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Communicating with people on psychedelics

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Re: Communicating with people on psychedelics

#41

Post by hausen »

leemoore wrote: post #25
8d7a8 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You should have your eyes checked. Halos around bright light sources may be caused by cataracts.

Cataracts generally affect the elderly, but young people may also have it due to genetic factors or medication (such as corticosteroids).

Re: Communicating with people on psychedelics

#42

Post by jerf »

8d7a8 wrote: post #5
sqlftw wrote: post #4

Many 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.

You may have astigmatism or some other more "mundane" issue there. I see them partially too, but it's astigmatism, because when I put on my glasses they go away. Some do it more than others, but that may be related to the spectrum of the light, which varies quite substantially.

(On that note, here's an old HN post I recall about how to cheaply and easily see light spectrums: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=971413 Of course you can't do that with car lights very easily, but you can still check incandescent vs. florescent vs. LED, etc. fairly easily, and perhaps learn to correlate which is which when you see the "rainbows".)

Re: Communicating with people on psychedelics

#43

Post by jerf »

leemoore wrote: post #25
8d7a8 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

As mentioned in another message, you may have astigmatism. I get triangular spikes off of relatively point-sources at a consistent angle of about 10 degrees clockwise from vertical from my astigmatism. Your angle will vary, of course.

Re: Communicating with people on psychedelics

#44

Post by luxbock »

GuiA wrote: post #33
leemoore wrote: post #24

I 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…

This idea of reality being "passed through" multiple filters, and these filters being reduced or disabled on psychedelics, is developed (somewhat unscientifically) by Huxley in "The Doors of Perception"- it's a fairly good read. If I remember correctly, the main criticism against this is that if it were the case brain activity should be reduced, at least in some regions, when on psychedelics. However, observing peopl…

However, observing people on psychedelics with fMRIs does not match with that.

This study would appear to disagree: http://www.pnas.org/content/109/6/2138

Decreased activity in the ACC/medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) was a consistent finding and the magnitude of this decrease predicted the intensity of the subjective effects. Based on these results, a seed-based pharmaco-physiological interaction/functional connectivity analysis was performed using a medial prefrontal seed. Psilocybin caused a significant decrease in the positive coupling between the mPFC and PCC. These results strongly imply that the subjective effects of psychedelic drugs are caused by decreased activity and connectivity in the brain's key connector hubs, enabling a state of unconstrained cognition.

Re: Communicating with people on psychedelics

#45

Post by tosser0007 »

ewindisch wrote: post #26
8d7a8 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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/Hallucinoge…

Many people find this condition extremely debilitating:

http://hppdonline.com

There is a lot of pain, anguish and regret expressed on the forums by people suffering with this condition.

Re: Communicating with people on psychedelics

#46

Post by duaneb »

Related: gwern's study was pretty bad in a number of ways, most notably that it's unlikely the lsd was stored correctly, which will have a large effect on potency and make dosage much less meaningful as the test progresses.

Furthermore, I think there's a lot to be said that the brain needs to be "trained" to make good uses of the drug, including microdoses—you might be able to recognize the effects better if you're already familiar with the doses at a strong level. However, this is completely spitballing. I'm eager to see proper medical/psychological testing with pharmacists maintaining dosage and administration.

Re: Communicating with people on psychedelics

#48

Post by okc »

GuiA wrote: post #33
leemoore wrote: post #24

I 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…

This idea of reality being "passed through" multiple filters, and these filters being reduced or disabled on psychedelics, is developed (somewhat unscientifically) by Huxley in "The Doors of Perception"- it's a fairly good read. If I remember correctly, the main criticism against this is that if it were the case brain activity should be reduced, at least in some regions, when on psychedelics. However, observing peopl…

Why would it follow that less filters would infer less brain activity? - even partially. Surley any cleansing/removing of the filters would excite all the brain, as it reacts to new stimuli.

To quote Huxley "If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern."

Re: Communicating with people on psychedelics

#50

Post by agentgt »

OldSchoolJohnny wrote: post #39
agentgt wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate to continue your tangent but I do feel something that is relevant to the OP article are new vehicles that have blinking break lights. Most people don't notice these new break lights (I think its on Chevy cars) but when the driver breaks there is a very fast and subtle blinking of the red tail lights (opposed to just the red tail lights being on for older cars). I only noticed this blinking while under... but n…

"Brake" lights, not "break" lights.

Yes... that was dumb (and even twice!)... I know how to spell brake.. I'm not sure what happened :)
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