Hello everyone, I just had a random thought. When your eyes dilate when you're tripping, is it only due to some type of chemical reaction, or could you think of it as your eyes seeing more of what reality is or it is a symbol of you functioning on higher senses? I don't really know how to describe it. Peace, Steven
Your first guess is right. It's a chemical response caused by over activity of the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS), the over activity can be caused by various drugs.
pupils dilate in order to let in more light. having more light--more information--reach the retina increases visual acuity. i (currently) know nothing about why the pupils dilate during the psychedelic state, however.
i loooovesss it when my pupils look like theyre eating my face thats how i know when im having a good time
Well you said "i (currently) know nothing about why the pupils dilate during the psychedelic state, however." What I wrote in the second post there is why pupils dilate during a psychedelic state. Most psychedelics exite your SNS, this is the system that regulates adrenaline and noradrenaline, as well as other things and when the amount of (nor)adrenaline in your system is raised one of the effects is that your pupils expand.
right, as a side effect. okay. i just didn't understand it's "purpose" during the psychedelic state; i was trying to connect pupil dilation to some sort of idea or "symbol of higher thinking", as the original poster was entertaining as a possibility. so i was thinking more abstractly (i was stoned at the time, incidentally...) versus my usual mode of thought which is scientific and based on my education in psychobiology/psychopharmacology. anyway, that's besides the point, as it makes perfect sense, of course, that it is a byproduct of SNS-activation. this also coincides with the other neutral symptom set of the typical psychedelics; that is, elevated heart rate, breathing, sweating, loss of appetite, etc--all features of SNS activity as well. over there in ireland do they not use the terms epinephrine and norepinephrine? i notice you refer the the body's main adrenal hormones/NTs as adrenaline and noradrenaline. we always say norepinephrine in our neuroscience work over here in the U.S. obviously, they're the same chemicals, but we refer to them differently--just curious. peace.
Yeah Gel we use adrenaline as opposed to epinephrine here. I'm pretty sure that (nor)epinephrine is only used in the USA, all of europe and I think the rest of the world use (nor)adrenaline. I never really understood why, but there are a few similar examples, for instance the USA use the term acetaminophen for the chemical the rest of the world calls paracetamol. I have no clue why it is, if anyone knows, I'd be interested to find out.
weird.... i noticed that whenever i'm in Spain, they do indeed call it paracetamol. the only people who call it "acetaminophen" over here in the U.S., though, are chemists, researchers, etc; everyone else just knows it as Tylenol. i didn't know i was a minority in my use of EPI and NE! interesting stuff....
coadyj, if you aren't 10 years old you are obviously mentaly retarded, either way, stay in your crib and keep away from your mammies computer.
i like to think it is symbolic as well....i notice my pupils dialate when i enter the "cosmic conciousness" sober.
why do americans have to have their own words for everything? anyway, i think as a general rule, pupil dilation can be correlated to you level of arousal. not sexual, just in general. if lots of neurons are firing in your head, then its likely that this will lead to higher degree of sympathetic nervous system and this leading to your pupils opening up. when you are on opiates your pupils shrink there are two opposing systems of iris constriction, some drugs relax one set, some constrict a set, some do different things to both. your resulting pupil size usually will be the final result of all the influences combined
yeah, bill, along with what you were just saying... our pupils definitely get bigger when we're excited mentally. actually, you can tell if a girl is interested in you by how big her pupils are.... this is just an interesting byproduct of human physiology; i don't actually use this method to build my relationships.
we got two guys going back and forht trying to prove who has the highest I.Q. then Coady comes in here and blows them out of the water. You win sir!
