Closing Your Eyes (Heightening Other Senses)

[Ear Drummer]

Wondering if anyone else gets the sensation that when they close their eyes their hearing seems a little better or more focused? Like when you lose one sense others are heightened.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/superpowers-for-the-blind-and-deaf/

I've wondered for a while about spending long periods of time with my eyes closed, if it would help my ears. Hopefully sometime soon I will start.

 

[TheDanishGirl]

Not really. My tinnitus seems more intrusive when I close my eyes, and I sure don't like that feeling so I am keeping my eyes open.

 

[linearb]

I like to meditate in dark rooms with earplugs in and just sort of take a step back mentally while my perceptual systems go haywire and try to get my attention, but I'm a weirdo

A few times I've had the experience while meditating that both ears "open up" and my hearing seems much more crisp and sharp than usual; of course, since I'm meditating at the time, as soon as I notice that I realize I'm distracted and refocus on my breathing. But, there's clearly some pretty significant perceptual doors there which can be manipulated to some degree by these kinds of practices. I've never had my tinnitus go silent during meditation, but I've recently had the experience of sitting down with tinnitus as an all-consuming foreground noise, and then standup up 25 mins later and realizing it has become a passive background noise.