Psychedelics

Hallucinations

The hallucinatory effects are one of the main reasons users take psychedelics. All 5 senses may be affected, but while olfactory and gustatory (i.e. smell and taste) enhancement is likely, outright hallucinations for those senses are rare.

Sight is the most prominent and easily recognisable sense which will experience hallucinations. This can happen both with your eyes closed and open. In open eyed visuals, generally what you see will be a distortion of reality, rather than an outright creation. This may mean seeing movement that isn’t really occurring, or your brain ‘incorrectly’ interpreting what is before your eyes, so that you see them as fractals (complex repetitive patterns) or other imagined images. Different forms of hallucinated movement include waving, swirling, breathing/pulsing, and blurring/transformation of colour.

Time Perception

Both user reports and academic research show that psychedelics can affect the way someone under the influence perceives the passing of time. Studies have shown that psilocybin can make subjects underestimate time periods, but that microdoses of LSD can make people overestimate periods. The time distortion effect is not limited to those 2 substances however, and can take place while under the influence of all psychedelics. The effect may be stronger when mixing a psychedelic with additional substances, and is a particularly notable effect during the flip part of ‘flipping’ (mixing psychs with mdma), i.e. when the 2nd substance initially kicks in.

Some users report that the linear nature of time is distorted in their minds, and it becomes like a wavy line, with time speeding up and slowing down throughout the trip. Hallucinations of audio echoes, visual trailing, and palinopsia (in which ‘a positive afterimage persists after removal of an object’) all add to, and enhance, the feeling that time is distorted.

Synaesthesia

Synaesthesia is a psychological experience in which one sense, e.g. hearing, is involuntarily and simultaneously experienced as if through another sense, e.g. sight. For example, hearing the word 'Friday' could make someone see the colour red. Psychedelic drugs have been known to trigger temporary synaesthesia-like experiences.

This means that even if you are not a synesthete, someone who has the condition permanently, you may experience a similar sensation. However, the experience is different as there is no consistency and specificity in the pairing of stimulus-sensation. This means that you might suddenly taste the sweetness of the word 'love' once, and you might also feel afterwards how another unrelated word tastes sweet too, but hearing the world ‘love’ after the trip will not continue to taste sweet.

A synaesthete constantly tastes sweet when he/she hears the word 'love' and only this word would trigger the sensation of sweetness (besides actual sweet food/drink). Don't be afraid if you see a noise or taste a shape; enjoy a potentially once in a lifetime experience!

Ego Death

‘Ego Death’, or ‘ego-dissolution’, is something that may occur, especially at higher doses of psychedelic substances. It is an experience in which one disassociates from their ‘self’, i.e. the parts of them which form their identity, including memories, formative experiences, current careers and relationships. What happens from here differs slightly.

Some people have talked about finding a higher form of consciousness within themselves, one devoid of the limitations that past experiences have inflicted. Others have described it as becoming one with nature, the universe, and the collective human consciousness. The effect is the same though, by freeing oneself of their identity, they see how small they and their problems are. This can be liberating, as the issues in one’s life are stripped away, and are allowed to be reformed and chosen, rather than being seen as intrinsic to one’s being.

People tend to describe ego death as feeling like being reborn, completely changing both their view of themselves, and their outlook on life. A study has found a positive correlation between the degree to which a psychedelic user felt ego-dissolution during a trip, and how ‘positive’ and ‘lasting’ the ‘impact \[was\] on their well-being’, i.e. that ego-dissolution tends to have a positive effect on well being.

References: Psychonaut Wiki; VICE Wackermann et al; Yanakieva et al; San Diego Treatment Centre; Dubois & VanRullen; Terhune et al; Psyched Substance; Nour et al