To alter my senses in two simultaneous ways, I chose to watch TV while sitting upside-down and wearing sunglasses. The sunglasses solely changed my vision by darkening what I saw. I couldn't read faint words on the program I was watching, and the whole room was a deep shade of tan, a hue that was quite flattering on my friends in the room.
However, sitting upside-down not only flipped my vision, but also changed my sense of smell, touch and taste due to all the blood rushing to my head. I discovered these changes by eating a cookie while watching the show on TV. Had I been sitting normally for the 10 minutes prior, I would have been able to smell the sweetness of the cookie, but in my state I was unable to smell anything. Also, although I could taste a difference between the chocolate chips and the rest of the cookie, the taste was not distinctly chocolate. Even putting the cookie up to my mouth felt different because my lips felt almost tingly, signifying a change in touch.
I was surprised by how much of a difference such minor transformations could make when doing something as common as enjoying a snack while watching TV. The position I was sitting in definitely had a greater impact than the tint of my sunglasses, but still both changes had an effect on my experience. I tried to use the television show as a distracting to my discomfort, but was unsuccessful. After about 15 minutes, I was so uncomfortable (most notably my head) that I needed to take a quick break by sitting normally for a minute. Enduring the remaining time after that was pretty rough, but experiencing everyday occurrences from such a unique perspective was worth the displeasure because the experiment really made me think about how I take advantage of my ability to use my senses the way I normally do.
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