One good way to create an intensified experience at a key point is to "desaturate" the scene or section before that key point by stripping out color and sensory detail, then load it back up at the key point. This is mostly if you want to create a hyperkinetic experience, a kind of overload.

I bet if I went back, I’d find you did this leading up to a particularly vivid section toward the end of Finch, because hoo boy does that get intense! Been meaning to reread that one soon anyway, so that kinda works out

Similarly, you can surround a key moment with sensory detail and then strip it out, in such a way it feels like a wall the reader was leaning against is no longer there.

I used this in parts of Absolution to make the ecstatic visions parts embed in reader brains in a particular way.

Management of stimulus functions! Relational framing in action! Yes indeed this is the good stuff.

Sounds like a neat trick, thanks!

There is a theatrical lighting trick that’s kind of like this where if you want a flash effect to feel really bright to the audience, it’s often best to throw in like a tenth of a second of dim/darkness right before. Get everyone’s eyes just starting to adjust the wrong way and bam!