Crazy question!

Hello,

I love these boards, and I'm not sure where to post this, but I'm curious as to what you think.

Do you think it's possible, that their is a way to make an image that could drive you literally insane? Being it being so absolutley horrifying, or scientifically?

As in scientifically, you know those images that if you look real hard... something 3Dish apprears? I'm not saying that would make you mad, but you get my drift.

Possible?

Scientifically? No, I don’t believe so.

Something that is so shocking that it pushes someone over the edge? Sure, but I think they would have to be fairly close to the edge to begin with.

reply to post by ShooterSix

Do you think it's possible, that their is a way to make an image that could drive you literally insane? Being it being so absolutley horrifying, or scientifically?

I personally feel it comes down to the person that is seeing this..

You have to be a bit deranged to begin with for something to set you over the edge.. Most people can define what they see. Some that already have mental issues have a hard time defining reality from images..

However this is one example of something that could make a person go crazy!!
Lets say you have a missing child, and someone shows you a picture of your child being murdered or something horrible..
Id hate to think about it.. But seeing an image like that of one of my children would make me go "crazy".

So it really depends in which context you are talking about..

[edit on 26-9-2007 by zysin5]

Thanks for the replies.

I was thinking somehow a picture where lines, colors and their positioning could somehow trigger something in the brain, a switch per se, that somehow damages your brain?

I don't think a single static image could drive one insane.

Unless it was very large and you were somehow constrained to view it without respite until you were driven insane.

So I suppose it would depend on how you viewed the image in conjunction with the actual image content.

Now if you consider the impact of a series of images, ie, motion pictures, video, I think that would drive one to insanity quicker and far more efficiently.

I'm thinking of the technique used on Alex in "A Clockwork Orange" to condition his behavior.

I suppose it would depend on your definition of insane. I'm sure that a picture of someone's child in a horrible situation could drive one mad regardless of how close to the edge they are.

If we're not talking static images then the repeated flashing of bright colors in a certain frequency could probably have an impact on one's mental faculty.

Although I think it might be impossible to produce a static image that would drive someone insane without there being some sort of emotional attachment/impact associated with the picture.

i saw a picture of the WTC free falling to earth because a plane flew into it but i dont belive it could of fell like that without the aid of internal explosives and now i think im crazy and so do a lot of other people

hope tht helps

[edit on 26-9-2007 by N.B.A.Y.S.O.H]

Fascinating question. There are smells that can affect everyone the same way and there are sounds that affect a lot of folk, i.e. nails down a blackboard and probably a lot worse, like noises that can blow your head off. Why not something that can be seen? If you find it though don't show it to me, lol.

While i dont know about an image that would universally make people go insane, there is another "scientific" way to drive people up the wall: Extreme Sensory Deprivation.

In other words, Sensory Deprivation for long periods of time. Prisons and torturers use it, and people lose their minds to it.

On a more sci-fi note, i remember seeing a movie...man what was it called...House on haunted hill! (i think)

Basically it takes place in an assylum, one of the machines in the basement reminds me of what your looking for. Basically, it was a circular room and the patient sat in the center. There were 2 sets of walls, inner and outer, with verticle slits/opennings on the inner walls. The inner walls spun faster and faster revealing pictures (pasted on the outer wall) and as the inner wall spun, the pictures would move and come to life. The patient would sit (for hours or days) in complete darkness accept for the light comming from the pictures.

As i said, its a figment of sci-fi, but I walways thought sitting in that machine would be enough to drive me nuts.

Yes, I believe it's possible, though it has to be stared at for a period of time and it has to be magnetized by somebody very powerful, and presumably very wicked. It is said that L REon Hubbard wrote a story called The Black Sword, and that whoever read it went into a dealy seizure.

I doubt a picture could make you insane.... but a picture could trigger a repressed memory, which could trigger a mental episode that would cause a person to go temporarily, or permanently insane.

This is the whole concept of sleeper agents and subliminal symbols.