The hallucinogenic mushroom that contains no known psychedelic
psychedelics.co.uk
psychedelics.co.uk
For instance, when I get (got: my blood pressure is treated) migraine visual effects, I would say "lightning bolt" but thats just a textual analogue/simile. What I actually saw was more complex than that: lightning is white. My effect was polychrome.
When I had posterior vitreous detachment (PVD), the visual effect was as if I was looking at TV "snow" from the analogue days, combined with a shape unquestionably like red blood cells. Was I seeing blood? I am told no: I was seeing small points inside the focal zone of my eye, below the minimum resolving size, and the optical path turns points into rings.
So is "little people" moving stimulation of the nerve endings interpreted as "walking" and a strong vertical alignment for some reason? Is the colour an aspect of rods and cones being involved, or the nerves going to rods and cones being differentially effected?
I very much doubt that in future times, people will be reporting seeing tiny people in North Face fleece tops and leggings, or with Asymmetrical haircuts and goth make-up but you never know..
When it’s not perceived from a visual cue
In my experience when hallucinating (from sleep deprivation), it is the brain failing to correctly interpret patterns seen through the eyes.
For e.g., I would think I see a cardboard box on the ground ahead of me, but then when I get closer I realise it is just dirt of different shades that was perceived as a 3d box. Similar experience when hallucinating people. In my mind I imagine my friend with a certain colour shirt, then during a period of sleep deprivation, I think I see him on the trail ahead of me. But it was just a rock that was a similar colour.
Do hallucinogenics typically affect the brain and also the actual optics? Maybe it is some combination that is causing the perception of "little people".
Human RBCs are ~6µm - 8µm diameter. Human retinal light sensing cells range from ~0.5µm - 10µm diameter, depending on type and position. They're close packed.
Given the geometry, RBCs leaking onto retinal cells should cast shadows that could be resolved as images. And that's right where leakage is most likely to occur during a PVD event.
They're pretty tiny though, I'm not sure if you'd actually see a center in the RBCs
The retinal vessel network is a fun thing to inspect as you say. It works best for me when the sun is high in the sky. The bright, featureless blue brings out the branching network very well.
I suppose the crap left over from a PVD incident would be a sub-class of "floater" but in quality, its nothing like the floaters I get "all the time" as normal life, before and after PVD.
The one upside of PVD is I am told your chances of a retinal tear are reduced, if you have a "clean" PVD.
Your mind also creates the visual field. It is not real even though it is usually quite consistent. Brain fills the gaps after it has filled all the rest.
Just a handy visualization of a world that is likely to be a lot more chaotic.
What you describe seems to refer to scintillating scotoma, which appears to be well known and documented: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scintillating_scotoma
I personally have my doubts whether it has to do with blood pressure (i had it while on medication and normal blood pressure), or that it's generated by the brain, but lack the time/motivation/skill to research this further.
If you're referring to scintillating scotoma/visual migraine aura, it's thought to be the result of what's called a cortical spreading depression: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cortical_spreading_depression
It's really fascinating stuff (and pretty unnerving, speaking as someone who experiences migraines with aura).
On the blood pressure connection, propranolol (a beta blocker often used to treat high blood pressure and anxiety) is often prescribed as a prophylactic for migraines, but I'm unsure of the preventative mechanism(s) at play.
"Where are mushrooms with these chemicals found?" "In ~50% of arable land on Earth." "When was the earliest known rendition of this fairytale?" "8-10 generations ago."
“ Patients describe colourful figures only a few centimetres tall, marching, dancing and climbing over the furniture.”
> marching in formation
> frolicking
> being merry
Worth noting micropsia ("Alice in Wonderland syndrome") shows up in migraines and epilepsy too, so maybe the mushroom just hits a failure mode that's already wired in. Still, "evolved its own psychoactive pathway, and it's closer to porcini than to anything in Psilocybe" is a great sentence.
After some time, I could see a small-scale but very extensive science fiction space base on top of the bed covers, as if the bed covers were the surface of a moon or planet.
It was populated, and in motion - rockets launching from gantries as I watched, etc. I know it wasn't a dream, because my parents remember me describing it to them as it happened.
I've never experienced anything like that again, and never heard of anything like it until reading about these mushrooms last year.
It definitely seems like an odd quirk of the brain that it apparently has a ”1990s god video game" (e.g. Populous) visualization mode.
There's some neat sci fi novel potential there, though, like it being a remnant of some kind of distant ancestor with a hive mind that could synthesize the visual input of multiple members into a disembodied third-person camera point of view.