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I would say I absolutely had hallucinations and the experiences were powerful and long lasting, but I’m still aware it’s a trip.
I’ve had two hallucinagenic experiences (acid and 2c-I) and I never got any life changing experiences. Is it like hypnosis where you have to believe in it to have it work? I know someone cured of an addiction from her hypnosis so I know these things happen. I would say I absolutely had hallucinations and the experiences were powerful and long lasting, but I’m still aware it’s a trip.
becuase I've been wondering recently what would have happened if I only tried hallucinogenics for the first time now that my brain is much older?
I’ve had two hallucinagenic experiences (acid and 2c-I) and I never got any life changing experiences. Is it like hypnosis where you have to believe in it to have it work? I know someone cured of an addiction from her hypnosis so I know these things happen. I would say I absolutely had hallucinations and the experiences were powerful and long lasting, but I’m still aware it’s a trip.
out of curiosity, how old were you? becuase I've been wondering recently what would have happened if I only tried hallucinogenics for the first time now that my brain is much older?
That's an interesting idea.
If you have Aphantasia, you probably won’t visualize on hallucinogens.
When you say 'you probably won’t visualize' do you mean completely internal/mental visualisations or are you including all sorts of hallucinogenic visualisations typically reported?
(I'm asking these because I have aphantasia and have been psychedelic/hallucination-curious, but still haven't given anything of the sort a try. I do engage with mystical practices, though, have had 'mystical visions' (which had actual no visual component!), and have been curious how psychedelics might compare.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5-HT2A_receptor
This receptor also seems involved in synesthesia, a psychedelic-like condition thought to involve a cross-wiring of visual and auditory brain pathways that result in 'seeing sounds' and 'hearing colors'. Here's a bit of research on that:
> "Synesthesia has been reported with LSD5 as accompaniment to other visual hallucinations. These sound-induced visual perceptions and the visual hallucinations can be well formed and complex. The cause of synesthesia is thought to be chemical deafferentation of lateral geniculate body, which will deprive the occipital cortex from visual stimuli. LSD is known to selectively activate serotonin 2A receptor. Brang and Ramachandran19 hypothesized that serotonin 2A receptors are the “synesthesia receptor”. Auditory visual synesthesia also has been reported with other serotonin 2A agonists including mescaline and ayahuasca. Ayahuasca contains serotonergic psychledic N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and beta-carboline, a monoamine oxidase inhibitor. DMT is a partial agonist of serotonin 2A receptors and beta-carboline inhibits the visceral metabolism of DMT, increasing its systemic levels."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3218766/
Incidentally, static output from old analog CRT televisions tuned to dead channels is a kind of ideal 'blank sheet' for producing hallucinations. Unfortunately there don't seem to be many good simulations of this once-common phenomena (the YT videos of TV static seem to suffer from replication issues of various sorts and aren't that realistic). Similar natural effects might be obtained by looking at fog and clouds, waves breaking on a beach, wind blowing over a field of grass, etc.
I'd argue that one of the great potential benefits of psychedelics is that they encourage us to look closely at the world around us.
I had this buddy, who, at the time we became friends, was writing stuff in assembler that I had trouble putting in pascal. To my kid mind, he was an absolute genius. Eventually, he told was he was talking acid and disclosed how he could tell his mind was not as sharp as it used to be as a result.
I have no knowledge if it was laced with anything or he simply had one trip too many, but it was definitely life changing. I was trying to reach out recently ( you know.. the whole nostalgia thing to see where everyone is these days ).
I will admit that made me hesitate on trying it myself on my own. If I were to do it now, the one thing I would make sure of is that there someone there to watch over me.
I’ve had two hallucinagenic experiences (acid and 2c-I) and I never got any life changing experiences. Is it like hypnosis where you have to believe in it to have it work? I know someone cured of an addiction from her hypnosis so I know these things happen. I would say I absolutely had hallucinations and the experiences were powerful and long lasting, but I’m still aware it’s a trip.
I’ve had two hallucinagenic experiences (acid and 2c-I) and I never got any life changing experiences. Is it like hypnosis where you have to believe in it to have it work? I know someone cured of an addiction from her hypnosis so I know these things happen. I would say I absolutely had hallucinations and the experiences were powerful and long lasting, but I’m still aware it’s a trip.
I'm going through John Vervaeke's "Awakening from the Meaning Crisis" on youtube and it's fascinating. One thing he means to answer is: why do we have these altered consciousness experiences where we come back from it, and unlike most altered experiences (being drunk; dreaming), we say THAT was more real than THIS? And then profoundly change our lives in a positive way? Especially since the actual contents of the alt…
The life-changing effect of LSD for me was a profound shift in the clarity of my thinking, like gaining a new superpower (compared to my prior, foggy brain) overnight. I'll always be thankful for that first trip.