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Comment by benevol | Hacker News Reader

I've seen the roots of a tree (at at distance of about 300 feet) through the ground, while on LSD (about 500ug). I'm sure those really were the roots, because the visible part of the tree (the trunk and the roots that came up above ground again at a few spots) matched completely with roots in the ground I was seeing. The image was stable and lasted for about 45 seconds. Something (not like an external voice, more like an internal voice/thought/intuition told me "yes, of course, you just need to tune into the frequency of the thing you want to see"). As soon as I tried thinking/questioning, the view vanished, and I guess it was because of the ego starting to interfere.

Conclusion: We still have no clue what reality really holds and how to use our brain in order to access our real potential. Interesting times to come, stay tuned.

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I've had similar experiences, but I don't think they're anything other than internally generated by the brain, especially since I've also been able to morph what I've seen into other objects at will.

I've also been able to see objects in more detail on LSD, like I was wearing extra glasses or something, but again I suspect the extra details were just created by my visual system, though it would be interesting if there were more scientific studies of this stuff.

I do a few outdoor sports and I have noticed that when I get into a particularly bad scenario time seems to slow down. Actually I am not sure that it does, but the adrenaline seems to turn off the filtering so I remember it in slow motion and in a lot more detail.

Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) can fill-out missing parts of images that fit plausibly into the existing scene. These are computer programs that are much less complicated than our brains.

So, you have one interpretation, but there's no reason to think it's more likely than the fact that your brain is really good at filling in missing details.

That was my first thought, too. But there are other elements which are relevant:

I could literally walk my eyes along the roots, up and down, they were static and didn't move an inch.

And during an earlier experience (and to a good extent during the 2-3 following days), using about 150ug only, I felt something like a strong connection with the tree I was standing in front of. It was like we were communicating (for as long as I wanted), but not like an exchange of sentences, rather like a constant bi-directional stream of information, or better: a "mutual understanding without speaking/thinking".

This "shared state of being/feeling" was extended to the roots of the tree: I could feel their presence in the ground (but not see them yet, which changed later, as stated above). And I had that feeling whenever I passed a tree during the 2-3 following days.

There is definitely a lot going on (or possible) between humans and other forms of life, which we are currently missing. And I'm sure our spiritual dimension is definitely part of the mix. So if you're into meditation, keep it up.

There's nothing in your extra elements that precludes it was just your brain filling in the details. I think you're underestimating how capable we are of hallucinating things in proper spatial placing, even with motion going on. The strong connection feeling is often felt by LSD users, but is a separate phenomenon from being able to see through solid objects (the ground), and is just a feeling that your brain can arbitrarily assign to anything, including hallucinated objects. Ex. you can easily feel connected to things in dreams that have never existed in real life at all.

I'm all for meditation and realization of the interconnected nature of all life, though. Keep at it.

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