Glaucoma and Salvia Divinorum

[mouthwater]

Abstract:
The point of this thread is to help shed light on the nature of psychedeliks on (partially-)blind individuals. SWIM's friend has glaucoma, and experimented with salvia divinorum once (not recently). This is not a detailed trip report-- it is mostly basic information regarding SWIM's friend's condition and SWIM's basic understanding of his/her friend's experience.

Background:
SWIM's friend is named L, and contracted glaucoma as a child. Glaucoma causes gradual loss of eyesight due to increased pressure within the eyball. SWIM will not go into detail about exactly how L contracted the condition unless asked. However, SWIM will note that, from what L has told SWIM, L's peripheral vision will slowly close up on him/her. So, right before total blindness, L will only be able to see *directly* in front of him/her.

L has three pupils, one was installed via a laser as a child. Out of L's left eye, s/he perceives the world in a very fuzzy manner, just like somebody with terrible eyesight. L sees two of everything out of his/her right eye (because of the extra pupil in the corner of his/her eyeball). So, when L looks at SWIM through both eyes, s/he sees a fuzzy version of SWIM, what is described as a shadow version of SWIM slightly to the side, and what is described as "how the light bends around SWIM" to the side of the shadow figure. Readers should understand this by imagining layers. The bottom layer is a fuzzy SWIM, the middle layer (which is slightly offset to the side) is a shadow SWIM, and the top layer (which is slightly more offset to the side than the shadow SWIM) is a "how the light bends around SWIM" SWIM.

Needless to say, L has adapted to this way of perceiving the world. Because L contracted glaucoma from a young age, s/he still occasionally dreams of things with "normal" vision (but not always). However, since contraction, L has not experienced "normal" vision in his/her waking reality (until salvia).

Experience:
L smoked, what SWIM remembers to be, 15x standardized salvia divinorum extract. L is a regular marihuana smoker (s/he does have glaucoma, remember), so L felt s/he was prepared for the salvia experience (because, well, how different can two smokes be!? Heh.). L ripped the salvia with his/her iron lungs, and held the smoke in for as long as s/he could. From what was described to SWIM, L had an out-of-body-experience (O(O)BE), in which L could see him/herself from above with perfect vision. This experience terribly frightened L, and s/he has not experimented with salvia since.

Conclusion:
So, according to L's experience, salvia has the ability to cause somebody who wasn't born blind-- but who is now partially blind-- to have clear and "perfect" vision during their open-eye-visuals (OEVs).

Commentary:
Perhaps staff should create a specific thread pertaining to sight impairment and psychedeliks (because SWIM noticed there was this mushroom report and this commentary on 4-x-DMT and colorblindness). If there is already a thread for this, please PM SWIM and s/he will move it to the right location.

Reputation Comments on this post:

Very good.

[bcubed]

This post about restored vision on Salvia was interesting, and it jogged my memory about somethig I read about 10 years ago (possibly Discover magazine) about synethesia.

A scientist studying this phenomenon had the experience of having a subject, born completely color-blind, experience colors due to synethesia (how they determined this must have been interesting). He referred to them as "Martian colors" and, obvoiusly, couldn't relate what he was seeing (e.g. no reference to describe "green").

This really doesn't have anything to do with Salvia, so delete if necessary, but I found it interesting in relation to the OP and maybe you will, too.

[Bajeda]

You may also find this thread to be of interest, Synesthesia: Hearing Colors, Tasting Shapes

[xctico]

What L saw was not a product of salvia fixing her eyesight. No matter how good an eyesight L has, L won't be able to see herself from a third person perspective. So

The question here is wether what's percieved while under the influence of psychedelics is inside one's head or outside one's head. ?

Are psychedelics [and dreams] a key to the uncouncious mind? To the spiritual world? or to both?

Was L looking at a memory in her subcouncious that she associated to seeing herself? Was it an elaborate image from her creative mind, her imagination? Was it her perceptcion as her spirit floated in front of her physical self?




Of course, there's no easy answer to such questions, as the answer will depend on who you ask.

[root_train]

thats so cool- I had never thought about the effects of hallucinagins on a blind person- really cool

[mouthwater]

Originally Posted by mouthwater

...
So, according to L's experience, salvia has the ability to cause somebody who wasn't born blind-- but who is now partially blind-- to have clear and "perfect" vision during their open-eye-visuals (OEVs).

I now realize this statement is ambiguous. I don't mean that salvia temporarily fixes vision; I simply mean that L's OEVs looked 'normal'.

[curious1]

Originally Posted by mouthwater

I now realize this statement is ambiguous. I don't mean that salvia temporarily fixes vision; I simply mean that L's OEVs looked 'normal'.

damn swims oevs NEVER looked normal

Thanks for sharing, it would be interesting if one were completely blind from birth if they could conceive colors during a salvia trip. Or if they could understand the concept of colors...

swim has no info on this but anyone know about seeing in dreams for people who were always blind?(swim found the answer... it seems that visual development for dreams occurs while the child is 4-7 so if one were blind from birth they couldn't literally see in their dreams)

[Captain Caveman]

Doesnt this depend on whether the visual cortex was damaged or the eye.
I think LSD visuals are only noticed in this way.