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What is visual noise?

PriestTheyCalledHim

PriestTheyCalledHim

Bluelighter
Joined
Oct 7, 2005
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What does the term visual noise mean? I've seen it in posts here on bluelight's PD and I've read about how people can have it while completely sober and not on any sort of drugs at all.
 
it's pointillist flecks of neon rainbow static snow trash.

it's a mild HPPD symptom.

it's similar to what you see when you rub your eyes too hard.
 
Is this like the static you can sometimes see on carpet? It sort've reminds me like lots of tiny things moving, insect like but you can tell it's not insects.

If so, oh shit looks like I have a mild HPPD symptom! I always just assumed this kind of thing was perception change.
 
i see it more when I look up at an overcast sky. Of course, I can't remember what an overcast sky looked like before my very mushroom trip . . . or second . . . or third . . . so there you go.
 
You don't even need to touch drugs to have it, I have had it as long as I can remember lol.
 
I see it constantly now. The worst is white walls, the sky at any time and bathroom tiles. I start looping in bathrooms now.
 
Visual noise happens to everyone to some degree, I personally find it's stress-linked. (This has been anecdotally confirmed because some people get really anxious that they have visual noise and it turns into a self fulfilling prophecy.)

Looking at brightly lit surfaces like the sky or white walls/blank paper are generally the best conditions to produce the effect.
 
I definitely agree that stress brings it on stronger (at least for me). If, for instance, I drink a triple espresso it will also come on pretty strong, to the extent of haloing around lights. Against the background of a neutral colored wall, it is the most noticeable to see the static everyone is mentioning. To me, this phenomenon was noticeably aparent after MDMA usage.
 
I get the visual snow really noticeably when I smoke weed and when I look at the sky or bright white surfaces I get moving semi-transparent things like 'seeing stars'. I haven't tripped for months - too busy/stressed finishing my thesis - and it hasn't changed.

I don't know if its drug related or not but it doesn't bother me so doesn't matter i spose
 
I get it when I go into a REALLY dark space, and I can see what looks like particles flying through the air, like a dusty room.
Though the darkness only makes them really in-my-face, I can see the "noise" everywhere.
Imagine the black and white dots on a TV with no signal, except without the noise, and EXTREMELY tiny and red and green, everywhere... it's KINDA like that.
But not poping up everywhere, just tiny dots.. like each particle floating their.

Also when I focus on them I can seem to make images out of them, in intense mediation in the dark it's really cool.
 
I think some of those effects have a down to earth physical cause and are called entoptic phenomena. The tiny, fast, zig zag moving things seen on bright surfaces are linked to blood cells passing through the capillaries of the retina.

Of course if someone is thinking of HPPD and the like, constantly searching for these things, they're noticed more often (have been there =D)
 
Its kinda comforting to hear others with the exact same deal.:\

Its such a weird kinda thing. I can go ages being preoccupied not actively noticing it. But its always there, as its not something that just appears when I think about it. The sky and dark places are the best canvas for this oddity. I dont really have the ability to see a flat straight out colour anymore. When I smoke weed or use other drugs it can become significant and bold, often morphing and changing into patterns, it can be quite nice, seeing I havent been able to get onto any tryptamines anymore.

My theory is its just a neural pathway we all have thats been opened up for good and here to stay.

I guess its just a battle scar that many psychonauts bear;)
 
In my experience it has nothing to do with stress, but in dark places it can get so bad I can't clearly make out my hand just a few inches in front of my face. When I smoke weed the snow forms into patterns, thats pretty cool so its worth having.
 
Smoking weed brings out some patterns for me, but I don't think it's anything to worry about. It's kind of just there, and I enjoy it.
 
Sounds like a variant of HPPD to me. Is it exacerbated by using other drugs? I had this for a while, and made MDMA more noticeably psychedelic whenever I used it.
 
acidclouds said:
I get the visual snow really noticeably when I smoke weed and when I look at the sky or bright white surfaces I get moving semi-transparent things like 'seeing stars'. I haven't tripped for months - too busy/stressed finishing my thesis - and it hasn't changed.

I don't know if its drug related or not but it doesn't bother me so doesn't matter i spose
Click to expand...

Those would be floaters. Nothing to do with drug use, though I noticed that after psychedelics I became so aware of my floaters that I was scared something was wrong - I ended up going to my ophthalmologist where they laughed and said I'd always had them and had just become more aware of them - if I stopped thinking about them they'd cease being so prominent. So I did and they disappeared.

As for visual snow, most/all people have it to varying extents. Similarly to my floater experience psychedelics, Cannabis and other drugs can make it more noticeable, and noticing it can make it appear to get worse, so I feel due to this people incorrectly assume it's HPPD, when reality I'm sure if they stopped thinking about it they'd stop noticing it.

I know others will disagree with me but having dealt with eye problems all my life and having a good knowledge of these kinds of things I can say with some confidence that no drug "causes" visual snow. Real HPPD imo is when you experience similar hallucinations to those that happen during a trip, e.g. visual waving, voices or sounds, various closed eye scenes etc - not floaters, visual snow or other things that nearly everyone on the planet experiences to some extent whether they've indulged in drugs or not.
 
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