Flicker Light Stimulation (FLS) is a method of inducing altered states of consciousness without the need to ingest any pharmacological substances, and has been found to produce a range of neurological and emotional effects. In the Lumenate app, we provide this stimulation by strobing the flashlight on the phone at research-driven frequencies.
Perhaps the most noticeable effect of FLS is its ability to induce hallucination-like visual phenomena on demand (Rogers et al., 2020). Even when exposed to pure white light during FLS, people typically report colourful and dynamically shifting patterns which vary as the parameters of the FLS change, such as it’s intensity or frequency (Walter and Walter, 1949; Allefeld et al., 2011; Schwartzman et al., 2019).
Sometimes these patterns extend to clearer forms of imagery, depicting objects, faces or entire scenes. The hallucinations induced by FLS are sometimes likened to hypnagogia, the transition between wakefulness and sleep (Bartossek et al., 2021).
Beyond just the visual component, the effects of FLS often include changes to mood and emotion during stimulation, particularly the significant enhancing effect on reported music-evoked emotion (Montgomery et al. 2024).
Other common effects include changes in the perception of the more abstract aspects of consciousness, such as the sense of time passing (Walter and Walter, 1949; von Gizycki et al., 1998; Bartossek et al., 2021).
It’s also common for those exposed to FLS to report a positive state of relaxation that persists beyond the flicker light exposure (Bartossek et al., 2021).