Interesting idea - I wonder if this was investigated by the CIA during the MKUltra days?
Communicating with people on psychedelics
21–30 of 117 posts
Re: Communicating with people on psychedelics
#22From some of my past experience, I am skeptical. I think they make assumptions about what people will and wont see that just arent correct.
Agreed.
Re: Communicating with people on psychedelics
#23Many years ago I tried LSD, and for whatever reason, I never seemed to experience visual hallucinations. However, in recent years, cars have started having LED tail lights, which really bother my eyes. Several times I have asked my friends, "Aren't those terrible!?" to which they might reply, "They are pretty bright." Bright! They aren't just too bright, they are intensely STROBING! Can normal people not see that? Is…
I have had rainbow halos around street and car headlights since my early twenties. I first noticed it whilst tripping and have yet to determine whether the cause is physical or mental. Looks pretty though.
A lot of that stuff is always there - just think of the hundreds of optical illusions that can be constructed! - but until it's connected with an emotional experience during a trip, the brain doesn't single it out.
The effect that jumped out at me was focusing at a spot on the floor while standing up and turning. It creates the momentary impression of a spiral pattern in my perception. Especially with a dot-like pattern on the floor :)
Also, if you like rainbow halos, you might also like Shock Diamonds: https://www.google.com/search?q=shock+diamonds&source=lnms&t...
Re: Communicating with people on psychedelics
#24I believe the main factor at play in the first pair of images, is that on LSD and other hallucinogens as well as intensive meditation is that there are little mind programs that run on our perception that smooth out reality for us.
If you notice, even just sitting still we are constantly moving our head just a little, constantly moving our eyes. Without these programs, our visual field would seem far more jumpy and unstable. In certain states of consciousness, these smoothing programs can become intermittent, less effective or even completely disabled.
Also, when mind rambling, chatter and perpetual loops stop, a greater amount detail can be seen and perceived through all senses. At higher and higher levels of perceptual resolution with our filters disabled and the smoothing programs down, you begin to notice that we don't perceive reality smoothly. We perceive it in tiny little frames. If you just watch the first picture, your mind isn't drawn to he frames. After looking for a bit at the second picture of the pair, suddenly you can start to see the frames of perception more clearly. It's simply a matter of learning to (or being tricked to) get past our habitual programs and filters to tune into a more fine grained perceptual reality happening.
These observations come from my own experience with psychedelics in my 20's and extensive meditation practice including a number of longer meditation retreats.
Re: Communicating with people on psychedelics
#25Many years ago I tried LSD, and for whatever reason, I never seemed to experience visual hallucinations. However, in recent years, cars have started having LED tail lights, which really bother my eyes. Several times I have asked my friends, "Aren't those terrible!?" to which they might reply, "They are pretty bright." Bright! They aren't just too bright, they are intensely STROBING! Can normal people not see that? Is…
I have had rainbow halos around street and car headlights since my early twenties. I first noticed it whilst tripping and have yet to determine whether the cause is physical or mental. Looks pretty though.
I've had something similar since at least my teens. At night if I look closely at streetlights, I see what looks to me like a magnetic field around streetlights. I don't think that's what I'm actually seeing, but that's what it looks like.
Re: Communicating with people on psychedelics
#26Many years ago I tried LSD, and for whatever reason, I never seemed to experience visual hallucinations. However, in recent years, cars have started having LED tail lights, which really bother my eyes. Several times I have asked my friends, "Aren't those terrible!?" to which they might reply, "They are pretty bright." Bright! They aren't just too bright, they are intensely STROBING! Can normal people not see that? Is…
I have had rainbow halos around street and car headlights since my early twenties. I first noticed it whilst tripping and have yet to determine whether the cause is physical or mental. Looks pretty though.
This could be HPPD[1] or related. There seems to be uncertainty as to if hallucinogens cause some of these effects directly, or if they simply help train the mind to notice what was already there. For instance, is visual snow there already, and hallucinogens simply make one more aware of it and capable of focusing on it (similar to how tinnitus is worse if one focuses on it)?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallucinogen_persisting_percep...
Re: Communicating with people on psychedelics
#27"* LSD here is a shorthand for psychedelics in general."
The tracing effect is specific to LSD and LSD-like compounds. Mescaline and DMT, for instance, have very different effects.
Re: Communicating with people on psychedelics
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
I see the strobing of LEDs if the lights are moving across my field of vision. I find it a pretty distracting as well.
This is because, as the source of light is moving across your field of vision, it is exciting different areas of your retina. With a stationary light source, persistence of vision (POV) would make the light source appear continuous, uninterrupted, because the rods/cones do not have time to clear the signal. You can perceive the LED being switched on and off as POV does not come into play.
This must be what I experienced this weekend. I was trying to take a picture of some LED light fixtures and they were doing a number on my camera's sensors. Black bands that at certain angles would move across the screen even though the camera and the lights were stationary.
Re: Communicating with people on psychedelics
#29This would be significantly easier to test if the author included a few more images.
Re: Communicating with people on psychedelics
#30I believe the main factor at play in the first pair of images, is that on LSD and other hallucinogens as well as intensive meditation is that there are little mind programs that run on our perception that smooth out reality for us. If you notice, even just sitting still we are constantly moving our head just a little, constantly moving our eyes. Without these programs, our visual field would seem far more jumpy and u…
Kind of like toggling "motion blur" on and off in a first-person shooter, I suppose? Or maybe more accurately "motion of other 3D objects" blur.