Communicating with people on psychedelics

If I remember correctly, the main criticism against this is that if it were the case brain activity should be reduced, at least in some regions, when on psychedelics. However, observing people on psychedelics with fMRIs does not match with that.

    > I believe ... there are little mind programs that run on 
    > our perception that smooth out reality for us

Our cortex’s main role is to provide inhibitory control on thalamic activity. The serotonergic activity of psychedelics blocks this control signal, and thus prevents the swift extinction of qualia once the triggering stimuli (whether internal or external) is removed.

The OP article cites it to explain lingering visuals, but the source generalizes the mechanism. How would we ever sit at a desk all day or argue about Javascript on HN if we didn't evolve inhibitory processes to dull life down?

It's a thought easy to marvel at when you're on acid, and a mechanism easy to appreciate when you take too much.

Meditation and Hallucinogens can quiet the mind (or more dramatically short circuit habitual mind loops) and allow you to see the gaps in the self-ing process. The self-ing process never really stops. You never really stop having a sense of self arise from time to time, but when you see the frames and gaps of self-ing you begin to question a lot of who you think you are. And you begin to see the amount of time and energy you spend protecting the self from paper tigers.

Spiritual circles generally call this awakening and tend to over-emphasize it's specialness and idealize those who have deeply conditioned themselves to reside in that state. But it is real and mostly desirable phenominon (with a few drawbacks). Putting aside questions of full enlightenment and mind blowing transcendent unitive states, simply freeing up the consciousness that gets locked up in perpetuating the continuous sense of self and all the efforts to defend as if you are defending your physical body from harm allows for a richer, higher resolution and more textured moment to moment experience of life.

From my subjective experience it is the same sorts of filters that smooth out reality, that also give you a continuous sense of a psychological self which basically manufactures the vast majority of our problems and suffering.

DMT is a legitimate mystery of science and is not a drug in the traditional sense.

I found this interesting at the end of the article, regarding the Control Interrupt model:

This inhibitory control mechanism occurs a discrete number of times per second. Therefore “control interruption” caused by psychedelics, in this model, is conceived as a periodical failure of inhibitory control that allows aspects of one’s experience to be sustained for longer than usual. The frequency of control interruption is specific to the psychedelic used. As the article conjures, salvia and nitrous oxide produce control interruption at a frequency of 8-11 and 12-15 Hz, respectively. On the other hand, DMT disrupts control at a much higher frequency (24-30+ Hz). This control interrupt creates “a standing hallucinogenic interference pattern in the consciousness of the subject”.

It's interesting that different substances might have measurably different effects on perception. Would be nice to see a bit more scientific study into this, maybe seeing if there is a link to fMRI data at all.

http://in5d.com/energies-higher-self-decoding-matrix/

Do florescent lights bother you too at all?

Also from what I've heard sometimes people will only see visuals after a second time taking LSD or by taking a more substantial sized dose.

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?104151-Ir...

Most people don't notice these new break lights (I think its on Chevy cars) but when the driver breaks there is a very fast and subtle blinking of the red tail lights (opposed to just the red tail lights being on for older cars).

I only noticed this blinking while under... but now I see it often but my wife does not. ie its similar to the pong bar "C" letter in the article.

The screens of cellphones and certain OLED displays having visible screen refresh rates, especially if my eyes are panning across them from a distance.

Shitty LED display lighting with a visible flicker. It's especially bad on a place nearby that has window frames outlined in what are effectively Christmas lights--almost enough to give me a headache just looking at them.

Certain LEDs and phone backlights tend to leave trails in the dark (once my eyes are accustomed to it). This is probably normal, but is a little disconcerting.

Projected images can have minor chomratic aberration, which can be distracting during a presentation. If I twitch my eyes purposefully back and forth, it gets worse.

~

I love graphics, but that shit is annoying IRL.

Distinctly, I remember watching Mars Attacks in theaters (which should date the experience) on what was promised to be a "special" blend... how it was special, I have no idea, but the visualizations were very unique.

In lieu of the strobe effect this article discusses, everything instead morphed. When someone turned their head, for example, my eyes (brain?) saw their head briefly in both positions (with no gaps), and then they morphed from the first position into the second position, its path being trailed by a ghost of their heads.

It was unique, different, and I've never had another experience like it. Perhaps there was something in the mix that wasn't purely LSD, I honestly don't know, but from my (admittedly naive) understanding, not every trip produces the same effects as every other.

It was stored fine. LSD will not self-destruct in days when stored in distilled water in a refrigerator. It will not even self-destruct after multiple decades in a jar. People store LSD in all sorts of forms for regular trips and it works fine, and somehow, people keep reporting positive microdose experiences regardless of how they sourced or stored their LSD...