See your brain in James Turrell's space capsule

MONA in Hobart is the largest private art museum in the Southern Hemisphere, known as the "Disneyland for adults." I'll talk about the strange exhibits in another post, but first, let me share the James Turrell piece "Unseen Seen" that gave me a huge sensory shock. In short, this piece let me see my own brain. This piece is in the museum's restaurant, Faro, where a huge spherical space capsule sits in the center of the restaurant. The high triangular space and the open water outside look like a scene from a space opera movie, giving the impression that it doesn't belong here, yet it fits in perfectly. The door of the space capsule slides open, and the interior is larger than expected. There are steps on both sides along the spherical arc, and at the top, there is a cushion. Once you lie down, the show begins. There is no visual focal point on the dome ceiling, and James Turrell's signature light show hits the ceiling and then my retina, losing all reference points. Before the show starts, you can choose a mode, Hard or Soft. We chose Hard, and without warning or transition, countless colors flooded into my brain, with more than a dozen colors changing every second, quickly blurring into a dazzling curtain of light in my mind. My gaze began to blur, and I felt my eyes were closed. When I blinked, I realized they were open the whole time, but all I could see was darkness. I was wearing noise-canceling headphones, but I felt my heart beating fast, like I was spinning on an endless roller coaster. My eyes lost their function, the light became heavy, and my brain touched the colors before my retina, as if an endoscope was shuttling between my cerebral cortex, with a slight, wonderful intracranial tremor. Every groove in my brain was opened, and all my senses surrendered. I lay there, feeling like I was floating in zero gravity. It felt like a long time had passed, but I didn't want to miss a second. I've said so much, but I can't really describe this piece. All I can say is that it's worth putting on your bucket list, a truly mind-blowing experience.