Is Heightened Visual Acuity From DMT Evolution?

[ParappaTheRapper]

Nobody understands HPPD entirely. But i dont really personally think heightened visual acuity from DMT to be a flashback as much as a transition.

Ive seen a lot of threads about psycs and superiority, which usually trails to an artificial aging or lesson debate, but isnt the definition of natural selection surviving by adapating by using the best aspects of your environment?

 

[St3ve]

Heightened visual acuity from DMT and other psychedelics is from them activating the fight or flight response system. This fine tunes the senses so that you can get out of a tricky situation. I don't think psychedelics actively helped improve our baseline vision... It's not really how natural selection works.

 

[myr]

I'd imagine a regular psilocybin use in the diet could've modified genome on the long run as well as intiated immediate behavioral changes.

 

[RhythmSpring]

Heightened visual acuity from DMT and other psychedelics is from them activating the fight or flight response system. This fine tunes the senses so that you can get out of a tricky situation. I don't think psychedelics actively helped improve our baseline vision... It's not really how natural selection works.

That's an oversimplification.

Part of what psychedelics do is expand our peripheral vision. And *that* is a function of the opposite--a more relaxed state of mind, more alpha brainwaves than beta brainwaves.

Poor eyesight is often a result of repetitive eyestrain. Psychedelics relax the brain (no seriously). The eyes are part of the brain. Our eyes become more relaxed on psychedelics. Thus, if only briefly, our eyesight improves.

 

[Ismene]

Is there any genuine evidence for psilocybin improving vision? I know Terence Mckenna once mentioned it but is that the only evidence we have?

 

[myr]

A friend of mine ate 0,5g a week ago and mentioned that his eyesight is slightly better. I didn't notice that effect on 1g. Then again, he listened to way more McKenna lectures than I did
I don't expect a full blown study, but there's not even a home experiment I could find on the net...

 

[RhythmSpring]

I've read a lot of anecdotal reports of eyesight improving after psychedelic experiences. I can't be bothered to find them on the net, though. They're there. As someone with near-sightedness, I can attest to small but noticeable improvement, especially after MDMA and cacti.

 

[ParappaTheRapper]

Is there any genuine evidence for psilocybin improving vision? I know Terence Mckenna once mentioned it but is that the only evidence we have?

From a quick search this is pulled from Erowid:

"There are a handful of case reports of people with color blindness finding that LSD
altered their perception of color for the duration of the effects. Colorblindess is
not seeing without color, but a reduced ability to differentiate between certain
colors. It is not known how LSD changes perception of color or why it would alter
color blindess."
-by Erowid
v1.0 Dec 13, 2003
http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/lsd/lsd_info10.shtml

Within the section there are handfuls of anecdotal trip reports of people who are color blind saying they could either differentiate between colors easier or see colors at all when couldn't before.

I also have a buddy who is partially color blind, and on LSA he said it improved.

 

[Ismene]

I did read something Terence Mckenna said - that light doses of psilocybin improved visual acuity but where he got that from and how reliable it is I'm not sure.