The full article can be found here.
Welcome to the Visuals of PsychedelicsThis article attempts to break down the visual effects contained within the psychedelic experience into simple, easy to understand titles, descriptions and leveling systems. This will be done without depending on metaphors, analogies or personal trip reports. The article starts off with descriptions of the simpler effects and works its way up towards more complex experiences as it progresses, using image examples wherever possible. This describes not my personal experiences but the universally reported effects that are consistently felt by most if not all psychedelic users.
It is in reference to all of the classical psychedelics and the huge variety of obscure and modern “research chemicals” that are becoming increasingly prevalent.
This particular guide gives image examples wherever possible, breaking the visual hallucinations into four basic categories of which I have come to name; enhancement of vision, distortions, visual geometry and hallucinatory states. I will start with the lower more basic effects and work my way up.
Enhancements - The first category of visual effects can be classified as an overall enhancement of vision. This is consistently reported at the lowest levels of psychedelic experience. It can be generally defined as an overall increase in the level of visual input, attributed to the external environment that a person experiences, and is manifested through 3 separate subcomponents.
Increased visual acuity:
Increased visual acuity is defined as an enhancement of the acuteness or clearness of vision. This results in the visual details attributed to the external environment becoming heightened to the point where the edges of objects become extremely focused, clear and defined. At its highest level one may experience a new-found ability to comprehend the entire visual field at once (including the peripheral vision). In comparison, during sober living, human vision is only able to perceive the small area that a person’s eye is currently focused on.
Whilst under the influence of this component, it is very common for people to suddenly notice patterns and details that they may have never previously appreciated or acknowledged. For example, when looking at sceneries, nature, and every day textures, the complexity and beauty of the visual input suddenly becomes overwhelmingly obvious.
Enhancement of colour:
Enhancement of colour can be defined as the experience of colours becoming extremely bright, vivid and starting to stand out more. During the experience of this component reds will seem “redder”, greens will seem “greener” and all colours will be become much more distinct, powerful and intense than they could ever possibly be during everyday, sober living.
Enhanced pattern recognition:
Enhanced pattern recognition can be described as an increase in a person’s ability to recognize significant imagery (usually faces) within vague stimuli.
This innate ability which human beings possess in everyday life is referred to by the scientific literature as pareidolia and is very well documented. Common examples of this include spotting faces in everyday objects and viewing butts as fantastical objects.
During this experience pareidolia can become significantly more intense and pronounced. For example, scenery may look remarkably like people or objects, every single leaf on a tree may look like many tiny green faces, or butts might appear to be easily recognizable as fantastical objects, all without any visual alterations actually taking place.
Magnification:
Magnification can be described as an enhancement of sight which results in the experience of a portion of the external environment within one’s visual field appearing closer, zoomed in, larger and more defined in proportion to the surrounding environment than it actually is. This is to the point where it allows one to see objects in a high level of detail across greater distances than is possible within everyday life.
At its lower levels, this can allow people to see objects that are within reaching distance as closer than they really are, resulting in a general enhancement of visual capabilities. At its higher levels, this can allow people to see objects as if they were right in front of them across seemingly impossible stretches of distance ranging from between several feet to hundreds of meters. Since this is most likely a physiological impossibility, it suggests that higher level visual magnification may actually be a seamless hallucinatory state which predictively simulates the details within distant visual input in a realistic and convincing manner.
This effect is uncommon but can spontaneously manifest itself for short periods of time under the influence of certain psychedelics such as LSD or Ayahuasca. It is considerably more likely to occur if one spends extended periods of time staring at an object or scene within the distance.
Distortions - The second category of visual effects found within a psychedelic experience is known as a distortion or a visual alteration. These can be generally described as changes in perception attributed to the external environment that are always obviously grounded in reality. These effects are manifested through 6 separate subcomponents.
Visual drifting:
Visual drifting can be described as the experience of objects and scenery appearing to become progressively warped and morphed across the visual field. These alterations gradually increase as a person stares, but are non-permanent and will reset to their normal appearance once a person double takes.
This effect is capable of manifesting itself across 4 different levels of visual intensity. These are defined below as:
Peripheral - The most basic form of distortion can be described as a ‘wiggling’ of straight lines within the external environment, which occurs exclusively within the peripheral vision and cannot be looked at directly.
Direct - At this level, the distortions do not necessarily increase in visual intensity but can now be directly looked at within a person’s central line of sight. This partially alters the appearance and form of shapes, objects and sceneries within the external environment, causing them to subtly drift, bend and morph.
Distinct - This is the level at which distortions become visually powerful enough to drastically alter and transform the shape of specific objects within the external environment, often to the point where they can become unrecognisable in comparison to their original form.
All-encompassing - At the highest level of visual drifting, the intensity becomes powerful enough to distort not just specific objects beyond recognition, but every single point of a person’s vision and the entirety of the external environment in its whole.
The particular style of this visual effect depends on the specific continuously changing direction, speed and rhythm of the distortion, resulting in a small variety of different manifestations.
Morphing - This effect is completely disorganized and spontaneous in both its rhythm and its direction. It can be described as objects or scenery appearing to gradually change in their size, shape, configuration and general appearance in a limitless number of ways.
Breathing - This effect makes objects or scenery appear to be steadily contracting inwards and expanding outwards in a consistent rhythm, as if the object or scenery was breathing in and out in a similar fashion to the lungs of a living organism.
Melting - It is not unusual for objects and sceneries to be completely or partially melting. They begin at lower doses as a gradual liquidization of objects which causes them to begin to droop, wobble, and slowly lose their structural integrity. This gradually increases until they become impossible to ignore with the lines, textures, and colour between solid objects appearing to melt into one another in an extremely liquid fashion.
Flowing - Flowing, shifting, rippling, or moving surfaces are a strong visual effect that seems to occur almost exclusively on textures (particularly if they are highly detailed, complex, or rough textures). A classic example of this would be wood grain or carpets flowing like a river in a seamless, looped animation. A consistent way to reproduce this visual is to stare at wood grain and lose focus.
Colour Shifting:
Colour shifting can be described as the colours of various objects (particularly brightly coloured or out of place objects) becoming subject to an effect that shifts and changes its appearance through a repeated cycling of colours in a strange and fluid motion across its surface. For example, moss on a rock could physically shift from green to red to blue to any other colour and then back to green again in a very short space of time.
Depth Perception Distortions:
Depth perception distortions can be defined as the experience of both extreme and subtle distortions in depth perception. This is where the depths and layers of the scenery in front of you can become exaggerated, skewed or completely rearranged in their organization. A classic example of this could be the swapping of layers in a scenery. This is where objects in the background come into the foreground and objects in the foreground get pushed into the background.
Another example of skewed depth perception can be described as a complete loss of it. This occurs when the different sections of a scenery unify into a flat 2-Dimensional image regardless of their actual distance from the observer.
Tracers:
Tracers can be described as the experience of trails being left behind moving objects such as people, birds or cars in a manner that is similar to those found in long exposure photographs. They can manifest as exactly the same colour of the moving object which is producing it or can sometimes be a randomly selected colour of their own.
A near consistent way to reproduce this visual effect is to move one’s hand in front of their face or throw an object under the influence of psychedelics.
Tracers can be broken down into 4 basic levels of visual intensity. These are defined below as:
Transparent - The most basic form of tracer can be described as an almost completely transparent after image which disappears quickly and drags shortly behind moving objects.
Translucent - At this level, tracers increase in their length to become at least roughly half as long as the distance across the visual field which the object it is following has moved. In terms of clarity, the tracers shift from barely visible to distinct and partially transparent in colour.
Opaque - At this level, tracers become completely solid in appearance and opaque in their colour with distinct and sharp edges to their shape which draw a clear contrast between the tracer itself and the background behind it. They become equal in length to the distance across the visual field which the object it is following has moved in and can remain in the air for up to several seconds.
All-encompassing - The highest level occurs at the point when a person’s visual field has become so sensitive to the creation of tracers that the entirety of it smudges and blurs into an all-encompassing tracer at the slightest movement of the eye. This can make it extremely difficult to see unless the eyes are kept still and remains in the air indefinitely or until one moves their eyes and double takes.
More Examples: Here.
Symmetrical texture repetition:
Symmetrical texture repetition can be described as a distinct visual alteration which specifically manifests itself through rough textures such as grass, carpets, asphalt, tarmac, towels, bathroom rugs, gravel, general bracken, dense vegetation, fallen leaves, tree bark and more.
It can be described as the texture becoming mirrored repeatedly over its surface in an extremely intricate and symmetrical fashion that is consistent across itself. This maintains the same level of detail no matter how closely one attempts to look at the distortion.
As these repeating textures are generated, they begin to give rise to a huge array of abstract forms, imagery and patterns embedded within and across the symmetry and are often complemented by the simultaneous experience of enhanced pattern recognition.
Scenery Slicing:
Scenery slicing can be described as an effect which only occurs spontaneously and rarely sustains itself for more than several seconds. It makes the visual field appear as if it has been cut into separate slices with some sort of razor blade in a remarkably clean fashion. These separate slices then proceed to drift slowly away from their original position before disappearing and resetting to normality. The organisation of these slices show great variety and can be as simple as three separate sections or as complex as multiple intricate slices of a moving interlocking spiral or any other possible design.
Geometry -
Geometry can be described as the experience of a person’s field of vision being partially or completely encompassed by fast-moving, kaleidoscopic, and indescribably complex geometric patterns, form constants, shapes, fractals, structures and colour.
Geometry never stands still at any point and remains extremely fast-changing and self-transforming in terms of its shape and style. During this process, the geometry naturally drifts laterally or radially across the visual field to create overlapping webs of many arising and decaying geometric patterns, all of which are visible within a single perceptual frame.
There are eight different levels of visual geometry, each one increasingly complex and incomprehensible. These are defined and documented below:
Visual Noise – This is the most basic level of geometry and can be experienced in a completely sober state. It can be described as visual noise or static combined with random light and dark red regions that can be seen under the eyelids.
Motion and Colour – This level is also easily obtainable without hallucinogens and can be described as the appearance of unstructured regions of fleeting flashes and butts of colour.
Partially Defined Geometry - At this level complex indescribable shapes and patterns begin to show themselves. However, the patterns can be described as strictly 2-dimensional. Geometry at this level is fine, small, and zoomed out in size with a dark colour palette that limits itself to only a few different shades such as blacks, reds and dark purples. They are displayed in front of both the open and closed-eye visual field across a flat veil of geometry, but are significantly more detailed with the eyes closed or within dark environments.
Fully Defined Geometry – This is the level where the detail in which the geometry displays itself becomes profoundly complex but remains strictly 2-Dimensional. At this point the geometry becomes large in size and extremely intricate in detail with a colour palette that is limitless in its possibilities. They are displayed on both the open and closed-eye visual field across a flat veil of geometry that floats directly in front of the eyes, remaining significantly more detailed with the eyes closed or in dark environments.
3-Dimensional Geometry – At level five, the geometry will become fully 3-dimensional in its shape and position across the visual field. This adds a new layer of visual complexity and leaves them sprawled out across the surfaces, walls, objects and furniture of one’s environment instead of displaying themselves across a basic and flat veil in front of one’s visual field.
Partially Overriding Visual Perception – At this point the geometry has become so intense, vivid and bright that it has begun to block out and replace the external world. At level six the environment begins to be replaced by geometry, with objects and scenery transforming into sprawling masses of geometry or simply being blocked out and covered by them in a manner that impairs the use of one’s normal vision.
Fully Overriding Visual Perception – As the geometry continues to become more intense, vivid and bright it now completely blocks out and replaces the external world as one’s sense of normal sight becomes completely impaired. This creates the sensation that one is no longer within the external environment but has “broken through” into another reality.
Level 8A and Level 8B - Once the geometry reaches its eighth and final level, there is not one singular pinnacle of visual geometry but two. It seems that depending on subtle environmental factors and the substance consumed, geometry is capable of forking off into two separate versions of its highest possible level. This means that level eight geometry will have to be separated into two distinct categories of equal intensity. These are known as levels 8A and 8B. Once visual geometry reaches level 8A or 8B, it begins to become structured and organized in a way that presents genuine information to the person experiencing it far beyond the preceding seven levels. This happens through the experience of innately understood geometric representations that feel as though they depict specific concepts and neurological components that exist within the brain. At this point, concepts can be seen as not just embedded within one’s closed or open-eye visual field, but simultaneously felt through indescribably complex physical and cognitive sensations.
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