The Visual Components of a Psychedelic Experience
The Visual Components of a Psychedelic Experience
DISCLAIMER: The only important source I am using here is my own experiences over countless trips and discussions with friends which may be completely different from your own experiences.
I’ve tried to keep this as accurate and well worded as I possibly can but most of these visual aspects are near impossible to explain in English and cannot be done justice with words, especially once we get past low and moderate dosages so feel free to nitpick any tiny point that you disagree with by sending me a message. However, I’ve done my best and being able to put a name to a visual effect has really helped me understand and talk about my trips with others.
The level 1 - 5 system I’ve used here is described in detail here and never goes beyond 4 on this particular list because at level 5 the visual aspects are essentially impossible to describe. The leveling system I’ve used to describe Closed Eye Visuals is a different system entirely and can be found described in detail here. I am using the classic Serotonergic Psychedelic experience as my point of reference here but this guide still applies to the lesser known Phenethylamine family that are becoming increasingly prevalent.
Most of the images are randomly found examples from across the internet but the main image for Tracers, Enhancement of Colours, Enhancement of Textures, Melting, Embedded Patterns and Scenery slicing were all made by my girlfriend whose tumblr is dedicated to the creation of such images and can be found here.
Tracers/ trails: (level 1 – 4)
Tracers are the simple experience of trails being left behind moving objects such as people walking, birds or cars. Trails are usually very obvious and are similar in appearance to the sort of trails left in long exposure shots. The trails can be either exactly the same colour as the moving object that is producing it or it can be a randomly selected colour of its own. These tracers float in the air for approximately 2 – 3 seconds.
The deepest or most extreme version of this visual effect happens when your entire visual field smudges into a tracer when you simply move your eyes rather than a single specific moving object, this makes it difficult to see unless you keep your eyes still.
A consistent way to reproduce this visual is to move your hand in front of your face or throw an object.
Enhancement of colours: (level 1 – 4)
Although this is one of the more basic visual effects, to be understood completely it needs to be experienced. During the onset of a trip almost all people notice that colours start to stand out and seem much more crisp than usual. Reds will seem “Redder”, Greens will seem “Greener” and everything will be much brighter and clearly defined in general.
A consistent way to reproduce this visual is to be outside in nature.
More Examples: Here.
Breathing: (level 2 – 4)
Breathing is a very common place visual that can happen to any surface or object but is usually associated with the walls of a room. This effect makes walls appear to be steadily breathing in and out, expanding and contracting in the same way a persons chest does when they slowly inhale and exhale.
A fairly consistent way to reproduce this visual is to stare at a blank wall and lose focus.
More Examples: Here and Here.
Texture Distortions: (level 3 – 4)
Flowing, shifting, rippling or moving textures on surfaces are a strong visual effect that can happen to virtually anything in a number of different styles. A classic example of this however could be a wood grain pattern flowing like a river in a simple sort of looped animation. Pictures on a poster also commonly appear to be gently rippling and wobbling.
A consistent way to reproduce this visual is to stare at wood grain and lose focus.
Shifting Colours: (level 2 – 4)
Quite often the colours of various objects, particularly brightly coloured out of place objects will become subject to an effect that shifts and changes the colours in a sort of strange fluid motion across the surface of the object. For example Moss on a rock could shift from green, to red, to blue and then back to green again in a very short space of time. This visual effect is not permanent and objects tend to immediately switch back to their original colour if you focus on something else for even a brief moment.
Enhancement of textures: (level 1 – 4)
This is an interesting visual effect as it does not really change the appearance of textures but rather a persons feeling towards them. During even a mild trip it is common for people to suddenly notice patterns and textures that they may have never previously appreciated or paid any attention to before. For example when looking at a carpet, a pavement or trees bark the complexity and beauty of the texture suddenly becomes obvious, this is because a persons sensory filter has been lowered dramatically giving them the ability to comprehend the entire texture at once, not just the small area that their eye is currently focused on which is the case during sober living. An interesting aspect to this visual is that it often partly stays with people after the trip giving them a new found appreciation for textures.
More examples: Here.
Melting: (level 3 – 4)
It is not unusual to see objects and sceneries to be completely or partially melting. This is a common visual and usually non permanent, meaning objects only appears to melt when a person is staring directly at them and immediately unmelt when the person’s eyes focus on something else even for a moment. It is also common for objects to appear to be melting before your eyes despite also never making any actual progress at the same time. This part of the effect needs to be experienced to be understood.
Transformations and distortions: (level 3 – 4)
This visual effect can vary widely in its intensity and distinctiveness depending on the setting and the dosage. There are an infinite number of ways this visual can manifest itself and can be anything from people turning into reptilians before your very eyes to pet dogs appearing to be much longer than usual. A mild or low level example of this could be a person’s face stretching and distorting into a caricature of themselves and a highly intense example could be the complete transformation of the external world into an incomprehensible anything. This visual is non permanent and is never realistic enough to convince a person that it is actually happening.
Embedded patterns: (level 2 – 4)
This is yet another visual effect that applies to textures. This visual effect, instead of simply distorting textures or making them more interesting completely replaces them with often fantastical versions of themselves. Quite often the textures on a person’s surroundings suddenly follow a patterned theme such as Aztec fractals that become embedded on anything and everything from the pavement, to the grass and the walls. This effect needs to be experienced to be fully understood.
A consistent way to produce this visual is to stare at a towel or rough surfaces such as tarmac and gravel.
A consistent way to produce this visual is to stare at a towel or rough surfaces such as tarmac and gravel.
Synaesthesia: (level 3 – 4)
Synaesthesia is a very interesting aspect of tripping and can be experienced via means other than psychedelics as it is a genuine condition experienced mildly by 1 in 23 people, simply put this phenomena is the mixing and blending of senses. The most common version of this is usually seeing sound and music in a visual form but is not limited to this. People can taste colours, hear smells or any other combination of senses that you could think of.
This visual is hard to consistently produce but listening to music through a set of headphones in darkness or with closed eyes or eating food with closed eyes can occasionally do it.
This visual is hard to consistently produce but listening to music through a set of headphones in darkness or with closed eyes or eating food with closed eyes can occasionally do it.
Scenery Slicing: (level 3 – 4)
Scenery slicing is a fairly uncommon visual but appears regularly enough and across multiple people to make it worth mentioning. This effect usually happens suddenly and makes the scenery appear as if it has been cut remarkably cleanly into separate slices with a razorblade. These separate slices can be as simple as 3 separate sections or as complex as multiple slices of a moving interlocking spiral that’s been cut into your field of vision.
Extreme Pareidolia: (level 2 – 4)
Pareidolia is the name for people’s natural ability to recognize faces and significant images in almost any vague or random stimuli. Examples of this include spotting Jesus on a piece of toast or spotting a face in the bark of a tree. During a trip a person’s sense of Pareidolia is increased many times over causing faces and images to be recognizable in almost anything to the point of ridiculousness. For example every single leaf on a tree might suddenly look like a little green face or clouds might appear to be easily recognizable as fantastical objects without any distortions or transformations taking place. Another aspect of this visual often experienced in busy public places is mistaking every other person for somebody you recognize.
More Examples: here
Depth Perception Distortion: (level 3 - 4)It is very common to experience both extreme and subtle perspective distortions during a psychedelic experience. This is where the depths and layers of the scenery in front of you can become exaggerated, skewed and completely mixed up. A classic example of this that I often experience is 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 is a complete loss of it, when the different sections of a scenery both close up and far away will unify into one flat pattern momentarily.
An almost consistent way to reproduce this visual is by laying down under a tree and looking through the branches at the sky causing the sections of sky in-between the branches to come into the foreground whilst the branches get pushed into the background.
Closed Eye Visuals: (level 3 – 5)
Closed eye visuals or CEV’s are the most exciting and profound element of a typical moderate dose psychedelic experience as well as one of the most impossible to describe or show to people in any meaningful level of detail that can be understood without having a firsthand experience with them. There are 5 different levels of CEV’s each one increasingly dramatic and incomprehensible.
- Visual Noise – This is the most basic level of CEV’s and can be experienced in a completely sober state. It can be described as the random light and dark red regions that can be seen under the eye lids.
- Light / Dark Flashes – This level is also easily obtainable without psychedelics and usually appears as regions of fleeting dark / light flashes of colour.
- Patterns, Motion and Colour – This is the level where things start to get distinctively psychedelic and complex indescribable shapes and patterns begin to show themselves. These patterns are usually brightly coloured and very fractal like.
These closed eye visuals generally only manifest themselves when a person is closing their eyes at first but eventually become laid across your field of vision as a flat translucent veil in front of your eyes. - Objects and Things – This is a fairly deep state where a persons CEV’s become increasingly complex and begin to manifest themselves not just as shapes but as imagery within the visuals. This imagery is limitless but commonly follows themes of fantastical people, objects and places that appear within the even more complex geometry.
At this level the closed eye visuals are fully three dimensional and will be sprawled out across the surfaces, walls, objects and furniture of your environment instead of displaying itself as a simple flat veil. - Overriding Physical Perception – This is the point at which CEV’s have become so intense, vivid and bright that they have blocked out and replaced the external world giving the sensation that you are blind from being able to see so much. This is commonly known as “breaking through” because of the feeling of having entered into an entirely different dimension, to anybody else however the tripper just appears to be unconscious or at least highly incapacitated. The visuals themselves eventually become complex enough to follow completely impossible plots, storylines and hallucinations that are so incredibly well defined that they seem realer than anything that could possibly be experienced sober.
I can usually tell when I’m starting to break through when the visuals are no longer overlaid across objects or across flat surfaces but when the environment I’m in starts to break apart to become the patterns itself. You can see reality flaking away, layer by layer into an infinite sea of closed eye visuals as soon as you begin to focus on any point. This is almost as if everything is becoming everything else.
More Examples: Here, and Here.
Hallucinations: (level 5+)
At higher levels of psychedelic experience amidst the chaos of intense closed eye visuals the imagery begins to become so elaborately complex and realistic that they start to form into full on vivid hallucinations that are limitless in their potential, generally logic defying, unlike any thing previously experienced and sometimes completely untranslatable into English.
Hallucinations only happen at level 5 psychedelic experiences and are commonly described as feelings of being thrust into an expansive void-like alternate dimension consisting of bright, colourful, fast-moving kaleidoscopic environments, dynamic pulsating coloured beams, as well as complex three-dimensional geometric, mathematical and linguistic patterns made of light.
Contact with autonomous entities are very common, these entities generally appear to be the inhabitants of a perceived independent reality who are expectant of and clearly excited about the trippers sudden appearance into their dimension and enjoy interacting with them in various ways.
The behaviour of a typical entity is one of a loving kind intelligence that simply wants to show you as much of their hyper dimensional space and bestow specific pieces of knowledge upon you as quickly as possible before you begin to come down or slip into another hallucination. This is often done by directly manipulating what you can see and view; intentionally propelling trippers in different directions at disorienting speeds, forcing them to view or pass directly through macro and microscopic scale settings, including: planetary systems, galaxies, quasars, natural environments, space habitats, technological utopias, neurons, DNA, mitochondria, trilobites, cephalopods, bryozoa, and artificial self-replicating machines. Once the comedown inevitably begins to happen they are genuinely saddened by your disappearance, often wave goodbye and encourage you to visit more often.
Entities can literally take any form but common subconscious archetypes are definitely present and contact with bodiless super intelligent Humanoids, Aliens, Elves, Giant Spheres, Insectoids, Beings of Light, Plants and Robotic Machines are common.
These creatures and entities are comprised of a non physical closed eye visual based material and communicate with trippers via a combination of telepathy, visual linguistics, mathematics and morphing coloured structures of different textures. This complex visual language is capable of expressing pure meaning in a way that our current system of small mouth noises will never be able to become close to matching.
Lower levels of simple entity contact can be described as a sensed presence of “The Other” that is clearly there but unable to fully manifest itself and communicate with you due to too low of a dosage.
More Examples: Here and Here
Miscellaneous, Unique and Rare visual effects: (4 - 5)
Although there are many universally experienced visual components of a psychedelic experience you should not allow this guide to give you preconceived notions for two separate reasons. The first reason is that although I’ve done my best with these descriptions and images they will never come close to the real experience, the real thing is incomprehensible, logic defying and impossible to translate into two dimensional images and words. The unenglishable factor is one of the few things that all psychonauts can universally agree on so keep it in mind.
The second reason is that the psychedelic experience is still a subjective experience and not by any means confined and limited to these visual components as occasionally, just occasionally rare and one time only visual effects seep their way into the trips, these effects can be anything and usually occur at higher doses. Unique visual effects are completely personal to you and something that nobody else on the planet has ever seen before or will ever likely get to experience again, the human mind has not even come remotely close to being fully explored making experiencing the unimaginable much easier than most people think. So remember, do not limit your perception to the components described above, because you will encounter more in hyperspace than words can ever say.
>PART 2 - THE MENTAL COMPONENTS OF A PSYCHEDELIC EXPERIENCEThe next part to my guide although with less interesting pictures is just as important as the first half.
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