Optical Illusions

[Year of the Rat]

There's a side effect of MDMA/ecstasy which I find very intriguing. Usually at the end of the night, as I'm going to bed, I reach a stage where my brain starts interpreting visual information in different ways, but because I'm still lucid, I find I can exercise some control over it.

For example, I walked into my room last time and saw the resident cat on my bed. Closer inspection revealed it to be actually a misshapen pillow. My brain now having identified the object as both a cat and a pillow, I found that I could choose which one I perceived it as, each one seeming equally realistic to me. This was upon walking up to it and seeing it from a different angle. I eventually took hold of it to confirm that it was indeed a pillow.

Experimenting with this further, I found that I was actually able to will myself to see an object as something else of my own choosing, providing that it bore some slight resemblance to what I had in mind. I had some fun with this until I grew tired and went to bed.

I'm sure everyone experiences this. It's just that I'm fascinated by this apparent suggestibility one can exercise on one's own mind while remaining lucid and in control.

 

[naughtynicknails]

One of the really fun things to do when you get home ^

Ah it's been a long time since the sound of a running tap would turn into dance music and a tree would turn into a giant tortoise and start munching the tree next to it..

It happens in low light areas.. or places that are semi lit (like parks at night)..

 

[CathodeRayTube]

After coming down from high doses, I always see interlocking coloured rings, like the Olympics logo.

 

[lyndole]

The other morning I was coming down and trying to get some sleep in a sunny house - that was not happening. As I was laying there with my eyes closed, I was half-listening to the conversation going on around me, and I realized that I was having these super strange closed eye visuals about their conversation that had absolutely nothing to do with what they were talking about. I can't even think of an example right now...

The first time I ever rolled was pretty scary though. As I came down from a pretty high dose I was sitting in a dark room and had THE WORST time trying to see. I was seeing flashes of red all around, would reach 3 feet to the left instead of grabbing the bottle of water being handed to me, thought I was seeing people, etc.

 

[phatass]

IME a fascination for the human brain, how it works, can be manipulated, anticipated, lazy, or crazy etc.... don't get carried away please.

 

[Year of the Rat]

After coming down from high doses, I always see interlocking coloured rings, like the Olympics logo.

I see a strange pattern like that, though I think of it as more hexagonal. I've often wondered what it was

 

[patra]

There was a time when I rolled ... it was absolutely crazy, because when I'd close my eyes I'd see very random images that weren't connected to one another, but my brain was drawing connections. Things like random animals, and tea, and math!

I've also had so-called optical illusions that seemed willful as well, or been able to look at something and change the meaning of that thing in my mind to the extent that it no longer meant what it resembled, it meant something completely different, even though I knew that wasn't what it was.

The brain is very powerful.

 

[Southernsun]

I don't get these but my wife sees faces in the dark on the comedown. Sounds not so nice to me.