Experiences - LSD and raw hallucinations

[Rio Fantastic]

How common are "raw" hallucinations on LSD? Like, hallucinations that come out of nowhere? There are loads and loads of them on the thread about the craziest hallucination seen, but, do these happen regularly? One of them was "Swim was watching gremlins and a gremlin jumped out of the tv and chased me so I hid behind my bed for three hours" - do you think this could actually happen?

[nleksan]

SWIM has taken some very high doses of very potent psychedelics (i.e. LSD, 2C-E, etc) and has never had anything like that happen. The term "hallucination" when used to describe visuals from "hallucinogens" is very misleading. The more proper term would be "illusion". Swirling images, fractals, distortions, enhancement of colors; those are the kinds of visuals inherent to psychedelic drugs. Full blown hallucinations are when the person cannot readily distinguish what he/she is seeing from reality. This is very, very rare. The only drugs SWIM can think of that would cause such a state would be something like DMT, diphenhydramine, or maybe Salvia. Even with 1200mcg+ doses of LSD (over 8 blotters), SWIM didn't really see anything that wasn't there, just incredible distortion of what was.

SWIM does have friends who claim such things, but for the most part he figures it to be a rather extreme exaggeration so as to impress the people around him. This is most evident when SWIM was on 35mg of 2C-E and his friend was on 10mg, and his friend claimed he saw "dragons chasing him down the hallway".

[elscorcho717]

Yeah, the term "hallucination" is misleading. The most correct term would be "pseudo-hallucination" because even at high doses you are aware that what you are seeing is not real. A true hallucination would be an illusion that you completely believe is true. This has never happened to SWIM even at high dosages.

[khrma]

For actual hallucinations SWIM would do a delierent/pyschadelic/dissociative mix (ie: diphenhydramine, dextromorphan and LSD). SWIM would also use cannabis to boost the potency and visuals (not to mention reduce the nausea) and caffiene (small dose) to boost your energy, and play in an area of dim light. Very not recommended however, as there is not likely to be any living thing that would be "okay" with having their mind punished like that.

[chemlove]

SWIM has known friends of friends who have had LSD, they all told me that though they were very high on lsd, and felt like they were tripping balls, by the time the compound wore off they had not seen any "illusions" or "visions".

SWIM thinks that people psych themselves out too much on LSD.

[IntrepidTraveler]

Tom Wolfe said it best so I'll just let him explain it. This is such an incredible explanation of the unexplainable:

"But these are words, man! And you couldn't put it into words. The White Smocks liked to put it into words, like hallucination and dissociative phenomena. They could understand the visual skyrockets. Give them a good case of an ashtray turning into a Venus flytrap or eyelid movies of crystal cathedrals, and they could groove on that, Kluver, op cit., p. 43n. That was swell. But don't you see?--the visual stuff was just the decor with LSD. In fact, you might go through the whole experience without any true hallucination. The whole thing was . . . the experience . . . this certain indescribable feeling . . . Indescribable, because words can only jog the memory, and if there is no memory of . . . The experience of the barrier between the subjective and the objective, the personal and the impersonal, the I and the not-I disappearing . . .that feeling! . . . Or can you remember when you were a child watching someone put a pencil to a sheet of paper for the first time, to draw a picture . . . and the line begins to grow--into a nose! and it is not just a pattern of graphite line on a sheet of paper but the very miracle of creation itself and your own dreams flowed into that magical . . . growing . . . line, and it was not a picture but a miracle . . . an experience ... and now that you're soaring on LSD that feeling is coming on again--only now the creation is of the entire universe—"

Wow that quote sends chills down my spine everytime. If any younger SWIMs around here have missed out on the electric kool-aid acid test, I suggest you make a trip to the local bookstore.