What exactly are you seeing when you trip?

So acid doesn't create hallucinations as such, because you don't see a person or object that isn't there, it just like, reinterprets light, right? So why do you see those little coloured Fibonacci spirals everywhere? What are you seeing exactly? If you shine a lazer into a glass or something, you'll be able to see the little light particles sort of buzzing around the glass. These are very similar to acid patterns. So why is it that when your dopamine and serotonin receptors are overactivated, (this is probably not a very good way of putting it, so correct me if I'm wrong) you are somehow in touch with these light particals that we can't normally see. If you think about it, this is like, little bits of infinity everywhere.

 

Some people claim to see objects that aren't physically there, i have not other than shapes and patterns on walls etc. Maybe we see the fibonacci spirals because they are everywhere in nature, from snail shells to sunflowers(ever seen the movie PI?). So if they naturally occur in nature maybe we see them for this reason...?

I believe the exact mechanism of the visual aspect are unknown.

 

I see pink elephants and unicorns. Dunno what's wrong with you suckers.

 

Yeah, I have seen Pi. Since that I've been seeing them everywhere. When smoke disperses into the air, it fractalises, so it's like that's the nature way of things. The universe is infinitely divided into fucking tiny particles.

 

Not only is it in nature, but it is used in music. Including lateralus by tool. I know some people don't like maynard but i for one love their music, and i ask that you put your prejudices aside and watch this video.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FQdEVd-99o"]YouTube - Tool - Lateralus - Fibonacci explanation

This is another cool video i found, the weird thing is i always end up thinking about this kind of stuff when i trip, mainly about us being intimately linked to the universe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE2EiI-UfsE"]YouTube - Fibonacci's Fractals

 

There is an interesting study done on why when psychedelics are taken the user sees patterns splayed across their vision.

I cannot find it right now but I'm sure someone else can post it.

The scientific language went slightly over my head from what I can remember, but obviously something to do with the visual cortex etc.

 

Oh wow. That sounds very interesting. I would love to see that.

 

Ive taken hallucinogens that make things melt and look funny..
Ones that change the dilation of the eye.

Ive taken hallucingens that made entire pieces of furniture disappear, vanish , leave something else in there place, not changing other things around it.. some that do not change the dilation of the eye..

 

A while ago I posted this thread with some thoughts on how LSD produces the effects it does. I think I hit on some key points.
http://www.hipforums.com/newforums/showthread.php?t=404634&f=117

Here is an excerpt about visual effects;
"It has been reported that there are visual "archetypes" hardwired into the brain. These geometric shapes and constructs are the same type of patterns that comprise much of the visual phenomena of psychedelics. That makes perfect sense as the visual cortex is trying to process all this extra input it just fires these hardwired sequences, that is why often the flowing and morphing of patterns is in conjunction with music or other auditory stimuli.

It's like your brain is saying ;
"Ok there is the sky and clouds and birds all sent to the visual cortex, but what about all this extra info I have left over? Here I'll just assign it the standard geometric grid and morph it through different color and shape parameters if the input changes. Solves that problem. Now to go deal with all that auditory stimuli."

This occurs all throughout the cortex as stimuli is processed. As a person becomes familiar with the effects of psychedelics, often these "patterns" also begin to fade into the background "noise" except on high doses."

I think that is as good of an explaination as any.
I have done a lot of reseach on LSD and there is woefully little understanding of how it does it's thing.

 

I definately see those patterns everywhere often when I trip on shrooms, and it sometimes got pretty annoying. I know, go with the flow but when you see those patterns for too long over everything else it can get kind of frustrating since they won't go away (which they will of course, you probably just need something else to focus on ) when you want them to.

 

Unfiltered data streams.

 

the visuals i get from lsd are usually of wavy fluxations in the surface/overall appearance of objects like walls, doors, and windows. although i've had times when the ground would melt away and spiral upwards in a double-helix pattern.

i've also seen faces in objects, had distant figures become demonic in appearance, and one time i met the grim reaper.

although, the visual effects of lsd don't mean nearly as much to me as the psychological and spiritual effects.

 

Thank you PB_Smith for that insight. That pretty much answers my question. The "visual archetype" thing makes a lot of sense. However, I find that the patterns differ from trip to trip. I once described the pattern I was seeing to my friend, and he said that it was common for that type of acid. I don't know if he was just talking out of his arse, or if there actually was some merit to that. Other times, I've found that the particular pattern I was seeing for that trip was shared amongst my friends. Perhaps it's the setting that does this, or maybe something the acid, like the particular way it comes on or something. Consider the famous brown acid at Woodstock that was said to induce bad trips. While it's a myth that a batch of acid can do this, it could just be the way it comes on that can be hard to deal with.

 

Often what you are looking at will influence the type of patterns seen. Looking at fields of grass will produce one effect, looking at an acoustic ceiling will produce another, but if you think about it they both are the same underlying "patterns" but influenced by the texture and patterning of the thing looked at.

The infamous "brown acid" was DOM ( 2,5-Dimethoxy-4-methylamphetamine) and LSD plus it was WAY to heavy of a dose of DOM. That is why people were freaking out on it.

 

black and white are all i see

 

At first I was like

But red and yellow then came to be...

 

Fractals are a very common thing in nature, and often form a patter. Considering how acid alters the way the brain processes signals it makes me think that our natural desire to form connections and patterns in everything we see makes the crazy fractal patterns a common thing to most on acid. My guess is the brain is breaking apart the visual light into patterns to try to process it better, and they just kind of repeat. Kind of like when you're listening to music on acid, how you can hear almost every sound. As if instead of a stream of music entering your brain and being processed like normal, the song is divided so every sound has it's own track, and your brain processes 30 of them at once before putting it together as one song in your head.

I think it's essentially something along those lines but with light instead of music. Your brain is in overdrive trying to sort out what your senses are receiving and get this information sorted out and is over analyzing every bit of it. The natural fractal nature of things is more evident. This can really be seen at the very end of a trip, or the next day even if you smoke a little weed, how everything gets a bit brighter, and you seem to see patterns and shapes that occur naturally(I mean things you can naturally see but just never really took notice of before) despite being relatively sober, at least in terms of your physical eyesight.

On top of that your pupils are huge so the amount of light entering your eyes to be processed is quite larger than normal, your eyes are essentially binoculars in terms of detail in your normal vision range.

As to why there's so many, or they're so colorful, or why they're spinning or breathing, meh your brain is on serious drugs.

 

haha i figured tool heads would pick up on that :2thumbsup:

 

I thought I read somewhere before that psychedelics somehow modulates photoreceptor cell sensitivity? As far as the morphing goes, there is accompanied an *impossibility* not unlike common optical illusions that are in kids books. The fram rate of sight seems to be enhanced, which could explain trails and other afterimages, also, the fractals and magnified vision etc maybe could be caused by this as well, perhaps with high doses the mind is enhanced so greatly that it skips the processing and allows for nearly *direct* unfiltered perception? Leaving one staring at a single point for 20 minutes going "...wtf yo, what am's going on here?" while everything goes BWERERRRRRRWWWWOOOOOOOWWWWWWEEEERRRRR! Which says a lot about meditation and our beloved ego death... at least as far as the spiritual significance we attach to it goes.
I had an experience on 2C-E where I felt that I was somehow experiencing the absorption of photons before my brain had time to know that this was what was going on... lol. Perhaps I was just REALLY fucking high!

 

bits of infinity poking through the veil of maya