If you have a ping-pong ball, you can make some ganzfeld glasses as an alternative. If you want to know how to achieve this effect naturally, either from a sleep or an awake state, you should checkout forums related to AP, OBE, and Robert Monroe.
What? When's the last time you've used Chestnut? Do you have an example I could look at? I ask because it sounds like you're doing something that re-renders the entire application instead of the components that need to update.