Looking into a mirror whilst on LSD - Seeing different faces, ancestors or ego archetypes?

[robbli777]

I'm not quite certain how to articulate my experiences on psychedelics effectively, a common theme I guess for many people being so subjective. So, please bear with me, I'll try my best to be clear. I've been diagnosed with ADHD / Complex PTSD, depression, anxiety etc. I had difficult experiences as a child with adoption, pre and post verbal trauma etc. In the last 4 years, I've been sporadically practising "mirror work" (plus "shadow work") which I believe can be useful therapeutic tools to overcome past traumas. I was initially shit scared to look at myself in a mirror whilst tripping but I believe "psychedelic mirror work" can be a powerful tool to overcome past difficulties. My question is about epigenetics and multi generational trauma and what I am witnessing through my own eyes and consciousness when experiencing LSD.

So with my LSD experiences over the years, when I look into a mirror, my face transforms into around 8+ different faces, like flicking through a photo album. What I mean by this is that, every few seconds my face transforms transparently with pattern overlays, some look disfigured, "evil", deformed and battle scared, one of the faces is completely scrambled like static on a TV screen whilst others look "normal and friendly". I've been trying to make some sort of sense about what I am experiencing, are they faces of my ancestors corresponding with epigenetics and multi generational trauma or are they just manifestations of my ego. With psilocybin or ayahuasca, my face is completely covered in what appears to be a black substance like sticky oily tar swirling around my face, looking incredibly tormented and angry.

So, I'm seeking other opinions from people here about my experiences and what others have experienced whilst looking into a mirror on psychedelics? Thanks for reading.

 

[TripSitterNZ]

When i stare into the mirror on LSD it usually involves seeing my soul or me aging through my life and various aspects of my self.

 

[DrumTripper]

I always get these devilish fearures, or wizardish features, like crazy long eyebrows and my beard looks scarier somehow.
I feel that these are versions of my various masks that I wear in life. Psychedelics help me see them for what they really are - a devilish side, a joker, a mad scientist, a smug little bastard - they’re all in there!

The mirror is awesome; I wish we could capture what we see on trips using some kind of yet to be invented bio-tech-brain photo-sensor.
@robbli777 your suggestion/question about past trauma makes sense to me. I’d agree that these states may give us access to dna-embedded memories, possibly from very ancient and up to just prior relative generations in our families. Like a little time travel.

@TripSitterNZ I also get the aging thing - sometimes looking very old, noticing every flaw/wrinkle and exaggerated contrast of scars, etc.
Definite soul staring, do not avoid!
Move right to it and into it.

 

[robbli777]

The mirror is awesome; I wish we could capture what we see on trips using some kind of yet to be invented bio-tech-brain photo-sensor.
@robbli777 your suggestion/question about past trauma makes sense to me. I’d agree that these states may give us access to dna-embedded memories, possibly from very ancient and up to just prior relative generations in our families. Like a little time travel.

Yes, that would be a fantastic tool scientifically and therapeutically to somehow "hack" into the brain to witness what is being experienced on a psychedelic! (y)

I've been learning a bit about epigenetics and it's starting to make a bit more sense to me now, how trauma, stress, war, environmental conditions, genetics from our ancestors subtly alter our DNA which is thus passed onto future generations. So, maybe for example schizophrenia is trauma related to an ancestor who experienced horrific wounds in war, depression can be multi generational too. This short video gives a good explanation of epigenetics.



I'm quite certain now, what I'm witnessing looking into a mirror when on LSD, are epigenetics being expressed, if that makes sense.

 

[Cheshire_Kat]

I think my dose might be higher because my face usually melts away into a fractal field.

 

[pupnik]

try not to be serious about epigenetics unless you are working in a biological technical capacity, or studying it in university.
memory is not stored in nucleotide sequences, only structural and enzymatic proteins,

all the effects you see in the mirror are associative memory mixed with vision. It's amazing and scary to some people.

 

[robbli777]

try not to be serious about epigenetics unless you are working in a biological technical capacity, or studying it in university.
memory is not stored in nucleotide sequences, only structural and enzymatic proteins,

all the effects you see in the mirror are associative memory mixed with vision. It's amazing and scary to some people.

Fair point, food for thought. What's your opinion on these different transparent faces I'm witnessing plus the scars, deformities, plus sometimes different moustaches and beard styles? I see the same faces when on LSD looking into a mirror everytime.

 

[pupnik]

I have a lot to say about how that occurs biologically and psychedelically.

The basic idea of after-images is that when you look at something for a minute, and if you close your eyes after that, then you see a residual image behind your lids in the reverse colors but at the same position.

This natural fatiguing of color sensors in the eye and the brain is an important part of our ability to sense differences or movement in the environment. Basically our vision has adapted to latch onto what is changing and to enable tracking of moving actors in a scene - predators and prey both evolved with it. Unchanging things are made into afterimages of opposite color, and the combination of the two is neutral gray - you can try it on photoshop. Only the changes will sparkle or jump out into noticeability.

Because of after image effects and our natural wobbly-ness, features over time smear if you take into consideration the afterimages, the smearing can easily stretch features along the direction of smearing or wobble or shake of the head, neck or body, even the eye always moves, so this smearing is inevitable. The clown face with big red nose, exaggerated mouth and eyes is a typical conversion for a normal face.

The psychedelic effect is to foster persistence of momentary sensation including vision. so colors overlay in time and become hyper rich, while edges of shifted color areas also layer up and create complex patterns or chiaroscuros - even amazing circular mandalas with spokes can seem to cover surfaces that were previously perceived smooth and monochromatic. This normally seems to occur on a different layer in the same mind space as vision.

With after-images, eye-jtter, body sway, and the psychedelic effect of extended fading of momentary vision (trails), moustaches and scars are easy touches to find from smearing and shifting focus, trails, and a little interplay with after-imaging.

Something like shpongle -eyes are common (I get that a lot - three or four pairs of eyes with a single nose).

Reaching into one's memory, the likenesses of family members is a natural associative feature as well.

As an artist, while drawing or painting a person, I often find that the image may look like several other family members until it settles down to a more precise portrait. Anyway, none of this has to do with epigenetics nor is it only with mushrooms or acid, but the mirror is an interesting gateway to another world of perception.

 

[AutoTripper]

When I looked myself plain straight in the mirror on a 350ug trip last week, I saw how beautiful I am and that I do infact love myself.

And to be honest, and this is personally particular to me- I accept we are all unique and can have entirely different versions/experiences of reality.....


But even on preposteros doses of LSD, I have always remained pretty grounded in the present moment-- the here and now. Fully aware of my 3D material surroundings and my persona, without drifting through the cosmos.

Don't mistake me. The world is CRAZY, and reality is heavily shifted for me.

But I still see what is really there right now, in this spot and time, with insane visuals and introspective thouts and feelings.


Bit when I look in the mirror, like I say, I see my pure beautiful self and in that moment I am completely accepting and loving of my true self.

 

[Cheshire_Kat]

I would say that that likely indicates that you are satisfied with who you are and your direction in life. That's a good thing

No two people in the world are alike. Sometimes LSD has where I no longer even know that I am different with the rest of the world around me.

I am very curious about how I might be different, but those are my experiences none the less.

 

[AutoTripper]

I would say that that likely indicates that you are satisfied with who you are and your direction in life. That's a good thing

No two people in the world are alike. Sometimes LSD has where I no longer even know that I am different with the rest of the world around me.

I am very curious about how I might be different, but those are my experiences none the less.

Precisely, every single one of us has a different experience and feeling and version of reality I truly believe which is entirely legitimate and real things really are not so plain black and white as we have either wrongfully deceived ourselves or been conditioned into believing by those in power who wish to keep us from realising and accessing our own true potential, on a cognitive and especially spiritual development level.

Please don't take this the wrong way I'm not big-headed at all in fact I am pretty down in how I see myself because I am aware of my faults and pure mortal shortcomings which to me is just part of this life.

I really damaged myself very heavily in terms of my brain function and mental faculties with preposterous long-term MDMA abuse, but I was born a very special person who was extraordinarily loved by everybody I ever met and the life and soul of the party I don't mean that literally I mean more like whenever I was in employment the entire workplace would absolutely adore me for my pure absolute genuinity and realness and openness and truth and brilliant sense of humour I was born with which was never cheap or artificial.

I was born with with a gift especially for really influencing others positively in terms of totally and instantly changing how people felt and lifting them up to a much happier place and this is primarily why my friends always loved me so much before lyme disease struck in 2005 and turned me into a shadow and a cabbage of myself ever since.

So in everyday life I have pretty much lost sight of myself and who I really am and I have not been loving myself like I should be which is actually paramount to healing from any type of sickness or long-term condition.

But it was really interesting last week because I was not snapped out of this everyday misguided mindset but I looked in the mirror purely for the hell of it after seeing this thread and I was really struck with how differently I saw myself it's like all of the tension that would normally be in my face regarding feeling uncomfortable about receiving myself and how I feel about myself currently in life and how lonely I am due to being so incredibly unwell physically with resultant mental health problems of very high degree.

It's like as soon as I looked in the mirror I was reminded of my true self and there was absolutely no blockage or resistance in me accepting myself fully like I used to do in the past before my long-term illness truck from 2005.

So that was really interesting.

And you are correct that ultimately deep down I'm remarkably comfortable with myself and accepting and feel that I really know who I am I was born by nature a very powerful person but not in a negative way at all quite the opposite, with an incredibly strong and clear mind and consciousness which was literally irrepressible and always bright and positive for the sake of others.

But I lose sight of this regularly which is is related to health conditions though.



Learning to really accept and know our true selves is very important and often overlooked and I feel that psychedelics can help massively in this aspect.

 

[AutoTripper]

However I just had another thought after glancing over your post again and and it's all semantics but I I would not say that I am completely satisfied with myself because I do not think that that is something we can expect in this life ever until may be a certain points but I'm still only 40 years old with much to learn and so many mistakes yet to to retrospectively realise and learn from.

So I'm very accepting of myself but being fully satisfied with yourself is something entirely different because I strongly believe we are here to learn about ourselves and work on ourselves in preparation for whatever is to come next and I believe that we were aware of these lessons and chose this particular life to get the most benefit and progress in whatever Direction.

But that is just another topic altogether.

Lol, I studied joined philosophy and psychology at university in 1999 onwards and have always been almost purely immaterial and of the mind and imagination so don't pay too much attention to my ramblings which are often just open philosophical speculation.


I failed to complete my degree because I took literally 900 ecstasy pills in my final year between September and June, I would have been able to complete a straight philosophy degree which requires only coursework and exams but the psychology degree requires a very professionally conducted two year project where you have to know your stats extremely well.

I simply never got into the swing of it and by March deadline time for the project in my final University year in Swansea I had not even begun due to my wildest abandon.

 

[PriestTheyCalledHim]

When I looked myself plain straight in the mirror on a 350ug trip last week, I saw how beautiful I am and that I do infact love myself.

And to be honest, and this is personally particular to me- I accept we are all unique and can have entirely different versions/experiences of reality.....


But even on preposteros doses of LSD, I have always remained pretty grounded in the present moment-- the here and now. Fully aware of my 3D material surroundings and my persona, without drifting through the cosmos.

Don't mistake me. The world is CRAZY, and reality is heavily shifted for me.

But I still see what is really there right now, in this spot and time, with insane visuals and introspective thouts and feelings.


Bit when I look in the mirror, like I say, I see my pure beautiful self and in that moment I am completely accepting and loving of my true self.

That is basically what happened to me when I looked in the mirror on a very large dose of LSD, and on 2.0g of mushrooms when I first took those.

What effects did 350ug or mics of LSD give you?

 

[AutoTripper]

That is basically what happened to me when I looked in the mirror on a very large dose of LSD, and on 2.0g of mushrooms when I first took those.

What effects did 350ug or mics of LSD give you?

Hard to answer that intelligbly in my current health and mental condition, and I take acid a LOT. Too often arguably. But it continues to work for me no matter what, and tolerance resets fast.

It was 1cP LSD, I started with 250 mics, I took lots of cannabis edibles, including a very strong cup of cannabis tea on the comeup.

Plus loads of kava. I redosed 100ug about 7 hours in, it kicked me up to a much higher plane. I felt so high for sure. Redosing also works for me personally, against the strong gist that it is a waste and does nothing.

It was a heavy enough trip. Music is always incredible every time.

Mostly, I take smaller doses, spontaneously and unplanned. Like 10ug, 15, 20, 25, 50, 65 etc.

I trip quite heavily on low doses too. Its like a key, to access a place and flexible state, rather than a strictly "quantative" thing.

So 350ug was heavy, but nice and therapeutic too.

But even 50ug trips have been equally impressionable overall, world a mad altered place, music incredible.

I took a good 1/4 tab at 6pm, 9pm now. It hit me, shook me, I had a jittery comeup, still not quite settled into level peaking yet, which from then on is always my favorite and most comfortable, enjoyable part of any trip.

Sunday I took about 100ug in split doses. 20ug last night. None of this was actually planned, just in the moment every time, but I am pretty crazy and unusual lol.

 

[PriestTheyCalledHim]

Hard to answer that intelligbly in my current health and mental condition, and I take acid a LOT. Too often arguably. But it continues to work for me no matter what, and tolerance resets fast.

It was 1cP LSD, I started with 250 mics, I took lots of cannabis edibles, including a very strong cup of cannabis tea on the comeup.

Plus loads of kava. I redosed 100ug about 7 hours in, it kicked me up to a much higher plane. I felt so high for sure. Redosing also works for me personally, against the strong gist that it is a waste and does nothing.

It was a heavy enough trip. Music is always incredible every time.

Mostly, I take smaller doses, spontaneously and unplanned. Like 10ug, 15, 20, 25, 50, 65 etc.

I trip quite heavily on low doses too. Its like a key, to access a place and flexible state, rather than a strictly "quantative" thing.

So 350ug was heavy, but nice and therapeutic too.

But even 50ug trips have been equally impressionable overall, world a mad altered place, music incredible.

I took a good 1/4 tab at 6pm, 9pm now. It hit me, shook me, I had a jittery comeup, still not quite settled into level peaking yet, which from then on is always my favorite and most comfortable, enjoyable part of any trip.

Sunday I took about 100ug in split doses. 20ug last night. None of this was actually planned, just in the moment every time, but I am pretty crazy and unusual lol.

Ok that is not acid or LSD-25. but is a research chemical. Personally I agree with the person quoted below. I stopped taking acid in the very early 2000s when research chemicals were showing up being sold as LSD.

From linked article:
There are a lot of new cheap psychedelics on the internet. What's the difference between LSD and its analogues?
I've used 1P LSD, but I wouldn't trust any of the other analogues of LSD. 1P-LSD isn't much like the real thing. It has some similarities and psychedelic elements, but doesn't have the depth, potency or complexity of real LSD.

A Refresher Course on the Ups and Downs of LSD

Psychedelic expert Andy Roberts talks about bad trips, set and setting, and how to figure out how strong a tab is.

www.vice.com

 

[AutoTripper]

Ok that is not acid or LSD-25. but is a research chemical. Personally I agree with the person quoted below. I stopped taking acid in the very early 2000s when research chemicals were showing up being sold as LSD.

From linked article:
There are a lot of new cheap psychedelics on the internet. What's the difference between LSD and its analogues?
I've used 1P LSD, but I wouldn't trust any of the other analogues of LSD. 1P-LSD isn't much like the real thing. It has some similarities and psychedelic elements, but doesn't have the depth, potency or complexity of real LSD.

A Refresher Course on the Ups and Downs of LSD

Psychedelic expert Andy Roberts talks about bad trips, set and setting, and how to figure out how strong a tab is.

www.vice.com

I much much prefer 1cP myself to 1p. And I honestly don't think there is any reason for caution or concern in terms of safety or toxicity regarding these alternative lysergamides.

Many people also significantly prefer 1cp LSD to 1plsd and even some to lsd-25 itself.

1cp LSD is a lot smoother and less aggressive than 1plsd and what I particularly like about 1cp LSD is the amazing enhancement of musical appreciation.

 

[DrumTripper]

i’m with @AutoTripper - 1cp-lsd is fantastic. The notion that because it’s called an RC, it must be less than doesn’t hold up for me entirely.
i’m betting I couldn’t tell the difference if blind tested.
and i’ve been dropping since ’88.

1cp has a nice, smooth comeup, but actually seems a tad faster for me. Still have a few tabs left, so not solid yet in my own findings, but it’s a worthy compound!

 

[dopamimetic]

I've stared into a strange piece of flesh while high on DXM in my teens. I'll never forget how I thought ... is this the real me? Am I dead? Etc.. this effect diminished over time though together with the robo walk. Never remember a mirror on psychedelics, guess I'll have to cope up xD

 

[PriestTheyCalledHim]

i’m with @AutoTripper - 1cp-lsd is fantastic. The notion that because it’s called an RC, it must be less than doesn’t hold up for me entirely.
i’m betting I couldn’t tell the difference if blind tested.
and i’ve been dropping since ’88.

1cp has a nice, smooth comeup, but actually seems a tad faster for me. Still have a few tabs left, so not solid yet in my own findings, but it’s a worthy compound!

What do you mean by 'faster'? The research chemical kicks in faster sort of like if you eat mushrooms on an empty stomach where it is like sober>consuming shrooms>then BAM! You are tripping very hard! The visuals are more fast in movement, or what?

 

[pupnik]

I think there is no difference, ordinary lsd comes up faster sometimes too. and as a prodrug 1cP actually is LSD once inside you, but if you love it and adore it and want to make it seem fasterer or biggerer I understand, it's an emotional description and your position is your position,