New Museum Exhibit Offers Sensory Overload To The Max

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Walking around New York City can overload your senses, from the sights to the smells to the sounds.

One museum is now offering a sensory overload in a good way. CBS2's Vanessa Murdock got the chance to check out a new exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History that's aimed to immerse visitors in all their senses, even your sixth one.

What your eyes find in one of 11 galleries depends on the color of the light in the room as part of Our Senses: An Immersive Experience.

Wiley and his mother, Sandra Luogameno, browsed the smell room and took big whiffs of several single smells, which when combined smell like something completely different.

"I think it's really great, actually, for a five-year-old to see things, touch things, and see how his brain really works," Sandra told CBS2.

Visitors can walk through a larger than life garden and learn how bees scope out pollen and nectar. Humans can't see the ultraviolet markings on flowers which lead them straight to the food source, but bees can. The result? Honey!

6-year-old Quinn checked out the infrared viewer to see how a snake sees its prey. Much of the exhibit uses animal comparisons so we can better understand our own capacity to sense things.

"I like the platypus over here because they can't see, so they use their smell," almost-eight-year-old Connor said.

CBS2's Murdock met with museum curator Rob DeSalle in the immersion room for balance.

"We have five senses, and this is what we call the sixth sense," DeSalle said, referring to balance. "This is a room that's supposed to induce a feeling of imbalance."

In it, your eyes get tricked into thinking the floor is rolling. If you're worried it may be too dizzying, you can always opt out.

DeSalle says everyone's experience in the balance immersion room is different because everyone has "different memories and different emotions about things."

The experience opens to the public on Monday.