What Hallucinogens Will Make You See
19 comments
·November 8, 2025takoid
sho_hn
This is very cool. I have never been on drugs and don't plan to ever change that, but it's very interesting to get an impression of the experience.
I have to say it's a bit underwhelming. It's interesting how the closest analog I can think lf is early generative image AI hallucinatory stuff.
margalabargala
> I have to say it's a bit underwhelming.
I mean, yeah, you're looking at an image on your computer screen.
Seeing a video of Niagara Falls or a photo of a person at the Grand Canyon similarly capture the difference to the real thing.
gyomu
> I have to say it's a bit underwhelming
Well, yeah. It’s like watching a video of a rollercoaster on your phone, vs riding in one.
sho_hn
It's not that it didn't occur to me. Sure I understand I'm missing the immediacy and the visceral effect here. But then again if I was the sort of person that mattered to, my outlook would probably be different. I'm fine with others having different preferences.
I would say to me these videos work wonders in confirming I'm not really missing out. There's a lot of FOMO and myth-making around drugs, I think experience reports and replications are a pretty good way to make everyone's decisions more informed.
sambapa
This article is a lazy ctrl-c from psychonautwiki.
For example: https://psychonautwiki.org/wiki/Geometry#8B_-_Perceived_expo...
ashleyn
I have such vivid memories of experiencing many of these things in infancy and early childhood. Especially pareidolia, mild object activation, and scenery slicing. Hasn't really happened much in almost thirty years. Is there any research on like, if this is a side effect of brain development? It's always made me wonder.
gyomu
The article is a short selection from a more complete website: https://www.effectindex.com/effects
The effort is purely descriptive and does not seem to correlate the various effects with their cause (nothing wrong with that, still interesting).
This article provides a good overview of various theories:
https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-math-theory-for-why-people-...
temp0826
Fun list, I'm glad there is language around some of this. I've drank ayahuasca around 500 times personally in a traditional context (somewhat of an apprenticeship setting) and have experienced most of these effects. In the tradition I've been learning, it's pretty fascinating just how vast the indigenous understanding of that space is- they really have words for everything and the mechanisms behind what they see (as well as an understanding of how those things manifest outside of that space, in normal waking life). And more importantly how those things can be worked with and released through the practice. We're really only beginning to scratch the surface here (in the "western" context) but at least it's starting.
ashleyn
What I find very interesting is the strong resemblance to dreams some generative image/video AI can produce.
toastar
I had struggled to describe a bad trip I'd had until some of the text-to-video models from a few years ago became more accessible and nailed the morphing visuals and general uneasiness I'd felt, of course it was unintentional. The recent increase in quality has erased those features for better or for worse.
user68858788
I would love to try hallucinogens but I’m worried that it’ll aggravate my HPPD. It’s a pretty rare condition, and only a single optometrist I’ve spoken with actually believes I experience it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallucinogen_persisting_percep...
noman-land
Have you seen the interviews about HPPD that Andrew Callaghan has done? He's a long time sufferer as well.
Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder - 5CAST with Andrew Callaghan (#4) feat. Dr. Wesley Ryan
thot_experiment
Salvia is such a slept on hallucinogen, I would highly recommend it if you have experience tripping. It's legal in California.
It's not fun in the way party drugs or low dose mushrooms are, it's more of a type-2 fun, not necessarily fun in the moment but sure as hell gives you a unique experience to reflect on when you're sober 10 minutes later.
gryfft
> more of a type-2 fun, not necessarily fun in the moment
This is a funny and accurate way of looking at it.
After trying it a few times I felt like I had seen everything salvia had to show me. A dissociative kaleidoscope that leaves you coughing and sweaty loses its novelty pretty quick.
optimalsolver
It can get real bad:
https://www.reddit.com/r/DMT/comments/gb9ar0/dark_dmt_trip_r...
embedding-shape
So can embarking on building a startup: https://ideas.darden.virginia.edu/theranos-darden-case
Neither cases prove that either ecosystems are net-negative compared to the overall benefits.
If you’re interested in accurate examples of visual effects of hallucinogens, check out /r/Replications. Some of them are shockingly accurate. Here are some good examples:
https://reddit.com/r/replications/comments/1ll9k7o/flight/
https://reddit.com/r/replications/comments/1jkajcq/that_mome...
https://reddit.com/r/replications/comments/1hruv4t/just_visi...