what we are seeing involves several faculties of the brain that are triggered and encouraged by DMT to keep firing.
besides the usual 5 or 6 senses (faculties) we also have combinatorial neural faculties with the same primary sensory nature
these include:
progression or sequence matching to arcs, (trajectory following) in which timing and depth help us see or extend the paths of flying or falling or other moving objects - this adds a sense of timing to vision, perceived objects and perceived spaces.
geometric expansion in which small seeds of shapes are enlarged to help identify features as we approach while walking or running, in this way the brain can adapt to what might become familiar as we approach a new or familiar place.
these are two background processes that are always turned on, but on good psychedelics they do not turn off unless you break concentration, blink or change your point of view.
I believe that all of our wonderful apprehensions of spaces and mandalas are related to geometric figure expansion and arc progression visualization, ordinary daily vision and somatic proprioception mental faculties that are sustained longer while on certain drugs than they normally are when sober.
ON DMT and salvia I often perceive an organic form(s) or geometric form(s) that keeps on expanding (occasionally filling my mind with fractals but usually just with what is already there) without moving at all we are mentally always advancing in a tunnel that fills with fragments of local shape and color, until we introduce some new view, sound or other sensation.
On all psychedelics, if I manage to keep still, an image of something beautiful can seem to keep on unfolding and becoming more beautiful which certainly uses the faculties described but also involves the faculty of perceptive ramification, which continues to activate associations that conform to the matter of interest that is in our awareness.
Combined with geometric expansion and trajectory following, perceptive ramification (when psychedelically extended) helps produce cryptic and often spiritually inspiring visions - like beutific madonnas with glowing haloes and crowns wearing delicate complex fabrics moving in ways that are astonishing.
