Why does the psychedelic experience come in waves?

[Wooksong]

Only tryptamines come in waves for me. Phens such as 2c-b are very constant once they get moving. Not sure why this is.

 

[Solipsis]

That's an interesting idea Solipsis. Could you elaborate on what exactly you imagine the elements of this interference pattern being? They could be endogenous and exogenous (the psychedelic drug) ligands, although in physics (double slit experiment) the elements that create the interference pattern are wavelike in nature (photons), whereas this is not the case for receptor activation by ligands (or if it is, then that would be the phenomenon that would help us explain the waves in the psychedelic experience, rather than interference per se).

There could certainly be something in this, I'm just not sure about the details.

I just think that it is not an attribute of the action of the psychedelic itself which just activates serotonergic receptors and two major downstream pathways in a particular way, but rather shows the patterns of our neuronal wirings. The signal throughput and feedback are wired in a certain way; thus adding a chemical that pretty much consistently (well according to its distribution and pharmacokinetics) feeds the signalling can be expected to elicit an algorithmic response. The algorithm will be intrinsic to how the neuronal feedback is structured especially in terms of downstream pathways of the relevant serotonergic agonism, corresponding not only to structure but mechanism of neuronal processing.
Re-entry signalling was the first major theory for how our consciousness is emergent from brain functions orchestrating together. The serotonergic actions are considered to be mostly involved with highest brain function of the neocortex: perception and thinking, which are also primarily influenced by psychedelics. I think that psychedelics show us how raw signals are processed not only visually but cognitively by "subtly" scrambling brain function and causing abnormal coherence between brain functions that are normally better separated. This is also how synaesthesia works and how we think we get visuals.

So by interference patterns I meant interaction of the waves of signals cascading through the brain. Neuronal branches are often fractal-like in structure, if they fire together in an unusual way we may apparently experience the structures and functions as more 'raw' data that has trouble being processed with normal coherence. This can obviously prove as loss of normal function, but in a way beautifully resonating harmony. The fact that the brain still tries to keep a coherent stream of consciousness and processing of experience and learning going makes the experience integral and allows us to carry over from that experience. To learn from the softening of boundaries that correspond with sense of identity, ego, differentiation, our epistemological categorizations, basically everything that we think we know about ourselves and the world. That is, until you reach the truly mystical states as some of us know, then integration fails and we are left mostly with mysteries.

That is what I think, and I think that it corresponds pretty well with the experience as well as theory.