Purpose: To temporarily remove your dominant sense (sight) in order to heighten awareness of sound, touch, smell, and even inner senses (emotion, intuition, subtle energy). Excellent for magical practice, meditation, and building somatic awareness.
Preparation:
Choose a quiet, safe space where you won’t be interrupted.
Gather a blindfold (soft cloth or blackout mask).
Optionally, prepare a notebook or recorder to capture insights afterward.
Blindfold Yourself (30–60 mins total)
Put on the blindfold and remain blindfolded for 30–60 minutes. During this time, engage in simple activities with one or more of the following sensory focus prompts:
Touch Exploration (10 mins)
Slowly run your fingers over different textures: stone, fabric, wood, your skin, your hair.
Notice: temperature, pressure, density, softness, resistance.
Ask yourself: What do I notice now that I normally block out?
Sound Mapping (10–15 mins)
Sit still and tune into ambient sounds: your breath, distant traffic, the hum of electronics, birds, your heartbeat.
Try snapping your fingers or clapping once, and track the echo.
Begin to imagine a map of your surroundings based only on sound.
Smell Tracking (5–10 mins)
Light incense, herbs, essential oils, or simply smell your environment.
Tune into layers: what’s strong, what’s subtle, what’s emotional?
Breathe deeply and notice the emotions or memories different smells evoke.
Shadow Sense & Inner Awareness (10–15 mins)
Once other senses heighten, notice your internal senses:
Can you feel the room’s mood?
Do you sense subtle shifts in energy around you?
Can you feel your own emotional state or the presence of a spirit?
Optional: ask a spirit, deity, or part of yourself to “touch” your awareness and feel how that manifests without vision.
Integration & Reflection (10–15 mins)
After 30–60 minutes, remove the blindfold slowly. Let light return gradually.
Write or speak into a recorder:
What did I notice most clearly?
Which sense became most alive?
Did I perceive anything I normally don’t?
How did I feel emotionally or spiritually during the experience?
What did you experience when you tried this experiment? Leave a comment and share what you observed.
and I read and reply to all comments.Additional Resources
Here’s some additional resources that can help you take this work further in your magical practice.
Get my book Inner Alchemy, where I share different sensory experiments and how you can apply them to your spiritual practice. You can get the book in paperback or ebook.
In the Psychic and Spiritual Perception class, I walk students through 12 months worth of sensory exercises designed to help you hone your connection with the spirit world and discover your psychic sensitivities.
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