71–80 of 190 posts
Take everything said about these thing with a massive grain of salt. The entire point is exploring how you are an individual from the rest of a time churning universe.
Alright, I'll bite. I developed HPPD in 2017, and I've been seeing unusual things for a bit over 2 years. The HPPD was triggered by dropping on the order of 1000-1400 micrograms of LSD - and for context a reasonable dose was 50 micrograms. This was way too much, and I fried for a few days. I'm not sure when I came down because HPPD decided to show up and it took me a while to realize that the HPPD was, well, persiste…
I have never heard Tinnitus described as a neurological condition. I had pretty bad Tinnitus as a result of a jaw injury. It has gradually faded but it made sleeping difficult for a very long time.
They're both active and useful at micro dose levels, I highly doubt anyone has ever experienced HPPD from a psilocybin microdose in their breakfast smoothy.
As with any powerful drug, dosage matters more than anything.
So I wonder: psychedelics make you more likely to believe woo, and more likely to have certain classes of visual hallucinations. But some people believe woo without taking psychedelics, and some people have those same visual hallucinations without taking psychedelics. Interesting, I believe it and have always wondered about this. I think people's sensory experiences vary wildly by nature, but we have no access to the…
Aside: I bet you "a signed dollar" that Le Bron James is not the first verifiably recorded case of an adult posessing a photographic (eidetic) memory. [1] Without singling out Mr James it is reasonable to very, very skeptical about any strong claims of ability of any famous person outside the field for which they are famous. Hype is a thing pushed by entourages if not the famous person themselves. Mr James' proficien…
And this is a tangent, but I used that example to subtly poke at this kind of "common wisdom":
Mr James' proficiency is basketball is super-human and impressive enough by itself. It is very unlikely that he is also super-human in other dimensions.
Why do you think that an exceptional memory would not contribute to exceptional basketball playing? Are those two things completely unrelated?
In other words, you're probably underestimating the cognitive skill it takes to win at high levels. Of course I can't know for sure, because I haven't done it, but you haven't either.
I don't remember what the best sources for his memory were, but they seemed credible to me at the time, e.g.:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-44106321
https://www.businessinsider.com/lebron-turnovers-photographi...
There are also some video of him recalling games that seem credible too.
Alright, I'll bite. I developed HPPD in 2017, and I've been seeing unusual things for a bit over 2 years. The HPPD was triggered by dropping on the order of 1000-1400 micrograms of LSD - and for context a reasonable dose was 50 micrograms. This was way too much, and I fried for a few days. I'm not sure when I came down because HPPD decided to show up and it took me a while to realize that the HPPD was, well, persiste…
50 mcg is a pretty small dose. Not as small as micro-dosing, but like first timer being extra cautious sized. 1000-1400 mcg is like 5-7 solid doses, which is no joke, but it's not 20-30 doses like you sort of imply.
So I wonder: psychedelics make you more likely to believe woo, and more likely to have certain classes of visual hallucinations. But some people believe woo without taking psychedelics, and some people have those same visual hallucinations without taking psychedelics. Interesting, I believe it and have always wondered about this. I think people's sensory experiences vary wildly by nature, but we have no access to the…
Sounds like a closed-eye hallucination (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed-eye_hallucination) caused by the Ganzfeld effect (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganzfeld_effect). I get these too, usually just if I concentrate. I think they've been easier to get since I tried mushrooms a couple of times, but I did get them before as well.
Alright, I'll bite. I developed HPPD in 2017, and I've been seeing unusual things for a bit over 2 years. The HPPD was triggered by dropping on the order of 1000-1400 micrograms of LSD - and for context a reasonable dose was 50 micrograms. This was way too much, and I fried for a few days. I'm not sure when I came down because HPPD decided to show up and it took me a while to realize that the HPPD was, well, persiste…
My own experience was kind of opposite so far. In the beginning I had pretty apparent visual illusions, like wall corners, patterns breathing, or actually seeings beams of light shaped by different music, even on 100ug.
But over time it seems my brain was somehow adapting to it. On many following trips, the visual illusions become more like 'shaking' a little bit, just some noise.
I started to think that either the acid's gone bad or I had a different kind of sorts.
Some time ago, even on 300ug, i had almost no visual illusions (which was quite disappointing, as I expected the music to still bring it).
Instead, I have a more vivid imagination.. But it's not visual, just more like if you think of some scene from memory.
(Should go without saying, but this is not recommend for epileptics)
The vague regular input to the whole eye causes your brain to look for patterns in the noise. Tested this on several friends and they all start seeing geometric fractal-ish patterns within 60 seconds.
I've been hoping someone would manufacture affordable "strobe glasses" with a bunch of white leds that pulse at a rate adjustable with a simple knob, but I've looked for years and all of the options I've seen have been pretty pricey and include features of questionable utility. Seems like they could be made for ~$20 if there was enough of a market to make them at scale. I think they would be great for meditation.
(See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_machine for more info. The turntable-driven Dream Machine was a particularly cool design)
So I wonder: psychedelics make you more likely to believe woo, and more likely to have certain classes of visual hallucinations. But some people believe woo without taking psychedelics, and some people have those same visual hallucinations without taking psychedelics. Interesting, I believe it and have always wondered about this. I think people's sensory experiences vary wildly by nature, but we have no access to the…
Iirc those symbols in your vision with your eyes closed aren’t hallucinations. They’re reflective of the blood pressure and flow around your eye/eye lid. Though I definitely have an ability to relax by paying attention to them. I can’t offer a source for this though.
But the degree to which they turn into "hallucinations" varies.
By that I mean very elaborate geometric shapes with a lot of motion and rotation. Sort of like a Persian rug in 3D and 4D (time), with a lot of scale. Fractals, etc.
I suspect there is some common physiological reason why people find fractals "trippy" and say pictures of cars in traffic are not "trippy".
Drugs tickle your brain in a certain ways, but as the OP suggests, they're not the only way your brain can be tickled like that. And some brains are more predisposed to such hallucinations than others.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Although I can also conjure some low-level hallucinations when "looking at the back of my eyelids" when falling asleep. I imagine that's pretty normal/common since low light is sort of like sensory deprivation. Me too, and it's definitely a result of taking psychedelics. I quite like it. I suspect that I could have always made those CEVs appear, but I didn't "know how" until taking psychedelics. In other words, I h…
> Me too, and it's definitely a result of taking psychedelics. I quite like it. I suspect that I could have always made those CEVs appear, but I didn't "know how" until taking psychedelics. Me too and it's probably not a result of taking psychedelics; as I've never tried them recreationally. I did, however, have vivid hallucinations as a result of Nitrous oxide at the dentist office as a child. I don't think I see fl…
The eye pressure one is a different effect though. What I'm talking about are geometric effects like gears or fractals with definite edges. The eye pressure thing is more of a blob.