"Mosques are filled with complex geometry, kaleidoscopic colour, and intricate ornamentation.
Why do they look like that?"

I happened across this -
https://en.rattibha.com/thread/1610289789940695041

I found the article interesting, in general, though I'm not at all religious, or even spiritual.

But particularly, the imagery evoked sensations of my DMT/psychedelic experiences.
In the twitter world where this was posted, I read several similar comments by others.

Some Islamic mystics seem to have had techniques to access mind states possibly similar to the DMT spaces. I started a topic about this some time back: https://www.dmt-nexus.me...px?g=posts&m=1115296

So I don't think it's too far fetched to think that some of these designs could be inspired by mystic visions. Then of course we live next to these psychedelic mind states even when we don't consciously access them and I see that the archetypal (or whatever you want to call it) world can very much inspire artists without a conscious psychedelic or mystic experience.

Those geometric patterns are amazing.

Not far fetched at all.

That's an intriguing thread.

I agree, my jaw just kind of dropped, seeing the so-familiar beauty.

I agree these are stunning!

When I looked at these just now I remembered a chapter from the book "Doors of Perceptions " by Aldous Huxley where he describes how churches have used colorful lancet windows to induce a visionary state. I imagine people must have been even more impressed back then, as they weren't bombarded with visual stimuli every day.

The builders of mosques probably had a similar goal in mind and in my opinion they did a better job.

On a side note, I find it beautiful how the mystical experience connects us to that which is beautiful in different traditions and cuts through dogmas and social barriers. Sufi mystics often say God is beauty, and beauty is something we can only experience, not rationalize.

i have been aware of this phenomenon since my first DMT experience, what i saw was literally a cathedral like place with columns and a dome, it was all made of vibrant colors (orange,golden,blue,pink) but it somehow looked extremely realistic, accompanied by a sense of something/someone really powerful being around.
other experiences from people on the web seem to agree, this is something many people have experienced.

In before you discover hidden mushrooms in christian churches and symbolics

I mean no disrespect to anyone when I say I find christian symbolics and depictions to be mostly creepy and weird.

Perhaps that is why I found this discussion of mosques fascinating and the depicted art to be sublime.

But now I will remember to look for mushrooms.
Or maybe I won't remember. I'm pretty old.

Sunnyside, just do an online image search for 'psychedelic mushroom art christian' and it will pull up many images. Some cool stuff.

This cannot rival the fine colorful details of mosques, but someone once hinted me that Vienna architecture looked trippy sometimes, I didn't understand until digging pictures. In contrast to mosques the architecture was not meant to be mystical and still some factor dripped in.