Extrinsic vs. Intrinsic Psychedelic Thought Loops

[tmdoca]

So I tripped yesterday and this thread was at the back of my mind as I came up. While peaking, I had the realisation that thought loops have something to do with the pattern seeking side of our brain being stimulated into overdrive. Then my attention would drift and something would occur to make me realise this again. This happened repeatedly over the course of about an hour. Each time I would be similarly enlightened by the fact. So the part of the brain that deals with novelty seems to be strongly involved too.

A thought loop about thought loops.

This one time, I was on a hefty dose of 2C-I and I was thinking about how people think. At the time, I was getting pretty overwhelmed by the fact that most everything I was coming up with was contradicting itself. It’s funny thought because this was happing as I was walking back and forth in my room, and every time I got to one side of the room I would remember one part of the contradiction. By the time I got to the other side, I would remember another step, and only that it contradicted something I had thought of before, but didn’t remember (the thing I thought of at the other side). Then there would be the occasion that I would get it all at once and I would try to write it down, but I always drifted away before I could finish the sentence. In the end, all that was on the paper was the phrase “We all think the” a bunch of times.

Sounds like I thought it was pretty “novel” if I had tried to write it down so many times lol.

Hi! Good post! You mentioned having experienced these on several different drugs. I am wondering, does the type of drug impact your experiences with thought loops at all? I havent really tried that many, but I've only experienced what I think you're talking about while on acid. Your thoughts would be appreciated.

-bad food

I’m not really sure of the answer to that. I got them consistently on most of the drugs. I’d be lying if I said I noticed any difference/pattern other than that I had them more consistently on acid.

 

[Solipsis]

Changed a few words in posts to help avoid confusion, making it consistent with the TT change.

On-topic: an extra feature that can happen when derealisation and thought loops mix is losing sense of time so that events may appear structured in a way other than linear. Cycles would be a very dramatic example, more than having your thoughts loop, everything that happens can seem to go in a loop as well, and it can be pretty messed up if you have the feeling that something might have happened any number of times, from zero to infinity...

Great, interesting analysis, I really like this.

 

[bad food]

Changed a few words in posts to help avoid confusion, making it consistent with the TT change.

On-topic: an extra feature that can happen when derealisation and thought loops mix is losing sense of time so that events may appear structured in a way other than linear. Cycles would be a very dramatic example, more than having your thoughts loop, everything that happens can seem to go in a loop as well, and it can be pretty messed up if you have the feeling that something might have happened any number of times, from zero to infinity...

Great, interesting analysis, I really like this.

Yes! Yes time dilation. That feels like it answers a lot of questions for me regarding what "thought loops" are. Not only does it facilitate the short term memory issues tmdca described, but it also explains the weird feelings of sudden clarity within the thought loops. It's like at some times time inflated to the point where the beginning of my logic feels forever ago, and then contracts to where I reach a conclusion and see it all at once, as if I realize what felt like the last 2 hours was actually 5 minutes. That excitement almost fuels it all.

 

[bad food]

Just wondering, is there like a time limit to how long these loops last? And does the type of loop matter in that respect?

I feel like I could get tired of thinking something that I thought was 2 hrs long but was only 5 minutes long because my sense of time got all messed up. Like sitting in class and thinking its been 50 minutes when it's only been 10. I'd feel like I'd put 2 hours of effort into my thoughts and only 5 minutes out.

 

[Swimmingdancer]

Just wondering, is there like a time limit to how long these loops last? And does the type of loop matter in that respect?

I feel like I could get tired of thinking something that I thought was 2 hrs long but was only 5 minutes long because my sense of time got all messed up. Like sitting in class and thinking its been 50 minutes when it's only been 10. I'd feel like I'd put 2 hours of effort into my thoughts and only 5 minutes out.

I don't think there's a time limit. But the distortion of time can play a role, I had a thought loop that seriously felt like it lasted a thousand years (a mind-blowing experience, I thought I had died at one point) but I think it was only a couple of hours in "reality" (whatever that is, lol). I think you can learn with practice to reduce the power/duration of thought loops.

 

[Solipsis]

Asking what kind of a time scale the sensation of being in a loop can be (or a maximum) is pointless, because it is a loop. That means most of your frame of reference is lost, only the internal scale of causal events could give some bearing.
So at what velocity do you experience this? The speed of thought?

 

[bad food]

Yes, perhaps what is more important than your position is your velocity. But only if it matters how long it takes to get where you're going. Which brings me to something the OP said in a later post about a thought loop allowing him/her to ride out a 2C-I overdose. As tho it passed the time.

Which is interesting because it would have had to last a long time

 

[tmdoca]

Yes, perhaps what is more important than your position is your velocity. But only if it matters how long it takes to get where you're going. Which brings me to something the OP said in a later post about a thought loop allowing him/her to ride out a 2C-I overdose. As tho it passed the time.

Which is interesting because it would have had to last a long time

I think I was just too messed up to worry about being in a thought loop, so it kinda just happened. I may have been going in and out of it for the durations, im not sure. But that would be a loop itself!! i think it just helped me because the presence of that loop was something constant for me to hold onto to and be familiar with, as opposed to just losing it (which I would have because I was on a good deal more mg's than I was usually doing and I was on a medication at the time which interacted with psychs in a, bad, way).